After 16 years on the run, former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic has made his first appearance before the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague, telling judges he is "gravely ill" and calling the charges against him "obnoxious."
Mladic was once a burly, intimidating figure on the battlefield. But he appeared subdued in court Friday, wearing a light gray striped suit as he listened as one of the judges slowly read the genocide charges lodged against him.
Mladic said he had not read the indictment against him and said he needed "a bit more time" to think about the allegations. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment.
He refused to enter plea to the 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide. Mladic, who identified himself as General Ratko Mladic in court, is permitted to delay his plea for 30 days or have the court enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
Mladic is accused of masterminding the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys - Europe's worst mass killing since World War II - and the 44-month siege of Bosnia's capital of Sarajevo in which 10,000 died.
Mladic has been at The Hague since Tuesday after being flown there from Serbia where he was arrested last week.
In advance of the hearing, his court-appointed attorney, Aleksandar Aleksic, said Mladic has not had proper health care for years. Aleksic said Mladic spent Thursday night in a prison hospital, but the tribunal said Mladic's medical supervision was routine.
The lawyer said he would ask the war crimes tribunal to approve more medical tests for his 69-year-old client. The exact state of Mladic's health sparked a dispute when another of his attorneys, Milos Saljic, said he has a document claiming that Mladic suffered from lymph node cancer and underwent surgery for it in 2009.
But a Serbian prosecutor, Bruno Vekaric, said the document "looks like a hoax."
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the international community needs to be more united in pressuring the Syrian government to end its lethal crackdown on demonstrators. Clinton says the legitimacy of President Bashar al-Assad's government has "nearly run out."
Clinton says a Human Rights Watch report this week, framing Syrian actions against protestors as crimes against humanity, is in line with the State Department's own reporting on the events.
She is lamenting the lack of an international consensus for stronger steps against the Assad government, including a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Damascus.
At a joint press event with Czech Republic Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, Clinton listed U.S. actions against the Assad government to date, including sanctions targeting the Syrian ruling circle.
She noted that European states, with U.S. support, are circulating a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would express grave concern about the situation in Syria and condemn the government's use of violence.
But in apparent reference to China and Russia, which oppose U.N. action, Clinton said international unity on Syria is lacking. "Right now the attitude of the international community is not as united as we are seeking to make it. We do not yet have the agreement by some of the other members of the Security Council. We certainly have nothing resembling the kind of strong action the Arab League took with respect to Libya," she said.
The Obama administration has kept a U.S. ambassador, Robert Ford in Damascus and has thus far not made an outright call for the departure of President Assad. But Clinton, asked if the Syrian president retains any legitimacy, said it is not yet gone, but has "nearly run out."
"If he cannot end the violence against his own people, take meaningful steps to start a process of reform, then he needs to get out of the way. And every day that he stays in office and the violence continues, he's basically making that choice by default," she said.
The State Department said Thursday the United States is having political contacts with members of the Syrian opposition, many of whom met this week in Turkey and demanded President Assad's resignation.
But spokesman Mark Toner declined specifics of those contacts, citing the political sensitivity. At the same time he acknowledged that Ambassador Ford has not been granted any recent meetings with ranking Syrian government officials.
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As battles in Yemen raged Thursday, the deadly fighting in the streets of the capital between forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and members his own tribe highlights some deeply personal faultlines in the crisis.
One of President Saleh's most steadfast allies in a nation of notoriously loose allegiances was the late Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar. Before they were political allies, they were friends and as al-Ahmar grew up to head the Hashid tribal federation, Yemen's most powerful, the partnership only strengthened.
But Mustafa Alani, a director at the Gulf Research Center, notes that, critically, the alliance was not passed down to the sheikh's ten sons.
"All the sons of the sheikh are standing against Ali Abdullah Saleh, and this is very important, because Ali Abdullah Saleh is part of the al-Ahmar family," said Alani. "He's from one of the branches from Sanhan, which belongs to the al-Ahmar family. So, we're talking about a major tribal conflict - a major family conflict."
It's a family spat playing out very publicly and at a very volatile time. While tribal allegiances dominate, Yemen is also seeing political protests, part of the Arab Spring, as well as military discontent and growing Islamist ambitions.
Tom Finn, a journalist in Sana'a, describes the part of that mix that's roiling the capital.
"The opposition to President Saleh is huge in Yemen, but it's also hugely divided," said Finn. "The tribes, like the Hashid, have their own grievances against the government which go back a long way, long before any of this unrest started. But the fact that they're fighting in the capital and the fact that this fighting is taking place just a few miles away from Change Square, which is where all these thousands of protesters are camping out, definitely is symbolic."
The fighting between this generation of the al-Ahmar family has left parts of Sana'a devastated, with government troops battling members of the Al-Ahmar clan holed up in what Finn describes as their gothic-style mansion in the east of the city.
Dubai-based analyst Alani says the real problem does not lie with the eldest al-Ahmar brother, Sadeq, the new sheikh and head of the Hashid tribe.
"Sadeq has no political ambition. He is a king maker; he's not a king. But with the third son, Hamid, he basically tried to block any succession process and he put a lot of effort to prevent Ali Abdullah Saleh to pass power to his son, because he thinks he is better qualified than the son of the president," said Alani.
A powerful businessman, Hamid al-Ahmar has influence in a variety of key sectors, including satellite communications. Ignoring his family's own stake in tribal lines of succession, he, like the opposition in Libya and Egypt, objected to perceived attempts at hereditary rule.
Saleh tried to placate his opponents shortly after the protests began in February, vowing his son would not seek the presidency, nor would he run for re-election.
It was not enough. The situation only grew worse when the president three times rejected a regionally-brokered deal to step down sooner.
So far, the tribal fighting has been contained mainly to close loyalists of the al-Ahmar family, and not spread to the wider Hashid federation. The Gulf Research Center's Alani.
"We have to remember that the Hashid is not really throwing all its power against the regime now," he said. "We are witnessing, yes, clashes here and there, but the Hashid has not mobilized all its military muscle. And the reason why is they are not sure. The Hashid is split and now we are talking about a few hundred fighters. But it could go to a few thousand."
Alani says Saleh still holds sway over some Hashid members, while others have renounced their allegiance to the president but so far have not taken up arms.
Journalist Finn says the latter are weighing their options.
"Certainly there are contenders within that tribe who would be involved in the next government in Yemen, whether it would be indirectly, by funding as they are at the moment funding the opposition, or by stepping up and taking governmental positions. There's still fragmented opposition in Yemen, but massively growing frustration from all groups with the president," said Finn.
It's a frustration that threatens to tear apart one of the last seams holding Yemen together.
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Yemeni security forces have clashed with thousands of opposition fighters preparing to enter the capital, Sana'a, to reinforce fellow tribesmen loyal to Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar. The rising chaos is pushing the conflict closer to an all-out civil war.
Witnesses said Thursday that government troops, including elite Republican Guard units, confronted the tribal fighters at a key checkpoint north of the capital. Sana'a is split, with Yemeni security forces holding the southern part of the city against tribesmen and renegade military units in the north. Dozens of people have been killed in the most recent fighting.
The clashes threatened to close the Sana'a airport, which lies 10 kilometers north of the city. The streets of the capital are now largely deserted, as thousands of residents flee to safer ground.
U.S. envoy John Brennan, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, left Saudi Arabia for the United Arab Emirates Thursday to continue talks on Yemen. He is seeking the help of the two countries' leaders to pressure Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to accept a deal brokered by regional powers that would secure a peaceful end to his nearly 33-year rule.
Yemen is engulfed by multiple conflicts, with the street battles raging in Sana'a, popular unrest by anti-government demonstrators throughout the country and fighting against Islamist militants who have seized the southern city of Zinjibar.
The fighting in Sana'a broke out last week when pro-Saleh forces moved against the al-Ahmar compound in Hasaba, a district of the capital. In March, the al-Ahmar family had announced that the Hashid confederation - the country's most powerful tribal alliance - would back the protest movement, but its armed fighters had avoided clashes with Mr. Saleh's forces.
In the southern city of Taiz, clashes were reported for the first time Thursday between government forces and protesters calling for an end to Mr. Saleh's rule. At least 25 people have died in the violence in Taiz in the past few days. The city remains in a state of lockdown.
Yemen's unrest has caused a number of countries to close or scale back their diplomatic missions. Kuwait said Wednesday it had evacuated its embassy staff, joining Italy, Qatar and Germany in suspending operations in Yemen. The U.S. last week moved most non-essential staff out of the country.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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NATO says Afghan and coalition troops have captured an al-Qaida facilitator who was a former associate of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
In a statement Thursday, NATO said the man was captured in the Nahr-e Shahi area of northern Balkh province, but did not give his name.
The coalition said the Pakistan-based man planned attacks and was a close associate of senior al-Qaida insurgents. He is also suspected of being with bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001.
NATO says he is one of several senior al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents captured in Balkh province this year.
Also Thursday, insurgents attacked a road construction site in the southern province of Uruzgan, killing two security guards and a police officer. Provincial spokesman Milad Ahmad Mudasir said a number of the attackers were also killed in subsequent fighting.
The German military said Thursday a bomb attack in Baghlan province killed one of its soldiers and wounded six others. It said a roadside bomb struck the soldiers' tank near the northern city of Kunduz.
Germany has about 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO coalition.
A Polish soldier was killed and two others were wounded in an insurgent attack in eastern Ghazni province Thursday. The Polish military says unknown assailants fired on the patrol with grenades and small arms.
Roughly 2,600 Polish troops are deployed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led force.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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France is trying to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians before the Palestinians are expected to submit a petition to the United Nations in September for statehood recognition.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe says his country wants to host peace talks in Paris before the end of July. He announced the proposal on Thursday after meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah.
Juppe said the current stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians is no longer tolerable. He said France is convinced that if nothing happens between now and September, the situation will be "very difficult" for everyone when the U.N. General Assembly meets.
The foreign minister is holding a series of meetings with both sides. On Wednesday, he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Rome. He plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later Thursday.
Juppe says France wants new talks to begin with a focus on security and borders, based mostly on a U.S. proposal that uses lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War and land swaps as a starting point. Israel has objected to the plan.
The U.S.-led peace talks stalled last September after Israel's partial freeze on settlement construction expired. Palestinians oppose construction on land they want as part of a future state.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Syrian opposition groups ended a two-day meeting in Turkey on Thursday with the demand that President Bashar al-Assad step down. Opposition activists are also calling for protests nationwide Friday, despite the ongoing military crackdown.
Syrian opposition leaders are demanding that President Assad resign immediately and transfer power to his vice president, pending formation of a transition council to move towards democracy.
Milhem Droubi of the Muslim Brotherhood insisted that the initial demands of reform by the opposition are no longer enough and that now its leaders are calling for the regime to be replaced.
He says that today's demands are different from those of yesterday, because blood has been spilled. President Assad, he argues, must apologize after hundreds of men, women and children were killed, and the opposition will not excuse these acts committed against the people. The opposition, he insists, agrees with the people that the regime must be toppled.
Droubi added that the Syrian government must also pay compensation to families of victims, free all political prisoners, send its soldiers back to barracks, authorize peaceful demonstrations and set up an election process.
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Meanwhile, government troops continued to pound the town of Rastan with field artillery and tank shells Thursday, leaving the town without electricity, water and phones for a sixth straight day. Opposition activists said at least 15 people were killed in the last 24 hours.
Despite the crackdown, the Syrian government announced Wednesday that it was setting up a National Dialogue Committee to allow Syrians to debate their political future. An amnesty was also announced for hundreds of political prisoners, including those of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Ahmed Haj Ali, a pro-government analyst in Damascus, told the U.S.-funded al-Hurra TV that it is not clear which activists will represent the opposition, and who would participate in the debate.
He says there are many questions about who represents the authentic opposition and they must be examined in the coming days. He notes that the presidential pardon just issued allows opponents to return home and become part of the political process if they chose to do so.
Elsewhere, in Libya, NATO warplanes hit a series of targets in the capital Tripoli overnight. NATO indicated that munitions depots, military vehicles, a missile launcher and a radar unit were hit.
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Libyan government TV also reported that an explosion took place in front of the courthouse in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi Thursday. An explosion Wednesday in front of Benghazi's Tibesti Hotel resulted in minor damage. A rebel spokesman accused Gadhafi "agents" of sabotage.
The head of the rebel Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, insisted that Gadhafi's loyalists must stop collaborating with him, or face the consequences.
He warns that those who work for Mr. Gadhafi's regime are being given the chance to change sides, but that if they chose not to do so, they will be legitimate targets for retribution.
Off the Tunisian coast, several hundred people are missing after a boat carrying nearly 800 refugees from Libya to Europe sank off of Tunisia's Kerkennah island this week.
Witnesses say the boat foundered in heavy seas as passengers stampeded to board inflatable life rafts. The survivors, mostly migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, were taken to a camp along the border with Libya.
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Pakistani authorities say an estimated 200 militants crossed the border from Afghanistan and attacked a Pakistani border post starting a lengthy battle that has left at least 27 security troops and three civilians dead. Pakistani officials say more than 35 of the militants were also killed.
The clash in the Dir tribal area of Pakistan began Wednesday and lasted well over 24 hours, although Pakistani officials say the area had calmed by midday Thursday, with Pakistani forces regaining control of the area.
The location borders Afghanistan's Kunar province and has been a center for al-Qaida and other militants in the past.
U.S. and NATO officials have long complained that insurgent fighters in Pakistan's northwest tribal region have launched attacks against their troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
But Pakistani Military Spokesman Athar Abbas says the border region is equally a problem for Pakistan, as militants based in Afghanistan are able to attack Pakistani border positions while Pakistani forces are engaged elsewhere.
"There is an active military operation that is going against the militants; and the problem of cross border movement, the problem of porous border, the problem of sanctuaries which is given in Kunar Province in Afghanistan, the militants are attacking our troops and posts from Kunar province," said Abbas. "So, we are trying to handle this. We are trying to stabilize the situation."
Pakistan has been under increased scrutiny and pressure to go after Taliban and al-Qaida militants, following the May 2 raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, near the country's capital.
And the attack on the border post comes amid media reports the United States has been pressing Pakistan to attack extremist safe havens in the North Waziristan tribal region.
But the head of Pakistan's military in the region, Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik says the military has no plans to launch an offensive in North Waziristan. Malik says his forces are already stretched thin and need to consolidate their gains before moving on to other areas.
"As a military commander I would like to stabilize the areas which are still sort of violent or unstable and then be in a position to go to North Waziristan or wherever I am tasked to," said Malik. "I cannot undertake multiple operations at the same time."
The general described the situation in North Waziristan as "calm" and said he has more than 30,000 troops in the region.
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Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said Thursday that he will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. president. The multimillionare businessman kicked off his campaign in New Hampshire with a scathing attack on President Barack Obama. The Republican candidate wants to show his party that he's their best chance to defeat the incumbent.
"I'm Mitt Romney. I believe in America. And I'm running for president," he said.
Mitt Romney kicked off his campaign a farm in New Hampshire, a state that holds one of the early Republican primaries.
In his speech, the Republican favorite blasted the record of the incumbent Democratic U.S. president.
"Barack Obama has failed America," said Romney.
Analysts say Romney needs to convince the Republican base that he is best suited to defeat Mr. Obama, who comes out in polls ahead any of the declared or rumored Republican candidates.
Romney attacked Mr. Obama's foreign policy. He said the president has hesitated in supporting dissidents in Iran and democratic protesters in the Arab world. And he said Mr. Obama was acting like a European leader in blaming Israel for its conflict with the Palestinians.
But mostly Romney focused on the president's handling of the U.S. economy - blaming him for high unemployment and federal spending.
"When he took office, the economy was in recession," he said. "He made it worse. And he made it last longer."
This is the second time Romney runs for president and he has shown himself adept as a fundraiser.
But in 2008, when he lost the nomination to Arizona Senator John McCain, he faced several electoral liabilities.
One was his struggle to distance himself from stances he took on abortion, same-sex marriage and health care while was governor of the liberal state of Massachusetts.
Another was his Mormon faith. Although the religion was founded in America, many conservative Evangelical voters view Mormonism with distrust because of theological differences.
Dean Debnam of Public Policy Polling in Raleigh, North Carolina, says these issues could resurface depending on who challenges Romney for the nomination.
"But if there isn't someone that becomes viable then the Republicans are by and large going to be loyal and pulling behind him and they're going to ignore things that they would have had quote moral difficulties for," said Debnam.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin was also in New Hampshire on Thursday on a much publicized bus tour.
Other Republican candidates include former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, current Texas Representative Ron Paul and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.
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Tunisian rescuers combed the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday for some 200 migrants reported missing after a vessel they were aboard ran into problems in rough waters off the Tunisian coast.
At least 570 people were rescued from the boat off the southern Tunisian port of Sfax. Some have been hospitalized and at least three people died after being taken on shore.
Authorities report the boat got into trouble on Tuesday near the Tunisian island of Kerkennah. The state news agency TAP reported the boat was headed to Italy and carrying people fleeing the war violence in Libya.
Europe has seen a flood of people leaving Libya in recent weeks. The Italian island Lampedusa has been a focal point of refugee landings and is struggling to handle the migration.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
European and World Health Organization scientists say a deadly outbreak of E. coli bacteria that has killed 18 people is a rare and virulent strain of the bacteria. The latest victim died Wednesday night in Germany.
The United Nations agency said Thursday that preliminary genetic tests suggest the highly infectious strain is a mutant of two different E. coli bacteria. A food safety expert at the WHO, Hilde Kruse, said the strain has various characteristics that make it more virulent and toxin-producing than other strains.
More than 1,500 people in nine European countries have been sickened by the rapid spread of the bacteria, with all but one of the deaths and hundreds of the illnesses occurring in Germany. Hundreds have been hospitalized and several of them are in intensive care.
Health officials have been unable to find the cause or origin of the outbreak, but similar infections come primarily from contaminated foods.
E. coli and how it is transmitted
E. coli is an abbreviation for Escherichia, which is a large and diverse group of bacteria. Most strains are harmless, others can cause illness. Symptoms include stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting. The major source is cattle, but other animals, foods and liquids may spread contamination to people.
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli
This is a dangerous form of E. coli known by the acronym STEC. The best known strain of this STEC (also called 0157) was identified in 1982. Transmission and symptoms are similar to the most common form of E. coli.
EHEC
A very serious infection is enterohaemorrhagic E. coli known by the acronym EHEC. It produces toxins, known as verotoxins or Shiga-like toxins. It may lead to life threatening diseases such as hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS.
HUS
Scientists believe this is responsible for the European outbreak, originating from a potentially life threatening strain of STEC (0104). HUS afflicts the kidneys, blood and central nervous system.
With the uncertainty surrounding the latest outbreak, concern about European produce is spreading. The United Arab Emirates on Thursday banned the import of cucumbers from Spain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Russia said it is banning the import of all fresh vegetables from the European Union -- an action the EU immediately called "disproportionate." The EU, which exported $853 million worth of vegetables to Russia last year, said it would seek an explanation from Moscow.
Russia said vegetables already imported from EU countries will be seized. The chief of Russia's consumer protection agency, Gennady Onishchenko, urged his countrymen to avoid imported vegetables in favor of domestic products.
Germany initially pointed to cucumbers from Spain as a possible source of the contamination, but further tests showed that those vegetables were not the cause of the outbreak.
The erroneous conclusion angered Spanish officials. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Spain will seek reparations from authorities in Europe for the damages its vegetable growers have suffered.
Germany's national disease center says the outbreak started nearly two weeks before the first infections were reported in mid-May. The infection can result in a secondary disease that attacks the victims' kidneys, sometimes causing seizures, strokes, comas and death.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said Thursday that the outbreak of the current strain of bacteria has been rarely reported worldwide. It recommended hygiene and cooking foods thoroughly to prevent infection.
Vegetable growers across Europe say they are suffering major economic losses as the mystery goes unsolved. Spain says it is losing $288 million a week because of import bans and weak demand for the produce, while the Netherlands says it is losing $43 million.
The president of Spain's produce export trade group said almost all Europeans have stopped buying Spanish vegetables and fruit.
The World Health Organization said Thursday that it does not recommend any trade restrictions related to the outbreak.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says federal authorities are investigating Internet giant Google's accusation that computer hackers, most likely in China, broke into the e-mail accounts of hundreds of users including Chinese political activists, journalists and those of government officials both in the United States and from several Asian countries.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States is taking the allegations very seriously and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is working together with Google to investigate the attacks.
"We are obviously very concerned about Google's announcement regarding a campaign that the company believes originated in China to collect the passwords of Google e-mail account holders," said Secretary Clinton.
Clinton made her remarks Thursday during an appearance with the foreign minister of the Czech Republic in Washington. Although Google says the campaign appears to have targeted senior U.S. government officials, the White House says it does not have any immediate reason to believe that government accounts were attacked. Google did not say which U.S. officials were affected, or how long the users' accounts were exposed.
Cyber security is becoming a diplomatic priority for the United States and the State Department recently appointed a cyber security coordinator to focus on tackling information theft and reducing the risk of conflicts.
Clinton says the United States believes cyber issues are going to be a continuing problem.
"We know this is going to be a continuing problem and therefore we want to be as prepared as possible to deal with these matters when they do come to our attention," said Clinton
China has lashed out at Google, saying it is "unacceptable" for the company to blame China for the attack. In its statement, however, Google did not say the Chinese government was behind the attacks or what the possible motives of those behind the campaign might have been.
The company did say the goal of the attack seemed to have been to monitor the contents of the users' e-mails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change peoples' forwarding e-mail settings. Google says hackers used malware and phishing scams to dupe users into sharing their passwords and hacked into other websites to obtain Gmail users account information.
Dean Cheng, an Asia security analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, says that just because the attack originated in China does not mean that it was carried with the knowledge and approval of the Chinese government.
"China becomes more of a suspect because of who is being hacked and the kinds of things that are being hacked," said Cheng.
Google is not the only company to recently have been the target of a high-profile attack. U.S. defense company Lockheed Martin Corporation also recently reported an attempt to take information from its company computers.
Last month, the company said it experienced what it called a "significant and tenacious attack" on its networks. After taking aggressive actions to protect its systems no data was compromised. It is unclear who or what country might have been behind the attack.
China says that it too is frequently the victim of hacking attacks and says the claims of those who say it is supporting such attacks are completely unfounded.
Heritage's Dean Cheng says it is true that many countries, including China, are facing attacks.
"The difference is I think, that China - whether it's this Blue Army of military cyber hackers that they've established and now publicly acknowledged or cyber intrusions that have been traced to Shanghai Jiaotong University - seems to have more of a state role," he said.
Last year, Google relocated its search engine to Hong Kong, following a dispute with the Chinese government over censorship and following a serious hacking attack. It says this year's attack originated in the same region as last year's attack.
The company says it traced the hackers to Jinan, the capital of China's eastern Shandong province, where the People's Liberation Army has a so-called technical reconnaissance bureau and a technical college.
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war that formally ended in 2008 still rages in the countryside. International organizations say all types of military groups are guilty of recruiting or abducting children, including countless numbers of girls, to serve as soldiers, porters, spies, scouts, cooks and sex-slaves.
When Alliance was 13-years-old, she met a group of soldiers returning from battle on the road to the market. The soldiers grabbed her and four other girls. She does not know what ever happened to the other girls.
Alliance says she crawled away from the military camp three months later on her elbows through the jungle. After the months of cooking, foraging for food and twice-daily beatings, Alliance said she wanted to get out before she was killed. Once clear of the camp, she and another child soldier began running until they found a road and civilians who helped them get home.
When they returned to the village, they found their funerals already had been held.
UNICEF says more than 31,000 children - 20 percent of them girls - have been rescued from militias or have escaped from them in the past seven years. And while the organization says thousands of children are still serving in militias, officials say it is impossible to know exactly how many.
The deputy team leader of the U.N. child demobilization program in North Kivu Province, Patrick-Cyrille Garba, said girls are less likely to escape or be rescued from militias than boys. Commanders keep girls hidden, he said, afraid they will accuse soldiers of sexual assault if they get out.
Garba says it does not take a doctor to tell that boys and girls that do escape are emotionally and physically scarred.
"Obviously they are traumatized, most of them," he said. "It does not require proper screening to know that they are traumatized. They are completely lost. They are completely in disarray."
At the Tumaini Center, a vocational school that specializes in training former-child soldiers, Alliance now studies cooking. She said that when she got back to her village, she was shunned by former neighbors, and her family refused to continue to pay for school.
Alliance said she was accused of being a "rebel wife" and viewed as dirty because everyone assumed she had been raped. People in her village also thought she sympathized with the rebel army, which is known for raping, looting and burning homes. She said it was like being cursed.
Tumaini Center Director Pascal Badibanga Zagabe said after life in the military, many girls display aggressive behavior and have trouble re-integrating into normal society or even into his school to help them.
In the military groups, girls usually are cooks and porters. Often, he said, they also are used as 'bush wives' or sexual slaves.
At the center, girls study cooking or sewing in the hope of making a living when they finish the program. But the school, he said, is poor, and his students, who are former-child-soldiers, street children, unwed mothers and other children without access to school, have no resources of their own. On days when the World Food Program does not give them food, he said, students drop out of the program from hunger.
Army officers say armed children in Congo are fighting in a war that ended on paper three years ago. The nature of the battles has changed, they say, but the conflict never stopped. Homegrown militias, loosely integrated into the army, fight rebel forces that originated in neighboring Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. Other battles are internal, among warring Congolese communities. And with $24 trillion of mineral wealth believed to be buried in Congolese soil, many militias survive by fighting for control of the mines and roads.
For some girls, like 18-year-old Pascaline, the horrors of the war continue every night in her dreams. She said she often wakes up crying, after having nightmares about the day she was taken.
Pascaline said she was kidnapped two years ago with five other young women. Her life was spared, she said, because the commander's wife decided to make Pascaline her servant rather than allow the soldiers to rape her. Two of the other women fought back when the men tried to rape them, and they were killed slowly with knives.
Now studying sewing at the Tumaini Center, Pascaline said she can never go back to her village. Besides being shunned by her friends and neighbors, she said she fears the rebel soldiers will kidnap her if she tries to go home.
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China on Thursday rejected claims by Google that China-based hackers have spied on email accounts owned by American politicians and Chinese dissidents.
The allegations are just the latest confrontation between the web search giant and the government of a country with the most Internet users in the world.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called it unacceptable for Google to blame China for trying to steal the email account passwords of senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists.
The allegations that the Chinese government is supporting hacking are baseless, said Hong, and stem from what he says are ulterior motives. He added the Chinese government highly values Internet safety and monitors the Internet.
China tightly controls the Internet in what it says is an attempt to kept harmful material such as pornography off the web. But many human rights groups and governments say the real reason is censor pro-democracy activists and dissents against the ruling Communist Party.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hong said the Chinese government resolutely opposes what he described as illegal activity on the Internet, including hacking, and will counter this according to the law.
Google claims it traced the hackers to Jinan, the capital of China's eastern Shandong province, where the People's Liberation Army has a so-called technical reconnaissance bureau and a technical college.
Last year U.S. investigators looking into similar hacking attacks on Google said they traced them to the same region.
The FBI says it was working with Google following the latest alleged attack and Washington also announced it was investigating Google's claims.
The relationship between Google and Beijing has been tense since the company partially pulled out of China in early 2010 because of censorship issues and hacking.
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Senior Indian officials are trying to prevent a high-profile yoga guru from commencing a public hunger strike. The scheduled fast is aimed at reviving populist pressure for action on India's deep corruption problems.
Indian media crews have already begun gathering at a massive outdoor space in the Indian capital, where celebrity yoga expert Baba Ramdev has promised he would begin a "fast unto death" against corruption on Saturday.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has personally urged Ramdev not to begin the fast. The guru has rejected that appeal as well as the overtures of four senior government ministers who personally greeted the arrival of his chartered jet Wednesday at the Delhi airport. He says he will press ahead.
He says more than 10 million people will join him on the first day. He adds that millions of people who want to see the country rid of corruption and get social justice will participate in this campaign.
Ramdev is an iconic figure, easily seen by his long hair and beard, and unchanging wardrobe of loosely draped saffron cloth. His organization of yoga-related media and health products reaches tens of millions of people in India and around the world.
His hunger strike picks up where a similar movement by social activist Anna Hazare, 73, left off in April. Both are aimed at pushing the government to pass a bill establishing a new, citizen-led organization with power to identify and prosecute corrupt officials.
News of billion-dollar scams in real estate, telecommunications, and last year's Commonwealth Games in India has fueled popular anger at the government. Earlier this year, a U.S. research group report estimated nearly $500 billion had been illegally moved out of India during the past six decades.
Ramdev says it is time to get some of that "black money" back, and bring those responsible to justice.
Those responsible for major scams should be punished by hanging, he says. More than seven million people die of hunger every year in India, he says, and the corrupt should bear some responsibility for those deaths.
Delhi University political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan says even if the hunger strike gets underway, there are questions of whether it will escalate into a mass movement.
"There has been a fair amount of progress on some major corruption cases," said Rangarajan. "Some fairly senior corporate figures, political leaders, have been detained, and it is widely expected that some more arrests will follow in the very near future. So, I think the picture is a little less bleak for anyone campaigning against corruption than, say, two months ago."
Rangarajan also points out that last month's elections in five Indian states dealt decisive blows to several parties widely associated with corruption.
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Japan's prime minister has survived a no-confidence motion in parliament. But, Naoto Kan is offering to step down, eventually, once he feels plans to recover from history's costliest natural disaster are on track.
The Japanese prime minister Thursday, partly under pressure from rebels in his own party, offered to resign once post-disaster reconstruction efforts are in place.
Kan told members of his Democratic Party that he desires to hand over power to a younger generation.
Japan's unprecedented disaster - a major earthquake and tsunami - has left at least 20,000 people dead or missing. It also triggered meltdowns of several reactors at a nuclear power plant on the country's northeast coast, which spewed radiation into the atmosphere and sea.
Hours after Kan made his resignation offer, Japan's parliament rejected a no-confidence motion against his government.
The announcement of the tally of votes in the lower house shows 293 lawmakers voting against the motion, while 152 cast ballots in favor of ousting Kan.
Some of those opposing the prime minister were members of his own party.
Opposition politicians submitted the motion, saying the prime minister has failed to adequately lead Japan during this time of crisis.
Kan's public approval rating is below 30 percent.
Political analysts suggest the prime minister may be able to stay in office for several more months. He is Japan's fifth prime minister in five years.
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Syrian opposition figures have wrapped up a two-day meeting in Turkey with a call for President Bashar al-Assad's immediate resignation.
The 300 delegates issued the call in a joint declaration on Thursday, as Syrian forces continued to pound the central town of Rastan. Activists say at least 15 people were killed Thursday in the government's shelling.
The opposition figures in Turkey say they are committed to do whatever is necessary to "bring down" Assad's regime and begin the process of holding new elections and end 11 years of autocratic rule.
As they met in the Turkish town of Antalya, a small group of Syrian government supporters rallied nearby, vowing their allegiance to Assad.
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Earlier Wednesday, witnesses say a number of buildings in Rastan had been destroyed as the government continues its crackdown. On Wednesday, rights groups put the civilian death toll in that part of Syria at 41 or more, including two young girls.
Syrian activists say at least 25 children are among the more than 1,000 people killed, overall, during the uprising against President Assad.
Opposition organizers say that demonstrations they have called for Friday will honor the children killed in the uprising, among them a 13-year-old boy who activists say was tortured and killed by security forces - a charge denied by Syrian authorities.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the legitimacy of President Assad's government has "nearly run out." However, she says the international community is not united enough on how to deal with Syria's crackdown on opposition protests. Her comments came Thursday in Washington.
Separately, the United Nation's special advisers on genocide prevention have expressed "grave concern" over the loss of life in Syria. In a Thursday statement, they said they are "particularly alarmed" by the apparent attacks by security forces against unarmed civilians.
Witness reports of casualties in Syria, as well as official accounts, are difficult to independently verify because the government has barred most international journalists from the country.
On Wednesday, the government freed hundreds of political prisoners after Assad announced a general amnesty. The releases were an apparent bid to appease activists calling for his resignation. The United States and France both said the amnesty would not be enough.
Also Wednesday, President Assad announced the formation of a committee to map out a national dialogue with the opposition.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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