By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's fractious opposition scrambled to agree a new leadership on Friday in a bid to present a coherent front at peace talks which the United States and Russia are convening to seek an end to more than two years of civil war. A major assault by President Bashar al-Assad's forces on a rebel held town over the past week is shaping into a pivotal battle. It has drawn in fighters from Assad's Lebanese allies Hezbollah, justifying fears that a war that has killed 80,000 people would cross borders at the heart of the Middle East. ...
By Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's security services faced questions on Friday over whether they could have done more to prevent the murder of a soldier hacked to death in a busy London street after it emerged that his suspected killers were known to intelligence officers. Suspects Michael Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under guard in hospital after being shot and arrested by police after the murder of 25-year-old Afghan war veteran Lee Rigby on Wednesday. They have not yet been charged. ...
By Rhys Jones and Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - British fighter jets escorted a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane to Stansted Airport near London on Friday, where police went on board and arrested two men on suspicion of endangering an aircraft. Passengers were leaving the plane and no one was hurt in the incident, a spokesman for the airport said. Flight PK709 from Lahore in Pakistan had been due to land at Manchester in northern England with 297 passengers on board, but was diverted shortly before arrival. ...
By Mike McDonald GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo was extradited on Friday to the United States to face money-laundering charges, just days after former dictator Efrain Rios Montt's genocide conviction was overturned. A U.S. grand jury decided in 2009 that Portillo, who was in office from 2000 to 2004, should face charges that he laundered $70 million through U.S. banks. ...
By Ilze Filks and Mia Shanley STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A nearly week-long spate of rioting spread outside Stockholm on Friday but authorities said police reinforcements sent to the Swedish capital had reduced the violence there, even though dozens of youths set cars and a recycling station ablaze. The rioting - set off earlier this month by the police shooting of a 69-year-old man - continued for a sixth night in mainly poor immigrant areas in Stockholm. ...
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor (Reuters) - The Church of England published a plan on Friday to approve the ordination of women bishops by 2015, a widely supported reform it just missed passing last November after two decades of divisive debate. It said the new plan, outlined in a document signed by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York John Sentamu, would be presented to the General Synod, the Church legislature, in July to begin the approval process. ...
Deep into his one-hour speech Thursday on counterterrorism policy, President Obama reached a topic that is near and dear to the news media’s heart: the ability of journalists to pursue their craft without fear of government intrusion.
Among the striking moments in President Obama’s national security speech this week, in which he argued it's time to wean America off its nation-at-war mentality, was his apparent receptiveness to the idea of establishing a “drone court" as a check on the use of those weapons.
The first thing Gabriel Gomez likes to tell crowds on the campaign trail is where he’s going – the United States Senate. The second is where he’s coming from.
The 1,300 residents of Cavalier, N.D., may be breathing a little easier Thursday, as the threat that their town would be submerged in floodwaters began to abate.
VALLENAR, Chile (AP) — Chile's environmental regulator blocked Barrick Gold Corp.'s $8.5 billion Pascua-Lama project on Friday and imposed its maximum fine on the world's largest gold miner, citing "very serious" violations of its environmental permit as well as a failure by the company to accurately describe what it had done wrong.
TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied Friday that he smokes crack cocaine and said he is not an addict after a video purported to show him using the drug. The mayor of Canada's largest city did not say whether he has ever used crack.
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's government has agreed to attend a U.S.-Russian-brokered peace conference, according to Moscow. While this development might seem at first glance to be a step toward ending the civil war, strong skepticism persists on both sides.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Syria said it targeted an Israeli vehicle that crossed a ceasefire line into its territory earlier this week because it was heading toward a village with a large rebel presence.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — An American man killed his uncle, aunt and cousins in the Czech Republic and then flew to the United States, where he was arrested at an airport, authorities said Friday.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel's government on Friday to prevent further settlement construction where possible to help revitalize Middle East peace hopes, but stressed that the Jewish state and Palestinians alike should remain focused on the larger goal of restarting direct negotiations.
LONDON (AP) — Both of the suspects accused of butchering a British soldier during broad daylight on a London street had long been on the radar of Britain's domestic spy agency, though investigators say it would have been nearly impossible to predict that the men were on the verge of a brutal killing.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Ex-Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo was extradited on Friday to the United States to face charges of laundering $70 million in Guatemalan funds through U.S. bank accounts.
By Julie Gordon TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, under pressure to respond to allegations he was filmed using drugs, said on Friday that he does not smoke crack cocaine and could not comment on a video he had not seen or does not exist. "There has been a serious accusation from the Toronto Star that I use crack cocaine. I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine," he told a news conference. ...
PARIS (AP) — After two days of intense questioning from French magistrates, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said Friday a court named her as a key witness in an investigation into a controversial payoff to an outspoken businessman that was arranged while she was France's finance minister — stopping short of charging her outright.
By Noémie Olive PARIS (Reuters) - French magistrates decided on Friday not to place IMF chief Christine Lagarde under formal investigation over her role in a 285-million-euro ($368.5 million) arbitration payment made to a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy. Lagarde instead was given the status of a "supervised witness" after two full days of questioning on her 2008 decision as Sarkozy's finance minister to use arbitration to settle a legal battle between the state and businessman Bernard Tapie. ...
LONDON (AP) — A tweet posted by the wife of Britain's parliamentary speaker about a politician wrongly linked to child sex abuse was libelous, the High Court ruled Friday.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In the latest militant strike on the Afghan capital, Taliban gunmen backed by a suicide car bomber attacked an international aid group's compound on Friday, killing two guards and setting off an hours-long street battle with police in the heart of Kabul .
TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied Friday that he smokes crack cocaine and said he is not an addict after a video purported to show him using the drug. Ford did not say whether he has ever used crack.
BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah's deputy chief says the European Union would be making a "big mistake" to label the Lebanese Shiite militant group "terrorist."
LONDON (AP) — Britain scrambled fighter jets Friday to intercept a commercial airliner carrying more than 300 people from Pakistan, diverting it to an isolated runway at an airport on the outskirts of London and arresting two British passengers who allegedly threatened to destroy the plane.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's president has ordered the creation of a new workers' militia to defend the country's "Bolivarian revolution" at a time when the government faces economic problems and political turmoil.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's top nuclear negotiator, a candidate in next month's presidential elections, vowed Friday he will pursue a policy of resistance against the West if elected.
ROME (AP) — Silvio Berlusconi's figure looms large over Rome's mayoral elections this weekend, even though the former premier isn't among the 19 candidates running.
MILAN (AP) — The woman who prosecutors allege had sex with Silvio Berlusconi while he was Italy's premier in exchange for money spent her second day on the witness stand Friday, denying her own sworn descriptions of racy escapades at his "bunga bunga" parties and long lists of expensive jewelry and watches received from the media mogul. Karima el Mahroug, a Moroccan known as Ruby, dismissed a series of sworn statements she made to investigators in the summer of 2010 as "all stupid things" that she now regrets saying. "I apologize to the prosecutors. They were all nonsense," she said.
By Amie Ferris-Rotman and Mirwais Harooni KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban militants launched a large-scale attack involving the United Nations in the center of the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, sparking a five-hour battle with security forces. A plume of smoke hung over Kabul after the attack was launched, with the sound of .50 caliber heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire clearly audible throughout the city center as night fell. An Afghan police officer was killed and 10 other people were wounded during the attack, which began at 4 p.m. ...
STANSTED, England (Reuters) - British police said on Friday they are treating an incident involving a plane carrying almost 300 passengers from Pakistan as criminal rather than as terror-related. "It's a criminal investigation under the direction of Essex police," Superintendent Darrin Tomkins told reporters at Stansted airport near London to where the plane was diverted. Asked if it could be terror related, he added: "This incident is being treated as a criminal offence." "The plane will remain at its current location and will subject to forensic examination by specialist officers. ...
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