Headlines News

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will take its first step on Sunday towards forming a new government after elections last week but likely prime minister Ehud Olmert faces obstacles in putting together a stable administration. Most party leaders are expected to back Olmert, the head of the centrist Kadima party, as prime minister in talks with Israeli President Moshe Katsav due t ...

FARGO, North Dakota (AP) -- Volunteers filled and stacked sandbags Saturday to protect homes in North Dakota and Minnesota from the rising Red River and its tributaries, swollen by a combination of melting snow and heavy rain. Mayor Bruce Furness said Fargo was preparing for a flood crest next week of 37 to 38 feet, well above the official flood stage of 18 feet. However, he has said that would threaten only about 30 homes -- compared with about 130 flooded in 1997. Along with the sandbagging ...

By Alphonso Toweh MONROVIA (Reuters) - Former Liberian president Charles Taylor will plead not guilty to war crimes charges this week but the ex-warlord needs donations from "goodwilled people" to pay for his defence, his lawyer said on Saturday. Taylor, whose name became synonymous with a decade of brutal conflict in West Africa, is behind bars at a U.N.-backed court in Sierra Leone facing 11 c ...

By Hala Alsalman MANAMA (Reuters) - Rescue workers on Saturday pressed on with a search for one passenger still missing from a cruise boat that capsized off Bahrain's coast killing at least 57 people, mostly foreigners. One Briton who rescuers had also tried to find was accounted for after she was rescued by a dhow, officials said. "She did not report to the police or go to any hospital so she was unaccounted for until very recently," Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Tareq Al-Hassan told a ...

Twenty-three people have been injured in clashes between rival factions of Egypt's opposition Wafd party in the capital Cairo, police have said. The violence erupted after deposed Wafd leader Nomaan Gomaa occupied the party headquarters and supporters of the new leaders tried to gain entry. Eight people were reported to have been shot and 15 others injured, and the building was set on fire. Mr Gomaa, 71, and six of his supporters were detained by police. Doctors said three of the people sho ...

Ruud van Nistelrooy scored his second winner for Manchester United in a week to close the gap at the top of the Premiership to seven points. Van Nistelrooy tucked home his 150th goal for the club from close range after a late cross from strike partner Louis Saha at Bolton. Saha had fired United's equaliser, curling the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen from a tight angle. Kevin Davies had earlier put Bolton ahead after racing through. Saha certainly justified his inclusion with his well-taken eff ...

By Tom Heneghan PARIS (Reuters) - French left-wing parties rejected on Saturday a decision by President Jacques Chirac to modify a youth job law that has sparked a national crisis and said they would march to press for the measure to be scrapped. Opposition groups said they would join students and unions in more mass protests set for April 4 despite Chirac's speech on Friday, which aimed to defuse a confrontation over the law that has put pressure on Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. Unde ...

Liverpool eased to victory over a relegation-threatened West Brom side. A defensive error allowed Reds striker Robbie Fowler to tap-in at the far post from Djibril Cisse's cross after just six minutes. The lacklustre home side were further punished when Djibril Cisse slotted in after Xabi Alonso's 60-yard pass. Zolten Gera inspired a Baggies revival but he saw two strikes saved while Jonathan Greening blazed over to sum up the home side's frustration. West Brom went into the game knowing t ...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. military helicopter crashed Saturday southwest of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. "The status of the crew is unknown," the brief statement said. Officials said the helicopter was on a "combat air patrol" and came down at about 5:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. ET). The statement added: "All additional information is being withheld pending investigation and notification of next of kin," the statement said. Elsewhere in Iraq, gunmen i ...

CAIRO (Reuters) - The captain of an Egyptian ferry which sank in the Red Sea in February was to blame for the disaster which killed more than 1,000 people, Egypt's travel minister was quoted as saying on Saturday. Mohamed Lutfi Mansour said the captain of the boat Al Salam 98, which sank en route to Egypt from Saudi Arabia, had not sent a distress signal until the moment the boat sank, Egypt's of ...