Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Saturday announced it will help develop a dynamic and productive workforce to attract new investments and sustain business competitiveness.

Norway has agreed to cancel 20 million U.S. dollars of a total of 46 million U.S. dollars debt owed by Pakistan to Norway, on condition that the money be used for reconstruction and development, said reports from Oslo on Saturday.

Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos urged Turkey to meet its European Union (EU) entry obligations as well as its obligations to Cyprus on Saturday, days before the publication of a key report on Ankara's bid to join the EU.

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said Norway wants to take the lead in efforts to achieve an international ban on cluster munitions, according to reports from Oslo on Saturday.

The U.S. government has been seeking to keep the secret prisons operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the dark by telling a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in the jails should not be allowed to reveal the interrogation methods used on them, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Iraqi police Saturday clashed with a group of suspected al-Qaida militants in southeastern Baghdad, killing 53 militants, a well-informed Interior Ministry spokesman said.

An editorial to be published Monday in independent publications that serve the four main branches of the U.S. military will call for President George W. Bush to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, CNN reported Saturday.

Iraqi security forces killed 53 insurgents and detained 16 others in fierce gunbattle in southeastern Baghdad on Saturday, Iraqi official television reported.

The Bush Administration may be under great pressure to fundamentally change its policy on the "increasingly unpopular" Iraq war, the Los Angeles Times said on Saturday.

The United Nations on Saturday called for an end to Israel's continued violations of Lebanese airspace, while giving a positive assessment of the situation in south Lebanon.