World
Iran's supreme leader praised President Mahmoud Ahma-dinejad for "standing up" to the West in a dispute over the country's nuclear program, state TV reported Sunday. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Ahmadinejad's government has helped "revive" the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution that transformed Iran into a strict theocracy.
Plans for India's Tata Motors to build the $2,380 "people's car" in Singur starting in October brought together thousands of demonstrators Sunday in the biggest protest yet against seizure of farmland for industry in eastern India. In all, around 400 acres of seized land are being fiercely disputed. The government has offered compensation, but some farmers do not believe they're being offered their due.
The US-led coalition in Afghan-istan said it would investigate claims that scores of civilians were killed in the village of Azizabad when US and Afghan soldiers launched an attack in the middle of the night. The US coalition said it believed only five civilians, not 76, were killed. The attack occurred during a memorial ceremony for a militia commander.
Thousands marched in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday to back President Rafael Correa, who polls show is inching closer to winning a Sept. 28 vote to pass a new constitution that would expand the leftist's authority. Correa is widely popular for his spending on the poor and his pledges to fight powerful elites he blames for the political instability that toppled his last three predecessors.
Islamic militants said they had seized control of Somalia's third-largest city Saturday after three days of fighting in Kismayo that left about 70 people dead and saw thousands flee. The Islamic courts movement, which controlled the capital, Mogadishu, and much of the south for six months in 2006, said it wrested control of the southern port city of Kismayo from clan militias.
