International

By Ronald Baygents, KUNA, Washington : Declaring that he was "not President Bush," Republican presidential nominee John McCain delivered what analysts agreed was his best performance on Wednesday night in the last of three debates between the Arizona senator and his rival, Barack Obama. Whether that was enough to close the big lead Obama has over McCain in recent polls leading up to the November 4 election was an open question. A CNN "instant poll" of debate watchers showed 58 percent viewed the performance by Democratic nominee Obama as favorable compared to 31 percent for McCain.

By DPA, Washington: US President Barack Obama is to address the US on the conflict in Libya in a speech Monday at a military university in Washington, the White House said.

By DPA, Brussels : The European Commission, which is the European Union (EU)'s executive arm, Thursday cleared a French plan for re-financing troubled lenders, describing it as an "appropriate" system for injecting confidence in the country's financial markets. Liquidity is to be provided by a special 265-billion-euro ($337 billion) fund guaranteed by the state. The Commission is expected to approve the second part of France's financial rescue package, on recapitalization, some time next week, officials said.

By Jaideep Sarin, IANS, L'Aquila (Italy) : Ground security for the G8-G5 summit in this town and its surrounding areas has been put on top priority with the Italian government hosting 27 heads of states. Nearly 10,000 security personnel have been assigned around Coppito, the main venue of the summit.

By IANS,

By DPA, New York : US stocks edged higher Monday, while President Barack Obama said the need for hundreds of billions of dollars in Wall Street bail-outs was easing as the economy recovers from recession. In a speech at the historic Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, Obama said there were signs the US economy had turned a corner, and said the government was beginning to extricate itself from a series of dramatic interventions in financial markets.

By Xinhua Kuala Lumpur : Malaysia will build a nuclear monitoring facility, the first one in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), at a location in Bukit Ibam near Muadzam Shah, Pahang state, it was announced Saturday by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. The facility, worth 100 million ringgit ($29.41 million), will be the 16th of its kind in the world. "If all goes well, Malaysia will become the first developing country to have its own nuclear monitoring facility and the first in ASEAN," Razak said at a 'Leaders Meet the People' function.

By DPA, New York : Half of Zimbabwe's 12 million people would require food assistance and some households have already cut back on the number of meals a day, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday. Ban said in a statement that the news from Zimbabwe was "distressing" because of the collapse of health, sanitation and education services in addition to an escalating outbreak of cholera.

By IANS, Hanoi : Vietnam Friday kicked off a 10-day programme for celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of the country's capital city of Hanoi.

By IRNA London : British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that he was "deeply shocked" at Thursday's assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi. "My thoughts and sincere condolences go to Ms Bhutto's family at this terrible time, as well as to the families of all those who lost their lives in this senseless attack," Miliband said. Bhutto was killed in a presumed suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi when gunfire and an explosion occurred.

By Prensa Latina, Caracas : Tensions between Caracas and Bogota are rising after Colombia signed a defence pact with Washington to set up US military bases in Colombia, officials said. Although the details of the agreement were not made public yet, a statement issued by the US embassy in Bogota said Monday it would enable the US soldiers to move freely in the country. Earlier the US soldiers were required to stay put in their respective bases.

By Xinhua Jakarta : Two Indonesian scientists have discovered a new bird species named Togian white-eye (Zosterops Somadikartai) in the country's Togian Islands, media reports said Saturday. The newly-found bird is small, has green plumage and a red beak. It is very active and moves in small flocks, the Jakarta Post quoted the scientists as saying. However, unlike its closest relatives and despite its name 'white-eye', red feathers circle the bird's eyes and its beak is intense red.

By DPA, Seoul : US President Barack Obama's special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth ended his visit to North Korea Thursday. Bosworth had arrived in the Stalinist state Tuesday tasked with persuading North Korea to restart six-party talks aimed at ending the communist state's nuclear weapons programme. The talks involve South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Russia, the US and China.

By KUNA, Brussels : The North Atlantic Council (NAC) led by NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is visiting Kosovo Tuesday. The NAC is the senior decision-making body of NATO, comprising the 26 NATO ambassadors. NATO has around 16,000 peacekeepers under its KFOR mission in Kosovo which declared independence from Serbia last February. During the visit, NAC will meet with the head of KFOR, Lt. Gen. Giuseppe Emilio Gay, and with the Kosovo authorities. They will also meet with leaders of the Serb community in Kosovo, according to an NATO statement here today.

By Fakir Hassen Johannesburg, Nov 5 (IANS) Buoyed by growing sponsorship from Indian companies here, several South African Indian community organisations have hosted Diwali celebrations last weekend, with more set for the festival of lights Friday. Last Friday evening saw thousands of Indians, mainly Gujaratis, flocking to the Gandhi Hall in Lenasia, the sprawling Indian suburb south of here, to celebrate Navratri with the country's first-ever Samu Garba, sponsored by ICICI Bank.

By IANS, London : For the first time in the world, Britain is planning to conduct annual reviews of doctors to weed out poor performers and make their licences to practice renewable every five years. A report by Britain's Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson, "Medical Revalidation: Principles and Next Steps", outlines how senior doctors will be appointed to assess the competence of general practitioners (GPs) and hospital consultants in their area to ensure that patients' lives are not being put at risk.

By DPA London : The head of British Airways (BA) apologized Friday to thousands of travellers using the airline's exclusive new Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport as they faced a second day of chaos, with further delays, cancellations and lost luggage. "It was not our finest hour," Willie Walsh told Britain's BBC news network. "We clearly disappointed a number of people and we sincerely apologize." BA was doing all it could to make the terminal fully functional, he said.

By DPA

New York : Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates finally got his Harvard degree, more than 30 years after dropping out of the prestigious university to enter the software business and become the richest man in the world.