Britain on Friday rejected claims made by the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that the release of the Lockerbie bomber was linked to trade deals between Libya and Britain. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi made the comments in an interview with Libyan channel Al Mutawassit, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. The interview was conducted while the younger Gadhafi was flying from Scotland to Libya on Thursday with Abdelbaset al Megrahi on board, according to AFP. Al Megrahi had been serving a life ...

It's a sign of how delicate feelings are between Asia's two rising powers that an obscure blog post can cause an international incident. Just recently, Indian newspapers circulated the incendiary comments of an essay published on a nationalist Chinese website. The essay — authored under the pen name Zhanlue, or "strategy" in Mandarin — suggested that it was in Beijing's interest to support insurgencies on India's borderlands that could eventually dismember the diverse Indian federal state. The uproar in India over this provocation forced officials in ...

Facebook hates babies. I found this out last night when I logged on as Laszlo Stein, my three-month old son who has been faithfully posting adorable photos and angry commentary since his second-trimester sonogram, back when his listed interests were just kicking and drinking his own urine. In his time on Facebook, he threatened to pee on some, cut others and once posted — next to a photo of him gummily smiling and wearing a kimono — this response ...

It was "deeply distressing" and "deeply upsetting" to see the convicted Lockerbie bomber get a hero's welcome in Libya, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Friday. The way Libya handles the return of Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi will determine its place on the world stage, Miliband said. Al Megrahi, 57, was freed Thursday from the Scottish prison where he had been serving a life sentence for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103. He suffers from ...

Eyebrows were raised around the world Aug. 14 when Hamas security forces in Rafah swiftly, and brutally, destroyed an al-Qaeda-inspired group that had proclaimed the southern Gaza town an "Islamic emirate." After all, Hamas is listed by the U.S. and the European Union as a terrorist organization, and many in the West don't expect an avowedly Islamist political organization to forcefully suppress jihadist groups. Yet, that's exactly what happened when pro-al-Qaeda cleric Abdel Latif Moussa gathered about 100 of ...

German prosecutors are investigating Porsche's former chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and other people close to the sports carmaker, alleging market manipulation and passing on inside information in their failed takeover attempt of Volkswagen. Prosecutors in Stuttgart on Thursday raided the headquarters of Porsche, which recently agreed to merge with VW after an attempt to acquire the much bigger rival had pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy. A Porsche spokesman rebuffed the prosecutor's allegations. He confirmed that Mr Wiedeking and ...

I have never determined whether anyone would live or die, which I consider a gaping hole in my résumé. So when I heard a rumor that the government was creating a death panel to determine which sick people get to receive medical care, I knew I had to be on it. I am not an obvious choice for any panel that doesn't involve amateur performers and a large gong. But you need me on your death panel precisely ...

Victims' family members and advocates are grieving anew as the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland -- which killed 270 people -- was released Thursday from a British prison. "I feel sick. I feel depressed and outraged. I mean, I am just heartbroken," said Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, a 20-year-old Syracuse University music student, was killed in the bombing. Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57, sick with advanced prostate cancer, ...

Somali government forces have seized control of a central town from an al Qaeda-linked Islamist militia, a spokesman for Somalia's president said Thursday. "Bulo Burde is now under the control of government forces after our forces overran a stiff resistance at the entrance bridge of the town by Al Shabaab fighters," said Abdulkadir Mohamed Osman, communication director for Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia's transitional president. Despite the announcement, residents said heavy fighting continued Thursday and the town is still divided ...

The streets of Kabul were eerily quiet on Thursday, as polls for Afghanistan's second presidential election since the fall of the Taliban opened to little fanfare and even smaller crowds. Children, taking advantage of the trafficless streets, flew kites. Watermelon sellers languished in the shade of their carts waiting for a sale. The only customers were police, who were stationed at every intersection to inspect the few vehicles that passed their way. Kabul residents had been spooked by Wednesday's ...