World News
Plane diverted
Passengers de-plane a trans-atlantic flight originating in France on the tarmac at Bangor International Airport, in Bangor, Maine, Tuesday. Officials briefed on the incident say a French passenger passed a note to a flight attendant saying she had a surgically implanted device. READ
Obama, Romney close in polls
U.S. voters are nearly evenly divided between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney with five months to go before the election, especially on handling the economy, polls show. READ
Satellite images show North Korea upgrading old rocket launch site
Satellite imagery shows North Korea is upgrading its old launch site in the secretive country’s northeast to handle larger rockets, like space launch vehicles and intercontinental missiles, a U.S. institute claimed Tuesday. READ
Woman charged in stabbing deaths of Canadian tourists
A woman arrested in the daytime stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists near an Atlantic City casino laughed, frowned, grimaced and repeatedly asked where her lawyer was Tuesday as she was charged with murdering the women, one of them 80 years old. READ
Tunisia to extradite ex-Libyan prime minister back home
TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisia said Tuesday it will soon extradite Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi back to his homeland, after detaining the former Libyan prime minister for eight months. READ
European leaders to discuss growth
PARIS — The leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union are to meet in Brussels Wednesday to try and find a way to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control and promote jobs and growth. READ
Iran signals wider UN inspections
BAGHDAD — Iran made the first move Tuesday in attempts to gain an edge in nuclear talks with the U.S. and other world powers: It agreed in principle to allow U.N. inspectors to restart probes into a military site suspected of harbouring tests related to atomic weapons. READ
Three dead, two missing on crowded Everest
A Canadian woman has died pursuing her dream of scaling Mount Everest. READ
Suicide bomber strikes military parade
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military parade rehearsal Monday in Yemen’s capital, killing 96 soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks in the city in years, officials said. Al-Qaida’s Yemen branch claimed responsibility for the attack. READ
Strategists toy with race card
WASHINGTON — The U.S. political world was afire on Thursday over an explosive report that Republican party strategists are proposing doing “exactly what John McCain would not allow us to do” by launching personal, racially tinged attacks against U.S. President Barack Obama ahead of November’s election. READ
Cuban first daughter, gay rights advocate gets visa to attend conference
HAVANA, Cuba — Cuban first daughter Mariela Castro has been granted a U.S. visa to attend events in San Francisco and New York, sparking a firestorm of criticism from Cuban-American politicians who called her an enemy of democracy and a shill for the Communist government her family has led for decades. READ
US envoy to Israel: Washington ready to strike Iran
JERUSALEM — The U.S. has plans in place to attack Iran if necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, Washington’s envoy to Israel said, days ahead of a crucial round of nuclear talks with Tehran. READ
Angry exchange opens UN War Crimes trial
Ratko Mladic was a shadow of the swaggering general who once “held Sarajevo in the palm of his hand” during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war as his long-awaited genocide trial opened Wednesday. Yet he still managed to inflame Bosnia’s festering war wounds with the flick of his hand. READ
Anti-drug prosecutors detain two generals for questioning
Two army generals, including a former assistant defence secretary, were detained by anti-drug prosecutors and are being questioned for alleged links to drug traffickers, authorities said Wednesday. READ
Greek court official appointed head of interim government
A senior judge was sworn in Wednesday to head Greece’s caretaker government for a month as it lurches through a political crisis that threatens its membership in the 17-nation eurozone. The political uncertainty is worrying Greece’s international creditors as well as Greeks themselves, who have withdrawn hundreds of millions of euros from banks since the May 6 election. READ
Ties between politicians, press became ‘incestuous’: ex-official
Britain’s politicians and its powerful media were uncomfortably close while Tony Blair ran the country, a former U.K. minister said Wednesday. Jack Straw, who held several key posts, told an official inquiry into media ethics that journalists and Blair’s Labour Party had forged “very, very close, sometimes incestuous” ties while Blair strived for power, and that those links endured when he became prime minister in 1997. READ
Syrian leader vows to prove foreign mercenaries are behind unrest
BEIRUT — In his first interview since December, Syrian President Bashar Assad insisted Tuesday his regime is fighting back against foreign mercenaries who want to overthrow him, not innocent Syrians aspiring for democracy in a yearlong uprising. READ
Greeks heading back to the polls
Greece is headed for another month of political paralysis ahead of new elections in mid-June, after party leaders on Tuesday failed to reach an agreement to build a coalition government. READ
Blind China activist speaks again by phone to Congress
For the second time in less than two weeks, Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has spoken by phone to a U.S. congressional hearing and alleged persecution of his relatives. READ
French President Hollande’s plane hit by lightning
Socialist Francois Hollande took over as France’s president Tuesday and jetted off to Berlin hours later — only to have his plane struck by lightning. No one was hurt. It was a startling beginning for a man who promised to be a more “normal” president, and less flashy than his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, who was ousted by voters after a single term for his handling of a stagnant economy plagued by joblessness. READ
