Monday, December 3, 2012

North Korea urged to drop rocket launch plan

North Korea urged to drop rocket launch plan

North Korea urged to drop rocket launch plan

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 12:44 AM PST

Lorry loaded with unit of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles gets onto Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force's transport vessel Osumi at an MSDF base in KureMOSCOW/BEIJING (Reuters) - Russia and China urged North Korea on Monday not to go ahead with a plan for its second rocket launch of 2012, with Moscow saying the launch would violate restrictions imposed by the U.N. Security Council. North Korea's state news agency on Saturday announced the decision to launch another space satellite and reportedly told neighbors it would take a similar path to that planned for a failed rocket launch in April. "We urgently appeal to the government (of North Korea) to reconsider the decision to launch a rocket," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. ...

Air raid, explosions hit outskirts of Syrian capital

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 01:14 AM PST

Syrians run for cover as smoke rises over the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain after an air strike, as seen from the Turkish border town of CeylanpinarBEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces hit a rebel-held suburb of Damascus with two air strikes on Monday, and explosions shook the capital's southern outskirts, opposition activists said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian forces, who are trying to push the rebels away from the capital, launched two air strikes on Beit Saham, a town close to the highway for Damascus International Airport, where the two sides clashed last week. ...

Egypt's top court shuts down, blames protesters

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 09:18 PM PST

A supporter of Egypt's President Mursi gestures during a rally in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court in Maadi, south of CairoCAIRO (Reuters) - Protests by Islamists allied to President Mohamed Mursi forced Egypt's highest court to adjourn its work indefinitely on Sunday, intensifying a conflict between some of the country's top judges and the head of state. The Supreme Constitutional Court said it would not convene until its judges could operate without "psychological and material pressure", saying protesters had stopped the judges from reaching the building. ...

Netanyahu brushes off world condemnation of settlement plans

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 12:55 AM PST

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu attends cabinet meeting in JerusalemJERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday brushed off world condemnation of Israel's plans to expand Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto U.N. recognition of statehood. "We will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places that are on the map of Israel's strategic interests," a defiant Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting. In another blow to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Israel announced it was withholding Palestinian tax revenues this month worth about $100 million. ...

Japan orders tunnel inspections after death toll rises to nine

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 01:34 AM PST

Handout of collapsed broken concrete ceiling panels inside Sasago Tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in Yamanashi PrefectureTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan ordered emergency inspections of highway tunnels across the country after one collapsed on Sunday killing nine people. Two people were also injured when a 110 meter (360 feet) long section of the tunnel's concrete ceiling panels collapsed onto cars on Sunday morning along the Chuo Expressway in Yamanashi prefecture, about 80 km (50 miles) west of Tokyo. ...

Blind China dissident urges Xi follow Myanmar path to reform

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 01:18 AM PST

Activist and advocate Chen smiles at the Council on Foreign Relations in New YorkBEIJING (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has urged Communist Party chief and president-in-waiting Xi Jinping to follow Myanmar's model of reform or risk a violent political transition. Chen also accused the government of breaking a promise to investigate what he says is the persecution of his family, according to a recorded message posted on YouTube by Texas-based Christian advocacy group ChinaAid, which backs him. The self-taught legal advocate's escape from house arrest in April and subsequent refuge in the U.S. ...

Clinton sees NATO deal on Turkey Patriot missiles

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 11:50 PM PST

Czech Republic's Foreign Minister Schwarzenberg and U.S. Secretary of State Clinton arrive for a meeting in PraguePRAGUE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hopes NATO allies will reach a deal this week on stationing Patriot missiles in Turkey to defend against possible Syrian attacks, senior U.S. officials said. The 28 NATO allies meet in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday. Turkey, which has made a formal request to NATO to help it bolster its air defenses, is a big supporter of rebels fighting to oust Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. ...

Narrowing LDP lead points to Japan post-election confusion

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 09:15 PM PST

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party leader Abe speaks during a political debate in TokyoTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's opposition Liberal Democratic Party's lead has shrunk in the polls ahead of a December 16 election, suggesting the conservative party and its partner may need help to make up a majority and threatening more policy confusion for the world's third-biggest economy. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP is expected to win the biggest number of seats in parliament's powerful lower house, putting Abe in pole position to form the next government, most likely with long-term LDP ally, the smaller New Komeito. ...

Chinese court denies jail terms for abusing petitioners

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 01:04 AM PST

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court has denied reports that it sentenced 10 people to jail for illegally detaining petitioners in Beijing, state media said on Monday, rejecting the account of what had been seen as a rare move to curb abuses of the law. A Beijing newspaper reported on Sunday that the capital's Chaoyang district court sentenced 10 people from the poor central province of Henan to up to 18 months in jail for stopping petitioners from the province from airing grievances. The report said the petitioners had been held in rented houses in a Beijing suburb and beaten. ...

Russia may soften religion law over Putin concerns

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 12:03 PM PST

Russia's President Putin meets with leaders of Russia's parliamentary parties at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside MoscowMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian lawmakers are reworking a draft law introducing prison terms for religious offences after signs that Vladimir Putin is concerned it could undermine the delicate balance between the country's many religions. The president's party proposed the law after two members of the Pussy Riot punk band were jailed for two years over a protest in a cathedral against Putin's increasingly close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. ...

AP IMPACT: China overtaking US as global trader

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 09:52 PM PST

In this July 14, 2012 photo, a worker opens a portable silo bag to load into a truck to be transported for sale at a farm near Pergamino, Argentina. China is the leading buyer of Argentine soybeans, with most of the country's fertile land nowadays covered with the crop, its principal export. As Chinese ate more pork, fried chicken and hamburgers, increasing the demand for soybeans to make cooking oil and feed for pigs and cows, cattle ranchers in Latin America turned grazing land into fields of soy, a crop few in their region consume. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)Shin Cheol-soo no longer sees his future in the United States.

Egypt's highest court joins judicial strike

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 12:38 AM PST

Supporters of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans as riot police, left, stand guard in front of the entrance of Egypt's top court, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Egypt's top court announced on Sunday the suspension of its work indefinitely to protest Egypt's highest court has joined a judicial rebellion against President Mohammed Morsi by declaring an open-ended strike on the day it was supposed to rule on the legitimacy of two key assemblies controlled by allies of the Islamist leader.

Palestinian president returns triumphantly from UN

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 08:09 PM PST

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, center, is surrounded by children during celebrations for the successful bid to win U.N. statehood recognition for Palestine in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Abbas has returned home to a hero's welcome after winning a resounding endorsement for Palestinian independence at the United Nations. Israel on Sunday roundly rejected the United Nations' endorsement of an independent state of Palestine, announcing it would withhold more than $100 million collected for the Palestinian government to pay debts to Israeli companies and earlier said it would start drawing up plans to build thousands of settlement homes. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)The Palestinian president returned triumphantly to the West Bank on Sunday, receiving a boisterous welcome from thousands of cheering supporters at a rally celebrating his people's new acceptance to the United Nations.

Highway tunnel ceiling slabs fall in Japan, kill 9

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 08:36 PM PST

The burnt wreckage of a minivan, which was crushed and caught fire in Sunday's accident, is moved on a transporter out of the Sasago Tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in Koshu, Yamanashi Prefecture, central Japan, early Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. Concrete ceiling panels fell onto moving vehicles deep inside the tunnel, and authorities confirmed nine deaths before suspending rescue work Monday while the roof was being reinforced to prevent more collapses. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, FRANCE, HONG KONG, JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREAConcrete ceiling slabs fell onto moving vehicles deep inside a long Japanese highway tunnel, and authorities confirmed nine deaths before suspending rescue work Monday while the roof was being reinforced to prevent more collapses.

Bangladesh fire victims want old jobs back

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 01:27 AM PST

In this photo taken on Friday Nov. 29, 2012, Ratna Begum, a survivor of a garment factory fire, rests in her house in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Major retailers have disavowed the Bangladesh garment factory where 112 workers died in the fire last month, but the survivors of the fire have not. Factories like the one gutted on Nov. 24 are a rare lifeline in this desperately poor country, and now many of the more than 1,200 surviving employees have no work and few prospects. (AP Photo/ Ashraful Alam Tito)As 112 of her co-workers died in a garment-factory fire, Dipa Akter got out by jumping from the third floor through a hole made by breaking apart an exhaust fan. Her left leg is wrapped in bandages and she has trouble walking.

China moves to right wrongs in city Bo once ruled

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 11:14 PM PST

In this photo taken Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012, Li Zhuang, an ex-lawyer who claims he was framed and wrongfully jailed for 18 months, talks on his mobile phone in front of the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. With China's new leaders freshly installed in power, authorities are turning their attention to tying up loose ends in the sprawling, scandal-ridden city once ruled by populist politician Bo Xilai before his downfall buffeted the leadership transition. In the past two weeks, authorities in Chongqing released Li, a lawyer disbarred after being convicted of having one of his clients lie in court, as well as a village official who had been sent to a labor camp for criticizing Bo. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTWith China's new leaders freshly installed in power, authorities are turning their attention to tying up loose ends in the sprawling, scandal-ridden city once ruled by populist politician Bo Xilai before his downfall buffeted the leadership transition.

Bersani wins Italy primary, heads to general vote

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 02:17 PM PST

Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the center-left Democratic Party, casts his vote during a primary runoff, in Piacenza, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Italians are choosing a center-left candidate for premier for elections early next year, an important primary runoff given the main party is ahead in the polls against a center-right camp in utter chaos over whether Silvio Berlusconi will run again. Sunday's runoff pits veteran center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, 61, against the 37-year-old mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, not shown, who has campaigned on an Obama-style "Let's change Italy now" mantra. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)Pier Luigi Bersani, the head of Italy's main center-left Democratic Party, won a runoff primary Sunday to become the main center-left candidate for Italy's 2013 general elections — a vote that polls indicate could well be won by the Democratic Party given the utter disarray of the opposing center-right.

Lebanese troops exchange fire with Syrian rebels

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 12:13 AM PST

In this Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 file photo, Syrian fighters stand on a tank they took after storming a military base in Aleppo. Through mid-2012, rebel power grew and Assad's army ramped up its response. Relentless government shelling leveled neighborhoods and killed hundreds. Regular reports emerged of mass killings by the regime or thugs loyal to it, pushing more Syrians toward armed struggle. The government, which considers the opposition terrorist gangs backed by foreign powers, denied any role, and does not respond to requests for comment on its military. The rebels, too, were accused of atrocities. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)Lebanon's state news agency says Lebanese soldiers have exchanged fire across the border with rebels in neighboring Syria.

AP Exclusive: Strife hardens Syrian rebel brigade

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 08:34 AM PST

In this Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012 photo, Syrian fighters of A year ago, a soft-spoken sweet shop owner from this poor Syrian town got together with his little brother and eight friends to declare war on President Bashar Assad.

Syrian warplanes strike rebels in Damascus suburbs

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 10:39 AM PST

Syrians and Jordanians bury the body of Emara al-Zoabi, 7-months-old, who was killed from Syrian government forces shelling in Ramtha City, north Amman, Jordan, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Al-Zoabi was killed in Tafas village, in the Syrian city of Daraa, on Dec. 1. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)Syrian warplanes and artillery blasted parts of the capital Damascus and its rebellious suburbs on Sunday, part of what activists described as intense fighting as rebels try to push their way into the center of President Bashar Assad's power base.

Africans mark significant progress on World AIDS day

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 01:35 PM PST

Governments, civil society groups, and people with AIDS in Africa marked World AIDS Day on Saturday, with growing optimism for an AIDS-free generation as reports are showing the epidemic has stabilized.

Pushback: Israel withholds Palestinian revenue, approves new settlements

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 11:45 AM PST

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government struck a $120 million blow to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority today and further undermined its territorial claims, announcing plans to move forward with a controversial settlement that would effectively divide the West Bank in two.

In post-revolutionary Tunisia, 'it's (still) the economy, stupid.'

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 10:26 AM PST

On Friday morning the people of Siliana carried their governor out of town in effigy – represented by a coffin marked "governor" – which they pitched down an embankment to jeers and celebration.

Global water crisis: too little, too much, or lack of a plan?

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 08:59 AM PST

For most of history, thirsty humans made do with what moisture fell from above: The sun warmed the salty seas, pure water evaporated into the air and then cooled and fell to the earth as precipitation. There it clung to glaciers, froze and thawed in lakes, was absorbed by plant roots, coursed through fractured bedrock, and seeped slowly through soil, into aquifers. Most of it returned to sea and sky all over again. There is as much of that water on the planet today as when the first amphibian flopped ashore; as much as when the ancient Greeks divined the future in the babble of brooks.

Global water crisis: Seen from the first Himalayan glacial trickle

Posted: 02 Dec 2012 08:59 AM PST

In the Nepalese Himalayas in 2009, I trekked into the Langtang Valley, just short of the Tibetan border, and to a village of empty plywood cabins. The arrival of the summer monsoon season had chased the trekkers away.
Posted by Harshad at 1:48 AM

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