2009-03-13 20:26:02 -
UPCOMING COVERAGE FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 14
BRITAIN-G20 FINANCE
LONDON _ Finance ministers meet ahead of the heads of state summit in London on April 2. Main news conference at 1530 GMT and delegations briefing subsequently.
BRITAIN-GERMANY
LONDON _ Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds talks ahead of EU summit. Brown news conference at 1100 GMT; joint news conference at 1230 GMT.
OPEC MEETING
VIENNA _ Oil ministers arrive on eve of OPEC meeting.
ITALY-STUDENT SLAIN
PERUGIA, Italy _ Trial of American and Italian suspects in the slaying of British student continues.
ROMANIA-HUNGARY
TARGU MURES, Romania _ Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom arrives in Romania which has a sizable Hungarian minority a day before Hungary's national day.
UPCOMING COVERAGE FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 15
OPEC MEETING
VIENNA _ OPEC oil ministers meet.
EU-PALESTINIANS
BRUSSELS _ EU foreign ministers hold evening talks with counterparts from Egypt, Palestinian Authority, Jordan to discuss Palestinian reconciliation efforts. Starts at 1900 GMT.
ALBANIA-PROTEST
TIRANA, Albania _ Albanian opposition holds anti-government protest a year after blasts at an ammunition disposal factory near capital Tirana killed 26 and injured more than 300 persons.
MOVED FRIDAY
BRITAIN-G20 FINANCE MINISTERS
LONDON _ International finance officials searched for common ground amid deep divisions on how to tackle the global downturn _ even as more bad news arrived in the form of figures showing U.S. trade slumping. By Jane Wardell. AP Photos.
AUSTRIA-FRITZL TRIAL
AMSTETTEN, Austria _ For almost a quarter of a century, Josef Fritzl allegedly held his daughter as a sex slave in a cramped, rat-infested cellar where he fathered seven children with her. Next week, the notorious Austrian with icy blue eyes faces justice in what is being billed locally as the «trial of the century.» The question is what justice will mean in the case of a 73-year-old who has confessed to imprisoning and repeatedly raping his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years in a windowless dungeon he built beneath the family's home. By Veronika Oleksyn.
GERMANY-SCHOOL ATTACK
WINNENDEN, Germany _ German police worked with U.S. authorities to determine if they had fallen victim to an Internet hoax as they investigate a school shooting in southern Germany that killed 15 people. By Vanessa Gera. AP Photos.
NETHERLANDS-TERROR
AMSTERDAM _ Dutch police released all seven people arrested after an anonymous warning of a plot to plant bombs in a popular shopping district, prosecutors and Dutch television reported, easing fears the capital was the target of a major terrorist threat by Moroccan immigrants. By Arthur Max. AP Photos.
NETHERLANDS-GERMANY-MOB ARREST
THE HAGUE, Netherlands _ Dutch police have arrested an Italian man wanted for the 2007 mob killings of six people in the western German city of Duisburg, prosecutors said. By Mike Corder. AP Photos.
ITALY-STUDENT SLAIN
PERUGIA, Italy _ Police officers testifying at the trial of two suspects in the slaying of a British student in Italy said that the Italian suspect carried a knife to the police station, while his American co-defendant looked nervous and repeatedly hit her head with her hands. By Marta Falconi. AP Photos.
NORTHERN IRELAND
BANBRIDGE, Northern Ireland _ Thousands of Protestants and Catholics united with their political and security leaders at the funeral of a policeman _ shot by IRA dissidents in what mourners prayed would mark the end of Northern Ireland's «troubles.» By Shawn Pogatchnik. AP Photos.
EU-PEACEKEEPING
PRAGUE _ The global economic crisis and a chronic shortage of modernized transport helicopters are undermining the European Union's strategic defense and peacekeeping abilities, EU officials warned. By William J. Kole. AP Photos.
RUSSIA-BAIKAL FACTORY
MOSCOW _ For decades, it spewed chemicals and foul effluent into the pristine waters of Lake Baikal in Siberia. Environmentalists pushed for its closure, calling it a shameful blight on the world's largest fresh water lake. Now, 43 years after its construction, the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill is closing for good in a breakthrough for Russia's environmental movement, which many believe began with the long battle over the factory. By Mike Eckel. AP Photos.
BELARUS-PRESSURE ON POLES
MINSK, Belarus _ Once again, ethnic Polish activist Andrzej Poczobut expects to be arrested in Belarus, a former Soviet republic whose authoritarian president sees his country's ethnic Poles as agents of a hostile West. Poczobut belongs to the banned Union of Poles, whose congress this weekend is being seen at home and abroad as a test of President Alexander Lukashenko's stated commitment to improve relations with the EU and U.S. By Yuras Karmanau.
ITALY-VAMPIRE OF VENICE
ROME _ An archaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the 16th-century remains of a woman with a brick stuck between her jaws _ evidence, experts say, that she was believed to be a vampire. By Ariel David. AP Photos.
ITALY-WEDDING AT JULIET'S
ROME _ There may be no better setting for the words «Til Death Do Us Part.» The House of Juliet _ where, legend has it, Romeo wooed the young maiden under her balcony _ will soon be used as a venue for weddings, city officials in Verona said. AP Photos.
RUSSIA-LITVINENKO SUSPECT
MOSCOW _ The prime suspect in the killing of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko may run for mayor of the Russian resort of Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a nationalist party said. By Vladimir Isachenkov.
BAD HEART PATIENTS
LONDON _ European heart patients are taking more medication than ever before to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol, but bad habits such as overeating and smoking are undermining the drugs, a study said. By Maria Cheng.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
OPEC MEETING
VIENNA _ Slash oil output to boost petrodollar income and risk deepening the world's economic woes? Rarely have OPEC oil ministers faced a tougher choice. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna Sunday for a session that could reduce daily production by up to 1/2 a million barrels, keep things steady _ or settle for somewhere in the middle. By George Jahn.
WITH: OIL PRICES
The AP
