Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later to discuss his country's progress in cutting its budget deficit. The meeting comes as policymakers decide whether to release the latest tranche of Greek bailout funds.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has suspended work on a highway being built in the Amazon, amid a national furore over the way opposition to the road has been handled. On Sunday police fired tear gas and rounded up hundreds of activists staging a march against the road.

The outline of a large and ambitious eurozone rescue plan is taking shape, reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington suggest. It is expected to involve a 50% write-down of Greece's massive government debt, the BBC's business editor Robert Peston says.

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama will spend part of Monday hobnobbing with celebrities and other power-brokers in Los Angeles, continuing a West Coast trip that includes town hall events and fundraisers for his re-election campaign.

Syrian tanks have bombarded a strategic town in the restive central province of Homs overnight, injuring three people, activists and residents say. Troops fired with machine guns mounted on tanks in the town of al-Rastan on the main road north to Turkey.

Libya's interim government forces are renewing their attack on Sirte, one of the last pro-Gaddafi strongholds. National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters had regrouped overnight after making major gains on Saturday.

A small plane has crashed in Nepal killing all 19 people on board, officials say. The Buddha Air plane was carrying 16 tourists to view Mount Everest and other peaks and was returning to the Nepalese capital.

The IMF says it will take decisive action to tackle the eurozone debt crisis and support the global economy. In a communique on Saturday, the global lender said it would review the resources it had available to tackle the crisis.

Barack Obama has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he will veto his bid for UN membership, as he tried to persuade him to drop the plans. But Mahmoud Abbas vowed to press ahead during a meeting with the US president, the White House said afterwards.

Greece is being hit by a 24-hour public transport strike in the latest protest against government austerity measures. Train, bus and taxi services have been crippled and air traffic controllers will stop work for several hours. There will also be a mass protest of public sector workers later in Athens.

Death row inmate Troy Davis has been executed in the US state of Georgia for the fatal shooting of policeman Mark MacPhail in 1989. Davis' death was delayed for hours while the US Supreme Court considered an 11th-hour appeal for clemency.

Hundreds of Afghans have gathered in Kabul to mourn High Peace Council chief Burhanuddin Rabbani and protest at his killing by a suicide bomber on Tuesday. Kabul was gridlocked as streets were sealed off around Rabbani's home, where ex-colleagues arrived to pay respects.

At least 35 human bodies were found in a roadway during rush-hour traffic in the Mexican coastal state of Veracruz Tuesday, the state attorney general said. Police in the eastern state found two trucks carrying the bodies near a shopping mall in the municipality of Boca del Rio, Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez said.

US President Barack Obama will urge his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas to drop a bid for UN recognition of statehood later on Wednesday. Mr Obama will also meet Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu amid frantic diplomacy aimed at averting a crisis.

Government forces in Yemen have continued firing shells at a protester camp in the capital, witnesses say. Explosions rocked Sanaa all night, and at least two people had died in the shelling, according to doctors.

United Nations (CNN) -- The Israeli prime minister on Monday appealed for direct peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to be started in New York and continued in Jerusalem and Ramallah. "Unilateral measures are not the way to advance peace between us," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to an Abbas plan to submit a member application for a state of Palestine to the United Nations Security Council on Friday.

Italy has had its sovereign debt rating cut by Standard & Poor's, the latest move in the deepening European debt crisis. S&P cut its rating by one level to A from A+, adding that the outlook for the country was "negative". It cited fears over Italy's ability to cut state spending and bring its finances in order, particularly given the country's growth prospects.

More civilians have died in political unrest in Yemen's capital Sanaa, a day after 26 people were shot dead at a rally in the city. Witnesses said security forces once again opened fire on protesters, who had promised to carry on their campaign to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

President Barack Obama is to unveil plans to cut the US deficit by $3 trillion (£1.9tn) over the next decade. A White House official said his proposals include an overhaul of the tax code that would raise $1.5tn. The official said the president would not agree to cuts in health care for the elderly if there were no provisions for rich Americans to pay more tax.

Greece should not be the "scapegoat" for the debt crisis in the eurozone, the country's Finance Minister, Evangelos Venizelos, has said. He added that European and international institutions were using Greece as an "easy excuse" to "hide their own lack of competence to manage the crisis". Mr Venizelos is due to discuss Greece's next release of bailout funds later.

Libya's interim government forces say they have made progress in their attack on Sirte, a stronghold of forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi. However, the advance has been slow and there is fierce resistance from loyalist forces. There are also reports of heavy fighting in another Gaddafi stronghold, the town of Bani Walid.