| Afghan government to shun U.S. talks with Taliban |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 8:23:12 PM
KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday his government would not join U.S. peace talks with the Taliban until they were led by Afghans and would suspend negotiations with the United States on a troop pact.
The United States and the Taliban have said officials from both sides will meet in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on Thursday, raising hopes for a negotiated peace in Afghanistan after 12 years of bloody and costly war between American-led forces and the insurgents.
Fighting, however, continues in the war-ravaged nation. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in a rocket attack on ....
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| Acer sees tablet, notebook PC shipments to be flat in second quarter |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 8:17:42 PM
TAIPEI: Acer Inc, the world's No.4 PC vendor, said on Wednesday that it expects notebook and tablet PC shipment to be flat in the second quarter from the first quarter, versus an prediction of 0-5 percent growth made in April.
Acer Chairman J.T. Wang made the comment to reporters at the firm's annual shareholder meeting.
Early this month, Wang told Reuters in an interview that he expects up to 80 percent of Acer's products to have touch-screen technology by next year or the year after, hoping new tablets and touch-notebook computers will revive its sales in a PC market where quarterly ship....
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| Internet monitoring must have proper limits, Merkel tells Obama |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 5:04:42 PM
BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel told U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday that government monitoring of Internet communications needed to remain within proper limits.
"I made clear that although we do see the need for gathering information, the topic of proportionality is always an important one and the free democratic order is based on people feeling safe," Merkel said at a joint news conference with Obama.
"That's why the question of balance and proportionality is something we will continue to discuss and where we have agreed further exchange of information between the German....
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| Afghans must talk to each other for peace, Obama says |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 4:50:49 PM
BERLIN: U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday Afghans must talk to each other to resolve the conflict in their country even though huge mistrust exists between the government and its Taliban foes.
Obama was speaking in Berlin a day after the United States said it would begin talks with the Taliban on Thursday to try to seek a negotiated peace to 12 years of war - a move that has deeply upset President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government.
"We do think that ultimately we're going to need to see Afghans talking to Afghans about how they can move forward and end the cycle of violence....
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| Suicide bomber, gunmen attack UN office in Somalia |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 4:09:31 PM
MOGADISHU: A suicide bomber and several gunmen attacked a United Nations compound in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday, police and witnesses said, in a strike that bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda-linked militants.
The bomber set off his explosives outside the gate of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) base before attackers ran inside and opened fire on security guards, a senior police official told Reuters.
Gunfire could still be heard more than 30 minutes after the initial explosion. It was not immediately clear whether any U.N. officials were caught up in the gun batt....
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| Rohani once approved of hiding Iran atomic work |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 2:45:19 PM
UNITED NATIONS: Years before he became Iran's president-elect, Hassan Rohani spoke approvingly about concealing his nation's nuclear program and said that when Pakistan got atomic bombs and Brazil began enriching uranium, "the world started to work with them."
The comments offer an intriguing window into the past thinking of Rohani, widely seen as a moderate or pragmatic conservative, whose surprise victory in weekend elections to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was perceived by the United States and other Western powers as positive - at least at first glance.
Rohani has said he inte....
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| Afghanistan suspends security pact talks with US amid Taliban peace process |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 12:51:26 PM
KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has decided to suspend talks on a security pact with the United States, accusing Washington of mixed messages regarding peace talks with the Taliban, his spokesman said on Wednesday.
"In a special meeting chaired by President Hamid Karzai, the president has decided to suspend talks about a security pact with the US because of their inconsistent statements and actions in regard to the peace process," spokesman Aimal Faizi told Reuters.
Negotiations on the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) began earlier this year and, if completed, will define the shape ....
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| Journalist who brought down US general is killed in Los Angeles car crash |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 11:33:07 AM
LOS ANGELES: Journalist Michael Hastings, whose 2010 Rolling Stone magazine profile of the US military chief in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, led to the general being relieved of command, died on Tuesday in a car wreck in Los Angeles, his employer said.
A statement from the editor-in-chief of online news outlet BuzzFeed reporting that Hastings, 33, had been killed, gave no details of the accident, and neither Los Angeles police nor the county coroner's office would confirm his death.
But police said a man who had not been identified was killed before dawn on Monday when his car slammed ....
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| Hezbollah takes Syrian centre-stage, yet remains in shadows |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 11:20:04 AM
BEIRUT: The voice crackling over the Hezbollah radios was clear and authoritative, and the guerrillas poised to attack the Syrian border town of Qusair recognized it immediately.
"As I promised you victory before, I pledge you victory now," Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said, launching a battle in which his fighters decisively defeated rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
Nasrallah told his troops that God was fighting alongside them, one of the fighters told Reuters. "When we heard his voice, we were ready to fight the whole world," he said.
It was a trademark co....
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| WikiLeaks' Assange fears US, says will stay in London embassy |
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013 11:02:02 AM
LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he will not leave the sanctuary of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London even if Sweden stops pursuing sexual assault claims against him because he fears arrest on the order of the United States.
In an interview with Reuters and others to mark the one-year anniversary of taking refuge in the cramped diplomatic building, Assange said he remained hopeful he might be able to leave but offered little evidence to suggest he would be finding new living quarters anytime soon.
"I wouldn't say I wouldn't leave," he said. "(But) my lawyers have advised me I s....
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