World

There's quite a bit of news coming of out of Syria today. The big one is a report from The Washington Post, quoting "U.S. and foreign officials" saying that the Persian Gulf states and the United States have stepped up their efforts to assist and arm the opposition.

There's a tense calm at South Sudan's front line, just 10 miles from the frontier with Sudan, its neighbor to the north. The South Sudan commander, Maj. Gen. Mangar Buong, says his troops remain on alert and on the defensive.

There is not a civilian in sight. They all fled the area, known as Panakuach, after Sudan's recent aerial bombardments and escalating concerns about a full-scale war.

South Sudan's soldiers sing morale-boosting tunes to rally the forces and keep their spirits up. They've dug trenches in the black earth, which is littered with bullet casings and remnants of what they say are bombs dropped by Sudan's air force.

"Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic taunted Srebrenica survivors on Wednesday at the start of his trial for genocide, running his hand across his throat in a gesture of defiance to relatives of the worst massacre in Europe since World War II," Reuters writes from The Hague.

The wire service says Mladic "made eye contact with one of the Muslim women in the audience, running a hand across his throat, in a gesture that led Presiding judge Alphons Orie to hold a brief recess and order an end to 'inappropriate interactions.' "

With "the shockwaves from Greece's failure to form a coalition government" continuing to roil financial markets around the world, there's word from the BBC that Greece has now scheduled a new set of elections for June 17.

And there's also this:

"Greece's president [has spoken] of 'fear that could develop into panic' at the country's banks in the weeks before fresh elections that could precipitate Athens exit from the euro zone," Reuters reports.

Greece will hold new elections next month after leaders failed to form a government this week. The political uncertainty has raised fears that the heavily indebted country will be forced to exit the eurozone.