Haiti protesters rampage against election results
By Joseph Guyler Delva
Reuters
PORT-AU-PRINCE | Wed Dec 8, 2010 6:43pm EST
Thousands of protesters rampaged through Haiti's capital and other cities on Wednesday, hurling stones and wrecking property in a wave of unrest against election results they say were rigged by the ruling government coalition.
Mullen rebukes China for failing to curb North Korea
By Barbara Demick Los Angeles Times
December 8, 2010, 5:58 a.m.
Reporting from Seoul and Beijing —
The most senior U.S. military official delivered a sharp rebuke to China on Wednesday, blaming Asia's top power for failing to rein in its North Korean ally in the escalating dispute over the fate of the Korean peninsula.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, blasted China for refusing to condemn North Korea over the Nov. 23 artillery barrage that killed four people on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.
Prison fire kills scores in Chile
Aljazeera English
Last Modified: 08 Dec 2010 22:08 GMT
A fire at a prison in southeast of the Chilean capital, Santiago de Chile, has killed at least 81 people.
Some reports suggested the fire was deliberately started on Wednesday, during a fight between inmates in one of the crowded San Miguel prison's five towers.
Al Jazeera's Pablo Fernandez, reporting from Santiago, said relatives of the prisoners denied that claim, saying instead that the fire started after an electric fault.
Panama Canal shut by heavy rains
BBC
8 December 2010 Last updated at 17:58 ET
Traffic through the Panama Canal - which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans - has been temporarily suspended because of heavy rain.
The canal authority said the rains had pushed water levels in lakes that form part of the canal to historic highs, potentially endangering shipping.
It is the first time the canal has had to close since the US invasion of Panama in 1989.
Wikileaks: US monitors 'aggressive' China in Africa
BBC
8 December 2010 Last updated at 21:48 ET
The US is closely monitoring China's expanding role in Africa, the latest secret US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveal.
A cable from February quotes a senior US official in the Nigerian capital, Lagos, describing China as "aggressive and pernicious".
WikiLeaks cables: Shell's grip on Nigerian state revealed
David Smith in Lagos
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 December 2010 21.34 GMT
The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.
The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries".
Pinochet officials tried in absentia in France
BBC
8 December 2010 Last updated at 08:17 ET
Fourteen officials who served under the military rule of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile are being tried in absentia in a French court.
The charges, which include kidnapping and torture, relate to the disappearance of four French citizens soon after Gen Pinochet came to power.
Eiffel Tower shut and roads blocked by Paris snowfall
BBC
8 December 2010 Last updated at 13:00 ET
Heavy snow in Paris brought buses to a halt on Wednesday, suspended flights at Charles de Gaulle airport and prompted the closure of the Eiffel Tower.
Motorways in the Paris region were described as impassable as snow that had already hit other areas of France spread to the capital.
US fails in settlements freeze bid
Aljazeera English
Last Modified: 08 Dec 2010 09:44 GMT
The United States has suspended its demand for Israel to renew a freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, throwing Palestinian-Israeli peace talks into deeper disarray.
The White House and the state department disclosed on Tuesday that weeks of efforts to broker a new settlement freeze and resuscitate the peace talks had gone nowhere.
UNHCR fear for Eritrea migrants 'held hostage' in Egypt
By Jon Leyne BBC News, Cairo
The UN refugee agency has expressed concern over 250 African migrants, said to be held hostage by people-smugglers in Egypt.
Some hostages have reportedly been locked up in shipping containers for up to six months in the Sinai Desert, after failing to pay ransoms.
The group - many from Eritrea - were said to have been abducted while trying to cross illegally into Israel. |
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