AFP - Wire News

BRUSSELS (AFP) - European Union nations sealed agreement on Thursday to revamp their farm support policy with increases in milk quotas, cuts in subsidies for production and more support for eco-friendly projects.

PARIS (AFP) - Governments scrambled to cushion the impact of the finance crisis Thursday with France launching a sovereign wealth fund and China unveiling a jobs protection plan as the car industry made huge new cuts.

PARIS (AFP) - Take a walk through a supermarket in any wealthy nation and the promise of omega-3 health benefits screams off food products from bread to milk to juice. But are consumers getting the superfood they paid for?

LIMA (AFP) - Top officials from the Asia-Pacific region were Thursday to urge joint efforts to overcome the world economic crisis and try to breathe new life into stalled global trade talks.

PARIS (AFP) - French judicial officials charged a longtime comrade-in-arms of Rwanda's president over an assassination in the run-up to the 1994 genocide, as anti-European protests unfolded in Kigali.

TOKYO (AFP) - Asian stocks tumbled Thursday as global economic gloom deepened following a plunge in Japanese exports and a warning from the Federal Reserve that the United States could be in recession next year.

BANGKOK, (AFP) - One Thai protester was killed and 22 wounded Thursday in a blast at a Bangkok demonstration site, police said, raising fears of an upsurge in political violence after a recent lull.

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - Barack Obama picked former Senate leader Tom Daschle to lead his high-risk drive to end the US healthcare crisis and stocked his White House staff with loyal campaign aides.

LIMA (AFP) - APEC leaders meeting in Peru are to push to revive moribund global trade talks by the end of the year as a way of combating the world economic crisis, officials here have said.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Online US dating service eHarmony.com has agreed to set up a website for gays and lesbians seeking partners after being accused of discrimination by a gay man in New Jersey state.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Astronauts from the shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday began to outfit the International Space Station with new equipment, as part of plans to expand the orbiting lab's living quarters, NASA said.

PARIS (AFP) - French judicial officials on Wednesday charged a longtime comrade-in-arms of Rwanda's president over an assassination in the run-up to the 1994 genocide, as anti-European protests unfolded in Kigali.

LIMA (AFP) - Climate change is fading as a priority in the Pacific Rim as the gloomy state of the global economy takes precedence, a survey of opinion leaders showed Wednesday.

BERLIN (AFP) - The European Commission is planning a 130-billion-euro (163-billion-dollar) economic stimulus programme, a spokeswoman for the German economy ministry said Wednesday.

DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Zawahiri ridiculed US president-elect Barack Obama as a "house negro" and warned him against sending more troops to Afghanistan, in an Internet audio message released on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US consumer prices plunged a record 1.0 percent in October amid an accelerating global financial crisis, government data showed Wednesday.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - German solar energy company SolarWorld unveiled on Wednesday a surprise billion-euro (1.26-billion-dollar) takeover bid for Opel, a unit of US General Motors, which would create the "first green European car company."

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Federal Reserve Wednesday acknowledged the possibility of a US recession into 2009, adding to fear over the sputtering global economy as American and European automakers begged for government help.

MOGADISHU, (AFP) - Russia announced Thursday it would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, as the Saudi owners of the Sirius Star negotiated with the pirates holding their oil tanker.

HAVANA (AFP) - China's President Hu Jintao on Wednesday was to wrap up a landmark visit to Cuba where he brought millions of dollars in aid and promises of closer trade ties.