| Securing Syria chemical weapons may take tens of thousands of troops Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:48 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies are discussing a worst-case scenario that could require tens of thousands of ground troops to go into Syria to secure chemical and biological weapons sites following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's government, according to U.S. and diplomatic officials. These secret discussions assume that all of Assad's security forces disintegrate, leaving chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria vulnerable to pillaging. ...
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| China to issue verdict in Gu murder case on Monday: court Posted: 17 Aug 2012 12:16 AM PDT  SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese court will give a verdict on Monday on Gu Kailai, the Chinese politician's wife tried for murdering a British businessman, triggering a scandal that shook the ruling Communist Party. There seems little doubt Gu will be pronounced guilty by the court in Hefei, a city in central China, after she admitted at her trial on August 9 to colluding with a family aide, Zhang Xiaojun, to poison businessman Neil Heywood over a business dispute that she said prompted him to threaten her son. "The verdicts for Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun will be announced at 9 a.m. ...
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| China's Hu gives show of support for North Korea Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:55 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's President Hu Jintao on Friday met the powerful uncle of North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un, in a clear show of support for the impoverished ally as it takes tentative steps to rebuild its shattered economy. The uncle, Jang song-thaek, is seen as a driving force for reforms which the isolated and destitute North is believed to be trying and for which it desperately needs Chinese backing. ...
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| More than 30 died in South Africa mine crackdown: police Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:30 PM PDT  MARIKANA, South Africa (Reuters) - Heavily armed South African police patrolled Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on Friday, where more than 30 striking miners were killed the previous day in a police crackdown that drew comparisons with apartheid-era brutality. After more than 12 hours of official silence, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa confirmed that at least 30 people had died in the security operation at the mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. Police opened fire with automatic weapons when 3,000 striking drill operators armed with machetes and sticks ignored orders to ...
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| Indian PM moves to cool panic as thousands flee cities Posted: 17 Aug 2012 12:22 AM PDT  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's prime minister assured migrants from the northeast of the country that they were safe as thousands continued to flee from Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities on Friday, fearing a backlash from violence against Muslims in Assam state. Railway authorities have laid on extra trains from Bangalore and other cities this week for the two-day journey back to Assam in the northeast. Some media reports said that by Friday as many as 15,000 people had left cities in the south and west, including Mumbai and Pune. "What is at stake is the unity of our country. ...
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| Taliban leader urges insurgents to cut civilian deaths Posted: 17 Aug 2012 12:08 AM PDT KABUL (Reuters) - Reclusive Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has urged insurgent fighters to "emphatically" avoid civilian deaths after a swathe of suicide bombings this week that killed 63 people, but said militants had successfully infiltrated security forces. In a message to the Afghan people ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival ending the holy Ramadan fasting month, the one-eyed leader said insurgents should "employ tactics that do not cause harm to life and property of the common countrymen". ... |
| Japan to send back Chinese sea activists to avoid row Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:41 PM PDT  TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan is to send home 14 Chinese activists who were detained after some of them landed on an island claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing, but sour notes from Beijing and South Korea showed the latest flare-ups in territorial disputes were far from over. 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. ...
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| U.N. monitors quit, saying Syrians choose "path of war" Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:47 PM PDT  BEIRUT/ALEPPO (Reuters) - Syria's government and rebels have "chosen the path of war", a U.N. peacekeeping chief said as the world body ended its doomed monitoring mission to Damascus and deadlock persists among world powers over how to contain the spreading conflict. Two weeks after former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan quit as mediator in frustration with the failure of a four-month-old truce, military observers have no peace on the ground to monitor and U.N. officials said on Thursday the last of the few dozen remaining team members would quit Damascus by August 24. ...
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| Four dead in pub fire on Thai holiday island of Phuket Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:12 PM PDT BANGKOK (Reuters) - Four people died and at least 11 were injured in a fire early on Friday in a bar on the island of Phuket, police said, adding to recent incidents that have tarnished the reputation of one of Thailand's premier tourist destinations. The dead included two women and one man but police said the bodies were too badly burnt to identify. Four French nationals were among the injured, one of them seriously ill in hospital. The Tiger Pub on Patong beach, which also houses a discotheque, was reported to be close to collapse after the fire, which broke out shortly before 4 a.m. ... |
| Ecuador grants asylum to Assange, angering Britain Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:24 PM PDT  LONDON/QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange on Thursday, a day after it said Britain had threatened to raid the Ecuadorean embassy in London to arrest the former hacker. Britain has said it is determined to extradite him to Sweden, where he is accused of rape and sexual assault. Assange fears he will ultimately be sent to the United States which is furious that his WikiLeaks website has leaked hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic and military cables. ...
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| Attack shows need for Pakistani Taliban offensive Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:49 PM PDT  The Pakistani Taliban's brazen attack on a major air force base near the capital underscores the need for the Pakistani army's planned offensive against the group in its last major sanctuary along the Afghan border.
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| Ecuador grants asylum to WikiLeaks' Assange Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:19 AM PDT  Ecuador said Thursday that it was granting asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a decision that thrilled supporters but will do little to defuse the standoff at the Latin American nation's London embassy, where the Australian ex-hacker has been holed up for almost two months.
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| Roadside bomb kills NATO soldier in Afghanistan Posted: 17 Aug 2012 12:08 AM PDT The international military coalition in Afghanistan says one of its service members was killed by a roadside bomb in the country's south. |
| Ecuador leader seeks moral halo in asylum fight Posted: 17 Aug 2012 12:24 AM PDT  An economist schooled in the United States and Belgium, Rafael Correa was judged among the more cerebral of Latin America's new breed of leftist leaders well before Julian Assange strolled into his country's London embassy and gave Ecuador's president a chance to seize the global spotlight
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| Taliban say they have infiltrated Afghan forces Posted: 16 Aug 2012 01:18 PM PDT  The leader of the Taliban says his fighters have infiltrated the Afghan police and army and are successfully killing a growing number of U.S.-led coalition forces.
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| Wave of attacks rumbles across Iraq, killing 59 Posted: 16 Aug 2012 01:56 PM PDT  Insurgents in Iraq unleashed a relentless wave of attacks from before dawn until late at night Thursday, killing 59 people and wounding many more in a deadly show of force aimed at undermining the government's authority.
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| Taliban carry out brazen attack on Pakistan base Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:50 PM PDT  Heavily armed Taliban fighters blasted their way into a Pakistani air force base with possible links to the country's nuclear program in a brazen assault that took two hours of fighting to put down, leaving two security officers and nine insurgents dead and underscoring the group's continued threat despite numerous military offensives.
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| Lebanon Shiite clan says it abducted more Syrians Posted: 16 Aug 2012 12:17 PM PDT  A powerful Shiite Muslim clan in Lebanon claimed Thursday to have captured more Syrian nationals in retaliation for the seizure of a family member by rebels in Syria this week.
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| Police: More than 30 killed in S. Africa shooting Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:30 PM PDT  South African police officers killed more than 30 striking workers at a Lonmin PLC platinum mine who charged a line of officers trying to disperse them, authorities said Friday.
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| 7 American troops die in Afghan helicopter crash Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:49 AM PDT Seven American troops and four Afghans died in a Black Hawk helicopter crash on Thursday in southern Afghanistan, the NATO military coalition said. The Taliban claimed their fighters shot down the aircraft. |
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