World

(NBC) A prominent Democratic state senator and a Republican city councilman from Queens were arrested today in an alleged plot to get the senator onto the New York City mayoral ballot by paying off GOP county chairmen, authorities said.

UNITED NATIONS,  (Reuters) – The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved today the first-ever treaty on global arms trade that seeks to regulate the $70 billion international business in conventional arms ranging from light weapons to battle tanks and warships.

SEOUL,  (Reuters) – North Korea announced plans today to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor that has been closed since 2007, but emphasised it was seeking a deterrent capacity, rather than repeating recent threats to attack South Korea and the United States.

SEOUL,  (Reuters) – The United States has positioned a warship off the Korean coast as a shield against ballistic missile attack as South Korea’s new president vowed swift retaliation against a North Korean strike amid soaring tensions on the peninsula.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The United States yesterday accused Egypt of muzzling freedom of speech after prosecutors questioned the most popular Egyptian television satirist over allegations he insulted President Mohamed Mursi and Islam.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – India’s top court dismissed Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG’s attempt to win patent protection for its cancer drug Glivec, a blow to Western pharmaceutical firms targeting India to drive sales and a victory for local makers of cheap generics.

SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) – A popular U.S. visa program for skilled workers is likely to hit its quota within days after its application period opens, triggering a lottery and signaling that companies feel confident enough about the economy to hire more foreign workers.

SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff appointed a new transport minister on Monday, extending a Cabinet shuffle that has so far left her economic team unchanged.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles expressed outrage today at the description of his supporters as “heirs of Hitler” by election rival and acting President Nicolas Maduro.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Weeks after his death, Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez still leads supporters in singing the national anthem.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – India’s top court dismissed Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG’s attempt to win patent protection for its cancer drug Glivec, a blow to Western pharmaceutical firms targeting India to drive sales and a victory for local makers of cheap generics.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – With U.S. business and labor now in agreement, a bipartisan group of senators has resolved all major issues in a pending deal to overhaul the U.S.

DALLAS,  (Reuters) – The killing of a Texas district attorney and his wife, in the same county where an assistant prosecutor was shot dead outside a courthouse in January, does not appear to be random, a local official said yesterday.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea yesterday to join military drills aimed at underscoring the U.S.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – With U.S. business and labor now in agreement, a bipartisan group of U.S.

VATICAN CITY,  (Reuters) – Pope Francis used his first Easter Sunday address to call for peace in the world and appealed for a diplomatic solution to the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

NAIROBI, (Reuters) – Kenya’s Supreme Court upheld Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential election victory yesterday and his defeated rival accepted the ruling, helping douse tensions after tribal violence blighted the election five years ago.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said yesterday Russia will face unrest unless society is made more democratic despite President Vladimir Putin’s success in cracking down on dissent.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – The first commercial flight between Egypt and Iran in 34 years took off yesterday, the latest step towards normalising ties broken following the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution.

ATLANTA, (Reuters) – A grand jury indicted 35 former Atlanta public school educators, including an award-winning former superintendent, on Friday for allegedly conspiring to cheat on standardized test scores to obtain cash bonuses.