ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says new talks on North Korea's nuclear program will begin Dec. 8 in China.

Ms. Rice made the announcement yesterday aboard Air Force One as she and President George W. Bush flew home from a 21-nation economic summit in Peru. She said the next meeting will try to get agreement on verification of North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

Coup attempt fails

BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau -- The president of Guinea-Bissau survived an apparent coup attempt in the West African nation yesterday, emerging from his bullet-scarred home hours after his guards repelled mutinous soldiers who declared that they wanted to kill him.

President Joao Bernardo Vieira hid in a room in his heavily fortified home while security forces turned back the soldiers in a three-hour gunbattle, Interior Minister Cipriano Cassama said. The attack had begun with heavy artillery fire on Mr. Vieira's home shortly after midnight.

Mr. Vieira and his wife were unhurt, but at least one of his guards died and several others were injured, Mr. Cassama said.

TBILISI, Georgia -- Shots were fired near the motorcade carrying the presidents of Georgia and Poland yesterday -- the fifth anniversary of Georgia's Rose Revolution -- Georgian officials said. No one was hurt in the shooting.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who led the pro-Western 2003 uprising but whose popularity has waned in recent months, blamed Russian troops in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said the shots were fired from only about 100 feet from the motorcade. He said it was not clear if the gunfire was aimed at the motorcade or shots were fired into the air.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- President-elect Barack Obama told Afghanistan's leader that he will dedicate more U.S. aid and military power to this region's fight against extremist groups once he takes office, the Afghan presidential office said yesterday

The telephone conversation between Mr. Obama and President Hamid Karzai on Saturday was the first reported contact between the two. The leadership change could present Mr. Karzai with new challenges in his relationship with the U.S. Mr. Obama has chided Mr. Karzai and his government in the past, saying it had "not gotten out of the bunker" and helped to organize the country .

The United States has some 32,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, a number that will be increased by thousands next year. U.S. Gen. David McKiernan has requested an additional 20,000 troops.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel visited a church housing Zimbabwean refugees yesterday as they continued efforts to ease Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis even though they were barred from entering the country.

The former U.N. secretary-general, the former U.S. president and human rights advocate Machel, who is married to Nelson Mandela, said Saturday they were denied visas for a mission to assess the needs of Zimbabweans, many of whom are suffering from hunger and disease.

The three are members of The Elders, a group Mr. Mandela formed to foster peace.

They have insisted their visit was not related to regional attempts to get President Robert Mugabe and his rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, to implement a stalled power-sharing agreement.