U.S. officials pull Pakistani politician off plane

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said he was pulled off a flight to New York by U.S. agents on Friday and interrogated about his views on drone strikes. Khan has been a vociferous opponent of killings by the unmanned U.S. aircraft in Pakistan and has promised to instruct the Pakistani air force to shoot them down if he wins next year's elections. "I was taken off from plane and interrogated by U.S. Immigration in Canada on my views on drones. My stance is known. Drone attacks must stop," he wrote on Twitter. U.S. authorities say they cannot give detailed comments on individual immigration cases due to...

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Little Festivity As Syria's Holiday Cease-fire Fails

Enlarge Manu Brabo/AP Displaced Syrian children run after a truck loaded with presents for Eid Al-Adha in a refugee camp near Atma, Idlib province, Syria, on Friday. A powerful car bomb exploded in Damascus on Friday and scattered fighting broke out in several areas across Syria, quickly dashing any hopes that a shaky holiday ceasefire would hold for four days. Manu Brabo/AP Displaced Syrian children run after a truck loaded with presents for Eid Al-Adha in a refugee camp near Atma, Idlib province, Syria, on Friday. A powerful car bomb exploded in Damascus on Friday and scattered fighting broke out in several areas across Syria, quickly...

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Pakistani politician: U.S. officials pulled me off plane

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said he was pulled off a flight to New York by U.S. agents on Friday and interrogated about his views on drone strikes. Khan has been a vociferous opponent of killings by the unmanned U.S. aircraft in Pakistan and has promised to instruct the Pakistani air force to shoot them down if he wins next year's elections. "I was taken off from plane and interrogated by U.S. Immigration in Canada on my views on drones. My stance is known. Drone attacks must stop," he wrote on Twitter. U.S. authorities say they cannot give detailed comments on individual immigration cases due to...

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Sudan rebels shell southern city during defense minister visit

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese rebels shelled the main city of the oil-producing South Kordofan state during a visit of Sudan's defense minister, Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein, rebels and residents said. Sudan's army has been fighting rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) in South Kordofan, which borders South Sudan, since June last year. But the state capital Kadugli was until this month mainly kept out of the fighting. SPLM-North spokesman Arnu Lodi said the rebels had fired shells on army positions inside Kadugli on Friday after coming under fire from government warplanes. "There was an aerial bombardment...

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Italy's Berlusconi says plans to stay in politics

ROME (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, reacting to a Milan court's conviction for tax fraud, said on Saturday he would stay in politics. Berlusconi told an Italian television interviewer that he felt "obliged to stay in the field" in order to protect other Italians from what he called judicial injustices. But it was not clear if Berlusconi, now a member of the lower house of parliament, meant he would run for high office again or just stay on as an unelected political force of the center-right. "There will be consequences," Berlusconi said, referring to his jail sentence on Friday - which will not be enforced until his...

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Syria bombards major cities, weakening truce: activists

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian opposition activists reported a return to heavy government bombardment in major cities on Saturday, further undermining a truce intended to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha religious holiday. Activists in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, the suburbs of Damascus and in Aleppo, where rebels hold roughly half of Syria's most populous city, said that mortar bombs were being fired into residential areas on Saturday morning. The bombardment came on the second day of a truce called by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who had hoped to use it to build broader moves towards ending the 19-month-old conflict which has killed...

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UAE upbraids European Parliament over human rights resolution

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has condemned a European Parliament resolution criticizing its human rights record as "biased and prejudiced", accusing the chamber of insufficient research. The resolution, which was passed on Friday, attacked the Gulf Arab state's treatment of political dissidents and its use of the death penalty while calling on the major oil producer to respect the rights of women and migrant workers. The UAE is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and is an important business partner for the European Union, with bilateral trade last year reaching 41.4 billion euros. Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the richest, most populous...

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