| Military hits town near Damascus; 100 killed nationwide Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT  ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Troops and tanks swept into a town near Damascus on Thursday in an assault aimed at crushing opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's increasingly bloody civil war. Artillery and helicopters hammered the Sunni Muslim town of Daraya, killing 25 people and wounding 200 over the last 48 hours, opposition sources said. Soldiers moved in and raided houses. "Artillery is firing from Qasioun Mountain in regular bursts of heavy barrages. I wonder what is left of the town," said one woman watching the shelling from Damascus. ...
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| Norway Court to decide mass killer Breivik's sanity Posted: 23 Aug 2012 05:05 PM PDT  OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian court delivers its verdict in the ten-week trial of gunman Anders Behring Breivik on Friday, deciding whether to send the anti-Muslim militant to jail or a mental hospital for the massacre of 77 people last summer. Prosecutors have demanded a verdict of insanity, a fate Breivik called "worse than death", while many of his victims say only a sane person could have carried out such a complex attack. Either way he is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars. ...
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| Iran hails Non-Aligned summit as diplomatic coup against West Posted: 23 Aug 2012 04:07 PM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran hopes to earn diplomatic kudos over the coming week as it hosts a summit of 120 developing nations, but any jubilation could turn sour over starkly different views on the bloody conflict in Syria. The Islamic Republic's three-year tenure of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which starts on Sunday, is a chance for Tehran to elevate its international standing as the United States seeks to cripple its economy and isolate it diplomatically over its nuclear program. ...
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| Three killed, eight wounded in Libyan tribal clash Posted: 23 Aug 2012 04:53 PM PDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and eight were wounded in heavy clashes between two tribes near the western town of Zlitan on Thursday, an official source said, correcting an earlier estimate of 12 dead and dozens wounded. The clash was sparked by a dispute between two families from the al-Haly and al-Fawatra tribes. The source could not say what the dispute was about but noted that an army deployment has managed to impose a truce between the two warring tribes. "The army's deployment has allowed us to take first-hand account of casualties in this tribal clash. ... |
| Merkel and Hollande unite in tough message for Greece Posted: 23 Aug 2012 04:04 PM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande presented a united front towards Greece on Thursday, telling Athens it should not expect leeway on its bailout agreement unless it sticks to tough reform targets. The German and French leaders met in Berlin to fine-tune their message to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who begins a charm offensive in Berlin and Paris this week in the hope of persuading Europe's big powers that Greece deserves patience. ...
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| Ecuador's Correa see no end to Assange impasse with UK Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:40 PM PDT  QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa doubts Britain and Sweden will change their tough stance on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, especially since they are negotiating with a small, poor country like his. Ecuador's leftist leader told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that he remained open to talks over the fate of the former computer hacker, who has been holed up at the Ecuadorean embassy in London for more than two months. Britain says it is determined to extradite Assange to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault. ...
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| Colombia replaces finance minister in surprise move Posted: 23 Aug 2012 04:59 PM PDT  BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos moved Energy Minister Mauricio Cardenas to head the finance post on Thursday in a surprise move for Latin America's fourth-largest economy. At the midpoint of his four-year term, Santos asked all 16 ministers to resign, including Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry, and set the stage for a cabinet shuffle aimed at shoring up his slumping approval ratings. It was not immediately known when Cardenas, 50, who holds a doctorate in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, would take on his new role. ...
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| Clinton urges Egypt, Israel to talk on Sinai Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:58 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Egypt's foreign minister to keep lines of communication open with Israel amid tensions over an Egyptian push against militants in the neighboring Sinai desert, the State Department said on Thursday. Clinton spoke with Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr on Wednesday and stressed the importance of acting transparently as Cairo deploys aircraft and tanks in Sinai, for the first time since a 1973 war with Israel, to pursue Islamist militants blamed for killing 16 border guards in an August 5 attack. ...
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| Taliban behind a quarter of Afghan "insider" attacks: general Posted: 23 Aug 2012 11:38 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. general leading NATO forces in Afghanistan acknowledged on Thursday that the Taliban could be traced to more "insider attacks" against Western troops than previously acknowledged, accounting for about a quarter of the cases. The increasing number of killings of NATO soldiers by Afghan security forces, or those impersonating them, have eroded trust between Western forces and their Afghan allies and threaten to complicate plans for a transition to Afghan security within two years. ...
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| Russia's rights ombudsman decries Pussy Riot verdict Posted: 23 Aug 2012 08:21 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's human rights ombudsman on Thursday called the prison sentences handed down to three women from punk band Pussy Riot "excessive" and warned that the case was igniting dangerous tensions within society. The trio were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred by a Moscow court on August 17 after belting out a profanity-laced anti-Putin song on the altar of Moscow's main cathedral in February. ...
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| AP IMPACT: With war, Syrians in constant flight Posted: 23 Aug 2012 11:51 AM PDT  Civil war has chased Fatima Ghorab and her brood of some two dozen women and children across Syria in search of safe havens that keep disappearing in the booms of artillery shells. They now shelter in an unfinished apartment in this Aleppo suburb, crowded into two rooms with a few plastic chairs and some thin mattresses. If their neighbors didn't bring them bread, they'd have none.
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| Paris backs Syria no-fly zone as fighting grows Posted: 23 Aug 2012 02:31 PM PDT  France signaled Thursday that it was prepared to take part in enforcing a partial no-fly zone over Syria, piling pressure on President Bashar Assad's embattled regime as it widens a major offensive against rebels in Damascus and surrounding areas.
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| AP NewsBreak: Nuke agency forms special Iran team Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:09 PM PDT  The U.N. nuclear agency is forming a special Iran team, drawing together sleuths in weapons technology, intelligence analysis, radiation and other fields of expertise as it seeks to add muscle to a probe of suspicions that Tehran worked secretly on atomic arms, diplomats tell The Associated Press.
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| Russia: We have Syrian guarantees on chemical arms Posted: 23 Aug 2012 12:21 PM PDT  Russia is working closely with the Syrian government to ensure that its arsenal of chemical weapons remains under firm control and has won promises that the weapons of mass destruction will not be used or moved, Moscow's point man on Syria told The Associated Press on Thursday.
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| Lawyer: Breivik won't appeal if declared sane Posted: 23 Aug 2012 05:40 AM PDT  Anders Behring Breivik's defense lawyers say the confessed mass killer won't appeal if he's sentenced to prison but he will challenge any ruling that declares him insane.
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| Q&A: It's judgment time for Norway mass killer Posted: 23 Aug 2012 09:51 AM PDT  The first chapter of a terror case that has haunted Norway for 13 months will end Friday as confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik receives his judgment for attacks that left 77 people dead and more than 200 injured.
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| UK newspapers steer clear of naked Harry photos Posted: 23 Aug 2012 03:16 PM PDT  The prince has no clothes — but most British newspapers aren't running the pictures.
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| Hippo stuck in SAfrica swimming pool Posted: 23 Aug 2012 10:51 AM PDT  A hefty hippo chased away from his herd at a South African game reserve has found a refreshing place to relax: the lodge's swimming pool. Now it's stuck there.
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| South Africa mourning upended by fiery politician Posted: 23 Aug 2012 11:04 AM PDT  A fiery politician cast out of the ruling party Thursday hijacked the main memorial service for 34 striking miners killed by police, to accuse President Jacob Zuma's government of complicity in the shootings. Angry government ministers walked out.
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| Egypt president issues law to free news editor Posted: 23 Aug 2012 01:48 PM PDT  Egypt's president intervened to release a newspaper editor jailed over accusations of insulting him on Thursday, issuing a law for the first time since he assumed legislative powers earlier this month.
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