World

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Libya’s new flag flew at the United Nations yesterday for the first time since Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow as US President Barack Obama called for the last of the deposed leader’s loyalists to stop fighting.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – US President Barack Obama will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today to urge him to drop plans to ask the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state despite US and Israeli objections.

KABUL (Reuters) – A Taliban suicide bomber yesterday killed Burhanuddin Rabbani, former Afghan president and head of the government’s peace council, a dramatic show of insurgent reach and a heavy blow to hopes of reaching a political end to the war.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The bodies of 35 people with suspected links to organized crime were found in two abandoned trucks on a highway underpass in the eastern Mexican city of Veracruz yesterday, the local prosecutor said.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told US President Barack Obama yesterday that Brazil is working with other emerging markets to provide help for troubled European economies, an official told Reuters.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Liberal Democrats are paying a high price for their place in coalition government, with most voters seeing them as divided and unlikely to keep their promises, a Reuters Ipsos/MORI poll showed today.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – US prosecutors made new allegations yesterday in a probe of the Full Tilt Poker website, accusing self-styled “Poker Professor” Howard Lederer and professional poker champion Christopher Ferguson and others of paying themselves more than $440 million while defrauding other players.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As the US government grapples to find ways to trim the bloated federal deficit, a new report suggests officials might start with cutting out $16 muffins and $10 cookies.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN chief yesterday he would seek full membership for a Palestinian state at the United Nations, a move the United States and Israel warn could derail hopes for resuming peace talks.

PARIS (Reuters) – The French media scorned what it called an insincere and staged TV apology by Dominique Strauss-Kahn for his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid, with many noting he left the door ajar for a eventual political comeback.

BANI WALID/SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) – Libya’s interim government said its forces seized the airport and fort in Sabha, one of the last strongholds of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi which also controls the main route south out of Libya.

LUSAKA (Reuters) – Zambians head to the polls today to vote in a closely contested election in Africa’s biggest copper producer between incumbent Rupiah Banda and nationalist opposition leader Michael Sata.

ASUNCION (Reuters) – Paraguay halted beef exports until December and ordered the slaughter of hundreds of cattle yesterday after officials detected an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the beef-exporting nation.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A last-ditch international push began in New York yesterday to try to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a crisis over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Libya’s interim leaders failed to agree a new cabinet yesterday in the latest setback to attempts to normalise the running of a government still bogged down by battles with pro-Muammar Gaddafi forces.

LONDON  (Reuters) – The global economic impact of the five leading chronic diseases — cancer, diabetes, mental illness, heart disease, and respiratory disease — could reach $47 trillion over the next 20 years, according to a study by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

SANAA (Reuters) – At least 26 people were shot dead and hundreds wounded yesterday when security forces fired on demonstrators who charged police lines in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, in a dramatic escalation of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced growing pressure yesterday to resign after embarrassing new revelations of parties and young women prompted questions about his ability to govern a country rocked by financial crisis.

BANI WALID/SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan interim government forces charged back into the besieged desert town of Bani Walid yesterday, a day after diehard loyalists of fallen strongman Muammar Gaddafi beat them into a humiliating retreat.

RENO, Nev. (Reuters) – The death toll in the crash of a vintage World War Two fighter plane near the grandstand at a Nevada air race has risen to nine, authorities said yesterday.