MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The arrest of Mexico's best-known trade union leader on fraud charges has thrown down the gauntlet to powerful interests standing between President Enrique Pena Nieto and his plans to shake up Latin America's second-biggest economy. For a generation, even presidents shied away from taking on teachers' union boss Elba Esther Gordillo, making her Mexico's most prominent female politician and a formidable enemy to those who accused her of fostering corruption rather than education. ...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A proposal to lift a U.N. arms embargo on the Somalian government for a year but leave in place restrictions on weapons like surface-to-air missiles has been floated among a deeply split 15-member U.N. Security Council, diplomats said on Wednesday. The Somali government has requested that the 21-year-old arms embargo be lifted so it can strengthen its poorly equipped, ill-disciplined military - more a group of rival militias than a cohesive fighting force loyal to a single president - to battle al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist rebels. A draft resolution to renew a U.N. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trade groups representing greeting card makers, paper manufacturers and newspapers are fighting to prevent the cash-strapped Postal Service from dropping first-class mail delivery on Saturdays. The groups are lobbying Congress to pass legislation introduced in the House of Representatives compelling the Postal Service to continue its six-day mail delivery service. The Postal Service said on February 6 it plans to drop Saturday delivery of first-class mail beginning in August, a move intended to save it $2 billion annually. ...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a message for the White House about the dire warnings they keep issuing about looming spending cuts: “Spare me.” “There’s a lot of posturing — ‘I’m going to lay off my employees today unless you do something. We’re going...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will present one of the most highly anticipated Indian budgets of recent years on Thursday, a blueprint for austerity that forms the centerpiece of India's efforts to stave off a damaging credit ratings downgrade. The 2013/14 budget caps an intensive seven-month campaign by the energetic Chidambaram, who was appointed last August, to turn around the fortunes of Asia's third-largest economy after years of policy drift and global economic turmoil. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American leaders unveiled a statue of Rosa Parks on Wednesday, briefly setting aside political differences to honor the civil rights heroine, who became the first black woman to have a monument inside the U.S. Capitol. Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a segregated Alabama bus for a white passenger in 1955 sparked a boycott that galvanized the movement for equal rights for blacks in Montgomery and nationwide. Black men and women stayed off the buses, walking or arranging other rides to work for more than a year to fight for desegregation. ...

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's security forces fired teargas at thousands of rock-throwing anti-government protesters in the seaside capital Conakry on Wednesday in clashes that wounded more than 50 people, witnesses and other sources said. The violence in the West African state is a result of soaring tensions ahead of a parliamentary election the opposition says is being rigged by the administration of President Alpha Conde. "We don't know how it started, but the security forces charged the crowd and fired teargas," said Ousmane Camara, a Conakry resident at the protest. ...

KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame responded to speculation he might run for office again by telling journalists on Wednesday "I don't need (a third term)", but did not clearly rule out the possibility of extending his time in office. A spate of articles in pro-government newspapers have raised the prospect of him staying on - a move that would anger his critics and require a change to the constitution. "I am not the person who needs a third term," Kagame told a news conference when asked about speculation prompted by the articles. "Just look at me, I don't need it. ...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Italy's president cancelled a dinner with the German opposition's chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck in Berlin on Wednesday after he described the former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo as "clowns". Steinbrueck, a Social Democrat who will take on Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany's next national election in September, has a reputation for gaffes and his remark created the first diplomatic incident of his accident-prone campaign. He said on Tuesday he was "appalled that two clowns have won" Italy's February 24-25 election. ...

A father who lost his son in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School wept openly today as he testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on a proposed assault weapons ban. “Jesse was the love of my life.  He was the only family I...

(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lobbyist Amy Overton is leaving the bank for Wall Street rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Overton, 43, will handle a broad range of issues for Goldman, a spokesman for Goldman said. Overton spent less than two years at Citigroup, and previously worked as counsel to Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat of Delaware, during negotiations for the Dodd-Frank Act. "Amy's long experience with financial services issues will make her a great addition to our team," said Michael Paese, global co-head of government affairs for Goldman Sachs. ...