UK-World Summary

Palin resigning as Alaska governor

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sarah Palin, the brash, deeply conservative governor of Alaska who crashed onto the U.S. national political scene last year as the Republican candidate for U.S. vice president, announced abruptly on Friday she was resigning as governor. In a rambling statement to the media, in which she took no questions, Palin, 45, indicated she wanted to extend her influence in U.S. politics and some analysts said she appeared to be laying the ground for a run at the presidency in 2012.

North Korea defies U.S. with new missile launches

SEOUL - North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles on Saturday, South Korea's defence ministry said, in an act of defiance towards the United States that further stoked regional tensions already high due to its nuclear test in May. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the missiles test-fired were "Scud-type," marking an escalation of recent sabre-rattling by the reclusive North, which has fired several non-ballistic, short-range missile since the May 25 nuclear test.

U.N.'s Ban denied Suu Kyi meeting

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday he was "deeply disappointed" that military-ruled Myanmar's top general had rejected his request to meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Ban, who was made to wait overnight for the decision, said he pressed junta supremo Than Shwe but was told that Suu Kyi was on trial and the regime did not want to be seen to interfere with the judicial process.

Hardline Iran editor calls for Mousavi to face trial

TEHRAN - A newspaper editor seen as close to Iran's top authority said on Saturday defeated election candidate Mirhossein Mousavi and a former pro-reform president had committed "terrible crimes" which should be tried in court. In a commentary published in his hardline Kayhan daily, editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari suggested Mousavi and his supporters in last month's disputed election had acted on the instructions of the United States.

OAS set to suspend Honduras as it renounces charter

TEGUCIGALPA - The Organisation of American States prepared to suspend Honduras on Saturday after a caretaker government refused to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya and defiantly renounced the OAS charter in an apparent pre-emptive move. The measure by Honduras to distance itself from the hemispheric group came after its rulers rejected an OAS demand to restore Zelaya, who was ousted by troops in Central America's worst political crisis since the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.

Pakistani forces attack militants near crash site

KALLAY, Pakistan - Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked Taliban militants on Saturday in a northwestern region where a military helicopter crashed the previous day killing 26 soldiers on board, a government official said. Fighting has intensified sharply in northwest Pakistan over the past two months since the army went on the offensive to push back an expanding insurgency that raised fears for the stability of the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

Sudan police search for kidnapped aid workers

KHARTOUM - Sudanese security services were searching Saturday for two kidnapped female aid workers, one Ugandan and one Irish, taken from their compound in Darfur, the women's employer said. Armed men seized the two workers for the Irish humanitarian group Goal from their base in the north Darfur town of Kutum on Friday evening, in the third abduction of foreign aid staff in the territory in four months.

Crew onboard hijacked ship are "desperate" - report

BERLIN - The 24 hostages on board a German ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates in April have no more water, food or medicine, a German weekly reported, citing comments emailed by the captain of the ship. The 20,000-tonne container vessel, Hansa Stavanger, was captured about 400 miles off the southern Somali port of Kismayu on April 4.

Nine Chechen police killed in Russia's Ingushetia

MOSCOW - Nine Chechen policemen sent to crush an insurgency in the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia were gunned down Saturday, Interfax reported, intensifying the cycle of violence now unfolding in the region. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov ordered his troops across the border into Ingushetia to avenge a suicide bomb attack against fellow Kremlin appointee in the region, Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who is fighting for his life in hospital.

Madagascar president to ask EU to maintain aid

ANTANANARIVO have already suspended non-emergency assistance since Rajoelina, 35, ousted Marc Ravalomanana and set up an interim government in March.