World News Archives

Some kinds of fertilizer have nearly tripled in price in the last year, keeping farmers from buying all they need. That is one of many factors contributing to a rise in food prices that, according to the United Nations' World Food Program, threatens to push tens of millions of poor people into malnutrition.

Albert Hofmann, the mystical Swiss chemist who gave the world LSD, the most powerful psychotropic substance known, died Tuesday at his hilltop home near Basel, Switzerland. He was 102.

“A lot of progress has been made ... There is consensus on most issues but difference of opinion on some legal and constitutional matters”

Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, left, and his ruling coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari. via National Post

“This is not an aggressive act against gay women”

A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world's gay women. via CNN

The killings of three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad pushed the American death toll for April up to 47, making it the deadliest month since September.

One soldier died when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. The other died of wounds sustained when he was attacked by small-arms fire, the military said Wednesday. Both incidents occurred Tuesday in northwestern Baghdad.

A third soldier died in a roadside bombing Tuesday night in the east of the capital, the military said. Read more

“But I think people are neglecting the fact that they (the Iraqis) really are doing more.”

White House officials this week privately cautioned lawmakers not to go too far in restricting U.S. aid to Iraq, warning that doing so might only prolong the war, now in its sixth year.

The Bush administration did not slam the door on proposals in Congress that would insist Iraq do more to pay for its rebuilding efforts. In the meantime, independent investigators conclude in a report that substantial U.S. support continues despite Baghdad's anticipated $70 billion windfall in oil revenues.

The soaring cost of fuel prices and duration of the war have spurred the latest effort in Congress to get the Iraqis to pay more toward rebuilding efforts. Democrats and even some Republicans say American taxpayers are footing too much of the bill, including an expensive and painfully slow operation to train and equip Baghdad's security forces. Read more

“It was going to be natural for him to see operations in the theatre.”

Prince William flew into Afghanistan for a secret visit over the weekend to meet with British troops, a royal official said Tuesday. via CFRB

U.S. President George W. Bush said Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should respect the will of the people who voted for a change. via Reuters

“But if the goal was to injure and kill Afghans they succeeded.”

President Hamid Karzai was warned of a weekend assassination plot against him, Afghanistan's intelligence chief said Tuesday, while admitting that failings by the security services allowed militants to launch the attack.

Meanwhile, a suicide attack killed 16 people, including 12 police, in an eastern province, a NATO spokesman said. Forty-one people were wounded.

Amrullah Saleh told Parliament the plot to kill Karzai was hatched last month and the gunmen had rented the hotel room they opened fire from 45 days before the attack. Read more

Police in Austria have confirmed that three children freed from a cellar in which their mother had been imprisoned and raped by her own father for 24 years had never seen daylight.

Austrian police spokesman Franz Polzer told CNN that the 73-year-old man, known as Mr. F., admitted holding his daughter, Elisabeth F., 42, hostage in the windowless cell and fathering seven children by her.

Iranian and Pakistani leaders resolved issues related to a multibillion-dollar gas pipeline project opposed by the United States during the Iranian president's brief visit Monday to Pakistan, state media reported.

Pumps in Scotland run dry, as oil strike prompts queues at Petrol Stadium; Barack Obama rejects Clinton's call for new debate; Trains collide in Eastern China, 43 dead, 247 hurt, Xinhua says; Taliban attack on ... via ClipSyndicate

“I carried two people covered in blood out of a house.”

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday April 28 2008. It was last updated at 09:13 on April 28 2008. via Guardian Unlimited

A pre-dawn collision Monday between two passengers trains in eastern China caused heavy casualties, but the number of victims was not immediately known, a state news agency reported.

The crash happened about 4:40 a.m. in the city of Zibo in Shandong province, Xinhua News Agency said.

It quoted witnesses as saying a passenger train from Beijing to coastal Qingdao city derailed and hit another train, causing 'heavy casualties.' The second train was traveling from Yantai to Xuzhou.

Xinhua quoted medical workers at the crash site as saying there were heavy casualties, but it was difficult to give an immediate number. 'I think dozens were injured or killed,' one doctor was quoted as saying. Read more

“It's very good that the president picked a new prime minister”

Supporters of ousted Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, holding his picture, march through the streets of Port-au-Prince during a demonstration to demand his return, Saturday, April 26, 2008. via HendersonvilleNews.com

Police have found a woman missing since 1984, who told authorities that her father had kept her in a cellar for almost 24 years and that she had given birth to at least six children after being repeatedly raped by him.

The 73-year-old father was taken into custody, said Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, on Sunday.

Authorities found the woman Saturday evening in the town of Amstetten following a tip, Lower Austria police said in a statement.

The 42-year-old woman told police that her father began sexually abusing her when she was 11 and locked her in a room in the cellar on Aug. 28, 1984. Read more

“President Karzai condemns this act and asks for all the people to remain calm”

Suspected Taliban militants attacked a ceremony attended by the Afghan president on Sunday, unleashing automatic weapons fire that sent foreign dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover.

Two people were killed and nine were wounded.

President Hamid Karzai, who escaped unharmed, later appeared on television saying several suspects in the attack had been arrested.

Karzai said that 'the enemy of Afghanistan' tried to disrupt the ceremony but were thwarted by security forces. Read more

Afghan's president is said to be safe after an attempt on his life for which the Taliban is claiming responsibility. via Reuters

“Evidently this is a confrontation between gangs”

Massive, running gunbattles broke out between suspected drug traffickers on the streets of this violent border city Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine, law enforcement officials said. via WHDH

“We're going to get together tomorrow to consult about the state of the hostages and how we can promote the humanitarian accord”

Governor seeks help to break hostage deadlock http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=357375&type=World Governor seeks help to break hostage deadlock NEW Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is looking to ... via Shanghai Daily

At least four people killed themselves Friday by inhaling fumes from a detergent mixed with other chemicals amid a wave of similar suicides that has reportedly claimed about 50 lives this month in Japan.

Syria's ambassador to the United States said Friday that the CIA fabricated pictures allegedly taken inside a secret Syrian nuclear reactor and predicted that in the coming weeks the U.S. story about the site would "implode from within."

“The money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump, the grocery store, and also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown”

President Bush said tax rebates will start going out Monday, earlier than previously announced, and should help Americans cope with rising gasoline and food prices, as well as aid a slumping economy. via Topeka Capital-Journal

“They continue to train Iraqis in Iran to come back and fight Americans in the coalition”

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff accused Iran on Friday of increasing arms and training support to insurgents in Iraq as well as militants battling U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Adm. Mike Mullen told a Pentagon news conference that he has "no smoking gun" proof that the highest leadership in the Iranian government has approved the stepped up aid to insurgents who are killing U.S. and Iraqi forces. But he said it's clear that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate, including to support insurgents during the recent fighting in Basra in southern Iraq. Read more

An aide says the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's threat to unleash a full-scale war applies only to U.S.-led forces.

Last week, al-Sadr warned he would declare 'open war' if the government did not end its crackdown against his fighters.

Sheik Hassan Al-Edhari says al-Sadr is appealing to Iraqi soldiers and police 'not to support the occupiers in combatting your brothers.'

But he says al-Sadr's 'threat of an open war until liberation' is meant as 'a war against the occupier.' Read more

The Israeli military says two Israeli security guards have been killed in an attack by a Palestinian militant near the West Bank town of Tulkarem. via MyFOX Atlanta

“The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities.”

The White House said Thursday that North Korea's secret work on a nuclear reactor with Syria was "a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the world," raising doubts about Pyongyang's intention ... via WHDH

A top U.S. official says the Syrian nuclear reactor allegedly built with North Korean design help and destroyed last year by Israeli jets was within weeks or months of being functional.

The official says the facility was mostly completed but still needed significant testing before it could be declared operational. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

No uranium -- the fuel for a reactor -- was evident at the site. Read more

“There may need to be a political solution, a negotiated solution.”

An opposition MDC, Movement For Democratic Change, supporter who claimed his rural home was destroyed by ZANU PF party members and that he was intentionally run over by their vehicle struggles to move a chair ... via The Dispatch

Thousands of Chinese Australians gathered in Canberra, Australia to support the Olympic torch relay. via Reuters

A visitor looks at a variety of bullets on display at the 11th Defense Services Asia Exhibition And Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Tuesday, April 22, 2008. via The Florida Times-Union

“It's an interesting question. I'm not aware of anyone else looking at it in this manner”

Snips and snails and puppydog tails ... and cereal and bananas? That could be what little boys are made of, according to surprising new research suggesting that what a woman eats before pregnancy influences the ... via Kpic.com

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq made an urgent appeal on Tuesday for greater international support to Iraq, and he voiced frustration with fellow leaders of Arab nations for failing to send ambassadors and relieve Iraq's debts.

As protests intensified across southern Africa against the shipment of Chinese-made arms intended for Zimbabwe, the government in Beijing said Tuesday that the ship carrying the arms — owned by a large Chinese state-owned company, Cosco — may return to China because of the difficulties in delivering the goods.

Two people were arrested as the Olympic flame arrived in Australia on Wednesday for the latest leg of a troubled global torch relay which has been beset by anti-China protests.

Russia said on Tuesday that a Georgian unmanned reconnaissance flight over the Georgian rebel region of Abkhazia had violated United Nations ceasefire agreements.

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee said Tuesday he was stepping down after 20 years as chief of South Korea's biggest conglomerate in the aftermath of his indictment on tax evasion and other charges.

Colombia's chief prosecutor has ordered the arrest of a second cousin of President Alvaro Uribe for allegedly promoting illegal paramilitary groups.

The main opposition group calls on the UN and African leaders to intervene in the post-election crisis. via Reuters

The leader of Hamas said Monday that his Palestinian militant group would offer Israel a 10-year "hudna," or truce, as implicit proof of recognition of Israel if it withdrew from all lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East War.

The bodies of 20 migrants have been recovered from the sea near the Bahamas after their boat apparently capsized, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday as it searched for survivors.

The bodies of 19 Haitians and one Honduran were recovered and three survivors - two Haitians and one Honduran - have been found, said Barry Bena, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. Authorities are interviewing the survivors to determine what happened.

The search-and-rescue mission began Sunday after fishermen heard people screaming in the water. Read more

“The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved.”

Former President Jimmy Carter on Monday said Hamas is prepared to accept the right of Israel to "live as a neighbor next door in peace".

His comments came after he met last week with the top Hamas leaders in Syria.

Carter also said Hamas won't undermine Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to reach a peace deal with Israel. He said Hamas is ready to accept a Palestinian state made of the West Bank and Gaza.

Carter made the comments during a speech in Jerusalem on Monday. Read more

“I'm supporting Lugo because he cared about poor people when he was bishop and I think he's honest and won't steal from the Paraguayan people like all the other politicians have”

By Hilary Burke

ASUNCION (Reuters) - Fernando Lugo, a mild-mannered former Roman Catholic bishop, won Paraguay's presidential election on Sunday to end more than 60 years of one-party rule.

The center-leftist opposition leader captured 41 percent of votes to beat ruling party candidate Blanca Ovelar by 10 percentage points, official results from 92 percent of polling stations showed.

Ovelar, the first woman to run for president in Paraguay, conceded defeat on Sunday night as tens of thousands of Lugo's supporters packed a central square in the capital Asuncion. Read more

“I will work on this right now with a sense of urgency.”

The U.N. chief warned Sunday that the world must urgently increase food production to ease skyrocketing prices and pledged to set up a task force on a crisis threatening to destabilize developing nations.

The cost of food has increased by around 40 percent since mid-2007 worldwide, and the strain has caused riots and protests in countries like Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Haiti and Egypt.

"We must make no mistake, the problem is big. If we offer the right aid, the solutions will come," Ban said at the opening of a five-day U.N. conference on trade and development in Ghana's capital, Accra. Read more

“He hasn't stolen this election. We are still fighting.”

Electoral officials count ballots in Domboshawa, near the capital Harare Saturday, April 19, 2008. via Boston Globe

LONDON -- British officials are confirming that Prince William landed an air force helicopter in his girlfriend Kate Middleton's parent's backyard during a training flight. via KVVU-TV Henderson

“This is, I think, an important time”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said her latest trip to Iraq on Sunday is intended to promote fresh political gains she says are flowing from government-led assaults on radical militias.

Rice's brief heavily guarded visit was not announced in advance in keeping with security precautions adopted by all top U.S. officials who remain targets of the anti-American insurgents five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The top U.S. diplomat was meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his Kurdish president and other top officials. She was also honoring Americans killed in the Green Zone, the heavily protected compound that houses the U.S. embassy and much of the Iraqi central government. Read more

“Lawbreakers (in Basra) must be held accountable ... but the insistence of the Americans to lay siege to millions of people in a specific area and then bombing them randomly from air and damaging property is not correct”

Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gave a "final warning" to the government Saturday to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare "open war until liberation." A full-blown ... via Journal Gazette

“We couldn't save anyone because everything was steam and thick smoke. It was really hot”

Flames started by fireworks swept through a nightclub in Ecuador's capital on Saturday, killing at least 14 people who were unable to escape through the club's padlocked doors, a fire official said. Sixteen people were injured.

About 300 people were attending an afternoon event at the 'Factory' club in southern Quito when someone lit fireworks, sending sparks upward that ignited material on the ceiling, Quito Fire Chief Jaime Benalcazar told The Associated Press.

'The exit doors were closed and padlocked,' he said. People were trapped inside. Read more

Pakistan's missing ambassador to Afghanistan appears in a video saying he is being held by Taliban militants. via Reuters

An independent human rights group says a Chinese ship carrying weapons to be delivered to Zimbabwe is now on its way to neighboring Mozambique. via KWQC-TV Davenport

Marking the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, al Qaeda's media arm released an audio recording, purportedly from the group's second-in-command, saying U.S. troops there have failed.

South Korea agreed on Friday to open its market to U.S. beef, boosting prospects for a sweeping trade deal, ahead of a Camp David summit between leaders of the two allies later in the day.

A suicide bomber walked into a funeral for two cousins who had died fighting insurgents and blew himself up Thursday, killing at least 50 people, according to officials. It was the latest strike in an internal war among Sunni Arabs, some of whom have aligned themselves with the Americans and others with Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Two giraffes tied the knot in a Rio de Janeiro zoo in Brazil much to the delight of zoo officials and visitors The only problem---the happy couple has yet to consummate their vows. via Reuters

“You really have to wonder what the politicians will think of next”

The world has never been more connected, but in some corners, it's developing a real hang-up over the ubiquitous cell phone. via PhysOrg Weblog

Visiting British Finance Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, said in Beijing Monday that Tibet is an internal Chinese affair and the United Kingdom is opposed to Tibetan independence.

The United States is hopeful Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations will offer diplomatic and financial help to Iraq at a conference of its neighbors next week, said a senior U.S. official on Wednesday.

French former film star Brigitte Bardot went on trial on Tuesday for insulting Muslims, the fifth time she has faced the charge of "inciting racial hatred" over her controversial remarks about Islam and its followers.

Prosecutors asked that the Paris court hand the 73-year-old former sex symbol a two-month suspended prison sentence and fine her 15,000 euros ($23,760) for saying the Muslim community was "destroying our country and imposing its acts".

The Thai driver of a truck in which 54 Myanmar migrants suffocated to death has surrendered and confessed to his role in last week's human smuggling tragedy, police said Wednesday.

Bombings blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq tore through market areas in Baghdad and outside the capital on Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people and shattering weeks of relative calm in Sunni-dominated areas.

A media report says at least 39 people died, most of them schoolchildren, when a bus plunged into a canal in western India.

In an unprecedented move, the federal government plans to pay hog farmers up to $50-million in total to slaughter as many as 150,000 breeding swine.

Farmers will receive $225 for every hog they kill, so long as they agree to wipe out their entire breeding herd and stay out of the hog business for three years. The government hopes the program will reduce a glut on the market that has helped drive down prices.

Armed men firing from pickup trucks and flying in a helicopter attacked a maximum-security prison holding some of Brazil's highest-profile inmates but were repelled by guards, authorities said Monday.

Construction will halt, heavy industries will close, and even spray painting will stop in order to clean Beijing's polluted air for the Olympics -- an issue that suddenly has taken a back seat to political protests.

Zimbabwe 's political opposition suffered a rebuff on Monday when the country's High Court dismissed its demand that the results of last month's presidential election be released immediately.

Israel's secret service has declined to assist U.S. agents guarding former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit in which Israeli leaders have shunned him, U.S. sources close to the matter said on Monday.

For thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America, the long journey to the U.S. starts here, on the groaning back of a freight train they call The Beast. But these days many don't get too far.

Central Americans without documents now face increased security within Mexico, including checks on the train for stowaways. It's also harder for them to head north once they cross into Mexico because of hurricane damage to the train tracks.

Haiti's government fell on Saturday when senators fired the prime minister after more than a week of riots over food prices, ignoring a plan presented by the president to slash the cost of rice.

One of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's senior aides was assassinated Friday in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, officials said.

U.N. peacekeepers are pulling back in places around Haiti's capital as calm returns after three days of violence.

A suspected al Qaeda conspirator from Sudan praised Osama bin Laden and the September 11 attacks during a hearing in the Guantanamo war court on Thursday and said he did not recognize the court's authority to ...

“The elders will consider consultations with key leaders in the region and outside with the purpose of developing a comprehensive report, but have decided to postpone their visit”

The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it had advised ex-President Jimmy Carter against meeting the leader of Hamas in Syria next week, saying it went against U.S. policy of isolating the militant group. via WRNX-FM Holyoke

The International Olympic Committee will discuss whether to terminate the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay if the event, already marred by radical anti-Chinese protests in London and Paris, is disrupted further in San Francisco, the next stage, sources close to the situation said Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday the worldwide losses stemming from the US subprime mortgage crisis could hit 945 billion dollars.