Saturday, August 18, 2012

Egypt's Mursi accused of stifling dissent in media crackdown

Egypt's Mursi accused of stifling dissent in media crackdown

Egypt's Mursi accused of stifling dissent in media crackdown

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 01:43 PM PDT

Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi attends a meeting with Defence Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Vice President Mahmoud Mekky and members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces at the presidential palace in CairoCAIRO (Reuters) - A media crackdown in the first month of Mohamed Mursi's rule has raised fears Egypt's Islamist president is moving to stifle criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood. This week, formal accusations by state prosecutors were filed against two journalists, while an issue of the newspaper al-Dostour was confiscated by the state's censorship unit - disappointing those who believed last year's overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak would lead to greater media freedom. ...

Russian judge finds punk rock band members guilty

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 01:19 PM PDT

Members of the female punk band "Pussy Riot" sit in a glass-walled cage after a court hearing in MoscowMOSCOW (Reuters) - Three women from the Russian punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in jail on Friday for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a church, a ruling supporters described as his "personal revenge". The group's backers burst into chants of "Shame" outside the Moscow courthouse and said the case showed Putin was cracking down on dissent in his new six-year term as president. Dozens were detained by police when scuffles broke out. ...

Hezbollah says can kill tens of thousands of Israelis

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 11:28 AM PDT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah said on Friday it could kill tens of thousands of Israelis by hitting targets with what it described as precision-guided missiles in a declaration that seemed aimed at deterring Israeli strikes on Lebanon or its regional backer Iran. Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his group could turn the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis "to real hell" by hitting a small number of number of targets which he said was "not large" - a possible reference to nuclear facilities, though Nasrallah would not go into details. ...

China's Wen urges North Korea to let the market help revamp economy

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 09:49 PM PDT

China's Premier Wen attends a meeting with Uruguayan Vice-President and President of the Congress Astori, during a visit to the Congress building in MontevideoSHANGHAI (Reuters) - Premier Wen Jiabao encouraged North Korea to allow "market mechanisms" help revamp its economy, state media said on Saturday, and laid down other pre-conditions as China tries to wean its impoverished ally off its dependence on Chinese aid. Wen's comments followed his meeting with Jang Song-thaek, the powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Beijing on Friday. Jang is the highest-profile North Korean official to visit China since Kim power in December 2011. ...

Assange saga clouds freedom of speech agenda

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 09:54 AM PDT

A protestor holds a poster of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange outside Ecuador's embassy in LondonLONDON (Reuters) - Julian Assange's supporters outside the London embassy where he is confined say he is being persecuted for speaking truth to power, but free speech campaigners further afield say the WikiLeaks founder has lost his way and damaged the cause. The Australian has been seeking refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy for eight weeks to avoid extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of rape. ...

Iran's Ahmadinejad says no place for Israel in new Middle East

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 04:05 AM PDT

Iran's President Ahmadinejad arrives at the opening ceremony of the OIC summit in MeccaDUBAI (Reuters) - Many thousands of Iranians shouted "Death to America, death to Israel" during state-organized protests on Friday and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told them there was no place for the Jewish state in a future Middle East. Iran, penalized by tough Western sanctions, faces the threat of an Israeli or U.S. military strike on its disputed nuclear facilities. With popular uprisings reshaping the region, the Islamic Republic is also trying to prevent the overthrow of its closest Arab ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. ...

Japan sends back Chinese activists in bid to defuse island row

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 08:39 AM PDT

Activists Koo Sze-yiu and Fang Xiao-song, who are part of the group of Chinese activists who went to the disputed Senkuki or Diaoyu islands, hold a Chinese national flag in front of a banner as they arrive at Hong Kong airportTOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan on Friday sent home the first group of Chinese activists detained after landing on an island claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing, a move China welcomed but at the same time warned its neighbor against any further escalation in tension. Japan and China, Asia's two largest economies, have been at odds since the activists were detained on Wednesday after using a boat to land on the rocky, uninhabited isles known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. ...

German troops can be deployed on home soil, court rules

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 04:41 PM PDT

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's armed forces can carry out combat operations on home soil in case of a threat of "catastrophic proportions", the country's highest court ruled on Friday. However troops cannot be mobilized against demonstrators, the constitutional court said. The military had previously only been able to act in a similar way to the police in domestic disaster situations but will now be able to use combat weapons. "This only affects exceptional situations of catastrophic proportions," the court said in its ruling. ...

Tropical storm heads for landfall on Mexican coast

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 12:47 AM PDT

After forming close to shore, Tropical Storm Helene headed north along Mexico's Gulf coast early Saturday posing a threat to areas where thousands of people were still recovering from flooding spawned last week by Hurricane Ernesto.

Activists get 2 years for anti-Putin church stunt

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 02:14 PM PDT

FILE In this Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012 file photo feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia. Three members of Pussy Riot were jailed in March and charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after their punk performance against President Putin in Moscow's main cathedral. Theyare awaiting the verdict on Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, file)Three punk rock-style activists who briefly took over a cathedral in a raucous prayer for deliverance from Vladimir Putin were sentenced to two years in prison for hooliganism on Friday, a decision that drew protests around the world as it highlighted the Russian president's intensifying crackdown on dissent.

Iran: Israel's existence 'insult to all humanity'

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 08:27 PM PDT

Israel's existence is an "insult to all humanity," Iran's president said Friday in one of his sharpest attacks yet against the Jewish state, as Israel openly debates whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program.

In UK threat to Ecuador, experts see mistake

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 11:35 PM PDT

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2012 file photo, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, arrives at the Supreme Court in London. It has been two months since Assange ducked into Ecuador's London embassy to seek political asylum, and as the stalemate over Assange settled in Friday, Aug. 17, 2012, it appeared London's veiled threat that it could storm Ecuador's embassy and drag Assange out has backfired — drawing supporters to the mission where the WikiLeaks founder is holed up and prompting angry denunciations from Ecuador and elsewhere. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)It was a warning meant to remind Ecuador that Britain's patience has limits. But as the stalemate over Julian Assange settled, it appeared London's veiled threat that it could storm Ecuador's embassy and drag Assange out has backfired — drawing supporters to the mission where the WikiLeaks founder is holed up and prompting angry denunciations from Ecuador and elsewhere.

Syria fighting deeply scars Aleppo neighborhoods

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 02:31 PM PDT

A Syrian man grieves over the bodies of four members of his family, who were killed when an airstrike hit their house, as they lie on the side of the street outside a field hospital in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. Rebel footholds in Aleppo have been the target of weeks of Syrian shelling and air attacks as part of wider offensives by President Bashar Assad's regime. Rebels have been driven from some areas, but the report of clashes near the airport suggests the battles could be shifting to new fronts.(AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)Entire neighborhoods of Syria's largest city bear battle scars: buildings toppled by government shells, charred tanks blown up by rebels and trash-strewn no-man's lands where neither side has full control after nearly a month of deadly street battles.

S. African leader vows probe into police shootings

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 03:55 PM PDT

An unidentified woman protests against the police near a shooting scene at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. Police chief Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega says 34 miners died and another 78 were wounded when police opened fire on strikers in one of the worst police shootings in South Africa since apartheid. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)President Jacob Zuma rushed home from a regional summit Friday and announced an official inquiry into a police shooting of striking miners that left 34 dead and 78 wounded, an incident that police claimed was self-defense despite video recordings suggesting the protesters were not attacking them but running from clouds of tear gas.

Suicide car bomber kills 5 Pakistani troops

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 11:23 PM PDT

A Pakistani official says a suicide car bomber has killed five security troops at a road checkpoint in the country's volatile southwest.

Assange faces boredom, stress inside embassy

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 07:12 AM PDT

British police officers stand guard outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012 after Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino announced that he had granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He's won asylum in Ecuador, but Julian Assange is no closer to getting there. The dramatic decision by the Latin American nation to identify the WikiLeaks founder as a political refugee is a symbolic boost for the embattled ex-hacker, but legal experts say that does little to help him avoid extradition to Sweden — and does much to drag Britain and Ecuador into a contentious international faceoff. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)Julian Assange lives in a pricey building in one of London's toniest districts. But he is not staying in the lap of luxury.

Guantanamo plea deal prisoner said to have a cat

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 10:10 AM PDT

A former Maryland resident who is detained at Guantanamo Bay seems to have acquired a cat at the isolated prison on a U.S. base in Cuba, a fellow prisoner says in a letter released Friday.

Infiltration or bad blood behind Afghan attacks?

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 03:41 PM PDT

The U.S. military trainers handed the new recruit, Mohammad Ismail, his AK-47 to defend his remote Afghan village. He turned around and immediately used it, spraying the Americans with bullets and killing two — the latest of nine U.S. service personnel gunned down in two weeks by their supposed Afghan allies.
Posted by Harshad at 1:10 AM

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