Sunday, May 27, 2012

U.N. says over 92 killed in Syria, 32 of them children

U.N. says over 92 killed in Syria, 32 of them children

U.N. says over 92 killed in Syria, 32 of them children

Posted: 26 May 2012 03:52 PM PDT

A child with a Syrian opposition flag painted on the face, reacts as Syrian refugees take part in a protest in Tripoli, northern LebanonBEIRUT (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists described as an artillery barrage by government forces in the worst violence since the start of a U.N. peace plan to slow the flow of blood in Syria's uprising. The bloodied bodies of children, some with their skulls split open, were shown in footage posted to YouTube purporting to show the victims of the shelling in the central town of Houla on Friday. The sound of wailing filled the room. ...

Seven Afghan civilians said killed in NATO airstrike

Posted: 27 May 2012 12:10 AM PDT

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Seven members of an Afghan family, including a woman and six young children, were killed in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities said on Sunday. The strike took place in the Gerda Serai district of Paktai late on Saturday, the provincial governor's spokesman, Rohullah Samon, said as foreign and Afghan security forces try to quell Taliban and Haqqani network insurgents active in the area. "The bombardment by ISAF killed the six children and wife of a man named Shafee," Samon said. ...

Iran not ready for visit to suspect nuclear site

Posted: 27 May 2012 12:24 AM PDT

Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili addresses a news conference after a meeting in BaghdadDUBAI (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog has not yet given good enough reasons to visit an Iranian site where it suspects there may have been experiments for developing nuclear weapons, Iranian media said. A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week said satellite images showed "extensive activities" at the Parchin complex, at the centre of Western suspicions that Iran is developing atom bombs. Tehran denies any such plan. Iranian officials have refused access to Parchin, southeast of Tehran, saying it is a military site. ...

Greek pro-bailout conservatives regain lead: polls

Posted: 26 May 2012 12:27 PM PDT

Conservative New Democracy party leader Samaras greets supporters during a pre-election rally in AthensATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's conservatives have regained an opinion poll lead that would allow the formation of a pro-bailout government committed to keeping the country in the euro zone, a batch of new surveys showed on Saturday. Greece was forced to call repeat elections for June 17 after a May 6 vote left parliament divided evenly between groups of parties that support and oppose the austerity conditions attached to a 130 billion euro bailout agreed with the European Union and International Monetary Fund in March. ...

French back Hollande's first days in power: poll

Posted: 26 May 2012 01:29 PM PDT

French President Francois Hollande speaks during a news conference in KabulPARIS (Reuters) - Close to two thirds of French people approve of President Francois Hollande's actions in his first days in power, a poll showed on Saturday, giving him a strong foundation to face a parliamentary election and the challenges of the euro crisis. Hollande took on the top job on May 15 at a time of stagnating economic growth and high unemployment in France and heightened anxiety over Greece's ability to remain in the euro zone. ...

Parma mayor becomes Italy's most-watched politician

Posted: 27 May 2012 01:02 AM PDT

PARMA, Italy (Reuters) - Federico Pizzarotti was an unknown, 38-year-old computer technician at a bank until a few weeks ago. Just four days after being elected the mayor of Parma, he has become the most-watched political figure in Italy. Pizzarotti's leap to fame comes thanks to the grassroots Five-Star Movement, led by comedian Beppe Grillo, which dealt a stunning blow to the parties that have governed Italy for the past two decades in this month's local elections. ...

India PM seeks to heal bad blood on Myanmar visit

Posted: 26 May 2012 10:30 PM PDT

Workers from Indian conglomerate Essar Group construct a new port in SittweSITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - In northwest Myanmar, where the Kaladan River flows out into the Bay of Bengal, the two giant arms of a half-built wharf enfold the estuarine mud with steel and concrete. Their embrace is fraternal - Myanmar's giant neighbor India is funding the new port in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State - but also strategic. The port is part of a $214-million river and road network that will carve a trade route into India's landlocked northeast and underscore New Delhi's determination to capitalize on Myanmar's growing importance at Asia's crossroads. ...

Mali Tuaregs, Islamist rebels agree to merge, create new state

Posted: 26 May 2012 03:51 PM PDT

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's Tuareg rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar Dine Islamist militants have agreed to merge and create an independent Islamic state in the north of the country, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday. The deal between MNLA, which has said it wants an independent secular state in the north, and the al Qaeda-linked Salafist Ansar Dine, which had wanted to impose Sharia across Mali, may complicate international efforts to stabilize Mali after a March coup that plunged the country into chaos. ...

China detains official for rapes after online uproar

Posted: 26 May 2012 09:24 PM PDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in central China detained a former Communist Party official on suspicion of raping underage girls, state media said on Sunday, following an online uproar about the latest case of abuse of power. Li Xingong, who was the party's deputy head in Yongcheng city in Henan province, is accused of assaulting more than ten girls during police interrogations, the official Xinhua news agency reported. City authorities have "ordered swift and severe punishment on the suspect in accordance with relevant laws", it added. ...

Jordan hikes gasoline, power prices to ease budget deficit

Posted: 26 May 2012 04:09 PM PDT

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan has raised the price of gasoline and electricity for major mining firms, hotels and banks, to ease its worsening budget deficit that could reach $4 billion this year, officials said on Saturday. The move, announced by the cabinet, which takes effect after midnight is the first major rise in retail gasoline prices since street protests early last year inspired by the wave of Arab unrest pushed the authorities to expand social spending and freeze fuel price hikes, including gasoline. The prices of premium petrol would increase to 1 dinar ($1.4) from 0. ...

Dozens of children killed in new Syria attack

Posted: 26 May 2012 10:25 PM PDT

This image made from amateur video released by Shaam News Network and accessed Saturday, May 26, 2012 purports to show covered bodies after a government assault on Houla, Syria. Government troops shelled a string of villages in central Syria before pro-regime thugs swept through the area, shooting people in the streets and in their homes in attacks that killed more than 90 people, activists said Saturday. The assault on Houla, an area northwest of the central city of Homs, is one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 15-month-old uprising. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video) TV OUT, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIALGruesome video Saturday showed rows of dead Syrian children lying in a mosque in bloody shorts and T-shirts with gaping head wounds, haunting images of what activists called one of the deadliest regime attacks yet in Syria's 14-month-old uprising.

Vatican in chaos after butler arrested for leaks

Posted: 26 May 2012 10:13 PM PDT

** FILE ** In this Monday, April 21, 2008 file photo, Pope Benedict XVI, left, arrives at the Italian air force 31st Squadron base in Ciampino, 30 kilometers south-east of Rome, on his way back from a six-day trip to the U.S. including the U.N. and Ground Zero in N.Y.C. The Vatican has confirmed Saturday, May 26, 2012, that the pope's butler Paolo Gabriele, at right carrying bags, was arrested in an embarrassing leaks scandal. Spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said Paolo Gabriele, a layman, was arrested in his home inside Vatican City with secret documents in his possession. Vatican documents leaked to the press in recent months have pointed to power struggles and accusations of corruption touching senior Vatican cardinals.(AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)The Vatican's inquisition into the source of leaked documents has yielded its first target with the arrest of the pope's butler, but the investigation is continuing into a scandal that has embarrassed the Holy See by revealing evidence of internal power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of the Catholic Church governance.

Egypt's top candidates try to broaden support

Posted: 26 May 2012 02:25 PM PDT

COMBO - This combination of two photos shows Egyptian presidential candidates, from left, Ahmed Shafiq, and Mohammed Morsi. Shafiq and Morsi were the top vote-getters after a two-day election on Wednesday and Thursday which none of the 13 candidates could win outright. Now, both must appeal to the roughly 50 percent of voters who cast ballots for someone else. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra; Nasser Nasser)The two surviving candidates in Egypt's presidential election appealed Saturday for support from voters who rejected them as polarizing extremists in the first round even as they faced a new challenge from the third runner-up who contested the preliminary results.

4 NATO service members killed in Afghanistan

Posted: 26 May 2012 09:33 PM PDT

Four NATO service members were killed in separate roadside bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Sunday.

Pakistan: US missile attack kills 4 in northwest

Posted: 26 May 2012 12:24 PM PDT

Oil tankers, which were used to transport NATO fuel supplies to Afghanistan, are parked in a compound in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, May 25, 2012. Pakistan's parliament has unanimously approved new guidelines for the country in its troubled relationship with the United States, a decision that could pave the way for the reopening of supply lines to NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)An American drone fired two missiles at a bakery in northwest Pakistan Saturday, killing four suspected militants, officials said, as the U.S. pushed ahead with its drone campaign despite Pakistani demands to stop. This was the third such strike in the country in less than a week.

Rebel groups merge in Mali, agree on Islamic state

Posted: 26 May 2012 02:55 PM PDT

The two rebel groups that seized control of the northern half of Mali announced Saturday that they have agreed to fuse their movements and work together to create an independent Islamic state on the territory they occupy, a signatory to the agreement said.

Iran: Enriched uranium traces a 'technical issue'

Posted: 26 May 2012 01:17 PM PDT

World powers negotiators arrive at the Baghdad International Airport in Iraq, Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Negotiators from the U.S. and five other world powers sat down Wednesday with a team of Iranian diplomats to try to hammer out specific goals in the years-long impasse over Tehran's nuclear program.(AP Photo/Mohammed Ameen, Pool)A top Iranian nuclear official said that traces of enriched uranium discovered at an underground bunker came from a "routine technical issue," the country's official IRNA news agency reported Saturday.

Havana sees US invasion at key art festival

Posted: 26 May 2012 11:55 AM PDT

A visitor takes a picture of "My Ark" by Cuban artist Ruben Alpizar at the San Carlos de La Cabana fortress as part of the 11th Havana Biennial exhibition in Havana, Cuba, Friday, May 25, 2012. The piece was bought by an American art collector during the month long art event. An unusually large delegation of American artists, curators, collectors and fans were accredited to attend the Biennial, organizers say. Unlike with other island goods, it's perfectly legal for Americans to buy Cuban art, which is covered under an exemption to the 50-year-old U.S. embargo allowing the purchase of Ruben Alpizar never met the American collector who fell in love with his painting of a plummeting Icarus against a starry background, hanging on the wall of a Spanish colonial-era fortress across the bay from Havana. Nor did he get a name or a hometown, or even learn whether the buyer was a man or a woman.

Iraqi president calls for dialogue to solve crisis

Posted: 26 May 2012 09:48 AM PDT

FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2007 file photo, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani talks to reporters in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq's president on Saturday, May 26, 2012 urged the nation's bickering factions to resolve the bitter political dispute that has gripped the government for nearly six months, warning that the crisis threatens to split the country.(AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban, Pool, File)Iraq's president on Saturday urged the nation's bickering factions to resolve the bitter political dispute that has gripped the government for nearly six months, warning that the crisis threatens to split the country.

Gunman kills 2, wounds 7 in Finland, then arrested

Posted: 26 May 2012 08:42 AM PDT

A body covered with a sheet lies on the street in Hyvinkaa, Finland, Saturday May 26, 2012. A gunman in southern Finland has killed one person and wounded eight others in what appeared to be a random shooting, police said Saturday. (AP Photo/Lehtikuva/Sari Gustafsson) FINLAND OUTAn 18-year-old gunman killed two people and wounded seven early Saturday in a random shooting in a southern Finnish town, police said.
Posted by Harshad at 1:40 AM

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