CA-NEWS Summary

Judge finds two Ohio teens delinquent in rape of girl

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - Two high school football players from Ohio were found guilty on Sunday of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party last summer while she was in a drunken stupor in a case that gained national exposure through social media. Ohio authorities also promised on Sunday to continue the investigation to determine if other crimes had been committed.

As drone monopoly frays, Obama seeks global rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, who vastly expanded U.S. drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas under the cloak of secrecy, is now openly seeking to influence global guidelines for their use as China and other countries pursue their own drone programs. The United States was the first to use unmanned aircraft fitted with missiles to kill militant suspects in the years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Ex-general Yaalon named as Israeli defense minister

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose Moshe Yaalon, a right-wing former armed forces chief, to be Israel's defense minister on Sunday, saying his experience was needed to tackle challenges in a turbulent Middle East. Yaalon, 62, belongs to Netanyahu's Likud party and spent the past four years in his inner circle of ministers, publicly backing his reluctance to give up the occupied West Bank and make way for a Palestinian state.

Al Qaeda claims assault on Iraqi justice ministry

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate said on Sunday it carried out a coordinated suicide bomb and gun attack on the country's justice ministry last week that killed at least 25 people in the centre of Baghdad. The assault near the heavily fortified Green Zone, where several Western embassies and government offices are located, fanned fears about Iraq's still fragile security a decade after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

China's new premier pledges reform, sees risks

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday ensuring economic growth was the top priority for his government, pledging to fight graft, tackle vested interests and calling for an end to a cyber-hacking row with the United States. Li's first news conference as premier, at the close of the annual meeting of China's rubber-stamp parliament that confirmed his appointment, covered topics that have been the principal focus of recent government rhetoric, with a strong emphasis on the necessity of reform to deliver long-term economic stability.

Venezuela's Maduro urges Obama to halt "plot" against rival

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's acting president urged U.S. President Barack Obama to stop what he called a plot by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to kill his opposition rival and trigger a coup ahead of an April 14 election. Nicolas Maduro said the plan was to blame his opponent's murder on the OPEC nation's government and to "fill Venezuelans with hate" as they prepare to vote following the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

Zimbabwe moves toward elections after vote on Mugabe's powers

NORTON, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabweans look set to endorse a new constitution curbing the presidency, early results showed on Sunday, in a step toward elections to determine whether Robert Mugabe adds to three decades in power. While the vote on the constitution, which will limit the number of times a president can serve, was largely free from violence, police raided an office of Mugabe arch-rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and arrested five people.

Show mercy, don't rush to condemn, new pope urges

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, speaking to an overflow crowd of more than 150,000 in St Peter's Square, urged the world on Sunday to be more forgiving and merciful and not so quick to condemn other people's failures. "A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just," he told the cheering crowd from the window of the papal apartments overlooking the square.

From teenage graffiti to a country in ruins: Syria's two years of rebellion

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - On a cold winter's night in early 2011, some Syrian schoolboys drew a few slogans on a wall in a town the world had barely heard of. Two years on, more than 70,000 people have died in the bitter conflict that ensued, and calls for the West to give more help to the Syrian rebels are rising. It was in the southern town of Deraa that 16-year-old Mohammad and five friends gathered to scrawl graffiti demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family had ruled the country for 40 years. They chose to vent their anger at the pervasive fear and repression in the country at their school in the Hay al-Arbeen district.

Fifth French soldier killed in Mali campaign

PARIS (Reuters) - A fifth French soldier has been killed in the country's nine-week-old military campaign against Islamist rebels in Mali, the government said on Sunday. An explosive device went off under a vehicle carrying Corporal Alexandre Van Dooren during a search for rebel arms caches in northern Mali's Ifoghas mountains on Saturday, according to France's defense ministry and the president's office.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-000324387.html

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