World

NEW YORK (Reuters) – US prosecutors made new allegations yesterday in a probe of the Full Tilt Poker website, accusing self-styled “Poker Professor” Howard Lederer and professional poker champion Christopher Ferguson and others of paying themselves more than $440 million while defrauding other players.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As the US government grapples to find ways to trim the bloated federal deficit, a new report suggests officials might start with cutting out $16 muffins and $10 cookies.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN chief yesterday he would seek full membership for a Palestinian state at the United Nations, a move the United States and Israel warn could derail hopes for resuming peace talks.

PARIS (Reuters) – The French media scorned what it called an insincere and staged TV apology by Dominique Strauss-Kahn for his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid, with many noting he left the door ajar for a eventual political comeback.

BANI WALID/SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) – Libya’s interim government said its forces seized the airport and fort in Sabha, one of the last strongholds of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi which also controls the main route south out of Libya.

LUSAKA (Reuters) – Zambians head to the polls today to vote in a closely contested election in Africa’s biggest copper producer between incumbent Rupiah Banda and nationalist opposition leader Michael Sata.

ASUNCION (Reuters) – Paraguay halted beef exports until December and ordered the slaughter of hundreds of cattle yesterday after officials detected an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the beef-exporting nation.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A last-ditch international push began in New York yesterday to try to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a crisis over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Libya’s interim leaders failed to agree a new cabinet yesterday in the latest setback to attempts to normalise the running of a government still bogged down by battles with pro-Muammar Gaddafi forces.

LONDON  (Reuters) – The global economic impact of the five leading chronic diseases — cancer, diabetes, mental illness, heart disease, and respiratory disease — could reach $47 trillion over the next 20 years, according to a study by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

SANAA (Reuters) – At least 26 people were shot dead and hundreds wounded yesterday when security forces fired on demonstrators who charged police lines in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, in a dramatic escalation of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced growing pressure yesterday to resign after embarrassing new revelations of parties and young women prompted questions about his ability to govern a country rocked by financial crisis.

BANI WALID/SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan interim government forces charged back into the besieged desert town of Bani Walid yesterday, a day after diehard loyalists of fallen strongman Muammar Gaddafi beat them into a humiliating retreat.

RENO, Nev. (Reuters) – The death toll in the crash of a vintage World War Two fighter plane near the grandstand at a Nevada air race has risen to nine, authorities said yesterday.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Kara Kennedy Allen, the only daughter of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, has died at age 51, a Kennedy family friend said yesterday.

Islamabad (Reuters) – The United States accused Pakistan yesterday of having links to a militant group Washington blames for an attack on the US embassy and other targets in Kabul and said the government in Islamabad must cut those ties.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A pro-business Hindu leader who some think could be India’s next prime minister began a “harmony” fast yesterday to soften his image as a hardliner blamed for religious riots that claimed hundreds of mostly Muslim victims nine years ago.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday he would demand full membership of the United Nations for a Palestinian state when he goes to the UN General Assembly next week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.

LONDON (Reuters AlertNet) – The world reacted too slowly to the Horn of Africa hunger crisis leaving aid agencies racing to catch up with the region’s needs, the head of a coalition of Britain’s leading charities said.

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s scandal-plagued Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced fresh legal and political headaches yesterday, with sliding approval ratings and new revelations of parties and young women paid for sex.