Ebola could eventually afflict more than 20,000, WHO says
GENEVA — As the tally of deaths from the worst known outbreak of the Ebola virus continued its seemingly inexorable rise, the World Health Organization said Thursday that the epidemic was still accelerating and could afflict more than 20,000 people — almost seven times the current number of reported cases — before it could be brought under control.
Muslim minister quits British government over Gaza policies
LONDON — The fighting in Gaza claimed an unexpected casualty among the British political elite Tuesday when Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim to serve in the British Cabinet, resigned, saying the government’s “approach and language” in the crisis had been “morally indefensible.”
Iraqi Kurds take oil city as militants push forward
ERBIL, Iraq — Iraq’s fracturing deepened Thursday as Kurdish forces poured into the strategic northern oil city of Kirkuk after government troops fled, while emboldened Sunni militants who seized two other important northern cities this week moved closer to Baghdad and issued threats about advancing into the heavily Shiite south and destroying the shrines there, the holiest in Shiism.
Prosecutor describes Pistorius as self-centered and bullying
After a day of intense courtroom confrontation and emotion, the athlete Oscar Pistorius returned to the stand for a fourth straight day on Thursday to face new questions from a dogged prosecutor intent on depicting him as narcissistic, self-centered and bullying, so intent on self-gratification that he ignored the feelings of the dead woman’s family.
Insurgents strike in major Nigerian city
LONDON — Authorities in northeastern Nigeria imposed a 24-hour curfew around the region’s main city on Monday after Islamic militants staged an audacious attack apparently aimed at a government air base, news reports said, describing the assault as among the most dramatic in the insurgents’ campaign to create an Islamic state.
Hezbollah leader says his forces will remain in Syria
LONDON — The head of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group whose armed followers are fighting in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad, pledged Thursday that his forces would remain there as long as necessary.
Pope Benedict XVI says he will resign, cites ill health
ROME — Citing advanced years and infirmity, Pope Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, stunned the Roman Catholic world Monday by saying that he would resign Feb. 28, less than eight years after he took office, the first pope to do so in six centuries.
New Archbishop of Canterbury takes office
LONDON — On the eve of a divisive vote in Parliament on the legalization of same-sex marriage, Justin Welby, the former bishop of Durham, on Monday took over formally as the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, saying he shares the Church of England’s opposition to marriage among people of the same gender.
Both sides in Syria trade blame for killings in suburb
BEIRUT — Scores of muddied and waterlogged gunshot victims, most of them men in their 20s and 30s, were found dead in a suburb of Syria’s contested northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday. Insurgents and the government accused each other of carrying out the killings in what appeared to be the latest civil war atrocity.
Scores of Palestinians killed, wounded as conflict continues
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — After a night of sustained Israeli strikes by air and sea and a morning of rocket attacks on Israel, the Health Ministry here said Monday that the Palestinian death toll in six days of conflict had risen to 91 with 700 wounded, including 200 children, as the assault ground on unrelentingly despite efforts toward a cease-fire.
Church of England prepares for vote on female bishops
LONDON — Two decades after it supported the introduction of women as priests, the Church of England began three days of deliberations Monday that will include a critical vote on the ordination of women as bishops — a notion that still splits its members into rival camps.
Iran sends mixed signals as nuclear talks near
LONDON — A senior Iranian official hinted Monday that Iran would consider limits on its home-grown stockpile of enriched uranium, offering what seemed a modest compromise to partly meet Western concerns ahead of the planned resumption this week of nuclear talks with a group of six global powers.
Britain taking steps toward legalization of euthanasia
LONDON — A British stroke victim paralyzed from the neck down and suffering from so-called locked-in syndrome won the right Monday to seek changes in a law that would enable a doctor to end what he has called an “intolerable life” without risking murder charges.
Cameron details arguments against Scottish independence
LONDON — Arguing that the centuries-old “ties that bind” Britain together were under threat from Scottish separatism, Prime Minister David Cameron traveled to Edinburgh on Thursday to meet with First Minister Alex Salmond in what was seen here as the first sparring bout of a longer battle over an independence referendum.
More ship bodies found, new drama in capt. transcript
GIGLIO, Italy — Rescuers pulled five bodies clad in sodden life vests from the partly sunken cruise ship Costa Concordia on Tuesday, bringing the death toll in the disaster to at least 11, as Italian media published transcripts of a screaming match between the coast guard and the ship’s captain, who fled to a life boat after he smashed the vessel on a reef.
UN refugee agency declares Libya a humanitarian crisis
PARIS — Almost 100,000 people have fled Libya’s fighting to neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, the U.N. refugee agency said, in what it called a humanitarian emergency.
With winner absent, Nobel panel won’t hand over the Peace Prize
BEIJING — During the depths of the Cold War, when Soviet physicist and human rights advocate Andrei D. Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Kremlin barred him from leaving the country. But the authorities allowed his wife to collect the award in his stead.
With winner absent, Nobel panel won’t hand over the Peace Prize
BEIJING — During the depths of the Cold War, when Soviet physicist and human rights advocate Andrei D. Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Kremlin barred him from leaving the country. But the authorities allowed his wife to collect the award in his stead.
Obama Seeks ‘New Beginning’ With Islamic World
President Barack Obama pledged on Thursday to “seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” imploring America and the Islamic world to drop their suspicions of one another and forge new alliances to confront violent extremism and heal religious divides.
Obama Tells Muslims, ‘Americans Are Not Your Enemy’
In one of his first interviews since taking office, President Barack Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward the Islamic world, saying he wanted to persuade Muslims that “the Americans are not your enemy” and adding that “the moment is ripe for both sides” to negotiate in the Middle East.
Zimbabwe Detains Opposition Leader Again, and Aide Is Held On
The standard-bearer for Zimbabwe’s opposition was twice detained by the police on Thursday, and one of his most important deputies was arrested to face treason charges.
Shorts (left)
In a blow to Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick’s tenuous grip on his job, Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan announced on Tuesday that she will hold proceedings next week that could result in the Detroit mayor’s removal.
Blair Announces Plans to Leave Post as Prime Minister in June
After months of coy hints and fevered speculation, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Thursday that he would leave office on June 27 after a decade in power in which he sacrificed his popularity to the war in Iraq and struggled at home to improve schools, policing and hospitals.
In Reversal, Britain Says Ex-Captives Can Not Sell Stories to Media Sources
After howls of protest from former military commanders, opposition politicians and relatives of service personnel who had been killed, Britain's defense secretary, Des Browne, on Monday abruptly reversed a decision to allow some of the sailors and marines captured by Iran to sell their stories to the media.
British Police Arrest Three in Connection With '05 Bombings
The British counterterrorism police seized three men on Thursday for offenses related to the bombings in the London transit system on July 7, 2005, in which four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 passengers.