World News Highlights 0210 GMT Nov 19

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Treasury defended its handling of the financial bailout on Tuesday as American banking and auto woes reverberated around the globe and the International Monetary Fund said it would need extra funding to help countries through the downturn.

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BOSASSO, Somalia - A Saudi supertanker seized by pirates with a $100 million oil cargo in the world's biggest ship hijacking reached Somalia on Tuesday, and another ship was captured in the perilous waters off the lawless state.

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GAZA - Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, blaming continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel in the coastal territory.

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CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama moved closer to filling a key spot in his cabinet on Tuesday as his transition team plotted a careful course to shaping the next U.S. administration.

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LUOFU, Congo - Rebels in east Democratic Republic of Congo announced a military pullback on Tuesday to support a U.N. peace initiative and the government sacked its armed forces chief following a string of defeats.

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KABUL - Afghan government representatives and former members of the Taliban are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia soon for their second talks on a way to end the war in Afghanistan, an Afghan government official said on Wednesday.

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BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday attacked critics of a pact giving U.S. troops three years to leave Iraq, saying they wanted the Americans to stay just so they could agitate against them.

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ABUJA - Nigeria's president on Tuesday unveiled a list of ministerial nominees including a former OPEC chief, nearly three weeks after sacking half the cabinet.

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HARARE - Zimbabwe is drafting a constitutional amendment empowering President Robert Mugabe to form a unity government, the information minister said on Tuesday, despite the opposition's refusal to join a cabinet.

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TOKYO - Japan's opposition stepped up efforts on Tuesday to force an early election by stalling key bills including help for struggling banks, a strategy that threatens policy paralysis as the economy sinks into recession.

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ANKARA - Russia's defence minister said on Tuesday that Georgia was trying to build up its military and he warned this could spark even greater instability in the region than there was in the war in August.

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THE HAGUE - The U.N.'s highest court ruled on Tuesday it had jurisdiction to examine Croatia's accusation that Serbia committed genocide in the Croatian 1991-95 independence war.