News For Friday Oct 10, 2008 News For Friday Oct 10, 2008

World World

Congo names new prime minister - Added 52 minutes ago

Congo's President Joseph Kabila named a new prime minister following the resignation of 83-year-old Antoine Gizenga. Gizenga resigned last month saying he was too old to continue serving. A decree read on state-run TV...

Oil, soy, copper all go bust in Latin America - Added 1 hour ago

The booming prices for Venezuelan oil, Brazilian soy beans and Chilean copper that brought prosperity to Latin America are heading for a bust that threatens to erode the hard-won gains of its poor and newly emerging...

Chinese dissidents miss out on Nobel peace prize - Added 1 hour ago

Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday, but this year the news was as much about who didn't get the award. Critics say the secretive, five-member panel missed a golden opportunity to...

Dalai Lama's surgery ends successfully: aide - Added 2 hours ago

Surgeons successfully removed gallstones from the Dalai Lama on Friday, an operation that will not prevent the Tibetan spiritual leader from traveling again by the end of the month, a top aide said. Spokesman Chhime R....

Canadian dollar takes steepest one-day dive - Added 2 hours ago

The Canadian dollar posted its steepest one-day decline against the U.S. greenback Friday, dropping by 4.5 American cents. According to the Bank of Montreal's currency desk, the Canadian dollar was down 4.5 American...

Bodies, perhaps of migrants, wash ashore in Yemen - Added 2 hours ago

Dozens of bodies washed ashore Friday in Yemen after smugglers threw nearly 150 Somali migrants overboard in shark-infested waters, the latest such tragedy in one of the most lawless stretches of ocean in the world. ...

French police dismantle stolen-art ring - Added 2 hours ago

The French Interior Ministry says police have dismantled a large network of stolen and trafficked art in western France. The ministry says three suspects have been detained as part of an investigation involving more...

PM: No early elections in Ukraine - Added 2 hours ago

Ukraine's prime minister said Friday there will be no early parliamentary elections, defying a presidential decree and raising the stakes in her fierce political battle with the president. President Viktor Yushchenko...

Gunmen kill 11 in northern Mexican bar - Added 2 hours ago

Gunmen opened fire at a bar in the northern Mexican city of Chihuahua, killing 11 people, officials said Friday. Also Friday, Miguel Angel Villagomez, the 40-year-old owner and editor of La Noticia newspaper in Lazaro...

Hijackers of ship off Somalia issue ultimatum - Added 2 hours ago

The pirates who hijacked an arms-laden Ukrainian tanker off Somalia issued an ultimatum Friday and threatened to destroy the ship if no ransom is paid, a spokesman for the bandits said. The MV Faina is surrounded by...

Israeli hospital hosts cancer-stricken Iranian boy - Added 3 hours ago

The head of an Israeli hospital where an Iranian boy is being treated for a brain tumor said Friday he hoped the gesture will help improve understanding between the bitterly divided countries. The 12-year-old boy _ who...

NKorea's Kim skips party anniversary celebration - Added 3 hours ago

North Korea's reportedly ailing Kim Jong Il skipped a celebration of the 63rd anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party on Friday, but hours later state-run media described an energetic visit to a military unit. The...

Chinese tighten dairy regulations after scandal - Added 3 hours ago

China's State Council tightened quality control regulations for the dairy industry Friday, as authorities in Macau and Hong Kong reported several children had kidney stones blamed on Chinese tainted milk. Contaminated...

Iraqi PM: Top cleric won't block US pact - Added 3 hours ago

Iraq's prime minister said Friday that the country's most influential Shiite cleric will leave the decision on the future of U.S. troops to the government and parliament _ a step that could remove a major obstacle to a...

Peru says 19 killed in rebel bomb attack - Added 3 hours ago

Shining Path rebels ambushed a column of military trucks in Peru's southeastern mountains with a bomb and gunfire, the military high command said Friday, killing 12 soldiers and seven civilians in the deadliest rebel...

In food crisis, Cuba limits sales so all can eat - Added 3 hours ago

Cuba is limiting how much basic fruits and vegetables people can buy at farmers' markets, irritating some customers but ensuring there's enough _ barely _ to go around. The lines are long and some foods are scarce, but...

Report: Americans released by Syria back in Jordan - Added 3 hours ago

Two American journalists who went missing during a vacation in Lebanon were quoted Friday as saying they were "kidnapped" by their taxi driver and taken into Syria, where they were held in custody for a week before...

Israeli town struggles to move on after clashes - Added 4 hours ago

Police dispersed hundreds of Jewish protesters with water canons Friday in this northern Israel city, trying to ease tensions after two days of rioting that shook a mixed Jewish-Arab community. Police Spokesman Micky...

Pakistan condemns US strikes in border regions - Added 5 hours ago

U.S. missile attacks on suspected militants in Pakistan's northwest near Afghanistan are undermining the war on terror and "helping the terrorists," the Muslim nation's Foreign Ministry said Friday. The comments came...

Israeli woman seeks father's Holocaust diary - Added 5 hours ago

Baruch Milch was hiding from the Nazis in occupied Poland in the summer of 1943. His wife and 3-year-old son had been killed in Hitler's Holocaust. All the Jewish doctor had was his diary _ a chronicle he hoped would...

Venezuela tax agency closes McDonald's temporarily - Added 5 hours ago

The Venezuelan government has ordered nearly all McDonald's restaurants in the country closed for 48 hours for what it calls irregularities in the fast-food chain's financial books. The tax agency said it ordered more...

Zimbabwe leaders call for Mbeki to break deadlock - Added 5 hours ago

Zimbabwe's leaders have agreed that power-sharing talks have broken down over the allocation of Cabinet posts and called Friday for former South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate an end to the deadlock. Mbeki...

France: Russia only partly met Georgia obligations - Added 5 hours ago

Russia has only partially met its obligations in Georgia under an EU-negotiated ceasefire, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner declared Friday as he toured damaged villages and spoke to displaced people in Georgia....

MISSING TITLE - Added 5 hours ago

Pirates' spokesman threatens to blow up hijacked ship off Somalia in 3 days if no ransom paid. ...

Mexico auctions off more foreign reserves for peso - Added 6 hours ago

Mexico's central bank has auctioned off another US$3 billion in foreign reserves, its third auction of the day in an increasingly aggressive bid to push the peso stronger. In all, the bank sold off $6.4 billion. The...

2 expats appeal for release in Somalia - Added 6 hours ago

Two foreign aid workers appealed for their freedom Friday in the Somali capital, surrounded by armed kidnappers who seized them last month in a restive region of Ethiopia, local media reported. Somali journalists were...

NATO agrees on Afghan drug role for military - Added 6 hours ago

NATO defense ministers Friday authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug barons blamed for pumping up to US$100 million (euro74 million) a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters. "With regard to...

MISSING TITLE - Added 6 hours ago

Mexico central bank sells US$6.4 billion in reserves in 3 auctions to prop up falling peso. ...

Hurricane Norbert nears Mexico's Baja California - Added 6 hours ago

Fishermen pulled in their boats and hotels warned tourists away from beaches Friday as Hurricane Norbert strengthened to a Category 2 storm and bore down on Mexico's southern Baja California Peninsula. Norbert, with...

US official: Central Asia gas deal is close - Added 6 hours ago

A U.S. official said Friday that a deal may be reached soon allowing natural gas from ex-Soviet nations to reach western Europe without crossing Russian territory. The U.S. special envoy for Eurasian energy issues, C....

Lawyer appeals for freedom of Myanmar's Suu Kyi - Added 6 hours ago

A lawyer for Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Friday that he has filed an appeal with the country's military government against her detention. Kyi Win said the appeal, delivered Wednesday by his...

India to get first female Roman Catholic saint - Added 7 hours ago

India is expected to get its first female Roman Catholic saint on Sunday at a time when Christians have increasingly come under attack in the predominantly Hindu country. Christian leaders hailed the move to canonize...

UNHCR calls on governments to raise refugee funds - Added 7 hours ago

Countries spending billions on financial rescue packages should spend a few extra "peanuts" to fund aid programs for those worst hit by the global financial crisis, the U.N. refugee chief said Friday. U.N. High...

France markets arms to Iraq after 2-decade lull - Added 7 hours ago

France, which famously opposed the Iraq war, is in talks to resume sales of military equipment to Baghdad for the first time in nearly two decades, French and Iraqi officials say. This means that France, a major global...

Police kill 2 in Kashmir protests - Added 7 hours ago

Police shot and killed two people and at least four protesters were wounded, as thousands of Muslims took to the streets of Indian Kashmir on Friday to protest the visit of India's prime minister, police and hospital...

Serbia furious after neighbors recognize Kosovo - Added 7 hours ago

Serbia expelled the Macedonian ambassador Friday, reflecting its fury over the recognition of Kosovo's independence by its closest neighbors. Montenegro's envoy had already been ordered out Thursday. The measures were...

Brazil stocks plunge 10 percent in early trading - Added 7 hours ago

Brazil's main stock index plummeted more than 10 percent in early trading Friday after steep declines in Asia, Europe. Other Latin America markets fell sharply as well. The Ibovespa stock index fell 10.2 percent to...

Amnesty protests death penalty use worldwide - Added 8 hours ago

Anti-death penalty activists staged a mock hanging outside the Japanese embassy Friday to mark the European day against the death penalty, calling on nations around the world to stop executions. Three actors with ropes...

Crane collapses on Chinese kindergarten, killing 5 - Added 8 hours ago

A crane at a construction site next to a Chinese kindergarten collapsed Friday, killing five children, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The children were playing outside and were killed by falling bricks as the...

Nobel peace prize winner is former school teacher - Added 8 hours ago

Martti Ahtisaari was a primary school teacher who became a peacemaker. For his efforts, Ahtisaari, 71, was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. Ahtisaari joined Finland's Foreign Ministry in 1965 and spent...

British military loses disk in new blunder - Added 8 hours ago

A disk which a tabloid said carries personal details on some 100,000 serving British military personnel is missing, the Ministry of Defense said Friday. The military acknowledged a report in The Sun newspaper that...

Portuguese Parliament says no to gay marriage - Added 9 hours ago

Portugal's Parliament voted by a large majority Friday against proposals to allow same-sex marriages in the mostly Roman Catholic country. The governing Socialist Party and the main opposition Social Democratic Party...

Spacecraft moved to launch pad ahead of ISS flight - Added 9 hours ago

Friends and family of the world's next space tourist _ including his astronaut father _ watched Friday as the rocket for the voyage was placed on a launch pad in Kazakhstan for its weekend takeoff to the International...

Somali pirates release 20 Filipino seamen - Added 9 hours ago

Somali pirates freed 20 Filipino seamen from a hijacked ship they held for more than 80 days, officials said Friday, as the government doubled the pay of sailors passing through pirate-infested international waters. ...

Patriarch wants unity between Orthodox Churches - Added 9 hours ago

The spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians is calling for greater unity between the Orthodox Churches. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I says the Orthodox Church often appears as a "federation of...

Nepal struggling to identify plane crash victims - Added 9 hours ago

Identification of the badly charred bodies of 14 foreign tourists who died in a plane crash near Mount Everest has been delayed by a shortage of experts and lack of equipment, a Nepalese doctor said Friday. Three...

Hearing for alleged Russian arms dealer continues - Added 9 hours ago

The defense lawyer for a Russian man alleged to be one of the world's biggest arms dealers said Friday that his client would not receive a fair trial if extradited to the United States. The United States is seeking the...

Vietnam to try journalists for corruption stories - Added 9 hours ago

Two Vietnamese journalists will go on trial next week for allegedly writing inaccurate stories about one of the country's most high-profile corruption cases, an official said Friday. Media groups have called for the...

Court sentences Chilean tenor to jail for rape - Added 11 hours ago

A Swedish court has sentenced Chilean tenor Ernesto "Tito" Beltran to two years and six months in prison for raping an 18-year-old nanny and molesting a 7-year-old girl. The appeals court in Goteborg on Friday upheld a...

Beijing to ban half its cars during high pollution - Added 11 hours ago

Beijing will ban half of its 3.4 million cars from the roads during periods of very heavy pollution, a state news report said Friday. The city will temporarily reinstate measures it introduced during the Olympic Games...