News/International

CHICAGO: Protesters chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight! Housing is a human right!” marched in Chicago yesterday using the upcoming Nato summit as an opportunity to draw attention to the US foreclosure crisis. Thousands of protesters are expected to d...

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday he would hold talks with new French President Francois Hollande before an international summit this week, confident they would find “common ground” on how to tackle Europe’s economic c...

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign and his Democratic party raked in $43m in April, about $10m less than the previous month, his campaign manager said in a video posted online yesterday.“Thanks to everyone who stepped up to ...

BRASILIA: President Dilma Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla jailed and tortured during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, yesterday swore in the seven-member panel tasked with probing human rights abuses from that period. “Brazil deser...

NEW YORK: New York and Boston may strike many as more intellectual but Alexandria, a small urban area in Virginia just outside Washington, DC, is the most well-read city in the United States. Alexandria was one of three Virginia cities on the Amazon...

THE HAGUE: Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic made a throat-slitting gesture to a woman who lost her son, husband and brothers in the Srebenica massacre at the start of his trial yesterday for some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War Two...

ATHENS: Greece put a senior judge in charge of an emergency government yesterday to lead it to new elections on June 17 and bankers sought to calm public fears after the president said political chaos risked causing panic and a run on deposits. Euro...

THE HAGUE: Former Liberian President Charles Taylor said yesterday witnesses had been threatened and paid to testify against him in a trial that found him guilty of crimes against humanity, and described the international court system as a tool of th...

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the surprise dismissal of her environment minister yesterday, three days after he led her conservatives to an historic defeat in a regional election.In an unusual, hastily arranged statement on nation...

CANNES, France: Cannes’ women jurors defended the film festival yesterday amid a storm over the all-male line-up for its top prize, as a sweet-natured family romp by Wes Anderson kicked off the movie bonanza. The US director’s teen elopement fan...

ATHENS: Greece abandoned a nine-day hunt for a government yesterday and called a new election that threatens to hasten the nation’s slide towards bankruptcy and a future outside the euro zone. An inconclusive election on May 6 left parliament spli...

PARIS: French President Francois Hollande chose loyalty over experience yesterday in naming as prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, the head of the Socialists in parliament and mayor of Nantes. Like Hollande, 62-year-old Ayrault has never held a top go...

BUDAPEST: Hungarian opposition lawmakers criticised proposed changes to the country’s controversial media law yesterday, saying the reforms were aimed at silencing an opposition radio station. Fidesz submitted a bill late that would allow the Med...

KIEV: Ukraine’s high court yesterday postponed the appeal of ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko against her seven year jail sentence until well after the Euro football gets underway, to the fury of her defence. The Kiev court, Ukraine’s highest ...

MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Tuesday presented to newly-inaugurated President Vladimir Putin a secret new cabinet list that will reportedly see the exit of two loyalist heavyweight ministers. At a tightly-scripted televised meeting...

HARARE: Zimbabwe’s two main political parties have ironed out issues stalling the crafting a new constitution that would pave the way for fresh polls, officials said yesterday. “We are now at the final, last lap of the drafting process,” Jessie...

LONDON: Former Rupert Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks, her husband and four others were charged yesterday with trying to conceal evidence in the first prosecutions to emerge from Britain’s phone hacking scandal. The charges are a stunning fall from gr...

WASHINGTON: For the first time, US surgeons have used a new type of operation called nerve transfer to restore hand function in a patient who was paralyzed by a neck injury, said a study published yesterday. The breakthrough surgery worked by taking...

CHICAGO: The US government launched a national plan to address Alzheimer’s disease yesterday with funding for a first prevention study in high-risk patients and tests on an insulin nasal spray that has shown promise in earlier studies.     The ...

NEW YORK: Disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is seeking more than $1m in a countersuit against the New York hotel maid whose accusation of sexual assault last year brought down his glittering political career. The countersuit, signed on M...

LONDON: Britain faces a worsening shortages of medicines because vital supplies are being sucked out of the country by exporters who can sell them for higher prices elsewhere, lawmakers said.     The All-Party Pharmacy Group (APPG) said yesterday...

French President-elect Francois Hollande, with rose in hand, greets crowds yesterday in Tulle, central France, as he arrives for a ceremony at the war memorial. Hollande, Socialist President of the Correze department General Council, visited Tulle, t...

LONDON: Counter-terrorism experts expressed concern yesterday  over US leaks about an undercover operation that foiled a suicide bomb plot, saying its exposure may deter agents from volunteering for the risky job of infiltrating Al Qaeda’s network...

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama’s sudden public endorsement of same-sex marriage caught Republicans off guard, but the party seeking to win back the White House must now decide whether to make gay rights a crucial campaign issue. Mitt Romney...

PARIS: Outgoing French leader Nicolas Sarkozy will face a slew of legal probes into corruption and campaign financing violations after he leaves office next week and loses his presidential immunity. Sarkozy could face questioning as soon as mid-June...

THE HAGUE: Lawyers defending convicted Liberian warlord Charles Taylor yesterday sought a lesser sentence than the 80 years suggested by the prosecution, which they said was “excessive.” “The 80-year sentence as advocated by the prosecution is...

OSLO: A brother of one of Anders Behring Breivik’s 77 victims threw a shoe at him yesterday, screaming “you killer, go to hell!”, in the first serious incident since the Norwegian’s trial began on April 16. As a coroner wrapped up the autops...

  The ArcelorMittal Orbit stands next to the Olympic Stadium in the London 2012 Olympic Park in east London, yesterday. LONDON: British sculptor Anish Kapoor yesterday unveiled the controversial tower he designed for London’s Olympic Park, def...

  Washington: In an era of constant online sharing, filled with cheerful Facebook updates and lovely Instagram photos, we can skillfully edit the image of ourselves we choose to project to the outside world — though we know it’s not entirely ...

  MEXICO CITY: More than 100,000 people massed in the giant Zocalo Plaza late Thursday for a free concert by Paul McCartney, who sent the crowd into a frenzy by performing “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” along with Mexican mariachis. McCartney, who at ...