New Australian PM Rudd gives struggling government big poll boost
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Support for Australia’s embattled Labor government has surged since new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took charge late last week but it will still struggle to win an election later this year, a major poll published on Sunday showed.
Obama meets Mandela family, police disperse protesters
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama met the family of South Africa’s ailing anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela on Saturday, offering words of comfort and praising the critically ill retired statesman as one of history’s greatest figure…
Egypt protests set for showdown, violence feared
CAIRO (Reuters) – Mass demonstrations across Egypt on Sunday may determine its future, two and half years after people power toppled a dictator they called Pharaoh and ushered in a democracy crippled by bitter divisions.
Britain’s Cameron in thwarted Afghan peace talks push
KABUL (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron flew into Afghanistan on Saturday to try to inject momentum into stalled peace talks, but left empty-handed after the Afghan president said his country could break up if a deal was done with the Ta…
Syrian army, backed by jets, launches assault on Homs
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces launched a major offensive on Saturday against rebels in Homs, a centre of the two-year-old uprising, in their latest drive to secure an axis connecting Damascus to the Mediterranean.
U.S. asked Ecuador not to give Snowden asylum: Correa
QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Saturday the United States had asked him not to grant asylum for former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden in a “cordial” telephone conversation he held with Vice President Joe Biden.
Mired in recession, ex-Yugoslav Croatia joins troubled EU
ZAGREB (Reuters) – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union at midnight on Sunday, a milestone that caps the Adriatic republic’s recovery from war but is tinged with anxiety over the state of the economy and the bloc it joins.
U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks: German magazine
BERLIN (Reuters) – The United States has bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, according to secret documents cited in a German magazine on Saturday, the latest in a series of exposures of alleged U.S. spy pro…
Sudan protesters, opposition call for Bashir ousting
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Thousands of Sudanese called for the overthrow of veteran President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday, spurred on by an opposition trying to stoke an Arab Spring style uprising.
Bombs target soccer players, spectators in Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Bombs targeting soccer players and young men who had gathered to watch a match in Iraq killed seven people on Saturday.
