Content about Geography
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia closed its Cairo embassy Saturday and recalled its ambassador following protests over a detained Egyptian human rights lawyer in a sharp escalation of tension between two regional powerhouses already on shaky terms due to uprisings in the Arab world.
CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Tuesday upheld a conviction against one of the Arab world’s most famous comedians, sentencing him to jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films.
The case against Adel Imam and others like it have raised concerns among some Egyptians that ultraconservative Muslims who made gains in recent elections after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year are trying to foist their religious views on the entire country. Critics say the trend threatens to curb Egypt’s vibrant film industry and freedom of speech.
RUBKONA, South Sudan — Sudanese warplanes bombed a market and an oil field in South Sudan on Monday, killing at least two people after Sudanese ground forces had reportedly crossed into South Sudan with tanks and artillery, elevating the risk of all-out war between the two old enemies.
The international community urged Sudan and South Sudan to talk out their disputes, which include arguments over where the border lies and over ownership of oil resources.
CAIRO — Fans charged in Egypt’s deadliest soccer riot declared their innocence in the first session of their trial Tuesday, directing their anger toward police, charged with collaborating in the killing of 75 supporters of a rival team.
Nine senior officers, including six police generals and a colonel, are among the 73 people charged in the case. The officers were present in the courtroom, dressed in traditional white defendant uniforms, but they were not held in the courtroom cage with the rest of those on trial.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A strong magnitude-6.7 earthquake shook central Chile late Monday, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of a stretch of coastline and causing hundreds of people in the capital to flee buildings in panic.
There were no reports of major damage, but authorities in the port city of Valparaiso said a 72-year-old man died of a heart attack during the quake. The earthquake was felt for almost a minute in Valparaiso and the capital, Santiago.
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s president said Thursday that the nation will not withdraw its troops that this week entered a disputed border region with Sudan.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir spoke to parliament in the midst of escalating clashes along the border with Sudan. He said the country’s military would also re-enter another disputed area, Abyei, currently occupied by Sudan if the United Nations does not urge Sudan to withdraw.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center announced Monday that a 300-pound, 2-year-old female Kodiak brown bear escaped six days ago from its enclosure near Portage. The bear had been destined for a zoo in Sweden in early summer.
The center is in a rural area at the southernmost end of Anchorage, about 40 miles from downtown. The center is near wild areas of the Chugach National Forest and the bear was last seen Tuesday night in mountains between the Portage and Placer valleys, the center said.
CAIRO — The head of Egypt’s constitutional assembly said Wednesday the committee will forge ahead with its work despite appeals from liberals, Christians and others who walked out in protest against the Islamist domination of the panel.
USHUAIA, Argentina — Argentina’s president said Monday that she’s asked the International Red Cross to persuade Britain to let its DNA experts identify unknown soldiers buried in the Falkland Islands.
Thirty years after Argentina and Britain went to war over the remote South Atlantic archipelago, Cristina Fernandez says universal human rights demand that both countries work together to give those remains back to their families.
Last month, the Distinguished Speakers and Music and Entertainment committees brought “Arcade Fire: A Lecture on Hope, Haiti and Service” to the LBJ Auditorium. Whether students lined up in anticipation for the event out of genuine interest in Haiti or because they appreciate the band and its music, it was difficult to not be intrigued by the optimistic two-hour talk about the type of service Haiti needs, its continued development and its rich culture.
SANAA, Yemen — A Saudi diplomat was kidnapped on his way to work Wednesday in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, a Yemeni security official said.
It was the first kidnapping of a Saudi diplomat in this impoverished country, where abductions are frequent and where armed tribesmen and al-Qaida-linked militants take hostages in an effort to swap them for prisoners or cash.
CAIRO — Egypt’s powerful Islamists on Monday faced a backlash on two fronts as they try to solidify their hold on the country’s politics, as liberal politicians quit a panel tasked with drafting a new constitution to protest its domination by Islamists.
More ominously, the ruling military issued a veiled threat of a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood if the group persisted in demands to form a new government.
ATHENS, Greece — Greek state hospital services faced disruptions Wednesday as staff held work stoppages and protests over government austerity measures and pay delays.
Doctors and staff at public hospitals in the greater Athens area were walking off the job for three hours Wednesday, and planned a demonstration at the health ministry at noon.
Hospital doctors were also holding a go-slow protest, demanding the payment of overtime they say has not been paid for four months.
Undaunted by the complexities of outreach to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, Grammy award winning band Arcade Fire hopes to help forge bonds with Haiti by combining indie rock and philanthropy.
Arcade Fire members and Texas natives Win Butler and Will Butler and bandmates Regine Chassagne and Marika Anthony-Shaw were present for the evening, entitled “Arcade Fire: A Lecture on Hope, Haiti & Service.”
We all have a purpose. Whether it is to discover the cure for cancer or to teach a high school class, everyone was created to make a difference. Oftentimes, we underestimate the difference that we, as students, could be making.
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivian authorities say at least 30 people have been injured in a fight between two communities over land for growing quinoa, the Andean “supergrain” whose popularity with worldwide foodies has caused its price to soar.
Oruro state police chief Ramon Sepulveda says combatants used rocks and dynamite against each other Wednesday and Thursday. A government commission was dispatched to the two high plains communities south of La Paz.
Farmland in the region is owned not by individuals but communities.
BRUSSELS — European Union leaders formally made Serbia a candidate for membership in the bloc, in a remarkable turnaround for a country considered a pariah just over a decade ago.
CAIRO — All three judges on Tuesday pulled out of Egypt's trial of 43 pro-democracy workers, including 16 Americans, according to a court official, throwing into question the case that has ripped U.S.-Egypt relations.
The defendants are charged with using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest that has roiled Egypt over the past year. The pro-democracy groups and the U.S. flatly deny the charges, and U.S. officials have hinted that foreign aid to Egypt is in jeopardy.
CAIRO — Egyptian security officials say they have thwarted an attempt by a British man and his wife to smuggle 19 artifacts out of the country.
Police say the couple were stopped in Luxor International Airport on Sunday with pieces in their luggage ranging from Pharonic statues and pottery to a Greco-Roman bronze coin.
Security officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with police rules. Security around the country has deteriorated since last year’s uprising when several pieces went missing from the Egyptian museum.
JERUSALEM — Israeli defense officials on Sunday confirmed $1.6 billion in deals to sell drones as well as anti-aircraft and missile defense systems to Azerbaijan, bringing sophisticated Israeli technology to the doorstep of archenemy Iran.
The sales by state-run Israel Aerospace Industries come at a delicate time. Israel has been laboring hard to form diplomatic alliances in a region that seems to be growing increasingly hostile to the Jewish state.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia needs to modernize its military arsenals to deter others from grabbing its resources, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in an article published Monday.
Putin, who is running to reclaim presidency in March 4 election, didn’t name any specific nation eyeing Russian mineral riches, but in the past he had repeatedly accused the United States of trying to weaken Russia in order to sideline a rival.
“We mustn’t tempt anyone with our weakness,” Putin wrote in the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
MOSCOW (AP) — It was an Ice Age squirrel’s treasure chamber, a burrow containing fruit and seeds that had been stuck in the Siberian permafrost for over 30,000 years. From the fruit tissues, a team of Russian scientists managed to resurrect an entire plant in a pioneering experiment that paves the way for the revival of other species.
The Silene stenophylla is the oldest plant ever to be regenerated, the researchers said, and it is fertile, producing white flowers and viable seeds.
COMAYAGUA, Honduras — Six guards, 800-plus prisoners in 10 cellblocks, one set of keys. The numbers added up to disaster when fire tore through a prison and 355 people died, many yet to even be charged with a crime, much less convicted.
The deadliest prison blaze in a century has exposed just how deep government dysfunction and confusion go in Honduras, a small Central American country with the world’s highest murder rate.
CAIRO — Stoking tensions with Washington, an Egyptian Cabinet minister has accused the United States of directly funding nonprofit groups to create chaos in the country following last year’s ouster of longtime leader and U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, according to comments published in state-owned newspapers on Tuesday.
International Cooperation Minister Faiza Aboul Naga made the remarks in a testimony she gave in October to judges investigating allegations the groups used foreign funds to foment unrest.
RESTELICA, Kosovo — Rescuers have pulled a 5-year-old girl alive from the rubble of a house flattened by a massive avalanche that killed both her parents and at least seven of her relatives in a remote mountain village in southern Kosovo.
Col. Shemsi Syla, a spokesman for the Kosovo Security Force, said Sunday officers discovered the girl when they heard her voice and cell phone. Her home was buried under 33 feet of snow.
