All Blog Posts from World Watch
French don't care about Hollande's domestic life
French president-elect Francois Hollande, left, embraces his companion Valerie Trierweiler after greeting crowds gathered to celebrate his election victory in Bastille Square in Paris, France handed the presidency Sunday to leftist Hollande, a champion of government stimulus programs who says the state should protect the downtrodden - a victory that could deal a death blow to the drive for austerity that has been the hallmark of Europe in recent years.
(Credit: Sipa via AP Images)(CBS News) PARIS - As the world adjusts to a France without Nicolas Sarkozy, scrutiny turns to president-elect Francois Hollande and his domestic partner, journalist Valerie Trierweiler. The couple have been living together since 2007 and have no intention to get married in the short term, which means Trierweiler can not technically be referred to as France's First Lady.
Just who is Francois Hollande?
Hollande defeats Sarkozy in French election
Sacre bleu! A domestic arrangement that is inconceivable by U.S. presidential standards is perfectly normal in France, says CBS Radio correspondent Elaine Cobbe, from Paris. Here is her take on the matter, below:
Continue »Who was Fahd al-Quso?
Al Qaeda figure Fahd al-Quso was killed, along with an aide, in an airstrike in the southern Shabwa province, Sunday, May 6, 2012.
(Credit: CBS/AP)Fahd Mohammad Ahmed Al-Quso, 37, from Yemen, was most notorious for being an alleged planner of the terrorist attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors and blew a 40-foot hole in the side of the warship 12 years ago.
Top al Qaeda figure killed in Yemen air strike
The U.S. Government had offered up to $5 million for information leading to Quso's capture after placing him on the "most wanted" list in May 2003.
Quso had trained in al Qaeda camps in the 1990s, according to federal prosecutors who brought an indictment against him nine years ago.
Syria opposition boycotts 1st multi-party vote
A Syrian man walks past campaign posters for the upcoming parliamentary election in Damascus, May 1, 2012.
(Credit: Getty)(CBS News) DAMASCUS, Syria - Amid a shaky truce and calls from the opposition to boycott the vote, Syrians headed to the polls Monday to cast ballots in the first multi-party parliamentary elections in five years, as President Bashar Assad's government sought to show it is providing space for a nascent political opposition in the restive country where thousands have been killed in a 13-month uprising.
The leading opposition group dismissed Monday's vote as a sham - an attempt by an obstinate Assad to prolong his rule - which they say will likely be rigged heavily in his Baath party's favor. Opposition activists said they would observe a general strike and themselves boycott the voting.
In spite of cries that any vote carried out under the threat of violence cannot be legitimate, polling booths opened for what will be the latest step in a process of limited political reform heralded by President Assad in response to the uprising, which began as a series of peaceful protests but quickly descended into violence in the face of a brutal assault on opposition strongholds by his forces.
Many opposition figures and groups insist no reform measures can be accepted until Assad himself steps down from power. Assad, and his father before him, have ruled Syria since 1963.
In the first serious challenge to that rule, the uprising has increasingly turned into a militarized campaign to topple Assad - with tacit backing from the U.S. and much more material support from nations on his own doorstep.
Continue »Gitmo hearing for 5 accused 9/11 plotters
Four of the 9/11 plot suspects are shown at an arraignment inside the war crimes courthouse at Camp Justice, the legal complex of the U.S. Military Commissions, at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, June 5, 2008. From top to bottom: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali.
(Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)(CBS News) Five men accused of masterminding or facilitating the 9/11 terror attacks are headed back to a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday, after the Obama administration withdrew an effort to try the al Qaeda operatives in a civilian court in New York City.
All five are accused of conspiring to organize, train or transfer funds to the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 plot, and are each charged with killing 2,976 people. Among the charges: Conspiracy, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, murder in violation of the law of war, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, hijacking or hazarding a vessel or aircraft, and terrorism.
If convicted, each faces the death penalty.
The chief defendant is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the purported mastermind of 9/11 who told military authorities he was responsible for the operation's planning "from A to Z." While Mohammed and others on trial had previously said they would plead guilty and welcome death as martyrs, they are now expected to fight the charges.
The arraignment Saturday, before an audience that includes a handful of people who lost family members in the Sept. 11 attacks as well as journalists and human rights observers, will be followed by a hearing on a series of defense motions that challenge the charges and the extreme secrecy rules imposed to prevent the release of information about U.S. counterterrorism methods and strategy. [The start of their actual trial is at least a year away.]
News cameras are not permitted inside the courtroom, where the media and other observers are kept behind double-paned, soundproof glass.
China dissident behind standoff known as idealist
On Wednesday, Chen's sixth day in hiding at the U.S. Embassy, he decisively said "zou ba," which means "let's go" in Mandarin Chinese, when asked a third time whether he was ready to leave, according to U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke. Two days later, after Chen pleaded to Congress and to reporters his desire to leave the country, China and the U.S. appear to have worked out a deal that would allow Chen to leave his homeland with his family for a fellowship at an unnamed American university.
Sarkozy fails to deliver knockout in France debate
Socialist Party candidate for France's presidential election Francois Hollande, left, and conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, right, pose before a televised debate in Paris May 2, 2012. At center are television hosts Laurence Ferrari, second left, and David Pujadas.
(Credit: AP Photo)
(CBS News) PARIS - Like a fighter down on points in the late rounds, Nicolas Sarkozy had to come out swinging.
According to the generally accepted wisdom in France, a knockout, or at least a TKO, was the only chance Sarkozy had in Wednesday night's sole presidential debate. He trails his opponent, Francois Hollande, in the opinion polls by a greater margin than has ever been overcome in the two-week gap between the first and second rounds of a French presidential election.
The decisive vote, where the two leading candidates from the first round of voting face off head to head, is Sunday. Without a body on the canvas to stand over, "Sarko" is starting to look like French toast.
French activist drops a smoke bomb on nuclear plant
Sarkozy to woo far-right to try to win re-election
Fringes loom large in French presidential election
Norwegian Gen. arrives to head Syria observers
Norwegian Major General Robert Mood, who negotiated with Syrian authorities the conditions for the deployment of an advance team, is pictured next to a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad upon his arrival at Damascus airport on April 29, 2012.
(Credit: LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/GettyImages)Major-General Robert Mood takes over a mission that faces major obstacles before the full 300-member force approved by the U.N. Security Council has even gathered. The unrest has killed more than 9,000 people since March of last year, according to UN figures.
The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an opposition activist network, reported the deaths of 31 people on Saturday, including three children, amid anti-government protests across the country.
Twists in China scandal jar party's projected image
Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai attends a plenary session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 11, 2012.
(Credit: File,AP Photo/Andy Wong)Allegations that fallen Chinese official Bo Xilai engaged in the wiretapping of Communist Party elites not only add new intrigue to the political scandal set off by the mysterious death of a UK businessman, experts say it also complicates China's efforts to maintain political stability at home and promote its interests abroad.
The drama that began in February took a new turn Thursday, when The New York Times reported that it was the discovery of Bo's efforts to wiretap top Chinese leaders more than anything else that led to his ouster. According to the Times, evidence last August that Chinese President Hu Jintao was being monitored during a phone call led to an investigation that eventually implicated Bo.
Continue »Blind Chinese activist in hiding after escape
In this image made from video, blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng is seen on a video posted to YouTube Friday, April 27, 2012 by overseas Chinese news site Boxun.com.
(Credit: AP Photo/Boxun.com)(CBS News) Blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng, who had been under house arrest for 16 months, escaped his home in Shandong province on Sunday with the aid of fellow activists. There were unconfirmed reports that he made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Singapore newspaper Lianhe Zaobao reported that Chen had entered the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Thursday evening, citing unnamed sources. Phone calls to embassy officials remain unanswered and the security presence outside the building was the same as usual on Friday morning.
"I am now free. But my worries have not ended yet," Chen said in a video recorded this week that was posted by citizen journalist organization Boxun.com. But he expressed concern that his escape "might ignite a violent revenge against my family."
Continue »Drills throw U.S. into China-Philippine dispute
U.S. and Filipino soldiers are seen on a boat during a joint mock beachfront assault on the shore of Ulugan Bay on Palawan island in the Philippines April 25, 2012.
(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)It could have been just one of the drills regularly held by Philippine and American forces during annual joint military exercises called Balikatan, which literally means "shoulder to shoulder." But this year's exercises took place just as the Philippines and China are locked in a tense standoff over the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, a group of rock formations 124 nautical miles west of Zambales province in the Philippines, believed to be rich in oil and gas resources as well as marine life.
Both countries are claiming ownership of the area, the Philippines on account of its proximity in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and China on historical grounds as evidenced by ancient maps.
