JAKARTA (Reuters) - The U.S. embassy in Jakarta received a bomb threat on Thursday relayed by police, an embassy spokesman said.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Tornadoes ripped across the Southern and Midwestern United States on Thursday and killed at least 11 people, most of whom had been taking shelter in a high school that collapsed in southern Alabama.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan successfully test-fired a short-range nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface ballistic missile on Saturday, the military said.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is fully prepared to shut down its nuclear facilities and allow inspections, a South Korean official said in New York, where envoys from Pyongyang and Washington are set to begin rare talks on improving ties.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Bruce Gordon, is stepping down after 19 months at the nation's largest civil rights organization, the NAACP said on Sunday.

HANOI (Reuters) - Japanese and North Korean diplomats met on Tuesday to smooth the way toward improving relations, but Tokyo said it would not establish ties until the issue of its citizens abducted by Pyongyang was resolved.

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - At least 49 people died but scores escaped after an Indonesian passenger jet overshot the runway and burst into flames on landing in the cultural capital of Yogyakarta on Wednesday.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Police in Arizona arrested a former U.S. Navy sailor on charges of spying and providing material support to terrorists, authorities said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Valerie Plame, the former covert CIA agent whose cover was blown after her husband accused the White House of manipulating prewar intelligence, will testify before a congressional committee next week, the committee chairman said on Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nevada Democratic Party officials said on Friday they were canceling a presidential debate co-sponsored by Fox News, following a joke chairman Roger Ailes made about Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq signaled that world powers and neighboring countries, including Washington and its adversaries Iran and Syria, had agreed in Baghdad it was vital to all to stop sectarian violence spreading in the region.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A fast moving brush fire sent flames leaping into backyards and forced more than 1,200 southern California residents out of their hillside homes on a sweltering Sunday of gusty winds after months of drought.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House suggested two years ago that the Justice Department fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, but Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved the idea of dismissing a smaller group after taking office last year, two major newspapers reported on Tuesday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares slumped on Wednesday, tracking heavy losses on Wall Street on fears about an intensifying crisis in U.S. mortgage lending.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Ambassadors from six major powers reached a tentative deal on imposing sanctions on Iran that they hope to introduce to the 15-nation U.N. Security Council on Thursday, providing their governments agree.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's parliament passed a landmark property rights bill on Friday as its annual session closed after debates centered on Premier Wen Jiabao's drive to limit growth with energy saving and spending on the countryside.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 2-year-old son of a soldier deployed to Iraq is in critical condition after developing a reaction to his father's smallpox vaccination, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.

AP - A U.N. mine-clearing worker was wounded by suspected Taliban militants during an ambush on Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces north of Kabul, the coalition said Sunday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea and the United States have resolved a dispute over $25 million frozen at a Macau bank, U.S. officials said, clearing a major obstacle to six-party talks on nuclear disarmament that resumed on Monday.

ULYANOVSKAYA MINE, Russia (Reuters) - Rescuers raced on Tuesday to try and save 13 miners still trapped in a Siberian coal mine after Russia's deadliest mining accident for more than a decade killed 97 people.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's labor union chief declared that a general strike involving public sector workers would go ahead starting at 0700 GMT on Wednesday following the breakdown of talks with the treasury over unpaid salaries.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Deadlocked talks on North Korea's nuclear program appeared to be grinding to a halt on Thursday, with reports that Pyongyang's envoy may be preparing to leave after four days of fruitless negotiations.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear threat that fizzled over a bank gridlock may restart soon as negotiators seek to focus on a nascent disarmament deal, the chief U.S. envoy said on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Debris that may have contained bits of bone from victims of the World Trade Center attacks was used to fill potholes and pave city roads, according to court papers filed on Friday.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 jolted the west coast of central Japan on Sunday, killing one person, injuring more than 150 and damaging hundreds of homes, Japanese officials and media said.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A Tamil Tiger light aircraft bombed a Sri Lankan air force base next to Colombo international airport before dawn on Monday, killing three airmen and wounding 16 in the first such air strike by the rebel group.

AP - An Australian accused of helping the Taliban fight the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan pleaded guilty Monday to providing material support for terrorism, a step lawyers said would assure his transfer from Guantanamo to a prison in Australia.

MANILA (Reuters) - Two armed men took over a bus in the Philippine capital Manila on Wednesday and were holding 31 nursery school children and two teachers hostage, apparently to highlight corruption in the country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The decisions to fire eight U.S. prosecutors 'were properly made, but poorly explained,' said a former top Justice Department official set to testify before Congress on Thursday.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Australian David Hicks must explain under oath exactly what he did in Afghanistan with al Qaeda before he learns his sentence from the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal, the chief prosecutor said.

AP - Yao Ming scored 39 points and the Houston Rockets overcame Kobe Bryant's 53 points to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 107-104 in overtime Friday night.