World | WPN World People News

Opening of Rio+20: (L-R) Secretary-General of Rio+20, Sha Zukang, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Management, Muhammad Shaaban.

Ending weeks of political limbo, Antonis Samaras, the leader of Greece's New Democracy party was sworn in Wednesday as prime minister after agreeing to form a coalition government with the Socialists and a smaller left-wing party, the Democratic Left.

Malian refugees in Mbera camp.

BAGHDAD In another bloody attack in Iraq, a man wearing an explosives belt detonated it amid a group of Shiite mourners at a funeral in Diyala Province on Monday, killing at least 15 people.

Brett McGurk, U.S. President Barack Obama's pick to be the next ambassador to Iraq, withdrew his nomination on Monday amid opposition from Senate Republicans over his extra-marital affair while working at the US Embassy in Baghdad in 2008.

High-level talks in Russia between Iran and the six world powers have been suspended, after both sides failed to bridge differences over the future of Tehran's nuclear programme.

The United States is planning to significantly increase its military presence in Kuwait with 13,500 troops, according to a congressional report.

In a startling finding about the battle to preserve natural resources, a study says that at least two environmental activists were killed every week in 2011.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians have packed Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest the ruling military's bid to grab new powers, while ex-president Hosni Mubarak was moved to a military hospital from prison after reportedly suffering a stroke.

Head of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria and Chief Military Observer Major-General Robert Mood (left) and peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous brief press.