Beijing faces defiance in Hong Kong on vote reform
Pro-democracy lawmakers disrupt a Beijing official's speech on tightly limited voting reforms.
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Paris suburb building blast death toll reaches 7
PARIS (AP) — The death toll in the partial collapse of a four-story apartment building has risen to seven in a northeastern Paris suburb after emergency crews pulled the body of an elderly woman from the rubble.
Protesters clash with Pakistan police, storm TV
Antigovernment protesters briefly force the state TV channel off the air as they clashed with police.
Judge temporarily blocks law that could close all Louisiana abortion clinics
The measure, signed into law by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal in June and due to take effect Sept. 1, would require doctors who perform abortions to have patient admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their practice. "Plaintiffs will be allowed to operate lawfully while continuing their efforts to obtain privileges," Federal Judge John deGravelles wrote in the decision. Abortion rights activists applauded the decision, the latest in a string of rulings against similar measures, saying it would give doctors more time to seek hospital privileges. "Today’s ruling ensures Louisiana women are safe from an underhanded law that seeks to strip them of their health and rights," said Nancy Northup, president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which sued to block the law on behalf of three of the state's five clinics.
Florida power utilities fear return of ‘Green Governor' Crist
By David Adams MIAMI (Reuters) - When Charlie Crist last governed Florida, his green energy and climate policies made him few friends among the state's powerful electricity corporations. Florida's three largest utilities have poured money into the re-election campaign of Republican incumbent Governor Rick Scott in an expensive and closely watched political battle for the nation's largest swing state. As Republican governor between 2007 and 2011, Crist "sent shivers through the entire utility system," said Colleen Castille, who headed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection under Governor Jeb Bush. Crist was a darling of clean energy advocates, hosting a climate change summit in 2007 alongside another green Republican, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
All five aboard small plane killed in crash at Colorado airport
By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - All five people aboard a single-engine airplane died after it crashed on Sunday in a field beside a runway during an attempt to land at a northern Colorado airport, authorities said. Peter Knudson, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the Piper PA-46 aircraft went down shortly before noon near the Erie Municipal Airport, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Denver. Knudson said the plane took off from Centennial Airport, south of Denver, with five people aboard, and was landing in clear weather at the Erie airport when it crashed. Emergency crews found three people dead inside the wreckage of the six-seat airplane when they arrived at the scene, said Roger Rademacher, assistant fire chief with Mountain View Fire Rescue.
Kiev: Ukraine soldiers in battle with Russian tanks in Lugansk
Ukrainian forces were forced to retreat from Lugansk airport in the face of a Russian troop attack as Moscow soldiers moved into key eastern cities Monday, Kiev said, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin evoked "statehood" discussions for the conflict-torn east. Putin accused Europe of ignoring the Ukrainian military's "direct targeting" of civilians in the conflict and said the offensive pushed by insurgents there were simply an attempt to expel Kiev's forces from residential areas. He also urged the EU to show "common sense" after its threat to impose more sanctions on Moscow over the months-long crisis that has sank East-West relations to their lowest level since the Cold War. The latest accusations of Russian troops partaking in the fighting that has pitted pro-Moscow rebels against Kiev's troops came as a "contact group" of Russian, Ukrainian and OSCE representatives was due to discuss the conflict during a meeting in Minsk.
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Tony Stewart's return to race track ends early
HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Tony Stewart climbed from his battered car, took a big gulp of water, and surveyed the damage.
Sweden discovers suspected case of Ebola: official
A suspected case of the Ebola virus has been discovered in the Swedish capital Stockholm, a local official told AFP on Sunday. Aake Oertsqvist, a specialist in infection control responsible for the Stockholm area, was quoted as saying the risk of an Ebola outbreak in Sweden was "very low".
ISIL fighters more discreet force
Militants in Iraq are starting to blend in with residents, making them harder to target.
Islamist militia now guards US Embassy in Libya
More than a month after American personnel evacuated from the country over ongoing fighting, an Islamist-allied militia group says it has "secured" a U.S. Embassy compound in Libya's capital.
China slams door on full Hong Kong democracy in 2017 vote
By Michael Martina and James Pomfret BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Pro-democracy activists vowed on Sunday to bring Hong Kong's financial hub to a standstill after China's parliament rejected their demands for the right to freely choose the former British colony's next leader in 2017. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) endorsed a framework to let only two or three candidates run in the 2017 leadership vote. All candidates must first obtain majority backing from a nominating committee likely to be stacked with Beijing loyalists. The relatively tough decision by the NPC - China's final arbiter on the city's democratic affairs - makes it almost impossible for opposition democrats to get on the ballot.
Israel claims West Bank land for possible settlement use, draws U.S. rebuke
By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years, drawing Palestinian condemnation and a U.S. Some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion Jewish settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared "state land, on the instructions of the political echelon" by the military-run Civil Administration. "We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision,” a State Department official said in Washington, calling the move "counterproductive" to efforts to achieve a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teens by Hamas militants in the area in June.
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Officials: Iraqi forces break jihadist siege of Amerli
Iraqi troops, Kurdish fighters and Shiite militiamen backed by US air strikes pressed a fightback against jihadist-led militants Monday, buoyed by breaking the 11-week siege of a Shiite town. The breakthrough to the town of Amerli is the biggest offensive success for the Iraqi government since militants led by the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group overran much of the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in June. It came as the United States carried out limited air strikes in the area, the first time it has expanded its more than three-week air campaign against IS beyond the north, while the United Nations announced that violence in Iraq killed more than 1,400 people in August. Iraqi forces kept up the momentum of their advance on Monday, with Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen retaking Sulaiman Bek, a town north of Amerli that had been an important militant stronghold.
