World datelines

Australia: Twins

MELBOURNE — A Bangladeshi toddler separated this week from her conjoined twin sister was talking and behaving normally after being woken Thursday from a medically induced coma, the head of the surgery team said.

Trishna is already doing well enough that she could leave intensive care, said Wirginia Maixner, director of neurosurgery at Royal Children's Hospital.

Her sister, Krishna, will be slowly brought out of the coma later Thursday, Maixner said. Krishna will have a longer period of adjustment.

Iraq: Vote delay

BAGHDAD — Iraq's path toward political stability after years of war threatened to veer off course Wednesday when a vice president vetoed part of a key election law, a move likely to delay a national vote slated for January.

The United States has linked the pace of its military drawdown to the vote, but the top U.S. commander in Iraq told reporters the schedule was on track for now. All American troops are supposed to leave by the end of 2011, and the prospect of a delay could burden the White House as it ponders a bigger military deployment in Afghanistan.

Pakistan: 3 killed

MIR ALI — Intelligence officials say missiles fired from a suspected U.S. drone have killed three militants in Pakistan's lawless tribal area along the Afghan border.

The officials say the missiles hit a house owned by a local tribesman just after midnight Thursday in Shana Khuwara village in North Waziristan.

Witness Ahmed Noor Wazir said rescuers pulled three dead bodies and four badly wounded men from the rubble of the house, which was being used by Taliban militants.