Chicago Sun-Times

Buddhist mobs kill 1, torch 70 homes in Myanmar

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 09:16:00 -0500

President Thein Sein toured Myanmar’s conflict-torn west on Tuesday as sectarian violence again gripped the state of Rakhine, with Buddhist mobs killing a 94-year-old Muslim woman and torching more than 70 homes, officials and residents said.

Netanyahu: Israel won’t let Iran get nuclear arms

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 12:20:29 -0500

Israel’s prime minister declared Tuesday his country will never allow Iran to get nuclear weapons, even if it has to act alone, and he dismissed the Iranian president’s “charm offensive” as a ruse to get relief from sanctions.

Sour food, shattered glass: Cleaning Kenya’s mall

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:26:00 -0500

Shop owners on Tuesday boarded up stores in Westgate Mall and removed merchandise even as Kenyan, U.S. and European investigators moved through the mall’s rubble in search of answers to the four-day terrorist attack.

Iran top diplomat calls Israel’s Netanyahu a liar

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 11:06:10 -0500

Iran’s foreign minister has called the leader of Israel a liar who requires deception to promote his policies. Mohammad Javad Zarif’s remarks in New York were broadcast on Iranian state TV just hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak before the United Nations General Assembly.

Nearly 1,000 Iraqis killed in September: UN

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 10:56:00 -0500

The U.N. mission in Iraq said Tuesday that 979 people died in September, most civilians caught up in the violence by insurgents led by al-Qaida in Iraq who appear determined to rekindle the tensions between Sunnis and Shiites that nearly pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.

Romania mass grave bolsters communist-era probe

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 10:52:00 -0500

Authorities on Tuesday confirmed the existence of a mass grave near the site of a former communist labor camp in eastern Romania. The discovery bolsters the case of investigators seeking genocide charges against the former commander of the penal colony.

Chemical weapons inspectors cross into Syria

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 10:03:45 -0500

An advance group of international inspectors arrived in Syria on Tuesday to begin the ambitious task of overseeing the destruction of President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons program, kicking off a mission that must navigate the country’s bloody civil war as well as the international spotlight.

Pope urges reform, wants church with modern spirit

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 09:12:00 -0500

Pope Francis opened a landmark meeting Tuesday on reforming the Catholic Church, saying he wants a missionary church with a modern spirit that gives hope to the poor, the young and the elderly like his namesake St. Francis did.

Court in Amanda Knox trial allows new DNA test

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 14:51:05 -0500

The Florence appellate court hearing U.S. student Amanda Knox’s third trial in her roommate’s murder agreed Monday to run additional DNA tests on the presumed weapon, but rejected more than a dozen other defense requests for new testimony or evidence.

Syrian FM: No talks with main opposition group

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:56:01 -0500

Syria’s foreign minister says the main Western-backed opposition group should not take part in a future peace conference because it had overwhelmingly supported a U.S. strike against Damascus over an attack last month in which chemical weapons were used.

Al-Qaida gunmen take over military base in Yemen

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:50:00 -0500

Security officials say suspected al-Qaida gunmen have overrun a key military base in Yemen’s largest province.

Popes John Paul II, John XXIII canonized April 27

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:26:00 -0500

Popes John Paul II and John XXIII will be declared saints on April 27, 2014. Pope Francis announced the date Monday during a meeting with cardinals inside the Apostolic Palace.

Husband: Pussy Riot band member hospitalized

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 12:38:07 -0500

The husband of an imprisoned member of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot says she has been moved to a prison hospital on the seventh day of a hunger strike.

Olympic flame for Sochi Games ready for relay

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 12:20:39 -0500

Using the sun’s rays, the Olympic flame lighting for the Winter Games in Sochi went off without a hitch in southern Greece Sunday, ahead of its journey across Russia’s nine time zones and even a trip to space before the Feb. 7-23 games.

Bombings and shootings kill 10 in Iraq

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 12:46:20 -0500

The deadliest attacks were bombings targeting worshippers as they were leaving weekly Muslim services in mainly Sunni areas in the Iraqi capital.

Rev. Jackson agrees to mediate for U.S. captive in Colombia

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 20:39:27 -0500

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Sunday he intends to press on with a bid to mediate the retrieval of a former U.S. soldier captured by Colombian rebels three months ago, despite the cool response to his plan from that country’s president. Jackson said he still plans to travel to Colombia in the coming days in hopes of negotiating a cease-fire for a patch of jungle where U.S. citizen Kevin Scott Sutay can be picked up safely.