WORLD

Pakistani soldiers secured a fort captured from militants in the northwest of the country on Thursday and consolidated their positions on peaks around another insurgent base, the military said.

A controversial climate change bill cleared its first hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, allowing President Barack Obama to tout progress in the run-up to next month's global warming talks in Copenhagen.

An Italian judge sentenced 23 Americans to up to eight years in prison on Wednesday for the abduction of a Muslim cleric, in a symbolic condemnation of the CIA rendition flights used by the former U.S. government.

It would be very hard for next year's elections in Myanmar to be legitimate without the involvement of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a senior United States official said on

The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday approved a Democratic climate change bill that would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher warned France's ambassador months before German's 1990 reunification of a domineering Chancellor Helmut Kohl who sees himself as the master, diplomatic notes revealed Thursday.

Russian military intelligence believes Georgia might again attack South Ossetia, the pro-Moscow region over which the two countries fought a war last year, a powerful spy chief said on Thursday

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he would not seek re-election in a vote planned for January, citing stalemate in peace talks with Israel, but Palestinian officials urged him to change his mind

The United Nations said on Thursday it would evacuate hundreds of its international staff from Afghanistan for several weeks due to deteriorating security, a sharp blow for Western efforts to stabilize the country.

U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Steny Hoyer on Thursday said he expects the House to pass a sweeping healthcare overhaul on Saturday, but acknowledged that the vote would be close.

An Afghan policeman killed five British soldiers at a checkpoint in Afghanistan and the Taliban said he was one of their fighters who had infiltrated the force.

Democrats pushing for healthcare reform shrugged off their losses in two governors races and said on Wednesday the results made it more imperative to deliver on campaign promises to overhaul a failing system.

Israeli naval commandos seized a ship carrying hundreds of tons of Iranian-supplied arms, including rockets that can hit Israeli cities, to Lebanon's Hezbollah group, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

Freed British mercenary Simon Mann said his homecoming was the most wonderful he could have imagined, after earlier expressing relief that his West African coup attempt had failed.

The Obama White House on Wednesday attempted to play down election losses in Virginia and New Jersey in contests that analysts said served as a warning shot to Democrats looking ahead to 2010 voting.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington does not accept Israeli settlement activity as legitimate but believes that resuming peace talks is the quickest way to achieve a freeze.

An Italian judge sentenced 23 former CIA agents to up to eight years in prison Wednesday for the abduction of a Muslim cleric in a symbolic ruling against rendition flights used by the former U.S. government.

Iranian security forces clashed with supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy turned violent

Colombia on Wednesday warned Venezuela not to brush aside last month's deaths of nine Colombians on the border as paramilitary gang violence, an incident that fueled tensions between the Andean neighbors.

The U.S. Senate was poised on Wednesday to extend aid for jobless workers and broaden tax breaks for homebuyers and businesses in a bill aimed at breathing life into the U.S. economy.

Israeli naval commandos have boarded a ship carrying Iranian-supplied rockets destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah group and taken the vessel to an Israeli port, the government said on Wednesday.

U.S. authorities allowed Sri Lanka's military chief to return home without being questioned over human rights violations in the last months of the country's 25-year civil war, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Tropical storm Mirinae killed 42 people after plowing into central Vietnam this week and several others are missing, state media reported on Wednesday.

Republicans rolled to victory in Virginia and New Jersey governor's races on Tuesday in a sharp blow to Democrats that showed the limits of President Barack Obama's political clout.

Police clashed with supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy turned violent.

Technocrats and some existing ministers will be included among Afghan President Hamid Karzai's new government within the next three weeks, a spokesman said on Wednesday, but his main rival ruled out taking any part.

The top Republican on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee wants bipartisan financial reform, but sees key issues as unsettled and opposes a new consumer protection watchdog, an aide told Reuters on Monday.

Democrats who control a key U.S. Senate panel said they would begin debating a climate change bill on Tuesday, despite a planned boycott by minority Republicans who are demanding more study of the issue.

Iran wants more talks on a U.N.-drafted nuclear deal because it needs guarantees it will receive reactor fuel, a senior official said Monday, adding to doubts that a standoff with big powers can be ended soon.