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KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The African Union and United Nations are working to appoint a joint chief mediator to jumpstart efforts to bring peace to Sudan's Darfur region, U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson said on Monday.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said on Tuesday he would not allow imports of U.S. beef from cattle over 30 months without public support, bowing to street protests that have led to a fall in his popularity rating.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A New York-based human rights watchdog urged China on Tuesday to honor its commitment to improve its rights record before the Beijing Olympics by freeing some 130 Tiananmen-era prisoners.

ROME (Reuters) - A U.N. global food crisis summit will draw up an emergency plan on Wednesday to mobilize aid, reduce trade barriers and invest in farming in poor countries to stop the spread of hunger threatening nearly one billion people.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said on Monday Israel would soon disappear off the map and that the "satanic power" of the United States faced destruction, in his latest verbal attack on the Islamic Republic's arch-enemies.

PARIS (Reuters) - Seven children were killed when a train collided with a school bus at a level crossing in eastern France on Monday, French authorities said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Edward Kennedy, the sole surviving son of America's most famous political family, is "recuperating well" from brain surgery and should be released within a week from Duke University Medical Center, his office said on Tuesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas protested Jewish settlement growth near Jerusalem in talks on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who sought to show it was business-as-usual despite a corruption probe.

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. atomic watchdog chief said on Monday Syria would let in top inspectors to examine allegations of a secret nuclear reactor, and demanded "full disclosure" by Iran over reports of covert atom bomb research.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Robert Byrd, the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and a fierce opponent of the Iraq war, was taken to a Washington-area hospital for observation on Monday after a caregiver noticed that he was lethargic, a spokesman for the West Virginia Democrat said.

WUFU, China (Reuters) - The largest "quake lake" formed by China's most devastating earthquake in decades is not expected to start draining until Thursday due to a lack of rain, the government said.

MIAMI (Reuters) - The decision to replace the judge in the Guantanamo trial of a young Canadian prisoner was "completely unrelated" to any ruling or actions by that judge, the tribunals' chief judge said on Monday in a rare public statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama was on the brink of winning the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday, claiming the support of a steady parade of uncommitted delegates and pushing rival Hillary Clinton to the verge of defeat.

RAPID CITY, South Dakota (Reuters) - It's almost over, isn't it? That seems to be all anyone wants to know from Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, but the only person who truly knows isn't telling.

MEDELLIN, Colombia (Reuters) - The Organization of American States said on Monday it will probe claims by Colombia that Ecuador has cooperated with leftist guerrillas and the United States called on Venezuela to get tough on the rebels.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, is endorsing Barack Obama for president, his office said on Monday.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Suspected drug gang hit men shot dead a mayor in western Mexico as he drove back from a day out with his family, the latest politician to die in Mexico's drug war, a state attorney general's office said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush condemned violence in Zimbabwe and attempts to intimidate opposition figures as "deplorable" on Monday and said election and human rights monitors should "blanket the country."

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said on Monday Israel would soon disappear off the map and that the "satanic power" of the United States faced destruction, in his latest verbal attack on the Islamic Republic's arch-enemies.

PARIS (Reuters) - Seven children were killed when a train collided with a school bus at a level crossing in eastern France on Monday, French authorities said.