Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

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• Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province
• Egyptian Islamists plan big rally as referendum looms
• Analysis: Japan's new cabinet likely to be long on loyalty, short on reform
• Analysis: Allies to lose socialist patron if Venezuela's Chavez goes
• Raid on Kenyan coastal village leaves 28 dead
• Mandela has "steadily improved": Zuma
• France's Hollande reaffirms 2013 deficit target
• Mexican President Pena Nieto picks central bank deputy governor
• Jailed Briton seeks to overturn Florida murder conviction
• Kenya police: 28 people killed in clashes
• Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria
• Mexico's Maya heartland awaits dawn of new era
• Australian boy's egg collection turns into snakes
• AP PHOTOS: A photo journey through N.Korea
• French leader: Al-Qaida link to Nigeria kidnapping
• 55 people drowned or missing off Somali coast
• Venezuela court could decide on Chavez swearing-in
• Japan's next leader wants freer rein for military
• Malala asks Pakistan not to rename college for her
• In India, a Hindu nationalist rebuilds image with Muslim votes
• South Korea's president-elect promises 'new era of change'
• Pressure mounts on Obama to change tactics on Iran
• Syrian rebel infighting could take dangerous turn if Assad falls
• Lessons from the Maya prophesy – whether the world 'ends' or not
• Palestinians begin returning to Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria

Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province Posted: 20 Dec 2012 10:54 AM PST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels began to push into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday and laid siege to at least one town dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect, activists said. The operation risks inflaming already raw sectarian tensions as the 21-month-old revolt against four decades of Assad family rule - during which the president's Alawite sect has dominated leadership of the Sunni Muslim majority - rumbles on. ...

Egyptian Islamists plan big rally as referendum looms Posted: 20 Dec 2012 03:12 PM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Islamists are planning a mass protest in Alexandria on Friday in a move likely to raise tensions on the eve of a divisive referendum that will determine the political future of the Arab world's biggest nation. The Muslim Brotherhood called for the rally after a violent confrontation between Islamists and the liberal, secular opposition in Egypt's second city last week ended with a Muslim preacher besieged inside his mosque for 14 hours. Rival factions were armed with clubs, knives and swords. ...

Analysis: Japan's new cabinet likely to be long on loyalty, short on reform Posted: 20 Dec 2012 10:03 PM PST TOKYO (Reuters) - Incoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet looks likely to be heavy on close allies, with a few party rivals added to fend off criticism of cronyism, but few see signs that the line-up will produce creative reform policies. Abe, who will be voted in as prime minister on Wednesday following his conservative Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) sweeping election win, has made clear his top priority is to slay deflation with a huge dose of monetary easing and spending. ...

Analysis: Allies to lose socialist patron if Venezuela's Chavez goes Posted: 20 Dec 2012 10:05 PM PST CARACAS (Reuters) - Murals adorning a Caracas slum that has given militant backing to President Hugo Chavez over the years are a virtual pantheon of international radicals. From Colombia's FARC guerrillas to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the images and slogans on teeming slopes above Chavez's presidential palace hail socialist revolutionaries the world over. Beside them are tributes to Chavez himself - testimony to the Venezuelan leader's bid to place himself at the front of global "anti-imperialism" in his ever-controversial 14-year rule. ...

Raid on Kenyan coastal village leaves 28 dead Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:54 PM PST MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Raiders killed villagers and burnt homes in an early morning attack in Kenya's volatile coastal Tana Delta region that left 28 people dead, police said on Friday. They said the raid appeared to have been a revenge attack following clashes between farmers from the Pokomo tribe and semi-nomadic Orma tribesmen, who have fought for years over access to grazing, farmland and water in the coastal region. More than 100 people died in a series of attacks in the area earlier this year. ...

Mandela has "steadily improved": Zuma Posted: 20 Dec 2012 09:01 PM PST JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela, the 94-year-old former South African leader who has spent nearly two weeks in hospital, is steadily improving and responding well to treatment, current President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday. "His condition was serious, but he is responding well to treatment, and has steadily improved over the last few days," Zuma said at the close of a week-long leadership conference of the ruling African National Congress. ...

France's Hollande reaffirms 2013 deficit target Posted: 21 Dec 2012 12:11 AM PST PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande reiterated on Friday that his government was targeting a reduction of the public deficit in 2013 to three percent of GDP despite new official data showing economic growth way below forecast. Hollande told Europe 1 radio he also expected that French unemployment would only begin to fall by late 2013 despite what he said would be a "difficult year" for the economy. "There's no recession, not in France," Hollande said. "But it will be difficult because when we have nearly zero growth in the first half of the year, unemployment will keep rising. ...

Mexican President Pena Nieto picks central bank deputy governor Posted: 20 Dec 2012 07:42 PM PST MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto selected Javier Guzman to be the next Deputy Governor of the Bank of Mexico and will send his nomination to the Senate for approval, the finance ministry said on Thursday. Guzman, a Yale-educated economist who has worked at the International Monetary Fund and the Center of Latin-American Monetary Studies (CEMLA), where he currently serves as director general, would replace the outgoing Jose Julian Sidaoui as deputy governor. The statement gave no timetable for Guzman's appointment, which requires Senate approval. ...

Jailed Briton seeks to overturn Florida murder conviction Posted: 20 Dec 2012 03:38 PM PST MIAMI (Reuters) - Lawyers for a British man serving two life sentences in Florida for a 1986 double homicide filed an appeal on Thursday seeking to have the conviction overturned based on an affidavit alleging that Miami police officers framed an innocent man. Krishna Maharaj, 73, was convicted in 1987 for the murder of Derrick and Duane Moo Young, a Jamaican-American father and son who were shot dead, one of them execution-style, in October 1986 in a downtown Miami hotel suite. ...

Kenya police: 28 people killed in clashes Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:51 PM PST NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A police official says 28 people have been killed in clashes between farmers and herders in south-eastern Kenya.

Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:43 AM PST ATMEH, Syria (AP) — A baby boy joined the ranks of Syria's tens of thousands of war wounded when a missile fired by Bashar Assad's air force slammed into his family home and shrapnel pierced his skull.

Mexico's Maya heartland awaits dawn of new era Posted: 20 Dec 2012 10:55 PM PST MERIDA, Mexico (AP) — In the darkness before dawn Friday, spiritualists prepared white clothes, drums, conch shells and incense ahead of the sunrise they believe will herald the birth of a new and better age as a vast, 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan calendar comes to an end.

Australian boy's egg collection turns into snakes Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:00 PM PST CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A 3-year-old Australian boy was lucky to escape uninjured after a collection of eggs he found in his yard hatched into a slithering tangle of deadly snakes.

AP PHOTOS: A photo journey through N.Korea Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:45 PM PST PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — My window on North Korea is sometimes, quite literally, a window — of a hotel room, the backseat of a car, a train. Fleeting moments of daily life present themselves suddenly, and they are opportunities to show a side of the country that is entirely at odds with the official portrait of marching troops and tightly coordinated pomp that the Pyongyang leadership presents to the world.

French leader: Al-Qaida link to Nigeria kidnapping Posted: 20 Dec 2012 11:56 PM PST LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — President Francois Hollande says a French engineer kidnapped in northern Nigeria was "without a doubt" seized by a group linked to al-Qaida's north African wing, or its jihadist affiliates.

55 people drowned or missing off Somali coast Posted: 21 Dec 2012 12:40 AM PST NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency says 55 people have drowned or are missing after an overcrowded boat capsized off the Somali coast.

Venezuela court could decide on Chavez swearing-in Posted: 20 Dec 2012 04:45 PM PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The president of Venezuela's Supreme Court said Thursday that it could decide whether it's constitutional to postpone the date of ailing President Hugo Chavez's swearing-in as he recovers from cancer surgery in Cuba.

Japan's next leader wants freer rein for military Posted: 20 Dec 2012 09:59 PM PST TOKYO (AP) — Imagine that North Korea launched a missile at Japan. Tokyo could — and would certainly try to — shoot it down. But if the missile were flying overhead toward Hawaii or the continental United States, Japan would have to sit idly by.

Malala asks Pakistan not to rename college for her Posted: 21 Dec 2012 12:25 AM PST MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) — A 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education has urged Pakistan to reverse a decision to rename a college in her honor to avert militant attacks on students, an official said Friday.

In India, a Hindu nationalist rebuilds image with Muslim votes Posted: 20 Dec 2012 12:47 PM PST The Hindu nationalist leader of the western state of Gujarat, known for his alleged role in the 2002 riots in which 1,000 Muslims were killed, won his fourth consecutive term as chief minister in a landslide on Thursday. The victory puts the controversial figure on track to be a strong contender for prime minister of India in 2014.

South Korea's president-elect promises 'new era of change' Posted: 20 Dec 2012 09:42 AM PST South Korea's President-elect Park Geun-hye signaled today the tough policy toward North Korea that she's likely to pursue when she embarks on her five-year term as president in February.

Pressure mounts on Obama to change tactics on Iran Posted: 20 Dec 2012 09:15 AM PST Arguing that further sanctions "are unlikely to stop Iran's nuclear pursuits," a group of Iran experts and senior former officials are calling on the White House to pursue realistic, "serious, sustained negotiations" with Tehran that they say are the best chance to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

Syrian rebel infighting could take dangerous turn if Assad falls Posted: 20 Dec 2012 09:05 AM PST In recent weeks, a number of opposition fighters in Aleppo have come to see the fall of the Assad government as only a matter of time. But bringing down the unpopular president may be easy in comparison to unifying an opposition that at times seems held together by little more than members' shared hatred of President Bashar al-Assad.

Lessons from the Maya prophesy – whether the world 'ends' or not Posted: 20 Dec 2012 06:39 AM PST Through a clearing in the jungle, visitors catch their first glimpse of the ancient Maya ruins of Yaxchilan in Mexico's southern Chiapas state. Stubborn vines have penetrated the walls of the Maya temple of the underworld. Bats hang in the cool vaulted ceiling and spiders scurry around the structure where ancient nobles once meditated and prayed to their gods.

Palestinians begin returning to Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria Posted: 20 Dec 2012 06:18 AM PST • A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

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