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WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday backed a key Palestinian demand on the borders of a future state with Israel as part of his vision for a Middle East peace deal and sought to shape political change convulsing the region.
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BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON - European leaders raced on Friday to nominate a successor for fallen IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn before a G8 summit in France next week, with French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in pole position.
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SANAA - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Friday for early elections in an apparent bid to stave off Gulf and Western pressure to leave office, as thousands rallied for and against his three-decade rule.
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistan's Taliban said on Friday it had attacked a U.S. consulate convoy in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, the latest assault in a surge of violence since U.S. forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden this month.
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AMMAN - Thousands of people demonstrated across Syria on Friday calling for freedom in defiance of a military crackdown that has killed hundreds, witnesses and activists said.
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WASHINGTON/TRIPOLI - Only Muammar Gaddafi's exit from power will allow Libya a democratic transition and the clock is ticking on his four-decade rule, U.S. President Barack Obama said.
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PARIS - France is caught between denial, rage and grief at the fall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, with many gutted Socialist supporters clutching at conspiracy theories over the IMF chief's arrest for alleged attempted rape.
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NEW DELHI - An Indian court jailed the daughter of a key government ally on Friday after charging her with handling a ${esc.dollar}47 million bribe in the country's biggest corruption case and raising uncertainty about her party's future in the ruling coalition.
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MADRID - Spanish youth vowed on Friday to continue demonstrating against unemployment and mainstream politics, and the government thought twice about enforcing a ban on election weekend protests that could provoke clashes.
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JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's ANC has taken the most votes in local government elections but big gains by the main opposition DA show voters' anger with corruption in the ruling party and its failure to provide basic services, analysts said on Friday.
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SEOUL - North Korea's iron ruler Kim Jong-il made a surprise visit to China on Friday, South Korean media reported, amid a series of confusing reports about who was involved and the purpose of the trip.
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KHARTOUM - Sudan's northern army accused the South's forces on Friday of attacking a convoy in the contested Abyei region, and threatened to retaliate, escalating a dispute that looms over plans for the South's independence.
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DUEKOUE - Thousands of cocoa farmers who fled their fields during five months of conflict in Ivory Coast are too afraid of ethnic reprisals to go home, and many fear their plantations are either looted or rotting.
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