Canada: Fire exit
TORONTO — A small fire forced Italy's central bank governor and other finance officials to cut short a meeting of a body tasked with drawing up proposals for the G-20 meeting of world leaders later this month. In preparation for the June 26-27 meeting in Toronto, the Financial Stability Board met to make proposals that leaders could agree on. But near the end of the meeting a small kitchen fire forced FSB Chairman and Italian Central Bank governor Mario Draghi and others to evacuate Toronto's Allstream Centre. Draghi, in a brief statement at a nearby hotel, called it a very substantive meeting on regulatory reform in the areas of capital requirements, derivatives trading and what to do with systemically important institutions.
Mexico: 29 die
MEXICO CITY — At least 29 inmates were killed Monday as rival gangs clashed inside a prison in a cartel-plagued Mexican state, authorities said. Three policemen guarding the prison were wounded. In one attack, 20 inmates were shot to death when a group of prisoners opened fire on members of a rival gang inside the prison in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, state Public Safety Secretary Josefina Garcia told Radio Formula. One of the three wounded police was in serious condition, Garcia said.
Israel: EU rebuke
JERUSALEM — The European Union on Monday called Israel's closure of Gaza "unacceptable" and offered to play a role in opening the borders, as Israel appointed three Israeli experts and two foreign observers to a commission to investigate its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. The EU move added to the intense pressure Israel has faced to lift the blockade since nine pro-Palestinian activists died in clashes after Israeli commandos rappelled aboard one of the aid ships last month. The three-year closure has withheld all but the most basic supplies from Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian residents.
Australia: Capsule
ADELAIDE — Scientists recovered a Japanese space capsule that landed in the Australian Outback after it traveled to an asteroid and hopefully obtained samples with clues into the evolution of the solar system. The Hayabusa explorer returned to Earth overnight Monday after a seven-year, 4-billion-mile journey, burning apart on re-entry in a spectacular fireball just after jettisoning the capsule. It was the first time a spacecraft successfully landed on an asteroid and returned to Earth.
U.N.: Refugees
GENEVA — Entrenched conflicts in Afghanistan, Somalia and other countries prevented a record number of refugees from returning home last year, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday. Only an estimated 251,500 refugees went home in 2009 — the lowest number since 1990, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in its annual report. The world's total number of refugees stood at 15.2 million, according to the report. Of those, around 2.9 million were Afghans, 1.8 million Iraqis and 680,000 Somalis. That total also includes 4.8 million Palestinian refugees managed by a separate U.N. agency.
Venezuela: Bank
CARACAS — Venezuelan officials say President Hugo Chavez's government is taking over management of another private bank after discovering it had serious financial problems. State Banking Minister Humberto Ortega Diaz says that officials are temporarily shutting down Banco Federal. The bank is Venezuela's eighth-largest.
Banking superintendent Edgar Hernandez told a news conference Monday that accounts in the bank have been frozen to keep executives from moving funds to other businesses.
Chavez's government has taken control of a growing list of private banks, accusing some bank executives of mismanagement. The government now controls about one-fourth of the country's banking sector.