(Reuters) – Jim O’Neill, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s asset management division who coined the popular term “BRIC” to refer to four fast-growing emerging markets, will retire later this year, according to an internal memo sent out on Tuesday. O’Neill is an economist by training who joined the firm in 1995 as a partner, said the memo, which was signed by Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein. …
Parliament backs gay marriage in initial vote
LONDON (Reuters) – British lawmakers on Tuesday backed legalising gay marriage in the first of several votes on the issue after a debate which split Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling Conservative party in two. The draft law, which proposes legalising same-sex marriage in 2014, was carried by 400 votes to 175 votes. The legislation is several stages away from becoming law, but has already exposed rifts within Cameron’s party at a time when he is facing growing talk of a possible leadership challenge. (Reporting By Andrew Osborn)
Natural gas suspected in Mexico oil company blast
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A water-heating system may have leaked natural gas into a tunnel beneath the headquarters of Mexico's national oil company for more than seven months before it was accidentally detonated by a maintenance crew's improvised lighting system, officials said Tuesday, adding fresh detail to the narrative of the petroleum giant's worst disaster in a decade. Canada not ready for major offshore spill: watchdog
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s offshore petroleum boards are not equipped to cope with a major spill, the country’s environmental watchdog warned on Tuesday in a report that also said the booming energy sector needed more oversight. Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan said in a report that unless Canada improved its record on environmental regulation, resource customers might be deterred. …
International officials discuss UN force for Mali
BRUSSELS (AP) -- International officials said Tuesday they are discussing the possibility of using a U.N. force to provide long-term security in the troubled African country of Mali so that a political transition can take place. Brazil nightclub fire claims new victim, death toll at 238
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A 20-year-old man died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a January 27 fire at a nightclub in southern Brazil, bringing the death toll from the disaster to 238 and adding to concerns it may rise further. The health department for Rio Grande do Sul state, where the Kiss nightclub in the college town of Santa Maria is located, did not give a precise cause for the death at the Santa Rosa hospital in Porto Alegre, the state’s capital. …
Pro-Gbagbo exile arrested, returned to Ivory Coast
ABIDJAN (Reuters) – An ally of Ivory Coast’s ex-president accused of organizing a series of deadly raids from exile has been arrested in Ghana and handed over to Ivorian authorities, security officials said on Tuesday. Jean-Noel Abehi was the head of Laurent Gbagbo’s elite mobile gendarme squadron and fought for the former president during a brief 2011 conflict triggered by Gbagbo’s refusal to accept the election victory of rival Alassane Ouattara. …
Much ado about Richard III: Is Shakespeare to blame?
What started out as a hopeful archaeological dig in a municipal parking lot has turned into one of the most talked-about stories of the year so far.
Report: Ireland oversaw harsh Catholic laundries
DUBLIN (AP) -- Ireland's government oversaw workhouses run by Catholic nuns that once held thousands of women and teenage girls in unpaid labor, often against their will, a fact-finding report concluded Tuesday, establishing state involvement in the country's infamous Magdalene Laundries for the first time. Iran's president says wishes to visit Gaza
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is due to take part in a summit in Egypt this week, expressed his desire on Monday to visit the neighboring Gaza Strip. Asked in an interview on the Al Mayadeen news channel whether he would visit Gaza while in Cairo next week or before his term as president expires in August, he replied: “My wish is bigger than this. I wish to pray in Jerusalem after complete liberation.” Iran does not recognize Israel. “If they allow it, I would go to Gaza to visit the people,” he said, without saying whose authority he would seek. …
Obama to visit Israel in first visit as president
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama plans to visit Israel in the spring, marking his first visit to the nation since becoming president.
Bulgaria blames Hezbollah for 2012 bombing, refueling terrorist listing debate
The Bulgarian government has blamed Lebanon's militant Shiite Hezbollah organization for a deadly suicide bomb attack on a bus in the town of Burgas last July which left six people dead, five of them Israelis.
Mammoth tusk art mirrors Matisse in new London show
LONDON (Reuters) – Voluptuous female forms crafted from mammoth ivory tens of thousands of years ago sit alongside curvaceous nudes by Henri Matisse at the British Museum in a new exhibition that aims to show how the modern artistic mind was carved. “Ice Age art: arrival of the modern mind” includes some of humanity’s earliest known sculptures, such as a lion-headed man, and beads crafted from antler and bone at a time when giant woolly elephant-like beasts still roamed the Earth. …
Japan protests to China after radar pointed at vessel
TOKYO (Reuters) – A Chinese navy vessel aimed a type of radar normally used to aim weapons at a target at a Japanese navy ship in t he East China Sea, prompting Japan to protest, Japan's defense minister said on Tuesday, an action that could complicate efforts to cool tension in a territorial row between the rivals. "Projecting fire control radar is very unusual," Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters of the incident, which he said occurred on January 30 but took time to confirm. "One mistake, and the situation would become very dangerous. … EU-Canada trade deal delayed by agriculture dispute
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A dispute over how far to open agricultural markets to imports is holding up a free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union, officials familiar with the negotiations said on Tuesday. The row could delay a deal for several weeks, the officials said, threatening European efforts to launch separate trade negotiations with the United States, which is waiting to see how far the EU will open up its markets. “They still have a way to go. Agriculture is the big sticking point,” an industry source told Reuters. …
British MPs aim not to bury Carney, but rather hope he can help save economy
OTTAWA – From Britain’s point of view, Mark Carney is already sending coded messages about how he intends to govern the Bank of England when he becomes the first foreigner to take over the storied institution.
911 operator tells court she took call from scared suspected rioter
VANCOUVER – A 911 operator has told a B.C. provincial court she took a call from a scared young man who said he’d been threatened for taking part in the Stanley Cup riot.
British PM Cameron courts rich allies in EU budget battle
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Ministe r David Cameron hopes to enlist the support of Germany and other rich north European countries in his fight to freeze EU spending at budget talks this week and is prepared to block a deal unless more savings are found. It will be the Cameron's first European summit since he set out his plan last month to claw back powers from Brussels and put the changes to voters in an "in or out" referendum on Britain's membership of the 27-nation bloc. … 
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