| Greek leftists reject proposal for technocrat government Posted:  ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's president will ask politicians on Tuesday to stand aside and let a government of technocrats steer the nation away from bankruptcy, but leftists have already rejected the proposal and look set to force a new election they reckon they can win. Party leaders, deadlocked since a parliamentary vote nine days ago, will convene at the presidential palace at 2 p.m. (1100 GMT) but said they had little hope President Karolos Papoulias's offer would resolve a political crisis that has fuelled speculation Greece's days in the euro zone are numbered. ...
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| Rebels kill 23 Syrian soldiers, opposition snubs Arab talks Posted:  AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels killed 23 government soldiers on Monday, activists said, and efforts to find a viable political alternative to Bashar al-Assad faltered when an opposition group said it would boycott Arab-backed talks to unite its splintered ranks. The latest bloodshed centered in the town of Rastan, where opposition sources said President Assad's forces killed nine other people, further unraveling a month-old U.N. ceasefire pact that is being overseen by international monitors. ...
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| Palestinian inmates agree to end hunger strike Posted:  GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails agreed on Monday to an Egyptian-brokered deal aimed at ending a mass hunger strike that challenged Israel's policy of detention without trial and raised fears of a bloody Palestinian backlash if any protesters died. Most of some 1,600 prisoners, a third of the 4,800 Palestinians in Israeli jails, began refusing food on April 17 although a few had been fasting much longer - up to 77 days. ...
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| Ex-Murdoch confidante to learn phone-hacking fate Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, a former top lieutenant in Rupert Murdoch's media empire, will learn on Tuesday whether she will be charged as part of a phone-hacking scandal at one of his British newspapers. Police launched an investigation in January last year into allegations that journalists at the News of the World tabloid regularly hacked the voicemails of phones of people from celebrities and politicians to victims of crime. ...
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| Hollande to be sworn in as new French president Posted:  PARIS (Reuters) - Francois Hollande will be sworn in as France's first Socialist president in 17 years in a hurried ceremony on Tuesday before a dash to Berlin to challenge German Chancellor Angela Merkel's focus on austerity policies. Hollande, whose election comes as the euro zone is teetering back into crisis with fears about Greece's future in the single currency, will give his first presidential news conference in Berlin in the evening, flanked by the centre-right Merkel. ...
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| Gulf Arabs delay talk of union at Riyadh meeting Posted:  RIYADH (Reuters) - Gulf Arab countries failed to agree on further integration on Monday after a high-profile summit seen as part of Saudi efforts to counter Iran's growing influence and Shi'ite Muslim discontent in Bahrain. Gulf politicians had played up the idea that the Riyadh meeting would establish closer union between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which sent troops in March last year to help Manama in an initial effort to squash the uprising. ...
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| Libyan Islamist quits militia to enter politics: aide Posted:  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Abdel Hakim Belhadj, one of Libya's most powerful militia leaders, is quitting to devote himself full-time to politics, an aide said on Monday, in a vote of confidence for the fragile transition from rebellion to democracy. Belhadj, a former Islamist militant who helped topple former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in last year's revolt, is to resign his post as head of the Tripoli Military Council and set up a political party, his aide said. ...
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| Mexico candidate blames opposition as bodies pile up Posted:  VERACRUZ, Mexico (Reuters) - The main opposition political party is at the root of the violence engulfing Mexico, ruling party presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota said after one of the worst atrocities in the country's drug war. Fighting to close a big gap with Enrique Pena Nieto, the front-runner for the July 1 election, Vazquez Mota sharpened her attacks on his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, saying it had made life easy for brutal drug traffickers in Mexico. ...
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| U.N. nuclear agency to push Iran on military site access Posted:  VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear watchdog signaled on Monday it would press Iran for access to a military installation where it suspects Iran has built a chamber for high-explosive tests that could serve to develop atomic bombs. The Vienna talks will test Iran's readiness to address U.N. inspectors' suspicions of military dimensions to its nuclear program, ahead of broader-ranging talks on the program's future in Baghdad next week between Tehran and six world powers. ...
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| Seven UN peacekeepers shot at Congo protest Posted: KINSHASA (Reuters) - Seven United Nations peacekeepers in Congo were wounded when gunmen opened fire at a protest in the East of the country on Monday, drawing condemnation from the U.N. Security Council. There were no details on the condition of the peacekeepers, who the U.N. Security Council said were from Pakistan. Several more peacekeepers in the contingent were injured by stone throwers when a base in South Kivu province was surrounded by crowd of 1,000 people, the United Nations said. "The seven wounded peacekeepers have been taken to Goma, North Kivu, for medical treatment," U.N. ... |
| Egypt presidential candidate blasts Islamist MP Posted:  A leading Egyptian presidential candidate lashed out Monday at an Islamist lawmaker who accused him of graft, treating voters to a new spectacle in an already unprecedentedly heated campaign.
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| Americans train Ugandans for Somalia mission Posted:  American military advisers in Uganda are drawing on lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan to help train African Union soldiers to fight Somalia's most powerful insurgent group, al-Shabab.
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| Palestinian prisoners agree to end hunger strike Posted:  Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners agreed to halt a weekslong hunger strike on Monday in exchange for promises of better conditions, ending a standoff that left several participants clinging to life and drew thousands of Palestinians to the streets in shows of solidarity.
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| Syrian unrest spills into Lebanon for 3rd day Posted:  Firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, Lebanese gunmen clashed in street battles Monday as sectarian tensions linked to the 14-month-old uprising in Syria bled across the border for a third day.
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| Gulf states delay decisions on closer ties Posted:  Gulf Arab states said Monday they would delay any decisions on proposals for closer political and security ties, showing possible signs of internal discord over measures portrayed as potential shields against regional rival Iran and pro-reform challenges inspired by the Arab Spring.
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| Yemen battles kill 16 al-Qaida militants, 7 troops Posted: Yemeni warplanes pounded al-Qaida fighters on Monday, killing at least 16, while seven soldiers died in clashes with militants in the country's troubled south where the army is trying to uproot the terror group, military officials said. |
| Mladic tries again to delay his war crimes trial Posted: Ratko Mladic appealed Monday for a six-month delay in the start of his Yugoslav war crimes trial, saying delays by prosecutors in disclosing evidence could lead to a miscarriage of justice. |
| Vatican mystery intensifies, bones found in grave Posted:  Forensic police swarmed the crypt of a Roman basilica on Monday to exhume the body of a reputed mobster as part of an investigation into one of the Vatican's most enduring mysteries: the 1983 disappearance of the teenage daughter of one of its employees.
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| Pakistani suggests NATO supplies should resume Posted:  Pakistan's foreign minister suggested Monday that the country should reopen its Afghan border to NATO troop supplies, saying the government has made its point by closing the route for nearly six months in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops.
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| Greek negotiations over govt to continue Posted:  Marathon efforts to break Greece's post-electoral paralysis are lurching into a ninth day amid the country's worst crisis in decades, with fractious party leaders summoned to a yet another emergency meeting Tuesday that could see the reins of government surrendered to non-politicians.
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