Free Republic

VIENNA, Austria -- In the first face-to-face talks between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians since their 1999 war, rival leaders clashed Tuesday over the future of the ethnically tense Balkan province. The symbolic U.N.-sponsored talks were supposed to avoid the contentious issue of Kosovo's future status: whether it will gain independence, as demanded by the ethnic Albanians, or remain a part of Serbia, as called for by the Belgrade leadership.

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) -- Two rival warlords signed a cease-fire Thursday after fierce fighting left scores dead in northern Afghanistan, both sides said. It was not clear if the deal would hold, although both sides reported their troops began withdrawing tanks and other weapons from the battlefield. Fighting raged up until the agreement was reached, and tensions remained high, commanders said. Several past truces have quickly dissolved. The cease-fire came after 24 hours of fighting that left "high numbers of casualties," according to the United Nations. One warring side said the death toll was more than 60, while the other...

PARIS — Laura Bush (search) brings to ceremonies marking America's rejoining of the United Nations' (search) main cultural organization some lofty White House hopes: that the re-entry will help offset criticism of President Bush's foreign policies in Iraq and elsewhere as go-it-alone affairs.Continued...

<p>SARAJEVO, Bosnia --Bosnia's Serbs, Muslims and Croats, who fought each other in a 1992-95 war, have agreed to a joint command of separate armed forces to try to move closer to NATO in the country's most radical postwar military reform.</p>

27 September 2003 16:13 Bitter Russian Church wants peace with Rome The Russian Orthodox Church ardently desires reconciliation with Roman Catholics to end a 1,000-year rift, even if it is still bitter about perceived insults in recent years, a high official said on Saturday. "Christian unity is important to defend our common values amid the secularisation of society," the Moscow Patriarchate's Secretary for External Relations told Reuters in an interview. "In Catholics we see brethren and share a heritage of sacred tradition. The things which divide us are not so important in comparison," said Archpriest Nikolai Balashov. Balashov is part...

PRESIDENT BUSH brought an olive branch to the United Nations yesterday, and French President Jacques Chirac threw it to the floor and ground his heel into it. Bush did not cave to France’s demands that rebuilding operations in Iraq be quickly turned over to the United Nations. Instead, he reasserted America’s authority in the region and stressed the importance of rooting out terrorists and finishing the rebuilding of institutions before handing the country back to its people. Some U.N. members were sure to be made uncomfortable by these remarks: “Events during the past two years have set before us the...

While recuperating from an assassination attempt in 1981, President Reagan wrote a heartfelt four-page letter to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, asking if they could work together to reduce the tensions between their nations, according to a new book about Reagan's letters. The book, produced with the cooperation of Nancy Reagan and excerpted in Time magazine, suggests Reagan was more involved in the day-to-day responsibilities of the presidency than some of his critics and former aides have suggested. The Reagan in the letters seems a modest, plainspoken man driven by idealism. "My Dear Mr. President," he said in the Brezhnev letter,...

<p>BERLIN — France said for the first time Thursday that it would be willing to provide practical help to the United States in Iraq. It offered to assist Germany in training a new Iraqi police force. The comment by French President Jacques Chirac, after talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, was a clear olive branch to the Bush administration. France bitterly opposed the invasion of Iraq. "It's at least an effort to show they want this (regime change in Iraq) to succeed, which is a huge change," said Philip Gordon, director of the Center on the United States and France at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington.</p>

<p>BERLIN -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said his nation is ready to assist American-led efforts to rebuild and democratize Iraq no matter what happens with a United Nations resolution now being negotiated. The chancellor's comments could mark a turning point in U.S.-German relations, which have been strained by his opposition to the war to oust Saddam Hussein.</p>

Germany's Schroeder to offer Bush help in Iraq 2 hours, 9 minutes ago Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo! BERLIN (AFP) - Germany is prepared to help train Iraqi police and soldiers in a sign that its differences with the United States over the US-led war are over, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder revealed. AFP/DDP/File Photo Schroeder told Thursday's edition of the Handelsblatt business daily that the offer stood independent of any UN resolution on Iraq (news - web sites)'s post-war reconstruction. Schroeder is expected to meet US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) next week on the sidelines...

NEW DELHI — Once bitter foes, India and Israel plan to strengthen their defense, intelligence and trade ties when Ariel Sharon attends a summit here today in the first official visit by an Israeli prime minister. Although Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Sharon are expected to sign a joint declaration on drug trafficking, the environment and other issues, the most significant deals are likely to be negotiated behind the scenes. Flush from a booming economy, India has gone on an arms-buying spree and wants to purchase advanced systems from Israel. At the top of the shopping list is...

ANKARA - Richard Myers, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States wanted to work with Turkey in Iraq, but Turkey will make its own decision on sending peacekeepers to Iraq. Myers, as well as the Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, attended a reception late Thursday in Washington, hosted by the Turkish Armed Forces' attache. Turkey is one of the countries that Washington has requested to send troops to Iraq to help stabilization of the war-torn country. Government officials have signaled that a decision was unlikely to come in September and said Parliament could convene in...

Sat August 16, 2003 04:48 PM ET CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah reaffirmed their "strong relations" and "overall close cooperation" in the war on terrorism in a phone call on Saturday that could help mend bilateral fences. Bush angered the Saudi government last month by rejecting its request to declassify part of a congressional report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks dealing with Saudi Arabia. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush discussed progress in the war on terrorism as well as bilateral relations during his 20 minute call with the crown prince. "It...

<p>BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- The German government said praise by U.S. President George W. Bush for German peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan showed attempts to bridge a transatlantic rift over the war in Iraq were bearing fruit.</p> <p>Officials in Washington and Berlin have been working hard behind the scenes to mend fences between the two traditional allies in recent months, and Bush's comments were one of the most public signs yet that relations could be improving.</p>

Libya appears ready to take the blame for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and could do so as early as next week if a compensation deal with the victims' families is reached, US officials have said. The officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said they understood Libya planned to notify the UN Security Council of its acceptance of responsibility on August 14 should the private settlement go through. But they stressed that the date could slip depending on developments. "August 14 is what we're looking at, but these things have fallen through in the past so we're not holding...

Author of Sask. 'President Shrub' memo resigns Canadian Press REGINA — An internal government memo referring to U.S. President George W. Bush as "President Shrub" has cost a 24-year veteran of Saskatchewan politics his job. Ted Bowen, an NDP researcher who wrote the communique and accidentally faxed it to the media last week, has resigned his position with the party, officials in the caucus office confirmed Tuesday. There were no details released at Bowen's request, the party said. He declined to comment on the memo. Bowen, 60, is originally from Texas and pointed to his roots as an explanation for...

Robin Cook, who resigned as leader of the House of Commons in March over Tony Blair's policies on Iraq, has called on the government to call off its "jihad" on the BBC. Writing in today's (Wednesday) London Independent, Cook observed that the Labor government appears to have aligned itself with conservative newspapers against the public broadcaster. "In my more suspicious moments, I wonder whether Number 10 does not regard those papers as too powerful to take on, but regards the BBC as weak enough to bully." Suggesting that the attack on the BBC may be "a classic diversionary tactic" to...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's president dismissed a conciliatory gesture by the opposition and threatened Tuesday to hit his opponents with "the full wrath of the law" if they tried to destabilize the nation. In a strongly worded speech opening Parliament, President Robert Mugabe said "internal and external forces" were trying to plunge the nation into chaos, but it remained a role model for Africa. Political violence, mainly blamed on ruling party militants, has been rampant over the past three years, leaving Zimbabwe's economy devastated, with unemployment at 70 percent and inflation topping 300 percent a year. "We pride ourselves in...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's president dismissed a conciliatory gesture by the opposition and threatened Tuesday to hit his opponents with "the full wrath of the law" if they tried to destabilize the nation. In a strongly worded speech opening Parliament, President Robert Mugabe said "internal and external forces" were trying to plunge the nation into chaos, but it remained a role model for Africa. Political violence, mainly blamed on ruling party militants, has been rampant over the past three years, leaving Zimbabwe's economy devastated, with unemployment at 70 percent and inflation topping 300 percent a year. "We pride ourselves in...