World Politics News

BERLIN - The mayor of the German city where 21 people were crushed to death at a music festival last weekend is facing growing pressure to resign amid nationwide outrage over the tragedy. Full Story »

LONDON - A U.S. Senate committee wants to send members to Britain to question key witnesses on the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Full Story »

STOCKHOLM - A Stockholm court has sentenced a former police chief to 6.5 years in prison for rape and other sex crimes. Full Story »

LONDON - Britain's Court of Appeal says four legislators aren't immune from prosecution following the lawmakers' expense claim scandal. Full Story »

GENEVA (Reuters) - Israel must lift its military blockade of the Gaza Strip and invite an independent, fact-finding mission to investigate its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a United Nations rights body said on Friday. Full Story »

MOSCOW - Forest fires continue to rage around several Russian cities and officials say at least seven people have died, including two firefighters. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - A bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust fell short in the House on Thursday, raising the possibility that the bulk of compensation for the ill will come from a legal settlement hammered out in the federal courts. Full Story »

VILLERS-AU-TERTRE, France - A French woman who admitted suffocating eight of her newborns and concealing their corpses in the garden and garage of her home has been charged with manslaughter. Full Story »

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea and the US-led United Nations Command held military talks Friday, a Command spokesman said, the third round since the sinking of a South Korean warship that was blamed on the North. Full Story »

MOSCOW - Raging forest fires encircled a southern Russian city and tore through provincial villages Thursday, forcing mass evacuations as Moscow suffered through a record, weeks-long heat wave and smog cloud caused by peat-bog fires. Full Story »

LONDON - In just a few days, new Prime Minister David Cameron has openly declared Britain is no more than the "junior partner" of the U.S., irritated Israelis by calling Gaza a prison camp and enraged Pakistanis by suggesting their country exports terrorism. Full Story »

MOSCOW - Russian special forces quickly overpowered a man after he briefly seized a plane with 105 passengers and crew at a Moscow airport on Thursday, officials said. Full Story »

BERLIN - The world's third most wanted Nazi suspect was involved in the entire process of killing Jews at the Belzec death camp: from taking victims from trains to pushing them into gas chambers to throwing corpses into mass graves, a German court said Thursday. Full Story »

Kampala, Uganda - Shortly after marking two weeks since suspected twin suicide bombings killed 76 people watching the World Cup Final in Uganda's capital of Kampala, leaders from across the continent pledged to tackle the terrorist threat from Somalia at an African Union summit in the city. Full Story »

ROME - Italian officials are seeking to raise some euro25 million (about $32 million) in private money to finance the restoration of one of the country's iconic landmarks: the Colosseum. Full Story »

ROME - They knock the noses off statues in a park that was a favorite haunt of poet John Keats and throw dye into the iconic Trevi Fountain. Full Story »

LONDON - Britain's government said Thursday it has dismissed a call to replace the head of an inquiry into allegations the U.K. colluded in the torture of terrorism suspects overseas. Full Story »

MOSCOW - Russians may now face jail time for crimes they have not yet committed under a new security law signed Thursday by President Dmitry Medvedev. Full Story »