WORLD

Colombia said on Tuesday FARC guerrillas slit a state governor's throat hours after they kidnapped him during a brazen raid in one of worst rebel strikes during President Alvaro Uribe's government.

Police shot dead an Afghan senator and his son in northern Baghlan province after their car ran a checkpoint in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the provincial governor and police chief said.

An American Airlines Boeing 737 overshot the runway while landing at Kingston international airport in Jamaica late on Tuesday, and around 40 passengers were treated in the hospital, some for broken bones, authorities said.

One of China's most prominent dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, fought subversion charges at a trial on Wednesday that drew an outcry from local activists and foreign governments angered by Beijing's crackdown on political dissent.

Drug gang hitmen shot dead the grieving mother, brother, sister and aunt of an elite Mexican marine who died after taking part in a raid that killed a notorious drug lord, police said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other members of his government will not appear before an inquiry into the Iraq war until after a general election next year, the inquiry team said on Wednesday.

The Philippines' most active volcano shot higher ash columns and rumbled louder on Wednesday as authorities warned of a potential hazardous eruption in Mount Mayon anytime.

Iranian security forces armed with batons and teargas clashed with supporters of the late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in two central cities on Wednesday, opposition websites said.

A new government insurance program that would help the elderly and disabled stay in their homes is headed for passage in the U.S. Senate's sweeping healthcare revamp despite doubts about its viability and cost.

Just days after countries agreed to a last minute agreement at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen, accusations are beginning to fly over who was responsible for what many consider a poor agreement.

Next year will be crucial for global nuclear non-proliferation efforts and all eyes will be on the United States and Russia to see if the two top atomic powers can reach a deal to reduce their arsenals.

The non-partisan Pulitzer Prize-winning site run by the St. Petersburg Times recently called Sarah Palin's description of health-care the biggest Lie of the Year.

The Philippines national news agency reported Tuesday that fountains of red-hot lava have oozed out from the intensifying Mayon volcano.

The U.S. military commander in northern Iraq defended on Tuesday a new policy imposing strict penalties, including possible jail time, for troops who become pregnant or get other soldiers pregnant.

A survivor of the Nazi death camp at which John Demjanjuk is accused of helping to kill 27,900 Jews recalled in court on Tuesday losing his wife after a three-day train journey to the extermination center.

Members of an Islamic militia and plainclothes men attacked the house of a senior pro-reform cleric, Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sanei, in the Shi'ite holy city of Qom on Tuesday, a reformist website said.

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the threat of sanctions Tuesday, claiming his government is now 10times stronger than a year ago.

President Barack Obama has written a private letter to North Korea leader Kim Jong-il, presented by U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth to North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju on Dec. 9 during his visit to the North.

The head of NATO said on Tuesday there would be no deadline for the exit of allied troops from Afghanistan, as fears grow among Afghans that foreign forces will leave before their own troops are able to guarantee security.

Mexico City became the first capital in Catholic, often macho Latin America to allow same-sex marriage on Monday when city legislators passed a law giving gay couples full marriage rights.

Nepal's former Maoist rebels gave the government a month on Tuesday to pave the way for a unity government headed by them or face an indefinite countrywide shutdown in a conflict that threatens a fragile peace process.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Greece's government bond ratings to A2 from A1 on Tuesday, noting a negative outlook for the nation unless the government can follow through on its plan by increasing tax revenues and/or reining in expenditure.

A German mediator arrived in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday with Israel's response to a proposed deal with Hamas to secure the release of a captured Israel soldier in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

China condemned claims ascribed to Britain's climate change minister that it had hijacked negotiations in Copenhagen, saying on Tuesday the accusations were an attempt to sow discord among poor countries.

Eurostar trains between Britain and France resumed on Tuesday after three-days of cancellations because of heavy snow, but severe weather conditions continued to cause travel chaos in Britain.

Russia and the United States plan unprecedented cuts to their Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons under a new arms reduction deal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

A suicide bomber killed three people outside a popular media club on Tuesday in Peshawar, officials said, a key northwestern Pakistan town that has become the epicentre of Islamabad's battle against militants.

A leaked memo appearing to show Tehran's efforts to design an atomic bomb trigger was forged by the United States, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a U.S. news programme.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Monday in a statement an explosion-type earthquake launched a cloud of ash about 500 meters into the air.