Reuters World News Highlights at 1500 GMT, March 26
TOP STORIES
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NICOSIA - The chairman of Cyprus's biggest commercial bank offered his resignation and thousands of students protested in the capital as banks stayed shut to stop a run on deposits after the island agreed a painful bailout to avert bankruptcy.
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DOHA - To applause from Arab heads of state, a foe of Bashar al-Assad took Syria's vacant seat at an Arab summit on Tuesday, deepening the Syrian president's diplomatic isolation and diverting attention from opposition rifts.
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SEOUL - North Korea repeated threats to target U.S. military bases on Tuesday as Washington and its allies tightened economic sanctions against the isolated country by targeting Pyongyang's main foreign exchange bank with new measures.
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ROME - Italy's top court on Tuesday ordered a retrial of American Amanda Knox and a former boyfriend for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, re-opening a case that prompted harsh criticism of the Italian justice system.
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JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Taliban suicide bombers killed at least five policemen in Afghanistan's restive east on Tuesday, officials said, in a three-hour attack that coincided with a visit to the country by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
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ATHENS - Greece is restoring credibility and must stay the course of reforms agreed with its lenders to get any further support it may need, Germany's finance minister said in an Greek newspaper interview published on Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON - America's top court takes up the delicate and divisive issue of gay marriage on Tuesday when the nine Supreme Court justices consider the legality of a California ballot initiative that limits marriage to opposite-sex couples.
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THE HAGUE - Bosco Ntaganda, a Congolese warlord known as "the Terminator" who evaded arrest on war crimes charges for seven years, denied guilt when he appeared for the first time at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday.
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BRUSSELS - The European Union suspended most sanctions on Zimbabwe on Monday after the country's voters approved a new constitution limiting presidential powers and paving the way for an election.
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CAIRO - Kidnappers released a Norwegian woman and an Israeli man held in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula following negotiations mediated by Bedouin leaders between authorities and the group that seized the tourists four days ago, security sources said on Tuesday.
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MOSCOW/WASHINGTON - Russian and U.S. defense chiefs signaled on Monday their intention to reconvene long-stalled missile defense talks, the Pentagon said, following a change in U.S. missile defense plans for Europe that has been met cautiously by Moscow.
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GUATEMALA CITY - A powerful earthquake struck Guatemala close to the capital on Monday, though residents of Guatemala City felt little movement from the deep tremor and emergency services said there were no initial reports of damage or injuries.