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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Jews live longer and enjoy lower infant mortality and poverty rates in Israel than the country's Arab citizens, said a report published Wednesday by a watchdog partly funded by the European Union.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's government began on Wednesday the hard task of cobbling together votes to survive a no-confidence motion after the withdrawal of its communist allies in protest against a nuclear deal with the United States.

BERLIN (Reuters) - In their zeal to remove the Berlin Wall, German authorities were ruthlessly efficient in eliminating almost all traces of the hated symbol of the Cold War within months of its opening in 1989.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - After six years in captivity, newly freed French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt launched a psychological campaign this week urging leftist rebels to stop fighting and release remaining hostages.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday and warned the United States and Israel it was ready to retaliate for any attack over its disputed nuclear projects.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Taps have run dry in West Bank towns and Palestinians face acute water shortages as dry weather strains supplies already restricted by Israel, residents and the water authority said.

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia on Wednesday accused Russia of sending fighter jets into its airspace to undermine a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to signal firm support for the pro-Western state.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Bosnian Serb cousins Milan and Sredoje Lukic were accused on Wednesday of imprisoning and burning alive some 140 Muslims and summarily shooting others in some of the cruelest ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian war.

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - Russia will consider how to retaliate over a planned U.S. missile shield but wants to continue talks on the issue with Washington, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe denounced the Group of Eight rich nations' support for sanctions on its officials on Wednesday as part of a colonial and racist effort led by Britain and the United States to install a puppet government.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdish guerrillas have kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition in eastern Turkey, a local governor said on Wednesday.

PAMPLONA, Spain (Reuters) - An American tourist was gored in the abdomen on the third day of the centuries-old annual bull-running festival in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona on Wednesday, organizers said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Five regional powers will press North Korea into allowing them to check the account it has given of its plutonium production when sputtering disarmament talks open in Beijing on Thursday for the first time in nine months.

UMM QASR, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's fledgling navy of battered patrol boats is bulking up for a greater role in protecting the country's economic heart, its offshore oil terminals, officials said.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Three Turkish policemen and three gunmen were killed in an attack on the United States consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, the city's governor said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry on Wednesday called Georgia a threat to stability in the South Caucasus, just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to visit Tbilisi.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Hundreds of Chilean students and teachers fought riot police armed with tear gas and water cannons in the capital on Tuesday, the latest protest against an unpopular education reform bill.

ATOYAC DE ALVAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Forensics experts began digging for secret graves on an army base in southwestern Mexico this week to find proof of government atrocities during the country's 1970s 'dirty war.'

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday and warned the United States and Israel it was ready to retaliate if they attacked the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear projects.

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, representing the European Union as well as his own country, his office said on Wednesday.