World

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan politician Leopoldo  Lopez said yesterday he will maintain his campaign to win the opposition leadership and challenge leftist President Hugo  Chavez despite a court upholding his ban from office.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States deported  nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants in fiscal 2011 — the highest  number since the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was  formed eight years ago.

BANI WALID, Libya (Reuters) – Fighters with Libya’s interim government fired their guns into the air and hoisted the country’s new flag over the centre of Bani Walid yesterday to celebrate their capture of one of the final bastions of Muammar Gaddafi’s loyalists.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid out the case for his return to the Kremlin yesterday and suggested President Dmitry Medvedev’s role in any future government was not yet a done deal.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s Supreme Court blocked high-profile opposition challenger Leopoldo Lopez yesterday from running against President Hugo Chavez in a 2012 vote despite an international ruling in his favour.

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Texas law enforcement officials say several Mexican drug cartels are luring American children as young as 11 to work in their smuggling operations.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bernard Madoff’s daughter-in-law, whose husband committed suicide in the wake of his father’s exposure in a massive Wall Street fraud, holds Madoff responsible for her spouse’s death and said that if she saw him today, she would spit in his face.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc said yesterday it sold 4 million iPhone 4S in the three days since it went on sale October 14.

CAIRO/AMMAN (Reuters) – Arab foreign ministers  stopped short of suspending Syria from their regional  organisation yesterday over its military crackdown on dissent,  instead urging the government and opposition to negotiate an end  to the violence.

HONG KONG,  (Reuters) – Plants and animals are  shrinking because of warmer temperatures and lack of water,  researchers said yesterday, warning it could have profound  implications for food production in years ahead.

CANBERRA,  (Reuters) – Australia’s government came  under pressure yesterday from rights groups and lawmakers to  investigate Sri Lanka’s top envoy to the country for war crimes,  risking a diplomatic row ahead of a summit of leaders from 54  Commonwealth nations in Perth.

(Reuters) – The first indictment of a U.S. bishop  for failing to report child pornography would have been  groundbreaking in itself but legal experts say a second charge  — against the diocese — is almost as rare.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Britons are now including  internet passwords in wills to ensure their online music,  photographs, videos and other digital data are not lost when  they die, a British study showed.

ROME (Reuters) – Anti-greed protesters rallied globally yesterday, denouncing bankers and politicians over the international economic crisis, with violence rocking Rome where cars were torched and bank windows smashed.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel on Sunday made public the names of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners it will free in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit as part of a deal it reached with Hamas.

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Torrential rain in Central America this week that forced thousands to abandon their homes and trapped many more has killed at least 45 people, with Guatemala the worst hit, authorities said yesterday.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haiti is “open for business” after its parliament approved a new government’s ambitious plan to relaunch the economy after last year’s catastrophic earthquake, Haitian leaders said yesterday.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The idea of Mexican drug  cartels cooperating with Iranian plotters to carry out bombings  and murders in the United States may be far-fetched.

PARIS – Proposals to double the size of the IMF as part of a  broader international response to Europe’s debt crisis  immediately ran into resistance from the United States and  others, burying the idea for now and firmly putting the onus  back on Europe.

MILAN, (Reuters) – Protesters worldwide geared up  for a cry of rage today against bankers, financiers and  politicians they accuse of ruining global economies and  condemning millions to poverty and hardship through greed.