ALGIERS (Gulfnews) Algeria will not scrap a national reconciliation policy aimed at ending 16 years of violence, despite continuing attacks by armed Islamist groups, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said on Saturday.

HANOI (AP) Thich Huyen Quang, the patriarch of an outlawed Buddhist church in Vietnam who spent more than two decades in and out of house arrest, died Saturday after months of ailing health. He was 87.

SEOUL (International Herald Tribune) South Korean police braced for yet another massive protest Saturday against U.S. beef imports, as pro-government groups planned a separate rally nearby calling for an end to weeks of often-violent anti-government demonstrations.

(BBC News) New evidence of vote-rigging in last month's presidential election in Zimbabwe has emerged in the form of a secret film made by a prison guard.

BOGOTA (Reuters) Colombia's rescue of Ingrid Betancourt shows Latin America's oldest insurgency is on the brink of defeat in its cocaine-financed war for control of the country, even though the group could take years to die out.

(Boston Globe) Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican whose unyielding conservatism and obstructionist tactics won him the nickname “Senator No” during his five terms on Capitol Hill, died in Raleigh, N.C., today.

TEHRAN (AFP) Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi warned the West on Thursday against launching a military attack against Iran or imposing economic sanctions over its contested nuclear program.

(Guardian) Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

THE HAGUE (AP) Prosecutors and judges celebrated the 10th anniversary of the International Criminal Court's founding document Thursday, but behind the scenes there was turmoil.

(BBC News) The ex-commander of Bosnian Muslim forces in Srebrenica, Naser Oric, has had his war crimes conviction quashed by the UN tribunal in The Hague.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) Aid for Haiti is falling short as the Caribbean country is buffeted by urgent needs to help feed its poor while developing domestic food production and jobs, a UN official said on Tuesday.

(AP) Turkey's deputy prime minister defended the ruling party in the country's top court Thursday against charges that it is steering the country toward Islamic rule.

(VOA) A U.S. draft resolution is being circulated at the United Nations that calls for new travel and financial sanctions against Zimbabwe's government in response to that nation's political crisis.

(Bloomberg) Sri Lanka's government must free more than 400 civilians detained in a camp in the country's north after fleeing fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, Human Rights Watch said.

(BBC News) There is a kind of theft that happens every day in a majority of the world's poor countries - and in many of the richer ones too.

NEW YORK (IRIN) The humanitarian community is to urge the G8 leaders to fully fund immediate emergency aid and to invest in longer-term agricultural development in poorer nations to tackle the global food crisis.

BEIJING (AP) — China's Communist Party boss in Tibet delivered a fresh attack on the Dalai Lama Wednesday, even as envoys of the region's exiled leader met for a second day with Chinese officials for talks aimed at easing tensions following anti-government riots.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) A Palestinian rammed a bulldozer into an Israeli commuter bus, cars and pedestrians on one of Jerusalem's busiest streets on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, emergency services said.

TOKYO (Channel News Asia) Senior officials from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority held talks Wednesday in Japan in a bid to lay the groundwork for peace by improving the Palestinian economy.

(BBC News) The European Commission is poised to unveil a healthcare package that could give patients new rights to seek medical treatment elsewhere in the EU.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Daily Star) The African Union announced on Tuesday that it was extending the mandate of its force in Somalia for another six months but urged the United Nations to take over the peacekeeping mission.

(BBC News) France violates human rights in the way it handles terrorism-related cases, a Human Rights Watch report says.

TEHRAN (Tehran Times) Iranian cinematic figures are to gather in Bandar Abbas on Wednesday to commemorate the passengers killed in the Iran Air Flight 655 which was shot down by U.S. Vincennes in 1988.

CAIRO (AFP) Prison guards at an Egyptian jail near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria beat up 17 inmates to force them to end a hunger strike, their lawyer said on Sunday.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe arrived on Monday at an African Union summit where he will be under pressure to negotiate with the opposition after winning a one-candidate election condemned by monitors as unfair and violent.

INDIA (Guardian) Delhi holds first parade as campaigners seek to overturn 19th-century law