Afghan attack kills two NATO soldiers, two children
2012-05-20T11:51:20Z
Two NATO soldiers were killed in an attack in Afghanistan Sunday as alliance leaders gathered in Chicago for a summit dominated by plans to pull troops out of the Afghan war.

Italy arrests two in school bomb attack
2012-05-20T11:47:40Z
Italian police have arrested two suspects over the bombing of a school that killed a 16-year-old girl and seriously injured five more teenagers, media reports said here Sunday.

Opposition groups report clashes in Syrian capital
2012-05-20T11:46:44Z
A restive district of the Syrian capital that has been a hotbed of dissent against President Bashar Assad was rocked by fighting overnight between government forces and army defectors, opposition groups said Sunday.

Sri Lanka orders ex-army chief freed
2012-05-20T11:39:29Z
Sri Lanka's president has ordered the release of his jailed electoral foe, ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka, bowing to US-led pressure three years after the end of the island's long ethnic war.

Pakistan blocks Twitter access over "blasphemous content"
2012-05-20T11:35:15Z
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan on Sunday blocked access to Twitter in response to "blasphemous" material posted by users on the microblogging and social networking website, a senior government official said. "This has been done under the directions of the Ministry of Information Technology. It's because of blasphemous content," said Mohammed Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). "They (the ministry) have been discussing with them (Twitter) for some time now, requesting them to remove some particular content," he said. ...

Mali coup leader backs transition president
2012-05-20T11:28:32Z
BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's caretaker president Dioncounda Traore will have his mandate extended beyond a 40-day period expiring Monday after the soldier who led Mali's March 22 coup agreed to drop his objections to the move. The accord between Captain Amadou Sanogo and mediators from the ECOWAS bloc of West African states keeps Mali's fragile transition to civilian rule on track and could open the way for the arrival of peacekeeping troops from neighbouring countries. "I can tell you that a deal has been reached in principle," Sanogo told state television late on Saturday. ...

Pakistan blocks Twitter over contentious material
2012-05-20T11:24:54Z
Pakistan blocked the social networking website Twitter on Sunday because it refused to remove material considered offensive to Islam, said one of the country's top telecommunications officials.

BSkyB could get reprieve from UK regulator - paper
2012-05-20T11:19:33Z
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Competition Commission is to publish a preliminary report next week suggesting that BSkyB's dominance in the pay-tv movie market has been weakened by new entrants, reducing the need to impose restrictions, The Mail On Sunday said. "Following the entry of Amazon-owned Lovefilm and fellow U.S. operator Netflix into the market, both offering films online, the commission is likely to say Sky's position is no longer as dominant as previously thought," the newspaper said. ...

Jacques Audiard praises B movies at Cannes
2012-05-20T11:04:32Z
Jacques Audiard is on a quest to revive the B movie.

General Allen plays down urgency of Pakistan deal
2012-05-20T11:00:54Z
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. commander in Afghanistan told Reuters he would not be disappointed if a long-sought agreement with Pakistan on supply routes failed to materialize by the end of the NATO summit in Chicago on Monday. General John Allen, who is also the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in an interview he was confident a deal would eventually be struck but "whether it's in days or weeks, I don't know. ...