| Film on Muslim Prophet sparks protests Posted: 12 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Clips of a film that stirred a deadly attack on a U.S. mission in Libya show an amateurish production portraying the Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. For many Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous. Caricatures or other characterizations deemed insulting in the past have provoked protests and drawn condemnations from officials, preachers, ordinary Muslims and many Christians in the Middle East. The U.S. ... |
| Libya attack may have been planned and organized Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:25 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other American diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, may have been planned and organized in advance, U.S. government officials said on Wednesday. The officials said that there were indications that members of a militant faction calling itself Ansar al Sharia - which translates as Supporters of Islamic Law - may have been involved in organizing the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya's second-largest city. ...
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| Pro-euro parties sweep Dutch poll, Rutte ahead Posted: 12 Sep 2012 03:36 PM PDT  AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch voters handed pro-European parties a sweeping election victory on Wednesday, shunning the radical fringes and dispelling concerns that eurosceptics could gain sway in a core euro zone country. Exit polls broadcast as soon as voting ended gave caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte's centre-right Liberals 41 seats in the 150-member lower house, a slender one-seat lead over the centre-left Labour Party on 40. Pollster Maurice de Hond cautioned that the race for first place was too close to call. Final results were expected early on Thursday. ...
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| Insight: Afghans seek shelter in Dubai ahead of pullout Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:05 PM PDT  DUBAI/KABUL (Reuters) - Not long ago, Mohammed Daoud was making good money hiring out halls for wedding parties thrown by a new class of Afghan war entrepreneurs. Today, he is using some of the profits to buy a $160,000 apartment nestled amid the skyscrapers and shopping malls of Dubai. Daoud sees his 27th-floor bolt-hole as both a canny investment and the ultimate insurance policy against the darkest scenarios he can envisage for his homeland when the bulk of foreign forces leave. "Nobody knows what's going to happen after 2014," he told Reuters in Kabul. ...
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| Egypt's Mursi starts first trip to Europe as president Posted: 12 Sep 2012 03:23 PM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - President Mohamed Mursi travels to Brussels on Thursday for his first visit to Europe since becoming Egypt's first freely elected leader in June, hoping to reassure the European Union of his democratic credentials and win pledges of economic aid. European governments are keen to build up ties with Egypt after the collapse of Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian rule last year, but want assurances that Cairo's Islamist government will remain an ally of the West and an example to the region. Mursi's visit will be clouded by attacks late on Tuesday when protesters against a U.S. ...
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| Analysis: Netanyahu risks overplaying hand in Iran dispute Posted: 12 Sep 2012 08:19 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The public row between Israel and the United States this week will make it hard for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a unilateral strike against Iran and risks undermining his domestic standing. Despite years of warning about the dangers of Iran gaining nuclear weapons, the Israeli leader has failed to convince any major world power of the need for military action and has yet to persuade his domestic audience that Israel should go it alone. ...
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| Supporters throw stones in Venezuela pre-election clash Posted: 12 Sep 2012 12:15 PM PDT  CARACAS (Reuters) - Rival supporters in Venezuela's presidential election fought and threw stones on Wednesday before a campaign stop by opposition leader Henrique Capriles less than a month before an October 7 vote. In the worst flareup since the campaign formally began on July 1, some people were hurt and both sides blamed the other for the violence at the country's main port, Puerto Cabello. TV footage showed dozens of people running, while some hurled rocks. At least one car was set on fire. ...
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| Insight: Iran parks oil off Malaysia to dodge Western sanctions Posted: 12 Sep 2012 04:17 PM PDT  LABUAN, Malaysia/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Iran is using a little-known port off the East Malaysia coast to hide millions of barrels of oil from Western sanctions, according to shipping data, industry sources and officials. A Reuters examination of shipping movements and interviews shows how Iranian crude is shipped to the area and loaded on to empty vessels at night to await potential Asian buyers. ...
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| South Africa mine protests hit top world platinum firm Posted: 12 Sep 2012 08:56 AM PDT  BATHOPELE MINE, South Africa (Reuters) - Machete-wielding strikers forced top world platinum producer Anglo American Platinum to shut down some of its South African operations on Wednesday, widening the labor unrest sweeping through the country's mining industry. A column of 1,500 chanting marchers confronted a small group of riot police backed by armored vehicles at the gates of the firm's Bathopele shaft in the "platinum belt" near Rustenburg, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. ...
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| Obama vows to track down ambassador's killers Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:23 PM PDT  WASHINGTON/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - President Barack Obama branded the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans an "outrageous attack" on Wednesday and vowed to track down the perpetrators, while ordering a tightening of diplomatic security worldwide. The ambassador, Christopher Stevens, and the other Americans were killed after Islamist gunmen attacked the U.S. consulate and a safe house refuge in Benghazi on Tuesday night. The attackers were part of a mob blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad. ...
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| US sends Marines to Libya after deadly attack Posted: 12 Sep 2012 05:09 PM PDT  The U.S. dispatched an elite group of Marines to Tripoli on Wednesday following a mob attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. U.S. officials are investigating whether the violence was a backlash to an anti-Islamic video with ties to Coptic Christians, or a plot to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11.
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| Angry mob kills man suspected in 2 child slayings Posted: 12 Sep 2012 03:09 PM PDT Guatemalan authorities say a mob has lynched a man inside a school for allegedly killing two children there. |
| Violence breaks out at Venezuela campaign event Posted: 12 Sep 2012 01:34 PM PDT  Violence broke out at an opposition campaign event in Venezuela on Wednesday as supporters of President Hugo Chavez blocked a road and a campaign truck was torched. Both sides hurled rocks, and police said at least 14 people were hurt.
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| Libya's parliament elects new prime minister Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:35 PM PDT Libya's parliament elected Wednesday a leading member in the country's oldest opposition movement to be its new prime minister. |
| Pakistan fires kill 283, lax safety laws blamed Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:31 PM PDT  Fires at two clothing factories in Pakistan left 283 people dead — many trapped behind locked doors and barred windows — tragedies that highlight workplace perils in a country where many buildings lack basic safety equipment and owners often bribe officials to ignore the violations.
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| Perceived insults to Islam trigger Muslim anger Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:19 PM PDT Muslim anger over perceived Western insults to Islam has exploded several times, most recently in protests this week against U.S. diplomatic posts in the Middle East. The violence, fueled mostly by religious zealots, reflects the tension between Muslims and the secular West that followed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. |
| Is North Korea experimenting with change? Posted: 12 Sep 2012 07:55 AM PDT  Deep in the North Korean countryside, in remote villages that outsiders seldom reach, farmers are now said to be given nearly one-third of their harvests to sell at market prices. Collective farms are reportedly being reorganized into something closer to family farms. State propagandists are expounding the glories of change under the country's new young leader.
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| California man confirms role in anti-Islam film Posted: 12 Sep 2012 04:15 PM PDT  The search for those behind the provocative, anti-Muslim film that triggered mobs in Egypt and Libya led Wednesday to a California Coptic Christian convicted of financial crimes who acknowledged his role in managing and providing logistics for the production.
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| Greece to toughen hate crime sentencing Posted: 12 Sep 2012 01:16 PM PDT Greece will toughen sentencing for hate crimes, following a surge in attacks against immigrants and violence involving members of a far-right political party, the country's justice minister said Wednesday. |
| Market relief at German ruling fades ahead of Fed Posted: 12 Sep 2012 10:00 AM PDT  Investors breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday, sending the euro briefly above $1.29 for the first time in four months after Germany's highest court rejected calls to block Europe's permanent rescue fund.
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