WORLD

Gun shots ring sharply across a valley littered with rusting hulks of Soviet tanks as Afghan soldiers crouch down and open fire into the dusty haze.

Grieving Samoans buried their dead in unmarked beachside graves on Thursday as the gruesome task of recovering bodies from villages destroyed by four tsunamis continued and an aftershock shook the region.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank warned on Friday that the global economic recovery might falter as complacent policymakers lost their will to cooperate.

The Philippines declared a nationwide state of calamity on Friday as a super typhoon bore down a week after flash floods killed nearly 300 people in and around Manila.

American Airlines (AMR.N) and fellow Oneworld alliance partners British Airways (BAY.L) and Iberia (IBLA.MC) face fresh European Union antitrust hurdles as they look to extend their pact to include coordinated schedules and prices.

A court in army-ruled Myanmar upheld its guilty verdict on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Friday, a legal source said, a ruling likely to keep the Nobel laureate in detention until after next year's elections.

A two-minute video of an Israeli soldier held captive by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas for the past three years shows him healthy and coherent and speaking to the camera, Israeli officials said on Friday.

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Friday wrapped up debate on a massive overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system and prepared to vote on the legislation next week.

U.S. President Barack Obama met the man heading U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, Friday, a White House spokesman said.

Aid for thousands of survivors of an earthquake in the Indonesia port of Padang began trickling in on Friday, but rescue efforts were hampered by power blackouts and a lack of heavy equipment to shift masonry.

Chicago played its two trump cards on Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle both making impassioned speeches as they urged the IOC to choose the Windy City as host of the 2016 Olympics.

Efforts to convince rich nations to toughen emissions cuts have failed to make much headway at climate talks in the Thai capital, the U.N. said on Friday.

Talks between Iran and six major powers over Tehran's nuclear program on Thursday opened the door to improved relations as Iran agreed to allow U.N. inspectors into a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant.

The United States said on Thursday six-power talks with Iran had opened the door to better relations with the West but cautioned Tehran it must take concrete steps to prove it was not seeking nuclear arms.

Foreign minister S.M. Krishna said on Wednesday China should not object to the Dalai Lama's planned trip to a northeast Indian state, part of which Beijing claims in a festering border dispute between the two Asian powers.

China celebrated its wealth and rising might with a show of goose-stepping troops, gaudy floats and nuclear-capable missiles in Beijing on Thursday, 60 years after Mao Zedong proclaimed its embrace of communism.

The United States should provide information about top militants in Pakistan, a government minister said on Thursday, as Washington stepped up pressure on Islamabad to go after Taliban leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the United Nations would deal a fatal blow to prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace if it endorsed a report critical of Israel's January war in Gaza.

The United States said it held the highest level direct talks with Iran in three decades on Thursday to try to put to rest Western suspicions Tehran is planning a nuclear bomb.

Rescue teams struggled on Thursday to reach scores of people trapped under debris and survivors pleaded for aid after a powerful quake hit the Indonesian city of Padang, possibly killing thousands.

A Turkish student threw a shoe at International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Thursday as he made a speech to students in Istanbul ahead of the IMF's annual meeting.

China's National Day military parade held no big surprises but there were tantalizing clues for experts assessing the modernization of the world's biggest fighting force.

Millions of people were battling on Thursday to cope with the aftermath of a typhoon that cut a destructive path through parts of Southeast Asia, killing 400, as an even stronger storm headed toward the Philippines.

Rescuers pulled bodies from the mud and twisted rubble and fished bloated corpses from the South Pacific off Samoa Wednesday as the death toll from a series of tsunamis climbed further.

Sport and politics converge in a potent mix on Friday with the credibility of the U.S. President on the line as International Olympic Committee (IOC) members choose the venue for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Six world powers held talks with Iran on Thursday that U.S. officials said would need to convince them Tehran was prepared to show it was not hiding plans for a nuclear bomb.

China celebrated its ascendance with a show of goose-stepping troops, gaudy floats and nuclear-capable missiles in the nation's capital on Thursday, 60 years after Mao Zedong proclaimed its embrace of communism.

President Barack Obama announced a plan on Wednesday to spend $5 billion on medical and scientific research, medical supplies and upgrading laboratory capacity, which he said would create tens of thousands of new jobs.

Relief workers in American and Western Samoa on Thursday searched for survivors after a series of tsunamis smashed into the tiny Pacific islands, killing possibly more than 100 people and flattening villages.