UK-World Summary
Market attack in Pakistan kills at least 12
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban village mayor and 11 other people in an attack near Pakistan's volatile city of Peshawar on Sunday, officials said. The bomber blew himself up as Abdul Malik, mayor of Matni village, was visiting a market crowded with people and goats being sold for the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
In eastern Europe, people pine for socialism
BELENE, Bulgaria - In the dense forests of the idyllic Danube island of Persin, home to the endangered sea eagle and the pygmy cormorant, lie the ghastly remains of a communist-era death camp. Hundreds "enemies of the regime" perished from beatings, malnutrition and exhaustion in 1949-59 in Bulgaria's Belene concentration camp, where dead bodies were fed to pigs.
U.S. House approves bill to overhaul healthcare
WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly endorsed on Saturday the biggest healthcare overhaul in decades, giving President Barack Obama a crucial victory in a battle that now moves to the Senate. By a 220-215 vote, including the support of one Republican, the House backed a bill that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing conditions.
Abbas supporters in West Bank urge him not to quit
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Supporters of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas turned out in the West Bank on Sunday to urge him to run again for the presidency following his announcement that he did not want a second term in the job. Waving flags, they greeted the president as he conducted a rare tour of towns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, part of the territories where the Palestinians aim to establish a state.
Afghan Taliban deny have missing U.S. troops' bodies
KABUL - The Taliban denied on Sunday they were holding the bodies of two U.S. soldiers who had gone missing last week in northwestern Afghanistan after earlier claiming they had recovered the two dead servicemen. The disappearance of the two paratroopers from U.S. 82nd Airborne Division during a resupply mission on Wednesday, triggered a search by NATO and Afghan forces of Badghis province, near the border with Turkmenistan.
Saudis claim gains from Yemen rebels
DUBAI - Saudi Arabia said it had regained control of territory seized by Yemeni rebels in an incursion last week, but the rebels denied the claim and said Yemeni villages were being bombed heavily. Saudi Arabia launched air strikes on rebels in northern Yemen last week after Shi'ite Muslim insurgents crossed the border and said they had seized an area called Jabal Dukhan.
Russia must keep promise to supply missiles - Iran
TEHRAN - Russia should keep its word on selling a missile defence system to Iran, an influential parliamentarian was quoted by Iranian media as saying Sunday. Moscow, which is under Western pressure to distance itself from Tehran, has not followed through on proposals to supply high-grade S300 air defence missiles to the Islamic state.
Women fight new battle in Iraq's insurgent corner
LATIFIYA, Iraq - In what was once one of Iraq's deadliest areas, women who survived sectarian carnage and insurgency now fight a new battle to feed families whose menfolk have been killed, jailed or left jobless. Violence has abated in the past 18 months in the infamous "Triangle of Death" hotbed of insurgent activity near Baghdad, but years of daily attacks in rural towns like Latifiya have killed scores of men and left the rest in prison or unemployed.
Somali pirates say Spanish captives still ashore
MOGADISHU - Somali pirates are holding three sailors from a Spanish fishing vessel on shore, a gang member said on Sunday, rejecting Madrid's assertion that they had been reunited with the remaining crew aboard their ship. A pirate who identified himself only as Mohamed said the return of the three to their vessel, the Alakrana, depended on the release of two pirates being held in Spain.
Dalai Lama visits Indian state disputed by China
TAWANG, India - Thousands of Buddhist monks and supporters welcomed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader on Sunday to a remote Indian region also claimed by China, a trip that has renewed tensions between the Asian giants. The Dalai Lama arrived by helicopter in this remote Buddhist enclave nestled in the icy folds of the eastern Himalayas, where he had passed through after fleeing Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.