NKorea North Korea raised the stakes in the nuclear standoff saying it had increased its atomic arsenal as Washington pressed Pyongyang to return to six-party talks. Mideast Israel vowed to expand its largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank despite Palestinian fury, as a process began to hand over security control to Palestinian forces in the Tulkarem area. Iraq The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites urged political parties to speed up lagging talks to form a government, as US forces and rebels squared off in their biggest battle since the January 30 elections. Kyrgyzstan A prominent human rights activist and a top opposition figure have been arrested in Kyrgyzstan, where protesters have clashed with police after a disputed parliamentary vote, a spokeswoman for Kyrgyzstan's opposition People's Movement said. US At least ten people were killed and a dozen injured after a disturbed student shot and killed his grandparents and then went on a shooting rampage in a Minnesota high school before committing suicide, according to local media. UN UN Secretary General Kofi Annan threw down the gauntlet to world leaders, pressing them to adopt the most wide-ranging reforms since the United Nations was founded 60 years ago. Arab Arab leaders gathered in the Algerian capital on the eve of a two-day summit expected to endorse a resolution to revive a three-year-old initiative for peace with Israel. US The fate of a brain-damaged woman was in the hands of a US judge after a court hearing on a family dispute that has sparked an often acrimonious "right-to-die" debate in the United States. Bangladesh Troops have joined a massive relief operation in northern Bangladesh where a tornado cut a swathe through 15 villages at the weekend, officials said as the death toll rose to 42. US Michael Jackson's child sex trial took another dramatic turn when the embattled star shuffled into court late and was led out, apparently ill and weeping.