World

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The United States and Pakistan should stop pretending they are allies and amicably “divorce,” Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington said yesterday, citing unrealistic expectations in both countries that include U.S.

CANBERRA/MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Australia declared the end of the resources boom which had cushioned the country against the global financial crisis, a day after the world’s biggest miner BHP Billiton shelved two major expansion plans worth at least $40 billion.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – The Los Angeles County coroner has amended the 30-year-old death certificate of actress Natalie Wood to change the official cause of her demise to “drowning and other undetermined factors” from accidental drowning, authorities said yesterday.

ADDIS ABABA,  (Reuters) – Thousands of Ethiopians descended on the centre of the capital Addis Ababa yesterday to mourn Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, their firm-handed ruler of more than two decades, whose body was flown home after his death in a Brussels hospital at 57.

MONROVIA,  (Reuters) – Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has suspended her son and 45 other government officials for failing to declare their assets to anti-corruption authorities, in her first major step to battle graft in her administration.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Three former vice ministers in Cuba’s Basic Industry Ministry and nine nickel industry executives have been sentenced to long prison terms for corruption, Cuban state media said yesterday.

(Barbados Nation) Rihanna, during the one-hour special on Oprah’s New Chapter, shocked her mother Monica Braithwaite when she gifted her with a brand new five-bedroom home in Barbados.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Russia warned the West yesterday against unilateral action on Syria, a day after U.S.

GUATEMALA CITY, (Reuters) – A Guatemalan court on Tuesday sentenced a former police chief to 70 years in jail for ordering the kidnapping of a university student during the country’s brutal civil war.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Congressman Todd Akin, under fire for controversial remarks on abortion and rape, insisted yesterday he would not leave the Missouri Senate race, despite pressure from fellow Republicans and talk of who might replace him on the Nov.

YANGON,  (Reuters) – Myanmar abolished direct media censorship yesterday, the latest dramatic reform by its quasi-civilian regime, but journalists face other formidable restrictions including a ban on private daily newspapers and a pervasive culture of self-censorship.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Senior Republicans urged congressman Todd Akin yesterday to quit the U.S.

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT, (Reuters) – U.S. forces could move against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, President Barack Obama warned, notably if he deploys his chemical weapons against rebels trying to overthrow him.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – U.S. authorities said yesterday that they had seized $150 million from a Lebanese bank suspected of being at the heart of international money-laundering schemes linked to the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah.

YARE, Venezuela, (Reuters) – Well-armed inmates in one of Venezuela’s notoriously overcrowded prisons rioted over the weekend, killing 25 people, the government said yesterday.

VALLETTA,  (Reuters) – Dom Mintoff, Malta’s former socialist prime minister and dominant political force for more than half a century, died at his residence near Valletta on Monday, the government said.

HEFEI, China, (Reuters) – A Chinese court on Monday sentenced Gu Kailai, wife of ousted politician Bo Xilai, to death with a two-year reprieve for murdering a British businessman, witnesses to the closed-door hearing said, in a scandal that has shaken China’s leadership transition.

SINGAPORE,  (Reuters) – Call it CSI: Singapore. Unlike the Crime Scene Investigators from the popular TV series, these detectives are hired to look for evidence of rogue wood from stores increasingly worried about being duped by a global trade in illegal timber now worth billions.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made his first appearance in public since a July bombing that killed four top security officials, attending prayers at a Damascus mosque yesterday to mark the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid, state TV showed.

LONDON, (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange berated the United States yesterday from the balcony of the Ecuadorean embassy where he has sought refuge from arrest, challenging President Barack Obama to end what he called a witch-hunt against his whistle-blowing website.