A speech by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC:

“The African Union Commission is encouraged by the level of enthusiasm demonstrated by all our agriculture and climate change experts and stakeholders gathered here today to address the subject of food security, agriculture and climate change. These are all inextricably linked with significant consequences for us if there are not carefully managed”.

Hyundai Motor Thursday unveiled South Korea's first full-speed electric car, designed to tap into the increasingly competitive electric auto market, hailed as the industry's future.

The country's largest car maker introduced BlueOn, its first full-speed electric vehicle, with President Lee Myung-Bak test-driving the car during an unveiling ceremony at the presidential Blue House.

The new vehicle has a maximum speed of 130 kilometres (81 miles) per hour and can travel 140 kilometres on a single charge, Hyundai Motor said in a statement.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar said the NATO-led coalition is losing the war in Afghanistan, calling on Afghans to redouble their struggle and pressing the United States to withdraw.

Omar was speaking in a message to mark Eid al-Fitr, the feast that ends the holy fasting month of Ramadan, made available by the US-based monitoring service SITE Intelligence Group.

"The victory of our Islamic nation over the invading infidels is now imminent and the driving force behind this is the belief in the help of Allah and unity among ourselves," he said.

A Jordanian student arrested for having insulted King Abdullah II has been freed on the express orders of the monarch, an official source said on Thursday.

News of Hatim al-Shuli's release from prison came a week after rights watchdog Human Rights Watch urged Jordan to free him and cancel all charges against him.

The official said charges of lese majeste against Shuli and 18 other people were also cancelled on orders of the king.

Asian Tour chief Kyi Hla Han on Thursday vowed to win his battle with the rival OneAsia Tour, saying there was not enough room for both of them.

OneAsia was launched last year, bringing together tours from China, South Korea and Australia, in a direct threat to the established Asian Tour.

It has 10 tournaments this season to the Asian Tour's 25, but executive chairman Kyi Hla Han accuses them of bringing nothing new to the table in terms of sponsorship.

"If OneAsia had done that, we could probably have sat down and had a talk and worked it out," he told AFP.

The head of the Force One racing team on Thursday welcomed a decision to give India the chance to host its first Grand Prix, calling it an endorsement of the country's recent progress.

The World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Wednesday formally approved India's inclusion on the race calendar for 2011, although it has yet to give a green light to the new track being built outside the capital, New Delhi.

The trunks in his basement had gathered dust for two decades before Aditya Arya finally popped the locks to discover a "mind boggling" visual record of India's freedom movement and its leaders.

From a shared giggle between Jacqueline Kennedy and India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to the signing of India's constitution, the trunks contained thousands of candid and historic photographs -- many never published -- of the iconic names of the independence struggle.

BP sought to spread the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, setting off a battle of oil industry giants with tens of billions of dollars in potential fines and legal liabilities at stake.

The British energy giant released a report concluding that a "sequence of failures" were to blame for the April 20 explosion that killed 11 people and unleashed 4.9 million barrels of oil in the worst-ever maritime spill.

Japan's Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Thursday the government was closely monitoring China's ramped-up buying of Japanese government debt and would check with Beijing on its motives.

"We are paying close attention" to recent increases in Chinese purchases of Japanese government bonds (JGBs), Noda said during a session of the upper house financial affairs committee, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

"I don't know the true intention" of China regarding its growing appetite for JGBs.