News Headlines - 20 September 2012

▽Shot PCs: Police Investigate 'Family Feud'

A grudge between two families is investigated after the shooting of two women PCs - but police play down notions of gang warfare.

▽Holder Cleared of Wrong Doing in Fast and Furious - NYTimes.com

The Justice Department’s inspector general on Wednesday issued a scathing critique of federal officials for their handling of the botched gun-trafficking case known as Operation Fast and Furious, but essentially exonerated Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., whom many Republicans have blamed for the scandal.

▽AFP: Russia expels USAID for 'political meddling'

Russia said it had given USAID until October 1 to halt its work as the US aid agency was meddling in domestic politics, a move that risks sparking a new diplomatic crisis with Washington.

▽Pakistan declares Friday a day of protest against anti-Islam film - latimes.com

Pakistan continued to seethe Wednesday over the release in the U.S. of a movie trailer mocking Islam, as legions of protesters rallied in several large cities for a sixth day and the government signaled its own discontent by declaring Friday as a national day “of peaceful protest.”

▽Blast Kills at Least 30 in Syria's North

A Syrian rights group says a blast in northeast Syria has killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens of others. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quotes witnesses as saying the blast occurred when an air strike hit a fuel station in al-Raqqa province. The group's director, Rami Abdelrahman, said witnesses told him they saw at least 30 bodies, with the death toll likely to rise.