World

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin took a leading role in the latest tests of Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal, the most comprehensive since the 1991 Soviet collapse, the Kremlin said yesterday.

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Five Colombian soldiers were killed by FARC rebels in the first major incident since peace talks between the Andean country’s government and guerrilla leaders began earlier this week, the army said yesterday.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan militias captured Muammar Gaddafi’s chief spokesman yesterday, the government said, but an audio clip posted on Facebook purporting to be the voice of Moussa Ibrahim denied his capture.

LIMA (Reuters) – Argentina’s president yesterday ordered 326 sailors to evacuate a Navy frigate that was seized in Ghana to help bondholders try to recoup debts from the South American country’s 2002 default.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House yesterday denied a report in the New York Times that said the Obama administration had agreed to one-on-one talks with Iran on its nuclear programme.

WASHINGTON/DEL RAY BEACH, Fla (Reuters) – Facing a cliffhanger re-election attempt, President Barack Obama will launch a round-the-clock, two-day campaign blitz through six battleground states next week to try to fend off the challenge from Republican Mitt Romney.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – A prominent Lebanese intelligence official opposed to President Bashar al-Assad was killed in a huge car bomb in Beirut in another sign that Syria’s civil war is dragging its volatile neighbour into the conflict.

LONDON, (Reuters) – British minister Andrew Mitchell resigned yesterday after failing to shake off accusations he called police “plebs”, an insult laden with snobbery that fuelled perceptions Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is out of touch with voters.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Cyberspace is the battlefield of the future, with attackers already going after banks and other financial institutions and developing the ability to strike U.S.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A Republican senator yesterday accused the head of the U.S.

MINNEAPOLIS/NASHVILLE, Tenn., (Reuters) – Confronted with a growing meningitis scare, states are coming under enormous pressure to meet federal requests that they contact more than 1,000 hospitals and clinics that received any injectable drugs from the company at the center of the deadly outbreak.

By Shilpa Jamkhandikar   (Reuters) Is it possible for a film-maker to regress with each film?

AMSTERDAM, (Reuters) – The Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel, best known for her roles in soft-porn films in the 1970s particularly the French hit “Emmanuelle”, has died in Amsterdam at the age of 60, according to her agent.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil enacted a controversial law yesterday meant to protect forests and force farmers to replant trees on scattered swathes of illegally cleared land totaling an area roughly the size of Italy.

SAN FRANCISCO,  (Reuters) – A White House-ordered review of security risks posed by suppliers to U.S.

WASHINGTON – Fresh off a feisty debate that re-energized Barack Obama’s bid for a second term, the Democratic president and Republican rival Mitt Romney headed back on the campaign trail on Wednesday to start their final appeals to undecided voters.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The FBI yesterday arrested a Bangladeshi man in a sting operation on charges he attempted to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank with what he believed was a 1,000-pound (450-kg) bomb, federal authorities said.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexico has charged seven officials, including three members of the country’s organized-crime unit, with providing information on government raids and investigations to the country’s most powerful drug gang.

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama aggressively challenged Republican candidate Mitt Romney on jobs, energy and Libya in their second debate yesterday as the Democrat tried reclaim the momentum in a tight White House race.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Rwanda’s defense minister is commanding a rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that is being armed by Rwanda and Uganda, both of which sent troops to aid the insurgency in a deadly attack on U.N.