World News: Military records 'show US ignored torture in Iraq'

The documents also suggest "hundreds" of civilians were killed at US military checkpoints after the 2003 invasion.

And the files show the US kept records of civilian deaths, despite previously denying it. The death toll was put at 109,000, of whom 66,081 were civilians.

The US criticised the largest ever leak of classified documents.

A US Defence Department spokesman dismissed the documents as raw observations by tactical units, which were only snapshots of tragic, mundane events.

On allegations of abuse, he said it was policy always to report "potentially illegal abusive behaviour".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she condemned "in the most clear terms the disclosure of any information which puts the lives of United States and its partners' service members and civilians at risk".

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said the website had "produced papers for a lawsuit for 40 wrongful killings".

The ones that got away . . .

A truck carrying 250,000 Australian dollars worth of salmon crashed in Tasmania, spilling 15 tons of fish into the street.

The crash in the capital of Hobart sparked a major clean-up operation and brought down power lines, cutting electricity to nearby suburbs.

Bid to calm Tibet protests

Chinese officials tried to defuse discontent after days of student protests in ethnically Tibetan areas, saying a plan to teach classes only in Mandarin Chinese was not aimed at wiping out the native tongue.

Changes will not be forced in areas where "conditions are not ripe," officials said.

Vatican bank claim slammed

Italian prosecutors contest claims by the Vatican bank that it is trying to comply with international rules to fight money laundering, saying an investigation that led to the seizure of 23 million euro from a Vatican bank account shows "exactly the opposite".

An Italian court rejected a Vatican request to lift the seizure, leading the Vatican to express "astonishment" at the ruling and indicating the case will not be cleared up quickly, as first predicted.

Since the money was ordered seized last month, the Vatican and the bank's chairman, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, repeatedly said the allegations resulted from a "misunderstanding" and that the Vatican bank - officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion - was working to comply with international rules to fight money-laundering.

The strongly worded document from the prosecutors' office said that while there is a "generic and stated will" to conform by the bank "there is no sign that the institutions of the Catholic church are moving in that direction".

It said the prosecutor's investigation had found "exactly the opposite".

The document was submitted to the court as part of the prosecutors' case against the bank.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, issued a new statement, saying Vatican bank officials "confirm their intent to follow the line of transparency" in all financial transactions and are confident in being able to provide as soon as possible all clarifications requested.

Under the investigation, financial police seized the money September 21 from a Vatican bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano Spa, after the bank informed the Bank of Italy about possible violations of anti-money laundering norms.

The bulk of the money, 20 million euro, was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to Banca del Fucino.

The prosecutors' document suggests confirmation of Italian press reports that the probe was widening, looking into possible violations in earlier years linked to Italian corruption, in addition to the two most recent cases.

The document cites suspicious transactions involving cheques drawn from a Vatican bank account at Unicredit bank in 2009, involving the use of a false name.

The prosecutors also cited a 650,000 euro withdrawal from a Vatican bank account at Intesa San Paolo bank where the Vatican did not specify the money's ultimate destination despite a specific request by the Italian bank.

The prosecutors called this "a deliberate failure to observe the anti-laundering laws with the aim of hiding the ownership, destination and origin of the capital". The Italian banks declined comment.

The Vatican bank is required to provide such information because it is considered by Italy to be a foreign bank.

Tourists in space closer to reality

The dream of whisking tourists to space edged closer to reality when the runway at the world's first commercial spaceport officially opened in New Mexico.

"Today . . . our dream becomes more real," said Sir Richard Branson, whose company, Virgin Galactic, will operate the flights.

Cholera death toll rises to 200 in Haiti

Haiti: Health workers said the number of people confirmed dead from cholera is almost 200 with over 2,300 sick.

Cholera was not present in Haiti before the earthquake, but experts say that conditions are ripe for disease to strike in areas with limited clean water.

Colombia: Security forces closed 18 more illegal gold mines in the government's bid to regulate mining and environmental hazards to workers.