Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US president-elect Barack Obama agreed in a telephone call to work together to help solve global challenges, a Berlin government spokesman said Friday.

The stabilization of Afghanistan, the global financial crisis, climate change and Iran's controversial nuclear programme require closer cooperation, the spokesman said in a statement following Thursday evening's telephone call.

Merkel also congratulated Obama on his "historic" election victory, the statement said.

War

Washington  - Kids love the Internet. Unfortunately, as every parent knows, there's a lot of trouble they can get into while wandering through cyberspace. The challenge is to allow youngsters to learn from and enjoy the Internet while keeping them safe from harmful influences. That's the focus of this week's questions.

Q: My kids have their own accounts on my computer. I would like to set up their Web browsers so that a kid-friendly search engine appears automatically. Can you recommend some?

Washington  - The two major US automakers, Ford Motor Co and General Motors Corp, reported massive third-quarters losses Friday as the ailing industry continued to lose cash and shed jobs.

Ford, the second-largest US automaker, reported a third-quarter operating loss of 2.98 billion dollars and said it would cut jobs and spending to preserve its perilous cash reserves.

Port-au-Prince  - At least 30 people, including many children, died when a school building collapsed Friday in the Petion Ville suburb of Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, while more than 100 were injured, Haitian Radio Metropole reported.

The Evangelical Promise school in the area of Nerette collapsed at around 10 am (1500 GMT) Friday, with some 700 students inside, the report said. The three-storey school educated students from kindergarten to middle school.