| Norway bomb blast diverted police, court hears Posted:  OSLO (Reuters) - When a large car bomb exploded at Oslo's central government building last summer, killing eight and injuring more than 200, police first thought they were dealing with two bombers who were about to mount new attacks in the capital. But while confusion reigned, Anders Behring Breivik was already driving by himself toward a Labour Party summer camp 40 km (25 miles) away, where he would massacre 69 people. ...
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| Rupert Murdoch to face inquiry over media influence Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch makes a keenly anticipated appearance before a high-profile media inquiry on Wednesday to confront charges that he used his powerful stable of British newspapers to influence politicians for the benefit of his business interests. The 81-year-old mogul - his media empire already under fire from many sides in Britain - will testify before the Leveson inquiry a day after his son James appeared in a highly charged session that revealed how a government minister had advised Murdoch's News Corp in its bid to buy the successful pay-TV group BSkyB last year. ...
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| Exclusive: U.S. eyes options to restart Afghan peace talks Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration, seeking to revive stalled Afghan peace talks, may alter plans to transfer Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison after its initial proposal fell foul of political opponents at home and the insurgents themselves. As foreign forces prepare to exit Afghanistan, the White House had hoped to lay the groundwork for peace talks by sending five Taliban prisoners, some seen as among the most threatening detainees at Guantanamo, to Qatar to rejoin other Taliban members opening a political office there. ...
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| Netanyahu says backs "contiguous" Palestinian state Posted:  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support on Tuesday for the first time for Palestinians to establish a contiguous state, saying their future country should not look like "Swiss cheese". But only hours earlier, a ministerial committee in his right-wing government granted Israeli legal status to three previously unauthorized Jewish settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, drawing Palestinian and international criticism. ...
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| Mexico presidential front-runner builds on big lead: poll Posted:  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential front-runner, Enrique Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), widened his lead over the ruling party candidate ahead of the July 1 election, a survey showed on Tuesday. The latest opinion poll by pollster Consulta Mitofsky showed Pena Nieto extending his advantage with 40.1 percent support, down 0.1 percentage points from the Mitofsky survey published on April 17. Though his support slipped slightly, Pena Nieto's lead over Josefina Vazquez Mota from the ruling National Action Party (PAN) widened. Her support of 21. ...
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| FBI chief in Yemen as drone kills AQAP leader Posted:  SANAA (Reuters) - FBI director Robert Mueller visited Yemen on Tuesday, pledging to help quell an Islamist insurgency, as security and government sources said a drone had killed a prominent al Qaeda leader linked to an attack on a French oil tanker. In a meeting with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who took office earlier this year, Mueller promised the United States would support Yemen "with full force" in all respects. "Mueller visits Yemen on an annual basis so this is not a special or secret occasion," said Mohammed Al-Basha, Yemen's embassy spokesman in Washington. ...
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| Annan tells U.N. Syria hasn't withdrawn heavy weapons Posted:  BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has failed to comply with a pledge to withdraw weapons from population centers, and towns where citizens met with U.N. truce monitors may have been attacked, international mediator Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. As violence flared in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Annan told the 15-nation body "we need eyes and ears on the ground, able to move freely and quickly" to watch over the ragged ceasefire. But the head of U.N. peacekeeping said deployment was moving slowly. ...
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| Exclusive: North Korea's nuclear test ready "soon" Posted:  BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea has almost completed preparations for a third nuclear test, a senior source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said, an act that would draw further international condemnation following a failed rocket launch. The isolated and impoverished state sacrificed the chance of closer ties with the United States when it launched the long-range rocket on April 13 and was censured by the U.N. Security Council, which includes the North's sole major ally, China. ...
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| Analysis: Old wounds, ethnic rivalries stoke Sudan war fever Posted:  JUBA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - When petrol started running low in South Sudan's capital this month, Peter Bashir Gbandi sensed a sinister force at work. Rather than blaming a severe shortage of dollars, which the newly-independent country needs to buy imported fuel, the lawmaker pointed to arch rival Sudan - likely in league with Horn of Africa immigrants running filling stations, he said. ...
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| Venezuela's Chavez sends video postcard from Cuba Posted:  CARACAS (Reuters) - The Venezuelan government on Tuesday broadcast a video of President Hugo Chavez playing the European bowling game of bocce in Cuba in a new effort to quash rumors that he was dying of cancer while out of the country. The video showed a jovial and chirpy Chavez strolling in a garden and playing the bowling game with his brother and two ministers on Monday in Havana where he is having radiation treatment for an undisclosed cancer. "We are continuing the treatment, facing the difficulties, governing and taking political decisions ... ...
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| Annan calls Syria situation 'bleak' Posted:  International envoy Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council Thursday that the situation in Syria is "bleak" and expressed alarm at reports that government troops are still carrying out military operations in towns where U.N. observers are not present.
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| Top military officers targeted in Syrian conflict Posted:  The gunmen walked into an apartment building before dawn earlier this month in the quiet Damascus suburb of Jaramana, went to the fifth floor and knocked on the door. When the police commander opened up, the men shot him dead and left.
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| Angry EU voters, citizens rebel against austerity Posted:  For more than a year, European Union officials have called for austerity, austerity and more austerity as a means to solve Europe's debt crisis. Now people who don't want to pay the price are taking their fight from the streets to the ballot box.
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| Murdoch testimony spotlights UK Olympics minister Posted:  News Corp. executive James Murdoch's behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign has spilled into the public domain, casting a harsh light on the British government's Olympics czar.
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| Pope stakes out church's course entering 8th year Posted: Pope Benedict XVI began his eighth year as pope on Tuesday after spending the waning days of his seventh driving home his view of the Catholic Church, with a divisive crackdown on dissenters and an equally divisive opening to a fringe group of traditionalists. |
| Boredom, discontent set in among Kony hunters Posted:  An Internet campaign that's gone viral aims to capture notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony, but Ugandan foot soldiers who have spent years searching for the man are starting to ask a question their top commanders prefer to ignore: Is it possible he is dead?
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| Swiss scientists demonstrate mind-controlled robot Posted:  Swiss scientists have demonstrated how a partially paralyzed person can control a robot by thought alone, a step they hope will one day allow immobile people to interact with their surroundings through so-called avatars.
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| Caretaker Dutch PM seeks consensus on cuts Posted:  Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte appealed to a polarized Dutch Parliament on Tuesday to help him make painful budget cuts rather than let the country drift in political limbo until new elections.
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| US, Yemen pledge united front against al-Qaida Posted:  The United States and Yemen pledged Tuesday to step up high-level cooperation in the fight against al-Qaida as government forces punched their way into the heart of a city long held by militants in the Arab nation's lawless south.
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| South Sudan president: Sudan has 'declared war' Posted:  South Sudan's president said Tuesday its northern neighbor has "declared war" on the world's newest nation, just hours after Sudanese jets dropped eight bombs on his country.
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