| Syria accused of new massacre as U.N. meets Posted: 06 Jun 2012 03:31 PM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stood accused by opponents on Thursday of a new massacre of scores of villagers hours before a divided United Nations Security Council convenes to review the crisis. If confirmed, the killings of at least 78 people at Mazraat al-Qabeer, near Hama, will pile on pressure for world powers to act, but there is little sign they can overcome a paralysis born of sharp divisions between Western and Arab states on the one hand and Assad's defenders in Russia, China and Iran. ...
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| Exclusive: Drones "inhumane", dead al Qaeda man's family says Posted: 06 Jun 2012 03:52 PM PDT  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The brother of al Qaeda's second-in-command, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, said Washington's use of the remote-controlled weapons is inhumane and makes a mockery of its claims to champion human rights. U.S. officials said on Tuesday that Libyan-born al Qaeda operative Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed by a drone strike in Pakistan, in what was described as a major blow to the militant group. The attack is likely to fuel an increasingly fierce debate about the legality and morality of the drones, which have become one of the chief U.S. ...
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| Exclusive: U.S. offers millions in bounty for top Somali militants Posted: 06 Jun 2012 03:29 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is offering rewards of up to $7 million for information leading to the location of seven key leaders of Somalia's al Shabaab, seeking for the first time to target top echelons of the al Qaeda-linked militant group. U.S. officials said the rewards, to be announced on the State Department's "Rewards for Justice" website on Thursday, opened a new front in the battle against al Shabaab and signaled Washington's determination to press the fight against terrorism across Africa. ...
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| Putin says to push military ties with China Posted: 06 Jun 2012 07:25 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he will boost military cooperation with China, including holding more joint exercises, after the United States announced plans to shift most of its warships to the Asia-Pacific by 2020. Putin referred to recent Sino-Russian joint navy exercises in the Yellow Sea as an example of military cooperation which, he said, would go on. "We will continue cooperation also between our military," he told Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where he is attending a security summit and meeting his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. ...
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| Bomb targets U.S. mission in Libya's Benghazi Posted: 06 Jun 2012 12:29 PM PDT BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside the U.S. diplomatic mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi overnight, an attack that could be retaliation for the killing, in a U.S. drone strike, of al Qaeda's Libyan second-in-command. An improvised explosive device was dropped from a passing vehicle onto the road outside the mission, in an upmarket area of central Benghazi. It exploded moments after, slightly damaging the building's gate, U.S. and Libyan officials said. Washington had confirmed a few hours before the attack that a U.S. ... |
| U.N. reports on Ugandan warlord's crimes against children Posted: 06 Jun 2012 02:32 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has submitted his first report to the Security Council detailing grave crimes committed against children by Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and his feared Lord's Resistance Army, the U.N. announced on Wednesday. Kony has evaded the region's militaries for nearly three decades, kidnapping tens of thousands of children to fill the ranks of his Lord's Resistance Army and serve as sex slaves as he moves through the bush. Thousands have been killed by his brutal army. ...
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| Mubarak likely to be moved to hospital: agency Posted: 06 Jun 2012 03:45 PM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Hosni Mubarak's health has deteriorated since the Egyptian ex-president was sent to prison on Saturday and it is likely he will moved to a hospital outside the jail where he is being held, the state news agency reported on Wednesday. Mubarak, 84, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of hundreds of protesters during last year's popular uprising. He was moved to Tora prison in Cairo. ...
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| Italy holds suspect for school bombing: police Posted: 06 Jun 2012 03:45 PM PDT ROME (Reuters) - Italian police took into custody a 68-year-old man on Wednesday for last month's bombing in front of a school that killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded 10 others. After several hours of questioning in the southern city of Lecce, the man allegedly confessed to building and planting the bomb, Italian media reported. The investigation into the bombing took "an important and definitive breakthrough" on Wednesday, the head of the police force, Antonio Manganelli, said after news of a possible confession was reported. ... |
| Scandal-hit Vatican says restoring trust will take time Posted: 06 Jun 2012 08:04 AM PDT  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - It will take time to restore trust within the walls of the Vatican and ease the pain caused by a leaks scandal that led to the arrest of Pope Benedict's butler, the pontiff's spokesman said on Wednesday. "Clearly to restore a climate of serenity and trust is a process, it is not something that can be solved in a few days," said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's chief spokesman. "But we have started and we are moving ahead," he said. ...
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| Mexican presidency front-runner's image used to promote adultery Posted: 06 Jun 2012 01:48 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto has become the unwitting poster boy for a website promoting adultery after he admitted cheating on his first wife. A new Mexican billboard by ashleymadison.com, a site that helps married people arrange affairs, shows Pena Nieto with an index finger over his lips in a hushing gesture. Next to him are the words: "Unfaithful to his family. Faithful and committed to his country. ...
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| Syrian activists report wave of violence in Hama Posted: 06 Jun 2012 03:35 PM PDT  Syrian activists reported a surge of bloodshed in the central Hama province late Wednesday, with at least 23 people killed — and possibly many more.
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| Carrier defends itself over Nigeria plane crash Posted: 06 Jun 2012 02:40 PM PDT  A Nigerian airline whose airplane crashed in the country's largest city, killing 153 on board and more on the ground, defended itself Wednesday against growing public criticism, saying its own chief engineer died on the doomed flight.
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| UK's Cameron, Obama urge action on eurozone crisis Posted: 06 Jun 2012 02:21 PM PDT British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama have agreed on the need for immediate action to resolve the eurozone crisis. |
| Scores of Afghans killed in violence across nation Posted: 06 Jun 2012 01:30 PM PDT  Scores of Afghans were killed Wednesday in Taliban attacks and other violence including a NATO airstrike, highlighting persistent instability as foreign troops begin their drawdown more than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion.
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| For some, French retirement age goes down, not up Posted: 06 Jun 2012 12:36 PM PDT  France's new Socialist government moved Wednesday to lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 years old for certain workers, bucking a global trend in a gesture to unions that critics say is a costly mistake.
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| Mubarak's health worsens amid political crisis Posted: 06 Jun 2012 02:59 PM PDT  Hosni Mubarak's health sharply deteriorated Wednesday, days after he was sentenced to life in prison, and specialists were evaluating whether to transfer him to a better-equipped hospital outside the penal system, security officials said.
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| Canada police: Notes found in body parts packages Posted: 06 Jun 2012 04:36 PM PDT  Police investigating the grisly killing of a Chinese student said Wednesday that mailed packages containing the man's body parts also included notes.
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| 'Band of Brothers' honored on D-Day anniversary Posted: 06 Jun 2012 02:56 PM PDT  With World War II-era military planes darting overhead and Normandy's Utah Beach visible in the distance, a bronze statue emerged from beneath a camouflage parachute, in tribute to a man whose quiet leadership was chronicled in the book and television series "Band of Brothers."
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| Shar Pei nurses 2 endangered tiger cubs in Russia Posted: 06 Jun 2012 12:56 PM PDT  Two Siberian tiger cubs abandoned in Russia by their mother have found an unusual wet nurse — a wrinkled, sand-colored Shar Pei dog named Cleopatra, a zoo worker said Wednesday.
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| DEA makes smuggling arrests in Puerto Rico airport Posted: 06 Jun 2012 02:08 PM PDT  U.S. federal agents swept through Puerto Rico's largest airport and other areas early Wednesday, arresting dozens of baggage handlers, airline workers and others suspected of smuggling millions of dollars' worth of cocaine aboard commercial flights for at least a decade.
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