NAIROBI, Kenya: The United States government on Saturday said it was assessing possible responses after Somali pirates hijacked a yacht with four Americans on board in the Arabian sea off the coast of Somalia.
BEIJING: Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Sunday for a “Jasmine Revolution.”
Boys perform a traditional dance during a parade to celebrate the Democracy Day in Katmandu on Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011. The day is celebrated throughout the nation which includes prayers in memory of those martyrs who shed their lives to bring democracy in the country. (Reuters)
JALALABAD, Afghanistan: Gunmen and suicide bombers dressed as border police killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 70 in an attack on a bank in the main city in Afghanistan’s east on Saturday, government officials said.
ABIDJAN: Ivorian security forces fired into the air and used teargas on Saturday to disperse protesters in Abidjan calling for incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo to step down, witnesses said.
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s top diplomat hit back at the United States on Friday over its suggestion that President Hugo Chavez’s government should allow an international investigation into alleged human rights abuses.
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia: A group of camouflage-clad men claiming to be security forces killed three Russian tourists and wounded two others in a Caucasus region afflicted by rising insurgent violence, police said Saturday.
BERLIN: German police used teargas, water cannon and truncheons on Saturday to control thousands of people protesting against neo-Nazis marching through the eastern city of Dresden in commemoration of a 1945 allied bombing.
HA LONG BAY, Vietnam: Vietnamese authorities have detained the captain, crew and owner of a Ha Long Bay tour boat, police said Saturday, two days after 12 passengers drowned when their vessel sank as they were sleeping.
ACAPULCO, Mexico: Four men with their hands and feet tied and heads covered in duct tape were thrown 600 feet to their deaths from a bridge Friday, authorities said as Mexico’s increasingly bloody drug battles reached a new level of cruelty and intimidation.
LAHORE, Pakistan: A judge on Friday ordered the arrest of the driver of a US vehicle that struck and killed a Pakistani while rushing to help an American detained in a pair of fatal shootings, a lawyer for the victim’s family said.
NAIROBI, Kenya: An opposition candidate said authorities used batons and tear gas against thousands of protesters in the tiny nation of Djibouti on Friday, the latest in a series of rallies modeled after demonstrations across Africa and the Middle East. President Ismail Omar Guelleh has served two terms and faces an election in April, but critics lament changes he made to the constitution last year that scrubbed a two-term limit from the nation’s bylaws.
UNITED NATIONS: The United States vetoed a UN resolution Friday that would have condemned Israeli settlements as “illegal” and called for an immediate halt to all settlement building.
NEW DELHI: Indian police raided a television station linked to the government on Friday, as a widening investigation into a corruption scandal threatened the coalition and worried investors sent blue-chip stocks lower.
WASHINGTON: The United States will retain a far bigger fleet of top-end fighter planes than China for years to come despite Beijing’s early test of a Stealth-style jet that has stoked concern over its military buildup, the USdefense chief said.
KABUL: At least one service member from the NATO-led force in Afghanistan was killed in an apparent “rogue” shooting in the increasingly volatile north, Afghan and coalition officials said on Friday.
LONDON: Helping chronic fatigue syndrome patients to push their limits and try to overcome the condition produces a better rate of recovery than getting them to accept the illness and adapt to a limited life, new research has found. British researchers conducted the largest trial to date of people with the mysterious and debilitating condition.
BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s heir-apparent pulled out of an election rally on Thursday amid a plagiarism scandal that could cost him credibility, his PhD title, and possibly even his job.
KAMPALA: Ugandans voted in an election on Friday expected to extend President Yoweri Museveni’s time in power to three decades but which could turn nasty because the opposition wants street protests if the poll were deemed rigged.
LAHORE, Pakistan: A lawyer says a top Pakistani judge has ordered the arrest of the driver of a US
vehicle that struck and killed a Pakistani as it rushed to help an American detained in a pair of fatal shootings.
BEIJING, Feb 18 : The US ambassador to Beijing, who is sizing up a run for the White House, stood outside a Chinese court on Friday and criticized it for rejecting the appeal of an American jailed on industrial spying charges.
UNITED NATIONS: President Barack Obama opposes the idea, but the Palestinians are still calling for a Security Council vote Friday on a UN resolution that would condemn Israel’s “illegal” settlements.
WASHINGTON: Republicans in the House of Representatives moved to block the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing new rules that prohibit broadband providers from interfering with Internet traffic on their networks.
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday revoked a lucrative telecoms contract after discovering irregularities in the deal, a fresh blow to the prime minister whose credibility has been dented by a wave of graft scandals.
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania: A military ammunition depot in Tanzania’s largest city blew up overnight in a series of explosions that leveled homes, killed at least 20 people and wounded about 145 others. Thousands ran for their lives from blasts that were felt 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.
WASHINGTON: In a measure showing the Obama Administration’s desire to achieve a balance in the Middle East, the US took a sharp reversal of its normal actions this week and agreed to censure Israel at the UN Security Council.
ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court on Thursday barred US national Raymond Davis, accused of killing two young men, from leaving Pakistan.
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday revoked a lucrative telecoms contract after discovering irregularities in the deal, a fresh blow to the prime minister whose credibility has been dented by a wave of graft scandals.
ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court on Thursday barred US national Raymond Davis, accused of killing two young men, from leaving Pakistan.
WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives on Saturday approved legislation to cut federal spending deeply through September, a plan that is sure to be stopped by President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Senate.
BANGKOK: Thai anti-government “red shirts” mobilized tens of thousands of supporters to seek the release of detained leaders on Saturday, underlining festering problems in the divided nation ahead of elections planned this year.
JOHANNESBURG: Madagascar’s ousted president was on Saturday barred by officials in his homeland from returning from exile in South Africa, but the politician told reporters at Johannesburg’s airport that he would keep trying to return.
ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorist court has ordered Pakistani authorities to trace the address of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to arrest him in connection with the Benazir Bhutto assassination. Musharraf left Pakistan for London after quitting the presidency.
BERLIN: Germany’s defense minister said he has never considered resigning over plagiarism allegations that have prompted a criminal investigation, but new charges emerged on Saturday in the scandal over his academic thesis. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany’s most popular politician and a potential future candidate for chancellor, dismissed in an interview the possibility of quitting as nonsense.
KHOST, Afghanistan: A suicide car bomb attack on a police checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan on Friday killed at least nine people and injured dozens, health and police officials said. The majority of the dead were civilians, among them three women, said Abdul Hakim Esaaqzai, chief of police for Khost province. Health official Amir Badshah said 30 people had been wounded and many taken to hospitals.
BEIJING: The Philippine vice president met Chinese officials Friday to make a last-ditch appeal for clemency for three Filipinos due to be executed next week for drug trafficking.
TOKYO: Obstruction by a hard-line anti-whaling group has forced Japan to cut short its Antarctic whale hunt, the fisheries minister said on Friday, the first time the fleet is heading home early due to clashes with activists.
LONDON: Britain will hold a referendum in May on changing the way its legislators are elected, a vote which will divide the two parties in the ruling coalition and could undermine the alliance.
JOHANNESBURG: Madagascar's deposed leader Marc Ravalomanana plans to return from exile on Saturday, a move which may escalate political tensions amid international efforts to end a bitter two-year leadership row.
MUMBAI: Voices of protest in the Shiv Sena ranks have begun against the Pakistan cricket team much before the Cricket World Cup matches take place in India. Sena leaders speaking tongue-in-cheek have started spreading the word of protest by threatening that the Sena would not allow Pakistan cricket team to play in Mumbai if it reaches in the final. The Sena leaders warned that they would dig the pitches at the Wankhede stadium, like they had done before, if Pakistani cricket players put their foot on the soils of Mumbai.
MADISON, Wisconsin: Protesters gathered Sunday in the Wisconsin Capitol for the sixth straight day for a rally expected to attract thousands of opponents of the Republican governor’s plan to ease the state’s budget woes by scrapping the union rights of state workers.
