WORLD

World leaders pledged aid to rebuild a devastated Haiti, but on the streets of its wrecked capital earthquake survivors were still waiting on Sunday for the basics: food, water and medicine.

Major powers will only achieve results in their meetings on Iran if they adopt a realistic approach and recognize its nuclear rights, the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

Members of the U.S. Congress begin 2010 scrambling to reduce the double-digit U.S. jobless rate, knowing their own jobs will be at stake in the November election if they fail to deliver.

Three al Qaeda militants were captured in Yemen early on Saturday, close to the Saudi Arabian border, a Yemeni security official said.

The lawyer of a French teaching assistant who was arrested on spying charges after Iran's disputed June election said he was hopeful she would be acquitted after a court held its last trial session on Saturday.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Haiti on Saturday carrying relief supplies as the U.S. poured in massive aid four days after the earthquake that local officials say killed up to 200,000.

The No. 2 executive in Japan's ruling party vowed on Saturday to stay in his post despite a funding scandal that could scupper the party's chances of winning a mid-year election and raise the risk of policy deadlock.

Tensions rose among desperate Haitians awaiting international aid and hunting for missing relatives on Saturday as aid began to trickle in four days after an earthquake that Haitian authorities say killed 200,000 people.

Haitian authorities said on Friday they believe 140,000 people were killed in the earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation and said gangs of robbers were preying on survivors desperately awaiting aid.

A teenage girl who appeared topless in a sexting cell phone picture that was distributed among her middle-school classmates should face child-pornography charges, a Pennsylvania prosecutor argued before a U.S. appellate court on Friday.

The death toll from devastating earthquake in Haiti may be as high as 50,000 to 100,000 people, the Pan American Health Organization said on Friday.

Six al Qaeda militants were killed in an air strike in northern Yemen on Friday in a stepped-up campaign by the Yemeni government against the Islamist militant group.

Two people were killed and six wounded on Friday when separatist guerrillas threw grenades and opened fire at a police station in Indian Kashmir, police and witnesses said.

Iran will soon try 16 people arrested in connection with anti-government protests that turned violent last month, an Iranian news agency reported on Friday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed market rumors on Friday that she was to resign, saying the speculation was absurd.

At least five Afghan civilians were wounded when a combined force of Afghan troops and U.S. Marines opened fire on a crowd at the gate to a military base in Helmand, Afghanistan's most volatile province, NATO said on Friday.

North Korea threatened on Friday to cut off all dialogue with the South in a move that could raise tension on the peninsula and cloud the efforts of regional powers to push Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks.

U.N. aid agencies will launch an emergency appeal to raise for about $550 million to help survivors of the earthquake in Haiti, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats scored a victory in healthcare talks on Thursday, winning labor union support for a revised tax on high-cost insurance plans and possibly clearing the way for a final agreement.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may pay the ultimate political price for championing President Barack Obama's liberal agenda: He could lose his seat back home in Nevada.

Congressional Democrats are very close to reaching final agreement on healthcare reform legislation and could have a deal in days, House of Representatives Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said on Friday.

Greece launched an ambitious three-year plan to slash its huge budget deficit on Thursday but failed to convince financial markets it can deliver on the cuts and put a swift end to its fiscal crisis.

The European Central Bank chief is cautious about the prospect of European and worldwide economic recovery while the Philadelphia Fed Bank President is more optimistic about the US economy.

The United Nations said on Thursday at least 36 of its personnel were killed in this week's earthquake in Haiti, the worst loss of life the world body has ever suffered in a single incident.

President Barack Obama pledged $100 million for Haiti relief aid on Thursday and enlisted the help of two former U.S. presidents, promising Haitians: You will not be forsaken.

A German judge on Thursday canceled a planned day of hearings in the trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of helping to kill 27,900 Jews in the Holocaust, because the 89-year-old said he was ill.

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus bathed in waters considered sacred across large parts of India to mark the start of a religious festival on Thursday, with at least seven people killed in a stampede in the country's east.

Yemen declared open war on al Qaeda Thursday and warned its citizens against aiding the global militant group, but Islamist clerics threatened jihad if foreign military forces intervene.

Up to 200 international United Nations staff in Haiti, including peacekeepers, remain unaccounted for after its headquarters and other buildings collapsed in a devastating earthquake, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.