Socialist Party backs constitution PARIS - France's opposition Socialist Party has voted in favor of the European Union's proposed constitution, in a victory for the party's moderate, pro-European wing. About 59 percent of party members voted yes in a series of nationwide caucuses, the results of which were announced Thursday. The outcome was seen as a major boost for the party's leader, Francois Hollande.

INDIA

11 people killed in Kashmir blast

SRINAGAR - Separatist militants set off a powerful land mine in Indian Kashmir killing eleven people, including nine soldiers in one of the biggest guerrilla attacks in weeks, police said today. The men were traveling in a jeep when the land mine went off late on Saturday night in Pulwama, south of summer capital Srinagar. The victims included the driver and another civilian.

NEPAL

Prime minister urges end to revolt

KATMANDU - Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba issued a fresh appeal to Maoist rebels to start talks to try to end a bloody revolt that has killed more than 10,000 people in the last eight years. Deuba made the televised plea Wednesday, saying that Nepal needed a climate of peace for development. It came weeks before a government deadline that Katmandu would go ahead with parliament elections in April if rebels do not respond by Jan. 13.

THAILAND

Government seeks peace in the south

BANGKOK - The Thai government is working to bring peace to the Muslim south where escalating violence has unnerved investors, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told foreign business leaders. Addressing 400 executives at a conference last week in Bangkok, Thaksin acknowledged that his audience may be worried about the unrest that has claimed nearly 500 lives this year and fueled fears of a separatist Islamic militancy.

SOMALIA

Cabinet sworn in amid vow to return

NAIROBI, KENYA - Somalia's prime minister has appointed a Cabinet of warlords, academics and businessmen and vowed to return soon to rebuild the militia-infested African nation. Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Geedi told a swearing in ceremony for 27 ministers in Nairobi last week he was talking to private armies in Somalia about how to arrange the new government's return. Somalia descended into anarchy after warlords ousted then-military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.

SPAIN

Italy handing over bombing suspect

MADRID - Italy's top appeals court has approved the extradition to Spain of a prime suspect in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, a Spanish court source said last week. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, also known as "Mohammed the Egyptian," has been identified by Spain as one of the masterminds of the most devastating attacks in modern Spanish history, three days before a general election.

JAPAN

Chlamydia rate up among teens

TOKYO - More than one in 10 high school students in Japan � and 23.5 percent of 16-year-old girls � are infected with chlamydia, but most show no symptoms or are unaware they have the sexually transmitted disease, according to Asahikawa Medical College researchers. That suggests Japan has among the worst rates of infection in the world.

TURKEY

Parliament passes police proposals

ANKARA - Turkey's parliament approved proposals Saturday to scale down police powers and improve conditions of detainees before a European Union summit Dec. 16-17.

NICARAGUA

Tourists' bodies found on volcano

MANAGUA - The bodies of two missing tourists from England and the United States have been found on Maderas volcano in southern Nicaragua, the family of one of the young men said Saturday. Nicholas Roth, 28, of London, and Jordan Alexander Ressler, 23, of San Diego, were last seen more than two weeks ago.

RUSSIA

Furniture factory fire kills 15 people

MOSCOW - Fifteen people were killed when a fire broke out in a furniture factory warehouse in the Moscow region, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday. Investigators began combing the site after dawn Saturday, when they found 15 bodies.

Source: From wire reports

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