2:23 PM 8/2/2012
Mike Nova's starred items U.S. pins Annan's resignation to Syria diplomacy failures via Yahoo! News - Top Stories on 8/2/12 ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House said Kofi Annan's resignation as mediator in Syria highlighted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's refusal to abide by a U.N.-backed peace plan and the failure of Russia and China to hold Assad accountable at the U.N. Security Council. "President Assad, despite his promise to abide by the Kofi Annan plan, continues to brutally murder his own people," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday. ... Drought worsens in U.S. farm states-climatologists via Yahoo! News - Top Stories on 8/2/12 (Reuters) - The worst U.S. drought in 56 years intensified over the past week as above-normal temperatures and scant rainfall parched corn and soybean crops across the Midwest and central Plains, a report from climate experts s