| U.N. chief says anti-Islam filmmaker abused freedom of expression Posted: 19 Sep 2012 02:42 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday the maker of an anti-Islam film that triggered violent protests across the Muslim world abused his right to freedom of expression by making the movie, which he called a "disgraceful and shameful act." The film, posted on the Internet under several titles including "Innocence of Muslims," mocked the Prophet Mohammad and portrayed him as a womanizer and a fool. It sparked days of deadly anti-American violence in many Muslim countries, including an assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in Libya in which the U.S. ...
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| Exclusive: Western report - Iran ships arms, personnel to Syria via Iraq Posted: 19 Sep 2012 03:40 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran has been using civilian aircraft to fly military personnel and large quantities of weapons across Iraqi airspace to Syria to aid President Bashar al-Assad in his attempt to crush an 18-month uprising against his government, according to a Western intelligence report seen by Reuters. Earlier this month, U.S. officials said they were questioning Iraq about Iranian flights in Iraqi airspace suspected of ferrying arms to Assad, a staunch Iranian ally. On Wednesday, U.S. Senator John Kerry threatened to review U.S. aid to Baghdad if it does not halt such overflights. ...
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| Actress sues California man behind anti-Muslim film Posted: 19 Sep 2012 03:55 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An actress in an anti-Islam film that triggered violent protests across the Muslim world sued a California man linked to its production on Wednesday for fraud and slander, saying she had received death threats after the video was posted on YouTube. Actress Cindy Lee Garcia, who also named Google Inc and its YouTube unit as defendants, asked that the film be removed from YouTube and said her right to privacy had been violated and her life endangered, among other allegations. ... |
| U.S. official says Benghazi consulate was "terrorist attack" Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:10 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week in which four Americans died was a "terrorist attack" that may have had an al Qaeda connection, a top U.S. counterterrorism official told Congress on Wednesday. Rocket-propelled grenades and mortars struck the consulate on September 11, the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the United States. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died. ...
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| China implicates Bo Xilai in criminal case Posted: 19 Sep 2012 08:27 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China for the first time on Wednesday implicated former senior politician Bo Xilai in a criminal act while avoiding naming him directly in a published account by state media of the trial of his one-time police chief. The Bo scandal has rocked Beijing, exposing rifts within the ruling Communist Party - elements of which are strong supporters of Bo's populist, left-leaning policies - at a time when China is preparing for a once-in-a-decade leadership change. ...
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| Obama, Karzai discuss 'insider' attacks in Afghanistan Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Wednesday to press forward with a U.S.-Afghan security pact, the White House said, despite the curtailment of NATO operations in response to a surge in "insider" attacks on foreign servicemen. "The two presidents discussed a range of issues, including efforts to stem insider attacks on U.S., coalition, and Afghan forces," the White House said in a statement summarizing a video conference call between the two leaders. ...
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| Syrian rebels extend grip on Turkish border Posted: 19 Sep 2012 02:20 PM PDT  AKCAKALE, Turkey (Reuters) - Syrian rebels seized another border crossing with Turkey on Wednesday, consolidating their grip on a frontier through which they ferry arms for battles with President Bashar al-Assad's troops around the northern city of Aleppo. Turkey, Assad's ally turned enemy, confirmed the fall of the Tel Abyad border post, the third of seven main crossings along the Turkish-Syrian frontier to come under rebel control - though Syrian state media spoke only of bloody fighting in the area. ...
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| EU, China leaders meet amid growing trade disputes Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:55 PM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union and Chinese leaders will try to bridge growing differences over trade and find common ground on tackling Europe's debt crisis at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. Overseas trade is one of few bright spots in Europe and a critical source of growth for the region's economy, which has slumped under the weight of the debt and banking crises, with EU gross domestic product falling and unemployment steadily rising. ...
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| Mexico's Pena Nieto optimistic on labor reform bill Posted: 19 Sep 2012 03:32 PM PDT  SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Mexico's incoming president Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday raised pressure on his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to back a labor reform proposed by the outgoing administration, saying he was optimistic Congress would pass it. The draft bill put forward this month is viewed as a litmus test of cooperation between the centrist PRI and President Felipe Calderon's conservatives. The lower house of Congress has 11 more days to either approve or reject it. ...
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| Cartoons in French weekly fuel Mohammad furor Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:59 PM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - A French magazine ridiculed the Prophet Mohammad on Wednesday by portraying him naked in cartoons, threatening to fuel the anger of Muslims around the world who are already incensed by a California-made video depicting him as a lecherous fool. The drawings in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo risked exacerbating a crisis that has seen the storming of U.S. and other Western embassies, the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan. Riot police were deployed to protect the paper's Paris offices after the issue hit news stands. ...
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| Extremists showing up on front lines in Syria Posted: 19 Sep 2012 01:57 PM PDT  The bearded gunmen who surrounded the car full of foreign journalists in a northern Syrian village were clearly not Syrians. A heavyset man in a brown gown stepped forward, announced he was Iraqi and fingered through the American passport he had confiscated.
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| New French cartoons inflame prophet film tensions Posted: 19 Sep 2012 03:32 PM PDT  France stepped up security Wednesday at its embassies across the Muslim world after a French satirical weekly revived a formula that it has already used to capture attention: Publishing crude, lewd caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
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| Doubts over Harvard claim of 'Jesus' Wife' papyrus Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:58 AM PDT  Is a scrap of papyrus suggesting that Jesus had a wife authentic?
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| Russia accuses USAID of trying to sway elections Posted: 19 Sep 2012 03:36 PM PDT Russia explained its decision to end the U.S. Agency for International Development's two decades of work in Russia by saying Wednesday that the agency was using its money to influence elections — a claim the U.S. denied. |
| South Africa: Lonmin miners ready to resume work Posted: 19 Sep 2012 12:53 PM PDT  Lonmin miners celebrated a wage deal Wednesday that ended a deadly and prolonged strike but labor unrest continued with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas at strikers at a different platinum mine.
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| Venezuela: Drug lord changed look with surgeries Posted: 19 Sep 2012 02:16 PM PDT  One of Colombia's most-wanted drug lords changed his appearance through repeated plastic surgeries before he was captured in Venezuela while making a call from a public payphone, Venezuela's justice minister said Wednesday.
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| Chavez, challenger aim for youth, women voters Posted: 19 Sep 2012 03:37 PM PDT  Presidential candidate Henrique Capriles is mobbed at rallies by ecstatic women who press close to touch him and leave scratches on his arms and neck. Some shout "Marry me!" to the single 40-year-old who's trying to unseat President Hugo Chavez in next month's hotly contested vote.
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| Syrian rebels seize border crossing with Turkey Posted: 19 Sep 2012 12:41 PM PDT  Syrian rebels seized control of a border crossing on the frontier with Turkey on Wednesday, ripping down the Syrian flag as the rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad expand their control of the country's north.
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| Scandinavian magazine publishes Kate topless pics Posted: 19 Sep 2012 08:59 AM PDT  A Swedish celebrity magazine published topless photos of Britain's likely future queen Wednesday, and its sister publication in Denmark said it would do the same later this week.
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| Iran election buzz flirts with Rafsanjani return Posted: 19 Sep 2012 10:08 AM PDT  The political obituary of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been written a number of times: when he lost a comeback presidential bid, when he was dumped from leading Friday prayers at Tehran University, when he was pushed out as head of a panel that will pick Iran's next supreme leader.
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| China: dañan vehículo de embajador de EEUU Posted: 18 Sep 2012 09:52 PM PDT  Un vehículo que transportaba al embajador de Estados Unidos en China resultó con daños menores después de volverse blanco de los bulliciosos manifestantes que protestaban contra Japón y que expresaban su enfado por una disputa territorial.
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