The US has reiterated it prefers an August date for presidential elections in Afghanistan, despite President Hamid Karzai’s call for polls on 21 April.
The US state department said elections in August would best ensure a free vote in a secure environment.
On Saturday, Mr Karzai called for polls before his term ends in May. The Afghan [...]
Spanish voters are to head to regional polls in the Basque Country and Galicia – the first political test since Spain slid into recession in 2008.
In the Basque Country, Spain’s ruling Socialists seek to be the first non-nationalist party to form the cabinet.
The Socialists have been focusing their campaign on the economy there rather than [...]
Dirty water coolers may be putting people’s health at risk, a consumer watchdog has warned.
Consumer Focus Scotland said 22 out of 87 samples from dispensers in Edinburgh and the Lothian and Borders region failed to meet one or more standards.
Coolers in leisure centres, offices, care homes and schools were among those to fail the tests.
The [...]
By Tom EsslemontBBC News, Baku
On the outskirts of Azerbaijan’s BP Shah Deniz gas terminal, security guards are on duty around the clock.
They patrol the 15km (9 mile) fence as a damp drizzle falls across the warren of gas pipes and oil platforms behind it. Green and yellow flags flap violently in the wind.
You can see [...]
Iraqi security forces say they have captured 11 members of the country’s al-Qaeda network, including the group’s self-styled “oil minister”.
Ali Mahmoud Mohammed and 10 other suspected insurgents were detained on Saturday in a village in Iraq’s Diyala province, east of Baghdad, reports say.
The US says al-Qaeda has been pushed out of much of Iraq, but [...]