How panda diplomacy bamboozled the leader of Taiwan
Times Online - 1 hour ago CHINA opened a new round of panda diplomacy yesterday, offering a pair of the animals to Taiwan. But the gesture quickly became bogged down in a spat over whether state leaders rather than cuddly mammals should visit the island.

Report: Philippines Most Dangerous Place to be a Journalist
Voice of America - 1 hour ago By Heda Bayron. The Philippines is the most deadly place for journalists to work according to a new report issued on global Press Freedom Day. The group, Reporters Without Borders says 52 journalists have been

Rival aims for MCI assets
Financial Times - 4 hours ago By Paul Taylor in New York. Qwest Communications, the US telecommunications group that abandoned a three-month takeover battle for MCI this week, will press regulators to scrutinise industry mergers closely

Terrorist Morale In Trouble
CBS News - 1 hour ago (AP) The US military released on Tuesday a letter it believes was addressed to terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from an underling complaining that incompetence of leaders in his al Qaeda in Iraq network is hurting morale among his fighters.

Jilted Groom: I Still Want Her
CBS News - 7 hours ago (CBS/AP) The man whose jittery bride-to-be skipped town days before her lavish wedding and claimed she had been abducted says that his fiancée wants the "whole world to know she's very, very sorry.". John

Fed raises US rates, keeps measured language -
FXstreet.com - 44 minutes ago But the nation's central bank, in an unusual twist, also was forced to issue two different policy statements, one of which was intended to make clear that it believes long-term inflation trends "remain well contained." The policy-setting Federal Open

Italy rejects US report on shooting
International Herald Tribune - 8 hours ago ROME Italy has issued a strongly worded rebuttal to a US report clearing US soldiers of responsibility for the shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent at a roadblock in Iraq. "Inexperience and stress

Iran vows to pursue nuke technology
CNN International - 1 hour ago UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday that the country will press forward with its pursuit of "peaceful" nuclear technology, calling it an "unalienable right.". "It is unacceptable that

Bush Pitches Retirement Plan to Workers
ABC News - 1 hour ago Bush Pitches Remodeled Social Security Plan to Blue-Collar Workers at Auto Plant in Canton, Miss. President Bush, right, helps DeLois Killen, left, off her chair after speaking at the Nissan North America

Jaafari sworn in amid violence
Hindu - 46 minutes ago MANAMA: Iraqi Shia leader Ibrahim Jaafari has been sworn in as the Prime Minister, heading a partial Cabinet line-up, that reflects bickering over the allocation of key portfolios. The Cabinet list shows that