AFP - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd flagged an increase in defence spending Wednesday as he warned the country's military must start preparing for an arms build-up in Asia and the Pacific.
AP - State-run Korea Development Bank said Wednesday it has ended talks with U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers over a possible stake in the troubled Wall Street institution.
Reuters - South African President Thabo Mbeki has
told the king of Swaziland that he expects to end his latest
mediation efforts in Zimbabwe by the end of this week,
Swaziland's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
AP - The Mexican government is urging the United States to release a US$400 million package of anti-crime aid approved by the U.S. Congress in June. -- read full article
AP - Israeli defense officials say the government has told all businessmen involved in military sales to Georgia to immediately cease visits to the former Soviet republic. -- read full article
AP - The commander of Russia's strategic missile forces has repeated warnings that Russian ballistic rockets could be aimed at U.S. missile defenses in Europe if the system is ever built, news agencies reported Wednesday. -- read full article
AP - The public-service TV ads deliver a cheerful, yet pointed, message to Muslims observing Ramadan's traditional dawn to dusk fast: "Don't overeat" when night comes. "Exercise and stay healthy."
AP - Two top al-Qaida operatives were among four foreign militants killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's volatile northwest, Pakistani intelligence officials said Wednesday.
AP - Hurricane Ike barreled across the warm, energizing waters of the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday on its way toward the Texas coast after crashing through Cuba's tobacco country and toppling aging Havana buildings.
AP - The world's biggest physics experiment has succeeded in its first major test as a beam of protons was successfully fired all the way around a 17-mile tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border.
AP - North Korea denied Wednesday that leader Kim Jong Il is seriously ill, granting a Japanese news outlet a rare chance to interview top officials who dismissed widespread reports questioning Kim's health.
Reuters - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il failed to
appear at a triumphal military parade on Tuesday celebrating
his state's 60th birthday, and a U.S. intelligence official
said he may have suffered a stroke.
AFP - Angola's former rebel movement and main opposition party UNITA was Tuesday facing up to a crushing electoral defeat in a landmark peacetime poll for the oil-rich African nation.
AP - Venezuela's aviation agency is criticizing a U.S. travel advisory informing travelers that the U.S. can't vouch for the security of flights departing Venezuela. -- read full article
AP - A performer with the famed Alvin Ailey dance troupe on Tuesday said he was twice forced to perform steps for Israeli airport security officers to prove his identity before he was permitted to enter the country.
