World

ANCHORAGE, Alaska,  (Reuters) – A wildfire that  burned over 400 square miles (1 million sq km) of Alaska tundra  in the scorching summer of 2007 poured as much carbon into the  atmosphere as the entire Arctic normally absorbs each year,  according to a new study in the scientific journal Nature.

 ANKARA, (Reuters) –    Turkey’s top military brass  resigned yesterday, in the latest and possibly decisive round of  a long battle between the traditional secularist establishment  embodied by the army and the Islam-rooted government of Tayyip  Erdogan that has dominated Turkey for nearly a decade.

WARSAW, (Reuters) – Polish Defence Minister Bogdan  Klich resigned yesterday after a government report chronicled a  litany of errors and neglect by the crew of the military plane  that crashed in Russia last year killing Poland’s President Lech  Kaczynski and 95 others.

AMSTERDAM/BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – The U.N.-backed  Lebanon tribunal yesterday released the names, photographs and  details of four men wanted for killing statesman Rafik  al-Hariri, saying it had acted in a bid to speed up their  arrest.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Two British newspapers have been  found guilty of contempt of court for publishing potentially  prejudicial coverage of a former suspect in a murder  investigation, the Attorney General’s office said yesterday.

AMMAN,  (Reuters) – Syrian forces shot dead at least  20 civilians in attacks on pro-democracy demonstrations across  the country yesterday, the Syrian human rights organisation  Sawasiah said.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Urgent efforts to avoid an  unprecedented U.S. debt default hit another snag yesterday  when some rebel Republican lawmakers refused to back a budget  deficit plan proposed by their own congressional leaders.

NALUT/BENGHAZI, Libya,  (Reuters) – Libya’s rebels  say their military chief was shot dead in an incident that  remains shrouded in mystery and may point to deep divisions  within the movement trying to oust Muammar Gaddafi.

GUATEMALA CITY,  (Reuters) – The uphill struggle of Guatemala’s ruling leftists to field a candidate puts the  military establishment on the verge of regaining the presidency  just as probes into the country’s brutal civil war begin.

NEW YORK, (Reuters Life!) – A New York City  hospital has stopped asking many patients to dig out health  insurance cards and fill in endless forms, instead identifying  them by scanning the unique lattice of veins in their palm.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Scientists have found a flu  “super antibody” called FI6 that can fight all types of  influenza A viruses that cause disease in humans and animals and  say their discovery may be a turning point in the development of  new flu treatments.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska,  (Reuters) – Alaska scientists  have discovered the fossil of a rare, prehistoric marine  reptile that is likely the most complete remnant of the  creature ever found in North America.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Top Republicans and  Democrats worked behind the scenes yesterday on a compromise  to avert a crippling U.S.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Trimming U.S. funding to  the World Bank and other global lenders would reduce American  influence in developing countries and give China a competitive  edge, lawmakers were told yesterday.

LUSAKA,  (Reuters) – At least 33 people were killed  in Zambia yesterday when a bus smashed into a truck about 300  km (180 miles) east of the capital Lusaka, police said.

JAKARTA,  (Reuters) – An Indonesian family stopped a  wedding after discovering the groom was a woman, only for an  ex-boyfriend to save their blushes by stepping in to marry the  bride.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress and world  markets faced more uncertainty yesterday as Republican leaders  delayed action on a plan to raise the government’s $14.3  trillion borrowing limit, narrowing the chances for a deal to  avert a debt default.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – The main global grouping of gays  and lesbians, ILGA, has been formally recognised by the United  Nations against strong opposition from African and Islamic  countries, according to a U.N.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – A court in Mexico yesterday sentenced a 14-year-old U.S.

RABAT,  (Reuters) – At least 78 people were killed yesterday when a Moroccan military transport plane crashed into a  mountain in the south of the country during bad weather, the  military said in a statement carried by the state news agency.