| India gang rape victim dies in Singapore hospital Posted: 28 Dec 2012 04:23 PM PST  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Indian gang rape victim whose assault in New Delhi triggered nationwide protests died in hospital on Saturday of injuries suffered in the attack, a Singapore hospital treating her said. The death of the 23-year-old medical student could spawn new protests and possibly fresh confrontations with the police, especially in the Indian capital, which has been the focus of the demonstrations. "We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4:45 a.m. on Dec 29, 2012 (15:45 a.m. ET Friday). ...
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| Alleged militants detained in Djibouti charged by U.S. court Posted: 28 Dec 2012 03:00 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a sign of evolving U.S. legal tactics in counter-terrorism operations, two Swedish citizens and a former British citizen detained in Africa in August have been charged in a U.S. court with supporting Somali-based Islamist militants. The charges were filed in Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York, even though court papers and a press release from the U.S. Attorney's office make no specific allegation that the three - all of whom are of Somali extraction - posed threats to Americans or U.S.-related targets. ... |
| Egypt opposition says Islamists trying to stifle dissent Posted: 28 Dec 2012 11:18 AM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's opposition accused President Mohamed Mursi's Islamist allies of trying to muzzle dissent on Friday after prosecutors decided to investigate whether prominent government critics were guilty of sedition. The probe, which comes a month after Mursi replaced the chief prosecutor, further sours the political climate as the leader and his opponents face off over a new constitution that became law on Wednesday. ...
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| Analysis: U.N. confronts failure of diplomacy in Syria Posted: 28 Dec 2012 04:42 PM PST  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Attempts by the United Nations to end the bloody 21-month-old Syrian conflict through diplomacy have been a resounding failure and there is little reason to expect a quick change given the Russian-U.S. rift on Syria. After a year of intensive diplomatic efforts by the world body, U.N.-Arab League peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria has made no more progress than his predecessor, former U.N. ...
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| Putin signs ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children Posted: 28 Dec 2012 11:52 AM PST  MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Friday that bans Americans from adopting Russian children and imposes other sanctions in retaliation for a new U.S. human rights law that he says is poisoning relations. Washington has called the new Russian law misguided, saying it ties the fate of children to "unrelated political considerations", and analysts say it is likely to deepen a chill in U.S.-Russia relations and harm Putin's image abroad. ...
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| Monti says will lead centrists in Italian vote Posted: 28 Dec 2012 12:55 PM PST  ROME (Reuters) - Outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Friday he would lead a centrist alliance in an election in February, ending weeks of speculation over his political future and confirming his bid for a second term. The announcement clears up some of the uncertainty hanging over election and puts Monti in a three-way contest for power with the center-left Democratic Party (PD), which is leading in the polls, and Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party. ...
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| Iraqi Sunnis stage big anti-government rallies Posted: 28 Dec 2012 09:02 AM PST  RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters from Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority poured onto the streets after Friday prayers in a show of force against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, keeping up a week-long blockade of a major highway. Around 60,000 people blocked the main road through Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of the capital, setting fire to the flag of Shi'ite Iran and shouting "out, out Iran! Baghdad stays free" and "Maliki you coward, don't take your advice from Iran". ...
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| Residents flee Bangui as rebels pause for talks Posted: 28 Dec 2012 08:51 AM PST  BANGUI (Reuters) - Residents of Central African Republic's riverside capital Bangui fled in overloaded cars and boats on Friday or stockpiled food and water as rebel forces paused at the city gates for ceasefire talks. An insurgency has swept across much of the poverty-stricken but resource-rich former French colony since December 10, posing the biggest threat yet to President Francois Bozize's nearly 10 years in power and threatening a humanitarian crisis. ...
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| South Sudan says president ready to meet Sudan's Bashir Posted: 28 Dec 2012 02:41 PM PST  JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir is willing to meet his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir to sort out conflicts and resume vital oil flows, a South Sudanese minister said on Friday after Bashir agreed to hold a summit. The neighbors agreed in September to set up a demilitarized border zone and resume oil exports from landlocked South Sudan through Sudan. Oil is the lifeline of both economies. Neither country has yet withdrawn its army from either side of the border, a precondition to resume oil flows. ...
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| Syria opposition leader rejects Moscow invitation Posted: 28 Dec 2012 06:25 AM PST  ALEPPO PROVINCE, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's opposition leader has rejected an invitation from Russia for peace talks, dealing another blow to international hopes that diplomacy can be resurrected to end a 21-month civil war. Russia, President Bashar al-Assad's main international protector, said on Friday it had sent an invitation for a visit to Moaz Alkhatib, whose six-week-old National Coalition opposition group has been recognized by most Western and Arab states as the legitimate voice of the Syrian people. ...
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| Putin signs anti-US adoptions bill Posted: 28 Dec 2012 09:20 AM PST  MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, abruptly terminating the prospects for more than 50 youngsters preparing to join new families and sparking critics to liken him to King Herod.
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| Indian gang-rape victim dies in Singapore hospital Posted: 28 Dec 2012 04:38 PM PST  SINGAPORE (AP) — A young Indian woman who was gang-raped and severely beaten on a bus died Saturday at a Singapore hospital, after her horrific ordeal galvanized Indians to demand greater protection for women from sexual violence that impacts thousands of them every day.
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| Paintings outrage Islamic hard-liners in Pakistan Posted: 28 Dec 2012 11:31 AM PST  LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's leading arts college has pushed boundaries before in this conservative nation. But when a series of paintings depicting Muslim clerics in scenes with strong homosexual overtones sparked an uproar and threats of violence by Islamic extremists, it was too much.
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| Rebels besiege airports in northern Syria Posted: 28 Dec 2012 11:47 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels stepped up their siege of a government helicopter base and clashed with soldiers near Aleppo's international airport on Friday, part of an effort to chip away at the air power that poses the biggest challenge to their advances against the regime of President Bashar Assad.
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| Italy's Monti: I'm heading new electoral coalition Posted: 28 Dec 2012 01:57 PM PST  ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Mario Monti announced Friday he is heading a new campaign coalition made of up centrists, business leaders and pro-Vatican forces who back his "ethical" vision of politics, aiming for a second mandate in office if his fledging reform movement wins big in parliamentary elections.
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| Russia reaches out to Syrian coalition Posted: 28 Dec 2012 02:35 AM PST  MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's foreign minister says Moscow has proposed talks with the main Syrian opposition coalition, despite Russia's previous criticism of Western countries for recognizing the group.
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| Greek ex-finance minister caught up in scandal Posted: 28 Dec 2012 11:07 AM PST  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's former finance minister is at the center of an escalating political scandal after three of his relatives were allegedly found missing from a list of Greeks with Swiss banks accounts that authorities are using to investigate possible tax evasion.
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| C. African Republic neighbors to send help Posted: 28 Dec 2012 04:06 PM PST  BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Central African Republic's neighbors agreed on Friday to dispatch a contingent of soldiers to intervene in the troubled country, where a coalition of rebel groups is seeking to overthrow the president of nearly a decade.
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| AP Exclusive: Documents raise doubts in Nazi probe Posted: 27 Dec 2012 11:48 PM PST  BERLIN (AP) — The case of an 87-year-old Philadelphia man accused by Germany of serving as an SS guard at Auschwitz has largely centered on whether he was stationed at the part of the death camp used as a killing machine for Jews.
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| Praying Hitler in ex-Warsaw ghetto sparks emotion Posted: 28 Dec 2012 08:20 AM PST  WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A statue of Adolf Hitler praying on his knees is on display in the former Warsaw Ghetto, the place where so many Jews were killed or sent to their deaths by Hitler's regime, and it is provoking mixed reactions.
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| New Constitution divides Egypt as economy falters Posted: 28 Dec 2012 10:26 AM PST New constitutions are usually greeted with great fanfare. They're assumed to carry both the promise of a fresh start and signal that a chaotic transition has come to an end. |
| US embassy evacuated as rebels surge in Cental African Republic Posted: 28 Dec 2012 06:47 AM PST Rebels are closing in on the capital of the impoverished Central African Republic, threatening to topple the weak government and push yet another African nation into civil war, failure, or outright collapse, The Associated Press and other news outlets are reporting. |
| Putin signs antiadoption law, throwing pending adoptions into confusion Posted: 28 Dec 2012 06:42 AM PST President Vladimir Putin signed the Dima Yakovlev Act into law Friday, banning all adoptions of Russian orphans by US citizens as of Jan. 1 and throwing dozens of currently ongoing adoptions into confusion. |
