UN News: SC President H.E. Mr. Hardeep Singh Puri (India) on thedeath of four Ethiopian peacekeepers in Sudan, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

03 August 2011

Informal comments to the media by H.E. Mr. Hardeep Singh Puri, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of August on the death of four Ethiopian peacekeepers in Sudan and the situation in Syria.

War to go on even if NATO bombing ends: Gaddafi camp, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's camp has vowed to push on with its war against rebels whether or not NATO stops its bombing campaign, leaving little room for diplomacy to end the five-month conflict.

The rebels and their Western backers kept up the pressure on the veteran leader as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, with NATO bombing military targets and dropping leaflets over the capital calling on loyalists to give up.

Mubarak trial may scare Arab rulers, placate Egyptians, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - Egypt's fallen leader, Hosni Mubarak, goes on trial Wednesday over his role in killing protesters, in a stark message to Arab rulers elsewhere that they too may one day be held to account.

In domestic politics, putting the former president in the dock may help quell criticism of the generals now running Egypt, suspected by protesters of protecting their former commander.

South Korean scientists create glowing dog, Posted by Meosha Eaton

Mexico captures Juarez cartel hitmen leader: report, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - Mexican police have arrested an alleged leader of the Juarez drug cartel's armed wing linked to a deadly car bomb last year, local media said on Saturday.

El Universal daily, quoting government sources, said Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez -- also known as "El Diego" and reputed to be one of the bosses of the La Linea hitmen -- was captured in Ciudad Juarez on Friday.

The media reports said Acosta Hernandez was behind a cell phone-detonated car bomb that killed four people in Ciudad Juarez in July of 2010, the first attack of its kind in Mexico's drug war, and ordered the killing of at least a dozen more.

No death "miracle" in Guyana airliner crash, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - A packed Caribbean Airlines passenger jet skidded off a runway as it landed in Guyana at night on Saturday, then broke in two at the edge of a ravine. There were no casualties.

The Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway and burst through a perimeter fence after arriving at Georgetown's Cheddi Jagan airport just past midnight from New York. The front of the plane snapped off and it stopped meters from a jungle gorge.

No fire appears to have broken out and only three people were hospitalized, one for a broken leg.

Rebels clash with Gaddafi loyalists near Benghazi, Posted by Mosha Eaton

(Reuters) - Libyan rebels clashed in the early hours of Sunday with an armed gang they said was loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the latest sign of growing lawlessness in the rebel-held east.

Rebel spokesman Mahmoud Shammam told reporters in the opposition capital of Benghazi that the clashes broke out when rebel forces attacked a militia that had helped some 300 Gaddafi loyalists break out of jail Friday.

All south Somalia slipping into famine - U.N., Posted by Meosha Eaton

LIBOI, Kenya, July 29 - The whole of drought- and conflict-wracked southern Somalia is heading into famine as the Horn of Africa food crisis deepens, the United Nations said on Friday.

In a report for countries sending aid, the U.N.'s umbrella humanitarian agency OCHA said the "crisis in southern Somalia is expected to continue to worsen through 2011, with all areas of the south slipping into famine."

Democrats try to break U.S. debt impasse, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - Senate Democrats aimed to seize the initiative in efforts to head off a ruinous U.S. debt default by pushing their deficit-cutting plan on Saturday towards a possible compromise with a divided Republican Party.

Entrenched differences were still hampering a compromise as Democratic leaders accused their Republican counterparts of obstructionism, less than 100 hours before the government says it will run out of money to pay all its bills.

U.S. growth anaemic, debt row poses recession risk, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - The U.S. economy stumbled badly in the first half of 2011 and came dangerously close to contracting in the January-March period, raising the risk of a recession if a standoff over the nation's debt does not end quickly.

Output increased at a 1.3 percent annual pace in the second quarter as consumer spending barely rose, the Commerce Department said on Friday. In the first three months of the year, the economy advanced just 0.4 percent, a sharp downward revision from the previously reported 1.9 percent gain.

One Day in Port-au-Prince: The Gas Man, Posted by Meosha Eaton

Israel stops suspected gunrunners in Dead Sea, Posted by Meosha Eaton

July 25, 2011 (Reuters) - Israeli security forces on Monday stopped a small motor boat in the Dead Sea carrying assault rifles and ammunition from Jordan and arrested two Palestinians suspected of smuggling, police said.

The salty desert lake also abuts the occupied West Bank but is generally quiet due to long-standing Israeli-Jordan security cooperation.

Iran blamed U.S., Israel for killing of scientist, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - A senior Iranian official on Sunday blamed the United States and Israel for the killing of an Iranian scientist, who the deputy interior minister said was not linked to Iran's nuclear program as reported by media.

Darioush Rezaie, 35, a university lecturer, was shot dead by gunmen in eastern Tehran Saturday. Some media reports said Rezaie was a nuclear scientist but Deputy Interior Minister Safarali Baratlou said this was not true.

Blasts rock Tripoli as NATO targets Gaddafi compound, Posted by Meosha Eaton

July 24, 2011 (Reuters) - Explosions rocked central Tripoli for the second night in a row and Britain said weeks of NATO bombardment had inflicted extensive damage on Muammar Gaddafi's heavily-fortified compound.

Libya's leader is clinging to power despite a four-month-old NATO air campaign and a lengthening conflict with rebels seeking an end to his 41-year rule and who have seized large swathes of the North African country.

New US friend in Africa has spotty record on democracy , Posted by Meosha Eaton

 

 

By ALAN BOSWELL - McClatchy Newspapers

JUBA, South Sudan — Barely 24 hours before South Sudan officially became the world's newest nation on July 9, Onyoti Adigo sat in his office nursing a swollen lip and bloody gums.

The opposition politician and seven of his colleagues had just been released after two hours in the hands of South Sudanese military intelligence. Adigo lost a tooth in the beatings, while others in his entourage got sent to the hospital coughing up blood.

Hungary court frees accused Nazi war criminal , Posted by Meosha Eaton

A 97-year-old Hungarian who once topped the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's (SWC) list of most wanted Nazi criminals has walked free from a Budapest municipal court after being cleared of ordering the execution of more than 30 Jews and Serbs in 1942.

Serbian Jews on Monday urged an appeal over Sandor Kepiro acquittal, but it is unknown what action the prosecution will take.

UK phone-hacking whistleblower found dead: reports, Posted by Meosha Eaton

Former News of the World journalist Sean Hoare is seen in this undated handout picture. One of the sources for early newspaper stories on the News of the World phone-hacking scandal was Hoare. British media said he was found dead at his home on Monday, but police did not believe the death was suspicious. REUTERS/The Sun/Handout (July 18, 2011)

LONDON (Reuters) - A former journalist who told the New York Times that phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World was more extensive than the paper had acknowledged at the time, has been found dead, media reported on Monday.

Police said they were not treating the death as suspicious.

Sean Hoare, a former show business reporter at the News International paper, part ofNews Corp, had also told the BBC he was asked by former editor Andy Coulson to tap into phones.

Wade says will learn lesson from Senegal riots, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Senegal leader says will "learn lesson" from protests

* Statement unclear on election plans

* Message follows earlier French warning to Wade

By Diadie Ba

DAKAR, July 7 - Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade has said he must "learn a lesson" from violent protests against his government, but did not specify whether this would alter his controversial plan to stand for re-election.

The message follows a blunt warning earlier this week from former colonial power and close ally France against Wade seeking to cling on to power.

Protests across Syria demand end of Assad's rule, Posted by Meosha Eaton

AMMAN, June 24 - Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the street across Syria on Friday to denounce attacks by the military designed to crush a 13-week pro-democracy uprising that has demanded the president's departure, witnesses and activists said.

CORRECTED - Marine reservist charged in U.S. military shootings

(Corrects 4th paragraph make clear authorities found list of bomb related components, rather than items themselves)
WASHINGTON, June 23 - U.S. prosecutors on Thursday charged a Marine Corps reservist with shooting at four military buildings around Washington, including the Pentagon, and also said he appeared to be trying to build a bomb.