World

LONDON, (Reuters) – The extradition to South Africa of a British man accused of conspiring to kill his wife in a fake car-jacking during the couple’s honeymoon in Cape Town was temporarily halted by London’s High Court yesterday over concerns for his mental health.

OTTAWA,  (Reuters) – Canada, intent on boosting development of the oil-rich tar sands, will speed up the process for approving big energy and industrial projects such as pipelines.

TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – At least 13 people were killed in a prison fight in northern Honduras yesterday, spotlighting the country’s dysfunctional prison system just weeks after a fire in a different jail killed more than 300 inmates.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad said yesterday Syria would spare no effort to ensure the success of international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace mission but warned it would not work without securing an end to foreign funding and arming of rebels opposing him.

GUATEMALA CITY,  (Reuters) – Guatemalan President Otto Perez accused Washington yesterday of pressuring Central American leaders to boycott a summit he convened last Saturday to discuss changes on drug policy in the region, including decriminalization of narcotics.

OTTAWA,  (Reuters) – Canada plans to eliminate a backlog of stale immigration applications by skilled workers, in a potentially controversial move designed to enable immigrants whose skills are in greater current demand to enter the country faster.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Leaders of the BRICS group of emerging market nations pressed Western powers to cede more voting rights at the IMF this year and flayed the rich world’s reflationary monetary policies for putting global economic stability in jeopardy.

BAMAKO/ABIDJAN,  (Reuters) – Jets carrying West African presidents for a meeting with Mali’s new military leaders were forced to turn back mid-flight yesterday after hundreds of supporters of last week’s coup invaded Bamako’s main runway.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The Obama administration’s top courtroom lawyer made an impassioned plea yesterday for the Supreme Court to save President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, capping three days of historic arguments that left it unclear how the nine justices would rule.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – Doctors yesterday said cancer treatments had successfully eliminated a throat tumour from Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, dispelling immediate fears over the health of the popular former president and prompting his cautious return to Brazil’s political debate.

OTTAWA, (Reuters) – The Canadian government says it is taking action to try to ensure that immigrants with foreign professional credentials are actually qualified to work in their chosen fields in Canada, with the screening to be done before they arrive.

HAVANA, March 28 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict called for an end to the U.S.

(Reuters) – Australia’s decision to block Huawei from bidding for work on its $38 billion national broadband network has less to do with the Chinese telecoms firm itself and more to do with a growing concern that foreign countries – particularly China – are stealing the country’s governmental and commercial secrets via the Internet, security analysts and researchers said.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Field trials are under way in England of a genetically modified (GM) wheat that strikes fear into aphids and attracts a deadly predator to devour them, providing an alternative to the insecticides now used to control the crop pest.

AUSTIN, Texas,  (Reuters) – U.S. authorities filed criminal charges yesterday against a JetBlue pilot who screamed over the radio, pounded on the door of the cockpit and was tackled by passengers during a chaotic flight from New York forced to make an emergency landing in Texas.

BAGHDAD – Arab foreign ministers called yesterday for a U.N.-backed peace plan for Syria to be put into action after President Bashar al-Assad agreed to the proposal, which urges an end to violence but does not demand the Syrian leader step down.

ABIDJAN/BAMAKO, (Reuters) – Mali’s neighbours threatened yesterday to use sanctions and a readiness to use military force to dislodge the army leaders behind last week’s coup, urging them to quickly hand back power to civilian rulers.

BEIRUT – Syria has accepted a U.N.-sponsored peace plan, international envoy Kofi Annan said yesterday, as troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad raided rebel forces who have taken refuge across the border in Lebanon.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Democratic lawmakers yesterday blasted police handling of a racially charged case in which a neighbourhood watch volunteer shot dead an unarmed black teenager in Florida, accusing local law enforcement officials of botching the investigation.

UNITED NATIONS,  (Reuters) – The United Nations warned yesterday that a lack aid money for Haiti was putting hundreds of thousands of displaced people at risk by forcing humanitarian agencies to cut services in one of the world’s poorest countries.