Nato forces in Afghanistan will target Afghan drug lords and opium laboratories in an attempt to stop the booming drugs trade financing Taliban insurgents, it has been agreed .

Portugal's ruling party and the main opposition shot down Friday the latest proposals to allow same-sex marriages in the Roman Catholic country.

Iraqi police say eight people have been killed after a car bomb struck a market in a Shiite enclave in southwestern Baghdad.

I recently wrote that Albania and Kosovo were the two most secular Muslim-majority countries I have ever visited. That is no longer true. Azerbaijan is the most secular Muslim-majority country I have ever visited.

Not once in a week did I heard the muezzin's call to prayer. I saw only two or maybe three women wearing conservative Islamic clothing, and never anything more conservative than a headscarf.

Baku, though, seemed even more secular than Western Europe. The capital looks like a prosperous and mostly Westernized city-state that's slightly out-of-place in a world of the East, like what you'd get if you crashed Moscow and Istanbul together. It makes sense that Baku appears as it does.

Recent archaeological findings indicate that the Turkish city of Istanbul is 6,000 years older than what experts previously believed.

According to Al-Watan newspaper, excavations have yielded four skeletons, along with wooden and ceramic objects, which date back to 8,500 years ago.

It was previously believed that the city was founded 2,700 years ago by the Greeks and named Byzantium, RIA Novosti reported.

Historically known as Constantinople, Istanbul was Turkey's capital until 1923, when the government moved to Ankara.

OPEC will hold an extraordinary meeting Nov. 18 to discuss how the widening global financial crisis is affecting oil prices.

A suspected U.S. missile strike targeted two areas in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border Thursday, killing at least nine people, intelligence officials said.

The leader of Georgian workers` party, Shalva Natelashvili, has severely criticized the country`s government over allegedly forging close relations with Armenia.

At a news conference in Tbilisi, the opposition leader came out against the proposed project to build a road between the two countries, stretching from the Armenian capital, Yerevan, to the Georgian port of Batumi, through the country`s Ajaria region. He compared the road with the Rox tunnel in Georgia`s rebel region of South Ossetia. Building such a road could pave the way for another outbreak of separatism, Natelashvili said.

Further, he said that at a time when the country was fighting a war with Russia, Georgian media repeatedly cited facts proving that Russian warplanes bombing targets in Georgia were taking off from Armenian territory. However, Tbilisi has never responded to these allegations.

Natelashvili said the position taken by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian during the August war should also be condemned. "At a time dead Georgian soldiers were lined up along the road near Tskhinvali [the capital of unrecognized South Ossetia], Serzh Sarkisian was raising toasts with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev," Natelashvili said. It is indicative that, following a brief war between Russia and Georgia, Sarkisian visited Tbilisi and was awarded the Order of Honor by President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Georgia launched large-scale military operations on August 8 in South Ossetia to restore its territorial integrity. Moscow responded by sending troops to the pro- Russian region that struck Georgian armed forces using overwhelming force. Georgian forces initially gained control over Tskhinvali, but had to retreat a day later following a Russian attack. A ceasefire was, subsequently, reached on August 17 to end the brief war, with the mediation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Qantas Airways said Thursday it will compensate all passengers who were on board a plane that made a terrifying plunge this week, tossing people around the cabin and injuring dozens.

Oct 8 - U.S. General David Petraeus said negotiations with some members of the Taliban could provide a way to reduce violence in Afghanistan.

Russian troops pulled back from their positions outside Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia but held their ground in contested areas, setting the stage for more tension between the ...

Mexico has extradited the former Guatemalan president, Alfonso Portillo, to face corruption charges.

Tropical Storm Marco Tuesday hit Mexico's Gulf coast with high winds and heavy rains, forcing the evacuation of some 2,000 people from high-risk areas.

The Afghan president's brother sat with former Taleban leaders at a religious meal hosted by the Saudi King Abdullah last month, the BBC has learnt.

A southern Sudan cabinet minister said that more than 20 women were arrested and beaten on Tuesday for allegedly dressing inappropriately under a new edict against "bad behaviour".

Wall Street's woes extend far beyond Main Street and all the way to Law Street - the hulking headquarters of the European Union.

A private Yeti Airlines plane crashed Wednesday while landing in the Mt. Everest region during foggy weather in Nepal, killing 14 tourists from Germany and Switzerland and three other people, an airport official said.

Gabon's Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong announced a reshuffle of the cabinet, with Paul Toungui moving from the economy and finance ministry, to the foreign ministry.