DOUAI/PARIS (Reuters) - A 47-year-old French woman confessed to suffocating eight new-born children and hiding her babies' bodies, a prosecutor said on Thursday, in what experts declared as the country's worst recorded case of infanticide.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria and Saudi Arabia pledged on Thursday to work on stabilizing Lebanon and Syria advised the United States against interfering with Saudi King Abdullah's visit to Damascus.

QUITO (Reuters) - South American foreign ministers meet in Ecuador on Thursday to discuss broken ties between Venezuela and Colombia, with sparks likely over the two Andean nations' clashing plans to fix a crisis over leftist rebels.

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League said on Thursday it would back face-to-face peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel when the Palestinians believe the time is right.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda threatened in an internet audio recording on Thursday to carry out more attacks on Yemeni forces following several suspected and confirmed Qaeda strikes on the government that have killed dozens.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Attackers killed at least 12 people and wounded 31 in a series of shootings and explosions across Iraq on Thursday, security and hospital sources said.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India and Britain spoke on Thursday of a new momentum toward closer trade and security ties, but a high-profile visit by Britain's prime minister was partly overshadowed by his outspoken comments on Pakistan.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Activists called on the United States and other major powers on Thursday to join a global treaty banning cluster munitions that goes into force on August 1.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Germany have charged a suspected Nazi camp guard with helping to kill 430,000 Jews in the Holocaust and personally shooting 10 others.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Heavy monsoon rains in Islamabad on Thursday hampered recovery efforts at the site of a Pakistani plane crash that killed all 152 people on board a day earlier, a senior police officer said.

PARIS (Reuters) - French Labor Minister Eric Woerth will be questioned by police on Thursday as a witness in an investigation into alleged tax evasion by L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, his lawyer said.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that Western allies had the ability to strike at Taliban bases in Pakistan, but questioned their willingness to do so.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A natural gas well operated by Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group has been burning for nearly a week since drilling in the well caused gas to leak out and explode, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to sell $29 billion worth of assets on the open market, a senior government official said on Wednesday, allaying investors fears about the transparency of the biggest privatization since the 1990s.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Somali pirates have released the Turkish ship Frigia which they hijacked four months ago, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported on Thursday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Iraqi arm of al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack this week on the Baghdad office of satellite television channel Al Arabiya, and warned of further strikes on media targets.

ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran and the United States sent positive signals on Wednesday about the possibility of fresh talks on the Iranian nuclear program, which Washington suspects aims to develop atomic weapons.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Suspected drug hitmen have kidnapped four Mexican journalists who were reporting on organized crime in northern Mexico, the latest attempt by cartels to silence the media, a Mexican media group said on Wednesday.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Two bodies dug up in Argentina have been identified as a French activist and his Mexican girlfriend who disappeared during the country's 1976-1983 military dictatorship, President Cristina Fernandez said on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's army was on the verge of "seizing up" in 2006 when it faced a "perfect storm" of simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former military chief said on Wednesday.