Montenegro Police Nab Pink Panthers Suspect

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 5:10 pm (UTC-5)
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Montenegrin police have arrested an alleged member of the Pink Panthers gang of international jewel thieves.

Police identified the suspect Monday as Igor Jocic, a Serbian citizen.

They arrested him as he tried to cross the border into Montenegro.

The international police force, Interpol, says the Pink Panthers have robbed stores of more than $360 million in jewels since 2000. Police say the gang is largely made up of thieves from the Balkans.

The Pink Panthers was named for the 1963 comedy movie about a jewel heist.

Lady Gaga’s New Album Banned in Lebanon

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 5:00 pm (UTC-5)
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Lebanon has impounded shipments of pop singer Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way on grounds that it is offensive to Christianity.

Officials cite what they call the album's “bad taste” as a reason for the ban. Lady Gaga is known for her provocative lyrics, and she draws on religious and sexual themes in her new album.

The country had already banned a song on the album entitled “Judas” earlier this year. The song is named for the disciple in Christianity who betrayed Jesus, whom Christians believe is the Son of God.

Lebanese law leans on the side of banning inflammatory things in an effort to keep the country's fragile mix of several religious sects happy.

The album's title track has already caused an uproar in Malaysia for “promoting sexuality.” It was allowed to play on the radio only after a line in the song referring to different sexual orientations was removed.

Burkinabe Soldiers Face Prosecution After Mutiny

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 4:55 pm (UTC-5)
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At least 57 Burkinabe soldiers have been arrested for their alleged involvement in a mutiny last week at a military camp outside Burkina Faso's commercial capital.

Military authorities say seven people were killed and 33 injured on Friday when government troops violently squashed the mutiny. Disgruntled soldiers demanding higher wages had looted the area near Bobo Dioulasso.

Justice Minister Jerome Traore says those arrested will be questioned about their involvement in various offences, including theft and acts of violence against individuals. Authorities are continuing to search for other soldiers involved in the mutiny.

The military intervention is the first since unrest broke out three months ago in barracks nationwide following protests against the government of longtime Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.

Libyan Rebels Retake Western Mountain Town

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 4:50 pm (UTC-5)
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Libyan rebels say they have seized the western mountain town of Yafran from forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi after NATO airstrikes last week destroyed key government military targets, enabling opposition forces to advance.

Ethnic Berber fighters, who have joined the anti-government rebellion, retook Yafran, about 100 kilometers southwest of Tripoli, on Monday. Pro-Gadhafi forces had attacked the western mountain region after local Berbers rose up against government troops at the beginning of the uprising.

Media reports say government forces have left the town and that rebel flags could be seen along with defaced images of Mr. Gadhafi. Last Thursday, British warplanes destroyed two government tanks and two armored personnel carriers in Yafran.

Meanwhile, NATO planes kept up pressure on the Libyan leader, targeting sites around Tripoli on Monday.

In the rebel-held east, Libyan forces fired rockets into the front-line town of Ajdabiya. The Associated Press reported that after the strike, opposition fighters pursued government forces west to Brega, where two rebels were killed by loyalist shelling.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he would use the occasion of a defense ministers meeting Wednesday to repeat calls for the alliance to step up involvement in the Libya operation.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters in London Sunday that the campaign against pro-Gadhafi forces is intensifying. But he rejected suggestions that it has strayed from the U.N. mandate to protect civilians.

Hague defended the use of British and French attack helicopters, which were employed for the first time on Saturday. But Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov warned that use of the helicopters puts NATO “one step” closer to a ground operation.

Russia abstained when the U.N. Security Council voted in March to establish a no-fly zone over Libya. It has repeatedly called for a negotiated solution to the conflict.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a special envoy to Benghazi, where he plans to meet Tuesday with members of the rebel Transitional National Council.

Calls Increase for Yemen’s President to Resign

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 4:40 pm (UTC-5)
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Calls are increasing for Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to accept a peace deal put forward by the Gulf Cooperation Council that would end his 33 years in power.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington Monday that an “immediate transition is in the best interest of the Yemeni people.” Clinton noted that Mr. Saleh is currently out of the country, receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for wounds suffered during Friday's rocket attack on his compound.

The Saudi government is also urging acceptance of the Gulf peace accord. And the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said Mr. Saleh should act “in the best interests of his people” and enable the country to “move on.”

Ashton noted that the Yemeni president had offered to sign the accord three times in recent weeks.

Yemen's acting leader, Vice President Abd al-Rab Mansur Hadi, was quoted as saying Mr Saleh is “making a strong recovery” and will return to the country within days. But there have been suggestions the Saudi government may block his return.

Clashes have diminished in Mr. Saleh's absence, although opposition tribesmen say government snipers in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, have killed at least three supporters of tribal leader Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar.

Monday's shootings came a day after the vice president ordered government forces to vacate opposition-controlled areas of the capital, while al-Ahmar began to evacuate his militia from government buildings and called for an end to the fighting.

Nearly 400 people have been killed since the popular uprising against Mr. Saleh began in January.

US Stocks Close Lower

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 4:35 pm (UTC-5)
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U.S. stock market were lower at closing Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped half of one percent to 12,090.

The S&P 500 fell one percent to 1,286.

The Nasdaq Composite Index also lost one percent to close at 2,703.

European stock markets were mixed at the close of trading. London's Financial Times 100 index rose one-tenth of a percent to finish at 5,863. The CAC-40 index in Paris moved down seven tenths of a percent to end at 3,863 and the DAX index in Frankfurt dropped three tenths of one percent to 7,085.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index fell 1.2 percent to close at 9,380. Hong Kong markets were closed for a holiday.

Gold settled at $1,546.50 per ounce, up $4.80 from Friday.

The dollar was lower against the yen but gained value compared to the euro.

EU Exhumes 9 Bodies in Kosovo

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 4:30 pm (UTC-5)
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European Union forensic experts in Kosovo have exhumed nine bodies believed to be victims of the Kosovo war in the late 1990s.

The EU mission in Kosovo said Monday the experts dug up the remains from a Muslim cemetery north of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, and the team is still looking for the bodies of two other missing people.

EULEX says the exhumation is giving valuable training to Kosovo's local team, which will eventually take over the search for missing persons and forensic science duties.

About 1,800 people are still listed as missing from the fighting between ethnic-Albanians and Serbian forces in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.

NATO airstrikes ended the war, paving the way for Kosovo's independence from Serbia in 2008 — a move Serbia refuses to recognize.

US Official to Discuss Plight of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 4:20 pm (UTC-5)
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The U.S. State Department says Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric P. Schwartz will travel to Dhaka Tuesday to discuss the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the region.

During his visit, Schwartz is scheduled to meet with government officials and international and non-governmental organizations for talks on humanitarian protection and assistance issues for the registered and undocumented Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

The State Department says Washington is deeply concerned about Rohingya plight and is working with the regional governments to reach a comprehensive solution to the situation.

More than 29,000 registered Rohingya refugees live in two official camps in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district. In addition, about the same number of undocumented Rohingya reside in two unofficial sites near the camps. Bangladeshi officials estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 undocumented Rohingya reside in villages and towns outside the refugee camps.

Rohingyas are a Muslim minority with historical roots in Burma. However, that nation stripped them of citizenship in 1982, and Rohingyas say they are systematically and violently oppressed by Burmese security forces.

More than 200,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh, where some have spent decades in camps while being denied both immigration rights and formal refugee status.

Crude Oil Prices Fall

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 4:15 pm (UTC-5)
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Here are the prices of some key commodities traded in New York on Monday:

Crude oil prices fell $1.21 to $99.01 per barrel.

Coffee prices dropped more than 10 cents to $2.61 per pound.

Cocoa futures fell $15 to $2,863 per ton.

Copper prices rose nearly one cent to $4.14 per pound.

In Chicago trading, wheat prices fell 30 cents to $7.44 per bushel.

Rice prices climbed 2 percent to $14.75 per hundredweight.

Peru’s Humala Softens Image to Win Presidential Election

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 3:30 pm (UTC-5)
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Peru's Ollanta Humala is a leftist former army officer who launched a failed military coup in 2000 against then-President Alberto Fujimori, the father of Mr. Humala's opponent, Keiko Fujimori.

Mr. Humala's victory in Peru's presidential runoff election Sunday comes five years after he narrowly lost the presidential race to Alan Garcia, who leaves office July 28.

Back in 2006, Mr. Humala was seen as a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who publicly endorsed him for president of Peru at that time. Some reports alleged the Venezuelan government helped finance that campaign. Mr. Humala has since distanced himself from Mr. Chavez.

In 2006, Mr. Humala opposed a free trade agreement with the United States and pledged to limit foreign investment in Peru. Mr. Humala, who is 48, has since moderated his political discourse and reports say he has pledged to follow Brazil's market-friendly model.

Mr. Humala has promised to give poor Peruvians a greater share of the Andean nation's considerable mineral wealth and honor the free market.

Mr. Humala's brother, Antauro, is in prison for a 2005 rebellion against the government of then-President Alejandro Toledo. The rebellion left four police officers dead. Ollanta Humala has been accused of human rights abuses which have never been proven.

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