| Syrian troops push back rebels in Aleppo offensive Posted: 08 Aug 2012 03:23 PM PDT  ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian troops and rebels fought over the country's biggest city Aleppo as President Bashar al-Assad's key foreign backer Iran gathered ministers from like-minded states for talks on Thursday about how to end the conflict. Assad's troops assaulted rebel strongholds in Aleppo on Wednesday in one of their biggest ground attacks since rebels seized chunks of Syria's biggest city three weeks ago. Late in the day, each side gave conflicting accounts of how they stood. ...
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| Libya's ruling council hands over power to new assembly Posted: 08 Aug 2012 04:04 PM PDT  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's ruling council handed over power to a newly elected national assembly on Wednesday in the North African country's first peaceful transition of power in its modern history but which comes amid heightened violence. In a late-night ceremony in the capital Tripoli, the National Transitional Council (NTC), political arm of the opposition forces that toppled Muammar Gaddafi a year ago, handed over to the national congress, elected in July. ...
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| Swiss lab wants guarantee in Arafat death inquiry Posted: 08 Aug 2012 02:54 PM PDT  RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Swiss laboratory will help investigate the unexplained 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat only if it receives guarantees its findings will not be used for political purposes, a spokesman for the lab said on Wednesday. A committee looking into the Palestinian president's death has asked the Swiss Radiophysics Institute, which found traces of a deadly polonium isotope on Arafat's clothing provided by his widow for a recent Al Jazeera television documentary, to examine his remains. ...
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| Egypt fires intelligence chief, militants hit Posted: 08 Aug 2012 01:27 PM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - President Mohamed Mursi sacked the intelligence chief on Wednesday and Egyptian aircraft hit targets on the border with Israel in the biggest assault in the area in nearly 40 years after a deadly attack by militants on Egyptian border police. It was unclear how far Mursi - who must accommodate the powerful army at home and reassure Israel that, as Egypt's first Islamist president, he will maintain stable relations - had expanded his authority in response to Sunday's attack. ...
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| American imprisoned in Nicaragua gets long-awaited appeal hearing Posted: 08 Aug 2012 04:45 PM PDT (Reuters) - A U.S. citizen serving a 22-year prison sentence in Nicaragua for drug trafficking and money laundering who a United Nations group has said was wrongly convicted has been granted an appeals hearing, his supporters announced on Wednesday. Jason Puracal, 35, was detained by Nicaraguan authorities in November 2010 and later found guilty by a trial judge along with 10 Nicaraguan co-defendants despite their testimony that they had never met or worked with Puracal, his legal team said. It added that the prosecution's own witnesses said he was innocent. ... |
| Financial lawyer to represent China's Gu in murder trial Posted: 08 Aug 2012 11:01 AM PDT  HEFEI, China (Reuters) - The woman at the heart of China's most politically sensitive trial in three decades is set to be defended on a murder charge by a state-appointed lawyer with meager experience in criminal cases, leaving little doubt she will be convicted. Gu Kailai, wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai, is to go on trial on Thursday for the murder last year of an expatriate British businessman in a case many Chinese see as a campaign to ruin Bo, an ambitious populist who made powerful enemies. ...
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| Blair is "deeply worried" UK may leave EU: paper Posted: 08 Aug 2012 12:49 PM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a German newspaper he was "deeply worried" Britain might opt to leave the European Union in a referendum, particularly if too many powers were transferred to Brussels without democratic legitimacy. Talk of Britain leaving the EU was once farfetched, but the euro zone debt crisis and the prospect of the currency bloc forging a closer political union have convinced some senior UK politicians it is time to demand a new relationship with Brussels. ...
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| Doubts arise about replacing Annan as Syria war worsens Posted: 08 Aug 2012 03:20 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - As Syria spirals deeper into a full-scale civil war, Western delegations at the United Nations are increasingly skeptical about the value of appointing a replacement for Kofi Annan as the U.N.-Arab League mediator in the conflict, U.N. envoys say. When he announced his departure, Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said he was not able to carry out his job with the U.N. Security Council's veto powers hopelessly deadlocked. ...
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| Ernesto weakens over southern Mexico, churns toward Gulf Posted: 08 Aug 2012 04:56 PM PDT  CHETUMAL, Mexico (Reuters) - Tropical storm Ernesto weakened on Wednesday as it dumped heavy rains over Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico, where the country's main oil operations are located. A hurricane warning for Mexico's western Gulf coast was called off earlier on Wednesday and replaced with lower-grade hurricane watch as the storm lost strength over land, although its top wind speed rose later in the day. The storm spared major tourist areas on the Yucatan coast from a direct hit and landed in sparsely populated low-lying jungle late on Tuesday. ...
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| Philippines rushes aid as more rains pound Manila Posted: 08 Aug 2012 04:00 AM PDT  MANILA (Reuters) - Heavy rains pounded the Philippines capital on Wednesday, prompting a new danger alert as emergency workers rushed food, water and clothes to almost one million people through streets turned into rivers after 11 straight days of monsoon downpour. About 60 percent of Manila, a metropolis of about 12 million people, remained inundated, Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster agency, told Reuters. Danger to the population was compounded by an early Wednesday evening one-hour downpour of 54.7 mm (2.15 inches), just shy of a record one-hour soaking of 56. ...
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| Ernesto crosses Yucatan, regains some power Posted: 08 Aug 2012 03:14 PM PDT  Tropical Storm Ernesto spun across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, then headed into the Gulf of Mexico after forcing the evacuation of thousands of tourists and fishermen from beaches in Tulum and the Costa Maya.
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| EYES ON LONDON: Felix streaks, Bolt coasts Posted: 08 Aug 2012 02:23 PM 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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| In Egypt's chaotic Sinai, militants grow stronger Posted: 08 Aug 2012 01:58 PM PDT  After decades of neglect and with the collapse of government authority the past 18 months, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has become fertile ground for Islamic extremists. Militant groups have taken root, carrying out attacks against neighboring Israel and now turning their guns against Egypt's military as they vow to set up a puritanical Islamic state.
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| FLOOR GIVES WAY Posted: 08 Aug 2012 03:29 PM PDT A brief scare rippled through the mixed zone after the women's beach volleyball gold medal game when the floor gave way while Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor were chatting with reporters. |
| Syrian refugee camps swell as frustrations rise Posted: 08 Aug 2012 01:28 PM PDT  His two-story house with a garden became a military post when government forces moved into his village in northeastern Syria. More than a year has passed for Amin Idlibi and his family, now sharing a crowded tent in a Turkish refugee camp, and the limbo of more than 250,000 others who have fled Syria's civil war into neighboring countries.
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| Syrian troops push into Aleppo to oust rebels Posted: 08 Aug 2012 12:44 PM PDT  Syria launched a ground assault Wednesday on rebel-held areas of the besieged city of Aleppo, the center of battles between government forces and opposition fighters for more than two weeks.
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| Egypt fires intelligence chief over Sinai attack Posted: 08 Aug 2012 01:54 PM PDT  Egypt's president fired his intelligence chief on Wednesday for failing to act on an Israeli warning of an imminent attack days before militants stormed a border post in the Sinai Peninsula and killed 16 soldiers.
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| Libya's transitional rulers hand over power Posted: 08 Aug 2012 03:51 PM PDT In a ceremony late Wednesday, Libya's first elected assembly took over power from the transitional council that has ruled the country since last year's uprising against longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. |
| Russia: Underground sect charged with abuse Posted: 08 Aug 2012 11:52 AM PDT  A self-proclaimed prophet had a vision from God: He would build an Islamic caliphate under the earth.
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| AP PHOTOS: Torrential rains deluge Manila Posted: 08 Aug 2012 12:25 PM PDT  People struggling to walk in streets through water often up to their chests. Rescuers in rubber boats frantically trying to reach distressed residents of submerged villages. Churches turned into temporary refuges.
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