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Iraq and the US have called for an agreement on a “general time horizon” for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, the White House has announced.
The call comes after a video conference between President George W Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
The two governments are currently negotiating an agreement to allow US forces to remain in the country.
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PESHAWAR: Afghanistan has been drawing a fresh influx of fighters from Turkey, Central Asia, Chechnya and the Middle East, one more sign that Al Qaeda is regrouping on what is fast becoming the most active front of the war on terror groups.
More foreigners are infiltrating Afghanistan because of a recruitment drive by Al Qaeda as well as a burgeoning insurgency that has made movement easier across the border from Pakistan, United States officials and experts said.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen warned about an increase in foreign fighters crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where the government was trying to negotiate with militants. Two US officials told the AP on condition of anonymity that the US was closely monitoring the flow of foreign fighters into both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Militant web sites from Chechnya to Turkey to the Arab world featured recruitment ads as early as 2007, said University of Massachusetts […]

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LAGOS (AFP) — The Nigerian military has arrested 11 suspects in a crackdown on Niger Delta militants whose criminal activities have hurt the country’s oil production, a spokesman said Friday.
Lieutenant Colonel Musa Sagir told AFP the militants were arrested on Thursday at Okaki, near Bonny, the scene of Wednesday’s deadly gunbattle between soldiers and the rebels.
He said the militants were suspected to be involved in stealing crude oil and other criminal activities in the restive region.
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BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s government hopes to bring the entire country under its security control by year’s end. But one critical area stands in the way: the western province of Anbar, where the Sunni insurgency was born and later received its first blows from a civil uprising.
The transfer from U.S. military authority in Anbar has become stalled by worries that a hasty move could tempt unrest and reopen rivalries — drawing in the same armed Sunni factions that the U.S. courted to help uproot al-Qaida in Iraq.
The cautious approach also apparently reflects a desire by Washington not to risk any new complications while Iraqi leaders tussle with a host of messy problems, including seeking agreements on holding provincial elections and opening oil fields to foreign investors.
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For more than three years, former Colombian President Andres Pastrana had given the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) the benefit of the doubt. He was an optimist. He believed that he could put an end to the almost five-decades-old armed conflict by negotiating with the FARC.
Among his many concessions was allowing the FARC to control a demilitarized zone that was roughly the size of Switzerland. That was, until he realized that peace was the last thing on the rebels’ minds. The killing, the extortion and the kidnapping had not stopped.
On Feb. 20, 2002, Pastrana finally declared war on the leftist rebels and ended the extension of the demilitarized zone, ordering the army in to retake certain civilian areas and to drive the guerrillas out. A presidential campaign was in full swing. Pastrana was nearing the end of his presidency and wanted the world to witness his new, bold attitude […]

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Colombian military intelligence apparently set up a Web site for a fake humanitarian organization as part of a ruse to dupe leftist rebels into giving up 15 prized hostages earlier this month.Colombia’s Defense Ministry did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment about the counterfeit organization and its Web site, but a Bogota college student who said he registered the domain name and hosted the site through his company told CNN he was “very surprised” to learn of the site’s purpose.
Mision Humanitaria Internacional’s new Web site popped up on the Internet a few days before the July 2 mission rescued the hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the jungles of Colombia.
The organization was based in Barcelona, Spain, and had been founded in 1999 “to improve the processes of development to guarantee equality of opportunity for individuals and peoples,” according to informational pages posted on the […]

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The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had kidnapped five Colombian officers, who were traveling in a boat, which had been reported as missing with 13 persons aboard in the Atrato river in the Colombian Pacific, Colombia’s army said Friday.
The other eight persons aboard the boat were released by FARC, the army said.
“Among the released, six are adults and two are minors, (they) already have been transferred to the capital of Choco, Quibdo. There are army actions by air and land in order to rescue the other five persons,” the army said.
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Former Colombian rebel captive John Freddy Diaz knows something that recently freed hostages may just be discovering: The pain of a kidnapping doesn’t end with liberation.
Seven years after his release, the tall, 31-year-old former army private hardly works and feels bitterly alienated. He says he’s prone to self-injury and fits of violence against strangers.
“I’ve had lots of crises,” said Diaz, who was held captive for three years - far shorter than most. He sobbed as he admitted to occasionally beating his head against walls and “trying to hit people I don’t even know.”
Colombians plan a nationwide march Sunday to demand the liberation of dozens of hostages still held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country’s main rebel army. Many have been held for more than a decade.
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Pakistan’s Taliban militants have threatened to attack the provincial government in the troubled north-west unless it halts operations, escalating the country’s security crisis.
Baitullah Mehsud, the warlord who leads the Taliban in Pakistan, gave the administration of the North-West Frontier Province five days to cease sporadic operations against Taliban groups and demonstrate its “sincerity” in peace negotiations. The showdown undermines Pakistan’s policy of seeking peace deals with militants and comes as the Taliban in Afghanistan have stepped up a campaign against Nato and Afghan forces.
The North-West Frontier Province government, following elections in February, is led by the secular Awami National party, which has tried to promote peace talks with militant groups. However, in two parts of the province, Swat Valley and Hangu district, which is on the edge of the tribal belt, it has been forced to call on the army and paramilitary forces to combat insurgent groups that are allied […]

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Japan is reconsidering whether to send ground troops to Afghanistan, with lawmakers expressing concern about dispatching personnel to a country suffering an upsurge in violence.
Washington is looking for ways to send more troops to Afghanistan in response to escalating attacks from Taliban forces. US officials in Tokyo have made no secret that they would like Japan to do more within, or even beyond, the constraints of the country’s pacifist constitution.
Osamu Takashita, deputy chief cabinet secretary, yesterday denied that any firm decision had been taken, though he conceded that behind-the-scenes discussions might be going on.
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