| Afghan government team attacked, Taliban fume over massacre Posted:  KABUL (Reuters) - Suspected insurgents opened fire on Tuesday on senior Afghan investigators of the massacre of 16 civilians by a lone U.S. soldier, Afghan officials said, just hours after the Taliban threatened to behead American troops to avenge the killings. The gunmen shot from long range at two of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, Shah Wali Karzai and Abdul Qayum Karzai, and security officials at the site of the massacre in Kandahar's Panjwai district. ...
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| Israel-Gaza truce mostly observed Posted:  GAZA (Reuters) - An Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip was largely observed on Tuesday after four days of violence in which 25 Palestinians were killed and 200 rockets were fired at Israel. The number of Palestinian rocket attacks dropped sharply after the deal took effect overnight, with less than 10 rockets reportedly fired since then. In a further sign of a return to normality, towns and cities in southern Israel announced plans to reopen schools that had been kept shut for the past three days. ...
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| Violence across Syria; soldiers killed in ambushes Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces killed dozens of people in the northern city of Idlib, dumping their bodies in a mosque, while some 22 soldiers died in two separate rebel ambushes, opposition activists said on Tuesday. The army intensified its assault on the Idlib province near the Turkish border, intermittently shelling built-up areas and spraying houses with machinegun fire in a bid to dislodge anti-government fighters. ...
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| Poll shows fall in support for Mexican front runner Posted:  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Support has fallen for the favorite to be Mexico's next president, Enrique Pena Nieto, of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), even though his main rival is struggling to gain ground, a poll showed on Tuesday. The latest survey of public opinion for the July 1 presidential elections from pollster Consulta Mitofsky showed the 45-year-old Pena Nieto with 38.5 percent support, down two percentage points from a poll published two weeks ago. ...
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| Monti says can't take on euro group presidency Posted:  ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Tuesday scotched media speculation he might succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as chairman of the euro group of euro zone finance ministers, saying he had his hands full fixing Italy's economic emergency which he stressed is still not over. At a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Monti, who is also economy minister, chose to respond to a question directed at Merkel about whether she felt he would be well suited to become chairman of the so-called euro group. ...
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| Turkish police fire teargas after controversial court ruling Posted:  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds protesting on Tuesday after a court dropped a case against five people charged with killing 37 writers and liberals in a 1993 hotel fire set by Islamist rioters. The five have never been found and the opposition blamed Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party, which emerged from a series of banned Islamist parties, for a failure to launch a serious search. ...
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| Brotherhood takes softer line on Egypt government Posted: CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Tuesday it recognized its demand to sack Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri's cabinet is unlikely to be heeded by the ruling generals but that it did not want a standoff with the army, toning down tough talk by some of its MPs. The Brotherhood is the biggest bloc in parliament which this week voted to begin steps to withdraw confidence from the army-appointed cabinet, a move that would take Egypt into uncharted political waters shortly before the military is due to relinquish power. The army says it will hand over to a new president by July 1. ... |
| Kony's LRA rebels mostly out of Congo, general says Posted:  KINSHASA (Reuters) - Fugitive warlord Joseph Kony and leaders of his LRA have been chased out of Democratic Republic of Congo to the neighboring Central African Republic and no longer pose a threat in Congo, a Congolese general said on Tuesday. The comment follows a complaint by nearby Uganda that Congo was obstructing its U.S.-backed hunt for Kony, who has been thrust into the headlines after a celebrity-backed U.S. internet campaign calling for his arrest. Self-proclaimed mystic Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. ...
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| Ban Ki-moon says Libya should end rights abuses Posted:  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that Libyan authorities should address human rights violations after a U.N. report found both sides committed war crimes during last year's conflict and that killing, torture and pillage were ongoing. Ban also noted that U.N. Human Rights Council investigators found that NATO "did not deliberately target civilians" in Libya airstrikes. Russia had criticized the investigators for failing to adequately probe deaths caused by NATO bombs. ...
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| Italy accuses India of "subterfuge" to arrest marines Posted:  ROME (Reuters) - Italy on Tuesday accused Indian authorities of using trickery to arrest two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen they thought were pirates, and said Delhi's attitude risked undermining the international fight against piracy. Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi told the Senate that Italy was pursuing every possible solution to win the marines' release almost a month after the incident. The marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, were stationed on a merchant ship off the southern Indian coast to protect it from pirate attacks. ...
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| Afghan villagers recount weekend shooting rampage Posted:  As bullets flew, the Afghan woman scooped up her 3-year-old niece and ran for their lives. Moments later, the woman was dead and the girl lay bleeding from a gunshot wound.
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| Journalist recounts fleeing Syrian city under fire Posted:  Explosions illuminated the night as we ran, hoping to escape Syria after nearly three weeks of covering a conflict that the government seems determined to keep the world from seeing. Tank shells slammed into the city streets behind us, snipers' bullets whizzed by our heads and the rebels escorting us were nearly out of ammunition.
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| Syrian regime gains momentum against rebels Posted:  The Syrian army has recaptured most of the northern rebel stronghold of Idlib near the Turkish border, pushing hundreds of military defectors out of a major base they had held for months even as pockets of resistance kept up their fight on Tuesday.
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| US: Sri Lanka should reconcile with Tamils Posted: The U.S. warned Tuesday that Sri Lanka risks renewed conflict unless it addresses war crimes allegations, while rights groups said that abuses by security forces continue, three years after fighting against Tamil rebels ended. |
| UK police arrest Rebekah Brooks in hacking probe Posted:  British police made six arrests early Tuesday in the British media's phone hacking scandal, including Rebekah Brooks, the former top executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International, The Associated Press has learned.
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| NKoreans, French prepare for major Paris concert Posted:  A North Korean and a French orchestra held a daylong rehearsal on Tuesday ahead of a landmark concert in Paris, a sign of warming ties between Pyongyang and the West following years of tensions.
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| Official: Invest in children for peace in Somalia Posted:  Adan Abdi worries that the students in his class show too little interest in education. That might be a common complaint among teachers, but Abdi's concerns go further: His students are interested in playing war.
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| French war surgeon speaks of "hell" in Syria Posted:  French surgeon Jacques Beres has operated in war zones for 40 years, but he says the carnage in Syria is among the most horrific he has ever witnessed.
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| Kim Dotcom's money won him New Zealand residency Posted:  In the eyes of New Zealand immigration authorities in 2010, Kim Dotcom's money trumped his criminal past.
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| Diplomat: Syria answers Annan on ending violence Posted:  Syrian officials responded Tuesday to a number of concrete proposals by international envoy Kofi Annan on how to end the violence in their country, a U.N. diplomat said.
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