Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Syria rebels pessimistic on mediator's ceasefire plan

Syria rebels pessimistic on mediator's ceasefire plan

Syria rebels pessimistic on mediator's ceasefire plan

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 12:22 PM PDT

Members of the Free Syrian Army raise a black flag over a tank that belonged to pro-government forces in Salqin city in IdlibBEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels cast doubt on Monday on prospects for a temporary truce aimed at stemming bloodshed in the 19-month-old conflict, saying it was not clear how an informal ceasefire this week could be implemented. International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who held talks in Damascus on Sunday with President Bashar al-Assad, has proposed Assad's forces and the rebels hold fire during the three-day Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha which starts on Friday. ...

Gunmen, soldiers fight in Lebanon in spillover from Syria

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 10:49 AM PDT

Lebanon's army soldiers hold their guns while securing an area, where clashes between the army and Sunni Muslim gunmen took place, in BeirutBEIRUT (Reuters) - At least seven people were killed and dozens wounded in gunbattles in the Lebanese capital Beirut and coastal Tripoli on Monday in further unrest linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria, security and hospital sources said. The clashes have heightened fears that Syria's civil war with its sectarian dimensions is now spreading into Lebanon, pitting local allies and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against each other. ...

Japan justice minister quits after "mob ties" scandal

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 10:50 PM PDT

Japan's former Justice Minister Tanaka arrives at the Prime Minister's official residence in TokyoTOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's justice minister quit on Tuesday because of ill health, a cabinet official said, after calls for his resignation over past ties to an organised crime syndicate, dealing another blow to unpopular Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. Keishu Tanaka, 74, only became justice minister in a cabinet reshuffle on October 1, and his resignation is the second by a minister since Noda took office in September 2011. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told a news conference that Tanaka stepped down for health reasons. ...

Bomb wounds Israeli officer on Gaza border

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:18 AM PDT

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli officer was severely wounded on Tuesday when a bomb went off beside an army patrol along the border with the Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman said. The attack came on the same day that the Emir of Qatar was due to arrive in Gaza in the first visit by a head of state to the blockaded enclave since it was taken over in 2007 by the Iranian-backed Islamist Hamas movement. No Palestinian militant group claimed responsibility for the bomb attack. ...

EU "sucks up decision-making:" UK's foreign secretary

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 04:47 PM PDT

Britain's Foreign Secretary Hague takes part in a news conference on Parliament Hill in OttawaLONDON (Reuters) - Britain is increasingly disillusioned with the European Union which it sees as a "machine that sucks up decision-making", Britain's foreign secretary said on Tuesday in prepared remarks. "People feel that the EU is a one way process, a great machine that sucks up decision-making from national parliaments," William Hague said in an advance text of a speech to be delivered later in Berlin. "...That needs to change. If we cannot show that decision-making can flow back to national parliaments then the system will become democratically unsustainable," Hague said. ...

Suicide bomber kills policeman in Russia's North Caucasus

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:35 AM PDT

Police stand near debris at the site of a suicide bombing at a checkpoint on the border between the regions of North Ossetia and Ingushetia in Russia's North CaucasusMOSCOW (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew up his car at a police checkpoint in Russia's restive North Caucasus region on Tuesday, killing a policeman and severely wounding three others, authorities said. The pre-dawn attack destroyed the checkpoint on the internal border between the province of North Ossetia and Ingushetia. The region is plagued by near daily violence blamed on Islamist insurgents. "A policeman stopped a car to conduct a check, and its driver detonated a bomb," the Russian Interior Ministry said on its website. ...

Qatar's emir heads to Gaza on historic trip

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:27 AM PDT

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Emir of Qatar will on Tuesday be the first head of state to visit Gaza since Egypt and Israel launched a blockade of the Palestinian enclave in 2007, breaking the isolation of its Iran-backed rulers Hamas. The official Qatar News Agency (QNA) said Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who has led Arab efforts to support rebels in Syria and Libya during Arab Spring revolts, had left Doha with a large delegation including his wife Sheikh Moza, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim and other ministers. ...

Mexican police arrest three in killing of politician's son

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 08:52 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities arrested three suspects, two of them police officers, on Monday for involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Jose Eduardo Moreira, the son of a prominent politician. Both Victor Landeros, alias "The Iguana," and Jorge Tenorio, or "The Taka," served as municipal police officers in Ciudad Acuna, the northern border town where Moreira, the son of Humberto Moreira, ex-chairman of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was killed on October 3. ...

Britain to double number of drones in Afghanistan: report

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 07:37 PM PDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to double the number of armed drone aircraft flying combat and surveillance operations in Afghanistan, the Guardian reported on Tuesday. In a new squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), five Reaper drones will be sent to Afghanistan and be in operation within six weeks, with control coming, for the first time, from terminals and screens in Britain, the newspaper said. Pilots based in a high-tech site at RAF Waddington, a military base in England, will fly the recently bought American-made UAVs, according to the Guardian. ...

Gold Fields' KDC East miners yet to resume work

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:05 AM PDT

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Gold Fields said on Tuesday striking workers at its KDC East operations in South Africa are yet to return to work despite the company issuing an ultimatum for the employees to resume work or face dismissal. South Africa is struggling to resolve violent unrest that has poisoned industrial relations and marred its image overseas. "So far we have no turnout at KDC East but the final deadline is this afternoon," said company spokesman Sven Lunsche. He said the company would provide another update at 4:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT). ...

Syrian regime and rebels constantly adapt arsenals

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:25 AM PDT

FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 file photo, A Free Syrian Army fighter fires his weapon at Syrian Army positions in Aleppo, Syria. Piece by piece, Syria's rebels are slowly starting to expand their arsenal and get their hands on more advanced weapons, something that has been their constant aim in the 19-month-old uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad. The process still appears to be haphazard and improvised: Far from a reliable, organized pipeline, it often remains a scramble by individual units in the highly fragmented rebel forces to obtain what they can. Most units still rely on their staple arsenal of automatic weapons, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. (AP Photo/ Manu Brabo, File)It was long past midnight, but the rebel commander couldn't sleep until his fighters returned from the Turkish border with the latest shipment of gear meant to help them battle the Syrian army. Wearing camouflage pants and black flip-flops, he waited anxiously, his eyes bloodshot.

Stolen car used in Beirut's bombing

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:12 AM PDT

A Lebanese man prays at the grave of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan and his bodyguard, Ahmad Sahyouni, who were assassinated on Friday by a car bomb, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 22, 2012. Opponents of Syria have blamed the regime in Damascus for the killing of Lebanese Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan in a Beirut car bomb on Friday. With Lebanon already tense and deeply divided over the civil war next door, the assassination has threatened to drag the country back into the kind of sectarian strife that plagued it for decades much of it linked to Syria.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)Lebanon's police chief says the car used in the Beirut bombing that killed a top anti-Syrian intelligence chief was stolen more than a year ago.

Gazans prepare to welcome Qatari ruler

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:51 AM PDT

A Palestinian worker walks behind posters of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, left, and Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, right, in preparation for the upcoming visit to Gaza at Palestine stadium in Gaza City, Monday, Oct. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)Qatar's flags are flapping in the Gaza Strip as Palestinians welcome that country's ruler, the first head of state to visit the territory since the Islamic militant Hamas seized power there five years ago.

Green buildings on the rise in Persian Gulf states

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:20 AM PDT

This Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 photo shows the interior hall of the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) in Doha, Qatar. Green buildings would seem an oddity in this tiny Gulf nation which has plenty of oil and gas and, according to the International Energy Agency, the highest per capita emissions in the world, closely followed by Gulf neighbors Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. But attitudes about energy use are changing across the Gulf. There is a growing recognition that the once seemingly limitless fossil fuels will someday run out and that these countries need to chart a more sustainable path. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)With massive steel Sidra trees sprouting from the base of the building and a 9-meter (yard) high sculpture of a spider in the lobby protecting a sack of grey and white eggs, Qatar National Convention Center is hard to ignore.

AP Exclusive: France to send drones to Mali region

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 02:04 PM PDT

FILE - In this Oct.18, 2012 file photo, a man carries a sign reading "No to the destructive soldiers of ECOWAS" as Malians opposed to a military intervention to retake Mali's Islamist-controlled north march in the streets of the capital, Bamako, Mali. France is moving surveillance drones to western Africa amid rising concerns that an al-Qaida offshoot and its allies who control northeast Mali represent a major threat to French interests abroad and possibly at home. With six French hostages held by Islamic militants in the region, France is facing a delicate task, but has garnered support from other Western powers including the United States to keep Mali from becoming a new launchpad for global terrorism. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore, File)France will move surveillance drones to West Africa and is holding secretive talks with U.S. officials in Paris this week as it seeks to steer international military action to help Mali's feeble government win back the northern part of the country from al-Qaida-linked rebels, The Associated Press has learned.

Iraq: 8 killed in separate attacks in Baghdad

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:06 AM PDT

Iraqi officials say separate attacks in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad have killed eight civilians and wounded 24.

7 experts convicted for not warning of quake risk

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 02:32 PM PDT

FILE - In this April 7, 2009 file photo a man sits on rubbles in the village of Onna, a day after a powerful earthquake struck the Abruzzo region in central Italy. An Italian court Monday, Oct. 22, 2012 has convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter for failing to adequately warn citizens before an earthquake struck central Italy in 2009, killing more than 300 people. The court in L'Aquila Monday evening handed down the convictions and six-year-prison sentences to the defendants, members of a national "Great Risks Commission." In Italy, convictions aren't definitive until after at least one level of appeals, so it is unlikely any of the defendants would face jail immediately. Scientists worldwide had decried the trial as ridiculous, contending that science has no way to predict quakes. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)In a verdict that sent shock waves through the scientific community, an Italian court convicted seven experts of manslaughter on Monday for failing to adequately warn residents of the risk before an earthquake struck central Italy in 2009, killing more than 300 people.

Syria exposes Lebanon's thin veneer of stability

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 11:13 AM PDT

A Lebanese honor guard carries a coffin wrapped with Lebanese flags of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, who was assassinated on Friday by a car bomb, during their funeral procession at Martyrs' Square in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012. Thousands of Lebanese waving the national flag packed a central square in downtown Beirut Sunday for the funeral of a top intelligence official assassinated in a car bombing that many blame on the regime in neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)Potentially the most unstable country in the Middle East, Lebanon for the most part has stayed on the sidelines of the Arab Spring, keeping up appearances as an oasis of relative modernity, commerce and good times.

Myanmar: Fresh clashes between Muslims, Buddhists

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 12:45 AM PDT

Fresh clashes between Muslims and Buddhists have broken out in volatile western Myanmar, leaving at least three people dead and hundreds of homes burned to the ground, authorities said Tuesday.

Earthquake predictions and a triumph of scientific illiteracy in an Italian court

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 02:44 PM PDT

Rarely since a Catholic inquisition in Rome condemned Galileo Galilei to spend the remainder of his days under house arrest for the heresy of teaching that the Earth revolves around the sun, has an Italian court been so wrong about science.

Women in power are good for women's rights, right?

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 10:06 AM PDT

From the Times of London comes a reminder that the answer to issues of women's rights in places like Afghanistan doesn't necessarily come from appointing more women to positions of power.

In Indonesian business, the more things change...

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 12:31 PM PDT

I spent a decade covering Indonesia and a large chunk of that covering finance and investment there, most interestingly the "Asian tiger" bubble and the painfully deep hangover called the 1998 "Asian financial crisis" that triggered the end of the durable dictator and ally of the West, Soeharto.

Spanish elections bolster Rajoy's austerity policies

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 12:28 PM PDT

A strong showing in regional elections over the weekend gave the Spanish government much-needed breathing room – especially as it was coupled with the waning clout of its rival – to manage the country's economic crisis. But it also opened the door to more instability as independence-leaning parties made defining gains.

IssaLeaks: More fallout from the Benghazi killings

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 12:00 PM PDT

Well, if the US ever does try to extradite Julian Assange, Congressman Darrell Issa has just given some ammunition for his defense.

Spain loses title as Moroccans' land of opportunity

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 11:29 AM PDT

Anas Benhima spent over a decade building a new life in Spain: an education, friends, and a career. Then he left it all and returned home to Morocco.

For fans like me, Lance Armstrong doping saga spoils memories

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 10:47 AM PDT

Thirteen years ago, on an idyllic summer's afternoon, I stood by the side of a road in the cheesemaking region of Cantal and watched Lance Armstrong speed by, tucked into the peloton, on his way to his first victory in the Tour de France.

Archaic defamation laws threaten Caribbean media

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 11:04 AM PDT

Dominican radio commentator Melton Pineda's mouth rankled politicians frequently enough over the years to earn him the nickname "The Bazooka." This month, after he was prosecuted under the country's archaic defamation laws, it also earned him three months in prison.

Russian 'rendition': Kremlin grabs opposition figure from Ukraine streets

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 10:30 AM PDT

Russian secret services have allegedly carried out a "rendition" by plucking a Russian opposition figure, Leonid Razvozzhayev, from a Kiev street in broad daylight last Saturday and transferring him to Lefortovo prison in Moscow.

Can Fidel Castro still sway Cuba?

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 09:08 AM PDT

Thousands of words were penned over the past week on whether Cuba's Fidel Castro had died.

Rio's slums attract young, hip European immigrants looking for cheap housing

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 09:03 AM PDT

Tatiana Coelho quit her job in Porto, Portugal last year working as a producer at a concert venue. She sold all of her belongings and relocated to Rio de Janeiro to try a new life as an artist, experimenting in various media – especially photography. But it was not the beaches of Ipanema or Copacabana that she could afford. Instead she moved to the foot of a favela, the name that hillside slums are given in Brazil.

South Korea blocks activists from air dropping leaflets over North

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 07:51 AM PDT

South Korea backed down today in the face of North Korean threats of a "merciless military strike" if activists, mainly North Korean defectors, showed signs of making good on their plans to drop propaganda leaflets on the North.

US outspends Islamabad on flood relief in Pakistan

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 06:35 AM PDT

The US government has pledged more money toward this year's flood relief efforts in Pakistan than the country's own government, according to a report this month from the Congressional Research Service.

Search for Common Ground uses TV soaps to promote peace

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 06:05 AM PDT

Peace building and conflict resolution conjure up images of persuading rival leaders to sit down at a table to talk.

Syria: Little hope for Eid ceasefire as conflict spills across borders

Posted: 22 Oct 2012 05:39 AM PDT

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
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