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KABUL (Reuters) - Presidential hopeful Barack Obama called the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent" on Sunday and said Washington should start planning to transfer more troops there from Iraq.

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A foreign airstrike killed nine Afghan policemen in western Afghanistan overnight after a clash in which both sides mistook the other for Taliban militants, Afghan officials said on Sunday.

KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships have killed 15 Taliban militants and captured 60 in an operation that began mid-week in a troubled northwestern town, the military said on Sunday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Add one more contest to the spectacles on show during the Beijing Olympic Games -- the national protest hurdle.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not back the plan of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and his comments to a German magazine on the issue were misunderstood, the government's spokesman said on Sunday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not back the plan of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and his comments to a German magazine on the issue were misunderstood, the government's spokesman said on Sunday.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Militants fired on an army outpost and killed three villagers in separate attacks in Thailand's restive Muslim south, police said on Sunday, days after an unknown rebel group declared a ceasefire.

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people filled Nicaragua's capital on Saturday to celebrate the country's 1979 leftist revolution, giving a lift to President Daniel Ortega as his government faces simmering protests.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president described talks with world powers on its disputed nuclear program as a step forward on Sunday, official media said, even though the meeting in Geneva failed to produce any breakthrough in the standoff.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Kalmaegi, killed 18 people and injured another eight, while seven are still missing after it hit the island, an official from the National Fire Agency said on Sunday.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - At most outdoor festivals the longest queues are generally for the portable toilets and bar but at World Youth Day in Sydney, the Catholic Church's version of Woodstock, one of the biggest queues is for confessing sins.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's U.S.-backed president entered into defense pact with the left-of-center government of Brazil on Saturday, marking a step in regional cooperation aimed at fighting cocaine-funded Marxist rebels.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has awarded Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy the country's highest honor for his work defending the rights of immigrants during his decades in Congress.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Police recovered a Pablo Picasso print and arrested one person in connection with an armed robbery at Sao Paulo's Pinacoteca Museum last month, local media reported on Saturday.

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League criticized the International Criminal Court's prosecutor for seeking the arrest of Sudan's president on genocide charges, saying diplomacy should be given a priority to solve the conflict in Darfur.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan is committed to supporting the U.S.-led global coalition fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban but will not allow allied foreign forces to operate on its territory, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The leader of South Africa's ruling party said former President Nelson Mandela was the glue holding the country together, giving voice to long-held fears about the future of the fledgling democracy without him.

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - At least nine Indian soldiers were killed and 16 wounded on Saturday when their vehicle detonated a landmine in the biggest attack on Indian soldiers in recent months.

EIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon (Reuters) - Two people were killed on Saturday in a gunbattle between members of the Fatah faction and Sunni Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon, camp officials said.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition party could sign an agreement as early as Monday to begin substantive talks with President Robert Mugabe's party on ending a political impasse that has worsened the country's severe economic crisis, opposition officials said on Saturday.