New York  - The United States and Britain on Thursday called for more pressure on Myanmar to end its defiance of demands for democratic progress and the release of political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the United Nations Security Council should review UN mediation, which is being led by special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, and pressure the military government to yield results.

New York  - "Emerging players" have created a new situation requiring the participation of all parties, in addition to governments, to resolve the world's problems, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.

Ban topped the situation in Georgia on his list, saying that his good offices will facilitate international discussion to settle the conflict between Tbilisi and Moscow.

New York  - Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has bought a stake in one of the United States' oldest and most respected newspapers, The New York Times, stock exchange authorities said Thursday.

Slim - ranked by Forbes magazine in March as the world's second- richest man with an estimated wealth of 60 billion dollars behind Warren Buffett - bought a 6.4 per cent stake in The New York Times Company, which remains controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family.

New York  - The United Nations asked the international community on Wednesday to finance massive humanitarian efforts in Haiti, where 328 people have died and
800,000 were left homeless from a series of natural disasters.

The UN humanitarian office made an appeal for 108 million dollars to cover essential relief demands in Haiti for six months.

The island nation has been battered by consecutive tropical storms and hurricanes in the past three weeks, which flooded residential areas as well as farms, destroying this year's crops, the UN said.

New York  - New Yorkers got a clearer picture of the turf wars at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center on Wednesday, the eve of the seventh anniversary of 9/11, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg complaining of indecision and infighting among parties involved in the construction of the site.

Bloomberg insisted on meeting the 2011 completion deadline for the memorial to the nearly 3,000 people killed by terrorist attacks since 1993, complaining that progress to rebuild Ground Zero has been "frustratingly slow."

New York, Sept. 10 : The selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate has ensured a two-point lead for Republican presidential nominee for Senator John McCain over Democratic rival Barack Obama, according to a new CBS poll.

But there is another side to this story. The Republicans are seeking to project the view that this year’s presidential elections will not be about issues, but about Americans voting on the basis of gut instinct, a view Democrats and others would be shy of accepting.