World

ROME – An Italian political crisis that has rattled the euro zone deepened on Wednesday when two party leaders ruled out the most likely options to form a government and avoid a new election.

VATICAN CITY,  (Reuters) – Pope Benedict slips quietly from the world stage today after a private last goodbye to his cardinals and a short flight to a country palace to enter the final phase of his life “hidden from the world”.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – President Dilma Rousseff said yesterday that Brazil must cut its high business costs to become more competitive and vowed to keep inflation in check as the world’s sixth-largest economy shifts into higher gear this year.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexico arrested the powerful head of the main teachers’ union on fraud and embezzlement charges on Tuesday, striking out at a high-profile opponent of the new government’s reform efforts and seeking to assert President Enrique Pena Nieto’s authority.

KABUL,  (Reuters) – An Afghan police officer drugged 17 colleagues and shot them dead today with the aid of the Taliban, police said, the latest in a series of so-called “insider”, or green-on-blue, attacks involving Afghan security forces and the Taliban.

ALMATY,  (Reuters) – Six world powers ended two days of talks with Iran on its nuclear programme without a breakthrough today, but agreed to meet in Istanbul next month and resume negotiations in Kazakhstan on April 5.

VATICAN CITY,  (Reuters) – Pope Benedict bid an emotional farewell at his last general audience today, saying he understood the gravity of his decision to become the first pontiff to resign in 600 years but that he had done it for the good of the Roman Catholic Church.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as President Barack Obama’s new secretary of defense yesterday, after an unusually acrimonious confirmation fight that threatened to complicate his work as civilian leader at the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S.-based journalists, lawyers and human rights groups cannot challenge a federal law that allows surveillance of some international communications, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday in a case touching on government efforts to fight terrorism.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va.,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama today warned of threats to Navy readiness and a storm broke over the government releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants due to budget pressure as automatic government spending cuts crept closer.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Most Venezuelans expect President Hugo Chavez to recover from cancer and return to active rule even though he has been in hospital and virtually unseen for two-and-a-half months, a poll showed today.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – Eighteen Asian and European tourists died when a hot air balloon crashed early today near the ancient Egyptian town of Luxor following a mid-air gas explosion, officials said.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy faces political deadlock today after a stunning election that saw the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo become the strongest party in the country but left no group with a clear majority in parliament.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Three dozen arms control and human rights groups have written to US President Barack Obama ahead of new arms-trade negotiations at the United Nations next month, urging him to back a tough treaty that would end loopholes in international weapons sales.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House may soon propose the biggest change in US food aid since the programmes were created during the Cold War – donating cash for hunger relief instead of shipping American-grown food thousands of miles to global trouble spots, say farm groups and charities.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One day after Zero Dark Thirty failed to win major awards at the Oscars, a congressional aide said yesterday the Senate Intelligence Committee has closed its inquiry into the filmmakers’ contacts with the Central Intelligence Agency.

LONDON (Reuters) – Mastercard unveiled its bid to dominate the mobile payments market yesterday with a ‘virtual wallet’ allowing customers to keep personal payment details in their phone and avoid checkouts by scanning bar codes in-store to pay.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Argo stormed to Best Picture victory at the Oscars on Sunday on a night of surprises that ended in disappointment for frontrunner Lincoln and handed the most overall wins – four – to Life of Pi.

ROME,  (Reuters) – The outcome of Italy’s national election is still uncertain but what is already clear is that the massive winner is Beppe Grillo, a shaggy haired comedian whose anti-establishment 5-Star movement could well become the country’s largest party.

ALMATY,  (Reuters) – Major powers will offer Iran some sanctions relief during talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this week if Tehran agrees to curb its nuclear programme, a U.S.