Arrests of Taliban leaders have had a "negative impact" on efforts by the Afghan government to broker a peace deal with the insurgents, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said Saturday. The arrests in Pakistan of the Taliban's second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and others in the Islamists' hierarchy, had slowed down Afghan government peace initiatives, Siamak Hirawi told ...

UN chief Ban Ki-moon began a visit to the Palestinian territories and Israel on Saturday, saying the Middle East Quartet "strongly supports" Palestinian efforts to create their own state. He kicked off his two-day visit by meeting Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah. He is also expected to meet senior Israeli officials and ...

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday that the Middle East Quartet "strongly supports" Palestinian efforts to establishing their own state. "The Quartet has sent a clear and strong message: we are strongly supporting your efforts to establish an independent and viable Palestinian state," the visiting Ban told Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad. Before their formal talks, Fayyad had taken ...