| Frustrated Annan quits as Syria peace envoy Posted: 02 Aug 2012 04:20 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS/ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is quitting as international peace envoy for Syria, frustrated by "finger-pointing" at the United Nations while the armed rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad becomes increasingly bloody. As battles raged on Thursday in Syria's second city, Aleppo, between rebel fighters and government forces using war planes and artillery, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced in New York that Annan had said he would go at the end of the month. ...
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| Buenos Aires province devises its own Falklands ship ban Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:48 PM PDT  BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Buenos Aires province passed a bill on Thursday to prohibit ships involved in business activities off the disputed Falkland Islands from mooring at its ports, part of Argentina's drive to discourage oil exploration in the area. Argentina had already banned ships flying the Falklands flag from stopping at the country's ports. The regional Mercosur trade group backed the move. President Cristina Fernandez has launched a wide-ranging diplomatic offensive to assert Argentina's claims to the British-ruled islands 30 years after the Falklands war. ...
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| Yemen tribesmen release Italian officer: official Posted: 02 Aug 2012 02:52 PM PDT  SANAA (Reuters) - An Italian embassy security officer kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen has been released unharmed, a government official said on Thursday, the same day the country's information minister survived an assassination attempt. The incidents highlight continuing instability in Yemen five months after former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh was formally replaced by his deputy under a plan designed to forestall a slide into lawlessness. ...
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| Iran, EU agree to talk again on nuclear dispute Posted: 02 Aug 2012 01:51 PM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Chief negotiators for the EU and Iran agreed on Thursday to hold more talks about Tehran's nuclear work, but the European Union gave no sign progress was imminent in the decade-long dispute. Six world powers, represented by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, have sought to persuade Iran to scale back its nuclear program through intensifying economic sanctions and diplomacy. They have failed to reach a breakthrough in three rounds of talks since April. ...
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| Clinton takes message of reconciliation to South Sudan Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT  KAMPALA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will press South Sudan to resolve disputes with its former rulers in the north, on her first visit to the world's newest country on Friday. On an 11-nation African tour, Clinton will be the most senior U.S. since independence last year, warning that bitter divisions over territory and oil threaten to wreck the economies of two nations. "We're encouraging both sides, South Sudan and Sudan, to meet and negotiate the differences between them as expeditiously as possible," a senior U.S. ...
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| Founder of modern Turkey Ataturk's daughter dies Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:21 PM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The adopted daughter of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was killed in a traffic accident, her son said on Turkish television on Thursday. Ulku Adatepe was 79. Adatepe died on Wednesday when she was thrown from a vehicle after the driver lost control of the car while driving on a motorway from Istanbul to the capital Ankara, the daily newspaper Milliyet reported. Adatepe's husband and the driver were hurt but survived the crash, which occurred in the northwest province of Sakarya. Her son Ahmet Dogancay confirmed the news on NTV television. ... |
| Brazil Supreme Court trial could tarnish Lula's legacy Posted: 02 Aug 2012 02:41 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Seven years after a corruption scandal rattled the government of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's Supreme Court on Thursday began a landmark trial that could mar the wildly popular leader's legacy. Brazilians still don't know the extent of the infamous "mensalão" scandal, an alleged scheme to pay legislators a monthly retainer in exchange for their support in Congress. ...
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| U.N. demands end of foreign support for Congo rebels Posted: 02 Aug 2012 01:44 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Thursday demanded an end to foreign support for the M23 rebels fighting against the Kinshasa government in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a rebuke diplomats said was aimed at Rwanda and Uganda. The 15-nation council issued a statement voicing its "strong condemnation of any and all outside support to the M23 and demand that all support to the M23, including from outside countries, cease immediately. ...
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| Echoes of past in new Egypt government Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:08 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi kept his post as Egyptian defence minister in a Muslim Brotherhood-led administration sworn in on Thursday by President Mohamed Mursi, confirming the military's role at the epicenter of power. Tantawi's inclusion in Prime Minister Hisham Kandil's cabinet was widely expected, but underlined the emerging power balance between a civilian president from a once banned Islamist group and the generals who removed Hosni Mubarak from power. "Do we start from zero? For sure, no," Kandil said during a news conference. ...
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| Putin weighs into punk trial after judo gold Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:48 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Fresh from cheering a Russian judo star to a gold medal at the Olympic Games, President Vladimir Putin urged leniency on Thursday for members of a female punk band on trial for protesting against him at the altar of a Moscow cathedral. Putin told Interfax news agency that there was "nothing good" about the protest by the band Pussy Riot, which outraged many Russian Orthodox believers on the eve of Putin's latest presidential election win. "Nonetheless, I don't think that they should be judged so harshly for this," Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying. ...
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| Annan quits Syria role, blasts UN Security Council Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:22 PM PDT  Frustrated by Syria's escalating civil war, Kofi Annan announced Thursday that he will quit his high-profile role as special envoy to the country at the end of the month, giving reasons that amounted to scathing criticism of world powers' failure to unite to stop the chaos in the Arab state.
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| Phelps back on top, beats Lochte in 200 IM Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:23 PM PDT Michael Phelps spent the day thinking about all the things he's doing for the final time at the pool. It turns out that included one last win over Ryan Lochte. |
| Syrian rebels accused of executions, other abuses Posted: 02 Aug 2012 01:06 PM PDT  The unsteady, hand-held video shows several bloodied prisoners, one in boxer shorts, being led into a noisy outdoor crowd and placed against a wall. The prisoners crouch and seem to avert their eyes as men carrying assault rifles shout slogans and take aim. The gunfire lasts for more than 30 seconds.
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| New Egypt government puts Brotherhood in key posts Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:07 PM PDT  Egypt's Islamist president swore in his first new government Thursday, led by a devout Muslim and including five members of his Muslim Brotherhood in unglamorous but ideal ministries for a group whose long-term aim is to Islamize the most populous Arab nation.
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| US-bound Cubans pour into Panama through Colombia Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:06 AM PDT  Led by smugglers armed with knives and machetes, Mayra Reyes and 14 other Cubans sloshed through swamps and rivers and suffered hordes of mosquitoes as they struggled across the notorious Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia, the only north-south stretch of the Americas to defy road-builders.
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