Russian troops said Friday they had freed a Russian hostage during a massive search operation in rebel Chechnya for kidnapped U.S. aid worker Kenny Gluck. Full Story

Colombian President Andres Pastrana toured a car-bombed mall parking lot on Thursday but refused to lay blame for the bombing at a sensitive time for peace talks with leftist rebels. Full Story

A bomb blast rocked the Belfast offices of one of Northern Ireland&#039s main political parties on Thursday. Police said there were no reports of any injuries caused by the explosion outside the north Belfast office of the moderate Roman Catholic nationalist Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP). Full Story

Spanish police today arrested two suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA driving a car loaded with explosives, averting a possible new attack, officials said. Full Story

Israel has reopened a major road through the Gaza Strip after senior Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed to resume joint security patrols. Israeli tanks moved back from the road and concrete slabs were removed, allowing cars to pass for the first time in weeks. Full Story

The main separatist alliance in Indian-administered Kashmir has named a five-man team to visit Pakistan to hold talks there. The All Party Hurriyat [Freedom] Conference said Abdul Gani Lone, Omer Farooq, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Sheikh Abdul Aziz would travel to Pakistan next week. Full Story

Afghanistan&#039s ruling Taliban movement said on Sunday it had recaptured a strategic town lost to opposition forces in the central province of Bamiyan a week ago and shot down an opposition helicopter. Full Story

Lockerbie defense lawyers on Thursday tore into core elements of the prosecution case in final arguments aimed at saving two Libyans from life in jail for murdering 270 people in the 1988 bombing. Full Story

Six people were shot dead at a mosque in Yemen when an argument between tribesmen over nominating candidates to run in upcoming municipal elections erupted into violence, witnesses said Thursday. Full Story

A car bomb wrecked a parking lot in a busy shopping mall in the Colombian city of Medellin on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding 50 as the government struggled to revive peace talks with leftist guerrillas. Full Story

Terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden appeared happy and smiling at his son’s wedding in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in footage shown Wednesday on an Arab satellite channel. Full Story

The PDD outlines specific steps that will enable the U.S. counterintelligence (CI) community to better fulfill its mission of identifying, understanding, prioritizing and counteracting the intelligence threats faced by the United States. The system will be predictive, proactive and will provide integrated oversight of counterintelligence issues across the national security agencies. Full Story

Police have defused a bomb left in a cemetery where relatives had just met to pay homage to a politician killed by the Basque separatist group ETA. Full Story

Reports from Saudi Arabia say there&#039s been an explosion at a shopping mall in the capital, Riyadh, causing damage but no injuries. Full Story

A bomb hidden in a handcart exploded at the gate of Kashmir&#039s main telephone exchange Tuesday, wounding 30 people who were waiting to pay their bills, police said. Five were critically injured. Full Story

The U.S. military must make defense against “terrorist&#039&#039 attacks one of its top priorities and train all troops to protect themselves against attack, a Pentagon commission set up after last year&#039s bombing of a U.S. destroyer in Yemen recommended Tuesday. Full Story

President Clinton&#039s last-gasp Middle East peace drive faltered Wednesday as confusion mounted over the fate of a mission by an American envoy. Full Story

A U.S. citizen working for an aid group was kidnapped in Chechnya and another slightly wounded after gunmen, apparently separatist rebels, attacked their cars, Russian officials and aid workers said Wednesday. Full Story

Indonesia and rebels in Aceh agreed Wednesday to extend their cease-fire for another month and to meet again in February to try to find a political solution to years of violence in which thousands of people have died. Full Story

Colombia&#039s messy war claimed 38 lives on Tuesday even as newspapers reported the nation&#039s largest leftist guerrilla group was preparing a major prisoner release to revive peace talks with the government. Full Story

The military wing of the militant Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a New Year&#039s day car bomb in the Israeli city of Netanya which wounded dozens of people, a senior Hamas leader said. “Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades declare its responsibility for the Netanya operation,” Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi told Reuters, referring to Hamas&#039s military…

Four Russian nationals were found dead in a forest in eastern Algeria, the first foreigners slain in the country in four years, security forces said Monday. Full Story

In a make-or-break bid for conviction in the Lockerbie trial, prosecutors asked a special court Tuesday to drop lesser charges and find the two Libyan accused guilty of murder. Full Story

Protestant extremist chief Johnny “Mad Dog&#039&#039 Adair lost a bid for release from prison Tuesday after Britain objected, his supporters said. Full Story

The Mufti of Jerusalem, the Palestinians&#039 highest religious authority, issued an edict on Tuesday forbidding non-Muslims from controlling a holy site that is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Full Story

The admiral overseeing the investigation of the actions of the captain and crew of the USS Cole when the warship was bombed three months ago in a Yemeni harbor has concluded that no one should be punished even though dozens of security lapses occurred, Pentagon officials said. Full Story

A key suspect facing trial in connection with the October attack on the USS Cole told authorities he believed the suicide bombers were acting on the orders of Osama bin Laden, Yemeni sources close to the investigation said Monday. Full Story

Armed hooded men in military-style clothes burst into a family home in northern Honduras and kidnapped a 4-year-old U.S. girl last week, her mother authorities said. Full Story

An explosion Sunday caused heavy damage at an office of Yemen&#039s opposition Socialist Party near Aden, security officials said. They had no word on casualties. Full Story

When the trial of four Osama bin Laden operatives begins in New York sometime next month, the government&#039s star witnesses just might come from a certain intelligence agency with a long and well-documented aversion to the light of day. Full Story

British peacekeepers have captured 13 ethnic Albanian guerrillas on the boundary between Kosovo and government-controlled Serbia, their representatives said on Sunday. Full Story

To Israeli peace activists, Thabet Thabet was a familiar figure. He had long been active in trying to foster reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. A few years ago, in a rare act for a Palestinian, he even attended the funeral of an Israeli soldier, the son of a veteran peace campaigner he had befriended. Full…

A bomb scare led to the evacuation of the Russian government&#039s headquarters in Moscow Sunday, Russia&#039s FSB secret services said. Full Story

Kidnappers holding eight foreigners hostage in Ecuador&#039s oil-rich northeast jungle are strongly suspected of launching deadly dynamite attacks last month on the country&#039s main oil pipeline, sources have told The Associated Press. Full Story

U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand started an elaborate jury selection process here last week in the case of four men charged as terrorist followers of Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden, hoping to keep anti-Arab prejudice out of the courtroom. Full Story

Lawyers for two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie airliner bombing said Monday they would call no further witnesses, abruptly ending testimony in the trial just as it resumed following a one-month break. Full Story

Muslim extremists suspected in holiday bombings in the Philippines and Indonesia may all have learned their deadly skills in Afghanistan, police in both countries said. Full Story

Israeli experts say they fear Jewish fundamentalists are plotting to blow up mosques on a holy site at the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict and could spark an apocalyptic holy war if they succeed. Full Story

Explosions and gunfire erupted at state radio and television stations in Ivory Coast&#039s commercial capital Abidjan late on Sunday, witnesses said. Full Story

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday rejected Israeli threats against his country and said the struggle to liberate occupied Arab land and establish Middle East peace would continue. Full Story

The U.S. embassy in Rome was closed for a second consecutive day on Saturday over security concerns, while authorities stepped up their watch at airports and U.S. bases across Italy. Full Story

Hooded men in military-style clothes and armed with guns burst into a family home in northern Honduras and kidnapped a four-year-old U.S. girl, her mother and authorities said on Friday. Full Story

Gunmen killed at least 12 peasants on Friday in a mountainous region of northwestern Colombia where leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries are fighting for territorial control, police said. Full Story

The United States abruptly closed its Rome embassy to the public for security reasons on Friday, following what a U.S. source defined as a `very specific threat.&#039 Full Story

Newly disclosed documents in the East Africa embassy bombings case show that U.S. intelligence was aware of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist cell in Kenya two years before the August 1998 bombings that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Full Story

The leadership of India&#039s ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party Friday backed the government&#039s ceasefire in Kashmir but said it should not “drop its guard” against Pakistan-based Muslim militant outfits. Full Story

The youngest son of Indonesia&#039s disgraced former dictator Soeharto has been linked to Christmas Eve bombings that killed 17 people. Full Story

A night of clashes during which a Palestinian was killed deepened skepticism Friday among Israelis and Palestinians that a peace deal could be reached before President Clinton leaves office. Full Story

Suspected far-right paramilitaries killed 11 people in a northwestern Colombian region in the first massacre of the new year in this conflict-torn nation, police said on Thursday. Full Story

Colombia&#039s top peace official flew to the headquarters of the nation&#039s largest leftist rebel group on Thursday to demand answers about a killing that has threatened to derail the country&#039s fragile peace process. Full Story

Seven Russian soldiers were killed in Chechnya in the past 24 hours but further losses were avoided when a tunnel packed with explosives was uncovered near a Russian police station. Full Story

Turkey&#039s parliament is to investigate the prison raids in which 30 inmates died, and which led to a leftist suicide bomber to attack a police station in Istanbul, killing himself and a policeman. Full Story

Philippine police and soldiers raided a Muslim neighborhood early Thursday and detained 17 men in connection with five weekend bombings that killed 22 people in Manila, officials and news reports said. Full Story

Warning “If you build it, we will burn it,” a radical environmental group opposed to urban sprawl has claimed responsibility for the burning of three luxury houses under construction on what was one of Long Island’s last remaining farms. Full Story

Powerful organizations that control smuggling, auto theft and arms trafficking in Central America are using those established networks to smuggle illegal drugs, U.S. and regional officials warn. Full Story

Yemen has proof that six people in custody were involved in the apparent suicide attack on the USS Cole in Aden in October, and is questioning more suspects, the interior minister said in remarks published on Thursday. Full Story

An armed man broke into Portugal&#039s RTP television headquarters with members of his family on Thursday and threatened to kill himself in protest at a program he said had hurt him financially. Full Story

Communal clashes have erupted in eastern Indonesia, killing 14 people and injuring dozens in a grim reminder of the tensions gripping the world&#039s largest archipelago, police and official media said on Thursday. Full Story

In the eyes of U.S. officials, Osama bin Laden is a ruthless terrorist who, along with his followers, is waging a holy war against the United States by targeting its citizens — particularly those in the military — worldwide. Full Story

When federal prosecutors walk into U.S. District Court on Wednesday to begin jury selection for the embassy bombing trial of four Islamic radicals, they will be armed with an arsenal of information on the operations of a man they call “the terrorist prince,” Osama bin Laden. Full Story