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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A State Department official will visit Beijing this week to discuss with Chinese and North Korean officials ways to verify Pyongyang's account of its nuclear program, a U.S. spokesman said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday, discussing the risk of further deterioration in a weakening U.S. economy.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's highest court on Wednesday rejected an attempt to shut down the governing AK Party but imposed financial penalties on it for anti-secular activities, the court's chief judge said.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Lech Walesa testified on Wednesday against his old rival General Wojciech Jaruzelski in a long-delayed hearing into a bloody communist crackdown on civilian protesters nearly 40 years ago.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will press ahead with its nuclear path, the country's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday, speaking just before a deadline set by Western officials in a nuclear dispute.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional panel voted on Wednesday to find former presidential adviser Karl Rove in contempt for defying a subpoena to testify in its probe into suspected political meddling at the Justice Department.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York will slice spending by $630 million, partly by freezing hiring and running agencies more efficiently to close a deficit, and ask the legislature to slash another $600 million in an emergency summer session, New York Governor David Paterson said on Wednesday.

ASUNCION (Reuters) - Pope Benedict granted Paraguay's president-elect a historic waiver to allow the former bishop to take office next month without violating church rules, a Vatican representative said on Wednesday.

BISHKEK (Reuters) - The United States criticized Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday for destroying part of a fence surrounding a Western luxury hotel, saying its actions undermined investor confidence in the Central Asian state.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's highest court will announce its much-anticipated verdict on whether to close the governing party on charges of Islamist activities on Wednesday, the Anatolian state news agency said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted on Wednesday.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A private Malaysian doctor who examined a former aide to opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim following allegations of sodomy was not qualified to conduct such a check, his employer said on Wednesday.

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Twenty-five Taliban militants and five Pakistani soldiers were killed in a fierce clash in the troubled Swat valley in Pakistan's northwest on Wednesday, the military said.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Israel and Syria will hold their next indirect peace talks in Turkey in mid-August after failing to move on to face-to-face negotiations, a source close to the talks said on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas and Fatah have both carried out serious human rights abuses over the past year, including arbitrary arrests and torture, according to a report on the bitter power struggle.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed into law a sweeping rescue package aimed at resurrecting the housing market from its worst slump since the Great Depression and stabilizing the two largest mortgage finance companies.

HARARE (Reuters) - Talks between Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition MDC aimed at resolving the country's political crisis will resume on Sunday, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will pursue its nuclear path, the country's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday, speaking just before a deadline set by world powers in a nuclear dispute.

PORT HARCOURT (Reuters) - Rival militant factions in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta have clashed in an apparent turf war, killing at least four people, security officials said on Wednesday.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's highest court could decide as soon as Wednesday whether to ban the ruling AK Party for Islamist activities, Radikal and Sabah newspapers said.