World

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The officer in charge of the U.S. Air Force effort to curb sexual assault in the military was arrested over the weekend for allegedly grabbing a woman by the breasts and buttocks in a parking lot not far from the Pentagon, officials said yesterday.

JERUSALEM/AMMAN, (Reuters) – Israel played down weekend air strikes close to Damascus reported to have killed dozens of Syrian soldiers, saying they were not aimed at influencing its neighbour’s civil war but only at stopping Iranian missiles reaching Lebanese Hezbollah militants.

CLEVELAND, (Reuters) – Three women believed to have been abducted years ago were found alive on Monday at a house in Cleveland, a short distance from where at least two of them were last seen, and police said a man has been arrested in connection with their disappearance.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil plans to hire 6,000 Cuban doctors to serve in remote parts of the country where medical services are deficient or nonexistent, despite controversy over the quality of their training.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the current strain of bird flu that is causing illness and deaths in China cannot spark a pandemic in its current form – but he added that there is no guarantee it will not mutate and cause a serious pandemic.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – Russia said on Monday it was concerned the chances of foreign military intervention in Syria were growing following reports of Israeli air strikes around Damascus which were a source of “particular alarm”.

GENEVA,  (Reuters) – Cuba has launched a legal challenge to Australia’s tobacco packaging laws at the World Trade Organization, the Geneva-based trade body said in a statement on Monday.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s governing coalition extended its half-century rule despite its worst-ever performance in a general election, a result that exposes growing racial polarisation in the Southeast Asian nation and could undermine Prime Minister Najib Razak.

GENEVA (Reuters) – UN human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria’s civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said yesterday.

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) – The surviving member of a neo-Nazi cell blamed for a series of racist murders that scandalised Germany and shamed its authorities goes on trial tomorrow in one of the most anticipated court cases in recent German history.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela brushed off criticism from US President Barack Obama yesterday and maintained its accusation that an American detainee in Caracas is a spy pretending to be a filmmaker.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Gunmen executed two sons of two prominent Mexican journalists in the northern city of Chihuahua, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office said yesterday, and police found seven bodies dumped in a Mexico City suburb.

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombia’s former leader Alvaro Uribe on Sunday rejected an accusation by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that Uribe was plotting to kill him as the desperate ploy of a dictator trying to hide his illegitimacy.

KUALA LUMPUR, (Reuters) – Malaysia’s governing coalition extended its half-century rule despite its worst-ever performance in a general election, potentially undermining Prime Minister Najib Razak and exposing growing racial polarisation in the Southeast Asian nation.

TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – Libya’s parliament voted on Sunday to ban anyone who held a senior position during Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule from government, a move which could unseat the prime minister and other top officials regardless of their part in toppling the dictator.

LONDON, (Reuters) – The deputy speaker of Britain’s parliament, Nigel Evans, was arrested at the weekend on suspicion of rape and sexual assault, but said on Sunday the allegations against him were “completely false”.

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron must shed his elitist image and connect with ordinary voters, a senior party member said yesterday, after the anti-EU UK Independence Party scored major gains in local polls at the expense of the ruling Conservatives.

SAN JOSE (Reuters) – The Venezuelan government’s suggestion that an American citizen it has detained is a spy is “ridiculous,” US President Barack Obama said in a television interview recorded yesterday during a visit to Costa Rica.

(Reuters) – Israel has carried out an air strike targeting a consignment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon, an Israeli official said yesterday.

May 4 (Reuters) – The flight from San Fransisco to Phoenix took 18 hours and 18 minutes on Saturday – and didn’t use a drop of fuel.