Previous Day
Pope begins US visit in attempt to galvanise Catholics
US: POPE BENEDICT XVI has begun a six-day visit to
the United States as the country's 65 million Catholics struggle
with doubts over church teaching while priests become ever scarcer
and the cost of child sex scandals drives dioceses into bankruptcy.
DENIS STAUNTON reports
from Washington p
Putin agrees to chair Russia's dominant party
RUSSIA: VLADIMIR PUTIN agreed yesterday to become chairman of Russia's dominant political party - though he will not be a party member - cementing his influence after he steps down as president in favour of Dmitry Medvedev. p
Subsidised bread staving off starvation and uprisings
WORLD FOOD SECURITY: Tension is high in the queues outside the bread shops of Egypt, as Mary Fitzgerald reports from Alexandria in the first of a series on the world food crisis p
Other World Stories
Promotion of anorexia to be outlawed in France
FRANCE: French MPs yesterday approved a ground-breaking law against the promotion of anorexia, making it illegal to publicly incite excessive thinness. pBrazil says new oil field may be huge discovery
BRAZIL: EXCITEMENT ABOUT the potential of Brazil as a massive new source of oil and gas intensified yesterday after a senior energy ministry official declared the newly found Carioca field could have 33 billion barrels in place. pNearly 60 killed in three bomb attacks across Iraq
IRAQ: IRAQ SUFFERED a day of widespread violence yesterday when nearly 60 people were killed in three separate bomb attacks blamed on Sunni Islamist groups. pUS Supreme Court to rule on death penalty for rape of children
US: Louisiana prosecutors are demanding an expansion of capital punishment, writes Robert Barnes in Washington pOil sale controversy reignites embers of fading political crusade
MEXICO LETTER: WHEREVER YOU go in Mexico, you'll run into Andrés Manuel López-Obrador. pMayors sentenced for supporting Kurdish guerrillas' call
TURKEY: A Turkish court sentenced 53 mayors from a pro-Kurdish party to two and a half months in prison yesterday for a letter they sent to Denmark's prime minister, in a case which raised concern in the European Union. pLafontaine wants passages from Marx included in Left Party programme
GERMANY: OSKAR LAFONTAINE, leader of Germany's new Left Party, has called for passages from Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto to be incorporated into his party's new political programme. DEREK SCALLY reports from Berlin pMDC leader says poll officials must create safe electoral environment Tsvangirai will run if observers involved
ZIMBABWE: ZIMBABWE'S MAIN opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, says he will take part in a second-round presidential run-off if regional election officials and international observers are involved in the creation of a safe electoral environment. BILL CORCORAN reports from Johannesburg pTwo face gay sex tape blackmail charges
UK: Two men tried to blackmail a member of the British royal family with an audio recording featuring claims he had performed a gay sex act on an employee, the Old Bailey has been told. pBalkan criminal's starving bear released for new life in France
BOSNIA: A BOSNIAN bear that almost starved to death after being kept as a pet by a local gangster was heading for a new life of relative luxury in France yesterday. The gangster had been keen to emulate famous Balkan criminals who see keeping wild animals as proof of machismo. pKohl set to marry official at economics ministry
GERMANY: FORMER CHANCELLOR Helmut Kohl (78) has announced plans to marry his partner, Maike Richter (43), according to Germany's Bild newspaper. pChina defends its use of security guards on relay of Olympic torch
CHINA: China has defended the use of security guards on the Olympic torch relay, described as "thugs" by Lord Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, after Australia and Japan said they would not be welcome when the flame passed through their countries this month. pGandhi's daughter pays visit to one of his assassins
INDIA: PRIYANKA GANDHI, daughter of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, says she has visited the woman convicted for assassinating her father in prison. pIn Short
A round-up of today's other stories in brief... p
