Yahoo! News: World News

---

• Opposition leader visits Syria amid Assad offensive
• Kenyans to vote in tense head-to-head presidential race
• Netanyahu says Iran using nuclear talks to "buy time" for bomb
• Gunmen attack church in Libya's Benghazi: state media
• Analysis: Without Belmokhtar, jihadi networks would suffer
• U.S. offers Egypt budget aid after Mursi assurance on IMF
• Papal vote preparations start in earnest at Vatican
• Mexican president warns party over graft: No one is untouchable
• French soldier killed in Mali, Belmokhtar fate unsure
• Analysis: China's next inner circle
• Kerry says US releasing millions in aid to Egypt
• Catholics ponder future with new pope
• Syrian opposition head visits rebel areas in north
• Car bomb kills 37, wounds 141 in southern Pakistan
• UK: Queen hospitalized over stomach illness
• Lech Walesa shocks Poland with anti-gay words
• China's Xi rides high hopes ahead of presidency
• Thailand's prime minister vows to end ivory trade
• Egypt's army intervenes in Port Said clashes
• Dennis Rodman: NKorea leader wants Obama to call
• Kenyans vow no repeat of 2007 violence ahead of Monday's election
• The Cyrus Cylinder, symbol of Persian tolerance, heads to US
• Is Indonesia, one of big tobacco's last frontiers, closing?
• In Egypt, Kerry gets an earful from the opposition
• Chinese Communist Party: Would Mao recognize the paradox?
• Chinese Communist Party: 20-somethings unsentimental
• Chinese Communist Party: Communism under construction
• How many frogs does it take to make a handbag? Tokyo museum has the answer
• From wooden skis to Olympic hopefuls: Why Pakistan's Air Force is training skiiers

Opposition leader visits Syria amid Assad offensive Posted: 03 Mar 2013 03:50 PM PST AMMAN (Reuters) - Exiled opposition figure Moaz Alkhatib visited Syria on Sunday for the first time since fleeing last year, as rebels said President Bashar al-Assad's forces embarked on counter-offensives in various parts of the country. In the central city of Homs, heavy fighting broke out between loyalist forces and opposition brigades dug in preparation for an onslaught, opposition sources said. ...

Kenyans to vote in tense head-to-head presidential race Posted: 03 Mar 2013 03:36 PM PST NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyans vote on Monday in a presidential election that will test whether the east African nation can restore its reputation as one of Africa's more stable democracies after a lethal ethnic rampage erupted following the 2007 poll. Outgoing President Mwai Kibaki, the candidates and civil society groups have all appealed for a peaceful poll after the disputed vote five years ago unleashed a wave of killing by rival tribes that lasted weeks and left more than 1,200 dead. "I also make a passionate plea for all of us to vote peacefully. ...

Netanyahu says Iran using nuclear talks to "buy time" for bomb Posted: 03 Mar 2013 03:55 PM PST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Renewed international efforts to negotiate curbs on Iran's disputed nuclear program have backfired by giving it more time to work on building a bomb, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. His remarks on the inconclusive February 26-27 meeting between Iran and six world powers signaled impatience by Israel, which has threatened to launch preemptive war on its arch-foe, possibly in the coming months, if it deems diplomacy a dead end. Senior U.S. ...

Gunmen attack church in Libya's Benghazi: state media Posted: 03 Mar 2013 12:37 PM PST TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked an Egyptian Coptic church in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, assaulting two priests, the official LANA news agency quoted the foreign ministry as saying on Sunday. The foreign ministry said it "strongly condemned Thursday's attack on the Egyptian church ... and the aggression towards Father Paul Isaac and his assistant by the irresponsible armed men," LANA quoted a foreign ministry statement as saying. ...

Analysis: Without Belmokhtar, jihadi networks would suffer Posted: 03 Mar 2013 12:02 PM PST LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly two years after the killing of Osama bin Laden, the death in Mali of Algerian commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar, if confirmed, would be a serious blow to al Qaeda's efforts to recover its cohesion as a force for global jihad. Official sources question how far al Qaeda's leadership is able to influence its branches in far-flung North Africa, arguing that an intensive U.S. drone campaign on its presumed haven in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan has severely damaged its ability to exercise command and control. ...

U.S. offers Egypt budget aid after Mursi assurance on IMF Posted: 03 Mar 2013 02:30 PM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - The United States said on Sunday it would give Egypt $250 million in budget aid after Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi promised to take the painful economic reforms needed to secure an IMF loan. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the funding after meeting Mursi and acknowledged Egypt's "extreme needs" as the Islamist government struggles with a slide in currency reserves to worryingly low levels and a soaring budget deficit. Cairo says it wants to reopen talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $4. ...

Papal vote preparations start in earnest at Vatican Posted: 03 Mar 2013 03:28 PM PST VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Preparations for electing Roman Catholicism's new leader begin in earnest on Monday as the College of Cardinals opens daily talks to sketch an identikit for the next pope and ponder who among them might fit it. The idea is to have the new pope elected during next week and officially installed several days later so he can preside over the Holy Week ceremonies starting with Palm Sunday on March 24 and culminating in Easter the following Sunday. ...

Mexican president warns party over graft: No one is untouchable Posted: 03 Mar 2013 01:24 PM PST MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Sunday sounded a warning shot to his ruling party over corruption, saying no one is above the law as he tries to tackle the graft that has blighted its reputation in the past. Speaking just days after the head of Mexico's powerful teachers' union was arrested on charges of embezzling around $200 million, Pena Nieto vowed a new era of transparency at a congress attended by some 4,200 members of his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. ...

French soldier killed in Mali, Belmokhtar fate unsure Posted: 03 Mar 2013 02:04 PM PST PARIS/GAO, Mali (Reuters) - France said on Sunday a third French soldier had been killed in fierce fighting with Islamist rebels in northern Mali but could not confirm Chad's report that its troops had killed the al Qaeda commander behind January's mass hostage-taking in Algeria. A whirlwind seven-week campaign has driven al Qaeda-linked fighters who took over northern Mali last April into mountain and desert redoubts, where they are being hunted by hundreds of French, Chadian and Malian troops. ...

Analysis: China's next inner circle Posted: 03 Mar 2013 02:47 PM PST HONG KONG (Reuters)-Even as Xi Jinping gets ready to assume the presidency of China this month, jockeying has begun for 2017 when rising stars of the ruling Communist Party move into top leadership posts. China's first and second generation Communist Party leaders, such as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, ruled as single paramount leaders. But over the past two decades, Chinese leaders have tried to institutionalize governance with an emphasis on collective leadership - except when it comes to choosing leaders. ...

Kerry says US releasing millions in aid to Egypt Posted: 03 Mar 2013 11:32 AM PST CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday rewarded Egypt for President Mohammed Morsi's pledges of political and economic reforms by releasing $250 million in American aid to support the country's "future as a democracy."

Catholics ponder future with new pope Posted: 03 Mar 2013 01:25 PM PST SAO PAULO (AP) — Faithful attending Sunday Mass on five continents for the first time since Pope Benedict XVI's retirement had different ideas about who should next lead the Roman Catholic Church, with people suggesting everything from a Latin American pope to one more like the conservative, Polish-born John Paul II. What most agreed on, however, was the church is in dire need of a comeback.

Syrian opposition head visits rebel areas in north Posted: 03 Mar 2013 12:18 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Following rebel gains, the leader of the Syrian opposition made his first visit Sunday to areas near the embattled northern city of Aleppo as fighters trying to oust President Bashar Assad captured a police academy and a border crossing along the frontier with Iraq.

Car bomb kills 37, wounds 141 in southern Pakistan Posted: 03 Mar 2013 01:34 PM PST KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A car bomb exploded outside a mosque on Sunday, killing 37 people and wounding another 141 in a Shiite Muslim dominated neighborhood in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi — the third mass casualty attack on the minority sect in the country this year.

UK: Queen hospitalized over stomach illness Posted: 03 Mar 2013 02:09 PM PST LONDON (AP) — Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was hospitalized Sunday over an apparent stomach infection that has ailed her for days, a rare instance of ill health sidelining the long-reigning monarch. Elizabeth will have to cancel a visit to Rome and other engagements as she recovers, and outside experts said she may have to be rehydrated intravenously.

Lech Walesa shocks Poland with anti-gay words Posted: 03 Mar 2013 04:09 AM PST WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Lech Walesa, the Polish democracy icon and Nobel peace prize winner, has sparked outrage in Poland by saying that gays have no right to a prominent role in politics and that as a minority they need to "adjust to smaller things."

China's Xi rides high hopes ahead of presidency Posted: 03 Mar 2013 04:42 PM PST LUOTUOWAN VILLAGE, China (AP) — China's fawning state media, jaded social media commentators and even poor corn and cabbage farmers agree: New Communist Party chief Xi Jinping is off to a good start.

Thailand's prime minister vows to end ivory trade Posted: 03 Mar 2013 04:56 PM PST BANGKOK (AP) — Facing the possibility of sanctions, Thailand's prime minister vowed for the first time to work toward ending her country's trade in ivory. But she gave no timeline for implementing a domestic ban, and conservationists warned that the unprecedented slaughter of elephants in Africa would continue until she does.

Egypt's army intervenes in Port Said clashes Posted: 03 Mar 2013 04:47 PM PST PORT SAID, Egypt (AP) — The military intervened in clashes between thousands of protesters and police in a restive Egyptian canal city on Sunday, the latest in a cycle of violence that killed two security members and two civilians, and which continues to rock Egypt two years after the uprising that ousted longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Dennis Rodman: NKorea leader wants Obama to call Posted: 03 Mar 2013 12:27 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Call me? Maybe?

Kenyans vow no repeat of 2007 violence ahead of Monday's election Posted: 03 Mar 2013 04:00 PM PST In churches and family homes, in parks and on buses, Kenyans of all faiths gathered Sunday, praying for peace during and after Monday's elections. At the African Inland Church in Jericho, a suburb of the capital, Nairobi, Reverend Joseph Ndebe told 400 Christians that by voting, Kenyans were showing faith in their country.

The Cyrus Cylinder, symbol of Persian tolerance, heads to US Posted: 03 Mar 2013 01:26 PM PST Can an ancient hunk of clay bearing a message of tolerance from the Persian Empire help Americans and Iranians chip away at a generation of mutual hostility?

Is Indonesia, one of big tobacco's last frontiers, closing? Posted: 03 Mar 2013 12:21 PM PST On Sunday thousands of young Indonesians streamed into an expo center in Jakarta to sway to cool jazz and R&B beats. But looking around it might have been easy to forget that Java Jazz was about music, not smoking.

In Egypt, Kerry gets an earful from the opposition Posted: 03 Mar 2013 10:36 AM PST John Kerry arrived in Egypt yesterday on his first visit since becoming secretary of state amid criticism that the US has reverted to an old pattern of behavior in Egypt: overlooking abuses of the president in hopes of maintaining stability and peace with Israel.

Chinese Communist Party: Would Mao recognize the paradox? Posted: 03 Mar 2013 09:14 AM PST Yang Youwei owns a slaughterhouse, holds a big chunk of shares in a nearby coal mine, sits on the coal mine board, and runs the company that sells the mine's production. He drives a black Rolls-Royce.

Chinese Communist Party: 20-somethings unsentimental Posted: 03 Mar 2013 09:14 AM PST Saturday lunch at Zhong 8, a restaurant famed for its southwestern Chinese cuisine, is a relaxed, noisy affair as young couples and tables full of families tuck into their food with familiar Chinese gusto.

Chinese Communist Party: Communism under construction Posted: 03 Mar 2013 09:14 AM PST 'When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean," Humpty Dumpty tells Alice in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass."

How many frogs does it take to make a handbag? Tokyo museum has the answer Posted: 03 Mar 2013 06:00 AM PST Hidenori Hirosaki acknowledges that the museum of which he is the director is "unusual."

From wooden skis to Olympic hopefuls: Why Pakistan's Air Force is training skiiers Posted: 03 Mar 2013 06:00 AM PST In the isolated Naltar Valley, home to one of two ski slopes in Pakistan, children who learned to ski on wooden planks tied to boots with wire are being trained for the Winter Olympics by the Pakistani Air Force.

You are subscribed to email updates from World News Headlines - Yahoo! News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610