WORLD

A senior Chinese Communist Party official will visit North Korea as early as Saturday, in what appears to be a move to press Pyongyang to return to nuclear disarmament talks, a South Korean news agency said on Friday.

The Taliban have said they will not enter into any deal with the Afghan government or the West to bring peace to Afghanistan, and their fighters will continue to die to achieve a victory they say is around the corner.

The outlook for recovery in most of the world's major economies improved in December but the indicator for China dipped slightly, according to an OECD survey released on Friday.

Ten American missionaries charged on Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal conspiracy in Haiti could face nine years in prison.

Republican Scott Brown was sworn in as the Senator of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on Thursday.

Ten U.S. missionaries detained in Haiti were charged on Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association for trying to take children illegally out of the earthquake-hit country.

In the heart of Washington, a room full of satellite imaging and aerial photographs is where the monumental task of rebuilding Haiti begins.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday the security situation remained serious but was no longer deteriorating, offering a more upbeat assessment than other U.S. military and intelligence officials.

The U.S. and Haitian governments are holding talks on the fate of 10 American missionaries accused of illegally trying to take children out of the quake-hit Caribbean country, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.

Britain and India have reached an outline agreement on cooperation in the nuclear fuel sector, British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said on Thursday.

Certain countries and companies feel threatened by growing efforts against climate change, the U.N. climate chief said on Thursday, after other officials spoke of a campaign to undermine a consensus on global warming.

North Korea has eased some curbs it placed on black market trading, the South's spy agency said on Thursday, rolling back part of what was widely seen as a policy blunder that caused unrest in the authoritarian state.

China dismissed U.S. threats to get tough on trade and exchange rates to ensure American goods are not disadvantaged, saying on Thursday that its currency was at a reasonable level.

China told other world powers on Thursday that discussing sanctions against Iran was counterproductive, striking a blow to a Western push to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.

Blocks from where U.S. and U.N. soldiers distribute sacks of rice to Haitian women in earthquake-shattered Port-au-Prince, street vendors are openly selling rice by the cup from bags stamped with U.S. flags.

Pakistani police have arrested 30 suspects in connection with a bombing that killed three American soldiers, three children and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier outside a girls' school, an officer said.

Ben Bernanke was sworn in on Tuesday for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve at a private ceremony in Washington.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday in a letter to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid he wasn't saying anything negative about Las Vegas.

A U.S. military helicopter crashed in woods in South- western Germany on Wednesday, killing at least two people, German police said.

In unusually frank public comments, the top U.S. intelligence chief said on Wednesday that spy agencies could target Americans involved in terrorism but must get permission before a potentially deadly strike.

The first national Tea Party convention meets this week to take aim at all the raucous movement says is wrong with Washington and Sarah Palin, darling of America's conservatives, will help lead the charge.

POLITICO (Washington) - Sarah Palin's political action committee has been selective and strategic in its donations to candidates over the past six months, but if money is any indication of where her heart lies, her political loyalties can be traced to Ohio.While SarahPAC has devoted just 5 percent of its total expenditures over that period to fellow GOP colleagues, four of the 17 candidates Palin contributed to hail from Ohio — the state where she held by far the most presidential campaign ...

China announced on Wednesday that the government had approved a plan to recruit 5,000 elite police in Xinjiang to prevent future unrest, according to the official Xinhua news Agency.

President Barack Obama sought to rally Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday after the loss of a crucial Senate seat, saying it must not weaken their resolve to pass healthcare and financial regulatory reforms.

Iran must make real concessions over its nuclear programme and not just talk about it, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Wednesday.

The majority of the British public believes Prime Minister Gordon Brown should share the blame for the Iraq war with his predecessor Tony Blair, according to a survey on Wednesday.

The European Commission endorsed Greece's austerity plan on Wednesday but said Athens must take further steps to cut public sector wages to tackle the most severe debt crisis in the euro zone.

Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb on Wednesday that killed three U.S. soldiers outside a girls school in the northwest of the country and threatened more attacks on Americans.

Iran said on Wednesday it had launched a Kavoshgar-3 rocket capable of carrying a satellite -- a move that may add to Western concern about Tehran's nuclear program.