World

BOSTON (Reuters) – Kara Kennedy Allen, the only daughter of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, has died at age 51, a Kennedy family friend said yesterday.

Islamabad (Reuters) – The United States accused Pakistan yesterday of having links to a militant group Washington blames for an attack on the US embassy and other targets in Kabul and said the government in Islamabad must cut those ties.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A pro-business Hindu leader who some think could be India’s next prime minister began a “harmony” fast yesterday to soften his image as a hardliner blamed for religious riots that claimed hundreds of mostly Muslim victims nine years ago.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday he would demand full membership of the United Nations for a Palestinian state when he goes to the UN General Assembly next week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.

LONDON (Reuters AlertNet) – The world reacted too slowly to the Horn of Africa hunger crisis leaving aid agencies racing to catch up with the region’s needs, the head of a coalition of Britain’s leading charities said.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s scandal-plagued Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced fresh legal and political headaches yesterday, with sliding approval ratings and new revelations of parties and young women paid for sex.

LONDON/ZURICH (Reuters) – British police charged  UBS trader Kweku Adoboli yesterday with fraud and  false accounting dating back to 2008, a day after the Swiss bank  was plunged into crisis by revealing a $2 billion trading loss.

TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI (Reuters) – The leaders of France and Britain were feted in Libya for their support of the uprising which overthrew Muammar Gaddafi while forces of the new government closed in on his hometown Sirte in an effort to complete their victory.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States named the Indian Mujahideen (IM) to its official blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations on Thursday, saying it has killed hundreds of innocent civilians in attacks dating back to 2005.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Al Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan has been killed in a CIA drone strike, two US officials said yesterday.

(Reuters) – The US pursuit of offshore tax evaders is widening to include Israel, where US authorities are scrutinizing three of Israel’s largest banks over suspicions their Swiss outposts helped American clients evade taxes, people briefed on the matter said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some 450,000 New Yorkers have quit smoking since 2002, reducing the smoking rate from 22 percent to a record low of 14 percent, city officials said yesterday.

WASHINGTON/HOUSTON (Reuters) – The United States heaped the lion’s share of blame for the country’s biggest ever offshore oil spill on BP yesterday as the government issued its final assessment of last year’s Gulf disaster.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in Pennsylvania are mounting a bid to end the political battleground state’s winner-take-all system for electoral votes, which could hurt President Barack Obama’s re-election chances in 2012.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lawyers for former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo pleaded with a US judge yesterday to block his extradition to the United States on money-laundering charges, saying he was improperly arrested in the Central American nation.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip  Erdogan told Arab states yesterday it was time to raise the  Palestinian flag at the United Nations and accused Israel of  obstructing peace in the Middle East.

AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) – Victims of sexual abuse by  the clergy want the International Criminal Court to investigate  Pope Benedict and three Vatican officials, accusing them of  allowing the rape and abuse of children.

KABUL, (Reuters) – NATO attack helicopters circled  over an unfinished building in the centre of Kabul last night in an operation to flush out Taliban fighters, more  than 15 hours after the insurgents launched their biggest  assault on the Afghan capital.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The number of Americans  living below the poverty line rose to a record 46 million last  year, the U.S.

DUBLIN, (Reuters) – One of the most prominent  members of the Irish Catholic Church has called for an end to  compulsory celibacy for priests, saying it is pushing new  recruits away.