BEIJING: The new head of China's ruling party sounded a strong anti-corruption warning in his first speech to top politicians, state media said Monday, following a series of stern messages by top officials.Xi Jinping stressed the theme as he and other top leaders take charge for the next decade in the world's most populous country, where public anger has mounted at perceived privileges and abuses of power in the one-party system....
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Nov 18, 2012 (AFP) - Israel on Sunday threatened to expand its assault on Gaza as it pressed ahead with a fifth day of strikes, killing six people including four children as truce efforts intensified.
As France's top diplomat Laurent Fabius arrived in the region to bolster Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire, Palestinian officials said it was possible a deal would be reached "today or tomorrow." ...
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Nov 17, 2012 (AFP) - The air strike begins with a rumble, which grows louder as the people wince, and then bursts into a crash, as though the night sky over Gaza had split open and crumbled.
In the three days since Israel began an aerial campaign against Gaza, air strikes have pounded the territory continuously, but after dark the raids intensify. ...
CAIRO, Nov 17, 2012 (AFP) - At least 40 young children were killed on Saturday when a train collided with their bus in the central Egyptian province of Assiut, the official MENA agency reported. The bus, which was taking 60 children on a trip organised by their nursery, was struck on a railway crossing in Manfalut, 356 kilometres (220 miles) south of Cairo, police said. The children were between four and six years old....
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Nov 16, 2012 (AFP) - New Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Friday night killed six Palestinians, raising the toll in two days of violence to 30, a Hamas health ministry spokesman said.
"The number of martyrs has risen to 30, with another 280 people injured, with the death of Ayman Rafiq Selim from his injuries," spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement late Friday. ...
KUALA LUMPUR -- About 1,000 people staged a peaceful demonstration today in front of the United States' embassy in Jalan Tun Razak here to protest Israel's recent military attacks on Muslims and civilians in Gaza. They comprised members of three non-governmental organisations, Pertubuhan IKRAM Malaysia (IKRAM), Pertubuhan Himpunan Lepasan Institusi Pendidikan Malaysia (Haluan Malaysia) and Aqsa Syarif, and several members of the public. ...
JERUSALEM - The Israeli army started calling up 16,000 reservists on Friday, as officials said the Jewish state was preparing for a possible ground offensive into the Gaza Strip. "They're distributing emergency call-up notices now, the process has started," an army spokeswoman told AFP. "As part of Operation Pillar of Defence, the IDF (army) will...
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Nov 16, 2012 (AFP) - Israeli war planes carried out multiple new air strikes on the Gaza Strip, including several hits on Gaza City on Friday morning, AFP reporters and Hamas security sources said.
"There have been 130 strikes overnight until now," Hamas interior ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan said, citing "tens of strikes" across Gaza on Friday morning, as AFP correspondents in Gaza City reported multiple raids. ...
MOSCOW, Nov 16, 2012 (AFP) - Russia's state English language channel Russia Today (RT) scored one of its biggest scoops by interviewing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but its coverage of the crisis has come under increasing scrutiny over alleged pro-regime bias.
Assad dramatically used the exclusive interview with the Kremlin-funded channel to pledge "to live and die" in Syria, days...
LONDON: British voters headed to the polls Thursday to vote for the country's first elected police and crime commissioners, who will set budgets and priorities and have the power to sack their chief constables.The changes represent the biggest shake-up in British policing for 50 years, but turnout is set to be poor, the Electoral Reform Society predicting just 18.5 per cent of voters will cast their ballots, the lowest level in British history....
