NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's government on Thursday allowed farmers to draw money from banks against loans sanctioned to them to buy seeds and fertilisers in the ongoing sowing season, as it responds to criticism against the move to cancel high-value rupee bills.

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador said on Wednesday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should receive guarantees that he will not be extradited if he faces justice in Sweden after four years of living in the South American nation's embassy in London.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An International Criminal Court investigation of possible war crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan is not "warranted or appropriate," the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday after prosecutors in The Hague found initial grounds for such a probe.

By Andrew Callus PARIS (Reuters) - France's presidential election campaign, until now apparently sleepwalking towards victory for ex-Prime Minister Alain Juppe, jolts into life on Wednesday as a far younger man launches his bid for the job and polls show the 71-year-old losing his lead.

By Bernadette Christina Munthe JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police said on Wednesday they will proceed with an investigation into a blasphemy complaint brought by Muslim groups against the Christian and ethnic Chinese governor of Jakarta and banned him from leaving the country.

By Nina Chestney and Alister Doyle MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - France and the United Nations on Tuesday stepped up warnings to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump about the risks of quitting a 2015 global plan to combat climate change, saying a historic shift from fossil fuels is unstoppable.

By Nobuhiro Kubo and Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan on Tuesday approved a plan for its troops in South Sudan on U.N. peacekeeping operations to conduct rescue missions, amid critics' concerns the move risks embroiling Japanese soldiers in their first overseas fighting since World War Two.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Park Geun-hye has retained a lawyer ahead of being questioned by prosecutors investigating a political scandal engulfing her presidency, her office said on Tuesday. She will be the first sitting president to be questioned by prosecutors over a criminal case.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev has been detained over a $2-million bribe allegedly received for a "positive" assessment, which led to oil producer Rosneft acquiring a 50 percent stake in Bashneft, the country's Investigative Committee said on Tuesday. He is the highest-ranked statesman in Russia arrested since the failed coup in 1991.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday described as "troubling" an Israeli bill supported by a ministerial committee allowing settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain in homes built on private Palestinian land and said it hoped the law does not pass.