Washington, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well.

They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common.

Detroit, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Former Vice President Al Gore pledged on Monday to do all he could to help Barack Obama win the White House, saying it was crucial the United States has not only a new leader but a new vision for its future.

Gore, one of the most prominent figures in the U.S. Democratic party and known around the world for his push to combat climate change, publicly backed Obama for the first time at a huge rally in Detroit.

Malabo, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - British mercenary Simon Mann, one of the last prominent "dogs of war" in Africa, was to go on trial on Tuesday in Equatorial Guinea accused of leading a failed 2004 coup against the oil-rich African state.

Mann, an Eton-educated former special forces officer, was arrested in Zimbabwe with 70 mercenaries en route to Equatorial Guinea.

Washington, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A nuclear watchdog's report that sophisticated warhead designs were found on the computers of Swiss smugglers has spurred fears in the Bush administration and elsewhere that atomic secrets may be quickly spreading.

Peashawar, Pakistan, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A bomb exploded in a Shia Muslim mosque in Pakistan's northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan on Monday, killing four people and wounding two, police said.

London, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Britain will increase its force in Afghanistan by 230, taking the total number of British troops there to more than 8,000, Defence Secretary Des Browne told parliament on Monday.

Detroit, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday he plans to visit Iraq and Afghanistan before November's election and was encouraged by a recent reduction in violence in Iraq.

Washington, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - US President George W. Bush is ranked only slightly above the rulers of Pakistan and Iran as one of the least-trusted leaders in the world, a survey released on Monday showed.

The survey, carried out by WorldPublicOpinion.org in 20 countries around the world, found that no national leaders inspired wide confidence outside their own countries. But Bush, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranked at the bottom, the polling showed.

WASHINGTON, June 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush is ranked only slightly above the rulers of Pakistan and Iran as one of the least-trusted leaders in the world, a survey released on Monday showed.

AFP, LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday announced new troops for Afghanistan and tougher sanctions on Iran, delighting visiting US President George W. Bush.

AP, PARIS — France says it plans to cut 54,000 defense jobs and boost intelligence efforts.

AFP, BEIJING - Tens of thousands of victims of China's earthquake were evacuated Monday as torrential rain lashed the region, triggering flood warnings on major rivers including the Yangtze and the Pearl.

Heavy downpours have battered large parts of eastern and southern China, leaving at least 65 dead or missing, and adding to the misery in the quake-ravaged southwestern province of Sichuan.

A man is believed to have killed his two young children and then himself at a remote beauty spot in a Father's Day tragedy, reports Mail Online.

AP, ABU DHABI — The British government has raised its terror warning to the highest level for its citizens living in the United Arab Emirates, an embassy spokesman said Monday.

REUTERS, PATNA, India - Train services were disrupted in parts of Bihar for three hours after flocks of agitated crows snapped overhead powerlines when railway workers tried to clear their nests, officials said on Monday.

In June 1987, Seoul's City Hall Plaza reverberated with a chant that signaled the end of military rule in South Korea: "Dokjetado!" or "Down with the dictatorship!" In June this year, the plaza has once again become a rallying point for crowds calling for the removal of an unpopular government: "Out with Lee Myung Bak!", Herald Tribune reports.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Gay and lesbian couples will begin exchanging vows across California on Monday, one month after the state's highest court overturned a ban on same-sex marriage in a historic ruling.

The first marriage licenses are to be issued in a handful of districts from 5:00 pm (0000 GMT) on Monday, before an expected state-wide stampede by thousands of couples gets underway the following day.

The Telegraph

Police have been stationed outside Josef Fritzl's "House of Horrors" in a bid to deter tourists from taking souvenir photographs of the dungeons where his daughter was imprisoned for 24 years.

A group of young people were spotted "laughing and joking" when Fritzl's wife paid her first visit to the house since police discovered the network of underground rooms where Elisabeth and was kept.

AFP, LUXEMBOURG - EU foreign ministers, sifting through the wreckage of the bloc's Lisbon Treaty, admitted on Monday there are no quick fixes after its rejection by Irish voters plunged the bloc into crisis.