| Insight: In Greece, a painful return to country roots Posted: 07 Jun 2012 11:07 PM PDT  KONITSA, Greece (Reuters) - Thirteen years after abandoning rural Greece for a career in graphic design, Spiridoula Lakka finds herself in the last place she expected to end up - watering a patch of lettuce and herbs in her sleepy village. As Greece sank into its worst economic crisis since World War Two, Lakka had already given up her dream of becoming a web designer. Even waitressing seemed impossible. She faced a simple choice: be stranded without money in Athens, or return to the geriatric village where she grew up plotting to escape. ...
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| Insight: Vatican bank-money, mystery and monsignors Posted: 08 Jun 2012 03:01 AM PDT  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - For a financial institution whose ATMs offer Latin as a language option, whose offices are below the pope's windows and where tellers work under the gaze of crucifixes, one might assume the Vatican bank would have a dispensation from earthly travails. But new judicial woes and internal upheavals at the bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), have raised new hurdles for the Vatican, just as it entered the final stretch of years of efforts to join the international club of financial righteousness. ...
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| U.N. says seven peacekeepers killed in Ivory Coast Posted: 08 Jun 2012 03:38 PM PDT  ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Seven United Nations peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in Ivory Coast on Friday while on patrol near the border with neighboring Liberia, the U.N. mission said. It was not immediately clear who attacked the U.N. troops or if any Ivorian troops they were patrolling with were harmed. The United Nations said the mission had only recently increased its presence in the area, near the towns of Para and Tai, to boost efforts to protect civilians. The troops came under attack just a few kilometers from the border with Liberia. ...
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| Bus bomb kills 19 in northwest Pakistan: police Posted: 08 Jun 2012 08:50 AM PDT  PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb exploded on a bus on the outskirts of the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, killing 19 people and wounding several, police officials said. There have been numerous bombings in Peshawar, capital of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, since the Pakistani military stepped up operations against militant groups in 2007. "The bus was carrying around 40 people, most of them government employees, when there was a huge blast," police official Merah Khan told Reuters. Police said the bus was travelling from Peshawar to the nearby town of Charsadda. ...
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| Egyptians protest against ex-premier before election Posted: 08 Jun 2012 12:02 PM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Thousands of activists gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to demonstrate against presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik ahead of a run-off vote, saying they did not want to be ruled by another former military man. Some of those in the square supported Shafik's rival Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, which already controls parliament, but others were frustrated that they face a choice between two of Egypt's most polarizing politicians. Protesters have been angered by Shafik's links to ousted president leader Hosni Mubarak. ...
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| Husband of Nigeria air crash victim sues Boeing Posted: 08 Jun 2012 03:58 PM PDT LAGOS (Reuters) - The husband of a woman killed in last Sunday's plane crash in Nigeria is suing the plane's manufacturer, Boeing, and engine maker United Technologies, saying her death was caused by a "dangerous and defective" aircraft. David Chukwunonso Allison, who lives in Lagos, is also suing the estate of the American pilot, Peter Waxtan, according to the lawsuit filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Allison's wife, Joy, was among the 153 people on board who died in the crash in Lagos, Nigeria's worst in two decades. ... |
| U.N. nuclear watchdog, Iran fail to reach deal on probe Posted: 08 Jun 2012 02:11 PM PDT  VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog and Iran failed at talks on Friday to unblock a probe into suspected atom bomb research by the Islamic state, a setback dimming any chances for success in higher-level negotiations between Tehran and major powers later this month. The International Atomic Energy Agency, using unusually pointed language, said no progress had been made in the meeting aimed at sealing a deal on resuming the IAEA's long-stalled investigation, and it described the outcome as "disappointing." It came just a few weeks after U.N. ...
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| Lopez Obrador stages late charge in Mexican election Posted: 08 Jun 2012 12:53 PM PDT  ORIZABA, Mexico (Reuters) - Six years after Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador watched his big lead for the presidency evaporate in the final weeks of the campaign, the leftist is now gaining ground in polls and hopes to snatch a last-minute victory in the July 1 election. Fueled by a sudden surge in youth opposition to his main rival, the 58-year-old Lopez Obrador has narrowed the gap on front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). ...
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| Russia's Putin signs anti-protest law before rally Posted: 08 Jun 2012 12:21 PM PDT  ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law on Friday a bill that will dramatically increase fines for people who take part in protests that violate public order rules, just days ahead of the next planned rally against his 12-year rule. Putin told a meeting of top judges in his native St. Petersburg that he decided to sign the bill despite objections from his own human rights adviser, Mikhail Fedotov, who asked the president to veto it. ...
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| UN team sees massacre site in Syrian village Posted: 08 Jun 2012 04:57 PM PDT  U.N. observers could smell the stench of burned corpses Friday and saw body parts scattered around a Syrian farming hamlet that was the site of a massacre this week in which nearly 80 men, women and children were reported slain. The scene held evidence of a "horrific crime," a U.N. spokeswoman said.
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| US gen apologizes for Afghan deaths in airstrike Posted: 08 Jun 2012 12:31 PM PDT  The top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan offered a somber apology on Friday in an eastern province where officials say 18 civilians — half of them children — were killed in a coalition airstrike this week.
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| Obama: Congress, Europe must stem economic crisis Posted: 08 Jun 2012 11:59 AM PDT  The economy at risk, President Barack Obama accused Republicans on Friday of pursuing policies that would weaken the U.S. recovery. He simultaneously urged Europe's leaders to prevent an overseas debt crisis from dragging down the rest of the world.
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| Fear lingers in blind Chinese activist's hometown Posted: 08 Jun 2012 01:03 PM PDT  The fear is palpable and most people only dare whisper Chen Guangcheng's name in this village amid wheat fields where the blind activist was held under brutal house arrest.
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| UN says 7 peacekeepers killed in Ivory Coast Posted: 08 Jun 2012 04:57 PM PDT Armed men ambushed and killed seven U.N. peacekeepers trying to protect villagers in Ivory Coast on Friday and more than 40 of their colleagues who stayed to guard from more attacks remain in danger, the United Nations said. |
| Spain's ailing banks threaten country's finances Posted: 08 Jun 2012 04:35 PM PDT  Spain is under rising pressure to find a lifeline for its deeply troubled banks.
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| Vatican hits back at Italy over document seizure Posted: 08 Jun 2012 12:50 PM PDT  The Vatican chastised Italian authorities on Friday for seizing documents intended for the pope during a raid on the home of the recently ousted Vatican bank chief, reminding them that the Holy See is a sovereign state whose officials and documents enjoy immunity protections.
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| Critics say politics tainting trial of Iraqi VP Posted: 08 Jun 2012 11:54 AM PDT  Iraq's first major trial dealing with the country's savage Sunni-Shiite sectarian killings is tainted by politics, critics say — an ominous sign for those hoping for justice for tens of thousands of victims of street executions, bombings and kidnappings.
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| Putin's hard line against protests to be tested Posted: 08 Jun 2012 09:54 AM PDT  Helmeted riot police round up hundreds of protesters, including some whose only apparent crime is wearing white ribbons of opposition. A teacher who spoke out about election rigging is dragged into court and fined. Now a new law signed by President Vladimir Putin on Friday raises fines for participating in unauthorized protests 150-fold, to nearly the average annual salary in Russia.
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| Venezuela court decisions shake up 2 small parties Posted: 08 Jun 2012 02:11 PM PDT  Venezuela's Supreme Court has issued decisions shaking up the leadership of two small political parties, potentially preventing them from backing opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles.
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