| Turkey considers Syria buffer zone; Annan seeks unity Posted:  ANKARA, BOYNU YOGUN, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday it might set up a "buffer zone" inside Syria to protect refugees fleeing President Bashar al-Assad's forces, raising the prospect of foreign intervention in the year-long revolt. With the uprising entering its second year, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan urged the Security Council to end its divisions over Syria and work to help a peace mission mired in difficulty. On the ground in Syria, the violence continued. Syrian forces battled protesters in at least three suburbs of the capital Damascus, opposition activists said. ...
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| Afghanistan's Karzai slams United States over massacre Posted:  KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday lashed out at the United States for failing to fully cooperate with an investigation into the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a U.S. staff sergeant and questioned whether only one soldier could have been involved. A series of blunders by the United States, including the killings in Kandahar province on Sunday and the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO base last month, has further strained already tense relations between the countries. "This has been going on for too long. You have heard me before. ...
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| N.Korea's plan for rocket launch stirs regional concern Posted:  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Friday it will launch a long-range rocket carrying a "working" satellite to mark the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth next month, sparking condemnation from the United States and others that it was in breach of a U.N. resolution. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the announcement was highly provocative and called upon Pyongyang to honor its obligations including U.N. Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missile launches. ...
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| Chavez returns to Venezuela from Cuba after surgery Posted:  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flew home on Friday after cancer surgery in Cuba that will require him to have radiation therapy ahead of October's re-election bid. Chavez's presence on Venezuelan soil after an absence of more than three weeks in Havana should reassert his leadership, calm anxiety among supporters and quell whispers of a brewing succession struggle behind the scenes. Yet little is known about what kind of cancer Chavez has or how serious it is. ...
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| Swiss bus crash bodies flown home as Belgium mourns Posted:  BRUSSELS/SION, Switzerland (Reuters) - Belgian military aircraft brought home the bodies of 22 children and six adults killed in a bus crash in Switzerland and the country observed a minute's silence during a national day of mourning on Friday. White coffins were loaded into two Hercules transport aircraft near the Swiss town of Sion and landed at a military airport near Brussels. A third plane returned with their belongings. In factories, offices and schools, Belgians stood silent. ...
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| New Daimler factory may help Hungary avoid recession Posted:  KECSKEMET, Hungary (Reuters) - Real estate agent Laszlo Eckert was one of the first to profit from German luxury car maker Daimler's construction of an 800 million euro factory in Kecskemet, a town of about 110,000 an hour's drive southeast of Budapest. The project is the largest new investment by far in recent years in Hungary and one which highlights the centre-right government's ambivalent relationship to investors. ...
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| Moldova breaks political gridlock, elects president Posted:  CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldova's parliament elected a veteran judge who vowed to tackle rampant corruption as the country's new president on Friday, ending a three-year hiatus that had delayed reform in the poor, ex-Soviet republic. Nicolae Timofti, 63, a relatively politically neutral figure, was put forward by the ruling Alliance for European Integration to break the impasse caused by communist opposition to its previous candidate, an Alliance leader. He won over three communist defectors to bolster the three-party ruling coalition's 59 votes, giving him 62 votes in the 101-seat chamber. ...
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| Russian "smear" documentary provokes protests Posted:  MOSCOW (Reuters) - A pro-Kremlin documentary alleging Russians were paid to attend the biggest protests against Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule provoked an angry response from the opposition on Friday and the promise of more demonstrations over the weekend. The opposition said it would stage a rally outside Moscow's Ostankino television broadcast tower on Sunday to protest against the video aired on Thursday on the television station NTV, which is controlled by state-owned gas behemoth Gazprom. ...
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| Williams quits as Anglican head, says successor needs "rhino skin" Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has agonized about schisms in the Anglican Communion over women and gay bishops and same-sex unions, announced unexpectedly on Friday that he would step down at the end of the year. He said it was time to move on after a decade as archbishop and his new post as master of Magdelene College at Cambridge University would give him the time "which I have longed for" to think and write about the Church. "I would hope that my successor has the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros," he said. ...
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| Man killed in French mosque attack: police Posted: PARIS (Reuters) - One man was killed and another seriously injured on Friday when a man with a baseball bat attacked worshippers in a mosque in the town of Arras in northern France, a police source said. The attacker, who was identified as a 32-year-old French man of Moroccan origin, was suffering from mental health problems and had been treated in a psychiatric hospital several times, the source said. He was being questioned by police. Pas-de-Calais prosecutor Denis Robin said the attacker was a member of the Muslim community in Arras, and known to the other worshippers in the mosque. ... |
| Afghan leader blasts US over probe into shootings Posted:  Warning he's at the "end of the rope" over civilian casualties, Afghanistan's president angrily accused the U.S. on Friday of not sharing information about how an American soldier allegedly shot and killed 16 Afghans in two villages.
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| US: NKorea planned rocket launch a 'deal-breaker' Posted:  North Korea plans to blast a satellite into space next month to mark the centenary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il Sung, which the U.S. quickly called a "deal-breaker" for a new agreement where the U.S. would exchange food aid for nuclear concessions.
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| Syrian revolt simmers outside capital Posted:  Syrian rebels ignited a new front Friday outside the capital, Damascus, in the first significant fighting there since regime forces swept over the suburbs weeks ago. The clashes highlight the shifting nature of Syria's conflict, with rebels lying in wait to rise up when the regime turns its guns elsewhere.
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| Chavez returning home to Venezuela after surgery Posted: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that he had left Cuba and was flying home to Venezuela nearly three weeks after undergoing cancer surgery. |
| In Afghan killings case, questions over alcohol Posted:  The U.S. military bans alcohol for its troops in Afghanistan, but that doesn't stop some soldiers from having a bottle or two stowed away in their gear — a fact highlighted by investigators' probe into whether alcohol played a role when a U.S. sergeant allegedly carried out a killing spree that left 16 Afghans dead.
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| Rowan Williams to step down as Anglican leader Posted:  Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is stepping down at the end of the year, calling an end to a tumultuous decade as leader of a global Anglican Communion that has been sharply divided over sexuality and gender.
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| Brazil judge blocks charges for junta-era kidnaps Posted: A federal judge on Friday blocked prosecutors' efforts to hold the first trial of a military man for abuses committed during the nation's dictatorship. |
| French army ups vigilance after deadly shootings Posted:  The military on Friday ordered soldiers in a section of southern France to wear civilian clothes when off-base for extra security following deadly, unsolved shootings of paratroopers in the area.
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| Greek 'language test' protester wins free flights Posted: The Greek businesswoman who decried an Irish airline's policy of making Greek travelers pass language tests to prove their nationality has received free flights for her family and an explicit promise it has abandoned the practice. |
| Libya: Large demo in Benghazi comes under attack Posted: Thousands of Libyan protesters rallying Friday in an eastern city to press for an autonomous region were attacked by armed men wielding rifles and knifes, witnesses said. One person was killed. |
