Iran ratchets up atom work despite sanctions threat

TEHRAN - Iran's president gave instructions on Sunday for the production of higher-grade nuclear reactor fuel, prompting the United States and Germany to threaten carefully targeted new sanctions against Tehran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement raised the stakes in Iran's dispute with the West, but he said talks were still possible on a nuclear swap offer by world powers designed to allay fears the Islamic Republic is making an atomic bomb.

Yanukovich wins Ukraine election -exit poll

KIEV - Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich has narrowly won Sunday's presidential election against Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, exit polls said. The National Exit Poll, a consortium partly funded by western embassies, said opposition leader Yanukovich had secured 48.7 percent of the vote against Tymoshenko's 45.5 percent. Another exit poll, by ICTV, said he won 49.8 percent of the vote against her 45.2 percent.

Yemen arrests embassy bomb threat suspect

DUBAI - Yemen has arrested a man suspected of threatening to bomb foreign embassies in the capital Sanaa and to assassinate Yemeni political and military leaders, state media reported on Sunday. In early January, the United States, Britain and France temporarily closed their Yemen embassies to the public due to concern over possible militant attacks.

Taliban, NATO prepare for big Helmand offensive

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan - Taliban militants are digging in ahead of a major NATO operation in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, in one of the biggest offensives in the eight-year-old war. U.S. Marines are set to launch an operation within days to take Marjah, an area of lush farmland criss-crossed by canals in the centre of Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province.

Incumbent declared winner in flawed Nigeria poll

AWKA, Nigeria - The incumbent governor of Nigeria's southeastern Anambra state was on Sunday declared the winner of an election which voters and candidates said had been marred by widespread irregularities. The polls on Saturday in one of Nigeria's most politically turbulent states are the first in a cycle of state and federal votes culminating in presidential elections due in April 2011.

Lebanon recovers crashed Ethiopian jet's black box

BEIRUT - Search teams retrieved on Sunday flight recorders belonging to an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed off the coast of Lebanon last month killing all 90 people aboard. Lebanese Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said navy commandos had also located parts of the fuselage of the plane, where most of the victims' bodies are believed trapped. Eight bodies were recovered.

NATO should be global security forum: Rasmussen

MUNICH, Germany - NATO should develop closer ties with China, India, Pakistan and Russia and become the forum for consultation on global security, the alliance's head said on Sunday, but a senior Russian politician reacted with scepticism. The four countries all had interests in stability in Afghanistan and could do more to help develop and assist the country, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

Israeli forces arrest two foreigners in West Bank

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israeli security forces made an incursion into a Palestinian city Sunday to arrest two foreign women belonging to an organisation involved in protests against Israel's West Bank barrier. Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the arrest of Spaniard Ariadna Jove Marti and Australian Bridgette Chappell in the city of Ramallah violated interim peace accords that gave Palestinians self-rule in parts of the West Bank.

Karzai demands halt to Afghan civilian casualties

MUNICH - President Hamid Karzai called on Sunday for a halt to military raids on Afghan villages by the international coalition forces and a complete end to civilian casualties. Civilian deaths and injuries inflicted during operations by international forces have caused deep anger among Afghans and analysts say they encourage people to join the Taliban insurgency.

Libyan court finds Swiss man not guilty: lawyer

TRIPOLI - A Libyan court found Swiss businessman Rachid Hamdani not guilty of the final charges against him on Sunday and his lawyer said he could soon return home after being stranded in Libya for a year and a half. The prosecution of Hamdani and fellow Swiss businessman Max Goeldi has ruptured ties between Libya and Switzerland and unsettled some of the foreign investors who flocked to oil exporter Libya after it emerged from international isolation.