UK-World Summary
Obama meets with top advisers on Afghan policy
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama met with top advisers on Afghanistan for almost two hours on Monday night as he nears a decision on whether to send thousands of additional U.S. troops to confront a growing insurgency. There was no immediate word on whether any decision was reached at the war council in the White House Situation Room. Those attending included Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
Philippines declares emergency in parts of south
MANILA - The Philippines declared a state of emergency in two southern provinces and in a nearby city on Tuesday, a day after at least 24 people were killed in election-related violence. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she was declaring an indefinite emergency in the provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and in Cotabato City to "prevent and suppress the occurrence of several other incidents of lawless violence."
Iraq parliament passes new vote law, veto unresolved
BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament on Monday approved an amended law needed to hold an election next year, but the new text risks being vetoed a second time -- which could delay both the vote and next year's partial U.S. troop withdrawal. The bill now returns to the three-person presidential council where, lawmakers said, Sunni Arab Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi is likely veto it again as it still fails to address his demand to give more of a say to Iraqis living abroad.
Eight charged in U.S. for Somali war recruiting
MINNEAPOLIS - Authorities unsealed terrorism-related charges Monday against eight defendants they said recruited young Somali-American men to return to their homeland to fight for an Islamist militant group. The charges said men were recruited in Minneapolis mosques to fight for al-Shabaab, which the United States accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of Africa nation.
Congo warlords in the dock at Hague court
THE HAGUE as rival groups fought for control of the region's gold, diamonds and oil.
Obama aims to reassure Singh on U.S.-India ties
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama hosts Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday for talks considered critical to showing Washington's commitment to New Delhi in a region where its rivals, China and Pakistan, are U.S. priorities. Obama's challenge will be to ease the emerging Asian power's concerns that it is slipping down his foreign policy agenda, dominated recently by efforts to craft a new war plan in Afghanistan and curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Israel-Hamas prisoner swap deal near - officials
CAIRO - Israel has softened its terms for a prisoner swap with Hamas and the two are nearing a deal to exchange hundreds of jailed Palestinians for an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip, officials said on Monday. A delegation from Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, crossed into Egypt for a meeting with Egyptian security officials in Cairo to discuss the deal that Egypt and Germany have been mediating.
Belgian pleads guilty in U.S. jet parts sale to Iran
WASHINGTON - A Belgian man pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of conspiring to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the United States to Iran, the Justice Department said. Jacques Monsieur pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Mobile, Alabama. He was arrested in August and charged in a six-count indictment with conspiracy, money laundering, smuggling and violating the Arms Export Control Act and an embargo on trade with Iran.
Tajikistan fails to curb abuse of women - Amnesty
ALMATY - The government of the Central Asian state of Tajikistan is failing to protect women from violence and abuse, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday. Mostly Muslim Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, is the poorest former Soviet republic, its economy devastated by a civil war in the 1990s.
Peacekeepers should prepare to leave Darfur - Sudan
UNITED NATIONS - Khartoum's U.N. envoy, rejecting a bleak U.N. assessment of the situation in Sudan's conflict-torn western Darfur region, said on Monday it was time for international peacekeepers to prepare to leave. Saying it omitted key information, Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, criticized the latest report about Darfur by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which says Khartoum has broken a deal on deploying the peacekeepers.