Labour MP Eric Joyce has been charged with assault following a late night fracas at a House of Commons bar in which a Tory rival was allegedly head-butted. More »MP charged with Commons 'assaults'
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tucked in his left breast-coat pocket where he can pull it out to wave before TV cameras is ammunition that House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner believes his Republicans can use to achieve victory in the November 6 elections. It is a four-by-eight-inch card detailing more than two dozen "jobs bills" passed by the Republican-led House last year. They are now bottled up by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, one of President Barack Obama's top allies on Capitol Hill. ... More »Republicans see "jobs bills" as U.S. election winner
Former Australian premier Kevin Rudd has announced that he will run against current Prime Minister Julia Gillard to become leader of the ruling party. More »Rudd Runs Against PM Gillard In Oz Leader Bid
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Kevin Rudd, who stepped down as Australia's foreign minister this week, said on Friday he would contest a leadership vote against Prime Minister Julia Gillard, bringing to a head a bitter leadership fight engulfing the minority government. Rudd, who was ousted as prime minister by Gillard in June 2010, said Australians had lost trust in Gillard and the party was headed to an electoral wipeout at the next elections, due in late 2013, under her leadership. ... More »Australia's Rudd to challenge Prime Minister Gillard
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's credit rating would be reviewed if plans to double its sales tax rate are delayed further, Moody's Investors Service said on Friday, warning weak policy formation threatened efforts to curb the country's massive debt burden. Moody's said it did not plan to change Japan's Aa3 rating with a stable outlook for now, in part because the country's current account surplus helped offset its public debt. ... More »Moody's warns Japan on delay in sales tax bill
MP Eric Joyce has been charged with three counts of common assault after an alleged fight in a House of Commons bar. More »Eric Joyce MP Charged With Common Assault
(Reuters) - Oceans carry the bulk of the world's trade, are a major source of food and employment and help regulate the planet's climate but they are under threat from pollution, over-fishing and global warming. Governments and businesses are increasingly aware of the value of oceans but are struggling to address the many threats that imperil seas around the globe. The World Bank is steering a new global alliance on the issue. Following are some facts about the world's oceans, the threats they face and some emerging solutions. ... More »Factbox - Why oceans are key to the global economy
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The World Bank announced on Friday a global alliance to better manage and protect the world's oceans, which are under threat from over-fishing, pollution and climate change. Oceans are the lifeblood of the planet and the global economy, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told a conference on ocean conservation in Singapore. Yet the seas have become overexploited, coastlines badly degraded and reefs under threat from pollution and rising temperatures. "We need a new SOS: Save Our Seas," Zoellick said in announcing the alliance. ... More »World Bank issues SOS for oceans, backs alliance
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd confirmed Friday he will challenge his successor Julia Gillard to lead Australia's ruling party, saying she had lost voters' trust and would crash at the next election. More »Australia's Rudd challenges PM in party vote
TOKYO (Reuters) - On a hillside in northern Japan, wind turbines slice through the cold air, mocking efforts at a nearby industrial complex to shore up the future of the demoralised nuclear power industry. The wind-power farm at Rokkasho has sprung up close to Japan's first nuclear reprocessing plant, a Lego-like complex of windowless buildings and steel towers, which was supposed to have started up 15 years ago but is only now nearing completion. ... More »Insight -Japan's nuclear crisis goes much further than Fukushima
China has repatriated nine North Koreans who fled their homeland despite pleas by South Korea to treat them as refugees and let them stay, news reports said Friday. More »China returns nine refugees to North Korea
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has told Myanmar to better secure their joint border across which thousands of refugees have been fleeing to escape fighting since last year between the Myanmar government and ethnic minority rebels. A 17-year-old ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of the Myanmar's most powerful rebel groups, broke down last June, sending Kachins fleeing to tent settlements in Yunnan province on the other side of the long border with China. ... More »China presses Myanmar to bring stability to border
A retired British businessman is due to be extradited to the United States today to face charges that he illegally exported weapons parts to Iran. More »US Extradition For Brit Over Iran Arms Claim
Kevin Rudd on Friday announced he would challenge Prime Minister Julia Gillard for the leadership of Australia's ruling party in a ballot on Monday. More »Rudd to challenge Australian PM Gillard
The Tunisian President has told Sky News that the world can no longer stand by and "watch the massacre" in Syria. More »Syria Summit Told To 'Stop The Massacre'
EasyJet founder Sir Stelios has suffered a setback after the budget airline's shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of a multi-millon pound pay package for its executives. More »EasyJet Founder Stelios Loses Pay Dispute
The UN named its former leader Kofi Annan as special envoy for Syria on the eve of an international conference Friday aimed at pressuring the Assad regime to halt the rising spiral of violence. More »UN ex-chief named envoy as pressure mounts on Syria
Kevin Rudd will decide Friday whether to challenge Prime Minister Julia Gillard for the leadership of Australia's ruling party as he lashed out at the tactics being used to discredit him. More »Australia's Rudd to decide on leadership bid
TUNIS (Reuters) - Western and Arab nations meeting on Friday will demand that Syria implement an immediate ceasefire to allow aid in for desperate civilians in the absence of an international consensus on intervention to end a crackdown on an 11-month-old revolt. Foreign ministers from more than 50 countries will attend the first meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group in Tunis, amid a surge in government attacks on the city of Homs and mounting world outrage over violence that has claimed thousands of lives during the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. U.S. ... More »"Friends of Syria" to demand ceasefire, aid access
CAIRO (Reuters) - A leading Islamist candidate for the Egyptian presidency was attacked by armed men overnight and was in an intensive care unit in hospital suffering from brain concussion, aides said Friday. Abdel Moneim Abol Fotoh, 60, was on his way home from a campaign event in the city of Munufeya when three armed men wearing masks and carrying machineguns stopped him. "They beat him on the head repeatedly, took the car and ran," said campaign team member Ahmed Osama. "He is now in the intensive care unit and conscious," said Osama. ... More »Armed men attack Egypt's Islamist presidential hopeful
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Simultaneous early morning attacks on mostly Shi'ite targets across Iraq killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens on Thursday in one of the bloodiest days of violence since U.S. troops pulled out in mid-December. The attacks that appeared to pitch al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim insurgents against Shi'ites raised fears of a return to the widespread sectarian carnage that tore Iraq apart and cost thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007. ... More »Iraq attacks kill 60, raise sectarian fears
The United Nations on Thursday named its former leader Kofi Annan as the international troubleshooter to try to end the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protests. More »Kofi Annan to be Syria crisis envoy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After a third day of bloody protests over the burning of the Koran, there is a sense that America is lurching from one image crisis to the next in Afghanistan, with no clear path for U.S. officials to defuse the latest uproar. President Barack Obama apologized on Thursday for the burning of copies of the Koran on a U.S. base in Afghanistan, an incident that has triggered far more outcry than another shocking incident: the emergence of a video last month showing Marines urinating on the corpses of what appear to be dead Taliban fighters. ... More »Analysis - Can United States defuse Koran burning uproar?
The World Bank was on Friday to propose a coalition of governments, global organisations and other groups to protect the oceans, aiming to raise $1.5 billion in the next five years for the purpose. More »World Bank proposes global coalition to save oceans
Syria will face demands to allow humanitarian access to the victims of its repression of anti-government protests, when more than 70 nations meet to discuss the crisis. More »Hague attends Syria conference