| Bombs wound 27 in Ukrainian city Posted:  DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Four bombs exploded in a city in eastern Ukraine on Friday, wounding 27 people, including nine children, in what authorities described as an "act of terrorism". President Viktor Yanukovich said the blasts in Dnipropetrovsk, six weeks before Ukraine plays host to the European soccer championship, represented "a challenge ... to the whole country." Bomb attacks are a rare occurrence in the former Soviet republic and the blasts one after the other traumatized people in the city, one of Ukraine's main industrial centers with a population of around 1.3 million. ...
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| Nine dead in suicide bomb near Damascus mosque Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed nine people including security officers at a Damascus mosque on Friday, Syria's interior ministry said, in another blow to a fraying U.N.-brokered truce between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels fighting for his downfall. The explosion happened as worshippers were leaving the Zain al-Abideen mosque, which was under heavy security due to its reputation as a launchpad for anti-Assad demonstrations after Friday prayers. ...
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| Russia warns EU Iran oil embargo will be costly Posted:  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia pressed its case against new sanctions over Iran's nuclear program on Friday, saying an European Union ban on purchasing Iranian oil would end up hurting the bloc's member countries. "The European Union is rejecting purchases of Iranian oil, even though very many EU countries depend on this oil," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview on state-run Rossiya 24 television. "One can say, of course, that the deficit will be covered, but (some) refineries are geared specifically to Iranian oil ... ...
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| Peru rebels kill 3 security forces, injure 2 on army search Posted:  LIMA (Reuters) - Shining Path rebels on Friday killed three members of Peru's security forces and wounded two others while they were searching for police who disappeared in an earlier ambush, the armed forces said. It was the latest setback to the government's push to retake a lawless bundle of jungle valleys in southeastern Peru where a remnant band of Maoist rebels runs cocaine trafficking in the world's most densely planted region of coca plantations. "Two patrol groups of the armed forces clashed with narco-terrorists," the high command of the armed forces said in a statement. ...
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| Bissau president and ex-premier freed by soldiers Posted:  BISSAU (Reuters) - Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau released two leading politicians they had arrested in an April 12 coup and said on Friday they would accept the planned deployment to the country of over 600 soldiers from West African regional bloc ECOWAS. Carlos Gomes Junior, the ex-premier and presidential election front-runner, and interim President Raimundo Pereira were freed on Friday afternoon after a visit by ECOWAS military chiefs and later flew to Abidjan, Ivory Coast. ...
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| Blind China activist makes mystery "escape" Posted:  BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, one of the China's most prominent human rights advocates, has escaped from home imprisonment, activists said on Friday, but uncertainty over his whereabouts and fears about his health have worried supporters. Chen, a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against forced abortions, had been restricted to his village home in Linyi in eastern Shandong province since September 2010 when he was released from jail. ...
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| Strauss-Kahn suspects "political enemies" in sex scandal: paper Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - The Guardian newspaper said on its website on Friday that former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn believes his French presidential bid was scuppered last year by "political enemies" who made sure his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public. It is the first time Strauss-Kahn has spoken publicly about the events surrounding a sexual encounter with a maid in a Sofitel hotel in New York last May, which put an end to his political ambitions. ...
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| Iran says to resume talks with nuclear watchdog in May Posted:  DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will resume talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog in Vienna on May 13-14, state media quoted the Iranian ambassador to the body as saying on Friday. Western diplomats said last week Iran had expressed readiness to restart discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) two months after their last meeting ended in failure. But they added that Tehran still appeared to be stonewalling over the body's most pressing demand to let its inspectors visit a key military site. ...
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| Austerity topples Romanian government, Czech survives Posted:  BUCHAREST/PRAGUE (Reuters) - Romania's left-leaning opposition will try to form a new government after torpedoing the centre-right cabinet in a confidence vote on Friday, the latest collapse of an austerity-minded ruling coalition in Europe. Like other governments in the European Union, ousted Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu's two-month-old cabinet has faced a wave of public anger against plans for spending cuts and tax hikes. Violent protests toppled his predecessor, Emil Boc. "Today justice was done," said Victor Ponta, head of the left-leaning opposition Social Liberal Union (USL). ...
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| China's Wen: Auschwitz visit "unforgettable, dark" Posted:  OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) - China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said on Friday a visit to the Auschwitz death camp where Nazis gassed to death 1.5 million people had left an indelible impression, and reinforced the importance of learning the lessons of history. "This is an unforgettable, dark page in the history of humankind and cannot be forgotten," Wen said after touring the former death camp in southern Poland that is now a museum containing gas chambers and crematoria, as well as personal items like shoes and even hair of those who perished there. ...
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| Suicide bombing in Syrian capital kills 10 Posted:  Two weeks into a cease-fire agreement, there still was no peace in Syria: Security agents in Damascus collected the remains of 10 people killed in a suicide bombing. Activists reported troops firing on protesters. Video showed a crowd carrying a slain boy to U.N. observers as proof of regime violence.
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| Blind Chinese activist flees house arrest Posted:  A blind legal activist fled house arrest in his rural China village and made it to a secret location in Beijing on Friday, setting off a frantic police search for him and those who helped him, activists said.
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| Tymoshenko's health failing in Ukraine prison Posted:  Yulia Tymoshenko, the braided darling of Ukraine's Orange Revolution who went on to be prime minister, is wasting away in prison — weakened from a hunger strike, bruised from prison beatings and afraid she will be force-fed by her political foes, her family said Friday.
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| Dutch ban takes aim at foreigners buying pot Posted:  This country of canals and tulips is also famous for "coffee shops" where joints and cappuccinos share the menu. Now, the Netherlands' famed tolerance for drugs could be going up in smoke.
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| 27 injured in 4 blasts in eastern Ukraine city Posted:  A series of blasts rocked an eastern Ukrainian city on Friday, injuring 27 people, including nine teenagers, in what authorities say they believe was a terrorist attack.
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| In Egypt president race, Muslim clerics seek voice Posted:  Egypt's presidential contenders have been going through a new campaign rite of passage. One by one over recent weeks, they appeared before a panel of bearded, ultraconservative Muslim clerics who meticulously question them, including on how they intend to implement Islamic law.
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| New photo shows work at NKorea nuclear test site Posted:  New satellite imagery appears to show a train of mining carts and other preparations under way at North Korea's nuclear test site but no indication of when a detonation might take place.
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| Relative: Bin Laden Yemeni widow to stay in Saudi Posted:  Osama bin Laden's Yemeni widow has received assurances from Saudi officials that she and her children can remain in the kingdom, a relative said Friday after Pakistan deported more than a dozen members of the late al-Qaida leader's family.
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| Spain crisis deepens with jobless rise, downgrade Posted:  The hole in Spain's economy is getting deeper.
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| Italian fugitive arrested outside Scotland Yard Posted:  When British police finally snared an Italian fugitive wanted for the last 30 years, the task couldn't have been easier: he was arrested across the street from Scotland Yard's London headquarters, officials said Friday.
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