AFP - Australia has bombed and sunk a North Korean freighter caught smuggling heroin into the country three years ago, saying the military exercise should serve as a warning to Pyongyang to halt its rogue trading in drugs and weapons.

AFP - Senior US officials have urged Japan to halt development of a massive oil field with Iran amid concern that revenue from the project could fuel the Islamic state's nuclear drive, a report said.

AP - The human death toll from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu reached 103 after five people died from the disease in Azerbaijan, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

AP - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday said the West should apologize to Iran for accusing it of trying to develop a nuclear weapons program and said his country would continue to resist international pressure to halt its nuclear energy program.

AFP - The UN Security Council was set to meet to try to fine-tune a Franco-British statement urging Iran to comply with demands that it halt nuclear enrichment, but Tehran reiterated its nuclear program was not negotiable.

AFP - The UN Security Council was to meet to consider a Franco-British statement urging Iran to comply with all demands made by the UN nuclear watchdog and immediately halt all nuclear enrichment activities.

The Court of Appeal rejects a challenge to the building of gas terminals in Pembrokeshire.

AFP - Iran reiterated that its nuclear program is not up for negotiation, despite possible calls by the UN Security Council for it to accede to demands by the UN nuclear watchdog and immediately halt all nuclear enrichment activities.

Matthew Borghese - AHN Staff Writer Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The United States says it is preparing to talk with the Islamic Republic of Iran in an effort to halt the growing wave of sectarian violence in Iraq. According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, the Bush administration is...

Reuters - Iraq's parliament met briefly on Thursday for the first time since it was elected in December but talks on forming a national unity government are deadlocked and the session did little to halt a slide to civil war.

The government moves to halt new house building in rural Northern Ireland, in an overhaul of planning policy.

AFP - The Palestinian territories ground to a halt under a general strike to protest against an Israeli army raid of a West Bank prison, as the authorities braced for further violence.

Reuters - Iran came under more pressure to halt its suspected nuclear weapons programs on Tuesday when the United States and its allies took the issue to the full U.N. Security Council and Russia pursued its own initiative in talks in Moscow.

Reuters - Iran came under new pressure to halt its suspected nuclear weapons programs on Tuesday when the United States and its allies took the issue to the full U.N. Security Council and Russia pursued its own initiative in talks in Moscow.

Reuters - The Federal Reserve may soon halt its campaign of raising official interest rates, according to a report from an economic research firm that investors said helped push U.S. Treasury debt prices higher on Tuesday.

AP - KT&G Corp., South Korea's dominant tobacco company, said Tuesday its annual shareholders' meeting will proceed this week, setting up a showdown with insurgent investors led by U.S. billionaire Carl Icahn.

AP - A Texas appeals court Monday granted Rep. Tom DeLay's request to stop a prosecutor from filing subpoenas in the former majority leader's pending money laundering case.

Reuters - Wanted: carbon dioxide. Large quantity needed to help superpower reverse declining oil output and halt rising emissions of heat-trapping gases.

AFP - Key members of the UN Security Council met again to seek common ground on the Iranian nuclear issue ahead of a meeting of the full 15-member body later this week that will address Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Hector Duarte Jr. - AHN Staff Reporter Washington D.C. (AHN) – The takeover of P and O by Dubai Ports World may encounter more opposition after critics say they will push for legislation to stop the deal. Republican Duncan Hunter has said he would try to get a bill passed stating...