World News

Azerbaijan and Israel have closed a weapons agreement worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to reports that have yet to be confirmed by Baku.

According to agreements signed by the Israeli Defense Ministry and the government of Azerbaijan, which borders on Iran, Israel will sell the South Caucasus state ammunition, mortars and radio equipment, Israel`s Haaretz newspaper reports. Predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan has increasingly been caught in a tug-of-war for influence between its large southern neighbor, Iran, and the secular, democratic West.

Rumblings of Shia political Islam have been particularly noticeable in the more conservative regions that border Iran, and the secular government has displayed concern over Iranian influence, the report said. Israeli sources said the multi-million dollar sale of up-to-date weapons seeks to create a military balance in the region, noting Iran`s nuclear program poses a threat, not only to Israel but, also, to Azerbaijan.

Oct 4 - Mexican authorities have extended a state of emergency in Tabasco as the hard-hit region reels from torrential rainfall and floods.

A 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo's director said Friday.

Vietnam's health ministry has discovered the industrial chemical melamine in 18 food products imported from China and three other countries and has ordered them recalled and destroyed, officials said Friday.

Russian news agencies reported that food inspectors found nearly two tons of Chinese dry milk believed to be contaminated with melamine. And Philippines health officials found melamine in two of 30 milk products from China tested for the chemical.

The United Nations says fighting has killed at least 80 civilians in Somalia's capital over the last two weeks. More than 100 people have been injured.

A seven-year-old boy broke into the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australia by jumping the fence, and then proceeded to feed both live --- and dead animals --- to a crocodile. Apparently the boy's small size prevented the zoo's security system from detecting him. He was, however, caught on camera.

A Canadian researcher has discovered that a Chinese version of eBay's Skype communications software snoops on text chats that contain certain keywords, including "democracy."

The chief U.S. nuclear envoy was expected to wrap up his trip to North Korea on Friday after spending an extra day in the communist nation to try to persuade Pyongyang to resume dismantling its nuclear program.

Five former Khmer Rouge soldiers went on trial Friday for their alleged involvement in the killing of a British mine-clearing expert and his Cambodian colleague 12 years ago.

Shades of the "Great Firewall of China." But rather than blocking of outbound Internet access to certain, er, sites China would prefer its populace to avoid, what has been found is monitoring of Skype usage.

Joseph Shagal: the political, economic and cultural contacts between Jerusalem and Baku are really active and fruitful, which is, naturally, encouraging for the supporters of the Azerbaijani-Israeli cooperation.

The South Ossetian crisis will not constitute a precedent, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee on September 18. "We will continue to responsibly fulfill our mediation mission in the negotiation process and peacemaking that fully applies to the conflicts of Transdniester and Nagorno Karabakh," he said.

The Chinese women's gymnastics team did not use underage competitors during this year's Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the International Gymnastics Federation said Wednesday.

The leader of Pakistan's Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, is dead from kidney failure, sources told CNN.

The Pakistan government blamed Mehsud for the December 27, 2007, assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Security officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has killed at least three people and wounded six in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border.

US negotiator Christopher Hill arrived in North Korea on Wednesday in an attempt to save a crumbling nuclear disarmament deal, after saying negotiations with Pyongyang have reached a "very tough" phase.

The death toll from a landslide in north China's Shanxi Province stood at 41 as rescuers stopped their search efforts on Tuesday.

The number of Iraqi security forces killed in September rose by nearly a third to 159 compared with the same period last year, Associated Press figures showed Tuesday.

The historic carnage on Wall Street spread to Asia Tuesday, with stocks across the region plunging after Congress rejected a rescue plan that investors had hoped would bolster volatile financial markets.

At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured when pilgrims stampeded Tuesday at a Hindu temple in historic town of Jaipur in western India, media reports said.