World News

CARDIFF (AFP) - Wales great Neil Jenkins has dismissed talk that now is the perfect time to end his country's decades-long losing streak against New Zealand.

PARIS (AFP) - French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, who helped shape Western thinking about human civilisation, has died at the age of 100, his publisher and colleagues said.

MADRID (AFP) - Chelsea and in-form striker Didier Drogba go into Sunday's title showdown with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge with wind in their sails having qualified for the knockout phase of the Champions League with a 2-2 group D draw at Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.

PANAMA CITY - Panamanian police say they have arrested two teenage boys for allegedly wounding an American and a Russian tourist in a botched robbery attempt.

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico - Flooding after days of heavy rain along Mexico's Gulf Coast has forced more than 44,000 people from their homes.

MEXICO CITY - Investigators have confirmed that turbulence from a larger plane caused the crash of a government jet that killed Mexico's interior secretary and 15 other people a year ago.

LONDON (AFP) - Survivors of the Darfur conflict will no longer be deported from Britain, the government said Tuesday, after concerns about a deterioration in conditions in the Sudanese capital.

KINSHASA, Congo - A top human rights group is accusing the Congolese military of killing more than 500 civilians in eastern Congo and says the U.N. peacekeeping force in the area did nothing to stop the soldiers from decapitating men and raping young girls.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Some 50 African nations staged a show of force at world climate talks here Tuesday, demanding that rich countries commit to deep cuts in the carbon emissions that stoke global warming.

YANGON, Myanmar - A U.S. State Department official was to hold high-profile talks Wednesday with Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as the Obama administration opens a new era of engaging the country's military rulers.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - For Raghu Ghai, the day begins and ends at the same place -- a gym in New Delhi where he pursues his quest for bulging biceps, a "six-pack" stomach and slab-like chest muscles.

MANILA (AFP) - For the Philippines, boxer Manny Pacquiao is more than a sports champion. His fans, the media and politicians see him as nothing less than a national hero whose feats can lift the nation.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government, facing public impatience over the pace of vaccinations for the H1N1 flu, defended its use of a single vaccine supplier on Tuesday but said it would consider use of several sources of vaccine for future pandemics.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The opposition New Democratic Party will most likely back a new bill on employment insurance, but is making no promises about long it will keep the minority Conservative government in power.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's Competition watchdog wants "anti-competitive" realtors to change the way they work, and wants new rules that could help new players to enter the market and allow for consumers to pay less.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia called off an air and sea search for survivors on Wednesday after a boat carrying unidentified Sri Lankans sank in remote seas far off its northwest, killing 12.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A blaze at an oil rig off Australia was brought under control on Tuesday when experts managed to plug a leak that has spewed tonnes of crude over the past 10 weeks, the well's operator said.

SYDNEY - Planes and ships searching a remote patch of the Indian Ocean found no signs Tuesday of additional survivors from the sinking of a suspected asylum-seeker boat. Eleven people were believed missing, while 27 were rescued.

LONDON - Women faced their share of trouble at the Tower of London, including three queens who were beheaded there.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin could have started World War Three in 1989 had it used troops to crush the demonstrations that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on Tuesday.

ROME - The Vatican on Tuesday denounced a ruling by the European court of human rights that said the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and education freedoms.