World

MIAMI, (Reuters) – Quartavious Davis is still shocked by what happened to him in federal court two months ago.

MADRID, (Reuters) – A Spanish court opened a fraud case yesterday against former executives of state-rescued lender Bankia, including one-time IMF chief Rodrigo Rato, as public rage engulfs a bank which is in line for the biggest share of an EU bailout.

GENEVA/LONDON,  (Reuters) – Scientists at the CERN research centre have found a new subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson, the basic building block of the universe.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The days of pregnant women having a 3-inch-long (8-centimetre-long) hollow needle jabbed into their abdomens may be numbered.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond suddenly quit yesterday over an interest rate-rigging scandal that threatens to drag in a dozen more major lenders but suggested the Bank of England had encouraged his bank to manipulate the figures.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – A meeting of Syria’s splintered opposition in Cairo descended into scuffles and fistfights yesterday that dealt another blow to Western leaders seeking a unified front against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – New Jersey surgeons removed a rapidly growing, 51-pound (23-kg) cancerous tumor from a woman who had delayed treatment for more than a month until she became eligible for health insurance, her doctor said yesterday.

ZURICH, (Reuters) – Traces of the poisonous element polonium have been found in the belongings of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a Swiss institute said yesterday, and a television report said his widow had demanded his body be exhumed for further tests.

(Reuters) – Actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a small-town sheriff made “The Andy Griffith Show” one of television’s most enduring shows, died yesterday at his North Carolina home at age 86.

(Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

OTTAWA, (Reuters) – Canada’s foreign aid minister is resigning from politics after coming under fire for extravagant spending, including a $16 dollar glass of orange juice in a luxury London hotel.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian helicopters bombarded a Damascus suburb yesterday and Turkey scrambled warplanes near the border in the north, as the UN human rights chief warned that arms supplies to both the government and rebels were deepening the 16-month conflict.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The United States and Pakistan are expected to agree soon on the reopening of land routes crucial to supplying NATO troops in Afghanistan, a Pakistani official said yesterday, a move that could ease a seven-month crisis in the two countries’ ties.

AMAKO (Reuters) – Al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Timbuktu broke down the door to a 15th century mosque yesterday that locals believed had to stay shut until the end of the world, defying international calls to halt the destruction of holy sites in the UNESCO-listed city.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A dispute over military draft exemptions exposed cracks in Israel’s ruling coalition yesterday, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed a panel charged with drafting reforms of the law on the emotive issue.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Korean-American physician Jim Yong Kim took the reins of the poverty-fighting World Bank yesterday and pledged to protect developing countries at a pivotal moment for a world economy that appears to be losing steam rapidly.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto yesterday pledged to prioritize energy, labour and tax reforms and said he hopes to strike deals with opponents to help push some changes through Congress even before he takes office in December.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexican opposition candidate Enrique Pena Nieto’s campaign team claimed victory in the country’s presidential election yesterday after exit polls showed him winning by a comfortable margin.

DHAKA, (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said that a World Bank decision to use corruption allegations to cancel a $1.2-billion credit for a major bridge was “unacceptable” and the country would find other means to complete the project.

NAIROBI,  (Reuters) – Masked assailants launched simultaneous gun and grenade raids on two churches in a Kenyan town yesterday, killing at least 17 people in the worst attack in the country since Kenya sent troops into Somalia to crush al Shabaab militants.