With nearly one billion people still suffering from food shortages around the globe, the world must take a united stand against hunger, the United Nations said here Friday, marking World Food Day.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on October 16 promised to supply Belarus with oil for "the next 200 years", during a meeting with his counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

At least 21 miners were killed in a gas burst in a colliery in central China's Henan Province Saturday, the rescue headquarters said.

A million or more people marched in cities across France on October 16 (Saturday) in the latest protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy's flagship pension reform, and refinery strikes squeezed fuel at airports.

All but two of the 33 miners rescued this week in Chile after more than two months underground have been released from the Copiapo Regional Hospital, officials there told reporters on October 15.

Engineers have drilled through the last remaining rock to complete the world's longest tunnel, under the Swiss Alps.

Tropical Storm Paula brought winds and heavy rain to the Cuban capital on Thursday, turning some low lying streets into shallow rivers, bending palm trees and sending waves crashing against the city's famed Malecon sea wall, though there were no reports of serious damage.

  Chile says it will prosecute those responsible for the mine collapse that trapped 33 miners for more than two months before being freed on Wednesday (October 13).

Eight foreign troops from NATO-led forces were killed in five separate insurgent attacks in Afghanistan on Thursday, NATO said, bringing to 14 the number of troops killed in the last two days.

The US pressed NATO allies on Thursday to invest in a missile shield and avoid harmful budget cuts at a rare meeting of defence and foreign ministers clouded by the war in Afghanistan.