Yahoo! News: World News

Annan fears "imminent battle" in Syria's Aleppo
Severe flooding hits North Korea, kills 88
Top Venezuelan embassy official killed in Kenya
Magnitude 6.6 quake hits off Papua New Guinea coast: USGS
Romanian president tries to evade impeachment
Rwanda demands respect from the West after aid cuts
United Nations fails to agree landmark arms-trade treaty
Peru's Humala says to boost social spending to avert conflicts
African heads to again seek U.N. Mali mandate: Ouattara
Sinai Jihadi group says responsible for Israel attack in June
Syrian rebels survive regime onslaught in Aleppo
Warm reception expected as Romney lands in Israel
Officials: Ebola breaks out in Uganda
Queen tours Olympic Park after debut as Bond Girl
Assad has many generals to fight Syrian rebels
London protesters march against 'capitalist' Games
Egypt's president faces backlash from allies
EYES ON LONDON: Swimming and excited Olympic fans
Chinese city kills project after pollution protest
Opening ceremony gives Olympics a rocking start

Annan fears "imminent battle" in Syria's Aleppo

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 04:06 PM PDT

TAL RIFAAT, Syria (Reuters) - International mediator Kofi Annan said he feared an "imminent battle" for Syria's biggest city Aleppo. Syrian opposition sources said helicopters from President Bashar al-Assad's military pounded a rebel-held part of the city on Saturday and armored units were positioned for an onslaught that could determine its fate. "I am concerned about reports of the concentration of troops and heavy weapons around Aleppo, in anticipation of an imminent battle," Annan said in a statement. ...

Severe flooding hits North Korea, kills 88

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 10:39 AM PDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - Severe flooding across North Korea has killed 88 people and left tens of thousands homeless, state media reported late on Saturday, threatening to make the poverty-stricken country's already chronic food shortage still worse. The floods caused by torrential rains and a typhoon this month caused "big human and material losses", North Korea's official KCNA news agency said, stranding nearly 63,000 people. Since the mid-1990s, North Korea's farm sector has often been devastated by both floods and drought. ...

Top Venezuelan embassy official killed in Kenya

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 12:38 PM PDT

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The head of Venezuela's embassy in Kenya was murdered at her official residence in the capital, police and foreign affairs ministry officials said on Friday. Police said they believed the charge d'affaires, Olga Fonseca, was strangled to death in the white mansion surrounded by tropical trees and an electric fence in the exclusive Runda neighborhood. "We received reports that she was found dead in the house on her bed. What we have seen is that she has been strangled," Anthony Kibuchi, Nairobi area police commander, told reporters outside Fonseca's residence. ...

Magnitude 6.6 quake hits off Papua New Guinea coast: USGS

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 01:25 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A magnitude 6.6 quake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea early on Sunday local time, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The strong quake was centered 81 miles east-southeast of Rabaul, New Britain, at a depth of 43.5 miles, the USGS said. The quake was not expected to generate a tsunami, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. (Editing by Peter Cooney)

Romanian president tries to evade impeachment

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 03:28 PM PDT

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's unpopular President Traian Basescu may survive an impeachment referendum on Sunday thanks to a requirement that turnout must be more than half for the vote to be valid. Prime Minister Victor Ponta's leftist government has suspended Basescu and their campaign to unseat the president has brought a stern dressing-down from Brussels over respect for the judiciary and the rule of law. Ponta's Social Liberal Union (USL) took office in May and is asking Romanians to vote on whether to impeach Basescu for overstepping his powers. ...

Rwanda demands respect from the West after aid cuts

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 03:22 PM PDT

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Rwanda's foreign minister accused Western governments on Saturday of using aid to treat African states like children, after four countries cut or delayed aid to Kigali because of its policy in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States last weekend cut military aid for this year while the Netherlands, Germany and Britain followed suit as donors reacted to a United Nations report that accuses Rwanda of backing rebels in the Congo. ...

United Nations fails to agree landmark arms-trade treaty

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 07:12 AM PDT

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Delegations from around the world failed on Friday to agree a landmark U.N. arms-trade treaty to regulate the more than $60 billion industry, opting for further talks and a possible U.N. General Assembly vote by the end of the year, diplomats said. More than 170 countries have spent the past month in New York negotiating a treaty, which needed to be adopted by consensus, so any one country effectively could have vetoed a deal. Instead, no decision was taken on a draft treaty. ...

Peru's Humala says to boost social spending to avert conflicts

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 01:43 PM PDT

LIMA (Reuters) - President Ollanta Humala vowed on Saturday to ramp up social spending for the poor as he tries to spread the benefits of an economic boom to all Peruvians and defuse conflicts over mining that have marred his term. Humala, in an annual address to Congress just days after anti-mining protests prompted him to shuffle his cabinet for the second time in his year-old government, said he would extend the rollout of social programs in a bid to cut the nation's poverty rate to 15 percent by the end of his term in 2016. ...

African heads to again seek U.N. Mali mandate: Ouattara

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 01:34 PM PDT

PARIS (Reuters) - West African leaders are poised to submit a new request for military invention in Mali to the U.N. Security Council, and boots could be on the ground within weeks, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara told French weekly Journal du Dimanche. "A new request to the U.N. Security Council will be shortly submitted in the name of the Economic Community of West African States that I preside over," Ouattara said in the interview to be published in Sunday's edition. ...

Sinai Jihadi group says responsible for Israel attack in June

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 12:02 PM PDT

Ismailia (Reuters) - An Islamic Jihadi group based in Egypt's Sinai has posted a video showing it carried out a cross-border attack in June, killing one Israeli at a border barrier construction site and raising doubts over Egypt's security control over the desert peninsula. Since the overthrow of U.S.-aligned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, the security grip has loosened over Sinai and groups of militant Islamists have spread across its northern part, attacking police stations and a pipeline exporting gas to Israel and Jordan. ...

Syrian rebels survive regime onslaught in Aleppo

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 02:26 PM PDT

The Syrian government launched an offensive Saturday to retake rebel-held neighborhoods in the nation's commercial hub of Aleppo, unleashing artillery, tanks and helicopter gunships against poorly armed opposition fighters.

Warm reception expected as Romney lands in Israel

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 12:22 PM PDT

Mitt Romney's support for Israel will likely earn the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a warm welcome from Israeli leaders when he meets with them Sunday — and a frosty reception from Palestinians, who fear he would do little to advance their stalled statehood dreams.

Officials: Ebola breaks out in Uganda

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 08:30 AM PDT

The deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda this month, Ugandan health officials said on Saturday, ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange disease that had many people fleeing their homes.

Queen tours Olympic Park after debut as Bond Girl

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 01:48 PM PDT

Fresh from her star turn as the latest Bond Girl, Queen Elizabeth II returned to Olympic Park for an encore Saturday, while the usually biting British press gave a resounding review: We are amused.

Assad has many generals to fight Syrian rebels

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 11:29 AM PDT

The Syrian regime appears to have absorbed the shock it suffered in the heaviest blow against it yet in Syria's 17-month-old upheaval — a bombing that killed four top aides.

London protesters march against 'capitalist' Games

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 07:38 AM PDT

About 500 people critical of the economic impact and corporate flavor of the London Olympics marched Saturday near the Olympic Park, determined to send a message that Britain is not united in backing the games.

Egypt's president faces backlash from allies

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 09:36 AM PDT

An alliance of pro-democracy advocates on Saturday criticized Egypt's new Islamist president for unilaterally choosing a prime minister with no track record, while leading without transparency and alienating political groups with liberal leanings.

EYES ON LONDON: Swimming and excited Olympic fans

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 03:43 PM PDT

Around the 2012 Olympics and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of the games to you:

Chinese city kills project after pollution protest

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 12:26 PM PDT

Authorities in eastern China dropped plans for a waste water discharge project Saturday after thousands of protesters angry about pollution took to the streets. It was the latest of many such confrontations in a country where three decades of rapid economic expansion have come at an environmental price.