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The French presidency has called for a mini summit in Paris on Saturday between the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy to agree on a European response to the global financial crisis. The meeting is likely to be difficult, as differences between the powers are emerging.

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A battle-scarred building in the centre of Beirut - once a shelter for snipers during the bloody civil war - is to be saved and turned into a memorial for future generations.

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A look back on a week in which some of the world's top designers flaunted next season's styles in the French capital.

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A 700-billion-dollar US rescue plan is a short term solution that cannot guarantee a stabilisation of the markets, according to a leading economist.

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Traditionally a nation of whisky drinkers, India is increasingly turning to wine. Breaking with taboo on consuming alcohol in public, young Indian women are fuelling the demand.

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Vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden Thursday disagreed sharply on the roots and the remedies of the US financial crisis at their crucial running mates' debate. About the war, Sarah Palin accused her Democratic rival Joseph Biden Thursday of waving a "white flag of surrender in Iraq".

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Every year young Druze women from the Israel-occupied part of the Golan Heights marry young men from the Syrian side. Once they cross the divide, they can never go back.

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Sunni militia have started joining Iraqi security forces. We followed fighters who left the guerilla to join the official army or police.

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The Muslim festival of Eid, which ends the month of Ramadan, lasts for three days. But before it kicks off, Cairo is taken over by feverish shopping as Muslims stock up on food and gifts for the festival.

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Former AC Milan and Real Madrid star Ronaldo is back in full training seven months on from a knee injury which led him to leave Italy. Ronaldo is currently without a club but has in recent days been working on his fitness with Brazilian side Flamengo.

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Half a century after NASA was created at the height of the Cold War when the United States sought to prove its superiority by winning the race to the Moon, the space agency faces new challenges ahead.

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European leaders are preparing new measures to contain the US-born financial crisis now blasting Europe, although a vast US-style rescue plan has been ruled out. With the financial storm now also whipping across Europe, pressure is mounting on European governments to draft a US-style bailout plan for the sector, despite assurances that such drastic action is unneeded.

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Visitors are continuing to arrive in Egypt in spite of the recent kidnapping of a group of tourists in the lawless southwestern desert region.

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France will host a meeting of senior European officials to prepare a global summit on "a new international financial system", President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday.

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The Lebanese authorities have removed political posters from the streets of Beirut to favour reconciliation between the country's rival movements.

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A group of European tourists and their guides snatched by armed bandits in a remote desert 10 days ago were freed unharmed in a pre-dawn raid by Egyptian special forces on Monday, officials said. The group of 19 hostages -- five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian and eight Egyptian drivers and tour guides -- were flown into Cairo aboard an Egyptian military plane and taken for medical checks, state television said. Images.

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India's rambling financial hub, Mumbai, is on a massive clean-up drive. Luxury apartments, offices and parks are popping up everywhere, while tens of thousands of slum-dwellers are literally being pushed out by the development.

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The New York Times has elected Istanbul as the gastronomy capital of 2008. Over the last year an array of restaurants have sprung up all over the Turkish city, such as Mikla, the popular restaurant run by Swedish Turk Mehmet Gurs.

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Four people were killed on Monday in a car bomb blast targeting a military bus on the outskirts of the restive northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, security and military officials said. The attack risks further undermining stability in the troubled country and efforts to reconcile rival political factions.

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One of the biggest-ever exhibitions of contemporary Italian art opens in Venice's Palazzo Grassi.

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Whilst the storm over genetically modified crops is showing no signs of abating in Europe, the issue has not yet raised it's ugly head in Europe. But this looks set to change as critics lash out after the first harvest of genetically modified corn is produced in Cairo.

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Democratic White House contender Barack Obama said Friday he would launch military strikes on extremist targets inside Pakistan if the Islamabad government is unwilling or unable to act. At their first presidential debate, Obama's Republican opponent John McCain said such threats were unhelpful. "You don't say that out loud," he said.

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White House hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain spelled out their economic priorities Friday in debate opening exchanges devoted to Wall Street's financial crisis.

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Excitement for Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is high in Clarksdale, a town the Mississippi Delta. But ever since the civil rights struggle in the 1960s the South of the US has been more and more solidly Republican and politically divided largely along racial lines.

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On the last Friday of Ramadan, tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians wishing to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem showed up at the Israeli controlled Qalandia check point , between the West bank and Jerusalem. But only a small number were allowed to pass , as Israeli security forces restricted the age of entry to over 50.

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Expected to fetch at least 300 million euro (almost half a billion dollars), an art collection amassed over four decades by late fashion king Yves Saint Laurent and his companion Pierre Berge goes up for sale next February. Details of the sale were announced on Friday.

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Beirut, a city of hidden treasures from the past. From the Romans to the Ottomans, ancient relics are constantly being discovered as the Lebanese capital undergoes a construction makeover.

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Like Venice and New York, Istanbul has discovered the delights of water taxis, which allow commuters in this metropolis of 13 million to beat the traffic across the Bosporus.

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A humanitarian crisis is growing on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao where an estimated 500,000 people have been internally displaced by renewed fighting between the army and Muslim separatists.

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The Brazilian army has moved into Rio de Janeiro's shanty towns to keep order during the country's local election campaign. Drug traffickers have a grip on much of the poor, overcrowded suburbs.

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With 40 days to go until election day, the fast-moving global financial crisis has transformed the White House race into a daring duel of political brinkmanship for John McCain and Barack Obama -- and President George W. Bush. An interview with a specialist on American politics.

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The city of Paris is planning to build a 200-metre high tower block, the highest since the Montparnasse tower, erected three decades ago.

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Americans' confidence in the banking system is growing shaky and credit is tighter than ever. Meanwhile, some people are looking to their neighbors to get loans: anybody can be a lender or a borrower thanks to peer-to-peer lending website.

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The United States is potentially facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, but not everyone is suffering. The luxury auto show at The World Financial Center in New York offered up the chance to take a peek at the most fancy cars in on the planet.

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The Petit Trianon, Marie-Antoinette's hideaway in the grounds of Versailles, is about to reopen after a year-long renovation that restores it to the way it was the day the queen left on October 5, 1789.

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All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter, one of the best players in the world, has signed a six-month contract with French Top 14 club Perpignan, which welcomed him with enthusiasm.

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Oliver Stone's much-anticipated biopic, "W," will be released on October 17 in the US. Three weeks before the election, the American Filmmaker reflects on the production.

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Nineteen tourists and Egyptians kidnapped in the Sahara desert have been located in good health in Sudan. Egyptian tourist officials stress that the country is still safe for visitors.

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Sixty years after the end of the war, looting and restitution of Jewish cultural artifacts is still a topic of controversy. An exhibition in Berlin's Jewish museum tells the story of looting carried out by the Nazis throughout Europe and what happened to the spoils.

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In northern Uganda civil war between the Government and the rebel Lords Resistance Army has killed tens of thousands of people. At the peak of hostilities 1.6 million people were displaced into squalid camps throughtout the North.