World

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal jury in Brooklyn yesterday found a former New York Democratic state senator, whose brief flirtation with the Republican party gridlocked the senate, guilty of embezzling money from federally funded healthcare clinics.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Hague war crimes prosecutor announced new charges yesterday against a Democratic Republic of Congo general accused of conscripting child fighters and an arrest warrant for a militia leader.

KINSHASA (Reuters) – Seven United Nations peacekeepers in Congo were wounded when gunmen opened fire at a protest in the East of the country yesterday, drawing condemnation from the UN Security Council.

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil plans to end automatic import licensing for about 10 perishable products including apples, raisins, wheat flour, potatoes and some cheeses and wines in retaliation against rising trade barriers in Argentina, a senior Brazilian government official told Reuters yesterday.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – More than 100 years after researchers first explored the potential to harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer, the field’s leading doctors see the concept finally proving itself on a large scale in the next year or two.

CADEREYTA JIMENEZ, Mexico, (Reuters) – Suspected drug gang killers dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near Mexico’s northern city of Monterrey in one of the country’s worst atrocities in recent years.

KABUL, (Reuters) – Gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital of Kabul yesterday, dealing another blow to the country’s attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez strode, sang and gave a rousing speech on Friday in a careful show of vigour after his latest cancer treatment in Cuba fanned rumours he was dying five months before an election.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has sacked a senior cleric after he decried cautious reforms in the world’s top oil exporter that allowed women to mix with unmarried men, Saudi Gazette reported yesterday.

BEIRUT, May 12 (Reuters) – Rebels fought the army in northern Syria on Saturday, activists said, and Syrian dissidents abroad gathered to try to unify and project themselves as a credible alternative to President Bashar al-Assad.

MADRID (Reuters) – Thousands of Spaniards fed up with economic misery and waving banners against bankers marched yesterday to mark the first anniversary of the grassroots “Indignados” movement that has sparked similar protests around the world.

 PARIS/VIENNA (Reuters) – An exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday that Iran has some 60 scientists and engineers involved in a concerted and expanding programme to develop nuclear weapons under defence ministry auspices.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – The Indian government announced an inquiry yesterday into the country’s main drug regulator, three days after a parliamentary report exposed dysfunction within the agency and alleged serious irregularities in how drugs are approved.

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – Comments from South Africa’s last white president, FW de Klerk, defending separate racial states during apartheid set off a storm of criticism yesterday from people still living with the legacy of decades of racial oppression.

ATHENS, (Reuters) – Greece’s politicians failed yesterday to agree a new government, sending the country hurtling towards a new vote, with radical leftists leading in the polls and poised to scrap the 130 billion euro bailout that staved off bankruptcy.

SEOUL,  (Reuters) – Six leaders from South Korea’s biggest Buddhist order have quit after secret video footage showed some supposedly serene monks raising hell, playing high-stakes poker, drinking and smoking.

SAN FRANCISCO,  (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s record initial public offering is already oversubscribed, a source familiar with the share listing said, days after the world’s largest social network embarked on a cross-country roadshow to drum up investor enthusiasm.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia,  (Reuters) – A rescue team found bodies but no survivors yesterday in the wreckage of a Russian passenger jet that crashed into a volcano in Indonesia during an exhibition flight with 45 people on board.

BEIJING,  (Reuters) – Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng and a family lawyer have accused local officials of detaining two of his relatives and hounding and harassing others in revenge for his recent escape from house arrest and for sparking an international furore.

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus yesterday, state media said, the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago.