WORLD

Guinea's junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara bears direct responsibility for the September 28 killings by security forces of more than 150 pro-democracy marchers, according to leaked U.N. findings on Monday.

Pope Benedict's decision to move his controversial wartime predecessor Pius XII closer to sainthood has put a cloud over his planned visit next month to Rome's synagogue, with some fearing it risks being cancelled.

John Demjanjuk sat impassively while Holocaust survivors on Monday recalled the horrors of Nazi Germany at his trial on charges of helping to force 27,900 Jews into gas chambers in 1943.

Myanmar's Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal against the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced in August to a further 18 months in detention for breaking a security law.

Huge crowds of Iranians turned out for the funeral of leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom on Monday and some chanted anti-government slogans, websites reported.

State-owned Dubai World did not ask creditors for a standstill on $22 billion (13.6 billion pounds) of debt at a meeting on Monday, adding to uncertainty for investors who have been in the dark for weeks and hurting local bank shares.

A broad healthcare overhaul passed its first crucial test in the U.S. Senate on Monday, with 60 Democrats voting to put President Barack Obama's top legislative priority on a path to passage by Christmas.

The world will find it hard to get U.N.-led climate talks back on track in Mexico in 2010 after an unambitious deal agreed in Copenhagen set no firm deadline for a legally binding treaty.

With 60 votes in hand, Senate Democrats cruised on Sunday toward an expected victory on the first of three crucial test votes that will put a broad healthcare overhaul on the path to passage by Christmas.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised on Sunday his new cabinet would be held to account following mounting criticism over graft in his government.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's approval rating has risen back above 50 percent after an attack against him sparked a wave of sympathy even among opposition voters, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.

Thousands of people marched in Taiwan on Sunday to protest against warming ties with political rival China, a day before Beijing's top negotiator arrives on the island for talks on a landmark free trade pact.

Iran's top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a fierce critic of the hardline leadership who denounced June's disputed election as fraudulent, has died at the age of 87.

U.N. climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates noted an accord struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that falls far short of the conference's original goals.

U.S. Senate Democrats reached a compromise on Saturday with a holdout senator that secured the 60 votes they need to pass a broad healthcare overhaul sought by President Barack Obama.

Tehran wants to solve by diplomatic means a dispute with Baghdad over accusations that Iranian troops seized an oil well inside Iraq, a spokesman at the Iranian embassy said on Saturday.

Somalia's Islamist al Shabaab rebels on Saturday ordered men to grow long beards, shave their moustaches and wear their trousers above the ankle.

A strong earthquake rocked much of Taiwan on Saturday, geological officials said, with local television reporting minor injuries and structural damage to some buildings.

U.S. Senate Democrats said they reached agreement on an abortion compromise with a crucial holdout, Senator Ben Nelson, on Saturday in a deal that could clear the way for passage of a sweeping healthcare overhaul.

The U.S. Senate approved a $636 billion military spending bill on Saturday that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and also includes money to extend jobless aid and Medicare payment rates for two months.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai plans to keep most of his top technocrat ministers favoured by the West in a new cabinet presented to parliament on Saturday.

A U.N. climate meeting in Copenhagen committed on Saturday to try and complete its work on agreeing a new global pact by the end of 2010.

A U.N. climate meeting in Copenhagen committed on Saturday to try and complete its work on agreeing a new global pact by the end of 2010.

Several developing nations rejected on Saturday a climate deal worked out by U.S. President Barack Obama and four major emerging economies, saying it could not become a U.N. blueprint for fighting global warming.

A federal court judge sentenced a Florida man to three years in prison on Friday for threatening to kill President Barack Obama in an email that said The blood of Obama will run down the streets.

A U.N. summit is considering a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius, backed by a new fund of $100 billion a year to aid developing nations, according to a draft text pulled together on Friday morning hours before world leaders met.

With the clock ticking toward a self-imposed Christmas deadline, Senate Democrats kept a wary eye on the weather on Friday as they scrambled to line up the 60 votes needed to pass a healthcare reform bill.

Obama's remarks following Copenhagen -- Full transcript

All countries agreed a deal to combat climate change at a summit in Copenhagen on Friday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.