| U.N. sees need for more Syria observers, aircraft Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - A United Nations mission to oversee an end to violence in Syria may need to bring in its own aircraft and deploy more troops to ensure that a firm ceasefire takes hold throughout the country, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday. A six-day-old truce has held in some parts of Syria since President Bashar al-Assad pledged to enforce it last week. But in strong opposition areas such as Homs, Hama, Idlib and Deraa the army continues to attack and battle rebels, using heavy weapons in violation of the pledge by Damascus to pull back. ...
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| Exclusive: Suu Kyi to visit Norway, Britain after 24 yrs in Myanmar Posted:  YANGON (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize laureate and newly elected lawmaker Aung San Suu Kyi will travel outside Myanmar for the first time in 24 years after accepting invitations to visit Norway and Britain in June, her party said on Wednesday. Her travel caps months of dramatic change in Myanmar, including a historic by-election on April 1 that won her a seat in a year-old parliament that replaced nearly five decades of oppressive military rule. ...
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| Angry North Korea threatens retaliation, nuclear test expected Posted:  SEOUL (Reuters) - A bristling North Korea on Wednesday said it was ready to retaliate in the face of international condemnation over its failed rocket launch, increasing the likelihood the hermit state will push ahead with a third nuclear test. The North also ditched an agreement to allow back inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. That followed a U.S. decision, in response to the rocket launch it says was a disguised long-range missile test, to break off a deal earlier this year to provide the impoverished state with food aid. Pyongyang called the U.S. ...
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| Incensed Spain threatens Argentina after YPF seizure Posted:  MADRID (Reuters) - An incensed Spain threatened swift economic retaliation against Argentina on Tuesday after it unveiled plans to seize YPF, the South American nation's biggest oil company which is controlled by Spanish energy group Repsol. Madrid called in Argentina's ambassador over the nationalization order on Monday by Argentina's combative president, Cristina Fernandez, a move that sent Repsol shares tumbling but delighted many ordinary Argentines. "I must express my profound unease. It's a negative decision for everyone," Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said. ...
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| Stirring Mexican volcano closes schools, raises alert Posted:  SAN PEDRO BENITO JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - A powerful plume of steam and ash rose from the Popocatepetl volcano in central Mexico on Tuesday, prompting local schools to cancel classes and emergency teams to prepare for evacuations. The volcano's lava dome started to expand on Friday, suggesting fresh magma may be pushing upwards. It spewed red-hot fragments and lightly dusted cars and streets in some small towns in the state of Puebla, television images showed. ...
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| Fiery Argentine leader guided by husband's legacy Posted:  BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is a sharp-tongued widow bent on honoring her late husband's political legacy by boosting state control over the economy - even if that means making enemies along the way. Defying warnings from Spain and the European Union, the center-left leader unveiled a plan on Monday to take control of energy company YPF from Spain's Repsol. Argentina already has a reputation as a global rule-breaker after staging the biggest sovereign debt default in history in 2002. ...
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| Mexican poll points to big win for PRI's Pena Nieto Posted:  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential front-runner, Enrique Pena Nieto, has extended his lead and the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) he represents could gain an absolute majority in the lower house of congress, a survey showed. Consulta Mitofsky said on Tuesday its latest opinion poll for the July 1 presidential vote showed Pena Nieto extending his big lead with 40.2 percent support, up 1.1 percentage point from the polling firm's survey published on March 13. He was followed by Josefina Vazquez Mota, of the ruling National Action Party (PAN), at 22.6 percent. ...
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| Palestinian prisoners launch "battle of empty stomachs" Posted:  RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - At least 1,200 Palestinians in Israeli jails launched an open-ended hunger strike on Tuesday, raising the stakes in a protest about jail conditions and justice that has put the Jewish state under heightened scrutiny. The start of their action coincided with the release of Khader Adnan, a prisoner who refused food for 66 days before agreeing to a deal under which he was released late on Tuesday and greeted by hundreds of supporters when he reached his home town in the West Bank. Adnan, 33, is a member of Islamic Jihad, which has vowed to destroy Israel. ...
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| Egypt vote chaos boosts Moussa, Abol Fotouh Posted:  CAIRO (Reuters) - The race for the Egyptian presidency has been redefined by the disqualification of Hosni Mubarak's spy chief and prominent Islamists, including a Muslim Brotherhood candidate and a popular Salafi cleric. The developments add to the turbulence of a transition to democracy that has been punctuated by spasms of violence and political rivalries between once-banned Islamists, secular-minded reformists and remnants of the Mubarak order that was overthrown in last year's popular uprising. ...
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| Sudan says cost no bar to recapture of oil region Posted:  NAIROBI/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan said on Tuesday the cost of a full-blown conflict with South Sudan would not deter it from recapturing the disputed Heglig oilfield, and that newly tapped oilfields would help to sustain its struggling economy. South Sudan took control of the contested oil-producing Heglig region last week, prompting Sudan's parliament to brand its former civil war foe an "enemy" on Monday and to call for a swift recapture of the flat savanna region. Both countries' faltering economies are likely to be important factors in the conflict's outcome. ...
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| Norway killer expounds on fanatical views at trial Posted:  In a scene unimaginable in many countries, Norway's worst mass killer got the chance to explain his fanatical views to the court and the world, unrepentant and dressed in a business suit. Prosecutors and lawyers for the families of his 77 victims even shook his hand.
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| China says committed to probing political scandal Posted:  China's ruling Communist Party said Wednesday that it is committed to investigating a political scandal that includes the suspected murder of a British businessman, following new appeals from Britain for a swift probe free from political meddling.
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| North Korea's 'Young General' grows up Posted:  His grandfather made his name in the 1930s as a teenage guerrilla, battling the Japanese soldiers who then occupied Korea. His father spent decades solidifying the family's hold over the country, building up the military, extending the intelligence apparatus and driving its nuclear ambitions.
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| World powers cling to Syria truce despite violence Posted:  Artillery shatters homes in opposition areas. Regime tanks roll though city centers. Civilians dig graves for dozens of corpses, scrawling their names on headstones with black markers.
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| Bin Laden's family to leave Pakistan overnight Posted: Osama bin Laden's three widows and their nine children were scheduled to be deported to Saudi Arabia overnight, almost a year after U.S. Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaida chief at a compound in northwest Pakistan, their lawyer said Tuesday. |
| Sudan's frontline: Dead bodies, circling Antonovs Posted:  The road to Heglig, an oil town that South Sudan and Sudan are fighting over, is lined with discarded furniture, destroyed buses and tanks, and clusters of dead Sudanese soldiers.
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| Egypt panel definitively bars 3 president hopefuls Posted: Egypt's election commission rejected the appeals of three main contenders for president Tuesday, definitively removing the most polarizing candidates from the race to become the country's first elected leader since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. |
| AP PHOTOS: Flower show celebrates N. Korea founder Posted:  North Korea's failed rocket has reappeared in a new form — at an annual flower show that combines floral extravaganza with high praise for the country's founding father Kim Il Sung.
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| NKorea's rocket display shows lack of progress Posted:  Analysts sifting through information on North Korea's failed rocket launch say Pyongyang appears to have learned little about spaceflight since its last flubbed attempt three years ago, and that the country is a long way from being able to threaten the United States with a long-range missile.
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| Afghanistan wants firmer US commitment on funding Posted: Afghanistan's president raised another condition Tuesday for a long-awaited strategic partnership with the United States: The accord must spell out the yearly U.S. commitment to pay billions of dollars for the cash-strapped Afghan security forces. |
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