| Riots over Egyptian death sentences kill at least 32 Posted: 26 Jan 2013 04:52 PM PST  PORT SAID, Egypt/CAIRO (Reuters) - At least 32 people were killed on Saturday when Egyptians rampaged in protest at the sentencing of 21 people to death over a soccer stadium disaster, violence that compounds a political crisis facing Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. Armored vehicles and military police fanned through the streets of Port Said, where gunshots rang out and protesters burned tires in anger that people from their city had been blamed for the deaths of 74 people at a match last year. ...
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| French, Malian forces capture Gao rebel stronghold Posted: 26 Jan 2013 04:45 PM PST  KONNA, Mali/PARIS (Reuters) - French and Malian forces fighting Islamist rebels took control on Saturday of the rebel bastion of Gao, the biggest military success so far in an offensive against al Qaeda-allied insurgents occupying the country's north. The United States and Europe back the U.N.-mandated Mali operation as a counterstrike against the threat of Islamist jihadists using the West African state's inhospitable Sahara desert as a launching pad for international attacks. ...
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| Venezuela's Chavez overcomes infection, still having treatment Posted: 26 Jan 2013 04:02 PM PST  SANTIAGO/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has overcome a respiratory infection, but is still being treated for breathing problems after cancer surgery in Cuba last month, a government minister said on Saturday. Official statements have sounded upbeat about the socialist president's condition in recent weeks, following rumors he was gravely ill in a hospital in Havana and might be unable to keep governing after being re-elected in October to a third term. ...
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| Iraqi Sunnis mourn protesters shot dead by troops Posted: 26 Jan 2013 12:52 PM PST  FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Thousands of mourners rallied on Saturday at funerals for Sunni Muslims shot by troops in demonstrations against Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Troops on Friday shot dead five people in Falluja, in the Sunni-dominated western province of Anbar. Sunnis have taken to the streets since December to protest what they call mistreatment of their minority sect, heightening fears Iraq may return to the Shi'ite-Sunni bloodletting that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007. ...
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| Syrian militias target civilians in Homs, opposition says Posted: 26 Jan 2013 10:52 AM PST  AMMAN (Reuters) - More than 20 people were killed in the Syrian city of Homs on Saturday, a doctor said, as fighting raged around a road junction on a supply line to government forces in the interior of the country. The opposition accuses shabbiha militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of killing some 200 Sunni Muslim civilians in Homs in massacres over the last two weeks, but a Syrian ban on most independent media makes such reports difficult to verify. ...
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| Singapore ruling party rebuked in by-election as disquiet rises Posted: 26 Jan 2013 10:33 AM PST  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's long-dominant People's Action Party (PAP) lost heavily in a single-seat by-election on Saturday, a barometer of how the government is dealing with discontent in the wealthy Asian country over immigration and the high cost of living. The result in the Punggol East ward - 54.5 percent of the vote for the Workers Party and 43.7 percent for the PAP, with the rest split by two others - does not alter the balance of power in parliament, where the ruling party will still hold 80 of 87 elected seats. ...
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| Leftist ex-PM Zeman wins Czech presidential election Posted: 26 Jan 2013 09:03 AM PST  PRAGUE (Reuters) - Leftist former prime minister Milos Zeman won the Czech Republic's first direct presidential election on Saturday, beating a conservative opponent he had accused of favoring foreign interests in a bitter campaign. Zeman, a 68-year-old who favors more integration within the European Union, won by 54.8 to 45.2 percent over Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, results from 99.9 percent of voting districts showed. Economic forecaster Zeman, a Communist Party member before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, will steer Czechs closer to Europe's mainstream. ...
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| Greek ruling conservatives take lead over leftists: polls Posted: 26 Jan 2013 01:20 PM PST  ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's ruling conservatives have grabbed a narrow lead over the leftist main opposition since securing bailout funds to avert bankruptcy, three opinion polls showed, as most Greeks believe the country will stay in the euro zone. A survey conducted by MRB pollsters for Sunday newspaper Real News showed that if elections were held now Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's New Democracy party would get 29.2 percent versus 27.8 percent for the anti-bailout SYRIZA party. The ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn ranked third with 11. ...
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| Ireland says horse DNA in its burgers came from Poland Posted: 26 Jan 2013 02:14 PM PST  DUBLIN (Reuters) - Beef containing horse DNA that was supplied by an Irish company to major food companies like Tesco originated in Poland, Ireland's agriculture department said on Saturday. The British food industry has been rocked by the revelation retailers sold beef products that contained horse DNA, a scandal that has also left Ireland's 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) beef industry reeling from the knock-on effects. Results of tests showed that Polish ingredients used by Irish burger manufacturer Silvercrest contained 4.1 percent horse DNA, the agriculture department in a statement. ...
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| Ten Afghan police officers killed in suicide bombing Posted: 26 Jan 2013 09:04 AM PST KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Ten police officers, including the local counter-terrorism chief, were killed in a suicide bombing in northern Afghanistan on Saturday. Shortly after 5 p.m. (1230 GMT) a man driving a motorbike detonated a large bomb at a busy roundabout in the north city of Kunduz near a group of police officers, provincial police chief spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said. "As a result of a suicide attack 10 policemen were killed, including the head of the traffic department and the head of the counter-terrorism office," said Hussaini. ... |
| AP Interview: Algeria admits mistakes in standoff Posted: 26 Jan 2013 02:54 PM PST  DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Algeria's foreign minister acknowledged that security forces made mistakes in a hostage crisis at a Saharan gas plant in which dozens of foreign workers were killed during Algerian military strikes.
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| Indonesia readies for $1 trillion trade talks Posted: 26 Jan 2013 12:37 PM PST  DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Indonesia may hold the key to a $1 trillion injection into the global economy.
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| Could Kerry, Hagel drive reboot in US-Cuba ties? Posted: 26 Jan 2013 11:51 AM PST  HAVANA (AP) — The nominee for U.S. Secretary of State, Sen. John Kerry, once held up millions of dollars in funding for secretive U.S. democracy-building programs in Cuba. Defense Secretary hopeful Chuck Hagel has called the U.S. embargo against the communist-run island "nonsensical" and anachronistic.
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| Chavez starting more medical treatment in Cuba Posted: 26 Jan 2013 04:10 PM PST  SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has defeated a respiratory infection and has begun additional medical treatment in Cuba after struggling with complications following cancer surgery more than six weeks ago, a government spokesman said Saturday.
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| Egyptians riot after soccer fans sentenced to die Posted: 26 Jan 2013 01:34 PM PST CAIRO (AP) — Relatives and angry young men rampaged through the Egyptian city of Port Said on Saturday in assaults that killed at least 27 people following death sentences for local fans involved in the country's worst bout of soccer violence. |
| French, Mali forces retake airport in city of Gao Posted: 26 Jan 2013 01:28 PM PST  KONNA, Mali (AP) — French and Malian troops regained control of the airport and bridge of the crucial, northern city of Gao on Saturday, marking their biggest advance yet in their bid to oust al-Qaida-linked extremists who have controlled northern Mali for months, military officials said.
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| Hospital: 61 killed in Venezuela prison riot Posted: 26 Jan 2013 03:37 PM PST  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The death toll has risen after a bloody prison riot in Venezuela, with a local hospital director saying 61 people died and 120 were injured.
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| Fears grow that Libya is incubator of turmoil Posted: 26 Jan 2013 11:58 AM PST  Libya's upheaval the past two years helped lead to the ongoing conflict in Mali, and now Mali's war threatens to wash back and further hike Libya's instability. Fears are growing that post-Moammar Gadhafi Libya is becoming an incubator of turmoil, with an overflow of weapons and Islamic jihadi militants operating freely, ready for battlefields at home or abroad.
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| AP Interview: CERN chief firmer on 'God particle' Posted: 26 Jan 2013 02:19 PM PST  DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The world should know with certainty by the middle of this year whether a subatomic particle discovered by scientists is a long-sought Higgs boson, the head of the world's largest atom smasher said Saturday.
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| Powers of prophesy: Davos looks to the future Posted: 26 Jan 2013 12:57 PM PST  DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Forget the endless debates about the euro or government debts. What does the future hold?
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| Cow smuggling ... it's how Bangladesh gets its beef Posted: 26 Jan 2013 06:00 AM PST In Muslim majority Bangladesh beef is in high demand. |
