Friday, May 25, 2012

Exclusive: China leadership rules Bo case isolated, limits purge: sources

Exclusive: China leadership rules Bo case isolated, limits purge: sources

Exclusive: China leadership rules Bo case isolated, limits purge: sources

Posted: 24 May 2012 11:07 PM PDT

To match insight CHINA-BO/WANG LIJUNBEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao has demanded senior Communist Party officials stifle tensions over the ousting of ambitious politician Bo Xilai and show unity as they prepare for a change of leadership, sources briefed on recent meetings said. Hu urged the party to close ranks at a meeting of about 200 officials early this month at a Beijing hotel, declaring the downfall of Bo - China's biggest political scandal in two decades - to be an "isolated case", the three sources said. ...

Scots' push for Britain breakup begins in earnest

Posted: 24 May 2012 04:19 PM PDT

The Union flag and Saltire are seen flying side by side at Bankfoot in Perthshire ,ScotlandEDINBURGH (Reuters) - Supporters of independence for Scotland will launch on Friday what they say is the biggest grassroots campaign in Scottish history, a move that could result in the demise of a 305-year-old union with England and the breakup of Britain. Seeking to tap into a cocktail of historical rivalry, opposing political tastes, and a perception that the British parliament in London does not nurture Scotland's national interests, the "Yes Scotland" campaign says it wants to win a referendum on independence in 2014 and for the country to become fully independent by 2016. ...

Egypt to pick Islamist or military man as president

Posted: 25 May 2012 12:36 AM PDT

A woman shows her ink-stained finger after casting her vote at a polling station in CairoCAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood said on Friday its candidate in Egypt's first free presidential vote had won through to a run-off next month against ex-air force chief Ahmed Shafiq, who was deposed leader Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister. This week's first-round vote has polarized Egyptians between those determined to avoid handing the presidency back to a man from Mubarak's era and those fearing an Islamist monopoly of ruling institutions. The run-off is planned for June 16 and 17. ...

Activist Chen urges China to prosecute "lawless officials"

Posted: 24 May 2012 07:28 PM PDT

Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident and legal advocate who recently sought asylum in the United States, gives an interview in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng urged authorities in Beijing on Thursday to prosecute "lawless" officials who harassed and abused the self-taught lawyer, his family and supporters, saying such prosecutions could help China establish the rule of law. In one of his first interviews since arriving in the United States last Saturday, Chen told Reuters the rough treatment of his family and supporters who helped him escape house arrest last month was "entirely against Chinese law". ...

Iran, big powers agree to hold more nuclear talks in June

Posted: 24 May 2012 02:14 PM PDT

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton addresses a news conference after a meeting in BaghdadBAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran and world powers agreed to meet again in Moscow next month for more talks to try to end the long-running dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme, but there was scant progress to resolve the main sticking points between the two sides. At the heart of the dispute is Iran's insistence that it has the right to enrich uranium and that economic sanctions should be lifted before it stops activities that could lead to its achieving the capability to make nuclear weapons. Western powers insist Tehran must first shut down enrichment activities before sanctions can be eased. ...

France's Hollande makes unannounced Afghanistan trip

Posted: 24 May 2012 10:58 PM PDT

France's President Hollande waves after talks at the Elysee Palace in ParisPARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan on Friday to visit some of the French troops he wants to pull out later this year and meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whom he saw briefly last week in Chicago. Hollande, making a whirl of foreign trips since his May 15 inauguration, is accelerating the withdrawal of the roughly 3,400 French troops still stationed in Afghanistan to the end of this year, two years ahead of the NATO timetable. His office said he would pledge to keep to a long-term cooperation treaty signed with Kabul earlier this ...

Lesotho heads for tense, open election

Posted: 25 May 2012 12:04 AM PDT

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Voters in the highland African kingdom of Lesotho go to the polls on Saturday in a wide-open election that analysts say could end up without a clear result, as happened in 1998 when South Africa had to send in troops to quell major civil unrest. Campaigning has been peaceful but a lack of opinion polls, and Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili's decision in February to quit the ruling party and go it alone under the banner of the new Democratic Congress (DC) party, have kept the landlocked nation's two million people on tenterhooks. ...

Myanmar protests an opportunity to show more reform

Posted: 24 May 2012 10:52 PM PDT

People take a part in a protest in central YangonYANGON (Reuters) - Five days of street protests over chronic power shortages present Myanmar's reformist government with a headache and an opportunity. Police forcibly dispersed protesters in the central Myanmar town of Pyi on Thursday, a heavy-handed response reminiscent of the previous military junta that could fuel grievances among an impoverished and long-neglected people. ...

New Zealand's Christchurch shaken by 5.2 quake

Posted: 24 May 2012 08:07 PM PDT

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's second largest city Christchurch was shaken by a magnitude 5.2 earthquake on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The government seismology agency said the quake was centered 10 kilometers east of the city at a depth of 11 kilometers. The city was devastated by a force 6.3 quake in February last year, killing nearly 200 people, and destroying the central business district and making large areas of surrounding suburbs uninhabitable. ...

Both sides in Syria abuse human rights: U.N. report

Posted: 24 May 2012 05:34 PM PDT

Anti-government protesters wave opposition flags during the funeral of Sukaria, whom protesters said was killed by forces loyal to Assad, in DamascusGENEVA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - A U.N. investigation on Thursday said both sides in the Syrian conflict had committed serious human rights abuses, with government forces executing entire families in their homes and rebels torturing and killing soldiers and government supporters. The United Nations report into the 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad said government forces routinely drew up lists of wanted people and their families before blockading then attacking a village or neighborhood. ...

Backlash against African migrants in Israel

Posted: 25 May 2012 12:12 AM PDT

An African migrant drives his car with a shattered window after protesters saw him on their way back from a rally against the flow of African migrants into Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Hundreds of people gathered in south Tel Aviv Wednesday to protest against the government's handling of the flow of African migrants into Israel. Some of the demonstrators shattered a windshield of a vehicle in which three African migrants were travelling. Police arrested two people suspected of attacking a foreign worker during the protest. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)Recent rapes blamed on African migrants have ignited a political and emotional backlash against their ballooning numbers, with Israelis and their leaders stridently — and in an alarming new development, violently — calling for their expulsion.

Jail for 2 blamed for New Zealand cargo ship spill

Posted: 24 May 2012 11:51 PM PDT

The captain and the navigating officer of a ship that ran aground on a New Zealand reef have each been sentenced to seven months in jail.

Brotherhood claims lead as Egypt vote count begins

Posted: 24 May 2012 10:21 PM PDT

Egyptian election workers count the ballots following the end of the two day presidential election in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, May 24, 2012. As vote-counting began, exit polls by several Arab television stations suggested the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi was ahead of the pack of 13 candidates. The reliability of the various exit surveys was not known, and a few hours after the end of two days of voting, only a tiny percentage of the ballots had been counted. (AP Photo/Fredrik Persson)The Muslim Brotherhood has quickly staked a claim for its candidate to advance to a runoff vote, saying its exit polls showed him leading in Egypt's landmark presidential election to succeed ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

Investors plan soccer stadium for Haiti shantytown

Posted: 24 May 2012 11:14 PM PDT

In this May 17, 2012 photo, youths play with soccer balls in a field that is part of the L'Athletique D'Haiti sports program at the northeastern edge of Cite Soleil, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A local sports hero, a New York real estate developer and a well-known architect are teaming up to build a soccer stadium in Cite Soleil, hoping to revive the seaside shantytown. The organizers also hope the stadium, scheduled to break ground within six months and due to be built by the end of 2013, will bring an initial 500 jobs and inject commerce into the shanty city, where politicians to pay residents to fight their battles as proxy forces. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)A local sports hero, a New York real estate developer and a well-known architect are teaming up to build a soccer stadium in Haiti's notorious Cite Soleil, hoping to revive the seaside shantytown known throughout the hemisphere for its extreme poverty and gang battles.

Days after deaths, another crowd attempts Everest

Posted: 24 May 2012 09:36 PM PDT

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 6, 2003 file photo, Mount Everest, at 8,850-meter (29,035-foot), the world's tallest mountain situated in the Nepal-Tibet border as seen from an airplane. Days after four people died amid a "traffic jam" of climbers scrambling to conquer Mount Everest, Nepal officials said a similar rush up the world's tallest peak will begin soon, and there's little they can do to control it. (AP Photo/Binod Joshi, File)A wave of climbers has headed for the summit of Mount Everest, and several people have already made it in what is expected to another busy weekend on the top of the world.

Hurricane warning issued for Mexico ahead of Bud

Posted: 25 May 2012 12:04 AM PDT

This image provided by NASA taken at 1:15 a.m. EDT Friday May 25, 2012 shows Hurricane Bud. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Bud has strengthened off the southwestern coast of Mexico. The Miami-based agency said early Friday the storm was packing sustained winds of 115 mph making it a Category 3 storm and was centered about 170 miles (274 kilometers) southwest of Manzanillo and moving north-northeast at 10 mph (17 kph). (AP Photo/NASA)Hurricane Bud strengthened into a major storm and was headed early Friday toward an area of beach resorts and small mountain villages on the Pacific coast stretching south from Puerto Vallarta.

Lady Gaga won't change show for protests: manager

Posted: 24 May 2012 11:15 PM PDT

Muslim women hold posters during a protest against Lady Gaga's concert that is scheduled for June 3, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, May 24, 2012. Lady Gaga might have to cancel her sold-out show in Indonesia because police worry her sexy clothes and dance moves undermine Islamic values and will corrupt the country's youth. The writings on the posters read "Reject cultural invasion" and "Infidel." (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)Lady Gaga's manager says the pop diva has no plans to tone down her act, even if that prevents her from performing in some countries on her Asian tour.

Police blockade Papua New Guinea's Parliament

Posted: 24 May 2012 08:35 PM PDT

Police in Papua New Guinea blockaded Parliament on Friday, a day after Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's government leveled sedition charges against the country's chief justice.

Nuclear talks with Iran set to resume next month

Posted: 24 May 2012 01:47 PM PDT

World powers negotiators arrive at the Baghdad International Airport in Iraq, Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Negotiators from the U.S. and five other world powers sat down Wednesday with a team of Iranian diplomats to try to hammer out specific goals in the years-long impasse over Tehran's nuclear program.(AP Photo/Mohammed Ameen, Pool)Iran and six world powers wrapped up talks Thursday still far apart over how to oversee Tehran's atomic program, but with resolve to keep dialogue going as an alternative to possible military action.

In Egypt vote, families debate on generation lines

Posted: 24 May 2012 12:17 PM PDT

Egyptian women line up outside a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, May 24, 2012. In a wide-open race that will define the nation's future political course, Egyptians voted Thursday on the second day of a landmark presidential election that will produce a successor to longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian flag is painted at background. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)Arwa el-Hussein, a 20-year-old pharmacy student, has been quarreling with her father for weeks, trying to get him not to back Hosni Mubarak's former prime minister for president.
Posted by Harshad at 1:12 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)