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Suu Kyi to make landmark foreign trip next week

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:12:11 +0800

Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will travel overseas next week for the first time in more than two decades to attend an economic forum in Bangkok, according to her party.

Amnesty accuses UN council of "failed leadership"

Thu, 24 May 2012 07:22:29 +0800

LONDON (Reuters) - Rights group Amnesty International lambasted the United Nations Security Council on Thursday as "tired, out of step and increasingly unfit for purpose". In its annual report, Amnesty said the failure of world powers to take stronger action on Syria was evidence that a sclerotic security council was hamstrung by vested interests, and also warned of abuses arising from Europe's economic crisis. Permanent security council members Russia, a key arms supplier to Syria, and China have shielded Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from tough sanctions. ...

France's Hollande makes bold debut on EU summit stage

Thu, 24 May 2012 08:47:23 +0800

PARIS (Reuters) - At his first meeting of EU leaders, with the hotly contested issue of shared euro-zone debt top of his discussion list, France's new president made it clear on Wednesday that he intends to stand up to Berlin on European policy. As Francois Hollande arrived for the summit in Brussels, the Socialist leader told reporters that euro bonds would be up for discussion. Moments later, Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped out of her limousine and said curtly that she did not think such bonds were a good idea or would help to boost growth. ...

Iran nuclear talks go down to the wire

Thu, 24 May 2012 18:26:12 +0800

Crunch Iranian nuclear talks went down to the wire on Thursday, with Tehran threatening to walk away unless world powers ease sanctions in return for a partial suspension of its atomic activities.

Egyptians vote on second day of presidential eletions

Thu, 24 May 2012 18:04:04 +0800

Egyptians swarmed polling stations on the second day Thursday of a gripping presidential election in which candidates are pitting stability against the ideals of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's rule.

Iran may prepare to boost nuclear work - diplomats

Thu, 24 May 2012 18:03:02 +0800

VIENNA (Reuters) - A U.N. watchdog report is expected to show that Iran has installed more uranium enrichment centrifuges at an underground site, potentially boosting the output capacity of nuclear work major powers want it to stop, Western diplomatic sources say. Two sources said Iran may have placed in position nearly 350 machines since February - in addition to the almost 700 already operating at the Fordow facility for higher-grade enrichment - but that they were not yet being used to refine uranium. If confirmed in the next quarterly report on Iran's nuclear programme by the U.N. ...

Myanmar police move against spreading power protests

Thu, 24 May 2012 18:02:30 +0800

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar police broke up a protest against power cuts by several hundred people in the town of Pyi on Thursday and briefly held five people for questioning, including a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, party officials said. Several members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) were also detained for questioning in the early hours in the city of Mandalay, where protests over electricity outages first started on Sunday. ...

U.S. should respect decision to imprison doctor who helped CIA find bin Laden - Pakistan

Thu, 24 May 2012 18:01:25 +0800

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States should respect a Pakistan court's decision to imprison a doctor accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden, the Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. "I think as far as the case of Mr. Afridi is concerned, it was in accordance with Pakistani laws and by the Pakistani courts, and we need to respect each other's legal processes," Moazzam Ali Khan told reporters. (Reporting by Rebecca Conway; Writing by Qasim Nauman)

'I would vote for President Obama': Castro's niece

Thu, 24 May 2012 17:58:16 +0800

Fidel Castro's niece on Wednesday hailed Barack Obama's support for gay marriage and the loosening of US-Cuba travel restrictions, saying: "I would vote for President Obama."

Iran talks with world powers hit snag over sanctions

Thu, 24 May 2012 17:30:16 +0800

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran accused world powers on Wednesday of creating "a difficult atmosphere" that hindered talks on its atomic energy programme, signalling a snag in diplomacy to defuse fears of a covert Iranian bid to develop nuclear bombs. The nub of the dispute was not immediately clear as the Baghdad talks entered a second day. But Iran had served notice that it wanted immediate relief from economic sanctions as part of any deal to scale back uranium enrichment, whereas Western powers insisted Tehran must first rein in its activity. ...

UN panel blames Syria army for most abuses

Thu, 24 May 2012 17:09:19 +0800

A UN panel said Thursday the army was to blame for most rights abuses in the latest violence that has swept Syria, as a watchdog reported renewed military shelling of a rebel bastion.

Human rights crimes still taking place in Syria - UN

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:50:53 +0800

GENEVA (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and opposition fighters are committing gross human rights violations despite a six-week-old ceasefire in the conflict and children are often the victims, United Nations investigators said in a report on Thursday. Syrian army and security services committed most of the crimes documented since March, including heavy shelling of residential areas and executions, it said. Armed rebels executed or tortured captured soldiers and pro-government supporters, and abducted civilians in an apparent bid to secure prison exchanges or ransoms, it said. ...

Afghans say kidnapped aid workers in mountains, talks begin

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:49:59 +0800

KABUL (Reuters) - Gunmen in Afghanistan are demanding money for the release of five aid workers, including two Western women doctors, held in remote mountains and authorities have opened negotiations in the hope of freeing them, an investigator said on Thursday. The aid workers employed by Swiss-based aid group Medair were making their way from Faizabad city in rugged northeast Badakhshan province on Tuesday to visit flood-stricken areas when they were abducted about half-way to their destination. ...

EU vows to keep Greece in the fold but plans for exit

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:21:47 +0800

European Union leaders pledged support for Greece on Thursday, vowing to keep the debt-wracked country in the eurozone as officials prepared behind the scenes for a possible doomsday scenario of exit.

Brother of blind China activist flees village

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:07:41 +0800

BEIJING (Reuters) - The brother of blind activist Chen Guangcheng has fled his village in northeastern China, evading a security clampdown to seek help from lawyers for his son who has been detained in a case that has become a rallying point among rights activists. Chen Guangfu, the eldest brother of Chen Guangcheng, told Reuters that he walked out of his home in Shandong province at 3 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday, eluding the increased number of sentries near his village by avoiding roads and running through fields. He arrived in Beijing on Wednesday evening after a six-hour journey by car. ...

Romney opens new front vs Obama: schools are failing

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:43:32 +0800

WASHINGTON/REDWOOD CITY, California (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney opened a new front on Wednesday in his fight against President Barack Obama, accusing him of presiding over a failing U.S. education system in the grip of union bosses who refuse to accept reforms. In a rare diversion from his campaign focus on the weak U.S. economy, Romney laid out an education plan in a speech that represented his most overt appeal to date to Hispanic voters who have largely sided with the Democratic incumbent. ...

Anti-African street violence surges in Israel

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:41:45 +0800

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Surging street violence against African migrants, including a rampage that an Israeli broadcaster dubbed a "pogrom", drew empathy for the rioters from the interior minister on Thursday. Waving Israeli flags and chanting "Deport the Sudanese", residents of a low-income Tel Aviv neighbourhood where many of the border-jumpers from Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan live held a march late Wednesday that turned violent. Police said 20 people were arrested for assault and vandalism. ...

Child addicts at heart of Indonesia anti-smoking suit

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:30:45 +0800

KARAWANG GIRANG, Indonesia (Reuters) - Anti-tobacco advocates in Indonesia plan to file a class action lawsuit this month using cases of child addicts in the hope of forcing tougher regulations on a society where one in three people smokes. It is a rare attempt of its kind to constrain a tobacco industry which looks to the world's fourth most populous country and its growing appetite for cigarettes to replace dwindling sales elsewhere. The suit against tobacco companies and the Indonesian government argues that feeble regulation has left children dangerously exposed to the risks of smoking. ...

400 arrested in latest Montreal student rally

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:21:08 +0800

Police arrested some 400 people in Montreal early on Thursday after demonstrators threw rocks at officers in the latest student protest to shake the city, a police spokesman said.

Iran nuclear talks enter second day

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:21:02 +0800

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Talks resumed on Thursday between Iran and world powers about a nuclear programme that the West suspects is aimed at nuclear bomb research. A first day of discussions showed a "fair amount of disagreement" but also areas of common ground, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, adding: "I believe we have the beginning of a negotiation." Talks got under way again on Thursday morning, a diplomat said. Both sides have been publicly upbeat about the scope for an outline deal following a 15-month diplomatic freeze and exploratory talks in Istanbul last month. ...

Raul Castro daughter lauds Obama gay marriage stance

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:20:21 +0800

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro's daughter Mariela said on Wednesday she was surprised by the warm welcome she received on arrival in the United States and was heartened by President Barack Obama's support for same-sex marriage. Sexologist Mariela Castro, 50, heads the communist island nation's National Center for Sex Education and is an outspoken gay rights advocate. She is reputed to have used her influence to persuade Cuba to grant certain rights to gay communities. ...

South Africa's new security laws: who will they protect?

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:16:46 +0800

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Concerns are growing in South Africa that new laws on intelligence, security and graft-busting may end up protecting the political elite more than the nation. President Jacob Zuma's ANC government has proposed three measures - two revisions to apartheid-era intelligence bills and a third on oversight of the police's anti-graft unit, the Hawks - that have prompted concern data may be suppressed. ...

INSIGHT - Iran's "Great Game" in Afghanistan

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:15:11 +0800

KABUL (Reuters) - With most foreign combat troops set to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014, Iran is is using the media in the war-ravaged nation to gain influence, a worrying issue for Washington. Nearly a third of Afghanistan's media is backed by Iran, either financially or through providing content, Afghan officials and media groups say. "What Iran wants, what they are striving at, is a power base in Afghanistan that can counter American influence," said a senior government official, who like others for this report, spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. ...