Zimbabwe: fair vote ‘impossible’
A free and fair presidential election in Zimbabwe is now "impossible", the UN Security Council warned Robert Mugabe last night, as the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai took refuge in the Dutch
embassy in Harare. The 15-nation body unanimously condemned the regime's "campaign of violence" that had "denied its political opponents... [continued]
Zimbabwe Today: Moses Moyo, our man in Harare 
Four soldiers’ bodies returned to British soil
The bodies of the four soldiers killed in Afghanistan last week returned to Britain yesterday in a moving repatriation ceremony at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire. Locals and relatives lined the streets of the local market town of Wootton Bassett to pay tribute to Corporal Sarah Bryant, 26, Corporal Sean Reeve,... [continued]
Violence down in Iraq, says US
The number of "security incidents" in Iraq have fallen to their lowest level in four years, thanks to a number of causes including Iraqis' rejection of terror groups' ideologies and improving
economic conditions, according to the US military. In a report issued today the Pentagon said that while "high-profile" suicide... [continued]
It's time to hold those responsible for the bloody war in Iraq to account
Taliban earns $100m from opium
The Taliban earned an estimated $100m from Afghanistan's opium trade in 2007, with takings boosted by a 10 per cent tax on local poppy farmers. The head of the United Nations' anti-narcotics agency, Antonio Maria Costa told the BBC that last year Afghanistan produced about 8,000 tonnes of opium, with... [continued]
Briton blames killings on dead wife
Neil Entwistle, the British man accused of murdering his American wife and baby daughter, has told a US jury that 27-year-old Rachel Entwistle killed nine-month-old Lillian Rose before turning the gun on herself. Entwistle faces life in prison without parole if convicted of shooting dead the pair in the four-poster... [continued]
McCain red-faced by terror gaffe
John McCain was forced to sharply rebuke one of his most senior advisers yesterday after he suggested that another terrorist attack on America "certainly would be a big advantage" to the Republican nominee's White House campaign. Veteran Republican strategist Charlie Black said later that he regretted the "inappropriate" comments.
US election: latest news, gossip and analysis
Summit fails to halt oil prices
Sunday's oil summit in Jeddah, attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has failed to halt the soaring price of oil, which yesterday jumped to a high of $137 a barrel amid attacks on Nigerian oil fields and mounting tensions between Israel and Iran.
Climate change a ‘top priority’
Energy and the environment are at the top of business's long-term priorities, the CBI director-general Richard Lambert said yesterday. Speaking at a conference on sustainability, Lambert said that alternative energies like wind and solar power are "an economic opportunity on a scale that has not been seen before".
