NEW YORK - The US government rescued insurance giant AIG for the third time in five months, desperately seeking to save a world financial system so battered that Britain’s HSBC hit shareholders with an $18 billion cash call.

NEW DELHI - India will hold a general election between April 16 and May 13, election officials said, kicking off a mammoth process in which 714 million people will be able to cast their votes.

WASHINGTON - US Attorney General Eric Holder ruled out the use of “waterboarding” as an interrogation technique for terrorism suspects, calling it a form of torture that the Obama administration could never condone.

MADRID - Spain’s ruling Socialists have been punished for the sinking economy by defeat in an election in the northwestern region of Galica.

SEOUL - North Korean generals met the US-led UN military command in South Korea for the first time in about seven years yesterday after Pyongyang warned at the weekend “arrogant” acts by US troops could spark a war.

MOSCOW - Russia’s ruling party cemented its grip on elected posts with big victories in local elections yesterday despite presiding over a deepening economic crisis, but the opposition complained of widespread cheating.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict suffered another embarrassing setback when he was forced to cancel the promotion of a conservative Austrian priest whose appointment had polarised the Catholic Church.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama named Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to lead his ambitious health reform effort, kicking off a week focused on revamping an inefficient healthcare system whose cost he fears is hurting the US economy.