By Justyna Pawlak and Fredrik Dahl BRUSSELS/VIENNA | Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:33pm EDT BRUSSELS/VIENNA (Reuters) - Big powers may ask Iran for stricter limits on its nuclear work if it wants an easing of harsh sanctions - a long-shot approach aimed at yielding a negotiated solution that has eluded them for more than a decade. A solution to the standoff...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Tue Oct 23, 2012 1:19pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are battling to seize an army base close to the main north-south highway and say its capture would be a big step towards creating a "safe zone" allowing them to focus on Bashar al-Assad's southern strongholds. For two weeks they have surrounded and attacked Wa...

ROME | Tue Oct 23, 2012 12:40pm EDT ROME (Reuters) - Senior members of an Italian government disaster assessment body resigned on Tuesday, a day after seven scientists and officials were convicted of manslaughter for not giving adequate warning of the deadly earthquake in the city of L'Aquila in 2009. The head of the National Commission for the Forecast ...

By Oliver Holmes TRIPOLI, Lebanon | Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:40am EDT TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - The Lebanese army said it had arranged a ceasefire on Tuesday in the northern city of Tripoli after two nights of fighting between Sunni and Alawite gunmen loyal to different sides in the war in neighboring Syria, a military source said on Tuesday. At le...

By Oliver Holmes TRIPOLI, Lebanon | Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:52am EDT TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Four people were killed and 15 wounded in overnight gun battles in the Lebanese city of Tripoli in a second night of fighting between Sunni and Alawite gunmen loyal to different sides in the war in neighboring Syria, a military source said on Tuesday. In ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:47am EDT GAZA (Reuters) - The Emir of Qatar embraced the Hamas leadership of Gaza on Tuesday with an official visit breaking the isolation of the militant Palestinian Islamist movement, to the dismay of Israel and rival, Western-backed Palestinian leaders in the West Bank. Israel said it was "astound...

Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:44am EDT (Reuters) - Kuwait's government has given final approval to settlement with Iraq to end a standoff over Gulf-War-era debts and lift restrictions on Iraqi Airways flying to destinations in the West, Iraq's government said on Tuesday. The airline row was part of a broader dispute over billions of d...

By Robert Muller and Jan Lopatka PRAGUE | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:39am EDT PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas failed to win support on Tuesday from party rebels threatening to bring down his cabinet over an unpopular bill to raise taxes, raising the likelihood of an early election. The Czech Republic has maintained investor confidence ...

KABUL | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:29am EDT KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday condemned a NATO operation that he said killed four children in the country's east, a claim the coalition said was possible. The operation took place in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province on Saturday, a statement released by Karzai's office said, addin...

By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:19am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - The subtle dropping of references to late Chinese leader Mao Zedong from two policy statements over the last few weeks serves as one of the most intriguing hints yet that the ruling Communist Party is planning to move in the direction of reform. Mao has always been held up a...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:17am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are battling to seize an army base close to the main north-south highway and say its capture would be a big step towards creating a "safe zone" allowing them to focus on Bashar al-Assad's southern strongholds. For two weeks they have surrounded and attacked Wa...

By Khalid Abdelaziz KHARTOUM | Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:02am EDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese rebels killed two children and wounded eight other civilians when they shelled the main town in Sudan's oil-producing South Kordofan state on Tuesday, the army said - the third bout of shelling in the past two weeks. Sudan's army has been fighting SPLM-North ...

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA | Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:35am EDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Lebanon has become the third of Syria's neighbors after Turkey and Jordan to register more than 100,000 refugees from Syria's civil war, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday. In all, more than 358,000 Syrians fleeing the 19-month-old conflict have registered in four n...

JERUSALEM | Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:35am EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli officer was severely wounded on Tuesday when a bomb went off beside an army patrol along the border with the Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman said. The attack came hours before the Emir of Qatar arrived in Gaza in the first visit by a head of state to the blockaded enclave since i...

By Dominic Evans and Angus MacSwan BEIRUT | Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:49pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least seven people were killed and dozens wounded in gunbattles in the Lebanese capital Beirut and coastal Tripoli on Monday in further unrest linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria, security and hospital sources said. The clashes have heightened fe...

By Ali Shuaib WADI DINAR, Libya | Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:06pm EDT WADI DINAR, Libya (Reuters) - Families fleeing violence in the besieged Libyan city of Bani Walid said on Monday there were shortages of food and water and the city's hospital was under fire as militias loyal to the government shelled the former stronghold of Muammar Gaddafi. The isola...

HELSINKI | Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:04pm EDT HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen was unhurt after being confronted by a man with a knife during a pre-election rally in the western city of Turku, his aides said on Monday. A man talked to Katainen before pulling out a knife, Katainen's spokesman Kari Mokko said. The man was immediately gra...

By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:18pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels cast doubt on Monday on prospects for a temporary truce aimed at stemming bloodshed in the 19-month-old conflict, saying it was not clear how an informal ceasefire this week could be implemented. International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who held talks in Damas...

VIENNA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:00pm EDT VIENNA (Reuters) - More than 100 countries lost an opportunity to improve the fight against cross-border organized crime by failing to agree a new monitoring measure at a major international meeting last week, a United Nations agency said on Monday. Disagreement over how the effort would be funded prevented a deal on...

DUBAI | Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:52am EDT DUBAI (Reuters) - The top Saudi in al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing has apparently released an audio message denying reports he was killed last month, a group that monitors Islamist websites said on Monday. In the audio posted on jihadist websites on Sunday, a man identified as Said al-Shehri said reports of his death were...

By Olzhas Auyezov MAKIYIVKA, Ukraine | Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:19am EDT MAKIYIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Crumbling concrete pillars resemble ancient Greek temples, abandoned and overgrown, next to slag heaps that smell like piles of rotten eggs just a mile away from the center of the Ukrainian town of Ma...

By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:07am EDT PRISTINA (Reuters) - Police fired teargas in Kosovo on Monday to disperse opposition activists demonstrating against a new push by the European Union to improve ties between Serbia and its former southern province. The clashes, in which 18 police officers were injured, followed a meeting last...

By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya MOSCOW | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:59am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two female members of Russian punk group Pussy Riot convicted of protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a cathedral have been sent to prisons far from Moscow despite requesting to serve out their terms in the capital, a lawyer said on Monday. Maria Alyokhi...

GAZA | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:53am EDT GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants during an incursion in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday that touched off clashes with gunmen from the governing Hamas movement, local officials said. They said militants fired mortar bombs at Israeli troops spotted inside Gaza's boundary fence, drawing ai...

BEIJING | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:49am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party will discuss a proposal to amend its constitution at its congress in early November, state media said on Monday, a move aimed at strengthening one-party rule over the next five years. State news agency Xinhua did not elaborate on what the amendments could be, though ...

By Samia Nakhoul BEIRUT | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:43am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Beirut car bomb that killed a top Lebanese security official will probably prove to be the most destabilizing attack in Lebanon since the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. What is less clear - and this is something that instills fear in a socie...

LONDON | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:41am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Three British men planned to carry out suicide bombings which could have been more devastating than the July 7, 2005 attacks in London, a court heard on Monday. Fifty-one people died and over 700 were injured in co-ordinated suicide bombings on London underground trains and a bus by four British Isl...

By Dominic Evans and Angus MacSwan BEIRUT | Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:21am EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Lebanese army promised decisive action to quell unrest linked to the Syria conflict as gunbattles flared in the capital Beirut and elsewhere on Monday after the assassination of a senior intelligence officer last week. The army command urged political l...

BEIJING | Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:57am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States believes that Myanmar is on the right track towards giving up its remaining military ties with North Korea but recognizes it will take time, the U.S. envoy for the North Korean nuclear dispute said on Monday. U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies told rep...

By Hadeel Al Shalchi and Marie-Louise Gumuchian BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI | Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:10am EDT BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Insecurity blights Libya, where militias still call the shots a year after they toppled Muammar Gaddafi, keeping foreign investors wary and clouding the oil-producing country's future. Last month's attack on the U.S. consula...

SAO PAULO | Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:23pm EDT SAO PAULO (Reuters) - GM (GM.N) has no immediate plans to build cars with French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) in Brazil, the company's South America chief Jaime Ardila said on Sunday. "So far the entire focus of the alliance has been Europe and I expect that t...

By Mariam Karouny and Angus MacSwan BEIRUT | Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:54pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Gunmen exchanged fire in southern districts of Beirut overnight after the state funeral of an assassinated Lebanese intelligence chief ended in violence when angry mourners broke away and tried to storm the offices of Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Sunday's ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA | Sun Oct 21, 2012 7:51pm EDT GAZA (Reuters) - The emir of pro-Western Qatar will become the first head of state to enter the blockaded Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in a high-profile visit breaking the isolation of the Iranian-backed Islamist movement Hamas that seized power in 2007. Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani is officia...

KABUL | Sun Oct 21, 2012 7:48pm EDT KABUL (Reuters) - The global attention bestowed on a Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban has sparked outcry amongst many Afghans dismayed by what they say is the unequal response to the plight of their women and children. Malala Yousufzai, shot by Taliban gunmen for advocating girls' education, was flown from Paki...

By Ali Shuaib TRIPOLI | Sun Oct 21, 2012 6:50pm EDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - About 500 protesters broke into the grounds of Libya's parliament building on Sunday to demand an end to violence in Bani Walid, a former stronghold of the late Muammar Gaddafi that is being shelled by militiamen from a rival town. Militias, many from Misrata and aligned with...

BEIRUT | Sun Oct 21, 2012 6:38pm EDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Gunmen armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades exchanged fire in southern districts of Lebanon's capital Beirut on Sunday night, security sources said, and residents could also hear the sound of ambulance sirens. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the clashes, which occurred ...

By Ori Lewis JERUSALEM | Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:43pm EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he didn't know about any U.S. plans to talk bilaterally with Iran, saying tougher sanctions and a "credible military option" were the best ways to peacefully halt Tehran's nuclear program. The White House had earlier denied ...

By Julien Toyer MADRID, Spain | Sun Oct 21, 2012 3:37pm EDT MADRID, Spain (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy secured backing for his austerity drive in a vote in his home region of Galicia on Sunday, but a clear win for nationalist parties in the Basque Country could soon prove a headache for the central government. According to exi...

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM | Sun Oct 21, 2012 3:30pm EDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel dropped its annual simulation of a missile attack and held its first major earthquake drill on Sunday instead, but officials insisted the country remained as ready as ever for the possibility of a war with arch-foe Iran. School children, civil servants and others...

AMMAN | Sun Oct 21, 2012 3:26pm EDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan foiled a major plot by an al Qaeda-linked cell to destabilize the key U.S. ally's security by bombing shopping centers and assassinating Western diplomats, state television said on Sunday. Security forces detained 11 suspects in connection with a plot going on since June to carry out attacks in...