News

Reuters - Non-prescription sales of a
“morning-after” contraceptive could be approved for women 18
and older within weeks, U.S. health officials said on Monday
after years of weighing whether to make Barr Pharmaceuticals
Inc.’s Plan B pills more easily available.

Reuters - Japan, stunned by North Korea’s multiple
missile launch last month, said on Tuesday it believed the
reclusive communist state had developed ballistic missiles
capable of “pinpoint” attacks on targets in Japan.

Reuters - Thousands of leftist protesters
paralyzed the Mexican capital’s business district on Monday to
demand a vote recount in a presidential election they say was
stolen from their candidate.

Reuters - President George W. Bush pledged on
Monday to try to jump-start the Doha round of global trade
talks after they collapsed last week, saying that opening up
foreign markets would boost the U.S. economy.

AFP - Governments and angry street crowds on all continents voiced shock and fury at the Israeli air strike on Qana that killed 52 Lebanese civilians, mostly sleeping children.

AFP - Israel rejected mounting calls for a truce in its war on Hezbollah Monday despite global outrage over an attack that killed at least 52 civilians, but a lull in raids allowed thousands of southern Lebanese to flee to safer havens.

Reuters - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told
the Syrian military on Monday to raise its readiness, pledging
not to abandon support for Lebanese resistance against Israel.

AP - Israel suspended air attacks on south Lebanon for 48 hours starting early Monday in the face of widespread outrage over an airstrike on a house that killed 56 Lebanese, almost all of them women and children.

Reuters - A new vaccine aimed at halting the
spread of a common sexually transmitted virus that can lead to
cervical cancer should eventually be given to both sexes,
doctors said on Monday.

Reuters - The U.N. Security Council on
Monday demanded that Iran suspend its nuclear activities by
August 31 or face the threat of sanctions, but Tehran denounced
the move as illegal and vowed to press on.

Reuters - NATO forces took over security from a
U.S.-led coalition in restive southern Afghanistan on Monday,
embarking on one of the alliance’s biggest ground operations in
its history.

AP - NATO troops assumed command Monday of military operations in southern Afghanistan from the U.S.-led coalition, the coalition said.