WORLD

Japan's new prime minister ordered the cabinet on Friday to root out wasteful projects in a $154 billion extra budget crafted by his predecessor, but his deputy stressed the aim was to redirect stimulus spending, not cut it.

Iran security forces clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi and arrested at least 10 of them during annual anti-Israel rallies in Tehran on Friday, a witness said.

NATO proposed a new era of cooperation with the United States and Russia on Friday, calling for joint work on missile defense systems after Washington scrapped a planned anti-missile system.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese envoy he will work to end his country's nuclear arms program through multilateral talks in an apparent breakthrough, but similar vows in the past have not been met with action.

The U.S. House of representatives on Thursday voted to cut off all federal money to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

The U.S. military closed down its largest detention center on Thursday in Iraq, as it moves to release thousands of detainees or transfer them to Iraqi custody before the end of the year.

President Barack Obama on Thursday dumped a Bush-era missile defense plan for Europe that Russia had bitterly opposed and offered what he said would be faster, more flexible defense systems to protect against Iran.

A Yale University lab technician was charged on Thursday with the murder of a graduate student whose body was found inside a wall on the New Haven, Connecticut, campus the day she was to be married.

President Barack Obama on Thursday overhauled plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe, promising instead stronger, swifter defense systems to protect U.S. allies against any threat from Iran.

World leaders will commit to keep spending to prop up their economies at a G20 summit next week, Russia said on Thursday, while France appeared to tone down its rhetoric on the issue of bank bonus caps.

President Hamid Karzai defended Afghanistan's disputed presidential election on Thursday after early results showed him the winner, while a suicide bomb attack on Italian troops tested the resolve of a major NATO ally.

The Chinese government is flooding Beijing with armed police and up to one million security volunteers to head off any unrest over October's sensitive anniversary of 60 years of Communist Party rule.

Four Uighur men were sentenced to between eight and 15 years in prison for stabbing a Han Chinese woman in the neck with a syringe in the capital of the ethnically divided Xinjiang region in China's northwest.

Indonesia's most wanted Islamist militant was killed in a police shoot-out in Central Java, police said on Thursday, lifting a major security threat ahead of a planned visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

New Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama got some good news on his first full day in office as the central bank said the struggling economy was showing signs of recovery and 72 percent of voters backed his cabinet.

President Barack Obama will pledge U.S. action on financial regulatory reform at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh and underscore the need for global coordination on the issue, a senior aide said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama on Thursday abandoned plans for a large missile defense shield in eastern Europe, promising instead a stronger, swifter defense system to protect U.S. allies against any threat from Iran.

President Barack Obama has told east European states he was backing away from plans for an anti-missile shield there, in a move that may ease Russian-U.S. ties but fuel fears of resurgent Kremlin influence.

Indonesia's most-wanted Islamic militant, Noordin Mohammad Top, may have been killed in a shoot-out in Central Java, security and police sources said on Thursday.

An Australian man has been charged with sexually abusing his daughter for 30 years and fathering her four children, local media said Thursday.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted on Thursday as saying he does not view Iran as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, a view that would seem to depart from Israeli statements of the recent past.

Japan's new prime minister got some good news on his first full day in office on Thursday as the central bank said the struggling economy was showing signs of recovery from its worst recession since World War Two.

Fresh from a visit to Moscow, a gleeful Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pored over diagrams and charts showing his latest arms purchases.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he would not make a swift decision on sending more U.S. forces to Afghanistan and set out broad goals for Kabul and neighboring Pakistan to rein in militants and corruption that critics dismissed as vague.

An Iranian attempt to ban attacks on nuclear sites suffered a setback on Wednesday when fellow developing nations declined as a bloc to endorse a draft resolution, diplomats said.

U.S. Senator Max Baucus unveiled his plan for a 10-year, $856 billion healthcare overhaul on Wednesday that would revamp insurance rules but does not include a government-run option backed by liberal Democrats.

Democratic U.S. Senator Max Baucus unveils a long-awaited healthcare overhaul on Wednesday that would dramatically revamp insurance rules but does not include a government-run option backed by liberal Democrats.

Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents called on Wednesday for more foreign militants to join them in the failed Horn of Africa state after U.S. forces killed one of the region's most wanted al Qaeda suspects.

The United States and Israel ended another round of talks on Wednesday with no sign yet of a deal on a West Bank settlement freeze, but a U.S. envoy planned to meet again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.