World - AFP

MANILA (AFP) - Hundreds of extra troops have been deployed in the southern Philippines after gunmen believed linked to a local politician kidnapped and killed at least 22 people, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

BRASILIA (AFP) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has urged his visiting Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to find a "just solution" with the West to Tehran's contested nuclear program.

LONDON (AFP) - A long-awaited public inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war opens Tuesday, with former civil servants first to appear in hearings set to climax with Tony Blair taking the stand.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will announce a target for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions before the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, removing a major obstacle to a deal, officials have said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama should "pick up the phone" and urge Chinese President Hu Jintao personally to ease pressure on a Beijing-based human rights lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, US lawmakers said Monday.

LIMA (AFP) - Peru's Supreme Court has opened a three-day review of former president Alberto Fujimori's 25-year prison sentence for human rights violations.

SANAA (AFP) - A Japanese engineer freed after nine days held hostage by tribesmen near the Yemeni capital Sanaa voiced his relief at his release and said he just wanted to see his wife and take a shower.

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Prosecutors called Tuesday for the former Khmer Rouge prison chief to receive a long jail term for his role in the "Killing Fields" atrocities as they delivered final arguments in his trial.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered a hand to the United States to help build an "open and inclusive" Asia as President Barack Obama prepared to toast him Tuesday with his first state dinner.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel said on Monday there was no deal yet on a prisoner swap with Hamas, as efforts appeared to gather pace on an accord that could see a Gaza-held soldier exchanged for hundreds of Palestinians.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Eight soldiers died in a munitions blast Monday in central Russia, a defence ministry spokesman said, at the same arms depot where two died in a huge accidental weapons explosion 10 days earlier.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama gathered his war cabinet Monday for what officials indicated could be the final time before he decides whether to dispatch tens of thousands more US troops to Afghanistan.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's upcoming general election will be delayed, a top MP warned, because an amended electoral law agreed on Monday is likely to be vetoed for a second time by the country's Sunni vice president.

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Centre-right incumbent Traian Basescu and left-wing leader Mircea Geoana battled to form vote-winning alliances Monday after being forced into a second round of a presidential election.

TANJUNG BALAI, Indonesia (AFP) - The captain of an Indonesian ferry which sank killing 29 people rejected claims of overcrowding Monday and blamed a freak storm for the disaster, as officials launched an investigation.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A alleged Belgian arms dealer on Monday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to export fighter jet engines and parts to Iran, US justice officials said.

CHICAGO (AFP) - A group of Somali-American youth recruited to fight for an Islamist militia in Somalia were told it would be "fun," court documents have shown.

HEGANG, China (AFP) - The death toll from China's deadliest coal mine blast in two years has climbed to 104, local authorities said early Monday, according to state media.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's envoy to the UN atomic watchdog said on Sunday that Tehran wants a guaranteed supply of fuel for a research reactor as a military chief warned that any attack on its nuclear sites would be crushed.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Sunday there has been "progress" in talks to free soldier Gilad Shalit, held captive by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip for the past three years.

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Romania's incumbent president and his Social-Democrat rival will face a run-off after Sunday's first round election, exit polls showed, as the country aims to recover from a political crisis and a deep recession.

JAKARTA (AFP) - Rescuers on Sunday desperately hunted for survivors in the waters off Indonesia's Sumatra island after a ferry sank in stormy seas, killing at least 29 people, officials said.

BELFAST (AFP) - A massive car bomb that failed to explode properly was designed to cause widespread destruction in Belfast, police said Sunday, underscoring the threat to Northern Ireland's fragile peace.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq on Sunday for the first time said that the bombers who killed more than 150 people in Baghdad on October 25 came from neighbouring Syria, but steered well clear of accusing Damascus of collusion.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday started a high-profile state visit to the United States with a call on President Barack Obama to stay committed on Afghanistan and pressure Pakistan.

KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani troops on Sunday repulsed an attack by militants on one of their posts in a lawless tribal region, killing 11 rebels, officials said.

MADRID (AFP) - A Spanish trawler captain released by Somali pirates said he is haunted by his failure to save a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl held captive for more than six months, a newspaper reported Sunday.

CHICAGO (AFP) - Eight people face terrorism charges in the case of 20 young men missing from Minnesota after allegedly being recruited to fight for an Islamist militia in Somalia, officials said Monday.