World Highlights

¤ The chief judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein plans to step down and will announce details of his intentions after presiding over the next court session on January 24, a source close to the judge told Reuters.

¤ Rebels in northern Iraq apparently shot down an armed US reconnaissance helicopter, killing its two pilots, in a rare instance of American air power being challenged by guerillas on the ground.

¤ A Pakistani security official and residents of a border region said US aircraft from Afghanistan killed 18 people, including women and children, when they fired missiles at pro-Taliban Islamists.

¤ US President George W. Bush and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel differed on Guantanamo Bay but vowed to seek a common approach on Iran as they opened a new chapter in US-German relations.

¤ US military officers ordered to defend accused war criminals at Guantanamo base in Cuba joined the outcry of activists assailing the court system for human rights violations.

¤ Doctors gave Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a battery of neurological tests to judge whether he was coming out of a coma but Israeli media reports said concern was rising at his failure to regain consciousness.

¤ The United States urged all the countries in the nuclear talks with North Korea to bring Pyongyang back to the table.

¤ The man defeated by President Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine's "Orange Revolution", Viktor Yanukovich, denounced the Ukrainian leader's rule as impotent and backed parliament's dismissal of his cabinet.