The west and central Africa region is facing one of the worst cholera epidemics in its history, with over 85,000 cases reported leading to 2,466 deaths this year, the U.N. children's agency warned Tuesday.

"The size and scale of the outbreaks means the region is facing one of the biggest epidemics in its history," said a UNICEF spokeswoman.

A Ukrainian judge on Tuesday sentenced former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in jail for abusing her powers in a 2009 gas deal with Russia, a verdict that is set to harm ties with the European Union.

Amid emotional scenes in the packed court, Judge Rodion Kireyev said the 10 year contract for gas imports from Russia had sustained heavy losses for Ukraine and ruled that her actions were criminal.

Turkey's prime minister on Tuesday rebuffed French President Nicolas Sarkozy's call for Ankara to recognize the World War I-era killing of Armenians as genocide, urging "honesty" in politics.

Speaking in Turkish parliament, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Sarkozy for using different languages when he spoke in Turkey, France and Armenia.

Liberians began voting Tuesday in the second election since the end of a 14-year civil war, which is being closely watched as a litmus test of the West African nation's fragile democracy.

"All the voting places have been opened at eight o'clock, there are no reports of delays yet and no reports of incidents but the day is still long so we are waiting to hear from our stations in other parts of the country," National Elections Commission spokesman Bobby Livingstone said.

A Finnish police probe into terrorist funding and recruitment has uncovered at least two more suspects, police said Tuesday, just over a month after making two arrests in raids in Helsinki.

"Police suspect at least two new people of funding terrorism in addition to the earlier two suspects," the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said in a statement.

At least six people were wounded but none were killed when rockets struck a meeting of tribal elders convened by a provincial governor in northwest Pakistan Tuesday, senior officials said.

Senior administration official Sahabzada Anis corrected his earlier statement that one person had been killed when militants apparently perched on nearby mountains fired rockets on the gathering in Kalaya town of tribal Orakzai district.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday he was confident the transition from NATO to local control of security in Afghanistan will be completed by 2014 as planned.

"I am quite optimistic about fulfilling the timetable to transfer lead responsibility to the Afghans, a process that started in July this year and that will be completed by 2014," Rasmussen told members of NATO's parliamentary assembly gathered in Bucharest.

Three Iranian government ministers are on a list of 29 people targeted by new European Union sanctions, diplomatic sources told Agence France Presse on Monday.

The present ministers for intelligence (secret services), justice and culture are joined by a former interior minister as well as regional governors, prosecutors and prison directors, the sources added.

An Italian vessel carrying 23 crew was hijacked by five pirates about 620 miles east of the Somali coast on Monday, the D'Alesio shipping company said.

The owners of the M/V Montecristo said the crew comprised Italian, Ukrainian and Indian nationals, adding it was "actively collaborating with all the related Italian and international authorities to respond to the emergency."

Massive floods have left 500 people dead across Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, officials said Monday, as authorities stepped up efforts to reach victims of the unusually heavy monsoon rains.

In Thailand, where the death toll from the country's worst floods in decades rose to 269, thousands of soldiers fanned out across affected areas as part of a huge aid operation.