Friday, November 30, 2012

Palestinians win de facto U.N. recognition of sovereign state

Palestinians win de facto U.N. recognition of sovereign state

Palestinians win de facto U.N. recognition of sovereign state

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 08:29 PM PST

A Palestinian boy in traditional clothes waves a Palestinain flag during a rally in the West Bank city of RamallahUNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long overdue "birth certificate." The U.N. victory for the Palestinians was a diplomatic setback for the United States and Israel, which were joined by only a handful of countries in voting against the move to upgrade the Palestinian Authority's observer status at the United Nations to "non-member state" from "entity," like the Vatican. ...

Analysis: The next stop for Palestinians could be global courts

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 05:44 PM PST

People wave Palestinian flags during a rally in Nablus(Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly's overwhelming vote to recognize Palestine as a non-member state offers little prospect for greater clout in world politics but it could make a difference in the international courts. The formal recognition of statehood, even without full U.N. membership, could be enough for the Palestinians to achieve membership at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), where member states have the power to refer for investigation alleged war crimes or crimes against humanity. With its upgraded status at the U.N. ...

Fighting cuts access to Damascus airport, flights suspended

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 12:08 AM PST

Man carrying a shovel, walks near buildings damaged after what activists said was a Syrian Air Force fighter jet operated by those loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, fired missiles in DariaBEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, cutting access to its international airport, and Dubai-based Emirates airline and EgyptAir stopped flights to the Syrian capital. The Internet and some telephone lines went down across Syria. Rebels and the government traded blame for the blackout, the worst communications outage in 20 months of conflict. Rebels fighting to topple Assad have been making gains around Syria by overrunning military bases and have been ramping up attacks on Damascus, his seat of power. ...

Egypt constitution finalized as opposition cries foul

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 09:40 PM PST

Youths walk next to a pirate flag on display by a street vendor at Tahrir Square in CairoCAIRO (Reuters) - An Islamist-led assembly finalized a new constitution early on Friday aimed at transforming Egypt and paving the way for an end to a crisis that erupted when President Mohamed Mursi gave himself sweeping new powers last week. Mursi said his decree halting court challenges to his decisions, which provoked protests and violence from Egyptians fearing a new dictator was emerging less than two years after they ousted Hosni Mubarak, was "for an exceptional stage." "It will end as soon as the people vote on a constitution," he told state television on Thursday night. ...

U.S. gives Iran until March to cooperate with IAEA

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 06:23 PM PST

Iran's President Ahmadinejad speaks during a ceremony at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facilityVIENNA (Reuters) - The United States set a March deadline on Thursday for Iran to start cooperating in substance with a U.N. nuclear agency investigation, warning Tehran the issue may otherwise be referred to the U.N. Security Council. The comments by U.S. diplomat Robert Wood to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency signaled Washington's growing frustration at a lack of progress in the IAEA's inquiry into possible military dimensions to Tehran's nuclear program. Iran - which was first reported to the U.N. ...

China says freedom of navigation in South China Sea is important

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 12:50 AM PST

File picture shows fishing boats in the bay of the Ly Son islands of Vietnam's central Quang Ngai provinceBEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Friday that it attached great importance to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea after state media said police in its southern island province of Hainan will board and search ships which illegally enter what China considers its territory in the disputed waters. "All countries have freedom of navigation in the South China Sea in accordance with international law," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing. "China attaches great importance to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. ...

After long jail term, gaming gangster faces less violent but still murky Macau

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:25 PM PST

File picture shows Wan, alias Broken Tooth Koi, in handcuffs after being arrested by Macau's Judicial Police Director Baptista during an anti-crime raid in MacauMACAU (Reuters) - Wan "Broken Tooth" Kuok-koi will emerge from jail this weekend into a very different Macau gambling haven than the one he bullied in the late-1990s. Under new leadership, chosen at a Chinese Communist Party Congress this month where corruption was a dominant theme, Beijing is sending strong signals to Macau authorities to tighten regulation and promote responsible gaming in the world's casino capital. It's a far cry from more than a decade ago when Wan and other triad gangsters ran amok during the final days of Portuguese rule of this southern Chinese outcrop. ...

Sudden trial of blind China activist's nephew puts spotlight on human rights

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 12:36 AM PST

Chen Kegui, nephew of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, is seen in this undated handout provided by Chen Kegui's lawyerBEIJING (Reuters) - The nephew of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng unexpectedly went on trial on Friday for intentional infliction of injury in a case likely to refocus international attention on China's human rights and legal system. Chen Kegui has been held incommunicado by police for over six months and has been denied access to his choice of lawyers. His case is widely seen as illegitimate by Chen's family and human rights advocates. ...

Colombia, FARC wrap up first round of peace talks

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 04:58 PM PST

Colombia's lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle announces the end of the first round of talks with FARC rebel group, in HavanaHAVANA (Reuters) - Colombia's Marxist-led FARC rebels said their peace talks with the government were going well, but the lead negotiator for President Juan Manuel Santos was more reserved as the two sides finished the first round of meetings aimed at ending their protracted conflict. In separate sessions with the press, neither side spoke of breakthroughs in the talks, but nor was there any sign they had hit irresolvable obstacles as happened in previous peace attempts. They will reconvene in Havana on Wednesday. ...

U.N. chief appeals for countries to take Iran dissidents

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 12:18 PM PST

United Nations Secretary-General Ban speaks during the Special Meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in New YorkUNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon appealed on Thursday for countries to consider resettling several thousand Iranian dissidents living in Iraq who were recently moved to a former U.S. military base in Baghdad from a camp where they lived for decades. In a report to the Security Council, Ban said 3,112 members of the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran have been transferred to Camp Hurriya, leaving about 100 still at Camp Ashraf - also know as Camp New Iraq - to help close it down. ...

Egypt Islamists hurriedly approve new constitution

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:52 PM PST

Members of the constitutional assembly attend a session to vote on a final draft of a new Egyptian constitution in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. An Islamist-dominated panel began a fast-track vote on a final draft of a new Egyptian constitution Thursday, pushing through the document despite liberals' boycott in a move likely to stoke a deepening political crisis between the Islamist president and the opposition.(AP Photo/Mohammed Abu Zaid)Islamists approved a draft constitution for Egypt early Friday without the participation of liberal and Christian members, seeking to pre-empt a court ruling that could dissolve their panel with a rushed, marathon vote that further inflames the conflict between the opposition and President Mohammed Morsi.

UN vote recognizes state of Palestine; US objects

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 09:24 PM PST

Palestinians celebrate as they wave posters of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, left, and President Mahmoud Abbas, right, as they watch the U.N. General Assembly votes on a resolution to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority to a nonmember observer state, in the west bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. The U.N. General Assembly has voted by a more than two-thirds majority to recognize the state of Palestine. The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the United Nations was approved by the 193-member world body late Thursday by a vote of 138-9 with 41 abstentions. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)The United Nations voted overwhelmingly Thursday to recognize a Palestinian state, a long-sought victory for the Palestinians and an embarrassing diplomatic defeat for the United States.

AP Exclusive: Myanmar verifying Muslim citizenship

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:21 PM PST

In this photo taken on Nov. 10, 2012, Muslim refugees walk as Myanmar police officers stand guard at Sin Thet Maw relief camp in Pauktaw township, Rakhine state, western Myanmar. Myanmar's government has launched a major operation aimed at verifying the citizenship of Muslims in western Rakhine state, the coastal territory that has been torn apart by Buddhist-Muslim violence since June. Questions over whether the region's Muslim Rohingya population qualify for citizenship are at the heart of a crisis that has killed nearly 200 people and displaced 110,000 more. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)Myanmar's government has launched a major operation aimed at verifying the citizenship of Muslims in western Rakhine state, the coastal territory that has been torn apart by Buddhist-Muslim violence since June.

Old party returns to govern changed Mexico

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 12:03 AM PST

FILE - In this July 1, 2012 file photo, supporters of Enrique Pena Nieto, presidential candidate for the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) gather at party headquarters as exit polls begin to come in for general elections in Mexico City, Mexico. The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, reclaims the presidency Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 after 12 years out of power, and President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto calls it a crowning moment of an effort to reform and modernize the party that ruled without interruption from 1929 to 2000. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini, File)The political party that ruled Mexico for seven straight decades is back, assuring Mexicans there's no chance of a return to what some called "the perfect dictatorship" that was marked by a mixture of populist handouts, rigged votes and occasional bloodshed.

Napoleon's secret coded Kremlin letter on sale

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:03 PM PST

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012, a letter dictated and signed by Napoleon in secret code that declares his intentions "to blow up the Kremlin" during his ill-fated Russian campaign is displayed for the media in Fontainebleau, outside Paris. The rare letter, written in unusually emotive language, sees Napoleon complain of harsh conditions and the shortcomings of his grand army. The letter goes on auction Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)The single line of Napoleon's secret code told Paris of his desperate, last order against the Russians: "At three o'clock in the morning, on the 22nd I am going to blow up the Kremlin."

Shoppers' habits not changed by garment plant fire

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 12:48 AM PST

Bangladeshi protesters hold placards as some of them lie down on the ground posing as dead bodies as they condemn the death of workers in a weekend fire at a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2012. Saturday's fire at Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a factory in a Dhaka suburb, killed 112 people. Activists in the South Asian country hope the tragedy will invigorate their lengthy, but so far fruitless efforts to upgrade safety standards and force stronger government oversight of the powerful industry. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)Before purchasing a shirt, shoppers will run their hands over the fabric, look at the price tag and wonder how it will hold up in the washing machine. Some might even ask if it makes them look fat.

Suu Kyi decries crackdown that injured protesters

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:36 PM PST

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi reaches for supporters as she leaves after a public meeting close to Letpadaung mine in Monywa, northwestern Myanmar, Friday, Nov. 30, 2012. Suu Kyi is urging a negotiated resolution to protests over a military-backed copper mine in northwestern Myanmar after the government's biggest crackdown on demonstrators since reformist President Thein Sein took office last year. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi publicly criticized the forcible crackdown on protesters at a mine in northwestern Myanmar and said Friday that the public needed an explanation of the violence that injured dozens, including Buddhist monks.

NKorea preps rocket launch that would irk China

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 07:03 PM PST

This Monday Nov. 26, 2012 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe and annotated by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, shows the Sohae Satellite Launch Station in Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province, North Korea. According to analysis done for 38 North, North Korea has moved two sections of a long-range rocket at the site in preparation for a launch that would alarm both its adversaries and lone ally China. SAIS says recent activity at the Sohae site suggests it could be ready to blast-off a three-stage rocket by the end of the first week in December. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe via 38 North)Satellite photos indicate North Korea has moved two sections of a long-range rocket in preparation for a launch that would alarm both its adversaries and lone ally China.

Kuwait election boycott shifts drama to streets

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 12:39 AM PST

In this Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012 photo, A Kuwait election campaign volunteer, right, gives away candidate's shirts during an election seminar in Al Bidaa, Kuwait City. The drama of Kuwait's parliamentary elections has nothing to do with the ballot count. It's what may come after that has the country on edge as a broad coalition of conservative Islamists, liberal reformers and others vow to boycott Saturday's voting. (AP Photo/Gustavo Ferrari)The drama of Kuwait's parliamentary elections has nothing to do with the ballot count. It's what may come afterward that has the country on edge as a broad coalition of conservative Islamists, liberal reformers and others vow to boycott Saturday's vote.

Mexico's President Calderon fell short of goals

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 06:45 PM PST

FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2011 file photo, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon holds a news conference at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City. When Calderon came to power six years ago, he set goals to alleviate poverty, create jobs and increase public safety. As he winds up his term on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2102, Calderon leaves Mexico with fiscal stability that saved the country from collapse during the world's economic crisis, but with far greater violence, very little change in poverty levels and anemic job growth. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)When he came to power six years ago, President Felipe Calderon set goals to alleviate poverty, create jobs and increase public safety.

Tabloid breakup? Cameron and Clegg on the skids

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 01:02 PM PST

A judge handed down his verdict on British press standards Thursday by calling for a new regulator to eliminate what he described as a "sub-culture" of unethical behaviour, accusing sections of the industry of wreaking havoc with innocent lives.

Syrian rebels cut off Damascus airport in critical step

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 11:56 AM PST

Syrian opposition forces have reportedly captured part of the road to the Damascus airport in fighting today, bringing opposition forces closer to besieging the capital.

In DR Congo, Goma residents worry about life after rebels' departure

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 09:56 AM PST

Following days of doubt regarding whether M23 rebels in eastern Congo would withdraw from Goma, it appears that they have begun to return to their stronghold north of the country's second-largest city. But there are indications the rebels could yet reverse course.

Europeans bolster Palestinian bid at the UN

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 08:00 AM PST

A week after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appeared all but forgotten in the wake of the Gaza conflict, his bid to gain a global mandate for statehood at the United Nations today has gained momentum.

Will the rush to pass Egypt's constitution render it hollow?

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 07:43 AM PST

Egypt's constitution-drafting committee put the document to a vote today in a surprise move that the president's allies say hastens Egypt's democratic transition, but which opponents claim undermines its legitimacy.

Disposable diapers or bare bottoms? China frets over potty training

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 07:18 AM PST

The grandmother and the toddler were huddled in the middle of the sidewalk on Gongtibeilu, not far from Beijing's Workers Stadium. As the child squatted, a small stream of urine appeared out of a slit in the back of the child's pants and puddled on the sidewalk while passersby barely gave them a glance. Beaming with pride, the grandmother carefully wiped the tiny bottom, and the two walked off, hand in hand.

Serbs frustrated, Kosovars elated as former Kosovo PM acquitted of war crimes

Posted: 29 Nov 2012 06:17 AM PST

Kosovars celebrated and Serbian media and officials slammed a decision today by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal at The Hague to acquit former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj war crimes committed during the 1990s.
Posted by Harshad at 1:14 AM

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