| France's Hollande in strong parliament position Posted: 10 Jun 2012 04:36 PM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande is on track to win a solid parliamentary majority after a first-round election that leaves him strengthened heading into a flurry of talks with euro zone leaders that could make or break the currency union. Sunday's vote left Hollande's Socialist Party bloc likely to win the 289 seats it needs for an outright majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, and almost certain to do so with its Greens Party allies on board, polling institutes said. ...
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| Assad forces renew Homs assault Posted: 10 Jun 2012 03:35 PM PDT  AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces have renewed efforts to impose control in Homs province, killing at least 35 people in one of the biggest bombardments since a failed U.N.-mandated ceasefire in April, opposition activists said on Sunday. They said the Syrian army used artillery, mortars and rockets to hit opposition strongholds in the city of Homs and the towns of Qusair, Talbiseh and Rastan in central Syria. Free Syrian Army rebels had been intensifying attacks in the area, the Syrian Network for Human Rights and other opposition campaigners said. ...
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| Final Mexican debate to test Pena Nieto's mettle Posted: 10 Jun 2012 03:15 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential contenders lock horns for a final televised debate on Sunday night with front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto under rising pressure from student-led opposition. Pena Nieto, candidate of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has led polls for the July 1 election for over two years, but in the past month the race has tightened due to growing misgivings about the possible return of the PRI. ...
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| Egypt candidate accuses rival over HQ attack Posted: 10 Jun 2012 11:55 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - One of the two finalists in Egypt's presidential race on Sunday accused his opponent's party of orchestrating an attack on his campaign offices, as the contest that has divided the nation took a bitter new turn. The run-off on June 16 and 17 is the last stage in Egypt's first free presidential election and pits Ahmed Shafik, ousted Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, against the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi. ...
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| Six killed, 38 wounded in Iraq mortar attack Posted: 10 Jun 2012 01:59 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two mortar bombs struck a square filled with Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in Iraq's capital Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding 38, police and hospital sources said. Although overall violence in Iraq has dropped, Sunni Islamist insurgents with links to al Qaeda are still capable of lethal attacks and hit Shi'ite targets to stir up the kind of sectarian pressure that almost led to civil war in 2006-2007. Sectarian tensions have been high in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. ...
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| Libya postpones landmark election to July 7 Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:55 PM PDT  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's first election in more than half a century will take place 18 days later than planned because of the logistical challenges in a country still recovering from last year's revolt, the electoral commission said on Sunday. The election, for an assembly which will re-draw the autocratic system of rule put in place by ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, will now take place on July 7 instead of the previous date of June 19. ...
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| Afghan arsonists seek to enforce truancy from school Posted: 10 Jun 2012 02:08 PM PDT  KABUL (Reuters) - Standing at a narrow half-open school gate, two boys in school uniform conduct body searches on fellow pupils and visitors. Another two sit at a table to take down details of comings and goings in a register. Arson and poison attacks on schools across Afghanistan, mostly against those teaching girls, have forced students to defend themselves, an extra-curricular activity imposed by the government which blames the Taliban for the violence. Abdul Fatah, 16, takes it in turn every few weeks to stand guard all day at the entrance to Habibia High School, one of the best in Kabul. ...
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| Analysis: Who will be India's president? This time, it matters Posted: 10 Jun 2012 02:16 PM PDT  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Pratibha Patil wakes to the sound of trumpets and horse-backed riders in the cobbled courtyard of her magnificent palace in New Delhi, she walks on a treadmill, prays at her private temple and prepares for a long, hollow day. That's how it has been for Patil and her 11 predecessors as president of India: a grand office and an opulent home with liveried attendants, but almost no power. But that might change when Patil leaves office in July and a new president is elected for the next five years. ...
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| Capriles rallies Venezuelans to challenge Chavez Posted: 10 Jun 2012 01:12 PM PDT  CARACAS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flooded downtown Caracas on Sunday to support opposition candidate Henrique Capriles in the biggest rally to date of his campaign to unseat cancer-stricken socialist President Hugo Chavez. The athletic 39-year-old walked and jogged 10 km (6.2 miles) in the company of supporters to register his candidacy with electoral authorities, burnishing his image of physical fitness in contrast to the convalescing Chavez. ...
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| High-paying mine jobs down under bring big city woes to small towns Posted: 10 Jun 2012 01:58 PM PDT  MORANBAH, Australia (Reuters) - Despite a six-figure salary, Russel Wise is worried he will soon be homeless after receiving an eviction order from the one-room trailer he has rented since taking a job in an Australian coal mine in 2009. "There aren't too many options around," says Wise, who like thousands of other Australians, was lured to the little town of Moranbah in the coal-rich northeast by high-paying jobs and in the process triggered a housing crisis of big-city proportions. ...
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| Official: Egypt's Mubarak in critical condition Posted: 10 Jun 2012 06:54 AM PDT  Hosni Mubarak is slipping in and out of consciousness eight days after the ousted Egyptian leader was sent to prison to begin serving a life sentence, a security official said on Sunday.
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| Spain relieved, angry over humiliating bank rescue Posted: 10 Jun 2012 01:31 PM PDT  Spain's grinding economic misery will get worse this year, despite the country's request for a European financial lifeline of up to €100 billion ($125 billion) to save its banks, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Sunday.
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| Chief Syrian opposition body elects new leader Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:40 PM PDT  Syria's main opposition group on Sunday picked a secular Kurd as its new leader after criticism that the former head was too autocratic and the group was becoming dominated by Islamists.
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| Pinochet homage heats up bitter debate over legacy Posted: 10 Jun 2012 03:19 PM PDT  The poster makes its plea from one of the pock-marked walls once splattered with blood at Londres 38, a former detention and torture center where 96 people were killed or disappeared during Chile's long dictatorship. It reads: "Pinochet, may your legacy die."
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| Leftists lead French parliamentary vote Posted: 10 Jun 2012 02:39 PM PDT  Leftist candidates led the first round of France's parliamentary elections Sunday, according to polling agencies and partial official results, in a vote that is crucial to President Francois Hollande's Socialist agenda.
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| Rescue loans for Spain's banks buys Europe time Posted: 10 Jun 2012 03:36 PM PDT  A $125 billion plan to rescue Spain's banks won't solve Europe's debt crisis or ease the pain of double-digit unemployment across the continent.
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| Egypt pulls TV spots warning about foreigners Posted: 10 Jun 2012 01:27 PM PDT  Egypt's government has pulled TV public service announcements that warned against talking to foreigners because they might be spies after critics charged the spots fueled xenophobia and aimed to tarnish those behind last year's uprising.
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| Iran warns Moscow nuclear talks could stall Posted: 10 Jun 2012 12:49 PM PDT An Iranian negotiator warned Sunday that this month's talks in Moscow over Iran's nuclear program could stall because of faulty preparation. |
| Al-Qaida incites Tunisians against ruling party Posted: 10 Jun 2012 11:49 AM PDT Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on the Tunisian people to rise up against the country's Islamist ruling party for accepting a constitution not based on Islamic Shariah law, according to a recording released Sunday. |
| Helicopter crash: Kenya govt minister among 6 dead Posted: 10 Jun 2012 03:46 PM PDT  Kenya's internal security minister was killed with five other people when the police helicopter they were traveling in crashed in a forest near Kenya's capital, officials said Sunday. An anti-corruption crusader said the incident calls into question the government's procurement of airplanes and helicopters for its security forces.
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