From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Obama heads to Moscow for "reset" summit
By Matt Spetalnick, Reuters
Sun Jul 5, 4:09 am ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama heads to Moscow on Sunday promising a far-reaching effort to "reset" U.S.-Russia relations that hit a post-Cold War low under the Bush administration.
Obama is expected to clinch summit deals on the outlines of a new nuclear arms pact and improved cooperation in the Afghan war effort, but deep divisions will remain over U.S. missile defense, NATO expansion and the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.
Traveling to Moscow for the first time since taking office, he hopes to keep building pragmatic ties with President Dmitry Medvedev but is likely to have a more strained introduction to Vladimir Putin, who still dominates Russian politics. |
2 North Korea may have shot mid-range missile
By Jon Herskovitz and Seo Eun-kyung, Reuters
Sun Jul 5, 3:11 am ET
SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.S. pointman for sanctions on North Korea begins talks in Malaysia on Sunday, possibly on links banks have to the North's finances, while a report said Pyongyang may have shot mid-range missiles in a series fired on Saturday.
North Korea launched seven ballistic missiles, South Korea's defense ministry said, in an act of defiance toward the United States on its Independence Day, further stoking regional tensions already high due to Pyongyang's nuclear test in May.
"We are on high alert," a South Korean Defense Ministry source said, adding there were no initial signs more launches were coming on Sunday. |
3 Ousted Honduran seeks to return after OAS move
By Patrick Markey, Reuters
35 mins ago
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya prepared to fly back home on Sunday, setting the stage for a possible confrontation as the interim government that has defied international pressure said it would not let him enter the country.
Honduras' interim government, slapped with suspension from the Organization of American States over its refusal to reinstate Zelaya, said it would refuse Zelaya permission to land.
Zelaya, a leftist who had been due to leave power in 2010, was bundled out of office by troops and into exile a week ago in a military coup that has been widely condemned abroad. |
4 McCain says Palin to play leadership role as ex-Governor
By Steve Holland, Reuters
Sat Jul 4, 8:20 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Senator John McCain expressed support for his former presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, on Saturday as Washington speculated about why the Alaska governor abruptly announced her resignation.
McCain made the comment a day after Palin stunned the political world by announcing she is stepping down with 18 months left in her term.
McCain had plucked Palin from obscurity to make her his vice presidential running mate in last year's presidential campaign, won by Democrat Barack Obama. |
5 Rove: Palin resignation part of a 'risky strategy'
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 18 mins ago
WASHINGTON – One of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's potential presidential rivals said Sunday that her abrupt resignation won't help her dodge scrutiny. President George W. Bush's chief political adviser said her strategy is, at best, unclear.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Palin's announcement that she would not seek a second term — and leave office before finishing her first — simply doesn't make sense in a conventional political setting. Karl Rove, a longtime Bush counselor, said Palin has engaged in a "risky strategy."
Then again, the pair said, Palin has never been a conventional candidate and her stunning announcement on Friday is what they have come to expect from the Republicans' 2008 vice presidential candidate. |
6 Palin takes to Web for hints of political future
By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 5, 7:27 am ET
JUNEAU, Alaska – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin didn't wait long to give some hint of what her political life might look like after she leaves office at the end of the month.
After staying out of the public eye for most of Saturday, a day after abruptly announcing she would soon give up her job as governor, Palin indicated on a social networking site that she would take on a larger, national role, citing a "higher calling" to unite the country along conservative lines.
"I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint," the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote in a posting on her Facebook page. Palin's spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, confirmed Palin wrote the entry. |
7 Zimbabwe vows to pull troops out of diamond fields
By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 27 mins ago
HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe has promised to withdraw its soldiers from diamond fields in the east, an official newspaper reported Sunday — a week after a rights group alleged the military was committing killings and abuses in the area.
The move appeared to be an attempt to diffuse criticism over the military's takeover of the Marange diamond fields and ensure that Zimbabwe's precious stones won't be tainted with the "blood diamond" label by activists, which would reduce their value.
The Ministry of Mines denied last month's report by Human Rights Watch that said troops had killed more than 200 people at the Marange diamond fields while forcing children to search for diamonds and beating villagers who got in the way. |
8 Obama plan could trim back financial powerhouses
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 5, 8:20 am ET
WASHINGTON – They are the biggest of the big — the Citigroups, the Goldman Sachses, the AIGs and other financial behemoths. The Obama administration doesn't want so many around anymore.
Financial regulations proposed by the president would result in leaner and simpler institutions that don't carry the weight of the system on their marble columns.
Around Washington and Wall Street they have come to be known as TBTF — too big to fail. It's not just size, though. These companies are so far-flung, so intertwined and so precariously leveraged that a single one's collapse can create systemwide tremors that imperil the finances of millions of Americans. |
9 Iraqis skeptical about significance of US pullback
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 5, 9:31 am ET
BAGHDAD – Iraqis are skeptical that much will change after last week's pullback of U.S. combat troops from Baghdad and other cities, a sentiment not shared by their government.
The government declared the June 30 pullback National Sovereignty Day and celebrated it with a military parade and noisy street celebrations by Iraqi soldiers and police. But there was no spontaneous outpouring of joy by Iraqis since many of them did not see the move as significant, with some 130,000 U.S. troops remaining in the country.
"The celebrations were contrived, almost like a farce," said Salman Hassan, who runs an electrical supplies store in eastern Baghdad. "The Americans did not go anywhere far, they are on the outskirts of our cities." |
10 In NYC, biggest fireworks show in US lights up sky
By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 5, 7:20 am ET
NEW YORK – Fireworks lit the night sky above New York with a kaleidoscope of colors shooting 1,000 feet into the air on an Independence Day that began with the Statue of Liberty's crown opening to the public for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001.
It was the nation's biggest fireworks display, with more than 22 tons of pyrotechnics exploding Saturday over a mile-and-a-half of the Hudson River, a new vantage point for New York's festivities. Millions of spectators watched from both sides of the river.
Among them were Jamalat Bayoumy and his wife, Mosad Mohamad — food vendors who work near the river. They lost an estimated $1,000 in business when police asked them to shut down because of swelling crowds. |
11 Obama's trip: A mission to reshape US image
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 5, 3:53 am ET
WASHINGTON – Determined to change the way the world views the United States, Barack Obama is onto his next foreign mission: rebuilding relations with Russia, proving to global leaders that America is serious about climate change, and outlining his vision for Africa, his father's birthplace.
And when in Rome? Obama will go to the Vatican to see Pope Benedict XVI for their first meeting.
Obama's weeklong trip — he leaves Sunday night for Moscow — typifies the pace of his first-year agenda. |
12 Harvard pres.: School has tough choices in decline
By MELISSA TRUJILLO, Associated Press Writer
23 mins ago
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Drew Gilpin Faust started as Harvard's president when the university's prosperity seemed limitless. With its ballooning wealth, Harvard planned almost frenzied growth, from a building boom into Boston to vast increases in student financial aid.
Billions of lost endowment dollars later, though, Faust faces a much different reality.
"We can't have chocolate and vanilla and strawberry. We have to decide which one," she said. |
13 Field-to-plate: VT college students try farming
By LISA RATHKE, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 41 mins ago
POULTNEY, Vt. – Devin Lyons typically starts his days this summer cooking fresh eggs for breakfast from the farm's chicken coop. Then, depending on the weather, he and a dozen other college students might cut hay in the field using a team of oxen, turn compost or weed vegetable beds.
While other college students are in stuffy classrooms, about a dozen are earning credit tending a Vermont farm. For 13 weeks, 12 credits and about $12,500, the Green Mountain College students plow fields with oxen or horses, milk cows, weed crops and grow and make their own food, part of an intensive course in sustainable agriculture using the least amount of fossil fuels.
"Lots of schools study sustainable agriculture but I don't think any of them put it into practice," said spokesman Kevin Coburn. |
14 Mohawks v. Canada: Bridge shutdown hurts business
By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 58 mins ago
ST. REGIS MOHAWK NATION, N.Y. – Melinda Walk needs her Canadian customers back — so much so that she's willing to give them full value for their currency at her convenience store-gas station just over the U.S.-Canadian border, even at a loss of 12 cents on the dollar.
Walk is among border merchants caught in a standoff between Canadian Mohawks and the Canadian government over the arming of border guards stationed at the Cornwall Island Customs House, which sits on reservation land. A Mohawk protest in late May brought a bridge shutdown by Canadian authorities and only a trickle of local traffic is getting through.
"I'm willing to take a little bit of a loss to coax them back," she said. "It's not much, but I have to do something. The bridge closing has cost me a huge chunk of business." |
15 Missed revenue forecasts pose more woes for states
By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 1 min ago
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – With its IOUs and plans to close state offices three days a month, California gets all the attention as lawmakers fight to write a budget set off balance by a $26.3 billion deficit.
But the dozens of states that made spending cuts, tapped into reserves or relied on federal stimulus funds to patch together budgets that took effect this past week are hardly free from worry. Many of those spending plans are based on tax revenue projections that have been wrong throughout the recession — and may be unreliable again.
More miscalculations could bring a variety of consequences: deeper cuts to services such as health care and education; layoffs and furloughs of state employees; renewed consideration of tax and fee increases. |
16 States digging deep to monitor water
By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 1 min ago
KINGSTON, N.H. – About a quarter mile into dense woods, geologists watch as a drilling rig twists a shaft deep into the granite bedrock of southeastern New Hampshire. They are searching for water — not to drink — but to watch.
State and federal agencies have been watching, or monitoring, lakes and rivers for more than a century, but less attention has gone to vast amounts of water in cracks and rock fissures deep underground, leaving a void in understanding a resource growing in importance as demands for water increase and surface water sources are being used to the fullest in many areas.
New Hampshire is drilling a series of wells to monitor groundwater in cracks in granite hundreds of feet below the surface. The goal is to allow scientists to check for contamination; learn about how long it takes for rainfall or melting snow to make its way into the supply; and keep tabs on how climate change, population growth and development affect the water. |
17 Tucson rainwater harvesting law drawing interest
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 57 mins ago
TUCSON, Ariz. – Long dependent on wellwater and supplies sent hundreds of miles by canal from the Colorado River, this desert city will soon harvest some of its 12 inches of annual rainfall to help bolster its water resources.
Under the nation's first municipal rainwater harvesting ordinance for commercial projects, Tucson developers building new business, corporate or commercial structures will have to supply half of the water needed for landscaping from harvested rainwater starting next year.
Already, the idea has become so popular that at least a half-dozen other Arizona communities are looking to emulate Tucson's approach. |
18 Details emerge on woman accused of al-Qaida ties
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jul 4, 6:49 pm ET
NEW YORK – A U.S.-trained scientist accused of being an al-Qaida operative was living freely in Pakistan and Afghanistan for portions of the five years before her arrest last year, a psychologist says, disputing claims that the scientist had spent those years in the custody of foreign authorities.
Newly public court documents contain reports by psychologists who treated Aafia Siddiqui after she was arrested in Afghanistan in July 2008 and was charged with taking a gun and shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents. She was shot in the abdomen in the encounter.
The testimony of the mental health experts will be at issue beginning Monday at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to determine whether the 37-year-old Pakistani is competent to stand trial. |
19 Schwarzenegger legacy entwined with fiscal crisis
By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jul 4, 2:49 pm ET
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California voters gave Arnold Schwarzenegger a single, blockbuster-sized mission when they sent him to Sacramento six years ago in an unprecedented election: Fix California's chaotic budget system, once and for all.
Today, California is unable to pay its bills, and Schwarzenegger finds himself mired in the worst financial crisis in decades and in a race against the clock to deliver on his promise to "end the crazy deficit spending."
In less than six months, the Republican governor will enter his final year in office and become a political lame duck, as attention begins to focus on his potential successors. That gives him little time to dig California out of its deep financial hole and enact the lasting budget reforms that he had hoped would shape his legacy. |
20 4 decades later, freedom rider returns to Miss.
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jul 3, 3:58 pm ET
JACKSON, Miss. – Corey Carter could hear snippets of music in his head — a calm and subtle melody that hadn't found its shape. The 19-year-old college student simply needed a hero to visualize before he could finish his composition for wind ensemble.
He found inspiration in an unexpected place. And instead of a hero, he found a heroine.
Standing in line at a Walgreens' one day a few months ago, he casually flipped through a book about African-American history in his hometown of Jackson, Miss. There, he ran across the 1961 mug shot of a jailed civil-rights worker. |
21 Iran frees foreign reporter amid fresh vote claims
by Farhad Pouladi, AFP
25 mins ago
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran on Sunday freed a British-Greek journalist and police said they had let go most other people detained in election protests but fresh challenges were made to the outcome of the presidential vote.
Washington Times reporter Iason Athanasiadis-Fowden "who was arrested for activities contradictory to journalism and in connection with the recent street riots was freed today," foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told ISNA news agency.
The Greek foreign ministry said he would leave Iran later on Sunday. |
22 Five dead, 34 wounded in Philippine church bombing
AFP
Sun Jul 5, 9:32 am ET
COTABATO, Philippines (AFP) – Five people were killed and at least 34 wounded in a suspected Muslim rebel bomb attack outside a Catholic church in the strife-torn southern Philippines on Sunday, officials said.
A lone suspect left a home-made device outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato city which exploded just as the congregation was leaving early morning mass, officials said.
The church was not heavily damaged as a restaurant across the street appeared to have absorbed much of the impact, witnesses said. Ordnance experts searched for clues among blood-spattered debris on the road outside the church. |
23 Harry Potter's nemesis revels in hard-edged new film
by Rebecca Frasquet, AFP
Sat Jul 4, 11:26 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – Tom Felton said he was relishing two violent dust-ups with Harry Potter when he resumes his role as the evil Draco Malfoy in the sixth film of the boy wizard's adventures.
Audiences will see Felton, so often in the shadow of Daniel Radcliffe as Harry in the previous films, occupy a central role in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", which opens across the world from July 15.
Having sparred with each other in the corridors of Hogwarts wizarding school for years, the clashes between Harry and Malfoy in the new film have a harder edge in keeping with the overall theme of impending adulthood. |
24 Two US soldiers, seven Afghan police die in blasts
by Sardar Ahmed, AFP
Sat Jul 4, 1:05 pm ET
KABUL (AFP) – Two US soldiers and seven Afghan policemen were killed in separate explosions Saturday, highlighting the level of violence faced by Marines pressing one of the biggest assaults in eight years.
In another incident, one security guard died and four others were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed vehicle near a private security company's four-vehicle convoy in Gereshk district, Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial administration said.
Nearly 4,000 Marines and 600 Afghan forces on Thursday launched a massive operation in Taliban strongholds in the south, in a pivotal test for the new strategy and to protect the local population ahead of the polls on August 20. |
25 UN chief chides Myanmar over Suu Kyi visit
by Rachel O'Brien, AFP
Sat Jul 4, 1:45 pm ET
BANGKOK (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivered a stern rebuke to Myanmar's junta Saturday after the country's military ruler refused to let him meet detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ban said the snub by top general Than Shwe was a missed opportunity for the hardline regime to show its commitment to fostering democracy and to holding free and fair elections as promised in 2010.
But he denied that he was ending his two-day visit empty-handed, saying that the reclusive junta chief had not rejected any of his other proposals for reform including the release of political prisoners. |
26 UN's Ban ends Myanmar trip empty-handed
AFP
Sat Jul 4, 10:39 pm ET
YANGON (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon headed home empty-handed from a trip to Myanmar after the ruling junta brazenly snubbed his attempts to visit pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ban departed with a stern rebuke for military ruler Than Shwe, saying that the reclusive general had missed an opportunity to show the regime's commitment to implementing democratic reform and to holding free elections in 2010.
But his failure to extract even the smallest concession from the iron-fisted regime plays into the hands of critics, who warned him against visiting at the same time as Aung San Suu Kyi faces an internationally condemned trial. |
27 GM considers options ahead of court ruling
AFP
Sat Jul 4, 4:02 pm ET
DETROIT (AFP) – As General Motors executives await a key court ruling that will determine whether they can establish a new company, the shape of any future enterprise is already being considered.
At issue are questions such as when sales of the new company's shares will begin and how much public financial disclosure the new GM will offer. The revamped company will be largely owned by the US government, which will have a 60 percent stake.
The Canadian government will control 11 percent, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union's healthcare trust a further 17.5 percent and the remainder will belong to various secured creditors that have agreed to accept equity for debt. |
28 Nigeria, Algeria, Niger seal $10 bln gas pipeline deal
by Ola Awoniyi, AFP
Fri Jul 3, 12:48 pm ET
ABUJA (AFP) – Three African countries on Friday signed an accord to build a 10-billion-dollar trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe.
The project will convey gas destined for the European market more than 4,000 kilometres (2,485 miles) from the Niger Delta in Nigeria, via Niger and Algeria.
The head of Nigeria's state oil company, Mohammed Barkindo, said the agreement "gives this project the official stamp of approval from the three governments, directing the national oil companies of these three countries to begin in earnest the definitional phase of this project." |
29 Recession could boost Bosnia micro-credit sector
by Sabina Niksic, AFP
Sun Jul 5, 1:36 am ET
SARAJEVO (AFP) – The micro-credit sector in Bosnia, a cornerstone of recovery from the country's devastating war, is tipped to emerge even stronger from the global recession.
Since the 1990s conflict, the Balkan state's micro-credit market has grown to serve nearly 400,000 clients thanks to generous international financial and technical support.
This accounts for 20 percent of the ex-Yugoslav republic's workforce who have a combined active loan portfolio of more than 500 million euros (700 million dollars). |
30 Obama backs Medvedev's judicial reforms
By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 5, 7:57 am ET
MOSCOW – President Barack Obama said strengthening human rights and the rule of law in Russia should be a part of the much-heralded "reset" in U.S.-Russian relations, according to an interview with an embattled Russian opposition newspaper.
Obama also said he applauded President Dmitry Medvedev's efforts to reform Russia's creaky judicial system, according excerpts released by Novaya Gazeta before Obama's arrival Monday in Moscow, when the full interview to be published.
"I agree with President Medvedev when he said that 'freedom is better than the absence of freedom'," Obama was quoted as saying. "I see no reason why strengthening democracy, human rights and the rule of law cannot be included as part of our reset" in relations. |
31 3 British soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
23 mins ago
KABUL – Insurgent attacks killed three British soldiers in the southern Afghanistan region where thousands of U.S. Marines pushed forward with the American military's biggest anti-Taliban offensive since the hard-line Islamist regime was toppled.
The British deaths came as gunmen in the east abducted 16 mine-clearing personnel working for the United Nations.
A soldier from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards died in an explosion while on a foot patrol near Gereshk in Helmand province Sunday, the Ministry of Defense said. In the same area Saturday, a rocket-propelled grenade killed one soldier and a roadside bomb killed another soldier, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday. |
32 Opposition party appears to win Bulgaria's vote
By VESELIN TOSHKOV, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 18 mins ago
SOFIA, Bulgaria – A right-wing opposition party appeared to win Bulgaria's parliamentary election by a wide margin on Sunday, and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev conceded defeat.
Official election results are not expected until Monday, but Sofia Mayor Boiko Borisov, the leader of the right-wing Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, said he expected to form the country's next government and serve as its prime minister.
"I will take the responsibility to lead the next government," Borisov said at a news conference. |
33 Pakistan: Jets target N. Waziristan, up to 6 die
By RASOOL DAWAR, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 5, 12:39 pm ET
MIR ALI, Pakistan – Pakistani fighter jets targeted suspected Taliban hide-outs in a tribal region near Afghanistan on Sunday, killing as many as six people and raising the odds of a future military offensive there, intelligence officials said.
Elsewhere in the northwest, two bomb explosions killed two people and wounded 15 more in Upper Dir district, police said. The district sits at the edge of Swat Valley where Pakistan army says it is wrapping up a two-month-old offensive against Taliban militants.
Pakistan's military has been targeting the Taliban in several northwestern areas since May, when it launched the Swat offensive to oust the militants, who sought to impose their harsh interpretation of Islam over large areas and are accused of plotting attacks on American troops across the border in Afghanistan. |
34 Drug war, economy weigh on Mexico midterm election
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
51 mins ago
MEXICO CITY – Drug violence, an economic downturn and recent cases of political malfeasance weighed heavily as Mexicans voted Sunday in midterm congressional elections that could decide the future of President Felipe Calderon's anti-crime and economic policies.
Calderon's National Action Party, PAN, hoped its nationwide crackdown on drug cartels would win it a bigger share of the 500-seat lower house of Congress, where it currently holds 206 spots.
But with the economy in its steepest downturn since the 1990s, polls suggested the gains would go to the former longtime ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, which now has 106 seats. |
35 Earn our trust or go, Afghan villagers tell Marines
By Peter Graff, Reuters
Sun Jul 5, 6:09 am ET
SORKHDOZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) – The mullah's message was blunt. We don't trust you and if you don't earn our trust, our first meeting will be our last.
With that, he stood abruptly and walked out of his first "shura," or council meeting, with U.S. Marines.
U.S. forces who have moved deep into formerly Taliban-controlled territory in southern Afghanistan this week say they are here to stay and will not leave until they have improved the lives of ordinary people. |
36 Three killed in riot in China's Xinjiang region
By Chris Buckley, Reuters
2 hrs 28 mins ago
BEIJING (Reuters) – Three people died in rioting in China's restive far west Xinjiang region on Sunday, state media reported, in a confrontation that underscored the tense divide there between Han Chinese and the Uighur ethnic minority.
The official Xinhua news agency said rioters "illegally gathered in several downtown places and engaged in beating, smashing, looting and burning" in the regional capital Urumqi.
The dead were "three ordinary people of the Han ethnic group," Xinhua said. It did not say how they died. |
37 Iranian clerical group says vote result "invalid"
By Parisa Hafezi, Reuters
Sun Jul 5, 12:48 pm ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) – A pro-reform Iranian clerical group said on Sunday the outcome of last month's presidential vote was "invalid," even though Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has upheld the result.
In a sign of a deepening rift among Shi'ite clerics, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers also called for the release of Iranians arrested in protests after the hardline president was declared winner of the June 12 vote.
"Other candidates' complaints and strong evidence of vote-rigging were ignored ... peaceful protests by Iranians were violently oppressed ... dozens of Iranians were killed and hundreds were illegally arrested," said a statement published on the Assembly's website. "The outcome is invalid." |
38 Croatia appoints first woman as PM
by Lajla Veselica, AFP
Fri Jul 3, 3:15 pm ET
ZAGREB (AFP) – Croatian President Stipe Mesic on Friday named the country's first female prime minister-designate, who is to form a new government after the unexpected resignation of Ivo Sanader.
Jadranka Kosor "gave me valid evidence that she has a necessary majority (in the parliament)... so this evening I am giving her a mandate to form a new government," Mesic told journalists.
"We will immediately start the important job which is ahead of us," Kosor said. |
39 EU's Barroso made to wait on re-election vote
by Nadege Puljak and Marc Preel, AFP
Fri Jul 3, 4:05 pm ET
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will have to wait until later this year to find out if he keeps his job, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said on Friday.
Reinfeldt, speaking during a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Stockholm, told reporters that a decision on Barroso's re-election this month would be unlikely.
"We will not make a decision on Barroso in July, but we hope that this decision will be taken in due course." |
40 Marine offensive intended to show that Taliban can be beat
By Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu Jul 2, 5:12 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan — The massive Marine assault launched Thursday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province is intended to recapture an area that's been under Taliban control for the past five years — a step officials think is critical to showing Afghan civilians that coalition forces can protect them from Islamist militants.
If the offensive is successful, 4,000 U.S. Marines and 600 Afghan troops, will clear the Helmand river valley, district by district, of Taliban fighters in roughly seven weeks, finishing around Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election. Then Afghan police will move in to sustain the security gains, and by the end of the year, residents will feel secure enough to return to abandoned communities and reopen businesses boarded up years ago.
Planners hope to see violent contact with the Taliban increase in the operation's opening weeks, followed by a drop as coalition forces clear areas. That would be a sign that the plan is working. |
41 Pakistan desperately short of money to resettle Swat residents
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu Jul 2, 6:38 pm ET
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Major Western countries, after applauding Pakistan's military crackdown on Islamic extremists in the Swat valley in the country's northwest, haven't pledged the money needed to resettle the population now that the fighting is mostly over, and humanitarian organizations fear that 2 million people will be sent back home before it's safe to go.
Unless the United States and other allies provide the required money to reconstruct Swat, Pakistan risks losing the "hearts and minds" of those who had to flee the operation that fought the Islamic extremists who'd overrun the region. Islamabad doesn't have the money, Pakistani officials said.
The rehabilitation cost is estimated at $2.5 billion , according to Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed , the head of the military's special unit set up to look after the internally displaced. |
42 Biden's visit to Iraq raises questions about Iraq's future
By Mike Tharp, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jul 3, 2:51 pm ET
BAGHDAD — Vice President Joe Biden's surprise two-day visit this weekend to Iraq was meant to "re-establish contact" with leaders here, but some Iraqis bristled at the messenger more than the message.
Biden is well known in Iraq for his earlier support of a plan to give three-way autonomy to each major ethnic group here — Sunni Arab, Shiite Arab and Kurd — under a central government.
Protestors burned an American flag in Sadr City, a crowded Baghdad slum, and chanted, "No, no for occupation! No, no for America!" One of them, Mohammed Kathem, 40, an administrator, said many of the protestors hit the streets after an imam encouraged them to do so at Friday prayers. "Biden's visit sent the signal to us that Iraq will be divided," he said. "Biden's background doesn't allow him to play any role in reconciliation." |
43 Obama in Moscow: can a tense relationship be "reset"?
By Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers
Sun Jul 5, 2:27 pm ET
MOSCOW — When President Barack Obama flies into Moscow on Monday for meetings with Kremlin leadership, at the top of his agenda will be reducing the number of strategic nuclear weapons capable of destroying life on Earth. And that might be the easy part.
Obama's trip to Russia is viewed on both sides of the Atlantic as a chance to resuscitate relations between the two nations after they fell to post-Cold War lows during the presidency of George W. Bush .
In order to do so, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appear to be taking a more pragmatic tack than did their predecessors: concentrating first on the issues that in the parlance of the diplomatic community are "deliverables," things that can get done, instead of getting stuck on thornier issues. |
44 Sandstorms plague Iraq and are getting worse
By Mike Tharp, McClatchy Newspapers
Sun Jul 5, 3:38 pm ET
BAGHDAD — Shamal.
Accented on the second syllable, that means the ill wind that blows in summer across Iraq , and other countries in the region, stirring sandstorms in its wake.
Vice President Joe Biden found out late last week what 25 million Iraqis have known for a long time-everybody talks about them, but nobody can do anything about them. His chopper flight from a U.S. base to the International Zone was canceled when a shamal turned the skies over Baghdad and beyond the same color as Biden's khaki desert boots. |
45 Why Big Oil Declined Iraq's Riches
By VIVIENNE WALT / PARIS, Time Magazine
Thu Jul 2, 11:35 am ET
Any notion that the invasion of Iraq was simply an oil grab took another hit on Tuesday when Baghdad opened the bidding on the rights to develop its massive energy reserves. In a day-long auction of eight huge oil fields - some of the world's biggest - virtually all the 41 foreign companies invited to bid by the Iraqi government balked at the Baghdad terms. The only contract signed was a 20-year deal for a consortium led by BP and China's National Petroleum Corporation to develop the giant Rumaila field in southern Iraq. "Frankly I did not think it would be such a fiasco and embarrassment for the government," says Rochdi Younsi, Director of Middle East and Africa for the Eurasia Group in Washington. "It shows the level of disconnect between the Ministry of Oil and the oil companies." |
46 All Bets Are Off: Russia and Ukraine Ban Gambling
By JAMES MARSON / KIEV, Time Magazine
Thu Jul 2, 6:20 am ET
The neon lights are no longer flashing; the roulette wheels have spun their last turn. Casinos across Russia closed their doors Wednesday as a sweeping ban on gambling went into effect, less than a week after a similar ban hit neighboring Ukraine. Lawmakers in both countries say the actions were necessary to bring under control spiraling addiction and a notoriously shady business. But critics say the moves will leave hundreds of thousands out of work and force the industry underground. |
47 India's Historic Ruling on Gay Rights
By JYOTI THOTTAM / NEW DELHI, Time Magazine
Fri Jul 3, 12:20 am ET
With one sweeping judgment Thursday, the Indian High Court decriminalized homosexuality, shook off a stubborn piece of colonial baggage and may have added momentum to a broader regional movement for gay rights. "This is a huge step forward," says Anjali Gopalan, director of the Naz Foundation India Trust, an advocacy group based in New Delhi that successfully brought a public interest petition to overturn India's anti-sodomy law, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. "We can now take the next step forward for the community in securing our rights." |
48 In Peru Sports, Men Bumble, And Women Shine
By LUCIEN CHAUVIN / LIMA, Time Magazine
Fri Jul 3, 6:50 am ET
Peruvians have gone mad for the boxer Kina Malpartida, an unlikely sports figure in this South American country where soccer, even if not played well, is king. You see, Malpartida is a woman but she is idolized by the traditionally macho men of Peru because there is no equivalent male athlete in the country. |
49 Beaten Back, Iran's Opposition Looks To Reform From Within
By ANDREW LEE BUTTERS, Time Magazine
Fri Jul 3, 6:55 am ET
Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi lashed out defiantly at Monday's certification, following a partial recount initiated by the clerical body that oversees Iran's elections, of the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "From now on we will have a government... whose political legitimacy will not be accepted by the majority of people, including myself," Mousavi said in his latest statement. |
50 Pakistan Hopes for Answers on Bhutto Murder
By OMAR WARAICH / RAWALPINDI, Time Magazine
Fri Jul 3, 7:00 am ET
Even 18 months after her assassination, Benazir Bhutto's presence is ubiquitous in Pakistan. Portraits of the former Prime Minister, killed in a terror attack on an election rally in December 2007, continue to adorn government buildings, supporters' cars, and vast billboards. Visitors to Islamabad land at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, board a taxi that will drive down Benazir Bhutto road, and can pay the fare using limited edition Benazir Bhutto coins. Still, the country is no closer to definitively answering the question of who authored Bhutto's murder. |
51 In Liberia, President Johnson Sirleaf's Past Sullies her Clean Image
By GLENNA GORDON / MONROVIA, Time Magazine
Fri Jul 3, 7:00 am ET
Six years on from the end of Liberia's long and bloody civil war, the country is finally on the mend. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund regularly applaud President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Africa's first elected woman leader - on the huge strides she's making to stamp out corruption and rebuild her shattered country. |
52 Honduras Braces for a Protracted Fight
By TIM PADGETT, Time Magazine
Sat Jul 4, 1:50 am ET
Prospects for an early resolution to the showdown over the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya appear grim as a deadline for his reinstatement passes with the defiant coup leaders announcing that they’ll instead pull Honduras out of the Organization of Americans States. The OAS had given the coup leaders until Saturday to restore Zelaya to office, but they look more unlikely than ever now to comply. Responding to unanimous international condemnation of the military raid that sent the leftist Zelaya into exile last Sunday, interim Honduran leader Roberto Micheletti summoned all his tin-pot bravado this week to warn that "if there is any invasion of our country, 7.5 million Hondurans will be ready to defend our territory." |
53 Why Obama's Afghan War is Different
By ARYN BAKER / KABUL, Time Magazine
Sun Jul 5, 8:50 am ET
So far, so good in the first major offensive of President Barack Obama's war in Afghanistan. For the past four days, 4,000 U.S. Marines and 650 Afghan soldiers have been fighting their way into the southern reaches of Afghanistan's Helmand River Valley, hoping to clear out insurgents there. But other than one limited area of fierce resistance, the fighting has generally been limited to small-scale skirmishes in which few Taliban have been killed, because most of the insurgents appear to have slipped away - as guerrillas tend to do when confronted by overwhelming firepower. More important to U.S. goals, however, is that no civilians have been hurt, because the purpose of the operation is to secure the local population against the Taliban. |
54 Trying Times for Russia's Nesting Dolls
By JOHN WENDLE / SERGIYEV POSAD, Time Magazine
Sun Jul 5, 8:50 am ET
Under the white walls and blue-and-gold cupolas of the Sergiyev Posad monastery, the row of vendors selling nesting dolls and other traditional Russian handicrafts is noticeably shorter this summer. Usually the cheap folding tables, set up in a double row outside the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church, are surrounded by tourists snapping up the iconic egg-shaped souvenirs, made of smaller and smaller wooden dolls hidden one within the other. But on a recent Thursday afternoon, there were only about a dozen people looking to buy. At one table, Olga Isakova waited on her first customers of the day, a man and his son who examined a bright blue-and-white nesting doll with curly blond hair and a heart-shaped mouth before putting it down and walking away. "My sales have fallen 10% to 20% since the fall," says Isakova. "I'm only selling the cheap stuff these days." |
From Yahoo News U.S. News |
55 In Philly schools, most students get a free lunch
By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 5, 2:52 pm ET
PHILADELPHIA – For students at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, there IS such a thing as a free lunch — and a free breakfast, too. With no strings attached.
The Philadelphia school district's unique program provides free food for all children in schools with a high percentage of low-income students, dispensing with the cumbersome forms parents must fill out elsewhere to qualify their kids for free meals.
Although federal officials recently threatened to kill this paperless model, other cities are looking to replicate it. Food service directors say it eliminates the costly bureaucracy that both deters needy families from applying for subsidized meals and stigmatizes those who do complete the forms. |
56 US manned space flight in doubt 40 years after moon walk
by Jean-Louis Santini, AFP
1 hr 14 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US ambitions to send astronauts back to the moon as a prelude to missions to Mars have been put in doubt by budgetary constraints 40 years after man's triumphant landing on Earth's nearest neighbor.
After the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003, former president George W. Bush decided to phase out the shuttle flights by 2003 and set a more ambitious mandate for America in space.
Launched in 2004, the so-called Constellation program aims to take Americans back to the moon by 2020 to use as a launch pad for manned voyages to Mars. |
57 US clings to hopes for 2009 economic recovery
by Rob Lever, AFP
Fri Jul 3, 6:32 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Halfway through 2009, the US economy is still struggling in recession amid fragile hopes for recovery by the end of the year.
Those recovery hopes were dampened by Thursday's worse-than-expected report on US payrolls, which showed a rise in job losses in June of 467,000, as unemployment rose to a new 26-year-high of 9.5 percent.
This curbed some of the optimism generated by moderating job losses in May and other reports suggesting improving trends in key areas such as manufacturing and consumer spending. |
58 US Marine commander out shopping in Afghanistan
by Ben Sheppard, AFP
Sat Jul 4, 11:56 am ET
GARMSIR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Brigadier General Larry Nicholson demonstrated the more open approach he wants to see among the new US troops sent to southern Afghanistan by going shopping for melons.
Nicholson, commander of the 4,000 Marines deployed on Thursday in the mainly Taliban-held Helmand River valley, headed to Garmsir district centre to visit a bazaar selling fruit, vegetables and meat.
The day after launching Operation Khanjar -- intended to establish international and Afghan government control in the region -- he was keen to show how the Marines must interact with locals to defeat the insurgents. |
47 more Top Stories from Saturday at DocuDharma including-
Green Diary Rescue & Open Thread is published and includes the story The Lincoln Center Farmer's Market on the Fourth of July.