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
Beckham thrilled about carrying Olympic flame
Friday, 18 May 2012
The former England national team captain and Los Angeles Galaxy star will light a cauldron at a ceremony Friday when the flame arrives in southwestern England from Greece on the eve of a 70-day torch relay for the 2012 London Olympics. “I hope it lights,” he said with a chuckle. Beckham, ... Read More
Somali fishermen beg to anti-piracy airstrikes
Friday, 18 May 2012
Somali fisherman pleaded Friday for international navies protecting shipping to halt air strikes on coastal villages, after the EU Naval Force struck a pirate base for the first time. An attack helicopter staged a nighttime raid on the Somali coastline Tuesday, the first since the European Union authorized such ... Read More
German Islamist in Kenya on the run: Police
Friday, 18 May 2012
Kenyan police said Friday they are still searching for a German man wanted for questioning over links with Somalia’s Al-Qaeda affiliated Shebab rebels. Kenyan police last weekend began a hunt for Bonn-born Ahmed Mueller, saying he could have “information about Shebab activities being prepared.” ... Read More
Taliban attack on NATO base in Afghanistan kills two
Friday, 18 May 2012
A Taliban rocket attack on a NATO base in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar killed two international soldiers and wounded six, officials said. It came a day after gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms and wearing suicide vests stormed a government compound in the southwestern province of Farah, killing ... Read More
New French President Hollande faces likely NATO ire on Afghanistan
Friday, 18 May 2012
For President Barack Obama’s relationship with France, it’s out with “Sarkozy the American” and in with Francois Hollande the Socialist. Freshly inaugurated, French President Hollande visits the White House on Friday and plans to announce a pullout of all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year’s end. ... Read More
The ‘Queen of Disco’ dies at 63 after long battle with cancer
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Five-time Grammy winner Donna Summer is understood to have died this morning after a battle with cancer, reported U.S. based website TMZ. Hot stuff singer known as the queen of disco, passed away in Florida, according to TMZ. “Early this morning, we lost Donna Summer Sudano, a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her ... Read More
Iran attack decision nears, Israeli elite locks down
Thursday, 17 May 2012
A private door opens from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in central Jerusalem directly into a long, modestly furnished, half-paneled room decorated with modern paintings by Israeli artists and a copy of Israel’s 1948 declaration of independence. It contains little more than a long wooden table, brown leather ... Read More
Egyptian director sends messages to Islamists and Israel in Cannes
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah, in Cannes presenting a drama on his country’s revolution, defiantly vowed Thursday that the Islamists jockeying for power back home would never succeed in stifling art. “Our presence here in Cannes is a wonderful message to all those who want to put an end to art in Egypt,” ... Read More