World

BAMAKO,  (Reuters) – Islamist gunmen destroyed several tombs in Timbuktu yesterday, residents said, days after the United Nations authorised African states to ready a force to take on al Qaeda-linked groups in Mali’s northern desert zones.

OTTAWA, (Reuters) – In September, two months after China’s state-owned CNOOC Ltd made an unexpected $15.1 billion bid for Canadian energy company Nexen Inc, Canada’s spy agency told ministers that takeovers by Chinese companies may threaten national security.

BANGUI, (Reuters) – Rebels in the Central African Republic yesterday seized the town of Bambari, the biggest prize yet in a push that has brought rebels to within 400 km (250 miles) of the capital, Bangui.

OSLO, (Reuters) – West Antarctica is warming almost twice as fast as previously believed, adding to worries of a thaw that would add to sea level rise from San Francisco to Shanghai, a study showed yesterday.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Road-trip movies have been dominated by teenagers on wild adventures or “Hangover” style bro-mances, but Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen are driving the genre into new territories with mother-son comedy “The Guilt Trip” to usher in the holiday season.

(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily of Thomson Reuters) By Shilpa Jamkhandikar (Reuters) It seems unfair to devote a whole review to Arbaaz Khan’s “Dabangg 2”, given that this is hardly a film.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela will not call fresh elections if Hugo Chávez’s cancer prevents him from taking office by Jan 10, the head of Congress said yesterday, despite a constitutional mandate that the swearing-in take place on that date.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptians voted yesterday in the second round of a referendum expected to approve an Islamist-drafted constitution that lays foundations for a transition to democracy but is criticised as divisive by the opposition.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict made a surprise pre-Christmas visit to the jail holding his former butler yesterday and pardoned him for stealing and leaking documents that alleged corruption in the Vatican.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s civil war has reached stalemate and international efforts to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to quit will fail, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian police used batons, tear gas and water cannon to turn back thousands of people marching on the presidential palace yesterday in intensifying protests against the gang-rape of a woman on the streets and on social media.

QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa yesterday announced a 9 per cent increase in the minimum wage for private-sector workers for 2013, a move that may help consolidate his February re-election bid that polls broadly show him favored to win.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The White House yesterday tried to rescue stalled talks on a fiscal crisis after a Republican plan imploded in Congress, but there was little headway as lawmakers and President Barack Obama abandoned Washington for Christmas.

COLOMBO,  (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s appeal court yesterday blocked parliament from voting to impeach the country’s chief justice, the latest step in the case that risks a destabilising clash be-tween President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government and the judiciary.

WASHINGTON/NEWTOWN, Conn.,  (Reuters) – The powerful U.S. gun rights lobby called yesterday for armed police in all U.S.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama yesterday nominated John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, calling the veteran U.S.

VATICAN CITY,  (Reuters) – Pope Benedict yesterday signalled the Vatican was ready to forge alliances with other religions against gay marriage, saying the family was threatened “to its foundations” by attempts to change its “true structure”.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – The gang-rape of a young woman in New Delhi has sparked public outrage across India, bringing thousands of people onto city streets in protest against authorities’ failure to ensure women’s safety.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Talks between the Colombian government and Marxist-led FARC rebels to end their bloody, half-century-long conflict have made progress, but broad areas of disagreement lie ahead, the two sides said on Friday as they headed into a holiday break.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – For British director Tom Hooper, the key to turning “Les Miserables” from the wildly popular stage musical to a cinematic experience both sweeping and intimate, was all in the close-up.