<B>BERLIN. Man charged over sex with sheep in Germany. </B>A man has been charged with breaking German animal protection laws after he was caught on camera having sex with sheep, police said recently. The sheep?s owner became suspicious last year and installed video surveillance equipment which filmed the 44-year-old in the act, police in the western region of Suedhessen said in a statement. ?He admitted sodomising the animals and had no explanation for his actions,? spokeswoman Christine Klein said. The man, who is a Turkish national and lives in the town of Gross Gerau, faces a jail sentence of up to three years or a fine, the statement said.

<B>ALGIERS. Desert spread will lift Africa food costs. </B>Africa?s cereal supply costs will soar and millions more Africans will seek to migrate if deserts keep expanding at their present rate, Algeria?s environment minister said in remarks published yesterday. Newspapers quoted minister Cherif Rahmani as saying he estimated Africa?s annual cereal supply costs would reach about $14 billion in 2020 for projected consumption of 60 million tonnes, compared with $3.6 billion in 2006 for 43 million tonnes, if desertification was not tackled. Rahmani was speaking at a workshop on desertification jointly organised by Algeria?s parliament and the Africa Union?s Pan-African Parliament.

<B>MOSCOW. Beslan memorial plan angers Russian Muslim leader. </B>Plans to build a memorial to the 333 hostages killed three years ago in the Beslan school siege have sparked a row between Christians and Muslims in Russia. The local Russian Orthodox diocese says it will build a church in the grounds of Beslan?s school No. 1 to commemorate the victims ? half of them children ? killed in a clash between insurgents and Russian troops.

<B>DAMASCUS. Pelosi?s visit s Syria despite protests. </B> US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on a visit to Syria opposed by the White House, said recently President Bashar al-Assad was ready to hold peace talks with Israel.

<B>WASHINGTON. Obama nears Clinton in campaign money race. </B>Democratic presidential newcomer Barack Obama said yesterday he has raised $25 million this year, almost matching his higher profile opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton and solidifying his bid for the party nomination.

<B>IRAQ. 11 killed in Kirkuk . </B> Gunmen killed 11 electricity plant workers in northern Iraq after stopping their vehicle and machinegunning them as they sat inside, Iraqi police and army officials said.

<B>FORT IRWIN. Bush acknowledges Americans weary of Iraq war President George W. </B> Bush admitted yesterday that Americans are weary of the Iraq war and defended his decision to send more troops to Iraq before a number of soldiers about to deploy there.

<B>KIEV. Ukraine?s Prime Minister vows boycott . </B>Ukraine?s Prime Minister yesterday vowed to boycott the campaign for an election called by the country?s increasingly unpopular president as rival demonstrators took to the streets of the capital.

<B>HONIARA. Spread of diseases feared after Tsunami. </B>Thousands of people left homeless by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands may notget help for another two days, the government warned, as rescuers struggled to reach remote villages.

<B>BOGOTA. Thousands flee increasing violence. </B> Violence has forced up to 7,000 people in southwest Colombia from their homes over the past two weeks as soldiers battle to retake land from left-wing rebels producing cocaine in the area, officials said.

<B>CHICAGO. Mars suffering from climate change </B>Earth?s dusty neighbor Mars is grappling with its own form of climate change as fluctuating solar radiation is kicking up dust and winds that may be melting the planet?s southern polar ice cap, scientists said.

<B>BANGKOK. Southern Thai mosque bombed, 14 wounded. </B>A bomb was thrown into a mosque in Thailand?s rebellious Muslim-majority south yesterday, wounding at least 14 worshippers, a senior policeman said.

About 100 people had gathered for morning prayers in the mosque, located in an area under curfew since an attack by suspected insurgents on a minibus that killed eight Buddhists last month, Major-General Paitoon Chuchaiya said. Few other details were immediately available, he told ?Channel 3? television, on a night of arson attacks on schools often targeted by insurgents as a symbol of the far-away government in Bangkok.

Eight schools, two teachers? houses and two clinics were set ablaze in the Yaha district of Yala province and a neighbouring area, said Paitoon, the provincial police chief.