WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States stepped back from the brink of default yesterday but congressional approval of a last-gasp deficit-cutting plan failed to dispel fears of a credit downgrade and future tax and spending feuds.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Lawmakers rejected Haitian President Michel Martelly’s new choice for prime minister yesterday, blocking his efforts to install a government and move ahead with rebuilding a country shattered by last year’s earthquake.
GUATEMALA CITY, (Reuters) – Guatemala yesterday sentenced four soldiers to 6,060 years of prison each, in the first conviction for a massacre during the country’s brutal 36-year civil war.
LONDON, (Reuters) – Stuart Kuttner, who ran the News of the World’s finances for 22 years as managing editor, was arrested yesterday over a phone-hacking scandal at the now-defunct tabloid which has rattled the British establishment, a source close to the case said.
PARIS, (Reuters) – A French magistrate has decided to decided to send giant oil company Total and its chief executive to trial on charges that the company engaged in corruption during the United Nations oil-for-food program in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, a judicial source said yesterday.
BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombian authorities have captured two leaders of a 20-ton-per-year cocaine operation that sent drug-laden submarines to the world’s top drug consumer, the United States, local police said yesterday.
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – State governments would have to identify persons forming corporations under legislation that was reintroduced yesterday in the U.S.
AMMAN, (Reuters) – Syrian government forces pressed their assault on anti-government protestors in the city of Hama yesterday oblivious to a wave of condemnation from Western powers.
LONDON, (Reuters) – A technology firm has told British legislators it was aware of the deletion of hundreds of thousands of emails at the request of News Corp unit News International between April 2010 and last month, parliamentarian Keith Vaz said on Monday.
UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) The famine in the Horn of Africa is spreading and may soon engulf as many as six more regions of the lawless nation of Somalia, the U.N.
MIAMI, (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Emily formed near the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles islands yetserday, far from oil and gas-production facilities in the U.S.
HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuba will revise its travel and immigration rules as part of a broader reform of its economic and social policies, Cuban President Raul Castro said yesterday.
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The Obama administration yesterday sued to block enforcement of Alabama’s new immigration law, widely considered to be the toughest measure in the United States to try to crack down on illegal immigrants.
CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appeared on television yesterday with his head closely shaved and bald patches from hair loss caused by chemotherapy for a cancer that has slowed him ahead of a re-election bid.
BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Leftist Colombian rebels still have a presence in neighbouring Venezuela, the head of Colombia’s armed forces said yesterday in a statement that could cause renewed friction with the OPEC nation.
CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday read excerpts of a letter sent to him by Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi expressing gratitude for strong support during the NATO-backed rebellion against his government.
AMMAN, (Reuters) – Syrians began the Muslim Ramadan fast in sombre mood today after troops stormed into Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre, in one of the bloodiest days of a five-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.