Friday, July 6, 2012

Long road ahead in U.S.-Pakistan ties after NATO deal

Long road ahead in U.S.-Pakistan ties after NATO deal

Long road ahead in U.S.-Pakistan ties after NATO deal

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 11:53 AM PDT

Supporters of Islami Jamiat Talaba, a student wing of Pakistan religious and political party Jamaat-e-Islami, hold their party flags as they burn tyres on the road during an anti-American demonstration in PeshawarISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan and the United States are set to resume broader talks on security cooperation, militant threats, aid and other issues in the wake of an agreement to reopen supply routes into Afghanistan, Pakistan's envoy to Washington said on Thursday. But bridging underlying differences that strained U.S.-Pakistani ties close to the breaking point will be daunting as the allies remain at odds over how to handle the twin threats of the Taliban in Afghanistan and militants in Pakistani tribal areas. ...

Defection cheers anti-Assad coalition at Paris meet

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 11:52 PM PDT

Members of the Free Syrian Army pray in SarmadaPARIS (Reuters) - Reports of the defection of a general who is a personal friend of Bashar al-Assad will cheer the Syrian leader's enemies at a meeting in Paris on Friday of the Western and Arab states that want to drive him from power. A source in the exiled opposition said Manaf Tlas, a brigade commander in Assad's Republican Guard, was on his way to Paris where the "Friends of Syria" group of states opposed to Assad was due to meet. He has family there. ...

Mexican vote recount confirms Pena Nieto win

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 06:13 PM PDT

Mexico's President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto meets with the foreign press in Mexico CityMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A recount on Thursday showed Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto as the clear winner of Sunday's presidential election, but the runner-up still refused to concede, alleging Pena Nieto's party bought millions of votes. The results set up a return to power for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000, when it was frequently accused of vote-rigging. With 99 percent of polling stations counted or recounted, Pena Nieto held 38.2 percent of the vote, 6.7 points ahead of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. ...

Japan's atomic disaster due to "collusion:" panel report

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 10:55 AM PDT

Members of the media and TEPCO employees, wearing protective suits and masks, walk in front of the No. 4 reactor building at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefectureTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Fukushima nuclear crisis was a preventable disaster resulting from "collusion" among the government, regulators and the plant operator, an expert panel said on Thursday, wrapping up an inquiry into the worst nuclear accident in 25 years. Damage from the huge March 11, 2011, earthquake, and not just the ensuing tsunami, could not be ruled out as a cause of the accident, the panel added, a finding with serious potential implications as Japan seeks to bring idled reactors on line. ...

Nervous Libyans ready for first taste of democracy

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 12:26 PM PDT

Electoral workers arrange polling materials at a polling station in TripoliTRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyans will vote in their first free national poll in more than half a century on Saturday amid fears that violence could taint an election meant to usher in a temporary national assembly and draw a line under Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year autocratic reign. Voters will select a 200-member assembly that will choose a cabinet to replace the self-appointed interim government and also pick a new prime minister. Many of the 3,700 candidates have strong Islamic agendas. The chamber was also due to appoint a committee charged with drafting a new constitution. ...

Training flaws exposed in Rio-Paris crash report

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 10:50 AM PDT

Jean-Paul Troadec, head of the Investigation and Analysis Bureau, and Alain Bouillard, investigator-in-charge of the BEA, attend a news conference at the BEA headquarters in Le BourgetPARIS (Reuters) - Pilot error, defective sensors, inadequate training and insufficient oversight combined to send an Air France passenger plane plunging into the south Atlantic in 2009 in the airline's worst disaster, French investigators said on Thursday. The final report on the Rio-Paris Airbus A330 crash that killed 228 people went further than expected in castigating the air safety establishment, saying France's flag carrier was subject to less inspection than smaller rivals. ...

Key Argentine "Dirty War" figures jailed for baby thefts

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 04:25 PM PDT

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Three key figures from Argentina's "Dirty War" got hefty jail terms for the systematic theft of babies from political prisoners during the 1976-1983 dictatorship, an Argentine court ruled on Thursday. The missing children - stolen from their parents and illegally adopted, often by military families - are one of the most painful legacies of the crackdown on leftist dissent in which rights groups say up to 30,000 people were killed. Just over 100 of the children have discovered their true identities, but many families are still searching more than three decades later. ...

Myanmar detains Thai villagers in unclear border area

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 10:29 PM PDT

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's army has detained 75 Thai villagers suspected of encroaching on Myanmar soil in an area where the border is not properly demarcated, a Thai deputy prime minister said on Friday. The villagers were rounded up by Myanmar soldiers on Wednesday night from land by Kra Buri district in Ranong province, 570 km (350 miles) southwest of the Thai capital, Bangkok, Yutthasak Sasiprapa told a news conference. "We are in discussions with Myanmar to find a way out of this situation. ...

Japan's government could run out of cash by October

Posted: 06 Jul 2012 12:50 AM PDT

Japan's Finance Minister Jun Azumi gestures during news conference in ManilaTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government could run out of money by the end of October, halting all state spending including salaries, pensions and unemployment benefits, because of a standoff in parliament that has blocked a bill to finance the deficit. The deficit financing bill, which would allow the government to sell bonds needed to fund almost half of the budget, has languished in parliament as the ruling Democratic Party tussles with opposition parties that can use their control of the upper house to reject legislation. ...

US objects to SKorean whaling plan

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 09:39 PM PDT

The United States says it doesn't support a South Korean plan to restart whale hunting for purportedly scientific purposes.

Pena Nieto's win confirmed by Mexico vote count

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 10:43 PM PDT

Election officials and party representatives recount votes at an electoral institute district council in Mexico City, Thursday, July 5, 2012. Of the 143,000 ballot boxes used during last Sunday's general elections, 78,012, or more than half of the total, will be opened and the votes recounted, according to Mexican electoral officials. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)Mexico took a big step toward resolving its contested presidential election with the official confirmation of the victory by Enrique Pena Nieto, the candidate seeking to return the former autocratic ruling party to power after a 12-year hiatus.

UN council threatens sanctions on Mali fighters

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 05:56 PM PDT

The U.N. Security Council threatened sanctions against Islamist fighters in northern Mali and condemned the destruction of sacred tombs in the ancient city of Timbuktu, but did not authorize an intervention force in a resolution passed Thursday.

Tokyo conference crucial to future Afghan aid

Posted: 06 Jul 2012 12:18 AM PDT

In this Thursday, July 5, 2012 photo, Afghan students pass their mid- year school examinations under a tent at the Mirbachakot high school on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghanistan will seek at least $4 billion from international donors this weekend at a crucial aid conference aimed at propping up the country after most foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)Afghanistan will seek at least $4 billion from international donors this weekend at a crucial aid conference aimed at propping up the country after most foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014.

First NATO supply trucks cross Pakistan border

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 12:45 PM PDT

Pakistani border guards stand alert at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Chaman, Pakistan, Thursday, July 5, 2012. The first truck carrying supplies to American and NATO troops in Afghanistan has crossed the Pakistani border after a seven-month long closure of the supply routes by Pakistan ended earlier this week. (AP Photo/Matiullah Achakzai)Trucks carrying NATO supplies rolled into Afghanistan for the first time in more than seven months Thursday, ending a painful chapter in U.S.-Pakistan relations that saw the border closed until Washington apologized for an airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Aide: Palestinian leader wants more on Arafat

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 11:23 AM PDT

FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004 file photo, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat pauses during an emergency cabinet session, at his compound, in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Yasser Arafat's body may be exhumed to allow for more testing of the causes of his death, the Palestinian president said Wednesday, July 4, 2012, after a Swiss lab said it found elevated levels of a radioactive isotope in belongings the Palestinian leader is said to have used in his final days.(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)Digging up Yasser Arafat's bones may offer the best shot at learning if the legendary Palestinian leader was poisoned, as many of his old comrades-in-arms claim, but Palestinian officials signaled Thursday they're not rushing into an autopsy.

Emiratis want crackdown on women's skimpy dress

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 11:32 PM PDT

In this photo taken Saturday, June 23, 2012, Women of different nationalities walk at the Jumeirah Beach Residence Walk in Dubai , United Arab Emirates. As the numbers of foreigners have increased, so have the stories of them violating the UAE's strict indecency code which limits drinking to bars and nightclubs and bans public displays of affection. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)With the number of foreigners dwarfing that of locals in her hometown of Abu Dhabi, Asma al-Muhairi has become increasingly anxious at the prospect of her younger nieces abandoning their full-length black robes in favor of Western attire that seems to be everywhere she goes.

What is polonium-210 and how can it kill?

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 04:52 PM PDT

FILE - A Friday, May 10, 2002 photo from files showing Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy and author of the book "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within" photographed at his home in London. Polonium first hit the headlines when it was used to kill KGB agent-turned-Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. This week, Yasser Arafat's widow has called for the late Palestinian leader's body to be exhumed after scientists in Switzerland found elevated traces of radioactive polonium-210 on clothing he allegedly wore before his death in 2004. (AP Photo/Alistair Fuller, File)Polonium first hit the headlines when it was used to kill KGB agent-turned-Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Iraq warns al-Qaida flowing into Syria

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 11:52 AM PDT

Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari speaks at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, July 5, 2012. Zebari says the government has "solid information and intelligence" about al-Qaida militants infiltrating Syria from Iraq to carry out attacks. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)Iraq asserted Thursday that al-Qaida insurgents are streaming out of the country to carry out attacks in Syria, an ominous development as the Syrian conflict enflames an already hostile region.

US, partners to push for global sanctions on Assad

Posted: 05 Jul 2012 04:22 PM PDT

This citizen journalist image provided by Shaam News Network and taken on Tuesday, July 3, 2012, purports to show a protest against violence by the Syrian government, in a suburb of Damascus, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS PICTURE.The United States and its European and Arab partners will threaten the Assad regime with global sanctions if it fails to quickly implement a Syrian peace plan that includes the appointment of a new interim government, U.S. officials said Thursday on the eve of an 80-nation conference.
Posted by Harshad at 1:12 AM

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