Tropical storm Alberto forms off Carolinas' coast
2012-05-20T12:12:30Z
Tropical Storm Alberto emerged off South Carolina's coastline Sunday, the first storm of its kind to form in a hurricane season that doesn't officially begin until June 1.

Lebanese soldiers kill two anti-Assad group members
2012-05-20T12:00:26Z
TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Lebanese soldiers shot dead a Sunni cleric and a second member of a Lebanese political alliance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources said. Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid and Khaled Miraib, members of the March 14 alliance, were shot in their car as they sped through an army checkpoint without stopping, the sources said. Residents of the northern region of Akkar said that they had blocked off roads to protest against the deaths. The army confirmed in a statement that the two men had been shot but gave no details. ...

Lawyers for fugitive Iraqi VP quit case in protest
2012-05-20T11:56:05Z
Lawyers for Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president charged with running death squads that targeted Shiite officials and pilgrims quit the case on Sunday in protest after judges would not let them present evidence at the trial.

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. ...