World

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A former Guatemalan army commander convicted of covering up his role in a massacre during that country’s bloody civil war in order to gain US citizenship was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in federal prison.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union agreed yesterday to launch negotiations with Cuba to increase trade, investment and dialogue on human rights in its most significant diplomatic shift since Brussels lifted sanctions on the communist-ruled country in 2008.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., (Reuters) – Entrepreneurs from one of the grittiest cities in the United States have joined forces with peasant farmers in Haiti to help transform the country’s bitter poverty into delicious and life-sustaining ice cream.

SERANG, Indonesia, (Reuters) – Indonesia’s first female governor, smiling broadly, looks down from billboards that line the pot-holed roads of Banten, the country’s fifth-most populous province that she has ruled for almost a decade.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Stronger winds which have cooled the surface of the Pacific Ocean could explain what is likely to be a temporary slowdown in the pace of global warming this century, researchers said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – An aid convoy came under fire in a besieged rebel district of Homs yesterday, threatening a United Nations-led operation to bring food and medicine to 2,500 people and evacuate civilians trapped by months of fighting in the Syrian city.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla (Reuters) – One of Miami Beach’s most notorious pieces of real estate is back on the block: the asking price is almost $8.5 million.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Attorney General Eric Holder plans widespread changes within the US Justice Department to benefit same-sex married couples, such as recognizing a legal right for them not to testify against each other in civil and criminal cases, according to excerpts of a speech yesterday.

DUBAI (Reuters) – An Iranian naval officer said a number of warships had been ordered to approach US maritime borders as a response to the stationing of US vessels in the Gulf, the semi-official Fars news agency reported yesterday.

ALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain (Reuters) – Spain’s Princess Cristina was questioned by a judge yesterday in a corruption case that has deepened public anger over graft among the ruling class and discontent with the royal family.

(Reuters) – Over the last two weeks, Obama administration officials have signaled – sometimes intentionally, sometimes not – that a worst-case scenario is emerging in Syria.

KIEV, (Reuters) – A top U.S. diplomat tried to play down the damage to Washington’s diplomacy in Ukraine from a leaked telephone callyesterday, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel called an obscene remark about the EU “absolutely unacceptable.”

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. job creation slowed sharply over the past two months, turning in the weakest performance in three years and raising the prospect that the economy may be losing momentum.

TUZLA/SARAJEVO, Bosnia, (Reuters) – Protesters across Bosnia set fire to government buildings and fought with riot police yesterday as long-simmering anger over lack of jobs and political inertia fuelled a third day of the worst civil unrest in Bosnia since a 1992-95 war.

MADRID, (Reuters) – The Spanish government approved a law yesterday allowing descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from the country in 1492 to seek Spanish nationality without giving up their current citizenship.

OTTAWA,  (Reuters) – Canada will toughen citizenship rules to prevent foreigners from picking up Canadian passports of convenience without spending much time in the country, part of a sweeping package of reforms under legislation introduced yesterday.

SAN SALVADOR, (Reuters) – El Salvador’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the country’s top prosecutor to investigate the alleged massacre of dozens of civilians in 1981 by army troops during the nation’s bloody civil war.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives appear increasingly unlikely to pass an immigration overhaul this year, preferring to focus their election-year strategy on a unified assault on President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – India has launched an investigation after a media report alleged that Chinese telecoms company Huawei had hacked into state-run telecoms carrier Bharat Sanchar Nigam, a senior government official said.

OTTAWA,  (Reuters) – Canada will toughen citizenship rules to prevent foreigners from picking up Canadian passports of convenience without spending much time in the country, part of a sweeping package of reforms under legislation introduced on Thursday.