Russia's Lavrov says "reset" with U.S. cannot last forever

Russia and the United States must do more to strengthen relations because the "reset" in ties cannot continue forever, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama called for the reset in ties before taking office in 2008 but relations have been strained by differences over issues such as missile defense, human rights and the conflict in Syria.

"If we talk about the 'reset', it is clear that, using computer terminology, it cannot last forever. Otherwise it would not be a 'reset' but a program failure," Lavrov told the Kommersant business daily.

"Instead of dwelling on the name of this or that stage, we should think about how to develop our relations. Or, again using computer specialists' terminology, we should update the software."

Lavrov said deepening economic cooperation would help improve ties between the former Cold War enemies but that some moves would have to wait until after the U.S. presidential election next month.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney has accused Obama of being soft on Moscow during his four-year term and described Russia as the United States' "number one geopolitical foe".

The jailing of three women from the Pussy Riot punk band for two years in August over a profane "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin in a Russian Orthodox cathedral also prompted criticism from Washington.

Lavrov said there was a distorted image of Russia in the West and dismissed suggestions the verdict was politically motivated or that it amounted to pressure on the opposition.

He reiterated that Russia would not back efforts to topple President Bashar al-Assad to end the conflict in Syria, saying this would be "incitement to fratricidal war" that put at risk hundreds of thousands of lives.

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Italian man protests on St. Peter's dome

An Italian man has eluded Vatican security and scaled the 130-meter-high (42-feet-high) dome of St. Peter's Basilica to protest Italian government and European Union policies.

Officials said Wednesday that the man, who identified himself as the owner of a beach resort, refused appeals from government ministers offering to meet with him if he would come down.

He put up a banner saying "Help! Enough Monti!" referring to Italian Premier Mario Monti, who has been implementing tough austerity measures and economic reforms to bring down Italy's debt and deficit and spur growth.

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Vatican police testify in trial of pope's butler

Members of the Vatican police force have testified that they found thousands of pages of documents — about Freemasonry, secret service security forces and internal Vatican letters — inside the Vatican City apartment of Pope Benedict XVI's former butler, who is on trial for aggravated theft.

Their testimony continues Wednesday in a Vatican courtroom in the trial of Paolo Gabriele, the 46-year-old father of three who faces four years in prison if convicted.

On Tuesday, Gabriele declared himself innocent of the charge, but acknowledged he photocopied the pope's private correspondence, in broad daylight and in the presence of others, using the photocopier in the office he shared with the pope's two private secretaries.

"I declare myself innocent concerning the charge of aggravated theft. I feel guilty of having betrayed the trust of the Holy Father, whom I love as a son would," he said.

Prosecutors say Gabriele stole the pope's letters and documents alleging power struggles and corruption inside the Vatican and leaked them to a journalist in an unprecedented papal security breach and one of the most damaging scandals of Benedict's seven-year papacy.

During Tuesday's hearing, Gabriele's attorney Cristiana Arru complained that her client spent his first 20 days in Vatican detention in a room so small he couldn't stretch his arms out and with lights kept on 24 hours a day. Vatican police swiftly defended their treatment of Gabriele, but the Vatican prosecutor opened an investigation regardless.

Prosecutors have said Gabriele, 46, has confessed to leaking copies of the documents to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, because he wanted to expose the "evil and corruption" in the church. They quoted him as saying in a June 5 interrogation that even though he knew taking the documents was wrong, he felt inspired by the Holy Spirit "to bring the church back on the right track."

Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre asked Gabriele on Tuesday if he stood by his confession. Gabriele responded: "Yes."
Gabriele insisted he had no accomplices, though he acknowledged that many people inside the Vatican, including cardinals, trusted him and would come to him with their problems and concerns. He said he felt inspired by his faith to always give them a listen.

The pope's main secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, testified Tuesday that he began having suspicions about Gabriele after he realized three documents that appeared in Nuzzi's book could only have come from their shared office.

"This was the moment when I started to have my doubts," Gaenswein said.
Gaenswein said he never noticed documents missing from his desk, but immediately recognized original letters when he went to the Vatican police station after the gendarmes searched Gabriele's home on May 23. They carted off 82 boxes of documentation, though only a fraction of it was papal correspondence.

Gaenswein said he saw both original and photocopied documents dating as far back as 2006, and that he could tell the originals from the stamps and seals that are affixed to letters when they are processed by his office.

In an indication of the respect Gabriele still feels for Gaenswein, he stood up from his bench when Gaenswein entered the courtroom and then again when he exited. Gaenswein didn't acknowledge him.

On Tuesday, two members of the Vatican gendarmes testified that they spent more than seven hours in Gabriele's apartment sifting through his documentation, trying at first to take only what was(...More).

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Syrian official: 27 killed in Aleppo bombings

Three suicide bombers detonated their explosives-packed cars near an officers' club in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, killing at least 27 people and causing massive destruction that trapped scores under the rubble, a government official said.

The three blasts went off at a main square in a government-controlled district of the city, while a fourth explosion detonated a few hundred meters (yards) away near the Chamber of Commerce, the official said.

Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub and largest city, has seen intensified fighting between regime forces and rebels trying to oust President Bashar Assad, especially after the fighters launched a new offensive last week. But it has not been the target of frequent suicide attacks, and Wednesday's stunning wave of explosions caused panic and fear among residents.

Syrian TV said the triple bombings targeted Saadallah al-Jabri square, describing them as the work of "terrorists," and said there were "multiple" casualties. Authorities refer to rebels fighting to topple Assad as terrorists and armed gangs.

The TV did not provide further details but another state-run channel, Ikhbariya, showed footage of massive damage around the square, which also houses a famous hotel. One building appeared leveled to the ground. The facade on other buildings was heavily damaged.
It showed footage of several bodies, including one being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building.

"It was like a series of earthquakes," said a shaken resident who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals. "It was terrifying, terrifying." He said the officers' club and the hotel were almost completely destroyed. His account could not be immediately verified, although the TV footage showed at least one building reduced to rubble.

The government official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, said at least 27 people were confirmed dead.

Scores of others were wounded in the explosions, he added, with many of them in serious condition.

Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said the explosions went off minutes apart at the Saadallah al-Jabri square. He said the blasts appear to have been caused by car bombs and were followed by clashes and heavy gunfire.

"The area is heavily fortified by security and the presence of shabiha," he said, referring to pro-regime gunmen. "It makes you wonder how car bombs could reach there," he added.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, reported dozens of casualties from the blasts, most of them members of the regime forces.

In a statement, it said the explosions went off following a clash between guards at the officer's club and gunmen, suggesting the attacks may have been suicide bombings.

A forth car bomb, the observatory said, went off in the Bab Jenin area near the Chamber of Commerce, causing more casualties.

During the course of the 18-month-uprising against Assad, suicide and car bombings targeting security agencies and soldiers have become common in Syria, particularly in the capital, Damascus.

But Aleppo has been spared from such lasts bombings and from the mayhem that struck other Syrian cities, particularly in the first year of the revolt. Then, in February, two suicide car bombers hit security compounds in Aleppo's industrial center, killing 28 people.

The uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 ago and gradually morphed into a bloody civil war. The conflict has killed more than 30,000 people, activists say, and has devastated entire neighborhoods in Syria's main cities, including Aleppo.

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Border Patrol agent shot, killed on duty in Ariz.

Investigators were scouring a rugged area near the U.S.-Mexico line looking for evidence in the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent.

Nicholas Ivie and a colleague were on patrol in the desert near Naco, about 100 miles from Tucson, when gunfire broke out shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Border Patrol.

Ivie, 30, was killed. The other agent, whose name hasn't been released, was hospitalized after being shot in the ankle and buttocks.

It was the first fatal shooting of an agent since a deadly 2010 firefight with Mexican bandits that spawned congressional probes of a botched government gun-smuggling investigation.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Naco, an FBI official said the agency was still processing the crime scene and that it might take several days to complete. The FBI and the Cochise County Sheriff's Office, which was also investigating, declined to say whether investigators have recovered guns or bullet casings.
No arrests have been made, but authorities suspected that more than one person fired at the agents.
Agents and deputies were searching the area on ATVs, horseback and on foot with up to four helicopters overhead in the southern foothills of the Mule Mountains that's considered a known smuggling area.

"It's been a long day for us but it's been longer for no one more than a wife whose husband is not coming home. It's been longer for two children whose father is not coming home, and that is what is going to strengthen our resolve" to find those responsible and enforce the law, said Jeffrey Self, commander of Customs and Border Protection's Arizona joint field command.

Ivie lived in Sierra Vista with his wife and their two young daughters.
President Barack Obama called Ivie's family Tuesday to offer condolences and to express his gratitude for Ivie's "selfless service to his nation," a White House statement said.
Obama made it clear that the administration "was doing everything it could to locate those responsible."

The last Border Patrol agent fatally shot on duty was Brian Terry, who died in a shootout with bandits near the border in December 2010. The Border Patrol station in Naco, where the two agents shot Tuesday were stationed, was recently named after Terry.

Terry's shooting was later linked to the government's "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling operation, which allowed people suspected of illegally buying guns for others to walk away from gun shops with weapons, rather than be arrested.

Authorities intended to track the guns into Mexico. Two rifles found at the scene of Terry's shooting were bought by a member of the gun-smuggling ring being investigated.

Critics of the operation say any shooting along the border now raises the specter that those illegal weapons are still being used in border violence.

"There's no way to know at this point how the agent was killed, but because of Operation Fast and Furious, we'll wonder for years if the guns used in any killing along the border were part of an ill-advised gun-walking strategy," Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said in a statement.

The Terry family said that the shooting was a "graphic reminder of the inherent dangers that threaten the safety of those who live and work near the border."

Authorities set up a checkpoint on a dirt road about seven miles southeast of Bisbee. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoint declined to comment and barred reporters from going further.

The area near the shooting is scattered with houses, trailers and ranchettes. Mesquite trees and creosote bushes dot the landscape, with a mountain range nearby to the west.

The U.S. government has put thousands of sensors along the border that, when tripped, alert dispatchers that they should send agents to a particular location.

The agents were fired upon in a rugged hilly area about five miles north of the border as they responded to an alarm that was triggered on one of the sensors, said sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas. It wasn't immediately known whether the agents returned fire, she said.

The agents who were shot were on patrol with a third agent, who was not harmed, said George McCubbin, president of...Read more.

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