Yahoo News: World News

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Iran, like Russia, is one of Syria's few allies as it presses ahead with a 14-month old assault on opposition forces determined to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. News of the panel's report came as Tehran and the U.N. ...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro's daughter is scheduled to visit California next week to speak at a conference of experts on Latin America during a rare U.S. trip by a member of Cuba's ruling family. Sexologist Mariela Castro, 50, will discuss Cuba's policies on sexual issues on May 24 at a Latin American Studies Association (LASA) conference in San Francisco, an association spokesman said on Wednesday. Mariela Castro heads the communist island nation's National Center for Sex Education and is an outspoken advocate for gay rights. ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned of "extremely expensive" consequences were Greece to leave the euro zone, a once taboo possibility that European leaders have begun to discuss openly after the nation descended into political chaos. Fears that Greece's dire state could drag the euro zone deeper into crisis rattled financial markets across the globe, as a little-known judge was installed to head an emergency government which will lead the nation to new elections on June 17. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron will promise on Thursday to do whatever is needed to protect Britain's economy and banks from a break-up of the euro zone, and will urge leaders of the single currency bloc to "sort out its problems". Cameron's remarks, in a speech to business leaders in northwest England, are likely to irritate European leaders trying to keep the euro zone intact as Greece prepares for a new election and struggles to cope with its debt crisis. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States warned supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Wednesday it may freeze their assets if they hamper the transfer of power in the Gulf nation. President Barack Obama signed an executive order allowing U.S. authorities to sanction members of Yemen's government or others who endanger its stability, notably by obstructing a November 23 deal that ultimately brought an end to Saleh's 33-year reign. ...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Iran, like Russia, is one of Syria's few allies as it presses ahead with a 14-month old assault on opposition forces determined to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. News of the panel's report came as Tehran and the U.N. ...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son has refused to appoint a Libyan lawyer to defend him against accusations of murder and torture during a crackdown on a revolt against his father's rule, the country said on Wednesday. Libya said earlier this month that it would complete within weeks its investigation into Saif al-Islam and asked the International Criminal Court to once again to hold off ordering his surrender. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, where the United States has already trimmed its forces ahead of the coming NATO withdrawal, a modest number of al Qaeda fighters have re-established operations, U.S. officials say, a worrying sign of the risks that could jeopardize Western hopes of a smooth exit. Current and former U.S. officials say the fighters, believed to be mostly Arabs and Pakistanis who number less than 100, have crept back across the porous border with Pakistan to Kunar and Nuristan provinces. ...

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A prominent Honduran radio journalist was killed by drug gangs in retaliation for a government crackdown on cartels, the country's security minister said on Wednesday. Alfredo Villatoro, a well-known media personality, was found shot in the head on Tuesday a week after being kidnapped, the latest attack on the media in the violent Central American nation. ...

A senior judge was sworn in Wednesday to head Greece's caretaker government for a month as the debt-crippled country lurches through a political crisis that threatens its membership in the 17-nation eurozone.

Russian police arrested about 20 protesters on Wednesday night at a central Moscow square where demonstrators had moved after police uprooted them from a camp, the latest move in a broadening crackdown on the forces opposing President Vladimir Putin.

Ratko Mladic was a shadow of the swaggering general who once "held Sarajevo in the palm of his hand" during Bosnia's 1992-95 war as his long-awaited genocide trial opened Wednesday. Yet he still managed to inflame Bosnia's festering war wounds with the flick of his hand.

In his first interview since December, Syrian President Bashar Assad insisted Tuesday his regime is fighting back against foreign mercenaries who want to overthrow him, not innocent Syrians aspiring for democracy in a yearlong uprising.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian riot police detained at least 35 demonstrators on Wednesday, breaking up one Occupy-style sit-in at a Moscow park and threatening to disperse another in a crackdown on a protest movement against newly inaugurated President Vladimir Putin. Police raided the site of the week-old sit-in at a central Moscow park, citing a court order to end the protest. They ordered the 50 or so demonstrators to pick up their belongings, detained at least 15 and pushed the others into a nearby underground train station. ...

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will seek support to tap emergency oil reserves from other Group of Eight leaders at a summit this weekend before the European Union's July embargo of Iranian crude, Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday. The report suggests that a slide in oil prices to their lowest in months has not halted U.S. efforts to use strategic oil stockpiles to offset diminishing exports from Iran, which is facing tough new sanctions on its oil industry. The EU ban on imports comes into full force in July. ...

A major European Jewish organization is urging European governments to quickly adopt measures to tackle anti-Semitism and far-right extremism, including possibly banning a hardline Greek party that did unusually well in recent elections.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said on Wednesday he would not oppose a delay to the start of a trial of four prominent Kenyans, including two leading presidential hopefuls, accused of fuelling post-election violence in 2007. The group, including former Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former Higher Education Minister William Ruto, are charged with masterminding the bloodshed that killed more than 1,200 people. All have said they are innocent. ...

ROME/LONDON (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold a video conference on Thursday ahead of this weekend's G8 meeting, officials said on Wednesday. The conversation would give the four European leaders a chance to prepare for the summit at Camp David and to discuss European economic issues, said a source in the Italian government. ...