Enforce IED ban, UN tells Afghan Taliban

THE UN has urged Afghanistan's Taliban leadership to enforce their ban on improvised explosive devices, a day after 19 wedding guests were killed by a roadside bomb in the north of the country. "Although the Taliban... leader Mullah Omar banned...

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Somali pirates free ship after 2 years

A PIRATE commander in Somalia says that a cargo ship has been freed after being held captive for nearly two years. Hassan Abdi said on Saturday that a $US600,000 ransom was paid for the MV Orna on Friday. But he said six hostages are still...

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Libya 'not fully liberated' after Gaddafi

THE new Libyan authorities say the country has not yet been "fully" liberated, exactly a year since the killing of Muammar Gaddafi and against the backdrop of clashes in one of his last bastions. "The campaign to liberate the country has not been...

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Gaddafi ex-spokesman arrested: Libya govt

THE office of the Libyan prime minister says that slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's former spokesman has been captured at a checkpoint outside the besieged town of Bani Walid. The statement carried by the state news agency on Saturday says...

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Austerity not holding back Ireland: IMF

THE International Monetary Fund has denied austerity measures are to blame for the sluggish Irish economy, saying that other factors are keeping growth flat. Greece, Portugal and Ireland are complaining that the Fund underestimated the economic...

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ACT voters tipped to return Labor

ACT voters will head to the polls on Saturday, with Labor widely expected to be returned to power for an historic fourth consecutive term. Betting markets were so sure the government would rack up another win, one bookmaker decided to pay out...

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Bosnia scrap metal thief nicks iron bridge

A BOSNIAN scrap metal dealer raised his sights from stealing and illegally selling metal drain covers and made off with an entire iron bridge, local police in the northeast of the country say. "A few hours after we were informed about this most...

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French racist posts to be pulled: Twitter

TWITTER has agreed to pull racist and anti-Semitic tweets under a pair of French hash tags after a Jewish group threatened to sue the social network for running afoul of national laws against hate speech, the organisation said. The decision came...

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Yahoo to exit South Korea by end of year

YAHOO Inc says it will close its South Korean operations by the end of this year, citing a challenging business environment as it struggles to compete in a market dominated by local web portals. "The Korean operation has been faced with a lot...

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Forty-four TSA airport staff face firing

THE US Transportation Security Administration is proposing to fire 25 employees at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and to suspend 19 others as a result of an investigation into improper screening of checked luggage. The TSA...

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Bloomberg to spend millions on candidates

MAYOR Michael Bloomberg is reaching into his very, very deep pockets to spend millions in the election home stretch on candidates - Republican and Democrat, alike - he feels will do the US good. Bloomberg, whose personal wealth is estimated...

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Australia wins UN Security Council seat

AUSTRALIA has won its bid for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Foreign Minister Bob Carr attended a meeting in New York overnight for a secret ballot of the UN's 193 members. Rwanda and Argentina have also won seats...

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Mali Islamists destroy more saints' tombs

ISLAMISTS controlling northern Mali are destroying more Muslim saints' tombs in the ancient city of Timbuktu, witnesses say, in the latest attack on the world heritage sites considered blasphemous by the jihadists. "Currently, the Islamists are...

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UK starts secret agent apprenticeships

HOW'S this for a job title - secret agent's apprentice? The British government is recruiting teenage apprentice spies and codebreakers without university degrees in a bid to deepen the talent pool of its intelligence services for the era of cyberterorrism...

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Worst grape harvest in half century

DROUGHT, frost and hail have combined to ravage Europe's wine grape harvest, which in key regions this year will be the smallest in half a century, vintners say. Thierry Coste, an expert with the European Union farmers' union, said that France's...

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US embassy staff in Stockholm return

US embassy staff in Stockholm have returned to their workplace after a suspect envelope prompted an evacuation earlier in the day. "The personnel has been allowed to go back to the embassy," embassy spokesman Jeff Anderson told AFP. Staff and...

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Greece, Spain 'in depression': Stiglitz

GREECE and Spain are in "depression, not recession", Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said, blaming tough austerity measures for their downward economic spiral. Mr Stiglitz also said that the IMF was "a little too optimistic" in...

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Big Bird wants out of debate

WHAT do a Navy mum, Big Bird and AARP have in common? They want US President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney to leave them alone. Both candidates are encountering cross words from third parties they've mentioned in their campaign ads,...

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Architect Oscar Niemeyer in hospital

BRAZILIAN architect Oscar Niemeyer, who is aged 104, has been in the hospital since the weekend, a hospital spokesman said. An official at the Samaritano hospital in Rio said no official bulletin on Mr Niemeyer's condition has been released....

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Beyonce to star in Super Bowl show

ALL the single ladies will be watching the upcoming Super Bowl along with football lovers. That's because Beyonce is the halftime show performer. A source familiar with Super Bowl XLVII said the Grammy-winning diva will take the stage at the...

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AMWU boss to tour Hunter factory

THE Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) will visit a factory in the NSW Hunter Valley on Wednesday as part of a national tour aimed at boosting jobs in the embattled sector. AMWU National Secretary Paul Bastian said with 125,000 jobs...

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Jeweller offers rifles with rings

HAVE you spent your life hunting for the perfect wife? Maybe you have met the one but are feeling gun shy? An Iowa jeweler is offering free rifles for husbands-to-be who spend at least $US1999 ($1953) on an engagement ring at his store near...

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Apple sets date for 'iPad mini launch'

APPLE is sending out invitations to reporters for an event next Tuesday, where it's expected to announce the release of a smaller iPad. The invitation to the venue in San Jose, California, doesn't hint at what's will be revealed, but media and...

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Half of all wetlands destroyed since 1900

AN alarming 50 per cent of the world's wetlands have been destroyed in the last 100 years, threatening human welfare at a time of increasing water scarcity, a new report says. Wetlands serve as a source of drinking water and provide protection...

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Wounded Pakistani girl lands in UK

A PAKISTANI teen shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting girls' education and criticising militants has arrived in Britain, where she is to get specialised care. The attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai a week ago horrified people across...

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Thousands of Aust kids going hungry: SFFA

THOUSANDS of Australian children are suffering from hunger, health organisations have warned as they mark World Food Day on Tuesday. The Sydney Food Fairness Alliance (SFFA) has urged the NSW government to do more to help. "If we don't acknowledge...

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South African strike talks stall

EFFORTS to end a rash of gold mine strikes that have strangled South African production have run into deadlock with no further talks planned, leaving tens of thousands of workers facing the threat of dismissal. Mine owners and union officials...

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Iraq attacks kill at least 10

A SPATE of shootings and bombings targeting Iraqi security forces north of Baghdad has killed at least 10 people, while a prisoner on death row has escaped from police custody south of the capital. The attacks, which killed five policemen and...

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Syria denies use of cluster bombs

THE Syrian army has denied using cluster munitions and said it did not possess the weapon in its arsenal, in a statement published by state news agency SANA. "Some news outlets that are complicit in the bloodletting in Syria have been publishing...

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Students prepare to take HSC

THE time has come to put pen to paper as thousands of Year 12 students start their Higher School Certificate exams. The first HSC exams, in English, begin across NSW on Monday morning. Students taking the standard and advanced papers will be...

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Skydiver prepares to break sound barrier

AUSTRIAN extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner has started his ascent to 37 kilometres above Earth, hoping to make a death-defying free fall that could make him the first skydiver to break the sound barrier. Baumgartner has taken off in the New...

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UK probes ex-brass over political access

BRITAIN'S defence ministry has announced it is investigating whether retired senior officers broke any rules after they were recorded by undercover journalists as appearing to offer to lobby the government on behalf of defence companies. The...

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Dozens of bodies found near Damascus

DOZENS of corpses have been found in a hospital morgue in the Syrian province of Damascus, a monitoring group says, adding the circumstances of the deaths are not immediately clear. "We know they were shot dead, most likely during clashes with...

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Syria using cluster bombs: rights group

AN international human rights group says it has obtained new evidence that Syrian troops are using cluster bombs - widely banned munitions that pose a grave risk to civilians because they burst into bomblets over large areas and often linger on the...

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