RAMALLAH — Having brought in $20 million in cash Wednesday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar yesterday announced he had received pledges for a further $50 million from Iran on his weekslong recent tour of the Muslim world and China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The story of the Iraq war can be told in stark numbers and mournful milestones as the death toll for US troops reached 2,500 and the price tag rose to $320 billion.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which maintained it had no plans for expansion, is now changing course. Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan, which previously

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the growing international stature of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — but it may also soon become more controversial, as its members consider whether to welcome Iran into the fold.

Tang Jiaxuan, a member of China’s State Council, said Russia and China have similar positions on regional and global issues. Tang said Moscow is Beijing’s key ally in its effort to maintain a strategic partnership.

Chinese president Hu Jintao expressed his delight in the way things between China and Russia have been evolving in diplomatic terms, just before an important regional security forum summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, due for June 15th in Shanghai.

The issue of whether or not Israel would hold talks with Hamas should be examined against the backdrop of far-reaching political developments: Stalled peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, the emerging political crisis between supporters of PA President Mahmoud Abbas in the Fatah

AT least nine Palestinians, including two children, have been killed in two Israeli air strikes over central Gaza City. Dr Jumaa al-Saqqa, a spokesman for al-Shifa hospital, said that  that a number of Palestinians were also injured in the strike in Salah al-Din Street, the main road through the coastal …

A representative of the Headquarters of The Eastern Front of the Armed Forces of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI)  (the Commander Amir Mus-Hadisov Sultan) told the Kavkaz-Center Information Agency about that on the eve in the evening Mujahiddeens eliminated a squad of the Russian aggressors on high ground  nearby the …

About 200 US reservists, whose arrival in Crimea in southern Ukraine sparked anti-NATO protests, will leave by Monday, but planned military exercises may still take place, Ukraine’s navy quoted by AFP has said. “Half of them (reservists) are in the process of taking buses to Simferopol from where they will …