Yahoo! News: World News

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• Syrian opposition group not up to job, says ex-member
• Three foreign soldiers killed by rogue Afghan soldier
• Exclusive: China considers downgrading domestic security tsar in next line-up
• Mexican judge orders arrest of ex-governor on drug charges
• U.S. charges Saudi at Guantanamo with plotting to bomb oil tankers
• Ecuador upbeat about deal to end Assange standoff
• U.S. drone strike kills suspected militants: Yemen official
• Australia says survivors from suspected asylum boat spotted
• Mexican police attacked CIA officers, ambush likely: sources
• Top U.S. trade official heads to Southeast Asia for talks
• French probe deepens confusion over Arafat death
• Syria's Assad acknowledges struggles in civil war
• 4 Kenyan police wounded in grenade attack
• Karzai moves to replace Afghan security chiefs
• 200 US Marines join anti-drug effort in Guatemala
• Egypt pulls back some Sinai tanks
• Senegal summons Gambian diplomat over executions
• Mexico: 2 CIA agents wounded in shooting go to US
• Barclays hit by fraud probe over Mideast investors
• Notorious Pakistan A-bomb scientist tries politics

Syrian opposition group not up to job, says ex-member Posted: 29 Aug 2012 03:01 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS/ANKARA (Reuters) - The opposition Syrian National Council has failed to overcome internal divisions and is not up to the challenge of overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad, a prominent former member of the group has said. Assad, in a rare television interview, said he would need more time to defeat the rebels and dismissed talk of a Western-imposed buffer zone on Syrian territory as unrealistic. ...

Three foreign soldiers killed by rogue Afghan soldier Posted: 29 Aug 2012 04:49 PM PDT KABUL (Reuters) - Three foreign soldiers were shot dead on Wednesday by a gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform in southern Afghanistan, the NATO-led coalition said, the latest in an alarming series of insider shootings which have damaged trust between the allies. "The incident is currently under investigation," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a Thursday statement giving no other details. NATO sources said the soldiers were killed in Uruzgan province, where around 1,500 Australian troops are based. ...

Exclusive: China considers downgrading domestic security tsar in next line-up Posted: 29 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party is considering downgrading the role of domestic security chief as part of a move to a new and smaller top elite, reflecting fears that the position has become too powerful, sources said. Reducing the party's Politburo Standing Committee, the inner council at the apex of power, from nine to seven members would come as part of a once-in-a-decade leadership change expected in the next few weeks or months. ...

Mexican judge orders arrest of ex-governor on drug charges Posted: 29 Aug 2012 04:07 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican federal judge has ordered the arrest of former state Governor Tomas Yarrington on suspicion of aiding drug traffickers, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. Yarrington, a former Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governor of Tamaulipas, has been a thorn in the side of the PRI since allegations surfaced this year he had worked with drug cartels. The centrist PRI, which ruled Mexico between 1929 and 2000, is due to return to power in December after the party's candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto, won a July 1 presidential election. ...

U.S. charges Saudi at Guantanamo with plotting to bomb oil tankers Posted: 29 Aug 2012 04:31 PM PDT MIAMI (Reuters) - Prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals have filed new terrorism charges against a Saudi prisoner accused of plotting with al Qaeda to blow up oil tankers off the coast of Yemen, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. Ahmed al Darbi could face life in prison if convicted on six charges that include conspiracy, aiding and abetting the hazarding of a vessel and aiding and abetting terrorism. Darbi, 37, is accused of working as a weapons instructor at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and meeting al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden there. ...

Ecuador upbeat about deal to end Assange standoff Posted: 29 Aug 2012 12:33 PM PDT QUITO (Reuters) - Talks have resumed between Ecuador and Britain over the fate of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, and Ecuador's government said on Wednesday it was optimistic of a deal that would prevent him being extradited to the United States. Assange has been in hiding at Ecuador's embassy in London for more than two months, seeking to avoid being sent to Sweden for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations -- and triggering a diplomatic stand-off that now looks to be easing. "I'm convinced we'll find a way out ... ...

U.S. drone strike kills suspected militants: Yemen official Posted: 29 Aug 2012 02:08 PM PDT ADEN (Reuters) - A U.S. drone attack killed at least four suspected Islamist militants in a car in a remote province of Yemen, a security official said. The official, who did not want to be named, said the vehicle was struck in the al-Qatn district of the vast Hadramout province in eastern Yemen. Residents said the car was struck by one of three missiles fired from a plane and that charred bodies were pulled from it afterwards. It was not clear if there were other casualties in the attack. ...

Australia says survivors from suspected asylum boat spotted Posted: 29 Aug 2012 03:38 PM PDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - Survivors from a suspected asylum seeker boat carrying about 150 people that appears to have sunk have been spotted in Indonesian waters, Australian maritime officials said on Thursday. Australian and Indonesian search and rescue teams are heading to the area, around 8 nautical miles southwest of Java, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said in a statement. A person on board the unidentified boat had contacted Australian rescue authorities by telephone on Wednesday, saying the vessel had engine trouble and needed assistance. ...

Mexican police attacked CIA officers, ambush likely: sources Posted: 29 Aug 2012 03:52 PM PDT TRES MARIAS, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican federal police shot and wounded two CIA operatives last week, security sources said, in an apparently deliberate attack that could hurt U.S.-Mexico cooperation in their war against drug cartels. The two experienced officers were just south of the capital on their way to a Mexican Marine base on Friday, working with local authorities on a training mission, when federal police riddled their armored van bearing diplomatic plates with bullets. ...

Top U.S. trade official heads to Southeast Asia for talks Posted: 29 Aug 2012 02:29 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will discuss how the United States can deepen trade ties with fast-growing nations in Southeast Asia in talks this week in Cambodia, U.S. trade officials said. Kirk will join trade ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) at their annual meeting on Thursday and take part in the inaugural ASEAN-U.S. Business Summit focusing on innovation and the digital economy. His trip is also likely to include a stopover in Vietnam. ...

French probe deepens confusion over Arafat death Posted: 29 Aug 2012 02:23 PM PDT A French murder probe into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat prompted an Israeli denial of responsibility on Wednesday and renewed doubts that Palestinians would stick to a halfhearted pledge to exhume Arafat's body.

Syria's Assad acknowledges struggles in civil war Posted: 29 Aug 2012 03:25 PM PDT In a striking admission, President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that his armed forces will need time to defeat the rebels and addressed the string of defections from his authoritarian regime.

4 Kenyan police wounded in grenade attack Posted: 29 Aug 2012 12:32 PM PDT A grenade attack wounded four policemen in the latest outbreak of violence in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, ending what had seemed to be a lull in violence stemming from the killing on Monday of a radical Islamist preacher, a police officer said late Wednesday.

Karzai moves to replace Afghan security chiefs Posted: 29 Aug 2012 03:34 PM PDT Afghan President Hamid Karzai moved to replace the country's intelligence chief and the ministers of defense and interior Wednesday, the first step in what senior government officials said was a planned wider Cabinet shakeup aimed at solidifying the president's power before elections and the drawdown of foreign forces.

200 US Marines join anti-drug effort in Guatemala Posted: 29 Aug 2012 04:55 PM PDT A team of 200 U.S. Marines began patrolling Guatemala's western coast this week in an unprecedented operation to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

Egypt pulls back some Sinai tanks Posted: 29 Aug 2012 01:24 PM PDT Egypt on Wednesday withdrew some of the tanks it deployed near the Israeli and Gaza borders as part of a military operation against militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

Senegal summons Gambian diplomat over executions Posted: 29 Aug 2012 09:06 AM PDT The president of Senegal has denounced the execution of two Senegalese citizens who were among nine prisoners killed by firing squad in neighboring Gambia last week.

Mexico: 2 CIA agents wounded in shooting go to US Posted: 29 Aug 2012 04:48 PM PDT Mexican officials said Wednesday that two Americans wounded in a shooting attack by federal police on a U.S. Embassy vehicle are employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, and acknowledged they have returned to the United States.

Barclays hit by fraud probe over Mideast investors Posted: 29 Aug 2012 12:57 PM PDT Scandal-hit Barclays bank says it's facing yet another investigation — this one relating to the billions it raised from Middle Eastern investors back in 2008.

Notorious Pakistan A-bomb scientist tries politics Posted: 29 Aug 2012 12:03 PM PDT The man who made Pakistan into a nuclear power and later admitted to leaking atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya is going into politics, aiming to shake up the country ahead of national elections.

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