Monday, October 29, 2012

Syria air force bombs cities, truce "practically over"

Syria air force bombs cities, truce "practically over"

Syria air force bombs cities, truce "practically over"

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:34 AM PDT

Residents carry the coffins of men, whom activists say was killed by shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, during their funeral in YabroudAMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian jets bombarded Sunni Muslim regions in Damascus and around the country on Sunday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad kept up air strikes against rebels despite a U.N.-brokered truce that now appears to be in tatters. The Local Coordination Committees activists' organization said air raids killed 14 civilians, including women and children, in the town of Bara in the northern province of Idlib, where fighting has continued between Assad's forces and rebels who have seized large parts of the rugged region. "The ceasefire is practically over. ...

Insight: China grassroots democracy challenge awaits new leaders

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 05:59 PM PDT

File photo of China's Vice President Xi Jinping during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, in BeijingXIAOSHAN/WUKAN, China (Reuters) - Hua Youjuan is an unlikely Chinese official. Free-spirited but driven, she left her village at age 17, got a degree in marketing, and opened a string of businesses in nearby cities in eastern China before settling in the coastal boomtown of Ningbo, 160 km (100 miles) from home. ...

Japan PM signals election can wait, defies opposition

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:54 AM PDT

Japan's PM Noda delivers a speech at the opening reception for the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in TokyoTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda made clear on Monday he was in no rush to go to the polls, speaking of the risk of a "political vacuum" in a speech likely to anger an opposition that has urged him to keep a promise to call an election soon. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) swept to power in 2009 and holds a slim majority in the powerful lower house of parliament, but the opposition's domination of the upper house has it allowed it to block crucial budget deficit funding legislation. ...

Iran has pictures of restricted Israeli areas: Iran MP

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:30 AM PDT

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran holds pictures of Israeli bases and other restricted areas obtained from a drone launched into Israeli airspace earlier this month, an Iranian lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday. Earlier this month, Israel shot down a drone after it flew 25 miles into the Jewish state. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the aircraft, saying its parts had been manufactured in Iran and assembled in Lebanon. ...

Ukraine president's party on course for election win

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 01:29 AM PDT

A member of a local electoral commission counts ballots at a polling station after voting day in KievKIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich's party was on Monday on course to secure a parliamentary majority after an election, but will face an opposition boosted by resurgent nationalists and a liberal party led by boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko. Victory for the ruling Party of the Regions in Sunday's vote will cement the leadership of Yanukovich, who faces re-election in 2015 and whose rule has been marked by an accumulation of presidential powers and antagonism with the West over the imprisonment of his rival, opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. ...

Lithuania PM candidate targets 2015 euro adoption

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:58 AM PDT

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Opposition parties planning to form Lithuania's next government back adopting the euro in 2015, the leading candidate for prime minister said on Monday, setting a less ambitious pace than the man he hopes to replace. Algirdas Butkevicius spoke after a second-round election on Sunday left his Social Democratic Party, the Labour Party and the party of an impeached former president on a combined 78 seats in the 141-seat parliament. "I think we will have the euro in 2015 ... I am optimistic," Algirdas Butkevicius told Reuters in an interview. ...

U.N. chief predicts joint Korean team at university event

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 01:05 AM PDT

U.N. Secretary General Ban opens the high-level meeting on countering nuclear terrorism in New YorkSEOUL (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed confidence that North and South Korea can field a joint team for the 2015 World University Games, local media reported on Monday. The games are to be held the southwestern South Korean city Gwangju, and organizers have signed a cooperation agreement with the U.N. to help the countries form a unified team. "We are exploring the possibility of the first-ever united Korean team to compete jointly at the event," Ban told a forum in Seoul promoting sports diplomacy. ...

Cyprus police say foil murder bid on island's top prosecutor

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:18 AM PDT

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Police in Cyprus said they believed they foiled an assassination attempt against the island's chief prosecutor, the attorney-general, after the arrest of three men in the capital Nicosia. Acting on a tip-off, authorities on the east Mediterranean island discovered an anti-tank missile, explosives and detonators in a basement on Sunday evening. "It appears the target was the attorney-general," a police spokeswoman said, declining to give further details. ...

Indian state's industrial dream mired in delays, protests

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:24 AM PDT

Employees work at a plant of Indian Metal and Ferro Alloys Limited (IMFA) at Choudwar in CuttackANGUL, India (Reuters) - A few hundred meters from the high walls and barbed wire guarding billionaire Naveen Jindal's upcoming steel plant, a dozen men have gathered at a tea stall. Their plan for this and every day: disrupt any attempt by Jindal's company to lay a water pipeline. The men, from villages near Angul in India's Odisha state, have twice scuttled efforts to lay the pipeline in protest against Jindal Steel & Power's unwillingness to increase compensation and offer permanent jobs for taking over their land. "The company doesn't come clean on exact terms. ...

Philippines' Arroyo enters no plea in plunder case, seeks bail

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 09:25 PM PDT

Former Philippine President Arroyo makes her way towards the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court in Quezon CityMANILA (Reuters) - A Philippine court entered a not guilty plea for former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on a plunder charge on Monday, a case that will be a litmus test of the government's ability to tackle entrenched corruption in the poor Southeast Asian nation. Arroyo, 65, who ruled the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, sat silently beside her family and lawyer during the arraignment hearing while charges that she had misused state lottery funds from 2008 to 2010 were read to the court. She could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if she is sent to trial and found guilty. ...

Israel's Barak hopes to extend political career

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 11:48 PM PDT

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin, right, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left, speak to journalists during a tour of of a missile defense battery near the city of Ashkelon, southern Israel, Wednesday, 24 2012. Gaza militants pummeled southern Israel with dozens of rockets and mortars on Wednesday, and Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinians in a sharp escalation of violence following a landmark visit to the coastal territory by the leader of Qatar.(AP Photo/ Tsafrir Abayov)He's been Israel's prime minister, military chief, the country's most decorated soldier and, for the past five years, its defense minister and moderate face to the West.

Layoffs, perks, labor costs trap French govt

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:47 AM PDT

France's President Francois Hollande, left, and Cypriot President Demetris Christofias, right, shake hands for the media at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)The 35-hour work week? Untouchable. The social safety net? Untrimmable.

Ruling party leads in Ukraine parliament vote

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:53 AM PDT

Election commission officials count ballots at a polling station in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Ukrainians are electing a parliament on Sunday in a crucial vote tainted by the jailing of top opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and fears of election fraud. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's party headed for victory in parliamentary elections tainted by the jailing of the country's top opposition leader, preliminary results showed Monday.

More than ever, Barca more than club for Catalans

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 01:28 AM PDT

Nearly 20 minutes into the latest clash between Spain's most popular football teams, Barcelona's 98,000-seat Camp Nou stadium erupted into a deafening roar. Tens of thousands of Catalans in the city at the heart of their separatist movement chanted in unison: "Independence!"

Libyans disillusioned with government amid chaos

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 11:36 AM PDT

In this Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 photo, Libyan army vehicles converge on protesters in front of of parliament, firing their heavy machine guns in the air in an attempt to disperse them in Tripoli, Libya. One year on, the country is still trying to overcome the legacy of one of the most erratic leaders of modern times as well as a brutal eight month struggle that left the country awash in weapons, militias and very few viable institutions of the state. (AP/Paul Schemm)The protesters converged on the conference center housing Libya's newly elected congress, trying to force their way in past startled guards. Mostly young and half of them women in headscarves, they demanded an end to the siege of the town of Bani Walid, where the government was in the midst of an attack to uproot holdouts from Moammar Gadhafi's former regime.

Reports: UK rocker arrested as part of Savile case

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 12:34 PM PDT

FILE - In this Jan, 11, 2000 file photo, British performer Gary Glitter, during a press conference in London. Police investigating the sex abuse scandal surrounding late BBC children's television host Jimmy Savile have arrested pop star Gary Glitter in connection with the case, British media said Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Metropolitan Police said they arrested a man in his 60s early Sunday morning at his London home, on suspicion of sexual offenses, and that he remains in custody in a London police station. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)Police investigating child sex abuse allegations against the late BBC television host Jimmy Savile arrested former glam rock star and convicted sex offender Gary Glitter on Sunday, British media reported, raising further questions about whether Savile was at the center of a broader pedophile ring.

UN says 28,000 displaced in Myanmar ethnic clashes

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 12:35 AM PDT

A Muslim woman weeps as she and others arrive at Thechaung camp refugee camp in Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. Boats carrying some of those fleeing arrived outside the state capital, Sittwe. They trudged to the nearby Thechaung camp, a place already home to thousands of Rohingya Muslims who took refuge there after a previous wave of violence in June. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)Myanmar's government said Monday it has boosted security in a western state hit by ethnic and sectarian unrest as the number of displaced rose to 28,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Chinese protest factory even after official pledge

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 10:39 PM PDT

A Chinese woman is taken away by Chinese police officers during a protest against the proposed expansion of a petrochemical factory outside the city government office in Zhejiang province's Ningbo city, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. After a weekend of protests by thousands of citizens over pollution fears, a local Chinese government relented Sunday and agreed that a petrochemical factory would not be expanded, only to see the protesters refuse to halt their demonstration. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)Protests against the expansion of a factory are resuming in an eastern China city despite a local government pledge to halt the project.

Syria truce collapse shows limits of diplomacy

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 12:38 PM PDT

In this Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012 photo, a doctor examines an x-ray while a Syrian elder sits on a hospital trolley suffering partial loss of memory after was shot in the head by a sniper in Aleppo, Syria. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras).Syria's air force fired missiles and dropped barrel bombs on rebel strongholds while opposition fighters attacked regime positions Sunday, flouting a U.N.-backed cease-fire that was supposed to quiet fighting over a long holiday weekend but never took hold.

India's Cabinet rejigged, but no place for Rahul

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 06:18 PM PDT

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, talks to Congress party president Sonia Gandhi as Defense Minister A.K. Antony, left, looks away during the swearing-in ceremony for the new ministers in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reshuffled his Cabinet on Sunday in a bid to overhaul his government's image ahead of state and national elections over the next 18 months. (AP Photo)A major reshuffle of India's Cabinet left one question dangling: Where is Rahul Gandhi?

Yemen's 'Death to America' rebels bring calm to northern Yemen

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 03:36 PM PDT

Barely a decade ago, the Old City of Saada was tentatively placed on the list to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Once an impeccably preserved relic of medieval Arabia, the ancient settlement is now largely in ruins. Centuries-old homes lie wrecked, their mud brick construction crumbling. Bullet holes pock-mark the walls of ancient mosques.

Assassination attempt on anti-rape doctor raises fears for aid workers in Congo

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 09:32 AM PDT

A Congolese doctor praised for aiding female rape victims survived an assassination attempt and on Saturday was evacuated amid growing safety concerns for aid workers and rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Syrians celebrate a wartime wedding in hospital scrubs

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 08:05 AM PDT

The floors of this hospital are often smeared with blood. Every day, the horrors of Syria's war play out in the lobby, as men, women, and children wounded or killed in the fierce fighting that has raged between the regime and the rebels in this city for three months come into the hospital.

Plan for Mormon temple rattles Catholics in a French suburb

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 07:57 AM PDT

A dispute over the construction of a Mormon temple in a suburb of Paris is revealing as much about France's changing religious profile as it does about possible prejudice against the little known religion.
Posted by Harshad at 1:49 AM

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