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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

About 32 skydivers from more than 10 countries including Britain, Canada, the United States and New Zealand have been in the Everest region since last week to jump from an aircraft flying 142 metres higher than the Everest summit.

The moves came as Russia faced a Friday deadline for pulling back its troops under terms of a deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the European Union. Hundreds of EU observers began monitoring Russia's compliance with

It said most the dead were from Burma, formerly known as Myanmar. The accident happened in the town of Malkara, west of Istanbul, a local official told Anatolia.

Attorney Yale Galanter told The Associated Press he will continue to pursue a request for Mr. Simpson to be released on bond pending appeal.

In Berlin, the German government held crisis talks after the collapse of a ballyhooed $48.4-billion (U.S.) bailout of Hypo Real Estate AG, the country's second biggest property lender.

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew Friday in the northern districts of Assam state when clashes erupted between members of the ethnic Bodo group and Muslim settlers. State officials authorized police to shoot anyone fighting in the streets.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck 55 kilometres east of Sary-Tash near the borders of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan at 9:52 p.m.. It had a depth of 35 km, the survey reported.

Al-Qaida or affiliated groups probably will attack the United States in the months after the election to welcome the new president, says Frederick Stremmel, a former top FBI counterterrorism analyst.Stremmel, who retired from the FBI ...

For the first time ever, the US military is deploying an active duty regular Army combat unit for full-time use inside the United States to deal with national emergencies, including terrorism, natural disasters and civil ...

Eight dead bodies were found Tuesday alongside messages from drug gangs in the northern Mexican city of Tijuana, where 16 dead bodies were found a day earlier. Six of the bodies found Tuesday in the ...

Twenty-four old Derrick Shareef has been sentenced to 35 years for plotting to put hand grenades in garbage cans at Cherryvale Mall at Christmas time. Bob Holley with the FBI Counter-Terrorism Ops said,"35 years on ...

The Taliban denied that its commander in Pakistan died of natural causes. Baituallah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and warlord in South Waziristan, was reported to have died yesterday ...

The likelihood that terrorists will detonate a nuclear weapon poses the greatest risk to world security, surpassing proliferation threats from Iran and North Korea, United Nations atomic chief Mohamed ElBaradei said."There is a lot of ...