World

AMMAN/ALEPPO,  (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad controls less than a third of Syria and his power is crumbling, his former prime minister said yesterday, in his first public appearance since he defected to the opposition this month.

OSLO, (Reuters) – Animals living in patches of rainforest cut off from bigger expanses of jungle by farms, roads or towns are dying off faster than previously thought, according to an academic study published on Tuesday.

KABUL,  (Reuters) – Islamist suicide bombers targeted markets crowded with Ramadan shoppers and a major provincial hospital in Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 38 people and wounding close to 100.

MUKHTARA, Lebanon, (Reuters) – Foreign states must do more to help Syrian rebels defeat President Bashar al-Assad and spare the country an “endless civil war” and possible partition, a leading politician in neighbouring Lebanon said yesterday.

SEATTLE, (Reuters) – Bill Gates is betting the toilet of the future for the developing world will be solar powered.

OSLO,  (Reuters) – Norway’s prime minister came under pressure to resign today after an official report said police could have prevented a murder spree by far right militant Anders Behring Breivik last year that killed 77 people.

TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – The Honduran government must investigate the cases of 22 journalists murdered in the last two years in a country that has the world’s highest murder rate, a United Nations envoy said yesterday.

CAIRO – A blunder by the Egyptian army that left 16 border guards dead at the hands of Islamist militants gave President Mohamed Mursi an unexpectedly early chance to claw back powers from a military whose political influence he had always wanted to restrict.

SAN ANTONIO,  (Reuters) – A gunman killed two people yesterday, including a law enforcement officer who was serving him an eviction notice at a home near Texas A&M University, before police fatally shot him, officials said.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Nine Nobel Peace laureates, including retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, o n Mo nday called on television network NBC to cancel its “Stars Earn Stripes” reality show, calling it a bid to “sanitize war by likening it to an athletic competition.”

AL ARISH, Egypt,  (Reuters) – They came in Toyota pick-up trucks, dozens of heavily armed masked men, firing machineguns and waving the black flag of al Qaeda as terrified residents and police huddled indoors, and then disappeared again, melting away into the mountains and remote villages of Egypt’s Sinai desert.

JEDDAH,  (Reuters) – Foreign ministers at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) agreed yesterday to suspend Syria from the international body, an OIC source said, further isolating President Bashar al-Assad.

DES MOINES, Iowa, (Reuters) – Republican Paul Ryan got a taste of the rough side of a presidential campaign on Monday when protesters heckled him and President Barack Obama accused him of blocking emergency aid to drought-hit farmers.

VATICAN CITY,  (Reuters) – The Vatican yesterday ordered Pope Benedict’s former butler to stand trial for leaking documents alleging corruption in the Holy See, revealing the involvement of a second Vatican employee and details of secret nocturnal meetings with a reporter.

CAIRO – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has driven back the biggest challenge to civilian rule by dismissing top generals and tearing up their legal attempt to curb his power in a bold bid to end 60 years of military leadership.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – An Indian guru known to millions from a television show on Hinduism and yoga was arrested at a protest against corruption near the parliament yesterday, putting pressure on a Congress Party-led government trying to revive its political fortunes.

PARIS/LONDON,  (Reuters) – Leading members of the Group of 20 nations are prepared to trigger an emergency meeting to address soaring grain prices caused by the worst U.S.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Mursi dismissed Cairo’s two top generals and quashed a military order that had curbed the new leader’s powers, in a move that further stamped his authority on the country and its army.

ALEPPO, Syria,  (Reuters) – Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad need the protection of no-fly zones and safe havens patrolled by foreign forces near the borders with Jordan and Turkey, a Syrian opposition leader said.

CHONGQING, China,  (Reuters) – China’s fallen politician Bo Xilai left a timebomb as a parting gift for the Communist Party leadership that threw him out — the smouldering demands for redress from the many targets of his harsh version of justice in the city he ruled.