ISTANBUL - Syrian opposition talks aimed at presenting a coherent front at an international peace conference to end the civil war faced the prospect of collapse after President Bashar al-Assad's foes failed to cut an internal deal, opposition sources said on Friday.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo was extradited on Friday to the United States to face money-laundering charges, just days after former dictator Efrain Rios Montt's genocide conviction was overturned.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A nearly week-long spate of rioting spread outside Stockholm on Friday but authorities said police reinforcements sent to the Swedish capital had reduced the violence there, even though dozens of youths set cars and a recycling station ablaze.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, under pressure to respond to allegations he was filmed using drugs, said on Friday that he does not smoke crack cocaine and could not comment on a video he had not seen or does not exist.

PARIS (Reuters) - French magistrates decided on Friday not to place IMF chief Christine Lagarde under formal investigation over her role in a 285-million-euro ($368.5 million) arbitration payment made to a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo was extradited on Friday to the United States to face money laundering charges, the U.S. embassy in Guatemala said.

(Reuters) - The Church of England published a plan on Friday to approve the ordination of women bishops by 2015, a widely supported reform it just missed passing last November after two decades of divisive debate.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's fractious opposition scrambled to agree a new leadership on Friday in a bid to present a coherent front at peace talks which the United States and Russia are convening to seek an end to more than two years of civil war.

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban militants launched a large-scale attack involving the United Nations in the center of the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, sparking a five-hour battle with security forces.

LONDON (Reuters) - British fighter jets escorted a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane to Stansted Airport near London on Friday, where police went on board and arrested two men on suspicion of endangering an aircraft.

LONDON (Reuters) - British police closed one of the country's busiest motorways in both directions on Friday to deal with an incident which highway officials said involved a suspicious vehicle.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's security services faced questions on Friday over whether they could have done more to prevent the murder of a soldier hacked to death in a busy London street after it emerged that his suspected killers were known to intelligence officers.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Police in Stockholm called in reinforcements on Friday after youths set cars and a school ablaze in a fifth night of rioting, the worst to hit Sweden for years.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia's Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that the president of the autonomous Muslim-Croat federation, charged with corruption, had been detained illegally, and ordered a lower court to release him immediately.

LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of Bahraini Shi'ite Muslims angered by a raid last week on a top cleric's home clashed with police on Friday, while thousands more gathered in the cleric's village for a peaceful sit-in against their Sunni-led government.

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government said on Friday it hopes to sign a free-trade agreement (FTA) with China that would be the first such deal of its kind between Beijing and continental Europe when Switzerland's economy minister visits China in July.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - French special forces and Niger troops shot dead on Friday the last two Islamists involved in a twin attack on a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger, which was claimed by the mastermind of January's mass hostage-taking in Algeria.

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland must find stability by aiming for the same economic goals as those set for European Union states, even though it is skeptical about joining the EU and will keep its own currency, the new prime minister said.

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's new leadership expects first results of its planned steps to shore up its finances and ease a power crisis in two or three months and only then should decide whether and on what terms to seek an IMF bailout, a senior policy adviser said on Friday.

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish judge has opened an investigation into Princess Cristina's tax returns after an earlier charge of being an accomplice in an embezzlement case against her husband was dropped.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey banned alcohol advertising and tightened restrictions on its sale on Friday, drawing criticism from secular Turks as well as the country's brewing industry.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders must decide soon on whether to revive long-dormant peace negotiations to end their decades-old conflict, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday.

CONAKRY (Reuters) - The official death toll from Thursday's clashes between Guinean opposition protesters and police and government supporters rose to four on Friday, meaning at least 22 people have now been killed in unrest since March.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's oldest rights group began a legal battle on Friday to avoid being branded a "foreign agent" under a new law it sees as a tool of repression by President Vladimir Putin.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A North Korean envoy told China's president on Friday that his reclusive country was willing to take "positive actions" to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, as China steps up diplomatic efforts to bring Pyongyang back to talks.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British Airways plane with 80 people on board made an emergency landing at London's Heathrow airport on Friday after the right engine burst into flames shortly after take-off and the casing ripped away from the left.

SANAA (Reuters) - Attackers blew up Yemen's main oil export pipeline on Friday, halting the flow of crude, the government and industry sources said.

OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Two elderly South Korean women forced to work in Japanese war-time military brothels canceled a meeting on Friday with the mayor of the city of Osaka after he refused to withdraw remarks asserting the brothels were "necessary" at the time.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - African nations have backed a request by Kenya for charges of crimes against humanity by its president to be referred back to the east African country, African Union documents show.

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has removed his head of the military Aronda Nyakairima, and moved him to a civilian position as the minister for internal affairs, a statement from the military said on Friday.

PRAGUE (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have arrested a man wanted for murdering four members of a family in the Czech Republic, Czech police said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's oldest human rights group went to court on Friday to try to stop state prosecutors forcing it to register as a "foreign agent" under a law it says is intended by President Vladimir Putin to silence dissent.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck off Russia's eastern coast on Friday, briefly prompting a tsunami scare but causing no casualties or substantial damage, Russian emergency authorities said.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's prosecutor's office said on Thursday it would open an investigation into in a recording the opposition says features a top government ally accusing the deputy head of the ruling Socialist Party of corruption and conspiring against the new president.

WASHINGTON/MIAMI (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's pledge on Thursday to lift a ban on transfers of detainees to Yemen from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, addresses one of the core obstacles to clearing out the detention camp.

WASHINGTON/MIAMI (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's pledge on Thursday to lift a ban on transfers of detainees to Yemen from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, addresses one of the core obstacles to clearing out the detention camp.

CONAKRY (Reuters) - One person was killed and about were 10 injured when security forces and supporters of Guinea's president clashed with protesters marching in the capital on Thursday against planned legislative elections.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Islamist suicide bombers struck an army barracks and a French-run uranium mine in Niger on Thursday, officials said, killing 21 people and wounding dozens more in attacks that showed militant violence spreading in West Africa.

LONDON (Reuters) - Police investigating the murder of a soldier hacked to death on a busy London street were looking on Friday into whether the two suspected killers, British men of Nigerian descent, were part of a wider conspiracy.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition in exile met on Thursday to decide whether to attend a peace conference that the United States and Russia see as a crucial path to ending two years of civil war.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro ordered shops closed in one of its biggest slums early Thursday, defying efforts to restore order to the city's vast shantytowns and renewing safety concerns in Brazil as it prepares to host the World Cup and Olympics.

PARIS (Reuters) - IMF chief Christine Lagarde was questioned in court by French magistrates on Thursday over her role in a 285-million-euro ($366 million) arbitration payment made to a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

LONDON (Reuters) - In the lurid scene of the red-handed knifeman describing his motives for hacking to death a British soldier in broad daylight, perhaps the most chilling aspect for many Londoners was the man's unmistakably familiar accent.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Mexican drug cartel commander known as "Tweety Bird" pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in Washington to ordering the ambush and murder of U.S. immigration agents in 2011, according to U.S. officials.

(Reuters) - A 15-year-old Utah boy was arrested on Thursday on suspicion he stabbed to death his two younger brothers, ages 10 and four, at the family home while their mother was out running errands, law enforcement officials said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Police killed two suspected Islamic militants on Thursday after one of them threw a grenade at a group of officers and two others died in a separate shootout in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, Interfax reported.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese insurgents are obstructing a deal to deliver much-needed aid into areas under their control in two Sudanese states where almost a million people have been forced from their homes, the U.N. aid chief said on Thursday.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Kenya has asked other African countries to urge the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop crimes-against-humanity charges against its new president and his deputy, according to an African Union document seen on Thursday.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - European Union police said on Thursday they had arrested five people, including a wartime ally of Kosovo's prime minister, and were investigating the ambassador to Albania on suspicion of war crimes during Kosovo's 1998-99 conflict.

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said on Thursday his country would never become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying it appeared to be preoccupied with prosecuting African leaders.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials on Thursday and acknowledged there was considerable skepticism that the two sides would resume peace negotiations.

LONDON (Reuters) - A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck in the sea 177 miles southwest of Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on Thursday.

MILAN (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was involved in a tax fraud scheme while he was head of government, a Milan court said in a document released on Thursday explaining its earlier decision to uphold his four-year conviction.

MOMBASA (Reuters) - Kenyan police cleared the only highway from the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi on Thursday, two days after striking truck drivers blocked it and threatened to choke the main trade artery in east Africa.

KHARTOUM/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan's oil ministers on Thursday vowed to continue cross-border oil flows but gave contradictionary opinions whether a technical problem at a pumping station which had cut output had been fixed.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Islamist suicide bombers struck an army barracks and a French-run uranium mine in Niger on Thursday, officials said, killing 20 people and wounding dozens more in attacks that showed militant violence spreading across West Africa.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German alarm that their country is blamed for austerity measures compounding the problems in the euro zone helps explain Berlin's bilateral efforts to tackle youth unemployment in some of the countries worst affected.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Thursday that one of its drones had violated the airspace of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, Iranian media reported.

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Troubled eastern Congo has the best chance in years to secure a lasting peace but the United Nations stands ready to pacify the region by force if need be, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.

HAVANA (Reuters) - The trial of a Canadian businessman who has confessed to bribing Cuban officials began on Thursday, almost two years after his arrest in a sweeping government crackdown on corruption.

ANKARA (Reuters) - A prominent figure in the Chechen diaspora in Turkey was shot at his Ankara office late on Wednesday, a North Caucasus refugee association said, the latest in a series of killings of Chechens and their sympathizers in the country in recent years.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed in clashes with gunmen on Thursday, police and hospital sources said, as fears mount that Iraq might slide back into bloody sectarian strife.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The scene of Sweden's worst riots in years, Husby is on the surface at least a typically neat suburb of colorful playgrounds, manicured parks and low rise apartment buildings.

GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights investigator called on Thursday for all states to declare a moratorium to prevent so-called "killer robots" being deployed on the battlefield.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - A close wartime ally of Kosovo's prime minister was among five people arrested by European Union police on Thursday on suspicion of war crimes during a 1998-99 insurgency against Serbian forces.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's plan to spend $6.5 trillion on urbanization to bolster the economy is running into snags, sources close to the government said, as top leaders fear another spending binge could push up local debt levels and inflate a property bubble.

MILAN (Reuters) - The prosecutor in former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's sex trial has received a series of anonymous letters of threats, including one with two bullets, Milan's chief prosecutor said on Thursday.

BEREZNIKI, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian court refused on Thursday to grant parole to a member of Pussy Riot serving a two-year prison sentence for protesting in Moscow's main cathedral with a "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin.

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea is willing to take China's advice and enter into talks, Chinese state television cited an envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as saying, following weeks of tension on the Korean peninsula after the North's latest nuclear test.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian police arrested three opposition politicians and activists on Thursday and charged another with sedition, launching a crackdown on dissent three weeks after an election exposed deep divisions in the country and sparked a series of opposition protest rallies.

PARIS (Reuters) - France said on Thursday it hoped an initiative could be agreed by the end of June to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on the EU's list of terrorist organizations on grounds the group is importing Syria's war into Lebanon.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Thursday for a bomb that killed 11 security personnel and two civilians in the southwestern city of Quetta.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian opposition leader urged President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday to hand power to his deputy or his prime minister and then go abroad with 500 members of his entourage, without immunity from prosecution.

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's largest party GERB declined on Thursday to try to form a new government, opening the way for the rival Socialists to put together a technocrat administration and end a political impasse.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - At least 18 soldiers and four suspected Islamists were killed in a fierce gunbattle following a dawn car bomb attack at a barracks in the northern Niger town of Agadez, military sources and a local official said.

PARIS (Reuters) - IMF chief Christine Lagarde was questioned in court by a French magistrate on Thursday over her role in a 285-million-euro ($366 million) arbitration payment made to a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - On a new industrial park in Israel's largest Arab town, a software plant belonging to a multibillion-dollar U.S.-listed firm sits cheek-by-jowl with two small Arab-owned businesses: a metal factory and one producing tools for brain surgery.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is trying to accelerate its uranium enrichment program, a U.N. nuclear report showed, but experts said it was unclear when Tehran's new machines could start operating and how efficiently they would work.

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Police are searching for an American man suspected of killing four members of a family in the Czech Republic's second-largest city Brno, police said on Thursday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry began a round of separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials on Thursday but acknowledged there was considerable skepticism that the two sides would resume peace negotiations.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has accused Iran's leadership of incompetence and ignorance just days after he was barred from standing in an election next month, the opposition Kaleme website reported on Thursday.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian police arrested several opposition politicians and activists on Thursday, launching a crackdown on dissent three weeks after an election exposed deep divisions in the country and sparked a series of opposition protest rallies.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's plan to spend $6.5 trillion on urbanization to bolster the economy is running into snags, sources close to the government said, as top leaders fear another spending binge could push up local debt levels and inflate a property bubble.

LISBON (Reuters) - President Anibal Cavaco Silva thanked Portugal's patron saint for a long-delayed approval of Lisbon's bailout review last week, but the head of state could claim a share of the credit for himself.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Five people were killed and more than 50 wounded in overnight clashes in Tripoli between Lebanese gunmen backing rival factions in Syria's civil war, doctors and security sources said on Thursday.

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Rebels in eastern Congo announced a ceasefire on Thursday in fighting with government troops hours before a visit to the conflict-plagued zone by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

PARIS (Reuters) - France is ready to support a British initiative to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, an official said on Thursday, confirming comments by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could eventually produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon if Tehran decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British soldier was hacked to death by two men shouting Islamic slogans in a south London street on Wednesday, in what the government said appeared to be a terrorist attack.

TUNIS (Reuters) - For the first time since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, relations between mainstream Islamists in government and radical Salafist Muslim activists have reached breaking point, sparking deadly clashes in two Tunisian cities.

HAVANA (Reuters) - A Canadian businessman who has confessed to bribing Cuban officials was scheduled to go on trial in Havana on Thursday, almost two years after his arrest in a sweeping government crackdown on corruption.

SAGAMIHARA, Japan (Reuters) - When Masayoshi Matsumoto joined the Japanese army in 1943 and was sent to occupied China as a medic, he thought he was taking part in a righteous war to free Asia from the yoke of Western imperialism.

BEIJING (Reuters) - European aid groups said their banks in Europe had stopped sending money to North Korea in the wake of U.S. sanctions on Pyongyang's main foreign exchange bank, leaving them scrambling for a solution short of hand-carrying cash into the impoverished country.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Washington threatened on Wednesday to increase support for Syria's rebels if President Bashar al-Assad refuses to discuss a political end to a civil war that is spreading across borders.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel appointed him for his charm and political skill as marshal of her vision of a 'green revolution' in Europe's biggest power market. A year on, Peter Altmaier finds himself spurned by many environmentalists, disdained by industry and viewed coolly by a public wary of the costs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government formally acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that it had killed four Americans, including militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who died in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Washington threatened on Wednesday to increase support for Syria's rebels if President Bashar al-Assad refuses to discuss a political end to a civil war that is spreading across borders.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government formally acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that it had killed four Americans, including militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who died in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Hundreds of youth have torched cars and attacked police in four nights of riots in immigrant suburbs of Sweden's capital, shocking a country that dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to solve youth unemployment and resentment among asylum seekers.

BEIJING (Reuters) - European aid groups said their banks in Europe had stopped sending money to North Korea in the wake of U.S. sanctions on Pyongyang's main foreign exchange bank, leaving them scrambling for a solution short of hand-carrying cash into the impoverished country.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British soldier was hacked to death by two men shouting Islamic slogans in a south London street on Wednesday, in what the government said appeared to be a terrorist attack.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Metals swap deals with Iran by Switzerland-based commodities giants Glencore Xstrata and Trafigura could have been a way of skirting international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, according to a confidential U.N. Panel of Experts report seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could eventually produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon if Tehran decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An investigation of the attacks on the American diplomatic mission and nearby annex in Benghazi, Libya, last year is looking at more than five potential suspects, a U.S. national security source said on Wednesday.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The rolling green hills and gurgling blonde toddlers in the ads for Yashili International Holdings Ltd underscore how keen China's biggest milk powder producers are to appear global to emerge from the shadow of a fatal baby formula scandal.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments approved a mission on Wednesday to help Libya improve its border security in response to concerns that Islamist militants and weapons move freely across the North African country's frontier.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Serbia and Kosovo agreed in principle on Wednesday on a plan to implement an historic accord to settle their relations, a step that strengthens Serbia's chances of getting the go-ahead next month to start talks on joining the European Union.

Berezniki, Russia (Reuters) - A member of the Pussy Riot band who was jailed over a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Russian cathedral said on Wednesday she was starting a hunger strike after she was barred from a parole hearing.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain's main opposition group suspended its participation in reconciliation talks with the government for two weeks on Wednesday, blaming the slow pace of talks and the raid last week on a top Shi'ite Muslim cleric's home.

OUTSIDE EL FASHER, Sudan (Reuters) - About 300,000 people have fled their homes due to a surge in fighting in Sudan's Darfur region this year and are now living in terrible conditions and short of food, the United Nations aid chief said on Wednesday.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC rebels on Wednesday denied accusations that they were holding two Spanish tourists who authorities say were kidnapped in the South American country last week.

Mombasa (Reuters) - Kenyan truckers blocked the only highway from the port city of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi on Wednesday, threatening to choke the main trade artery to east Africa unless officials reverted to the old way of weighing cargo.

LONDON, May 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Aid agencies helping millions of people in North Korea could be forced to pull out after a Chinese bank cut ties with main foreign exchange bank, a humanitarian group said on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Around 600 interpreters who serve alongside British soldiers in Afghanistan are to be offered visas to live in the UK, in a softening of the government's previous policy of encouraging them to stay in the country after British troops withdraw.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even as the United States accuses China of military espionage and worries about Beijing's more strident posture in the Asia-Pacific region, the ties between the armed forces of the two nations have been getting closer.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African government report released on Wednesday implicated President Jacob Zuma in a scandal over a plane chartered by rich friends of his which landed at a military base without proper permission.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could offer it a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb if it decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Hundreds of young people have torched cars and attacked police in three nights of riots in immigrant suburbs of Sweden's capital, shocking a country that has dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to defuse youth unemployment and resentment of asylum seekers.

NEAR SOFIYA, Sudan (Reuters) - In a hangar-shaped factory hall in central Sudan a dozen workers rush to pack refined white sugar gushing from a funnel into paper bags to be loaded on three trucks parked outside.

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court sentenced four men on Wednesday to death by hanging for the 2011 killing of a Coptic Christian priest in his apartment in the southern city of Assiut, state news agency MENA reported.

KUWAIT (Reuters) - After two lackluster decades, Kuwait is experiencing a quiet revival of an arts scene once known as the most avant garde in the Gulf, thanks to a new generation eager to tackle sensitive issues using cutting-edge art forms.

CAIRO/ISMAILIA (Reuters) - Seven Egyptian security men kidnapped by Islamist militants in Sinai last week were freed on Wednesday and President Mohamed Mursi vowed to pursue a crackdown on lawlessness in the desert peninsula.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has increased its capacity to refine uranium by installing hundreds of more centrifuges at its Natanz plant, a U.N. nuclear agency report said on Wednesday, underlining Tehran's defiance of Western demands to curb the activity.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe signed a new constitution into law on Wednesday, replacing a 33-year-old document forged in the dying days of British colonial rule and paving the way for an election later this year.

LONDON (Reuters) - An Irishman was charged on Wednesday over a bombing that killed four soldiers on horseback in the heart of London in 1982, one of the most high-profile attacks by IRA guerrillas in their campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland's center-right Progressive and Independence parties agreed on a coalition government on Wednesday and said they would freeze talks on entering the European Union until a referendum on whether or not to continue the process.

KIROV, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian official undermined state prosecutors' case against protest leader Alexei Navalny at his trial on theft charges on Wednesday, saying that he had done no harm.

ANKARA (Reuters) - More than 100 senior Turkish army officers face prosecution demands they spend the rest of their lives in jail for their alleged role in toppling Turkey's first Islamist-led government 16 years ago, a Turkish TV channel reported on Wednesday.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov ordered a dozen local reporters to be barred from covering government meetings after they staged a protest on Wednesday over attacks on journalists at a rally.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The World Bank pledged $1 billion on Wednesday to fund development in central Africa's Great Lakes region in return for peace, but fresh fighting in eastern Congo underscored the challenges facing the area.

ROME (Reuters) - The captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which capsized off Italy's west coast last year killing 32 people, will face trial for manslaughter as well as other charges, an Italian judge ruled on Wednesday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany will throw its weight behind a British drive to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, German diplomats said on Wednesday.

AMMAN (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday Iran and its militant Shi'ite Lebanese ally Hezbollah were "propping up" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and giving him increasing support.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali members of parliament shelved a vote of confidence against the prime minister on Wednesday, but warned the government it would face further parliamentary rebellions if it did not do more to improve the economy and security.

PARIS (Reuters) - France will invest about 20 million euros ($25 million) to increase security for diplomats and embassies in the Middle East and Africa after its mission in Libya was targeted by a car bomb in April, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's clerical rulers may have sought to remove any challenge to their grip by barring two vivid contenders from next month's presidential election, but they risk alienating voters already disillusioned by the violent aftermath of the 2009 poll.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A member of the band Pussy Riot who was jailed over a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Russian cathedral said on Wednesday she was starting a hunger strike after she was barred from a parole hearing.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of the Council of Europe demanded on Wednesday that Russia allow gay rallies, weighing in on what has become an increasingly divisive issue since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency.

PARIS (Reuters) - IMF chief Christine Lagarde will be questioned by a French magistrate on Thursday over her role in a 285-million-euro ($366 million) arbitration payment made to a supporter of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov ordered a dozen local reporters to be barred from covering government meetings after they staged a silent protest on Wednesday over physical attacks on journalists at a rally.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Wednesday any link to members of a spying ring detained by its Sunni Muslim regional rival Saudi Arabia, according to Iranian media.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's deputy prime minister on Wednesday took the unusual step of holding a news conference to say the country's two-party coalition would hold together until 2015 as he tried to stabilize a government beset by infighting and rifts.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe signed a new constitution into law on Wednesday, replacing a 33-year-old document forged in the dying days of British colonial rule and paving the way for elections later this year.

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Artillery rounds landed in a heavily populated neighborhood of Congo's eastern city of Goma on Wednesday, killing a child and injuring other civilians a day before a planned visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a human rights group said.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday he had given a "wish list" of military equipment to India during a visit this week, presenting a conundrum for New Delhi as it weighs whether arming the Afghan army is in its interests.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Hundreds of youths have set fire to cars and attacked police and rescue services in poor immigrant suburbs in three nights of rioting in Stockholm, Sweden's worst disorder in years.

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi's luxury presidential jet, bought by late leader Bingu wa Mutharika, has been sold for $15 million to raise cash for the impoverished African country, a government official said on Wednesday.

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new government, already sinking in opinion polls and riven by internal disputes, on Wednesday lays out its plans to address one of the main causes of public anger - soaring unemployment among young people.

SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea sent one of its top military officials as a "special envoy" from its leader Kim Jong-un to Beijing on Wednesday, accompanied by a high-powered delegation in what appeared to be a bid to mend frayed relations with its most important ally.

ROME (Reuters) - Millions of Italians cannot afford to heat their homes properly or eat meat as their country is racked by recession and soaring unemployment, said a report which found the number of people considered seriously deprived had doubled in the past two years.

KOULIKORO, Mali (Reuters) - Under a blazing sun and the critical gaze of British and Irish instructors, a line of 11 Malian soldiers lie prone in the dust firing AK-47 rounds at targets, one-by-one.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - China and Pakistan should make cooperation on power generation a priority, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said, as Islamabad seeks to end an energy crisis that triggers power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, bringing the economy to a near standstill.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc said it will not restart production at the world's second-largest copper mine in Indonesia after a tunnel collapse that killed 28 workers until it is convinced of the mine's safety.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The World Bank on Wednesday announced $1 billion in development funding for Africa's Great Lakes region, where renewed fighting this week between the government and rebels in eastern Congo has raised fears once again of an escalation in conflict.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian authorities barred two potentially powerful and disruptive candidates from running in next month's presidential election on Tuesday, ensuring a contest largely among hardliners loyal to the clerical supreme leader.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A court in the city of Chongqing has charged six people with working together to blackmail government officials by recording videos of them having sex, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The Turkish parliament passed a "wealth amnesty" law late on Tuesday designed to lure back funds held abroad by affluent Turks without punitive taxes and fines.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani cricket-hero-turned-politician Imran Khan left hospital on Wednesday after treatment for back injuries suffered in a fall in Lahore, television stations said.