Reuters - China has told police to ensure stability as its economy slows, Japan's No.3 bank sought to beef up its depleted capital on Wednesday and markets fretted about the stricken U.S. car industry.

AFP - An Indian warship destroyed a pirate "mother vessel" in the Gulf of Aden, the navy said Wednesday, as bandits demanded a ransom for a Saudi super-tanker seized in the most daring sea raid yet.

Reuters - The election of Barack Obama as U.S. president has given crucial impetus toward implementing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty more than a decade after it was negotiated, pact officials said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Hundreds of Congolese rebel fighters pulled back on Wednesday from frontline positions in a move U.N. peacekeepers hoped would open the way for talks on ending weeks of conflict in east Congo.

AP - American consumers hit by a seemingly endless stream of bad news, from vanishing jobs to shrinking retirement accounts, may be in for a small dose of relief: lower prices at stores. The Consumer Price Index, the country's most closely watched inflation gauge, probably will show a dip of 0.5 percent in October, after being flat in September, when that report is released Wednesday, according to economists' forecasts.

AP - Brian Scalabrine, in the starting lineup while Kevin Garnett served a one-game suspension, hit a 3-pointer with 1:14 left to help Boston recover after its 15-point, fourth-quarter lead was trimmed to four and the Celtics beat New York 110-101 on Tuesday night.

AP - An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said Wednesday, as separate bands of brigands seized Thai and Iranian ships in the lawless seas.

AFP - Germany was to extradite to France on Wednesday an old comrade-in-arms of Rwanda's president over an assassination that triggered 1994's genocide, sparking mass anti-European protests in Kigali.

Reuters - Stem cells from tiny embryos can be used to restore lost hearing and vision in animals, researchers said Tuesday in what they believe is a first step toward helping people.

Reuters - An Indian warship destroyed a pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden and gunmen from Somalia seized two more vessels despite a large international naval presence off their lawless country.

Reuters - China will impose a long-awaited fuel tax "very soon," the head of National Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC) Energy Research Institute said in comments reported on Tuesday by the China Daily.

Reuters - World stocks and oil fell on Wednesday while government bonds and the yen gained as U.S. automakers begged for a bailout from Washington, adding to evidence that the credit crisis is crippling the real economy.

AP - Flight controllers were revamping plans Wednesday for the remaining spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair trip.