USA News

A senior US diplomat said Thursday he had held "serious and substantive" talks with North Korea's nuclear envoy in Beijing, the first such contact between the two nations since leader Kim Jong-Il died.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Simultaneous early morning attacks on mostly Shi'ite targets across Iraq killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens on Thursday in one of the bloodiest days of violence since U.S. troops pulled out in mid-December. The attacks that appeared to pitch al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim insurgents against Shi'ites …

KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan soldier at a U.S. base in the country's east joined violent protests against the burning of copies of the Koran and shot dead two foreign troops, Western military sources said. Protesters charged the base in Nangarhar province after the Taliban urged Afghans to target foreign bases and kill Westerners …

BEIJING (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy for the North Korean nuclear dispute said talks with Pyongyang's lead negotiator on Thursday were "serious and substantive" and would continue the next day but analysts have said no major breakthrough is expected. The talks in Beijing between U.S. Special Representative for North Korea …

Surging Republican hopeful Rick Santorum came under sustained fire from US presidential rivals, including struggling frontrunner Mitt Romney, in a fierce debate ahead of key upcoming polls.

A nine-year-old boy has shot and critically wounded a girl in their classroom in Washington state.

Struggling Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney clashed repeatedly with his surging rival Rick Santorum on Wednesday, in a crucial TV debate as the pair battle for frontrunner status.

Several US lawmakers received threatening letters containing a harmless white powder, but the sender warned more missives including a "harmful material" could follow, a Senate official said.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's imminent departure for more cancer surgery in Cuba has thrown his re-election campaign into uncertainty and once again shaken the socialist leader's passionate supporters. Though the 57-year-old former soldier looked stoic and played down the dangers of his latest condition, …

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed for calm on Wednesday after officials said six people were shot dead and dozens wounded in protests over the burning of copies of the Koran, Islam's holy book, at NATO's main base in the country. The U.S. embassy said its staff were in "lockdown" and travel had been …

France identified two Western reporters killed in Syria on Wednesday as veteran American war correspondent Marie Colvin of Britain's Sunday Times and freelance French photojournalist Remi Ochlik.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Isolationist North Korea lashed out at its neighbour on Wednesday for hosting an international nuclear security summit in Seoul next month, calling it a "childish farce" and an "intolerable grave provocation." The South has said Pyongyang can send a delegate to the conference involving some 50 world leaders, …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday appeared to open the door to eventually arming the Syrian opposition, saying if a political solution to the crisis were impossible it might have to consider other options. The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the State Department, marked a shift …

SANAA/ADEN (Reuters) - Separatist violence in the south loomed over a presidential election in Yemen that had just a single candidate, but Washington praised the vote ending three decades of rule by its ally Ali Abdullah Saleh. The uncontested vote anointed Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi - a general who served as Saleh's vice president …

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A devastating prison fire that killed 360 inmates in a Honduran penitentiary was likely caused by a candle or cigarette that set a mattress alight, investigators said on Tuesday. Danelia Ferrera, a senior official in Honduras' attorney general's office, said an investigation involving Honduran and …

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Election observers from U.S. non-governmental organisations the Carter Center and the National Democratic Institute will for the first time be able to monitor a parliamentary election in Algeria later this year, the interior minister said on Tuesday. Daho Ould Kablia told Reuters that the government, …

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was in police custody overnight Tuesday over allegations that he took part in orgies in Paris and Washington with prostitutes paid for by businessmen.

BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Syrian government forces killed at least 100 people on Tuesday in assaults on villages and an artillery barrage in the restive city of Homs, activists said, and the Red Cross called for daily ceasefires to allow in urgently needed aid. Washington, which is preparing for a "Friends of Syria" meeting …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday appeared to open the door to eventually arming the Syrian opposition, saying if a political solution to the crisis were impossible it might have to consider other options. The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the State Department, marked a shift …

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. helicopters fired flares to disperse hundreds of angry Afghans who massed outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday after hearing staff there had burned copies of the Koran. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued an apology for "inappropriate treatment" of Islam's …

The US commander in Afghanistan has apologised after claims American troops set fire to copies of the Koran at the main military base.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Election observers from U.S. non-governmental organisations the Carter Center and the National Democratic Institute will for the first time be able to monitor a parliamentary election in Algeria later this year, the interior minister said on Tuesday. Daho Ould Kablia told Reuters that the government, …

A version of "The Scream," one of the world's most famous paintings and an iconic image of despair, will go on sale this May in New York, where it is expected to fetch at least $80 million, Sotheby's auctioneers said Tuesday.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said his government talks to the Taliban every day through intermediaries, according to an interview by Australia's SBS television for broadcast on Tuesday. Afghan and U.S. officials are seeking negotiations with the Taliban as a way of ensuring peace after foreign …

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is close to agreement with Washington on the size of cuts refiners must make in imports of Iranian crude oil to win waivers from U.S. sanctions, two ministers said Tuesday after a media report the two sides would settle on an 11 percent cut. The Yomiuri newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said …

North Korea's delegation left for talks about its nuclear programme with the United States, in what will be the first significant contact by the two sides since the death of leader Kim Jong-Il.

MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahraini police used water cannon and tear gas to break up a march chanting anti-government slogans after a funeral on Monday, while protesters were arrested for approaching a roundabout at the centre of an uprising last year. Bahrain, a U.S. ally and home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, has been in turmoil …

The son of US filmmaker Oliver Stone has told Iranian media he hopes his conversion to Islam helps Americans to understand more about the faith.