World

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York man who went to elaborate lengths to impersonate his dead mother as part of a real estate scam was sentenced yesterday to a minimum of 13 years and eight months in prison, prosecutors said.

(Reuters) – The University of Notre Dame and dozens of other Catholic institutions sued President Barack Obama’s administration yesterday to block a government regulation that requires employers to provide health insurance coverage for contraceptives to employees.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A former senior telecommunications official in Haiti was sentenced to nine years in prison yesterday for accepting about $500,000 in bribes from two US companies that secured lucrative long-distance phone contracts in the Caribbean nation.

CHICAGO,  (Reuters) – NATO will hand over the lead role in combat operations to Afghan forces across the country by mid-2013, alliance leaders said yesterday as they charted a path out of a war that has lost public support and strained budgets in Western nations.

Port-au-Prince,  (Reuters) – Haitian authorities yesterday announced the arrest of 59 uniformed former soldiers and several alleged supporters who staged a series of protests on Friday and Saturday calling for the return of the nation’s disbanded army.

SANT’ AGOSTINO, Italy, (Reuters) – A strong earthquake in northern Italy killed at least six people, injured dozens and damaged historic buildings including a famed mediaeval castle early yesterday, waking terrified citizens and sending thousands running into the streets.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who with brothers Barry and Maurice helped define the disco era with their falsetto harmonies and funky beats, has died.

MUMBAI (Reuters) – He’s been called the “best film school” in India and film-maker Anurag Kashyap is living up to his name.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexican investigators widened a probe into military corruption in the drug war, holding retired General Ricardo Escorcia and retired Lieutenant Colonel Silvio Hernandez in custody for alleged ties to a cartel.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – “I Feel Love”, the 1977 hit by disco queen Donna Summer, shot back into the British charts days after the singer’s death, the Official Charts Company said yesterday.

TRIPOLI, (Reuters) – Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of a PanAm flight over Lockerbie, died of cancer yesterday aged 60, leaving many questions on the attack and its aftermath unanswered.

CAMP DAVID, Md, (Reuters) – World leaders backed keeping Greece in the euro zone yesterday and vowed to take all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while revitalizing a global economy increasingly threatened by Europe’s debt crisis.

BRINDISI, Italy (Reuters) – A 16-year-old girl was killed in southern Italy by a bomb that exploded in front of her school before classes yesterday in an unprecedented attack that wounded 10 others, one seriously.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States yesterday after China allowed him to leave a hospital in Beijing in a move that could signal the end of a diplomatic rift between the two countries.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Thousands of demonstrators protested in Mexico City yesterday against opposition presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, who is far ahead in polls and poised to lead the party that ruled Mexico for much of the 20th century back to power.

CAMP DAVID, Md, (Reuters) – President Barack Obama told G8 leaders meeting at Camp David that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must leave power, and pointed to Yemen as a model of how political transition could work there, the White House said yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO,  (Reuters) – The historic initial public offering of Facebook Inc did not go as planned yesterday, as the social networking company’s sky-high valuation combined with trading glitches left the stock languishing near its offering price at the market close.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Spanish oil company Repsol said yesterday that the first well in an oil exploration project in Cuban waters has come up dry, delivering bad news to the communist island striving for economic strength and energy independence.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ended a week-long silence yesterday to say he was resting, following a diet and trying to tame his workaholic ways as he recovers from cancer treatment.

BRUSSELS/LONDON – European officials are working on contingency plans in case Greece bombs out of the euro zone, the EU’s trade commissioner said on Friday, as European share prices tumbled and Germany warned of continuing financial turmoil.