World News Headlines

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Group of 20 policymakers have an ideal chance in Moscow this week to ponder whether monetary policy largesse will blunt their will to carry out the economic reforms needed to put global growth on a sustainable footing. On their drive from the airport to the city center, down highways clogged with luxury …

LONDON (Reuters) - A new virus from the same family as SARS that sparked a global alert last September has been found in a further patient in Britain, health officials said on Monday. This latest case of infection with the new virus known as a coronavirus brings the total number of confirmed cases globally to 10, of which …

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government on Monday intensified its campaign to stop Scotland leaving the United Kingdom, publishing a legal opinion saying it would forfeit its membership of international bodies such as the European Union if it chose independence. The pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) that …

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An underground methane gas explosion killed up to 18 miners at a coal pit in northern Russia on Monday, the latest in a long line of fatal accidents at Russian collieries. Rescue workers said they had brought 10 bodies to the surface at the Vorkutinskaya mine, owned by large Russian steel company Severstal, …

TUNIS (Reuters) - A party led by interim President Moncef Marzouki said on Monday it had "frozen" its withdrawal from Tunisia's coalition government while talks continue on a political crisis sharpened by the killing of an opposition politician. Mohamed Abbou, secretary-general of the secular Congress for the Republic (CPR), …

MILAN (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi's trial on charges of paying for sex with a minor will be postponed until after this month's election due to his campaign commitments, Italian judges ruled on Monday. The next hearing in the trial will now be held on March 4, a week after the February 24-25 elections. Milan judges upheld …

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Monday he lacks the strength to fulfill his duties and on Feb. 28 will become the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. The announcement sets the stage for a conclave in March to elect a new leader for world's 1 billion Catholics.

The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down on Feb. 28. While such papal resignations are extremely rare, there are precedents in the two millennia history of the Catholic Church.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian opposition fighters captured the country's largest dam on Monday after days of intense clashes, dealing a major blow on the battlefield to President Bashar Assad's troops nearly two years after the uprising against his rule erupted.

Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he will resign on Feb. 28. The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals. "After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate …

KRAKOW, Poland (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign due to his frailty was met with shock, surprise and disbelief from staunchly Catholic Poland to London's Westminster Abbey.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Benedict XVI always cast himself as the reluctant pope, a shy bookworm who preferred solitary walks in the Alps to the public glare and the majesty of Vatican pageantry. And on Monday, the Vatican announced that the leader of the world's billion Roman Catholics was stepping down — the first pontiff to …

Pope Benedict XVI's resignation sets in motion a complex sequence of events to elect the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The laws governing the selection are the same as those in force after a papal death. Here is the procedure:

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — An agreement is imminent on a new national unity government for Tunisia to resolve the simmering political crisis brought on by the assassination of an opposition politician, the leader of the powerful Islamist party told the Associated Press Monday.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. has started using the land route through Pakistan to pull American military equipment out of Afghanistan as it draws down its troops in the country, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Monday.

PARIS (AP) — A maze of trading between meat wholesalers has made it increasingly difficult to trace the origins of food — enabling horsemeat disguised as beef to be sold in frozen meals across Europe. France's agricultural minister said Monday that regulators must find a way "out of the fog."

French and Malian troops on Monday said they are in control of the strategic city of Gao once again after fighting that was described as the most serious escalation of the conflict since French forces entered Mali in late January. The clashes took place on Sunday when Islamist rebel forces infiltrated Gao and attacked Malian …

A deadly gunbattle between Lebanese troops and residents of this isolated border town has further strained political and sectarian tensions in a country already buffeted by the repercussions of the war in neighboring Syria.