World News Headlines - Canadian Press

LONDON - Police say a convicted murderer who once served as the personal assistant to the duchess of York is back in custody after she escaped from a low-security British prison.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Helped by a therapist, Rom Houben's outstretched finger tapped with surprising speed on a computer touchscreen, spelling out how he felt "alone, lonely, frustrated" in the 23 years he was trapped inside a paralyzed body.

FRANKFORT, Ky. - When a census worker in eastern Kentucky was found naked, bound with duct tape and hanging from a tree with "fed" scrawled on his chest, suspicion fell on the hardscrabble Appalachian area where bad news seems like a way of life.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Prosecutors in the genocide trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief demanded a 40-year jail sentence Wednesday for a man whom they described as snuffing out innocent lives and spreading terror across Cambodia.

WASHINGTON - The first state dinner of the Obama White House had it all: Oscar-winning entertainers, Hollywood moguls, a knockout guest chef and even a wardrobe malfunction.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama honoured India's prime minister with a toast in which he called the United States' relationship with India a "great and growing partnership."

AMPATUAN, Philippines - A few miles (kilometres) off the main highway, on a remote hilltop covered with waist-high grass, bodies lay with twisted hands reaching in the air. They had been shot point-blank.

BEIJING - The number of dead in China's worst mining accident in two years rose to 106 Wednesday after two more bodies were pulled out of the coal mine, state media said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A flotilla of hundreds of icebergs that split off Antarctic ice shelves is drifting toward New Zealand and could pose a risk to ships in the south Pacific Ocean, officials said Tuesday.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters said Tuesday that Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop, who has taken on Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy for his stance on abortion rights, is not doing enough to protect children from pedophile priests.

WASHINGTON - Seeking firmer footing for U.S.-India relations, President Barack Obama tried Tuesday to calm India's fears about Asian rival China, salving bruised feelings in the world's largest democracy with an elaborate state visit and assurances of India's "rightful place as a global leader."

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has decided not to sign an international convention banning land mines.

BRASILIA, Brazil - Rio de Janeiro's posh beach neighbourhoods lost power for hours in sweltering summer weather Tuesday, prompting restaurants to toss out spoiled food and business owners to send employees home.

GENEVA - The world's largest atom smasher has used its accelerator to speed up proton beams for the first time as scientists moved ahead in efforts to learn more about the universe.

WASHINGTON - On a damp, chilly Tuesday, guest chef Marcus Samuelsson was still out tromping around the White House garden picking herbs for that evening's state dinner at the White House.

LONG BEACH, Calif. - A judge in Long Beach has sentenced a California man to death for murdering a girlfriend who refused to help him dispose of another girlfriend's body.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a Network of Men Leaders on Tuesday to act as role models in the global campaign to end the "pandemic" of violence against women.

DALLAS - A former condominium owner and Southern Methodist University officials have settled a four-year property dispute involving the site of George W. Bush's presidential library, both parties announced Tuesday.

THE VILLAGES, Fla. - Sarah Palin, who says the 2012 presidential election isn't on her radar, took her "Going Rogue" book tour to the biggest of the battleground states Tuesday, including a stop in the retirement community where tens of thousands of people gave her star treatment in the 2008 presidential election.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent - The small Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines decides whether to remove Queen Elizabeth II as their official head of state, just a day before the British monarch makes rare visit to the region.

VIENNA, Austria - Six world powers have readied a resolution critical of Iran's nuclear program, diplomats said Tuesday, as Tehran suggested it was still ready to discuss a U.N.-backed plan meant to delay the Islamic Republic's ability to make a nuclear weapon.

NEW YORK - John "Junior" Gotti moved closer to another victory over federal prosecutors Tuesday when the jury in his fourth racketeering trial said for a second time that it could not reach a unanimous verdict on racketeering and murder-related charges. Gotti blew a kiss to his family as he entered U.S. District Court in Manhattan to hear U.S. District Judge Kevin P. Castel announce that the jury was deadlocked.

WASHINGTON - In the history of U.S.-India relations, there has been plenty of broken bread and fancy menus.

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Iran's president inaugurated an Iranian-funded hospital and two milk-processing plants Tuesday in a goodwill visit in which his leftist host defended Iran's "peaceful" nuclear aspirations.

BARIYAPUR, Nepal - The ceremony began with prayers in a temple by tens of thousands of Hindus before dawn Tuesday. Then it shifted to a nearby corral, where in the cold morning mist, scores of butchers wielding curved swords began slaughtering buffalo calves by hacking off their heads.

WASHINGTON - Signalling an imminent decision on new troop levels for the Afghanistan war, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he intends to "finish the job" on his watch and destroy terrorist networks in the region.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The increasing vulnerability of government schools in Afghanistan is contributing to a growing network of informal classrooms appearing in living rooms, backyards and back alleys across the country.

At the top of the list of Palestinian prisoners likely to be freed in a possible swap for an Israeli soldier is a firebrand politician many Palestinians believe is a likely future president who can pull them out of their current political deadlock.