World

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The Pentagon said today it believes China spent up to $180 billion on its military buildup last year, a far higher figure than acknowledged by Beijing, and it accused “Chinese actors” of being the world’s biggest perpetrators of economic espionage.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Newly installed Anglican Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the Right Reverend Dr Howard Gregory, is urging the church to dissociate itself from tainted money, which continues to circulate in the society where corruption is rampant.

BOSTON,  (Reuters) – Osiris Therapeutics Inc said yesterday that Canadian health regulators have approved its treatment for acute graft-versus host disease in children, making it the first stem cell drug to be approved for a systemic disease anywhere in the world.

ATHENS – Greece’s surging leftist leader predicted on Thursday his party would sweep next month’s election and refused to stop demanding an end to “barbaric” austerity policies he said were bankrupting the nation.

SANTO DOMINGO, (Reuters) – Voters in the Dominican Republic’s presidential election on Sunday will choose between two candidates vying to be seen as agents of change, even though one represents the ruling party and the other is a former president.

LISBON,  (Reuters) – Angola’s Supreme Court has annulled the appointment of the country’s electoral commission chief, a nomination which the opposition had criticised but which the ruling MPLA party defended as impartial, state news agency Angop reported yesterday.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras, its navy, and oil industry regulators rushed to investigate multiple reports of an oil leak from an offshore field yesterday, but said they found no signs of oil in the water.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Disco queen Donna Summer, whose sultry voice and pulsing rhythms on hits like “Last Dance” and “Love to Love You Baby” defined the 1970s disco era, died of cancer yesterday at age 63.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Lawmakers moved toward a confrontation over the U.S.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N.

OTTAWA,  (Reuters) – A U.N. official criticized Canada yesterday for allowing some of its people to go hungry, but the government dismissed him as a “patronizing academic” and said there are more pressing food concerns in other countries.

VATICAN CITY, (Reuters) – Leaders of the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ religious order knew that their most famous priest had fathered a child for many months before they acknowledged it this week, a top Vatican official told Reuters on Wednesday.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Western companies announced finds of huge additional quantities of gas off the coast of Mozambique and Tanzania, cementing the future of East Africa as a major new supplier exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to energy-hungry Asia.

TAMPA, Fla., (Reuters) – The FBI has opened an inquiry into the multibillion-dollar trading losses at JPMorgan Chase, stepping up pressure on the bank after key U.S.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Rebekah Brooks, a close confidante of Rupert Murdoch, was charged yesterday with interfering with a police investigation into a phone hacking scandal that has rocked the tycoon’s empire and sent shockwaves through the British political establishment.

ATHENS/BERLIN, (Reuters) – Attempts to form a government in Greece collapsed yesterday, jolting financial markets at the prospect that leftists opposed to the terms of an EU bailout could sweep to victory in a June election and tip the euro zone deeper into crisis.

WASHINGTON/BOGOTA, (Reuters) – A long-delayed free-trade deal between Colombia and the United States came into force yesterday, a step that should boost the Andean nation’s exports and foreign investment, President Juan Manuel Santos said.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – One of the two male masseurs who accused actor John Travolta of sexual assault dropped his $2 million lawsuit yesterday, but the lawyer for the second man said he was going ahead with that case and was confident of success.

CHICAGO,  (Reuters) – The U.S. government launched a national plan to address Alzheimer’s disease yesterday with funding for a first prevention study in high-risk patients and tests on an insulin nasal spray that has shown promise in earlier studies.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Fighting in Syria killed at least 32 people yesterday, activists said, and Saudi Arabia said stubborn violence was shredding the credibility of a UN-Arab League peace plan stipulating a truce and dialogue between President Bashar al-Assad and his foes.