Headlines News

By Miral Fahmy DUBAI (Reuters) - A former Syrian vice president launched an unprecedented attack on President Bashar al-Assad, saying he had threatened Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated in February. "Assad told me he had delivered some very, very harsh words to Hariri ... something like 'I will crush anyone who tries to disobey us'," Abdel-halim Khaddam said from his home in Paris. A veteran aide to Bashar's father, the late Syrian President Hafez al-Ass ...

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) -- President Bush Friday signed legislation extending key provisions of the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act until February 3, despite earlier objecting to anything short of a permanent renewal. He also signed a $453.3 billion defense spending bill that included a measure banning cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners, the White House said. Bush had initially threatened to veto legislation that contained that provision, but backed off after congressional votes showed ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - A 25-year-old British human rights worker and her parents were freed in the Gaza Strip on Friday by the Palestinian gunmen who kidnapped them two days earlier, British and Palestinian officials said. Kate Burton and her visiting parents Hugh and Helen were kidnapped on Wednesday in the chaotic southern town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt. "They are secure and in good hands," said a senior Palestinian security official. A British official said he had  ...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six people, including a child, were killed and dozens more wounded in separate attacks Friday in Baghdad, police said. A bomb in a parked car and a mortar round both exploded in a busy commercial stretch of al-Kifah Street in central Baghdad, killing five, police said. Earlier, a mortar round landed on a house in southern Baghdad, killing the child, and two roadside bombs wounded four Iraqi security personnel, police said. The bombings occurred the same day that the co ...

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Three Britons abducted in Gaza on Wednesday have been freed, according to Palestinian security sources. Palestinian Authority officials had been negotiating the release of Kate Burton, a 25-year-old worker for the Palestinian rights group Al Mezan, and her visiting parents. They were kidnapped Wednesday in Rafah, when Burton was showing her parents around the town on the Gaza-Egypt border. The identity of the kidnappers was not clear, and earlier, Palestinian officials said ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior Syrian officials threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri who was assassinated in February, a former Syrian vice president said. "Hariri received many threats," Abdel-Halim Khaddam, who resigned in June, told Al Arabiya television in an interview from Paris aired on Friday. "Assad told me he had delivered some very, very harsh words to Hariri ... something like 'I will crush anyone who tries to disobey us'. Ha ...

GAZA (Reuters) - Three Britons seized by gunmen in the Gaza Strip two days ago are expected to be freed very soon, Palestinian mediators and security officials said on Friday. A senior security official who did not want his identity revealed told Reuters "The crisis is over. At any momment now the hostages will arrive at a safe place." Human rights worker Kate Burton, 25, and her visiting parents Hugh and Helen were kidnapped on Wednesday in the chaotic southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. The  ...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A Florida teen who stunned U.S. officials by traveling alone to Iraq, was on his way home Friday, after finding himself in some "very dangerous situations," his mother said. Journalism student Farris Hassan, 16, left the United States on December 11 without permission from his parents, who had planned to accompany him on a trip there next summer. Hassan's mother, Shatha Atiya, said Farris had asked her for permission to travel to Iraq immediately "to see it firsthand, ho ...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An American teenager ran away to Baghdad over Christmas and survived probably the most dangerous destination in the world before being packed off home by the U.S. military, U.S. officials said on Friday. Farris Hassan, the 16-year-old son of Iraqi immigrants to Florida, left home without permission and sent his parents an e-mail saying "I'll be in Iraq for a while", his mother said. Shatha Atiya told CBS television that once her son returned home: "We are going to watch his ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of London revellers face transport chaos on New Year's Eve as some 4,000 Underground staff look set to strike on one of the busiest nights of the year. The strike, which is set to begin at midday, will also prevent people from taking advantage of the free Underground service which had been planned to run from 2345 GMT. The RMT union voted to strike over the introduction of new rosters which they said would reduce safety levels on the Tube. London Under ...