Most Emailed World News

TOKYO (Reuters) - Thousands of foreign teachers have been made jobless and face expulsion from Japan after the country's biggest chain of English language schools folded and sought protection from creditors.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Protesters turned out on Amsterdam's central Dam Square on Saturday, hoping to stop the government from banning magic mushrooms and asking to "save the 'shrooms."

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentina readied Saturday for national elections while First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, almost certain to become the country's first elected woman president, relaxed at home on the eve of the vote.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the other half of the power couple credited with Argentina's rebound from an economic collapse, overshadowed 13 rivals as voting opened Sunday in Argentina's presidential elections.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican staged its largest mass beatification ceremony ever Sunday, putting 498 victims of religious persecution before and during Spain's civil war on the path to possible sainthood.

ROME - Luciano Pavarotti's widow denounced the "unseemly" gossip swirling in the Italian media alleging financial and family problems, saying Saturday she felt compelled to set the record straight for the sake of their young daughter.

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish troops killed 15 Kurdish guerrillas in fighting Sunday far from the increasingly tense Iraq border region where some of the separatists have sought refuge, a news report said. Turkey's prime minister called for unity between Turks and Kurds against the rebels.

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam and North Korea signed agriculture, sport, tourism and cultural agreements on Saturday on the first stop of a rare Southeast Asian tour by North Korea's Premier.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel began cutting vital fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, following through on a promise to step up pressure on the area's Hamas rulers in response to months of Palestinian rocket attacks.

CAMP SPEICHER, Iraq - The threat from al-Qaida in several former strongholds in Baghdad has been significantly reduced, but criminals who have established "almost mafia-like presence" in some areas pose a new threat, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Sunday.

VIENNA, Austria - In a city where "I do" often turns into "I want out," a fair for those wanting to untie the knot seemed a sure hit.

INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) - Korean Park Jung-ja spent the first six decades of her life on wind-swept Sakhalin, the bad breaks of the Cold War making her a citizen of nowhere. Now, she has finally found a home in suburban Seoul.

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the latest in a series of increasingly bloody engagements in the region, officials said.

JERUSALEM - A key partner in the coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Sunday that he would withdraw from the government if an upcoming Israeli-Palestinian meeting includes negotiations on core issues of the conflict.

MILAN, Italy - Can't get to Milan to see Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper?"

LONDON (Reuters) - An unidentified member of the British royal family has been targeted in a sex and drugs blackmail attempt, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

BYKOVNYA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine on Saturday reburied some 2,000 people killed by the Soviet secret police over several years up to the Second World War and left in mass graves at a site near the capital.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Thousands of poor farmers, landless workers and indigenous people reached the Indian capital after a month-long protest march to highlight the plight of those marginalised by India's economic boom.

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish court will this week deliver verdicts in the trial of 28 men charged in connection with the deadliest attack ever linked to al Qaeda in Europe, the Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people on March 11, 2004.

LARKANA, Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Sunday toured her political stronghold to visit the families of victims of the bloody Oct. 18 suicide blast that shattered a mass rally in Karachi to welcome her home, leaving 145 people dead.

LONDON (AFP) - Former United States secretary of state Colin Powell expressed surprise at ex prime minister Tony Blair's strong support for President George W. Bush over the Iraq war, according to book extracts published in the Mail on Sunday.

SHANGHAI (AFP) - China's ruling Communist Party has appointed Yu Zhengsheng, a man who survived a major family spy scandal, as chief of Shanghai, the nation's top business hub, state media announced Saturday.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey will launch a military strike against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq when necessary, regardless of the attitude of the international community, Turkey's prime minister said Saturday.

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida sympathizers have unleashed a torrent of anger against Al-Jazeera television, accusing it of misrepresenting Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape by airing excerpts in which he criticizes mistakes by insurgents in Iraq.

GOMA (AFP) - A senior militia leader in DRCongo called Saturday on renegade general Laurent Nkunda to lay down his arms and give up his battle against the government.