| Nine dead in suicide bomb near Damascus mosque Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed nine people including security officers at a Damascus mosque on Friday, Syria's interior ministry said, in another blow to a fraying U.N.-brokered truce between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels fighting for his downfall. The explosion happened as worshippers were leaving the Zain al-Abideen mosque, which was under heavy security due to its reputation as a launchpad for anti-Assad demonstrations after Friday prayers. ...
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| Bombs wound 27 in Ukrainian city Posted:  DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Four bombs exploded in a city in eastern Ukraine on Friday, wounding 27 people, including nine children, in what authorities described as an "act of terrorism". President Viktor Yanukovich said the blasts in Dnipropetrovsk, six weeks before Ukraine plays host to the European soccer championship, represented "a challenge ... to the whole country." Bomb attacks are a rare occurrence in the former Soviet republic and the blasts one after the other traumatized people in the city, one of Ukraine's main industrial centers with a population of around 1.3 million. ...
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| Blind China activist makes mystery "escape" Posted:  BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, one of the China's most prominent human rights advocates, has escaped from home imprisonment, activists said on Friday, but uncertainty over his whereabouts and fears about his health have worried supporters. Chen, a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against forced abortions, had been restricted to his village home in Linyi in eastern Shandong province since September 2010 when he was released from jail. ...
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| Malaysian police fire tear gas, clash with protesters Posted:  KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian police fired tear gas and water cannon at thousands of protesters who converged on Kuala Lumpur's center to demand electoral reforms, raising the risk of a backlash against the government in national elections expected within months. Protesters also battled with police at a train station nearby, throwing bottles at officers who responded by firing tear gas rounds. ...
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| EU's Ashton in Myanmar as stalemate sours reform push Posted:  YANGON (Reuters) - EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton was in Myanmar on Saturday to open a "new chapter" of relations following an easing of sanctions that could prompt a surge of investor interest in the long-isolated state. Her visit is the most high-profile by the European Union since the military's brutal five-decade rule of Myanmar came to an end last year, ushering in a quasi-civilian government with a reform agenda that has stunned the world and convinced the bloc to suspend most of its punitive measures. ...
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| Suspected Syria-bound arms found in ship off Lebanon Posted: BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese authorities have found weapons on board a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean which may have been trying to supply Syrian rebels, security sources said on Saturday. They said the ship, the Lutfallah II, was on its way to Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli when it was intercepted and taken to Selaata port, north of Beirut, for inspection. An overnight search uncovered weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in three freight containers, the sources said. ... |
| Russia warns EU Iran oil embargo will be costly Posted:  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia pressed its case against new sanctions over Iran's nuclear program on Friday, saying an European Union ban on purchasing Iranian oil would end up hurting the bloc's member countries. "The European Union is rejecting purchases of Iranian oil, even though very many EU countries depend on this oil," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview on state-run Rossiya 24 television. "One can say, of course, that the deficit will be covered, but (some) refineries are geared specifically to Iranian oil ... ...
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| Bissau president and ex-premier freed by soldiers Posted:  BISSAU (Reuters) - Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau released two leading politicians they had arrested in an April 12 coup and said on Friday they would accept the planned deployment to the country of over 600 soldiers from West African regional bloc ECOWAS. Carlos Gomes Junior, the ex-premier and presidential election front-runner, and interim President Raimundo Pereira were freed on Friday afternoon after a visit by ECOWAS military chiefs and later flew to Abidjan, Ivory Coast. ...
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| Strauss-Kahn suspects "political enemies" in sex scandal: paper Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - The Guardian newspaper said on its website on Friday that former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn believes his French presidential bid was scuppered last year by "political enemies" who made sure his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public. It is the first time Strauss-Kahn has spoken publicly about the events surrounding a sexual encounter with a maid in a Sofitel hotel in New York last May, which put an end to his political ambitions. ...
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| Austerity topples Romanian government, Czech survives Posted:  BUCHAREST/PRAGUE (Reuters) - Romania's left-leaning opposition will try to form a new government after torpedoing the centre-right cabinet in a confidence vote on Friday, the latest collapse of an austerity-minded ruling coalition in Europe. Like other governments in the European Union, ousted Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu's two-month-old cabinet has faced a wave of public anger against plans for spending cuts and tax hikes. Violent protests toppled his predecessor, Emil Boc. "Today justice was done," said Victor Ponta, head of the left-leaning opposition Social Liberal Union (USL). ...
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| Group: Blind Chinese activist under US protection Posted:  A blind legal activist who fled house arrest in his rural China village is under the protection of U.S. officials and high-level talks are taking place between the countries about his fate, an overseas activist group said Saturday.
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| Tear gas used as 25,000 rally for Malaysia reforms Posted:  Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon.
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| Gunman attacks Afghan governor's office in south Posted: A gunman has attacked the provincial governor's office in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. |
| Muslims revive old pilgrimage route via Jerusalem Posted:  After decades of shying away from an ancient pilgrimage route, Muslims are visiting Jerusalem to pray at Islam's third-holiest site, the revered Al-Aqsa mosque.
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| Suicide bombing in Syrian capital kills 10 Posted:  Two weeks into a cease-fire agreement, there still was no peace in Syria: Security agents in Damascus collected the remains of 10 people killed in a suicide bombing. Activists reported troops firing on protesters. Video showed a crowd carrying a slain boy to U.N. observers as proof of regime violence.
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| US raises hope of sale of new fighters to Taiwan Posted: The administration of President Barack Obama is raising the possibility that it could sell new jet fighter aircraft to Taiwan to help redress the island's air power deficit with China. |
| Oman road crash kills 8 family members Posted: Police in Oman say eight members of a family have been burned to death after their car struck a truck parked on the roadside. |
| Tymoshenko's health failing in Ukraine prison Posted:  Yulia Tymoshenko, the braided darling of Ukraine's Orange Revolution who went on to be prime minister, is wasting away in prison — weakened from a hunger strike, bruised from prison beatings and afraid she will be force-fed by her political foes, her family said Friday.
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| Dutch ban takes aim at foreigners buying pot Posted:  This country of canals and tulips is also famous for "coffee shops" where joints and cappuccinos share the menu. Now, the Netherlands' famed tolerance for drugs could be going up in smoke.
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| 27 injured in 4 blasts in eastern Ukraine city Posted:  A series of blasts rocked an eastern Ukrainian city on Friday, injuring 27 people, including nine teenagers, in what authorities say they believe was a terrorist attack.
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