Yahoo! News: World News

• 'Britain's Fritzl' abused daughters for years (AFP)
  

  AFP - Two women who were raped and abused by their father for over 25 years, becoming pregnant 18 times, have won an apology from local authorities for failing to prevent the serial incest.

  
  
  
  
• US-Israel row highlights quandary over settlements (AP)
  

  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.

  
  
  
  
• Brazil leader rapped for stance on Cuba dissidents (AP)
  

  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.

  
  
  
  
• Church abuse scandal reaches pope's brother (AP)
  

  AP - Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself.

  
  
  
  
• Gates keeps up pressure on Iran with Gulf visit (AP)
  

  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.

  
  
  
  
• Japan revises down 4Q economic growth (AP)
  AP - Japan says its economy grew notably less in the fourth quarter than initial estimates.
  
  
• Israeli settlement plans give Obama little room to maneuver (McClatchy Newspapers)
  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.
  
  
• Sydney teens charged over attack on Canadian wheelchair-user (AFP)
  

  AFP - Two Australian teenagers have been charged over a vicious attack on a disabled Canadian tourist who was knocked out of his wheelchair and battered with a metal bar, police said on Thursday.

  
  
  
  
• Disaster experts praise Chile quake response (AP)
  

  AP - President Michelle Bachelet leaves office Thursday with a chunk of her country in ruins — and her popularity in the clouds.

  
  
  
  
• Law bars Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi from elections (AP)
  

  AP - Myanmar's military regime took yet another step to expunge Aung San Suu Kyi from the political scene Wednesday by effectively barring her from the first elections in 20 years and pressuring her opposition party to expel her from its ranks.

  
  
  
  
• Canada Parliament eats seal to defy "ignorant" EU (Reuters)
  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.
  
  
• Pope denounces 'atrocious' Nigeria bloodshed (AFP)
  

  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.

  
  
  
  
• Biden Israel Trip: Apology for Timing of Settlement News (Time.com)
  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
  
  
• Beyond Sanctions: How to Solve the Iranian Riddle (Time.com)
  Time.com - Beyond Sanctions: How to Solve the Iranian Riddle
  
  
• Joe Biden, in Ramallah, stymied by new settlement construction (The Christian Science Monitor)
  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 Israel’s surprise announcement of new settlement construction in East Jerusalem.
  
  
• In paying for sex changes, Cuba breaks from past (AP)
  

  AP - Looking in the mirror used to make Yiliam Gonzalez sick to her stomach.

  
  
  
  
• Nigeria: More Mass Graves Dug in Jos (OneWorld.net)
  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.