| Two car bombs hit main square in government controlled Aleppo Posted: 02 Oct 2012 11:52 PM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two car bombs exploded on a main square in a government controlled central district of Syria's second city Aleppo on Wednesday morning, a pro-government television channel said. Al-Ikhbariya TV said the bombs detonated in Saadallah al-Jabari Square in western Aleppo, Syria's largest city which has now been split in two with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad mainly in the west and rebel fighters in the east. Fighting only with light weaponry, rebels have resorted to bomb attacks in areas still controlled by Assad. ...
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| U.S. had early indications Libya attack tied to organized militants Posted: 02 Oct 2012 10:01 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Within hours of last month's attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, President Barack Obama's administration received about a dozen intelligence reports suggesting militants connected to al Qaeda were involved, three government sources said. Despite these reports, in public statements and private meetings, top U.S. officials spent nearly two weeks highlighting intelligence suggesting that the attacks were spontaneous protests against an anti-Muslim film, while playing down the involvement of organized militant groups. ...
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| Probe into fatal Hong Kong ferry collision may take six months Posted: 02 Oct 2012 11:59 PM PDT  HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong authorities began inspecting the wreckage of a leisure ship on Wednesday amid questions over how a collision with a commuter ferry in relatively calm weather could have killed 38 people in one of the city's worst accidents in recent decades. The exact circumstances surrounding the crash remain unclear, but television footage showed the party ship suffered a massive hole in its rear hull, which saw it partially sink, and the ferry a severely damaged bow, suggesting they may have been passing each other in the night. ...
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| Greece pushes for austerity deal as time runs short Posted: 02 Oct 2012 12:46 PM PDT  ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece held a new round of talks with foreign lenders to bridge differences over 2 billion euros of disputed austerity cuts on Tuesday, with time running short to clinch a deal before a meeting of euro zone ministers next week. Athens has been haggling for weeks over 12 billion euros of cutbacks that its European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders have refused to sign off on over fears that some of the proposed savings are unlikely to materialize. ...
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| Chavez calls for pre-dawn turnout at Venezuela vote Posted: 02 Oct 2012 05:54 PM PDT  (Note: Election law forbids publication of polls in Venezuela a week before October 7 vote.) YARITAGUA/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his supporters to vote early at Sunday's election, saying the key to him winning another six-year term as leader of South America's biggest oil exporter was organization and logistics. Chavez, 58, is in a close race with 40-year-old state governor Henrique Capriles, and both camps are now focused on their final rallies and getting their supporters to the polls. ...
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| Iran to enrich uranium to 60 percent if nuclear talks fail Posted: 02 Oct 2012 10:47 AM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran would enrich uranium up to 60 percent purity if negotiations with major powers over its nuclear program fail, an Iranian lawmaker said on Tuesday, in comments that may add to Western alarm about Iranian intentions. Mansour Haqiqatpour, deputy head of parliament's Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, said 60 percent enrichment would be to yield fuel for nuclear submarines, which often require uranium refined to high levels. ...
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| Assad rejected leaders' bid for peace in Syria: former PM Posted: 02 Oct 2012 02:37 PM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad vetoed demands by senior leaders to pursue a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria after some of his top security aides were killed in an attack in July, his former prime minister said in remarks broadcast on Tuesday. Riyad Hijab, who defected in early August, told Al Arabiya television that the death of Defence Minister Daoud Rajha and his deputy, Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, in a bomb attack on a security meeting in Damascus had persuaded him that there was no military solution to the crisis. ...
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| Unrest tarnishes drive to tap Indonesia's gold riches Posted: 02 Oct 2012 02:22 PM PDT  JAKARTA/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - When Hong Kong-listed G-Resources Ltd opened its $1 billion Indonesian gold mine in July, six months behind schedule, it had high hopes it would be hitting its annual output target of 250,000 ounces by next year. Less than three months later the company halted operations after hundreds of protesters blocked the entrances to the Martabe mine, in the north of Sumatra island, in a dispute over the installation of a water discharge pipe. It began laying off the 2,000-strong workforce at the mine, the company's sole asset, this week. ...
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| Costa Rica poised to ban hunting as sport in Latin America first Posted: 02 Oct 2012 09:57 PM PDT SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Costa Rica is poised to become the first Latin American country to ban hunting as a sport, after Congress on Tuesday provisionally approved reforms to its Wildlife Conservation Law. Lawmakers voting on the ban voted 41 in favor and five against, and a second vote expected in the coming week is widely seen ratifying changes to the law, which aims to protect animals in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. Costa Rica's national parks attract some 300,000 visitors annually, and tourism is a mainstay of the economy. ... |
| Syrian TV: 3 explosions rock central Aleppo Posted: 03 Oct 2012 12:47 AM PDT  Three powerful explosions rocked the main square in a government-controlled central district of Aleppo on Wednesday, the Syrian state-run TV said. Activists reported multiple casualties and heavy material damage.
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| Vatican police testify in trial of pope's butler Posted: 02 Oct 2012 10:16 PM PDT  Members of the Vatican police force have testified that they found thousands of pages of documents — about Freemasonry, secret service security forces and internal Vatican letters — inside the Vatican City apartment of Pope Benedict XVI's former butler, who is on trial for aggravated theft.
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| APNewsBreak: Coke, Samsung pull Vietnam site ads Posted: 03 Oct 2012 12:09 AM PDT Coca-Cola and Samsung have pulled their advertising from a popular Vietnamese website notorious for providing unlicensed downloads of Western and local songs, in a rare victory against online piracy in a country where it has grown unchecked. |
| Space station to move to avoid debris Posted: 02 Oct 2012 11:45 PM PDT The Russian space program's Mission Control Center says it will move the International Space Station into a different orbit to avoid possible collision with a fragment of debris. |
| AP Exclusive: US car was targeted in Mexico ambush Posted: 02 Oct 2012 04:46 PM PDT  A senior U.S. official says there is strong circumstantial evidence that Mexican federal police who fired on a U.S. Embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers, were working for organized crime in a targeted assassination attempt.
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| HK firm says ferry in tragedy passed inspection Posted: 02 Oct 2012 11:06 PM PDT  An official with the ferry company involved in a collision that killed 38 people said Wednesday that the vessel recently passed inspection, but he had no details about how the crash occurred.
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| New Zealand bars Mike Tyson as tour debacle looms Posted: 02 Oct 2012 08:19 PM PDT  In a reversal, New Zealand authorities on Wednesday barred Mike Tyson from entering the country whose indigenous Maori people Tyson says inspired his facial tattoo.
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| More than 2 million workers strike in Indonesia Posted: 02 Oct 2012 10:16 PM PDT Indonesian unions say more than 2 million factory workers have gone on a one-day strike across the country to call for higher wages and protest the hiring of contract workers. |
| Free coffins: political swag for Honduran poor Posted: 02 Oct 2012 01:38 PM PDT  In some countries political campaigns give out bumper stickers and yard signs. In others, they offer free lunches and supermarket debit cards. In Honduras, one of Latin America's poorest countries and also its most dangerous, candidates dole out another type of political swag: coffins for the destitute.
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| TV show claims UK TV host Savile abused children Posted: 02 Oct 2012 10:46 AM PDT  For decades, Jimmy Savile was a fixture on British television — an eccentric, aggressively jocular host of children's shows and a tireless charity fundraiser. When he died last year at 84 — by then knighted as Sir Jimmy — he drew tributes from Prince Charles and thousands of fans.
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