WORLD

The euro zone does not risk the sort of debt problems plaguing Dubai, senior European Union officials said on Sunday.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called on Pakistan to take tougher action against al Qaeda and step up its efforts to track down the group's leader Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. military could have captured or killed Osama bin Laden in 2001 if it had launched a concerted attack on his hideout in Afghanistan, according to a report prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Rescuers have retrieved 32 bodies, including at least 12 children, and are searching for scores of people missing after an overcrowded ferry sank in a river along the Bangladesh coast, police and witnesses said on Saturday.

A major international conference on Afghanistan, to be held in London in January, will aim to set the conditions for a gradual transfer of security responsibilities to Afghan control, Britain said on Saturday.

The death toll from the heaviest rainfall to hit Saudi Arabia in years rose to 98 on Saturday as more bodies were recovered, with dozens more expected to be found, a rescue services spokesman said.

Russia's domestic intelligence service Saturday said a train disaster that killed dozens and injured nearly 100 was caused by a bomb.

A Zimbabwean-registered cargo plane en route to Kyrgyzstan crashed on take-off in Shanghai on Saturday, killing three U.S. crew on board and triggering a fire, state media and a U.S. spokesman said.

An Israeli cabinet minister said on Friday he was optimistic about prospects for a prisoner swap with Palestinians for captured soldier Gilad Shalit, suggesting that talks were still alive to achieve a deal.

Honduras chooses a new president on Sunday in an election that may defuse a crisis caused by a coup against President Manuel Zelaya, but the vote is splitting Washington and Latin America.

The White House gave a mixed reaction on Friday to China's plans to cut its carbon intensity levels, welcoming the proposal but saying the world would watch whether Beijing kept its promises to tackle climate change.

The world is losing patience with Iran's behavior over its nuclear program and Tehran will be responsible for the consequences if it fails to meet its obligations, the White House said on Friday.

Finnish liberal Olli Rehn will oversee efforts to revive Europe's economy and France's Michel Barnier will have an important role reforming financial services in the new European Commission unveiled on Friday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen would take over as labor minister, replacing Franz Josef Jung who quit earlier on Friday after criticism of his role when he was defense minister.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai reached out to the Taliban on Friday, part of a call for reconciliation that the palace says will be the main focus of his second term that began last week.

The United States risks souring relations with much of Latin America if it recognizes upcoming elections in Honduras, the foreign policy adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in an interview on Wednesday.

Japan and China agreed on Friday to conduct their first joint military training exercise, in the latest sign of warming ties between the Asian neighbors, long marked by mutual suspicion and spats over a range of issues.

Growing military ties between China and Pakistan are a serious concern to India, Defense Minister A.K. Antony said on Friday, in the latest display of a prickly rivalry between New Delhi and its neighbors.

The United States followed its own military timetable for the 2003 invasion of Iraq rather than allowing diplomacy to run its full course, the former British ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday.

The Philippines on Friday barred its top elected official in the south, his father and other relatives from leaving the country as it investigated the massacre of 57 people earlier this week.

U.N. nuclear watchdog governors voted on Friday to rebuke Iran for building a uranium enrichment plant in secret but Tehran dismissed the move as intimidation which would poison its negotiations with world powers.

The U.S. and Russian presidents will sign a new deal to cut Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons by the year end, but may miss an early December deadline by several days, a Kremlin source told Reuters on Friday.

China is preparing to unveil a target to curb carbon emissions ahead of a major climate summit in Copenhagen next month, but experts and negotiators worry Beijing's much-anticipated figure may disappoint.

South Korea has launched a dispute at the World Trade Organization against the United States over U.S. measures to raise prices on imports of steel, a South Korean embassy official said on Thursday.

A U.S. debt that is topping $12 trillion is raising fresh questions about the cost of President Barack Obama's proposed healthcare overhaul, but those concerns are unlikely to sink the legislation.

The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) asked judges on Thursday for approval to launch a formal investigation into post-election violence in Kenya last year.

Mumbai held tearful memorials and police staged a show of strength on Thursday as India's financial hub marked the first anniversary of militant raids that killed 166 people and ratcheted up tensions with Pakistan.

The head of the German armed forces Wolfgang Schneiderhan has resigned over reports the military withheld information about a September 4 air strike in Afghanistan believed to have killed dozens of civilians.

Philippine police filed murder charges on Thursday against the main suspect in the massacre of 57 people in the south of the country this week as authorities moved to dismantle his clan's control over the region.