Reuters: World News

Demjanjuk unmoved as Holocaust survivors testify

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:29:58 +0000

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - John Demjanjuk sat impassively while Holocaust survivors on Monday recalled the horrors of Nazi Germany at his trial on charges of helping to force 27,900 Jews into gas chambers in 1943.

U.S. health bill passes crucial Senate test

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:28:52 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A broad healthcare overhaul passed its first crucial test in the U.S. Senate on Monday, with 60 Democrats voting to put President Barack Obama's top legislative priority on a path to passage by Christmas.

Protests mark funeral of dissident Iranian cleric

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:09:45 +0000

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Huge crowds of Iranians turned out for the funeral of leading dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom on Monday and some chanted anti-government slogans, websites reported.

Auschwitz sign thieves detained, not neo-Nazis

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:30:26 +0000

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - Polish police detained five men on Monday for stealing the metal sign that hung over the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, and said they were common thieves, not neo-Nazis. Last Friday's theft triggered widespread outrage, especially from Israel and Jewish groups, amid fears of a political motive. The sign, which carries the German motto "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes you free"), is a powerful symbol of the Holocaust committed by the Nazis against the Jews. The po

Tribunal charges Khmer Rouge "First Lady" with genocide

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:33:34 +0000

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A U.N.-backed Cambodian war crimes court on Monday charged a fourth top Khmer Rouge cadre with genocide, broadening the scope of a long-awaited trial of the ultra-communist "Killing Fields" regime's top ranks.

Bus carrying Syrians attacked in Lebanon, one dies

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:45:47 +0000

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Shots were fired at a bus carrying Syrian workers in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing one of them, security sources said, shortly after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri patched up his relations with Damascus.

Pakistan's Sharif holds off full attack on Zardari

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:24:57 +0000

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's main opposition party said on Monday it would not support any unconstitutional action against President Asif Ali Zardari or his government but warned of protests if Zardari did not give up some powers.

Pope visit to Rome synagogue under cloud

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:59:15 +0000

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's decision to move his controversial wartime predecessor Pius XII closer to sainthood has put a cloud over his planned visit next month to Rome's synagogue, with some fearing it risks being cancelled.

Afghan troops kill Taliban attackers, official says

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:22:04 +0000

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan security forces put down an attack by Taliban fighters, including suicide bombers, in a volatile southeastern town on Monday while parliament debated President Hamid Karzai's new cabinet choices.

Forgotten Stalin victims despair in Kazakh steppe

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:05:08 +0000

DOLINKA, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Their only crime was to be German.