Sunday, November 25, 2012

Hamas leader defiant as Israel eases Gaza curbs

Hamas leader defiant as Israel eases Gaza curbs

Hamas leader defiant as Israel eases Gaza curbs

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 10:57 AM PST

Palestinian looks at Israeli soldiers as they stand guard behind fence between Israel and southern Gaza StripGAZA (Reuters) - Israel eased restrictions on Gaza fishermen and farmers on Saturday, Palestinian officials said, advancing a three-day-old truce brokered by Egypt after a week of fierce fighting. Gaza's children also headed back to school in their hundreds of thousands, in another indication normal life was returning after eight days of fierce cross-border fighting in which 166 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed. ...

Five killed in attack on Pakistan Shi'ite gathering, 70 hurt

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 11:48 PM PST

Security officer collects evidence on the roof of a house after a roadside bomb in Dera Ismail KhanDERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb killed at least five people and wounded about 70 near a Shi'ite procession in Pakistan on Sunday, police said, as the sect braced for major sectarian attacks by Sunni militants during a critical event in their religious calendar. Television footage showed the wounded being carried away in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan, where a bomb targeting Shi'ites killed at least seven people, including four children, on Saturday. ...

Bangladesh garment factory blaze kills more than 100

Posted: 25 Nov 2012 12:10 AM PST

A firefighter tries to control a fire at a garment factory in Savar, outskirts of DhakaDHAKA (Reuters) - A fire swept through a garment factory on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital killing more than 100 people, the fire brigade said on Sunday, in the country's worst ever factory blaze. Working conditions at Bangladeshi factories are notoriously poor, with little enforcement of health and safety laws and overcrowding and locked fire doors common, but the cause of this fire was not immediately known. The blaze at the nine-storey Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia industrial belt of Dhaka started on the ground floor late on Saturday and spread, trapping hundreds of workers. ...

African presidents urge Congo rebels to abandon war

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 02:20 PM PST

Congolese Revolution Army rebels sit in a truck as they patrol a street in SakeGOMA/KAMPALA (Reuters) - African leaders called on eastern rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday to abandon their aim of toppling the government and leave the city of Goma they captured this week. The appeal came from heads of state of the central African Great Lakes region who fear that if left unchecked the offensive by the M23 rebels could drag the volatile, ethnically-diverse and mineral-rich region back into another bloody conflict. ...

Honduras busts alleged drug gang, seizes $100 million in assets

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 09:47 PM PST

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran anti-drug agents on Saturday broke up an alleged gang of synthetic drug producers and seized $100 million in assets, a government spokesman said. Anti-drug trafficking agents carried out raids on 24 sites in the northern part of the country, seizing 700 heads of cattle and 150 vehicles in one of the biggest organized crime seizures in the last decade, spokesman Carlos Vallecillo said. Vallecillo said the group laundered money through companies and property, but did not specify which drug cartel the group belonged to. ...

ETA calls for talks over "definitive end" with Spain, France

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 12:54 PM PST

MADRID (Reuters) - Basque separatist group ETA said on Saturday it wanted talks with the Spanish and French governments to negotiate a definitive end to military operations and a handover of its arms. Basque newspaper Naiz published an advance summary of an ETA statement, which said the group wanted talks over the return of ETA prisoners to the northern Basque region, an end to its military structure, and a full disarmament. The paper said the full statement would be published on Sunday. ...

Japan PM, opposition chief clash over monetary policy

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 09:55 PM PST

Japan's Prime Minister Noda prepares for session of 21st ASEAN and East Asia summit in Phnom PenhTOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Sunday that the opposition's call for radical monetary easing to beat chronic deflation was "dangerous" and defended the independence of the central bank, countering arguments by the front runner in next month's election. Noda and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Shinzo Abe, differed sharply over monetary and foreign policy in separate television appearances ahead of the December 16 election which the opposition party is tipped to win in opinion polls. ...

New corruption scandal rocks Brazilian government

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 11:57 AM PST

Brazil's President Rousseff participates in the ceremony of investiture for the new President and Vice-President of the Supreme Court in BrasiliaBRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, moving quickly to nip a new scandal in the bud, ordered the dismissal on Saturday of government officials allegedly involved in a bribery ring, including the country's deputy attorney general. Federal police raided government offices in Brasilia and Sao Paulo on Friday and arrested six people for running an influence peddling ring that sold government approvals to businessmen in return for bribes. ...

Italy center-left picks candidate for next prime minister

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 03:21 PM PST

Secretary of Italian PD Luigi Bersani delivers speech during political rally with European Socialists in ParisROME (Reuters) - Italian center-left voters head to the polls on Sunday to choose the candidate who will be the leading contender to succeed Mario Monti as prime minister after a general election in March. Opinion surveys show Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani is front-runner among five candidates, followed by youthful Florence mayor Matteo Renzi, who has vowed to shake up Italy's political establishment if he is chosen. Voting booths will be open from 08:00 to 20:00 local time (07:00 GMT to 19:00 GMT) with results due around midnight (23:00 GMT). ...

ElBaradei warns of Egypt turmoil from Morsi decree

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 09:39 PM PST

Leading democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei speaks to a handful of journalists including the Associated Press saying dialogue with Egypt's Islamist president is not possible until he rescinds his decrees giving himself near absolute powers, at his home on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012. ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate for his past work as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has formed a "National Salvation Front" with other liberal and secular leaders, trying to unify the opposition against Morsi. (AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell)Prominent Egyptian democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei warned Saturday of increasing turmoil that could potentially lead to the military stepping in unless the Islamist president rescinds his new, near absolute powers, as the country's long fragmented opposition sought to unite and rally new protests.

112 killed in fire at Bangladesh garment factory

Posted: 25 Nov 2012 12:14 AM PST

Bangladeshi firefighters battle a fire at a garment factory in the Savar neighborhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh, late Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012. At least 112 people were killed in a fire that raced through the multi-story garment factory just outside of Bangladesh's capital, an official said Sunday. (AP Photo/Hasan Raza)At least 112 people were killed in a fire that raced through a multi-story garment factory just outside of Bangladesh's capital, an official said Sunday.

Europe mulls banning 'boxes' for abandoned babies

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 11:54 PM PST

German pastor Gabriele Stangl says she will never forget the harrowing confession she heard in 1999. A woman said she had been brutally raped, got pregnant and had a baby. Then she killed it and buried it in the woods near Berlin.

Italy votes in center-left primary amid recession

Posted: 25 Nov 2012 01:06 AM PST

Italians are voting in a primary for a center-left candidate to run in spring general elections that will in large part determine how Italy's tries to fix its troubled finances and emerge from a grinding recession.

Bomb in Pakistan kills 2 Shiites, injures 35

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 11:08 PM PST

Pakistani Shiite Muslim girls mourn during a Muharram procession in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012. Muharram is a month of mourning in remembrance of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)Police say a bomb exploded at a Shiite religious procession in northwest Pakistan, killing at least two people and injuring some 35 others.

Gaza cleric calls violation of Israel truce sinful

Posted: 25 Nov 2012 12:19 AM PST

A leading Islamic cleric in the Gaza Strip has ruled it a sin to violate the recent cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas militant group that controls the Palestinian territory.

At renovated Iraq shrine, Shiites mark a holy day

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 12:35 PM PST

Shiite Muslim worshippers gather outside Imam Hussein shrine, seen in the background, to mark the Muslim festival of Ashoura, an important period of mourning for Shiites in Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Nov. 24, 2012. The festival of Ashoura commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala, Iraq, in the year A.D. 680. (AP Photo / Khalid Mohammed)It is the most impassioned day of the year for Shiite Muslims — Ashoura, when one of the faith's most revered figures, Imam Hussein, was martyred in battle. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites who flocked to his resplendent, gold-domed shrine to commemorate him Saturday found the site has radically changed.

China's role in Southeast Asia questioned

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 09:44 PM PST

FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2012 file photo, China's Premier Wen Jiabao, right, chats with U.S. President Barack Obama, left, as Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen stands between them during a family photo at the 7th East Asia Summit Plenary Session in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. China's finding the once friendly ground of Southeast Asia bumpy going, with anger against Chinese claims to disputed islands, once reliable ally Myanmar flirting with democracy and renewed American attention to the region. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)China is finding the once friendly ground of Southeast Asia bumpy going, with anger against Chinese claims to disputed islands, once reliable ally Myanmar flirting with democracy and renewed American attention to the region.

Mauritanian president returns from France

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 02:35 PM PST

File - In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, handout file photo released by the Mauritanian government news agency AMI (Agence Mauritanienne de l'Information), Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz recovers at the Ksar Military Hospital in Noukchott, Mauritania before being evacuated to France for further treatment for a gunshot wound sustained to the arm. Mauritania's Minister of Communication says President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has been lightly wounded by friendly fire after his vehicle was fired upon by the military on the outskirts of the capital, Nouakchott. Thousands of Mauritanians lined the street from the airport to welcome back President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who went to France for five weeks of medical treatment after being accidentally shot in a friendly fire incident. His return Saturday Nov 24 2012, puts an end to speculation over the state of his health, as well as over the future of Mauritania.(AP Photo/Agence Mauritanienne de l'Information, file)Thousands of Mauritanians lined the road from the airport Saturday to welcome back President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who went to France for five weeks of medical treatment after being accidentally shot in a friendly fire incident.

Egyptians accuse President Morsi of rewriting rules of democracy

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 12:28 PM PST

Thousands of Egyptians poured into the streets around Egypt yesterday to protest a decree by President Mohamed Morsi that sidelines Egypt's judiciary, ensures the survival of a disputed constitution drafting assembly, and removes nearly all checks to his power until a new constitution is written.

Against the odds, Syrian rebels begin to chip away at regime's air advantage

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 08:42 AM PST

Syrian opposition fighters have long decried their lack of anti-aircraft weapons and called on the international community to arm them with something that can counter the the Syrian regime's military's jets and helicopters. Such support has yet to come – and there are few indicators that it will arrive anytime soon.
Posted by Harshad at 1:24 AM

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