Reuters: World News

Hurricane Ida downgraded to Cat 1, heads to Gulf

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:40:21 -0500

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hurricane Ida weakened to a Category 1 hurricane on Monday as it headed toward oil and gas facilities in the central Gulf of Mexico after killing 124 people in El Salvador following floods and mudslides.

Cold War frontier gone in Germany, remains in Korea

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:05:35 -0500

SEOUL (Reuters) - As a united Germany marks the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall on Monday, about 1 million soldiers face off across the Cold War's last great divide -- the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.

Karzai says he's addressing corruption

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:37:02 -0500

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview airing Monday he is taking steps to root out corruption in his government, but he also said foreign money was making the problem worse.

Iraq passes election law paving way for January poll

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:50:12 -0500

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi lawmakers passed a long-delayed election law on Sunday to pave the way for a January poll, after parliament sidestepped a potentially explosive row over the oil-producing city of Kirkuk.

World leaders line up to mark fall of Berlin Wall

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:29:11 -0500

BERLIN (Reuters) - World leaders past and present will join German crowds on Monday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall -- a stark symbol of the Cold War that divided a city and a continent.

Soviet H-bomb scientist Ginzburg dies

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:43:03 -0500

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vitaly Ginzburg, a Russian physicist who survived Stalin's purges by working on the Soviet atomic bomb project and later won the Nobel Prize for physics, died in Moscow late on Sunday after a long illness. He was 93.

Suicide bomber kills three in Pakistan

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:49:27 -0500

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber in an auto-rickshaw blew himself up in Pakistan on Monday killing three people when police stopped him at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar, police said.

Colombia turns to UN, OAS after Venezuela war talk

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:18:53 -0500

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia said on Sunday it will appeal to the U.N. Security Council and the OAS after Hugo Chavez, the fiery leftist president of neighboring Venezuela, ordered his army to prepare for war in order to assure peace.

China, like U.S., tackles thorny health care reform

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:22:17 -0500

HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Construction worker Li Fuxing had been in the wealthy Chinese city of Hangzhou for less than a month when a falling beam smashed his knee, landing him with hospital bills equivalent to half a year's wages.

Ally of Zimbabwe's PM goes on trial for terrorism

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:21:04 -0500

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's ally Roy Bennett goes on trial accused of terrorism on Monday in a case that has stoked tensions in the unity government of Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF.