Monday, August 27, 2012

Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital

Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital

Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:22 AM PDT

A Syrian rebel fires towards a pro-government sniper in the Seif El Dawla district in the center of Aleppo cityALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's army of massacring hundreds of people in a town close to the capital that government forces recaptured from rebels. About 320 bodies, including women and children, were found in houses and basements in the town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, according to activists who said on Sunday most had been killed "execution-style" by troops. Activists uploaded several videos to the Internet showing rows of bloodied bodies wrapped in sheets. ...

Two U.S. troops killed by rogue Afghan soldier

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 11:47 PM PDT

KABUL (Reuters) - A rogue Afghan soldier shot dead two U.S. troops in east Afghanistan on Monday, the NATO-led coalition said, the latest in a series of insider killings that have strained trust between the allies ahead of a 2014 pullout by foreign combat troops. The deaths in Laghman province brought to 12 the number of foreign soldiers killed this month, prompting NATO to increase security against insider attacks, including requiring soldiers to carry loaded weapons at all times on base. They also come a week after U.S. ...

Britain wants to restart Assange talks with Ecuador

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 01:32 PM PDT

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange prepares to speak from the balcony of Ecuador's embassy, where he is taking refuge in LondonLONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Sunday it remained committed to reaching a diplomatic solution to the presence of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador's London embassy, after both countries took steps to defuse a row over his action in taking refuge there. Assange has been living in the embassy's cramped quarters for more than two months since fleeing there to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. ...

Venezuela struggles with refinery blaze after deadly blast

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 07:49 PM PDT

Children watch a fire day after an explosion at Amuay oil refinery in Punto Fijo in Peninsula of ParaguanaPARAGUANA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan firefighters struggled on Sunday to put out a blaze at the country's biggest refinery sparked by an explosion that killed 41 people in one of the global oil industry's deadliest accidents. Officials at the 645,000 barrel-per-day Amuay refinery are trying to stop the fire still raging at two storage tanks from spreading to other nearby fuel storage facilities. That would delay Amuay's restart beyond the current estimate of two days. ...

Japan blocks landing on disputed islands to defuse China tensions

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:54 AM PDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government on Monday refused to let Tokyo metropolitan authorities land on islands at the centre of a territorial dispute with China, a move aimed at defusing tensions that led to biggest anti-Japan protests in years. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has proposed buying the islands from their private Japanese owners and has sought central government permission to send a team of officials to survey the land. The plan has prompted Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to suggest that the central government could instead buy the islands it now leases. ...

Seventeen party-goers "found beheaded" in southern Afghan village

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:00 AM PDT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Fifteen men and two women were found beheaded in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province on Monday, punishment meted out by Taliban insurgents for a mixed-sex party with music and dancing, officials said. The bodies were found in a house near the Musa Qala district, about 75 km (46 miles) north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, said district governor Nimatullah, who only goes by one name. "The victims threw a late-night dance and music party when the Taliban attacked" on Sunday night, Nimatullah told Reuters. ...

Analysis: South Africa mine killings could hurt Zuma ahead of vote

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 11:58 PM PDT

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma addresses striking miners outside a South African mine in RustenburgMARIKANA, South Africa (Reuters) - South African's President Jacob Zuma rose to power as a man of the people but seemed a world away from the masses when he stood in a suit under a parasol to speak to destitute miners about the deadliest police killing since apartheid ended. The deaths of 44 in a labor dispute this month at Lonmin's Marikana mine, including 34 armed miners shot by police, could undermine Zuma's populist appeal and threaten his chances in a December vote where he seeks re-election as the leader of the party that dominates politics. ...

Pakistan Supreme Court gives PM more time in graft case

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 11:36 PM PDT

Pakistan's Prime Minister Ashraf waves after arriving at Supreme Court in IslamabadISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday adjourned a case that could see Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf being formally charged with contempt of court and disqualified. Ashraf appeared in court over his failure to comply with orders to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The case has fuelled tension in a long-running standoff between the government and increasingly assertive judiciary. The court adjourned proceedings until September 18. ...

Analysis: Politics the priority for China as economy slows

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:31 AM PDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's policy chiefs have about two weeks left to decide about giving the economy a proper stimulative prod, or risk parading a new Communist Party leadership to the world just as growth falls below target for the first time in nearly four years. Factory activity is already at a nine-month low, according to the latest manufacturing sector survey from HSBC, signaling that the official August numbers for industrial production and trade published in a fortnight will foreshadow third quarter economic growth falling below the government's 7.5 percent goal. ...

Tsunami warning cancelled for quake off El Salvador

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:09 AM PDT

LONDON (Reuters) - The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled a tsunami alert issued earlier on Monday for the central American coast. The warning for El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico followed a 7.4 magnitude earthquake off the coast of El Salvador. (Editing by John Stonestreet)

Evidence mounts of new massacre in Syria

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 03:42 PM PDT

This citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012, purports to show people killed by shabiha, pro-government militiamen, in a makeshift morgue in Daraya, Syria. According to activists' accounts, government forces retook the Damascus suburb of Daraya from rebel control three days ago and have since gone on a killing spree. Reports of the death toll range widely from more than 300 to as many as 600. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS CITIZEN JOURNALIST IMAGERow upon row of bloodied bodies wrapped in colorful blankets laid out on a mosque floor in a Damascus suburb. Long narrow graves tightly packed with dozens of victims. Nestled among them, two babies were wrapped in a single blood-soaked blanket, a yellow pacifier dangling beside them from a palm frond.

Libya's interior minister resigns after attacks

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 03:05 PM PDT

Libya's interim interior minister resigned on Sunday after members of the newly-elected parliament accused his forces of neglect when attackers bulldozed a Sufi shrine and mosque while police stood by a day earlier.

Despite Isaac's soaking, Keys residents laid back

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 08:16 PM PDT

Shira Edllan Gervasi, of Israel, puts her name on plywood protecting a storefront in Key West, Fla., in anticipation of Tropical Storm Isaac on Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. Isaac's winds are expected to be felt in the Florida Keys by sunrise Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)Tropical Storm Isaac barely stirred Florida Keys residents from their fabled nonchalance Sunday, while the Gulf Coast braced for the possibility that the sprawling storm will strengthen into a dangerous hurricane by the time it makes landfall there.

Powerful typhoon lashes Japan's Okinawa island

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 07:22 PM PDT

High waves pound the shore in Yonabarucho, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, Sunday morning, Aug. 26, 2012. The strongest typhoon to hit Okinawa in several years lashed the island and surrounding areas Sunday, injuring several people and cutting off power to about 30,000 households. (AP Photo/Ryukyu Shimpo, Futoshi Hanashiro) JAPAN OUT, NO SALES, MANDATORY CREDITMore than 75,000 households lacked power on Monday after a powerful typhoon lashed the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, injuring four people but doing less damage than feared before moving off to sea.

Militants from Afghanistan attack Pakistan

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 08:40 AM PDT

FILE -- In this Sunday Aug. 5, 2012 file photo, a Pakistani Taliban militant holds a rocket-propelled grenade at the Taliban stronghold of Shawal, in Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan, Pakistan. Pakistani officials said Saturday that it is investigating whether the son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani militant network, Badruddin Haqqani, was killed in a U.S. drone strike this week. The U.S. has long viewed the Haqqani network as one of the biggest threats to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan as well as the country's long term stability. (AP Photo/ Ishtiaq Mahsud, File)Dozens of militants from Afghanistan attacked an anti-Taliban militia post in northwest Pakistan for the third day Sunday, sparking fighting that killed one soldier and 20 militants, a Pakistani official said.

Hispaniola death toll from Isaac climbs to 10

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:50 PM PDT

A man stands on a post with a stop sign as waves pass the seawall during the passage of Tropical Storm Isaac in Baracoa, Cuba, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. Tropical Storm Isaac pushed into Cuba on Saturday after sweeping across Haiti's southern peninsula. Isaac's center made landfall just before midday near the far-eastern tip of Cuba. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)Haitians began to dig themselves out of the mud on Sunday, one day after Tropical Storm Isaac doused the Caribbean nation and killed eight people here and another two in neighboring Dominican Republic.

Afghan officials: Insurgents behead 17 civilians

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:15 AM PDT

Afghan officials say Taliban insurgents have beheaded 17 Afghan civilians for taking part in a music event in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan.

Family of slain US activist awaits verdict

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 11:28 PM PDT

Cindy and Craig Corrie, the parents of Rachel Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, sit during an interview with the Associated Press in Jerusalem, Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012. Almost a decade after their daughter was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer as she tried to block its path in a Gaza Strip war zone, Rachel Corrie's parents are bracing for the judge's ruling in their high-profile civil lawsuit against the military. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)Almost a decade after their daughter was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer as she tried to block its path in a Gaza Strip conflict zone, Rachel Corrie's parents are preparing for a judge's ruling in their high-profile civil lawsuit against the military.

Survivors: strong gas odor before Venezuela blast

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:58 PM PDT

Members of a family walk on a street as flames rise after an explosion at the Amuay refinery near Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012. Venezuelans who live next to the country's biggest oil refinery said they smelled a strong odor of sulfur hours before a gas leak ignited in an explosion on Saturday that killed at least 39 people and injured more than 80. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)After nightfall on Friday, as red lights began glowing atop the massive Amuay refinery in western Venezuela, the odor of sulfur made its way through the surrounding neighborhood of working-class homes and small shops.

German minister rejects more time for Greece

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 08:38 AM PDT

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler, left, arrive for the weekly cabinet meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)Germany's economy minister has rejected calls for Greece to get more time to implement economic reforms, saying in an interview Sunday that Athens needs to respect the bailout deal reached with its international creditors.
Posted by Harshad at 1:34 AM

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