Troops take on Taliban in main Swat town
ISLAMABAD (AP): Pakistani security forces fought street battles with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley's main urban centre Saturday, a critical phase in the effort to wrest the northwest region near Afghanistan out of insurgent hands.Army spokesman...

UN chief visits war refugees
MANIK FARM, Sri Lanka (AP):United Nation (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited a displacement camp packed with Tamil civilians and flew over the former battlefield Saturday as he appealed to Sri Lanka's triumphant government to "heal the wounds"...

Koehler re-elected as president
BERLIN (AP):Horst Koehler won a second term as German president yesterday in a parliamentary vote that gave conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel a symbolic victory months ahead of a national election.The popular 66-year-old, a member of Merkel's...

Egypt rescues Palestinians from bombed tunnel
RAFAH, Egypt (AP):Egyptian authorities rescued three Palestinians trapped for five days in a smuggling tunnel beneath the Gaza border that was bombed by Israeli warplanes, officials said Saturday.Palestinian security officials said the accidental...

Expense scandal widens with duck-hut disclosure
LONDON (AP):A lawmaker at the centre of Britain's growing expense account scandal said Saturday he has been humiliated by public revelations about his attempt to get taxpayers to pay for a duck hut on his country estate.Opposition Conservative Party...

Coroners examine bodies from Brazil plane crash
SAO PAULO (AP):Coroners on Saturday began the arduous task of identifying the badly burned corpses of 11 people killed when a twin-engine plane crashed and exploded near a coastal resort in northeastern Brazil.The plane crashed Friday night just short...