July is deadliest month for U.S. in Afghan war

Three U.S. service members were killed in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the toll for July to at least 63 and making it the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly 9-year-war.

Taliban hinder NATO push to build government

This strategic valley on the outskirts of Kandahar is on its third government boss in eight months. The first quit out of fear and frustration. The Taliban assassinated the second.

Source: Mail poisons U.S. embassy staff in Paris
Three employees of the U.S. embassy in Paris were being treated for poisoning Friday after opening mail, a police source told Reuters.
30 Jul 2010 at 6:02am

Troops kill senior 'capo' of mighty Mexico cartel

Soldiers have killed a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel, dealing the biggest blow yet to Mexico's most powerful drug gang since  a military offensive against organized crime began in 2006.

US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez closes for security

The U.S. closed its consulate in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez on Thursday pending a security review, an unexpected decision that comes months after drug gangs killed three people tied to the consulate.

Bangladesh garment workers riot over new wages

Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers took to the streets, burning cars and blocking traffic, police said, in a protest against the minimum wage rate, police said.

Death toll climbs to 313 in Pakistan flood

The death toll in three days of flooding in Pakistan continues to rise, as rescue workers in the impoverished nation struggle to reach residents trapped in far-flung villages.

Gates: Leak probe may go beyond military
A criminal probe into the leak of secret Afghanistan war logs could go beyond the military, Pentagon officials said.
29 Jul 2010 at 9:24pm

5 soldiers killed in land mine attack in India

Separatist rebels triggered a land mine Friday that killed at least five paramilitary soldiers and wounded 41 others in India's remote northeastern state of Assam, where a deadly separatist insurgency has long raged.

Gruesome charges detailed against suspected Nazi

The world's third most wanted Nazi suspect was involved in the entire process of killing Jews at the Belzec death camp: from taking victims from trains to pushing them into gas chambers, a German court says.

Dominique Cottrez charged with multiple infanticide but husband is released over discovery of bodies in plastic bags

A French nursing assistant and mother of two has confessed to killing eight of her newborn babies, placing their bodies in hermetically sealed plastic bags and hiding them from her family over a 17-year period.

Investigators into what appears to be France's biggest infanticide case said Dominique Cottrez, from the north-eastern village of Villers-au-Tertre, had admitted deliberat...

North-west region hardest hit as floodwaters wash away roads and bridges, leaving an estimated 400,000 people stranded

The death toll in three days of flooding in Pakistan reached at least 313 today, rescue and government officials said, as rains bloated rivers, submerged villages, and triggered landslides.

The rising toll from the monsoon rains underscore the poor infrastructure in Pakistan, where under-equipped rescue workers were struggling to reach people stranded in remote villages. The we...

Legislation will give security services powers to arrest people for crimes they have yet to commit

Russian citizens can be issued official warnings about crimes that they have not yet committed under powers granted to the security services today.

President Dmitry Medvedev signed off on a new law giving the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB, the right to caution people suspected of preparing acts of extremism, or to jail them for obstructing the agency's work.

The powers appear similar to thos...

Time magazine's latest issue carries this disturbing cover image. It's a portrait of Aisha, a shy 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws.

Aisha posed for the picture because she wants the world to see the effect a Taliban resurgence would have on the women of Afghanistan.

Her picture is accompanied by a powerful story on how Afghan women have embraced the freedoms that have come from the defeat of the ...

Oops, we forgot Jesus's women | Stephen Tomkins

The pope's new book, The Friends of Jesus, doesn't mention any of his female associates. It's a telling omission

Was it a hilarious howler or does he simply not like women? The pope's new children's book, The Friends of Jesus, tells the stories of 14 of Jesus's closest friends, but omitted to include any women, despite Jesus's celebrated friendship with several of the less Catholic sex, especially Mary Magdalene.

On the plus side, there is something refreshing about the Vatican's attitude to PR...

From the archive, 30 July 1999: Painting looted by Nazis found in Tate Gallery

Originally published in the Guardian on 30 July 1999

The first piece of looted Jewish art to turn up in a British museum has allegedly been discovered at the Tate Gallery in London. The claim, from the family of a Jewish banker murdered by the Nazis, has caught the government on the hop, with no mechanism in place for the return of stolen treasures. It comes as every museum in the country is conducting a trawl through its archives for suspect works.

The View of Hampton Court Palace by the 18th-...

First minister says there is 'no way on earth' US Senate committee could hold Lockerbie hearings in Scotland

Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, has dismissed proposals for US senators to send a delegation to interview Scottish ministers over the Lockerbie affair.

Salmond said there was "no way on earth" that the Senate foreign relations committee would be allowed to hold hearings or interview ministers in either London or Edinburgh, as it was unconstitutional and unprecedented.

His remarks...

Healing dolphins, a donkey-zebra hybrid and England's most dangerous fish - the pick of this week's images from the natural world

Former deputy PM tells Chilcot inquiry that he dismissed some intelligence about the Iraq threat as 'tittle-tattle'

Lord Prescott said today that he had doubts about the intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, the former deputy prime minister dismissed some intelligence about the Iraq threat as "tittle-tattle", said the former attorney general was "not a happy bunny" in the run-up to war, and acknowledged it w...

Bradley Manning transferred from Kuwait amid investigation over leaks of classified Afghanistan war material

A US army private under investigation for allegedly leaking classified material to the Wikileaks website has been transferred from Kuwait to the US amid growing White House and Pentagon anger over this week's revelations about the war in Afghanistan.

Bradley Manning, who has already been charged with leaking a video and other material relating to the Iraq war, is now said to be a suspect...

July deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan
Toll for the month hits 63, making July deadliest month for Americans in nearly nine years

Troops kill senior ‘capo’ of mighty Mexico drug cartel
Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel gunned down trying to escape soldiers in the western city of Guadalajara

Hello, my name is ‘Progressive’
Our leaders wage war over words and labels – even when nobody can agree what they mean

British coalitions and Canadian lessons
Don’t be surprised if Israeli-style dysfunction appears before too long

California wildfires force 1,200 evacuations
Fire in northern LA County has burned through over 18 square kilometres

Former Canada Post auditor vows to put stamp on UN
Watchdog plans to clean up organization and says she has independence to do so

A regal wedding for an American princess
Chelsea Clinton, the only child of America’s storied political power couple, is getting married this weekend. Amid fevered speculation about the event, Joanna Slater previews what is being called the wedding of the year – if not the decade

Rangel hit with 13 alleged ethics charges
Action against veteran congressman sets stage for House committee trial

Obama puts race card face up on the table
Drawing on personal experience, U.S. President underscores how much race and education are inseparable

Greeks adjust to PM's elimination of untaxed 'shadow' economy
The new reality means tax-inspector squads and cutting government feather-bedding