World News

Reuters - Syrian forces killed more than 200 people in an assault on the city of Homs, activists said, the bloodiest day of an 11-month uprising giving sudden urgency to a push for a U.N. resolution calling for President Bashar al-Assad to cede power.

Reuters - Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would not retreat from its nuclear program even if its crude oil exports grind to a halt, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

Reuters - Greece's government on Saturday struggled on in talks with lenders to secure a 130 billion euro ($171 bilion) bailout before turning to the trickier task of persuading political leaders to back the unpopular reforms involved in the rescue.

Reuters - Tens of thousands of Russians defied bitter cold in Moscow on Saturday to demand fair elections in a march against Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule, and supporters of the prime minister staged a rival rally drawing comparable numbers.

Reuters - The Afghan Taliban denied on Saturday that the group's leader Mullah Omar wrote to the White House last year.

Time.com - Four more die in a day of violent clashes, as anger over alleged police complicity in a stadium tragedy unleashes pent-up frustrations

AP - British police have used batons and riot shields to hold back protesters trying to storm the Syrian Embassy in London for the second time in one day.

AP - A Sudanese newspaper says a military spokesman has denied that the country's air force has bombed civilians in a southern province.

AP - Peruvian police have freed one of two Chileans arrested this week on suspicion of espionage.

AP - A Red Cross official says 25 people have died in western Kenya after a truck crashed into a minibus.

Reuters - U.S. Senator John McCain warned China's Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun on Saturday that "the Arab Spring is coming to China" and highlighted the number of Tibetans burning themselves to death in his country.

Reuters - Canada's prime minister drew an apparent line in the sand on foreign takeovers on Friday, saying he wanted to see BlackBerry maker Research In Motion grow "as a Canadian company" and questioning whether hostile takeovers of key domestic firms are in the country's best interests.

Reuters - Growing speculation that Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard could be dumped by her party before the end of the year forced senior ministers to rally behind her Friday after a disastrous start to 2012.