International News

VIENNA/DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief began rare talks in Tehran on Monday after voicing hope for a deal to investigate suspected atomic bomb research - a gesture Iran might make to try to get international sanctions relaxed and deflect threats of war. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Yukiya Amano met the head of Iran's nuclear energy organisation, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, hours after his pre-dawn arrival, according to ISNA news agency. ...

A paralysed survivor of Anders Breivik's Utoya island killing spree asked rescue police to "carefully remove my dead best friend from my chest so I can breathe", a court has heard.

European stock markets remained cautious on Monday as jitters over the eurozone debt crisis continued, with little reassurance emerging from political leaders at the weekend.

The Prime Minister has warned Greece that its new round of elections must be a vote about staying in the eurozone.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - NATO will hand over the lead role in combat operations to Afghan forces across the country by mid-2013, alliance leaders said on Sunday as they charted a path out of a war that has lost public support and strained budgets in Western nations. A NATO summit in Chicago on Monday will formally endorse a U.S.-backed strategy for a gradual exit from Afghanistan, a move aimed at holding together an allied force scrambling to cope with France's decision to withdraw its troops early. ...

Athens (Reuters) - "Gentlemen, we are finished," said the patrician President, calling an abrupt halt to two hours of baiting and cat-calling between furious Greek politicians. "I'm starting to get upset myself now. We are finished." The final collapse of talks to forge a new Greek government triggered repeat elections and fears of a chaotic exit from the euro zone. But it is the manner of that collapse, the acrimony and rancour cited by Karolos Papoulias, that bodes ill for efforts after June polls to pull Greece back from the brink. ...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least two people were killed in heavy fighting between rival Sunni Muslim gunmen in Beirut on Monday, medical and security sources said, in the latest violence fuelled by tensions over the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The clashes followed the killing of an anti-Assad Sunni cleric and his colleague at an army checkpoint in north Lebanon on Sunday, triggering angry protests in Sunni districts of northern cities and the capital. ...

At least 20 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a battalion of soldiers in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to reports.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the only person convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people, died almost three years after being freed from jail on compassionate grounds.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin named loyal allies to top posts in Russia's new government on Monday, taking a firm grip on economic policy and limiting Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's ability to push a reform agenda. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov remains and pro-Putin economist Andrei Belousov takes over as economy minister, while Igor Shuvalov keeps his post as first deputy prime minister in overall charge of economic policy. ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - A court in Bahrain on Monday fined Zainab al-Khawaja, the daughter of a prominent opposition activist, for insulting a government employee and her lawyer said she was still detained pending trial in a different case. Bahrain, a U.S. ally that hosts Washington's Fifth Fleet, has been in turmoil since a democracy protest movement led by its majority Shi'ites erupted last year after revolts in Egypt and Tunisia. Its Sunni Muslim rulers have rejected opposition calls for an elected government and protests and clashes with police continue weekly. ...

Three climbers returning from the summit of Mount Everest have died and two more are missing.

KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - A court in Ukraine on Monday adjourned a trial of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on a new charge of tax evasion until June 25, when the European soccer championship will be under way in the country, for medical reasons. Tymoshenko is being treated for back trouble in a clinic in the city of Kharkiv near the prison where she is serving a seven-year sentence for abuse-of-office in a case which the West has condemned as politically motivated. ...

Syrian forces ambushed and killed nine army deserters in a north Damascus suburb on Monday, a human rights watchdog said, as NATO ruled out military action against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

A Yemeni soldier dressed in uniform blew himself up in the middle of an army battalion in Sanaa on Monday, killing at least 96 people and wounding dozens of others, a military official and medics said.

Lashing wind and rain damaged the roof of a Cannes screening room, organisers said Monday, after soaked stars were left shivering on the red-carpet by a freak storm at the Riviera film festival.

US President Barack Obama and NATO allies will focus Monday on logistical aspects of ending the protracted Afghan war after President Hamid Karzai vowed his country will no longer be a "burden" for the international community.

Three climbers have died on their descent from the summit of Mount Everest, tour agents and officials said Monday, bringing the season's death toll to five on the world's highest peak.

Millions of people in Asia watched transfixed as a rare "ring of fire" eclipse crossed their skies early on Monday.

French prosecutors on Monday opened a preliminary investigation into accusations that disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn took part in a gang rape in the United States.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - One of China's most conspicuously reform-minded leaders has stepped back into the spotlight after the nation's biggest political convulsion in a generation, positioning himself to gain from the fall of populist politician Bo Xilai. Wang Yang, leader of Guangdong province and well known for his deft handling of recent civil unrest there, is the first of three provincial-level party bosses who stand to benefit after a murder scandal snuffed out Bo's career last month. ...

Street battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups in Beirut overnight left two people dead, a security official said Monday, sparking fears the conflict in Syria is spilling across the border into Lebanon.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in eastern Syria last week that killed nine people and said attacks would continue, in a statement posted on the Internet on Monday. The al-Nusra Front said it was behind the attack on Saturday which targeted military installations in Deir al-Zor. The authenticity of the statement could not immediately be verified. ...

The funeral of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al Megrahi, who died on Sunday, is expected to take place at Tripoli's main cemetery later today, according to a Libyan news agency.

Indonesian prosecutors on Monday asked for a life sentence rather than the death penalty for Bali bombmaker Umar Patek, arguing that his remorse in the dock should spare him from a firing squad.

ATHENS (Reuters) - The charismatic Greek leftist who could determine the fate of the euro begins a tour of European capitals on Monday carrying a single message: it's time to talk. In an interview on the eve of his first visit abroad since his surprise rise in a May 6 election, Alexis Tsipras veered occasionally into the combative rhetoric that has seduced disaffected Greek youth and alarmed Brussels and Berlin. But he also stressed repeatedly that he wants negotiations to keep Greece in the euro. ...

Millions of sky-gazers got the spectacle of a lifetime as a "ring of fire" solar eclipse crossed the Pacific from Asia to the United States, where it triggered whoops at festive viewing parties.

Santo Domingo (Reuters) - Early results from presidential elections in the Dominican Republic show ruling party candidate Danilo Medina headed for victory 12 years after he lost in a landslide to opposition candidate Hipolito Mejia. With almost 75 percent of votes counted, Medina and the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) held a 4 percentage point lead (51 percent - 47 percent) over Mejia, the candidate for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), according to official election results. ...

Several thousand Italians spent the night in cars or temporary shelters after a strong earthquake hit the northeast, killing six people and reducing homes and historic buildings to rubble.

Seventy-year-old Eletharias cannot afford to go the supermarket any more, so for the past few months he has started rummaging for food in dustbins.

Serbian political parties are expected to start negotiations on the formation of a new government Monday after the surprise win of nationalist Tomislav Nikolic in presidential polls.

Danilo Medina, an economist backed by the ruling party, was leading the Dominican Republic's presidential race, according to partial results Monday, but the opposition challenged the figures.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng soaked up the sun in New York City on Sunday as his children played in a garden, a break in a day of meetings to arrange his studies at New York University. "(Chen) said he hadn't sat in the sun for many, many years," said Jerome Cohen, a China law expert and professor at New York University's law school, where Chen will study. "He wanted to go out in the garden ... his kids went out first and then he went out," Cohen, who has become a confidante of Chen's, told Reuters. ...

Pakistan restored access to Twitter after briefly blocking the microblog over "blasphemous" posts about a Facebook competition involving caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

Senior US, South Korean and Japanese officials have begun talks on North Korea and other issues amid concerns the communist state may be planning another nuclear test, according to Seoul's foreign ministry.

A rocket-propelled grenade exploded near a team of UN observers in a Damascus suburb, the military said, as dozens of people were killed in violence while clashes raged between regime troops and armed rebels.

NATO leaders agreed to launch the first phase of a missile shield to protect Europe, an alliance official told AFP, despite Russian opposition to the system.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's deputy foreign minister said on Sunday that military action against Iran over its nuclear programme was being considered in some Western countries. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was speaking to reporters on a plane on his way back from the G8 summit in Camp David, where the G8 leaders signalled their readiness to tap into emergency oil stockpiles quickly this summer if tougher new sanctions on Iran threatened to strain supplies. ...

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of a PanAm flight over Lockerbie will be buried on Monday in a quiet ceremony that Libyans hope will allow them to leave behind the controversy that surrounded him in life. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, who always said he was not responsible for bringing down the jumbo jet on the Scottish town and killing 270 people, died in his bed in Tripoli on Sunday surrounded by family. His release from jail in 2009 caused huge controversy in Britain and the United States, where most of the victims were from. ...

The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Yukiya Amano, arrived in Tehran Monday to demand more cooperation from Iran on its nuclear activities, as Tehran prepares to engage with world powers in crucial talks in Baghdad over its controversial nuclear programme.