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Paris, August 27: France will not let Al-Qaeda acquire a foothold in Africa, President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Wednesday, vowing that Paris would help fight the extremist group.

“We will mobilise to support Africa faced with the growing threat from Al-Qaeda, whether in the Sahel or in Somalia,” Sarkozy said in a foreign policy speech to French ambassadors in Paris.

“What happened these past months in Mali, in Niger and Mauritania is a very clear signal,” he said, referring to a string of incidents targeting Western interests in north and west Africa.

Washington, August 27: US President Barack Obama will eulogize Senator Edward Kennedy at his funeral in a Boston basilica, before his eventual burial alongside his slain brothers at Arlington National Cemetery.

A Democratic official familiar with the plans confirmed Wednesday that the liberal icon’s body would be taken from his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts to the John F. Kennedy presidential library and museum in Boston.

Washington, August 27: The United States on Wednesday deplored Afghanistan’s deadliest bombing in a year but voiced confidence it would not deter the nation’s progress.

Forty-three people, mostly civilians, died Tuesday in the attack in the southern city of Kandahar, where Taliban insurgents are strong and turnout was low in Afghanistan’s second-ever presidential election last week.

“We deplore these acts of violence,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. “Our sympathies go out to the victims’ families.”

Washington, August 27: NASA will test the powerful first stage of its new Ares moon rocket Thursday, a milestone in a program that already has spent $7 billion for a rocket that astronauts may never use.

Washington, August 27: The Department of Veterans Affairs has canceled a $75 million, five-year research contract with a Texas medical center studying illnesses suffered by veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.

The VA says research into the illnesses remains a priority.

Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka, a Democrat, has been pushing to end the sole-source contract with the University of Texas’ medical center in Dallas.

Money for the contract was added to a 2005 spending bill by Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison when her party ran Congress.

Washington, August 27: Scientific advisers to President Barack Obama may have asked the government to speed up the availability of swine flu vaccines, but they are unlikely to be ready before October, the new head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

And imperfect tests for the pandemic H1N1 virus means it will be impossible to get precise numbers on how many people are infected, said Dr. Thomas Frieden.

Nonetheless, swine flu is the No. 1 priority for the CDC, Frieden said in an interview.

Washington, August 27: In an era of bitter partisan division, Sen. Edward Kennedy’s death silenced a singular voice of bipartisanship and compromise at a time when his colleagues are struggling against angry constituents and with each other over an elusive plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system.

Congress could use Kennedy’s influence now, as both houses churn through the corrosive health care debate. Some lawmakers said the current stalemate is the result of Kennedy’s absence from the debate for the last few crucial months.

San Francisco, August 27: Online collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia announced a tightening of its editing rules Wednesday aimed at preventing vandalism, as it becomes an increasingly important source of information.

The new guidelines will require that all edits to articles about living people be approved by authorized editors. The rules represent the most far-reaching changes ever undertaken by the user-written encyclopedia, which had previously allowed anyone to contribute articles or revise information on existing articles.

Baghdad, August 26: Iraq and Syria have recalled their ambassadors late on Tuesday after Baghdad demanded Damascus hand over two people it says masterminded bombings in the Iraqi capital last week which killed almost 100 people.

Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government has blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party for massive truck bombs and other attacks last Wednesday, and says it has already captured some suspects it deems responsible.

Seoul, August 26: Red Cross officials from North and South Korea begin three days of talks on Wednesday in a rare contact between the rivals to discuss the plight of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The meeting, in the North Korean resort of Mt. Kumgang on the east coast, is the first such contact in two years and the first meeting to discuss humanitarian issues since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in the South.

Johannesburg, August 26: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has received treatment in a Dubai hospital after falling unwell, a South African newspaper reported on Wednesday.

But there was no official comment and The Times newspaper quoted Zimbabwean sources as saying Mugabe was still expected to return to Harare before a visit by South African President Jacob Zuma scheduled for Thursday.

“It emerged yesterday that Mugabe, who is 85, was not well and was undergoing specialist treatment in the UAE (United Arab Emirates),” the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

Mogadishu, August 26: One of a pair of French security agents kidnapped by insurgents in Somalia last month has escaped from his captors, Somali officials said today.

The agent is safe in the presidential palace and “in a good mood,” said the assistant information secretary of the Presidential palace, Abdulkadir Hussein Wehliye.

The circumstances of the escape and the fate of the other captive were not immediately clear.

Sydney, August 26: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd led international tributes to US politician Ted Kennedy today, calling him a “great American” following his death from brain cancer.

“Ted Kennedy was a great American, a great Democrat and also a great friend of Australia,” Rudd said.

“He has made an extraordinary contribution to American politics, an extraordinary contribution to America’s role in the world.”

Cairo, August 26: Egypt, which plans to tap atomic power to meet its growing energy requirements, has accepted six bids submitted by multinational companies to provide service-related and technical consultancy to upgrade the country’s nuclear safety standards.

Stating this, Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Energy Hassan Yunis said, the government has accepted six bids from France, UK, Germany, Canada, South Korea and the US out of 17 bids it received.

Colombo, August 26: Sri Lanka’s ruling UPFA has decided to field three soldiers, who lost their limbs in the war against LTTE, in the polls for the Southern Provincial Council next month.

“Our war heroes sacrificed their lives and limbs for the motherland and they also have all the rights to involve in politics like other citizens,” said Captain Pradeep Perera, a senior leader of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA).