World

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Newcomer British boy band One Direction joined R&B diva Rihanna and British singer Adele to top Billboard’s year-end music charts, released yesterday.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Vene-zuela’s Hugo Chavez suffered unexpected bleeding caused by a six-hour cancer operation in Cuba, the government said, although the ailing president’s condition began to improve yesterday.

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Syria’s rebel leadership and the United States seized on Russian pessimism over President Bashar al-Assad’s future to urge Moscow to help push its ally into ceding power and end the battles closing in around his capital.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a close confidante of President Barack Obama, withdrew her name from consideration as secretary of state yesterday in the face of what promised to be a contentious Senate confirmation battle.

VATICAN CITY,  (Reuters) – The Vatican said yesterday there was no link between its decision to accept the gift of a nativity scene in St Peter’s Square and allegations that it had previously paid inflated prices to have them built.

DUBAI/SAN FRANCISCO,  (Reuters) – An attempt by national governments to establish a worldwide policy for oversight of the Internet collapsed yesterday after many Western countries said a compromise plan gave too much power to United Nations and other officials.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is in stable condition after his cancer operation in Cuba, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said yesterday.]

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS,  (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebels trying to overthrow Syria’s government, a senior U.S.

TEGUCIGALPA,  (Reuters) – Honduran lawmakers yesterday dismissed four Supreme Court judges who had declared unconstitutional a law designed to purge the country’s police of corruption, deepening a conflict between the ruling party and the court.

MIAMI,  (Reuters) – John McAfee arrived in Miami last night after Guatemala deported the computer software pioneer who is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of a fellow American, according to fellow passengers on the American Airlines flight.

LOS ANGELES,  (Reuters) – Sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, who helped introduce the sitar to the Western world through his collaborations with The Beatles, died in Southern California on Tuesday, his family said.

(Reuters) – HSBC Holdings Plc agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion in fines to US authorities for allowing itself to be used to launder a river of drug money flowing out of Mexico and other banking lapses.

BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali’s prime minister was forced to resign yesterday by the soldiers who staged a coup in March, underscoring the military’s continuing grip and complicating international efforts to help push Islamists from the north.

SEOUL (Reuters) – Isolated North Korea launched a long-range rocket today in defiance of condemnation by critics who believe it is seeking to develop technology that will enable it to deliver a nuclear warhead, South Korean TV channel YTN reported.

(Reuters) – A Guatemalan accused of being a top drug trafficker in Central America aligned with Mexico’s deadly Zetas gang appeared in a US court yesterday after being extradited to the United States, authorities said.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – United Nations member states pledged $384 million yesterday to an emergency fund that will allow the world body to respond quickly to natural disasters and other crises in 2013, UN aid chief Valerie Amos said.

 (Reuters) – Researchers at Yale University have named a newly discovered dinosaur Obamadon gracilis in honour of the 44th president’s toothy grin.

PORTLAND, Ore (Reuters) – A gunman opened fire at an Oregon shopping mall outside Portland yesterday and several people were believed to have been shot, authorities said, while local media reported two had been killed.

ALBANY, NY (Reuters) – A New York state anti-terrorism law enacted in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks cannot be used to prosecute a street gang member convicted of shooting a 10-year-old girl and paralysing a rival gang member, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The White House and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner’s office held more negotiations yesterday on ways to break the “fiscal cliff” stalemate, although neither side showed any public signs that they were ready to give ground.