Tuesday, September 25, 2012

China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers

China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers

China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 11:33 PM PDT

File photo of China's first aircraft carrier at Dalian Port in Liaoning provinceTOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - China sent its first aircraft carrier into formal service on Tuesday amid a tense maritime dispute with Japan, a show of naval force that could worry its neighbors. China's Ministry of Defense said the newly named Liaoning aircraft carrier would "raise the overall operational strength of the Chinese navy" and help Beijing to "effectively protect national sovereignty, security and development interests". ...

Clinton reassures Egypt's Mursi on U.S. assistance

Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:50 AM PDT

U.S. Secretary of State Clinton meets with Egyptian President Mursi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reassured Egypt's new Islamist president on Monday that the United States would forge ahead with plans to expand economic assistance despite anti-American protests that cast new shadows over U.S. engagement with the region. Clinton met Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi in New York, where both are attending this week's U.N. General Assembly meeting, and reinforced the Obama administration's continued commitment to provide both military and economic aid for Cairo, a senior State Department official said. ...

Bombs blow up at security site in Damascus: rebels

Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:01 AM PDT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Bombs planted by rebels blew up on Tuesday at a school used by security forces and pro-government militias in the Syrian capital of Damascus, activists and rebels said. "At exactly 9:35 a.m., seven improvised devices were set off in two explosions to target a school used for weekly planning meetings between shabbiha militias and security officers," said Abu Moaz, a leader of Ansar al-Islam, one of the rebel groups that have joined the 18-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Residents said smoke could be seen rising from the area in southeastern Damascus. ...

Syrian mortar bombs land in Israeli orchard

Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:40 AM PDT

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Mortar bombs fired from Syria crossed the frontier with Israel and landed in an orchard early Tuesday, but caused no injuries or damage, the Israeli army said. A military spokesman said the bombs were not aimed at Israelis and that Israel had lodged a complaint with the United Nations observer force that monitors a long-standing, de facto truce between the two countries. ...

Italy's Sardinia struggles to leave state aid behind

Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:01 AM PDT

A Sardinian miner closes a gate during a protest blocking the entrance of the Carbosulcis mine in CarboniaINSIDE THE CARBOSULCIS MINE, Italy (Reuters) - Four hundred meters below the surface dozens of miners risk their lives at Sardinia's Carbosulcis, Italy's only coal pit, digging low-quality carbon that no-one wants to buy. In nearby Portovesme, workers at the country's largest aluminum smelter are fighting for their jobs after high energy bills, tight EU regulation and falling aluminum prices prompted U.S. commodity giant Alcoa to leave Italy. ...

Japan PM may tap senior politician Okada as finance minister: media

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 11:40 PM PDT

To match Interview JAPAN-ECONOMY/OKADATOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's prime minister might replace his finance minister with Katsuya Okada, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, a senior politician in the ruling Democratic Party who shares the view that a strong yen is a threat to the economy. Okada, deputy prime minister who also serves as a cabinet minister responsible for welfare and tax reform, would replace Jun Azumi as part of a shakeup of the cabinet that could happen as early as October 1, the Sankei reported without citing its sources. The prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, has promised to call national elections "soon". ...

Kuwait cordons off court ahead of pivotal electoral law ruling

Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:52 AM PDT

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaiti police cordoned off the country's top court on Tuesday ahead of an expected ruling on an electoral law that could serve as a catalyst for political protest in the major oil producing state. While Kuwait has not experienced the mass popular uprisings seen elsewhere in the Arab world, tensions have grown between the government, which is dominated by the ruling family, and the elected parliament. ...

Clinton offers more U.S. help as Libya battles militias

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 06:16 PM PDT

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered Libya more help on Monday as it seeks to rein in militias, stressing that Washington will remain a firm partner despite this month's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Clinton met Mohammed Magarief, who was elected to head Libya's ruling national assembly in August, and received his personal apology for the September 11 attack, which killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. "What happened on 11th of September towards these U.S. ...

In New York, defiant Ahmadinejad says Israel will be "eliminated"

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 03:51 PM PDT

Iran's President Ahmadinejad addresses diplomats during the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the Rule of Law in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday Israel has no roots in the Middle East and would be "eliminated," ignoring a U.N. warning to avoid incendiary rhetoric ahead of the annual General Assembly session. Ahmadinejad also said he did not take seriously the threat that Israel could launch a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, denied sending arms to Syria, and alluded to Iran's threats to the life of British author Salman Rushdie. The United States quickly dismissed the Iranian president's comments as "disgusting, offensive and outrageous. ...

Victim of Guatemalan civil war massacre wins asylum in U.S.

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 10:53 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of two known survivors of a notorious Guatemalan civil war massacre of 250 men, women and children in his small farming village has been granted political asylum to stay in the United States, his lawyer said on Monday. Oscar Ramirez Casteneda, 33, who learned only last year that he had been kidnapped as a young boy by a Guatemalan army lieutenant during the 1982 bloodshed and raised by the man's family, was notified in a letter on Saturday that he had won asylum, attorney Scott Greathead said. ...

Obama at the UN, in shadow of campaign politics

Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:07 AM PDT

President Barack Obama steps off Air Force One upon his arrival, Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, at JFK airport in New York. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)Campaign politics shadowing every word, President Barack Obama will step before the world and declare that anti-American rage and riots among Muslims abroad will never force the United States to backtrack on diplomacy.

UN envoy: Syria war is threatening the region

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 03:23 PM PDT

Lakhdar Brahimi, right, joint special representative for Syria, arrives at closed door consultations regarding the situation in Syria at the Security Council at United Nations headquarters Monday, Sept. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/David Karp)Syria's civil war is worsening and there is no prospect of a quick end to the violence, international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Monday in a gloomy assessment to the U.N. Security Council.

Attack by Iran's Ahmadinejad sparks Israel walkout

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 06:57 PM PDT

Iran's president called Israel a nuclear-armed "fake regime" shielded by the United States, prompting Israel's U.N. ambassador to walk out of a high-level U.N. meeting Monday promoting the rule of law.

Iran's president dismisses threats on nuke program

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 09:07 PM PDT

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures as he attends the high level meeting on rule of law in the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters Monday, Sept. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday dismissed threats of military action against Iran's nuclear program, arguing that his country's project to enrich uranium is only for peaceful purposes and saying that Iran has no worries about a possible Israeli attack.

Police seal off Spain Parliament ahead of protest

Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:32 AM PDT

Spain's Parliament has taken on the appearance of a heavily guarded fortress with rows of metal barriers manned by dozens of police blocking access from every possible angle, hours ahead of a protest against the conservative government's handling of the economic crisis.

Iran ayatollah is poster boy for influence in Iraq

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 11:31 PM PDT

In this photo Sept. 16, 2012, photo, a poster depicting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, right, and Iraqi supreme leader Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, late father of the radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al Sadr in Baghdad, Iraq. After years of growing influence, a new sign of Iran's presence in Iraq has hit the streets. Thousands of signs, that is, depicting Iran's supreme leader gently smiling to a population once mobilized against the Islamic Republic in eight years of war. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)After years of growing influence, a new sign of Iran's presence in Iraq has hit the streets. Thousands of signs, that is, depicting Iran's supreme leader gently smiling to a population once mobilized against the Islamic Republic in eight years of war.

Israel: Syrian mortars accidentally land in Golan

Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:02 AM PDT

Israel's army says several mortar shells fired by Syrian government troops targeting rebels have hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Winter onset latest challenge for Syrian civilians

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 12:38 PM PDT

In this Friday, Sept. 7, 2012, photo, Syrian Fatimah Abdullah, 29, who fled her home in Marea 15 days ago, due to Syrian government shelling, sits next to her 4 days old twin Ahmad and Bayan, who were born in a Turkish hospital and brought back with her to the border where they take refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz. The days are still hot across the fertile plains of northern Syria, but at night there is a hint of a chill an ominous harbinger of winter's approach and the deepening of the humanitarian crisis gripping a country wracked by civil war. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)The days are still warm across the fertile plains of northern Syria around Aleppo, but night brings a chill — an ominous harbinger of winter's approach and the deepening of the already severe humanitarian crisis gripping a country wracked by civil war.

Mexico labor bill would loosen hiring, union grip

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 10:52 PM PDT

FILE - In this May 1, 2012, file photo, a demonstrator holds up a statue depicting Mexican actress Angelica Rivera, center, wife's of Enrique Pena Nieto, then presidential candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), during a Labor Day march in Mexico City. Most Mexicans agree the country's dysfunctional labor laws need to be retooled. What they don't agree on is how, with a new proposal to loosen work rules and increase union democracy threatening to create the first big political battle for President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto. At left, another demonstrator holds a statue depicting Pena Nieto. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery, file)Most Mexicans agree the country's dysfunctional, 1970s-era labor laws need to be retooled. What they don't agree on is how, with a proposal to loosen work rules and increase union democracy threatening to create the first big political battle for President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto.

Apple supplier's factory back up after China brawl

Posted: 24 Sep 2012 11:19 PM PDT

In this Monday Sept. 24, 2012 mobile phone photo, police in anti-riot suits cordon off a road near Foxconn's plant in Taiyuan, capital of Northern China's Shanxi province. The company that makes Apple's iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a nearby dormitory injured 40 people. The facility will reopen Tuesday. (AP Photo) CHINA OUTA Chinese factory owned by the manufacturer of Apple's iPhones has resumed production after a brawl involving some 2,000 workers highlighted chronic labor tensions in a country that prohibits independent unions.
Posted by Harshad at 1:21 AM

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