| French far right holds balance after Hollande edges Sarkozy Posted:  PARIS (Reuters) - Far-right voters may decide who becomes France's next president after anti-immigration crusader Marine Le Pen's record first-round election score jolted the race between Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande and incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The centre-left Hollande narrowly beat the conservative Sarkozy in Sunday's 10-candidate first round by 28.6 percent to 27.1 percent, the Interior Ministry said with 99 percent of votes counted, but Le Pen stole the show by surging to 18.0 percent, the biggest result for a far-right candidate. ...
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| Obama to cite new technologies in rights abuses: report Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will issue an order on Monday to allow imposition of sanctions on foreign nationals who use new technologies such as cell-phone tracking and Internet monitoring to help carry out human rights abuses, The Washington Post reported on Monday. The newspaper quoted a senior administration official as saying that the executive order was designed to target companies and individuals assisting Iran and Syria, but future orders could expand the list. ...
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| Myanmar parliament opens without Suu Kyi Posted:  NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar's parliament convened on Monday without Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi after her party boycotted the legislature over a disagreement on the wording of the oath of office, just weeks after winning historic by-elections. The protest by Suu Kyi's party will dent an image of transformation the government wanted to show off on Monday, when the European Union is all but certain to become the first among Western powers to suspend in earnest sanctions that isolated Myanmar for two decades. ...
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| Afghanistan and U.S. agree on strategic pact text Posted:  Afghanistan and the United States on Sunday agreed on a draft of a long-awaited deal that will define the scope and nature of a U.S. presence in the country for up to a decade after the pullout of most NATO combat troops in 2014. The U.S. Ambassador to Kabul, Ryan Crocker, and Afghan national security adviser, Rangin Spanta, initialed copies of the agreement, paving the way for President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, to review it. ...
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| Dutch coalition teeters over cuts as EU pact struggles Posted:  AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government teetered on the verge of collapse on Monday after an anti-EU party refused to back big deficit cuts, creating a new hurdle for euro zone leaders who are already struggling with a pact on overcoming the bloc's budget problems. Prime Minister Mark Rutte's cabinet was due to meet at 3:30 a.m. EDT (0730 GMT) to discuss whether it can push through budget cuts to meet EU targets after the political crisis broke at the weekend - and whether to offer its resignation. ...
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| Violence persists in Syria as Annan urges truce compliance Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian soldiers stormed a town east of Damascus on Sunday and rebels bombed a military convoy in the north of the country as international mediator Kofi Annan urged both sides to work with an expanded team of U.N. ceasefire monitors. The group of unarmed military monitors has been operating in Syria for a week, overseeing a 10-day-old truce agreement that has curbed some of the violence but failed to bring a complete halt to 13 months of bloodshed. The U.N. ...
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| Saudi diplomat may be freed soon: Yemeni tribal head Posted: ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian diplomat who was kidnapped last month by al Qaeda-linked militants is in "good health" and could be released within "the coming hours", a powerful tribal leader in southern Yemen said on Monday. Riyadh said last week that a suspected al Qaeda militant had claimed responsibility for kidnapping the diplomat, Abdallah al-Khalidi, and demanded the release of militants in Saudi prisons. He threatened in a call to the Saudi embassy in Sana'a to kill the diplomat unless his demands were met. ... |
| Israel says Egypt gas cutoff a business dispute Posted:  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel, aiming to avoid further damage to its troubled ties with Cairo, said on Monday it saw the Egyptian termination of a deal to supply Israel with natural gas as part of a business rather than a diplomatic dispute. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli radio stations the cancellation of the deal was "not a good sign," but added "We want to understand this as a trade dispute. I think that to turn a business dispute into a diplomatic dispute would be a mistake. ...
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| China policy battles boost South China Sea strains Posted:  BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) - Jockeying by Chinese agencies over policy fiefdoms and budgets threatens to intensify tensions in the disputed South China Sea, a respected think tank warned on Monday, with the Philippines seeking more patrols to guard against China's claims. China has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan across the South China Sea. They worry over what some see as growing Chinese assertiveness in staking claims over the sea's islands, reefs and shoals. ...
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| Sudan bombs South Sudan border area, kills 3 - witnesses Posted:  OUTSIDE BENTIU, South Sudan (Reuters) - Sudanese warplanes carried out air strikes on South Sudan on Monday, killing three people near a southern oil town, residents and military officials said, three days after South Sudan pulled out of a disputed oil field. A Reuters reporter at the scene, outside the oil town of Bentiu, said he saw a fighter aircraft drop two bombs near a river bridge between Bentiu and the neighboring town of Rubkona. "I can see market stalls burning in Rubkona in the background and the body of a small child burning," he said. ...
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| Hollande, Sarkozy heading to French vote runoff Posted:  Francois Hollande, a mild-mannered French Socialist, is heading into a presidential runoff election with the upper hand over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy after winning the most votes in the first round of voting.
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| Suu Kyi party refuses Myanmar seats over oath row Posted:  Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party refused to take its new seats in parliament Monday because of a dispute over one word in the lawmakers' oath, but party officials played down the problem and said they expected it to be overcome by early May.
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| NKorea military warns of 'special actions' soon Posted:  North Korea's military vowed Monday to launch unspecified "special actions" soon meant to reduce South Korea's conservative government and media companies "to ashes" in less that four minutes, in an escalation of its recent threats.
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| Bomb kills 2 NATO service members in Afghanistan Posted: NATO forces say two international service members have been killed in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan. |
| Boy glad football lost in tsunami found in Alaska Posted:  A teenager who lost his home in Japan's devastating tsunami now knows that one prized possession survived: a football that drifted all the way to Alaska.
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| Key lawmakers stand by Aussie gov't over scandal Posted:  Key independent lawmakers said Monday that they will stand by Australia's embattled government after the parliamentary speaker temporarily stepped aside over allegations of sexual harassment and fraud.
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| French far-right soars in presidential vote Posted:  The anti-immigrant far right emerged as a potentially major force in French politics with a record showing by its candidate Marine Le Pen in the first round of presidential elections.
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| Syria hotspot enjoys lull with UN monitors present Posted:  The deployment of U.N. truce monitors brought a lull in shelling of the Syrian opposition stronghold of Homs for a second day Sunday while President Bashar Assad's troops kept up heavy attacks on other areas where observers were not present.
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| Murdoch to be quizzed on his UK political sway Posted:  He was long considered one of the most important power brokers in British politics. Now, with his influence shriveled by Britain's phone hacking scandal, media mogul Rupert Murdoch is returning to the U.K. to face questions about his ties to the country's most senior politicians.
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| Bahrain welcomes back F1 amid security crunch Posted:  Under heavy security, Bahrain's embattled leaders toasted the return Sunday of the coveted Formula One Grand Prix even as riot police used armored vehicles to virtually seal off opposition strongholds and fight hit-and-run clashes in the Arab Spring's longest-running street battles.
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