UNITED NATIONS

Youssou N'Dour is running for president of Senegal. The singer will try to capture the youth vote in an effort to upset the 85-year-old incumbent Abdoulaye Wade.

Youssou N'Dour, the Senegalese music star, has said he will stand in the presidential election scheduled for late February.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators made no breakthrough during their first high-level discussions in more than a year Tuesday, but agreed to hold further talks in Amman on a confidential basis, Jordan's foreign minister said.

Gathering in the Jordanian capital on Tuesday, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have come together in an effort to jumpstart long-stalled negotiations, the first face-to-face meeting in more than a year.

The tiny central African nation of Rwanda elected the world's first women-dominated legislature.

Saying the Korean peninsula was at a turning point, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Monday urged North Korea to embrace a new era by using its new change of government head to transform Korean ties.

More violence in South Sudan as two ethnic groups resume an old battle. Around 1,000 people have died in recent months and the latest assault on a town has overwhelmed the United Nations.

As violence persists, and gunfire continues to threaten civilian lives, a pan-Arab body called Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of Arab League monitors in Syria, saying President Bashar al-Assad's government maintains violence despite their presence.

Iran symbolically threatened the U.S. and Israel on two fronts Monday: the testing of new long-range rockets and the production of a nuclear fuel rod.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet this week after more than a year of deadlock in peacemaking, officials said Sunday, but both sides played down prospects of any imminent resumption of talks.

An Arab League advisory body called for the immediate withdrawal of Arab monitors from Syria, where eight more people were reported killed on Sunday, saying their mission was allowing Damascus to cover up unabated violence and abuses.

North Korea called on its people to rally behind new leader Kim Jong Un and protect him as human shields while working to solve the burning issue of food shortages by adhering to the policies of his late father, Kim Jong Il.

Iran dismissed on Sunday the United States' move to impose new sanctions on financial institutions dealing with the Islamic state's central bank over the country's disputed nuclear program, the Students news agency reported.

Iran said it had delayed its promised long-range missile tests in the Persian Gulf on Saturday and signaled it was ready for fresh talks with the West on its disputed nuclear program.

At least 10 people have died in clashes between activists and Syrian forces in the Damascus area, as troops fired nail bombs to disperse throngs of anti-government demonstrators gathered in cities across Syria Friday.

With a battalion of combat troops headed to South Sudan, is another ethnic conflict beginning in the war torn nation?

The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled.

The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled.

The newly-independent country of South Sudan has accused its erstwhile compatriots, Sudan, of killing 17 South Sudanese civilians, in airstrikes aimed at the border state of Bahr el-Ghazal on Thursday.

Syrian security forces shot dead 25 people on Thursday, including in cities being visited by Arab League monitors to check whether President Bashar al-Assad is keeping a pledge to end a crackdown on popular unrest.

A team of Arab League monitors will begin its third day of observation Thursday by visiting three more Syrian cities, following the Syrian government's announcement that it had released 755 prisoners and the observers' leader saying he had seen nothing frightening during an initial trip to the violence-wracked city of Homs.