UK-World Summary
Obama wraps up Afghan review, eyes final options
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is wrapping up deliberations on war strategy in Afghanistan and is considering final Pentagon options that include sending about 30,000 more troops, officials said on Saturday. A deployment of that size would be less than the 40,000-troop increase recommended by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, but more than many of Obama's Democratic allies may support.
Afghanistan hits back at U.N. and foreign criticism
KABUL - Afghanistan accused the United Nations on Saturday of intervening in the formation of President Hamid Karzai's next cabinet, less than a week into his new term. Since being re-elected in a controversial poll in which a fraud investigation rejected more than a million of his votes, Karzai has been under intense pressure from his Western backers to introduce swift anti-corruption reforms.
House passes bill to overhaul U.S. healthcare system
WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives approved a sweeping healthcare reform bill on Saturday, backing the biggest health policy changes in four decades and handing President Barack Obama a crucial victory. On a narrow 220-215 vote, the House endorsed a bill that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.
Honduran rivals signal new bid to solve crisis
TEGUCIGALPA - Honduras' ousted president and de facto leader gave signs they would try again on Saturday to form a unity government to guide the country out of a four-month crisis after the process collapsed a day earlier. President Manuel Zelaya, a refugee in his own country in the Brazilian Embassy, early on Friday declared dead a pact to end the crisis, while de facto leader Roberto Micheletti said he would form a new government without Zelaya's participation.
Lebanon's Hariri set to form government with Hezbollah
BEIRUT - Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri will announce a new national unity government to include Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah in the next few days, politicians said on Saturday. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since Hariri led his coalition, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to victory in a June parliamentary election against Hezbollah and its allies.
Iran says over 100 people detained at anti-U.S. rally
TEHRAN - Iranian police detained more than 100 people for "disturbing public order" during a rally this week to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday. Security forces clashed with supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when an annual state-organised rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy turned violent.
China's Wen seeks to boost Africa ties
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt in loans and credit at the last summit in Beijing in 2006.
Haiti's new prime minister wins confirmation
PORT-AU-PRINCE - The lower house of Haiti's parliament confirmed Jean-Max Bellerive as prime minister on Saturday, clearing the way for the economist and veteran politician to form a new government. An overwhelming majority of members in the Chamber of Deputies ratified Bellerive as the new premier of the impoverished Caribbean nation. He was appointed to the position by President Rene Preval last week.
SPECIAL REPORT: In eastern Europe, people pine for socialism
BELENE, Bulgaria - In the dense forests of the idyllic Danube island of Persin, home to the endangered sea eagle and the pygmy cormorant, lie the ghastly remains of a communist-era death camp. Hundreds "enemies of the regime" perished from beatings, malnutrition and exhaustion in 1949-59 in Bulgaria's Belene concentration camp, where dead bodies were fed to pigs.
Study shows high cost of German reunification - report
BERLIN - As Germany prepares to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new study shows that some 1.3 trillion euros have been transferred from the west to rebuild the east, a newspaper reported on Saturday. The report by the Halle-based IWH research institute showed the net transfers from west to east -- a sum equivalent to over half Germany's total economic output in 2008 -- had "risen significantly" in the past decade, weekly Welt am Sonntag said.