A bomb exploded during Friday prayers today, at the historic mosque of Makkah Masjid in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, killing at least five people and injuring 35 others in the third major bombing of a Muslim place of worship in India over the past 12 months.

European Union leaders have met the Russian president with Poland describing relations between the sides as in “crisis”. Vladimir Putin held talks with Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, and Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany which holds the rotating EU presidency, near Samara in southern Russia but little was …

Teheran- Iran was determined to normalize ties with Egypt and was just waiting for Cairo’s reply to do so, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday. Mottaki told ILNA news agency that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already voiced Iran’s willingness to normalize ties but Tehran was waiting for an official …

GAZA, May 19 (Xinhua) — Warring Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah reached a ceasefire deal on Saturday afternoon following Egypt’s successful efforts to bring the two sides together.    The deal calls for removing chokepoints and roadblocks from Gaza City streets by 15:00 local time (12:00 GMT), displacing snipers and gunmen …

KABUL – Afghan security officials claimed on Saturday to have killed some 70 suspected Taleban in a clash in south-eastern Afghanistan in which US-led coalition close air support was also used, while several dozens more were killed in a separate attack. The firefight took place in Samkanai district of Paktia …

Three German soldiers were among nine people killed in a suicide bomb attack in northern Afghanistan. At least 14 people were injured in the blast which happened when the troops were conducting a foot patrol in Kunduz city, in the province of the same name.

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran has agreed to slow down a drive to expel illegal Afghan residents after its speed prompted Kabul to sack two Afghan cabinet ministers, Iranian state media reported on Monday. Iranian deputy foreign minister Mahdi Safari, visiting Afghanistan, said President Mahmud Ahmadinejad “has agreed to repatriate Afghans …

Hosni Mubarak arrived on Tuesday in Tripoli for talks on the situation in Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur, an AFP correspondent reported.

CAIRO, Egypt: Western countries looking for ways to pressure Sudan to curb violence in Darfur have had trouble getting support from the country’s Arab neighbors.

 Under Western criticism for doing little to pressure Sudan to curb violence in Darfur, Egypt announced Wednesday that it is offering a new peace plan for the war-torn African nation. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit described the Egyptian proposal as “a road map” for a political process that would …