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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will confront his critics at a summit of the African Union on Monday, fresh from victory in a one-candidate election which observers said was scarred by violence and intimidation.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of rioters torched police and government office buildings in southwest China on Saturday, in unrest triggered by allegations of a cover-up over a girl's death, residents and state media reported on Sunday.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - A leader of Niger's Tuareg-led rebel movement was killed when government troops backed by helicopters captured a rebel position in the north of the West African state, a government army officer said on Saturday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Rioters torched a police building and vehicles in southwest China on Saturday, in unrest triggered by allegations of a cover-up over a girl's death, according to Chinese accounts on the Internet.

ROME (Reuters) - Italy said on Saturday it had expelled 38 Egyptians as part of a crackdown ordered by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government on illegal immigration.

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict called for Christian unity when he joined the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians on Saturday to launch a year dedicated to St. Paul, the evangelist of the early Church born two millennia ago.

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian riot police detained about 60 far-right extremists on Saturday who threw a petrol bomb and tried to break up the country's first gay parade.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops killed 32 Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, including some who dressed as women in an attempt to escape, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

HARARE (Reuters) - Results from Zimbabwe's presidential election, in which President Robert Mugabe is the only candidate, have been delayed but the outcome should be announced on Sunday, electoral officials said.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The United States has proposed new talks in a push to reach a deal on Palestinian statehood before President George W. Bush leaves office in January, the chief Palestinian negotiator said on Saturday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, looking to bolster his expertise in foreign policy, will travel to Europe and the Middle East to consult on issues like terrorism and nuclear proliferation, his campaign said on Saturday.

LANDIKOTAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces launched an offensive against Taliban fighters near the northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday, prompting a militant commander to suspend peace talks and threaten retaliation.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali gunmen released two United Nations workers from Sweden and Denmark hours after kidnapping them in the Bakool region of southern Somalia on Saturday, U.N. officials said.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian man was put on trial on Saturday in Tehran on charges of spying for Israel, media reported.

SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Police raiding a suspected al Qaeda hide-out found a secret prison and the bodies of seven Iraqis bearing gunshot wounds and torture marks, Iraqi police said on Saturday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese woman was sentenced to eleven years in jail for operating brothels in Kabul, the China Daily and Chinese language media reported on Saturday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iraqi al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide attack in Anbar province earlier this week.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The Revolutionary Guards said Iran would impose controls on shipping in the vital Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked and warned regional states of reprisals if they took part, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - A bomb killed a man and wounded 27 other people at an apartment block in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on Saturday, medical and security sources said.