World

VATICAN CITY, (Reuters) – Pope Francis led the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas yesterday, urging those “intoxicated” by possessions and superficial appearances to return to the essential values of life.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – A Mexican judge has sentenced a former regional governor from the main conservative opposition party to two years and three months in prison for embezzlement, the government of Aguascalientes state said.

BANGKOK, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Thai authorities must step up witness protection for a major human trafficking trial with the accused including an army general and one investigator fleeing the country fearing for his life, activists said on Thursday as the first witnesses gave evidence.

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – The governor of Rio de Janeiro declared a state of emergency late on Wednesday as a budget shortfall caused chaos in the state’s healthcare system only eight months before the city of Rio is due to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – California Governor Jerry Brown yesterday pardoned “Iron Man” film star Robert Downey Jr.

LUXEMBOURG/LONDON, (Reuters) – An adviser to Europe’s highest court said an EU law on cigarettes was valid, rebuffing a challenge from Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco, though the court still has to deliver a final ruling.

ACCRA, (Reuters) – Ghana’s transport minister has resigned after reports that her ministry overspent 3.6 million cedis ($947,000) to paint more than 100 buses in national colours and with portraits of Ghana’s recent leaders.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

BERLIN, (Reuters) – For the first time since Hitler’s death, Germany is publishing the Nazi leader’s political treatise “Mein Kampf”, unleashing a highly charged row over whether the text is an inflammatory racist diatribe or a useful educational tool.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition yesterday accused the ruling Socialist Party of seeking to block 22 lawmakers from taking office in January in what it described as an effort to undermine the opposition’s commanding victory in this month’s legislative election.

LAS VEGAS,  (Reuters) – An Oregon woman accused of plowing her car into a crowd on the Las Vegas Strip, killing one person and injuring dozens, was charged with murder yesterday as investigators sought clues to what motivated the rampage.

KAMPALA, (Reuters) – The World Bank has cancelled a $265 million infrastructure project in Uganda after a review found evidence of misconduct by a government contractor, including sexual harassment of female workers and road workers having sexual relations with underage girls.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – India passed legislation lowering the age at which someone can be tried for rape and other crimes to 16, spurred into action by an uproar over the release of a minor convicted in a 2012 fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a Delhi bus.

ACCRA, (Reuters) – Ghana’s President John Mahama has banned public officials from first class air travel in a renewed effort to cut wasteful spending as the West African nation implements an IMF aid deal to revive state finances, the government said yesterday.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A Bahamian man has been arrested for hacking celebrities’ email accounts to steal movie and TV scripts, personal information and sexually explicit videos that he peddled to an undercover agent, federal prosecutors in New York said on Tuesday.

SHENZHEN, China, (Reuters) – A man was pulled out alive yesterday more than 60 hours after being buried when a waste heap collapsed on an industrial estate in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and there could be at least one other survivor, state media said.

PANAMA CITY, (Reuters) – Panama’s top court on Monday ordered the detention of former President Ricardo Martinelli who is alleged to have used public money to spy on more than 150 people illegally, one of several accusations he faces.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s controversial anti-terrorism law could be passed as soon as the end of this month, state news agency Xinhua said yesterday, legislation that has drawn concern in Western capitals for its cyber provisions.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations is mulling “light touch” options for monitoring a possible ceasefire in Syria that would keep its risks to a minimum by relying largely on Syrians already on the ground, diplomatic sources said.

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council yesterday postponed until January this Sunday’s scheduled presidential run-off election amid accusations by the opposition candidate of fraud and irregularities.