Reuters World News Highlights at 1000 GMT, Nov 1

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Friday seized on California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's star power in Ohio, a state critical to his hopes of clawing back Democrat Barack Obama's lead going into Tuesday's election.

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KINSHASA - The foreign ministers of France and Britain flew into Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday on an EU mission to try to secure peace in the east and help tens of thousands of civilians fleeing conflict.

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NEW YORK - Americans slashed spending and the country's business outlook weakened but there were signs of stabilization in global markets on Friday, with interbank rates falling and U.S. stocks posting their best week in 34 years.

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QUETTA - Relief efforts in a Pakistani valley hit by a powerful earthquake this week are turning to preparing thousands of homeless for a freezing winter, officials said on Saturday, as aftershocks jolted survivors.

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KABUL - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 25 militants, including a woman fighter, in separate raids aimed at a suspected al Qaeda commander and Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

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GUWAHATI, India - Indian police detained three Muslims on Saturday after a little-known Islamist group claimed responsibility for bombings that killed 77 people in the troubled state of Assam.

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LUSAKA - Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata was still leading on Saturday in an election to head one of Africa's most stable and economically successful countries, but acting President Rupiah Banda appeared to be narrowing the gap.

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WASHINGTON - Libya has paid $1.5 billion into a fund for American victims of terrorism from the 1980s, the U.S. State Department said on Friday, removing the last big obstacle to a normal relationship between the two countries.

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YAOUNDE - Gunmen in speedboats seized 10 mostly French crew members in an attack on an oil vessel off Cameroon on Friday and threatened to kill them "one by one" if the Cameroonian government did not meet their demands.

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HAVANA - Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras signed an agreement on Friday to explore for oil in Cuba's untapped offshore fields, which Cuban energy officials say may hold over 20 billion barrels of reserves.