| Coalition talks stall, Greece faces "moment of truth" Posted:  ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek political leaders on Sunday ignored a final plea from the president to form a coalition government to avert a repeat election, pushing the debt-stricken nation closer to bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro zone. Leaders of the three biggest parties met at the presidential mansion for a final attempt to bridge their differences, but the talks quickly hit an impasse as they traded accusations on a deeply unpopular bailout package tied to harsh spending cuts. ...
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| Senior Afghan peace negotiator shot dead in Kabul Posted:  KABUL (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul on Sunday, police said, dealing another blow to the country's attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban. Maulvi Arsala Rahmani was one of the most senior members on Afghanistan's High Peace Council, set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to liaise with insurgents. "He (Rahmani) was stuck in heavy traffic when another car beside him opened fire," said General Mohammad Zahir, head of the investigations unit for Kabul police. ...
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| Austerity blow for Merkel in German state election Posted:  DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday in an election in Germany's most populous state, a result which could embolden the left opposition to step up attacks on her European austerity policies. The election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a western German state with a bigger population than the Netherlands and an economy the size of Turkey, was held 18 months before a national vote in which Merkel will be fighting for a third term. ...
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| Iran says pressures may damage nuclear talks Posted:  DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran warned Western powers on Sunday that applying pressure on Tehran could jeopardize talks on its nuclear program, state television reported. "The era of a pressure strategy is ended. Any strategic miscalculations would endanger success at the Baghdad negotiations," said Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, quoted by state television. Jalili was speaking with French former prime minister Michel Rocard who visited Iran ahead of the talks on May 23 in Baghdad with the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany. ...
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| Forty-nine headless corpses found in Mexico Posted:  CADEREYTA JIMENEZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Suspected drug gang killers dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near Mexico's northern city of Monterrey in one of the country's worst atrocities in recent years. The mutilated corpses of 43 men and 6 women, whose hands and feet had also been cut off, were found in a pile on a highway in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez in the early hours of Sunday, officials from the state of Nuevo Leon said. ...
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| Syrian forces kill 7 civilians in rural attack: activists Posted:  AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops backed by tanks shot dead seven civilians when they overran a rebellious Sunni Muslim village west of the city of Hama on Sunday, activists' organizations said, in a crackdown on the rural epicenter of the 14-month anti-government revolt. In neighboring Lebanon, three people were killed when fighting erupted in the city of Tripoli between members of the Alawite minority loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and members of the Sunni majority. ...
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| Monti warns of tears in Italy's social fabric Posted:  ROME (Reuters) - Italy's social fabric is being torn by recession and tensions are growing among its citizens, Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Sunday. Speaking to a group of students in the central Italian town of Arezzo, Monti urged Italians to stick together and "not give up" in the face of a shrinking economy and rising unemployment. Monti's technocrat government has imposed painful austerity measures since taking office last year, and in recent days ministers have responded to calls from politicians and the media to show more compassion for the plight of ordinary Italians. ...
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| Saudi and Bahrain expected to seek union: minister Posted: DUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are expected to announce closer political union at a meeting of Gulf Arab leaders on Monday, a Bahraini minister said, a move dismissed by the opposition as a ruse to avoid political reform. The decision is part of a strategy to increase integration within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), as the organization's six nations fret about Iran's power in the region and the presence of al Qaeda after the Arab uprisings. ... |
| Insight: India's "Queen of Democrazy" at the crossroads of change Posted:  KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Kolkata's red-brick secretariat was built more than 200 years ago for Britain's East India Company, which used trade in opium, cloth and tea to colonize the subcontinent. Distrust of foreign merchants lingers still. For the past year, the sprawling building has been occupied by Mamata Banerjee, the diminutive chief minister of West Bengal state who is perhaps the largest obstacle to economic reforms that would allow 21st-century traders free access to India's consumer markets. ...
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| Obama aide in Yemen in anti-al Qaeda drive Posted:  SANAA (Reuters) - A senior aide to President Barack Obama flew to Yemen on Sunday to meet the leader of a country battling with al Qaeda insurgents that Washington believes has also targeted the United States, U.S. and Yemeni officials said. The visit by John Brennan, Obama's counter-terrorism adviser, comes as Yemen is on a new offensive against Islamist rebels and after Washington said it had foiled an airliner bomb plot linked to al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate. ...
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| Gunman kills member of Afghan peace council Posted:  A gunman in a car assassinated a former high-ranking Taliban official working to end the decade-long war in Afghanistan, dealing a powerful blow Sunday to the fragile, U.S.-backed effort to bring peace to the country.
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| Deal looks near to end Palestianian hunger strike Posted:  Egyptian and Palestinian officials said Sunday they were close to reaching a deal with Israel that would end a mass hunger strike by Palestinians in Israeli jails.
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| AP Exclusive: Drawing focuses on Iran's nuke work Posted:  A drawing based on information from inside an Iranian military site shows an explosives containment chamber of the type needed for nuclear arms-related tests that U.N. inspectors suspect Tehran has conducted there. Iran denies such testing and has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such a chamber.
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| Greek coalition in serious doubt Posted:  Critical talks to form a governing coalition in crisis-struck Greece foundered once more, leading the country one step closer to new elections — and bringing its continued presence in the euro into serious doubt.
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| Irish pose next democratic test for EU austerity Posted:  When voters in Greece and France got the chance, they dealt a resounding "No!" to parties backing austerity measures. The Irish could be next to give the European Union's austerity plans a black eye.
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| Syrians raid village, violence bleeds into Lebanon Posted:  Syrian forces killed at least five people when they raided a Sunni farming village on Sunday, torching homes and looting shops in what activists said is a sign of worsening relations among the country's religious groups.
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| German opposition wins major state vote Posted:  Voters in Germany's most populous state on Sunday strengthened a regional government that Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives had portrayed as irresponsibly spendthrift, inflicting an embarrassingly heavy defeat on the German leader's party, projections showed.
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| Palestinian prisoners portraits underscore absence Posted:  For the thousands of Palestinian families who have a relative in Israeli detention, a photograph is the only real contact with their loved ones.
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| Official: Top Joseph Kony commander captured Posted: Ugandan forces captured a senior commander of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army after a brief fight with rebels near the Congo-Central African Republic border, an army official said Sunday, in what an analyst said was an "intelligence coup" for forces hunting for Kony. |
| Official: 49 bodies left on Mexico highway Posted:  Forty-nine decapitated and mutilated bodies were found Sunday dumped on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the U.S. border in what appeared to be the latest blow in an escalating war of intimidation among drug gangs.
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