KARACHI – An overnight battle with militants at Pakistan’s naval aviation base erupted again after dawn on Monday, with blasts ringing out and choppers hovering overhead as security forces launched a counter-offensive.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the brazen attack on the base by 15-20 gunmen, saying it was to avenge the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2.
The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea have agreed to boost trade in Asia by speeding up discussions on a possible free trade deal.
They agreed to complete joint studies on a trilateral pact this year, which is a year earlier than expected. The studies would pave the way for free-trade negotiations, which are expected to be contentious.
The three Asian countries jointly account for roughly a fifth of the world's trade....
By David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times, May 22/23, 2011
CAIRO — A Cairo court sentenced a rank-and-file police officer to death after trying him in absentia for the killings of unarmed protesters during the Egyptian revolution, the harshest sentence given to date as the military-led interim government grapples with calls for retribution against members of the former government.
The man in front of me clasping a new satellite telephone tells me he has an urgent message. He's just received a call from his hometown warning him Moammar Gadhafi's forces are on the verge of overrunning it and he's desperate for NATO to do something about it. Mohammed, as he wants to be known, is a middle-aged, middle-class professional.
By Lizzie Davies in Paris, The Observer @ Guardian.co.uk, May 22, 2011
When the former head of the IMF was taken into custody, many in the French elite saw him as a victim – until an outraged feminist movement began to speak out against what it saw as years of pernicious and ingrained sexism in French life.
CAIRO -- Saudi Arabia has pledged to provide Egypt with four billion U.S. dollars to support its economic recovery, the ruling Supermen Council of Armed Forces said on Saturday.
Chief of the military council Hussein Tantawi expressed Egypt's appreciation for Saudi Arabia's support, saying the four-billion- dollar aid will be in the forms of soft loans and credit lines, the official news agency MENA reported. "This step will deepen the historical relations and cooperation between the two countries," Tantawi said.
By Ray Rivera and Sharifullah Sahak, New York Times, May 21/22, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — A powerful midday blast on the grounds of the heavily guarded national military hospital here killed at least 6 people and injured more than 20 others, government officials said. Gen. Zahir Azimi, a Defense Ministry spokesman, described the six people who were killed as medical students, but a doctor at the hospital said they were Afghan soldiers training to be medics.
Iran's constitutional watchdog has deemed illegal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to take over the role of oil minister, after Iran's president removed the previous minister along with two others earlier in the week.
Iran's president was said to have assumed the role earlier this week as part of a government shakeup that reduced the number of ministries from 21 to 17. The move put him in direct control of the government unit responsible for the extraction and export of the world's fifth largest oil and gas reserves.....
By Asso Ahmed in Kirkuk and Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2011
BAGHDAD—A double bombing killed at least 27 people, almost all of them police, and wounded an additional 70 in a parking lot outside the main police offices the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, according to security officials.
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, May 18/19, 2011
The Afghan government has moved so slowly to recruit Taliban defectors that U.S. and Afghan officials say they are losing an opportunity to capitalize on hard-won military gains and the death of Osama bin Laden.
Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, making it more likely that the surge in April was caused by temporary events rather than a deterioration in the labor market.....
