Sunday, August 19, 2012

Syria denies Assad's deputy tried to defect

Syria denies Assad's deputy tried to defect

Syria denies Assad's deputy tried to defect

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 03:46 PM PDT

Members of the Free Syrian Army stand next to a captured Syrian Army tank in Bab Al HawaBEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria dismissed reports that President Bashar al-Assad's deputy had defected and its forces pursued an offensive against rebels, bombarding parts of Aleppo in the north and attacking an insurgent-held town in the oil-producing east. Vice-President Farouq al-Shara "never thought for a moment about leaving the country", said a statement from his office broadcast on state television on Saturday in response to reports that the veteran Baath Party loyalist had tried to defect to Jordan. ...

At least two killed by car bombs in Libyan capital

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 11:07 PM PDT

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - At least two people were killed when three car bombs exploded near interior ministry and security buildings in the Libyan capital on Sunday, the first lethal attack of its kind since Muammar Gaddafi's fall last year, security sources said. The first bomb blew up near the interior ministry's administrative offices in Tripoli but caused no casualties, the sources said. On arriving at the site of the explosion, police found another car bomb that had not blown up. ...

Sudan minister, 20 others killed in plane crash: TV

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 12:47 AM PDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Sudanese minister and 20 other people were killed when the plane they were travelling in crashed, Al Arabiya reported on Sunday, citing the television channel's correspondent. The Arabic satellite channel said the plane was carrying Guidance and Endowments Minister Khalil Abdalla, but gave no further details about the incident. There was no immediate official confirmation of the report. (Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Ecuador rallies Latin America in Assange battle with UK

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 06:16 PM PDT

A protestor holds a poster of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange outside Ecuador's embassy in LondonQUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador cast its dispute with Britain over asylum for WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange as a struggle against colonialism on Saturday, drawing growing support from its neighbors in the international diplomatic saga. Incensed by London's threat to break into the Ecuadorean Embassy where the former hacker is taking refuge, President Rafael Correa's government has accused Britain of bullying and has formally granted Assange asylum. ...

At least 14 killed in attack on Yemen intelligence HQ

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 03:32 PM PDT

A man takes a photo of smoke rising from the site of an attack on the Political Security Agency building in the southern Yemeni city of AdenADEN (Reuters) - Suspected al Qaeda-linked militants killed at least 14 Yemeni soldiers and security guards on Saturday in a car bomb and grenade attack on the intelligence service headquarters in the southern port city of Aden. More bodies were believed buried under the rubble of the building, part of which was leveled in the assault, the defense ministry said. At least seven people were wounded. ...

Mine violence hits at South Africa's political problem

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 02:08 PM PDT

Striking miners hold weapons as they wait to be addressed by former African National Congress Youth League President Julius Malema outside a South African mine in RustenburgMARIKANA, South Africa (Reuters) - The bloody protest by South African miners that ended in a hail of police gunfire and 34 deaths this week could also wound the ruling ANC and its main labor ally, laying bare workers' anger over enduring inequalities in Africa's biggest economy. Thursday's shooting, bringing back memories of apartheid-era violence, underlined that after 18 years in power the African National Congress and its union partner have not been able to heal the fissures of income disparity, poverty and joblessness scarring the country. ...

Iraqis helping Iran skirt sanctions: NY Times

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 05:45 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq has been helping Iran skirt economic sanctions imposed because of its nuclear program, using a network of financial institutions and oil-smuggling operations that are providing Tehran with a crucial flow of dollars, the New York Times said on Saturday. In some case, Iraqi government officials are turning a blind eye to trade with Iran, while other officials in Baghdad are directly profiting from the activities -- with several of them having close ties to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the Times said. U.S. ...

Japan, China islands disputes deepen with landings, protests

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 01:12 AM PDT

Protester yells anti-Japan slogans as he holds stick in front of banner on commercial street in Wuhan, Hubei provinceEAST CHINA SEA (Reuters) - Several Japanese nationalists landed on Sunday on a rocky island in the East China Sea at the heart of a territorial row with Beijing, sparking protests in several Chinese cities and a diplomatic rebuke from Beijing. Tokyo and Beijing have been feuding for decades over the island chain, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, near potentially huge maritime gas fields. Tensions flared last week after seven of a group of 14 Chinese activists slipped past Japan's Coast Guard to land on one of the uninhabited isles and raise a Chinese flag. ...

Budget breather for Greece would spur economic recovery: report

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 09:28 AM PDT

Greek PM Samaras addresses a parliamentary group in AthensATHENS (Reuters) - Finance ministry officials in Greece have calculated that the debt-stricken country's economy will recover faster and its debt be more sustainable if it is given two more years to reduce its budget deficit, a Greek newspaper reported on Saturday. The estimate chimes with the view of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras who has tried, unsuccessfully, to win such an extension in the past and is expected to refloat the proposal next week with the leaders of France and Germany as well as with Jean-Claude Juncker, the Eurogroup chief. ...

India: Text message threats, rumors came from Pakistan

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 01:20 PM PDT

Child from India's northeastern state sits inside air-conditioned carriage while security personnel is reflected on windowpane at railway station in KolkataNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Most of the threatening mobile phone text messages and website images that spread panic among migrants from cities in the south and west of India last week originated in Pakistan, India's interior ministry said on Saturday. Thousands of students and workers from India's northeast fled Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities, fearing retaliation for recent violence against Muslims in Assam, one of the states in their far-flung corner of the country. ...

Rescuers search for Philippine minister, 2 pilots

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 11:36 PM PDT

FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2010 file photo, Philippine Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo gestures at the Department of Justice in Manila, Philippines. A Cessna 172 plane carrying Robredo crashed into the sea Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012 while attempting an emergency landing. At least one person was rescued but Robredo and the two pilots were missing, officials said. (AP Photo/Cheryl Ravelo, File)About 300 rescuers were searching Sunday for Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and his two pilots after their small plane crashed into the sea while attempting an emergency landing. An aide of Robredo made a dramatic escape from the doomed plane and was helping in the search, officials said.

Chinese politician's wife due to hear verdict

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 09:55 PM PDT

FILE - In this Jan. 17, 2007 file photo, then Chinaese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, right, and his wife Gu Kailai attend a memorial ceremony for Bo's father Bo Yibo, a late revolutionary leader considered one of communist China's founding fathers, at a military hospital in Beijing. The murder of a British businessman by Gu, the wife of the ousted Chinese politician, was supposed to be an open-and-shut case, by the government's account, but the trial proceedings, and official statements about them, have failed to clarify glaring omissions in the case. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)A fallen Chinese politician's wife who confessed to killing a British businessman is due to hear the verdict Monday in her murder trial and Communist Party leaders might have decided against a death penalty for fear it could incite public sympathy for her.

Japan activists land, raise flags on disputed isle

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 12:09 AM PDT

Japanese activists hold the national flags on Uotsuri island, one of the islands of Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, in East China Sea, Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012. Japan's Coast Guard says a group of Japanese activists have landed on Uotsuri island, one of a group of islands at the center of an escalating territorial dispute with China. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCEJapanese activists swam ashore and raised flags Sunday on an island claimed by both Japan and China, fanning an escalating territorial dispute between the two Asian powers.

Syria's Assad makes rare public appearance

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 11:38 PM PDT

Edificio destruido en la ciudad siria de Alepo el viernes 17 de agosto del 2012 durante una ofensiva de las fuerzas del presidente Bashar Assad para desalojar de la ciudad a los insurgentes. (Foto AP/Khalil Hamra)Syria's state-run TV aired footage of President Bashar Assad performing Eid prayers in a mosque in Damascus on Sunday, his first appearance in public after a bombing in the Syrian capital last month that killed the country's defense minister and three other top security officials.

Car bombs rock Libya's capital, killing 2 people

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 12:53 AM PDT

A Libyan security official says two car bombs have exploded in Libya's capital, killing two people.

Russian clerics forgive Pussy Riot for Putin rant

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 11:53 AM PDT

Feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia on Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. A judge found three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot guilty of hooliganism on Friday, in a case that has drawn widespread international condemnation as an emblem of Russia's intolerance of dissent. T-shirt on right worn by Tolokonnikova is Spanish and translates to "They shall not pass", a slogan often used to express determination to defend a position against an enemy. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)Russia's top Orthodox clerics on Saturday asked for mercy for the punk band Pussy Riot for its anti-government protest in a Moscow cathedral, but the church's forgiveness is unlikely to change the band's punishment in a case that caused an international furor over political dissent.

Syria war tipping Mideast balance toward Sunnis

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 12:08 PM PDT

Hezbollah supporters carry pictures, of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, disappeared Imam Moussa al-Sadr, center, and Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, left, during a rally to mark the occasion of Jerusalem Day in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Aug 17, 2012. Nasrallah warned Israel that any aggression against Lebanon would be extremely costly and said Hezbollah can transform the lives of millions of Zionists in all of Israel to hell. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)Not long ago, Arabs everywhere listened when the leader of Hezbollah spoke. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's prominence, bolstered by his Lebanese guerrilla force's battles against Israel, was a sign of the rising regional influence of Shiite Muslims and overwhelmingly Shiite Iran. Now, his speeches don't necessarily make front pages even in Lebanon.

Pakistan: US missiles kill 7 militants in NW

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 10:51 PM PDT

Pakistani intelligence officials say missiles fired from unmanned American spy planes have hit two vehicles near the Afghan border, killing at least seven militants.

Bomb hidden in cemetery kills 2 in Afghanistan

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 01:12 AM PDT

An Afghan man collects victims' belongings at the scene of an explosion at a cemetery in Lashkar Gah, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012. A bomb hidden in the cemetery exploded Sunday as a police official and his family were visiting the grave of a relative, killing the official and his brother, police said. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq)A bomb hidden in a cemetery in a southern Afghan city exploded Sunday, killing a police official and his brother as they were visiting the grave of a relative, police said.

UK, Ecuador seek solution to deadlock over Assange

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 11:48 AM 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)Britain is seeking an amicable solution with Ecuador to their diplomatic standoff over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a U.K. official insisted Saturday, as the secret-spiller prepared to make his first public statement since the Latin American nation confirmed it would offer him asylum.
Posted by Harshad at 1:29 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)