Saturday, September 1, 2012

Egypt says Syria's "oppressive regime" must go

Egypt says Syria's "oppressive regime" must go

Egypt says Syria's "oppressive regime" must go

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 02:13 PM PDT

Free Syrian Army fighters run for cover after Syrian forces fired a mortar in the El Amreeyeh neighborhood of AleppoDUBAI/AMMAN (Reuters) - Egypt called on Thursday for intervention to halt bloodshed in Syria, telling a meeting of 120 nations it was their duty to stand against the "oppressive regime" of Bashar al-Assad, prompting a Syrian walkout. President Mohamed Mursi, elected two months ago after a popular uprising toppled Egypt's long-standing leader Hosni Mubarak, said Assad had lost legitimacy in his fight to crush a 17-month-old revolt in which 20,000 people have been killed. ...

Clinton says U.S. can work with China in Pacific

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:40 PM PDT

U.S. Secretary of State Clinton participates in an arrival ceremony at Rarotonga International Airport in RarotongaRAROTONGA (Reuters) - The United States will buttress security partnerships across the Pacific as it strengthens ties with island nations, but also hopes to work more closely with China as Beijing expands its own influence in the region, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. Clinton arrived in the tiny Pacific outpost of the Cook Islands for this year's Pacific Islands Forum, part of Washington's effort to woo nations across the Asia-Pacific which are increasingly coming under China's shadow. ...

Chinese activist Chen to visit China's rival Taiwan

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:43 PM PDT

Activist and advocate Chen smiles at the Council on Foreign Relations in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose escape from house arrest sparked a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington, accepted an invitation on Friday to visit Taiwan, underscoring his drive to ensure his influence as a human rights campaigner will continue abroad. Taiwan legislator Lin Chia-lung from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) visited Chen at New York University, where he is studying law, to invite him to visit Taiwan and to address the island's parliament. ...

Ban Ki-moon defends Iran visit, says pushed for change

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:54 PM PDT

United Nations Secretary-General Ban fixes his tie ahead of an interview with Reuters during his arrival to Dubai from TehranDUBAI (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has defended his controversial visit to Iran, saying on Friday that he had used this week's trip to push hard for human rights and transparency from Tehran over its nuclear programme. "I believe in the power of diplomacy and I believe in dialogues and I believe in engagement. This is exactly what I did during my visit to Tehran," Ban told Reuters on a stopover in Dubai before flying back to U.N. headquarters in New York. ...

Maldives police disperse protesters after clash

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 07:29 PM PDT

MALE (Reuters) - Maldives security forces wielding batons late on Friday charged thousands of protesters led by former leader Mohamed Nasheed heading along a road leading to the presidential palace, badly injuring one. More than 3,000 protesters, mostly youths, marched towards the palace along with Nasheed, demanding the government hold an early election and calling on President Mohamed Waheed to resign. ...

Mexico's Pena Nieto confirmed president-elect, rival defiant

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 06:12 PM PDT

Pena Nieto speaks with Luna Ramos, president of the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE), after receiving the certificate confirming he won the presidential election,in Mexico CityMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's electoral tribunal confirmed Enrique Pena Nieto as president-elect on Friday, but his rival refused to accept defeat and held out the possibility of further protests that could hamper reform efforts. The tribunal threw out an attempt to overturn the election result by leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who had accused Pena Nieto of laundering money and buying votes in the July election. Centrist Pena Nieto, 46, will be sworn in on December 1 and has pledged a raft of fiscal, labor and energy reforms, which Lopez Obrador is likely to resist. ...

Venezuela restarts two refinery units after blast

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 06:32 PM PDT

Firefighters extinguish a fire at a storage tank at Amuay refinery in ParaguanaCARACAS (Reuters) - Workers have restarted two key production units at Venezuela's biggest refinery after an explosion a week ago that killed nearly 50 people, sparked a huge fire and halted operations at the facility, state oil company PDVSA said on Friday. Firefighters battled for days to put out burning storage tanks. None of the production units were affected, but were temporarily taken off line at the 645,000 barrel per day Amuay refinery, which is part of the second-biggest refinery complex in the world. ...

U.S.-Israeli military exercise to be smaller than first planned

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S.-Israeli ballistic missile exercise postponed until this autumn will involve fewer U.S. military personnel than initially planned, the Pentagon said on Friday, but it rejected a media report portraying the decision as a sign of U.S. mistrust. The exercise is being planned amid rising war talk in the Israeli media and reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are debating a unilateral attack on Iran to knock out its nuclear installations. Washington has cautioned Israel against going it alone. ...

Russia's Putin calls for Stalin-style "leap forward"

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 01:12 PM PDT

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at an award ceremony in the Kremlin in MoscowNOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (Reuters) - Russia needs a "leap forward" to rejuvenate its sprawling defense industry, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, harkening back to the ambitious industrialization carried out by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in the run-up to World War Two. "We should carry out the same powerful, all-embracing leap forward in modernization of the defense industry as the one carried out in the 1930s," Putin told his Security Council, without mentioning Stalin by name. ...

Thousands return home after Philippines quake, tsunami warning lifted

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 08:19 PM PDT

A science research specialist monitors computer data on the recorded earthquake at the Seismology agency office in Quezon City, Metro ManilaGUIUAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people on a central Philippine island returned home on Saturday after a tsunami alert was lifted following a 7.6 magnitude undersea quake, as local authorities began work to repair damages to public infrastructure. The earthquake 91 miles off the town of Guiuan on Samar island on Friday killed one person and caused only minor damage, but prompted the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to issued a tsunami warning. ...

Congo wants UN force to 'neutralize' rebels

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 10:32 PM PDT

Congo said it wants the U.N. peacekeeping force in the African country to "neutralize" a new rebel movement and a force that helped perpetrate Rwanda's 1994 genocide and protect the tense and porous border with neighboring Rwanda.

US drone strike kills 5 militants in Pakistan

Posted: 01 Sep 2012 01:08 AM PDT

U.S. drones fired a barrage of missiles at a vehicle and a house in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan Saturday, killing at least five suspected militants, Pakistani officials said.

Iran urges nonaligned nations role in Syria

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 02:05 PM PDT

Syria's prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, center, arrives at conference hall of Nonaligned Movement summit in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)Iran's supreme leader said Friday that developing nations have a greater right than the U.S. or NATO to intervene in Syria, signaling an effort to lead a diplomatic push over efforts to resolve the crisis.

Syrian rebels launch major offensive in Aleppo

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 01:14 PM PDT

This image made from video provided by Shaam News Network (SNN) and accessed via AP video purports to show smoke and flames from shelling in the Izaa neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. Syrian rebels have begun a major operation in the Aleppo region, aiming to strike at security compounds and bases around Syria's largest city, activists said Friday. It would be evidence that weeks of intense bombardments by the Syrian military, including airstrikes, have failed to dislodge the rebels. Instead, fighting rages across the country in a 17-month civil war that shows no sign of ending soon. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network SNN via AP video) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS PICTURE.A rebel unit of army defectors launched a major offensive against security facilities in Syria's largest city of Aleppo, and anti-regime forces targeted air bases to try to reduce the military threat from the skies, activists said Friday.

Clinton pledges security in South Pacific visit

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 10:04 PM PDT

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, center, speaks with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, left, and Cook Island Prime Minister Henry Puna, right, while posing for the family photo during the Pacific Island Forum Post-Forum Dialogue in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Jim Watson, Pool)U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday pledged renewed American commitment to security in the Asia-Pacific, where tensions are rising between China and its smaller neighbors over territorial disputes and many nations face threats from climate change.

Drama in Iran wins Egypt president a bold image

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 01:04 PM PDT

President Mohammed Morsi, third left, attends Friday prayers in Cairo on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. Morsi's tough words against Syria's regime in a speech hosted by Syria's top ally Iran brought him a stream of praise from Egyptian supporters and critics alike, lauding him as a new Arab leader that speaks truth to power. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's international debut made its biggest splash at home. After he publicly denounced Syria's regime while being hosted by Damascus' top ally Iran, Egyptian supporters and even some critics are lauding him as a new Arab leader that speaks truth to power.

AP Analysis: Syria diplomacy stalls over safe zone

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:33 AM PDT

A Syrian man, who fled his home in Aleppo, due to fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels, carries his son while going to collect water from a tanker, as 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, Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)Turkey's non-starter call for a humanitarian safe zone inside Syria offers the clearest sign yet that diplomacy to end the bloodshed in the most violent uprising of the Arab Spring is at a dead end.

Japan officials to visit disputed islands

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:39 PM PDT

FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012 file photo, Japan Coast Guard officers patrol on a rubber boat as Japanese activists hang their national flags on a small lighthouse and its perimeter on Uotsuri, the largest in a small archipelago known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands and in China as the Diaoyu Islands. Tokyo officials are set to head by boat Saturday night, Sept. 1, 2012 to the tiny islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan to carry out a survey before buying the islands, heating up a longtime territorial dispute. Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has already raised 1.45 billion yen ($19 million) in donations to buy the islands in the East China Sea from Japanese owners. (AP Photo/Kyodo News, File) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCETokyo city officials intending to buy tiny islands at the center of a longtime territorial dispute with China will travel by boat on Saturday to survey the area ahead of the purchase they hope will bolster Japan's claim.

Israelis say UN report strengthens Iran warnings

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 02:39 PM PDT

In this Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012 photo, two Israeli women drink coffee in a shopping mall after collecting their gas mask from a distribution center in Jerusalem. A new U.N. report adds credibility to Israel's warnings about Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Israeli officials said Friday, commenting on findings that could provide ammunition to Israeli calls for military action against Iran's suspect nuclear program at a time when the U.S. and other allies are pressing the Jewish state to hold its fire. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)Israeli officials said on Friday that a new United Nations report adds credibility to their warnings about Iran, as tensions grow between the Jewish state and its allies over how to tackle Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

Suicide attacks kill 12 in Afghanistan

Posted: 31 Aug 2012 11:50 PM PDT

Afghan officials say two suicide attackers have blown themselves up near a NATO base in the country's east, killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 50.
Posted by Harshad at 1:20 AM

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