Cairo - Egyptians are hoping that President Hosni Mubarak will seek a royal pardon for two Egyptian doctors sentenced to whippings and jail time in Saudi Arabia when Mubarak visits the kingdom Friday.

A Saudi court in October sentenced Egyptian doctors Rauof Amin and Shawki Abd Rabuh to 15 years in prison and 1,500 lashes each.

Amin was accused of causing the wife of a Saudi prince to get addicted to the painkiller morphine during two years of medical treatment.

Abd Rabuh was convicted of illegally dealing in drugs and of having illicit affairs with female patients.

Brussels - European Union governments endorsed Tuesday plans to raise the total amount of money available to member states which run into trouble as a result of the global credit crunch - from 12 billion euros (15 billion dollars) to 25 billion euros.

In a statement, a council of finance ministers meeting in Brussels said the higher ceiling was needed because of "the evolution of the international economic situation" and because the EU has expanded to accommodate 12 new member states since the facility was created, in 2002.

Berlin - Two leading German politicians welcomed Tuesday the new security team nominated by the US president-elect, Barack Obama, but both said they expected Berlin to keep standing up for its own interests.

Karsten Voigt, an official attached to the Foreign Ministry to promote non-diplomatic relations with the United States, said Obama's choices showed the United States wanted to restore its global leadership.

Speaking on RBB radio, he said Berlin would need to demonstrate self-assurance if Obama pressed Germany to send troops into battle against the Taliban.

Johannesburg - The nine South African cities hosting 2010 World Cup matches will bear the brunt of a 3.2-billion-rand (315 million dollars) cost overrun in the construction and upgrading of stadiums for the event, Business Day newspaper reported Tuesday.

The local organizers of the World Cup have been warning since July that the stadiums are likely to overshoot the original budget by more than 3 billion rand.

Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile confirmed the amount of the overrun in a written reply to a question in parliament from the opposition Democratic Alliance.

New Delhi, Dec 2 : As India stepped up pressure on Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, New Delhi has demanded Islamabad to handover about 20 fugitives.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi today that a demarche has been handed over to the Pakistan High Commissioner in India on Monday night.

Paris - A lawsuit has been filed in Paris accusing three African presidents of corruption, the online edition of the daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday.

The suit, filed by the anti-corruption organization Transparency International and a citizen of Gabon, accuses Gabonese President Omar Bongo, the president of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, and the president of Equitorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, of having used state funds to enrich themselves.