Most Americans believe their country is on the wrong track, the highest level since the early 1990s, according to a poll published on Friday, reports Xinhua.

The poll conducted by the CBS News and the New York Times found that 81 percent of the 1,368 Americans surveyed said they believed “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” compared to 69 percent in 2007 and 35 percent in early 2002.

AFP, BUCHAREST - European leaders kept Georgia and Ukraine waiting at NATO's doorstep Thursday, dealing George W. Bush a rebuff at the last summit of the transatlantic alliance he will attend as US president.

NATO leaders did, however, endorse Bush's quest for a missile defence shield across Europe, and leaned towards sending more troops to Afghanistan to join the 47,000 already there to wrangle with a resurgent Taliban.

REUTERS, ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan termed his detention as "irrational" in a newspaper interview published on Wednesday, and said he hoped the new government would free him soon.

Khan was put under house arrest by President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad after an investigation was launched in late 2003 and he confessed on television in early 2004 to passing nuclear secrets and materials to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

Harare, April 5 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition party goes to court on Saturday to force the release of results from the presidential poll one week ago amid signs President Robert Mugabe plans to fight tenaciously to extend his 28-year rule.

Lawyers representing Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change will ask a high court in Harare for an order compelling election officials to issue the results immediately, ending a delay that has raised suspicions of a tainted vote.

Port-Au-Prince, Reuters - Four people were killed in southern Haiti when demonstrators protesting the high cost of living clashed with security forces, a local official said on Friday.

The United Nations said protesters rioted in the town of Les Cayes on Thursday, burning shops, shooting at peacekeepers and looting containers at a U.N. compound.

REUTERS, KATHMANDU - Nepal deployed helicopters on Saturday to guard a tense campaign for next week's constituent assembly elections that could lead to the abolishment of the centuries-old monarchy.

About 135,000 police will keep watch on the April 10 vote for the assembly, a key demand of the Maoist former rebels who ended their decade-long civil war in 2006, meant to prepare a new constitution and most likely turn the Himalayan nation into a republic.

REUTERS, ISLAMABAD - Nearly half of Pakistan's 160 million people are at risk of going short of food due to a surge in prices, the World Food Programme said on Friday.

The WFP survey covering the year to March showed the number of people deemed "food insecure" had risen 28 percent to 77 million from 60 million in the previous year.

REUTERS, ISLAMABAD - Nearly half of Pakistan's 160 million people are at risk of going short of food due to a surge in prices, the World Food Programme said on Friday.

The WFP survey covering the year to March showed the number of people deemed "food insecure" had risen 28 percent to 77 million from 60 million in the previous year.

Reuters, Beijing - Riot-torn Tibet will be reopened to foreign tourists next month after a six-week closure, Chinese official media said, a move expected to revive the hard-hit tourism industry in the impoverished but scenic mountain area.

The Tibet Autonomous Region government will resume giving foreigners permits on May 1, for the first time since March 16, which was two days after deadly riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, a media reports said.

REUTERS, BUCHAREST - Russia agreed on Friday to allow NATO to use Russian land to deliver non-lethal supplies to alliance troops in Afghanistan, but not troops or air transit arrangements as initially sought by NATO.

The deal was showcased at a summit between alliance leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bucharest as evidence of cooperation between the former Cold War foes, even though it fell short of NATO hopes.

WASHINGTON,Reuters - World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Wednesday called for a new coordinated global response to deal with spiralling food prices exacerbating shortages, hunger and malnutrition around the globe.

Speaking ahead of International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington next week, Zoellick said the global food crisis now required the attention of political leaders in every country, since higher prices and price volatility were likely to stay for some time.

AFP, BUCHAREST - European leaders kept Georgia and Ukraine waiting at NATO's doorstep Thursday in a major setback for US President George W. Bush at his last summit of the transatlantic alliance.

Inching deeper into what, during the Cold War, had been enemy territory, NATO extended formal invitations to once-communist Albania and Croatia to start negotiations to become the 27th and 28th members of the bloc.

AFP, HARARE - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change claimed on Wednesday to have won a majority over the ruling ZANU-PF in weekend parliamentary elections.

The party's secretary-general Tendai Biti said that, based on the party's own tallies, it had won a total of 110 seats, including 11 lawmakers who are part of a splinter faction that is not loyal

Pakistan''s deposed chief justice claimed Tuesday that he was still the legal head of the Supreme Court and hailed the election defeat of President Pervez Musharraf''s allies as the end of "one-man rule", reports AP.

Pakistan''s new government has pledged to reinstate within a month about 60 senior judges purged by Musharraf last year, raising the prospect of a showdown with the US-backed president.

Reuters, BANGKOK - At least 40 people, including seven Buddhist monks, have been given prison sentences for taking part in last September's anti-junta protests in Myanmar, Amnesty International said.

Among those sentenced in the past six months were three people who got between two and 2-½ years for giving water to demonstrating monks, the London-based human rights group said in a report released this week.

Reuters, BUCHAREST - U.S. President George W. Bush urged NATO allies on Wednesday to send more troops to Afghanistan, saying the alliance could not afford to lose its battle against Taliban insurgents and al Qaeda militants.

In a keynote speech before a summit of the 26-nation defence alliance in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, Bush said: "As (French) President (Nicolas) Sarkozy put it in London last week, we cannot afford to lose Afghanistan.

Reuters, KATHMANDU - Nepal's three leading political parties, including Maoist former rebels, vowed on Tuesday to end violence and intimidation allowing peaceful campaigning ahead of next week's national elections.

Nepalis are due to vote on April 10 for a constituent assembly meant to draw up a new constitution, a key demand by Maoists who ended decade-long civil war under a 2006 peace deal with the government.

AFP, HARARE - Zimbabwe anxiously awaited Tuesday the first results from its presidential election as the opposition nosed ahead of Robert Mugabe's ruling party in the official count in the contest for parliament.

With over half of the results from 131 the 210 constituencies announced, the Movement for Democratic Change had won 67 parliament seats while Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) trailed slightly with 64.

Reuters, BANGKOK - An ethnic guerrilla group in northern Myanmar has caught two "key" Tibetan political activists and deported them to China on the orders of Beijing, a dissident news Web site said on Tuesday.

The pair, on the run since a crackdown on Tibetan protests last month, escaped through Yunnan province to an area of Myanmar run by the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the Kachin News Group (www.kachinnews.com) said.

AFP, PARIS - France could send "several hundred" extra soldiers to join the NATO force in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, adding that details of the mission had not yet been decided.

Fillon made the announcement during a stormy parliamentary debate on the new deployment, after President Nicolas Sarkozy last week promised more French troops for the alliance's shaky mission in Afghanistan.