WORLD

Pakistan said a senior Pakistani Taliban commander with al Qaeda links may have been killed when helicopter gunships attacked a building he was in, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the September 11 attacks on the United States a big fabrication that was used to justify the U.S. war on terrorism, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Greeks are divided over the government's increasingly harsh austerity measures, polls showed Saturday, a day after thousands marched in Athens to protest against steps to rein in the country's swollen budget deficit.

President Barack Obama said on Friday a forthcoming review of the U.S. nuclear posture would reduce the number and role of nuclear weapons in Washington's national security strategy.

Dozens of people were injured in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank Friday, as tension over land and holy sites mounted ahead of a relaunch of U.S.-mediated peace negotiations.

Democratic Congressman Eric Massa (D-NY) on Friday announced he was retiring after the House ethics panel announced a probe into unspecified allegations against him.

EU nations assured financing to bolster military transport strength on Friday by reaching a deal to cover cost overruns for the 3-year delay in the A400M heavy lift plane program.

European leaders expressed confidence on Friday that new austerity measures planned by Greece would be enough to pull the country out of its debt crisis and make any bailout unnecessary.

European nations on Friday have reached an agreement in principle to finance cost overruns on the long-delayed a400m heavy lift transport aircraft, a German Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday, according to the Associated Press.

Singapore raised alert levels on Friday in the Asian financial centre and beefed up security at its airport and new casinos after a warning by its navy of possible attacks on oil tankers in a key shipping lane.

Russia will not use a warship it agreed to buy from France last month against any NATO ally, the military alliance's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Friday after some eastern European states expressed concern.

Israeli police and Palestinians clashed near Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque on Friday and about 30 people were injured, Israeli police and Palestinian medical workers said.

Iraqi politicians made their last pitches to voters on Friday before a parliamentary poll that al Qaeda-linked militants have sworn to derail with violence.

Iceland walked away from talks on Friday with the Netherlands and Britain over debts related to the 2008 collapse of its banking system, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

China said on Friday it wants to sign a broad economic agreement with Taiwan, which would slash import tariffs and open the banking sector, as part of a drive to promote peaceful ties with the self-ruled island.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told an official inquiry into the 2003 invasion of Iraq on Friday that going to war had been the right decision and that he had provided the necessary funding for military action.

Aftershocks rattled south-central Chile on Friday, seven days after one of the strongest earthquakes on record ravaged the area, and the government said it was revising faulty death toll figures.

Pressure mounted on Thursday on New York state Governor David Paterson to quit after another aide resigned in an expanding political scandal -- and even his most ardent backers offered only tepid support.

A man shot and wounded two security officers at an entrance to the Pentagon near a busy commuter rail station on Thursday before being fatally wounded in a shootout, officials and media reports said.

The Greek government faces stiff opposition to some austerity measures announced this week, an opinion poll showed, but most expect them to be implemented and there was no sign the government's ratings have suffered yet.

China will seek to heal social rifts and spur home-driven growth with more public welfare and rural spending even as the government tightens its belt after a burst of feverish spending, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will Friday seek support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the euro zone's biggest economy, in his struggle to tackle his country's debt crisis.

Germany and the chairman of the group of countries using the euro ruled out immediate financial aid for Greece before talks on Friday with Prime Minister George Papandreou.

The House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a $15 billion jobs bill that will provide tax breaks and provide bonds to fund construction projects.

The Obama administration has opposed a vote of a resolution that would recognize the 1915 mass killing of Armenians as genocide, contradicting a promise President Barack Obama made while campaigning in the Democratic primaries.

Congressional Democrats made headway on Thursday on their top legislative priority -- job creation -- when the House of Representatives approved a $15 billion package of tax credits and highway construction.

By pushing Congress for final passage of U.S. healthcare reform, President Barack Obama is gambling voters will reward Democrats for the accomplishment rather than punish them in November congressional elections.

In a highly divided vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday voted 23 to 22 to recommend that the United States recognize the killing of Armenians in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey as genocide.

The deadly El Nino weather anomaly should dissipate by early summer in the northern hemisphere, but there is a chance a weak version will linger for the rest of 2010, according to a U.S. government report issued Thursday.