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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's ruling party holds its biggest meeting in 30 years early next month to pick a new leadership and likely anoint an heir to the dynasty as Kim Jong-il's health deteriorates.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Socialite, celebrity TV and Web site favourite Paris Hilton has been released by Las Vegas police after her arrest for possessing cocaine on Friday night, her lawyer said on Saturday.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Global miner BHP Billiton on Sunday played down any chance of raising its $39 billion (25 billion pounds) bid for fertiliser maker Potash Corp, saying it had timed its move to catch out weakened rival bidders.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons can expect no cut in the overall tax burden for an extended period as the coalition government takes tough steps to narrow a gaping budget deficit, a Treasury minister was quoted as saying on Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Socialite, celebrity TV and Web site favourite Paris Hilton has been released by Las Vegas police after her arrest for possessing cocaine on Friday night, her lawyer said on Saturday.

KARACHI (Reuters) - Flood waters threatened to engulf two towns in southern Pakistan on Saturday, a month after the disaster began, as the United Nations warned that tens of thousands of children risked death from malnutrition.

This story does not carry a dateline to protect the identity and location of a source. (Reuters) - The European Union thinks China has made only limited progress in allowing its yuan currency to move more rapidly, and swifter action would help safeguard a fragile economic recovery, according to a draft G20 document obtained by Reuters on Saturday.

LONDON (Reuters) - The world-famous British Museum was evacuated on Saturday after visitors reported eye irritation from what they thought was a chemical leak, officials said.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The former head of Belgium's Catholic Church suggested to a sexual abuse victim it would be better to delay a public statement on the case until the bishop involved resigned in 2011, a Church spokesman said on Saturday.

BRADFORD, England (Reuters) - Far-right protesters hurled bricks and smoke bombs on Saturday as riot police kept them apart from anti-racism demonstrators.

BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - China is lobbying neighbours to sign up to a road map for renewed nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong-il is visiting China amid conciliatory words and threats of "holy war."

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Britain's top annual comedy prize, the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award, went to England's Russell Kane at an Edinburgh Fringe festival ceremony on Saturday for his show "Smokescreens and Castles."

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Foreign and Afghan troops killed 24 insurgents as they fought off pre-dawn attacks on two bases in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, with the Taliban saying suicide bombers the fighters.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Investigations into spying allegations against three American hikers detained in Iran will be completed soon, Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said in a news report on Saturday.

KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. newspaper report that said a key national security adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai was being paid by the CIA is an insult to Afghanistan aimed at discrediting Karzai's government, his office said on Saturday.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma on Saturday accused striking state workers of abandoning the sick at hospitals and said he expected a deal to be reached soon to end the labour action by about 1.3 million.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A company linked to Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen is suing 11 major corporations, including Apple, Google and Facebook, accusing them of infringing on technology patents.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday the economic recovery has weakened more than expected and the Fed stands ready to act if needed to spur slowing growth.

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (Reuters) - Two car bombs exploded in northern Mexico early on Friday, the latest attack in an area where several days earlier marines found the bodies of 72 people gunned down in the country's escalating drug war.

LONDON (Reuters) - Rates of oesophageal cancer in men have risen by 50 percent in Britain in a generation, an increase that is probably being driven in part by growing rates of obesity and poor diet, scientists said on Saturday.