UK-World Summary

Ousted Honduran leader mulls return after OAS ruling

TEGUCIGALPA - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya tried to rally support to fly home after the Organisation of American States suspended the country because its caretaker government refused to reinstate him. The interim government said it would not allow Zelaya in the country.

Earn our trust or go, Afghan villagers tell Marines

SORKHDOZ, Afghanistan - The mullah's message was blunt. We don't trust you and if you don't earn our trust, our first meeting will be our last. With that, he stood abruptly and walked out of his first "shura," or council meeting, with U.S. Marines.

An Iranian clerical group says vote result "invalid"

TEHRAN - A pro-reform Iranian clerical group said on Sunday the outcome of last month's presidential vote was "invalid," even though Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has upheld the result. In a sign of a deepening rift among Shi'ite clerics, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers also called for the release of Iranians arrested in protests after the hardline president was declared winner of the June 12 vote.

Pakistani jets pound Taliban on Afghan border

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani warplanes bombed Taliban positions in the northwest Sunday, killing at least five insurgents, residents said, as militants distributed leaflets warning area tribesmen not to rise up against them. Fighting has intensified in northwest Pakistan over the past two months, since the military went on the offensive to push back an expanding militant movement that had raised fears for the stability of the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

Obama heads to Moscow for "reset" summit

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama heads to Moscow on Sunday promising a far-reaching effort to "reset" U.S.-Russia relations that hit a post-Cold War low under the Bush administration. Obama is expected to clinch summit deals on the outlines of a new nuclear arms pact and improved cooperation in the Afghan war effort, but deep divisions will remain over U.S. missile defence, NATO expansion and the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.

North Korea may have shot mid-range missile

SEOUL - The U.S. pointman for sanctions on North Korea begins talks in Malaysia on Sunday, possibly on links banks have to the North's finances, while a report said Pyongyang may have shot mid-range missiles in a series fired on Saturday. North Korea launched seven ballistic missiles, South Korea's defence ministry said, in an act of defiance towards the United States on its Independence Day, further stoking regional tensions already high due to Pyongyang's nuclear test in May.

Nigeria militants attack Shell, amnesty hopes fade

LAGOS said in an emailed statement it had attacked a Shell oil well head in the Cawthorne Channel at about 0200 GMT, again dashing hopes that the amnesty offer would buy a period of calm.

Irish team in Sudan to help free kidnapped aid staff

KHARTOUM - Irish diplomats and negotiators flew in to Khartoum on Sunday to help in efforts to free two female aid workers kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region. The two women from Irish aid group GOAL, one Ugandan and one Irish, were abducted from their compound in the north Darfur town of Kutum late on Friday -- the third time foreign humanitarian workers have been seized in Darfur in four months.

Chinese floods kill 15, displace 550,000

BEIJING - Flooding and heavy rain in southern China have forced 550,000 people to evacuate their homes and killed at least 15, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. The heavy rains that have raged for four days across southern provinces have destroyed houses, flooded crops, cut power, damaged roads and caused rivers to overflow.

Crime and crisis focus of Bulgarian election

SOFIA - Bulgarians voted on Sunday in a parliamentary election they hope will restart reforms to combat endemic corruption and heal an economy severely damaged by the global crisis. Opinion polls show the Socialist party that leads the current coalition government is likely to lose due to recession and a climate of impunity for crime bosses and politicians that has turned Bulgaria into the black sheep of the European Union.