People in Zimbabwe are voting in an election that will decide whether President Robert Mugabe, in power since 1980, wins a sixth term in office.

His challengers are Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC opposition party and Simba Makoni, a defector from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF now standing as a independent.

On the eve of the election, the president said the being a puppet of the former colonial power, Britain.

The MDC says the poll will be ri
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The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly shot down an effort Thursday night to ban "earmark" spending for one year -- quashing an effort backed by all three senators seeking the presidency.

The House and Senate passed budget plans that, though nonbinding, would allow some or all of President Bush's tax cuts to expire in about three years, The Associated Press reported.

The House passed its $3 trilli
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Protesters set fire to vehicles and shops in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on Friday, as tear gas filled the streets and gunfire rang out, a witness.

Roughly 1,000 people hurled rocks and concrete at security forces, demolishing military trucks and pushing back riot police, the witness said, and Tibetans appeared to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China.

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Between the two rounds of the French local elections, BBC correspondent Emma Jane Kirby is travelling around France, testing the temperature of voters.

In Montpellier, she is told that France's education system is completely out of sync with the world of business.

Montpellier is very much a young person's city. Students make up 30% of its population, and the pavement cafes are swarming with youngsters who are furiously scribbling
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Voting has begun in Iran's elections, with conservatives expected to win after opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were barred from running.

The authorities in Tehran have called for a big turnout in the parliamentary polls, to defy the US and other countries they say are Iran's enemies.

But the BBC's Tehran correspondent says many Iranians may choose not vote because of a lack of choice.

The vote will shape Iran's politic
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A Yemeni man has described being held for nearly three years in secret CIA prisons, or "black sites", around the world and accused the US of torture.

Khaled al-Maqtari told Amnesty International he was held in isolation for more than 28 months without charge or access to any legal representation.

He said he first became a US "ghost detainee" at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq after being arrested there in 2004.

The
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Fires have broken out in the Tibetan city of Lhasa, Chinese state media reports say, as rare street protests in the province appear to gather pace.

Xinhua news agency said witnesses described shops being set on fire.

Rallies by monks have continued through the week, in what campaign groups say are the largest protests against Beijing's rule in 20 years.

An eyewitness told that  how security forces and monks clashed on Wednes
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The presidents of Chad and Sudan have signed an accord in Senegal aimed at halting five years of hostilities between the two countries.

Chad's Idriss Deby and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir agreed to implement past failed peace pacts at a Dakar summit.

The neighbours have often accused each other of supporting rebel movements trying to overthrow their governments.

Hours before they met, Chad accused Sudan of sending heavily armed columns
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Florida Democrats are waiting to hear from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and national party leaders, about plans to re-stage their presidential primary.

They have set out a proposal to run the primary again in a bid to resolve a row over whether the party's January ballot in the state counts.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) will not support the plan unless both Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton back it.

A decision is due by Mo
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Archaeologists in Peru have discovered ancient temple ruins that could predate the Inca empire.

The temple on the periphery of the Sacsayhuaman fortress includes 11 rooms thought to have held mummies and idols.

The discovery at the famous spot overlooking the Incan capital of Cuzco includes ancient roadway and irrigation systems, said the team of experts.

Researchers are still waiting for carbon dating tests to verify the age of
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Two astronauts on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) have begun their first space walk.

Hours after arriving aboard the shuttle Endeavour, Richard Linnehan and Garrett Reisman are undertaking two operations.

They must attach a section of a Japanese space laboratory to the ISS and begin assembling a Canadian robotic arm to help with maintenance.

Mission Control says an object that appeared to strike the shuttle on
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European leaders meeting in Brussels are set to endorse binding measures for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Slovenia's PM, who is chairing the summit, said the leaders had approved a timetable to implement an agreed 20% cut by 2020, compared with 1990 levels.

He likened the EU's plans to move to a low-carbon economy to a "third industrial revolution".

The summit is also discussing financial instability, as well as li
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