Russian media Monday accused the security services of placing a "mole" among radical Chechen rebels who seized a Moscow theatre last October in a siege that ended with 129 deaths.

Former Polish president Lech Walesa urges dissidents in countries still in the grip of dictators to draw inspiration from the Solidarity trade union he helped to found 25 years ago.

Dissidents from around the world will hold a conference this month in the northern Polish city of Gdansk as part of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the birth of Solidarity, the meeting's organisers said Tuesday.

The United States has begun laying the groundwork for elections in Iraq at the conclusion of a democracy-building process that experts say could take years.

The murder of a young journalist has caused the international press to cast Iraqi Kurdistan as a region of insecurity, criminality, and repression, and has undermined the stability Kurdistan needs for success.

If international pressure on the Syrian government wanes, it is likely that Naisse will spend September 2005 in an isolation cell within Syria's infamous Sednaya prison.

President Obama's timeline for a withdrawal from Afghanistan appears to be wishful thinking, as rising violence and widespread fraud threaten Saturday's Afghan elections and the stability of the country.

The regime in Tehran overreacts to peaceful women's rights protests.