International Headlines

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Dozens of Somali Islamist insurgents stormed a port on Friday hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker that was the world's biggest hijack, a local elder said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched on Friday against a pact letting U.S. forces stay in Iraq until 2011, toppling an effigy of President George W. Bush where U.S. troops once tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The governor of a Chinese province sat down with protesters after they fought pitched battles with police, a rare concession by a leader and a sign of government concerns about stability as the economy slows.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States raised doubts about the prospect of a fast return to normal ties between NATO and Russia after the Georgian war Friday, despite a European Union move to restart partnership talks with Moscow.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Syria said on Friday a U.N. watchdog report on an alleged secret Syrian nuclear site bombed by Israel proved nothing and the investigation should be closed.

DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) - Tibetan exiles meeting in northern India have failed to find a viable alternative to the Dalai Lama's "Middle Way" approach to China, and admit they can do little more than hope for a softening in Beijing's stance.

DAKAR (Reuters) - Reports of massacres, rapes, looting and child soldiers have put Democratic Republic of Congo back on the world news agenda this month as Tutsi rebels battled government troops and militias in the east.

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday the first independent monitoring report on an alleged Syrian nuclear site had hardened suspicions that Syria was building a covert reactor and would raise pressure on it to come clean.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Rampant piracy off Somalia is forcing shipping companies to avoid the Suez Canal and send cargoes of oil and other goods on a longer journey around southern Africa, industry officials said on Thursday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan summoned U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson on Thursday to protest over missile strikes launched by pilotless drone aircraft against militant targets in Pakistan.

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide car-bomber killed nine people and wounded 16, including two U.S. soldiers, in an attack on Thursday on a government compound in eastern Afghanistan, a government official said.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to send some 3,000 extra peacekeepers to Democratic Republic of Congo to help protect civilians and end weeks of conflict in the turbulent east.