Yahoo! News: World News

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• Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital
• Britain wants to restart Assange talks with Ecuador
• Venezuela struggles with refinery blaze after deadly blast
• Analysis: Politics the priority for China as economy slows
• Nigeria navy frees 28 kidnapped oil workers
• Pakistan pioneers lead epic struggle for more milk
• Graffiti artists thrive in reform-era Myanmar
• Under China's watch, Macau won't return to "Gangster's Paradise"
• Dutch Liberals, Socialists in close race ahead of vote
• Libya minister quits after criticism over attacks
• Evidence mounts of new massacre in Syria
• Libya's interior minister resigns after attacks
• Despite Isaac's soaking, Keys residents laid back
• Afghanistan says Badruddin Haqqani is dead
• Militants from Afghanistan attack Pakistan
• Hispaniola death toll from Isaac climbs to 9
• Survivors: strong gas odor before Venezuela blast
• German minister rejects more time for Greece
• Flooding kills 10 in northeast Nigeria
• Egypt prosecutor probes anti-Brotherhood critic

Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital Posted: 26 Aug 2012 03:14 PM PDT ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's army of massacring hundreds of people in a town close to the capital that government forces recaptured from rebels. About 320 bodies, including women and children, were found in houses and basements in the town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, according to activists who said on Sunday most had been killed "execution-style" by troops. Activists uploaded several videos to the Internet showing rows of bloodied bodies wrapped in sheets. ...

Britain wants to restart Assange talks with Ecuador Posted: 26 Aug 2012 01:32 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Sunday it remained committed to reaching a diplomatic solution to the presence of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador's London embassy, after both countries took steps to defuse a row over his action in taking refuge there. Assange has been living in the embassy's cramped quarters for more than two months since fleeing there to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. ...

Venezuela struggles with refinery blaze after deadly blast Posted: 26 Aug 2012 03:10 PM PDT PARAGUANA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan firefighters struggled on Sunday to put out a blaze at the country's biggest refinery sparked by an explosion that killed 41 people in one of the global oil industry's deadliest accidents. Officials at the 645,000 barrel-per-day Amuay refinery are trying to stop the fire still raging at two storage tanks from spreading to other nearby fuel storage facilities. That would delay Amuay's restart beyond the current estimate of two days. ...

Analysis: Politics the priority for China as economy slows Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:20 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's policy chiefs have about two weeks left to decide about giving the economy a proper stimulative prod, or risk parading a new Communist Party leadership to the world just as growth falls below target for the first time in nearly four years. Factory activity is already at a nine-month low, according to the latest manufacturing sector survey from HSBC, signaling that the official August numbers for industrial production and trade published in a fortnight will foreshadow third quarter economic growth falling below the government's 7.5 percent goal. ...

Nigeria navy frees 28 kidnapped oil workers Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:41 PM PDT LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's navy said it had freed 28 local oil workers who were being held hostage by a criminal gang in the oil-producing Niger Delta. The hostages were Nigerian employees of Chinese oil servicing firm Sinopec, navy spokesman Commodore Kabir Aliyu said. They were kidnapped on Thursday by a gang called the Lapto Marine Force operating around the Bakassi waterways in Cross Rivers state and freed in the naval operation late on Friday, he said. "The gang ... ...

Pakistan pioneers lead epic struggle for more milk Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:04 PM PDT NAROWAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani Shahzad Iqbal abandoned the jet-set lifestyle of a corporate executive because he wanted to do something worthwhile for his country. So he invested his life savings in world-class bull semen. He imports the sperm from potent bulls in the West, with names like Socrates, Air Raid and Liberator, and sells it at affordable prices to farmers so they can breed cows that produce higher volumes of quality milk. ...

Graffiti artists thrive in reform-era Myanmar Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:23 PM PDT (Note: strong language in paragraph 16) YANGON (Reuters) - A television set with wings hovers on a wall in a murky Yangon sidestreet. "This was my first one," says Aung, 33, pointing proudly to an image he spray-painted last year to protest media censorship and now duplicated across Myanmar's commercial capital. "Media freedom is a big issue for me." Aung, who requested that his full name be withheld, belongs to a new generation of Yangon street artists whose often politically charged graffiti was almost unthinkable before Myanmar's recent burst of reforms. ...

Under China's watch, Macau won't return to "Gangster's Paradise" Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:02 PM PDT MACAU (Reuters) - Three murders, hammer-wielding heavies, and a high-profile police swoop have raised concerns that Macau, the world's casino capital, may be backsliding to the bad old days of the late-1990s. And that's even before ex-triad boss "Broken Tooth" ends a 15-year jail sentence in December. All this at a time when China's economy, the world's second-biggest, is growing more slowly - hitting gambling revenue and possibly making junket operators, who collect gambling debts in exchange for commission from casinos, more aggressive. ...

Dutch Liberals, Socialists in close race ahead of vote Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:21 PM PDT AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch Liberal Party, the pro-business movement led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and the far-left Socialists are neck and neck ahead of a September 12 parliamentary election dominated by the euro zone crisis, two polls showed over the weekend. The fiscally conservative country is considered a core euro zone member, but the run-up to the ballot has highlighted growing discontent about Europe - in particular over the high cost of bailing out weaker euro zone states and the pressure for belt-tightening at home. ...

Libya minister quits after criticism over attacks Posted: 26 Aug 2012 12:14 PM PDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's interior minister resigned on Sunday, officials said, after he was criticized for failing to halt a surge of attacks on Sufi Muslim shrines that have raised fears of the spread of sectarian violence following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Attackers, described as ultra-conservative Islamists by some officials, bulldozed sites sacred to Sufi Muslims in the western city of Zlitan on Friday and the capital Tripoli on Saturday. ...

Evidence mounts of new massacre in Syria Posted: 26 Aug 2012 03:42 PM PDT Row upon row of bloodied bodies wrapped in colorful blankets laid out on a mosque floor in a Damascus suburb. Long narrow graves tightly packed with dozens of victims. Nestled among them, two babies were wrapped in a single blood-soaked blanket, a yellow pacifier dangling beside them from a palm frond.

Libya's interior minister resigns after attacks Posted: 26 Aug 2012 03:05 PM PDT Libya's interim interior minister resigned on Sunday after members of the newly-elected parliament accused his forces of neglect when attackers bulldozed a Sufi shrine and mosque while police stood by a day earlier.

Despite Isaac's soaking, Keys residents laid back Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:41 PM PDT Tropical Storm Isaac barely stirred Florida Keys residents from their fabled nonchalance Sunday, while the Gulf Coast braced for the possibility that the sprawling storm will strengthen into a dangerous hurricane by the time it makes landfall there.

Afghanistan says Badruddin Haqqani is dead Posted: 26 Aug 2012 12:23 PM PDT The son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani network was been killed in an airstrike in Pakistan, Afghanistan's intelligence agency said Sunday, providing the first public confirmation of rumors that have been swirling for days about the key member of a militant group the U.S. considers one of the most dangerous in the region.

Militants from Afghanistan attack Pakistan Posted: 26 Aug 2012 08:40 AM PDT Dozens of militants from Afghanistan attacked an anti-Taliban militia post in northwest Pakistan for the third day Sunday, sparking fighting that killed one soldier and 20 militants, a Pakistani official said.

Hispaniola death toll from Isaac climbs to 9 Posted: 26 Aug 2012 11:15 AM PDT The death toll from Tropical Storm Isaac has climbed to nine after authorities in the Dominican Republic reported two deaths Sunday.

Survivors: strong gas odor before Venezuela blast Posted: 26 Aug 2012 02:49 PM PDT After nightfall on Friday, as red lights began glowing atop the massive Amuay refinery in western Venezuela, the odor of sulfur made its way through the surrounding neighborhood of working-class homes and small shops.

German minister rejects more time for Greece Posted: 26 Aug 2012 08:38 AM PDT Germany's economy minister has rejected calls for Greece to get more time to implement economic reforms, saying in an interview Sunday that Athens needs to respect the bailout deal reached with its international creditors.

Flooding kills 10 in northeast Nigeria Posted: 26 Aug 2012 01:58 PM PDT An emergency management official in northeast Nigeria says 10 people were killed in floods that swept through the region.

Egypt prosecutor probes anti-Brotherhood critic Posted: 26 Aug 2012 04:38 PM PDT Egypt's attorney general has referred an outspoken anti-Islamist former lawmaker for investigation by police prosecutors over claims he called for the downfall of the regime, according to a statement Sunday.

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