World Highlights

0 Ten US Marines conducting a foot patrol at a factory outside Falluja were killed by an insurgent bomb on Thursday in one of the deadliest attacks on US forces in Iraq this year, the US military said yesterday.

0 Singapore executed an Australian drug trafficker yesterday, despite repeated pleas from Australia's government for clemency and quiet protests by thousands opposed to the death penalty.

0 State courthouses in Connecticut were closed down yesterday due to a bomb threat, officials said.

0 Most of the tents handed out to Pakistani earthquake survivors are incapable of withstanding the winter and the focus of relief efforts is now on other ways to ensure people stay warm, aid officials said yesterday.

0 China's environment chief resigned yesterday following a two-week crisis over a toxic spill that polluted a northeast China river, forced the shutdown of tapwater supplies to millions of Chinese and raised alarm bells in Russia.

0 Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) is close to clinching the two-thirds parliamentary majority it needs to maintain control over the Constitution, according to election results declared yesterday.

0 Finance ministers from the world's richest nations headed for London yesterday to discuss free trade and the world economy as well as say farewell to Alan Greenspan, who soon bows out after 18 years as US central bank chief.

0 A 38-year-old French woman was recovering well after receiving the world's first partial face transplant, and doctors said yesterday she was happy with her new face and had thanked them for their work.

0 North Korea is ready to dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes if it can better its relations with the United States, Japan and South Korea, China's envoy to Seoul was quoted as saying.

0 Britain said it would consider a call from Brazil's president for world leaders to meet ahead of crucial World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong later this month.

0 Germany's warm ties with Russia will not come at the expense of Poland, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ahead of a visit to Warsaw aimed at improving relations with the European Union's largest newcomer.

0 Voting in a primary election for the ruling Fatah faction was halted in a Palestinian town near the West Bank city of Nablus after ballot boxes were set on fire, election officials said.

0 Iran has signed a deal to buy Russian tactical surface-to-air missile systems, a Russian newspaper reported.

0 Major US allies expressed confidence that they could persuade a reluctant Washington to consider new ways to fight global warming at a 189-nation environmental conference.