NORTH KOREA

Negotiators at North Korea's disarmament talks tentatively agreed to a draft plan on disabling the North's nuclear facilities by year's end.

China said talks may reconvene in 48 hours depending on what the United States, Japan, Russia and North and South Korea decide about the draft.

The document "lays out an entire road map until the end of the year" for the North's nuclear disarmament, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters before boarding a plane for New York.

BRITAIN Police force's trial to begin today

London's police force goes on trial today, accused of breaking health and safety laws in the killing of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, who was gunned down two years ago aboard an underground train, a day after a foiled attack on the city's transport system.

Prosecutors brought the rare corporate case against the Metropolitan Police Service after deciding last year there was insufficient evidence to charge individual officers.

ISRAEL Leaders to work on peace deal

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to meet Wednesday to formulate a joint vision of a peace deal to be presented at a November conference in the United States, their aides said.

Abbas and Olmert have met five times in recent months, but the two sides remain far apart on how specific the document should be. The Palestinians want to take a detailed framework agreement to the conference, while Israel wants a shorter and vaguer statement.

PAKISTAN Suicide bomber in rickshaw kills 15

A suicide bomber killed four police officers and 11 others today in northwestern Pakistan, police said.

The bomb was in a rickshaw being examined at a checkpoint in the town of Bannu, in the North-West Frontier Province, police said. It was unclear if the driver or a passenger wearing a burka detonated it.

Fighting between Islamic militants and security forces has been raging in the tribal regions.

From Times Wire Reports