Yahoo! News: World News

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• Spain beset by bank crisis, downgrades, bond pressure
• Exclusive: U.N. panel probes possible North Korea arms trade with Syria, Myanmar
• Poll shows Greece electing pro-bailout government
• Egypt Brotherhood forms human chain for candidate
• France's left-wing leadership starts with a pay cut
• Qaeda chief urges Saudis to topple ruling family
• Syria's Assad: Nations that sow chaos will suffer
• Judge holds Mexican generals over for drug probe
• Greek winemakers see crisis as glass half-full
• U.S. suspends sanctions on investment in Myanmar
• Egypt: Owner of belly dancing TV station arrested
• Judge delays Mladic trial due to evidence errors
• Syrian opposition head offers to resign
• Greek party most extreme of Europe's far right
• US envoy to Israel: US ready to strike Iran
• Cuban president's daughter gets US visa
• Greece hands Olympic flame over to Britain
• Life's a beach for civil servants at London Games
• S.Africa's ANC fumes over art ridiculing president
• Flood of refugees hits camp near Sudan border

Spain beset by bank crisis, downgrades, bond pressure Posted: MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's borrowing costs shot up at a bond auction on Thursday and its troubled banks suffered a double blow, with shares in part-nationalized Bankia diving and 16 lenders - including the euro zone's biggest - having their credit ratings cut. Official data confirmed Spain was back in recession and a newspaper reported a big outflow of deposits from Bankia, but the government said it had taken a fundamental step to strengthen Spain's credibility by agreeing big budget cuts with the country's free-spending regions. ...

Exclusive: U.N. panel probes possible North Korea arms trade with Syria, Myanmar Posted: UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N. panel of experts that monitors compliance with sanctions on North Korea is investigating reports of possible weapons-related shipments by Pyongyang to Syria and Myanmar, the panel said in a confidential report seen by Reuters on Thursday. "The DPRK (North Korea) continues actively to defy the measures in the (U.N. sanctions) resolutions," the panel said in the report, which it submitted to the U.N. Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee earlier this week. ...

Poll shows Greece electing pro-bailout government Posted: ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek voters are returning to the establishment parties that negotiated its bailout, a poll showed on Thursday, offering potential salvation for European leaders who say a snap Greek election next month will decide whether it must quit the euro. The poll, the first conducted since talks to form a government collapsed and a new election was called for June 17, showed the conservative New Democracy party in first place, several points ahead of the radical leftist SYRIZA which has pledged to tear up the bailout. ...

Egypt Brotherhood forms human chain for candidate Posted: CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood organized a 760-km (470-mile)-long human chain of supporters across the country on Thursday to back the group's presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi in a show of strength ahead of next week's historic vote. From Cairo to Aswan, members of the Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), held posters of Mohamed Mursi, the Brotherhood's alternative choice to the group's initial candidate Khairat Shater, who was disqualified over a military court conviction. ...

France's left-wing leadership starts with a pay cut Posted: PARIS (Reuters) - France's new left-wing government started work on Thursday with pledges to combat excessive austerity but better manage public finances, marking the debut with a 30 percent cut in pay for President Francois Hollande and all ministers. The sizeable wage reduction was endorsed at a first meeting of the 34-minister team, a day after Germany's government awarded rises to its ministers and Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose pay will overtake Hollande's. ...

Qaeda chief urges Saudis to topple ruling family Posted: DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri on Thursday urged Saudis to rise up against the kingdom's ruling Al-Saud family, suggesting they draw inspiration from uprisings that have deposed leaders across the Middle East and Africa in the past year and a half. Speaking in a video clip that was posted on an Islamist website, Zawahri, who took over the leadership of al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan just over a year ago, said: "Muslim brothers in the land of the holy mosques, a year has passed since the uprising of the Arab people against their rulers... ...

Syria's Assad: Nations that sow chaos will suffer Posted: AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that countries trying to "sow chaos" in Syria could be infected with it themselves, an apparent warning to Arab Gulf nations that back the insurgency aimed at forcing him from power. Assad's remarks, to a Russian TV channel, came after U.N. staff monitoring an increasingly shaky ceasefire were caught up in an attack that killed at least 21 people, and had to spend a night with rebel forces. ...

Judge holds Mexican generals over for drug probe Posted: MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican judge on Thursday ordered the former deputy defense minister and a top general to be held for 40 days while they are investigated for alleged ties to drug cartels. Retired General Tomas Angeles and active General Roberto Dawe are to be held in a detention center in Mexico City following their arrest on Tuesday, the federal Attorney General's Office said in a statement. Several witnesses, including fellow military officers, have already testified against the generals, the statement said. ...

Greek winemakers see crisis as glass half-full Posted: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Greek winemakers are not pricing their wares in drachmas - yet. The winemakers, visiting New York as part of an international promotional tour, doubted Athens would leave the euro-zone even after Fitch Ratings Agency downgraded Greece's sovereign debt on Thursday, calling the country's exit from the monetary union "probable. "No, no, no. That is not going to happen," Stellios Boutaris, whose family owns the Kir-Yianni winery, insisted. "And if that happens, we will have bigger problems than just pricing wine in drachmas. ...

U.S. suspends sanctions on investment in Myanmar Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday suspended sanctions barring U.S. investment in Myanmar in response to political reforms in the poor southeast Asian state, drawing praise from some U.S. lawmakers but criticism from human rights advocates. "Today we say to American business: invest in Burma and do it responsibly," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. She appeared with Myanmar's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, on his long-isolated nation's first official visit to Washington in decades as ties between the two countries warm rapidly. ...

Egypt: Owner of belly dancing TV station arrested Posted: Egypt's vice police on Thursday arrested the owner of a belly dancing TV station on suspicion of operating without a license, inciting licentiousness and facilitating prostitution, a security official said.

Judge delays Mladic trial due to evidence errors Posted: An apparent clerical error prompted judges to postpone the long-awaited war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic on Thursday, possibly for months.

Syrian opposition head offers to resign Posted: Syria's main opposition council is crumbling under the weight of infighting and divisions over issues that cut to the heart of the revolution, including accusations that the movement is becoming as autocratic as the regime it wants to drive out.

Greek party most extreme of Europe's far right Posted: which won 7 percent of the vote in a May 6 election — says it wants to rid Greece of immigrants and plant landmines along the border with Turkey.

US envoy to Israel: US ready to strike Iran Posted: The U.S. has plans in place to attack Iran if necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, Washington's envoy to Israel said, days ahead of a crucial round of nuclear talks with Tehran.

Cuban president's daughter gets US visa Posted: Cuban first daughter Mariela Castro has been granted a U.S. visa to attend events in San Francisco and New York, sparking a firestorm of criticism from Cuban-American politicians who called her an enemy of democracy and a shill for the Communist government her family has led for decades.

Greece hands Olympic flame over to Britain Posted: The Olympic torch was passed to London — witnessed, appropriately, by hundreds of Greeks huddled under umbrellas.

Life's a beach for civil servants at London Games Posted: Tanned and toned Olympic athletes in skimpy outfits will be serving and spiking outside the prime minister's Downing Street home — but it's lower-ranked civil servants who will have the best view of beach volleyball at the London Games.

S.Africa's ANC fumes over art ridiculing president Posted: South Africa's governing party said Thursday it will demand the removal of a painting from an exhibition by one of the nation's best-known artists that ridicules the party and the president with graphic and provocative imagery.

Flood of refugees hits camp near Sudan border Posted: An unexploded bomb sticks out of the earth. Foxholes have been dug by aid workers fearing more airstrikes from Sudan. Streams of hungry refugees are pouring in.

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