UK-World Summary
More bodies at Philippine massacre site
AMPATUAN, Philippines - Philippine security forces found 11 more bodies Wednesday at the site of an election-related massacre in the south of the country, taking the toll to 57 dead, officials said. Not all have been identified, but 22 of them were believed to be journalists, making Monday's attack the deadliest ever on the media anywhere in the world. Thirty-three of the victims were men and 24 were women, police said.
Khmer Rouge jailer expresses "excruciating remorse"
PHNOM PENH - The Khmer Rouge's chief torturer and jailer expressed "excruciating remorse" on Wednesday for more than 14,000 people killed under his watch at a notorious prison during Cambodia's ultra-Maoist revolution of the 1970s. In the final week of testimony for the first senior Khmer Rouge cadre to face the U.N.-backed "Killing Fields" tribunal, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, said he was solely liable for the killings but that he served a mafia-type group.
Huge U.N. Congo force fails against rebels - experts
KINSHASA - The massive U.N. peacekeeping effort in eastern Congo has failed to deliver a knockout blow to Rwandan rebels while local insurgents have seized new territory under its nose, United Nations experts said Wednesday. Far from resolving the root causes of the violence, the presence of the world's biggest peacekeeping mission has aggravated the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces, the report seen by Reuters Wednesday said.
Leterme nominated to become Belgian PM
BRUSSELS - Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme was nominated to become Belgium's prime minister for a second time on Wednesday to replace Herman Van Rompuy, who has been appointed the first president of the European Union. Just six days after EU leaders chose Van Rompuy for the new EU job, King Albert named Leterme, 49, as his choice to lead Belgium through a period that is likely to expose divisions in the linguistically divided country.
Obama says will "finish the job" in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday to "finish the job" of an unpopular and costly eight-year war in Afghanistan, and officials said he could announce an increase of around 30,000 troops next week. Obama said he would soon end weeks of intense speculation about his plans for the way forward in Afghanistan, after a three-month strategic review that has drawn fire from Republican critics who accuse him of dithering.
India on the vigil but remains vulnerable to attacks
MUMBAI - The paramilitary troops outside the Trident and Taj Mahal hotels suggest a higher level of security a year after militants laid siege to Mumbai, but it may all be a mirage as the country still remains very vulnerable. While some improvements in security have meant there has not been another attack by Islamist militants since Mumbai, the country's many chaotic cities and its 1.2 billion people make it almost impossible to plug all security loopholes.
Nepal temple conducts biggest sacrifice of animals
KATHMANDU - At least 15,000 buffalo and "countless" goats and birds were sacrificed in a temple in southern Nepal, organisers said Wednesday, a ritual billed as the single biggest animal slaughter on earth. Hindus in Nepal routinely offer animals for sacrifice to appease deities, Especially power goddesses, for good luck and prosperity.
"Cancer of fraud" permeates U.S. healthcare system
MORE RESOURCES The Justice Department and Department of Health and Human Services launched a special strike force in Miami in 2007 to combat Medicare fraud in South Florida and similar units have been set up in Los Angeles, Houston and Detroit.
World's biggest cruise ship is a floating resort
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - Royal Caribbean's new Oasis of the Seas is the largest, widest, tallest, most expensive cruise ship afloat, a cornucopia of amusements aimed at quashing the notion that cruising is a sedentary vacation, said chief executive Richard Fain. Then he donned swim trunks, jumped on a boogie board and challenged fellow executives to a contest in one of the Oasis' two FlowRider pools that simulate surfing.
Hungarian lake resort helped reunify Germany
ZANKA, Hungary , and for Germans from both sides of the Berlin Wall, Hungary's Lake Balaton was close, cheap and mostly free of spies. No one knew then their 1960s lakeside holidays would set in motion events that helped bring down the wall dividing them.