WORLD BRIEFS

NORTH KOREA: American to be freed

North Korea announced Friday it will free an American missionary detained for illegally crossing its border on Christmas Day. Robert Park slipped across the Tumen River from China, carrying letters calling on Kim Jong Il to shut the country's camps for political prisoners and step down from power. Korean Central News Agency said Park stated that he trespassed because of his "wrong understanding" of the country "caused by the false propaganda made by the West to tarnish its image."

AFGHANISTAN: Bomb kills 6 in Kandahar

A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives near a hotel in Kandahar Thursday, killing six people and wounding two dozen, officials said. The blast happened as NATO and Afghan forces prepared for a joint offensive in neighboring Helmand province against the Taliban stranglehold on the south. NATO and Afghan forces also killed 32 suspected militants in Helmand on Thursday.

NORTHERN IRELAND: Pact reached in Belfast

Lawmakers from the major Protestant party have unanimously backed a compromise plan with the Catholic minority to save their power-sharing government, Democratic Unionist Party leader Peter Robinson declared Friday. Robinson, who leads the troubled 2 1/2-year-old coalition at the heart of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, announced the midnight breakthrough following 10 days and nights of negotiations. The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen, were expected to fly back to Northern Ireland later Friday to publish the details of the new power-sharing pact.

INDIA: Talks offered to Pakistan

India offered Thursday to resume high-level peace talks with Pakistan, an overture that reflected a significant warming between the countries one year after the deadly siege on Mumbai. Pakistan has been seeking a resumption of the talks for months, but stopped short of accepting the offer.