BERLIN (AFP) - Just as Germany comes under pressure to do more to jumpstart the world's third biggest economy, party politics is rearing its ugly head and undermining Berlin's efforts to weather a sharp global slowdown.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Treasury has said it would take time for the world's largest economy to begin to recover despite a massive financial bailout, amid growing fears of a global recession.

MOGADISHU, (AFP) - The operators of a hijacked Saudi super-tanker carrying 100 million dollars of oil were waiting Wednesday for further contact from the Somali bandits who staged their biggest act of piracy yet.

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - A Texas grand jury has issued indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney and former attorney general Alberto Gonzalez over abuse at privately run prisons, court documents showed.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US president-elect Barack Obama has named longtime lawyer Eric Holder to be attorney general, which if confirmed would make him the first African-American ever to hold the post, US media said.

PARIS (AFP) - The pioneering transplant of a windpipe stripped of its cells and seeded with recipient stem cells has given a 30-year old Colombian woman a new lease on life, according to a study released Wednesday.

HAVANA (AFP) - China's President Hu Jintao made a landmark visit to Cuba Tuesday, bearing millions of dollars in aid and promises of closer future trade ties.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Treasury said on Tuesday it would take time for the world's largest economy to begin to recover despite a massive financial bailout amid growing fears of a global recession.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US economy will face a "catastrophic collapse" if the government does not bail out the automotive industry, the head of General Motors told lawmakers Tuesday.

KAYNA, DR Congo (AFP) - Rebels announced Tuesday they would withdraw from two fronts to give peace a "new chance" in strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as government forces faced new charges of looting.

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AFP) - US president-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed he would "engage vigorously" in global climate change talks and that denial was no longer an acceptable response to global warming.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Food distribution to half the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million population resumed on Tuesday, although the United Nations warned aid supplies would soon run out unless Israel eases its crippling blockade.

MOGADISHU (AFP) - A hijacked Saudi super-tanker, carrying 100 million dollars of oil, anchored Tuesday off a notorious Somali pirate port as sea gangs struck again and seized a Hong Kong cargo ship.

WASHINGTON, Nov 18, 2008 (AFP) - Two astronauts from NASA's space shuttle Endeavour stepped outside the International Space Station Tuesday on the first of four planned spacewalks of the 15-day mission.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The UN's highest court will hear a genocide claim lodged against Serbia by neighboring Croatia for alleged ethnic cleansing committed during the Croatian war of the early 1990s, judges ruled Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - US president-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed he would "engage vigorously" in global climate change talks and that denial was no longer an acceptable response to global warming.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The 700 billion dollar US financial bailout package is "not a panacea" to cure economic woes, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told lawmakers Tuesday, amid growing calls for help for other sectors.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Belgian brewing giant InBev on Tuesday announced it had completed the takeover of Anheuser-Busch to create the world's biggest brewer.

LONDON (AFP) - Barclays, the second-biggest British bank, said Tuesday that investors from the oil-rich Gulf had agreed to amend terms of their proposed capital injection worth billions of dollars.

TOKYO (AFP) - Embattled US carmaker Ford said Tuesday it will sell a 20 percent stake in its Japanese partner Mazda for 540 million dollars to raise cash.