World

KIEV (Reuters) – Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko must stand trial next Wednesday on a charge of abuse of power, a judge ruled in a pre-trial hearing late yesterday.

PARIS (Reuters) – At least two people suffering from E.coli in the French city of Bordeaux have the strain that caused scores of deaths in Germany, French authorities said, and they halted sales of vegetable seeds from a British gardening firm.

BEIJING (Reuters) – One of China’s most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, was reunited with his family in the early hours today after serving three and a half-years in jail on subversion charges, his wife said.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – NATO missiles hit a site in Libya used by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces to stockpile military supplies and vehicles, the alliance said yesterday, adding it was unaware of 15 civilian deaths reported by state media.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican John Boehner faces his greatest test yet as the leader of the US House of Representatives, one that may determine his political fate and the country’s fiscal well-being.

LIMA (Reuters) – Thousands of protesters opposed to mining and energy projects in southern Peru took over a commercial airport yesterday, officials said, as the government struggled to restore calm a day after five died in a clash with police.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When New York became the sixth and by far the largest state to legalize same-sex marriage, following a grueling overtime session in the state Legislature on Friday, it immediately transformed the national debate over the issue, legal experts said.

LONDON/SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – The number of adults with diabetes worldwide has more than doubled since 1980 to 347 million, a far larger number than previously thought and one that suggests costs of treating the disease will also balloon.

WARSAW (Reuters) – An Israeli couple ha ve been given suspended jail sentences for the theft of historic artefacts from the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz, Poland’s PAP news agency quoted a prosecutor as saying yesterday.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian security forces shot dead five civilians during funerals which turned into protests against President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

MIAMI, (Reuters) – A former top Bolivian anti-drug  official pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of conspiring to  smuggle cocaine into the United States in a case that has  proved a major embarrassment for Bolivia’s President Evo  Morales.

LONDON, (Reuters) – A European plan to raise funds  for clean energy has backfired spectacularly, helping trigger a  rout on its carbon trading scheme and so cutting available green  funds and benefiting polluting coal plants.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A cell phone found in the  raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan contained contacts  to a militant group with ties to Pakistan’s intelligence  agency, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing senior  U.S.

ATHENS/FRANKFURT – Banks and policymakers moved closer to a  deal yesterday to help Athens secure funds ahead of a  parliamentary vote on austerity next week that Greek Prime  Minister George Papandreou must win to avert default.

DAR ES SALAAM,  (Reuters) – The U.N. war crimes  tribunal for Rwanda sentenced former minister Pauline  Nyiramasuhuko to life in prison on Friday, the first time a  woman has been found guilty of genocide by an international  court.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo  Chavez, not seen in public for two weeks, ended his unusual  silence with several Twitter messages yesterday, but said  nothing about his health after an operation in Cuba.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Peter Falk, star of the  1970s hit TV drama “Columbo,” whose role as the rumpled  detective of the same name earned him four Emmys, has died  after years of battling Alzheimer’s disease.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Once praised lavishly by  the United States for waging a war on drugs, Mexico’s last two  presidents now say legalizing them may be the best way to end  the rising violence the U.S.-backed

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – A former Egyptian banker  pleaded guilty in a New York court yesterday to a criminal  charge that he sexually abused a hotel maid and now faces a  multimillion dollar civil suit in connection with the case.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The U.S. military distanced  itself yesterday from President Barack Obama’s plan for a  faster-than-expected withdrawal of U.S.