World News

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards force has replaced its commander for the greater Tehran area, its Web site said on Thursday.

Global food commodities prices are set to stay high in the medium term due to tight balance between supply and demand which can be easily rocked and trigger food price spikes similar to the 2007/08 crisis, agriculture experts say.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday warned the Russian elite that an upsurge of violence in the Muslim-dominated North Caucasus had become Russia's single biggest domestic problem.

A U.N. world food summit next week is likely to make little headway in the fight against hunger, with leaders simply pledging to boost agricultural aid to poor countries but setting no targets or deadlines for action.

Thirty-two people were killed after a truck carrying them to Angola's northern Uige province overturned, also injuring 42 other people, state-owned Radio Nacional de Angola said on Thursday.

Indonesian radicals plotted to crash an explosives-laden car into a convoy carrying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono just weeks after deadly attacks on Jakarta hotels in July, a suspect said on Thursday.

Palestinian elections due on Jan. 24 were effectively cancelled on Thursday after the independent Central Election Commission recommended postponement, saying conditions would not permit a fair vote.

President Dmitry Medvedev warned Russia's opposition in his annual address on Thursday not to use democracy as a cover to "destabilise the state and split society".

Insurgents may step up attacks in Iraq before a parliamentary election in January, the government said on Thursday, acknowledging the fears of many Iraqis who are only just starting to enjoy better security.

Emboldened by a rousing welcome in Cambodia, Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is rallying supporters from just over the border, upping the ante in Thailand's political crisis.

The wife of one of two Swiss businessmen prevented from leaving Libya for 16 months has appealed to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to allow the pair to return home on humanitarian grounds.

A U.N. world food summit next week is likely to make little headway in the fight against hunger, with leaders simply pledging to boost agricultural aid to poor countries but setting no targets or deadlines for action.

President Dmitry Medvedev called on Russia on Thursday to refocus its economy away from Soviet-era energy and heavy industry towards information technology, telecommunications and space.

U.S. President Barack Obama can add another accolade to his already long list of awards after being named the world's most powerful person in an inaugural ranking by Forbes magazine.

Following are the highlights of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's annual address to the federal assembly on Thursday:

A declaration to be made at next week's world food summit in Rome will not mention a target to eradicate hunger by 2025 nor a commitment to spend $44 billion a year in agricultural aid, according to a final draft seen by Reuters.

For centuries, farmers like Berhanu Gudina have eked out a living in Ethiopia's central lowlands, tending tiny plots of maize, wheat or barley amid the vastness of the lush green plains.

Colombia brought what it called threats of war from neighboring Venezuela to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday after Hugo Chavez, leader of the neighboring country, told his army to get ready to fight.

Bill Gates said on Wednesday he believes Wall Street pay is "often too high" and that U.S. government ownership of American International Group Inc worries him because it has devalued the giant insurer.

Violence and sexual attacks against women and children in eastern Congo would increase if the United Nations ended its support for the Congolese army due to concerns over its human rights record, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday.