International Headline News

Date: Monday, March 8, 2010
>TOP STORIES as of 0900 HKT -- 09 March, 2010

> ENVOY: ISRAELIS, PALESTINIANS ACCEPT INDIRECT TALKS
Israeli and Palestinian leaders have accepted indirect talks,
according to George Mitchell, the Obama administration's special
envoy for Middle East peace.

> PAKISTANI TALIBAN LEADER DISPUTES DEATHS
A senior militant Taliban leader refuted reports Monday that he
had been killed in a Pakistani military airstrike in Pakistan's
tribal region along the Afghan border.

> SEARCH FOR DUBAI KILLING SUSPECTS GROWS
Interpol says it will help investigators to track down all 27
people suspected of being linked to the January killing of a
Hamas leader in Dubai by an alleged Mossad hit squad.

> MUSLIMS KILL HUNDREDS IN NIGERIA
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan puts Nigeria on high alert
following attacks by machete-wielding Muslims on mostly
Christian villages in central Plateau state.

> DOZENS DEAD AFTER TURKEY QUAKE
A pre-dawn earthquake flattens homes and kills at least 51
people in a mountainous region of southeastern Turkey on Monday,
according to government officials.

> 1 AMERICAN IN HAITI RELEASED, 1 STILL HELD
Charisa Coulter, one of two American missionaries still detained
in Haiti on suspicion of kidnapping 33 children after the
January 12 earthquake there, will be released, her defense
attorney said.

> ENVOY: IRAQIS DESERVE CONGRATULATIONS
Iraq's elections "really went very, very well" and the "Iraqi
people deserve a lot of congratulations from us," the United
States' ambassador to Baghdad said Monday.

> WILL IRAQ'S DEMOCRACY VINDICATE BUSH?
Israel may have to retire its title as the only democracy in the
Middle East. With Sunday's free and fair national election, Iraq
joins the honor roll as one of the very few Islamic democracies.

BUSINESS
~~~~~~~~~~~

> AIG IN $15.5B UNIT SALE TO METLIFE
AIG agreed to sell its American Life Insurance Co. unit to
MetLife Inc. for $15.5 billion in cash and stock in beleaguered
AIG's second sale of an international unit in a week.

> ICELANDERS REJECT PLAN TO REPAY DEBT
Iceland's voters overwhelmingly reject a deal to pay billions of
dollars it owes to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the
Foreign Ministry has said.

> TOYOTA CHIEF: WE MUST RESTART
The head of Toyota Motor Corp. told his employees on Friday that
the company must begin again if it is to regain its legacy of
quality that helped make it the world's largest automotive
company.