| U.S. lawmakers want Haqqani named "terrorist" group Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of congressional intelligence committees, who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday to immediately designate the militant Haqqani network as a "terrorist" group. U.S. officials blame the al Qaeda-linked network for attacks in Afghanistan including assaults on embassies and the parliament in Kabul. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, called the Haqqani group a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's intelligence service. ...
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| Greece hurtles towards new election; hard left leads Posted:  ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's politicians failed on Friday to agree a new government, sending the country hurtling towards a new vote, with radical leftists leading in the polls and poised to scrap the 130 billion euro bailout that staved off bankruptcy. The prospect of a new election just weeks after an inconclusive vote that paralyzed the most troubled country in the euro zone caused havoc in financial markets. The European single currency hit its lowest point since January near $1.29, while the Athens stock exchange fell more than 4 percent to its lowest level since 1992. ...
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| U.S. says "eyes wide open" in response to Myanmar changes Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is matching Myanmar's tentative steps toward democracy after decades of harsh military rule with a calibrated re-engagement, aware of the potential for setbacks, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Friday. Patrick Murphy, the State Department's deputy special representative for Myanmar, said Washington is deepening its engagement with the reformist government, looking at easing more sanctions and likely to appoint a U.S. ambassador "in coming weeks. ...
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| From Cameron with love: Murdoch protégée haunts PM Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - David Cameron signed off messages to tabloid editor Rebekah Brooks with an affectionate "LOL", she told an inquiry on Friday, conjuring the embarrassing image of a British prime minister-in-waiting fawning over a Rupert Murdoch protégée. As editor of Britain's most-read newspapers the News of the World and later the Sun, Brooks had the power to make or break careers and was courted for years by top politicians until she quit in disgrace in July 2011 over phone-hacking by reporters. ...
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| Blast hits Syria's Aleppo near ruling party HQ Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - An explosion hit Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Friday, close to the ruling party headquarters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The activist group said no one was killed by the blast itself but one guard at the headquarters died, apparently in a round of gunfire that followed the explosion. "Initial details indicate that the Aleppo blast was targeting the local branch of the ruling Baath party and there is no information until now on the number of victims that fell in the explosion," the British-based group said in an email. ...
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| U.S. resumes Bahrain arms sales despite rights concerns Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will resume some military sales to Bahrain, a key Gulf ally facing Iran, despite human rights concerns linked to months of popular protests against the island kingdom's rulers, the State Department said on Friday. The Obama administration notified Congress that certain sales would be allowed for Bahrain's defense force, coast guard and national guard, although it would maintain a hold on TOW missiles, Humvees and some other items for now, the department said in a statement. ...
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| Hezbollah says able to strike anywhere in Israel Posted:  BEIRUT (Reuters) - The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah said his militant group was capable of striking any target in neighboring Israel, saying "the days when we fled and they did not are over". "Today we are not only able to hit Tel Aviv as a city but, God willing, we are able to hit specific targets in Tel Aviv and anywhere in occupied Palestine," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address. "For every building destroyed in Dahiya, a building will be destroyed in Tel Aviv," he said, referring to Hezbollah's stronghold in a suburb of southern Beirut. ...
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| South Sudan police withdraw from disputed Abyei: U.N. Posted: UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - South Sudan has withdrawn its police from the disputed Abyei region on its border with Sudan, the United Nations said on Friday, after the U.N. Security Council threatened the African neighbors with sanctions to try and stop an escalating conflict. Sudan and South Sudan both claim Abyei, a border region containing fertile grazing land, which Khartoum took in May last year - triggering the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians - after a southern attack on an army convoy. ... |
| Mexico's Pena Nieto widens poll lead after debate Posted:  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto has extended the big lead he holds over his nearest rival in the campaign for the July 1 election after the first televised debate Sunday, a poll showed on Friday. The first voter survey by pollster Consulta Mitofsky since the debate showed support for Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, at 38.5 percent, up 0.5 percentage point from a previous poll published on May 1. That gave him a lead of 17. ...
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| Egyptians vote abroad, leadership contest heats up Posted:  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's presidential election, set to be the freest it has ever had, began for citizens abroad on Friday after a caustic televised debate between two candidates that produced no clear favorite to lead the most populous Arab nation. Egyptians who overthrew President Hosni Mubarak as uprisings hit the Arab world last year are savoring the spectacle of politicians competing for their votes. The streets are abuzz with argument over who is the best man to tackle poverty and corruption and uphold their new-found freedoms. ...
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| Algerian Islamists fall to govt party in election Posted:  Islamists suffered a surprising defeat in Algeria's parliamentary elections, bucking a trend that saw them gain power across North Africa after Arab Spring uprisings.
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| Suicide attacks in Syria add wild card element Posted:  The latest suicide bombings in the Syrian capital showed an increasing ruthlessness: The attackers struck during rush hour, setting off one blast to draw a crowd before unleashing a much bigger one, killing 55 people and leaving the street strewn with rubble and mangled bodies.
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| 12 bodies found at Russian jet crash in Indonesia Posted:  Search teams who scaled a volcano's steep slopes found at least 12 bodies Friday near the wreckage of a Russian-made jetliner that crashed in Indonesia during a demonstration flight for potential buyers, an official said.
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| Attacker in Afghan uniform kills US soldier Posted:  A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot dead a U.S. soldier in the east of the country, one of two NATO troops killed on Friday, military officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
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| Egypt's mindboggling first time choosing a leader Posted:  Egyptians are for the first time getting a taste of how it is to choose a president— with groundbreaking presidential debates, face-to-face encounters with candidates on the campaign trail, and chances to question their programs, political history and even personal lives.
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| Shoe-thrower interrupts Breivik trial Posted:  An Iraqi man whose brother was killed in Norway's worst peacetime massacre hurled a shoe at the confessed killer and urged him to "go to hell" in a rare outburst Friday that briefly interrupted the terror trial of Anders Behring Breivik.
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| AP Exclusive: Vatican eyes Legion priests on abuse Posted:  The Vatican is investigating seven priests from the troubled Legion of Christ religious order for alleged sexual abuse of minors — evidence that the scandal over the order's pedophile founder doesn't rest solely with him, The Associated Press has learned.
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| Russian crash shows risks of informal demo flights Posted:  The crash of a Russian-made passenger jet into the flanks of an Indonesian volcano has put a spotlight on the notoriously informal atmosphere aboard new aircraft during manufacturer demonstrations — known here as "joy flights."
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| Greek euro exit no longer unthinkable Posted: Let Greece go: It's a possibility that's being considered more and more publicly in Europe. |
| Prospectors ready to tap Haiti's buried gold Posted:  Its capital is blighted with earthquake rubble. Its countryside is shorn of trees, chopped down for fuel. And yet, Haiti's land may hold the key to relieving centuries of poverty, disaster and disease: There is gold hidden in its hills — and silver and copper, too.
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