World

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim retained his position atop Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s billionaires yesterday with an estimated worth of $69 billion, while his Mexican rival Ricardo Salinas Pliego enjoyed the largest increase in wealth.

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faced growing Western anger yesterday for preventing aid from entering a devastated district of Homs and over accusations of human rights abuses, including pictures said to show torture victims at a hospital in the city.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Two senior journalists working for Rupert Murdoch’s News International have apparently attempted suicide as pressure mounts at the scandal-hit publisher of the now-defunct News of the World.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – India’s Rahul Gandhi failed spectacularly to deliver a promised comeback for his Congress party in crucial state elections, casting fresh doubt on his capacity to become the next member of a storied dynasty to lead the country.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syria‘s President Bashar al-Assad faces growing pressure for blocking humanitarian aid and human rights abuses, with the UN humanitarian chief set to visit the country this week and the broadcast of harrowing pictures said to show torture victims at a hospital in the embattled city of Homs Secretly shot video footage aired yesterday by a British television station shows what it said were Syrian patients being tortured by medical staff at a state-run hospital in Homs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama appealed to Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to give sanctions more time to curb Iran‘s nuclear ambitions, but the Israeli prime minister gave no sign of backing away from possible military action.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian riot police detained more than 500 protesters including opposition leader Alexei Navalny yesterday at rallies challenging the legitimacy of Vladimir Putin’s victory in the presidential election.

KINSHASA (Reuters) – Three months after one of the world’s most expensive elections, the Democratic Republic of Congo has no parliament or new government and its people are beginning to wonder what has become of their publicity-shy president, Joseph Kabila.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran will hold run-off elections for 65 parliamentary seats, state media said yesterday, after loyalists to the paramount clerical leader won a dominating majority at the expense of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin claimed victory in Russia’s presidential election yesterday and, tears rolling down his cheeks, said it was a historical turning point that had prevented the country falling into the hands of enemies trying to usurp power.

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – The Red Cross delivered emergency aid to areas around the battered Baba Amro district of the Syrian city of Homs yesterday, but was blocked for a third day from entering the former rebel bastion amid reports of bloody reprisals by state forces.

(Jamaica Gleaner) WESTERN BUREAU: Fortune 500 company Convergys, one of the largest ICT organisations worldwide, will open a Jamaican call centre in Montego Bay, creating an initial 1,000 jobs with a footprint to expand to 3,000.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian forces renewed their bombardment of parts of the shattered city of Homs yesterday and for a second day blocked Red Cross aid meant for civilians stranded without food and fuel in the former rebel stronghold, activists and aid workers said.

GROSSETO, Italy (Reuters) – The captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner was not wearing his glasses on the evening of the accident and asked his first officer to check the radar for him, the officer’s lawyer said yesterday.

(Reuters) – Rescue teams and residents combed through storm-wrecked towns to assess damage yesterday from a chain of tornadoes that cut a 1,000-mile swath of destruction from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, as the death toll crept up to at least 37 people.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Many people have fought the urge to fall asleep during a boring meeting or the mid-afternoon slump but the problem seems to be more prevalent among airline pilots and train operators.

(Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had received “grisly reports” that Syrian government forces were arbitrarily executing, imprisoning and torturing people in the battle-scarred city of Homs after rebel fighters had fled.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – Long-time Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, stranded in the desert after rebels and a NATO missile strike wrecked his escape convoy last October, apparently wanted to stage a last stand as his enemies closed in, a U.N.

NEWARK, N.J., (Reuters) – More than two dozen people from the United States and China were charged yesterday with running a $325 million counterfeit goods ring through a New Jersey port, one of the largest smuggling busts of knock-offs in history, authorities said.

ISTANBUL, (Reuters) – Turkish President Abdullah Gul said yesterday Russia and Iran would soon realise they had little choice but to join international diplomatic efforts for the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.