By Rania El Gamal and Regan Doherty DOHA | Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:42pm EST DOHA (Reuters) - Syria's fractious opposition finally put aside fierce arguments to rally behind a new leader within a new coalition that its Western and Arab backers hope can topple Bashar al-Assad and take over the country. After days of wrangling in Qatar under constant caj...

By Michael Winfrey and Harry Papachristou ATHENS | Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:37pm EST ATHENS (Reuters) - The Greek parliament approved an austerity budget for next year on Sunday, allowing it to extend its international financial bailout and avoid bankruptcy. With backing from all three parties in conser...

GUATEMALA CITY | Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:24pm EST GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A second strong earthquake in less than a week struck off the Pacific coast of Guatemala on Sunday, injuring one person, but there were no immediate reports of major damage. The epicenter of the 6.2 magnitude tremor was centered 24 kilometers (15 miles) west-southwest of Champerico, ...

By Noah Browning RAMALLAH, West Bank | Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:23pm EST RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday that he was intent on seeking a Palestinian upgrade at the United Nations despite American objections, a Palestinian official said. Abbas spoke to Obama in a phone conver...

CONAKRY | Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:59pm EST CONAKRY (Reuters) - President Alpha Conde said on Sunday Guinea would go on fighting corruption despite the murder of the West African country's treasury director, a champion of the anti-graft movement. Aissatou Boiro was shot dead by unidentified attackers in military uniforms as she was returning home in the capita...

By Rania El Gamal and Regan Doherty DOHA | Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:50pm EST DOHA (Reuters) - Syria's fractious opposition finally put aside fierce arguments on Sunday to rally behind a new leader within a new coalition that its Western and Arab backers hope can topple Bashar al-Assad and take over the country. After days of wrangling in Qatar under co...

By Jonathon Burch CEYLANPINAR, Turkey | Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:49pm EST CEYLANPINAR, Turkey (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad bombarded the Ras al-Ain area on the border with Turkey on Sunday, days after the town fell to rebels during an advance that has sent thousands of refugees fleeing for safety. Helicopters circled abo...

By Ben Blanchard and John Ruwitch BEIJING | Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:10pm EST BEIJING (Reuters) - As the senior Communist Party official in one of China's most prosperous regions, Wang Yang is often cast as an agent of change, a potential force for economic and even political reform should he gain promotion to the party's highest rung later this week. ...

By Gopal Sharma and John Chalmers KATHMANDU | Sun Nov 11, 2012 4:46pm EST KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Apart from a small bust of Chairman Mao beside his armchair, Nepali Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai flaunts no trappings of his revolutionary past: these days he talks of foreign investment, infrastructure projects and double-digit growth. The trouble...

By Marcin Goettig and Rob Strybel WARSAW | Sun Nov 11, 2012 4:41pm EST WARSAW (Reuters) - Riot police in the Polish capital used truncheons and rubber bullets on Sunday to break up a crowd of right-wing extremists who pelted them with firecrackers and lumps of concrete at a parade to mark the national holiday. It was the second year independence ...

By Antoni Slodkowski OMIYA, Japan | Sun Nov 11, 2012 4:30pm EST OMIYA, Japan (Reuters) - The road to China's breakdown in relations with Japan began here - a sleepy Tokyo suburb that is home to the reclusive real-estate investor at the centre of the explosive property deal that enraged Beijing. Surrounded by concrete walls, security cameras and w...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams GAZA/JERUSALEM | Sun Nov 11, 2012 7:57am EST GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said it was poised to escalate attacks on the Gaza Strip on Sunday following a surge of rocket and mortar salvoes by Hamas and other Palestinian factions. A missile strike wounded four Israeli troops on jeep patrol along the Gaza b...

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM | Sun Nov 11, 2012 7:43am EST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli forces fired into Syria on Sunday in what the military called a warning, after stray munitions from fighting between Syrian troops and rebels hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The incident, described by Israel Radio as the first direct engagement of the Sy...

By Patrick Werr CAIRO | Sun Nov 11, 2012 7:42am EST CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's government has proposed tax changes and reducing energy subsidies to cut a budget deficit running at about 11 percent of gross domestic product, Egyptian newspapers reported. The austerity steps, certain to be unpopular, are part of an economic program drawn up in part ...

CEYLANPINAR, Turkey | Sun Nov 11, 2012 7:35am EST CEYLANPINAR, Turkey (Reuters) - Syrian helicopters and artillery bombarded the Ras al-Ain area near the border with Turkey on Sunday, days after Free Syrian Army rebels captured it during an advance into the northeast, opposition campaigners said. Helicopters fired rockets at a grain storage area near the...

By Aung Hla Tun YANGON | Sun Nov 11, 2012 7:10am EST YANGON (Reuters) - An earthquake struck central Myanmar on Sunday near its second-biggest city, Mandalay, killing at least six people, with the death toll likely to rise as part of an unfinished bridge fell into the Irrawaddy River and several workers were missing. The earthquake, put at magnit...

By Rania El Gamal DOHA | Sun Nov 11, 2012 7:05am EST DOHA (Reuters) - Syrian opposition groups have signed an initial agreement to form a new coalition of forces fighting to end the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, Syrian delegates at talks in Doha said on Sunday. "An initial deal has been signed. The evening session will be for electing the pr...

By Michael Winfrey and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS | Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:58am EST ATHENS (Reuters) - When Greece's government pushed through a law last week aimed at slashing public wages and raising taxes, its biggest threat was not the firebrand opposition or the 100,000 protesters thronged at the gates of parliament. It was the assembly's workers...

KABUL | Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:52am EST KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed a family of six, including a baby born just hours before, in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, local officials said. The family was leaving a maternity hospital in Khost province in a pick-up truck when the bomb exploded, said a statement from the office of the provincial governor....

By Michael Winfrey and Harry Papachristou ATHENS | Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:50am EST ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece is expected to approve a 2013 budget on Sunday that includes unpopular spending cuts and tax hikes so it can receive an international aid payment and avoid insolvency. The parliamentary vote is a test of confidence in Prime Minister Antonis Sa...

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN | Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:36am EST AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan's former spy chief, once one of the country's most feared and powerful officials, was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Sunday in the first high-profile case from an anti-corruption crackdown driven by popular protests. Retired General Mohammad al-Dahabi, who ran...

By Aung Hla Tun YANGON | Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:02pm EST YANGON (Reuters) - A major earthquake measuring 6.6 magnitude struck central Myanmar on Sunday, around 60 km (37 miles) northwest of the city of Mandalay, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from the quake, which was initially measured at 7.0 ...

By Jonathon Burch CEYLANPINAR, Turkey | Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:26pm EST CEYLANPINAR, Turkey (Reuters) - Gun and mortar fire could be heard on Saturday from the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain two days after it fell to rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, and refugees who had fled to Turkey said they feared retribution from the air. Lad...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:26pm EST GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli tank fire killed four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after militants blew up an Israeli army jeep with an anti-tank missile, wounding four soldiers. Palestinian fighters retaliated by firing rockets into southern Israel and an Israeli air strike targeted ...

MADRID | Sat Nov 10, 2012 1:51pm EST MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's conservative prime minister and the leader of the opposition aim to agree measures on Monday to stop banks evicting homeowners after a woman's suicide before her property was repossessed caused public outrage. "No one should be without a home for not being able to pay," Alfredo Perez Rubalca...

By Tom Brown MIAMI | Sat Nov 10, 2012 1:44pm EST MIAMI (Reuters) - The wife of Alan Gross, the U.S. contractor jailed in Cuba for crimes against the state, said she hopes President Barack Obama's re-election will soon help lead to her ailing husband's release from the communist-ruled country. Gross, 63, has been locked up in Cuba since December 2...

By Basil Katz Sat Nov 10, 2012 11:16am EST (Reuters) - The United States has refused a request from Russia that convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout be returned to his home country to spend the remainder of his 25-year prison term, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Saturday. Bout, 54, was sentenced in April after a Manhattan federal court trial jur...

VATICAN CITY | Sat Nov 10, 2012 8:10am EST VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican court on Saturday found Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert, guilty of obstruction of justice in the investigation of leaks of sensitive papal documents to the media by Pope Benedict's former butler. The same court which last month convicted Paolo Gabriele, the Pope's form...

DIYARBAKIR | Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:57am EST DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) - Seventeen Turkish soldiers were killed on Saturday when their helicopter crashed in southeastern Turkey due to bad weather conditions including fog, the area's governor said. The Sikorsky helicopter crashed on Herekol mountain, in the Pervari area of Siirt province, Siirt Governor Ahmet Aydi...

MUMBAI | Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:05am EST MUMBAI (Reuters) - Afghanistan is "ripe and ready" for Indian investments in mining and other sectors, President Hamid Karzai told business leaders in Mumbai on Saturday at the start of a trip to woo investors for his war-ravaged country. "We'd like to welcome you with a red carpet, but you need to arrive at the red c...

By Kevin Yao BEIJING | Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:47am EST BEIJING (Reuters) - China announced on Saturday that it is effectively turning the corner on the economy and likely to meet its growth target for the year, more good news for Communist Party policy makers meeting in Beijing to anoint new leaders for the next decade. The world's second-biggest eco...

MOSCOW | Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:37am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prominent Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny said on Saturday the jail sentence handed to a protester against President Vladimir Putin highlighted the government's harsh approach to dissent. Fitness club manager Maxim Luzyanin, the first of 17 people arrested during a protest on the eve of P...

By Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO | Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:34am EST COLOMBO (Reuters) - At least 27 people were killed and a senior police officer seriously wounded in a gunfight in Sri Lanka's biggest prison that began when police came under fire from inmates, officials and police said on Saturday. The army brought the violence under control before dawn and ...

BEIRUT | Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:34am EST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Dozens of Syrian security men were killed when two explosives-laden cars drove into a military camp in the southern town of Deraa on Saturday, an opposition watchdog said, in what appeared to be a double suicide attack. The first car drove into the camp and exploded, followed by the second vehicle, ...

YANGON | Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:33am EST YANGON (Reuters) - A train in Myanmar carrying petrol derailed and burst into flames, killing 25 people and injuring 62, most of them villagers trying to collect fuel spilled in the accident, state television said. MRTV said The fire started after three cars loaded with petrol turned over near a village in Kanbalu tow...

By Bill Rigby TACOMA, Washington | Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:22am EST TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - An Afghan villager and two of his sons, who survived a night-time shooting rampage in March, testified on Saturday that they saw only one U.S. soldier attacking their compound, backing the U.S. government's account. Military prosecutors are seeking the d...

BUDAPEST | Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:43am EST BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday struck an optimistic tone that a financing deal with foreign lenders was within reach, at odds with signals from his negotiating partners that the year-old talks were at a stalemate. Central Europe's most indebted nation signaled a year ago its p...

By Jonathon Burch and Rania El Gamal ANKARA/DOHA | Fri Nov 9, 2012 5:06pm EST ANKARA/DOHA (Reuters) - Thousands of Syrians fled their country on Friday in one of the biggest refugee exoduses of the 20-month civil war after rebels seized a border town, and the United Nations warned that millions more still in Syria will need help as winter sets in...

By Alexandra Hudson BERLIN | Fri Nov 9, 2012 3:26pm EST BERLIN (Reuters) - German lawmakers expressed alarm on Friday at the state of human rights in Russia since Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin in May and urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to press Moscow on its treatment of critics when she visits next week. A parliamentary motion, written b...

DUBAI | Fri Nov 9, 2012 1:44pm EST DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran repelled an unidentified aircraft violating its airspace, it said on Friday, after Washington reported a U.S. surveillance drone was shot at by Iranian warplanes last week. Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi appeared to be referring to the U.S. drone which the Pentagon said had not en...