WORLD

Thousands arrived in busloads to pray outside a Bangkok hospital on Friday for the swift recovery of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a day after concerns about his health sparked the biggest slide in a year in Thai stock prices.

A U.N.-backed fraud watchdog said Friday it was close to a verdict in its probe of Afghanistan's presidential election, which could force incumbent Hamid Karzai into a run-off against his main rival.

U.S. President Barack Obama fired back on Thursday at critics who say he has few accomplishments of note in his nine months in office and declared he was just getting started.

A tentative plan to end Honduras' political crisis has not yet been agreed to by ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the country's de facto leader but a negotiator for the leftist toppled in a coup said on Thursday a deal looked closer.

The Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shan Mehmood Qureshi said Thursday the $7.5 billion U.S. aid bill is a sign of friendship and not a threat to the country's sovereignty.

A tentative plan to end Honduras' political crisis hung in the balance on Thursday as negotiators met again on whether President Manuel Zelaya, toppled in a June coup, should be returned to power.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he would hold elections as planned in January unless Hamas agreed to an Egyptian reconciliation deal that would delay the polls until June.

A Senate panel voted on Thursday to bar drug companies from paying generic drugmakers to delay bringing their cheaper medicines to market.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Thursday he was investigating last month's deadly crackdown on opponents of Guinea's military ruler, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.

Militants launched a string of attacks in the Pakistani heartland and in the troubled northwest on Thursday, killing 31 people after a week of violence in which more than 100 people died.

The Kremlin on Thursday said President Dmitry Medvedev backed the ruling party's landslide victory in disputed regional elections, snubbing opposition parties who walked out of parliament alleging vote-rigging.

A Chinese court on Thursday handed out a further three death sentences to people convicted of violent crimes during ethnic rioting in far western Xinjiang region in July in which almost 200 people died.

The war crimes trial of Radovan Karadzic, who led Bosnian Serbs into a 1992-1995 war that killed 100,000 people, will start on October 26 in The Hague, judges ordered on Thursday.

Thailand's stock market tumbled more than 8 percent and its currency hit a two-week low on Thursday as investors dumped Thai assets in a panic over the health of the country's revered and long-ruling king.

NATO's top defense officials will examine proposals Saturday for a big troop surge to contain Afghanistan's escalating insurgency but any such move hinges on a decision by the U.S. president, NATO military officials said.

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej's condition is good but he needs time to recover from pneumonia, the palace said on Wednesday after concerns over his health sparked a tumble in Thailand's financial markets.

Russian opposition parties walked out of parliament on Wednesday in a rare act of protest against disputed regional elections, with the Communist Party blaming Vladimir Putin for an unworkable system of governance.

A combination of the food crisis and the global economic downturn has pushed more than 1 billion people into hunger in 2009, U.N. agencies said on Wednesday, confirming a grim forecast released earlier this year.

Pakistani aircraft bombed Taliban fighters in their South Waziristan bastion on Wednesday as more soldiers and tanks moved in for an expected offensive against the militant hub.

The New Jersey governor's race is virtually tied between Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine and Republican Christopher Christie after months in which the challenger held the lead, a poll released on Wednesday said.

Palestinians will not be pushed into accepting the Mickey Mouse state which Israel has in mind for them as part of a peace deal, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad warned Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up a European tour Wednesday by calling on Russia to uphold human rights and prevent attacks on activists who challenge the Kremlin.

Moscow and Washington must agree on where the threats to their security come from before plans to cooperate on missile defense can progress, Russia's negotiator said.

It may have looked like a done deal for President Hamid Karzai and many Afghans when, one by one, key ethnic chiefs and regional power brokers threw their weight behind the incumbent ahead of the August 20 presidential election.

A security summit between China, Russia and their Central Asian neighbors wrapped up in Beijing on Wednesday with vague promises to deepen economic cooperation but no public mention of regional flashpoints like Afghanistan.

Despite fears of failure facing global climate change negotiations in December, the U.N. climate panel chief said on Wednesday it was still possible to agree a pact, including levels of emission cuts by rich nations.

Britain will raise troop numbers in Afghanistan to 9,500, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday, an increase of 500, providing key conditions were met.

North Korea's neighbors and the United States are coordinating closely to draw the isolated state back to nuclear disarmament talks and reviewing possible next steps, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ends her visit to Russia on Wednesday with a charm offensive to win public support for Washington's efforts to reset relations but no clear breakthroughs from formal talks.