Reuters World News Highlights

MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised the  New START nuclear arms treaty with the United States  yesterday in his first remarks on the pact since the U.S. Senate  approved it last week.
– – – –
SEOUL – South Korea’s president has urged negotiations to  tackle the peninsula’s nuclear crisis but analysts say chances  of international talks are slim because of deep divisions and a  lack of pressure on the emboldened North.
– – – –
ABIDJAN/DAKAR – West African leaders have threatened to  remove Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo by force if he refuses  to go quietly, but are likely to rely on persuasion rather than  arms to get their way.
– – – –
SYDNEY – China’s move to slash export quotas on rare earth  minerals — vital in a slew of high-tech products — has raised  fresh international trade concerns, and Japan’s Sony Corp vowed  yesterday to reduce its reliance on the minerals.
– – – –
JERUSALEM – The United States and its allies have up to  three years to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, which has been set  back by technical difficulties and sanctions, a senior Israeli  official said yesterday.
– – – –
KHARTOUM – Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir declared  Darfur peace talks being held in Qatar would end on Dec. 30,  dealing an apparent final blow to negotiations which have made  little progress in ending the region’s conflict.
– – – –
MAIDUGURI/YENEGOA, Nigeria – Bombs hit a political rally in  a southern Nigerian city yesterday, a day after three people  were shot dead in the north of the country, as tensions rise  before a series of elections next year.
– – – –
MOSUL, Iraq – Three suicide bombers stormed into a police  battalion headquarters yesterday and killed the commander in  the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police sources said.