| Clashes across Syria despite U.N. ceasefire call Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - More than 40 people died in clashes across Syria on Thursday, opposition activists said, as a U.N. Security Council call for an immediate end to the fighting fell on deaf ears. In the worst incident 10 civilians, including three children and two women, died when their small bus was shot up in the northern town of Sermeen as they tried to flee to Turkey, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said. The SOHR, which depends on a network of local contacts for its information, said it was not clear who was behind the killings. ...
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| Soldiers say they have seized power in Mali Posted:  BAMAKO (Reuters) - Renegade soldiers said they seized power in Mali on Thursday and ordered its borders closed, threatening to reignite instability in a Saharan region shaken by the conflict in Libya. The overnight coup bid was led by low-ranking soldiers angry at the government's failure to stamp out a two-month-old separatist rebellion in the north of the west African state. Heavy weapons fire rang out throughout the night as the presidential palace came under attack. The whereabouts of President Amadou Toumani Toure, who oversaw a decade of relative stability, are unknown. ...
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| Dispute with Egypt triggers fuel crisis in Gaza Posted:  GAZA (Reuters) - Petrol pumps have run dry and power cuts are blacking out the Gaza Strip because of a dispute over fuel supplies between Egypt and the enclave's Hamas Islamist rulers. Taxis are scarce, with would-be passengers fighting for rides, and the government has ordered civil servants with vehicles to pick up hitchhikers. Gaza's emergency medical service has halved the number of ambulances it puts on the streets. At least one hospital has cancelled non-essential operations to conserve power for its generator. ...
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| Angry UK police to seek right to strike Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - British police officers angry with the coalition government's plans to cut jobs and freeze pay will vote on whether they want the right to strike, the body representing them said on Thursday. The Police Federation, which represents 135,000 ordinary "bobbies" and low ranking officers in England and Wales, said the move to seek full industrial rights showed its members were infuriated by the government's austerity drive. "Officers genuinely feel what the government is doing is decimating the best of British policing," a Federation spokesman said. ...
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| Portuguese strike against austerity snarls transport Posted:  LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese strikers halted trains, shut ports and paralyzed most public transport on Thursday, but the limited scale of the protest against austerity measures seemed unlikely to weaken the government's resolve in implementing the terms of an EU/IMF bailout. There was little impact beyond the transport sector from the strike that caused no major output disruptions at companies. The country's second-largest union, UGT, did not back the strike, unlike in previous work stoppages. ...
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| Pope in Latin America in shadow of John Paul Posted:  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A ghost will be following Pope Benedict at every step of his trip to Mexico and Cuba -- that of his predecessor John Paul. John Paul, who died in 2005, was a huge draw in many places. But, apart from his native Poland, nowhere was he a more towering figure than in Latin America, visiting every one of the region's countries at least once. He drew oceanic, throbbing crowds, sloshed through swampy slums in Ecuador, challenged Maoist guerrillas in the Peruvian highlands and defended miners' rights in Bolivia. ...
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| Sweden ends row over Nobel Peace Prize attribution Posted:  OSLO (Reuters) - The Nobel Foundation has defended the award of its annual Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama, Yemeni rights campaigner Tawakul Karman and others by persuading a Swedish regional body that the awards remained consistent with its founder's wishes. The County Administrative Board of Stockholm said on Thursday in an emailed statement that it had received a reply from the Nobel Foundation which supported its view that the foundation "fulfils its obligation to examine how the Nobel committees work". ...
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| Sarkozy cuts rival's poll lead after shooting drama Posted:  PARIS (Reuters) - A survey on Thursday showed President Nicolas Sarkozy cutting into his Socialist challenger's lead, the second opinion poll to show the conservative gaining since a deadly police standoff with an Islamist gunman gripped the nation. The poll also showed a hard-left candidate surging to third place for the April 22 first election round, overtaking far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Police in Toulouse on Thursday shot dead Mohamed Merah, who had killed three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three soldiers. ...
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| Five more bodies found in wrecked Italian ship Posted:  ROME (Reuters) - Five more bodies have been found in the half-submerged wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 30, Italy's Civil Protection agency said on Thursday. The giant vessel capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting rocks on January 13. Two people are still unaccounted for. A spokeswoman for the agency said all the bodies were discovered at the rear of the vessel. It would probably be several days before they could be removed as it would be a complicated operation using robots, she said. ...
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| France to resume election race after gunman's death Posted:  TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - France's presidential election race resumes on Friday, irrevocably altered by the killing of an al Qaeda-inspired gunman whose murders have shifted the political debate in favor of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. Mohamed Merah's cold-blooded shootings of seven people, including three Jewish schoolchildren, forced politicians to suspend normal campaigning while a giant manhunt closed in on the 23-year-old unemployed panel-beater. That hunt ended in a cacophony of gunfire shortly before midday on Thursday, after a 30-hour siege in the southern city of Toulouse. ...
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| French standoff ends with suspect shot in the head Posted:  Inspired by radical Islam and trained in Afghanistan, the gunman methodically killed French schoolchildren, a rabbi and paratroopers and faced down hundreds of police for 32 hours. Then he leapt out a window as he rained down gunfire and was fatally shot in the head.
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| Mali coup leader says ex-president 'is safe' Posted:  Drunk soldiers looted Mali's presidential palace hours after they declared a coup on Thursday, suspending the constitution and dissolving the institutions of one of the few established democracies in this troubled corner of Africa.
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| Argentina to stock markets: Falklands oil illegal Posted: Argentina has asked stock markets in New York and London to warn investors of its claim that five oil exploration companies are working illegally off the Falkland Islands, which Argentina contends were stolen by Britain more than a century ago. |
| Judges: Ex-Irish leader Ahern took secret payments Posted:  Former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern received at least €209,779 ($276,000) in secret payments while in office and repeatedly lied about this under oath, a mammoth fact-finding judicial investigation ruled Thursday in a long-awaited verdict.
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| Colombian police say rebel captured in Venezuela Posted: A member of Colombia's largest rebel group has been captured in neighboring Venezuela and is wanted for his role in the kidnapping and killing of three Americans in 1999, Colombian police said Thursday. |
| Pope visits heart of conservative Catholic Mexico Posted:  The last time a pope visited Mexico, more than 1 million believers cheered and wept in the streets of the capital. Aztec dancers shook rattles and blew conch shells inside the cathedral where John Paul II canonized the first Indian saint in the Americas.
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| 5 more bodies found in Concordia cruise wreck Posted:  Search crews in Italy have found five more bodies in the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which struck a reef off an Italian island in January.
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| Syria's Assad in firm control after a bloody year Posted:  As world leaders close ranks against Syrian leader Bashar Assad, the U.S. president summed up the popular wisdom during a recent White House press conference: "Ultimately, this dictator will fall."
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| Russian lawmaker: Assad must pull out troops first Posted:  Syrian President Bashar Assad must take the first step toward settling his country's yearlong conflict by pulling his forces out of cities and allowing humanitarian assistance, a senior Russian lawmaker said Thursday, in a statement that signaled a marked shift in Moscow's stance.
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| APNewsBreak: Piracy fighters use floating armories Posted: Private security firms are storing their guns aboard floating armories in international waters so ships that want armed anti-piracy guards for East Africa's pirate-infested waters can cut costs and circumvent laws limiting the import and export of weapons, industry officials say. |
