BRASILIA: Dozens of former party and government officials go on trial here Thursday in Brazil's biggest corruption scandal, which could tarnish the ruling Workers' Party (PT) and its popular ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The 38 defendants set to appear before the Supreme Court in what the press here has billed the trial of the century are ex-ministers, lawmakers, businessmen and bankers linked to an alleged vote-buying scheme in Congress between 2002 and 2005....
WASHINGTON: The United States warned the world was sliding backwards on religious freedoms Monday, criticising violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt and citing European laws banning Muslim veils.
As the State Department unveiled its first full report on religious freedoms since the start of the Arab Spring, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was a signal to the worst offenders that the world was watching....
JAKARTA: Indonesian police said Monday they had arrested 62 people, most of them minors, involved in attacking a bar in south Jakarta for serving alcohol during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
A group of 150 youths -- some as young as 13 and carrying swords and golf clubs -- raided the De Most bar late Saturday, smashing bottles of alcoholic drinks and damaging the property, said Hermawan, chief detective for South Jakarta police....
MANILA: Hired assassins are stalking witnesses to a Philippine massacre in which a political warlord allegedly led the slaughter of 57 people, victims' relatives and a rights group said almost two years into a complex trial.
Three witnesses and three relatives of others who planned to testify have been killed in what locals regard as chilling messages for anyone speaking out against the politician and other clan members on trial for the massacre....
ALEPPO: Rebel forces were bracing Friday for a decisive mother of all battles here, as Washington warned the Syrian army could be preparing to carry out a massacre in the country's second city.
The Syrian army has been sending waves of reinforcements towards the northern city, and a security source told AFP the offensive feared by the rebels could come as early as Friday....
MADRID: Spain sees the diversity of regions such as Andalucia and Catalonia as a badge of its democracy, but these semi-autonomous lands now look like a financial liability for the whole eurozone, analysts say.
With Spanish banks now set for a bail out by the eurozone, concern has switched to the big-spending regional governments, with two of the biggest and most indebted, Valencia and Catalonia, eyeing national rescue funds....
BAB AL-HAWA: In restive northwest Syria, the uprising has found an unlikely new partner in the struggle against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad: foreign Islamists who are joining the fight.But rather than adopt the revolt's calls for democracy and the fall of a dictatorial regime, such jihadists believe the minority Alawite sect -- an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad's family belongs -- are apostates and need to be fought and overthrown....
SYDNEY: The number of boat-people coming to Australia surged past the previous annual record in the first seven months of the year despite scores of deaths at sea, the government said Wednesday.
The Department of Immigration said 92 boats carrying 6,557 asylum-seekers, excluding crew, had landed in Australian waters in 2012.
The previous record was 6,555 reached over the 2010 calendar year....
STRASBOURG: Muslims living in Europe regularly face violence and prejudice and are the subject of several discriminatory European laws that bolster their social exclusion, a top human rights official said Tuesday. Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, called on governments to do more to combat anti-Muslim discrimination and said lawmakers should stop targeting the religious group through legislation or policy....
BEIRUT: The Syrian opposition would be willing to accept a transition led temporarily by a member of the regime if President Bashar al-Assad steps aside, the Syrian National Council said on Tuesday.
"We would agree to the departure of Assad and the transfer of his powers to a regime figure, who would lead a transitional period like what happened in Yemen," SNC spokesman George Sabra told AFP....
