CNN: Pakistan's president visits India amid warming ties
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari met with the Indian prime minister in New Delhi on Sunday -- the first visit to India by a Pakistani head of state in seven years.
Both leaders described their brief meeting as satisfactory, with Zardari extending an invitation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singhfor a reciprocal visit.
"I would be very happy to visit Pakistan on a mutually convenient date," Singh said after hosting Zardari at his official residence.
Emerging out of their almost 30-minute meeting on Sunday, Singh and Zardari said their talks covered all bilateral issues between their countries.
New York Times: South Korea Raises Prospect of a North Korean Nuclear Test
North Korea appears to be preparing for its third underground nuclear test even as it presses ahead with assembling a long-range rocket for its planned launching of a satellite this month, a South Korean government spokesman said Sunday.
Unconfirmed South Korean news reports in the past two years have alleged that North Korea was digging new tunnels at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in Kilju, near the northeastern tip of the country, to follow up on two underground tests it conducted there in 2006 and 2009.
On Sunday, the government spokesman, who requested anonymity because he said he could not speak on the record on intelligence matters, said satellite images showed a growing pile of earth near the entrance of one tunnel, and government analysts said they considered it a potential sign of preparations for a test. A large amount of earth is needed to seal a tunnel before detonating a nuclear device inside.
The spokesman was confirming reports carried Sunday by the South Korean national news agency, Yonhap, and other national news outlets. The domestic media reports were identical in their wording and details. South Korean television stations also carried satellite images showing the pile but did not reveal who had provided them.
Reuters: Saudi Arabia puts 50 al Qaeda suspects on trial
Fifty men suspected of links to al Qaeda have gone on trial in Saudi Arabia on charges of killing an American and attacking foreign housing compounds in the capital and in the Eastern Province, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
The report said five of the suspects had appeared at a special court in the capital Riyadh on Saturday, facing charges including the 2003 bombing of the al-Muhaya compound, where expatriates lived, and planning attacks on the U.S. and British embassies in Saudi Arabia.
Of the defendants, 47 are Saudi, two are Syrian and one is Yemeni, SPA said late on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia saw a militant insurgency from 2003 to 2006 in which al Qaeda members staged attacks on residential compounds for foreign workers and Saudi government facilities, killing dozens.
Guardian: 'War on drugs' has failed, say Latin American leaders
A historic meeting of Latin America's leaders, to be attended by Barack Obama, will hear serving heads of state admit that the war on drugs has been a failure and that alternatives to prohibition must now be found.
The Summit of the Americas, to be held in Cartagena, Colombia is being seen by foreign policy experts as a watershed moment in the redrafting of global drugs policy in favour of a more nuanced and liberalised approach.
Otto Pérez Molina, the president of Guatemala, who as former head of his country's military intelligence service experienced the power of drug cartels at close hand, is pushing his fellow Latin American leaders to use the summit to endorse a new regional security plan that would see an end to prohibition. In the Observer, Pérez Molina writes: "The prohibition paradigm that inspires mainstream global drug policy today is based on a false premise: that global drug markets can be eradicated."
Google: Contracts expire for many at AT&T; talks continue
About 40,000 AT&T landline workers are staying on the job this week without a contract, their union said Sunday.
The workers' contracts expired over the weekend, raising the possibility of a strike. But the Communications Workers of America and AT&T Inc. said that they'll keep working on a new deal.
CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson said union representatives met with AT&T on Sunday after talks ended late on Saturday. She doesn't know how long it will take to reach an agreement.
"Everyone wants to get this done soon," Johnson said.
CNN: Pope calls for end to Syria bloodshed in Easter message
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday called for an end to violence in Syria, as well as a renewed peace effort in the Middle East, in his annual Easter Mass message from the Vatican as Christians worldwide marked the holiday.
"May the risen Christ grant hope to the Middle East and enable all the ethnic, cultural and religious groups in that region to work together to advance the common good and respect for human rights," the pope said in his "Urbi et Orbi" ("To the City and to the World") message in St. Peter's Square.
"Particularly in Syria, may there be an end to bloodshed and an immediate commitment to the path of respect, dialogue and reconciliation, as called for by the international community, he said. "May the many refugees from that country who are in need of humanitarian assistance find the acceptance and solidarity capable of relieving their dreadful sufferings."
The Iraqi people, he said, should be encouraged to "spare no effort in pursuing the path of stability and development. In the Holy Land, may Israelis and Palestinians courageously take up anew the peace process."
BBC: Mali's President Toure resigns in deal with coup leaders
President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali has formally resigned as part of a deal with coup leaders to end the crisis gripping the West African state.
International mediator Djibril Bassole, Burkina Faso's foreign minister, confirmed a letter of resignation had been submitted.
The resignation paves the way for the coup leaders to step aside and the parliamentary speaker to take over.
Mali has been grappling with a separatist uprising in the north.
AP: Afghans, US say deal reached on night raids
The Afghan government and the U.S. have reached a deal governing controversial night raids by American forces, both sides said.
A memorandum of understanding on "Afghanization of special operations on Afghan soil" will be signed later Sunday by Kabul's Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak and the commander of U.S. forces, Gen. John Allen, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Details were not immediately released, but the name of the memorandum suggests that it will apply to a range of quick-strike raids in villages, not just nighttime operations.
A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan confirmed that the agreement would be signed Wednesday but declined to go into details.
BBC: Nigerian car bombs kill 'at least 18' in Kaduna
Two car bombs have killed at least 18 people in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, officials say.
Reports said the blasts, which caused extensive damage, happened on a main road, close to restaurants, a hotel and at least one church.
The area has been the scene of a religious conflict in recent years that has claimed the lives of hundreds of people.
There had been warnings of attacks in the region over Easter.
Reuters: Sarkozy dangles "empty chair" threat over Europe
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a Sunday newspaper he is serious about pushing for more trade protectionism in Europe and tighter external border controls, hinting he could take a stand as tough as Charles de Gaulle's 1965 "empty chair" policy.
The conservative leader told the weekly Journal du Dimanche in an interview that he meant business with an election campaign pledge last month to push for a "Buy European Act" and a threat to pull France out of Europe's open-border Schengen zone unless external controls are tightened.
Sarkozy has shifted right, attacking low-cost competition and uncontrolled immigration, in the run-up to the two-round presidential election starting on April 22 as he battles to catch up with Socialist Francois Hollande, who leads opinion polls for a May 6 run-off by around 6 points.
Guardian: Death toll in Haiti truck accident climbs to 26
The number of Haitian merchants who died in a truck accident outside the Caribbean nation's capital climbed to 26, the government said Sunday.
President Michel Martelly's office said in a statement that the passengers died when their truck flipped on National Highway (hash)2 near the western town of Petit Goave. Thirty people were wounded, the office said. The truck was filled with merchants transporting goods to the countryside.
Ronald Louis of Haiti's Civil Protection Office said Saturday that the brakes on the truck failed as it tried to drive up a steep hill, causing it to roll backward. It then veered off the side of the highway.
Authorities initially reported that 20 people were killed and 40 injured in the accident.
CBC: U.S. experts to help Pakistan find avalanche victims
The U.S. sent a team of experts Sunday to help Pakistan search for 135 people buried a day earlier by a massive avalanche that engulfed a military complex in a mountain battleground close to the Indian border.
At least 240 Pakistani troops and civilians worked at thesite of the disaster at the entrance to the Siachen Glacier with the aid of sniffer dogs and heavy machinery, said the army. But they struggled to dig through some 25 metres of snow, boulders and mud that slid down the mountain early Saturday morning.
Pakistani army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said Sunday evening that it was unclear whether any of the people who were buried are still alive. At least 124 soldiers from the 6th Northern Light Infantry Battalion and 11 civilian contractors are missing.
"Miracles have been seen and trapped people were rescued after days...so the nation shall pray for the trapped soldiers," Abbas said in an interview on Geo TV.
CBC: CBS' iconic newsman Mike Wallace dies at 93
CBS News legend Mike Wallace, the "60 Minutes" pit-bull reporter whose probing, brazen style made his name synonymous with the tough interview, died last night. He was 93 and passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years.
"All of us at CBS News and particularly at '60 Minutes' owe so much to Mike. Without him and his iconic style, there probably wouldn't be a '60 Minutes,' said Jeff Fager, chairman CBS News and executive producer of "60 Minutes."
As the journalism world reacted to the iconic newsman's passing, the AP's David Bauder noted the "60 Minutes" journalist's reputation as a pitiless inquisitor was so fearsome that the words "Mike Wallace is here to see you" were the most dreaded words in the English language; capable of reducing an interview subject to a shaking, sweating mess.