Washington Post News

CAIRO — Throngs of young Egyptians incensed over a deadly melee at a soccer match clashed with security forces outside the Interior Ministry in Cairo on Thursday night as the episode threatened to plunge the country into a new cycle of recriminations  and violence.

BRUSSELS — U.S. and NATO officials struggled Thursday to clarify how long their troops would remain engaged in combat in Afghanistan amid disagreements over when and how Afghan security forces would assume that role.

Things may have simmered down with the SOPA/PIPA battle in the United States, but across the pond, the fight against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trademark Agreement (ACTA) is boiling over.

Demonstrations are spreading across Europe, both on and offline, to protest ACTA and the effect it could have on online freedom of speech. One of the biggest concerns is that ACTA could force Internet service providers to be responsible for copyright infringements by users, making everyday surveillance of Web usage a real possibility.

Five months ago, thousands of residents of a tiny fishing village in China’s Guangdong province staged an unlikely rebellion. For weeks, the residents of Wukan faced down a police siege before ultimately deposing their Communist Party leaders.

JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that time was running out for action against the Iranian nuclear program before it became immune to physical attack, and that dealing with a nuclear Iran would be more difficult than stopping what he called its drive to build an atomic bomb.

UNITED NATIONS — The United States and its European and Arab partners have agreed to drop a demand to impose U.N. sanctions and a voluntary arms embargo on Syria, in exchange for a commitment from Russia to allow adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution that paves the way for President Bashar al-Assad’s departure from power.

You can express your political views on air, but rapping them gets trickier.

In February of last year, the BBC’s Radio 1xtra censored the word “Palestine” from an after hours music show that included a freestyle performance by rapper Mic Righteous. On Tuesday, the BBC Trust defended that decision, saying that using the word would have compromised the network’s neutrality.

CAIRO — Throngs of young Egyptians incensed over a deadly melee at a soccer match clashed with security forces outside the Interior Ministry in Cairo on Thursday night as the episode threatened to plunge the country into a new vicious cycle of recriminations and violence.

The message “re-tweets are not endorsements” didn’t get through.

South Korean prosecutors have indicted an opposition party member on charges that he re-tweeted messages from a North Korean government Twitter account, the Associated Press reports.

Two videos posted on YouTube in recent days demonstrate rebel claims that defected soldiers fighting in the name of the Free Syrian Army have access to at least some infantry fighting vehicles, which were either captured from the regular army or acquired when whole units defected.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Marcio Mello often talks of eureka moments.

The veteran geoscientist’s biggest came when he decided that his petroleum research firm should become an oil producer, taking advantage of the rich sedimentary basins that have lured oil companies to Brazil.

TEHRAN — Faced with a plummeting currency in the wake of toughened international sanctions, Iran is cracking down on black-market money changers and warning that major speculators could face execution.

U.N. inspectors have agreed to return to Tehran later this month for a second round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program, while acknowledging that meetings this week achieved no significant breakthroughs, diplomats said Wednesday.

When China evacuated some 30,000 of its citizens from Libya early last year, official media fell into patriotic rapture. Television screens and newspaper front pages filled with pictures of flag-waving returnees. Xinhua, the state-run news agency, issued a commemorative DVD. The People’s Liberation Army Daily vowed that “no Chinese will ever be left behind.”

Open intelligence hearings on Capitol Hill are never completely open. Lawmakers and witnesses try to stick to what’s safe to say in public, without disclosing details on espionage operations or what’s happening behind the scenes in Washington.

JERUSALEM — A victory by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a snap primary held by his Likud party has prompted speculation that he is consolidating his position with a view to possible early elections this fall.

A retired U.S. Army general with a history of making inflammatory remarks about  Islam has canceled his plans to be the featured guest at an event at the U.S.  Military Academy at West Point, the academy said.

The lawsuit that six Food and Drug Administration employees filed last week alleging improper monitoring of their personal e-mail is the latest in a series of efforts to test the scope of the government’s authority to track the digital activity of its employees.

There has probably never been a war in which there has been as much on-the-job improvement in the care of the wounded than there has been in the United States’ war in Afghanistan. Of course, at 10 years and counting, there has been a lot of time for practice.