WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Wednesday pleaded with Israelis and Palestinians not to let slip a fleeting opportunity for peace, as he launched a landmark Middle East diplomatic initiative."This moment of opportunity may not soon come again," Obama warned after holding separate

TIJUANA: At least 17 migrants have been kidnapped near the US border in northern Mexico by human traffickers, Tijuana police said Wednesday.Two freed kinap victims reported the incident to authorities, saying "another 17 kidnapped people were inside a safe house," Tijuana Police Chief

COPIAPO: The morale of 33 miners trapped in Chile soared Wednesday after music and hot meals were supplied, while NASA advisers praised their "courage" and provided advice on daylight deprivation, as a rescue drill inched closer. A new video shot by the miners and broadcast on state

RIYADH: Three men including an imam were injured in a shooting at a Riyadh mosque Wednesday following late night Ramadan prayers, the Sabq.org news website reported.Unknown attackers opened fire outside the Prince Sultan mosque following the taraweeh prayers observed during the fasting

RALEIGH: Thousands of people evacuated North Carolina`s barrier islands on Wednesday as a strengthened Hurricane Earl threatened to pound large areas of the US east coast with heavy winds and rough seas. The strongest Atlantic storm of 2010 was on a path to lash the North Carolina coast

LIMA: The Amazon, the world`s biggest river, is at its lowest level in over 40 years near its source in northeastern Peru, causing havoc in a region where it is used as the only form of travel, authorities said.According to officials in Loreto province, the Amazon on Tuesday in the

MEXICO CITY: Mexican and US officials on Tuesday opened a first joint office to manage the distribution of more than 1.3 billion dollars in US security aid to help fight Mexico`s brutal drug gangs.The office will oversee transfers of equipment and training under the so-called Merida

BEIJING: Chinese schools opened nationwide for a new term Wednesday with thousands of police and safety officers deployed to ensure security following a string of deadly attacks on young students.The central government has instructed kindergartens and schools to beef up security and put

THATTA: Jannan Soorjo summoned the energy to give birth in the filthy Pakistan graveyard that has become her refuge from the floods -- but she cannot produce the milk to feed her sickly newborn.The 26-year-old looks down helplessly at her crying son, who was brought rudely into the world

Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Wednesday that his country has suffered losses of around $43 billion due to the floods that have displaced over 17 million people and killed over 1,600.The floods, which started with heavy monsoon rains in July, have affected 30

CAMP RAMADI: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said during a surprise visit to Iraq on Wednesday that the American military`s war in the country is over.Asked by reporters at Camp Ramadi, an American base about 100 kilometres (80 miles) west of Baghdad, whether the United States was still

BEIJING: North Korea vowed to strengthen military ties with China on Wednesday, days after the North`s leader Kim Jong-il finished a visit aimed at bolstering the bond with his isolated country`s sole major supporter.Comments from Kim Yong-nam, the second-ranked official in North Korea,

SYDNEY: Nearly 100 asylum-seekers broke out of an Australian immigration detention centre on Wednesday after days of riots and staged a protest outside, police said.Some 92 detainees escaped from the centre in the far northern city of Darwin at about 6:30 am, a spokeswoman told AFP. Media

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM: President Barack Obama was poised on Wednesday to launch a new U.S. push for Middle East peace even as a flare-up of Hamas violence and a deadlock over Israeli settlements loomed as potential deal-breakers.Preparing to host a Washington summit to restart direct

BEIJING: China on Wednesday launched live-fire naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, state media said, after voicing opposition to similar war games to be staged there by the United States and South Korea.The Beihai fleet of the navy of the People`s Liberation Army will conduct a "live

WASHINGTON: The United States is pushing for peace talks between Israel, Syria and Lebanon, US envoy George Mitchell said Tuesday, as the Israelis prepared to resume direct negotiations with the Palestinians. Wider peace talks between Israel and its northern Arab neighbors, which have

TOKYO: Japan`s Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his rival, powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, kicked off a leadership battle Wednesday that threatens to divide the ruling party only a year after it took power.Their contest to run the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the nation comes as

CANBERRA:  Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard forged an alliance with the Greens party on Wednesday to take her party closer to forming a government, but vowed not to allow the deal to change her plans for a tax on miners` profits."Our election commitments are our election

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani government air raids have killed up to 45 militants and their family members in hideouts in the northwestern Khyber region on the Afghan border, security officials said on Wednesday.The strikes targeted militants in their stronghold, the Tirah Valley, on Tuesday

KABUL: The number of US soldiers killed in the Afghan war in 2010 is the highest annual toll since the conflict began almost nine years ago, according to an AFP count Wednesday.A total of 323 US soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war this year, compared to 317 for all of 2009,