Yahoo! News: World News

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• Venezuela presidential vote looks set for close finish
• Turkey fires artillery into Syria after shelling
• Hacking victims pressure British PM on media rules
• Mali's Tuareg rebels soften separatist stance
• Migrants, church may end Malaysia government's Borneo vote bank
• China must reform or risk crisis, experts warn new leader
• Southeast Asia splashes out on defense, mostly maritime
• Libyan assembly passes vote of no confidence dismissing prime minister
• Ivory Coast to reopen border with Ghana following 2-week closure
• Israeli air strike wounds two militants, eight bystanders in Gaza Strip
• Israeli jets fly mock raids over south Lebanon
• Iran rulers eye currency mess from protected perch
• Venezuela vote a critical test for divided nation
• Russia celebrates Putin's 60th birthday in fanfare
• Documentary shows Putin in uncompromising mood
• Egypt's new president gives himself high grades
• Rothko mural defaced at London's Tate Modern
• Afghan war enters 12th year
• Philippines, Muslim rebels forge peace pact
• France boosts security at religious sites
• France's Hollande vows more security after raids on Islamic network
• Gauging poverty from Appalachia to Africa
• Below the line: Poverty in America
• Can a dying language revive Lebanon's Christian population?
• No more paninis on the piazza? Rome bars tourists from eating at historical sites

Venezuela presidential vote looks set for close finish Posted: 07 Oct 2012 04:06 PM PDT (Venezuelan election law prohibits any publication of results inside the country before an official announcement from the election board) CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's presidential election looked headed for a close finish on Sunday with President Hugo Chavez facing an unprecedented challenge to his socialist rule from a young rival tapping into discontent over crime and cronyism. ...

Turkey fires artillery into Syria after shelling Posted: 07 Oct 2012 01:50 PM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish forces fired across the frontier into Syria on Sunday after a shell launched from Syria landed in Turkey's border town of Akcakale, underlining Ankara's warning that it will respond with force to any violence spilling over into its territory. It was the fifth consecutive day of Turkish retaliation against incoming bombardment from northern Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad's forces have been battling rebels who control swathes of land close to the Turkish frontier. ...

Hacking victims pressure British PM on media rules Posted: 07 Oct 2012 11:42 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain would avoid "heavy-handed state intervention" of its national press after phone hacking victims urged him on Sunday to remain open-minded about the recommendations of an inquiry into media ethics. Actor Hugh Grant, singer Charlotte Church and more than 50 other victims of press intrusion said in letter to Cameron they feared he had already decided to reject statutory regulation of the media before the inquiry's findings were published. ...

Mali's Tuareg rebels soften separatist stance Posted: 07 Oct 2012 12:57 PM PDT OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Mali's main Tuareg rebel group said on Sunday it was no longer seeking to carve out a sovereign desert homeland, softening its stance as it seeks Western support to rout Islamists that have taken over the region. In April the MNLA had declared an independent state in Mali's north called Azawad, days after a coup in Mali's southern capital Bamako, but Al Qaeda-linked Islamists later hijacked the rebellion and took control of the vast territory. ...

Migrants, church may end Malaysia government's Borneo vote bank Posted: 07 Oct 2012 02:14 PM PDT KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia (Reuters) - Housewife Fawziah Abdul wants to thank former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad for making her a citizen 10 years after she illegally slipped into Borneo from the southern Philippines in search of a better life. The 50-year-old lives on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Malaysia's Sabah state, where her tin-roofed shack jostles for space with more than 1,000 others in a slum where children play beside heaps of rubbish. She is hopeful that her three children will get a new home and identity cards if she votes for the government again. ...

China must reform or risk crisis, experts warn new leader Posted: 07 Oct 2012 02:26 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China risks economic malaise, deepening unrest and ultimately even a crisis that could shake the Communist Party's grip on power unless its next leader, Xi Jinping, pushes through stalled reforms, experts close to the government have warned. The warnings, striking for their openly urgent tone, have been aired both inside the party and publicly, and reflect an internal debate about the direction of the new leadership that takes power next month. ...

Southeast Asia splashes out on defense, mostly maritime Posted: 07 Oct 2012 02:25 PM PDT SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Indonesia is buying submarines from South Korea and coastal radar systems from China and the United States. Vietnam is getting submarines and combat jets from Russia, while Singapore - the world's fifth-largest weapons importer - is adding to its sophisticated arsenal. Wary of China and flush with economic success, Southeast Asia is ramping up spending on military hardware to protect the shipping lanes, ports and maritime boundaries that are vital to the flow of exports and energy. ...

Libyan assembly passes vote of no confidence dismissing prime minister Posted: 07 Oct 2012 03:44 PM PDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's national congress dismissed the newly elected prime minister on Sunday in a vote of no confidence which underscored the difficulties of forming a government which can unite the country's different factions and regions. The vote came minutes after prime minister Mustafa Abushagur named 10 new ministers - his second and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to form a government - after he was forced to withdraw his previous cabinet in the face of protests. ...

Ivory Coast to reopen border with Ghana following 2-week closure Posted: 07 Oct 2012 02:29 PM PDT ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast announced it would reopen its border with eastern neighbor Ghana on Monday, more than two weeks after it was shut over a series of deadly attacks Ivorian officials said were launched from Ghanaian territory. The Ivorian government blamed the raids, which targeted police and army installations in the commercial capital Abidjan and a border town on September 20 and 21, on supporters of former president Laurent Gbagbo currently living in exile in Ghana. ...

Israeli air strike wounds two militants, eight bystanders in Gaza Strip Posted: 07 Oct 2012 12:03 PM PDT GAZA (Reuters) - A missile fired by an Israeli aircraft hit and wounded two Palestinian militants and eight bystanders in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian hospital officials said. The militants were riding a motorcycle near the town of Rafah which borders Egypt's Sinai peninsula. One of them and a bystander were in a critical condition, the officials said. The bystanders included three children, a woman and an elderly man. ...

Israeli jets fly mock raids over south Lebanon Posted: 07 Oct 2012 11:33 AM PDT Israeli warplanes swooped low over Lebanese villages Sunday in a menacing show of force apparently aimed at the Hezbollah guerrilla group after a mysterious raid by an unmanned aircraft that was shot out of Israeli skies over the weekend.

Iran rulers eye currency mess from protected perch Posted: 07 Oct 2012 09:35 AM PDT Just as Iran's currency was rattling near bottom after a stunning free fall, officials in Tehran opened a trade exhibition that included advanced engineering tools, heavy machinery and robotics. Nearly every Iranian booth had some connection to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard and the ruling system it safeguards.

Venezuela vote a critical test for divided nation Posted: 07 Oct 2012 04:12 PM PDT President Hugo Chavez's crusade to transform Venezuela into a socialist state, which has bitterly divided the nation, was put to the stiffest electoral test of his nearly 14 years in power on Sunday in a closely fought presidential election.

Russia celebrates Putin's 60th birthday in fanfare Posted: 07 Oct 2012 09:28 AM PDT Kremlin officials like to insist Russian President Vladimir Putin does not care for big birthday bashes and that he was to spend his 60th on Sunday quietly celebrating with close friends and family in his home city, St. Petersburg. However, the president's supporters don't appear to have received the memo, and so the day saw an unprecedented exhibition of Putin-idolatry reminiscent of some of the world's oddest cults of personality.

Documentary shows Putin in uncompromising mood Posted: 07 Oct 2012 12:04 PM PDT Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a first-person documentary aired on his 60th birthday Sunday that the current generation of opposition leaders needs to be cast aside and he brushed aside concerns the two-year jail sentence for punk bank Pussy Riot was too severe.

Egypt's new president gives himself high grades Posted: 07 Oct 2012 01:47 PM PDT Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has given himself high grades on his handling of some of the nation's pressing problems, spending much of a nearly two-hour speech late Saturday talking in painstaking detail about fuel, trash and bread, while sidestepping key issues in the nation's transition to democratic rule.

Rothko mural defaced at London's Tate Modern Posted: 07 Oct 2012 02:03 PM PDT A vandal scrawled graffiti on a mural by modern American master Mark Rothko at London's Tate Modern on Sunday.

Afghan war enters 12th year Posted: 07 Oct 2012 08:52 AM PDT Nobody wants a repeat of the bloody ethnic fighting that followed the Soviet exit from Afghanistan in the 1990s — least of all 32-year-old Wahidullah who was crippled by a bullet that pierced his spine during the civil war.

Philippines, Muslim rebels forge peace pact Posted: 07 Oct 2012 07:36 AM PDT Philippine President Benigno Aquino III announced Sunday that his government has reached a preliminary peace deal with the nation's largest Muslim rebel group in a major breakthrough toward ending a decades-long insurgency.

France boosts security at religious sites Posted: 07 Oct 2012 11:51 AM PDT France is boosting security at Jewish and other religious sites after blanks were fired at a synagogue and police accused a suspected cell of radical Islamists of ties to a grenade attack on a kosher grocery.

France's Hollande vows more security after raids on Islamic network Posted: 07 Oct 2012 09:59 AM PDT French President François Hollande pledged on Sunday to increase security around synagogues and introduce tougher anti-terrorism measures, a day after a series of police raids dismantled a radical Islamist network that targeted Jews.

Gauging poverty from Appalachia to Africa Posted: 07 Oct 2012 08:57 AM PDT When New Yorkers find out I grew up in West Virginia, they often ask if I've read "The Glass Castle." Jeannette Walls's memoir, on The New York Times bestseller list for an absurd 288 weeks now, is about growing up poor. At one point she lived in Welch, W.Va., where her house leaks and freezes, where she makes her lunch out of sandwiches kids throw away in the bathroom at school – and some days that's all she eats.

Below the line: Poverty in America Posted: 07 Oct 2012 08:56 AM PDT Technically, Linda Criswell steals her fruit.

Can a dying language revive Lebanon's Christian population? Posted: 07 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT Lebanon's most prominent Christian group, the Maronites, used to be so influential that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat quipped that "The road to Jerusalem passes through Jounieh," referring to a town north of Beirut that was a stronghold for Lebanese Christian militias.

No more paninis on the piazza? Rome bars tourists from eating at historical sites Posted: 07 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT It is one of the simplest, most affordable pleasures of any visit to Rome: tucking into a piece of pizza, or a panino stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella, while marveling at the city's ancient monuments. But not anymore.

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