World

(Trinidad Express) Highway hunger striker Dr Wayne Kublalsingh has agreed to conditionally accept the draft proposal submitted by the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) and the Works and Infrastructure Ministry.

BRUSSELS/AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) – The Netherlands and Belgium are two countries that pride themselves on progressive laws and open societies, but critics say they are stuck in the dark ages when it comes to depictions of Santa Claus and his helpers.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Cocaine trafficking through drug hub Guinea Bissau is spreading unabated amid turmoil sparked by an April military coup that has slashed the West African country’s key cashew crop and almost halved its economic growth, the United Nations said.

OSLO,  (Reuters) – Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit secretly travelled to India in order to care for infant twins born to the surrogate mother of a gay palace employee unable to get a travel visa, the palace said on Monday.

JERUSALEM  (Reuters) – Israel rejected concerted criticism from the United States and Europe yesterday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations’ de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood.

CAIRO/BEIRUT  (Reuters) – A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, who was the most public face of Bashar al-Assad’s government as it battled a 20-month-old uprising, has fled the country, a diplomat in the region said yesterday.

HANOI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has declared itself ready to deploy naval vessels to the South China Sea to protect its oil-exploration interests there, a potential new escalation of tensions in a disputed area where fears of armed conflict have been growing steadily.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Former US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday joined the board of US hotel company Marriott International Inc, in one of his first public moves since his unsuccessful bid to unseat Democratic President Barack Obama.

MOSCOW/BEIJING (Reuters) – Russia and China urged North Korea yesterday not to go ahead with a plan for its second rocket launch of 2012, with Moscow saying any such move would violate restrictions imposed by the UN Security Council.

LONDON  (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine are expecting a baby, destined to be the country’s future monarch, although the mother-to-be is in hospital with a type of very acute morning sickness that sometimes indicates twins.

CAIRO, (Reuters) – Protests by Islamists allied to President Mohamed Mursi forced Egypt’s highest court to adjourn its work indefinitely yesterday, intensifying a conflict between some of the country’s top judges and the head of state.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Sunday signed a pact with the country’s leading political parties to increase competition in the telecommunications sector and overhaul the education system.

BEIJING,  (Reuters) – The pace of activity in China’s vast manufacturing sector quickened for the first time in 13 months in November, a survey of private factory managers found, adding to evidence that the economy is reviving after seven quarters of slowing growth.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – India’s stuttering economic reform programme faces a key parliamentary test this week on whether to let foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart Stores set up shop, in a vote that could pave the way for further measures to revive the economy.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The global economy is on edge – and that’s without the U.S.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pushed Republicans yesterday to offer specific ideas to cut the deficit, and predicted that they would agree to raise tax rates on the rich to obtain a year-end deal and avoid possible economic doom.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s President Mohamed Mursi called a Dec. 15 referendum on a draft constitution yesterday as at least 200,000 Islamists demonstrated in Cairo to back him after opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The presidents of Colombia and Nicaragua on Saturday both said they hoped to avoid war and use dialogue instead to solve a dispute over a recent UN court ruling that shifted some of Colombia’s resource-rich water to the Central America country.

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) –         Hundreds of rebel fighters, singing and brandishing weapons, pulled out of Congo’s eastern border city of Goma yesterday, raising hopes for negotiations to end the insurgency.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Britain and France condemned yesterday a plan by Israel to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying international confidence in its desire to make peace with the Palestinians was at risk.