From Washington,this is VOA News.

Regional leaders are gathering in Chad to discuss the violence in the Central African Republic.

President Michel Djotodia wants to update the Economic Community of Central African States on the security situation in the CAR and discuss turning an African intervention force there into a United Nations peacekeeping force.

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Peace talks between rebels in South Sudan and the government appeared to have stalled, with rebels saying there will be no truce until President Salva Kiir reverses himself and frees 11 jailed pro-rebel leaders.

So far, President Kiir has refused to release the detainees, who were arrested last year for their alleged roles in a coup plot. Earlier in the day, government delegates said they were ready to sign a truce "soon," but they did not elaborate.

A suicide bomber has attacked a military recruiting center in Iraq, killing at least 12 people and wounding 25.

The blast Thursday in central Baghdad happened as army recruits were waiting to register.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Diplomats from Iran, the United States and European Union are set to meet Thursday to discuss Iran's nuclear program.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will meet in Geneva with U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and EU deputy foreign policy chief Helga Schmid.

The White House has strongly defended President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in response to criticisms by former defense secretary Robert Gates. Those criticisms come in a memoir being published next week.

Dan Robinson has more.

The White House continued aggressive but seemingly confident damage control in response to published excerpts of the Gates memoir, and ongoing reaction to it.

Video and still photographers were permitted brief access as President Obama and Vice President Biden had lunch at the White House.  No reporters were allowed in, so no questions were asked.

Biden, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, gets harsh criticism from Gates, who describes him as being "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."

Dan Robinson VOA News the WHITE HOUSE.

A Pakistani court has ordered ex-President Pervez Musharraf to appear in court next week to face treason charges, despite an illness that kept him from showing up at a previous hearing.

After examining a medical report, the judges on Thursday ruled that the 70-year-old Mr Musharraf, who is currently in a military hospital, must attend the hearing on January 16.

China's United Nations envoy has lashed out at Japan, accusing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of taking the country down a what he called "very dangerous path" by visiting a controversial war shrine.

Liu Jieyi told reporters late Wednesday Mr. Abe was in effect "siding with war criminals" by visiting Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which he said "whitewashes and glorifies aggression."

In response, Japan's U.N. Ambassador Motohide Yoshikawa said Mr. Abe's visit was not to pay homage to war criminals or praise militarism, but was to pay respects to Japan's war dead.

Retired American basketball star Dennis Rodman has apologized for an incoherent, profanity-filled rant in which he appeared to blame Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae for being held by North Korea.

Rodman was on a self-described "basketball diplomacy" trip to North Korea.

North Korea has rejected a South Korean proposal to resume reunions of families separated during the Korean War.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye had suggested the meetings take place at the end of this month during the Lunar New Year holiday.

But the North's official Korean Central News Agency cited a regular U.S.-South Korea joint military drill as a reason the reunions can not be held.

The U.S. space agency NASA says it will keep the International Space Station operating for an additional four years, until 2024.

The $100 billion orbital station has been in service for 15 years, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had been planning to keep it running until 2020.