Thursday, October 11, 2012

Turkey probes suspected military cargo of Syrian plane

Turkey probes suspected military cargo of Syrian plane

Turkey probes suspected military cargo of Syrian plane

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 11:54 PM PDT

A Syrian passenger plane which was forced to land sits at Esenboga airport in AnkaraISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey scrambled fighter planes to force a Syrian passenger jet to land and seized what it suspected was military equipment being ferried from Russia to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces. The interception of the Syrian Air plane came hours after Turkey's chief of staff warned that his troops would respond with greater force if shells from Syria continued to hit Turkish territory. ...

Polls see easy election win for Netanyahu, Israeli right

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 11:59 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) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks set for easy re-election in an Israeli ballot early next year and may end up with a bigger coalition than he has today, according to polls published on Thursday. Citing deadlocked budget disputes with allies and looming security challenges such as Iran's nuclear program, Netanyahu on Tuesday brought forward the legislative election originally slated for October. It is now due in January or February. A survey in Maariv newspaper saw Netanyahu's rightist Likud party taking 29 of parliament's 120 seats, up from its current 27. ...

Pakistani doctors remove bullet from girl shot by Taliban

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 08:44 PM PDT

Activists hold pictures of Malala Yousufzai during a demonstration in IslamabadPESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet on Wednesday from a 14-year-old girl shot by the Taliban for speaking out against the militants and promoting education for girls, doctors said. Malala Yousufzai was in critical condition after gunmen shot her in the head and neck on Tuesday as she left school. Two other girls were also wounded. Yousufzai began standing up to the Pakistani Taliban when she was just 11, when the government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley where she lives to the militants. ...

U.S. security at Benghazi mission called "weak"

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 08:43 PM PDT

Wood, Nordstrom, Lamb and Kennedy are sworn in before testifying on Capitol Hill about the attacks on the U.S. mission in BenghaziWASHINGTON (Reuters) - At a partisan and at times rancorous congressional hearing on events leading to the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, security officers on Wednesday described uphill bureaucratic battles for resources to protect U.S. personnel and facilities. At the same hearing, senior State Department officials said that as long as the United States sent diplomats into danger zones such as Benghazi, there would be no fail-safe protection. ...

Venezuela's Chavez names Maduro vice-president

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 07:55 PM PDT

File photo of Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro attending a news conference in CaracasCARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez named Foreign Minister and former bus driver Nicolas Maduro as his new vice president on Wednesday in a Cabinet shake-up following his comfortable re-election. Maduro, 49, replaces Elias Jaua, who will run for the governorship of Miranda state against defeated presidential candidate Henrique Capriles in the South American OPEC member's December gubernatorial elections. ...

Pussy Riot member freed on appeal by Russian court

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 03:56 PM PDT

Samutsevich, a member of the female punk band "Pussy Riot", walks after she was freed from the court room in MoscowMOSCOW (Reuters) - A member of punk band Pussy Riot was freed on appeal on Wednesday but a Moscow court upheld prison sentences for two others imposed over a raucous cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin, who said they had got the jail terms they deserved. Yekaterina Samutsevich walked free from Moscow City Court after six months behind bars but the appeal judge who suspended her two-year sentence said fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina should serve out their terms. ...

Local government debt fuels China forced evictions rise: Amnesty

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 08:15 PM PDT

A man carries a pick over his shoulder as he walks through the rubble of demolished dwellings in a hutong in BeijingBEIJING (Reuters) - Forced evictions in China, a major source of social discontent, have risen significantly in the past two years as local officials and property developers colluded to seize and sell land to pay off government debt, Amnesty International said on Thursday. Property disputes in a country where the government legally owns all land are often violent and have led to growing social instability, one of the challenges facing a new generation of Chinese leaders, led by Vice-President Xi Jinping. ...

Mali extremists abusing rights, targeting children, women: U.N.

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 02:33 PM PDT

A boy stands on a street in Boni villageUNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Extremists imposing Islamic law in Mali's north are abusing human rights, particularly those of women, and paying families for children to become rebel fighters, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday after returning from the country. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic said rebel fighters, including Islamist extremists allied to al Qaeda, in northern Mali were "buying loyalty" by abolishing taxes and paying for fighters and wives in a country where more than half the people live on less than $1.25 a day. ...

Morocco's king plans Gulf tour: officials

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 12:17 AM PDT

Morocco's King Mohammed VI waves after talks at the Elysee Palace in ParisKUWAIT (Reuters) - Morocco's King Mohammed plans to tour Gulf Arab countries in the next few weeks to discuss investment and bilateral relations, a senior Kuwaiti official said on Thursday. "He is going on a tour in the Gulf countries," Kuwait's Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled al-Jarallah told Reuters, adding that the king was expected to visit Kuwait as part of the tour in October or November. King Mohammed will travel to countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, Jarallah said. ...

Asia's rich crave luxury hand-crafted cars from Malaysia

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 10:26 PM PDT

Bufori's founder and managing director Gerry Khouri poses with a Bufori Geneva at its plant in Kuala LumpurKUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The global economic doldrums may have weighed on businesses around the world, but in Malaysia a luxury hand-crafted carmaker struggles to keep up with demand as orders pour in from China and the Middle East. Some customers are willing to wait nearly two years for their Bufori vehicle, which costs anywhere from $150,000-$350,000 and can contain unique touches at the buyer's request, ranging from built-in vaults to pearl-studded interiors. ...

School helps traumatized Syrian kids heal

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 12:39 AM PDT

In this Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012 photo, Dominique Hyde, UNICEF's representative to Jordan, speaks to Syrian refugee children during the opening of the first school at the Zaatari Syrian refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan. For many Syrian children traumatized by the civil war and displacement from their homes, the opportunity to head back to school even if it's in a dusty, wind-swept refugee camp is a chance to return to a semblance of normalcy. Hyde, called Zaatari, For many Syrian children traumatized and driven from their homes by their country's civil war, the opportunity to head back to school — even if it's in a dusty, wind-swept refugee camp — is a chance to return to a semblance of normalcy.

Islam's inroads in land of Voodoo and Christianity

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 04:17 PM PDT

In this Sept. 28, 2012 photo, Darlene Derosier, 43, a Muslim, sits on a prayer rug at the Al-Fattah Mosque in Gressier, Haiti. Islam has won a growing number of followers in this impoverished country, especially after the catastrophic earthquake in 2010 that killed hundreds of thousands and left millions more homeless. Derosier said what's helped pull her through all the grief has been her faith, but not of the Catholic, Protestant or even Voodoo that's dominated this island country. Instead, she's converted to a new religion here, Islam, and built a small neighborhood mosque out of cinderblocks and plywood, where some 60 Muslims pray daily. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)School teacher Darlene Derosier lost her home in the 2010 earthquake that devastated her country. Her husband died a month later after suffering what she said was emotional trauma from the quake. She and her two daughters now live in tents outside the capital of Port-au-Prince, surrounded by thousands of others made homeless and desperate by the disaster.

Polls show Netanyahu poised for election victory

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 01:08 AM PDT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012. Netanyahu has ordered new parliamentary elections in early 2013, roughly eight months ahead of schedule. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)Public opinion polls by two major Israeli dailies indicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised for a clear victory in the upcoming parliamentary elections, with no serious contenders to replace him.

Moscow court frees 1 of 3 Pussy Riot members

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 11:53 AM PDT

CORRECTS IDENTITY TO MARIA ALEKHINA Feminist punk group Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina sits in a glass cage at a court room in in Moscow, Wednesday Oct. 10, 2012. Three members of the punk band Pussy Riot are set to make their case before a Russian appeals court that they should not be imprisoned for their irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin. Their impromptu performance inside Moscow's main cathedral in February came shortly before Putin was elected to a third term. The three women were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in prison. As the hearing began Monday, Oct. 1, band member Yekaterina Samutsevich unexpectedly announced that she has fired her three lawyers over an unspecified disagreement. Samutsevich said she had found another lawyer but had not yet signed a contract. Her fellow band members said they supported Samutsevich's choice but would still retain the services of their lawyers. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)A Moscow appeals court on Wednesday unexpectedly freed one jailed member of punk band Pussy Riot, but upheld the two-year prison sentences for the two other women jailed for an irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin.

Pope marks 50th anniversary of Vatican II

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 01:02 AM PDT

Pope Benedict XVI is marking the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, the church meetings he attended as a young priest that brought the Catholic Church into the modern world but whose meaning is still hotly debated.

Shooting of Pakistan girl activist sparks outrage

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 01:02 PM PDT

A supporter of Pakistani political party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), center, reacts while she and other women chant prayers in support of 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, who was shot on Tuesday by the Taliban for speaking out in support of education for women, at the (MQM)' headquarter in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. Pakistani doctors successfully removed a bullet Wednesday from the neck of a 14-year-old girl who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out in support of education for women, a government minister said. Writing on poster read, " Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan." (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)Schools shut their doors in protest and Pakistanis across the country held vigils Wednesday to pray for a 14-year-old girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman after daring to advocate education for girls and criticize the militant group.

Spanish bailout dilemma gets more acute

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 01:21 AM PDT

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, left, and French President Francois Hollande, sign cooperation agreements during a Franco-Spanish summit at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Philippe Wojazer, Pool)The dilemma facing the Spanish government has become more acute following a downgrade of the cash-strapped country's credit rating.

Iran's spy agency finds voice in cyberspace

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 12:57 PM PDT

Iranian photojournalist Maryam Rahmanian checks the newly launched website of Iran's Intelligence Ministry, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. A glimpse into the shadow world of Iran's main spy agency is now a click away. In an unexpected display of outreach, the Intelligence Ministry now hosts a website with addresses of provincial offices, appeals for tips and anti-American essays that mock rising obesity rates, large prison populations and school shootings. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)A glimpse into the shadow world of Iran's main spy agency is now a click away.

Indicted Megaupload founder plans site reboot

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 10:55 PM PDT

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2012 file photo, Kim Dotcom, the founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload, comments after he was granted bail and released in Auckland, New Zealand. In a move bound to provoke U.S. prosecutors and entertainment executives, indicted Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is planning to offer a new online music service and a replacement of his shuttered website by year's end. (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Brett Phibbs, File) NEW ZEALAND OUT, AUSTRALIA OUTIndicted Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is planning to launch a replacement of his shuttered website and a new online music service by year's end. It's a move that's bound to provoke U.S. prosecutors and entertainment executives.

Turkey intercepts Syrian plane as tensions mount

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 02:32 PM PDT

People gather atop the aircraft steps at a Syrian passenger plane that was forced by Turkish jets to land at Esenboga airport in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. Turkish jets on Wednesday forced a Syrian Air Airbus A320 passenger plane to land at Ankara airport on suspicion that it may be carrying weapons, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, amid heightened tensions between Turkey and Syria that have sparked fears of a wider regional conflict.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)Turkish jets on Wednesday forced a Syrian passenger plane to land at Ankara airport on suspicion that it might be carrying weapons or other military equipment, amid heightened tensions between Turkey and Syria that have sparked fears of a wider regional conflict.

US takes wait-and-see approach to Georgia's Ivanishvili

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 01:33 PM PDT

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed that Georgia's Oct. 1 parliamentary elections were a "litmus test" for President Mikheil Saakashvili's commitment to democracy, nobody expected he would pass this test by conceding to a surprise defeat.

Turkey vows tougher response if Syrian shelling continues

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 05:48 AM PDT

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Rio de Janeiro on building spree for Olympics, World Cup – but at what cost?

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 01:11 PM PDT

The renovation of the Maracana soccer stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which will host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games just two years later, is a dizzying scene: some 2,500 construction workers weld, shovel, drill, and man cranes under the sweltering sun.

Taliban shooting of 14-year old sparks outrage in Pakistan

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 12:55 PM PDT

Political leaders and media have joined students, activists, and a broad segment of Pakistanis in condemning the Pakistani Taliban for shooting a 14-year-old girl in the head and neck, leaving her in critical condition this week.

Middle East peace: What would an Israeli entrepreneur do?

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 01:02 PM PDT

With yesterday's announcement of early elections in Israel, many are saying that no one but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a real vision for the country.

Rise of euroskeptic party in Britain rubs off on Cameron

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 09:20 AM PDT

A day after giving his strongest backing yet to a possible referendum on Britain's often volatile membership of the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron drew cheers from his party's faithful at their annual conference Wednesday as he recounted vetoing an EU-wide accord to coordinate budget policies last year.

Putin defends court decision to send two Pussy Riot members to prison camp

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 07:30 AM PDT

One member of the controversial performance art collective Pussy Riot will be freed on parole but the other two are Siberia-bound, after a Moscow appeals court upheld their sentence of two years in a penal colony Wednesday.

Vladimir Putin 2.0: A harder, eastward-looking presidency

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 07:24 AM PDT

It's been just over a year since Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev took the stage at a conference of the ruling United Russia party and announced that they had decided "years ago" to trade places after Mr. Medvedev's first presidential term and send Mr. Putin back to the Kremlin for six more years as Russia's supreme ruler.

Anti-Putin opposition groups still finding their way

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 07:24 AM PDT

Russia's angry anti-Kremlin street opposition, which erupted onto the scene following allegedly fraud-tainted Duma elections last December, is facing a deep identity crisis as it approaches its first anniversary and is racked with internal debate over the way forward.

Why Angela Merkel may not be able to keep Greece in Europe

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 06:41 AM PDT

Angela Merkel's visit to Athens was short, lasting just a few hours, and it came late: The Greek debt crisis has been raging for three years now. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras greeted the German chancellor warmly, but quite predictably tens of thousands of Greeks protesting in the streets told her she wasn't welcome. So why did she come, and what did her visit achieve?

Israel's 'unchallengeable' Netanyahu calls elections at prime moment

Posted: 10 Oct 2012 06:02 AM PDT

Unlike President Obama, who has no control over when he gets to ask American voters if they would like him to stay on for another term, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can seek reelection whenever he wants – and he has chosen a plum moment.
Posted by Harshad at 1:54 AM

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