http://thestar.com.my/news/worldupdates/ Update: Friday, March 12, 2010 MYT 9:00:32 AM http://thestar.com.my/common/images/thestar_140x45.gif http://thestar.com.my/ 88 31 http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T061426Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468241-6&sec=Worldupdates CONSTITUCION, Chile (Reuters) - The ground shook and buildings swayed as billionaire Sebastian Pinera took over as Chile's president on Thursday, tasked with rebuilding after a massive earthquake killed hundreds just 12 days ago. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T061249Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468490-3&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats drew closer on Thursday to agreement on a broad healthcare overhaul that could lead to a final vote in the next few weeks, but vowed not to be bound by White House deadlines. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T054520Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468536-1&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday faced pressure to help create jobs in African-American communities and deliver an immigration overhaul even as he tried to push healthcare reform across the finish line. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T032857Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468498-2&sec=Worldupdates ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey recalled its ambassador to Sweden on Thursday and cancelled an upcoming summit between the countries after the Swedish parliament branded the World War One killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces genocide. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T021521Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468489-2&sec=Worldupdates ABU DHABI (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that leading Gulf states appeared ready to use their clout to lobby China to support sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T020840Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468343-4&sec=Worldupdates TEL AVIV (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called on Thursday for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to start without delay despite Palestinian insistence that Israel first cancel a settlement project condemned by Washington. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T060815Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468488-2&sec=Worldupdates PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Two European aid workers with Doctors Without Borders in quake-hit Haiti were kidnapped and held for nearly a week before being freed early on Thursday, the international medical charity said. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T031933Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468516-1&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday named 10 charities to share his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize, with causes ranging from wounded veterans to Haiti's earthquake survivors and education for minorities. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-11T225556Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468444-1&sec=Worldupdates VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A German Catholic bishop said on Thursday the media had exaggerated a child abuse scandal in his diocese and there was no need to involve the pope. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T011120Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468485-1&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China and Iran have stepped up their abuses of human rights, targeting both anti-government activists and the free flow of information over the Internet, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T034335Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468518-1&sec=Worldupdates MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Five same-sex couples wed in Mexico on Thursday as Mexico City became the first Latin American city to defy religious taboos and macho stereotypes by legalizing gay marriage. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T040338Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468521-1&sec=Worldupdates JERUSALEM (Reuters) - In the region where symbolism may matter most, the signs for U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit were inauspicious. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T034628Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468443-3&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of Americans, nearly half the country, think global warming worries are exaggerated and more people doubt that scientific warnings of severe environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup poll. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T015817Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468495-1&sec=Worldupdates PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy signalled a slowdown in the pace of reform next year as he prepared for regional elections at the weekend that are expected to result in a heavy defeat for his centre-right UMP party. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T031125Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468512-1&sec=Worldupdates ROME (Reuters) - Living conditions in Italy's camps for Roma are typical of a poor developing country, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday, criticising Italy's treatment of migrants. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T032413Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468438-3&sec=Worldupdates SANTIAGO/TALCAHUANO (Reuters) - Chile's mining and refinery sectors escaped damage on Thursday as a series of powerful aftershocks rocked the world's largest copper producer in the wake of one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T022521Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468506-1&sec=Worldupdates UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Somali businessman, who has been linked to Islamist militants and may have pocketed ransom money paid for the release of kidnapped French aid workers, has been a contractor for the World Food Program and UNICEF, a U.N. report said. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T021450Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468494-1&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More 12-year-olds in the United States admit to using potentially deadly inhalants to get high than have used marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogens combined, U.S. health officials said on Thursday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T020108Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468487-2&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it believed indirect Mideast peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were still on, saying it had no confirmation that the Palestinians had decided to drop out. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T004354Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468482-1&sec=Worldupdates SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's navy lifted a tsunami warning for the country's coast after strong aftershocks shook the capital Santiago on Thursday, following the swearing in ceremony for new President Sebastian Pinera. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T014609Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468499-1&sec=Worldupdates Following are some of the highlights of the report, which altogether covers 194 countries. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T013624Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468491-1&sec=Worldupdates MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's North Caucasus remained "an area of particular concern" in 2009, and the government's poor human rights record there worsened as it fought Islamist militants, the United States said on Thursday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-11T232833Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468312-4&sec=Worldupdates ATHENS (Reuters) - Police clashed with stone-throwing youths in Athens on Thursday as tens of thousands of strikers protested against draconian cutbacks aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis shaking the euro zone. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T010115Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468484-1&sec=Worldupdates STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish parliament approved on Thursday a resolution that brands the killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War One as genocide. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T005136Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468475-1&sec=Worldupdates WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California sushi chef and the restaurant in which he worked have been charged with illegally serving meat from an endangered Sei whale, the Justice Department said on Thursday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T005138Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468476-1&sec=Worldupdates LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found the "mother", or origin, of all skin cells and say their discovery could dramatically improve skin treatments for victims of serious wounds and burns. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-11T235617Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468467-1&sec=Worldupdates AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A union representing Dutch nurses will launch a national campaign on Friday against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard care. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-11T233725Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468461-1&sec=Worldupdates TEHRAN (Reuters) - The wife of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi called the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "illegitimate", the reformist Kaleme website reported on Thursday. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-11T235445Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468466-1&sec=Worldupdates JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's military on Thursday indicted two of its soldiers for endangering the life of a Palestinian boy during Israel's three-week offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip more than a year ago. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-11T231623Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468455-1&sec=Worldupdates ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates appear willing to use their clout with Russia and China to appeal for Iran sanctions, but there is less need with Russia, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.