Yahoo World News

Yahoo! News: World News

• New Zealand probes hot air balloons after crash (AP)
  AP - New Zealand authorities are investigating the maintenance of all the country's hot air balloons following a fiery crash last month that killed 11 people.
  
  
• Philippines' Arroyo pleads not guilty in poll fraud trial (Reuters)
  Reuters - Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pleaded not guilty on Thursday to electoral fraud on the first day of a trial seen as a landmark test of the government's ability to tackle entrenched corruption in the Southeast Asian nation.
  
  
• Iraqi officials: Baghdad car bomb kills 8 (AP)
  

  AP - Iraqi officials say a car bomb during rush hour in Baghdad's downtown shopping district has killed eight people and wounded 24.

  
  
  
  
• NH jury chosen in Rwanda genocide case (AP)
  AP - The trial of a woman charged with lying about her role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide is expected to transport jurors back nearly two decades to a roadblock outside a family owned hotel where prosecutors say the defendant decided who would live and who would die.
  
  
• Mexico's electoral agency fines boxer over logo (AP)
  AP - Mexico's election commission says its members have unanimously voted to fine a Mexican boxer for wearing a political party's emblem during a match broadcast last year.
  
  
• Australian PM calls party vote as challenger rises (AP)
  AP - Prime Minister Julia Gillard put her job on the line Thursday, announcing a leadership ballot in hopes of quashing a comeback by the premier she ousted in a Labor Party coup. But Kevin Rudd's supporters said that even if Gillard survives Monday's vote, the turmoil surrounding her unpopular government will continue until she is out.
  
  
• Swedish palace: crown princess about to give birth (AP)
  AP - The Swedish Royal Court says Crown Princess Victoria has been admitted to a hospital for the birth of her first child, who would be a future heir to the throne.
  
  
• Assad forces renew barrage on Syria's Homs (Reuters)
  Reuters - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces rained rockets and bombs down on opposition-held neighborhoods of the city of Homs, reducing buildings to rubble and killing more than 80 people, including two Western journalists.
  
  
• Air Canada mechanics, baggage handlers reject labor (Reuters)
  Reuters - Air Canada's 8,600 mechanics, baggage handlers and cargo agents have rejected a tentative contract agreement with the country's biggest airline, a union spokesman said on Wednesday, marking another setback for the carrier during a year of rocky labor relations.
  
  
• Karzai urges calm as six die in Afghan Koran protests (Reuters)
  Reuters - Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed for calm Wednesday after officials said six people were shot dead and dozens wounded in protests over the burning of copies of the Koran, Islam's holy book, at NATO's main base in the country.
  
  
• U.S., European security officials discount Iran-Al Qaeda links (Reuters)
  Reuters - U.S. and European officials are downplaying allegations that Iran and al Qaeda have recently stepped up cooperation in preparation for possible attacks on U.S. and other Western targets.
  
  
• Report: London no safer for all its CCTV cameras (The Christian Science Monitor)
  The Christian Science Monitor - London is considered the most spied-on city in the world, courtesy of its ubiquitous CCTV cameras, purportedly there to reduce crime. But according to a recent report, there's been little or no change in London's crime rates since they were more widely installed in the mid 1980s.
  
  
• As austerity bites hard, a once pliant Spain revolts (The Christian Science Monitor)
  The Christian Science Monitor - After four days of daily protests, some violently dispersed, Spain is bracing for a cycle of social unrest against the harshest austerity measures in decades. At stake is not only Spain’s economic recovery, but that of the European Union.
  
  
• Iran defiant as U.N. nuclear talks fail (Reuters)
  

  Reuters - The U.N. nuclear watchdog ended its latest mission to Iran after talks on Tehran's suspected secret atomic weapons research failed, a setback likely to increase the risk of confrontation with the West.

  
  
  
  
• Egypt's NGO Crackdown: McCain Offers a Conciliatory Tone (Time.com)
  Time.com - U.S. Senator seeks to calm rising tensions over the fate of 16 Americans facing trial in Cairo for their democracy-promotion efforts
  
  
• A Diplomatic Solution to the Iran Nuclear Standoff May Depend On Compromises (Time.com)
  Time.com - Sanctions on Iran are beginning to work, goes the argument from the Obama Administration, and they should be given more time to bring Tehran to heel