worldNews Archives

July 4, 2008

Pakistan's Musharraf defies resignation calls

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf hit back at calls for his resignation on Friday, saying he was needed to help political parties avoid an economic meltdown and tackle a militant threat gripping the country.

Armenian opposition supporters march through capital

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Thousands of opposition supporters marched through the Armenian capital on Friday and vowed to hold a month-long series of protests to demand the resignation of President Serzh Sarksyan and new elections.

Mugabe says opposition must drop claim to power

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, defiant despite growing African condemnation of his re-election, said on Friday the opposition must drop its claim to power and accept that he was the rightful head of state.

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis

(Guardian) Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

Tense standoff in South Ossetia after bombardment

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia on Friday mobilized reservists and threatened to use heavy weapons against Georgian forces after two people were killed in heavy exchanges of fire overnight.

Historic China-Taiwan flights take off

TAIPEI/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Historic regular flights between Taiwan and China began on Friday, in a show of conciliation between the long-time rivals that could bring large numbers of mainland Chinese visitors to the island.

Japan holds 20 anti-G8 Koreans at airport: activists

SAPPORO, Japan (Reuters) - Twenty South Korean activist farmers have been detained by Japanese immigration for over 19 hours and expect to be deported, a spokesman for the group said, in further signs of growing security jitters from the host nation ahead of a G8 summit.

July 3, 2008

Death stalked Betancourt's captivity in Colombia

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Ingrid Betancourt began each day in captivity at 4 a.m. -- cold and depressed but awake in the dark waiting to hear her mother's words of encouragement over the radio.

Dispute casts shadow over international court

THE HAGUE (AP) Prosecutors and judges celebrated the 10th anniversary of the International Criminal Court's founding document Thursday, but behind the scenes there was turmoil.

UN official says aid for Haiti falling short

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) Aid for Haiti is falling short as the Caribbean country is buffeted by urgent needs to help feed its poor while developing domestic food production and jobs, a UN official said on Tuesday.

Turkish party rejects anti-secularism charges

(AP) Turkey's deputy prime minister defended the ruling party in the country's top court Thursday against charges that it is steering the country toward Islamic rule.

July 2, 2008

Colombia says rescues Betancourt and 3 U.S. hostages

BOGOTA (Reuters) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans were rescued from leftist guerrillas by Colombian troops, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday.

Chinese party boss delivers attack on Dalai Lama

BEIJING (AP) — China's Communist Party boss in Tibet delivered a fresh attack on the Dalai Lama Wednesday, even as envoys of the region's exiled leader met for a second day with Chinese officials for talks aimed at easing tensions following anti-government riots.

July 1, 2008

Thousands march for greater democracy in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Thousands in Hong Kong urged Beijing to grant it greater democracy on Tuesday, with a recent furor over newly appointed political aides stoking perceptions of the unelected government's lack of accountability.

June 30, 2008

Iraq sues companies over oil-for-food kickbacks

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Iraqi government sued dozens of companies, including oil giant Chevron Corp., for more than $10 billion on Monday, saying they paid kickbacks to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government under the U.N. oil-for-food program.

Iraq throws open door to foreign oil firms

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq opened its giant oilfields to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in pole position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein.

Peru's Fujimori innocent, says convicted spy chief

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori should not be held responsible for human rights crimes committed during his time in office, the man who ran his feared counterinsurgency network said on Monday.

Canadian loses U.S. appeal in Syrian torture case

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Canadian who says he was whisked off a plane in New York and sent illegally to Syria where he was tortured for a year lost his case against the U.S. government on Monday on a technicality.

U.N. expands food aid to N.Korea; U.S. help arrives

SEOUL (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Program, which has warned of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea due to a food shortage, said on Monday it reached a deal with Pyongyang to rapidly expand aid, and that a U.S. ship carrying wheat had arrived.

Malaysia's Anwar leaves Turkish embassy

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Anwar Ibrahim, leader of Malaysia's revitalized opposition, left the Turkish embassy on Monday where he had taken refuge following sodomy accusations, the latest thunderbolt in Malaysia's political tempest.

June 29, 2008

China announces Olympics stability drive after riot

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has launched a nationwide campaign to defuse protest ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, state media reported on Monday, days after a riot in the country's southwest highlighted volatile social strains.

African summit pushes Mugabe to negotiate

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - African leaders on Monday pushed President Robert Mugabe to open talks with the Zimbabwean opposition after he was re-elected unopposed in an election condemned as violent and unfair by the continent's monitors.

No Afghan peace while Taliban have sanctuary: NATO

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan will not be secure as long as insurgents are allowed to operate freely in sanctuaries on the Pakistan side of the border, a NATO spokesman said on Sunday.

U.S. faces Iraqi anger over raid near Kerbala

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military faced Iraqi anger on Sunday over a raid near the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala in which a distant relative of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was killed.

Polls close in Mongolia as mining deals eyed

ULAN BATOR (Reuters) - Mongolians turned out in droves on Sunday to vote in a tight race that will see the election of a government charged with fighting inflation and tapping into the windswept country's huge mineral wealth.

Somaliland hopes election will lead to recognition

HARGEISA, Somalia (Reuters) - The breakaway state of Somaliland hopes next year's presidential elections will lead to international recognition of the northern Somali enclave as an independent country, officials said on Sunday.

June 28, 2008

Mugabe sworn in after widely-condemned election

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was sworn in on Sunday after being declared overwhelming winner of an election which observers said was scarred by violence and intimidation.

Girl's death sparks rioting in China: reports

BEIJING (Reuters) - Rioters torched a police building and vehicles in southwest China on Saturday, in unrest triggered by allegations of a cover-up over a girl's death, according to Chinese accounts on the Internet.

Italy expels 38 Egyptians in immigration crackdown

ROME (Reuters) - Italy said on Saturday it had expelled 38 Egyptians as part of a crackdown ordered by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government on illegal immigration.

About 60 arrested at Bulgaria's first gay parade

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian riot police detained about 60 far-right extremists on Saturday who threw a petrol bomb and tried to break up the country's first gay parade.

Iran says Gulf oil route at risk if attacked

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The Revolutionary Guards said Iran would impose controls on shipping in the vital Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked and warned regional states of reprisals if they took part, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

June 27, 2008

Militias force some to vote for Zimbabwe's Mugabe

HARARE (Reuters) - Many Zimbabweans boycotted their one candidate-election on Friday, but witnesses and monitors said government militias forced people to vote for 84-year-old President Robert Mugabe in some areas.

North Korea blows up reactor cooling tower

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea toppled the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing reactor on Friday in a symbolic move to show its commitment to an international nuclear deal, a day after submitting an inventory of its atomic program.

Ruling parties win Pakistan polls

(BBC News) The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) have won five by-election seats to the country's national parliament.

Colombia's Uribe calls for repeat of '06 election

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe called on Thursday for a rerun of the 2006 presidential election in which he won a second term, after the Supreme Court ruled it was tainted by corruption.

Toxic pesticide on Philippine ferry halts search

SIBUYAN ISLAND, Philippines (Reuters) - The Philippines stopped the search for hundreds of bodies feared trapped on a capsized passenger ferry on Friday after authorities learnt that 10 metric tons of toxic pesticide were on board.

June 26, 2008

UN says toxic waste exports on the rise

BALI (AP) — Many poor countries accept toxic waste from abroad, such as old computers, rusted ships and pesticides, in a shortsighted bid to lift themselves out of poverty, despite the dangers to human health and the environment, a U.N. rights official said Thursday.

June 25, 2008

AIDS a growing global "disaster"

GENEVA (Reuters) - HIV/AIDS infection rates are growing among intravenous drug users, prostitutes and gay men around the globe but they are often viewed as outcasts and refused treatment, according to a report issued on Thursday.

China says NGOs stir anti-Chinese feelings in Darfur

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's envoy to the strike-torn Sudanese region of Darfur on Thursday accused western media and non-governmental groups of stirring up anti-Chinese feelings among opposition groups in the African country.

Syria opens site to U.N. atom probe

VIENNA (Reuters) - Syria gave U.N. investigators a good look at the site of what Washington says was a secret nuclear reactor before Israel destroyed it, but initial checks were inconclusive and more are needed, they said on Wednesday.

Serbia elects speaker, paving way for government

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia elected a former ally of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic to the post of speaker of parliament late on Wednesday, paving the way for a new pro-European coalition government to be sworn in within a week.

U.S., allies stress diplomacy in Iran nuclear row

WASHINGTON/GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush believes the Iran nuclear issue can be solved diplomatically and that U.S. allies including Israel favor the same approach, the White House said on Wednesday.

India tries to break civilian nuclear deal deadlock

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's government and its communist allies will try to break a deadlock on Wednesday over a civilian nuclear deal with the United States, with the ruling coalition split on an issue that could force snap elections.

June 24, 2008

New Zealand settles century old Maori grievance

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Maori clad in traditional cloaks chanted and sang on Tuesday as the New Zealand government paid hundreds of millions of dollars to settle century old grievances.

Zimbabwe's neighbors urge poll postponement

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's neighbors on Wednesday urged the postponement of Friday's presidential election, saying the re-election of President Robert Mugabe could lack legitimacy in the current violent climate.

Gaza truce falters, Israel plans Hezbollah swap

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired several rockets into Israel on Tuesday, breaching a five-day-old ceasefire after Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant leader in the occupied West Bank.

Divers search first-class cabins on Philippine ferry

SIBUYAN ISLAND, Philippines (Reuters) - Divers scouted for bodies in first-class cabins on a capsized ferry in the Philippines on Wednesday looking for more than 700 people still missing in the disaster.

EU hails chance for pro-Europe government in Serbia

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Tuesday hailed an agreement between Serbia's Socialist and Democratic parties as a real chance to establish a pro-European government in the Balkan country.

Pressure mounts to call off Zimbabwe election

HARARE (Reuters) - African pressure mounted on Tuesday for President Robert Mugabe to call off a June 27 election after the U.N. Security Council issued an unprecedented condemnation of violence against opposition supporters.

June 23, 2008

U.S. nuclear deal or early polls, India may learn soon

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's government and its communist allies meet on Wednesday over a civilian nuclear deal with the United States, in talks that could decide if the controversial energy pact or the ruling coalition survives.

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