MIAMI, Nov 18 (AFP) - A judge handed two brothers prison terms of six and seven years on Wednesday for swearing allegiance to Al-Qaeda and plotting to blow up the Sears Tower, once the tallest building in the world.

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (AFP) - US President Barack Obama, defending plans to try accused September 11 author Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court, predicted Wednesday that he would be convicted and executed.

NEW YORK, Nov 18 (AFP) - The father of a boy who alleged he was sexually molested by pop star Michael Jackson shot himself in the head in his luxury New Jersey apartment, police said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (AFP) - Independent US senator Joe Lieberman on Wednesday called this month's deadly shooting spree at the Fort Hood army base "the most destructive terrorist attack on America since September 11, 2001."

HONG KONG, Nov 18 (AFP) - Hong Kong on Wednesday paved the way for a move towards universal suffrage with a proposal to increase the number of people who elect the city's leader.

PATTANI, Thailand (AP) -- Security forces killed six suspected insurgents Tuesday in a gunbattle in southern Thailand.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- A police officer says four fishermen were killed when a Vietnam War-era bomb they were handling exploded.

BANGKOK (AP) -- Conservationists searching for one of the world's most endangered crocodile species say they have found dozens of the reptiles lounging in plain sight--at a wildlife rescue center in Cambodia.

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singapore's exports stumbled in October as global demand for the city-state's electronics and petrochemicals languished.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A presidential fact-finding team has advised Indonesia's leader to initiate deep reforms to tackle corruption after it found that senior law enforcers tried to frame anti-graft officials on fabricated charges of bribery and blackmail.