Sunday, September 30, 2012

Ancient market burns as fighting rages in Syria's Aleppo

Ancient market burns as fighting rages in Syria's Aleppo

Ancient market burns as fighting rages in Syria's Aleppo

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 03:54 PM PDT

Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad patrol at Tal-al-Zrazir neighbourhood in Aleppo cityBEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of shops were burning in the ancient covered market in Aleppo on Saturday as fighting between rebels and state forces in Syria's largest city threatened to destroy a UNESCO world heritage site. The uprising-turned-civil war that is now raging across Syria has killed more than 30,000 people, according to activist groups such as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. But beyond the dramatic human cost, many of Syria's historic treasures have also fallen victim to an 18-month-old conflict that has reduced parts of some cities to ruins. ...

String of Iraq car bomb blasts kill at least 17

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 12:47 AM PDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A string of car bomb blasts targeting mainly police checkpoints killed at least 17 people across Iraq on Sunday, police and hospital sources said. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Violence in Iraq has eased since its height in 2006-2007 when sectarian fighting killed thousands of people, but Sunni Islamists and an al Qaeda affiliate still launch regular attacks, seeking to undermine the Shi'ite-led government. ...

NATO soldier, civilian, killed in Afghan "insider" attack

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 09:36 PM PDT

KABUL (Reuters) - A member of NATO's Afghan force and a civilian contractor have been killed in the latest so-called insider attack by a member of the Afghan security forces, the NATO force said on Sunday. The attack in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday came after the United States said joint operations with Afghan forces were returning to normal. Joint operations were halted two weeks ago after a surge of attacks by Afghan allies. At least 52 members of the NATO force have been killed this year in so-called green-on-blue attacks. ...

Muslim protesters torch Buddhist temples, homes in Bangladesh

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 01:16 AM PDT

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Hundreds of Muslims in Bangladesh burned at least four Buddhist temples and 15 homes of Buddhists on Sunday after complaining that a Buddhist man had insulted Islam, police and residents said. Members of the Buddhist minority in the Cox's Bazar area in the southeast of the country said unidentified people were bent on upsetting peaceful relations between Muslims and Buddhists. Muslims took to the streets in the area late on Saturday to protest against what they said was a photograph posted on Facebook that insulted Islam. ...

Egyptian leftist leader eyes parliament majority

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 06:15 PM PDT

Egypt's former presidential candidate Sabahy greets supporters during a commemoration of the second anniversary of the death of Khaled Said in AlexandriaCAIRO (Reuters) - Popular Egyptian leftist politician and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy said on Saturday he is confident a coalition of leftist groups he is working to unite will be strong enough to defeat Islamists and win a parliament majority. Sabahy, in an unexpected outcome, came in third place in the first round of the presidential vote last May, behind well-known army commander and politician Ahmed Shafik and current president Mohamed Mursi, who was the candidate of the state's most organized Muslim Brotherhood group. ...

Guantanamo's last Western detainee returned to Canada

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 12:27 PM PDT

File of a courtroom sketch of Canadian defendant Khadr attending a hearing at Guantanamo BayWINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The youngest prisoner and last Westerner held in the Guantanamo military base, Omar Khadr, was sent to finish his sentence in his native Canada on Saturday, the Canadian government said. Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said that Khadr, who was a 15-year-old fighting in Afghanistan when captured in 2002, had been flown from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a military base in Trenton, Ontario and transferred to the province's Millhaven maximum-security prison. ...

Two Venezuelan opposition activists shot dead

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 09:22 PM PDT

People attend a campaign rally by Venezuela's President Chavez, who is seeking re-election in an October 7 presidential vote, in GuarenasCARACAS (Reuters) - Gunmen shot and killed two local leaders of parties backing presidential challenger Henrique Capriles on Saturday in the worst violence of a volatile campaign before Venezuela's election next weekend. Capriles' party, Primero Justicia (First Justice), said the gunmen fired from a van that witnesses identified as belonging to state oil company PDVSA or the local mayor's office during a rally in the agricultural state of Barinas. The government of President Hugo Chavez, who is seeking re-election, confirmed the deaths and vowed the perpetrators would be brought to justice. ...

Israel PM tells coalition partners to back budget or face poll

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 01:52 PM PDT

Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Canada's PM Stephen Harper on the side lines of the United Nations General Assembly in New YorkJERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his coalition partners he will have to call an early election if they do not back a "responsible" budget he must present by the end of the year. Netanyahu said he would start meeting coalition partners after he returns home from New York on Sunday. Failure to pass the budget by December 31 would mean bringing forward a national ballot currently scheduled for October 2013. ...

Northern Irish parade passes peacefully amid tight security

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 01:06 PM PDT

Members of the Orange Order take part in a rally in Belfast to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Ulster Covenant.BELFAST (Reuters) - A major parade that Northern Irish politicians and security forces feared could spark fighting between Catholics and Protestant passed peacefully on Saturday after police mounted their biggest security operation in 20 years. Some 30,000 Protestants marked the centenary of one of the most historic events in a province scarred by decades of sectarian violence, the signing of a pact by half a million of their ancestors opposing the introduction of devolved government in Ireland. ...

Egypt's Copts to return to Sinai homes, says government

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 03:31 PM PDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's presidency and prime minister said on Saturday security forces in North Sinai were working to return Coptic Christians living near Egypt's border with Israel to their homes after they fled in fear of attack from Islamist militants. Nine Christian families living in Rafah near Egypt's border with Israel left their homes on Friday after Islamist militants made death threats and gunmen attacked a Coptic-owned shop. ...

Spain crisis fuels Catalan separatist sentiment

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 12:39 AM PDT

Three weeks after a massive Catalan separatist march in Barcelona — the biggest since the 1970s — the independence flags still flutter from balconies across Spain's second largest city.

US military deaths in Afghanistan hit 2,000

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 12:49 AM PDT

FILE- In this file photograph made on July 29, 2010, upon landing after a helicopter rescue mission, Tech. Sgt. Jeff Hedglin, right, an Air Force Pararescueman, or PJ, drapes an American flag over the remains of the first of two U.S. soldiers killed minutes earlier in an IED attack, assisted by fellow PJs, Senior Airman Robert Dieguez, center, and 1st Lt. Matthew Carlisle, in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan. U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan have surpassed 2,000, a grim reminder that a war which began nearly 11 years ago shows no signs of slowing down despite an American decision to begin the withdrawal of most of its combat forces. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)U.S. military deaths in the Afghan war have reached 2,000, a cold reminder of the human cost of an 11-year-old conflict that garners little public interest at home as the United States prepares to withdraw most of its combat forces by the end of 2014.

Kosovo PM: EU-led talks with Serbia must happen

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 10:31 PM PDT

FILE - Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is seen during an interview with The Associated Press in Washington, in this April 6, 2012 file photo. Thaci said in an interview with the Associated Press Friday Sept. 28, 2012 that Kosovo and Serbia must normalize relations soon to begin integrating with Europe, but he insists that partition of his country's Serb-dominated northern enclave Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Kosovo and Serbia must normalize relations soon to begin integrating with Europe, but he insisted that partition of his country's Serb-dominated northern enclave "will never happen."

Thousands crowd Turkey ruling party congress

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 12:20 AM PDT

Thousands of delegates are crowding a sports arena where Turkey's ruling party, marking nearly a decade in power, is holding a congress to designate new leaders to build on economic achievements and a rising regional stature.

Afghan inside attack kills 2 Americans, 2 Afghans

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 01:14 AM PDT

FILE - In this July 9, 2010 file photograph, an Afghan National Army soldier wears an ammunition belt around his neck during a joint patrol with United States Army soldiers from Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion of the 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, outside Kandahar City. U.S. military officials have noted that Afghan security forces are dying in insider attacks along with foreign troops, but so far, the Afghan government has not provided statistics on the number killed. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)An Afghan soldier turned his gun on American troops at a checkpoint in the country's east, killing two Americans and two fellow members of Afghanistan's army in a shooting that marked both the continuance of a disturbing trend of insider attacks and the 2,000th US troop death in the long-running war, officials said Sunday.

Syrian fighting torches historic medieval market

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 01:23 PM PDT

In this image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network (SNN), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a fire rages at a medieval souk in Aleppo, Syria. Syrian rebels and residents of Aleppo struggled Saturday to contain a huge fire that destroyed parts of the city's medieval souks, or markets, following raging battles between government troops and opposition fighters there, activists said. Some described the overnight blaze as the worst blow yet to a historic district that helped make the heart of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial hub, a UNESCO world heritage site. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network SNN via AP video)A fire sparked by battles between Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops and rebel fighters tore through Aleppo's centuries-old covered market Saturday, burning wooden doors and scorching stone stalls and vaulted passageways. The souk is one of a half-dozen renowned cultural sites in the country that have become collateral damage in the civil war.

Madrid anti-austerity protests turn violent again

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 05:39 PM PDT

Protestors gather near Parliament against austerity measures announced by the Spanish government in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012. Tens of thousands of Spaniards and Portuguese rallied in the streets to protest enduring deep economic pain from austerity cuts. In Madrid, demonstrators approached parliament for the third time this week to vent their anger against tax hikes, government spending cuts and the highest unemployment rate among the 17 nations that use the euro. Banner reads 'Hate debt, referendum'.(AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa De Olza)Tens of thousands of Spaniards and Portuguese rallied in the streets of their countries' capitals Saturday to protest enduring deep economic pain from austerity measure, and the demonstration in Madrid turned violent after Spaniards enraged over a long-lasting recession and sky-high unemployment clashed with riot police for the third time in less than a week near Parliament.

Iraq: 4 separate attacks kill 9 around Baghdad

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 12:09 AM PDT

Iraqi police and health officials say four separate car bomb attacks apparently targeting Shiites have killed nine people in and around Baghdad.

Last Western detainee at Gitmo returns to Canada

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 03:22 PM PDT

FILE - This undated photo shows Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, a Canadian, taken before he was imprisoned in 2002 at the age of 15. A decade after Khadr was pulled near death from the rubble of a bombed-out compound in Afghanistan, the Canadian citizen set foot on Canadian soil early Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012, after an American military flight from the notorious prison in Guantanamo Bay. Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and was eligible to return to Canada from Guantanamo Bay last October under terms of a plea deal. Canada's conservative government took almost a year to approve the transfer. (AP Photo/Canadian Press, File)The last Western detainee held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay returned to Canada Saturday after a decade in custody following his capture in Afghanistan at age 15 after being wounded in a firefight with U.S. soldiers, officials said.

Afghan inside attack puts US troop deaths at 2,000

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 11:56 PM PDT

FILE - In this July 9, 2010 file photograph, an Afghan National Army soldier wears an ammunition belt around his neck during a joint patrol with United States Army soldiers from Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion of the 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, outside Kandahar City. U.S. military officials have noted that Afghan security forces are dying in insider attacks along with foreign troops, but so far, the Afghan government has not provided statistics on the number killed. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)An apparent insider attack by Afghan forces has killed a U.S. service member and a foreign civilian contractor with NATO, officials said Sunday. The shooting —the latest in a string of attacks on international troops by their Afghan allies — marked the 2,000th U.S. troop death in Afghanistan over the long-running conflict.
Posted by Harshad at 1:35 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)