Politics News

U.N. Security Council condemns Syria over massacre

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 22:09:10 +0000

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council on Sunday unanimously condemned the Syrian government for heavy-weapons attacks on the town of Houla, the site of a massacre of at least 108 people, including many children, the council president said. …

Fresh from defeat, Serbia’s Tadic poised for PM

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 21:35:21 +0000

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s Boris Tadic, fresh from defeat in a presidential election a week ago, put himself forward on Sunday as his party’s candidate for the more powerful post of prime minister at the helm of a renewed centre-left coalition. After eight years as president, Tadic lost his bid for re-election to rightist opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic, a former leader of the ultranationalist Radical Party who says he now shares the goal of taking Serbia into the European Union. …

Labor board member accused of leaks resigns

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 21:28:00 +0000

A member of the National Labor Relations Board accused of leaking inside information has resigned.

Spain may recapitalize Bankia with government debt: source

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 21:21:38 +0000

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain may recapitalize Bankia with Spanish government bonds in return for shares in the bank which last week asked for rescue funding of 19 billion euros ($24 billion), a government source said on Sunday. Bankia could use the sovereign paper as collateral to get cash from the European Central Bank, forcing the ECB to get involved with restructuring Spain's banking sector, laid low by lending to property developers in a boom that ended in 2008. …

Father of prisoner of war speaks at annual rally

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 21:19:20 +0000

The father of a U.S. soldier who was taken prisoner in Afghanistan thanked the motorcycle riders of Rolling Thunder on Sunday for raising awareness of missing-in-action troops and prisoners of war.

U.N. confirmed use of heavy artillery, tank shells in Houla

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 21:08:06 +0000

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. observers in Syria have confirmed that artillery and tank shells were fired at a residential area of Houla, Syria, where at least 108 people, including many children, were killed, the U.N. chief said on Sunday in a letter to the Security Council. The letter from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which was obtained by Reuters, said the observers “viewed the bodies of the dead and confirmed from an examination of ordnance that artillery and tank shells were fired at a residential neighborhood. …

Shelling on Syria opposition center kills 30: activists

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:08:23 +0000

AMMAN (Reuters) – At least thirty people were killed on Sunday when Syrian army tanks shelled residential neighborhoods in the city of Hama that have been serving as bases for rebel attacks against loyalist forces, opposition activists said. The reports could not be verified independently. Opposition sources said the shelling began in the morning on areas near the northern entrance of Hama, after a series of rebel attacks on army roadblocks in the city, and resumed in the evening on the southern al-Malaab district. …

Nepal faces fresh turmoil after charter deadline missed

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:43:22 +0000

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal's warring political parties failed to meet a midnight deadline to agree on a new constitution on Sunday, plunging the Himalayan republic into further uncertainty, but the government moved quickly to defuse the crisis with a call for elections. A new constitution was widely seen as crucial to ending the instability that has plagued Nepal since the end of a Maoist-led civil war in 2006 and subsequent overthrow of the monarchy, but it has been thwarted by demands for the country to be divided into states along ethnic lines. …

Wounded Warriors Train Service Dogs For Fellow Veterans – Our Political Punch Digital Show

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:33:33 +0000

Embed – http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/warrior-canines-homefront-213428188.html -Jake Tapper

Syria opposition criticizes U.N. on Houla massacre

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:12:04 +0000

AMMAN (Reuters) – Opposition activists in Syria on Sunday criticized U.N. observers for failing to take action to prevent the massacre of at least 109 people in the town of Houla. They also criticized the U.N mission for not condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s forces for the killings on Friday. Syrian authorities have denied responsibility, blaming “terrorists” for the massacre. “The observers’ delegation remained helpless and did not take an initiative to intervene, except to count the victims the day after the massacre just as the U.N. …

U.N. finds at least 116 dead in Syria massacre: diplomat

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:55:30 +0000

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The head of the U.N. monitoring mission in Syria told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Sunday that at least 116 people were killed and 300 injured in a massacre in the town of Houla, a diplomat told Reuters. General Robert Mood, head of the U.N. observer mission in Syria, was speaking at the closed-door meeting via video link from Damascus. (Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

No strict sharia in Mali’s independent north: MNLA rebels

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:45:09 +0000

DAKAR (Reuters) – Malian rebels who declared an independent Islamic state in the country’s north said on Sunday they would impose sharia but not in a strict form. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which has fought to make Mali’s northern Azawad region an autonomous state, on Saturday signed an agreement to merge with Islamist Ansar Dine rebels seeking to impose sharia across Mali. A mix of rebels have occupied the northern two-thirds of Mali since a March 22 coup led to a collapse of army resistance. …

Moscow police arrest dozens at Occupy-style rally

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:32:58 +0000

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Police detained dozens of opposition protesters on Sunday at an Occupy-style rally against President Vladimir Putin in central Moscow. Activists gathered near Red Square in front of the Kremlin and walked toward the popular Arbat pedestrian district, but were detained upon reaching the sit-in protest which began earlier this month. Witnesses said riot police treated protesters who resisted roughly. “One man in his 50s was grabbed and carried away by his arms and legs. …

Syria massacre deserves condemnation: Russian diplomat

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:58:33 +0000

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The massacre of civilians in the Syrian town of Houla is a tragic event that “deserves condemnation”, a senior Russian diplomat said on Sunday, but he added that it was necessary to understand what had happened and said Moscow would await “objective evaluations” from the U.N. mission there. “The tragic events in Syria and the deaths of tens of people deserve condemnation. However it is necessary to seriously examine the causes of what happened,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Twitter. (Reporting By Thomas Grove)

Hezbollah “deplores” Houla massacre in Syria

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:55:48 +0000

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Shi’ite guerrilla group Hezbollah, President Bashar al-Assad’s main Lebanese ally, said on Sunday it deplored the Houla massacre in neighboring Syria. Without assigning a blame for the killings of at least 109 civilians in Houla in central Syria, a statement by Hezbollah said it “strongly condemns the massacre and deplores those who carried it out”. …

Sunday Sound: Heard on ‘This Week’

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:37:02 +0000

Below are some of the notable comments made Sunday on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Sunday Sound: Heard on This Week Leon Panetta, U.S. Secretary of Defense Panetta on Being Secretary of Defense PANETTA: Well, you don’t get a hell of a lot of…

McCain: Don’t count on Russia to force out Assad

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:26:34 +0000

Sen. John McCain says the U.S. shouldn't count on Russia to force out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (bah-SHAR' AH'-sahd), and he blames President Barack Obama for a "feckless foreign policy" that hasn't contained the bloodshed.

White House: Houla killings a “vile testament” to Syria regime

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:19:33 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Sunday it was horrified by the credible reports of brutal attacks on women and children in Houla, Syria, calling the acts further evidence of an inhuman and illegitimate Syrian government. “These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality,” a White House spokesman said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Philip Barbara)

NATO has fight on its hands in Afghanistan: Panetta

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:17:25 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NATO forces still have a fight on their hands in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has displayed resilience although its fighters have not regained territory they lost during the decade-long war, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday. Panetta said plans for foreign troops to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces starting in mid-2013 were on track and necessary to ensure that the Taliban, which governed Afghanistan before the U.S.-led invasion, is kept at bay. U.S. President Barack Obama, who ordered a surge of U.S. …

U.N. Security Council to meet Sunday on Syria massacre

admin — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:07:10 +0000

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council will meet on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET (1830 GMT) to discuss the recent massacre in the Syrian town of Houla, which the United Nations has blamed on the Syrian government but Damascus says was due to a rebel attack, a council diplomat said. At least 109 people, including many children, were killed in the Houla attack. The council meeting was called after Russia rejected a French and British proposal for a statement condemning the massacre, diplomats said on condition of anonymity. …