AFP - Publicist Max Clifford accepted more than £1 million from the News of the World in return for ending legal action over a phone-hacking scandal, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

AP - Greek unions say nationwide strikes will shut down all public services, closing schools, customs and tax offices, halting public transport and grounding flights for 24 hours.

AFP - Malaysians' voracious appetite for turtle eggs could drive the marine creatures to extinction on its shores, conservationists warned on Wednesday.

AFP - Sunni Islam's top cleric Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, a controversial figure in Egypt, died on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia of a heart attack suffered while boarding a plane, state media said.

Reuters - Hundreds of Nigerians gathered in the capital Abuja on Wednesday for a march to the presidency to demand the appearance of ailing leader Umaru Yar'Adua, two weeks after he returned from a Saudi hospital.

AFP - Residents of an area where hundreds were massacred at the weekend near Nigeria's city of Jos returned home early Wednesday having fled overnight gunfire, a witness said.

AP - Looking in the mirror used to make Yiliam Gonzalez sick to her stomach.

AP - An Ohio State University janitor who shot two supervisors, one fatally, and then killed himself had complained that he was being treated unfairly, though records show he slept on the job and was late to work during his probation.

AFP - The government will unveil a pre-election budget in two weeks' time, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday, fuelling expectations of legislative ballots in May.

AP - At least three Swedish newspapers have published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body after an alleged plot to murder the artist was unveiled in Ireland.

AP - A top Catholic prelate in Germany says an apology from the pope's brother for abuse of students in the 1960s should be seen as a "wonderful sign" that the church plans to get to the bottom of the allegations.

AFP - The Dalai Lama admitted Wednesday there was "little hope" of the current Chinese government compromising on the issue of Tibet, after years of vain attempts to win autonomy for his homeland.

AFP - A car bomb killed five people in Afghanistan on Wednesday, as the Iranian president and the defence secretary of Iran's arch-foe, the United States, paid duelling visits to the war-torn country.

AFP - East Africa has become a promising new frontier for oil exploration and major multinationals are jostling for the rights to search for black gold, industry experts said.

AP - Brazil's president said his hand-picked candidate to succeed him in October's election would help do away with machismo by becoming the first female president of Latin America's largest and most influential nation.

AP - The Taliban claimed responsibility Wednesday for a suicide bombing inside a U.S.-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan that killed two NATO service members.

AP - At least a dozen couples tied the knot in the District of Columbia on the first day same-sex ceremonies were legally allowed, and many more unions were on the way.

AFP - Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky won 150,000 pounds in libel damages Wednesday over a claim he was linked to the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.

AFP - The British government will unveil a pre-election budget on March 24, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday, fuelling expectations of a general election in May.

AFP - China has loaned 290 million dollars to the Sri Lankan government to build an airport and expand the island's railway network, the foreign ministry in Colombo said on Wednesday.

AFP - Around 5,000 Nigerian activists staged a march Wednesday to demand the sacking of the cabinet and a public appearance by ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, two weeks after he returned to the country.

Reuters - Sporadic shooting rang out overnight in the central Nigerian city of Jos and witnesses said at least one person was killed by soldiers enforcing a curfew days after attacks on three nearby Christian villages.

AFP - Nearly 50 people from the mainly Muslim Fulani clan arrested after a weekend attack on Christian villages are to be charged with murder, the state police chief said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Egyptian religious leader Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the head of al Azhar, has died on a visit to Saudi Arabia, Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday, quoting its correspondent. Al-Azhar, one of the most prominent seats of Sunni Islamic learning in the Muslim world, has schools, universities and other educational institutions across Egypt.

AP - The families of three Americans detained in Iran for months say their loved ones have been allowed to call home for the first time.

AP - Suspected militants armed with grenades attacked the offices of a Christian aid group helping earthquake survivors in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six employees and wounding several others, police and the organization said.

AP - Cambodia will preserve 14 sites at the last bastion of the murderous Khmer Rouge, including the home of their leader Pol Pot, as tourist attractions, an official said Wednesday.

AP - Australian scientists said Wednesday that the discovery of a genetically distinct colony of Tasmanian devils may save the species from being wiped out by a contagious cancer that has decimated the population.

AP - North Korea plans to replace its top diplomat in Switzerland who is believed to be a key manager of leader Kim Jong Il's alleged secret funds stashed overseas, a news report said Wednesday.

AP - The Dalai Lama blasted Chinese authorities Wednesday, accusing them of trying to "annihilate Buddhism" in Tibet as he commemorated a failed uprising against China's rule over the region.

AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility Wednesday that some of the U.S. forces involved in the Afghanistan surge could leave the country before President Barack Obama's announced July 2011 date to begin withdrawal.

AP - Much of the food aid intended for Somalia's poor is diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local U.N. workers, according to a Security Council report.

AP - Soldiers opened fire on a crowd after curfew and killed two people, witnesses said Wednesday, just days after fighting between Christians and Muslims in the area left more than 200 dead including dozens of children.

AP - Texas' state education board, rocked by primary elections that may push the influential panel's far-right leanings toward the center, is set to take its first vote on a new social studies curriculum that could reverberate in classrooms nationwide.