Peace

HAVANA - Colombia's main leftist rebel group named three negotiators Thursday for October peace talks in Norway, including a high-ranking guerrilla known as Simon Trinidad who is imprisoned in the United States. Mauricio Jaramillo, a spokesman and top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, told reporters in Havana that the two others would be Ivan Marquez, a participant in past peace talks and a member of the FARC's six-person ruling secretariat, and Jose Santrich, a second-tier leader.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader said Friday that developing nations have a greater right than the United States or NATO to intervene in Syria, signaling an effort to lead a diplomatic push over efforts to resolve the crisis. The comments came a day after Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi had embarrassed the Iran by criticizing its ally, Syria, during a speech at the summit of the Nonaligned Movement, a grouping of about 120 nations. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Friday with Syria's prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, and Damascus' delegation to the conference.

As Tropical Storm Isaac threatens to become a Caribbean hurricane that could hit Florida in time for the Republican National Convention next week, here are some smartphone applications to put detailed weather data at your fingertips. The site HurricaneSoftware.com makes free hurricane tracking apps for Android, Apple and Windows Phone 7. Each platform's app has a different name: Hurricane Software for Android; iHurricane HD for Apple; Tracking the Eye for Windows. Ad-free versions cost $2.99.

Philadelphia will host a monster music festival Labor Day weekend featuring Jay-Z, Pearl Jam, Rick Ross, Drake, Skrillex, and Run-DMC on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, one of the city's central arteries, our museum mile and cultural backyard. Organizers hope to attract 50,000 patrons on each day of the two-day event. The central difference, and huge break with previous Parkway concerts, is that the Budweiser-sponsored spectacle isn't free. Instead of Lollapalooza, it's Brewzapalooza on the Bud Franklin Parkway.

BEIRUT - The Syrian government on Saturday welcomed the naming of a former Algerian diplomat as the U.N.'s new point man in efforts to halt the country's escalating civil war. Activists reported more shelling by regime troops, including an air attack on a northern border town where scores died last week. In a statement, the office of Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa not only expressed support for Lakhdar Brahimi, it also denied reports circulating in Arab media that Sharaa had defected to the opposition.

UNITED NATIONS - Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and longtime U.N. diplomat known as a strong-willed, independent broker, has agreed to replace former Secretary-General Kofi Annan as peace envoy to Syria, the United Nations announced Friday. Brahimi, who served as a U.N. envoy in Afghanistan and Iraq, formally accepted the post and will resume efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Syria's crisis, said Eduardo del Buey, deputy spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Organizers of Camden's Peace on the Street Jam have found the power to put on the antiviolence event Thursday night as scheduled. Plans were in jeopardy last week when organizers discovered that the event site, Robert Johnson Park in the city's Liberty Park section, had been stripped of copper wire - and therefore electricity. "We're all set," city public works director Pat Keating said Friday. The city, county, and school board came together on a solution. School district maintenance workers found two working portable generators that will be used to light up the concession stand and bathrooms, school officials said.

Stan White went out last week to scout a location for Camden's Peace on the Street party. Following a recent spate of violence, he wanted the July 26 event to be the best ever. What the school district community outreach specialist found was a collision of the city's chronic problems. Robert Johnson Park's main source of power was gone; copper wires had been cut and stolen. A refrigerator, heating equipment, and air-conditioning unit also were gone. The bathrooms were not working.