Yahoo! News: World News

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• Cardinals head to conclave, Church beset by woes
• Falkland Islanders vote overwhelmingly to keep British rule
• China's Xi flexes muscle, chooses reformist VP: sources
• Capriles, Maduro at each other's throats in Venezuela election race
• U.S. imposing new sanctions on North Korean bank: Obama aide
• Helicopter crash in Afghanistan kills five foreign troops: NATO
• France, Germany at odds over lifting Syrian arms embargo
• Sudan, South Sudan agree to oil flow restart within two weeks: mediator
• Ban Ki-moon wants Ireland's Robinson for key Africa post: sources
• ICC Case against Kenyatta's co-accused collapses
• Conclave to elect next pope opens amid uncertainty
• North Korea says it cancels 1953 armistice
• Angry Afghan villagers want US special forces out
• Venezuela's political divisions spill into streets
• Last anti-Chavez TV station to be sold
• US worried by NK threats, imposes new sanctions
• New storm in Egypt over citizen arrests
• What you 'like' on Facebook can be revealing
• Hand-picked Chavez successor registers in election
• Cuban media carry rare interview with US diplomat
• Good Reads: Saving the Amazon, Kenya’s ‘Iron Lady’, drones, Depardieu the Russian
• US in Afghanistan: Why throw more good money after bad?
• Saudi dissidents jailed – a post Arab Spring crackdown?
• Now we can talk: Steaks raise stakes for Taiwan-US trade ties
• Russian beauty queens offer opinions beyond world peace, making people mad
• Two years after the tsunami, Japan's small business owners stuck in limbo
• North Korean bombast and war games? Seoul residents take it in stride
• Two years after Japan's nuclear meltdown, what happened to Fukushima's orphans?
• What are the chances of an American pope? This time, not zero
• Propaganda or paranoia? North Korea threatens South Korea again
• Pig-headed? Chinese officials say not to worry about dead pigs in water supply
• Getting around Moscow still an uphill battle for its disabled citizens
• After Fukushima: Japan's new model for farms
• North Korea cuts off hotline to South as US-South Korea war games begin

Cardinals head to conclave, Church beset by woes Posted: 11 Mar 2013 06:03 PM PDT By Crispian Balmer VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Roman Catholic cardinals gather under the gaze of Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" on Tuesday to elect a new pope to tackle the daunting problems facing the 1.2-billion-member Church. The secret conclave, steeped in ritual and prayer, could carry on for several days, with no clear favorite in sight to take over the reins from Pope Benedict, who abdicated last month saying he was not strong enough to confront the Church's woes. ...

Falkland Islanders vote overwhelmingly to keep British rule Posted: 11 Mar 2013 07:26 PM PDT By Marcos Brindicci and Juan Bustamante STANLEY, Falkland Islands (Reuters) - Residents of the Falkland Islands voted almost unanimously to stay under British rule in a referendum aimed at winning global sympathy as Argentina intensifies its sovereignty claim, results showed on Monday. The official count showed 99.8 percent of islanders voted in favor of remaining a British Overseas Territory in the two-day referendum, which was rejected by Argentina as a meaningless publicity stunt. Only three "no" votes were cast. ...

China's Xi flexes muscle, chooses reformist VP: sources Posted: 11 Mar 2013 02:02 PM PDT By Benjamin Kang Lim and John Ruwitch BEIJING (Reuters) - A reformist member of China's decision-making Politburo, Li Yuanchao, is set to become the country's vice president this week instead of a more senior and conservative official best known for keeping the media in check, sources said. Li's appointment would be a sign that new Communist Party leader and incoming president Xi Jinping's clout is growing, a source with ties to the leadership said. Xi fended off a bid by influential former president Jiang Zemin to install propaganda tsar Liu Yunshan in the job, the source said. ...

Capriles, Maduro at each other's throats in Venezuela election race Posted: 11 Mar 2013 06:45 PM PDT By Andrew Cawthorne and Mario Naranjo CARACAS (Reuters) - Presidential candidates Nicolas Maduro and Henrique Capriles have begun Venezuela's election race with scathing personal attacks even as mourners still file past Hugo Chavez's coffin. Maduro, who was sworn in as acting president after Chavez died of cancer last week, is seen as favorite to win the April 14 election, bolstered by an oil-financed state apparatus and a wave of public sympathy over Chavez's death. ...

U.S. imposing new sanctions on North Korean bank: Obama aide Posted: 11 Mar 2013 05:16 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury is imposing sanctions against North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank, the country's main foreign exchange institution, for its role in supporting Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, President Barack Obama's national security adviser said on Monday. In a speech to the Asia Society in New York, the White House aide, Tom Donilon, also said China should not conduct "business as usual" with North Korea while Pyongyang threatens its neighbors. "The United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state," Donilon said in prepared remarks. ...

Helicopter crash in Afghanistan kills five foreign troops: NATO Posted: 11 Mar 2013 05:25 PM PDT KABUL (Reuters) - A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan killed five members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, NATO said on Tuesday, although there were no immediate details about the cause of the crash. A brief ISAF statement said the crash occurred on Monday. "The cause of the crash is under investigation, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the incident," the NATO statement said. It also did not give any details about the nationality of the troops killed, although U.S. ...

France, Germany at odds over lifting Syrian arms embargo Posted: 11 Mar 2013 12:18 PM PDT By Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France urged the European Union to look again at lifting an arms embargo on Syria to help rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, putting it at odds with Germany which said such a step could spread conflict in the region. Highlighting the different approaches of two of the European Union's heavyweights, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday said lifting the arms embargo would help level the playing field in the two-year-old conflict in which 70,000 people have died. ...

Sudan, South Sudan agree to oil flow restart within two weeks: mediator Posted: 11 Mar 2013 07:57 PM PDT ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan have agreed to order the resumption of the flow of southern oil exports through pipelines in Sudan within two weeks, more than a year after Juba shut down its entire output, a mediator said on Tuesday. Landlocked South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in July 2011, shut down its 350,000 barrel-per-day output in January last year in a dispute with Khartoum over fees. ...

Ban Ki-moon wants Ireland's Robinson for key Africa post: sources Posted: 11 Mar 2013 07:46 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The former President of Ireland Mary Robinson is the top candidate for the post of U.N. special envoy to Africa's Great Lakes region, where she would help implement a peace deal to end the conflict in eastern Congo, U.N. sources said on Monday. "She is the front-runner and is very likely to get the job, but it's not a done deal yet," a U.N. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. A U.N. Security Council diplomat also told Reuters about Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's desire to name Robinson to the post. ...

ICC Case against Kenyatta's co-accused collapses Posted: 11 Mar 2013 11:06 AM PDT By Thomas Escritt AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court case against a man accused alongside Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta collapsed on Monday, prosecutors said, raising the chances that charges against the newly elected president will also fail to stick. Last week's election of Kenyatta, accused by the ICC of crimes against humanity, has complicated Kenya's ties its Western allies which see it as a major bulwark against the rise of Islamist militancy in east Africa. ...

Conclave to elect next pope opens amid uncertainty Posted: 11 Mar 2013 05:14 PM PDT VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday to elect the next pope amid more upheaval and uncertainty than the Catholic Church has seen in decades: There's no front-runner, no indication how long voting will last and no sense that a single man has what it takes to fix the many problems.

North Korea says it cancels 1953 armistice Posted: 11 Mar 2013 12:37 PM PDT SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A state-run newspaper in North Korea said Monday the communist country had carried out a threat to cancel the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, following days of increased tensions over its latest nuclear test.

Angry Afghan villagers want US special forces out Posted: 11 Mar 2013 12:42 PM PDT MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan policeman gunned down two U.S. special forces on Monday in Wardak province, less than 24 hours after President Hamid Karzai's deadline expired for them to leave the area where residents have grown increasingly hostile toward the Americans.

Venezuela's political divisions spill into streets Posted: 11 Mar 2013 04:36 PM PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Under a three-story-tall banner blaring "You are all Chavez," Jose Rafael Hernandez crouched low with a can of spray paint, outlining on a wall a black heart and the words "And long live Chavez..."

Last anti-Chavez TV station to be sold Posted: 11 Mar 2013 06:40 PM PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The last remaining television station critical of Venezuela's government is being sold to an insurance company owner who is apparently friendly with the ruling socialists, its owners announced Monday, following an unrelenting official campaign to financially strangle the broadcaster through regulatory pressure.

US worried by NK threats, imposes new sanctions Posted: 11 Mar 2013 01:44 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration expressed heightened concern Monday over threats of war from nuclear-armed North Korea and issued new sanctions against the communist nation's primary exchange bank and several senior government officials.

New storm in Egypt over citizen arrests Posted: 11 Mar 2013 03:05 PM PDT CAIRO (AP) — An official statement encouraging Egyptian civilians to arrest lawbreakers and hand them over to police has set off a new political storm in a country already mired in crisis.

What you 'like' on Facebook can be revealing Posted: 11 Mar 2013 04:35 PM PDT LONDON (AP) — Clicking those friendly blue "like" buttons strewn across the Web may be doing more than marking you as a fan of Coca-Cola or Lady Gaga.

Hand-picked Chavez successor registers in election Posted: 11 Mar 2013 03:51 PM PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Thousands of cheering, crying admirers accompanied President Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor Monday as he registered to be a candidate to replace the dead leader, while forcing the main opposition candidate to delay his entry into the race.

Cuban media carry rare interview with US diplomat Posted: 11 Mar 2013 02:34 PM PDT HAVANA (AP) — Communist Party newspaper Granma published a lengthy interview with a U.S. diplomat Monday, making for highly unusual reading in a country where the official media routinely depict Washington envoys as hostile agents in cahoots with enemies of the Cuban government.

Good Reads: Saving the Amazon, Kenya’s ‘Iron Lady’, drones, Depardieu the Russian Posted: 11 Mar 2013 01:51 PM PDT In efforts to reduce deforestation levels in the Amazon region, Brazil is at the forefront of an experimental climate-change prevention strategy known as "reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation," or REDD.

US in Afghanistan: Why throw more good money after bad? Posted: 11 Mar 2013 01:33 PM PDT The news today of two more US soldiers killed by an Afghan soldier armed and trained with American resources is a reminder that the US war there has gone off the rails.

Saudi dissidents jailed – a post Arab Spring crackdown? Posted: 11 Mar 2013 11:41 AM PDT Saudi Arabia's decision this weekend to sentence two of the country's most prominent human rights activists to 10 and 11 years in prison, respectively, has sparked a surge of discontent among the kingdom's reformers. In just one indication, an economist-blogger's poll on Twitter drew 10,000 responses, 85 percent of them opposed to the decision.

Now we can talk: Steaks raise stakes for Taiwan-US trade ties Posted: 11 Mar 2013 09:46 AM PDT Where's the beef?

Russian beauty queens offer opinions beyond world peace, making people mad Posted: 11 Mar 2013 09:27 AM PDT A contestant in a beauty pageant isn't supposed to have any political opinion more incendiary than "peace on earth," and that's probably been a hard-and-fast rule since the first modern one was staged, reportedly by P.T. Barnum in 1854. Russians have taken to beauty contests with enthusiasm since the USSR began collapsing a quarter century ago but it seems that, at least lately, some of the women haven't been getting that memo about steering clear of political controversy.

Two years after the tsunami, Japan's small business owners stuck in limbo Posted: 11 Mar 2013 09:16 AM PDT Business is booming at the Aeon shopping mall on the outskirts of Ishinomaki city, on the northeast coast of Japan.

North Korean bombast and war games? Seoul residents take it in stride Posted: 11 Mar 2013 08:42 AM PDT Over this weekend in Seoul, one could hardly imagine that Armageddon might be hovering around the corner.

Two years after Japan's nuclear meltdown, what happened to Fukushima's orphans? Posted: 11 Mar 2013 07:03 AM PDT When it comes to radiation exposure from the triple meltdown at Fukushima's Daiichi nuclear power plant two years ago, the 91 boys and girls at the Fukushima Aiikuen orphanage are probably some of the most closely-watched kids in the prefecture.

What are the chances of an American pope? This time, not zero Posted: 11 Mar 2013 05:58 AM PDT What are the prospects of an American being elected pope when 115 cardinals from around the world solemnly enter the frescoed splendor of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel on Tuesday to begin the voting process known as the conclave?

Propaganda or paranoia? North Korea threatens South Korea again Posted: 11 Mar 2013 07:21 AM PDT On Monday, South Korean and US troops undertook annual military exercises, while North Korea carried out threats to cut off a military hotline and nullify the 1953 Korean War armistice agreement, as tensions on the peninsula remained high.

Pig-headed? Chinese officials say not to worry about dead pigs in water supply Posted: 11 Mar 2013 06:28 AM PDT Here's a riddle for you: When is the discovery of 2,813 dead and rotting pigs in a major city's water source not a public health problem?

Getting around Moscow still an uphill battle for its disabled citizens Posted: 11 Mar 2013 06:04 AM PDT Scriptwriter Zhenya Lyapin is discussing a scene with his director. Across the black stage, the actors wander about, dipping in and out of the pools of light.

After Fukushima: Japan's new model for farms Posted: 11 Mar 2013 05:48 AM PDT On a frigid morning this February, a man drives a turquoise power shovel across the windswept coastal plain that lines the eastern edge of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture.

North Korea cuts off hotline to South as US-South Korea war games begin Posted: 11 Mar 2013 05:32 AM PDT • A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

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