WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Thursday for the first time called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down after a brutal crackdown by Syrian forces on demonstrations against the Assad family's 41-year reign.
- - - -
JERUSALEM - Gunmen killed six people in attacks on vehicles in southern Israel on Thursday and a senior Israeli official said they had infiltrated from the Gaza Strip through Egypt's Sinai desert.
- - - -
ZAWIYAH, Libya - Libyan rebels took control of an oil refinery in the western town of Zawiyah and blocked the main highway north to the capital on Thursday, further isolating Muammar Gaddafi's Tripoli stronghold.
- - - -
BEIJING - China and the United States share a responsibility for boosting global market confidence and the American economy remains fundamentally sound, the Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden who is on a trust-building visit.
- - - -
ISTANBUL - Turkey launched a heavy air and artillery assault on Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq overnight after a declaration by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that he had lost patience with separatists fighting in southeast Turkey.
- - - -
BEIJING - A former Chinese official's manifesto for a new burst of reform mixing Mao, markets and guarded political relaxation has opened a rare window into ideas shaping the country's next generation of "princeling" leaders.
- - - -
NEW DELHI - India's beleaguered government caved in to popular fury over corruption on Wednesday after thousands protested across the country, granting permission for a self-styled Gandhian crusader to stage a 15-day hunger strike in public.
- - - -
BERLIN - Luxembourg's Finance Minister Luc Frieden on Thursday welcomed Franco-German plans to tackle the euro zone debt crisis as a step in the right direction but said powers to impose sanctions must remain with national governments, rather than the European Commission.
- - - -
KARACHI - A fresh wave of violence gripped Pakistan's commercial hub of Karachi on Thursday, with officials saying at least 39 people had been killed over two days in gang wars and political disputes, some after being tortured.
- - - -
HERAT, Afghanistan - A roadside blast killed 20 people and wounded at least 12 travelling in two minibuses in the western Afghan province of Herat on Thursday, provincial authorities said.
- - - -
CAPE TOWN - South African mining minister Susan Shabangu described the mounting death toll in the country's lethal mines as "carnage" on Thursday and said there was a link between the pursuit of profits and the body count.
- - - -
CARACAS - Venezuela will nationalize its gold industry and is moving its international reserves out of Western countries, President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday in a combative step ahead of his re-election bid next year.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
