Yahoo! News: World News

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• Egypt president sweeps out army rulers
• Syrians say they hold pilot of downed jet
• Norway could have prevented Breivik massacre, says commission
• Thousands rally in Tunisia for women's rights
• Australia says refugee boat missing with 67 people on board
• U.S. envoy meets Romania power rivals, voices concerns over crisis
• Islamic body agrees to suspend Syria: source
• Russia's opposition eyes popularity vote as catalyst for unity
• Iran government criticized over earthquake response
• Powerful uncle of North Korea leader in China to talk business
• President shifts Egypt's balance of power
• Sanctions: A popular weapon with mixed results
• Rebel video claims to show captured Syrian pilot
• Doom and gloom: Olympic wins trump critics
• Pope's butler, 2nd layman face trial in theft case
• Flaws in Norway massacre response uncovered
• Israel plunged into unprecedented debate about war
• Al-Qaida claims attack on Iraq security HQ
• New Afghan police attack on NATO forces; no deaths
• Iran villages in rubble as quake death toll rises

Egypt president sweeps out army rulers Posted: 13 Aug 2012 02:26 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has driven back the biggest challenge to civilian rule by dismissing top generals and tearing up their legal attempt to curb his power in a bold bid to end 60 years of military leadership. Taking the country by surprise, Mursi pushed Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi into retirement. The 76-year-old figurehead of the old order, he took charge of the biggest Arab nation when Hosni Mubarak fell last year and remained head of its powerful, ad hoc military council after the Islamist was elected in June. ...

Syrians say they hold pilot of downed jet Posted: 13 Aug 2012 03:33 PM PDT ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syria's rebels were jubilant on Tuesday, claiming to have shot down a jet and captured its pilot, an apparent victory against the overwhelmingly superior firepower of President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Video uploaded onto the Internet on Monday showed the jet bursting into flames as it streaked through the sky amid heavy gunfire. The rebels said they had hit it with newly acquired high-caliber anti-aircraft guns. The government said it had crashed due to technical problems while on a "regular training mission". ...

Norway could have prevented Breivik massacre, says commission Posted: 13 Aug 2012 08:22 AM PDT OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian police and security services could have prevented all or part of an attack by far-right militant Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and gun massacre last year, a government commission said on Monday. Intelligence services could have learned about Breivik's plans months before the attack made him the worst mass killer in Norway's peacetime history, the commission's report said. ...

Thousands rally in Tunisia for women's rights Posted: 13 Aug 2012 04:27 PM PDT TUNIS (Reuters) - Thousands of Tunisians rallied on Monday to protest against what they see as a push by the Islamist-led government for constitutional changes that would degrade women's status in one of the Arab world's most liberal nations. The protest, by some 6,000 mostly Tunisian women, is the latest twist in a row over the role of Islam in a constitution being drawn up by a new assembly. Tunisia's ruling Ennahda Movement is under pressure from both hardline Salafi Muslims, calling for the introduction of Islamic law, and secular opposition parties. ...

Australia says refugee boat missing with 67 people on board Posted: 13 Aug 2012 05:15 PM PDT CANBERRA (Reuters) - Great fears are held for 67 people, presumed to be asylum seekers, on board a boat that has been missing since it left Indonesia more than a month ago and may have sunk, Australian authorities said on Tuesday. The boat is the latest in a string of vessels to attempt the dangerous crossing to Australia's northwest and news that it was missing came as Australia's parliament considers new laws to deter boats carrying asylum seekers arriving illegally. ...

U.S. envoy meets Romania power rivals, voices concerns over crisis Posted: 13 Aug 2012 03:10 PM PDT BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official met the two rivals battling for power in Romania on Monday and expressed Washington's concerns about the political crisis that he said could create economic and diplomatic problems. U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon met Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the man his Social Liberal Union (USL) is trying to oust as president, Traian Basescu, in a legal and political struggle that has unsettled Washington and the European Union. ...

Islamic body agrees to suspend Syria: source Posted: 13 Aug 2012 03:11 PM PDT JEDDAH (Reuters) - Foreign ministers at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) agreed on Monday to suspend Syria from the international body, an OIC source said, further isolating President Bashar al-Assad. "The session just ended. The ministers adopted the resolutions, including the suspension of Syria," the source told Reuters. The move by the OIC, a body comprising 56 member states plus the Palestinian Authority that aims to represent Muslim interests on the world stage, is its response to Assad's suppression of a 17-month uprising. ...

Russia's opposition eyes popularity vote as catalyst for unity Posted: 13 Aug 2012 12:19 PM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's fragmented opposition is to hold a nationwide Internet vote to identify its most popular leaders and elect a coordinating council ahead of planned mass anti-Kremlin protests later this year. Although the opposition got tens of thousands of people onto the streets to protest against an allegedly rigged parliamentary election in December and against the return of Vladimir Putin to the presidency in a March vote, it has so far failed to capitalize on that success to build a more organized movement. ...

Iran government criticized over earthquake response Posted: 13 Aug 2012 02:01 PM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's government faced criticism on Monday over its response to two earthquakes that killed 306 people, with complaints of a lack of tents and about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to go ahead with an overseas trip. Although officials announced on Sunday, less than 24 hours after disaster struck, that search and rescue operations had finished and all survivors had been freed from the rubble, some locals expressed disbelief that authorities could have reached the most remote villages so soon. "I know the area well. ...

Powerful uncle of North Korea leader in China to talk business Posted: 13 Aug 2012 12:58 PM PDT SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's uncle -- the man seen as the power behind the young and untested dictator -- went to Beijing on Monday in the latest signal that the reclusive state is looking seriously at ways to revive its broken economy. The official KCNA news agency said Jang Song-thaek was visiting China, the North's only major ally, to discuss setting up joint commercial projects. The news comes after leader Kim recently told Beijing that his priority is to develop his impoverished country's decaying economy. ...

President shifts Egypt's balance of power Posted: 13 Aug 2012 03:25 PM PDT In retaking key powers and shaking up the military brass, President Mohammed Morsi has sharply shifted Egypt's balance of power overnight and transformed his public image from a weak leader to a savvy politician.

Sanctions: A popular weapon with mixed results Posted: 13 Aug 2012 08:50 AM PDT Economic sanctions have been called wars without bullets, yet their record in forcing political change has been mixed — by some estimates successful about a third of the time.

Rebel video claims to show captured Syrian pilot Posted: 13 Aug 2012 01:51 PM PDT Syrian rebels circulated dramatic video Monday of what they claimed was the downing of a warplane and armed men later holding the captured pilot who ejected as the MiG fighter was engulfed by flames. Syria acknowledged a pilot bailed out of a disabled plane but blamed the crash on a technical malfunction.

Doom and gloom: Olympic wins trump critics Posted: 13 Aug 2012 02:14 PM PDT For skeptics, the Olympics were deliciously doomed: London's transport network would surely fail, Britain's athletes would flop, rain would prevail and terrorists would strike. But then the sun came out after months of sodden skies, vehicles moved briskly, there were no attacks and British athletes reeled in a shocking 65 medals.

Pope's butler, 2nd layman face trial in theft case Posted: 13 Aug 2012 09:54 AM PDT A Vatican judge on Monday ordered the pope's butler and a fellow lay employee to stand trial for the alleged pilfering of documents from Pope Benedict XVI's private apartment, in an embarrassing scandal that exposed power struggles and purported corruption at the Holy See's highest levels.

Flaws in Norway massacre response uncovered Posted: 13 Aug 2012 12:51 PM PDT A year after a far-right militant's bomb and gun attacks exposed flaws in Norway's terror preparedness, police are being criticized for failing to improve their ability to stop a gunman bent on inflicting mass casualties.

Israel plunged into unprecedented debate about war Posted: 13 Aug 2012 12:22 PM PDT To attack or not to attack? With Israeli politicians warning repeatedly that Iran is secretly pursuing nuclear weapons, this question has spawned an unprecedented amount of agonizing even in a country accustomed to war and incessant debate.

Al-Qaida claims attack on Iraq security HQ Posted: 13 Aug 2012 12:48 PM PDT Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq claimed responsibility Monday for a double bombing that targeted a counterterrorism unit in Baghdad last month.

New Afghan police attack on NATO forces; no deaths Posted: 13 Aug 2012 08:43 AM PDT The new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan called a sudden rash of attacks on international forces by their Afghan partners "troubling" Monday, after an Afghan policeman opened fire on NATO forces in the fifth such assault in a week.

Iran villages in rubble as quake death toll rises Posted: 13 Aug 2012 12:19 PM PDT Iran Monday raised its earthquake death toll to 306, a day after rescuers called off the search for survivors from the rubble of their homes in the country's northwest, state media reported.

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