The Star Online: World Updates

WORLD UPDATES

Rescuers find bodies from Papua New Guinea ferry disaster

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Rescuers searching for survivors after a heavily laden ferry sank off Papua New Guinea said on Saturday they had found four bodies and that the search would go on for about 100 still missing.

Over 200 people killed in Syria as U.N. prepares to vote

BEIRUT (Reuters) - More than 200 people were killed in shelling by Syrian forces in the city of Homs, activists said on Saturday, as the U.N. Security Council prepared to vote on a draft resolution backing an Arab call for President Bashar al-Assad to give up power.

Amid peace bid, U.S. got purported letter from Taliban

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House received a letter last year purported to come directly from Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, asking the United States to deliver militant prisoners whose transfer is now at the heart of the Obama administration's bid to broker peace in Afghanistan.

Romania rescues children as Europe's freeze deepens

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Nine Romanian children were taken into care after a baby died in an unheated house, joining at least 189 others killed by a Siberian front which strengthened its hold over Eastern Europe on Friday and spread further west.

South Sudan shoot-out kills 37, wounds U.N. policeman

JUBA (Reuters) - A shoot-out among South Sudanese security forces using truck-mounted machineguns killed 37 people and injured a United Nations policeman Wednesday, U.N. and government officials said Friday.

Bosnia passes laws key to EU bid, Muslims agree to census

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia passed laws on Friday seen as crucial to reviving its European Union accession bid, with Serb, Croat and Muslim leaders agreeing to the first census since 1991 and to a single state-level body to coordinate EU aid programmes.

Cost drives NATO bid for smaller Afghan army

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Afghanistan could end up fighting Taliban insurgents with a national army and police force two-thirds the size envisaged, if plans discussed on Friday by NATO defence ministers, trying to balance security needs with budget cuts, gain traction.

Sudan's Bashir says tensions with South could spark war

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Friday tensions with South Sudan over oil transit payments could lead to war between the two countries.

Malaria kills twice as many as thought - study

LONDON (Reuters) - Malaria kills more than 1.2 million people worldwide a year, nearly twice as many as previously thought, according to new research published on Friday that questions years of assumptions about the mosquito-borne disease.

Iran threatens retaliation over oil embargo

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader threatened Friday to retaliate against the West for sanctions, a day after a U.S. newspaper said defense secretary Leon Panetta believed Israel was likely to bomb Iran within months to stop it building a nuclear bomb.

Street battle rages near Egypt's Interior Ministry

CAIRO (Reuters) - Rock-throwing protesters fought riot police through clouds of tear gas near Egypt's Interior Ministry on a second day of clashes triggered by the deaths in Port Said of 74 people - the country's worst soccer disaster.