WASHINGTON- US envoy to Sudan Scott Gration presented a bleak view Friday of preparations for a referendum that could result in the partition of Sudan, and urged rival parties to reach a compromise...

RIYADH- Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will discuss the stalled peace talks with Israel with King Abdullah in Riyadh on Friday, a Palestinian embassy official said on Thursday. "He is coming...

JERUSALEM, Gavin Rabinowitz- The Elders, a group of retired world figures, criticised Israeli policies in Arab east Jerusalem on Thursday, saying they undermined regional peace efforts and Israel's...

MANAMA, Taieb Mahjoub- Bahrain goes to the polls on Saturday for a parliamentary election that will be a key test of the willingness of the pro-Western Gulf state's Sunni royal family to relax its...

RAMALLAH- The Elders, a group of retired world figures, on Wednesday met with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a bid to push the moribund peace process forward. The group of three arrived in...

UNITED NATIONS- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned a bomb attack on a UN convoy in Iraq on Tuesday in which a special envoy narrowly escaped injury, a spokesman said. Ban said the...

NEW YORK, Sebastian Smith- He's the high priest of contemporary art with a retrospective at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art called "Pure Beauty." But don't expect John Baldessari to go defining...

UNITED NATIONS- Lebanon has been hit by a new climate of "uncertainty" that could cause new instability across the region, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Monday. In a report released only...

UNITED NATIONS- International powers must quickly bring Israel and the Palestinians together for new talks to avoid a new Middle East crisis, a top UN official told the Security Council on Monday....