IRAN'S PRESIDENT-ELECT: NATION VOTED FOR CHANGE

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's president-elect called his win in national elections this month a vote for change and vowed Saturday to remain committed to his campaign promises of moderation and constructive interaction with the outside world.

Hasan Rouhani's promises of outreach could lower the political temperature between Iran and the West and perhaps nudge the country's ruling Islamic establishment toward a more flexible approach in its standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Rouhani has already promised greater openness on the nuclear issue while at the same time siding with the hard-liner establishment that refuses to halt uranium enrichment. He believes it's possible to strike a deal that would allow the Islamic Republic to keep enriching uranium while assuring the West it will not produce a nuclear weapon.

The U.S. and its allies fear Iran may ultimately be able to develop nuclear arms. Tehran has denied the charges, saying its program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity and producing radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

The reformist-backed Rouhani won a landslide majority in June 14 presidential election, defeating his conservative and hardline rivals. He will succeed hardline outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad early August.

"People chose a new path ... People said in this election: We want change," Rouhani told a conference in Tehran Saturday. "The best language of the people is the ballot box. The people's vote is very obvious. There is no ambiguity."

Rouhani's election has revived hopes for a mutually acceptable deal over Iran's disputed nuclear program, as it was seen in part as a referendum on Iran's nuclear diplomacy. The country's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, a hard-liner who supported a policy of resistance, finished third in the vote, which was widely seen as rejection of his tough stance on the nuclear issue.

Rouhani said he will keep his promise of following a path of moderation in domestic and foreign policy.

"Moderation in foreign policy is neither surrender nor conflict, neither passivity nor confrontation. Moderation is effective and constructive interaction with the world," he said.

The final word on all state matters, particularly on the nuclear issue, lies with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but a strong president can influence decision-making.

Rouhani has vowed that he will seek to have the stinging economic sanctions against Iran lifted and work with international powers to settle the nuclear issue through active diplomacy and dialogue.

The president-elect also said that the ruling system needs to allow more freedom for Iran's relatively young population.

"Happiness is people's right," he said. "I thank police for increasing the threshold of their tolerance." He was referring to wild street celebrations after he was declared winner of the election.

Iran's anti-vice police sporadically detain youths on vague charges of not observing Islamic codes. During Ahmadinejad's presidency, many detainees claimed to be mistreated while in detention.

"We should talk to girls and boys in the same way we talk to our own children. People's dignity must be preserved. Humiliating people is not acceptable but giving (polite) notice (of a morality offense) is fine," Rouhani said.

EGYPT GROUP: 22 MILLION SIGNATURES AGAINST MORSI

CAIRO (AP) — The youth group leading the campaign against Egypt's president says it has collected the signatures of 22 million Egyptians who want to remove the Islamist leader.

Mahmoud Badr, a leader of the Tamarod, or rebel, movement said Saturday that 22,134,460 Egyptians have signed the petition demanding President Mohammed Morsi's ouster.

Badr did not say whether there had been an independent audit of the signatures.

Morsi's supporters have long questioned the authenticity of the collected signatures.

The announcement came on the eve of massive protests planned by Tamarod, which started off the campaign saying it wanted to collect more signatures than the some 13 million votes Morsi won in his narrow 2012 victory in the presidential election.

SYRIAN FIGHTER JETS HIT CENTRAL CITY OF HOMS

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian warplanes and ground forces bombarded rebel-held neighborhoods in Homs on Saturday as part of the military's ongoing campaign against opposition fighters in the heart of the country's third largest city, activists said.

The army of President Bashar Assad has been on the offensive in recent weeks, reclaiming some of the territory it has lost to the rebels in the past year.

The military, building on its capture of the strategic town of Qusair between the Lebanese border and Homs at the beginning of this month, has overrun a number of villages nearby. It also has hammered the center of the city, a rebel stronghold since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes hit two districts in the center of the city. It said the army also fired mortar shells into the neighborhoods.

An activist from one of those neighborhoods, Khaldiya, said tanks were also involved in the bombardment, and that the military was trying to push into the area from all sides.

Shelling has been continuous since 10 a.m. in that area and in nearby Old Homs, activist Tariq Bardakhan told The Associated Press via Skype.

"Today is one of the most violent days that Homs has witnessed since the beginning of the revolution," he said.

In an activists' video of the bombardment, several large explosions can be heard as plumes of grey smoke rise from buildings in a densely built-up area of the city.

The narrator of the video says: "These are heavy explosions that hit Homs, God is great." Another shell lands and smoke can be seen rising from behind a mosque. Two minarets are seen in the distance and the narrator says they belong to the historic Khalid Ibn al-Walid mosque in Khaldiya.

The video was posted on the Internet on Saturday and appears consistent with AP's reporting from the area.

The Observatory confirmed clashes around the mosque, and said that part of the building, which dates back to the 13th century and has been damaged in previous fighting, was engulfed in flames.

The Observatory said both sides have sustained casualties, but did not have numbers.

Syrian state TV said the army has had "great success" in the battle for Homs after "killing many terrorists in the Khaldiya district."

Syrian state media refers to rebels fighting to oust Assad from power as "terrorists" and say they are mercenaries of the West and their Gulf Arab allies who are conspiring against Damascus.

The Observatory says more than 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since it began as peaceful protests against the Assad regime more than two years ago. It became an armed rebellion after the opposition supporters took up arms to fight the government crackdown.

The United Nations puts the number of civil war casualties at 93,000.

The military has gained momentum after capturing Qusair earlier this month with the help of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah group, capturing villages on the roads linking the capital to the border area with Jordan and Lebanon.

The rebels have also claimed some victories, marking a successful end to a two-week battle in the south Friday by capturing an army checkpoint in the city of Daraa, the provincial capital of the region that carries the same name.

Daraa is the birthplace of the uprising against Assad and rebels hope to one day launch an offensive from the area to take the capital.

The Observatory reported heavy fighting around the province on Saturday with clashes between the rebels and army troops concentrated in the town of Jassem after the army brought reinforcements.

KARZAI: TALIBAN ATTACK WON'T STOP PEACE PROCESS

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged Taliban militants to sit down at the negotiating table, saying Saturday his government is still willing to start peace talks with the insurgents despite an attack by the group on the presidential palace this week.

Speaking alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron, Karzai told reporters in Kabul that moving ahead with talks was the only way to end nearly 12 years of war.

"The attack that was organized near the presidential palace will not deter us from seeking peace," Karzai said. "We've had them killing the Afghan people but still we ask for peace."

The Taliban have indicated they are willing to open peace talks with the U.S. and the Afghanistan government and opened an office in Qatar a little more than a week ago for possible negotiations.

But at the same time they have not renounced violence and attacks have continued across Afghanistan.

Their ability to carry out well-planned and bold operations was driven home Tuesday when a SUV carrying four Taliban fighters managed to make it into a highly secured area by the gates of the palace. The four Taliban gunmen battled Afghan security forces for about an hour before being killed; a second vehicle involved in the attack blew up at a checkpoint on the way into the area.

Karzai downplayed the significance of the Taliban attack at the heart of the Afghan government, in which all eight militants and three security guards were killed, saying it was "peanuts."

"Comparatively speaking this was quite an irrelevant attack," he said. "We're more concerned when they attack Afghan civilians, we're more concerned when they attack Afghan schools and children — I wish they would spend all their time attacking the presidential palace and leave the rest of the country alone."

The Taliban have refused to negotiate with Karzai's government in the past, saying the U.S. holds effective control in Afghanistan, but the Americans are hoping to bring the two sides together. The U.S. has said it would meet first with the Taliban and to get the process going, and those preliminary talks would then be followed by negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government.

In a nod to Karzai's concerns that Afghanistan might be being squeezed out of the process, Cameron assured him that "this peace process is for Afghanistan to determine, it must be Afghan-owned, Afghan-led."

"There is no other agenda that Britain has, that America has, any country in the West has, no other agenda other than your stability, your security and your prosperity," he said. "That is why we wish this peace process well, but it must be your peace process, not anybody else's."

He, too, urged the Taliban to open talks.

"I believe a window of opportunity is open and I will urge all of those who renounce violence, who respect the constitution, who want to have a voice in the future prosperity of this country to seize that opportunity," he said.

The possibility of talks at the new office in Doha got off to a rocky start, when the Taliban opened it under the name "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" and the flag it used while ruling Afghanistan before the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Karzai and other Afghans reacted sharply, saying that agreements had been violated and that the office was more akin to a rival embassy than a bureau for peace negotiations.

The Taliban have since been forced to remove the offending flag and sign but no peace talks have yet begun and the incident served to highlight the tensions between the various sides.

Karzai responded by suspending bilateral talks with the U.S. on what kind of a presence it and other coalition forces would keep in Afghanistan after 2014.

Karzai told reporters that he had talked about the suspended talks with President Barack Obama in a video conference on Tuesday, but that they remained on hold for now. He did not say when he planned to restart them, but Afghanistan needs the security agreement even more than the U.S. does so it seemed likely they would not remain tabled for long.

Karzai said that Obama told him he hoped to have the deal agreed upon by October.

Elsewhere, in Afghanistan, authorities said a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy, killing two Afghan civilians.

Farah provincial governor's spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhawandi said Saturday a man and woman on a motorcycle riding near the convoy were killed when the attacker struck Friday evening. Five civilians were wounded.

No NATO forces were hurt in the attack, said coalition forces spokesman Capt. Luca Carniel, but they did provide medical assistance to the wounded civilians.

In central Oruzgan province, 20 Taliban fighters and one police officer were killed in an operation late Friday, police spokesman Fareed Ayal said. He did not provide further details.

And in southeastern Zabul province, three civilians were killed and two wounded when a tractor hit a buried roadside bomb, according to deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar.

US EYES CAIRO EMBASSY SECURITY AMID EGYPT UNREST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is working to ensure its embassy and diplomats in Egypt are safe, President Barack Obama said Saturday after one American was killed and opposition groups vowed millions would march on Cairo in an effort to oust Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.

The U.S. government was warning Americans to steer clear of Egypt if possible as violence continued unabated. The State Department confirmed a 21-year-old college student — Andrew Pochter of Chevy Chase, Md. — died a day earlier while photographing battles between supporters and foes of the Islamist president.

Obama said the U.S. was in direct contact with the Egyptian government about security arrangements and was planning ahead for larger protests over the weekend.

"We're all looking at the situation there with concern," Obama said. "Our most immediate concern with respect to protests this weekend has to do with our embassy and consulates."

Rage in the streets as protesters stormed political offices in Egyptian cities has unnerved American diplomats, still reeling from the attack last year on a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans — including the ambassador. The Obama administration appeared eager to show it was leaving nothing to chance as Egypt braced for the one-year anniversary of Morsi's taking power as the country's first freely elected leader.

The Benghazi attacks had followed demonstrations hours earlier outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, initially claimed the Benghazi incident was a copycat of the Cairo demonstrations — a claim that became a major political headache for Obama when it was later debunked.

Citing the challenges in fostering democracy in Egypt given its authoritarian past, Obama said the U.S. supports freedom of speech in Egypt and the right of protesters to peacefully assemble.

"We would urge all parties to make sure they're not engaging in violence (and) police and military are showing appropriate restraint," Obama said in Pretoria, South Africa, while on a weeklong trip through sub-Saharan Africa.

At least seven Egyptians have been killed and hundreds injured in days of clashes that have fed an impending sense of doom in Egypt. Thousands of Morsi's supporters and opponents held rival sit-ins in separate parts of Cairo Saturday on the eve of planned, nationwide protests Sunday demanding he leave office.

The violence took a personal toll for the U.S. when Pochter, a student at Ohio's Kenyon College with a keen interest in the Middle East, was killed Friday in Alexandria. The college said Pochter was a religious studies major working in Egypt as an intern for a non-profit education organization. An organizer for the school's Middle Eastern Students Association, Pochter had hoped to learn fluent Arabic in the spring during a study-abroad program in Amman, Jordan.

"We extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends," said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, adding that the U.S. was providing consular assistance from Cairo and Washington.

Warning of Molotov cocktails deployed by protesters and tear gas by police, the State Department urged Americans on Friday to forego all but essential travel to Egypt and moved to reduce the official U.S. presence in the country. Officials said they would allow some nonessential staff and the families of personnel at the embassy to leave the country until conditions improve.

When the Rabbits turned to be Lions

I am surprised of the rabbits that turned to be lions in Egypt.During the old era of the ousted president ,Mubarak,we used to see figures,judges,politicians...etc,were silent and could not declare any opinion.
Today,there was a judgement against president Morsy accusing him of being one of those who escaped from  WADI AL-NATRON prison during the Egyptian revolution and attempt to coup the ex-regime!!the judge said that Brotherhood released their followers on 25 January 2011.the strange thing is,Brotherhood leaders including president Morsy were arrested on night of 27 January,2011,so how they escaped on 25 January?
there are a lot of accusations for today's judge as his father was minster of endowment for years during era of the ousted Mubarak.As well,this judge was an officer at the ex-SSI.
I think if we go on with today's judge,we have to try Nilson Mandila,Gevara,Brazil president,Rosif  and anyone refused injustice and protested against corrupted regimes.
I think next days we will see Mubarak and thieves of Egypt as revolutionaries.
During the era of injustice in Egypt,SSI officer was counting number of jailed persons and found that there is one missed(his count was wrong) so he decided to bring one else to complete his number of jailed persons and arrested one was driving his bike in the street and beat him.later on ,he recounted the number and found extra one(the man of the bike) and beat him again and asked him ,why you are here ?and through him in the street after beating him.
Criminals released from prisons and considered as heroes while revolutionaries are the real criminals in definition of the Egyptian flol(crooks) and judges.

HEAD OF LIBYAN ARMY BRIGADE KILLED IN ATTACK

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A spokesman for a Libyan national army brigade says the head of his unit has been killed and three soldiers wounded in an ambush en route to a southern city.

Brigade spokesman Ali el-Abed says his unit had been delivering army vehicles from Tripoli to the southern city of Sabha when they came under attack by unidentified gunmen around 100 kilometers (62 miles) from their destination.

A military official in Sabha, where the unit is based, says three assailants were also killed in the fighting Friday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Abed says wounded from both sides have been transferred to hospitals in the capital Tripoli. The ambush occurred in the town of Kira, once a Moammar Gadhafi stronghold.