| Clashes hit Syrian capital; West wants united front Posted:  A heavy firefight broke out on Monday between Free Syrian Army rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in a main district of the Syrian capital Damascus that is home to several security installations, witnesses said. They said the sound of heavy machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) echoed through the heavily guarded al-Mezze district. There was no immediate word on casualties but residents said by telephone the fighting was intense. "There is fighting near Hamada supermarket and the sound of explosions there and elsewhere in the neighborhood. ...
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| Gunman attacks Jewish school in France, four killed Posted:  TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - A gunman shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday, days after killing three soldiers nearby, prompting French President Nicolas Sarkozy to put the region on its highest terrorism alert. With the attacker, who escaped on a motorbike, still on the loose, police stepped up a manhunt in the city of a million people in southwestern France. Sarkozy said the killings and those of the soldiers, one of Caribbean and two of Muslim origin, in two attacks last week, appeared to be motivated by racism. ...
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| Libya steps up call for Senussi transfer Posted:  NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Libya stepped up pressure on Mauritania to hand over Muammar Gaddafi's feared intelligence chief Abdallah al-Senussi on Monday, sending a senior delegation to argue he must face Libyan justice. Senussi, 62, the last major Gaddafi associate on the run since the dictator's overthrow and death in a popular revolt last year, was arrested in Mauritania after he arrived there late on Friday on a flight from Morocco. France and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague also want to take him into custody. The U.S. ...
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| Iraq's Sadr stages Shi'ite show of force before summit Posted:  BASRA (Reuters) - Up to a million followers of Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets on Monday in a massive show of force before an Arab League summit which Iraq's long-oppressed Shi'ite majority view as their debut on the regional stage. The protest in the southern city of Basra marked the anniversary of the start of the U.S. invasion in 2003. Slogans were mainly directed at the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for failing to improve the lives of Iraq's poor. ...
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| Greece's Venizelos quits as finance minister to lead party to polls Posted:  ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's Evangelos Venizelos quit as finance minister on Monday to lead the Socialists into a general election, a day after taking over the helm of the party, which is trailing far behind its rival conservatives in opinion polls. The socialist PASOK party, which came to power in October 2009 on a platform to tax the rich and help the poor but had to change course when the debt crisis exploded weeks later, has been weakened by over two years of unpopular austerity. ...
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| Egypt parliament votes to pay uprising victims Posted:  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's new parliament voted on Monday to award cash handouts to people left severely handicapped in clashes with security during last year's uprising against Hosni Mubarak, in its latest move to boost compensation to victims of the violence. Forces loyal to Mubarak killed around 850 people and injured thousands before he was toppled in a dramatic demonstration of people-power that was a defining moment of the Arab Spring. Mubarak himself is on trial, accused of ordering the shooting of protesters, corruption and abuse of power. ...
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| Gunmen slay 12 Mexican police in highway ambush Posted: ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - Twelve Mexican police were killed in a mountain highway ambush hours after the severed heads of 10 people were dumped in a small town in a key illegal-drug-growing region, an official said on Monday. Armed assailants opened fire on Sunday evening on a police convoy, killing 12 officers and wounding 11 more, said Arturo Martinez, spokesman for the Guerrero state government. The ambush took place on a rural highway near the town of Teloloapan, located in southern Mexico between the beach resort of Acapulco and Mexico City. ... |
| Settlers grab Palestinian water springs: U.N. report Posted:  NABI SALEH, West Bank (Reuters) - Jewish settlers have seized dozens of natural springs in the occupied West Bank, barring Palestinians or limiting their access to scarce water sources, a United Nations report said on Monday. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it had surveyed 530 springs in the West Bank and found that 30, mostly in areas where Israel retains military control, were taken over by the settlers. It added that Palestinians currently had limited access to 26 other springs where settlers had moved in and threatened to take control. ...
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| U.N. nuclear watchdog says it received North Korea invitation Posted: VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Monday it had received an invitation from North Korea to visit, three years after its inspectors were expelled from the reclusive Asian state for the second time. The move appeared to be an attempt by North Korea to show it was serious about a nuclear moratorium deal with the United States last month, an accord which has been thrown into doubt by Pyongyang's announcement on Friday of a planned rocket launch. The International Atomic Energy Agency, a Vienna-based U.N. ... |
| Avalanche kills five skiers in Norway Posted:  OSLO (Reuters) - Four Swiss skiers and a French one were killed on Monday when a large avalanche in Norway's High Arctic region engulfed a group of downhill enthusiasts, Norwegian police said. A sixth member of the group, who was Swiss, was pulled alive from the snow and reported to be in stable condition at a regional hospital. They had been on Sorbmegaisa, a steep mountain 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of the city of Tromsoe in an area popular with off-piste skiers and snowboarders, when the snow broke loose at about 1330 GMT. ...
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| 'Looking to kill:' 4 slain at French Jewish school Posted:  A motorbike assailant opened fire with two handguns Monday in front of a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse, killing a rabbi, his two young sons and a girl. One witness described him as a man chasing small children and "looking to kill."
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| Clashes rock Syrian capital amid insurgency fears Posted:  Syrian rebels battled regime forces Monday in a heavily protected, upscale area of Damascus, activists said, in a sign that the country's outgunned opposition is increasingly turning to insurgent tactics.
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| Desecration of Quran, mosques shocks Tunisia Posted: Tunisia's government on Monday condemned the desecration of the Muslim holy book and attacks on mosques as attempts to sow discord in society. |
| Avalanche kills 5 foreign tourists in Norway Posted:  Five people were killed and one person was dug out alive after Swiss and French skiers were buried by an avalanche Monday on Norway's Arctic fringe.
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| Victims of French shooting to be buried in Israel Posted:  The victims of a shooting attack at a Jewish school in France will be brought to Israel for burial, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. Israelis condemned the shooting that killed four Jews — a rabbi and three children.
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| Russia backs Red Cross demand to Syrian government Posted:  Russia said Monday that Syria's government and rebels should halt their fighting once a day to give the Red Cross access to the wounded and that jailed protesters should be allowed to have visitors.
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| Cuban dissident leader free after brief detention Posted:  One of Cuba's leading dissidents said Monday that she was released hours after being detained ahead of a weekly protest, but her husband was apparently still being held.
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| Original Einstein manuscripts to be posted online Posted:  Albert Einstein's complete archives — from personal correspondence with half a dozen lovers to notebooks scribbled with his groundbreaking scientific research — are going online for the first time.
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| German-Afghan man being tried on al-Qaida charges Posted:  A German-Afghan man whose information prompted terrorism warnings across Europe in 2010 went on trial Monday in Germany on charges he was a member of al-Qaida and another terrorist group.
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| Motorcycle gunman kills 4 at French Jewish school Posted: A motorcycle assailant opened fire with two handguns Monday in front of a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse, killing a rabbi, his two young sons and a schoolgirl. One of the guns had also been used in other deadly motorcycle attacks in the area, officials said. |
