The Sri Lankan Air Force continued its air raids on Tamil Tiger positions in the north of the island, military officials said.

An official Syrian newspaper dismissed on Thursday the U.S. accusation that Damascus is trying to topple the Lebanese government with Iran and Hezbollah as "pure rubbish".

The Jordanian society becomes "less fertile, less inclined to early marriage, relatively more dynamic and more educated" in recent years according to a study published by local newspaper Jordan Times on Thursday.

Unknown gunmen shot dead a professor of a Baghdad college along with his wife and son in central Baghdad on Thursday, a well-informed source from Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

Iran on Thursday launched several types of missiles at the start of a large-scale military maneuvers, including the Shahab-3 ballistic missiles with a range of more than 2,000 km, the state television reported.

Police Chief Brigadier-General Khin Yi dismissed on Thursday an allegation that a prisoner had died of torture, saying that his death was due to normal disease rather than tortured as charged.

Finnish Defense Minister Seppo Kaariainen has said Finland should either significantly increase its defence spending or join the NATO, Finnish media reported on Thursday.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday that his government will continue "friendly" relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Peace talks between the Somali interim government and the Islamic Courts, a faction wants to create an Islamic state, had been postponed indefinitely, the parties mediating the talks announced in a statement here on Thursday.

An American soldier was killed Wednesday in a bomb attack in Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement on Thursday.