World

ATHENS,  (Reuters) – Greece approved the first of two  austerity measures yesterday despite worsening street  violence, in a vote vital to winning fresh international aid so  it can pay its debts on time and stave off bankruptcy.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama  called yesterday for new steps to spur job growth and tax  hikes on the rich, hardening a stance that will likely  complicate deficit reduction talks with Republicans.

AMMAN, (Reuters) – Syrian troops shot dead 11  villagers yesterday, residents said, as authorities pressed  on with a tank-led assault that has driven thousands of refugees  across the northwest border with Turkey.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela and Cuba released  new photographs and video footage of President Hugo Chavez yesterday in an effort to stop speculation the socialist leader  was seriously ill after undergoing surgery in Havana.

KABUL, (Reuters) – At least 10 Afghan civilians were  killed when suicide bombers and heavily armed Taliban insurgents  attacked a hotel frequented by Westerners in the Afghan capital  late yesterday, Afghan officials said.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – French Finance Minister  Christine Lagarde yesterday clinched the top job at the IMF,  keeping the international lender in the hands of a European at  a time of growing concern over a possible Greek debt default.

TRIPOLI/AMSTERDAM,  (Reuters) – Libya’s Muammar  Gaddafi could fall within two to three months, the International  Criminal Court’s prosecutor said yesterday, as rebels sought to  build on a gradual advance towards Tripoli.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexico has increased  security spending six-fold in the past five years but  carjackings, kidnappings and other violent crime are rising  steadily, an independent study showed yesterday.

TOKYO, (Reuters Life!) – Women around the world feel  stressed and pressed for time, but women in emerging markets are  more stressed than their sisters in developed nations — and  Indian women say they are the most stressed of all, according to  a survey published yesterday.

THE HAGUE/TRIPOLI (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant yesterday for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and rebels trying to oust him said their forces had advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of the capital.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Some of Syria’s leading intellectuals called yesterday for sweeping political change that could end 41 years of Assad family rule, at a rare conference allowed by the authorities under pressure from a three-month uprising.

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Missile strikes from two US drones killed at least 21 suspected militants in Pakistan’s South Waziristan yesterday, Pakistani officials said, part of an intensified US assault in the tribal belt this month.

MIAMI (Reuters) – An American man who ran a home for impoverished boys in Haiti has been arrested on charges that he forced them to perform sex acts in exchange for food, shelter and schooling, US prosecutors said on Friday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A jury convicted former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich yesterday of corruption for trying to trade the US senate seat once held by President Barack Obama for financial and political gain.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An asteroid with an estimated girth as large as a garbage truck soared within 7,500 miles (12,070 km) of the Earth yesterday as it passed harmlessly over the Atlantic Ocean, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Senior allies of Venezuela’s  socialist President Hugo Chavez have dismissed reports he is  sicker than the government has admitted, telling his enemies to  “stop dreaming” of his death.

KABUL, (Reuters) – The United Nations urged the  Afghan parliament yesterday not to take any action that might  provoke unrest after election officials rejected a ruling by a  specially appointed court that threw out a quarter of lawmakers  elected last year.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria,  (Reuters) – Suspected members of  a radical Islamist sect threw bombs at a drinking spot in  Nigeria’s northeastern town of Maiduguri yesterday, killing  around 25 people, witnesses and military sources said.

CASABLANCA, Morocco,  (Reuters) – Thousands of rival  demonstrators marched through cities in Morocco yesterday over  constitutional reforms proposed by King Mohammed after unrest  inspired by “Arab Spring” uprisings in the Arab world.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s political crisis worsened yesterday with lawmakers voting to sack the five most senior judicial officials and international consternation growing after a presidential tribunal threw out a quarter of parliament.