Elections

Just over 38 years ago, on 17 July 1973, King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan was overthrown in a coup d'état whilst undergoing medical treatment in Italy, by his Prime Minister and cousin, Mohammed Daoud Khan. Anyone can be forgiven for missing the 38th anniversary of the First Republic celebrations in Kabul as there don't appear to have been any.

President Barack Obama made an address to the nation Monday about the increasingly dire debt crisis in which he warned that the Republicans' unyielding approach to the U.S. debt crisis was a "dangerous game" and urged Americans to press for compromise.

U.S Credit Downgrade Closer as Leaders Stall on Austerity Plans

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has visited former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, who has been detained in the West African nation since April.

Minority Tamil candidates hope a weekend election in their heartland in northern Sri Lanka will give them a mandate to demand self-determination, as tensions between the Tamils and the government are still mounting.

President Alpha Condé escaped two attacks on his residence, it was reported on Tuesday.The assault that authorities linked to former senior officers in the army left at least three people dead.

More than 30 nations, including the United States, on Friday declared that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime is no longer legitimate and formally recognized Libya's main opposition group as the legitimate government until a new interim authority is created.

The Republican Party needs Sarah Palin to run for nomination is they are to stand any chance of taking the White House in 2012.

Despite criticism and a rise in domestic public discontent, President Barack Obama is proving he's still a force to be reckoned with by raising a record-shattering $86 million for his re-election campaign from April to June, exceeding a $60 million quarterly target and easily eclipsing all Republican challengers.

France acknowledges that it is growing impatient with the lack of progress on reaching a political solution to the crisis in Libya, but officials denied Paris is in talks with Gaddafi's government or could consider him not quitting power.

Thousands converged onto Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday ahead of mass rallies planned nationwide to push the ruling military council to speed up the pace of reform, an AFP correspondent said.

A Russian newspaper said on Tuesday that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was willing to give up power in exchange for security guarantees, citing a high-level Russian official.

Leader of the ongoing hacking campaign Operation Anti-Security, Anonymous, has posted data taken during a cyber attack against tech giant Apple.

Thailand's outgoing defence minister has said the army will not intervene after supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra swept to another resounding general election victory.Thaksin's younger sister Yingluck, who fronts the Puea Thai party, announced she had agreed a coalition deal with four minor parties that would give the new government 299 seats.

Libya is involved in direct and indirect talks with rebels trying to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's daughter said, although the Benghazi-based opposition maintain they have ruled out further contact with Tripoli.

The prosecution case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and French presidential hopeful accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid, is close to collapse, a report in the New York Times has claimed.

Eight hundred and seventy people were hurt earlier this week when a planned memorial for people killed in Egypt's revolution turned into an angry demonstration against the country's interim military government, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said Thursday.

Michele Bachmann, who, on Tuesday launched a bid for the 2012 presidential elections, has often been compared to Sarah Palin. Both women are Republicans and both come from the North, both hold deeply conservative values close to their heart and just like Palin a few years ago, Bachmann is not scared to impose herself on the political scene and become, despite a lack of political experience, a serious contender.

A spokesman says the opposition insists that the strongman cannot be involved in any future government, but it may allow him to live out his last years in Libya at an isolated location.

Dutch Freedom Party Leader Geert Wilders was acquitted by a court of charges that he made remarks defaming Muslims, ending a three-year prosecution that he described as a bid to restrict his freedom of speech.

Two years after Neda Agha-Soltan was killed governments in the Middle East are still using brutality, lies and live ammunition to suppress street protests.

As anti-government feeling in Syria refuses to quiet down, in his latest speech following three months of unrest, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday he would form a committee to study reforming Syria's constitution, claiming it would make recommendations within a month.

The Argentine president attacked Mr Cameron for what she called an expression of "mediocrity and stupidity". Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner, who is running for a second term in power in elections this September, was responding to Mr Cameron's firm stance on the Falklands in prime minister's questions this week.

On Tuesday, armed men stormed the provincial council in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, killing at least eight people in the latest assault on government buildings in Sunni parts of Iraq.

Despite efforts from the Italian government to delay the referendum, the results of the vote that was held on 12-13 June constituted yet another major setback for Silvio Berlusconi's regime , proving that the Italian people are more than fed up with their leader.

With Spanish police having just arrested three suspected members of the loose-knit hacking collective Anonymous last week, Turkish authorities have reportedly detained a further 32 suspected members of the Anonymous group.

The press in Turkey has welcomed the success of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) in this weekend's general election.

In a week where the coalition should have looked to capitalise on the embarrassing letters and emails of Ed Balls, have party politics have got in the way of NHS reform once again? With that said, the tension within the ranks of the coalition is set to intensify. This week, Nick Clegg is expected to claim 'victory' against the Tory's in an address to Liberal Democrats in a move that is expected to infuriate Conservative backbenchers. They believe that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has...

As Turkey is hitting the headlines for opening up to the large influx of Syrian refugees, fleeing the Assad regime, the country is preparing for parliamentary elections on Sunday June 12, and the Prime Minister's Party the AKP, while being tipped as the hot favourite, still divides opinion. Many see Turkey's attempt to play a more diplomatic role in the Middle-East's new development as a tactic to divert attention from the party's sometimes controversial policies.

Just like the Gaddafi regime, The Mugabe government has long feared that Britain and its Western allies would ally to work out a plan that would force him out of power. Both men were liberation fighters and saw themselves, at the beginning of their mandate, as the true voice of the people.