| Obama, Netanyahu seek to get past Iran differences Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:02 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a show of unity on Friday on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, seeking to tone down the acrimony between the two leaders that has become an issue in the final stretch of the U.S. presidential race. Obama, widely seen as having snubbed Netanyahu by not meeting face to face with him during his U.S. visit, spoke instead by phone to the Israeli prime minister amid signs of movement toward a truce in their war of words over how to confront Tehran. Netanyahu used his U.N. ...
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| U.S. intelligence now says Benghazi attack "deliberate and organized" Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:25 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. intelligence authority issued an unusual public statement on Friday declaring it now believed the September 11 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, was a "deliberate and organized terrorist attack." The statement by the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that it represented a change in the U.S. intelligence assessment of how and why the attack happened. During the attack on two U.S. government compounds in the eastern Libyan city, four U.S. ...
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| Trial of Pope Benedict's former butler to start on Saturday Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, goes on trial on Saturday in one of the most embarrassing episodes in recent Vatican history. The trial of the 46-year-old man who served the pope his meals and helped him dress is due to start at 9:30 a.m. (4.30 p.m. EDT) in the Vatican's little-used tribunal, a small room with rich paneled wood and a papal emblem on its ceiling. ...
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| At U.N., Muslim world questions Western freedom of speech Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:14 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Muslim leaders were in unison at the United Nations this week arguing that the West was hiding behind its defense of freedom of speech and ignoring cultural sensitivities in the aftermath of anti-Islam slurs that have raised fears of a widening East-West cultural divide. A video made in California depicting the Prophet Mohammad as a fool sparked the storming of U.S. and other Western embassies in many Islamic countries and a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan this month. The crisis deepened when a French magazine published caricatures of the Prophet. ...
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| Syria rebels struggle to advance in Aleppo offensive Posted: 28 Sep 2012 01:53 PM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels said they were struggling to make headway against a barrage of government jet and artillery attacks in their latest attempt to take control of the country's largest city Aleppo after weeks of deadlock. On the second day of an offensive they had billed as a "decisive battle", rebels also threatened to start fighting local Kurdish militants - a move which would further complicate a war that has already spilled over Syria's borders. ...
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| U.S. plan for emergency Egypt aid hits roadblock Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:13 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday that it planned to transfer $450 million to Egypt to help the country's new government, but the move was quickly blocked by a skeptical lawmaker who said she saw no immediate need for the cash infusion. Representative Kay Granger, the Texas Republican who chairs the House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee for foreign operations, said the administration's $450 bailout proposal for Egypt was premature. "This proposal comes to Congress at a point when the U.S. ...
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| U.S., Gulf countries seek to advance missile defense plan Posted: 28 Sep 2012 02:35 PM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States and its Gulf partners are looking to deepen cooperation on missile defense as tensions rise with Iran, and announcements could come soon on new purchases, U.S. officials said on Friday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) officials in New York as Washington seeks to boost regional defenses against perceived Iranian threats. "Our aim is to help our Gulf partners with their defense needs ... there is a missile threat that they face, we want to help them face that threat as best they can," one senior U.S. ...
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| Independent Scotland won't pay up to borrow: Salmond Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:22 PM PDT  CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scotland will probably be able to borrow at rates "no worse" than London if Scots approve a referendum to secure independence from Britain in two years, Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond said in an interview in Chicago on Friday. "The essence of what people normally do in these circumstances is to look at the balance sheet of the country," said Salmond, who is in Chicago to promote Scotland as a destination for U.S. corporate investment. "Our balance sheet is a bit better than the U.K.'s ... ...
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| Mexico lower house approves diluted labor reform Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:51 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's lower house of Congress on Friday gave provisional approval to a bill that would mark the biggest shake-up of the country's labor market in four decades. In a show of cooperation between the outgoing and incoming administrations, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto backed the bill, which the PRI had gutted of measures aimed at curbing the power of unions. ... |
| Libya thwarts planned anti-militia protests Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:51 PM PDT  TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Authorities in Libya thwarted plans for a huge demonstration against militia in the capital Tripoli on Friday, while in Benghazi, scene of mass anti-militia protests last week, supporters of an ousted Islamist group returned to the streets. Activists had hoped that a planned demonstration in the capital would be as successful as a giant anti-militia protest held in Benghazi last week, but only about 400 protesters turned up on Friday after the country's mufti and mosque preachers warned people not to attend. ...
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| AP Interview: Italy to assist Libya on security Posted: 28 Sep 2012 05:18 PM PDT  Italy will expand its economic and social commitments in Libya even as the North African country continues to battle problems that range from unsecured borders to dangerous armed groups, Italy's foreign minister said Friday.
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| Israeli leader says Iran warning "reverberates" Posted: 28 Sep 2012 02:39 PM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that his stern warning to stop Iran from going nuclear "reverberates" around the world and could ultimately prevent the Islamic Republic from getting a nuclear bomb.
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| US aims to rally Syrian opposition with new aid Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:45 PM PDT  The Obama administration moved Friday to rally Syria's opposition with pledges of $45 million in new non-lethal and humanitarian assistance as the administration and other world leaders lamented the failure of diplomatic efforts to push Syrian President Bashar Assad from power.
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| Kenya attacks last stronghold of Somali militants Posted: 28 Sep 2012 02:12 PM PDT  Kenyan troops invaded al-Shabab's last stronghold in Somalia on Friday, coming ashore in a predawn beach landing at Kismayo that appeared likely to deprive the Islamist insurgents of their last big money-making enterprise.
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| AP Interview: Iran opposition chief sees rebirth Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:21 PM PDT  The leader of an Iranian militant group that was taken off the U.S. terror list on Friday says the move will change her group's "balance of power" with the world — predicting a higher profile in politics, fundraising and diplomacy as well as increased anti-regime activity in Iran.
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| Syrian rebels launch broadest push yet for Aleppo Posted: 28 Sep 2012 12:12 PM PDT  Rebels on Friday pressed their broadest assault yet to drive President Bashar Assad's forces out of Syria's largest city, activists said, with fierce fighting erupting in an Aleppo neighborhood that is home to Kurds, an ethnic minority that has mostly stayed out of the civil war.
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| French budget heavy on taxes, could hurt Hollande Posted: 28 Sep 2012 12:32 PM PDT  France's new budget may be the worst of both worlds. It lacks the serious spending cuts that economists say are needed to put the country on a path to growth — but also doesn't unleash the wave of stimulus that voters expected from their Socialist president, Francois Hollande.
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| No tax, no blessing: German church insists on levy Posted: 28 Sep 2012 12:20 PM PDT  The road to heaven is paved with more than good intentions for Germany's 24 million Catholics. If they don't pay their religious taxes, they will be denied sacraments, including weddings, baptisms and funerals.
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| Netanyahu's bomb steals the show in his UN speech Posted: 28 Sep 2012 11:32 AM PDT  When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb during his speech at the U.N., he set off an explosion of jokes and mockery — but it also got plenty of attention.
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| China says disgraced leader Bo expelled from party Posted: 28 Sep 2012 06:30 AM PDT  China's communist leadership expelled Bo Xilai from the ruling party Friday and sought to bury him with charges ranging from corruption to sexual affairs, aiming to sweep away their most damaging scandal in decades while finally scheduling their long-awaited leadership transition for November.
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