World

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The number of Americans  living below the poverty line rose to a record 46 million last  year, the U.S.

DUBLIN, (Reuters) – One of the most prominent  members of the Irish Catholic Church has called for an end to  compulsory celibacy for priests, saying it is pushing new  recruits away.

CONAKRY,  (Reuters) – Guinea will launch a nationwide  review of mining contracts to root out “unconscionable  provisions” granted by previous rulers, and has toned down  Chinese involvement in the resource sector, Mines Minister  Mohamed Lamine Fofana told Reuters.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – The NATO bombing campaign which fatally weakened Muammar Gaddafi’s rule had a secret asset: a 24-year-old Libyan woman who spent months spying on military facilities and passing on the details to the alliance.

PARIS (Reuters) – Former French president Jacques Chirac and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin have denied  accusations by a one-time aide that they took millions of  dollars in illicit cash handouts from African leaders.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama sent his jobs bill to Congress yesterday and proposed paying for it by eliminating $467 billion in tax breaks for richer Americans and companies, meeting immediate resistance from Republicans.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s banks face some of the world’s toughest regulations under reforms outlined yesterday, which require them to insulate their retail lending activities and store up billions in extra capital at a cost of up to 7 billion pounds ($11 billion).

NAIROBI (Reuters) – At least 75 bodies have been recovered after petrol that had spilled into an open sewer caught fire and sent a wave of flame through a densely populated slum in the Kenyan capital, police said yesterday.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Children yearned for lost  parents and grown men and women sobbed in raw grief on the hard  stone bearing the names of nearly 3,000 dead as America  commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Sept.

GUATEMALA CITY,  (Reuters) – Guatemalans anxious for  relief from out-of-control crime voted for a new president yesterday with the leading candidates promising to crack down on  gangs and drug cartels terrorizing the country.

TRIPOLI,  (Reuters) – Defiant and angry, captured  Libyan spy chief Bouzaid Dorda denied any wrongdoing when he was  presented to Reuters reporters yesterday by the former  insurgents who tracked him down in the capital Tripoli the  previous day.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Actor Cliff Robertson, who  won an Oscar playing a mentally disabled janitor in “Charly”  and worked in movies ranging from “PT 109” to “Spider-Man 3,”  died in New York on Saturday, the day after his 88th birthday.

NEAR BANI WALID, Libya – Libya’s new authorities launched a military assault on one of the last remaining bastions of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday, and the provisional government’s head arrived for the first time in the capital to take charge.

STONE TOWN, Zanzibar (Reuters) – Survivors of a ferry that capsized off Zanzibar overnight killing at least 192 passengers said the vessel was overcrowded and appeared to be in trouble even before it started its ill-fated voyage.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s army rulers vowed yesterday to try those behind the violence that pushed Israel to evacuate its ambassador from Cairo, as they struggled to contain public fury against the Jewish state while fending off US criticism.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Barack Obama said yesterday the United States was stronger 10 years after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks and Americans would “carry on” despite continued threats against their safety.

THESSALONIKI, Greece (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said yesterday he would do whatever it takes to rescue his country from bankruptcy and stay in the euro zone, as doubts in Europe grew over its membership in the bloc.

CAIRO,  (Reuters) – Hundreds of Egyptians stormed the  building housing Israel’s mission in Cairo and threw embassy  documents and its national flag from windows, while state  television said today that Israel’s envoy, his family and  staff had been flown home.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s core leadership  is badly wounded and almost certainly incapable of mounting  another attack like the one on Sept.

AMMAN, (Reuters) – Syrian forces shot dead six  pro-democracy protesters yesterday, activists said, after  demonstrations called for foreign help and Turkey indicated that  its patience was running thin with the bloody crackdown.