Yahoo! News: World News

In Mexico vote, comeback beckons for old rulers
Egypt's new president faces burden of expectation
Iran threatens Israel; new EU sanctions take force
Assad's forces on offensive; Moscow defends him again
Attacks on Kenyan churches kill 17
As crops rot, millions go hungry in India
Venezuela's Chavez, Capriles launch presidential race
Senegal's Sall seen winning parliament vote
Crowds protest in Hong Kong as Hu anoints leader
Protesters storm Libya election office in Benghazi
Syrian opposition rejects new international plan
Mexico could return old ruling party to power
NATO says 3 service members killed
Iran feels pinch of new EU oil sanctions
Reports: Barclays chairman to resign this week
Hong Kong holds big protest as new leader sworn in
Kenya police: church attacks kill 15, wound 40
Militiamen attack Libya election commission
Palfrey ends Cuba-Florida swim amid strong current
Spain wins again, beating Italy 4-0 at Euro 2012

In Mexico vote, comeback beckons for old rulers

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 04:45 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's old rulers were on track for a comeback as voters chose a new president on Sunday, after a grisly war with drug cartels and a sluggish economy wore down the ruling conservatives. Twelve years after the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost power, opinion polls showed its candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto, heading into the vote with a double-digit lead over his opponents. Voters ousted the PRI in 2000 after 71 years of virtual single-party rule that was tainted by corruption, electoral fraud and authoritarianism. ...

Egypt's new president faces burden of expectation

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 09:26 AM PDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - If Egypt's new president, Mohamed Mursi, needs any reminder of the weight of expectations bearing down as he begins work, he can glance from a window of the presidential palace. Citizens seeking jobs, compensation from the state or clemency for jailed relatives crowded at the palace gates on Sunday, showing how Mursi's unprecedented popular mandate has raised hopes for a more responsive kind of government. "My name is Alaa Ahmed Bayoumy and I am here to ask for a higher pension," said one 52-year-old among the group mingling with palace security officials. ...

Iran threatens Israel; new EU sanctions take force

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 11:50 AM PDT

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran announced missile tests on Sunday and threatened to wipe Israel "off the face of the earth" if the Jewish state attacked it, brandishing some of its starkest threats on the day Europe began enforcing an oil embargo and harsh new sanctions. The European sanctions - including a ban on imports of Iranian oil by EU states and measures that make it difficult for other countries to trade with Iran - were enacted earlier this year but mainly came into effect on July 1. ...

Assad's forces on offensive; Moscow defends him again

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 08:52 AM PDT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces swept through the corpse-strewn streets of nearly-deserted opposition districts on the outskirts of the capital on Sunday, as the conflict enters a new phase of heavier fighting near Bashar al-Assad's seat of power. Government troops also bombed and shelled other towns across the country, a day after Russian diplomats rode again to Assad's rescue, blocking language at a meeting of world powers that would have called on the president to leave power. ...

Attacks on Kenyan churches kill 17

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 01:46 PM PDT

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Masked assailants launched simultaneous gun and grenade raids on two churches in a Kenyan town on Sunday, killing at least 17 people in the worst attack in the country since Kenya sent troops into Somalia to crush al Shabaab militants. More than 60 people were wounded in the attacks in Garissa, the north Kenya town which has been used as a base for operations against al Qaeda-linked insurgents in Somalia. "This is the worst single attack since October, when our troops went into Somalia," national police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told Reuters. ...

As crops rot, millions go hungry in India

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 03:03 PM PDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Every day some 3,000 Indian children die from illnesses related to malnutrition, and yet countless heaps of rodent-infested wheat and rice are rotting in fields across the north of their own country. It is an extraordinary paradox created by a rigid regime of subsidies for grain farmers, a woeful lack of storage facilities and an inefficient, corruption-plagued public distribution system that fails millions of impoverished people. ...

Venezuela's Chavez, Capriles launch presidential race

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 01:29 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO DE YURUANI/MARACAY, Venezuela (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez shook off his health problems to lead a massive rally on Sunday while opposition rival Henrique Capriles took to remote regions for the formal launch of Venezuela's presidential race. Unable to repeat the frenetic campaigning of past elections due to his struggle with cancer, a fist-pumping Chavez nevertheless made a rare appearance at a rally in central Venezuela to underline he is fit enough for the October 7 vote. ...

Senegal's Sall seen winning parliament vote

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 04:46 PM PDT

DAKAR (Reuters) - A coalition backing new Senegalese President Macky Sall was poised to win majority seats in parliament, according to provisional results reported by local media on Sunday after legislative elections in the west African country. Early counts reported by Senegal's APS news agency showed that Sall's Alliance for the Republic party (APR) and the Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition were leading in several constituencies across the country. Results on APS's website showed that the leading coalition had won the vote in several major districts including Thies, Kaolack, St. ...

Crowds protest in Hong Kong as Hu anoints leader

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 01:59 PM PDT

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong hours after Chinese President Hu Jintao swore in the city's new leader and urged him to resolve what he called "deep disagreements" among the islanders. The by-now annual July 1 demonstration - marking the end of British colonial rule in 1997 - was the biggest in years as people took advantage of Hong Kong's laws that make it the only place in China where public protests are permitted. ...

Protesters storm Libya election office in Benghazi

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 02:15 PM PDT

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Armed protesters calling for more autonomy for Libya's east stormed the national election commission in Benghazi on Sunday, burning materials and breaking computer equipment outside, less than a week before the North African country holds an election. About 300 men carried computers and ballot boxes from the building in Libya's second city and began crushing them while chanting pro-federalism slogans, a Reuters correspondent at the scene said. ...

Syrian opposition rejects new international plan

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 10:33 AM PDT

Syria's main opposition groups rejected on Sunday a new international plan that calls for a transitional government because the compromise agreement did not bar President Bashar Assad from participating.

Mexico could return old ruling party to power

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 05:12 PM PDT

Mexico's voters appeared poised to bring the old guard back to power on Sunday in a mostly quiet and orderly vote that was marked by a heavy police and troop presence in violence-plagued parts of the country.

NATO says 3 service members killed

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 03:15 PM PDT

A man in an Afghan police uniform on Sunday shot and killed three foreign troops in southern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement.

Iran feels pinch of new EU oil sanctions

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 01:13 PM PDT

As new European Union sanctions targeting Iran's vital oil industry took effect Sunday, Tehran acknowledged the measures aimed at reining in its disputed nuclear program were taking a toll. The vice president said authorities had stockpiled imported goods and hard currency to help cushion the blow to the economy.

Reports: Barclays chairman to resign this week

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 12:57 PM PDT

Two British media outlets are reporting that the chairman of U.K.-based Barclays bank plans to resign this week following the scandal regarding the manipulation of data by his bank.

Hong Kong holds big protest as new leader sworn in

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 08:37 AM PDT

A pro-democracy heckler interrupted a speech by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the swearing-in of Hong Kong's new leader Sunday and tens of thousands of residents marched to protest Chinese rule on the 15th anniversary of the Asian financial hub's return to Beijing's control.

Kenya police: church attacks kill 15, wound 40

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 12:30 PM PDT

Gunmen killed two policemen guarding a church, snatched their rifles and then opened fire on the congregation from inside and out on Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding 40, security officials said.

Militiamen attack Libya election commission

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 02:05 PM PDT

Libyan protesters and militiamen stormed the headquarters of the election commission in the eastern city of Benghazi on Sunday, setting voting slips on fire, a militia commander said, a week before the country holds its first general election in nearly five decades.

Palfrey ends Cuba-Florida swim amid strong current

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 03:16 PM PDT

A 49-year-old grandmother and veteran endurance swimmer scuttled her quest early Sunday to become the first woman to swim unaided from Cuba to the Florida Keys, unable to close the gap on the last 26 miles of a more than 100-mile ocean odyssey.