Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has named the Socialist Csaba Molnar as new minister for transport, telecommunications and energy, the government announced Wednesday in Budapest.

`State Secretary in the National Development and Economy Ministry Csaba Molnar accepted the seat,` government spokesman David Daroczi said.

Molnar`s appointment takes effect on December 1.

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany has named the Socialist Csaba Molnar as new minister for transport, telecommunications and energy, the government announced Wednesday in Budapest.

`State Secretary in the National Development and Economy Ministry Csaba Molnar accepted the seat,` government spokesman David Daroczi said.

Molnar`s appointment takes effect on December 1.

Iraq`s Deputy Oil Minister Saheb Salman Qutub was wounded in a bomb attack outside his house on Monday, security officials said.

The bomb exploded as Qutub was preparing to leave his home in the northern Ataifiyah neighbourhood of Baghdad, they told AFP.

Earlier, two almost simultaneous bombings in Karrada in central Baghdad killed six people and wounded 20 others.

Rwanda`s foreign minister Rosemary Museminali is to visit Kinshasha Thursday and meet with Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila, a Congolese government official said.

Museminali`s visit comes two days after her Congolese counterpart, Alexis Tambwe Muamba, met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame to try and organise a diplomatic summit between the two countries.

BELGRADE, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told AFP on Monday that 19 European tourists and Egyptians, including five Italians, kidnapped in Egypt 10 days ago were 'in a good shape.'

'They are in a good shape, they are on their way to Cairo, and then from Cairo to Italy,' Frattini told AFP at the end of his visit to Belgrade.

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - South Africa's controversial health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was stripped of her post on Thursday but was granted a new cabinet position, the country's new President Kgalema Motlanthe announced.

Tshabalala-Msimang was widely criticised for her stance on AIDS and dubbed 'Dr Beetroot' for championing vegetables to fight the pandemic.

CAIRO, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - The 19 European tourists and Egyptians kidnapped four days ago by armed bandits in the Sahara desert are unharmed and in 'very good health,' Egypt's tourism minister told AFP on Tuesday.

CAIRO, Sept 22, 2008 (AFP) - The kidnappers of 19 foreigners and Egyptians in southern Egypt have taken them to an unknown location in Sudan, Tourism Minister Zuhair Garana told AFP on Monday.

LONDON, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - Governments and central banks must act 'decisively' to calm the current financial turmoil, British finance minister Alastair Darling said Thursday, shortly after central banks intervened.

LONDON, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - World leaders need to take coordinated action to manage the current financial crisis, British finance minister Alastair Darling said Tuesday, while voicing confidence the storm can be weathered.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - A Malaysian minister said Tuesday he would consider joining the opposition, after quitting the embattled government which he portrayed as paralysed by internal strife and racial divisions.

LONDON, September 7, 2008 (AFP) - A British government minister has apologised to a former aide who had complained about him, newspaper reports said Sunday suggesting he had bombarded her with personal text messages.

LONDON, August 26, 2008 (AFP) - Russia's decision to recognise two rebel Georgian provinces is unjustifiable and 'further inflames an already tense situation,' British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Tuesday.

JERUSALEM, August 25, 2008 (AFP) - Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that it will never accept Iran developing a nuclear weapons capability, according to a statement issued after a dinner meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

CHAMONIX, August 24, 2008 (AFP) - There is no hope of finding alive three Swiss and five Austrian climbers buried Sunday by a giant avalanche near Mont Blanc in the French Alps, France's interior minister said.

There is 'no longer any chance of finding someone alive,' said Michele Alliot-Marie after she had travelled to the mountains to visit injured survivors of the incident.

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PARIS, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - France's former foreign minister Alain Juppe, one of 13 French politicians accused by Rwanda of taking part in the 1994 genocide, on Wednesday slammed Kigali for an 'unacceptable' attempt to rewrite history.

PRISTINA, August 5, 2008 (AFP) - Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has appointed a former guerilla fighter as the newly independent state's first defence minister, his office said Tuesday.

Fehim Mujota had been appointed Ministry for Security Forces by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci , said a statement from Thaci's office.

ROME, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - An Italian minister on Thursday slammed a resolution by the European Parliament calling on Italy to stop fingerprinting Roma, or gypsies, saying Rome rejected 'accusations of racism.'

GUATEMALA CITY, June 28, 2008 (AFP) - Guatemala's Interior Minister Vinicio Gomez and deputy minister Edgar Hernandez were among four people killed Friday in a helicopter crash, a presidential spokesperson said.

LONDON, June 8, 2008 (AFP) - Ireland would throw the EU into 'crisis and introspection' if voters reject the bloc's key reform treaty in a knife-edge referendum, the country's Europe Minister Dick Roche insisted Sunday.

Roche said he believed voters would back the Lisbon Treaty on Thursday as he fired off the warning.

PARIS, June 7, 2008 (AFP) - The EU reform treaty has wide support in Ireland ahead of next week's referendum, European Affairs Minister Dick Roche said in comments published Saturday, warning that a 'no' vote could harm Ireland and the EU.

COPENHAGEN, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - A suicide attack on the Danish embassy in Pakistan was aimed at ruining bilateral ties, Denmark said Monday as it reeled from what seemed to be a new backlash over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

COPENHAGEN, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - No Danes were injured in a suicide attack on the Danish embassy in Pakistan that killed at least eight people on Monday, but one Pakistani employee of the mission died, Denmark's foreign minister said.

COPENHAGEN, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller on Monday warned Danes against all travel to Pakistan following a deadly attack on the Scandinavian country's embassy in Islamabad.

'We have changed our travel recommendations for Pakistan,' he told reporters after a suicide bomb killed at least eight people and wounded nearly 30 outside the embassy.

COPENHAGEN, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller on Monday condemned a deadly suicide attack on his country's embassy in Islamabad, charging that it was an attempt to ruin Pakistan's relations with the West.

COPENHAGEN, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller on Monday condemned a suicide attack on his country's embassy in Pakistan that killed at least eight people as 'unacceptable'.

COPENHAGEN, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller called an emergency ministerial meeting on Monday following a suicide attack on his country's embassy in Pakistan that killed at least eight people.

CONAKRY, May 27, 2008 (AFP) - Guinea's President Lansana Conte Tuesday sacked Defence Minister Mamadou Bailo Diallo after soldiers went on the rampage firing shots in the air to demand long overdue wage arrears, state radio said.

LONDON, May 14, 2008 (AFP) - The number of people dead or missing after cyclone Nargis in Myanmar could rise above 200,000, a British minister said Wednesday, citing aid agencies in the country.

THE HAGUE, April 29, 2008 (AFP) - Kosovo's ex-culture minister pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to intimidating a witness during the trial of his former prime minister before a war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

BUENOS AIRES, April 25, 2008 (AFP) - Carlos Fernandez, the head of Argentina's tax collection agency, took over as economy minister Friday after his predecessor was sacked amid spiralling inflation and anger among farmers.

BUENOS AIRES, April 25, 2008 (AFP) - Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has sacked her economy minister, amid spiralling inflation and her government's bitter conflict with farmers over a tax hike on soybean exports.

Martin Lousteau, 36, is to be replaced Friday by Carlos Fernandez, the head of Argentina's tax collection agency, the state news agency said.

BUENOS AIRES, April 24, 2008 (AFP) - Economy Minister Martin Lousteau was sacked Thursday by President Cristina Kirchner because he did not agree with her economic policy, a government official told AFP.

'The president asked Lousteau for his resignation because of differences on how to carry out her economic policy,' the official said.

RIGA, April 21, 2008 (AFP) - A Latvian government minister has quit after failing to weather a storm over the use of state funds to pay for her birthday party, a spokeswoman announced Monday.

Ina Gudele, the Baltic state's minister for e-government, handed over the letter of resignation to Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis, said Gudele's spokeswoman Inese Aunina.