Top Stories - AFP

BISHKEK (AFP) - Rescuers raced to reach a remote village in Kyrgyzstan on Monday after a strong earthquake killed at least 72 people in a mountainous area near the border with China, officials said.

PARIS, (AFP) - Forty-two people including the son of late French president Francois Mitterrand and dozens of businessmen, politicians and public figures go on trial Monday over a vast "arms-to-Angola" scandal.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - French and German scientists credited with the discovery of the viruses behind AIDS and cervical cancer won Monday the Nobel Medicine Prize, the first of the prestigious awards to be announced.

BARCELONA (AFP) - Half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third probably face extinction, said an update Monday of the "Red List," the most respected inventory of biodiversity.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The battle over troubled lender Wachovia Corp. has heated up after bank Wells Fargo & Co. secured a court ruling overturning an earlier injunction halting their proposed merger.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Federal Reserve said Monday it would begin to pay interest on bank deposits for the first time and expand its refinancing operations for commercial banks to 600 billion dollars in a bid to increase liquidity.

LONDON (AFP) - Rafael Benitez said his Liverpool side's belief will be the key to their success this season as they slug it out for the English Premier League title.

BOSTON, (AFP) - Anaheim and Chicago fought off elimination Sunday as the Angels went the distance to beat Boston in a marathon contest and the White Sox batters broke out of a mini-slump to put Tampa's party on hold.

LISBON (AFP) - To some they are eyesores fit only to be painted over, to others they are legitimate works of art: a new 'museum' of graffiti has divided the residents of Lisbon's fashionable Bairro Alto district.

BERLIN (AFP) - Germany sealed a public-private rescue plan for the country's fourth biggest bank Sunday as the government extended a blanket guarantee for all personal bank deposits to avert panic withdrawals.

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (AFP) - Barack Obama hammered Republican White House rival John McCain Sunday for wanting to "turn the page" on the US economic crisis and engage in low-blow personal attacks a month from election day.

NABAKHTEVI, Georgia (AFP) - Russian forces in Georgia removed a first checkpoint Sunday and began dismantling others as part of an expected troop pull-back after August's war over the South Ossetia rebel region.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that Israel would strike archfoe Iran before it was able to develop nuclear weapons, in comments published on Sunday.

BARCELONA (AFP) - The world must act quickly if it is to brake an unprecedented die off of the Earth's animal and plant life that could have dire consequences for humans as well, top conservationists warned on Sunday.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - BNP Paribas announced Sunday that it is taking control of ailing finance group Fortis's operations in Belgium and Luxembourg, in a deal which will make Belgium the largest shareholder in the French bank.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US banking giant Citigroup attempted Sunday to freeze out rival Wells Fargo from a takeover battle for troubled lender Wachovia after being blindsided last week in its bid to complete a tie-up.

LONDON (AFP) - Nicolas Anelka ensured injury-ravaged Chelsea remain top of the Premier League as the France striker sealed his side's 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Sunday.

MANCHESTER (AFP) - Dirk Kuyt scored an injury-time winner as Liverpool fought from 2-0 down to claim a dramatic 3-2 victory against ten-man Manchester City at Eastlands on Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Hollywood directing legend Steven Spielberg is leaving his longtime partner Paramount Pictures to form a new Hollywood-based film venture worth 1.5 billion dollars with India's Reliance ADA Group, Paramount announced Sunday.

PARIS (AFP) - The leaders of Europe's four main economic powers vowed Saturday to protect fragile banks from the global financial crisis but insisted on sanctions against the chiefs of failed banks.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two US Blackhawk helicopters crashed in northern Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiyah late on Saturday while approaching landing, a US military spokesman said.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey said Saturday the destruction of separatist Kurdish rebels would take precedence over all other concerns after 15 soldiers and 23 militants died in clashes sparked by a rebel attack near the Iraqi border.

NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia (AFP) - Exactly one month before the presidential vote, Democrat Barack Obama Saturday accused Republican rival John McCain of scheming to deprive millions more Americans of life-saving health insurance.

MOSCOW (AFP) - The orbital path of the International Space Station (ISS) was successfully adjusted Saturday to accommodate the landing of the world's sixth space tourist in eight days time, Interfax reported citing Russian space programme officials.

BERLIN (AFP) - German bank Hypo Real Estate (HRE) said Saturday that a planned 35-billion-euro (48-billion-dollar) rescue had fallen through after the banking consortium involved pulled out of the deal.

BERLIN (AFP) - Europe's leading telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom, admitted Saturday that it has lost confidential data belonging to 17 million T-mobile clients.

STUTTGART, Germany (AFP) - Jelena Jankovic needed two pain-killing injections and nearly three hours to beat Venus Williams as Saturday's semi-final of Stuttgart's WTA event turned into a battle royal.

LONDON (AFP) - Manchester United maintained the pressure on English Premier League leaders Chelsea and Liverpool on Saturday as Arsenal avoided another embarrassing defeat.