World News - Las Vegas Sun

Associated Press: World News

33 minutes ago

(AP) North Korea released pictures of leader Kim Jong Il on Saturday for the first time in nearly two months, showing the reclusive ruler looking generally well despite reports he recently underwent brain surgery.Wearing his trademark khaki jumpsuit and sunglasses, Kim was seen standing with uniformed soldiers with his arms folded ...

Latin America

Peru president accepts resignation of Cabinet

2 hours, 27 minutes ago

(AP) President Alan Garcia accepted the resignation of his entire Cabinet on Friday without naming replacements in response to an oil kickbacks scandal.Garcia's government has been rocked by the public airing of audiotaped conversations discussing kickbacks for steering government contracts to Norwegian oil company Discover Petroleum. Discover denies any wrongdoing.The president ...

Middle East

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,180

3 hours, 6 minutes ago

(AP) As of Friday, Oct. 10, 2008, at least 4,180 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,385 military personnel died as a result of ...

Latin America

USVI jury finds 3 guilty in killing of Pa. man

3 hours, 39 minutes ago

(AP) A jury on Friday found three men guilty in the killing of a 21-year-old Pennsylvania man outside a St. John bar last year.A judge said the men will be sentenced Nov. 14 for the beating and stabbing of James Cockayne of New Hope, Pennsylvania, who had moved to the U.S. ...

Colombia orders arrest of ex-general

4 hours, 27 minutes ago

(AP) Prosecutors have ordered the arrest of a second retired general in the disappearance of 12 people during the Colombian army's bloody 1985 retaking of the Palace of Justice from leftist rebels.The general, Jesus Armando Arias, led Bogota's army brigade during the assault.Soldiers under his command escorted the disappeared _ 11 ...

Peru says 14 killed in Shining Path attack

5 hours, 45 minutes ago

(AP) Shining Path rebels ambushed a column of military trucks in Peru's southeastern mountains with a bomb and gunfire, the military high command said Friday, killing 12 soldiers and two civilians in the deadliest rebel attack in years.Fourteen soldiers and three civilians, including a 5-year-old boy, were wounded in the Thursday ...

Brazil wants its say in new financial order

5 hours, 45 minutes ago

(AP) Brazil's president said Friday that emerging market nations like Brazil must have a strong say in developing strict international rules for financial institutions.Brazil and other developing countries "need to learn from this crisis to construct a new world economic order," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a speech ...

Swedish couple hacked to death in Tobago; 1 arrest

5 hours, 45 minutes ago

(AP) A man was arrested Friday as a suspect in the slaying of a Swedish couple who were found hacked to death in their home in a tourist district of the normally placid southern Caribbean island of Tobago.The suspect, 32, was detained because he resembles a man seen leaving the home ...

Europe and Russia

Chinese dissidents miss out on Nobel peace prize

7 hours, 6 minutes ago

(AP) Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday, but this year the news was as much about who didn't get the award.Critics say the secretive, five-member panel missed a golden opportunity to reward Chinese dissidents and highlight human rights abuses in China in the year Beijing basked ...

Latin America

Oil, soy, copper all go bust in Latin America

7 hours, 6 minutes ago

(AP) The booming prices for Venezuelan oil, Brazilian soy beans and Chilean copper that brought prosperity to Latin America are heading for a bust that threatens to erode the hard-won gains of its poor and newly emerging middle class.The global financial meltdown is cooling demand for commodities, the engine that fueled ...

Africa

Congo names new prime minister

7 hours, 9 minutes ago

(AP) Congo's President Joseph Kabila named a new prime minister following the resignation of 83-year-old Antoine Gizenga.Gizenga resigned last month saying he was too old to continue serving. A decree read on state-run TV Friday announced that Kabila had named Adolphe Muzito in his place.Muzito is from the same party as ...

Asia

Dalai Lama's surgery ends successfully: aide

7 hours, 51 minutes ago

(AP) Surgeons successfully removed gallstones from the Dalai Lama on Friday, an operation that will not prevent the Tibetan spiritual leader from traveling again by the end of the month, a top aide said.Spokesman Chhime R. Chhoekyapa called the surgery "a simple, routine procedure."The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist elder was hospitalized ...

Canada

Canadian dollar takes steepest one-day dive

8 hours, 27 minutes ago

(AP) The Canadian dollar posted its steepest one-day decline against the U.S. greenback Friday, dropping by 4.5 American cents.According to the Bank of Montreal's currency desk, the Canadian dollar was down 4.5 American cents in afternoon trading at 82.78 cents.Canada's currency has lost more than a quarter of its value since ...

Europe and Russia

PM: No early elections in Ukraine

8 hours, 27 minutes ago

(AP) Ukraine's prime minister said Friday there will be no early parliamentary elections, defying a presidential decree and raising the stakes in her fierce political battle with the president.President Viktor Yushchenko set the early vote for Dec. 7 earlier this week, burying attempts to revive his shattered pro-Western coalition with Tymoshenko.But ...

Africa

Hijackers of ship off Somalia issue ultimatum

8 hours, 27 minutes ago

(AP) The pirates who hijacked an arms-laden Ukrainian tanker off Somalia issued an ultimatum Friday and threatened to destroy the ship if no ransom is paid, a spokesman for the bandits said.The MV Faina is surrounded by U.S. warships, and a Russian frigate is heading toward the scene, raising the stakes ...