SANAA (Reuters) - A U.S. military instructor was shot and seriously wounded in an attack by unidentified assailants in the Red Sea city of Hudaida on Sunday, a Yemeni security source said. The source said two other U.S. instructors travelling in the same car were not hurt in the attack. The U.S. instructors were training Yemeni coastguards. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Santo Domingo (Reuters) - Voting is underway in presidential elections in the Dominican Republic where the ruling party candidate Danilo Medina is looking for revenge 12 years after he lost in a landslide to opposition candidate Hipolito Mejia. Most opinion polls appear give him the edge, showing Medina of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) leading by a margin of 5 percentage points over Mejia for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). ...
VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear supervisor flies to Tehran on Sunday looking for a deal to inspect suspected weapons sites - a potential breakthrough that Iran may hope could persuade the West to start lifting sanctions and deflect threats of war. But though IAEA chief Yukiya Amano scheduled Monday's talks with Iran at such short notice that diplomats said agreement on new inspections may be near, few see Tehran convincing Western governments to ease back swiftly on punitive measures when its negotiators meet big power officials in Baghdad on Wednesday. Amano, director general of the U.N. ...
VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear supervisor flies to Tehran on Sunday looking for a deal to inspect suspected weapons sites - a potential breakthrough that Iran may hope could persuade the West to start lifting sanctions and deflect threats of war. But though IAEA chief Yukiya Amano scheduled Monday's talks with Iran at such short notice that diplomats said agreement on new inspections may be near, few see Tehran convincing Western governments to ease back swiftly on punitive measures when its negotiators meet big power officials in Baghdad on Wednesday. Amano, director general of the U.N. ...
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people has died, his brother said on Sunday. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison in 2009 and returned to Libya because he was suffering from terminal cancer, had been in and out of hospital for weeks and was taken for an emergency blood transfusion in April. Megrahi's health had deteriorated quickly overnight, his brother Abdulhakim told Reuters. "He was surrounded by his family and died in his house," he said. He was 60. ...
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people has died, his brother said on Sunday. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison in 2009 and returned to Libya because he was suffering from terminal cancer, had been in and out of hospital for weeks and was taken for an emergency blood transfusion in April. Megrahi's health had deteriorated quickly overnight, his brother Abdulhakim told Reuters. "He was surrounded by his family and died in his house," he said. He was 60. ...
(Reuters) - Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, has died, his brother said. Here are some details about Megrahi: MEGRAHI - RELEASED FROM PRISON: Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for his part in blowing up New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. Judges ruled in 2003 that he must serve a minimum of 27 years before he could apply for parole. ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If or when policymakers finally decide Greece should leave the euro, the exit could happen so quickly that "new drachma" currency notes might not be printed in time. In principle, some of the long-term consequences of Athens leaving the currency bloc are not unappealing. The euro zone would no longer have to worry about what has always been its weakest link. While a new Greek currency would almost certainly immediately crash in value as soon as it was issued, in doing so it would make the Greek economy much more competitive. ...
PARIS (Reuters) - An opinion poll published on Sunday showed that French far-right leader Marine Le Pen would lose to far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon in her home district in parliamentary elections next month. The Ifop-Fiducial poll showed that Le Pen would win the June 10 first round with 34 percent of the votes against 29 percent for Melenchon but would be beaten 55-45 percent by Melenchon in the June 17 second round. Not winning the parliamentary seat in her political backyard, the northern working-class town of Henin-Beaumont, would be a humiliation for Le Pen, who won 17. ...
PARIS (Reuters) - An opinion poll published on Sunday showed that French far-right leader Marine Le Pen would lose to far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon in her home district in parliamentary elections next month. The Ifop-Fiducial poll showed that Le Pen would win the June 10 first round with 34 percent of the votes against 29 percent for Melenchon but would be beaten 55-45 percent by Melenchon in the June 17 second round. Not winning the parliamentary seat in her political backyard, the northern working-class town of Henin-Beaumont, would be a humiliation for Le Pen, who won 17. ...
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer who was the only person ever convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, died Sunday nearly three years after he was released from a Scottish prison to the outrage of the relatives of the attack's 270 victims. He was 60.
DOUMA, Syria (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded on Sunday about 150 meters (yards) from a United Nations convoy carrying the head of a Syria ceasefire monitoring mission and a senior U.N. official in the town of Douma, a Reuters witness said. Major General Robert Mood's car was stopped at an army checkpoint when the bomb detonated in an nearby alleyway and the convoy left, the Reuters journalist said, adding that there were no reports of casualties. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous, who is visiting Syria, was also part of the convoy. ...
DOUMA, Syria (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded on Sunday about 150 meters (yards) from a United Nations convoy carrying the head of a Syria ceasefire monitoring mission and a senior U.N. official in the town of Douma, a Reuters witness said. Major General Robert Mood's car was stopped at an army checkpoint when the bomb detonated in an nearby alleyway and the convoy left, the Reuters journalist said, adding that there were no reports of casualties. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous, who is visiting Syria, was also part of the convoy. ...
Pakistan blocked the social networking website Twitter on Sunday because it refused to remove tweets considered offensive to Islam, said one of the country's top telecommunications officials.
QALYUB, Egypt (Reuters) - The motorcade of Hamdeen Sabahy, a dark horse in Egypt's presidential race, inched over the bumpy roads of this Egyptian town led by a car booming 1960s nationalist music in homage to his hero, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The smiling leftist politician has a long history of opposition, first to Nasser's successor Anwar Sadat and then to Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in last year's popular uprising. ...
QALYUB, Egypt (Reuters) - The motorcade of Hamdeen Sabahy, a dark horse in Egypt's presidential race, inched over the bumpy roads of this Egyptian town led by a car booming 1960s nationalist music in homage to his hero, Gamal Abdel Nasser. The smiling leftist politician has a long history of opposition, first to Nasser's successor Anwar Sadat and then to Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in last year's popular uprising. ...
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has released four foreigners detained near the border with South Sudan following weeks of heavy clashes between the two African neighbors, officials said on Sunday. Sudan said it had arrested the four - a Briton, a Norwegian, a South African and a South Sudanese - last month, accusing them of illegally entering an oil-producing border area to spy for South Sudan. South Sudanese officials denied those allegations, saying the men were working with the United Nations and aid groups clearing mines, and had got lost in the remote territory. ...
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has released four foreigners detained near the border with South Sudan following weeks of heavy clashes between the two African neighbors, officials said on Sunday. Sudan said it had arrested the four - a Briton, a Norwegian, a South African and a South Sudanese - last month, accusing them of illegally entering an oil-producing border area to spy for South Sudan. South Sudanese officials denied those allegations, saying the men were working with the United Nations and aid groups clearing mines, and had got lost in the remote territory. ...
A roadside bomb exploded in a restive suburb of the Syrian capital as senior U.N. officials toured the area on Sunday, blowing off the front of a parked vehicle but causing no casualties.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown publicly support each other and even share key advisers. But on many topics, from foreign policy to social issues, the Massachusetts Republicans take very different positions.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi defended the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on "This Week" for sending a fundraising email that attempted to capitalize on the apparently dead advertising plan to link President Obama to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
One of the worst quakes to hit northeast Italy in hundreds of years rattled the region around Bologna early Sunday, killing at least four people, collapsing factories and sending residents running out into the streets, emergency services said.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, stood by his call insisting that any increase in the debt limit should be offset by greater cuts in spending and tax reform before the end of the year, saying that working toward an agreement now would improve the economy.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner compared trying to pass a bill in the House of Representatives to keeping "218 frogs in a wheelbarrow" on "This Week" this morning.
SANT' AGOSTINO, Italy (Reuters) - A strong earthquake killed four people, injured dozens and damaged churches, towers and a mediaeval castle early on Sunday, waking terrified citizens across northern Italy and sending thousands running into the streets. The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey recorded at magnitude 6.0, struck at 4:04 a.m. (0204 GMT) and was followed by a series of jolting aftershocks. "I am 83 and I have never felt anything like this," said Lina Gardenghi, a resident of Bondeno. ...
ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region said on Sunday it expects to start exporting its crude oil along a new pipeline to the Turkish border by August 2013, defying Baghdad in a long-running dispute over who controls the country's oil sales. The Kurdistan region, which has its own government and armed forces, has already clashed with Iraq's central government over autonomy and oil rights, and halted its crude exports in April after accusing Baghdad of not making due payments. ...
LONDON (Reuters) - The euro zone can protect its currency if its stronger countries provide more support for the weaker to help them deal with their problems, British finance minister George Osborne said in a newspaper on Sunday. The future of Europe's 17-country single currency bloc is under threat from a political stalemate in Greece, which could lead to its departure from the monetary union at unknown costs to the financial system and global economic stability. ...
A bomb blast outside a high school in southern Italy that killed a 16-year-old student has revived dark memories of the 70s and 80s, when terrorists, anarchists and organized crime carried out dozens of bloody attacks across the country.
LONDON (Reuters) - The euro zone can protect its currency if its stronger countries provide more support for the weaker to help them deal with their problems, British finance minister George Osborne said in a newspaper on Sunday. The future of Europe's 17-country single currency bloc is under threat from a political stalemate in Greece, which could lead to its departure from the monetary union at unknown costs to the financial system and global economic stability. ...
TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanese soldiers shot dead a Sunni cleric and a second member of a Lebanese political alliance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources said. Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid and Khaled Miraib, members of the March 14 alliance, were shot in their car as they sped through an army checkpoint without stopping, the sources said. Residents of the northern region of Akkar said that they had blocked off roads to protest against the deaths. The army confirmed in a statement that the two men had been shot but gave no details. ...
TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanese soldiers shot dead a Sunni cleric and a second member of a Lebanese political alliance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources said. Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid and Khaled Miraib, members of the March 14 alliance, were shot in their car as they sped through an army checkpoint without stopping, the sources said. Residents of the northern region of Akkar said that they had blocked off roads to protest against the deaths. The army confirmed in a statement that the two men had been shot but gave no details. ...
BRINDISI, Italy (Reuters) - The bomb attack which killed a teenaged girl and wounded 10 others in the southern Italian town of Brindisi was probably done by an individual with no links to the mafia, a senior official said on Sunday. The attack on the Francesca Morvillo Falcone school, a vocational training institute offering courses in fashion, tourism and social services, has horrified Italy. Thousands have taken to the streets in demonstrations of sympathy for the school and the family of Melissa Bassi, the teenager who died in the explosion. ...
BRINDISI, Italy (Reuters) - The bomb attack which killed a teenaged girl and wounded 10 others in the southern Italian town of Brindisi was probably done by an individual with no links to the mafia, a senior official said on Sunday. The attack on the Francesca Morvillo Falcone school, a vocational training institute offering courses in fashion, tourism and social services, has horrified Italy. Thousands have taken to the streets in demonstrations of sympathy for the school and the family of Melissa Bassi, the teenager who died in the explosion. ...
Lawyers for Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president charged with running death squads that targeted Shiite officials and pilgrims quit the case on Sunday in protest after judges would not let them present evidence at the trial.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan on Sunday blocked access to Twitter in response to "blasphemous" material posted by users on the microblogging and social networking website, a senior government official said. "This has been done under the directions of the Ministry of Information Technology. It's because of blasphemous content," said Mohammed Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). "They (the ministry) have been discussing with them (Twitter) for some time now, requesting them to remove some particular content," he said. ...
Pakistan blocked the social networking website Twitter on Sunday because it refused to remove material considered offensive to Islam, said one of the country's top telecommunications officials.