By Svebor Kranjc THE HAGUE | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:45am EST THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The most senior Croatian military officer convicted of war crimes during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s was freed after an appeal on Friday and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said the "political decision" would open old wounds in the region. General Ante Gotovin...

BAGHDAD | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:38am EST BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities on Friday released suspected Hezbollah operative Ali Mussa Daqduq who was accused of killing American troops, his lawyer said, adding he had made his way to Lebanon. "There was no reason for his detention. last night the decision was made to release him. He is out now and arrived...

By David Lewis and John Irish DAKAR/PARIS | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:29am EST DAKAR/PARIS (Reuters) - Any foreign-backed offensive to retake control of northern Mali from al Qaeda-linked Islamists will take at least six months to prepare, plans seen by Reuters show, a delay that runs counter to the expectations of many Malians. The timing allows space ...

HERAT, Afghanistan | Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:08am EST HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded under a van in western Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 17 people and wounding nine, mostly women and children returning from a wedding, a local official said on Friday. The bombing took place mid afternoon in the relatively peaceful province o...

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Michael Martina BEIJING | Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:07am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's commerce minister was surprisingly blocked from a spot on the ruling Communist Party's elite body during a conclave this week, sources said, a rare snub for an official that could raise questions about trade policies during his tenure. The f...

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Michael Martina BEIJING | Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:07am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's commerce minister was surprisingly blocked from a spot on the ruling Communist Party's elite body during a conclave this week, sources said, a rare snub for an official that could raise questions about trade policies during his tenure. The f...

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN | Fri Nov 16, 2012 7:07am EST AMMAN (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters chanted the Arab Spring slogan "the people want the downfall of the regime" in Jordan's capital on Friday, as demonstrations against rising prices gather force in a country so far spared the brunt of Middle East unrest. The mainly urban Muslim Bro...

Source: John McAfee Facebook Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:07am EST By Dudley Althaus SAN PEDRO, Belize (Reuters) - To the many people who crossed his path on a tropical island in Belize, it was apparent John McAfee's life had taken some bizarre turns in the last few years. The anti-virus software guru, who started McAfee Associates in 1989, has been in hiding since police said they want...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Thu Nov 15, 2012 2:58pm EST GAZA (Reuters) - Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip targeted Tel Aviv on Thursday in the first attack on Israel's commercial capital in 20 years, raising the stakes in a showdown between Israel and the Palestinians that is moving towards a...

By Sonya Dowsett MADRID | Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:17am EST MADRID (Reuters) - Spain passed a decree on Thursday to help the most needy families facing eviction during the nation's economic crisis, responding to an outcry over a homeowner who killed herself when bailiffs arrived to throw her out. The government said it would suspend evictions for two y...

By Ben Blanchard and Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING | Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:22am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party unveiled an older, conservative leadership line-up on Thursday that appears unlikely to take the drastic action needed to tackle pressing issues like social unrest, environmental degradation and corruption. New party chief Xi ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:11am EST GAZA (Reuters) - A Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, drawing the first blood from Israel as the Palestinian death toll rose to 15 in a military showdown lurching closer to all-out war and an invasion of the enclave. On the second day of an assault Israel...

By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW | Thu Nov 15, 2012 9:01am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia warned the United States on Thursday to expect a tough response if Congress passes "unfriendly and provocative" legislation designed to punish Russian officials for human rights violations. The Foreign Ministry said U.S.-Russian ties were sure to suffer if lawmakers...

By Karolina Tagaris ATHENS | Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:40am EST ATHENS (Reuters) - Public sector workers stormed a building where Greek and German officials were meeting in the northern city of Thessaloniki on Thursday and pelted a German diplomat with water bottles in a protest over austerity measures. Riot police used teargas and truncheons to break u...

KADUNA, Nigeria | Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:25am EST KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen have killed six people in a village in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state, a government official said on Thursday, in a region with a history of inter-ethnic violence. The attack late on Wednesday was in a village in the Zango Katak region in Kaduna state, witnesses said, an ar...

KABUL | Thu Nov 15, 2012 7:43am EST KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan and the United States have started talks that will eventually define how many American troops stay in the country after most NATO combat forces leave at the end of 2014, and the scope of their mission. The bilateral security negotiations could take months, and are expected to be difficult....

LONDON | Thu Nov 15, 2012 6:56am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Police have arrested a man in his 60s from the central English county of Bedfordshire as part of an investigation into alleged child abuse centering on former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile. Police said in a statement the man, who they declined to name, was arrested on Thursday morning on suspicion of s...

MAPUTO | Thu Nov 15, 2012 6:28am EST MAPUTO (Reuters) - Protesters burned tires and barricaded roads in Mozambique's capital on Thursday in retaliation to a government plan to hike bus fares in one of the world's poorest countries. Police encircled Maputo's poorest suburbs, where demonstrating commuters blocked intersections with burning tires.All bus se...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:48pm EST GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza on Wednesday, killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike and threatening an invasion of the enclave that the Islamist group vowed would "open the gates of hell". The onslaught shattered hop...

WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:32pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed to push for a diplomatic resolution to Iran's suspected attempt to build a nuclear weapon, while restating his insistence that Tehran will never be allowed to acquire a bomb. "I will try to make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a ...

By Ben Blanchard BEIJING | Wed Nov 14, 2012 2:08pm EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party unveils a new leadership line-up on Thursday to steer the world's second-largest economy for the next five years, with Vice President Xi Jinping taking over from outgoing President Hu Jintao as party chief. The new members of the Politburo St...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:32pm EST GAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza on Wednesday, killing the military commander of Hamas in an air strike and threatening an invasion of the enclave that the Islamist group vowed would "open the gates of hell". The onslaught shattered hop...

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Ali Shuaib TRIPOLI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:29pm EST TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's first elected government was sworn in under tight security on Wednesday, inheriting the daunting task of establishing democracy in a country plagued by rival militias who helped overthrow Muammar Gaddafi last year. In a national congress hal...

By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:23pm EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has said that "from today" he will work closely with his bitter political rival President Mikheil Saakashvili, rejecting suggestions that he has used the courts to settle scores after his election win. The billionaire busine...

KHARTOUM | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:08pm EST KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir returned to Khartoum on Wednesday after undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia, his second operation in less than a year. Sudanese blogs and newspapers had been speculating about Bashir's health because he has held fewer public rallies in the past few months.T...

CAIRO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:04pm EST CAIRO (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund negotiators will extend their stay in Egypt to continue their loan talks with the government, the Egyptian central bank and an IMF spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "The IMF mission will remain in Cairo for a few days to continue constructive consultations with the Egyptian au...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:53pm EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States declined to follow France in fully recognizing a fledgling Syrian opposition coalition on Wednesday, saying the body must prove its worth, after its predecessor was dogged by feuding and accusations of Islamist domination. Syria decried the new grouping, ...

DUBAI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:49pm EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have arrested seven people suspected of involvement in the death of a blogger in police custody, a lawmaker said on Wednesday. In a case that sparked international outrage, 35-year-old Sattar Beheshti who wrote a blog critical of the government was arrested on October 30 after rec...

By Feliciano Tisera and Daniel Alvarenga MADRID/LISBON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:38pm EST MADRID/LISBON (Reuters) - Police and protesters clashed in Spain and Italy on Wednesday as millions of workers went on strike in organized labor's biggest Europe-wide challenge to austerity policies since the euro zone debt crisis erupted three years ago. Hundre...

By Frank Jack Daniel NEW DELHI | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:34pm EST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged India on Wednesday to stand by Myanmar on its journey to democracy, on her first trip to Myanmar's neighbor since it dropped its support for her democracy movement two decades ago in favor of the ruling junta. Suu Kyi spent...

By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN | Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:32pm EST BERLIN (Reuters) - Once a fringe left-wing movement born in the heat of 1970s radicalism, Germany's Greens party may be heading for the unthinkable - a partnership with the conservatives that would keep Angela Merkel in power. Greens leaders deny any interest in forming a coalition with the...

By Sylvia Westall KUWAIT | Wed Nov 14, 2012 8:04am EST KUWAIT (Reuters) - What started as a dispute over voting rules in Kuwait has mushroomed into a debate about the balance of power between the emir and parliament, with implications for other Gulf dynasties facing reform pressure since the Arab ...

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:54am EST VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is believed to have increased the number of centrifuges in an underground nuclear plant by nearly a third in three months, diplomats say, underlining the tough task facing major powers pressing Tehran to curb its atomic activity. But despite a major expansion of its capa...

BUDAPEST | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:48am EST BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic was sentenced to 22-months in prison by a Hungarian court on Wednesday for causing a fatal car crash in Hungary in 2010, a court spokesman and his lawyer said. Cacic, who is also economy minister and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's closest ally in th...

By Carlos Ruano and Andrei Khalip MADRID/LISBON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:46am EST MADRID/LISBON (Reuters) - Police and protesters clashed in Spain on Wednesday as millions of workers went on strike across Europe to protest spending cuts they say have made the economic crisis worse. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, car factories and ports were at a...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:42am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - France became the first Western power to recognize a fledgling Syrian opposition coalition fully, stepping out beyond the United States, which said on Wednesday the body must first show its clout inside Syria. Six Gulf Arab states recognized the Syrian National Coalition fo...

By Sui-Lee Wee and John Ruwitch BEIJING | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:31am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - One of China's most senior financial officials is likely to lead the fight against corruption, a top priority in the world's second-biggest economy, following his appointment to a key council at the end of the Communist Party's 18th congress on Wednesday. Kn...

By Kaori Kaneko and Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:22am EST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is set to dissolve parliament's lower house on Friday for a snap election next month, which is likely to cost him his job and return to power a party that has governed Japan for most of the past 50 years. Opinion poll...

MOSCOW | Wed Nov 14, 2012 7:17am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law broadening the definition of treason which opponents say could be used to smother dissent and put almost anyone who has contact with foreigners at risk. The law allows Russians representing international organizations to be charged with treason, as w...

LONDON | Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:44am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Britain faces the "unappealing" mix of a weak recovery and high inflation, the Bank of England's chief warned on Wednesday, adding that the Bank could still restart its bond buying program to stimulate the economy. Governor Mervyn King also batted back criticism of the decision to transfer back to t...