Wednesday 22 February 2012
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French police detained former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn for questioning over allegations he took part in orgies in Paris and Washington with prostitutes paid for by businessmen. The 62-year-old former Socialist minister, who until last year was the frontrunner to replace Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France, yesterday had been summoned as a witness,...
At least five Afghans were shot dead and dozens wounded today in clashes between police and demonstrators protesting over the burning of the Quran at a US-run military base, officials said. In the capital Kabul and in provinces to the east, north and south of the capital, furious Afghans took to the streets screaming...
The UN today termed the burning of the Quran and other religious materials in Afghanistan by US-led international forces a “sad mistake” and expressed confidence that those behind the incident would be held accountable. Protests had erupted in Afghanistan over reports that the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops had burned copies of...
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today insisted his country was not seeking an atomic weapon, following an unsuccessful visit to Tehran by UN nuclear watchdog officials. “We are not after an atomic weapon. We want to break the supremacy (of the world powers) that relies on nuclear weapons. God willing, the nation will...
Russia today said it could not rule out that the United States would use the US Manas air base in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan for an eventual strike on Iran over its contested nuclear programme. “It cannot be excluded that this site could be used in a potential conflict with Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich...
Pointing out that emerging powers like India and China were putting economy at the spearhead of their foreign policy, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked American diplomats to don the mantle of a company CEO to push for “job diplomacy”. Saying that such an outlook was a must as Washington looked to...
MONTERREY: An inmate riot that may have been staged to cover a breakout killed 44 prisoners Sunday, and the jail’s director and all guards on duty at the time have been detained, a security official said. Nuevo Leon state public security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said the riot broke out at about 2...
Berlin: Germany’s president resigned on Friday in a scandal over favors he allegedly received before becoming head of state, and Chancellor Angela Merkel moved quickly to try and head off a domestic political crisis as she grapples with Europe’s debt troubles. Christian Wulff, who was Merkel’s candidate for the presidency when elected less than...
Tripoli, Libya: One militia controls the airport. Others carve up neighbourhoods of the Libyan capital into fiefdoms. They clash in the streets, terrifying residents. They hold detainees in makeshift prisons where torture is said to be rampant. As Libya on Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the uprising against Moammar Gaddafi,...
Beirut: Syrian security forces opened fire on Saturday on a huge crowd gathered for the funerals of demonstrators killed in rare protests in the capital, an activist spokesman in Damascus province told AFP. “The forces of (President Bashar) al-Assad are shooting on those taking part in the funerals and firing tear gas to disperse...
American attempts to get major Asian importers of Iranian oil to rein in their purchases are faltering as allies South Korea and Japan give U.S. officials a polite brushoff. Emerging giants India and China may even increase their purchases, further complicating Washington’s efforts to force Iran to curtail its nuclear program. In 2011, Japan,...
US President Barack Obama’s approval ratings have improved and touched 50 per cent amidst people’s growing optimism over the state of economy, according to a latest opinion poll. Showing steady improvement since early December, Obama’s approval ratings have reached the 50 per cent mark thus gave him a much brighter chance of winning the...
Former president Pervez Musharraf knew that Osama bin Laden was hiding in the garrison town of Abbottabad and the Pakistani intelligence itself had made the safe house that sheltered him, a former ISI chief has alleged, according to a media report. Former CIA official Bruce Riedel quoted ex-ISI chief Gen (retired) Ziauddin Khwaja alias...
Chicago: A feud which started on Facebook ended with the early-morning slaying of a young Tennessee couple, found shot in the head with their sobbing baby still clutched in her dead mother’s arms, police said. Easy to anger, Janell Potter had been making trouble in the tiny town of Mountain City for years now,...
Syria: Two suicide car bombers struck security compounds in Aleppo on Friday, killing 28 people, Syrian officials said, bringing significant violence for the first time to an industrial center that has largely stood by President Bashar Assad during the 11-month uprising against his rule. Anti-Assad activists have denied any involvement and accused the regime...