AMMAN/HAMA, Syria – Syrian forces killed at least 19 people in raids near the Lebanon border and in the country’s Sunni tribal heartland, activists said, pursuing a military campaign to crush street protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
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SHALGHOUDA/BENGHAZI, Libya – Libyan rebels said they had captured part of the oil town of Brega on Thursday while their forces in the west pushed toward Zawiyah, trying to get within striking distance of Muammar Gaddafi’s capital.
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KABUL – A roadside bomb killed five American troops in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, the U.S. military said, less than a week after American forces suffered their worst single loss of the Afghan war when Taliban insurgents shot down a helicopter.
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NEW YORK – Investors swooped back into world stocks on Thursday, picking up beaten-down shares after a mildly encouraging U.S. jobs report dulled fears of recession, although credit markets faced strains similar to those that preceded the 2008 credit crisis.
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PARIS/MADRID – European regulators will ban short-selling in four countries’ financial stocks from Friday in a coordinated attempt to restore confidence in a panicky market hit by rumors and higher borrowing costs.
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WASHINGTON – Democrats named three loyal party lieutenants to a U.S. deficit reduction “super committee” on Thursday, charting what could be a path to partisan deadlock with all 12 members now appointed.
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AMES, Iowa – Eight Republican White House hopefuls meet in a nationally televised debate on Thursday, hoping to generate momentum two days before an Iowa straw poll that will test the strength of their campaigns.
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LIMA – Two weeks into his five-year term, Peru’s President Ollanta Humala has retreated from the public spotlight, showing an odd reluctance to discuss policies, scandals or even his plans for running the country.
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CARACAS – President Hugo Chavez told Venezuelans on Thursday he was responding well to a second round of chemotherapy in Cuba and accused the opposition of stirring up street protests at home ahead of a 2012 election vote he has vowed to win.
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JERUSALEM – Israel’s interior minister has given final approval for a plan to build 1,600 settler homes in East Jerusalem, a project whose announcement last year during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden caused a diplomatic rift with Washington.
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