The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, resigned on Saturday in a move intended to pave the way for a power-sharing deal between the two rival Palestinian political forces – Hamas and Fatah.
But Hamas officials quickly rebuffed Mr Fayyad’s announcement, casting doubt on whether or not his gesture would help lead to reconciliation between the sides.
The main goal of such a government would be to end the current situation in which the militant Hamas movement rules the Gaza Strip and Fatah, considered more moderate and supported by the West, rules the …

Guinea-Bissau’s army chief discovered a 200-kilogramme cocaine stash a week before his assassination, which preceded the murder of the country’s president, an army officer said Thursday.
Following General Batista Tagme Na Waie’s killing, soldiers murdered President Joao Bernardo Vieira earlier this week in an apparent reprisal in the West African nation.

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was in stable condition and recovering from head injuries Friday night after a car wreck that killed his wife, Susan, medical sources told CNN.
The crash, on a busy two-lane highway between Tsvangirai’s hometown of Buhera and the capital city of Harare, comes just weeks after the start of a power-sharing agreement between Tsvangirai and his political rival, President Robert Mugabe.

China’s state-run media has said a Tibetan monk made up allegations that police shot another monk who set himself on fire to protest against Chinese rule in his homeland.
Activist groups reported police shot the monk when he protested in the flashpoint area of Aba in southwest China’s Sichuan province last week, and residents there contacted by AFP confirmed that they had heard guns fired.
But the Xinhua news agency issued a report on Thursday saying another monk had confessed to making up allegations about the police shooting, and cited residents saying …

Israeli air raids on Hamas-run Gaza killed four militants just hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended her first Middle East trip vowing to breathe life into the peace process Thursday.
An air strike in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday killed three militants and wounded two others, medics said.
An army spokesman said the raid targeted a group who had fired an anti-tank shell at an army unit on the Israeli side of the border.
Late Wednesday, an Israeli air raid killed a senior …

Gunmen have attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on its way to play in the Pakistani city of Lahore. At least five policemen escorting the team bus were killed, along with a driver….

Eight Pakistanis, mostly policemen, were killed when commando-style gunmen attacked the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and AK47 machine guns.
The poor security for the visitors and the ease with which the terrorists were able to target the team, has further isolated both Pakistan as a global hub of terrorism and a venue for international cricket.
President Asif Zardari was forced to apologise to his Sri Lankan counterpart yesterday for the lack of protection, while the International Cricket Council officials said it was unlikely that international cricket matches could be played in Pakistan …

Pakistan offered a reward of $125,000 this morning for information about the 12 masked gunmen who ambushed Sri Lanka’s cricket team, as conspiracy theories multiplied about who was behind the Mumbai-style attack.
While police continued to scour the eastern city of Lahore for the gunmen, all of whom escaped, the government of the eastern province of Punjab appealed for help from the public in most national newspapers.
Officers announced today that they had arrested “some suspects” behind the attack, but the gunmen were still at large.
“The dignity of the country has been …

Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister, has said there is a risk of further attacks “to foil the country’s democracy”, following a mutiny by paramilitary troops that left more than 70 officers dead.
In comments on Wednesday, Hasina said that her own safety was also at risk, describing last week’s revolt by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards as “condemnable”.
Hasina said the 33-hour mutiny was part of a wider plot to destabilise the country.
“Conspiracies against Bangladesh are not over yet … the game is still on,” she said at a seminar speech …

Private military companies (PMCs) have become rather popular nowadays in terms of providing specialized expertise or services of a military nature. These units can compete with special services and regular armies. There are such companies in Russia, although they are not so widely spread in the country in comparison with their prototypes in the West. As experience shows, the PMCs will prevail in the future.
The history of private military companies started on June 24, 1997, when experts of the US Intelligence Department proclaimed the PMCs as a major tool in …