Sleiman urges world to open up to Syria

President Michel Sleiman on Wednesday urged the international community to open up to Syria because of its key role in the region.

"The international community must open up to Syria, following the example set by France, because Syria plays a fundamental role at the regional level," Sleiman said in a statement released by the presidential palace.

He made his remarks at a meeting with an American delegation led by Deputy Assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Near East Affairs David Hale.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to visit Damascus on September 3 and 4 in the wake of the announcement by Syria and Lebanon that they will establish diplomatic relations for the first time.

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Russia recognizes South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states

Russia formally rec ognized Tuesday the Georgian rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states in a new challenge which angered the Western powers.

President Dmitry Medvedev's declaration prompted bursts of celebratory gun fire in the streets of South Ossetia and Abkhazia but immediate censure from the US and its allies.

"We're not afraid of anything," Medvedev declared when asked on television if he feared the stand-off would lead to a new Cold War. Russia condemned a build-up of NATO ships in the Black Sea, said by the West to be delivering aid and conducting previously arranged exercises.

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Siniora says all parties committed to adopting electoral law inked in Doha

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Monday that all Lebanese parties were committed to implementing what was agreed on in Doha last May regarding the drafting of a new electoral law for next year's parliamentary elections.

"All parties are committed to implementing the Doha Agreement in this regard, but it is left for Parliament to decide whether to adopt the law at once or do that in different stages," Siniora told reporters after meeting President Michel Sleiman at the presidential palace.

Parliament is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss drafting the new electoral law amid conflicting opinions on whether Parliament should adopt the law on Tuesday or wait for further reforms.

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Choice of Biden shows Obama campaign refocus

Democrat Barack Obama got what he may need most when he chose Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate – a vice presidential candidate with encyclopedic foreign policy know how and a political brawler ready to take on Republican John McCain's frontal assault on his opponent's newness on the national stage.

Through the month of August – in the days leading up to the national party conventions – McCain whittled away at Obama's slight lead in the polls with relentless attacks designed to paint the first-term Illinois senator as an inexperienced celebrity-seeking elitist not ready for the White House.

While the 47-year-old Obama fought back blow-for-blow and even adopted some negative tactics himself, his campaign has not adopted the kind of visceral sharpness he is facing from McCain's operation.

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Twin suicide blasts kill 64 at Pakistan munitions factory

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside Pakistan's main army munitions factory Thursday, killing 64 workers in the deadliest attack on a military installation in the country's history.

In the second bombing to rock the feuding coalition government since President Pervez Musharraf resigned Monday, the attackers struck a crowd of workers leaving the huge complex in Wah, near Islamabad.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the atrocity and threatened to carry out further attacks if an army offensive against militants near the Afghan border is not stopped.

It's a massive attack," local police chief Nasir Durrani told AFP. "Two men apparently blew themselves up outside the factory during a shift change.

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Twin car bomb attacks kill 11 people in eastern Algeria

Two car bomb at tacks in eastern Algeria killed at least 11 people, state radio reported Wednesday, with the country still in shock from a suicide bomber who killed 43 people a day earlier.

At least 31 people were wounded in the latest attacks in the town of Bouira, one on a passenger bus and another near a military headquarters,Algerian radio said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but an AlQaeda group has staged several attacks in Algeria over the past year and has been involved in clashes with government forces in the oil and gas rich state.

Bouira is part of a so-called "zone of death" it forms with Algiers,Tizi Ouzou and Boumerdes where attacks have been rife.

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Some of Iraq's public art returns to Baghdad streets

Shahryar has recovered his hand and Abu Nuwas will soon be clutching his wine goblet again. Statues damaged during the US-led invasion are being restored to their former glory across Baghdad.

Legendary king of Samarkand in "OneThousand and One Nights," Shahryar is back on his pedestal near a statue of storyteller Sheherazade overlooking the Tigris River, complete with a new hand to replace the one hacked away by vandals.

Abu Nuwas, the famed eighth-century poet who wrote about wine and the joys of drinking, will soon recover the bronze cup spirited away by thieves after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime following the March 2003 invasion.

Craftsmen and artists commissioned by Baghdad municipality are busy restoring the cup and other items that have vanished since US-led troops entered Baghdad more than five years ago.

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