World

LONDON,  (Reuters) – The BBC’s former director general Mark Thompson has accused the head of its governing body of misleading Britain’s parliament about large payments to senior executives, in an escalating spat that has put the two men’s reputations on the line.

KHOST, Afghanistan, (Reuters) – An Indian author whose story was told in the movie “Escape from Taliban” was shot dead after returning to Afghanistan to make a documentary about women, police said on Friday.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, angered by a recent report that the U.S.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama faced growing pressure from Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other world leaders yesterday to decide against launching military strikes in Syria, which many of them fear would hurt the global economy and push up oil prices.

AMSTERDAM/NAIROBI,  (Reuters) – Kenya’s parliament voted yesterday to quit the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, but the Hague-based tribunal said it would press ahead anyway with the trials of the country’s president and his deputy.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution yesterday authorizing limited U.S.

SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – Furious about a report that the U.S.

AMMAN/DOHA,  (Reuters) – General Ali Habib, a former Syrian defence minister, has become the most senior member of President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling Alawite sect to defect, opposition figures said yesterday.

VATICAN CITY, (Reuters) – The Vatican has recalled its ambassador to the Dominican Republic and relieved him of his duties pending an investigation, after local media accused him of paedophilia, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church said yesterday.

HOUSTON/CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela failed to act in good faith or properly compensate ConocoPhillips for three big oil assets the country expropriated in 2007, a World Bank arbitration panel said yestereday.

LIBREVILLE,  (Reuters) – A corruption investigation in Gabon has revealed the existence of about 3,000 fake civil servants who receive monthly government salaries despite holding no official positions, officials said.

MOSCOW/BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin offered a glimpse of international compromise over Syria today, declining to entirely rule out Russian backing for military action as he prepared to host a summit of world leaders.

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama won the backing of key figures in the U.S.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – A blackout hit much of Venezuela including the capital Caracas yesterday, but the oil industry was not affected and the government said it expected power to be restored within hours.

JAKARTA, (Reuters) – An Indonesian court sentenced a top police general to 10 years in jail yesterday for money-laundering and corruption in a major victory for the country’s main anti-graft agency.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mansour, said yesterday that a plan for a return to civilian government after the army’s removal of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was on track despite “challenges” and that emergency law should be lifted soon.

HELSINKI/SEATTLE,  (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp will buy Nokia’s phone business and license its patents for 5.44 billion euros ($7.2 billion), a bold foray into mobile devices that also brings potential chief executive contender Stephen Elop back into the fold.

SYDNEY,  (Reuters) – Black Portuguese millipedes are suspects in a rear-end collision between two trains in Western Australia yesterday after hundreds of the tiny creatures were found squashed in a slippery mess on the track.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s efforts to persuade the US Congress to back his plan to attack Syria met with skepticism yesterday from lawmakers in his own Democratic Party who expressed concern the United States would be dragged into a new Middle East conflict.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil assailed the United States yesterday after new allegations that Washington spied on President Dilma Rousseff, complaining that its sovereignty may have been violated and suggesting that it could call off Rousseff’s planned state visit to the White House next month.