Washington - The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved a new programme to provide emergency loans to countries facing serious cash shortages in the wake of an ongoing financial crisis.

Countries with a "track record" of solid economic policies can now apply for three-month loans without the usual conditions attached, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

Washington - NASA scientists said Wednesday that a flyby of Mercury earlier this month has sent images showing 30 per cent of the planet never seen before.

"The region of Mercury's surface that we viewed at close range for the first time this month is bigger than the land area of South America," scientist Sean Solomon said. "When combined with data from our first flyby and from Mariner 10, our latest coverage means that we have now seen about 95 per cent of the planet."

Washington - The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved a new programme to provide emergency loans to countries facing serious cash shortages in the wake of an ongoing financial crisis.

Countries with a "track record" of solid economic policies can now apply for three-month loans without the usual conditions attached, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. Typical IMF loans come with certain policy expectations.

Montreal - A Canadian software developer was found guilty of terrorism charges Wednesday in a foiled trans-Atlantic plot to bomb nightclubs, railway stations and subways in Britain.

Momin Khawaja, a former contract employee of Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, was found guilty of several counts under the Anti-Terrorism Act in the first major test of the controversial legislation rushed into law after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Buenos Aires - Argentina is set to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its return to democracy on Thursday - a difficult process that has evolved gradually since the end of the military dictatorship in 1983.

Social democrat Raul Alfonsin, of the Radical Civic Union, won the election on October 30, 1983 to become president. It was clear at the time that he had been entrusted with a huge challenge. But even skeptics could not have guessed just how hard it was going to be to govern the South American country.

New York - The UN General Assembly voted 185-3 on Wednesday to renew its annual demand that the United States end its trade embargo against Cuba.

The United States, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution adopted by the 192-nation assembly. Resolutions passed in previous years have not swayed Washington, which considers those decisions non-binding despite the overwhelming support by UN members.