World

CARACAS (Reuters) – A new Latin American and Caribbean organization backed Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the British-ruled Falkland Islands and slammed US sanctions on Cuba at yesterday’s end of a two-day summit.

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin’s ruling party could see its vast parliamentary majority cut back in elections that began today in the icy tundra and sparsely-populated swathes of Russia’s far east.

ATLANTA (Reuters) – US Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain effectively ended his 2012 White House race yesterday, saying “false and unproved” sexual accusations have made it impossible for him to carry on a credible campaign.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least 23 people were reported killed in Syria yesterday as violence intensified in the eighth month of an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, pushing the death toll close to 4,600, an activist group said.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – The storming of the British Embassy in Tehran has bared a rift in Iran’s ruling elite with conservative hardliners pushing Iran towards global isolation as they manoeuvre for the upper hand over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ahead of elections in 2012.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Showing off new energy after his  recent cancer treatment, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez  hosted Latin American leaders at a meeting yesterday to create  a new regional body that pointedly excludes the United States.

 PARIS/BERLIN – British Prime Minister David Cameron  threatened yesterday to obstruct a Franco-German drive for swift  change to the European Union’s treaty, a sign of the difficulty  leaders will face transforming Europe to save the euro.

(Reuters) – A cyber warfare expert claims he has  linked the Stuxnet computer virus that attacked Iran’s nuclear  program in 2010 to Conficker, a mysterious “worm” that surfaced  in late 2008 and infected millions of PCs.

GENEVA,  (Reuters) – Syria is on the cusp of  civil war as rebel soldiers and others take up arms against the  government of President Bashar al-Assad, the top U.N.

PALENQUE, Mexico, (Reuters) – If you are worried the  world will end next year based on the Mayan calendar, relax:  the end of time is still far off.

CHICAGO,  (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug  Administration issued new guidelines to medical device makers  developing a potentially revolutionary device for type 1  diabetes, saying they should speed its delivery to patients.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of  small shopkeepers went on strike across India yesterday to  protest a government decision to allow foreign retail giants  like Wal-Mart Stores Inc to enter the country’s $450  billion retail market.

BRASILIA, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Brazil moved aggressively to  shield its economy from the euro-zone debt crisis on Thursday,  taking a flurry of measures to boost consumption and investment  in Latin America’s biggest country.

MIAMI, (Reuters) – The World Bank is allocating $255  million for Haiti’s post-earthquake reconstruction over the  next 12 months, including support for education, agriculture  and disaster risk management, the bank said yesterday.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo  Chavez hosts a regional summit this week that puts his recovery  from cancer at center stage as he begins his toughest election  campaign yet.

THE HAGUE, (Reuters) – Former Ivory Coast  President Laurent Gbagbo was arrested and flown to The Hague  overnight to face charges of crimes against humanity at the  International Criminal Court, the first former head of state to  be tried by the ICC since its inception in 2002.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – India’s parliament has  always been a boisterous and chaotic place that, like the  country itself, still somehow worked: these days, it’s not even  muddling through.

LIMA, (Reuters) – Opponents of Newmont Mining’s $4.8  billion Conga project refused to end their rallies yesterday, saying Peru must permanently cancel the proposed  mine after temporarily halting work on it to avert violence.

LUSAKA,  (Reuters) – Zambian police charged a  former labour minister with receiving stolen property after 2.1  billion kwacha ($414,000) was found buried at his farm, in the  first high-profile case in a graft crackdown under new President  Michael Sata.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – When Vikram Akula came  to speak at the World Economic Forum’s India Summit in New Delhi  last year, it was clear that the once-thriving banker to the  poor was beginning to lose his sheen.