WORLD

Yemen has launched an air strike on the house and farm of a leading Yemen-based al Qaeda militant, a security official said on Wednesday, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will make two stops in the United States next week during a trip to take aid to earthquake-hit Haiti, officials said on Wednesday, a move likely to anger political rival China.

Iran has notified the U.N. nuclear watchdog it rejects key parts of a draft deal to send abroad most of its enriched uranium, designed to ease fears the material could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said on Tuesday.

U.N. climate talks face a crisis unless the U.S. Senate passes a climate control bill and failure to do so further risks the future of vulnerable countries such as small island states, Tuvalu said on Wednesday.

Palestinian high-school student Fida Hejji died of cancer waiting for Israeli permission to go to an Israeli hospital for treatment.

President Barack Obama will order federal agencies on Wednesday to take measures to prevent companies that are delinquent in paying taxes from obtaining new government contracts, the White House said.

Massachusetts on Tuesday elected the state's first Republican to serve in the Senate in decades, a stunning upset that threatens to undermine Democrats' dominance in Washington.

The election of a Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts on Tuesday to replace the late Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, puts U.S. President Barack Obama's ambitious agenda at increased risk.

In a stunning blow to President Barack Obama, Republican Scott Brown won a bitter Senate race in Massachusetts on Tuesday and promised to be the deciding vote against his sweeping healthcare overhaul.

The Massachusetts special elections have become a high-stakes national contest on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama would have a far tougher time advancing his agenda if the Republican candidate wins the special election in Massachusetts on Tuesday to replace the late Edward Kennedy, a Democratic icon, in the Senate.

Massachusetts on Tuesday could elect the state's first Republican to serve in the U.S. Senate in decades, a stunning upset that would undermine Democrats' dominance in Washington.

House of Representatives Democratic leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday the U.S. Senate's version of healthcare reform was clearly better than nothing and the overhaul could pass the U.S. Congress within 15 days.

U.S. Black Hawk helicopters swooped down on Haiti's wrecked presidential palace to deploy troops and supplies on Tuesday as a huge relief operation to help earthquake survivors gained momentum.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband denied any split with China over Iran on Tuesday and gave a strong hint that Britain backed more financial sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme.

Iran's defence minister warned on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic could strike back at Western warships in the Gulf if it were attacked over its nuclear programme, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Japan and the United States reaffirmed their five-decade security alliance on Tuesday, vowing to expand ties into new areas even as they squabble over the relocation of a U.S. Marine base.

Arms negotiators failed to start talks on Tuesday on cutting nuclear weapons when Pakistan blocked the adoption of the 2010 agenda for the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament.

The leader of Yemeni Shi'ite rebels, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, is alive but seriously wounded and has entrusted a relative with leading the northern rebellion in his stead, a Yemeni official said on Tuesday.

The pace of food and medical aid deliveries picked up in earthquake-shattered Haiti, providing some hope to desperate survivors, but doctors worried disease would be the next big challenge for the tens of thousands left injured and homeless a week ago.

China urged other powers on Tuesday to show more flexibility in dealing with Iran's disputed nuclear programme, playing down prospects of sanctions after six countries met to discuss the standoff.

Massachusetts voters head to the polls on Tuesday in a cliff-hanger election for a new U.S. senator that could derail Democrats' dominance in Washington and scuttle their top priority of sweeping healthcare reform.

President Barack Obama plans to deliver his annual State of the Union address on January 27 and will present his budget plan on February 1, senior administration officials said on Monday.

Barack Obama, marking his first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as president of the United States, urged Americans on Monday to remember that the civil rights era is not ancient history.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon asked the Security Council on Monday to approve 3,500 more peacekeepers for Haiti -- a nearly 40 percent increase -- to help cope with the chaos that followed last week's earthquake.

The United States was sending more troops on Monday to help protect a huge relief operation in Haiti from marauding looters as tens of thousands of earthquake survivors waited desperately for promised food and medical care.

The Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda said on Monday its fighters had survived an air strike last week that Yemeni officials said killed six leaders of the militant group.

President Barack Obama's promise to build a new Haiti out of the ruins of the earthquake could prove politically risky if the United States finds itself in a losing battle to rebuild the impoverished nation.

Russia will supply more than two dozen MiG-29 fighter jets to India's navy in a $1.2 billion deal to be finalised this week, a defence ministry official said on Monday.