WORLD

The U.S. Senate approved a two-week budget extension on Wednesday that will allow congressional Republicans and Democrats additional time to negotiate how big budget cuts should be until September 30, the end of the 2011 fiscal year.

Copper output in Zambia, Africa's leading producer of the metal, increased by 60 percent in January as mining companies boosted production due to favourable prices, the central bank said on Wednesday.

A powerful member of South Africa's ruling party on Wednesday accused the new government spokesman of making racially insensitive comments that echoed the injustices of the apartheid era.

Somalia's government said it will bar ships from using rebel-controlled southern ports in an effort to starve the militants of revenue and supplies, but it was unclear how it would enforce the ban.

Ghana will receive its first payment for oil flows later this month, the country's finance minister said on Wednesday after parliament passed a long-delayed oil revenue management bill in a unanimous vote.

Explosions rocked the southern Abidjan suburb of Koumassi overnight and on Wednesday, as fighting between insurgents seeking to oust Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo and security forces spread to new areas of the main city.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe threatened on Wednesday a state-backed take-over of foreign firms and a boycott of products to retaliate against Western sanctions placed on him and his ZANU-PF party.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Wednesday he would investigate the violence in Libya after the U.N. Security Council referred the case to the Hague-based war crimes tribunal.

Muammar Gaddafi launched a land and air offensive to retake territory in Libya's east at dawn on Wednesday, sparking a rebel call for foreign air strikes against African mercenaries they said were helping him cling to power.

Two people, including an American soldier, have been shot to death on a bus carrying US soldiers at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany.

At least 46 percent of the American voters welcome a government shutdown over disagreement in Washington over federal spending, according to a recent poll.

China aims to allow all exporters and importers to settle cross-border trades in its currency the yuan by 2011, according to Chinese central bank, reported Reuters.

Bangladesh’s central bank has removed Muhammad Yunus as head of the Grameen Bank, which became world famous as a micro-lender, a provider of loans to poor people.

The federal budget and unemployment were tied as top investor concerns, a poll showed, when asked to rate potential factors affecting the investment climate.

Jimmy Manyi, the spokesperson for the government of South Africa, has come under fire for perceived racialist comments he has made about the country’s mixed race people and about Indian immigrants.

Fears of a supply disruption arising from continued unrest in Libya have pushed up oil prices, but a leading Libyan oil official warns they could spike even higher if there is no immediate resolution to the ongoing violence.

The chances of Portugal accepting a bailout has increased as hopes of reining in the borrowing costs of peripheral European governments have faded.

Here are some vignettes of pitched battles raging in Libya as well as visuals of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the North African country:

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey has defeated IBM supercomputer Watson in a Jeopardy-style match held in Washington.

Militants linked to the Taliban shot dead Pakistan's minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti, who was a staunch critic of the controversial blasphemy law, on Wednesday.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Tuesday announced that it has received valid nominations of 241 different individuals and organizations for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011.

China is locking down droves of people it fears could spark social unrest and tightening media controls ahead of the annual session of parliament, worried that uprisings in the Middle East could encourage dissent.

Forest Laboratories and Nycomed A/S said the US Food and Drug Administration has approved Daliresp (roflumilast) oral tablet to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

China has decided to cut income taxes for middle-income residents by raising the threshold for income tax payments, China's cabinet said on Wednesday, but did not give any details on the size of the tax cut.

Jon Huntsman is a savvy operator who knows how to work a crowd. But it was someone in a crowd who worked Huntsman on a bitterly cold Sunday last month when the U.S. envoy to China was seen at a small anti-government protest in Beijing.

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said it has temporarily banned five chemicals used to make so-called fake pot products, perceived as legal alternatives to marijuana.

With anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks, and social media platforms Twitter and Facebook in the running, Internet dominates the race for Nobel Peace Prize 2011.

Apple boss Steve Jobs was denied an honorary knighthood in 2009 because he turned down an offer to speak at the Labour Party conference, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The United Nations General Assembly suspended Libya from the Human Rights Council, expressing its deep concern over the killings of hundreds of anti-government protesters in the country.