World News

Indonesia's chief of detectives, whose role in a corruption scandal sparked a public outcry, has been moved aside to a "non-job", a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday sacked several senior generals over a series of explosions at an arms depot in central Russia this month in which 10 people were killed.

President Barack Obama told a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday that he had accepted Singh's invitation to visit India next year.

President Barack Obama sought to reassure Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday of his commitment to boosting U.S. ties with India even as his administration has set its rivals, China and Pakistan, as top priorities.

Australia took a step towards carbon trading on Tuesday when the opposition promised to support a revised government scheme, aiding the outlook for a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen next month.

Two Congolese militia leaders commanded forces that raped, killed and looted civilians in an attack that killed 200 people during the Congo war, a war crimes prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Autumn rains have soaked scorched parts of Texas, heralding the end of the worst drought on record in at least nine counties and bringing relief to the state's withered cattle industry.

Iraq will be unable to hold a national election in January as planned, a poll official said on Tuesday, heaping more uncertainty on a vote meant to cement democracy and pave the way for a partial U.S. troop withdrawal.

All four people on a civilian helicopter were killed on Tuesday when it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea off central Israel, police and rescue workers said.

U.S. President Barack Obama will announce his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan in days, concluding a 3-month review punctuated by differences in his administration and concerns about corruption in Kabul.

Wrangling over Iraq's general election has triggered political uproar and dismayed U.S. leaders eager to withdraw their troops but many Iraqis are more concerned with a ban on their beloved national soccer team.

Iran could consider sending its low-enriched uranium abroad, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, signalling a possible softening of its opposition to a plan aimed at easing Western concern over its nuclear ambitions.

A bomb attack in Salahuddin province damaged the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline more than four days ago and the damage will take up to four more days to fix, an Iraqi Oil Ministry official said on Tuesday.

A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck northeast of the South Pacific island nation of Tonga on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey said, but a destructive tsunami was not expected.

Norway opened on Tuesday the world's first osmotic power plant, which produces emissions-free electricity by mixing fresh water and sea water through a special membrane.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered on Tuesday an investigation into the sudden death of a jailed equity fund lawyer who was a leading witness in a tax fraud battle.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono faces mounting criticism over a graft scandal involving the main law enforcement agencies and the government's bailout of a small lender, Bank Century, last year.

The Philippines placed two southern provinces and a city under emergency rule on Tuesday after gunmen killed 46 people in a brutal election-related massacre that has shocked the country.

An Israeli prisoner exchange with Hamas has not yet been agreed and might not happen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday after a cabinet colleague predicted a breakthrough in the near future.

Australia's government gained bipartisan political backing on Tuesday for its revised carbon-trade plan, which will boost compensation to big carbon emitters, coal companies and electricity generators.