New trial opens for murdered Russian journalist

Three men went on trial Wednesday in connection with the killing of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency reported. Ibragim and Djabrail Makhmudov, who are brothers, and former interior ministry officer Sergei Khadjikurbanov, are not accused of killing Politkovskaya themselves, but being accomplices. It is the second time the three are being tried in connection with the 2006 murder.

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New Honduran proposal on table

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias presented an updated proposal to end the Honduran political crisis, but its adoption seemed unlikely, as one side described the talks as "failed" and the other asked for more time. The document, dubbed the San Jose Accord, calls for ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya’s return to power, the creation of a unity government and early elections. The accord is very similar to an original plan suggested by Arias but with more details and a creation of a truth commission to investigate the events that led to the crisis

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Conditions of Zelaya’s return key for weekend talks

A second round of talks between two disputed governments of Honduras is scheduled to take place Saturday in Costa Rica The outcome of this weekend’s talks, following an unproductive initial mediation last week, could set the tone for how the crisis, now in its third week, will play out, observers say. “If you take too long too resolve this type of issue, the force of the mediation loses clout,” Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said. Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military-led coup June 28.

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Iran’s Rafsanjani, in Speech, Shies Away from Confrontation

Iranians have been waiting for weeks to hear from former President Ayatullah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. At the height of the demonstrations on Tehran’s streets, when hundreds of thousands of people called for a do-over of the June 12 presidential election officially won by incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, many Iranians have wondered if Rafsanjani, one of the Islamic Republic’s most powerful men and a leading supporter of defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, would mount a challenge to Ahmadinejad’s main patron, the Supreme Leader Ayatullah Khamenei. So when word spread that Rafsanjani would deliver the keynote address at Friday prayers July 17 at Tehran University, one of the country’s highest-profile platforms, many opposition supporters hoped his speech would provide new impetus to the protest movement

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Iran warns opposition ahead of key sermon

Former president and one of Iran’s most powerful clerics, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has started delivering the Friday sermon at Tehran University, witnesses told CNN. Rafsanjani, who backs reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi, the opposition candidate who challenged hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed June 12 elections, planned to offer a solution to the ongoing crisis in the latter part of his sermon, witnesses said.

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Sotomayor Keeps Her Cool on the Senate Hot Seat

Whatever Sonia Sotomayor does to reward herself — a glass of wine, an ice cream sundae, a bubble bath — surely she must be giving herself a small pat on the back after surviving her first day of cross-examination by the Senate Judiciary Committee without any kind of gaffe. Despite the best efforts of some Republicans to elicit a hot-tempered response, the Supreme Court nominee answered every question in the same deliberate, dulcet tones that seemed to lull her opposition into, if not complacency, then at least resignation

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