US A teenage student went on a shooting rampage at an Indian reservation, gunning down nine people before committing suicide in the worst US school massacre since Columbine in 1999, police and local media said. 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. US A US judge refused to immediately decide the fate of a brain-damaged woman after a hearing on a family dispute that has sparked an often acrimonious "right-to-die" debate in the United States. 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. Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev was to address the nation over the ongoing unrest sparked in the ex-Soviet republic by a disputed parliamentary vote that the opposition charges was rigged. 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. Australia Australia's conservative government agreed to release a group of failed asylum-seekers who have spent years in detention camps, but denied it was softening its hardline policy towards would-be refugees. 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 were to open a two-day summit in the Algerian capital to discuss a 17-point agenda, including a resolution to revive a plan for peace with Israel that the Jewish state rejected three years ago. 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 tumultuous twist when the ailing star shuffled into court late and broke down in tears before being helped to the bathroom. Japan Japan said it may let detained chess legend Bobby Fischer leave for Iceland, which offered the maverick genius citizenship to prevent his deportation to the United States where he faces prison.