News For Friday Sep 5, 2008 News For Friday Sep 5, 2008

World World

China revokes sentence for elderly protesters - Added 5 days ago

Chinese authorities have reversed their decision and will not send two elderly women to a labor camp after they applied to protest during the Olympics, a human rights group said Saturday. No reason was given for the...

Mexicans to hold mass anti-crime protests - Added 6 days ago

Mexicans called for mass protests Saturday against a tide of killings, kidnappings and shootouts sweeping the country despite the government's aggressive fight against drug gangs. Frustration with rampant violence and...

Police in China shoot dead 6 suspects in Xinjiang - Added 6 days ago

Chinese police investigating a spate of attacks this month in western Xinjiang province shot dead six suspects and arrested three others, state media reported. An exile group, meanwhile, accused police Saturday of...

Pakistan's presidential favorite under guard - Added 6 days ago

!!-- pobj:JEM119-0829080927 -->Pakistan's presidential front-runner has moved into a tightly guarded government compound over security fears, officials said as a militant campaign against the government led to more...

English-language newspaper in Puerto Rico closes - Added 6 days ago

The San Juan Star, Puerto Rico's Pulitzer Prize-winning English-language newspaper, closed Friday, the owner said, blaming the union for not agreeing to benefit cuts and layoffs to offset declining revenue. The Star, a...

Dissident Cuban rocker fined $28, freed - Added 6 days ago

A Cuban punk rocker known for his raunchy lyrics criticizing Fidel Castro was convicted of public disorder Friday, but freed after a court dismissed a more serious "social dangerousness" charge that could have sent him...

Gaza Palestinians arrive to Cyprus - Added 6 days ago

International protesters who defied Israel's blockade of Gaza to aid Palestinians sailed into Cyprus' Larnaca port late Friday, pledging to make a return voyage. Some 32 protesters escorted the Palestinians on the...

87 salmonella cases reported across Quebec - Added 6 days ago

A provincial health official says that an unusually high number of people have fallen ill with salmonella food poisoning across Quebec. Horacio Arruda, a director with Quebec's public health department, said Friday...

Aid agencies say they can work again in Zimbabwe - Added 6 days ago

Power-sharing talks over a unity government resumed Friday as President Robert Mugabe's government made good on a promise to allow aid agencies to resume operations in economically shattered Zimbabwe. Oxfam and Save...

Many months needed to deploy Darfur peacekeepers - Added 6 days ago

Deploying all 26,000 members of a peacekeeping force in conflict-wracked Darfur will take many more months because of growing insecurity and logistical difficulties, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report...

Brazil spending $160M on nuclear propelled sub - Added 6 days ago

Brazil will spend US$160 million by the end of next year on the development of a nuclear-propelled submarine to protect the oil reserves found recently off its coast, the defense minister said Friday. The vessel _...

Official: Canada elections to be set for October - Added 6 days ago

Canada's prime minister will likely schedule an election in October to try to shore up his minority government, a senior official in his office said Friday. The official said Stephen Harper is most likely dissolve...

Media says Hezbollah hit helicopter by mistake - Added 6 days ago

!!-- pobj:BEI112-0829081724 -->!!-- pobj:BEI109-0829081736 -->!!-- pobj:BEI106-0829081722 -->Hezbollah on Friday handed over a man suspected of firing on a Lebanese army helicopter a day earlier that killed a navigator,...

US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 512 - Added 6 days ago

As of Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, at least 512 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department....

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,151 - Added 6 days ago

As of Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, at least 4,151 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians...

UK official gets more time in Guantanamo case - Added 6 days ago

A British court on Friday gave Foreign Secretary David Miliband a week to justify his decision to suppress secret documents that lawyers for a Guantanamo detainee argue could prove their client was tortured in Morocco. ...

Polish PM: nothing to fear over base - Added 6 days ago

Poland's prime minister sought to reassure worried residents near the site of a planned U.S. missile defense base on Friday, pledging that they and the country would be more secure, despite threats from an angry Russia....

Georgia to cut diplomatic ties with Moscow - Added 6 days ago

Georgia severed diplomatic ties with Moscow on Friday to protest the presence of Russian troops on its territory. Russia said the move would only make things worse. With European Union leaders set to discuss on Monday...

France: No EU sanctions against Russia imminent - Added 6 days ago

The European Union is not expected to imposed sanctions on Russia at a summit next week but may name a special envoy to Georgia to ensure that a cease-fire there is observed, officials in Paris and Brussels said Friday....

AP IMPACT: Georgians uprooted in South Ossetia - Added 6 days ago

After Georgian soldiers stormed South Ossetia and killed Vitaly Guzitayev's friend, he hid in the woods. Once the Georgians left, he set fire to the elegant brick homes of ethnic Georgians who lived nearby. "Georgians...

Israeli police question Olmert for 7th time - Added 6 days ago

Police questioned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday for a seventh time in connection with one of the multiple corruption probes that have driven him to announce his resignation. Olmert was questioned for 2...

Iran: new strides in uranium enrichment - Added 6 days ago

Iran has increased the number of operating centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant to 4,000, a top official said Friday, pushing ahead with the nuclear program despite threats of new U.N. sanctions. The number was...

Musharraf eyes comfy retirement home - Added 6 days ago

Predictions that Pervez Musharraf will have to flee Pakistan to escape treason charges have died along with the coalition that drove him from the presidency. The ex-general can now eye comfortable _ though...

Iraq's Palestinians still live in fear - Added 6 days ago

Omar Ahmed rarely emerges from his rundown Baghdad housing project. When he does, he leaves behind the Iraqi-issued ID card that marks him as a Palestinian and switches to the Iraqi dialect of Arabic at police...

Karadzic makes defiant stand before UN court - Added 6 days ago

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic made a defiant stand before a U.N. court preparing to try him on genocide charges, refusing to enter pleas Friday and branding the tribunal a NATO proxy out to "liquidate" him. ...

Pakistan's presidential favorite under guard - Added 6 days ago

!!-- pobj:JEM119-0829080927 -->Pakistan's presidential front-runner has moved into a tightly guarded government compound over security fears, officials said Friday as a militant campaign against the government led to...

Europeans: Obama's speech a strong performance - Added 6 days ago

Europeans on Friday greeted Barack Obama's acceptance of the U.S. Democratic nomination as a strong performance that boosted his campaign and went beyond mere show to offer a clearer picture of what he might do as...

Truck crashes into Canadian sushi joint, kills 2 - Added 6 days ago

A pickup truck crashed through the front window of a busy sushi restaurant in Canada, killing two women and injuring six, police said Friday. The blue mid-size truck slammed through the Halu Sushi restaurant in Maple...

Anne Frank museum restores fading photo collage - Added 6 days ago

The Anne Frank House museum said Friday it has restored 52 photographs and images the Jewish teenager pasted on the wall of her room to cheer herself up while hiding from the Nazis. The water-stained collage of...

Spain: airline considered switching planes - Added 6 days ago

The airline involved in last week's plane disaster in Madrid considered switching aircraft at the last minute because of a mechanical problem but ultimately went ahead with the plane that ended up crashing, a government...

Magnitude 5 quake hits Tibet, no damage reported - Added 6 days ago

A magnitude 5 earthquake struck Tibet on Friday near the border with Nepal, close to an area hit earlier in the week by a stronger quake that damaged hundreds of homes. There were no immediate reports of damage or...

US: More than 24 militants killed in Afghanistan - Added 6 days ago

More than 24 militants were killed in two separate battles with U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan, the coalition said Friday. More than a dozen militants were killed after they attacked a coalition base in...

Missing cleric roils Lebanon's Shiites years later - Added 6 days ago

For the rest of the world, the disappearance of the imam Moussa al-Sadr is probably at most a footnote in the checkered history of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. In 1978, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim religious leader flew...

Ancient gold treasure puzzles Greek archaeologists - Added 6 days ago

A priceless gold wreath has been unearthed in an ancient city in northern Greece, buried with human bones in a large copper vase that workers initially took for a land mine. The University of Thessaloniki said in a...

Vietnam denies use of stun gun to break protest - Added 6 days ago

Vietnamese authorities denied Friday that they had used force or stun guns to break up a demonstration by Catholics who are demanding the return of land the Communist government took more than four decades ago. ...

US compensates family of Egyptian killed in Suez - Added 6 days ago

The U.S. Embassy in Egypt has offered monetary compensation to the family of a man shot dead by American naval personnel in the Suez Canal. In the March 24 incident, a security team on a ship contracted to the U.S....

Sri Lanka urges civilians to flee from rebel areas - Added 6 days ago

Sri Lanka urged civilians living in Tamil Tiger rebel-held areas to flee to government-controlled territory as fighting escalated in the embattled north, officials said Friday. Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans have...

Indian doctor cleared in Australian terrorism case - Added 6 days ago

An Indian doctor jailed in Australia last year in a bungled terrorism case has officially been cleared, Australian police said Friday. Police said there was insufficient evidence to institute proceedings against...

Probe reveals oxygen tank burst on Qantas flight - Added 6 days ago

An oxygen tank exploded and blew a car-sized hole in a Qantas jet last month, air safety officials said Friday, but investigators appear to be no closer to figuring out why. The release of the interim report by Julian...

Sydney orchestra faked 2000 Olympics performance - Added 6 days ago

China isn't the only country to fake a musical performance during an Olympic opening ceremony. Turns out Australia knows a thing about miming music, too. Eight years after Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics,...

West faces stark choice over Georgia - Added 6 days ago

Russia's invasion of Georgia presents the West with a difficult choice: Punish Moscow by kicking it out of clubs like the Group of Eight or pursue a strategy of placating it that could invite further bullying in places...

Report: 4,000 centrifuges in Iran nuclear program - Added 6 days ago

Iran's official IRNA news agency says the government now has nearly 4,000 centrifuges operating in its uranium enrichment plant. IRNA also quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Reza Sheikh Attar as saying Iran is...

2 brothers smothered by grain on Canadian farm - Added 1 week ago

Two young brothers died when they were sucked beneath a load of grain that was being unloaded from a trailer western Canada, police said Thursday. The boys, ages 5 and 7, were on top of a trailer carrying grain that...

Tunisian courts convicts 19 Islamic militants - Added 1 week ago

A Tunisian court convicted 19 Islamic militants on charges linked to plots to carry out attacks in the north African country or send fighters to Iraq, a defense lawyer said Thursday. Thirteen suspects were handed...

Ex-generals convicted of killing Argentine senator - Added 1 week ago

An Argentine court convicted two former generals on Thursday for the murder of a senator during the country's seven-year military dictatorship and sentenced them to life in prison. Retired Gens. Antonio Bussi and...

Boats with Palestinians defy Israeli Gaza blockade - Added 1 week ago

Two boatloads of international activists who defied Israel's blockade of Gaza set sail for Cyprus on Thursday, carrying seven Gaza Palestinians who had been confined to the territory. Israel's navy made no effort to...

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,150 - Added 1 week ago

As of Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008, at least 4,150 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians...

Mexican Supreme Court upholds legal abortion - Added 1 week ago

Mexico's Supreme Court upheld the capital's abortion law Thursday, setting a precedent for the rest of the country that could inspire other Latin American cities. Mexico City is one of the few places in Latin America...

Iran, Nigeria to share peaceful nuclear technology - Added 1 week ago

An Iranian trade delegation announced an agreement Thursday for Iran to share peaceful nuclear technology with Nigeria, to help Africa's biggest oil producer bolster its woeful electricity-generation capacity. ...

Russia criticized at UN over S. Ossetia, Abkhazia - Added 1 week ago

Georgia and its backers in the U.N. Security Council on Thursday decried Russia's recognition of two breakaway provinces. Russia responded by accusing its critics of bias and hypocrisy in an emergency meeting that...