BEIRUT – A senior Norwegian U.N. peacekeeper flies into Damascus today to try to broker an agreement that will allow observers to be deployed across Syria to monitor a ceasefire demanded by an international peace plan.
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WASHINGTON – The United States said yesterday it was ready to relax some sanctions on Myanmar to recognize its fledgling democratic transition, including a ban on U.S. companies investing in or offering financial services to the country.
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WASHINGTON – Liberal activists yesterday criticized new voter registration requirements in dozens of states, saying millions of people could be deterred from voting in the November U.S. presidential election – a claim their opponents disputed.
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WASHINGTON – Accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four suspected co-conspirators were ordered yesterday to stand trial before a Guantanamo war crimes tribunal, the Pentagon said, a move that throws the politically charged case into the limelight in an election year.
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WASHINGTON – The White House was forced on the defensive yesterday as it sought to explain controversial remarks President Barack Obama made earlier in the week about the Supreme Court’s review of his signature healthcare reform law.
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WASHINGTON – Republican candidate Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama yesterday of being “intent on hiding” his true positions, in a growing war of words between the two men who are increasingly likely to face off in November’s presidential election.
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TOKYO – Japan’s trade minister is set to visit Fukui prefecture, home of Kansai Electric Power Co’s Ohi nuclear plant, as early as Sunday to ask for local approval to restart the plant’s No. 3 and No. 4 reactors, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Thursday.
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ANKARA – Retired General Kenan Evren, symbol of an era when the military dominated Turkish politics, went on trial on Wednesday for leading a 1980 coup that shaped the country for three decades until reforms cut back the power of the “Pashas.”
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ZUWARA, Libya – Wissam Kilani, a 22-year-old Libyan fighter, left the front line on Wednesday afternoon just long enough to restock with two rocket-propelled grenades, before heading back into the latest of the ethnic and tribal conflicts convulsing the new Libya.
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LANCASTER, Texas – Huddled inside a closet with his wife and 9-month-old daughter, Quental Austin could hear bricks and two-by-fours clattering as a tornado ravaged his Lancaster, Texas, neighborhood on Tuesday.
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MEXICO CITY – Conservative candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota will re-jig her campaign to become Mexico’s first woman president in an effort to close a yawning gap with the opposition front-runner, only five days after the race officially began.
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BRASILIA – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s popularity is at its highest level since taking office, buoyed by her handling of an economic slowdown and tough stance against corruption, a poll showed on Wednesday.