U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is in Afghanistan to check on the progress of U.S.-led counterinsurgency efforts, which he says reached a “turning point” this year after a decade of fighting the Taliban. Panetta arrived in Kabul Tuesday for meetings with U.S. military commanders and Afghan officials. On the flight to the Afghan capital, he […]
Panetta in Afghanistan, Calls 2011 a ‘Turning Point’ in US-Led War
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 4:55 pm (UTC-5)
Leave a comment
4 Killed, 123 Wounded in Attack in Belgium
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 4:35 pm (UTC-5)
Four people have been killed and 123 others wounded in an attack carried out by a gunman in the eastern Belgian city of Liege. Belgian officials say the gunman lobbed hand grenades and fired a rifle at a bus stop in Saint Lambert Square, a busy shopping area in Liege. Authorities identified the attacker as […]
Fed: US Economy Grows “Moderately”
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 4:10 pm (UTC-5)
Officials of the U.S. central bank say the economy has grown “moderately,” and they kept the key interest rate steady at ultra-low levels, a range of zero to 0.25 percent, where it has been for about three years. Tuesday’s report from the Federal Reserve also said global growth is slowing, prehaps a reference to Europe’s […]
Iraqi PM Urges US Firms to Help Rebuild Country
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 3:35 pm (UTC-5)
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has extended an open invitation to U.S. companies to help rebuild his country. Mr. Maliki told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday that it was not the “generals” who were playing a leading role in Baghdad’s future, but instead corporations and business leaders. He also said Iraqi officials were […]
Italian Gunman Kills 2, Wounds 3 in Apparent Hate Crime
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 3:25 pm (UTC-5)
Italian authorities say a writer with extreme right-wing political views has shot and killed two Senegalese street vendors and wounded three other Africans in a pair of shootings in Florence. Officials say 50-year-old Gianluca Casseri opened fire with a large pistol at Piazza Dalmazia Tuesday, killing two men and seriously wounding a third. He later […]
4 Killed in Attack in Belgium
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 2:50 pm (UTC-5)
Four people have been killed and some 75 others wounded in an attack carried out by a gunman in the eastern Belgian city of Liege. Belgian officials say the gunman lobbed hand grenades and fired from a rifle at a bus stop in Saint Lambert Square, a busy shopping area in Liege. Authorities identified the […]
US Defense Chief Says Djibouti is Key Counterterror Ally
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 2:35 pm (UTC-5)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says the nation of Djibouti, in east Africa, has become a key partner in the fights against terrorism and piracy. Panetta made a brief visit Tuesday to Djibouti, where he met with President Ismail Omar Guelleh and thanked him for his support. Speaking to reporters aboard the flight to […]
Syrian Defectors Kill 7 Security Force Members in Revenge Attack
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 2:35 pm (UTC-5)
Rights activists say Syrian army defectors killed seven government security force members while ambushing a patrol following an army raid that cost 11 civilian lives earlier Tuesday. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says both incidents took place in Idlib province, a restive area that borders Turkey. The observatory and other groups report that […]
US Congress Moves Forward With Massive Defense Bill
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 2:05 pm (UTC-5)
The U.S. Congress is moving forward with a massive defense bill with a controversial provision on the military detention of certain terror suspects. Lawmakers say they made revisions to the detainee provision in an effort to avoid a threatened presidential veto. The $662 billion bill authorizes funding for the Defense Department and the national security […]
Physicists May Have Detected Elusive Higgs Boson Particle
Posted December 13th, 2011 at 1:55 pm (UTC-5)
Physics researchers in Switzerland say they may have glimpsed the elusive sub-atomic Higgs boson particle, which many scientists believe is one of the fundamental building blocks of the universe. But they stopped short of claiming a discovery, saying experiments at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva have yielded “exciting,” but inconclusive, evidence the particle exists. […]
