Los Angeles - The half-sister of US President Barack Obama is to pen a children's book based on stories told by their late mother, according to an announcement Friday by children's book publisher Candlewick Press.

The book by Maya Soetoro-Ng will be called Ladder to the Moon and will pay "homage to her mother's tradition of storytelling," and her commitment to service, the publisher said.

The book is also inspired by her four-year-old daughter.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that US-Russian leadership is vital to implement treaties banning the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev agreed during their meeting in London Wednesday to commit to draw up a new deal on nuclear disarmament to replace the US- Russian strategic weapons reduction programme (START) which expires at the end of 2009.

Washington - The United States is making last-minute efforts to convince North Korea to stop a missile or satellite launch that could come as early as Saturday, according to the US envoy to the region, and he warned the North Koreans should expect consequences if the launch goes ahead as planned.

Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, the State Department's special representative for North Korea, said the United States was pressing its case against the Stalinist regime through a variety of diplomatic avenues.

Washington  - A war-crimes suspect from the Nazi era, John Demjanjuk, has filed a last minute emergency court motion to stop his deportation to Germany, where he is expected to be prosecuted for his alleged role in assisting in the killing 29,000 Jews, a newspaper reported Friday.

Demjanjuk, who turned 89 on Friday, was to be picked up by federal agents and flown to Munich for a Monday arrival, German justice officials have said.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Demjanjuk, who is physically ailing, filed an emergency motion Thursday in US Immigration Court in Arlington, Virginia.

Washington  - The midwest state of Iowa be

Strasbourg, France  - While overshadowed by talks about Afghanistan and Russia, France's return to NATO's military command structure is a defining event of the alliance's summit being held Friday and Saturday in France and Germany.

The decision by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to return his country to full NATO membership may not change a great deal for France in practice, since Paris has participated in all NATO conflicts, including the war in Afghanistan.

But it has enormous symbolic significance for the future of the alliance.