World

LONDON, Reuters) – As a new documentary shows, the real story behind the James Bond film franchise is almost as dramatic as the 007 fantasies themselves, full of twists and turns, personality clashes, heroes, villains, beautiful women and narrow escapes.

BERLIN,  (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hardening her stance on additional help for struggling euro zone economies like Greece and Spain as pressure from parliamentary allies and a looming election campaign shrink her room for manoeuvre in Europe.

DENVER,  (Reuters) – An aggressive Mitt Romney took the fight to President Barack Obama yesterday and the Republican candidate appeared to breathe new life into his struggling campaign with a solid performance at their first debate.

AKCAKALE, Turkey, (Reuters) – Turkish artillery hit targets inside Syria sday after a mortar bomb fired from Syrian territory killed five Turkish civilians, while NATO called for an immediate end to Syria’s “aggressive acts”.

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – U.S. scientists have sequenced the entire genetic code of four gravely ill newborns and identified genetic diseases in three of them in two days, quick enough to help doctors make treatment decisions.

GUATEMALA CITY, (Reuters) – Archaeologists in Guatemala have discovered the tomb of an ancient Mayan warrior queen packed with jade jewels and other artifacts that shed light on the long-vanished civilization, experts said yesterday.

BELIZE CITY, (Reuters) – Belize hopes to strike a deal with creditors to restructure its $550 million ‘superbond’ within a month, Prime Minister Dean Barrow said yesterday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Creating jobs can help governments improve the lot of their citizens, but some jobs have more impact than others when it comes to helping societies move ahead, the World Bank said in a report yesterday.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – At least 36 people died and dozens were injured when a ferry carrying more than 120 people on a company outing collided with another ferry and sank near an island south of Hong Kong last night in one of the city’s worst maritime accidents.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Fires that gutted a vast historic market have broken out in other areas of the Old City of Aleppo, a world heritage site, as rebels and government forces fight for the ancient heart of Syria’s biggest city, opposition activists said yesterday.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Supporters of a Mexican leftist party, angry at losing a local election, went on the rampage and set 80 prisoners free from a detention center in the southern state of Chiapas.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Drew Barrymore has given birth to a daughter named Olive, her first child with husband Will Kopelman, the actress said in a statement yesterday.

BAGHDAD,  (Reuters) – Coordinated bomb attacks killed more than 32 people across Iraq yesterday, the latest violence in an insurgency the government has failed to quell more than nine months after the last U.S.

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Large parts of Aleppo’s covered market, the largest of its kind in the world and a UNESCO world heritage site that traces its history back to the 14th century, have been reduced to ashes as government forces and rebels fight for control of the city.

SACRAMENTO,  (Reuters) – Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill banning a controversial therapy that aims to reverse homosexuality in minors, his office announced yesterday, making California the first state to ban a practice many say is psychologically damaging.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somalia’s al Shabaab rebels retreated from the southern port of Kismayu overnight, abandoning the last major bastion of their five-year revolt to an offensive by African Union and Somali government troops.

VANDALIA, Ohio (Reuters) – Trailing in the must-win state of Ohio, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney asked his running mate Paul Ryan to meet him here this week.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hundreds of shops were burning in the ancient covered market in Aleppo yesterday as fighting between rebels and state forces in Syria’s largest city threatened to destroy a UNESCO world heritage site.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s butler, accused of using his access to the pope to steal papers that he thought would expose Vatican corruption, suffered a blow on yesterday’s first day of his trial when judges refused to admit evidence from the Church’s own investigation.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who led the company for 34 years in a period of growth that made it a multibillion-dollar media enterprise, died yesterday at the age of 86, the newspaper said.