DUBAI | Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:53am EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's parliament called off plans to grill President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said they must not act in the interests of Iran's enemies. Ahmadinejad's opponents in the 290-seat assembly dominated by conservatives wanted to question him about an econ...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Wed Nov 21, 2012 7:26am EST AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed a Damascus suburb on Wednesday, opposition activists said, as heavy fighting raged for the second day on the outskirts, challenging President Bashar al-Assad's hold on the capital. MiG fighter jets hit the suburb of Daraya, situated amid farmland ...

MAKHACHKALA, Russia | Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:53am EST MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - An improvised bomb killed two policemen and one civilian in Russia's volatile North Caucasus on Wednesday and wounded five others, police said. The bomb went off in Dagestan, an internal mostly Muslim republic, which has been beset by violence blamed on insurgents seeking t...

SANAA | Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:23am EST SANAA (Reuters) - A Yemeni military transport plane crashed near Sanaa airport and burst into flames on Wednesday, killing all ten people onboard, an airport official said. The plane came down in an abandoned produce market in the Hasaba district near the Yemeni capital's airport after suffering a technical problem, th...

Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:00pm EST BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Opposition trade unions protesting Argentina's economic policies brought public transportation and the country's crucial grain exports to a halt on Tuesday in the first general strike since President Cristina Fernandez took office five years ago. Demonstrators burned tires to block roads and vandalized a handfu...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams GAZA/JERUSALEM | Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:40pm EST GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and pledged to work for a truce in the Gaza Strip "in the days ahead". As the two began late-night talks in Jerusalem, Palestinian rocket fir...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Tue Nov 20, 2012 12:56pm EST AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian government troops backed by tanks battled to oust rebel forces from an opposition stronghold in a Damascus suburb on Tuesday in the heaviest fighting in the capital for months. In the country's north, rebel fighters stormed an air defense base that President Bash...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller GAZA/JERUSALEM | Tue Nov 20, 2012 12:36pm EST GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Hamas official said on Tuesday Egypt had brokered a Gaza ceasefire deal that would go into effect within hours, but a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "we're not there yet". "An agreement for calm has been...

By Joe Brock ABUJA | Tue Nov 20, 2012 12:35pm EST ABUJA (Reuters) - Britain has failed to make major improvements to schools in Nigeria despite spending millions of pounds on the West African state's education system, a British aid watchdog said on Tuesday. Britain has spent 102 million pounds ($162 million) in the past seven years on a project t...

KABUL | Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:50am EST KABUL (Reuters) - France withdrew its combat troops from Afghanistan on Tuesday, marking the end of its battlefield role in the NATO-led war after a presence of more than 10 years. Four hundred French troops returned to the Afghan capital after four years of combat operations in nearby Kapisa province and Kabul's Saro...

By Dagmara Leszkowicz and Marcin Goettig WARSAW | Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:57am EST WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish authorities have arrested a radical nationalist who planned to blow up parliament and had links to the right-wing extremist who murdered dozens of people in Norway last year, they said on Tuesday. The suspected plot - to detonate a bomb outsid...

By Jonny Hogg GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo | Tue Nov 20, 2012 8:09am EST GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Rebels widely believed to be backed by Rwanda claimed control of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, walking through the frontier city of one million people past U.N. peacekeepers who did nothing to st...

By Dagmara Leszkowicz and Marcin Goettig WARSAW | Tue Nov 20, 2012 8:04am EST WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish officials said on Tuesday they had arrested a radical nationalist who planned to detonate a vehicle loaded with four tonnes of explosives outside parliament, possibly when the president and prime minister were in the building. Prosecutors said ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell GAZA/JERUSALEM | Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:59am EST GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The U.N. chief called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to the region with a message that escalation of the week-long conflict was in nobody's interest. Nevertheles...

DUBAI | Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:56am EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Leading Iranian opposition figure Mehdi Karoubi, under house arrest since 2011, was hospitalized briefly after showing symptoms including weight loss, dizziness and nausea, his website said on Tuesday. Karoubi, 75, and fellow reformist Mirhossein Mousavi ran for election in June 2009 and became figure...

BEIRUT | Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:52am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two mortar rounds struck Syria's Information Ministry building in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, state television said, causing some damage but no casualties. Syrian TV blamed "terrorists" for the attack, referring to insurgents who have been battling t...

LONDON | Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:50am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has officially recognized the fledgling Syrian National Coalition opposition group, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Tuesday. "Her majesty's government has decided to recognize the national coalition of Syrian revolution and opposition forces as the sole legitimate representat...

By Jeff Mason and James Pomfret PHNOM PENH | Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:46am EST PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Asian leaders on Tuesday to rein in tensions in the South China Sea and other disputed territory, but stopped short of firmly backing allies Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in their disputes with China. The comments illu...

By Catherine Bremer PARIS | Tue Nov 20, 2012 7:13am EST PARIS (Reuters) - After six months keeping the world guessing about whether he had a vision for fixing France's sickly economy, President Francois Hollande has unveiled a battle plan "à la française" to ease companies' labor costs and trim public spending. But the softly-softly pace of adjus...

TEL AVIV | Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:54am EST TEL AVIV (Reuters) - A man apparently suffering from mental health problems stabbed a security guard at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and was apprehended, police said. "A Mazda car stopped next to the U.S. embassy and a man got out carrying a red bag and a pitchfork," said David Cohen, 48, who told Reuters...

ANKARA | Tue Nov 20, 2012 6:50am EST ANKARA (Reuters) - NATO member states have agreed to supply Turkey with an advanced Patriot missile system to defend against Syrian attacks and talks on its deployment are in the final stage, Turkey's foreign minister said on Tuesday. Turkey has been talking to NATO allies about how to shore up security on its 900-km ...

By Jonny Hogg GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo | Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:25pm EST GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Rwanda accused U.N.-backed Congolese forces of shelling its territory during a battle with rebels near the border on Monday but said it had no plans to respond militarily to what it called Kinshasa's "provocation". Tension...

By Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO | Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:33pm EST BAMAKO (Reuters) - Islamist gunmen fought Tuareg separatist rebels on Monday in a battle for control of the town of Menaka in Mali's northern desert, close to the border with Niger, both sides said. The renewed fighting came as African leaders...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller GAZA/JERUSALEM | Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:18pm EST GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire. Mediator Egypt sai...

By John Irish PARIS | Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:35pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande's decision to recognize Syria's new opposition bloc aims to secure long-term French interests in the region and boost his foreign policy image but, with few allies following suit, Paris may risk isolation. With his economic policies under harsh scrutin...

By Jeff Franks and Helen Murphy and Jack Kimball HAVANA/BOGOTA | Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:47pm EST HAVANA/BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's Marxist rebels called a two-month unilateral ceasefire on Monday, the first truce in more than a decade, as delicate peace talks began in Cuba to try and end a half century of war. President Juan Manuel Santos' governm...

By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS | Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:43pm EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ten European countries agreed on Monday to work together to boost their military air-to-air refueling capacity, to plug a gap in their defenses that was exposed by last year's Libyan war. Europe's air forces have had a shortage of tanker aircraft for years. During the Lib...

By Matt Spetalnick YANGON | Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:37pm EST YANGON (Reuters) - It won't be mistaken for a Nixon-goes-to-China kind of moment. But President Barack Obama's visit to Myanmar on Monday sometimes felt like a return to an earlier era of presidential diplomacy - and his aides were determined to make sure that no one missed its historic sign...

By Catherine Bremer and Sophie Louet PARIS | Mon Nov 19, 2012 2:05pm EST PARIS (Reuters) - The race to lead France's conservative opposition descended into chaos on Monday, with both contenders alleging fraud in a vote that highlighted a deep split between rightists and centrists since the party lost power in May. The bickering wrecked a contest ...

By Dina Kyriakidou ATHENS | Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:51pm EST ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will reshuffle his cabinet to give a bigger role to junior coalition party members once he has secured a vital loan tranche in the next few weeks, government officials said on Monday. Samaras will meet the leaders of junior coalition pa...

By Crispian Balmer JERUSALEM | Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:49pm EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip will not provide any long-term solution to the problem posed by the Islamist group Hamas, and this will make the government think long and hard before sending in the troops. After six days of intensive military strikes against th...

CAIRO | Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:46am EST CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's efforts to negotiate a truce between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza are ongoing and a deal to stop the fighting could be close, the Egyptian prime minister said on Monday. "Negotiations are going on as we speak and I hope we will reach something soon that will stop this violence and count...

By Jason Szep and James Pomfret PHNOM PENH | Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:57am EST PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Japan warned on Monday that a row over the South China Sea could damage "peace and stability" in Asia as China stalled on a plan to ease tensions and disagreements flared between the Philippines and Cambodia over the dispute. The acrimony provided an u...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller GAZA/JERUSALEM | Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:56am EST GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed dozens of targets in Gaza on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire from the enclave. As internat...

DAKAR | Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:44am EST DAKAR (Reuters) - The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday rejected a 24-hour ultimatum from rebels in the east of the country to open talks or face an onslaught, accusing neighboring Rwanda of being behind the rebellion. "M23 is defined by the government as a fiction created by Rwanda to hide their...

By Matt Spetalnick and Jeff Mason YANGON | Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:23am EST YANGON (Reuters) - Barack Obama became the first American president to visit Myanmar on Monday, using a six-hour trip to balance U.S. praise for the government's progress in shaking off military rule with pressure to complete the process of democratic reform. Obama, greeted by...

BRUSSELS | Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:14am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey is expected to request on Monday that NATO missiles be placed on its border with Syria to defend against mortar rounds fired from its neighbor, Germany's defense minister said. Only the United States, the Netherlands and Germany have the appropriate Patriot missile system available. Germa...

VILNIUS | Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:09am EST VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said on Monday she would choose a center-left opposition leader as prime minister, ending a political stalemate after elections last month. She had earlier refused to back Social Democrat head Algirdas Butkevicius as prime minister as she objected to his pla...

TOKYO | Mon Nov 19, 2012 6:34am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) saw its voter support slip, but still maintained a commanding lead against rivals, including the ruling Democratic Party, ahead of a December election, public opinion polls showed on Monday. The Nikkei business daily survey said 25 percent of thos...

By Laura L.Myers TACOMA, Washington | Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:03am EST TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier accused of killing five fellow servicemen at a military combat stress center in Baghdad in 2009 will face an arraignment at a military base in Washington state on Monday, preparing the way for a trial that could result in the death pena...