AFGHANISTAN

U.S. President Barack Obama is likely to hear Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah air his worries about the festering Arab-Israeli conflict and rising Iranian influence when he visits Riyadh next week.

The global economic downturn has aggravated human rights violations and distracted attention from abuses, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Boeing Co’s wholly-owned Insitu on Wednesday said it has reached its first $25 million contract for its ScanEagle SAUV vehicle for the Canadian government for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) operation in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Congress has started work on a broad overhaul of the healthcare system in a rare spirit of optimism, but brewing battles over its cost, scope and structure could still scuttle hopes for a solution.

Gunmen attacked a police headquarters in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, setting off a car-bomb that killed at least 22 people in what the government said was revenge for an offensive against the Taliban.

A U.S. air strike in western Afghanistan early this month was a disproportionate use of force that killed 97 civilians and no more than two Taliban fighters, an Afghan rights watchdog said in a report on Tuesday.

India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN have revived merger talks to create a $61 billion telecoms giant spanning Africa, Asia and the Middle East a year after their previous attempt foundered over who would control the combined entity.

Heavy flooding and landslides have killed 94 people and left thousands of families homeless in northern Afghanistan since May 20, the United Nations said on Monday.

Pakistani soldiers were moving from house to house on Monday as they battled militants in the main town in the Swat valley and were expected to take at least a week to secure it, the military said.

The United Nations launched an appeal on Friday for $543 million for more than 2 million people displaced by fighting in northwest Pakistan, where officials said villagers were turning against the Taliban.

New York's mayor and police chief sought to calm Jewish worshipers on Thursday, the morning after authorities said they foiled a plot to blow up two synagogues and simultaneously shoot down military planes.

President Barack Obama on Thursday will discuss his plan for closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in an effort to stop a revolt by lawmakers concerned that some of the detainees could be set free in the United States.

India said on Wednesday it has given Pakistan new information relating to the November attack on Mumbai, seeking to push investigation into an assault that New Delhi says was carried out by Pakistan-based militants.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has no plan to install former U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as chief executive of his country, a spokesman said on Tuesday, denying a report in the New York Times.

Aerospace and defense company shares on Monday fell as Goldman Sachs analyst upgraded aerospace sector and downgraded defense cautiously as spending expected to peak next year.

Pakistan's army will finish its offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat valley and ensure peace, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said on Monday as he rallied the support of political parties.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will stress the need for urgency in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions when he meets U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, a senior Netanyahu adviser said.

Iran should engage with the United States and negotiate over its nuclear program, Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a magazine interview released on Saturday.

U.S. air strikes earlier this month killed 140 villagers, an Afghan government investigation concluded on Saturday, putting Kabul starkly at odds with the U.S. military's account.

Pakistani soldiers are closing in on the main town in the Taliban bastion of Swat, the army said on Saturday, in an offensive that has driven more than a million people from their homes.

Taliban fighters are shaving off their beards and trying to flee from a Pakistani army offensive in their Swat bastion, the military said on Friday, as it relaxed a curfew to allow civilians to get out.