Saturday, August 4, 2012

Syrian army moves on rebels in Aleppo, Damascus

Syrian army moves on rebels in Aleppo, Damascus

Syrian army moves on rebels in Aleppo, Damascus

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 06:04 PM PDT

A Free Syrian Army fighter holds his RPG during a fight with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in downtown AleppoALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian forces stormed the last rebel stronghold in the capital Damascus in tanks and armored vehicles on Friday and blasted artillery at rebels in Aleppo, where the United Nations said the army was preparing a massive assault. The violence came within hours of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan quitting as international peace envoy for Syria, underlining the impotence of mediation efforts in the 17-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. A senior U.N. ...

Sudan, South Sudan reach oil deal, continue border talks: mediator

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 08:41 PM PDT

South Sudan's ruling SPLM party secretary general Amum talks to the media after meeting with officials from Sudan in Ethiopia's capital Addis AbabaADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan have reached a badly needed oil deal and will discuss restarting oil production soon but still need to resolve key border security issues to end hostilities, a mediator from the African Union said on Saturday. There was no immediate confirmation from the African arch-foes, which came close to war in April when border fighting escalated to the worst violence since South Sudan split off a year ago under a 2005 agreement to end decades of civil war. ...

U.N. to send first food aid to flood-hit North Korea

Posted: 04 Aug 2012 12:56 AM PDT

North Koreans are seen at a flooded village in AnjuSEOUL (Reuters) - The World Food Programme (WFP) will send a first batch of emergency food aid to North Korea, where a series of deluges and a typhoon killed nearly 120 people and left more than 84,000 others homeless last month, the agency has said. In a statement published on its website on Friday, the United Nations aid body said the emergency assistance will provide the flood victims in the destitute country "with an initial ration of 400 grams of maize per day for 14 days." It did not say when the food would arrive in North Korea. ...

Car bomb explodes in Tripoli, first since Gaddafi's fall

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 10:56 PM PDT

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded near the offices of the military police in Tripoli early on Saturday, a senior security source said, the first such attack in the Libyan capital since the start of a revolt that toppled the regime of Muammar Gaddafi last year. The source said the blast slightly wounded a Tunisian national, but it could not say who might have been behind it. A Reuters witness said police had cordoned off the area around the blast's location. Several violent incidents have rocked Libya in recent days but these have been mostly confined to the eastern city of Benghazi. ...

British coalition faces rift over political reform

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 03:58 PM PDT

Prime Minister David Cameron leaves Downing Street in LondonLONDON (Reuters) - The junior party in Britain's coalition government said on Friday the two-year-old alliance was entering "uncharted territory" after reports that Prime Minister David Cameron planned to drop promised parliamentary reforms. Newspapers said Cameron was set to abandon reforms to parliament's unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, that have been championed by his Liberal Democrat partners after he failed to overcome opposition within his own Conservatives. Cameron's office said talks on the Lords were still in progress and that an announcement would be made in due course. ...

Some Turks call foul over Obama-Erdogan bat photo

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 03:20 PM PDT

U.S. President Obama shakes hands with Turkey's PM Erdogan in SeoulISTANBUL (Reuters) - A photograph of U.S. President Barack Obama holding a baseball bat while talking on the phone to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was intended to show their close relationship, a White House spokeswoman said, after the photo caused a stir in Turkey. The two leaders spoke on Monday to discuss the crisis in Syria, after which the photograph of Obama seated at his desk, talking on the phone while holding a bat autographed by black-American baseball great Hank Aaron, was released by the White House. ...

Japanese minister tries out Osprey plane at Pentagon

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 04:55 PM PDT

MV-22 aircraft arrives for test flight with Japanese delegation at the Pentagon landing field in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japan's defense minister flew from the Pentagon grounds Friday in a revolutionary hybrid aircraft at the heart of a controversy that threatens to strain strong defense ties between the United States and its Asian ally. The minister, Satoshi Morimoto, donned a white flight helmet and goggles before taking the jump-seat, between the pilots, on the flat-gray Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey troop transport. ...

India needs strict controls to avoid blackouts: power firm

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 10:14 PM PDT

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India needs a more cohesive energy policy and stringent grid management to avoid a recurrence of the power outages that hit hundreds of millions of people this week, the chief executive of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd said in an interview. Reliance Infrastructure, India's largest private electric utility, provides power to 30 million people in financial capital Mumbai and political capital New Delhi. ...

Six killed in Mexico coal mine explosion

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 04:57 PM PDT

Family members of miners stand outside the premises of a mining company in CoahuilaMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Six miners were killed in a coal mine collapse in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila on Friday, an emergency rescue team source on the site told Reuters. One miner was rescued earlier, according to a separate report from the mine operator. The explosion was triggered when a large amount of methane gas ignited, causing the collapse of 100 tonnes of coal, mine owner Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) said in a statement. Nearly 300 miners evacuated the mine without incident, the company said. ...

China to hold Gu Kailai murder trial on Aug. 9: sources

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 09:02 AM PDT

Combination photo shows British businessman Neil Heywood and Gu Kailai, wife of China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo XilaiBEIJING (Reuters) - China will open the murder trial of Gu Kailai, the wife of ousted Communist Party Politburo member Bo Xilai, on August 9, two sources said on Friday, a case at the center of a scandal that has rocked the government and could bring Gu the death penalty. Both sources requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the case, and provided no other details. China only last week formally announced Gu's indictment on charges of murdering a British man in November. ...

Syrians in Jordan fear hunt from Assad agents

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 08:21 PM PDT

In this Wednesday Aug. 1, 2012 photo, Adnan Hamdan, 50, a Syrian religious affairs ministry official who defected, speaks to the Associated Press at his temporary house in Irbid, Jordan. Hamdan said he received scores of emails, cellphone text messages, and telephone calls warning Sultan, a 42-year-old Syrian anti-regime activist, knew he was being hunted, even in this northern Jordanian city where he had taken refuge. The attack came on a crowded street: Two men grabbed him and dragged him into a waiting car, shouting, "It's him!"

UN General Assembly denounces Syrian crackdown

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 10:07 AM PDT

FILE - This June 3, 2012 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad delivers a speech at the parliament in Damascus, Syria. Arab countries on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012 pushed ahead with a symbolic U.N. General Assembly resolution that tells Assad to resign and turn over power to a transitional government. It also demands that the Syrian army stop its shelling and helicopter attacks and withdraw to its barracks. A vote is set for Friday morning. (AP Photo/SANA, File)The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly denounced Syria's crackdown Friday and demanded the lockdown of its chemical and biological weapons.

North Korea's new leader makes diplomatic debut

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 08:59 PM PDT

In this photo taken Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, talks with Wang Jiarui, second from left, head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, during a meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim met with senior political officials from China in a sign that he may be turning his attention to foreign diplomacy. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Zhang Li) NO SALESKim Jong Un the marshal became Kim Jong Un the statesman as he met with Chinese political dignitaries in meetings that marked his first official foray into foreign affairs since becoming North Korea's leader.

Iran tests upgraded version of short-range missile

Posted: 04 Aug 2012 12:02 AM PDT

Iran claims it has successfully test-fired an upgraded version of a short-range ballistic missile.

Tropical Storm Ernesto churns toward Jamaica

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 09:25 PM PDT

This NOAA satellite image taken Friday, Aug. 03, 2012, at 1:45 a.m. EDT shows Tropical Storm Ernesto just 90 miles east of St. Lucia. This system continues moving west at 22 mph at tropical storm strength with winds up to 50 mph. Tropical storm warnings remain in effect for Barbados, St. Vincent, The Grenadines, Dominica, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. Expect heavy rains and strong winds in these areas. To the north, a strong tropical wave brings widespread showers and thunderstorms to the Bahamas and Cuba, which moves westward into southern Florida. This system kicks up scattered showers and thunderstorms as it slowly moves westward. (AP Photo/Weather Underground)Tropical Storm Ernesto churned over open waters early Saturday on a path toward Jamaica and Mexico after dumping heavy rain on islands in the eastern Caribbean.

Russia mogul under pressure wants to sell assets

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 03:35 PM PDT

A Russian tycoon whose holdings include a leading investigative newspaper critical of the Kremlin said Friday that he wants to sell his Russian assets because of pressure from state security services.

Jamaicans eye solid-gold party on London home turf

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 10:28 AM PDT

Jamaica's Novlene Williams-Mills, front, starts a women's 400-meter heat at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)The Jamaicans of London have got their soul food sizzling, their Red Stripe on ice and their expectations sky high.

8 years later, Athens Olympic venues in decay

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 12:56 PM PDT

The Olympic beach volleyball lies abandoned in southern Athens, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012. The purpose-built stadium has seen minimal use _ mostly for concerts _ since the Athens 2004 Olympics. Eight years after the Athens Games, many of the venues remain abandoned or rarely used, focusing public anger on past governments as the country struggles through a fifth year of recession and a debt crisis that has seen a surge in poverty and unemployment. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)There's still one group that loves the training pool for athletes at the former Olympic village in Athens' northern fringe.

Parents found guilty of murdering daughter in UK

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 08:32 AM PDT

This is an undated Cheshire Police handout photo of murdered teen-ager Shafilea Ahmed. A British court on Friday Aug. 3, 2012 found a mother and father guilty of murdering their teen-age daughter Shafilea Ahmed in a so-called honor killing. The Chester Crown Court found that Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, both originally from Pakistan, suffocated their 17-year-old daughter, Shafilea, in 2003. During the trial, Shafilea's sister Alesha told the jury that her parents pushed Shafilea onto the couch and she heard her mother say "just finish it here" as they forced a plastic bag into the girl's mouth. (AP Photo/Chesire Police via PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVEThe Pakistani parents of a teenage girl have been found guilty of murdering a daughter who rebelled against a forced marriage to her cousin — a conviction that was clinched with the girl's younger sister testifying that she saw her parents suffocate her older sibling.

In Syria, mortars kill 21 in Damascus refugee camp

Posted: 03 Aug 2012 01:42 AM PDT

In this citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012, smoke leaps the air from purported shelling in Damascus, Syria. Syrian opposition activists say regime forces have swept through neighborhoods south of the capital Damascus in a deadly military operation that has inflicted casualties. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS CITIZEN JOURNALIST IMAGEMortars rained down on a crowded marketplace in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, killing 21 people as regime forces and rebels clashed on the southern outskirts of Damascus, activists said Friday.
Posted by Harshad at 1:25 AM

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