World News

Sri Lanka's defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka waves to supporters during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010.

photo: AP / Rafiq Maqbool

Sri Lankan opposition leader Fonseka arrested
read more The Boston Globe

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-Sri Lanka's defeated presidential candidate was hauled away by military police from his office Monday and will be court-martialed for allegedly planning to overthrow the government while serving as the head of the army. Sarath Fonseka, who as the top general helped defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels, was forcibly detained after...

Pakistani Shiite Muslims take part in a rally to condemn Friday's bombing, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010 in Lahore, Pakistan.

photo: AP / K.M. Chaudary

Karachi grinds to a halt after fatal blasts
read more Asia Times

By Syed Fazl-e-Haider KARACHI, Pakistan - Business in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital, ground to a halt at the weekend after at least 33 people were killed and over 100 injured in two explosions on Friday. The city of 18 million people houses the main stock exchange, central bank and offices of multinational corporations. Businessmen warn...

Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, listens to a question posed by media in his office in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009

photo: AP / Vahid Salemi

Iran plans major nuclear expansion over next year
read more The Star

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran says it will start producing higher-grade nuclear fuel on Tuesday and add 10 uranium enrichment plants over the next year in a nuclear expansion sure to stoke tensions with the West. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, looks on while attending a news conference in Tehran September 29, 2009....

Kashmiri boys walk through a snow covered graveyard in Srinagar, India, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008.

photo: AP / Dar Yasin

Avalanche in Kashmir: 13 army personnel killed, 30 still trapped
read more DNA India

Srinagar: In one of the most tragic incidents, 13 army personnel, including an officer, were today killed and 15 seriously injured when a group of about 350 men were swept away by a snow avalanche while setting up a winter warfare camp at Khilanmarg, 70 kms from here. An army spokesman, Colonel JS Brar, said that scores more were still missing as...

A British soldier with Delta Squadron Infantry provides security in Helmand province, Afghanistan, Jan. 25, 2010.

photo: USAF / Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez

More troop casualties likely in Afghan operation
read more The Independent

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth warned of likely British casualties as troops prepared to take part in a major international offensive against insurgents in Afghanistan. Taliban fighters have been given a choice to lay down their weapons or face "overwhelming force" as thousands of coalition soldiers take part in the operation, which is due to...

Britain's Justice Secretary Jack Straw arrives to speak at the Iraq Inquiry in London,Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010.

photo: AP / Matt Dunham

Blix: Straw 'gave incorrect answers' to Iraq inquiry
read more BBC News

Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw gave some incorrect answers to the UK's Iraq war inquiry, former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has said. Mr Blix told the BBC he was "puzzled" by some of the evidence that Mr Straw gave to the panel. He said that Mr Straw had been incorrect to suggest, in 2002, that UN weapons inspectors were...

Costa Rica's National Liberation Party presidential candidate Laura Chinchilla waves to supporters after voting at a polling station in San Jose, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010.

photo: AP / Esteban Felix

Costa Rica elects 1st woman president in landslide
read more The Miami Herald

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Costa Rica's governing party candidate swept to an election victory Sunday night that will make her the first woman president in this Central American nation. Laura Chinchilla had 47 percent of the vote with nearly all the votes counted. The closest contender, Otton Solis of the Citizens Action Party, had 25 percent. He and...

Employees of a warehouse store remove products containing milk powder from China, on Wednesday Sept. 24, 2008, in Taipei, Taiwan.

photo: AP / Chiang Ying-ying

China seizes more melamine-tainted milk powder
read more The Star

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese inspectors tracing new cases of contaminated milk have shut dairy firms in the northwest and seized 72 tonnes of milk powder tainted with melamine, an industrial compound that killed at least six children in 2008. Nearly 100 tonnes of tainted milk powder may still be on shop shelves, the...

The Kleen Energy plant is seen in this aerial photo after an explosion in Middletown, Conn., Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010.

photo: AP / Jessica Hill

Conn. power plant blast kills several, injures 14
read more Philadelphia Daily News

PAT EATON-ROBB The Associated Press MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - An explosion blew apart a power plant under construction as workers purged natural gas lines Sunday, killing multiple people and injuring at least 14 in a blast that shook homes for miles, officials said. Betsy Hard, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Management and...

Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych is seen at a polling station during the presidential election in Kiev, Ukraine Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010.

photo: AP / Efrem Lukatsky

Exit polls favor Yanukovych in Ukraine race
read more Chicago Sun-Times

KIEV, Ukraine -- Exit polls showed pro-Russian opposition lead Viktor Yanukovych with a narrow lead Sunday in Ukraine's presidential runoff -- a result that could restore much of Moscow's influence in a country that has labored to build bridges to the West. But despite the polls, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of the pro-Western Orange...