Latest September Stories

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. military helicopter lost south of Baghdad on Saturday is believed to have been shot down and its two pilots are feared dead, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The sister of detained New York Times researcher Zhao Yan plans to press prosecutors on Thursday to release him after the authorities dropped charges of revealing state secrets and fraud against him last week. The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court agreed last Friday to a decision by prosecutors to drop the charges against Zhao in a surprise concession ahead of President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States in April. But Zhao was still in detention on...

BEIJING (Reuters) - New York Times researcher Zhao Yan was still in Chinese custody on Wednesday, five days after judicial authorities dropped charges of revealing state secrets and fraud against him in a rare show of leniency. The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court agreed last Friday to a decision by prosecutors to drop the charges. The case had threatened to overshadow Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States in April. Chinese authorities would be breaking the...

By Jim Loney GONAIVES, Haiti (Reuters) - Along the banks of Haiti's now bone-dry La Quinte river, tiny concrete-block homes have replaced mud huts swept away by Tropical Storm Jeanne's floods 17 months ago. But the memories and the fears remain. "The water was so high it killed some people over by the mango tree," said Rosemene Ullysee Assad, who lives about 50 yards from the La Quinte river bed. "It was up to the top of the house and we were all in the tree, 10 or 15 people in the...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday, killing 10 inmates from among a group from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya television reported. It said 11 prisoners from Egypt and one Saudi were taken and 10 killed. The television gave no further details.

By Vicki Allen and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush asked Congress on Thursday for $72.4 billion in emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the pace of spending on the conflicts increased. Bush also sought $19.8 billion for the hurricane-battered U.S. Gulf Coast, which would push relief after Hurricane Katrina to some $90 billion. "This request provides the resources necessary ... so the Coalition can continue to hand over control of...

By Kazbek Basayev VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian judge retired to consider his verdict on Thursday on the only person to stand trial for the Beslan school siege that killed 300 people, half of them children. Prosecutors have requested the death penalty for Nurpashi Kulayev, who they say is the only surviving hostage-taker of the group that stormed Beslan's school in September 2004 with the intention of killing as many hostages as possible. However, some victims' relatives...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military freed two Iraqi journalists who work for Reuters on Sunday after holding them for several months without charge. Ali al-Mashhadani, a television cameraman who was arrested in August, and Majed Hameed, a correspondent for Reuters and Arabiya television who was detained in September, are both based in Ramadi, one of the centres of a Sunni Arab insurgency. They were freed from Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison after being held there and at Camp Bucca, a...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Doctor and surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri is the brains behind Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network and most recently its public face, repeatedly denouncing the United States and its allies in widely aired video messages. U.S. sources said a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan on Friday targeted bin Laden's second-in-command, but it was unclear if Zawahri had been killed and it would not be known until the remains of those killed were examined. Pakistan said it was...

BEIJING -- China's military has cut back its troops by 200,000, the official mouthpiece of the People's Liberation Army said on Monday, reinforcing its high-tech military ambitions to overtake rival Taiwan.The Liberation Army Daily said the two-year program to slim China's military was finished on schedule at the end of 2005, and troop numbers were actually down by 230,000, or just over 9 percent.China had 2.5 million serving military in 2003 when the cuts started. In 1987, it had about 4.2...