WASHINGTON — White House officials negotiated furiously on Thursday to keep major health care legislation on track after the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said his chamber would not vote on a health measure until after Congress returned from its summer recess. The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, led a hastily called three-hour negotiating session at the Capitol with conservative... 

The new US administration is keen on working with India to strengthen the global non-proliferation system. The Obama administration wants to build on a U.S.-India civilian nuclear power deal to work with the Indians. There is already a lot of pressure building up on India to sign the CTBT and NPT. Pakistan as always has indicated that it will sign only if India does refocusing global pressure on India... 

Terrorism is good business! Someone saying that deserves to be shot in the head. Think again! How much so ever one abhors hearing this; the grotesque fact remains that terrorism today survives primarily due to two factors – easy availability of money and the easy availability of weapons. As far as the men and women who carry about these operations are concerned there are many in this poverty stricken... 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A high court on Monday barred the leader of the junior partner in the government, Nawaz Sharif, from running for Parliament in a by-election later this week, a decision that is bound to intensify the hostilities within the fractious ruling coalition. Mr. Sharif, who was twice prime minister and is now the most popular politician in the nation, according to some opinion polls,... 

Nepal, the world’s last Hindu kingdom, was poised to be reborn as a republic Wednesday, as a newly elected assembly led by former Maoist guerillas prepared to meet to fulfill the leftists’ principal campaign promise. Exactly when and how the monarch, King Gyanendra, would leave Narayanhity, the main palace in the capital, Katmandu, was not clear. He has made no public statements in recent weeks... 

Nepal’s Maoists were confirmed winners of this month’s landmark elections in the impoverished nation after vote counting was completed, officials said Thursday. The Election Commission on Wednesday completed the vote counting for the whole country under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system. According to a preliminary report, the CPN-Maoist, with 29.28 percent (3,144,204... 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s new government is pushing ahead with the reinstatement of judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf in November, a move that could further weaken the embattled president. A senior government official said deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and dozens of other judges could be restored to their positions before the end of the month. Their reinstatement... 

SOCHI, Russia - President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to overcome sharp differences over a U.S. missile defense system, closing their seven-year relationship Sunday still far apart on an issue that has separated them from the beginning. “Our fundamental attitude toward the American plan has not changed,” Putin said at a news conference with Bush at his vacation house... 

BUCHAREST, Romania — NATO leaders agreed Thursday to endorse a United States missile defense system based in Europe and to provide more troops for Afghanistan, but they refused to back President Bush’s proposal to bring Ukraine and Georgia closer to NATO membership. Washington’s failure to win over Germany, France, Italy, Spain and other crucial European countries to its view on Ukraine and... 

SHANGHAI — After two weeks in which China contended that Tibet’s government in exile had instigated the riots earlier this month to tarnish the coming Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese government on Sunday issued for the first time what it said was evidence of the plot. Xinhua, the state-run news agency, said the Chinese police had a confession written by an unidentified monk who they said...