Planet News: Global

A day after NATO officials apologized for the burning of Korans, American Embassy officials were on lockdown and hundreds of Afghans were marching on a NATO camp near Kabul.

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela said that doctors had found a new lesion that could indicate a return of his cancer, and that he would undergo an operation.

Many Greeks said they had begun to feel that the new deal was aimed at saving banks more than the country.

Officials in the state of Nuevo León said the jailbreak and the massacre had been carried out by the Zetas, a gang of drug enforcers who appeared to have prison authorities under control.

The vote, in a predetermined election that had one candidate on the ballot for president, was an important transitional moment for Yemen as it ends President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule.

Former IMF chief held for questioning over allegations he helped procure prostitutes for orgies in France and the USDominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, has been formally placed under arrest by French police investigating an alleged prostitution ring.The 62-year-old socialist politician turned himself in at 8.55am on Tuesday in the northern French city of Lille and is being held for questioning over allegations that he aided the procurement of prostitutes and benefited from fraud.Detectives want to ascertain whether Strauss-Kahn, a former French presidential hopeful, knew that the women he had sex with at orgies in Paris and Washington were prostitutes and if he was aware how they were paid. It is alleged the money came from the corporate funds of a major French construction company.Strauss-Kahn is expected to either be put under formal investigation – the equivalent of being charged – or released after 48 hours.Eight people, including two Lille businessmen with links to Strauss-Kahn and a police commissioner, have already been arrested in the case, known as the Carlton affair after the luxury Lille hotel at the centre of the alleged prostitution ring.Paying for prostitutes is not illegal in France but procuring them for another and using company funds to pay for them could lead to formal charges.Strauss-Kahn insists he never knew the women were prostitutes and has denied any wrongdoing."He could easily not have known, because as you can imagine, at these kinds of parties you're not always dressed, and I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman," his lawyer, Henri Leclerk, told French radio Europe 1 in December.Strauss-Kahn's political hopes disintegrated in May 2011 when he was arrested in New York and accused of sexually assaulting a hotel chambermaid. Strauss-Kahn claimed the sex was consensual and involved no "aggression or constraint". The case against him crumbled over concerns about the maid's credibility as a witness.Last October, prosecutors in France dismissed a 23-year-old French writer's claim that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003 during an interview for a book, saying the case had passed the time limit.Dominique Strauss-KahnFranceEuropeKim Willsherguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Two Iranian warships docked in a Syrian port as a senior Iranian lawmaker denounced the possibility that the Americans might arm the Syrian opposition.

The two countries agreed Monday to work together when drilling for oil and gas below their maritime border in the Gulf of Mexico.

After months of fraught negotiation, finance ministers were expected to agree to a second bailout in exchange for severe austerity measures.

Less than two weeks before Russia's presidential elections, the country's independent media are in a state of anxiety. Government-run news outlets seem more open than ever to divergent viewpoints — but Russian officials may be targeting independents they think go too far.

The targeting of two countries, which depend little on Iranian oil, may be a mostly symbolic response to their positions on Iran’s nuclear program and on Syria.

The vote defeated a constitutional referendum that underscored ethnic and political tensions that remain.

Hundreds of people braved scattered gunfire in the biggest such march near the heart of Damascus since the country’s uprising started 11 months ago.

Officials said that the prosecution of nonprofit workers from the United States jeopardizes the disbursement of more than $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt.

Anthony Shadid, a prize-winning journalist, was reporting inside Syria when he suffered a fatal asthma attack.

The United Nations General Assembly voted to call for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. The action has no power of enforcement.

The criminal inquiry into a suspected Iranian plot targeting Israelis overseas with magnetized bombs expanded on Thursday, with police in Thailand and investigators in India getting involved.

The Muslim Brotherhood said it would review the 1979 peace treaty with Israel if the United States cuts off Egypt’s aid over a crackdown on nonprofit groups.

Ban Ki-moon publicly rebuked Syria’s government on Thursday, accusing it of committing atrocities against Syrian civilians, including children.

President Hamid Karzai’s visit on Thursday came just after he announced that his government, with the United States, had begun face-to-face talks with the Taliban.