The Indian Navy says it has foiled an attack by pirates on one of its frigates off the Somali coast and sunk a suspected pirate vessel. A statement by the Indian Navy said its INS Tabar, which is patrolling off the Somali coast, sank what appeared to be the pirate ''mother ship'' after it failed to stop for investigation. Meanwhile, pirates have seized a third ship in as many days off the Horn of Africa. A Greek bulk carrier is the latest victim, following the capture of a Saudi oil tanker over the weekend and a Chinese cargo vessel carrying wheat for Iran late Tuesday. Unconfirmed reports say the pirates have demanded a ransom for the Saudi ship, the Sirius Star, which was carrying 100 million dollars worth of crude oil. The US Navy says it has discovered the ship is anchored off the coast of Somalia.

Al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman Zawahiri, has issued a message via the Internet insulting US President-elect Barack Obama. In the audio message Zawahiri called Mr Obama a "house negro" - a demeaning term implying he served white people. He also warned Obama against sending more troops to Afghanistan.  In a major interview aired on Sunday, Obama vowed no retreat from his campaign promise to begin pulling troops out of Iraq and switch the military focus to Afghanistan. If genuine, Zawahiri's message would be the first acknowledgement by al-Qaeda of the president-elect's victory.

The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo says that Congolese Tutsi rebels have started withdrawing from conflict zones around two towns in the east of the country. This follows an announcement by rebels loyal to General Laurent Nkunda that they would pull back 40 kilometres from recently seized positions. The rebels said the move was aimed at supporting mediation efforts by the UN's new special envoy and former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Congolese troops had fallen back in disarray in the face of the rebels' recent advance, prompting DRC President Joseph Kabila to sack his military chief of staff. The clashes over the past few weeks have forced some 250,000 people from their homes and claimed dozens of lives. 

Germany has extradited a senior Rwandan politician to France, where she is wanted for questioning in connection with the 1994 assassination of a former Rwandan President. Rose Kabuye, a former guerrilla leader who is now a key governmental aide to President Paul Kagame, was arrested by German police on a French warrant as she arrived at Frankfurt airport 10 days ago. French investigators suspect 47-year-old Kabuye of involvement in the downing of a plane that killed Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana. His ethnic Hutu supporters went on the rampage following the attack, slaughtering 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutu men, women and children over a period of 100 days. Earlier on Wednesday, thousands of Rwandans marched through the capital Kigali protesting against the planned extradition. 

The world's biggest chemical company, BASF, has announced it will temporarily close 80 plants worldwide and reduce production at 100 more. The company said adjustments were primarily being carried out in units that supply the car, construction and textile industries. The decision is expected to affect around 5,000 workers at company headquarters at Ludwigshaven in south-west Germany and a further 15,000 employees worldwide. BASF shares dropped almost 12 percent on the Frankfurt stock exchange after the news was announced. The company employs more than 95,000 people and posted sales of almost 58 billion euros in 2007.

A Russian court has barred the media and public from the trial of three men charged with the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The judge at Moscow's Military Court reversed his decision to make the trial open to the public after the jury refused to hear the case in front of the press. A lawyer for the slain journalist's family has criticised the ruling. Politkovskaya, an award-winning reporter, was a fierce critic of the Kremlin's actions during two wars in Chechnya in the early 1990s and was gunned down in central Moscow in 2006. A police officer and two Chechen brothers stand accused of plotting the murder, but investigators are still hunting for a third Chechen man suspected of being the point man in the killing. 

Britain's leading medical journal, The Lancet, says that Spanish doctors have carried out a pioneering organ transplant using a windpipe created with the patient's own stem cells. The operation was successfully performed five months ago on a 30-year-old Colombian woman, who remains in perfect health. Doctors made the new windpipe by using a ground-breaking method to repopulate a donor organ with stem cells taken from the patient's bone marrow. The report says the procedure could lead to the routine creation of tailor-made organs and avoid the need for anti-rejection drugs.

New Zealand's new centre-right government has been sworn in. Prime Minister John Key has promised to introduce tax cuts, infrastructure spending and reform planning laws to boost the country's ailing economy. Key's National Party won the November 8 general election, but was short of a majority. It has struck deals with the centre-right ACT Party, centrist United Future and indigenous Maori parties. Its election victory ended nine years of Labour Party rule under Helen Clark. New Zealand has been in recession since the start of the year. 

Talks in Geneva held between Russia and Georgia to resolve security and refugee issues left over from the conflict in South Ossetia have been described as "constructive" by the EU. Pierre Morel, a representative of the 27-nation bloc, said the second round of talks had achieved a "big step forward" and the two sides are to meet again in about four weeks. A first attempt at negotiations broke down last month after the sides failed to even agree on the format of the talks. A major problem was whether pro-separatist representatives from South Ossetia and Abkhazia should be invited to take part.

German carmaker Opel, a division of US giant General Motors, says it will reduce production next year and is mulling a 30-hour work week. Company directors told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that Opel was facing tough times and was therefore lowering output forecasts by 10 percent for 2009 amid a fall in the global car market. The comments follow Opel's request for loan guarantees from the German government if the US parent group goes bankrupt. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said a decision will be made before the end of the year. Meanwhile, the European Union is studying possible support for various ailing carmakers. In the US, the heads of the three biggest carmakers have asked Congress for a 25 billion dollar bailout. They told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that their companies would go bust in the absence of government aid.