World

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund dramatically raised the stakes in Greece’s stalled debt talks yesterday, announcing that its delegation had left negotiations in Brussels and flown home because of major differences with Athens.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – More than half of a record 160 million accounts opened in India as part of a drive to offer banking to all are still empty, illustrating the massive task ahead for one of the government’s most high-profile campaigns and the strain on banks.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Master of the macabre Christopher Lee, who portrayed Dracula in outrageous Hammer Films horror classics but became known to later generations for roles in “Star Wars” and as the wizard Saruman in the “Lord of the Rings”, has died aged 93.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Hundreds of law enforcement agents hunting for two upstate New York prison escapees focused their search on Thursday on a heavily wooded area just a few miles from the maximum security facility where they broke out last week, police said.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Protecting the world’s dwindling forests and making small farms more productive will cost hundreds of billions of dollars annually – money governments and charities do not have to spend, experts said at a London conference.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – President Barack Obama yesterday ordered the deployment of 450 more U.S.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Research involving a former brain-eating tribe from Papua New Guinea is helping scientists better understand mad cow disease and other so-called prion conditions and may also offer insights into Parkinson’s and dementia.

WASHINGTON, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The World Bank wants all corporate bidders on bank-funded projects to publicly reveal their true owners as a way of tackling fraud and cronyism in government contracts, a senior official said.

BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) – Tensions over the Falkland Islands flared again on Wednesday, with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez referring to Britain’s leader as “almost ill-mannered” in his comments to an official of her government over the contested archipelago.

BEIJING, (Reuters) – A former senior Chinese official, who went into hiding after being sought by anti-corruption investigators, has applied for asylum in the United States after been detained there, state media said yesterday.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – President Dilma Rousseff unveiled a plan yesterday to draw 198.4 billion reais ($64 billion) in private investment to build, upgrade and operate Brazilian roads, railways, airports and harbor terminals.

LONDON, (Reuters) – A Congolese-Belgian woman has become the first in the world to give birth to a healthy child after doctors restored her fertility by transplanting ovarian tissue that was removed and frozen when she was a child.

BONN, Germany, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Negotiators reached a surprise resolution to thorny issues relating to forest protection at U.N.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela said yesterday it had cited Colombia’s ambassador for an explanation of why the neighboring country flew out a former Spanish prime minister who had traveled to Caracas to support the opposition.

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert pleaded not guilty in a packed Chicago courtroom on Tuesday to federal charges of trying to hide large cash transactions and lying to the FBI about it.

KRUEN, GERMANY (Reuters) – Leaders of the world’s major industrial democracies resolved yesterday to wean their energy-hungry economies off carbon fuels, marking a major step in the battle against global warming that raises the chances of a UN climate deal later this year.

SKHIRAT, Morocco (Reuters) – United Nations negotiators yesterday handed Libya’s warring factions a draft proposal for forming a unity government in an attempt to end a conflict that threatens to push the North African country into becoming a failed state Western officials say the UN talks are the only hope of halting fighting between two rival governments and their armed forces that has battered the OPEC country since the 2011 uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s one-man rule.

LONDON (Reuters) – Modernising mud huts and other traditional housing could significantly cut the risk of malaria for people living in some of the highest risk areas of Africa, Asia and South America, according to new research.

BANJUL (Reuters) – Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the deaths of African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat to Europe.

ANKARA, (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s hopes of assuming greater powers suffered a major setback yesterday when the ruling AK Party he founded failed to win an outright majority in a parliamentary election for the first time.