Saturday, June 23, 2012

Syria downs Turkish jet, Ankara to act decisively

Syria downs Turkish jet, Ankara to act decisively

Syria downs Turkish jet, Ankara to act decisively

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:35 PM PDT

File photo of Turkish Air Force F-4 war plane during a military exercise in IzmirANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria shot down a Turkish warplane over the Mediterranean on Friday and Ankara warned it would respond decisively to the incident that threatened to open a new international dimension in the 16-month revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria said the Turkish aircraft was flying low, well inside Syrian territorial waters when it was shot down. With the second biggest army in NATO, a force hardened by nearly 30 years of fighting Kurdish rebels, Turkey would be a formidable foe for the Syrian army which is already struggling to put down a 16-month-old ...

Protest in Tahrir Square as Egypt waits for president

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:42 PM PDT

Protesters demonstrate at Tahrir Square in Cairo(Reuters) - Egyptians packed Tahrir Square in Cairo through the night on Saturday, waving flags and chanting for the end of military rule as they waited to know the name of the first president they have been free to choose. After a week of drama, in which the Muslim Brotherhood's hopes of victory in the presidential election were soured by the army dissolving the Islamist-led parliament and decreeing tight limits on the new head of state's powers, there was anxiety on the streets, but also some hope a compromise could be found. ...

Bomb explodes in Nigeria capital, no casualties-agency

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 01:00 AM PDT

ABUJA (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside a nightclub popular with foreigners and wealthy Nigerians in the capital Abuja late on Friday but no one was injured, an emergency agency said. The blast shattered windows in nearby buildings and damaged six luxury vehicles, said an emailed statement from National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib, sent on Saturday. Authorities suspected the bomb was planted on a tree outside the Kryxtal Lounge club, the statement added. ...

Israel bombs Hamas security targets in Gaza: officials

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 05:39 PM PDT

Palestinians carry the body of militant Basil Ahmed during his funeral in the Gaza StripGAZA (Reuters) - Israel launched air raids early on Saturday against three Hamas security targets in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least 17 people, Hamas medical officials said. Israel had no immediate comment on the strikes, which occurred as Gaza militants fired rockets at Israel, causing no casualties, suggesting the raids were in retribution for the shootings. The officials in Gaza said Israel attacked security targets in Gaza City and also in northern and southern parts of the crowded coastal territory. ...

Mexico admits mistake in high-profile drug case

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:04 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Friday admitted it had mistakenly claimed to have captured a son of Mexico's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, which the ruling party had hailed as a major victory in its war on cartels. Mexican marines seized the man on Thursday outside Guadalajara and flew him to Mexico City, where they paraded him in front of the media and identified him as Jesus Alfredo Guzman, alias "El Gordo" or "The Fat One. ...

Paraguay's leftist president ousted by Congress

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:18 PM PDT

Supporters of Paraguayan President Lugo wait outside the Congress building, before Lugo's impeachment in AsuncionASUNCION (Reuters) - Paraguay's Congress removed President Fernando Lugo from office on Friday after a lightning-quick impeachment that he said was tantamount to a coup but pledged to accept. Lugo, a silver-haired former Roman Catholic bishop who quit the Church to run for president, was found guilty of mishandling armed clashes over a land eviction in which 17 police and peasant farmers were killed last week. ...

Colombia justice minister resigns over controversial reform

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:07 PM PDT

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's justice minister resigned on Friday over a controversial reform measure into which lawmakers have slipped provisions that could dismiss cases against politicians with links to right-wing paramilitary groups and allow others to go free. The scandal erupted after congressmen changed a bill aimed at modernizing the overburdened legal system during the reconciliation of the Senate and House drafts - raising questions about the lingering influence of illegal armed groups. President Juan Manuel Santos sent the legislation back to Congress on Friday. ...

Nigeria's president sacks defense chiefs

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 02:09 PM PDT

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan sacked his defense minister and national security adviser on Friday, but gave no reason for the move, after several months of violence by Islamist sect Boko Haram across the country. "The president has relieved the NSA (national security adviser Owoye Azazi) of his job and replaced him with Colonel Sambo Dasuki," said presidency spokesman, Reuben Abati. "The president has also sacked the minister of defense (Bello Mohammed) and will announce his replacement later. ...

ICC expresses "regret" over staff held in Libya

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:56 PM PDT

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) has expressed regret to Libyan authorities in what seemed to come close to an apology designed to secure the release of four ICC employees detained in the country. Libyan officials said last week they may consider releasing ICC lawyer Melinda Taylor and three of her colleagues if the court apologized over allegations that she had attempted to carry sensitive documents to Saif al Islam Gaddafi, who is wanted for war crimes. ...

Hamas entrenched in Gaza after 5 years of rule

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 12:00 AM PDT

Palestinian security police officers secure the main beach as people bathe in the Mediterranean sea in Gaza City, Friday, June 22, 2012. In five years, the Islamist group Hamas has established a functioning but authoritarian and highly entrenched statelet with a strong Islamic flavor in Gaza. Having come to power as a "clean" alternative to corrupt secular rivals, the Palestinian Islamists have lost much of that luster among Gazans who are even poorer and even more despondent now. It's an embarrassment for their parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, as it vies for power in a tense electoral standoff in neighboring Egypt. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)In five years of rule in the Gaza Strip, Hamas has established a functioning, authoritarian mini-state with a strong Islamic flavor, so firmly in control that nothing short of an unlikely Israeli military takeover seems capable of dislodging the militants.

Ouster of Paraguay's president sparks criticism

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Paraguay's Vice President Federico Franco holds his hand over a bible held by his wife, lawmaker Emila Alfaro, as he is sworn-in as the nation's new president at Congress in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, June 22, 2012. Franco was promptly sworn in as president after Paraguay's Senate voted to remove President Fernando Lugo from office in an impeachment trial. (AP Photo/Cesar Olmedo)President Fernando Lugo's rapid impeachment and ouster by lawmakers has plunged Paraguay into crisis and unleashed a wave of criticism by fellow leftist leaders in Latin America.

Palestinians push Nativity church as Heritage site

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:36 PM PDT

In this Friday, Dec. 24, 2010 file photo, a cross is seen backdropped by the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, during a Christmas parade in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is becoming the church of contention with an unwelcome bid by the Palestinians to use their muscle as the newest members of the U.N.'s cultural arm and obtain World Heritage status for the iconic Christian site (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi, File)The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is becoming the church of contention, with a bid by the Palestinians to use their position as the newest members of the U.N.'s cultural arm to obtain World Heritage status for the iconic Christian site — and perhaps boost their own campaign for legitimacy.

Rio+20, the unhappy environmental summit

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 12:13 AM PDT

Activists push an inflatable globe during a "Global March" as part of the People's Summit for Social and Environmental Justice in Defense of the Commons, a parallel event during the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, June 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)Nobody is happy in Rio.

Syria says it shot down Turkish air force jet

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:15 PM PDT

Syria said Friday it shot down a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian air space, and Turkey vowed to "determinedly take necessary steps" in response.

Olympic torch becomes cultural happening in UK

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 05:13 PM PDT

FILE - This is a Wednesday May 23, 2012 file photo made available by LOCOG shows Britain's Queens Elizabeth's grand-daughter Zara Phillips carrying the Olympic Flame at the end of day 5 of the torch relay at Cheltenham Racecourse in Cheltenham England. Spectators have stood in the rain and wind, in doorways and on sidewalks, along country lanes and beside superhighways, just hoping for a glimpse of a lone runner, torch in hand, flame held high. It's been on horseback. It's traveled on a balloon. It's been on boats, planes, trains. (AP Photo/Joe Giddens/LOCOG, File)Sgt. Richard Clement plowed up Dickson Road on Friday, the Olympic torch attached to the side of his wheelchair, flame burning despite pouring rain.

Syrian government accuses rebels of mass killing

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:23 PM PDT

Kofi Annan, Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League for Syria, speaks during a press briefing speaks during a press briefing at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, June 22, 2012. Annan says he believes Iran should be involved in efforts to end the violence in Syria. He says he is working to convene a so-called `contact group' meeting on Syria in Geneva on June 30. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)An online video showed more than a dozen bloodied corpses, some of them piled atop each other and in military uniforms, dumped beside a road in northern Syria in what the government Friday called a mass killing by rebel forces.

Taliban gunmen lay siege to Afghan hotel, 18 dead

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:39 PM PDT

Afghan soldiers stand next to the body of a militant at the Spozhmai hotel on Lake Qurgha where security officials say Taliban insurgents have killed nearly two dozen people, most of them civilians, in an attack just north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June, 22, 2012. It was the latest in a string of attacks this week that suggest the insurgent group is pushing hard with its summer offensive rather than waiting for international forces to draw down. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)Heavily armed Taliban gunmen stormed a lakeside hotel near Kabul, sending terrified guests jumping from windows or into a lake to try to escape the onslaught. Eighteen people were killed in the 12-hour rampage, their bullet-riddled bodies strewn on carpets, on the lawn and a blood-smeared patio.

Breivik ends massacre trial by defending attacks

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 02:39 PM PDT

Terror charged Anders Behring Breivik seen in court in Oslo, Friday, June 22, 2012. On the last day of his trial, Anders Behring Breivik's defense lawyers on Friday tried to cast the confessed mass killer as a political militant motivated by an extreme right-wing ideology rather than a delusional madman who killed 77 people for the sake of killing. (AP Photo/Heiko Junge/pool)With a rambling monologue depicting Norway's worst peacetime massacre as a necessary evil, confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik got the last word as his 10-week trial ended Friday amid conflicting claims about his sanity.

Ecuador's quandary over asylum for WikiLeaks chief

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:29 PM PDT

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa gestures during meeting about the Yasuni-ITT Initiative at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, June 20, 2012. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, holed up at Ecuador's embassy in London, is seeking political asylum in the South American nation. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)President Rafael Correa's objections to what he deems American interventionism in Latin America and his delight in Julian Assange's massive uncorking of U.S. secrets appear to have persuaded the WikiLeaks chief that Ecuador offers his best shot at avoiding extradition to Sweden.
Posted by Harshad at 1:15 AM

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