NATO chief says no ‘rush for the exits’ in Afghan war
Sunday, 20 May 2012
NATO leaders sought on Sunday to dispel fears of a rush for the exits in Afghanistan even as the Western alliance met to chart a path out of an unpopular war that has dragged on for more than a decade. President Barack Obama, who once called the Afghan conflict a “war of necessity” but is now looking for an orderly way out, ... Read More
Libyan man convicted in Lockerbie bombing dies at 60
Sunday, 20 May 2012
The former Libyan intelligence officer convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing that killed 270 people has died at the age of 60, his brother told Al Arabiya on Sunday. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi’s health had deteriorated quickly, his brother Abdulhakim said, adding that he died at home after a long battle with ... Read More
Israel’s Lieberman ‘unbearable,’ says Austrian minister
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Austria’s defense minister has called Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman “unbearable” because of his insistence on hawkish policies regarding the Mideast peace process and Iran. Sunday newspaper Die Presse quoted Norbert Darabos as saying that Israel’s government is using “external enemies such as Iran ... Read More
Pakistan restores Twitter after block over the Prophet cartoons
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Pakistan restored access to Twitter Sunday after briefly blocking the microblog over posts that Islamabad said promoted a Facebook contest involving caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. The website, which is widely used in Pakistan, was blocked by the telecoms authority on the orders of the IT ministry, with ... Read More
Gunmen shoot dead jail warden in Pakistan: police
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Gunmen on a motorcycle have shot dead a senior prison official in Pakistan’s troubled southwestern city of Quetta, police said Sunday. Imtiaz Ahmad, chief warden of the district prison, was targeted late Saturday when two people riding a motorcycle sprayed him with bullets near his office, police said. ... Read More
Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng begins life in U.S.
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng arrived in New York on Saturday to begin a new life in the United States, declaring “equality and justice have no boundaries” after China let him leave a Beijing hospital to quell a sensitive diplomatic rift between the two countries. But while the blind human rights lawyer enjoyed his first ... Read More
Thousands evacuated from northeast Italy quake zone
Sunday, 20 May 2012
About 3,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in northeast Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, where a magnitude 6.0 quake struck early Sunday killing at least six, civil defense services said. Most were evacuated from the Modena area, while 500 were asked to leave their homes in the area around Ferrara. ... Read More
Afghanistan pullout to dominate NATO summit
Sunday, 20 May 2012
More than 50 world leaders were gathering in Chicago for one of the biggest NATO summits in history Sunday aiming to draw up a unified exit strategy in Afghanistan after a decade of war. A huge security operation has swung into place in the hometown of U.S. President Barack Obama, with police deployed along the ... Read More
Greek election race tightens into dead heat
Saturday, 19 May 2012
A flurry of polls on Saturday showed the race to lead Greece has tightened into a dead heat ahead of an election next month that could determine whether it remains in the euro. Greece was forced to call the new vote for June 17 after an election on May 6 left parliament divided evenly between groups of parties that support ... Read More
Obama says G8 ‘unified’ on Iran, committed to transition in Syria
Saturday, 19 May 2012
President Barack Obama hosting Group of Eight leaders on Saturday at Camp David said the group was “unified” on how to tackle upcoming nuclear negotiations with Iran and on the need to rapidly move toward a plan for political transition within Syria. “I think that all of us agree that Iran has the right to ... Read More
Austria to give 18 million euros for Afghan police training
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Austria will give 18 million euros ($23.6 million) for police training in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, a top official said. The money will be delivered in three equal payments per year from 2014 to 2016 through the United Nations Development Program’s Law and Order Trust ... Read More
Blind Chinese activist Chen set to leave China for U.S.
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng said on Saturday he had left a hospital in Beijing and was at the airport where he expected to be departing for the United States, a move that would signal the end of a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. The self-taught lawyer’s plight became a major ... Read More
One dead, several injured as bomb explodes at south Italy school
Saturday, 19 May 2012
A bomb went off outside a school in the southern Italian city of Brindisi on Saturday, killing one student and injuring six as they were going into class, a local emergency official said. A 16-year-old girl “did not survive”, Fabiano Amati told the television news channel Sky TG24, adding that “two other pupils ... Read More
Obama puts weight behind Europe growth push at G8 summit
Saturday, 19 May 2012
A growing chorus of world leaders on Friday pushed for a shift toward more pro-growth policies to help ease a European crisis that threatens to oust Greece from the euro zone and reverberate throughout the global economy. Setting the tone for a weekend G8 summit, President Barack Obama aligned himself with the new French ... Read More
U.S. House of Representatives backs $642.5 billion defense budget for 2013
Friday, 18 May 2012
The Republican-led House of Representatives voted on Friday to authorize $642.5 billion in defense spending next year, defying a White House veto threat by adding several billion dollars to President Barack Obama’s Pentagon budget request. The House approved the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which added ... Read More
U.S. lawmakers want to halt aid to nations hosting Sudan’s Bashir
Friday, 18 May 2012
A U.S. House of Representatives committee voted early Friday to cut off economic aid to any country that hosts Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes. The provision is not yet law, and could change as foreign aid legislation moves ... Read More
French minister shows up in jeans and causes sensation
Friday, 18 May 2012
France’s housing minister has caused a sensation by showing up in jeans while her colleagues donned dresses and suits for the new left-wing government’s inaugural cabinet meeting at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris. Cecile Duflot, 37-year-old head of the Greens ecology party, struck a lone figure in denims on Thursday ... Read More
Hollande sticks to Afghan pledge in talks with Obama
Friday, 18 May 2012
France’s President Francois Hollande used his White House debut Friday to restate his intention to get French combat troops home from Afghanistan this year -- breaking with NATO’s 2014 schedule. Hollande met President Barack Obama for the first time since taking office three days ago, ahead of a testing weekend ... Read More
U.N. nuclear chief to visit Tehran for talks
Friday, 18 May 2012
United Nations nuclear agency chief Yukiya Amano will travel to Tehran on Sunday for talks with senior Iranian officials, the Vienna-based IAEA said on Friday. The surprise development comes as Western diplomats say the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran are making headway towards a framework deal on how to ... Read More
9/11 families upset over ground zero museum delays
Friday, 18 May 2012
They were promised a place to mourn their loved ones, display their photographs and educate people about exactly what was lost on 9/11. But today, family members of those killed have no completion date for the museum that is to be built alongside the Sept. 11 memorial at ground zero - and many are upset. “The ... Read More