Khartoum,aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - International peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region look set to receive substantial reinforcements after months of under-manning, the US envoy to Sudan said on Tuesday.

Tokyo,Aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - North Korea and Japan have agreed terms for a new investigation into Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese people in the 1970s and 1980s, officials said, opening the way for Tokyo to lift some travel sanctions.

Harare,Aug 13(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe agreed a power-sharing deal with a breakaway opposition faction on Tuesday, but has yet to agree with main rival Morgan Tsvangirai, South African President Thabo Mbeki said.

HAVANA, Wed Aug 13,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned 82 on Wednesday, still a world and national figure even though he has not been seen in public since falling ill two years ago.

MOSCOW/BRUSSELS, Wed Aug 13, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The European Union on Wednesday backed sending peacekeeping monitors to Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia to supervise a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia after days of heavy fighting.

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Wed Aug 13, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Palestinians gave their national poet Mahmoud Darwish what amounted to a state funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, mourning a man who articulated their sense of loss, exile and defiance.

COLOMBO, Wed Aug 13, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops killed 14 Tamil Tiger rebels and captured rebel positions in the far north of the island, as government forces continued their push into the rebels' stronghold there, the military said on Wednesday.

PARIS, Wed Aug 13, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The Dalai Lama sought on Wednesday to defuse criticism of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been accused at home of caving into Chinese pressure by declining to meet the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

AFP, ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- At least 14 people were killed Tuesday in the roadside bombing of a Pakistani military truck, an attack authorities blamed on Islamic militants.

The powerful blast occurred just outside Peshawar, the nearest large city to a tribal area along the border with Afghanistan that has been raked by fighting for nearly a week.

REUTERS, NEW DELHI- At least 20 people were killed and more than a dozen injured when an old residential building collapsed in Mumbai on Wednesday as heavy monsoon rains continued to drench the city.

Indian security forces today fired into a crowd that had gathered for the funeral of a prominent Kashmiri separatist leader who was shot dead yesterday, killing three people, reports AP.

The Guardian

As busloads of refugees from the conflict in South Ossetia continued to flow into Russia yesterday, mourning families prepared to bury the first fighters killed in the battle.

REUTERS, SRINAGAR, India- Police shot dead at least 11 people in Indian Kashmir on Tuesday as Muslim protests against what they said was an economic blockade by Hindus over a land row began to morph into independence calls, officials said.

Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili is bundled away during yesterday's bombings in Gori , report agencies.

Yemenis' long-held fondness for chewing qat is doing real damage to a very poor country, reports Ian Black from Sana'a

AFP

It is only mid-afternoon in Sana'a's picturesque old city, a maze of tall gingerbread houses, braying animals and colourful markets.

But is is strangely quiet as shopkeepers lounge behind their wares, many of them chewing away furiously at a green wad the size of a golfball.

Three killed as far western Xinjiang region suffers bloodiest fortnight of violence in more than decade

Three Chinese police officers were stabbed to death at a road checkpoint in Xinjiang today, reports AP.

The attack happened as the far western region suffered its worst two weeks of violence in more than 10 years.

AFP

Talks to end Zimbabwe's political crisis were bogged down yesterday as Morgan Tsvangirai resisted intense pressure to agree to Robert Mugabe retaining much of his power.

Inflatable artwork blown from moorings and brings down power line

AFP

A giant inflatable dog turd created by the American artist Paul McCarthy was blown from its moorings at a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a window before landing in the grounds of a children's home.

REUTERS, WARSAW- Poland is more likely to agree to host a US missile shield after signs Washington is ready to meet Polish demands for enhanced military cooperation, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.

Tue, Aug 12th, 2008 3:25 pm BdST

MOSCOW/TBILISI, Tue Aug 12, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations in Georgia on Tuesday, after five days of fighting and just before French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to hold peace talks in Moscow.