| Blind Chinese activist arrives in United States Posted:  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States on Saturday after China allowed him to leave a hospital in Beijing in a move that could signal the end of a diplomatic rift between the two countries. Chen's escape from house arrest in northeastern China last month and subsequent stay in the U.S. Embassy was a huge embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic controversy while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Beijing for talks to improve ties between the world's two biggest economies. ...
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| World leaders back Greece, vow to combat financial turmoil Posted:  CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) - World leaders backed keeping Greece in the euro zone on Saturday and vowed to take all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while revitalizing a global economy increasingly threatened by Europe's debt crisis. A summit of the G8 leading industrialized nations came down solidly in favor of a push to balance European austerity - an approach long driven by German Chancellor Angela Merkel - with a new dose of U.S.-style stimulus seen as vital to healing ailing euro-zone economies. But it was clear that divisions remained. ...
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| Syria bomb kills 9, Damascus blames foreign plot Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb killed nine people at a Syrian military post in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, an attack the government said was the latest proof that an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad was a foreign plot. The official SANA news agency said the blast had been the work of a suicide bomber, and had also wounded about 100 people, including guards, at what it called military installations. International pressure and an U.N.-backed peace plan has failed to quell Syria's turmoil. ...
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| G8, raising pressure on Iran, puts oil stocks on standby Posted:  CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) - Leaders of the Group of Eight major economies raised the pressure on Iran on Saturday, signaling their readiness to tap into emergency oil stockpiles quickly this summer if tougher new sanctions on Tehran threaten to strain supplies. "We remain united in our grave concern over Iran's nuclear program," the G8 leaders said in a statement summing up the results of their meeting in Camp David in rural Maryland. ...
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| Yemen clashes kill 34 militants, soldiers: officials Posted:  ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - At least 22 al Qaeda-linked militants and 12 Yemeni soldiers were killed in clashes and air strikes overnight during a U.S.-backed offensive against insurgents in the south of the country, officials said on Saturday. Fighting erupted late on Friday and carried on into Saturday on the outskirts of the southern city of Jaar, held by Islamist militants who have stepped up their campaign during months of political turmoil. Government troops, backed by U.S. ...
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| Youth protest former Mexican ruling party's rise Posted:  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Thousands of demonstrators protested in Mexico City on Saturday against opposition presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, who is far ahead in polls and poised to lead the party that ruled Mexico for much of the 20th century back to power. A contingent of mainly students, accompanied by groups of unionized workers and peasant farmers, held banners lambasting the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and its candidate, Pena Nieto. "I have a brain, I won't vote for the PRI," one banner read. ...
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| Bomb at Italian school kills teenage girl, wounds 10 Posted: BRINDISI, Italy (Reuters) - A 16-year-old girl was killed in southern Italy by a bomb that exploded in front of her school before classes on Saturday in an unprecedented attack that wounded 10 others, one seriously. Officials initially suggested a local mafia group was the main suspect, but investigators later said the rudimentary nature of the bomb and the targeting of an all-girls secondary school did not point toward organized crime. There was no claim of responsibility. ... |
| Bashir says wants peace with S.Sudan but security comes first Posted:  KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said Sudan wants a lasting peace with South Sudan but Juba needs to end support for rebels in Sudan's border land, state news agency SUNA said on Saturday. Oil, security and frontier disputes ignited border clashes last month and for a while raised fears of full-blown war in one of Africa's most significant oil regions. South Sudan became independent in July under a 2005 peace agreement with Khartoum that ended decades of civil war. ...
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| Serbia picks president under threat of protest Posted:  BELGRADE (Reuters) - Pro-Western Boris Tadic will bid on Sunday for another five years as Serbia's president and the right to lead the nation into EU membership talks, challenged by rightist Tomislav Nikolic who has threatened to contest the result in the streets. Tadic is tipped to defeat Nikolic in the presidential election for the third time since 2004 as Serbia slowly sheds the legacy of a decade of war and isolation under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. A Tadic victory would keep power firmly in the hands of his Democratic Party. ...
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| Greek election race tightens into dead heat Posted: ATHENS (Reuters) - A flurry of polls on Saturday showed the race to lead Greece has tightened into a dead heat ahead of an election next month that could determine whether it remains in the euro. Greece was forced to call the new vote for June 17 after an election on May 6 left parliament divided evenly between groups of parties that support and oppose austerity conditions attached to a 130 billion euro rescue agreed with lenders in March. ... |
| Obama sees 'emerging consensus' on economic fix Posted:  Confronting an economic crisis that threatens them all, President Barack Obama and leaders of other world powers on Saturday declared that their governments must both spark growth and cut the debt that has crippled the European continent and put investors worldwide on edge.
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| Chinese activist who fled house arrest lands in US Posted:  A blind Chinese legal activist who was suddenly allowed to leave the country arrived in the U.S. on Saturday, ending a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations.
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| Yemen: 36 killed in fighting with al-Qaida Posted: Yemeni officials say fresh clashes with al-Qaida fighters in the south have left at least 34 people dead, while a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed two militants. |
| Car bomb in eastern Syrian city kills 9 Posted:  A car bomb in the parking lot of a Syrian military compound killed at least nine people Saturday, the latest in increasingly frequent bombings in the country's major cities to target the regime's security services.
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| World leaders confront flagging Afghan war Posted:  It was what President Barack Obama called a "war of necessity," a conflict thrust upon America by the 9/11 attacks. As NATO's mission here winds down nearly 11 years later, the insurgents remain undefeated, corruption runs rife and the peace process is stuck in the sand.
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| Suicide blast kills 13 in eastern Afghanistan Posted: A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint Saturday in a volatile area of eastern Afghanistan, killing 13 people, police said. |
| Bomb kills 1 student, wounds 7 in Italy Posted:  A bomb exploded outside an Italian high school named after the wife of an assassinated anti-Mafia prosecutor, killing one student and wounding at least seven others, officials said.
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| Thousands mark 'Red Shirt' crackdown in Bangkok Posted:  Buddhist monks led prayers as tens of thousands gathered Saturday in Bangkok to mark the second anniversary of deadly clashes between soldiers and "Red Shirt" protesters.
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| Echoes of Eurozone crisis at NATO meeting Posted:  The NATO meeting in Chicago is a chance for alliance leaders to proclaim solidarity and promise success. But the two-day gathering that begins Sunday probably won't resolve the underlying anxiety about sharing the burdens of defense, a concern heightened by Europe's economic crisis and America's growing weariness at carrying the heaviest load.
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| 7 charged with terror crimes in Real IRA crackdown Posted:  Seven Irish republicans, including three relatives of a senior reputed Real IRA member and four others allegedly operating a forest rifle range, were arraigned Saturday on terror charges following a security sweep against militants plotting to sabotage Northern Ireland's peace process.
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