AP - Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim is the world's richest person, jumping past Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the first person from a developing nation to top the list, according to Forbes magazine.
AP - Brazil's president came under withering criticism Wednesday at home and in Cuba for his deference to the island's communist government over political prisoners and hunger strikes for human rights.
AP - A decision by Myanmar's military junta to bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections drew sharp criticism from around the world, with one of the country's Southeast Asian neighbors Thursday calling it "a complete farce."
AP - An open diplomatic row during the visit of Vice President Joe Biden has shined a spotlight on the U.S. failure to rein in Israeli settlement ambitions and deepened Palestinian suspicions that the United States is too weak to broker a deal.
Time.com - Vice President Joe Biden was publicly humiliated by the Israeli announcement of a controversial settlement project, and said it undermined trust in a new U.S. peace effort. But Israel has no plans to shelve the project
AP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will open a daylong conference Thursday of some 40 nations to start turning plans into action to save the world's forests and help rein in the noxious gases blamed for climate change.
AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Saudi leaders Wednesday that the U.S. effort for diplomatic engagement with Iran had come to naught and he asked for the influential kingdom's help to win wide backing for biting economic penalties against Tehran.
AP - Eight journalists have been kidnapped in a Mexican border city in a two-week span in a wave of abductions unprecedented in the Western Hemisphere, the Inter-American Press Association said Wednesday.
AFP - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday denounced the "atrocious" bloodshed in Nigeria after a massacre of Christian villagers, as police said 49 people would be charged over the killings.
AP - China's inflation spiked higher in February, adding to pressure on Beijing to prevent overheating and keep the recovery in the world's third-largest economy on track.
Reuters - Canadian parliamentarians tucked into a meal of seal meat on Wednesday to defy both animal right activists and the European Union, which has banned imports of seal products.
AP - An elephant calf that was believed to have died during a nine-day labor is feeding itself and has earned the nickname "Mr. Shuffles" since learning to stand, Taronga Zoo officials said Thursday.
McClatchy Newspapers - JERUSALEM — President Barack Obama faces what may be the biggest test to date of his credibility in the Middle East after Israel greeted Vice President Joe Biden's with an announcement that it will construct 1,600 new homes in disputed East Jerusalem, diplomats and analysts said Wednesday.
The Christian Science Monitor - Vice President Joe Biden embarked on the Palestinian leg of his Middle East trip on Wednesday with tensions still high over Israels surprise announcement of new settlement construction in East Jerusalem.
OneWorld.net - ABUJA,
Mar 8 (IRIN) - Hundreds of people in the city of Jos, 350km
northeast of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, have been buried in mass graves
after machete-wielding intruders attacked residents at 3 a.m. (local
time) on 7 March.
