World

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq has signed a contract to buy 18 Lockheed Martin F-16 warplanes to bolster its air force, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said yesterday.

LONDON (Reuters) – Internet activists will this week make an 11th-hour attempt to stop governments seizing more control of the Web that has fuelled Arab revolutions, enabled mass leaks of US diplomatic cables and allowed online piracy to thrive.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Forty-two countries are close to agreeing an upgrade of their Global Procurement Agreement (GPA), a reform that could unlock tens of billions of dollars of commercial opportunities, and many times more if China gets on board, trade sources said yesterday.

JEDDAH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s king announced yesterday women would be given the right to vote and stand in elections, a bold shift in the ultra-conservative absolute monarchy as pressure for social and democratic reform sweeps the Middle East.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s interim rulers said yesterday they had found a mass grave containing the bodies of 1,270 inmates killed by Muammar Gaddafi’s security forces in a 1996 massacre at a prison in southern Tripoli.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – US President Barack Obama kicked off a West Coast fundraising tour yesterday with harsh criticism of his Republicans opponents, accusing them of “ideological pushback” at a time of national crisis.

LONDON (Reuters) – Young people across the globe are having more unprotected sex and know less about effective contraception options, a multinational survey revealed today.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s chief spokesman said yesterday the deposed Libyan leader and his family had not helped themselves to Libya’s oil wealth and that they were “among the poorest citizens”.

BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) – Fans and opponents of bullfighting crowded into Barcelona yesterday for the last “corrida” to be held in the city’s La Monumental arena following a ban on the traditional Spanish spectacle in Catalonia.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin declared yesterday that he planned to reclaim the Russian presidency in an election next March that could open the way for the former KGB spy to rule until 2024.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syria has banned most imports except raw materials and grains, local businessmen said yesterday, in a move to preserve foreign currency reserves as pressure grows from a popular rebellion and Western sanctions against Syria’s rulers.

SANAA, (Reuters) – At least 17 protesters and soldiers were killed during an attack by government forces on an opposition protest camp in Yemen’s capital after President Ali Abdullah Saleh returned after a three-month absence, witnesses and protesters said  yesterday.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Weapons seized from sites in Tripoli have been taken to other parts of Libya by fighters who filled the capital to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, a representative of one of the city’s armed groups said yesterday.

PARIS (Reuters) – A corruption investigation is circling closer to President Nicolas Sarkozy as a third ally comes under pressure in the so-called “Karachi Affair”, accused of alerting a friend in police custody to secret witness testimony.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Europe is working on ways to boost the firepower of its bailout fund, top officials said yesterday, after the United States, China and other countries urged swift action to contain its debt crisis.

(Reuters) – The killing of chief peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani has robbed Afghanistan of the only figure with the range of international contacts to end the conflict there, an influential Arab colleague said  yesterday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations yesterday to recognize a state for his people, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the world body as a “theatre of the absurd” and said only direct talks could deliver peace.

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pakistan warned the United States it risked losing an ally if it kept accusing Islamabad of playing a double game in the war against militancy, escalating the crisis in relations between the two countries.

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – A judge yesterday raised to $217,500 the total bill Casey Anthony must pay to compensate law enforcement agencies for lying in 2008 about the fate of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Olympic track star Carl Lewis said yesterday he was dropping his run for political office in New Jersey after a court ruled that he had not established proper residency to run for the post he sought.