Moscow has greeted the reconciliation between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas groups with enthusiasm, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson, Aleksandr Lukashevich. ­“On May 4, 15 Palestinian movements, including the two largest, Fatah and Hamas, signed an inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement. Based on this, a transition government of independent “technocrats”... 

A new national poll indicates the race for the Republican presidential nomination remains wide-open, with none of the probable or potential GOP White House contenders above 20 percent, according to a new national poll. […] What about the showdown in November 2012? According to the poll, taken before the announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death, President Barack Obama has an edge over all the... 

The Fox News-led GOP debate last night in South Carolina gave the first formal glimpse of the emerging 2012 GOP presidential field, though more thought was perhaps spent on the presumptive (selected & vetted by the establishment) big name contenders who have yet to enter or debate. Congressman Ron Paul was perhaps the most well-known face next to a field otherwise unseen in 2008. With him... 

DPNI members Leaders of several nationalist groups have created united organization called “the Russians,” the former head of the banned Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) has said. ­According to Dmitry Demushkin, earlier this week the political council of the new organization elected the leadership and decided issues of the management. The new union’s immediate goal is to facilitate... 

Sarkozy tells L'Express: "France will face up to its responsibilities on ... recognition of a Palestinian state". France may recognise a Palestinian state later this year Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said in an interview with a leading weekly magazine. “If the peace process is still dead in September, France will face up to its responsibilities on the central question... 

Romania has agreed to host US missile interceptors on Romanian territory. Russia has issued a warning after Romania agreed to host the US missile system site at a Soviet-built base in the country’s southern town of Deveselu. Moscow warned that the deployment of US interceptor missiles on Romanian territory comes without considering the talks between Moscow and Washington on the issue. Earlier... 

Despite the compound where Osama bin Laden died suddenly becoming a place for the curious, the US is under pressure to release photographs to prove the al Qaeda leader is dead. With many Muslims questioning American assertions over the raid Washington has been forced onto the back foot and is having to clarify more of the details of the operation. In particular the White House has changed its initial... 

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant seeks to ban praying in the street as part of a continuation of recent actions against Muslims in the western European country. Gueant said that he plans to make praying in the streets for Muslims illegal, although all public prayers in France receive government approval beforehand. “Here we have the hypocrisy of the French right. On one side, they authorize... 

Screen grab of Muammar al-Gaddafi. Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi’s youngest son and three grandchildren were killed in an air strike Saturday, a spokesman said, after rebels and NATO dismissed an offer for talks to end Libya’s crisis. “The house of Mr Seif al-Arab Muammar Gaddafi… who is the youngest of the leader’s children, was attacked tonight with full power. The... 

Well, it sure didn’t take long for the Tucson Truce to collapse. After Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot on Jan. 8 by a berserker who killed six others, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and wounded 13, the media were aflame with charges the right had created the climate of hate in which such an atrocity was inevitable. The Washington Post story on the massacre began, “The... 

Palestinian Fatah delegation chief Azzam al-Ahmed (R), Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuq (L). The Palestinian movements of Hamas and Fatah will sign a deal to form a unity government next week in the Egyptian capital Cairo, a senior Fatah official says. Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal will meet Fatah leader and acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo to sign the deal, AFP... 

Sarkozy and Berlusconi are demanding European deportation pacts with the countries of revolutionary north Africa to send migrants home. Sarkozy and Berlusconi want passport-free travel within the EU suspended as north African migrants flee north. France and Italy have thrown down the gauntlet over Europe’s system of passport-free travel, saying a crisis of immigration sparked by the Arab spring... 

While the EU forces France to accept more and more immigrants, the country has already had enough, with anti-ethnic sentiments growing every year, believes Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right party National Front. Marine follows the political line of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, who is famous in France and all over the world for his conservative and anti-immigration... 

The US is at the risk of a war with Russia and China as its main objective behind engineering the Libyan war and Syrian unrest is to remove the two world powers out of the Mediterranean, a former US official warns. “Washington is all for invading against Libya and is putting more and more pressure to intervene in Syria because we want to … clear China and Russia out of the Mediterranean,”... 

China has laughed off Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s concerns about Beijing’s human rights issues, and questioned Australia’s own human rights performance, secret US diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks has suggested. Gillard highlighted the annual Australia-China human rights dialogue as the centrepiece of her government’s efforts to enhance respect for human...