Saturday, July 21, 2012

Syrian forces attempt fight back after rebel surge

Syrian forces attempt fight back after rebel surge

Syrian forces attempt fight back after rebel surge

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 08:10 PM PDT

Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in YabroudBAB AL-HAWA, Syria/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian army helicopters pounded Damascus with rockets and heavy machine guns overnight, and tanks bombarded the capital from the ring road, to try to reverse relentless gains by rebels since much of President Bashar al-Assad's entourage was assassinated. The unprecedented rebel momentum of the past few days has fighters boasting that Assad's grip is being pried from the country his family has ruled since his father seized power in a coup 42 years ago. But he remains a fearsome foe. "The regime has been rudderless for last three days. ...

Japan probes under-reporting of Fukushima radiation dosage

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 11:55 PM PDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's health ministry said it would investigate reports that workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant were urged by a subcontractor to place lead around radiation detection devices in order to stay under a safety threshold for exposure. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Saturday that an executive from Build-Up, a subcontractor to plant owner Tokyo Electric Power, told workers to cover the devices called dosimeters when working in high-radiation areas. ...

IMF economist accuses Fund of suppressing information

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 09:34 PM PDT

Doyle, head of the IMF mission to Israel, shakes hands with Israel's Finance Minister Steinitz and Bank of Israel Governor Fischer after handing over its annual report on Israel, in JerusalemWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A veteran economist at the International Monetary Fund has accused the global lender of suppressing information on difficulties in dealing with the global financial meltdown and euro zone crisis. In a resignation letter to the IMF's board and senior staff, dated June 18, Peter Doyle said the IMF's failures in issuing timely warnings for both the 2007-2009 global financial crisis and the euro zone crisis were a "failing in the first order" and "are, if anything, becoming more deeply entrenched. ...

Second Japan nuclear unit resumes power generation

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 07:08 PM PDT

An aerial view shows Kansai Electric Power Co's Ohi nuclear power plant's No. 4 reactor in Ohi, Fukui prefecture, in this photo taken by KyodoTOKYO (Reuters) - Kansai Electric Power Co said its 1,180-megawatt No. 4 reactor at its Ohi nuclear plant resumed supplying electricity to the grid on Saturday, Japan's second nuclear unit to regain power since last year's Fukushima crisis led to the shutdown of all units. The move came three days after the unit was restarted, and the reactor is set to begin full-capacity power generation around July 25-28. Japan ended two months without nuclear power on July 5, when the Ohi No. ...

Bus bomber was not Bulgarian, minister says

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 04:48 AM PDT

Relatives mourn over the coffin of a victim killed in an attack in Bulgaria, during a ceremony near Tel AvivBURGAS, Bulgaria (Reuters) - The man who blew up a bus carrying Israeli tourists at a Bulgarian airport, killing himself and six others, was a foreign national and Sofia is trying to pin down details with the help of foreign spy services, the interior minister said on Friday. Israel has accused Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants of carrying out Wednesday's attack at Burgas airport, a popular gateway for tourists visiting Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. Iran has denied having any involvement. ...

In Israel, Romney to provide contrast with Obama

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 11:59 PM PDT

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at a Victory town hall in Bowling GreenWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will soon do something Barack Obama has yet to do as president - visit U.S. ally Israel, where he will try to present himself to voters back home as a credible replacement to Obama on the world stage. In the midst of a presidential campaign that is too close to call, Romney leaves on Wednesday for a week-long trip to attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in London and visit Israel and Poland. ...

Attack on Turkey-Iraq pipeline knocks out oil flows: report

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 10:33 PM PDT

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish authorities are blaming sabotage for a fire on a pipeline carrying petroleum from Iraq to Turkey's Mediterranean coast that cut oil flows late on Friday, NTV television said. The fire on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline erupted near the town of Midyat in southeastern Turkey, it said, citing the provincial governor. No one was immediately available at the governor's office or at the state pipeline operator Botas to confirm the report. ...

Glimmers of growth on Florida's Space Coast after shuttle shutdown

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 10:03 PM PDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Shuttles Bar & Grill, a once-popular roadside diner a few miles south of the Kennedy Space Center, is shuttered, and a "For Rent" sign is taped to the window of a bagel shop that used to serve space center workers an early bird breakfast. But a year after the United States ended NASA's space shuttle program, crippling communities around Cape Canaveral that had grown dependent on government contracts, private spaceflight and other ventures are starting to fill the void. ...

Exclusive: New York police link nine 2012 plots to Iran, proxies

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 07:26 AM PDT

Smoke is seen after a blast at Bulgaria's Burgas airportLONDON (Reuters) - New York police believe Iranian Revolutionary Guards or their proxies have been involved so far this year in nine plots against Israeli or Jewish targets around the world, according to restricted police documents obtained by Reuters. Reports prepared this week by intelligence analysts for the New York Police Department (NYPD) say three plots were foiled in January, three in February and another three since late June. Iran has repeatedly denied supporting militant attacks abroad. ...

Israelis bury 5 victims of Bulgaria attack

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 05:47 PM PDT

Israeli soldiers carry the coffins of people killed in a bombing in Bulgaria as the remains arrived back at an airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, July 20, 2012. A man carried out a deadly suicide attack on a bus full of Israeli vacationers on Wednesday in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas, a popular destination for Israeli tourist. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)Devastated mourners grasped at dirt atop fresh graves and screamed in agony Friday as they buried the five Israeli victims of a bombing in Bulgaria — an attack that Israel has blamed on Iran and its proxy group Hezbollah.

Analysis: Assad's grip on Syria has become tenuous

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 11:09 AM PDT

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, new Syrian defense minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij, second left, and Farouk Sharaa, Bashar Assad's vice president, center, attend the funeral processions of members of President Assad's inner circle, who were killed on Wednesday by a bomb, in Damascus, Syria, Friday, July 20, 2012. A bombing in Damascus claimed by Syrian rebels Wednesday killed key figures in President Bashar Assad's inner circle. (AP Photo/SANA)The Assad family's grip on Syria has never looked so tenuous.

Thousands flee as Syrian rebels wage guerrilla war

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 03:52 PM PDT

Syrians carry their belongings as they cross into Lebanon at the border crossing point in Masnaa, eastern Lebanon, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Damascus, Syria, Friday, July 20, 2012. Private cars as well as taxis and buses carried thousands of people fleeing the violence in the Syrian capital. Syrian troops regained control of a rebellious neighborhood in Damascus Friday as more than 300 people were reported killed the day before in a sharp escalation of the country's civil war. (AP Photo)Rebels pressed their guerrilla fight to topple Syria's regime deeper into the capital on Friday, ambushing troops and attacking police stations as thousands of terrified civilians fled to Lebanon and Iraq to escape some of the worst violence of the 16-month conflict.

Indian upheaval bares Colombia's nagging conflict

Posted: 21 Jul 2012 12:36 AM PDT

In this photo taken July 17, 2012, Nasa Indians charge on soldiers guarding communication towers on a hill in Toribio, southern Colombia. Indians forcibly dislodged six soldiers the outpost. Indians have demanded that security forces and leftist rebels stay off their ancestral land. The government rejected the demand alleging the area is a corridor for cocaine smuggling and rebels have infiltrated the Indians' ranks. (AP Photo/William Fernando Martinez)One of the stiffest blows in years to the prestige of Colombia's military wasn't inflicted by its leftist rebel foes and didn't claim a single soldier's life.

UN approves last 30 days for UN observers in Syria

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 01:44 PM PDT

In this photo taken during a government-organized tour, Syrian soldiers stand next to burned cars after they regained control of the district of Midan, in the southern part of Damascus, Syria, Friday, July 20, 2012. Syrian troops and tanks on Friday drove rebels from a Damascus neighborhood where some of the heaviest of this week's fighting in the capital left cars gutted and fighters' bodies in the streets. Hundreds of people were killed in a single day, activists said, as the military struggles to regain momentum after a stunning bombing against the regime's leadership. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday renewing the 300-strong U.N. observer force in Syria for 30 days, leaving the door open for a possible extension if the government stops using heavy weapons and the escalating violence is reduced significantly.

Iraqis flee Syria in droves by land and air

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 01:52 PM PDT

Iraqi soldiers patrol along the border between Syria and Iraq in Qaim, located in the Euphrates river valley 200 miles (320 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, July 20, 2012. Syrian rebels maintained control for a second day of the crossing at the Iraqi border town of Qaim on Friday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)Thousands of Iraqi nationals have fled by land and air from Syria over the last two days to escape an escalating civil war, officials said Friday, as Iraqi troops were rushed to seal the border across from a post seized by rebels. Baghdad's prime minister called for the U.N. to help protect the refugees and get them home.

Chavez's gasoline rationing plan causes uproar

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 03:11 PM PDT

FILE- In this Jan. 29, 2008 file photo, a Colombian vendor of smuggled gasoline from Venezuela, waits for clients on a a street corner in Cucuta, Colombia. As home to the world's cheapest gasoline, Venezuela has long had to contend with the hemorrhaging of supplies as smugglers haul gas across the border to cash in where the fuel costs far more. In neighboring Colombia, drivers pay 40 times as much as Venezuelans to tank up — $1.25 a liter ($4.73 a gallon), compared to 3 U.S. cents a liter (11 cents a gallon). (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)As home to the world's cheapest gasoline, Venezuela has long had to contend with the hemorrhaging of supplies as smugglers haul gas across the border to cash in where the fuel costs far more.

Anti-Putin feminist punks on trial in Moscow

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 12:40 PM PDT

From left, Yekaterina Samutsevich, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina, members of feminist punk group Pussy Riot sit behind bars at a court room in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 20, 2012. The trial of feminist punk rockers who chanted a "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin from a pulpit inside Russia's largest cathedral started in Moscow on Friday amid controversy over the prank that divided devout believers, Kremlin critics and ordinary Russians. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)A Moscow court on Friday launched the trial of three feminist rockers who face a possible seven years in prison for performing a "punk prayer" against Vladimir Putin from the pulpit of Russia's largest cathedral.

North Korea speculation rampant in Seoul

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 09:08 PM PDT

FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2011 file photo, new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, flanked by Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and the ceremonial head of state, right, and Ri Yong Ho, vice marshal and general staff chief of the Korean People's Army, presides over a national memorial service for his late father Kim Jong Il at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea. The July 16, 2012 announcement that Ri, the country's most powerful military official, had been dismissed due to The surprise news set off a predictable wildfire of speculation and rumors south of the border.

Rights group: Drop cases against Oman activists

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 10:58 PM PDT

An international human rights group is appealing to Oman to halt the prosecution of 10 people, including prominent bloggers, convicted of insulting the nation's ruler.
Posted by Harshad at 1:32 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)