World

ROME (Reuters) – Italy said yesterday that an Indian court’s decision to bar the Italian ambassador from leaving the country violated diplomatic immunity law, but said it hoped to amicably resolve a dispute over the killing of two Indian fishermen by Italian marines.

BEIJING (Reuters) – US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will meet new Chinese President Xi Jinping today at a critical time in relations between the world’s two largest economies, with cyber hacking, the Chinese currency and market access high on the agenda for talks.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – With every day Pope Francis reigns, his style reveals more contrasts with his predecessor Benedict in ways that amount to an unspoken criticism of how the retired pontiff conducted his papacy.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Dr Kermit Gosnell ran a “house of horrors” in a West Philadelphia health clinic where women went for late-term abortions, a prosecutor said in his opening statement yesterday in a trial that will decide if the doctor is guilty of murder in the deaths of seven infants and a woman.

ROME,  (Reuters) – Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez has asked Pope Francis to intervene in support of Buenos Aires in a dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin criticised today a levy imposed by the European Union on bank deposits in Cyprus as unfair and setting a dangerous precedent.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan,  (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers attacked a judicial compound in the Pakistani city of Peshawar today, killing four people and taking hostages, officials said.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, who vastly expanded U.S. drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas under the cloak of secrecy, is now openly seeking to influence global guidelines for their use as China and other countries pursue their own drone programs.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The senior Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee is pushing President Barack Obama’s administration to train and arm some Syrian rebels, in addition to providing humanitarian assistance.

(Reuters) – Dow Jones & Co said it found no sign of impropriety at its China operations, after the Wall Street Journal reported that a whistleblower had accused Journal employees of bribing Chinese officials for information.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s acting president urged U.S. President Barack Obama to stop what he called a plot by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to kill his opposition rival and trigger a coup ahead of an April 14 election.

NICOSIA,  (Reuters) – Cyprus was working on a last-minute proposal to soften the impact on smaller savers of a bank deposit levy after a parliamentary vote on the measure central to a bailout was postponed until Monday, a source said.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – In a break from months of sabre rattling, China under new President Xi Jinping appears to be moderating its approach to a potentially explosive territorial dispute with Japan and taking measures to prevent accidental conflict.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga challenged his election loss in court yesterday, alleging widespread ballot rigging in a fresh test of Kenyan democracy five years after a disputed vote triggered deadly tribal violence.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis, giving his clearest indication yet that he wants a more austere Catholic Church, said yesterday that it should be poor and remember that its mission is to serve the poor.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Young Republicans still stung by Mitt Romney’s defeat in November are looking for a White House candidate with a message they can run with.

BHOPAL, India (Reuters) – Four men raped a 39-year-old Swiss woman camping with her husband in an Indian forest, police said yesterday, turning the spotlight a new on the security of women in the world’s largest democracy.

RIYADH (Reuters) – One of Saudi Arabia’s leading clerics has delivered a rare warning to the government that it could face “the spark of violence” if concerns over detainees, poor services and corruption are not addressed.

BRUSSELS/NICOSIA,  (Reuters) – The euro zone agreed today to hand Cyprus a bailout worth 10 billion euros ($13 billion), but demanded depositors in its banks forfeit some money to stave off bankruptcy despite the risk of a wider run on savings.

NAIROBI, (Reuters) – Kenya’s defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga filed a legal challenge to his election loss today in a major test of the country’s democratic system five years after a disputed vote triggered deadly tribal clashes.