Sudan

In a new video released by dreaded terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda's media arm As-Sahab, Thursday, September 20, Osama Bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri has urged war against Pakistan and said the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts.

U.S. investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc continued to shed its stake in top Chinese oil producer PetroChina Inc, selling about 92.66 million shares in late August for US$136 million, according to a regulatory filing in Hong Kong.

The U.S. Justice Department and other authorities have stepped up investigations into several large European banks for violating sanctions against Iran, Libya, Cuba and Sudan, the Financial Times reported in its online edition.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged China on Monday to do more to halt climate change, prompting the response that the developed West has been polluting the skies for much longer than the newly developing Chinese.

Mauritania became the latest African country to benefit from third-generation (3G) mobile phone services on Thursday as its newest provider Chinguitel went live, officials said.

Homes and farmland drowned in increasingly severe floods are affecting some 500 million people a year and straining relief efforts, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday.

British PM Gordon Brown wants to keep close ties and says his nation shares its ideals with America.

Fame can be used to 'take the focus, when it's put on you, and throw it onto other things,' he says.

State restrictions on use of the Internet have spread to more than 20 countries that use catch-all and contradictory rules to help keep people off line and stifle feared political opposition, a new report says.

Film director Steven Spielberg may quit his position as artistic advisor to the 2008 Beijing Olympics if China does not take a harder line against Sudan over Darfur, ABC News reported.

Scrutiny of banking transactions after 9/11 has led European and Canadian banks to cut back on dealings with Cuba.

The U.S. government awarded engineering and development firm The Louis Berger Group a five-year contract with a $700 million limit, to improve infrastructure in southern Sudan.

The European Commission announced on Monday a further €40 million ($51 million) contribution in humanitarian aid to assist the conflict-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

Sudan is expected to agree to an extended African Union peacekeeping mandate in Darfur when African foreign ministers meet in New York on Monday, a presidential adviser said.

War scarred Sudan may be best known for the humanitarian situation in Darfur but despite sanctions, poverty and hunger, Sudan is experiencing a surprising economic resurgence.

Kenya's main port is targeting cargo for reconstruction of southern Sudan to expand its business, and the government is planning a second port to serve northern neighbors like Ethiopia, an official said on Tuesday.