MANAMA, (Reuters) – Bahrain sentenced eight prominent Shi’ite Muslim activists and opposition leaders to life in prison yesterday on charges of plotting a coup during protests in the Gulf island kingdom earlier this year.
LOS ANGELES, (Reuters Life!) – “Rhinestone Cowboy” singer Glen Campbell says he is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, and has recorded one last album as a farewell to his fans.
BEIJING, (Reuters) – The dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, whose detention in April ignited an international uproar, was released on bail yesterday under conditions likely to keep the outspoken critic of Communist Party controls silent for now.
ATHENS, (Reuters) – Greece’s embattled government survived a confidence vote on Wednesday that was crucial to avoiding a sovereign default, as thousands of protesters chanted insults outside parliament.
LONDON, (Reuters) – British police arrested a 19-year-old man in England on suspicions that he was linked to cyber attacks on the CIA, Britain’s anti-organized crime agency and Sony Corp.
NEW YORK, (Reuters) – India’s consul general in New York and his family treated a former maid like a slave, paying her $300 a month, confiscating her passport and sexually harassing her, a lawsuit against the family said.
MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexican police captured the suspected leader of a cult-like drug cartel yesterday in the latest blow to a gang that was until recently one of the most notorious in the country.
GENEVA, (Reuters) – The United Nations urged all governments yesterday to refrain from sending back Haitians to their country, which is still reeling from an earthquake 18 months ago.
TUNIS (Reuters) – A Tunisian court sentenced former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in absentia yesterday to 35 years in jail, six months after his overthrow in a revolution helped to inspire the “Arab Spring”.
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak is suffering from cancer, his defence lawyer said yesterday, citing a medical report to assess whether the former leader is fit enough to face trial.
LONDON (Reuters) – More investment in midwifery could save many of the millions of babies and hundreds of thousands of women who still die every year because of a lack of skilled healthcare during childbirth, the United Nations said yesterday.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – An eight-year-old Pakistani girl was kidnapped by Islamist militants who forced her to wear a suicide vest to attack security forces, police said yesterday.
MOSCOW (Reuters) – At least 44 people were killed when a passenger plane broke up and caught fire on coming into land in heavy fog in north-western Russia, an Emergency Ministry spokeswoman said today.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon may have almost blown his chances for re-election by antagonizing Moscow over the Balkans in 2008 but he has since focused on pleasing the United States, Russia and other big UN powers, making his re-election today a certainty.
BONN, Germany, (Reuters) – “Ask for a camel when you expect to get a goat,” runs a Somali saying that sums up the fading of ambitions for United Nations talks on slowing climate change — aim high, but settle for far less.
MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Yelena Bonner, a relentless critic of human rights abuses by Soviet-era authorities and the widow of Nobel Peace laureate Andrei Sakharov, has died at the age of 88, her children said.
TRIPOLI – NATO admitted yesterday that its weapons destroyed a house in Tripoli in which Libyan officials said nine civilians were killed, an incident likely to sow new doubts inside the alliance about its mission in Libya.