French President Nicolas Sarkozy is visiting Afghanistan, following yesterday's lethal attack on France's NATO troops there. Ten French soldiers died and 21 were injured by an ambush by Taleban fighters east of the capital, Kabul. Mr Sarkozy stressed France's commitment to the war against terror, and said the mission in Afghanistan is to continue. France intends to send 700 troops into Afghanistan by the end of August, bringing the total number of its troops there to 2,600. Tuesday's attack brought to 24 the number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002. Jerome Starkey and Jon Boone in Kabul are covering Sarkozy's visit.
 

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made an unexpected visit to Afghanistan's Helmand province, en route to the Olympic Games in Beijing.

He spent 90 minutes at Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand, where he told troops that they were "the heroes of our country". He also paid tribute to Corporal Barry Dempsey, the latest British soldier to die in a roadside bomb on Monday. He also visited a field hospital where he spoke to six injured soldiers, before heading to Kabul for talks with President Hamid Karzai.

Earlier Mr Brown told journalists a summer offensive by the Taliban had been anticipated after a relatively quite spring. He said British forces were fighting a difficult campaign, but that they could cope with the change in tactics, such as suicide bombs, guerrilla warfare and roadside explosions. His visit comes as three more NATO troops died in fresh fighting in Ghazni province, in the centre of Afghanistan. Since 2001, 116 UK troops have died in Afghanistan.

Jerome Starkey and Jon Boone in Kabul are covering Brown's visit.

Investigations are being carried out today following a plane crash at Madrid's Barajas airport, in which 153 passengers died. Investigators will also start to analyse the flight data and voice recorders of the Spanair flight JK 5022.

The plane, bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, crashed shortly after take-off on Wednesday lunchtime with 172 people on board. Spanish ministers said foul play had been ruled out and the crash was considered an accident.

A makeshift mortuary has been set up at a convention centre on the outskirts of the capital and relatives are arriving to identify the dead. Nineteen people survived the crash - some remain in critical condition. More than 20 people on the plane are reported to be children and babies.

This is Spain's deadliest air accident since a Colombian airline's Boeing 747 crashed in Madrid in 1983 killing 181 people.

Guy Hedgecoe, Elizabeth Nash and Antonio Sampaio in Madrid are available for 2-ways.

China deported eight Americans who were detained in Beijing last week for demonstrating in support of Tibet during the Olympic Games. The eight left China last night as the closing ceremony was taking place, following American pressure for their release. Two other detainees, from the UK and Germany, have also been released. The detainees have been among dozens of foreigners who evaded security checks to demonstrate in favour of Tibetan independence. They were arrested on 20-21 August, after hanging “Free Tibet” banners near an Olympic venue. Washington expressed its "disappointment" that China had not used the Olympics "to demonstrate greater tolerance".
Daniel Schearf and Jamila Trindle are covering this story.

The three most prominent separatist leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and Yasin Malik have been arrested by Indian police. Geelani and Farooq were detained in Srinagar prior to a planned protest rally in defiance of a curfew. Malik was arrested when he led a procession of 30 people in the city, in defiance of the curfew. In a separate event, a few protesters have been injured when they rallied in defiance of the curfew in Bandipora district, and clashed with security forces. India has been embarrassed by the magnitude of protest. Police with loudspeakers have been warning people to avoid breaking the curfew, after separatist leaders announced their intention to reach Lal Chowk, or Red Square, in Srinagar, and attend the rally. In recent weeks the separatist demonstrations drew hundreds of thousands of protestors.
Randeep Ramesh and Sanjay Jha in New Delhi are following events in Kashmir.

US President George W Bush has urged Russia not to recognise Georgia's two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. Mr Bush's comments comes after Russia's parliament passed a non-binding motion backing the enclaves' independence bid on Monday. The US has said such recognition would be contrary to international law and has pledged to stand by Georgia. In a statement, Mr Bush called on Russia's leadership to "meet its commitments and not recognise these separatist regions". Leaders from Germany, the UK and Italy also expressed concern that the vote would raise tensions further in the Caucasus. Alexander Stubb, the head of the European security organisation, the OSCE, has also accused Russia of trying to empty South Ossetia of Georgians. Military observers from the OSCE are trying to visit as much of South Ossetia as possible to clarify the situation. James Gerstenzang in Washington, Kevin O'Flynn in Moscow and Giorgi Lomsadze and Margot Dunne in Tbilisi are available for two ways.
 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders today on the second day of her Middle East tour. Ms Rice's visit is part of the George Bush administration's wish to broker a peace deal in the region by the end of the year. However, Ms Rice plays down the chances that a detailed interim agreement might be published next month. The Israeli foreign minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni has warned against rushing the process, and said that bridging the gaps prematurely might lead to misunderstandings and violence. Ms Rice intends to meet Ms Livni, and the senior Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qurei. She will also hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Ramallah. Ms Rice described the negotiations as "serious" and "intensive". In a joint press conference with Ms Livni, considered a frontrunner in the coming national election campaign, Ms. Rice reiterated the US position that Israeli settlement activity is "not helpful" to the peace process. She also welcomed the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners by Israel yesterday as "a very good step".
Annette Young, Sami Sockol and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem and Mark Klusener in Ramallah are following Ms. Rice's visit in Israel.
 

At least three people have been arrested in the US over an alleged plot to kill US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, reports say. The suspects planned to shoot Mr Obama in Denver, Colorado, during his speech accepting the nomination to run for US president this Thursday, CBS4 TV station reports. Police seized weapons and drugs as they made the first arrest on Sunday. However, the US attorney for Colorado, Troy Eid, said he was confident "there is no credible threat" to Mr Obama. The attorney's office in Denver is due to hold a news conference later on Tuesday to discuss the incident. The incident comes as US Democrats launched their national convention in Denver. In a keynote speech, Mr Obama's wife, Michelle, praised his values, saying her husband would make "an extraordinary president". Democrat Obama will stand against Republican John McCain in the 4 November ballot. Some of the latest opinion polls suggest the two men are in a statistical dead heat.
Ed O'Keefe and Martin Markovits in Denver are covering this story.
 

Hijackers have started to release some of the passengers from a Sudanese plane flown to Libya, officials there say.

The Sun Air Boeing 737, carrying some 95 passengers, was en route to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, when a man with a knife hijacked it shortly after taking off from the Darfur town of Nyala, says a Sudanese security official, quoted by the Associated Press news agency.

The pilot said the hijackers, who had asked for fuel to fly to France, were Darfur rebels. The director of Kufra airport, where the plane landed in Libya, said there were 10 or more hijackers from the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army of Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur. However, Mr Nur, who is based in Paris, has strongly denied any involvement.

Andrew Heavens in Khartoum and Saleh Sarrar in Tripoli are across this event.

British Foreign secretary David Miliband is to visit Ukraine today in an attempt to build the "widest possible coalition against Russian aggression".

The trip comes after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev formally recognised the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a move which has been widely criticised as exacerbating tensions in the region. NATO says Mr Medvedev's action was in "direct violation" of UN resolutions. Mr Miliband has urged Russia to "abide by international law" and withdraw its troops to positions held before the confrontation.

Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after Georgian military tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force, prompting Russian retaliation. Mr Medvedev says Russia had been obliged to act following the "genocide" started by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in South Ossetia.

Alexander Kleimenov in Kiev, Kevin O'Flynn in Moscow and Giorgi Lomsadze and Margot Dunne in Tbilisi are available for two ways.

Pakistan's lawyers are set to hold protests today, urging the government to reinstall judges purged by former President Pervez Musharraf.

Lawyers are to hold sit-ins on roads across the country to press the coalition government to reappoint dozens of judges dismissed by Musharraf when he imposed emergency rule last November.

Disagreements over the judges led to a coalition split on Monday. The country's second biggest party led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pulled out of the coalition, saying the Pakistan People's Party, led by the widow of Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, broke promises to give judges their jobs back.

Political uncertainty is rife following the resignation of Mr Musharraf last week which, combined with militant violence and economic woes, has undermined investor confidence, leading to a sharp slide in Pakistan stocks.

Graham Usher, Saeed Shah and Nadeem Ahmad Sarwar in Islamabad are covering this story.

Tropical storm Gustav, which has resulted in over 20 deaths in Haiti, could regain hurricane status as it approaches Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

With maximum winds of 75km/h, Gustav is moving west about 11km/h and is expected to increase in speed within the next 24 hours. Gustav is expected to head towards the US, but it is not clear where it will hit.
Fears of a hurricane have prompted the US state of Louisiana to declare a state of emergency and New Orleans to prepare plans for evacuation. 

Juan Jacomino in Havana, Guy Delva and Reed Lindsay in Port-au-Prince, Jacqui Goddard and Richard Luscombe in Miami are across this story.
 

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is to appear before The Hague today to deliver a plea of guilty or not guilty to a host of war crimes.

However, on the eve of his second appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a legal advisor said Karadzic planned to remain silent at the plea hearing. Goran Petronijevic, was quoted by Serbia's RTS state television as saying that Karadzic would not enter a plea because he is waiting for prosecutors to update their trigeminal indictment. Chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz says his office is reviewing the indictment, which had not been updated since 2000.

Experts say they expect Karadzic to use many of the same delaying tactics used by the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Karadzic was arrested six weeks ago on a Belgrade bus after 11 years on the run and transferred to The Hague to answer 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ana Uzelac is reporting from the court.
 

The US has dismissed Russian allegations that it helped to provoke the conflict in Georgia as "patently false".

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told the US television network CNN that US citizens had been in the conflict zone of South Ossetia during the hostilities. Mr Putin said his defense officials told him the provocation was to benefit one of the US presidential candidates. He added, "The American side in effect armed and trained the Georgian army".

White House spokesperson Dana Perino rejected the allegation and said Russia would face serious consequences for its continuing military presence in Georgia. The US says it is now considering scrapping a US-Russia civilian nuclear co-operation pact in response to the conflict. The White House has also announced that Georgia will be given up to $5.7m to help meet "unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs."

LA Times correspondent James Gerstanzang in Washington, D.C., Kevin O'Flynn and Carl Schreck in Moscow and Giorgi Lomsadze in Tbilisi are available for 2-ways.

The funeral of the last 82 victims of Hurricane Katrina takes place today in New Orleans as the town prepares for the onslaught of Tropical Storm Gustav.

The funeral, which begins at 8am local time (13GMT), comes on the third anniversary of the storm which claimed the lives of at least 1,836 people. Half of the bodies being buried are still unidentified - three of them babies.

Meanwhile, a state of emergency has been declared in New Orleans, and the state of Louisiana, and evacuation plans have been drawn up to deal with the tropical storm, which is predicted to reach hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico. Around 3,000 National Guard troops are standing by to ensure there will be no repeat of the disaster following the 2005 storm.

Gustav, which is forecast to hit the US in the coming days, has moved away from the Central American coast and into the Caribbean, battering Jamaica with heavy rains, tearing roofs off houses. The storm has already killed 22 people in Haiti and at least eight in the Dominican Republic. 

Jacqui Goddard in New Orleans and Pete Sankey in Kingston are available for 2-ways.

India is stepping up its efforts to help half a million people who have been displaced by the severe floods in the northern state of Bihar. The army is sending more soldiers, medical teams and equipment into the devastated area. Tens of thousands of survivors are crowded in unsanitary relief camps, where tensions are rising over the desperate shortage of emergency supplies. Monsoon rains made a river change its course cutting across Bihar, which affects areas not normally prone to floods. At least 75 people were killed in Bihar - but officials warn the death toll might climb once the situation in the more remote areas is to become clearer. According to reports a few villages were just washed away by mighty currents. In the north-eastern state of Assam, monsoon rains caused the Brahmaputra River to burst its banks, a catastrophe which displaced hundreds of thousands of people. More than 100 villages have been completely destroyed in the past 24 hours, say officials. In neighbouring Nepal, across the border, tens of thousands of people have also been displaced.
Sanjay Jha, who grew up in Bihar, is covering the floods, and the relief efforts. Subina Shretha and Mikey Leung in Kathmandu are covering the situation in Nepal.
 

The worst of Hurricane Gustav has missed New Orleans, and has now weakened to a tropical storm. The levees in the city have held surging floodwaters, but officials still urge caution. The Mayor, Ray Nagin, called on the two million inhabitants who fled from New Orleans prior to Gustav's arrival to stay away from the city for at least another day. He added he wants officials to check the scale of the damage caused by the torrential rain brought about by the storm. "Trees are down all over the city, power lines are down all over the city, and there is a significant number of homes and businesses without energy," he said. Craig Gieseke in New Orleans and Jacqui Goddard in Miami are covering this story.
 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to visit Syria as part of efforts to improve ties between the two countries. Relations between Paris and Damascus plummeted after the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. Mr Sarkozy's two-day visit to Syria is the first by a Western head of state in five years. He hosted Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in July and he appears determined to bring Syria, a long-time foe of the US and Israel, back into the international fold. "It is important that Syria plays a positive role in the region," the French president said.

Mr Sarkozy is due to meet President Assad at a dinner on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, the two presidents will then be joined by top officials from Turkey and Qatar for talks addressing Lebanon and Syria's indirect peace talks with Israel. Ankara and Qatar have been mediating for several months in Israel-Syria and Lebanese talks.

George Baghdadi in Damascus is following the visit.

Officials and witnesses in north-west Pakistan say at least 15 people have been killed in an attack involving US-led forces from Afghanistan. The attack is said to have involved helicopters in the tribal area of South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border. According to witnesses, NATO troops in three helicopters landed in the Musa Nikeh area at about 0300 (2100 GMT). The troops entered the house of a local tribesman, opened fire and detonated a bomb in the house. They said at least nine bodies had been recovered from the debris, including two women and two children.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan says it has no report of any such incident. Security has deteriorated sharply in recent weeks along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. There is mounting US pressure on the Pakistani government to crack down on al- Qaeda and Taleban militants believed to operate from the area. Pakistan says it is doing all it can to curb militancy.

Saeed Shah and Zahid Hussein in Islamabad and Shaheen Buneri in Peshawar are available for 2-ways.

US Vice-President Dick Cheney is in Georgia today, demonstrating US political support for Tbilisi following its recent conflict with Russia.

Washington has announced a $1 billion aid package to help rebuild Georgia after the fighting last month, but this is restricted to helping re-settle refugees and re-build Georgia's infrastructure. In Azerbaijan on Wednesday, Mr Cheney said the US had a "deep and abiding interest" in the region's stability.

However, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the US of helping Tbilisi build its war machine and criticised its decision to send humanitarian aid to Georgia aboard military ships. This week, the Russian president also called Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili a "political corpse" whose leadership Russia did not recognise. The conflict erupted after Georgia tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force, prompting a Russian counter-attack. Russia has since recognised the independence of both South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

Giorgi Lomsadze in Tbilisi and Carl Schreck in Moscow are covering the visit.

Thousands of people have fled their homes in Haiti as a series of tropical storms batter the Caribbean nation.

Three storms in less than 21 days have killed 170 people and the latest, Tropical Storm Hanna, could inflict more damage than Tropical Storm Jeanne, which killed more than 3,000 people in 2004. President Rene Preval, who is to hold emergency talks with donor countries to appeal for aid, says the country is facing a "catastrophe".

Hanna is now approaching the Bahamas, where storm warnings have been issued. Separately, storm Ike has strengthened rapidly into an extremely powerful Category Four hurricane in the open Atlantic, the US National Hurricane Centre says. Haitian officials say that the current death toll of 61 from Hanna, which hit on Tuesday, could rise further.

Reed Lindsay and Guy Delva in Port-au-Prince are following this story.

Negotiators from the US, South Korea and Japan are holding talks in Beijing today to discuss the deadlock over North Korea's nuclear programme. The meeting follows movements by North Korea to reverse steps to dismantle its nuclear plant at Yongbyon.

North Korea agreed in February 2007 to give up its nuclear programme in return for aid and diplomatic concessions. However, last week it announced it was halting disabling work at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor accusing the US of failing to meet its obligations under a six-nation aid-for-disarmament deal.

North Korea handed over details of its nuclear facilities in June and had expected that, in return, the US would remove it from the list of state of sponsors of terrorism. The US refused to do so before North Korea agrees to a progress of verifying the information.

Daniel Schearf, Jamila Trindle and LA Times correspondent Barbara Demick in Beijing are across this event.
 

Haiti is struggling to deal with the aftermath of a series of tropical storms with several hundred thousand people needing help, the UN says.

The country is suffering from severe flooding and UN official Joel Boutroue said the situation was expected to worsen over the coming days as another strong hurricane, Ike, approaches the region. Haitian President Rene Preval has warned his country faces a "catastrophe".

Three storms in less than 21 days have killed more than 200 people, Haitian officials say. The latest storm to hit Haiti was Hanna, which is now about 90km north of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas and some 790km south of Wilmington, North Carolina, the US-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) says.

There are fears it could become a hurricane by the time it hits land along the US coast on Saturday, but the storm's uncertain path means no evacuation has yet been ordered.

Reed Lindsay and Guy Delva in Port-au-Prince are following this story.
 

Police sources involved in the corruption investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert say the offences he is to be indicted for are likely to lead to a prison sentence of up to 10 years. A police source says that while the bribery charges against Olmert may be harder to prove, the money laundering charge is one the prime minister will have a hard time trying to clear himself of. "I don't see how Olmert could get out of this rap, it is unlikely that he'd be able to use these felonies to get a plea bargain," one source said. "All the prosecution has to do is to make sure the suspicious money transfers were carried out after the existing law went into effect." The law, which was amended in recent years to facilitate convictions for money-laundering felonies, no longer requires the prosecution to prove that the money was illegally obtained for money-laundering charges Annette Young, Sami Sockol and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem are covering Olmert's Investigation.

US President George W Bush intends to announce his plans to withdraw about 8,000 soldiers from Iraq by February and to send additional troops to Afghanistan. In a speech today (Tuesday) Mr Bush will say that the improving security situation in Iraq now allows a "quiet surge" of troops in Afghanistan during the next few months. A Marine battalion which was due to go to Iraq in November will be sent to Afghanistan instead, followed by an Army combat brigade. Currently there are 146,000 US troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan. All decisions regarding their future deployment will be left to Mr Bush's successor, who will take office in January.
LA Times correspondent James Gerstenzang, Pentagon correspondent Nancy Youssef in Washington, D.C., LA Times correspondents Said Rifai and Tina Susman in Baghdad and Tom Coghlan, Jerome Starkey and Jon Boone in Kabul are available for 2-ways.