Reuters World News Highlights 0240 GMT, Nov 10

BEIJING/SAO PAULO - China launched a huge stimulus plan on Sunday worth nearly $600 billion, kicking off what could be a round of big spending or interest rate cuts by leading economies to stave off a recession in many countries.

- - - -

WASHINGTON - The economic crisis will not stop President-elect Barack Obama from expanding health care, overhauling education and energy policy, and passing a middle-class tax cut soon after he takes office in January, senior aides said on Sunday.

- - - -

BEIJING - A strong earthquake measuring 6.5 hit a sparsely populated area in China's western province of Qinghai on Monday, shaking buildings in the remote mining city of Golmud and the regional capital, Xining.

- - - -

WELLINGTON - New Zealand Prime Minister-elect John Key began talks on Monday with his allies, hoping to form a government by the end of the week to start work on pulling the country out of recession.

- - - -

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia - Twenty people were killed on board a Russian nuclear submarine, the navy said on Sunday, in an accident that exposed the gap between the Kremlin's ambitions and its military capability.

- - - -

TENGGULUN, Indonesia - Three Indonesian militants executed on Sunday for the 2002 Bali bombings were buried by their families at ceremonies attended by thousands of supporters shouting "Allahu akbar" .

- - - -

TBILISI - Georgia accused South Ossetian security forces of occupying a Georgian village outside the borders of the breakaway territory on Sunday, drawing warnings from EU officials monitoring a ceasefire.

- - - -

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom "Kristallnacht" on Sunday by warning against complacency in the fight against anti-Semitism.

- - - -

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt - The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators sought on Sunday to keep alive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks although political uncertainty in Israel has scotched hopes for a deal this year.

- - - -

HAVANA - Paloma lost its punch as it stalled over Cuba on Sunday and was downgraded to a tropical depression after coming ashore as powerful hurricane that battered the island still recovering from two earlier storms.

- - - -