Here is a roundup of world news from international and Indian newspapers, news wires and websites on Friday, April 29, 2011.
Royal Wedding: World’s eyes on Britain
Thousands of well wishers have lined the mile-and-a-half route to Westminster Abbey to celebrate the marriage of Prince William, the second in line to the throne, and Catherine Middleton on Friday. Foreign dignitaries have flown in from around the world and London has been inundated with tourists who have converged at the scene to await the arrival of the first of 1,900 guests at the abbey from 8:15am. William and his brother Prince Harry, 26, who is his best man, are expected to arrive at 10.15am. (Source: The Guardian) [caption id=“attachment_3043” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Catherine Middleton (right) arrives with her mother Carole and sister Pippa at The Goring Hotel after visiting Westminster Abbey on Thursday. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images “]
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Top divorce lawyer asks William to sign pre-nuptial agreement
One of Britain’s most successful divorce lawyers, Ayesha Vardag, has advised Prince William to sign a pre-nuptial agreement to limit the potential financial payout in the event of a divorce. “There is merit to him in having a prenup,’’ Vardag told TOI. But a British royal family spokesman said there would be no such agreement. Vardag has the opposite opinion for Kate. “I would advise her against a prenup primarily on strictly monetary grounds as the courts are traditionally generous to claimant wives,’’ she said. (Source: The Times Of India)
15 dead in Moroccan tourist cafe terrorist attack
A suspected suicide attack blew apart a well-known tourist cafe in the Moroccan city of Marrakech on Thursday killing at least 15 people, including 11 tourists, and injuring at least 20 more. There were unconfirmed reports that one of the dead was a British tourist. (Source: The Guardian)
Syria: EU to respond as death toll rises
European governments will meet on Friday to discuss imposing sanctions on Syria, responding to the repression by the Assad regime by possibly imposing travel bans and freezing the bank accounts of the president and his relatives, and of key government figures. (Source: The Guardian)
Deadliest tornadoes since 1974 rip apart towns in six US states
After enduring a terrifying bombardment of a dozen storms that killed hundreds across the South
and spawned tornadoes that razed neighborhoods and even entire towns, people from Texas to Virginia to Georgia searched through rubble for survivors on and tried to reclaim their own lives. At least 291 people across six states died in the storms, with more than half — 204 people — in Alabama. This college town, the home of the University of Alabama, has in some places been shorn to the slab, and accounts for at least 36 of those deaths. (Source: The New York Times)
Wedding of Prince William and Catherine MIddleton on Dipity .
China ‘backsliding on human rights’ China has experienced a “serious backsliding” in human rights, according to the US official handling bilateral talks on the issue on a visit to Beijing. Assistant secretary of state Michael Posner said the Obama administration was deeply concerned about the deterioration, as he concluded two days of discussions in the Chinese capital. Dozens of dissidents, activists and lawyers have been detained, arrested or have vanished in the last two months. Both the US and China had made unusually strong comments on the issue in the runup to the talks. (Source: The Guardian) Superman threatens to renounce US citizenship After years of declaring he stood for “truth, justice and the American way,” Superman has provoked the ire of rightwingers by threatening to renouce his US citizenship. In the latest issue of Action Comics, which went on sale on Wednesday, the Man of Steel decides to take the step after he intervenes in a protest against the Iranian government. After the Islamic regime brands his non-violent protest as an act of war taken on behalf of the US president, the DC comic hero says he will renounce his citizenship before the United Nations. “I’m tired of having my actions construed as instruments of US policy,” he says. (Source: The Guardian) Petraeus to lead CIA, Panetta to head Pentagon US President Barack Obama has nominated Gen David Petraeus, the US head of international forces in Afghanistan, as the new CIA director and has named the agency’s chief as head of the Pentagon. CIA director Leon Panetta should take over as the next defence secretary when Robert Gates retires in late June. (Source: www.bbc.co.uk)
In Shift, Egypt Warms to Iran and Hamas, Israel’s FoesEgypt is charting a new course in its foreign policy that has already begun shaking up the established order in the Middle East, planning to open the blockaded border with Gaza and normalizing relations with two of Israel and the West’s Islamist foes, Hamas and Iran. (Source: The New York Times)