NEW DELHI: Indian federal police said on Monday they are formally investigating a former telecoms minister, his media mogul brother, and a Malaysian tycoon over their roles in a sprawling telecoms scandal that has damaged the government.
LONDON: Britain plans tougher curbs on immigration to cut the number of people the country absorbs each year to tens of thousands, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday, an uncompromising message which will please his party’s right wing.
WARSAW: The first transsexual to win a seat in Poland’s parliament said on Monday she was on a mission to help Poles in this staunchly Roman Catholic country to improve the understanding of problems facing people who have changed their gender.
BEIJING: China and Myanmar have agreed to “properly settle” a dispute over Myanmar’s suspension of a dam built and financed by Chinese firms as a Chinese leader hoped “friendly consultations” would bring a solution to ensure cooperation and stable ties.
VENTERSDORP, South Africa: The trial of two blacks accused of hacking to death South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terre’blanche in a wage dispute at his farm opened on Monday, with a racially charged display outside the courthouse.
BRUSSELS: The European Union extended sanctions against Belarus on Monday, imposing asset freezes and travel bans on 16 officials to ramp up pressure on the government of President Alexander Lukashenko to free political prisoners, diplomats said.
BEIJING: China suspended shipping through Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle on Monday after attacks by suspected drug traffickers on two Chinese cargo ships left 13 people dead or missing on the Mekong River.
PHNOM PENH: An international judge has resigned from a United Nations-backed tribunal in Cambodia because of alleged interference by the government, which is trying to block further trials of people who may have been involved in atrocities by the Khmer Rouge.
SEOUL: South Korea and the United States are adamant that there will be no food relief for crisis-hit North Korea until it guarantees that all aid will reach the most needy and there is an improvement in ties between the two Koreas.
PHNOM PENH: An international judge has resigned from a United Nations-backed tribunal in Cambodia because of alleged interference by the government, which is trying to block further trials of people who may have been involved in atrocities by the Khmer Rouge.
BEIJING: China suspended shipping through Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle on Monday after attacks by suspected drug traffickers on two Chinese cargo ships left 13 people dead or missing on the Mekong River.
MANILA: Officials say Philippine troops on patrol have clashed with communist guerrillas in a mountainous northern province, leaving eight rebels dead and one soldier wounded.
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: A Nigerian official says suspected members of a radical sect set off a bomb near a mosque, wounding a soldier in the country’s restive northeast.
PRAIA: Cape Verde police seized about 1.5 tons of pure cocaine worth about $100 million in one of the biggest drug busts in the region this year.
LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron is backing embattled Defense Secretary Liam Fox, the prime minister’s spokesman said on Monday, the same day Cameron is due to receive a report on whether Fox broke ministerial rules.
BRUSSELS: The European Union extended sanctions against Belarus on Monday, imposing asset freezes and travel bans on 16 officials to ramp up pressure on the government of President Alexander Lukashenko to free political prisoners, diplomats said.
OSH, Kyrgyzstan: For many ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city, rebuilding their homes after last year’s deadly violence is taking priority over a forthcoming election to choose the next president of the Central Asian state.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A German judge responsible for indictments of Khmer Rouge war crimes suspects at Cambodia’s UN-backed tribunal has resigned, alleging government interference into the investigation of new cases.
BEIJING: China suspended shipping through Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle on Monday following attacks by suspected drug traffickers on two Chinese cargo ships left 13 people dead or missing on the Mekong River.
ROME: Food prices are likely to become more volatile in coming years, increasing the risk that more poor people in import-dependent countries will go hungry, the United Nations said in an annual report on food insecurity published on Monday.
ATHENS, Greece: The Greek financial crisis has become a health hazard.
Economically vulnerable Greeks are losing health care access amid dwindling budgets, facing higher risks of HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases, and in some cases, even dying, according to a study released online Monday by The Lancet, a British medical journal.
WASHINGTON: Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has tightly tied his message to the economy, but his opponents are increasingly criticizing his past flip-flops on abortion, gay rights and other issues in an effort to derail the candidate who sits atop national opinion polls and a mound of campaign cash.
MEXICO CITY: Hurricane Jova strengthened to become a Category 2 storm off the Pacific coast of Mexico on Sunday and Mexican authorities issued a hurricane warning for coastal areas popular with tourists.
MONROVIA, Liberia: Africa’s first democratically elected female president, who was honored this week with a Nobel Peace Prize, will face stiff competition at Liberia’s presidential polls Tuesday against a fiery opposition candidate and his soccer-star running mate.
BEIJING: More than 100 million rural Chinese people will settle in towns and cities in the next decade, testing provision of welfare and services as a new generation of migrants turn their backs on farming, according to a new government report.
SYDNEY: Qantas Airways engineers have called off a planned strike — but the airline says it is too late to reschedule dozens of canceled and delayed flights.
CANBERRA, Australia: Australia’s prime minister has spoken by telephone with a 14-year-old Australian boy held in an Indonesian police cell for alleged drug possession and assured him she is working to bring him home.
BANGKOK: A detained US citizen facing up to 15 years in prison for allegedly insulting Thailand’s royal family was to plead guilty in the case Monday in hopes of receiving a lenient sentence, his lawyer said.
TOKYO: A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 jolted northeastern Japan on Monday, public broadcaster NHK said. The quake, at 11:46 a.m. (0246 GMT), was also felt in Tokyo.
TAIPEI, Taiwan: Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is urging Beijing to pursue democracy and respect his island’s self-governance as both sides marked the centennial of a revolution that ended 2,000 years of imperial rule in China.
TIMIKA, Indonesia: Indonesian security forces opened fire on striking workers at Freeport-McMoran’s gold and copper mine early Monday, killing one and critically wounding another, a union official said.
SEOUL, South Korea: South Korean activists have launched a new batch of propaganda leaflets toward North Korea despite Pyongyang’s threat to open fire.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon: Cameroon’s presidential polls faced setbacks with low voter turnout and some voters leaving stations because they weren’t properly registered to cast a ballot in an election widely expected to take the nation’s longtime leader into his fourth decade in power.
NEW YORK: The prison term awaiting a one-time billionaire hedge fund founder convicted of insider trading charges is unpredictable at best in a Manhattan courthouse where judges vary considerably in their assessment of how justice should be dispersed at sentencing.
BANGKOK: Nearly 200 factories, including one run by Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co. Ltd., closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya because of flooding, which could threaten Bangkok this week, officials said on Sunday.
MOGADISHU: Thousands of Somalis have gathered in a soccer stadium in the country's capital to denounce the recent truck bombing that killed more than 100 people.
BEIJING: Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin made a rare public appearance at a Beijing ceremony on Sunday, months after speculation that he had died or was close to death.
MOSCOW: Two elderly people are dead and two others remain missing after a fire in a provincial Russian home for seniors.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: The earthquake-rattled city of Christchurch has been shaken by another powerful temblor.
JOHANNESBURG: South African political firebrand Julius Malema was discharged from hospital, SABC news reported on Sunday, paving the way for his disciplinary hearing with the ruling ANC to resume this week.
WARSAW: Poland voted in a parliamentary election on Sunday that could give Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s center-right Civic Platform four more years in power to pursue gradual economic reforms and preserve political stability.
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines: Communist guerrillas have freed a town mayor and his two military guards after two months of jungle captivity in the southern Philippines.
LAMEZIA TERME, Italy: Pope Benedict on Sunday condemned “ferocious” organized crime groups in the southern Calabria region, where lawlessness, corruption and underdevelopment have resulted in one of Italy’s highest unemployment rates.
LUSAKA, Zambia: Zambia’s new leader says he won’t visit Malawi until he gets an apology for being deported from the neighboring country when he was an opposition chief in 2007, a very public signal that he wants a change in regional relations.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon: Polls opened late and to low turnout Sunday in Cameroon’s capital for a presidential election widely expected to take the Central African nation’s longtime leader into his fourth decade in power amid rumblings of civil unrest.
MANILA, Philippines: Two explosions have rocked a cockpit arena and a budget hotel near a passenger bus terminal in a southern Philippine city, wounding at least six people.
KABUL: The Kabul government on Saturday demanded that Washington increase pressure on Pakistan to act against insurgents using its soil to attack Afghanistan, saying Afghans were running out of patience.
BRUSSELS: Negotiators who have been trying for more than a year to form a government in Belgium announced Saturday they have reached a historic agreement on devolving power to the country’s feuding regions.
WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney assured conservative Christian voters on Saturday he would protect families, but denounced fiery rhetoric from those who question the legitimacy of his Mormon religion.
LONDON: Downing Street officials say Prime Minister David Cameron is backing Defense Secretary Liam Fox, who faces an inquiry into a possible security breach.
KABUL: A man accused of being a key player in a plot to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai was not a close bodyguard and did not have freedom of movement within the well-protected presidential palace complex, Karzai’s office said on Saturday.
COLOMBO: Three people including an adviser to Sri Lanka’s president were killed Saturday in election-related violence just outside the capital, police said.
COPENHAGEN: Danish police say they have evacuated several hundred people as firefighters tackle a warehouse fire that followed a series of violent explosions.
JOHANNESBURG: Zambia’s new president, Michael Sata, is refusing to attend a regional summit in neighboring Malawi unless Lilongwe apologizes for calling him a prohibited immigrant during a 2006 visit when he was the opposition leader.
KHARTOUM, Sudan: The president of South Sudan is making his first official visit to Khartoum since the south broke away to form an independent country earlier this year.
VIENNA: Eleven people were arrested in Vienna on Saturday after they broke into a building housing the Syrian embassy and consulate, a police spokeswoman said.
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesian police have arrested three Islamist militants wanted for allegedly plotting suicide attacks.
ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou may propose the formation of a coalition government of national unity to lead the country out of its debt crisis, a Greek newspaper said on Saturday, but the Greek government denied the report.
TOKYO: Japan has grounded its F-15 fighters for safety inspections after a fuel tank and parts of a mock missile fell off a jet on a training mission.
HELSINKI: Finland’s Social Democratic party appointed former prime minister Paavo Lipponen on Saturday as its candidate for next year’s presidential election.
MANILA: Philippine communist rebels have released four jail guards ahead of a planned resumption of peace talks later this month.
BANGKOK: The director of Myanmar’s state censorship board has said his own department should be abolished to allow greater press freedom in the Southeast Asian nation.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police say they have foiled a terror plot in the capital, arresting two suspects and seizing several explosives-laden vests and ammunition from a militant hideout.
MANILA: The US ambassador to the Philippines has apologized for his recent statement that 40 percent of male tourists visit the country for sex, a government spokesman said Saturday.
WARSAW: Polish police say they have arrested and charged two suspects in a series of bomb attacks at IKEA stores in several European countries this year.
WARSAW: Workers in Poland are putting out ballot boxes and hanging the national flag at polling stations the day before for a vote to determine whether the centrist Civic Platform party will win another term after four years of strong economic growth.
SEOUL: US officials are scrambling to ease public anger in South Korea sparked by two sexual assault cases involving American soldiers.
BEIJING: Two young men in an ethnically Tibetan area of southwestern China set themselves on fire on Friday, a Tibetan advocacy group said, the seventh act of self-immolation in the region since March.
MANILA: A senior Philippine official said Friday that studies have found structural flaws in a 9-year-old Manila airport terminal that suffered a partial ceiling collapse in 2006.
ABUJA: Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency said it has arrested three former state governors on allegations of abuse of office and fraud totalling 101 billion naira ($615 million).
NAVAL AIR STATION SIGONELLA, Italy: There was a time when US officials wouldn’t breathe a word about the CIA’s clandestine use of Predator drones.
TIRANA: Ramiz Alia, the hand-picked successor of Albania’s late Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha and the man who presided over the Balkan country’s transition to multi-party democracy, died on Friday aged 85.
TAIPEI, Taiwan: Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou urged China’s government on Monday to pursue democracy and respect his island’s self-governance as the two sides mark the centennial of a revolution that ended 2,000 years of imperial Chinese rule.
HARARE: The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will meet President Robert Mugabe on Monday to press the Zimbabwean leader to end violent suppression of the church and its priests.
PYONGYANG, North Korea: The Illustrious General has had a busy year.
MOSCOW: Vladimir Putin visits China on Tuesday in his first foreign trip since revealing plans to reclaim Russia’s presidency, addressing a challenging relationship with a giant neighbor whose growth is both an opportunity and a potential threat for Moscow.
BEIJING: China’s Communist Party elite on Sunday marked a century since the revolution that ended millennia of rule by emperors, a date that has stoked warnings by critics that the party must tackle deeper reforms or also risk losing power.
KABUL: Ousted Afghan lawmaker Simeen Barakzai says she will not end her hunger strike until President Hamid Karzai opens an investigation into alleged vote fraud by the woman who has taken her seat in parliament.
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party swept local government polls, results on Sunday showed, but lost the minority-dominated capital while four people died in violence that exposed a growing rift in his huge political coalition.
NEW DELHI: Police have detained more than a dozen Tibetan exiles demonstrating outside the Chinese Embassy in the Indian capital.
MANILA: A popular Mao cap-wearing Filipino guerrilla, who gave a voice and face to one of Asia’s longest-running Marxist insurgencies as its spokesman with a common-folk touch, has died of a heart attack, his comrades said Sunday. He was 64.
WASHINGTON: In what could mark a pivot in US-Pakistani relations, Pakistani forces have arrested a handful of Al-Qaeda suspects at the CIA’s request, and allowed the US access to the detainees, US and Pakistani officials said.
JOHANNESBURG: The Dalai Lama on Saturday sharply criticized China, which is accused of blocking him from traveling to South Africa to celebrate Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday.
NEW YORK: As other protesters chanted vigorously around her, Nancy Pi-Sunyer stood off to the side at the Occupy Wall Street rally, clutching her sign, looking a little like a new teacher on the first day of school.
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama maintained his attack against congressional Republicans over his jobs bill on Saturday, upping pressure before it faces a vote in the Senate next week.
BANGKOK: Thailand’s prime minister is warning that rising floodwaters which have wreaked havoc across the nation are now threatening the capital, Bangkok, as the death toll from the worst monsoon rains in decades rose Saturday to 253.
OSLO: Africa's first democratically elected female president, a Liberian campaigner against rape and a woman who stood up to Yemen's autocratic regime won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of the importance of women's rights in the spread of global peace.
KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in an interview broadcast on the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the US military campaign, said his government and its foreign backers had failed to provide ordinary Afghans with security.
WARSAW: Prime Minister Donald Tusk cast himself as a “safe pair of hands” on Friday in a final appeal to Poles to back his ruling center-right Civic Platform (PO) in an election on Sunday that will decide the pace of Poland’s economic reforms.
KABUL: Hundreds of people marched through the streets of the Afghan capital on Thursday, demanding the immediate withdrawal of international military forces ahead of the 10th anniversary of the US invasion.
WASHINGTON: With former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin declaring she will not run for president, the odds are that the eventual Republican nominee will come from the current field of contenders.
MOGADISHU, Somalia: The Somali suicide bomber who killed more than 100 people, including students seeking scholarships, in an attack near the education ministry was a school dropout who had declared that young people should forget about secular education and instead wage jihad.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday conferred Hilal-e-Imtiaz on Lt. Gen. Prince Khalid bin Bandar, commander of Royal Saudi Land Forces, during a special investiture ceremony in Islamabad.
LUSAKA, Zambia: In just two weeks in office, Zambia’s president has replaced the country’s police chief, top anti-corruption official, central bank governor, state utility CEO and scores of lower-ranking public servants.
NEW YORK: The New York Police Department’s intelligence squad secretly assigned an undercover officer to monitor a prominent Muslim leader even as he decried terrorism, cooperated with the police, dined with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and was the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by The New York Times about Muslims in America.
KABUL: Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said on Wednesday it had thwarted a plot to assassinate President Hamid Karzai after arresting a bodyguard and five people with links to the Haqqani network and Al-Qaeda.
MOGADISHU, Somalia: Al-Qaeda-linked militants threatened more terror attacks that will “increase day by day” after a suicide bomber killed 72 people.
3 days of mourning in Somalia after bomb kills 70
WARSAW: Center-right leader Donald Tusk has become the first Polish prime minister since the fall of communism in 1989 to win a second consecutive term following his Civic Platform’s election victory, nearly complete results showed on Monday.
LOS ANGELES: Growing protests targeting Wall Street and US economic inequality spawned heated rhetoric among politicians on Sunday as organizers planned more demonstrations this week.
