World News Headlines

The head of a UN mission warned on Saturday of "civil war" in Syria after his observers counted more than 92 bodies, 32 of them children, in the central town of Houla following reports of a massacre there.

Contenders ranging from Russian grannies to a Swedish disco starlet clashed Saturday in the Eurovision Song Contest for a glitzy spectacle which host Azerbaijan hopes will banish qualms about its questionable rights record.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said. The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the …

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese officials said on Saturday the unprecedented effort to remove spent fuel rods from one of the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors was on track despite lingering concerns about the structure's vulnerability to another earthquake. "I don't think the situation is unstable," said Goshi …

Georgia's charismatic leader on Saturday celebrated Independence Day by moving parliament from the capital to a rundown provincial city and defying enemy Russia with a military parade.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists said was an artillery barrage by government forces in the worst violence since the start of a U.N. peace plan to slow the flow of blood in Syria's uprising. The bloodied bodies of children, some with their skulls …

Lesotho counted ballots Saturday after a tight general election -- dominated by personal clashes rather than concerns over poverty -- that could produce the southern African nation's first coalition government.

Up to 10,000 people came out to greet the Dalai Lama on Saturday after Vienna ignored warnings from China that ties with Beijing could be harmed by hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin steered Dmitry Medvedev into the chairmanship of Russia's ruling party on Saturday and demanded reforms to the flagging organisation he will rely on to keep his grip on the country's far-flung regions. At Putin's behest, delegates at a United Russia congress elected Medvedev chairman …

A Nazi war criminal who escaped from a Dutch jail after the war and evaded all attempts by the Netherlands to get him back has died at the age of 90 in Germany, a hospital source said Saturday.

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood and a military man close to ousted leader Hosni Mubarak courted defeated first-round candidates in Egypt's presidential election on Saturday, each trying to claim the mantle of the uprising before a run-off next month. State television said the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi led this …

VISEGRAD, Bosnia (Reuters) - The bodies of 66 Bosnian Muslims, murdered and dumped in the Drina river 20 years ago, were buried in Visegrad in eastern Bosnia on Saturday, hours after a march through the town by Serb veterans of the 1992-95 war. Nestled in the river valley, Visegrad is indicative of Bosnia's unhealed wounds. …

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station opened the hatch and floated inside a Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon capsule on Saturday, the first privately owned spaceship to reach the orbital outpost, NASA said. Running ahead of schedule, station commander Oleg Kononenko …

Iran on Saturday downplayed a report by the UN atomic watchdog that uranium traces have been detected of a higher grade than any found before, as media voiced doubts about the next round of talks on Tehran's nuclear programme.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most of the cadets who graduated on Saturday from West Point were in elementary school when hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and enrolled in the U.S. military academy with wars raging in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vice President Joe Biden lauded the brave choices …

Russia's ruling party on Saturday approved Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as its new chief in a bid to reverse flagging popularity that stoked opposition protests against the Kremlin.

Storm warnings went up along the US eastern seaboard Saturday as a new subtropical storm wheeling out of the Atlantic threatened Memorial Day holiday plans for hordes of beachgoers.

Spain's fourth-biggest bank Bankia said Saturday it was certain of securing the 19 billion euros ($24 billion) in state aid it is seeking in the largest bank bailout in the country's history.