| As Venezuelans mourn Chavez, election set for mid-April Posted: 09 Mar 2013 04:35 PM PST  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will hold a presidential election on April 14, officials said on Saturday, as acting President Nicolas Maduro tries to benefit from an emotional outpouring for his late mentor, Hugo Chavez, and win his own term in office. Maduro, a physically imposing former union leader who served as foreign minister and vice president under Chavez, has vowed to keep Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution alive. He will likely face off against Henrique Capriles, 40, the centrist governor of Miranda state. ...
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| Egypt protesters torch buildings, target Suez Canal Posted: 09 Mar 2013 03:35 PM PST  PORT SAID, Egypt/CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian protesters torched buildings in Cairo and tried unsuccessfully to disrupt international shipping on the Suez Canal, as a court ruling on a deadly soccer riot stoked rage in a country beset by worsening security. The ruling enraged residents of Port Said, at the northern entrance of the Suez Canal, by confirming the death sentences imposed on 21 local soccer fans for their role in the riot last year, when more than 70 people were killed. ...
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| China unveils government restructuring plans Posted: 09 Mar 2013 04:47 PM PST  BEIJING (Reuters) - China unveiled details of a government restructuring plan on Sunday, which will see the number of cabinet-level entities reduced by two, including the dissolving of the powerful Railways Ministry. The government will also merge the Family Planning Commission with the Health Ministry, and strengthen the powers of the food and drug regulators, it said in a statement released during the on-going annual meeting of parliament. ...
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| Nigerian forces say they have killed 52 Islamists, arrested 70 Posted: 09 Mar 2013 12:29 PM PST  KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian security forces said on Saturday they had killed 52 Islamist militants over 10 days of fighting in the northeasterly Borno state, at a cost of only two of their own men, with no civilian deaths. The announcement came a day after President Goodluck Jonathan paid a visit to the state in which he rejected the idea of an amnesty for the Islamist sect Boko Haram, which has killed hundreds in gun and bomb attacks in the past two years. ...
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| Freed U.N. peacekeepers cross into Jordan from Syria Posted: 09 Mar 2013 09:35 AM PST  AMMAN (Reuters) - Twenty-one United Nations peacekeepers held by rebels for three days in southern Syria crossed into Jordan on Saturday, after an ordeal which highlighted how Syria's civil war is ratcheting up tensions on its volatile borders. The Filipino peacekeepers - part of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) that has been monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights since 1974 - were seized by the Martyrs of Yarmouk rebel brigade on Wednesday. ...
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| British minister floats quitting European rights convention Posted: 09 Mar 2013 11:12 AM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should consider leaving the European Convention on Human Rights because it interferes with the government's ability to fight crime and control immigration, Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May said on Saturday. May's Conservative Party has long criticized the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which enforces the convention, as an encroachment on British sovereignty. But supporters of the convention say it is an important safeguard of human rights in Britain, which does not have a written constitution enshrining fundamental rights. ...
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| Jordan's King Abdullah reappoints Ensour as PM Posted: 09 Mar 2013 12:57 PM PST  AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan's King Abdullah reappointed Abdullah Ensour as prime minister on Saturday after canvassing members of a new parliament elected in January, officials said. The monarch's consultations with the new parliament follow constitutional changes that devolved some his powers to the assembly - a response to calls for reform prompted by recent uprisings across the Arab world. King Abdullah previously hand-picked his prime ministers without consulting parliament. ...
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| Italy court rules hospitalized Berlusconi can attend tax trial Posted: 09 Mar 2013 10:33 AM PST  MILAN (Reuters) - Court doctors ruled on Saturday that Silvio Berlusconi was able to attend a tax fraud appeal, rejecting the Italian ex-prime minister's complaint that an eye ailment prevented him leaving hospital and sparking furious protests from his allies. The 76-year-old center-right leader and media mogul faces a spate of trials this month as he fights for his political future following an inconclusive national election in February. On Friday, a hearing in a trial where he is accused of having sex with an under-age prostitute was postponed after he entered hospital with an eye problem. ...
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| Abu Qatada detained in Britain for breaching bail terms Posted: 09 Mar 2013 11:22 AM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - A British judge sent radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada back to jail on Saturday for breaching his bail terms, two days before the government begins an appeal against a court decision blocking his deportation to Jordan. Accused by the British authorities of posing a security risk and providing spiritual inspiration for one of the 9/11 hijackers, Qatada is wanted in his native Jordan to face terrorism charges. Successive British governments have tried for years to get rid of the cleric, who has been in and out of jail since first being arrested in 2001. ...
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| Nigerian extremists claim they killed 7 hostages Posted: 09 Mar 2013 03:36 PM PST KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — A breakaway Islamic extremist group said Saturday it had killed seven foreigners who its members kidnapped from northern Nigeria, according to an online message purportedly from the group. |
| Venezuela sets presidential election for April 14 Posted: 09 Mar 2013 03:52 PM PST  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans will vote April 14 to choose a successor to Hugo Chavez, the elections commission announced Saturday as increasingly strident political rhetoric begins to roil this polarized country.
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| Rebels free 21 UN captives in southern Syria Posted: 09 Mar 2013 04:56 PM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Rebels in southern Syria freed 21 U.N. peacekeepers on Saturday after holding them hostage for four days, driving them to the border with Jordan after accusations from Western officials that the little-known group had tarnished the image of those fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.
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| Egyptian Soccer fans rampage over court verdicts Posted: 09 Mar 2013 12:48 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian soccer fans rampaged through the heart of Cairo on Saturday, furious about the acquittal of seven police officers while death sentences against 21 alleged rioters were confirmed in a trial over a stadium melee that left 74 people dead.
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| Jordan's parliament chooses PM for 1st time Posted: 09 Mar 2013 02:26 PM PST AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan's parliament voted Saturday for the monarchy's caretaker prime minister to form a new Cabinet, the first time in the country's history that the legislature rather than the king has decided who will be head of government. |
| Maduro leans on Chavez's charisma for popularity Posted: 09 Mar 2013 11:11 AM PST  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Nicolas Maduro so far has led by imitation, seeking to fill the shoes of a president whose uncanny vigor, mischievous humor and political wiles sowed a revolution and transformed a nation.
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| Hagel: Optimistic on reaching commando agreement Posted: 09 Mar 2013 01:04 PM PST  JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he believes U.S. officials will be able to work things out with Afghan leaders who have ordered special operations forces out of Wardak province, even as commandos face a Monday deadline to leave.
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| Kenya vote winner gets 50.07 pct; loser challenges Posted: 09 Mar 2013 03:52 PM PST  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding father, was named the winner of the country's presidential election on Saturday with 50.07 percent of the vote, but his opponent refused to concede, alleging multiple failures in the election's integrity that he said has put Kenyan democracy on trial.
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| South Africa: Mandela in hospital for tests Posted: 09 Mar 2013 11:22 AM PST  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela, the former South African president and anti-apartheid leader, was admitted to a hospital on Saturday for a scheduled medical check-up and doctors say there is no cause for "alarm," the president's office said.
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| Silvio Berlusconi remains hospitalized in Italy Posted: 09 Mar 2013 10:30 AM PST  MILAN (AP) — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi remained hospitalized Saturday with an eye inflammation, but court-appointed doctors said the condition was not severe enough to prevent him from attending a hearing in his tax fraud appeal.
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| In Kenya, dancing, doubt, and sighs of relief as Kenyatta wins presidency Posted: 09 Mar 2013 11:08 AM PST Uhuru Kenyatta is poised to become the country's next leader, in an election that has raised concerns about vote-rigging and whose results are being challenged by opponent Raila Odinga. |
| Can Nicaragua protect the waters it won? Posted: 09 Mar 2013 07:00 AM PST On a gusty afternoon, dozens of moored fishing boats rock in the surf as their captains play dominoes in the shade of palms. |
| International Women's day: 3 challenges women face around the world Posted: 08 Mar 2013 04:07 PM PST It's not always used as a platform to spread awareness about gender equality – Kazakhstan is known to have beauty pageants on International Women's Day, while Russian women get flowers that may be poor compensation for inequalities they habitually face. But International Women's Day, March 8, is generally a moment to celebrate the kaleidoscope of roles that half the world's population takes on every day. Much of the news is good: Women continue to push into the higher echelons of the working world and get stronger legal protections, such as the just-renewed US Violence Against Women Act. ... |
