BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel risked angering Muslims by speaking at an awards ceremony on Wednesday for a Dane whose cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed provoked sometimes violent protests by Muslims five years ago.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Primates, including mankind's closest relatives -- chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans -- have gained new protection after the European Parliament backed a clampdown on animal testing.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb and a roadside bomb exploded near a bus terminal in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding a score of others, police and interior ministry sources said.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron's father died on Wednesday after falling ill during a holiday in the south of France.

PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy faced down French trade unions on Wednesday, refusing to back down on plans to raise the retirement age despite Tuesday's nationwide protests against pension reform.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have suspended the execution by stoning of a woman convicted of adultery, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, after weeks of condemnation from around the world.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia made a major concession to the European Union on Wednesday by agreeing to soften a draft U.N. resolution on the future of Kosovo and seek dialogue with the breakaway country.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan security forces used batons on unruly customers scrambling to withdraw their savings on Wednesday from a branch of the graft-hit Kabulbank, the country's biggest private financial institution.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese ruling party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, challenging Prime Minister Naoto Kan in a party leadership vote, said on Wednesday the government may need to issue more debt if the economy deteriorates.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's fragile Labor government suggested on Wednesday it could adjust a planned profits-based tax on mining companies to bend to demands of the independent MPs giving it a slender grip on power.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed new military and police chiefs ahead of planned January presidential election.

The UN's secretary general urges Rwanda not to withdraw its peacekeepers from Sudan over a leaked report saying its troops may have committed genocide.

About 700 prisoners escape after members of an Islamist sect storm a jail in northern Nigeria, where many of its followers were held.