IRAQ

The U.S. military formally ends combat operations in Iraq on Tuesday as President Barack Obama seeks to fulfil a promise to end the war despite persistent instability and attacks that kill dozens at a time.

President Barack Obama said on Sunday the U.S. economy was expanding, but not quickly enough, and there was no magic bullet that will fix its problems.

U.S. President Barack Obama's message this weekend that Iraq would chart its own course may have been welcome news for war-weary Americans, but it has fuelled anxieties about the future among Iraqis.

Computer equipment worth $1.9 million which the U.S. military says was a gift for Iraqi schoolchildren but was auctioned off for less than $50,000 was sold legally, Iraq's customs authority said Sunday.

Far-right protesters hurled bricks and smoke bombs on Saturday as riot police kept them apart from anti-racism demonstrators.

Investigations into spying allegations against three American hikers detained in Iran will be completed soon, Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said in a news report on Saturday.

President Barack Obama said on Saturday Iraq could chart its own course and told Americans the drawdown of U.S. troops helped fulfil a promise he made during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Australia's opposition leader denied on Friday he was manoeuvring to force the country back to the ballot box after a weekend election delivered a hung parliament, with independents holding the balance of power.

Russia's severe drought may cut its grain output by 40 percent this year, a leading analyst said on Monday, as Russia's weather service forecast short-lived rains in some areas which could help planting for next year. Leading Russian agricultural analyst SovEcon said it cut its 2010 grain crop forecast to 59.5-63.5 million tons from a previous forecast of 70-75 million tons, a day after Russia's first grain export ban for 11 years kicked in.

Demand for oil will continue to grow slowly in 2011, when world economic expansion is projected to be slightly lower than this year's, OPEC said on Friday.

The Pentagon demanded on Thursday that whistle-blower web site WikiLeaks immediately hand over about 15,000 secret Afghan war records it had not yet published and erase material it had already put online.

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A total 142 Australian troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan were discharged from the defence force for suffering mental trauma.

DuPont forecast 2010 earnings well above expectations on Tuesday and said its second-quarter profit nearly tripled as the rebounding global economy continued to fuel the company's recovery, sending it shares up 4.6 percent.

Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader mocked President Barack Obama for voicing confidence over victory in Afghanistan, in an Internet message posted on Monday.

An Al Qaeda magazine posted online with articles such as make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom is a bid to recruit Americans to launch attacks in the United States, a senior U.S. lawmaker said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter, will supply full contracted volumes of crude oil in August to at least two Asian term buyers, steady with July levels, industry sources said on Monday.

Iraq's oil minister said on Saturday he sees no impact from the massive oil spill at a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico on Iraq's current or future projects to develop its giant oilfields.

Britain's ambassador to Lebanon said she regretted any offence caused by her blog praising Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, an early spiritual mentor of Hezbollah who died on Sunday.

His face wracked by age and his voice rasping after decades of chain-smoking coarse tobacco, the former long-time Russian Minister of nuclear energy and veteran Soviet physicist Viktor Mikhailov knows just how to fix BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

A global press freedom watchdog called on the Emir of Kuwait Saturday to intervene for the release of a blogger who is on trial, accused of insulting the ruler and inciting against the government.