World

KATHMANDU,  (Reuters) – Hindu-majority Nepal said yesterday that it will start issuing identification cards with three categories for genders – a move hailed by gay activists, who said previous regulations had been discriminatory.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan is cracking down on portly policemen after only a quarter of the 19,000 officers in the Punjab province passed a fitness test.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi became only the second woman after Queen Elizabeth to address both houses of Britain’s parliament yesterday, a rare honour she used to ask for help in a once in a generation opportunity to bring democracy to her country.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States yesterday named three alleged leaders of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram as “foreign terrorists”, the first time it has blacklisted members of the Islamist group blamed for attacks across Africa’s most populous nation.

MONTEVIDEO,  (Reuters) – Uruguay’s government unveiled a proposal on Wednesday to legalize and monitor the marijuana market, arguing that the drug is less harmful than the black market where it is trafficked.

DAKAR,  (Reuters) – U.N. experts have evidence Rwanda’s defence minister and two top military officials have been backing an army mutiny in the east of neighbouring Congo, according to notes of their briefing to a closed-door U.N.

HOUSTON,  (Reuters) – The chief investment officer of disgraced former billionaire Allen Stanford’s defunct financial firm pleaded guilty yesterday to lying to U.S.

ASUNCION, (Reuters) – Paraguay’s Congress moved to impeach leftist President Fernando Lugo yesterday over charges that he mishandled a land eviction in which 17 police and peasant farmers were killed last week, and the Senate will decide his fate today.

ISLAMABAD,  (Reuters) – A court has issued an arrest warrant for the ruling party veteran poised to replace Pakistan’s ousted prime minister, local television stations reported yesterday, deepening political uncertainty in the strategic U.S.

BUCHAREST,  (Reuters) – Former Romanian prime minister Adrian Nastase tried to kill himself yesterday when police came to take him to start a two-year jail term for corruption, a case touted by Romania as proof that it is getting tough on graft.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A U.S. congressional panel voted yesterday to charge Attorney General Eric Holder with contempt of Congress after the Obama administration invoked executive privilege for the first time since coming to office, withholding some documents related to a failed gun-running investigation.

HONG KONG,  (Reuters) – Scientists say they have extracted a powerful antibody from a recovered dengue patient in Singapore that can smother and choke the virus to death, a discovery that they hope may offer a new weapon to control the deadly disease.

KAMPALA,  (Reuters) – Uganda said on Wednesday it was banning 38 non-governmental organisations it accuses of promoting homosexuality and recruiting children.

LOS CABOS, Mexico, (Reuters) – Europe won support from world leaders yesterday for an ambitious but slow-moving overhaul of the euro zone, even as pressure built in financial markets for quicker solutions to its debt crisis that threatens the world economy.

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – World powers and Iran failed to secure a breakthrough at talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme yesterday and set no date for more political negotiations, despite the threat of a new Middle East conflict if diplomacy collapses.

ISLAMABAD,  (Reuters) – Pakistan’s increasingly assertive Supreme Court declared Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ineligible for office yesterday, plunging the country into fresh turmoil as it deals with Islamic militancy, a weak economy and a crisis in relations with the United States.

QUITO/LONDON, (Reuters) – WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange has taken refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London and asked for asylum, officials said yesterday, in a last-ditch bid to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crime accusations.

LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) – World leaders pressured Europe yesterday to take ambitious new steps to resolve its debt crisis after a victory for pro-bailout parties in a Greek election failed to calm markets or ease worries that wider turmoil could derail the global economy.

LONDON (Reuters) – At least one person is being killed in an environmental dispute around the world each week as the battle for land, natural resources and forests becomes increasingly violent, a report said today.

LONDON (Reuters) – The treasurer of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party was accused of violating parliamentary rules after he arranged a private dinner in the House of Lords for paying American Express card-holders, the Independent newspaper reported today.