AP - Ike ripped off roofs, sank boats and blocked the road for aid to reach a flooded Haitian city on Sunday as it roared over the southern Bahamas as a ferocious Category 4 hurricane. The Florida Keys evacuated and Cuba prepared for a direct hit.

AP - The death toll in a massive suicide blast in Pakistan's militant-plagued northwest reached 35, officials said Sunday, as the country prepared for Benazir Bhutto's widower to take over as president.

AP - Two suicide attackers detonated bombs inside the police headquarters in Afghanistan's second-largest city Sunday, killing six policemen, officials said.

AP - Hundreds of people fled this waterlogged city Saturday for higher ground as powerful Hurricane Ike threatened to unleash heavy rain and compound a disaster caused by a previous storm. At the local jail, emaciated inmates waited for food to stave off starvation.

AP - Egyptian police on Sunday moved shanty town residents from the site of a rock slide that killed at least 31 and left countless more buried, after concerns that more rocks could tumble from the unstable cliffs overhead.

AP - A series of roadside bombs wounded at least 14 people Sunday in eastern Baghdad, police said, in a sign of the ongoing security threats despite a sharp reduction of violence in the Iraqi capital.

AP - The National Hurricane Center in Miami says an "extremely dangerous" Hurricane Ike is roaring toward the Turks and Caicos islands as a fierce Category 4 storm.

Reuters - Egyptian workers cut through a railway embankment on Sunday to bring heavy earth-moving equipment to the site of a rock fall which killed at least 31 people in a Cairo shantytown.

AFP - Two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at Kandahar police headquarters in southern Afghanistan Sunday, leaving at least two people dead and dozens wounded, officials said.

AFP - Australian koalas are dying by the thousands as a result of land clearing in the country's northeast, while millions of birds and reptiles are also perishing, conservation group WWF said Sunday.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 15: Coming HomeIn this final chapter of "A World of Conflict," Kevin Sites returns home to the U.S., only to confirm what he suspected -- that in the year that he was gone little had changed.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 14: Israel-Hezbollah WarThe war between Israel and Hezbollah shook the landscape in the Middle East.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 13: Sri LankaKevin Sites covered Sri Lanka as violence erupted between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, pushing a nation with so much to lose back to the brink of all-out war. In rebel-held territory Sites interviewed Tiger fighters about their tactics and reported on the many effects of war still seen in the region.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 12: Nepal and KashmirKevin Sites covered Nepal during a time of sweeping political change that followed mass nationwide protests, forcing the autocratic King to cede power.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 11: Child BrideIn Afghanistan, Kevin Sites met a 12-year-old girl named Gulsoma, whose incredible story of resilience resonated with millions of people worldwide. She was only six years old when she was sold to a neighbor family in Kandahar as a child bride.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter 10: AfghanistanReporting from Afghanistan in spring 2006, more than four years after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban, Kevin Sites found that war is not over in the country.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Nine: ChechnyaIn Chechnya during the winter of 2005-2006, Kevin Sites reported on a region still reeling from lingering conflict between Russia and Islamic separatists. The conflict engulfed Chechnya in the 1990s, and even now, half of the population is yet to return. Those that have eke out a living amid the rubble.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Eight: Iran

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Seven: IsraelIn Israel, Kevin Sites interviewed Kinneret Boosany, a victim of a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv cafe in 2002.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Six: Lebanon and Gaza

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Five: IraqA year after the Nov. 2004 Battle of Fallujah, Kevin Sites returned to Iraq to gauge progress on a different fight in the turbulent city: rebuilding and improving security.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Four: UgandaWinston Churchill once dubbed Uganda the "Pearl of Africa." But this pearl has had its blemishes in the 43 years since its independence, as Kevin Sites discovered in northern Uganda.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Chapter Three - Democratic Republic of the CongoKevin Sites visits a nation that was once considered the battleground of Africa's "First World War." Along the way he interviews former child soldiers as well as the victims of the Congo's brutal rape epidemic, where civilian women have become the target of the many armies and militias operating in the eastern part of the nation.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - "A World of Conflict" is the documentary about the "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone" project, in which veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites reported from every major global conflict in one year, in an effort to understand the costs of a world perpetually at war.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - "A World of Conflict" is the documentary about the "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone" project, in which veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites reported from every major global conflict in one year, in an effort to understand the costs of a world perpetually at war.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Global conflicts continue to rage around the world; though we can't cover all of them at the same time, we're committed to keeping you informed by bringing you timely updates from sources we trust, including journalistic colleagues and freelancers.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - Global conflicts continue to rage around the world; though we can't cover all of them at the same time, we're committed to keeping you informed by bringing you timely updates from sources we trust, including journalistic colleagues and freelancers.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Marine Captain Josh Rushing was sent into the action, but not actual combat. He was posted at the U.S. media center in Doha, Qatar, to take on the world's press corps. Strangely, as a relatively junior officer, he was made point person for arguably the Middle East's most influential Arab news channel: Al Jazeera.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - In June, the Hot Zone reported the details of a recent massacre reportedly committed by Rwandan Hutu militia in eastern Congo in which 18 civilians, including six children, were killed.

AFP - A group of Arab international lawyers and human rights activists accused Israel on Sunday of committing "genocide" through its crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip.

AP - Israel's government on Sunday postponed discussion of landmark legislation that would pay Jewish settlers to leave their homes in the West Bank, but said it would take up the matter next week.

AFP - Israel on Sunday postponed talks on a plan to compensate West Bank settlers who agree to relocate as part of a future peace agreement with the Palestinians, army radio reported.

Reuters - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday it was time to consider offering compensation to Jewish settlers who volunteer to leave parts of the West Bank that Israel would hand to the Palestinians in a statehood deal.

AFP - Israeli President Shimon Peres said Sunday he opposes a military strike on Iran and prefers the use of international economic sanctions to persuade Tehran to halt its nuclear enrichment programme.

AFP - Israeli police will decide on Sunday whether to recommend that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be charged in several different cases of suspected graft, public radio reported.

AFP - Israeli security forces seized a large shipment of heroin and cash near the Lebanese border in an overnight raid, police said on Saturday.

AFP - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday said there were "no signs" Israel and the Palestinians could reach a peace deal by the end of the year as had been hoped.

AFP - Hamas-run security forces dispersed some 150 teachers loyal to the Islamic Jihad movement who had gathered on Saturday to protest against the politicisation of the civil service in the Gaza Strip.

Reuters - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was quoted as saying on Friday that he doubted a full peace deal with Israel could be reached this year and urged the next U.S. administration to continue negotiations.

AFP - Ninety thousand Muslims attended the first prayers of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday amid tight security, police said.

AP - Israel allowed Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to receive a shipment of about 1,000 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousands of bullets in a step aimed at bolstering the moderate Palestinian government there, an Israeli defense official said Friday.

AP - Tony Blair toured a Palestinian aluminum factory and was told it runs at one-third capacity because of Israeli import restrictions. He promised he'll take it up with Israeli authorities.

AFP - Israeli security forces detained 12 Palestinians near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron overnight, a military spokeswoman said on Friday.

The Christian Science Monitor - While the prospect of Israeli-Syrian peace has been given a boost by French President Nicholas Sarkozy's visit to Damascus, any face to face dialogue between the two longtime enemies is likely to wait until new administrations are in place in both Jerusalem and Washington.

AP - Syria's leader said Thursday he offered a proposal for peace with Israel but also refused to break off ties with Hezbollah and militant Palestinians — a key Israeli demand.

AFP - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that one of the Shiite group's militants was behind the downing of a Lebanese army helicopter last week.

AP - Democrat Joe Biden says he's debated "an awful lot of tough, smart women" throughout his career and that next month's vice presidential debate with Republican Sarah Palin will be no exception. But he'd like to know where she stands on issues.

AP - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Saturday that any government takeover of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must put the interests of taxpayers and homeowners first. His opponent, GOP nominee John McCain, said it was essential to restructure the mortgage giants.

AP - The banners, buttons and signs say McCain-Palin, but the crowds say something else.

AP - Obama, McCain suggest changes in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac ... Republican vice presidential hopeful's church promotes prayer to make gays straight ... Presidential candidates plan joint appearance at Ground Zero to mark Sept. 11 attacks ...

AP - Five days a week, Linda Graham trolls tattered neighborhoods of this once thriving steel city outside Pittsburgh for unregistered voters she can sign up as Democrats — one of thousands of unknown volunteers whose work outside the limelight has already altered the basic arithmetic of the November election.

AP - A Republican lawmaker wants the Democrat overseeing an investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissal of her public safety commissioner removed because he seems intent on damaging her vice presidential candidacy.

AFP - Mexico's Supreme Court compared the practices of US retail giant Walmart in Mexico to employer-worker relations during the dictatorship of former president Porfirio Diaz.

AP - European Union nations called for an international probe Friday to find out which country should shoulder responsibility for starting the conflict between Georgia and Russia.

AP - A series of roadside bombs wounded at least 14 people Sunday in eastern Baghdad, police said, in a sign of the ongoing security threats despite a sharp reduction of violence in the Iraqi capital.

AFP - Iraq's Finance Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh has left for Kuwait to discuss compensation Baghdad has to pay its neighbour for the 1990 invasion by dictator Saddam Hussein, the government said on Sunday.

AFP - Iraq's capital throbs to the hum of thousands of polluting generators, but now the authorities in Baghdad want to regulate the private power network that has developed amid the ruins of the public grid.

AP - As of Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, at least 4,155 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

AFP - A US victory in Iraq is "within sight," Republican vice presidential contender Sarah Palin said Friday.

AFP - At least nine people were killed in three attacks in Iraq on Saturday, including a car bomb in a northern Iraq market that claimed six lives and wounded 50, police and security said.

AFP - The UN envoy to Iraq on Saturday urged politicians to get moving on a key provincial election law that remains bogged down in controversy over the administration of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

AP - Ex-Iraqi deputy prime minister and former Pentagon favorite, Ahmad Chalabi, escaped a suicide car bomb attack on his convoy in Baghdad, an official in his office said Saturday.

AFP - Sunni Arab fighters battling Al-Qaeda in Iraq say their future is bleak as the Shiite government prepares to take over responsibility for them from the Americans and they also face jihadist fury.

AP - The White House on Friday disputed an assertion in a new book by Bob Woodward that President Bush was slow to react to escalating attacks in Iraq, forcefully arguing that Bush's military buildup was responsible for a sharp drop in the violence.

AP - The long and divisive war in Iraq is about to resonate with presidential candidates in a way not seen so far in the campaign: The sons of both vice presidential nominees are assigned to go there soon.

AFP - Top US defense officials have recommended US President George W. Bush order only a modest US troop withdrawal from Iraq next year, with some of the forces shifted to Afghanistan, officials told AFP Friday.

AP - Concern over upcoming elections and widening tensions among Iraq's religious and ethnic groups appear behind the U.S. military's recommendation to put the brakes on withdrawing more American troops from Iraq despite improvements in security.