A Lebanese man held in Brazil for three weeks for posting anti-US comments on the Internet is not a member of al-Qaeda, as one Brazilian newspaper reported, federal prosecutors said.
Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja dissolved parliament a day after the constitutional court turned down his bid to extend his term. The opposition warns of a step towards dictatorship.
Two were killed and 12 injured in an explosion at a Roman Catholic church in Nepal. Police say they suspect the Nepal Defense Army, a Hindu extremist group that seeks to restore Nepal’s monarchy.
Pakistan’s government has blamed Taliban militants for a bomb attack in Lahore that killed 23 people and left hundreds more injured.
Aid officials, rights workers and community leaders in Sri Lanka say Tamils are being driven out of areas in the northeast by killings and kidnappings carried out by pro-government militias.
Assistant US Trade Representative Everett Eissenstat said President Obama won’t seek approval of a free trade agreement with Panama until he has established a new “framework” for trade.
Some 17,500 banana workers in Colombia ended a strike they began on May 8, winning raises in pay and benefits, but not a fund to compensate victims of company-sponsored paramilitary activity.
In the wake of the financial crisis and Swine Flue scare, Mexico has lost 300,000 jobs, leading ex-finance secretary José Ángel Gurría Treviño to warn, “this isn’t a cycle, it’s a disaster.”
Venezuela’s economic growth is at a virtual stand-still, as the price of oil has dropped from an average of $87 per barrel last year to an average $42 per barrel so far in 2009.
Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program, according to a secret Israeli government report accusing the South American countries of violating UN sanctions.
North Korea’s second nuclear test has won global headlines—while calls by the US State Department earlier this month for Israel to abandon nuclear weapons went unnoticed by the world media.
Thousands of Sikh protesters rioted across India’s Punjab region following the slaying of dissident Sikh guru Sant Ramanand, who was attacked at a gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Vienna.
