World

SANFORD, Fla.,  (Reuters) – Neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman apologized to the family of Trayvon Martin yesterday, stunning a rapt courtroom and a national television audience at a hearing in which the judge granted Zimmerman $150,000 bail on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of the unarmed black teenager.

MADRID, (Reuters) – Spain retaliated against Argentina yesterday for seizing control of Spanish-owned energy company YPF with a measure that could curtail multimillion-dollar imports of biodiesel from the Latin American nation.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela asked Interpol yesterday to issue a notice for the arrest of a former Supreme Court justice who fled the country after he was removed from the bench for allegedly assisting a drug trafficker.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The Group of 20 nations yesterday pledged $430 billion in new funding to the International Monetary Fund, more than doubling its lending power in a bid to protect the global economy from the euro-zone debt crisis.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – At least 43 people were killed in a road accident when a cargo truck crashed into a tour bus in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, local government authorities said on Friday.

BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Syria and the United Nations signed an agreement yesterday on terms for hundreds of observers to monitor a ceasefire, but fierce diplomatic wrangling lies ahead to persuade the West the mission can have the authority and power to ensure peace.

PARIS – With his back against the wall, President Nicolas Sarkozy brushed off opinion polls that show he will lose France’s presidential election and delivered a defiant speech three days from the first round of the vote.

MIAMI, (Reuters) – Haitian President Michel Martelly has been released from a Miami hospital after undergoing medical treatment for a blood clot in his lung, Haiti’s government said yesterday.

BHUBANESWAR, India, (Reuters) – India successfully test-fired yesterday a nuclear-capable missile that can reach Beijing and Eastern Europe, thrusting the emerging Asian power into a small club of nations that can deploy nuclear weapons at such a great distance.

BAGHDAD,  (Reuters) – More than 20 bombs hit cities and towns across Iraq yesterday, killing at least 36 and wounding more than 100, police and hospital sources said, raising fears of sectarian strife in a country keen to show it can now maintain security.

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – A prominent U.S. Catholic nuns’ group said yesterday it was “stunned” that the Vatican reprimanded it for spending too much time on poverty and social justice concerns and not enough on abortion and gay marriage.

ACCRA,  (Reuters) – Ghana said yesterday that the $6 billion it is seeking from the Export-Import Bank of China through an existing $13 billion Chinese credit facility would fund new transport, education and health projects in the West African state.

BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. troops are seen posing with the maimed bodies of suspected Afghan insurgents in photos published yesterday, an incident that threatened to further fray U.S.-Afghan

BEIRUT/PARIS,  (Reuters) – Gunfire and protests near a team of U.N.

PORT-AU-PRINCE,  (Reuters) – Haitian President Michel Martelly, who was recovering in a Miami hospital yesterday from a blood clot in his lung, condemned the gunmen who stormed and briefly occupied the lower chamber of Parliament in Haiti’s capital a day earlier.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Perennial New Year’s Eve master of ceremonies and “American Bandstand” host Dick Clark, whose long-running television dance show helped rock ‘n’ roll win acceptance in mainstream America, died yesterday at age 82, a spokesman said.

(Reuters) – Five prestigious U.S. universities will create free online courses for students worldwide through a new, interactive education platform dubbed Coursera, the founders announced yesterday.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Three U.S. Secret Service employees under investigation for alleged misconduct with prostitutes in Colombia before a trip by President Barack Obama are leaving their jobs, the agency said yesterday.

MADRID, (Reuters) – Spain’s King Juan Carlos I hobbled out of a Madrid hospital yesterday and apologised for making an elephant-hunting trip to Botswana – a jaunt that has caused outrage in a country suffering from an economic crisis.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Talking about sex is still a cultural taboo in conservative India, but a Bollywood filmmaker is hoping to usher in change with a light-hearted take on infertility and sperm donation.