By Catherine Hornby ROME (Reuters) - Italy's top court said on Tuesday it had ordered a retrial of American Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher because their acquittals contained "shortcomings, contradictions and inconsistencies." Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito were initially found guilty of killing the 21-year-old Leeds University student in 2007 during what was described as a drug-fuelled sexual assault, but both were cleared on appeal in 2011. ...

By Paulo Prada RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - When more than 200,000 protesters took to the streets across Brazil on Monday night, they demanded a dizzying array of improvements - from halting the fast rise of prices to cleaning up government corruption. If one message stood out, it was that Brazilians are no longer willing to accept the rosy outlook that politicians in Latin America's biggest country have been painting for years. Until recently, Brazil was one of the world's most envied economies. ...

By David Ljunggren (Reuters) - Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum resigned on Tuesday, a day after he was charged with fraud and corruption in the latest major Canadian municipal scandal. "I am going to put my energies into my defense and into my family," said Applebaum, who had promised to clean up Canada's second-largest city when he was named to the post in November. Declaring his innocence, he added in a statement to reporters: "This is why I am resigning as mayor of Montreal - it is the responsible thing to do. ...

By Andrew Osborn and Maria Golovnina ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - Russia's Vladimir Putin derailed Barack Obama's efforts to win backing for the downfall of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad at a G8 summit on Tuesday, warning the West that arms supplied to the rebels could be used for attacks on European soil. After two days of intense talks that fell far short of what Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron had been hoping for, Putin fumed against Western moves to supply weapons to rebels while defending his own supplies of arms for Assad. ...