| Turkey urges steps as shelling of Aleppo continues Posted: 27 Jul 2012 03:08 PM PDT  AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad's artillery continued to pound rebel-held areas in and around Aleppo in preparation for an onslaught on Syria's biggest city, while neighboring Turkey called for international steps to deal with the military build-up. Opposition sources said the shelling was an attempt to drive fighters inside Aleppo from their strongholds and to stop their comrades outside the city from resupplying them. "They are shelling at random to instill a state of terror," said Anwar Abu Ahed, a rebel commander outside the city. ...
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| Congo wants U.N. tasked with hunting eastern rebels Posted: 27 Jul 2012 01:57 PM PDT  KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo said on Friday it wanted the mandate of U.N. peacekeepers strengthened so they could help to eliminate rebel groups in its lawless east, as called for by regional leaders seeking to end the nation's cycles of conflict. The statement came after Britain joined the United States and the Netherlands as donors that have cut or suspended aid to Rwanda after a U.N. report said Kigali was backing rebels in fighting that has displaced 470,000 since April. Rwanda has rejected the report, saying donors were acting on "flimsy evidence". ...
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| Injured Mali leader flies home, faces challenges Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:39 PM PDT  BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's interim president returned on Friday from weeks convalescing abroad after he was beaten up by a mob, facing pressure to form a new government and authorize a foreign military intervention against rebels in the north. Mali needs outside support to recover from twin crises sparked by a March coup in the capital that precipitated the rebel takeover of its northern zones, occupied by Islamists dominated by al Qaeda's North African wing, AQIM. The head of the U.S. ...
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| Georgia freezes opposition footballer's bank funds Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:42 PM PDT  TBILISI (Reuters) - A Georgian court froze the bank accounts of retired footballer and opposition leader Kakha Kaladze in a money-laundering probe on Friday that opponents foes of President Mikhail Saakhshvili's government say is a campaign of legal harassment. The football star, who won the Champions League twice with Italy's AC Milan, will stand against the ruling party in October parliamentary polls as part of a newly formed Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. Ivanishvili, 56, whose fortune is estimated at $6. ...
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| Top Venezuelan embassy official killed in Kenya Posted: 27 Jul 2012 01:18 PM PDT  NAIROBI (Reuters) - The head of Venezuela's embassy in Kenya was strangled to death at her official residence in the capital Nairobi, police said on Friday. Nairobi police said they believed the charge d'affaires and acting ambassador, Olga Fonseca, was killed at the mansion, which is surrounded by an electric fence and located in the exclusive Runda neighborhood. "We received reports that she was found dead in the house on her bed. What we have seen is that she has been strangled," Anthony Kibuchi, Nairobi area police commander, told reporters outside the home. ...
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| Sudan makes concession in oil talks but no deal in sight Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:55 PM PDT  ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Sudan said on Friday it had made price concessions in oil talks with newly-independent neighbor South Sudan, but the two countries remained far apart on a deal to resolve disputes that have already brought them to the brink of war. A Sudanese oil ministry official said Khartoum had lowered the amount it wanted to charge to transport Southern crude through its territory - in a bid to settle one of a long list of arguments between the rivals. South Sudan split away from Sudan last year as part of a peace deal that ended decades of civil war. ...
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| Mexican navy captures regional boss of Zetas drug cartel Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:25 AM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico arrested one of the top traffickers of the Zetas drug cartel accused of overseeing the feared gangs' operations across the south of the country, the navy said on Friday. Naval forces captured on Thursday Mauricio Guizar, known as "El Amarillo," in a hotel in small town in the central state of Puebla where he was holed up with 20 grenades, an anti-tank bazooka and a submachine gun, the navy said in a statement. Guizar is implicated in the killing of four soldiers in the Gulf state of Veracruz in April. ...
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| Four arrested over Ivory Coast U.N. peacekeeper killings Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:02 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Four men have been arrested in connection with the ambush killings in Ivory Coast of seven U.N. peacekeepers on its border with Liberia, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on Friday. An adviser to Ouattara said the four had been arrested in Liberia and would be extradited to Ivory Coast to stand trial. The seven United Nations peacekeepers, all from Niger, were killed on June 8 when their patrol came under fire near the town of Tai, close to the porous border, in what Ivorian authorities said was a cross-border raid. ...
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| Former Milosevic aide takes power in Serbia, EU uneasy Posted: 27 Jul 2012 07:21 AM PDT  BELGRADE (Reuters) - The former spokesman of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic took power in Serbia on Friday, telling Europe and the Balkans to forget the past and not fear the return of a political alliance that once led the country to war with NATO. After 12 hours of heated debate, lawmakers in the 250-seat Serbian parliament voted 142 to 72 to endorse Socialist Party leader Ivica Dacic as prime minister at the helm of a coalition with nationalists. ...
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| Pirates kill Eni oil worker in Nigeria: military Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:53 PM PDT YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Pirates killed at least one oil worker in an attack on a boat owned by Italian energy firm Eni's local subsidiary Agip in Nigeria's Niger Delta on Friday, the military said. "The boat conveying some staff of Agip was attacked by sea robbers and one of the staff of the company died when he was attempting to escape and drowned," Onyema Nwachukwu, spokesman for Nigeria's military joint task force, told Reuters. Two other Agip staff were missing after the attack in the Tarabora creek in Bayelsa state, said Nwachukwu. ... |
| EYES ON LONDON: Crowd in the mood, ceremony soon Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:35 AM PDT  Around the 2012 Olympics and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of the games to you:
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| FIRST GLIMPSES Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:31 AM PDT Puffy clouds are being brought into Olympic Stadium, wrangled like small parade floats. Four clouds each the size of a tank, each conveyed by a team of nine people in housepainter pants and hats. |
| Mali president returns home after beating attack Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:17 AM PDT Mali's interim president returned home Friday, two months after seeking medical treatment in France when he was badly beaten by protesters who back a coup leader hanging onto power. |
| Syrian troops kill 6-year-old fleeing into Jordan Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:26 AM PDT  The family crept across farmland under night's cover, heading for the border, when Syrian troops opened fire. Bullets whizzed around them as they broke into a mad dash, survivors say. The 6-year-old boy, holding his mother's hand, broke away and ran ahead. He nearly made it into Jordan when he fell dead, a bullet in his neck.
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| UN worries showdown in Aleppo could be imminent Posted: 27 Jul 2012 09:16 AM PDT  A showdown between rebels and government troops in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, is imminent, the U.N.'s human rights office said Friday, as the Red Cross pulled some of its foreign staff from Damascus out of concern for the safety of its workers.
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| Romney's comments on Olympics rally proud Brits Posted: 27 Jul 2012 08:28 AM PDT  Mitt Romney may be just what the London Olympics needed.
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| Nigeria's floating slum targeted by authorities Posted: 27 Jul 2012 10:26 AM PDT  LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) —
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| Google: Didn't delete Street View data after all Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:40 AM PDT  After being caught spying on people across Europe and Australia with its Wi-Fi-slurping Street View cars, Google had told angry regulators that it would delete the ill-gotten data.
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| Embassy denies Sudan runner applied for UK asylum Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:52 AM PDT The Sudanese Embassy on Friday denied that one of its Olympic runners had applied for asylum in the U.K, contradicting previous reports. |
| Rude surprise: French fed up with own incivility Posted: 27 Jul 2012 09:34 AM PDT  It's a July evening on the terrace of the legendary Cafe Flore. A coiffed woman sips chilled wine, another savors her chocolate eclair.
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