Mexico leader regrets US embassy car shooting

Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, has voiced regret for the federal police shooting of a US embassy car that wounded two US government employees.
In his first public remarks about Friday's shooting, Calderon told the US ambassador to Mexico that the attorney general's office was thoroughly investigating the incident.

"I want to express, ambassador, deep regret over the events from a few days ago," Calderon said on Tuesday, during a forum on security attended by the US envoy, Anthony Wayne.
"Whether it was negligence, lack of training, lack of trust, or complicity, this cannot be tolerated," he said. Wayne said the US and Mexican governments were "working hard" to prepare the investigation. "We will see the results," he added.
A judge on Monday placed 12 police officers under 40-day detention as prosecutors mull charges against them for the shooting, which the US embassy has described as an "ambush".
The US State Department has not identified the two government employees or the nature of their work in Mexico.
The pair were heading to a military training facility south of Mexico City with a Mexican navy captain when their sport-utility vehicle with embassy plates was barraged with bullets from four cars chasing them, according to the Mexican navy and public security ministry.
A State Department spokesperson said the two US government employees were stable enough to be evacuated to the US on Saturday and they are still receiving medical treatment in their home country.

Relatives outraged
The shooting incident took place on a highway on the southern outskirts of Mexico City close to the city o
f Cuernavaca, which has been ravaged by criminal gangs during the government's conflict with drug cartels.

Relatives and supporters of the detained officers gathered on Monday outside prosecutors' offices in the city of Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, to protest their detention.
"All I ask for is justice, and they [prosecutors] act according to law, and they don't treat them as criminals, because they are not criminals," said Georgina Segobia, the sister of a detained federal police officer.
The relatives claimed the officers were simply doing their jobs in setting up a dragnet for criminals.
The US Embassy in Mexico City said on Monday that two US government employees and a Mexican Navy captain were heading to a training facility outside the city of Cuernavaca when they were ambushed by a group of gunmen that included federal police.
The Mexican government said federal police were conducting unspecified law-enforcement activities in the rural, mountainous area known for criminal activity when they came upon the car, which attempted to flee and came under fire from gunmen in four vehicles including federal police.
Battling drug cartels
Roadside shootings have been a feature of the violence linked to drug gangs. Gangs have been known to set up fake military checkpoints to ambush rivals.

Earlier this month, all 348 federal police officers at Mexico's international airport were replaced after police there shot dead three fellow officers in an alleged drug related killing. Three officers have been charged.
Last year, two US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were shot by hitmen on a major Mexican highway.

One of the agents died.
Since 2008, the US government has given 243 million US dollars in equipment and 25 million US dollars in technical assistance and training to the federal police under the drug-war aid program known as the Merida Initiative.
Under Merida, the State Department says more than 4,300 federal police have completed training at Mexico's Federal Police Academy in San Luis Potosi.
Taught by law enforcement professionals from the US, Colombia, Spain, Canada, and the Czech Republic, the program includes criminal investigative techniques, evidence collection, crime scene preservation, and ethics.

New Jersey shooting leaves three dead

At least three people, including a gunman, have been killed in a shooting in New Jersey, US, police and law enforcement officials say.
Friday's incident happened inside Pathmark supermarket in Old Bridge, a suburb 30km from New York, officials said.
According to New York's WABC television, the shooting took place around 4:00 am local time (0800 GMT) inside a Pathmark store.
Several employees were inside the store, which was preparing to open at 6am. Two windows near the entrance to the Pathmark have been shot out, officials said.
The Asbury Park Press, a local newspaper, quoted Old Bridge Mayor Owen Henry saying that the killer was an ex-marine who arrived at the supermarket wearing camouflage and carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a pistol.
He shot a young man and a young woman dead, then himself, the mayor was quoted as saying. The shooter had been working at the store for about two weeks, according to the report.
Store employees were stocking shelves when the gunman entered, WABC television reported

US to decide on Haqqani 'terrorist' status

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has said she will meet an obligation to decide in the coming days whether the Pakistan-linked Haqqani network should be considered "terrorist".
American lawmakers have pressed Clinton to blacklist the group, which is blamed for grisly attacks in Afghanistan, but some US officials have warned such a step could dramatically set back already fraught ties with Pakistan.
Clinton, visiting the Cook Islands for a Pacific island summit, said that she would abide by legislation by Congress that requires her to state by September 9 whether the Haqqani network met the criteria of a "terrorist group".
"I'm aware that I have an obligation to report to Congress," Clinton told a joint news conference with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. "Of course we will meet that commitment."
Clinton declined comment on which way she is leaning but said that the US was already "putting steady pressure" on the Haqqani network.
"That is part of what our military does every single day along with our ISAF partners," she said, referring to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.
"We are drying up their resources, we are targetting their military and intelligence personnel, we are pressing the Pakistanis to step up their own efforts," she said.
'Veritable arm' of ISI
Before stepping down as the top US military officer last year, Admiral Mike Mullen said that the Haqqani network had become a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Ayesha Siddiqa, an Islamabad-based military analyst, told Al Jazeera that the Pakistani military was increasingly beginning to see the Haqqani network as a threat.
"It's not an issue of a change of heart, but it's about political realism. Perhaps, and I'm not sure about it, but perhaps one part of the Pakistani military leadership might agree to join hands with the Americans. And one of the reasons being that some of the intelligence reports that have been coming ... they indicate that Sirajuddin Haqqani is now in some sort of co-operation with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the TTP, which is hitting at the state," she said.
The State Department has designated certain members of the Haqqani network as "terrorists" but has resisted blacklisting the entire group.
The US has slowly been rebuilding co-operation with Pakistan, which was severely set back after US forces found and killed Osama bin Laden living last year near the military's main academy.
The Senate and House of Representatives have both urged the State Department in resolutions to blacklist the group, which would make it a crime in the US to provide any financial or other support to the Haqqani network.
Technically, however, Clinton is only asked to declare whether the Haqqani network meets the criteria of a terrorist group and is not being forced to make an actual decision on the designation.
US officials have linked the Haqqani network to some of the most sensational attacks in Afghanistan, including a June assault on a hotel near Kabul that killed 18 people and a siege last year of the US embassy.

Venezuela restarts refinery after fatal blast

Workers have resumed operations at Venezuela's biggest refinery, a week after an explosion that killed 42 people, the state-owned oil company PDVSA said.
"Operational activities have resumed safely and gradually," said Jesus Luongo, a PDVSA director who heads the Paraguana refining complex, noting that the refinery was ramping up output, initially processing 160,000 barrels on Friday.
Firefighters struggled for days to put out the blaze triggered by a gas leak at the Amuay refinery, which produces 645,000 barrels per day at normal capacity.
At least 20 members of a national guard unit assigned to protect the facility were killed, along with some members of their families, and about 500 homes were damaged in the blaze.
The refinery is located in a residential and commercial complex where workers live with their relatives and poor families who settled in surrounding neighbourhoods.
The accident was the worst in the history of the oil industry in Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the world. Its reserves, which the government estimates at 297.57 billion barrels, surpass those of Saudi Arabia, which has the biggest refining capacity.
Refinery failures
The disaster has prompted questions about whether Petroleos de Venezuela SA has neglected maintenance while funneling its revenues into social programmes run by President Hugo Chavez's socialist government.
A document published on Thursday by two national Venezuelan newspapers said that months before the explosion, a study by engineers had found failures in the complex's maintenance and listed dozens of accidents.

The report was prepared in March by RJG Risk Engineering for the international insurance company QBE.
The study said there had been 222 accidents at the Paraguana Refining Center last year. It said 100 of those involved fires, and 60 were breaks and leaks in pipes that carry combustible liquids.
Critics have said that in addition to refinery failures from delayed maintenance, PDVSA's operations have also suffered from the firing of nearly 18,000 oil workers in 2003, about 45 per cent of the payroll, after they joined a strike called by Chavez's political opponents to press demands that the president resign.
In recent years, Chavez's government has increasingly used a share of earnings from PDVSA to fund social programmes known as "missions". Its contributions to such programmes rose from less than $1.6bn in 2004 to $10.4bn last year.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has said Venezuela has plenty of fuel on hand to meet domestic demand in the aftermath of the disaster and will not have to increase imports, but he has not discussed the possible financial impacts for the state oil company.

Obama releases secret ale ingredients

Bowing to growing pressure from thirsty and curious US citizens in both parties, the White House released the recipes for President Barack Obama's homemade beers, revealing the executive branch's penchant for
honey-flavoured brews.
In a blog post on Saturday entitled "Ale to the Chief," White House Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Adviser for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass said that "with public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it."
"Inspired by home brewers from across the country, last year President Obama bought a home brewing kit for the kitchen" at the White House, the chef explained.
"To be honest, we were surprised that the beer turned out so well since none of us had brewed beer before," Kass wrote.
"George Washington brewed beer and distilled whiskey at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson made wine, but there's no evidence that any beer has been brewed in the White House," he continued.
Obama bought his own brewing kit in January last year and decided he wanted to start making beer on the White House grounds, said Al Jazeera's Cath Turner in Washington, DC.
The president had only served his beer to White House guests until a couple of weeks ago when he was campaigning in Iowa, Turner said.
"He decided to pull out a beer from the campaign bus and share it with a man he had just met in that state. And that got all the White House reporters excited."
Secret recipe
The key ingredient for the White House Honey Brown Ale and the White House Honey Porter, though, may be tough to come by - the honey is straight from the White House's first-ever beehive.
Kass wrote that the "honey gives the beer a rich aroma and a nice finish but it doesn't sweeten it."
However, Brandon Skall, the chief executive of local brewery DC Brau, said it would "pump up the alcohol and give it some sweetness."
The ale would likely pair well with a spicy and savoury dish such as pork tenderloin or roast duck, said Skall, who added he would like to make the beers in his District of Columbia brewery. The porter would work well with a dessert or even floated with ice cream, he added.
The recipes were released as Obama headed to campaign in Colorado, a swing state that is embracing small, independent beer producers.
The birthplace of Coors beer currently has the third highest number of craft breweries in the country, behind
only California and Washington, according to the web magazine Atlantic Cities.
Obama is now part of a growing movement - 28,835 people currently belong to the American Homebrewers Association.

Mexico court rejects appeal to overturn vote

Mexico's highest electoral tribunal has rejected a bid to overturn July's presidential election win of Enrique Pena Nieto by the second-placed left-wing candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
One by one, the tribunal's seven judges rebuffed claims by Lopez Obrador that Pena Nieto's party bought millions
of votes, exceeded campaign spending limits and received biased news coverage.

The request to invalidate the election is groundless," court president Jose Alejandro Luna Ramos told a packed courtroom at the end of a session that lasted more than five hours.
The ruling triggered a protest of roughly 5,000 on the streets of Mexico City and clears the way for Pena Nieto to be formally declared president-elect and begin his six-year term on December 1, returning the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power after a 12-year absence.

A recount of the election result gave Pena Nieto an estimated 38 per cent of the vote to Lopez Obrador's 31 per cent.
The PRI governed Mexico for 71 years until it lost the 2000 presidential election, but Pena Nieto has promised to break with his party's hard-line past.
'Move together'
"It is time to begin a new phase of work in favour of Mexico," he wrote on Twitter after the ruling.
"We move forward. Through dialogue, understanding and agreements, we move together for the unity and greatness of Mexico."
Lopez Obrador, backed by the Progressive Movement coalition, has accused the PRI of returning to its old ways in order to secure Pena Nieto's victory in the July 1 election.
He claimed that the PRI bought five million votes, including by distributing gift cards for a retail store. His coalition also charged that children were sent to polling stations to check how people voted.
Lopez Obrador's campaign manager Ricardo Monreal denounced the judges as a "band of scoundrels" as it became clear that they would reject the challenge.
Al Jazeera's Adam Raney, reporting from Mexico City, said the Lopez Obrador has no legal recourse at this point.
"The game is over for Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as far as this election is concerned. There is no way he's going to legally become the next president of Mexico," said Raney.
Our correspondent said that Lopez Obrador continues to mount a protest movement because "he continues to believe that this election was fraudulent, that it was full of corrupt practices...it would be antithetical for Lopez Obrador to go home and pack up and say, 'All right, I lost my case, this is all done.'"
Outside the court, some 300 protesters shouted "Mexico without the PRI," brought down barriers and threw water bottles, corncobs and stones toward the court, as riot police watched passively.
In the previous election in 2006, when Lopez Obrador also ran for president, he refused to recognise the result after he lost to Felipe Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), by 0.06 percentage points.
He led massive protests but was unable to change the outcome.
Pena Nieto will inherit from Calderon a brutal drug war that has left more than 50,000 people dead since 2006. Calderon did not run due to term limits.

29 Killed in Potiskum-Kano Crash

Twenty-nine persons have been reported killed in a horrendous motor accident at Daniski village, on the Potiskum–Kano road in Nengere Local Government Area of Yobe State.

According to a statement by CSP Frank E. Mba, the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer in Abuja, the accident resulted from a head-on collision of two Toyota Hiace buses travelling in opposite directions.  In the ensuing fire, 11 of the 29 dead were burnt beyond recognition, and several people suffered various injuries. 
The statement further said that policemen from Nengere Division, Yobe State Police Command, assisted by members of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NUTRW) responded to the incident, rushing the injured to the General Hospital Potiskum.  The dead bodies were deposited at the Hospital’s mortuary.
Expressing concern over incessant cases of accidents on our highways, the Inspector-General of Police advised Nigerians to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy at all times, the statement said.  He equally warned against reckless driving, over speeding, over loading and flagrant disobedience of road traffic laws and regulations. 
“He directed officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force attached to the newly rejuvenated Police Highway Patrol to take proactive measures, working in conjunction with other security agencies, to assist road users in preventing road accidents and rendering prompt assistance to victims of road mishap on our highways,” Mr. Mba said.

Deadly Pipeline Fire Kills Several Persons In Arepo Village On the Boundary of Ogun and Lagos

NEMA Officials and fire fighters returned to the scene of  a massive pipeline fire in Arepo village on the boundary of Ogun and Lagos states. The rescue team was earlier attacked by local vigilantes hired by the NNPC to protect the pipelines. Several person died in the pipeline fire that lasted for three days in the area, according to the police.

 

Commercial Driver Crashes Into Pedestrians And Bikers Killing An Albino And Disrupting Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Rally

A commercial bus driver has killed an albino girl riding on the back of a bike along Kudirat Abiola way the Ikeja/Oregun/Ojota axis of Lagos and injuring two others at Ojota while attempting to escape, driving even more recklessly.
The tragedy hit around 12.35pm as a yellow commuter bus was driving against the one-way traffic along Kudirat Abiola way, just opposite the lane to activists on a march to commemorate the death of prominent civil rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, today.
The activists had begun their march from under the popular bridge along Obafemi Awolowo way in Ikeja with five police vans watching them closely.
The train was going smoothly before the bus suddenly ran into some motorbikes and pedestrians on Kudirat Abiola way near the Olusosun garbage dump. The albino woman was killed in the accident.
The strong collision threw the woman against the culvert, instantly breaking her right leg and causing a crack on her skull, she died some thirty minutes later according to the police.
The activists ended the procession to engage in a furious chase to catch up with the hit-and-run driver riding on the back of several bikes at Ojota the road seemed closed to traffic but the commercial  driver in his haste to escape hit  two other persons   made an u-turn towards Alausa where he was finally rounded up by the comrades.
The killer driver has been apprehended and detained at the Alausa Police Station.

Grenade attack on police in Kenya riots

Stone-throwing youths have clashed with the police in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, Kenya's second biggest city, in a second day of violence prompted by the killing of a Muslim religious leader accused by the US of helping fighters in Somalia.

Police fired tear gas and warning shots on Tuesday as youths barricaded streets with burning tyres in the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Majengo.

Youth also threw a grenade at a police truck, wounding 16 police officers, two of them critically.

Mobs moved around Mombasa's city centre, taunting police who arrested some of the protesters, who are members of the city's Muslim minority.

Shopkeepers reported looting in some areas of Mombasa, a tourist hub and major Indian Ocean port.

The unrest began after armed men killed Aboud Rogo Mohamed on Monday, spraying his car with bullets in an attack many Muslims in Mombasa blamed on the police, who denied involvement.

Rogo was the spiritual leader of the Muslim Youth Centre (MYC), a group viewed as a close ally of Somalia's armed Islamist group, al-Shabab.

Churches torched

One person was killed in riots on Monday when protesters torched some churches, raising fears that the unrest may become more sectarian in a city where grenade attacks blamed on Somali fighters and their sympathisers have already strained Muslim-Christian relations.

Police and Muslim leaders had described the church burnings as impulsive, not premeditated. On Tuesday, the gangs of youths appeared to focus their anger more on the police.

Church leaders scrapped plans for a peaceful march for fear it might incite further clashes in a country where overall relations with minority Muslims have been relatively good.

The Supreme Council of Muslims in Kenya condemned the violence, especially the targeting of churches.

"This kind of violence goes against our faith. The protesters shouldn't hide behind Islam or any of its teachings," Adan Wachu, the council's secretary-general, said. "These are criminals and should be treated as such."

Kenyan police appealed on Tuesday to the public for information on Rogo's killing. Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, has condemned the "horrific" murder, adding the government was "committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice".

Rogo had been accused by the UN of using the MYC group as "a pathway for radicalisation and recruitment of principally Swahili-speaking Africans for carrying out violent militant activity in Somalia".

He is also alleged to have introduced Fazul Abdullah Mohammed - the late head of al-Qaeda's East Africa cell, shot dead last year in Somalia's war-torn capital Mogadishu - to at least one of the men who helped him carry out the twin US embassy bombings in 1998.

The bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam killed 224 people.

Al-Shabab appeal

Al-Shabab, for its part, urged Kenyan Muslims on Tuesday to protect their religion at all costs and boycott next year's presidential election. It condemned what it called a "witch-hunt" against Muslims by the Kenyan authorities.

"Muslims must take the matter into their own hands, stand united against the kuffar [non-believers] and take all necessary measures to protect their religion, their honour, their property and their lives from the enemies of Islam," al-Shabab said in a statement posted on the social media site Twitter.

The violence could worsen if it taps into long-standing local grievances over land ownership and unemployment, as well as calls by the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) for the coastal strip to secede.

The MRC said it was not involved in the unrest.

Prolonged trouble in Mombasa could hit Kenya's vital tourism industry, already damaged by the kidnappings of female Western tourists from beach resorts by Somali fighters.

The unrest could also knock trade and transport to Kenya's landlocked neighbours. Rwanda and Uganda rely on the Mombasa port for imports of food, consumer goods and fuel.

Cholera outbreak worsens in Sierra Leone

At least 217 people have died in the worst cholera outbreak to have hit Sierra Leone, according to humanitarian officials.
Oxfam, British-based charity organisation, said on Thursday that the disease had reached almost double emergency thresholds with over 12,000 reported cases.
It said the number of people affected is "likely to increase significantly in the next month".
Increasing overcrowding and early rains in cities such as capital city, Freetown, have pushed the number of reported cases spiraling from the previous record of 10,000 in 1994.
Aid groups say there has been a spike in reported cholera cases since mid-July and the onset of the rainy season.
Some 82 deaths have been reported in neighbouring Guinea, while other cases have been seen in Mali and Niger.
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine, contracted by eating or drinking contaminated food or liquids. It can cause acute diarrhoea and vomiting and can kill within hours.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have launched an emergency appeal for $1.14m and have warned that the outbreak risks sparking a wider health crisis unless its causes are tackled more aggressively.
Amanda McClelland, emergency health coordinator for the IFRC, issued a statement saying: "The disease has the potential to cause a serious humanitarian crisis."
She explained that the level of aid coverage was still "very low", adding "it is an urgent to step up our efforts as the situation is deteriorating quickly ... We need more funds to deliver the most effective response".
"We are projecting more cases considering we have a month more of heavy rainfall," she added.
The money spent on tackling the roots of the outbreak so far has been spent on health promotion activities and on helping affected families prepare oral rehydration solutions and build suitable toilets.
Sidie Yahya Tunis, the spokesman for the Health Ministry citied the expansion of the poor suburbs of Freetown as a factor in the disease's spread.
"It's not just that we have more people in the slums, we have more slum areas in the Western Area (around Freetown) as
well," he told Reuters news agency

$337 million Powerball winner plans to keep it real

 Donald Lawson intends to do the typical lottery-winner stuff: Retire, take care of his family, travel, get a new place to live.

But the 44-year-old Michigan man insists his $337 million Powerball prize -- the third-largest in Powerball history, and seventh-largest jackpot in U.S. history -- won't change him.

"I'm a millionaire now, but I'll still go to McDonald's," Lawson told reporters Friday at the Michigan Lottery headquarters in Lansing, where he came forward to collect on the August 15 drawing. "I don't like filet mignon or lobster. I like the simple life, and that's what I want to continue to do."

Lawson, of Lapeer, was the sole winner of the August 15 prize. He chose the lump-sum cash option, which gives him $224.6 million, before tax, at once.

He said he quit his railroad engineer job after learning he won. He said he chose the winning numbers -- 6, 27, 46, 51, 56 with a powerball of 21 -- himself at a Sunoco gas station in Lapeer.

"I walked into the ... station, and usually there ain't nobody up there, but there was a long line. But something from above -- I do have to credit that -- told me to go over there and pick my own numbers. I didn't pick them -- my hand just went," Lawson said.

Lawson said his two children will now be set for college, and he told his close relatives to retire, "and they had no problem with that."

He said he plans to travel a lot, but for now, he's going to "go somewhere safe and think about (what to do) and go from there."

"This money won't last forever unless I use it right and budget it right. It's not a lot, $337 million," he joked, drawing laughter, before addressing the issue of taxes. "You all think it's tremendous amount, but I'm kind of pissed at Uncle Sam ... you know?"

Eight other tickets won the $1 million Match 5 prize on August 15. Two of those tickets were bought in Indiana, and the others in Kansas, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia, lottery officials said.

The game's largest prize to date was $365 million, which was awarded in 2006 to a group of eight co-workers at a Nebraska meat-packing plant.

That record drawing happened when the cost for a Powerball ticket was $1. In January, the price increased to $2, with officials saying it would lead to an increased number of large jackpots. At the same time, the odds improved somewhat because officials reduced the number of red balls, the powerballs, from 39 to 35.

At $337 million, the Powerball pot still has ways to go to catch MegaMillions at the top of the list of U.S. grand prizes. In March, three tickets were sold for a drawing with the top prize of $656 million

Pentagon threatens legal action over book

 A former Navy SEAL who wrote a first-hand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden could be taken to court by the Pentagon.
The US Department of Defence said they may charge Matt Bissonnette with publishing classified information in his book called "No Easy Day".

Facebook share price continues to slide

Facebook's share price continues to tumble, down from $38 in May when the social networking company went public to less than $19.
Many Wall Street analysts say the share was priced too high for the money Facebook was making.

Iran urges non-aligned nations role in Syria

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that emerging nations have a greater right than the West or the UN to help resolve Syria's escalating civil war.
His comments on Friday came at the end of a meeting in Tehran of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the grouping of 120 nations whose annual conference was held in the Iranian capital this week.
Iran had hoped to use the summit to head off foreign intervention in the Syrian crisis and also to counter Western efforts to isolate it over its nuclear programme. 
"The Non-Aligned Movement definitely has more political right than the US, NATO or some European countries to intervene in the Syrian issue," Khamenei said. He did not elaborate on what kind of role the group should have.
Earlier on Friday, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, told Syria's Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi that fighting must stop in Syria "with the primary responsibility resting on the government to halt its use of heavy weapons".
In a meeting on the sidelines of the NAM summit with Halaqi and Walid Muallem, Syria's foreign minister, Ban said he set out his "demands for all sides to cease all forms of violence".
"What is important at this time is that all the parties must stop the violence. All those actors who may be providing arms to both sides... must stop," Ban said at a news conference broadcast live on Iranian television.
No agreement
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Tehran, said NAM foreign ministers had earlier agreed on a draft statement to end the crisis in Syria, which included opposing foreign intervention and welcoming UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. 

In-depth coverage of escalating violence across Syria

However, Khan said that statement was never made public and was not mentioned after a closed-door meeting of heads of state later in the day on Friday.
Khan pointed out that 'this conference was never supposed to be about Syria … it's about coming up with resolutions on developing countries".
"However, Syria has been the dominant talking point throughout this whole [conference] from Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s comments to Ban Ki-moon’s comments," he said.
On Thursday, Morsi said it was an "ethical duty" to support the Syrian people against the "oppressive regime" in Damascus.
His comments sparked a walkout by the Syrian delegation.
Fighting continues
Fierce fighting continued in northern Syria on Friday as the International Committee of the Red Cross warned of a fast deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Clashes erupted in the battleground city of Aleppo, less than 50km from the Turkish border, and rebels attacked Abu Zohur air base in Idlib province on the border where they said they shot down a MiG warplane on Thursday, a rights group said.

In some of the heaviest fighting, rebels clashed with army troops in Albu Kamal, a town in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The rebels have seized several army posts, including a base in the Hamdan military airport," Abdel Rahman told the AFP news agency.

The conflict in Syria has claimed more than 26,000 lives since it began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group.

Iran, the principal ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has accused the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of arming Syria's rebels.

The Syrian opposition and US officials in turn allege that Iran is giving military help to Assad.

Jonathan Congratulates Onobrakpeya At 80

Nigeria President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has congratulated world-renowned printmaker, painter and sculptor, Dr. Bruce Onobrakpeya, who turned 80 yesterday.
In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and publicity Dr. Reuben Abati, the President described the Urhobo-born highly celebrated artist as a pacesetter and irresistible influence on generations of artists in Nigeria.
He commended the creativity, presence of mind and realism, which Onobrakpeya has brought to bear on his cerebral works, which he has had the rare honour of displaying at famous arts exhibition centres all over the world.
“Indeed, Bruce Onobrakpeya has been a worthy Ambassador portraying not only Nigerian culture and history in living colours but, also the entire black race,” President Jonathan said.

Romney fails to truly stand out in Tampa

Mitt Romney is not a great public speaker – and his big convention address was not a great public speech.
This was the most important hour of his political life – and he performed perhaps better than he has ever done.  But even some right-leaning magazines the morning after could only rate his performance as "mediocre".  He got people on their feet several times, had a few good lines, but nothing that was truly memorable or will outlive the campaign.
Polls tell us that the new Republican nominee – we can finally call him that even though it has been inevitable since late May – is viewed unfavourably by most people.
And so in prime time on American television, before an audience which was predicted to hit 40 million, this was an opportunity for him to better introduce himself.  He got a little misty-eyed when he talked about his five sons and his wife for 43 years, Ann.  It seemed genuine and heartfelt . He got emotional when he spoke about his parents. His father George ran for the Republican nomination in 1968, but lost out to Richard Nixon. He also spoke about his mother and how he promoted women to top jobs while in business and while Governor of Massachusetts.
He told the convention "When my mom ran for the Senate … I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, 'Why should women have any less say than men, about the great decisions facing our nation?'"
Yet – as was quickly pointed out on social media sites, this is a candidate for a party whose official platform would remove from women the say they have over their own bodies if they wanted, or even needed, to have an abortion.
Despite such criticism, this was a more human Mitt Romney than we’ve seen on the campaign trail and it may make people like him a little bit more.
When he turned to President Barack Obama’s record, Romney sounded more disappointed than angry. He worked on a theme that everyone was caught up in the excitement and the promise of Obama’s election, but had been left disappointed.  That perhaps gave him his best line of the night "You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him."
There was little from the nominee on how he would address some of the problems that Obama has faced, the divisions and gridlock that  have left politicians in the United States with their lowest approval ratings in history.  He talked about his five-point plan for the economy in broad general terms.  He promised energy independence by 2020.  It’s been a goal of Republicans and Democrats since the 1960s and seems no closer now.  And, if it ever happened, some economists suggest the idea could actually push up prices in the US if cheaper, imported oil was ignored simply to make a political point.
On foreign policy,  there was talk of Iran and Israel, warnings to China and Russia. Interestingly, though, this was a speech from a nominee which failed to mention the country where US soldiers are still fighting and dying in battle - Afghanistan.  He gave no indication on how he would handle his biggest challenge if elected Commander-in-Chief.
The people in the hall loved the speech, and many of those who were concerned about Romney’s candidacy seemed reassured.  Two delegates I spoke to immediately after seemed almost giddy with excitement.
Democrats, unsurprisingly, were not so enthusiastic. James Carville, the man who helped steer Bill Clinton to the White House, dismissed Romney’s speech as "Bush’s economic policy, Cheney’s foreign policy and Rick Santorum’s social policy".
Romney now hits the campaign trail again to sell what he’s been saying.  He’ll be hoping for a bump in the polls.  Anything less than three points, in what is a tight race, would be a huge disappointment.
The voter map, and America’s own electoral college system of counting the votes, means that Mitt Romney still faces a huge task to win the White House.
But the economy remains a dangerous area for Barack Obama.  Unless people see an improvement, or more importantly, feel an improvement, it might not matter that in Tampa, Mitt’s message was "mediocre".

Suicide blasts hit U.S.-Afghan base; 12 killed

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two suicide bombers struck a joint U.S.-Afghan military base in central Afghanistan early Saturday morning, killing 12 people, authorities said.

The attack also wounded 57 others, said Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

A majority of the casualties included civilians, but four Afghan police officers were among those killed, he said.

Pentagon: Afghans killing U.S. troops

Special Ops troops lured then killed

One bomber attacked the base on foot, then another one detonated a truck, the spokesman said.

No international coalition service members died in the attack in Sayedabad district, according to Maj. Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

A United Nations report this month stated that violence against civilians fell in the first half of the year.

But even with attacks down compared with the first six months of 2011, violence is taking a "devastating toll on civilians," the United Nations said.

There were 1,145 people killed and 1,954 injured in the first six months of this year, the report found. That's down from 1,510 killed and 2,144 injured in the same period a year earlier.

The drop marked the first time in five years there has been a fall in violence against civilians, the report said.

About 80% of the attacks against civilians are by anti-government forces such as the Taliban, the U.N. said.