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Reuters World News Highlights at 2200 GMT, Aug 29

Published: 30 Aug 2009 16:34:42 PST

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TEHRAN - Iran said on Saturday the U.N. atomic watchdog had confirmed its nuclear programme was peaceful and vowed to resist political pressure to change it, a news agency reported.

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KABUL - Partial Afghan election returns released on Saturday showed President Hamid Karzai extending his lead in last week's vote, but still falling short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off.

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NAJAF, Iraq - Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite Muslim leaders, was buried in the holy city of Najaf on Saturday, three days after his death cast more uncertainty over Iraq's turbulent politics.

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SEOUL - A South Korean fishing boat and its crew that strayed into North Korean waters and were held for a month were returned on Saturday as the communist state reaches out to its foes after months of military grandstanding.

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NANSAN, China - Fighting erupted in northeast Myanmar on Saturday after days of clashes in which the leader of ethnic forces said more than 30 government troops had been killed.

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TOKYO - Frustrated Japanese voters look set to oust the long-ruling conservative party in an election on Sunday, handing the novice opposition the job of reviving a weak economy and coping with a rapidly ageing population.

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BANGKOK - "Red shirt" supporters of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra have postponed Sunday's planned rally outside the office of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva because of a tight security law passed this week.

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KHARTOUM - Armed men seized two foreign civilians working for Darfur's peacekeeping force on Saturday, the first time the joint U.N./African Union mission has been targeted by kidnappers.

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MOGADISHU - Ethiopian troops in heavily armoured vehicles crossed into central Somalia on Saturday, witnesses said, taking control of Baladwayne town and advancing on Islamist insurgent positions in the area.

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WASHINGTON - Hurricane Jimena formed in the eastern Pacific near the Mexican resort of Acapulco on Saturday, but in the Atlantic Tropical Storm Danny weakened to a tropical depression and storm alerts were discontinued for the North Carolina coast.

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BOSTON - President Barack Obama hailed Senator Edward Kennedy as the "greatest legislator of our time" at the funeral on Saturday of the towering patriarch of the pre-eminent American political family.