Sudan will withdraw from peace talks with Darfur rebels if no deal is reached by Thursday, President Omar Bashir says.

Europe's heavy-lift rocket, the Ariane 5, completes its sixth and final mission of 2010, putting two satellites high above the Earth.

French model Isabelle Caro, who gained worldwide publicity posing nude for an anti-anorexia campaign while suffering from the illness, dies at 28.

The number of Iraqi civilians killed by violence this year fell to its lowest since 2003, a rights group says, but the decline is slower and the level may not drop further.

US President Barack Obama bypasses the Senate to name four new ambassadors and two other appointments during the recess period.

The US musician, composer and jazz advocate Billy Taylor dies of heart failure at the age of 89.

Two US women convicted of armed robbery can be freed if one donates a kidney to the other, the governor of Mississippi says.

The US revokes the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador, the state department says, after President Hugo Chavez rejects the US envoy to Caracas.