Reuters World News Highlights at 1000 GMT, Nov 11

SINGAPORE/LONDON - Evidence of a weakening Chinese economy, poor data from Japan and Britain and a grim corporate outlook reinforced fears on Tuesday of a prolonged recession fostered by the worst financial crisis in 80 years.

- - - -

WASHINGTON - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama visited the White House on Monday for his first post-election meeting with President George W. Bush, a strikingly symbolic moment in the transition of power.

- - - -

SEOUL - South Korea's intelligence agency on Tuesday rejected a Japanese television report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had suffered a second stroke, with the South playing down further speculation about Kim's hold on power.

- - - -

NAIROBI - Somali pirates have hijacked a second ship chartered by chemical tanker shipping group Stolt-Nielsen , a regional maritime official said on Tuesday.

- - - -

BAGHDAD - Two roadside bombs exploded in a crowd of part time labourers in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least two people and wounding 17, police said.

- - - -

CAIRO - Egypt is working to defer any indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating war crimes in Darfur, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said.

- - - -

HARARE - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe vowed on Monday to form a unity government as soon as possible, despite growing signs that a power-sharing deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is unravelling.

- - - -

GOMA, Congo - Congolese rebel chief Laurent Nkunda said on Monday he would fight African peacekeeping troops if they attacked him, as concerns grew that east Congo's conflict could suck in neighbouring armies.

- - - -

VIENNA - U.N. investigators have found traces of uranium at a Syrian site Washington says was a secret nuclear reactor almost built before Israel bombed the target last year, diplomats said on Monday.

- - - -

BEIJING - Workers at a diesel engine factory in eastern China were in talks with local officials on Tuesday after days of protests over job security at the troubled plant, as a slowing economy stokes growing unrest.