Voting begins in France, economy may doom Sarkozy

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• Voting begins in France, economy may doom Sarkozy
• UN council authorizes up to 300 Syria truce monitors
• F1 teams to race while rage boils on Bahrain streets
• Chinese firm suspected in missile-linked sale to North Korea: U.S. official
• Australian parliament speaker stands aside amid lawsuit row
• Dutch elections loom as budget talks collapse
• South Sudan says troops bombed during flashpoint pullout
• Dutch train crash injures 125: police
• Fifteen killed in northern Mexican bar shootout
• China military warns of confrontation over seas
• Polls open in France for presidential election
• Activists: Syrian troops storm Damascus suburb
• Iran says it is building copy of captured US drone
• China-Russia Yellow Sea naval drills begin
• Australia's parliamentary speaker steps down
• Cabbie unlikely celebrity in Colombia sex scandal
• Bahrain tense ahead of F1 after protester dies
• Report: Wal-Mart hushed up Mexico bribe network
• Opposition strike cripples Bangladesh's capital
• Uganda Kony-hunting soldiers face jungle threats

Voting begins in France, economy may doom Sarkozy Posted: PARIS (Reuters) - France voted on Sunday in round one of a presidential ballot, with a feeble economy that could make Nicolas Sarkozy the country's first president to lose a fight for re-election in more than 30 years. In a contest driven as much by a dislike of Sarkozy's showy style and his failure to bring down unemployment as by policy differences, Sarkozy and his Socialist rival Francois Hollande are pegged to beat eight other candidates to go through to a May 6 runoff, where polls give Hollande a double-digit lead. ...

UN council authorizes up to 300 Syria truce monitors Posted: UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a Russia-European drafted resolution on Saturday that authorizes an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria for three months to help bolster a fragile week-old ceasefire. But the 15-nation council's move to condition deployment of observers on a U.N. assessment of compliance with the truce reflected U.S. and European fears that the Syrian government's failure to stop shelling towns, return troops to barracks and withdraw heavy weapons from cities makes the prospects for success slim. ...

F1 teams to race while rage boils on Bahrain streets Posted: MANAMA (Reuters) - Formula One drivers will race in Bahrain on Sunday while rage boils on the streets outside, among protesters who denounce the Grand Prix as a gaudy spectacle by a ruling family that crushed Arab Spring demonstrations last year.

Chinese firm suspected in missile-linked sale to North Korea: U.S. official Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States believes a Chinese firm sold North Korea components for a missile transporter showcased in a recent military parade and will press Beijing to tighten enforcement of a U.N. ban on such military sales, a U.S. official said on Saturday. The Obama administration suspects the Chinese manufacturer sold the chassis - not the entire vehicle - and may have believed it was for civilian purposes, which means it would not be an intentional violation of U.N. sanctions, the senior official said. ...

Australian parliament speaker stands aside amid lawsuit row Posted: SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's parliament speaker said on Sunday he was temporarily stepping down over a sexual harassment lawsuit which threatens to further weaken Prime Minister Julia Gillard's hold on power. Gillard's Labor government has suffered poor poll figures in recent months which give a big lead to the conservative opposition under Tony Abbott. Speaker Peter Slipper issued a statement "emphatically" denying all allegations against him by a male former staff member, who says the speaker sexually harassed him. ...

Dutch elections loom as budget talks collapse Posted: THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The Netherlands appears to be heading for early elections after budget talks in the core euro zone member collapsed on Saturday, jeopardizing its chances of meeting European deficit targets and of approving a broader fiscal responsibility pact. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has led a minority Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition since October 2010, will first try to reach an agreement with the opposition, including the pro-Europe Labour Party, on crucial budget cuts after his ally Geert Wilders refused to do a deal. ...

South Sudan says troops bombed during flashpoint pullout Posted: BENTIU, South Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudan accused its neighbor Sudan of bombing its troops as they pulled out of the disputed oil region of Heglig on Saturday, dampening already faint hopes of any imminent settlement between the bitter foes. The newly-independent South seized Heglig last week, raising fears of an all-out war with Sudan, then announced it had started withdrawing on Friday, following sharp criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "The Sudan armed forced bombed our positions last night ... ...

Dutch train crash injures 125: police Posted: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Almost 125 people were injured, many seriously, when two Dutch commuter trains crashed head-on in Amsterdam on Saturday, police said. There were no immediate reports of fatalities, but of those injured, 13 suffered major injuries while 43 or 44 were badly injured, a spokesman said. About 70 suffered minor injuries. A trauma helicopter was used to bring the injured to hospital, a spokesman for railways group NS said. The trains did not serve Schiphol international airport, the NS spokesman added, but the accident disrupted airport train service. ...

Fifteen killed in northern Mexican bar shootout Posted: CIUDAD JUAREZ (Reuters) - Fifteen people were killed and at least one seriously wounded in a suspected drug-related shootout on Friday in a bar in northern Mexico, a region that has been brutalized by fighting between criminal gangs. On Friday night, armed men entered the bar in Chihuahua, capital of Chihuahua state, and opened fire on various people inside suspected of involvement in drug dealing, the local attorney general's office said in a statement on Saturday. ...

China military warns of confrontation over seas Posted: BEIJING (Reuters) - China's military warned the United States on Saturday that U.S.-Philippine military exercises have raised risks of armed confrontation over the disputed South China Sea in the toughest high-level warning yet after weeks of tensions. China's official Liberation Army Daily warned that recent jostling with the Philippines over disputed seas where both countries have sent ships could boil over into outright conflict, and laid much of the blame at Washington's door. ...

Polls open in France for presidential election Posted: Voting began Sunday in France in President Nicolas Sarkozy's uncertain bid for re-election, with polls showing that many French are dissatisfied with his response to concerns about the economy and jobs.

Activists: Syrian troops storm Damascus suburb Posted: Activists say Syrian troops are shelling districts in a suburb of the capital Damascus, causing casualties.

Iran says it is building copy of captured US drone Posted: A senior Iranian commander says the country has reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by Tehran's armed forces last year and has begun building a copy.

China-Russia Yellow Sea naval drills begin Posted: China and Russia launched joint naval exercises Sunday that highlight warming ties between their militaries and growing cooperation in international affairs.

Australia's parliamentary speaker steps down Posted: Australia's parliamentary speaker has temporarily stepped down amid allegations of sexual harassment and fraud. The move touches off a political crisis that threatens Prime Minister Julia Gillard's tenuous grip on power.

Cabbie unlikely celebrity in Colombia sex scandal Posted: The Secret Service sex scandal has spawned X-rated jokes, inspired a spicy song set to a local Caribbean beat, and made an unlikely celebrity of a 42-year-old taxi driver who lives with his mother and now seems to be in hiding.

Bahrain tense ahead of F1 after protester dies Posted: The discovery of a protester's body near the scene of clashes on Saturday threatened to tip Bahrain deeper into unrest as a 14-month-old uprising overshadows the return of the Formula One Grand Prix to the strategic Gulf kingdom.

Report: Wal-Mart hushed up Mexico bribe network Posted: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hushed up a vast bribery campaign that top executives of its Mexican subsidiary carried out to build stores across that country, according to a published report.

Opposition strike cripples Bangladesh's capital Posted: Schools and businesses were shut in Bangladesh's capital on Sunday as opposition parties enforced a daylong general strike across the South Asian nation.

Uganda Kony-hunting soldiers face jungle threats Posted: For Ugandan soldiers tasked with catching Joseph Kony, the real threat is not the elusive Central Africa warlord and his brutal gang. Encounters with the Lord's Resistance Army rebels are so rare that Kony hunters worry more about the threats of the jungle: Armed poachers, wild beasts, honey bees, and even a fly that torments their ears.

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