AP - North Korea said Sunday it will resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the U.S. removed the communist country from a list of states Washington says sponsor terrorism.

AFP - European leaders were due in Paris on Sunday for a summit that would mark their last chance to hammer out a coordinated financial rescue package before their panic-stricken stock markets reopen.

AP - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday the rift between his mainstream Palestinian faction and archrival Hamas must end. The Hamas leader, meanwhile, said the time is right for reconciliation.

AFP - About 40,000 people attended a ceremony Sunday at which Pope Benedict XVI canonised four new saints, among them Sister Alfonsa, an Indian nun who became the country's first woman saint.

AP - After making landfall over mainland Mexico, Norbert weakened Sunday from a hurricane to a tropical storm, weather officials said.

AP - President Dmitry Medvedev watched a missile soar from Russia's rain-soaked northern forests toward a target thousands of miles away on Sunday, capping a weekend of launches reminding audiences at home and abroad about the country's nuclear might.

AP - A Soyuz spacecraft with two Americans and a Russian on board lifted off from Kazakhstan on Sunday for the international space station.

AFP - Zimbabwe's outraged opposition accused President Robert Mugabe of killing off a power-sharing deal on Sunday after he unilaterally handed key ministries to his own party.

Reuters - Australia and New Zealand gave a blanket guarantee to all bank deposits Sunday in a move likely to raise pressure on other economies to do the same, amid a crisis of confidence in the global financial system.

AP - Taliban militants launched a surprise attack on a key southern Afghan town, sparking a battle that killed some 60 insurgents, an Afghan official said Sunday. A second clash in the same region killed another 40 militants.