MILAN, July 29 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Inter Milan appear to have given up their pursuit of Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard after signing Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth on Monday.

BAGHDAD, July 29 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A major pilgrimage of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites to a Baghdad shrine passed peacefully on Tuesday, a day after three female suicide bombers killed 35 people among crowds of pilgrims.

ISTANBUL/JERUSALEM, July 29 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dispatched two top aides to Turkey on Tuesday for a fourth round of indirect peace talks with Syria, an Israeli official said.

GENEVA, July 29 (bdnews24.comReuters) - Talks to rescue a world trade deal collapsed on Tuesday, officials said.

KABUL, Tue Jul 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - To defeat Taliban militants, foreign troops led by NATO and the US military in Afghanistan should come under the command of the Afghan government, otherwise the war will drag on, a government-owned newspaper said on Tuesday.

KATHMANDU, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - One of a pair of Nepali twins once joined at the head died on Tuesday, seven years after surgeons in Singapore separated their fused skulls, a doctor said.

But Basanta Pant, a neurosurgeon at Kathmandu Model Hospital, where the girls undergo regular medical check ups, said Ganga died in hospital while being treated for a chest infection.

BELGRADE, Tue Jul 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Hardline nationalists gathered to show their support for war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic on Tuesday, while Serbian authorities and his legal team played a cat-and-mouse game over his extradition.

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Hamas warned its Fatah rivals on Tuesday that a crackdown against the Islamist group by forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could spark a revolt in the occupied West Bank.

BANGKOK, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Three Thai cabinet ministers facing a criminal lawsuit will stay in their jobs for now, pending advice from the government's legal experts, one of the ministers said on Tuesday.

NICOSIA, Tue Jul 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Peace talks on ethnically- divided Cyprus this September offer possibly the best chance in years for a deal that has been eluding the island for decades, a senior United Nations envoy said on Tuesday.

JAKARTA, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Lawyers for three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings said on Tuesday they will seek a judicial review of Indonesia's method of executing convicts by firing squad.

MOSCOW, Tue Jul 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A senior Russian Foreign Ministry official on Tuesday shrugged off anti-Russian remarks by US presidential candidate John McCain and said Moscow could handle any unwanted turn in relations with Washington.

KINSHASA, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - More than 2,000 rape cases were recorded last month alone in Democratic Republic of Congo's violent North Kivu province, a new report said on Tuesday, highlighting the failure of a UN-backed deal to deliver peace.

JAKARTA, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Sixteen fishermen have died in Indonesia's Papua province since the weekend and 93 have been hospitalised after drinking a traditional liquor, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

ISLAMABAD, Tue Jul 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Indian and Pakistani troops traded more fire in the disputed Kashmir region on Tuesday, following a 16-hour clash, military officials said, making it the worst violation of a 2003 ceasefire.

COLOMBO, Tue Jul 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops killed 34 Tamil Tiger rebels in fresh fighting in the north of the island, the military said on Tuesday, as government forces continue their push against the rebels' northern stronghold.

BEIJING, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - For months, Chinese authorities have been publicising the threat from separatist militants in the northwest region of Xinjiang, saying members of its Muslim, Uighur minority were bent on disrupting the Beijing Olympics.

WASHINGTON, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama's highly publicized foreign trip does not appear to have increased confidence in his ability to be president and may have helped energize supporters of Republican John McCain, according to a poll published on Tuesday.

PRETORIA, Tue Jul 29, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday denied that talks between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition MDC had hit deadlock and said they were "doing very well".

ABOARD THE METROPOLIA PLATFORM, Russia, Tue Jul 29,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Russian explorers plunged to the bottom of the world's deepest lake on Tuesday in a show of Moscow's resurgent ambitions to set new records in science.