World News

This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Earl taken Thursday Sept. 2, 2010.

photo: AP / NOAA

Hurricane Earl weakens as it nears US
read more The Daily Telegraph Australia

HURRICANE Earl weakened today to a Category Two storm as it approached the US east coast but continued to wreck havoc on coastal communities as tourists fled potentially affected areas and events, including a Ke$ha concert, were cancelled. Rainbands moved on to the coast of North Carolina as Earl continued to move northward today at about 18...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010. Karzai appealed to Taliban fighters Sunday to put down their weapons and accept Afghan laws as the country and its international allies push a program to entice militants away from the insurgency.

photo: AP / Musadeq Sadeq

Karzai slams Nato civilian killings
read more Al Jazeera

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned an air strike by Nato-led forces which he said killed 10 election campaign workers, although US officials maintained it was aimed at an Islamist leader. Nato said its airstrike on a car in northern Takhar province's normally quiet Rustaq district killed or wounded as many as 12 insurgents on Thursday,...

In this photo taken March 30, 2010, soldiers stand guard at the site of a firefight between gunmen and army soldiers on the outskirts of Monterrey, northern Mexico.

photo: AP / Claudio Cruz

Dozens killed in Mexico shootout
read more Al Jazeera

At least 25 people have been killed in clashes between soldiers and suspected drug gang members near the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, local media have reported. The soldiers stormed a training camp allegedly set up by the gang members in a northern border region which has seen an escalation of violence in recent months, including...

Masked Palestinian Hamas militants hold a press conference in Gaza City, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. To relaunch Middle East peace talks on Thursday, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders and their American mediators quietly agreed to push aside the question of Hamas - the Islamic militant group that controls one of the two Palestinian territories and rejects negotiations.

photo: AP / Khalil Hamra

Hamas taking hard line over peace negotiations
read more Irish Times

Attacks on settlers will continue unless the rulers of Gaza can be accommodated, writes MICHAEL JANSEN� BY RESPONDING with violence to the resumption of Fatah-Israeli negotiations, Hamas, ruler of Gaza, is demonstrating that there can be no peace between the Palestinians and Israel unless Hamas is involved. Hamas's military wing has so far staged...

Pakistanis displaced by flooding plead for handouts during an aid distribution by the Pakistani Air Force at a temporary camp set up for residents who had to flee their homes in Sukkar, Sindh Province, southern Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010.

photo: AP / Kevin Frayer

Pakistan gets IMF relief, tightens security
read more The Star

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund will give Pakistan $450 million in emergency flood aid, providing some relief for a government overwhelmed by the disaster and facing renewed militant violence. Flood victims left without receiving aid for three days reach for food handouts donated by a group calling themselves Muslim...

Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued.

photo: AP / Gerald Herbert

Offshore Oil Platform in the Gulf of Mexico Explodes
read more The New York Times

NEW ORLEANS — An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday morning, injuring one worker, the United States Coast Guard said. The rig was located just west of where another rig leased by BP blew up and sank this spring, killing 11 people and touching off an environmental calamity. All 13 members of the work crew on board on...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010, before attending their direct talks aimed at peace in the Middle East.

photo: AP / Jason Reed, Pool

Israel, Palestinians launch direct peace talks
read more The Star

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders began direct peace negotiations on Thursday, sitting down for U.S.-brokered talks even as hard-liners on both sides vowed never to accept a deal. U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliver statements to the media from the Colonnade outside the Oval Office...

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right, is greeted by top NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus as he arrives in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010.

photo: AP / Jim Watson, Pool

Gates Lands in Afghanistan
read more The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived here on an unannounced visit Thursday for meetings with American military commanders and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. It is Mr. Gates’s first visit to the country since Gen. David H. Petraeus became the top American and NATO commander, replacing Gen. Stanley A....

President Barack Obama stands with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East peace George Mitchell as he makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010.

photo: AP / Charles Dharapak

Barack Obama urges Mid-East leaders to take opportunity
read more BBC News

US President Barack Obama has urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders not to let the chance of a permanent peace deal "slip away"....

Paramedics move a stretcher near Discovery Channel network building in Silver Spring, Md., Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010.

photo: AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta

US hostage crisis over: Gunman shot, 3 people freed
read more The Times of India

SILVER SPRING: Police shot a gunman and safely freed the three people he had taken hostage Wednesday in a four-hour standoff at the Discovery Channel headquarters outside Washington, police said. "Approximately 10 minutes ago the suspect was shot by police officers," Montgomery County police chief J. Thomas Manger told reporters, adding that...