WORLD

Suspected concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk will go on trial on November 30 facing charges of helping to kill 27,900 Jews during World War Two, a German court said on Thursday.

A senior aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday defended Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, who is facing calls for his resignation for having written about paying boys for sex in Thailand.

South Korea's foreign minister said on Thursday there were no signs that the North was in the final stages of restoring an aging nuclear plant, knocking down a report that operations could soon resume at the facility.

U.S. President Barack Obama's special peace envoy sought on Thursday an early relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian talks, but Israel said Washington's goal of comprehensive peace was an illusion.

A large bomb exploded outside the Indian embassy in central Kabul on Thursday, killing 17 people and wounding 76, in the latest of a series of militant attacks on diplomatic and government buildings in the capital.

A combative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed on Thursday to govern with even more grit after Italy's top court lifted his immunity and he dismissed corruption charges against him as laughable.

Undersea earthquakes caused panic in the South Pacific on Thursday, sending islanders fleeing to higher ground on fears of a second devastating tsunami in as many weeks, but a series of waves proved to be tiny and harmless.

Japan's new prime minister will seek to keep periodically fraught ties with China and South Korea on track at weekend summits, avoiding rows that could hurt economic links and pitching his idea of an East Asia regional grouping.

President Barack Obama met on Wednesday with the two top Democrats in Congress to discuss ways to spur the economy and reverse a climb in the U.S. unemployment rate, which is now at a 26-year-high.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is likely to try a handful of big men behind Kenya's post-election crisis which will send a powerful message to the rest of Africa, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said on Wednesday.

A huge subsea quake struck the southwest Pacific on Thursday, local time, prompting a tsunami warning for island nations only a week after a deadly wave swept over the Samoa islands, killing around 150 people.

A request from the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan for additional troops has been transferred to President Barack Obama for review and has started working its way through the military chain of command, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer told European Union leaders Wednesday it was just a matter of time before President Vaclav Klaus signs the EU's Lisbon treaty, the last big obstacle to reforms to give the bloc more clout.

A terrorist suspect at the center of an Italian trial over secret CIA rendition flights is seeking $10 million in compensation, saying he was tortured during interrogation in Egypt, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Congress' chief architect on financial regulation said on Wednesday companies that use derivatives to hedge their risk would not be forced to comply with all the new rules for the $450 trillion private swaps market.

The two top Democrats in the U.S. Congress plan to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday to explore ways to stimulate the ailing U.S. economy, party aides said.

Italy's top court ruled on Wednesday that a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution violates the constitution, in a verdict that could reopen trials against him and undermine his government.

A powerful typhoon approached Japan's main islands Wednesday, closing car factories, disrupting flights and threatening heavily populated industrial centers with torrential rain and strong winds.

Global warming poses more of a threat to U.S. farm incomes than does the climate change bill passed by the U.S. House, which will have a negligible impact on American agriculture's bottom line, an environmental group said on Wednesday

Britons remain opposed to the war in Afghanistan but the level of opposition has not risen much over the past three years despite a rapidly rising death toll, a poll for the BBC showed Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah flew to Syria on Wednesday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad aimed at healing a rift that has aggravated Arab discord over Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Lebanon.

Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of involvement in the disappearance of a technology university researcher, Iranian media reported.

Turkish police fired tear gas and used water cannon for a second day to break up protests in Istanbul against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Wednesday.

A prominent al Qaeda militant urged Uighurs in Xianjiang to make serious preparations for a holy war against oppressive China and called on fellow Muslims to offer support.

Detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi met a high-level official in Myanmar's military-ruled government for a second time in a week following her offer to lobby the West to lift sanctions.

Relief workers struggled to reach Indonesian quake survivors still without food or shelter a week after the disaster, while foreign rescue teams packed up their high-tech equipment on Wednesday and prepared to pull out.

Italy was awaiting a court decision which could emerge Wednesday on whether a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity violates the constitution.

Pakistan's army on Wednesday expressed serious concern about a U.S. aid bill that critics say contains conditions that amount to a humiliating violation of sovereignty as parliament began a debate on the U.S. aid.

Russia sees a redrafted U.S. anti-missile shield plan as less of a security threat than the previously proposed project, Russian agencies said Wednesday, which should ease tensions between the two powers.