The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday elected Germany, India, South Africa and Colombia to two-year seats on the U.N. Security Council, while Canada and Portugal went to a second round of voting. Either Canada or Portugal will join the other four countries to serve two-year terms beginning in January 2011 and ending in December 2012 as non-veto-holding members of the 15-nation body, the powerhouse of the United Nations with the authority to impose sanctions and deploy peacekeeping forces. Read the full article here. Continue reading

An Israeli Cabinet minister said Tuesday that top officials doubt a peace deal with the Palestinians can be reached soon even though the prime minister has committed to try to reach an agreement within a year. The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which resumed last month after a breakdown of nearly two years, have already run aground over Israel's refusal to renew a moratorium on West Bank settlement construction. Read the full article here. Continue reading

Releasing Taliban figures detained at Guantanamo Bay and scratching scores of others off the U.N. sanctions list would jump-start peace talks aimed at ending the 9-year-old war, members of Afghanistan's new peace council said Tuesday. The council members, who hold their first business meeting on Wednesday, said goodwill gestures from the U.S. and international community could spur reconciliation talks — perhaps at a neutral location in Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Egypt or Turkey. Read the full article here. Continue reading

Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for using nonviolence to demand fundamental human rights in his homeland. The award ignited a furious response from China, which accused the Norwegian Nobel Committee of violating its own principles by honoring "a criminal." Chinese state media immediately blacked out the news and Chinese government censors blocked Nobel Prize reports from Internet websites. China declared the decision would harm its relations with Norway — and the Nordic country responded that was a petty thing for a world power to do. Read the full article here. Continue reading

Calling the meeting a "source of hope" for the Afghan people, President Hamid Karzai on Thursday hosted the inaugural session of a new peace council set up to guide efforts to reconcile with the Taliban and other insurgent groups. Karzai has long called on insurgents to renounce violence, sever ties to terrorists and embrace the Afghan Constitution. Contacts are increasing between the government and insurgents to find a political resolution to the conflict, which is key to any U.S. exit strategy in Afghanistan. Read the full article here. Continue reading

In the clearest sign that a deal may be emerging to keep the troubled U.S. Mideast peace push alive, a top Palestinian official said Thursday that his side would accept an American proposal for Israel to curtail settlement construction for two months. Read the full article here. Continue reading

A Norwegian television station predicted on Thursday night that the Nobel Peace Prize would most likely go to a Chinese dissident. Norwegian commercial television Channel 2, which correctly predicted the long-shot award to US President Barack Obama last year, put jailed democracy activist Liu Xiaobo at the top of its list for likely Peace Prize winners. "The most likely (choice) will probably be an imprisoned dissident in China," the network said in a news report. Read the full article here. Continue reading

The peace process is incomplete in Nepal nearly four years after the Maoist rebels signed a peace agreement with the government, ending a decade-long armed insurgency, says the UN. “Too little attention has been paid to the peace process this year,” Karen Landgren, Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General in Nepal and head of the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), which is monitoring the 2006 peace accord, told IRIN. A 1996 Maoist uprising to overthrow the monarchy displaced more than 100,000 people and killed thousands of others over the next decade. Read the full article here. Continue reading

Israel's Supreme Court has upheld a deportation order against pro-Palestinian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire. Maguire, who is 66, has been held in an airport detention facility since arriving last week. Israel banned her from entry because she took part in an attempt to break Israel's Gaza sea blockade in June. Read the full article here. Continue reading

US and Indian defense chiefs met on Tuesday amid efforts by Washington to step up arms sales to New Delhi and ease restrictions on hi-tech weaponry. Defense Secretary Robert Gates hosted India Defense minister AK Antony for talks as both countries touted a growing strategic alliance and expanding military ties, including a pending multi-billion-dollar deal for American C-17 cargo planes. US and Indian officials have been negotiating an agreement that would see New Delhi buy at least 10 C-17 planes, manufactured by Boeing. Read the full article here. Continue reading

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside FBI offices in Minneapolis and Chicago on Monday, bearing signs and shouting chants condemning the agency's recent searches of homes and offices of anti-war activists in both cities. About 150 people protested in Minneapolis, with signs reading: "Stop FBI harassment. Opposing war is not a crime." Roughly 120 people marched in Chicago, chanting, "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! FBI raids have got to go!" Read the full article here. Read Antony Adolf's commentary on this subject here. Continue reading

Does France have second-class citizens? A new bill introduced Tuesday in parliament aimed at toughening immigration rules would strip naturalized citizens of their nationality if they threaten the lives of police. Opponents say the measure would drive a new wedge between those born French and those who become French in a country that sees itself as a haven for the world's oppressed. Read the full article here. Continue reading

Pakistan vehemently protested NATO helicopter strikes that killed more than 70 militants, saying Monday that U.N. rules do not allow the choppers to cross into its air space even in hot pursuit of insurgents. NATO said it launched the strikes in self-defense after militants attacked a small security post in Afghanistan near the border. Read the full article here. Continue reading

In a move that's frightening privacy advocates, federal officials want to expand their authority to wiretap e-mails, Facebook accounts and other Internet services. Authorities argue that criminals are increasingly communicating online and merely monitoring their phone activity isn't sufficient. Read the full article here. Continue reading

The top American commander in Afghanistan said Monday that senior Taliban leaders had reached out to President Hamid Karzai in the context of early efforts to start reconciliation discussions that could pave the way to end the fighting in Afghanistan. For months, efforts at reconciliation have been stalled at every level, and this is the first explicit public suggestion that there is extensive behind-the-scenes activity between insurgents and the Afghan government. Read the full article here. Continue reading

The Texas State Board of Education has adopted a resolution seeking to curtail references to Islam in textbooks. Social conservatives on the board had asked that the resolution be put on Friday's agenda. It was approved by a 7-6 vote. The one-page resolution calls on textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books and says the board "will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions." Read the full article here. Continue reading

Britain raised the terror threat level Friday posed by Irish Republican Army dissidents, who have mounted repeated attacks in Northern Ireland and recently threatened to start targeting London bankers. The level has changed from "moderate" to "substantial," the middle rung on the five-point threat scale. This means the threat has risen to a point where an attack is considered a strong possibility. Read the full article here. Continue reading

A US Congress committee has approved a bill that would place retaliatory trade sanctions on China. It means the House of Representatives - the lower chamber of Congress - will vote on the bill next week. The bill would allow the US to impose import duties on countries who have fundamentally undervalued currencies. Read the full article here. Continue reading

A newspaper's stunning, front-page editorial of seeming surrender to drug capos has set off a national debate from the presidential palace to Mexico's equivalent of the water cooler — its ubiquitous town squares. "What do you want from us?" El Diario de Juarez asked the cartels whose war for control of the border city across from El Paso, Texas, has killed nearly 5,000 people — including two El Diario journalists — in less than two years. "You are currently the de facto authorities in this city. ... Tell us what you expect from us as a newspaper?" Read the full... Continue reading

Exhorting world leaders to push past years of cynicism and pessimism, President Barack Obama challenged the countries of the United Nations on Thursday to unite around peace efforts that he said could achieve agreement within a year to create an independent Palestine and a secure Israel. Obama, in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, urged fellow world leaders to press forward with renewed determination in the quest for Mideast peace, an effort that he acknowledged has encountered "few peaks and many valleys." Read the full article here. Continue reading

China has agreed to loan Ghana some 13 billion dollars for infrastructure, a minister said Thursday, with Beijing having expressed interest in the West African country's newly discovered oil fields. The loan deal, still subject to approval from Ghanian lawmakers, points to China's growing interest in the country which is set to pump its first barrels of oil by year's end from its offshore Jubilee field. Of the total loans, three billion dollars from the China Development Bank will go towards building oil and gas infrastructure, Ghana's Deputy Finance Minister Fiifi Kwetey told AFP by phone from Beijing. Read the... Continue reading

China on Tuesday ruled out prospects for fence-mending talks between its premier and Japan's leader this week in New York as the worst diplomatic crisis in years between the Asian powers deepened. Japan urged all players in the dispute -- sparked by the arrest of a Chinese boat captain whose trawler collided with two Japanese vessels in disputed waters -- to avoid resorting to "extreme nationalism". China has denounced the captain's arrest and repeatedly demanded his unconditional release, summoned Tokyo's ambassador no fewer than six times, and called off several official visits and planned negotiations. Read the full article here. Continue reading

The head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, is under investigation as part of a money-laundering inquiry, police sources say. Prosecutors also seized 23m euros ($30m; £19m) from the bank's accounts with another smaller institution. Read the full article here. Continue reading

The classroom walls at the Hungarian-Chinese bilingual primary school here are decorated with Chinese calendars and banners. Chinese lanterns hang from the ceilings of the main entrance hall. There are stacks of new Chinese language books in the staff room, provided by the Chinese authorities, who also send two teachers a year, depending on the school’s needs. [...] Education is not the only area in which China is making inroads in Central and Eastern Europe. From the Baltic states to the Balkans, Chinese companies, flush with money, are buying real estate and competing for public infrastructure contracts, especially as Poland... Continue reading

Afghan election observers urged President Hamid Karzai's government on Monday to allow an independent investigation into reports of widespread fraud during last weekend's parliamentary elections, including intimidation of voters and interference by powerful warlords. Also Monday, Britain's military handed the U.S. responsibility for a dangerous district in southern Afghanistan that has been the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting by British troops for the past four years. Read the full article here. Continue reading