| Afghanistan, U.S. reach draft security agreement Posted: 20 Nov 2013 04:04 PM PST  By Hamid Shalizi and Arshad Mohammed KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Afghanistan reached a draft agreement on Wednesday laying out the terms under which U.S. troops may stay beyond 2014, one day before Afghan elders are to debate the issue. A draft accord released by the Afghan government appears to meet U.S. demands on such controversial issues as whether U.S. troops would unilaterally conduct counterterrorism operations, enter Afghan homes or protect the country from outside attack. Without the accord, Washington has warned it could withdraw its troops by the end of next year and leave Afghan forces to fight a Taliban-led insurgency without their help. Thousands of Afghan dignitaries and elders are due to convene in a giant tent in the capital Kabul on Thursday to debate the fate of U.S. forces after a 2014 drawdown of a multinational NATO force.
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| Student shot dead at a Cairo university protest Posted: 20 Nov 2013 04:27 PM PST  A student was shot dead in clashes between supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and security forces at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, state newspaper al-Ahram reported on Thursday. Security forces stormed into the university late on Wednesday, state news agency MENA reported, after they were called in to control the protesters who set fire to trees inside the campus. The student was hit in the head by birdshot during the clashes and five other students were arrested, al-Ahram reported, adding that students threw rocks and bricks at security forces from behind the campus walls. Supporters of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood protest frequently at the university, which is in the same Cairo suburb as the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, scene of a pro-Mursi protest camp where thousands were killed when it was stormed by security forces on August 14.
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| North Korea may have detained elderly U.S. man: media Posted: 20 Nov 2013 04:49 PM PST By William Mallard and Laila Kearney TOKYO/PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - North Korea appears to have detained an 85-year-old California man who had entered the country on a tourist visa, pulling him off a plane as he was about to leave the reclusive Asian country last month, according to media reports on Wednesday. Japan's Kyodo News Service, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in a report from Beijing, said the man entered North Korea for sightseeing last month with a valid visa and may have been detained. But neighbors of 85-year-old Merrill Newman in the Northern California city of Palo Alto told Reuters on Wednesday they were concerned about his fate after he travelled to North Korea but failed to return. The San Jose Mercury News, citing unnamed sources, had earlier identified Newman as the detained American, saying he was a Korean war veteran who was taken off a plane as he was about to leave North Korea on October 26. |
| Central African Republic held surrender talks with warlord Kony: U.N., A.U. Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:26 PM PST  The Central African Republic has been in contact with warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army fighters to urge them to surrender, but Kony's whereabouts are still unknown, the United Nations and the African Union said on Wednesday. Kony, who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, waged a brutal guerrilla war against Ugandan government in the north of the country for nearly two decades, before fleeing with his fighters into the jungles of central Africa around 2005. A 5,000-strong African Union Regional Task Force, supported by about 100 U.S. Special Forces, has been hunting Kony and his fighters. Most of them are thought to be hiding in jungles straddling the borders of Central African Republic, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.
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| France, Italy call for full-time Eurogroup chief Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:02 PM PST  France and Italy called on Wednesday for euro zone finance ministers to have a full-time chairman after European Parliament elections in May. Speaking after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta in Rome, French President Francois Hollande said the euro zone needed to complete its banking union and set up a joint borrowing mechanism to finance investment. According to a document released to journalists at the meeting, Hollande and Letta also urged an EU summit in December to agree on a resolution mechanism for failing banks. It also called for the possibility of direct recapitalization of banks by the so-called European Stability Mechanism, the permanent crisis resolution mechanism for the countries of the euro area.
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| 11 Egypt soldiers killed as bombs hit Sinai, Cairo Posted: 20 Nov 2013 04:43 PM PST  A car bomb in Egypt's restive Sinai killed 11 soldiers Wednesday, while another blast struck police in Cairo, in the latest in a spate of attacks following Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster. The troops died when an explosives-laden car blew up next to an army bus in North Sinai's provincial capital El-Arish, a security official said. In northern Cairo, assailants hurled an explosive device at a checkpoint, wounding four policemen, including a major hit in the face and back by shrapnel, security sources said. The Sinai bombing, which also wounded 34 soldiers, was the deadliest in the region bordering Gaza and Israel since an August 19 ambush on a convoy of security forces that killed 25 policemen in the North Sinai town of Rafah.
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| Colombian president says will seek re-election in 2014 Posted: 20 Nov 2013 04:34 PM PST  Bogota (AFP) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Wednesday announced in an address to the nation that he will seek re-election next year.
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| Colombia's Santos says to stand for re-election in 2014 Posted: 20 Nov 2013 04:20 PM PST  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday he would seek a second term in office next May, a widely expected decision that could offer him another four years to pursue a peace process he initiated with Marxist FARC rebels. "I want a Colombia that is at peace and prosperous for all," Santos said in an address to the nation. Santos, 62, a Harvard-educated journalist and son of one of the nation's most influential families, will take on opposition candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga in a campaign likely to focus on how peace with the rebels would transform Colombian society after five decades of war. Santos began negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) a year ago.
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| Bangladesh makes 'exceptional' health progress despite poverty Posted: 20 Nov 2013 04:03 PM PST By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters)- Bangladesh has had 40 years of exceptional progress in health, with infant mortality down, life expectancy up and good disease control, all despite being one of the world's poorest countries, researchers said on Thursday. Most often in the news for its poverty or natural or manmade disasters, such as a factory fire that killed 1,129 people in April, Bangladesh was described in studies published on Thursday as a "remarkable success story" and one of the "great mysteries of global health". "Over the past 40 years, Bangladesh has outperformed its Asian neighbors, convincingly defying the expert view that reducing poverty and increasing health resources are the key drivers of better population health," said Professor Mushtaque Chowdhury from Dhaka's BRAC University, who co-led a series of studies published in The Lancet medical journal. The rate of women dying in childbirth has dropped by 75 percent since 1980 in Bangladesh, while infant mortality has more than halved since 1990. |
| Australia win toss and bat in Ashes opener Posted: 20 Nov 2013 03:57 PM PST  Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) - Australia won the toss and chose to bat in the first Test against England at the Gabba Thursday as they set out to avoid their fourth straight Ashes series defeat. England wicketkeeper Matt Prior was cleared to play after passing a fitness test following a calf injury, while Chris Tremlett was named as the third seam bowler. Australia went in with spinner Nathan Lyon in their XI, with all-rounder James Faulkner named as 12th man with the game set to start under sunny skies. "The wicket looks fantastic and the weather forecast today is very good," Australia skipper Michael Clarke said.
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| Kerry: whether Iran may enrich uranium won't be resolved in first stage of talks Posted: 20 Nov 2013 03:56 PM PST U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday the issue of whether Iran will ultimately be allowed to enrich uranium will not be decided in an interim deal under discussion between major world powers and Iranian officials in Geneva. "We are at the initial stage of determining whether or not there is a first step that could be taken, and that certainly will not be resolved in any first step, I can assure you." Separately, Vice President Joe Biden met with Democratic senators to discuss the Iran talks with them, the White House said in a statement. Biden emphasized that the goal of the talks is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and said that any relief from sanctions would be modest compared with the continuing overall impact of those sanctions. Attendees included Senators Richard Blumenthal, Ben Cardin and Elizabeth Warren. |
| Suspect says he participated in Mexico massacre Posted: 20 Nov 2013 03:39 PM PST CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — One of the suspects in the brutal stabbing deaths of a family of eight in this border city told journalists Wednesday that he stood guard outside the home as a second man detained in the case stabbed the victims to death in a dispute over a 1,500-peso ($115) dog-breeding debt. |
| Shareholders raise surveillance concerns at AT&T, Verizon Posted: 20 Nov 2013 03:30 PM PST  By Ross Kerber and Sinead Carew BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shareholders of telecom giants AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc are seeking more details related to their sharing of customer information with governments, showing investors starting to push back over the role of communications companies in spying operations. Activists including Trillium Asset Management of Boston and the $161 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund have filed proposals for the spring shareholder meetings of AT&T and Verizon, representatives said. Both resolutions call on the companies to report semi-annually on "metrics and discussion regarding requests for customer information by U.S. and foreign governments." As carriers of massive amounts of voice and data traffic, the telecommunications companies have been at the center of controversies over the use of their data by U.S. intelligence agencies.
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| Afghan election season off to a messy start Posted: 20 Nov 2013 03:17 PM PST  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — With Afghanistan's next presidential election just five months away, authorities say they are facing a possible repeat of the abuses that have discredited the country's efforts to build a democracy.
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| Iran forcibly deporting Afghans, rights group says Posted: 20 Nov 2013 03:17 PM PST  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Iran is forcefully deporting Afghans by the thousands in violation of its international obligation to protect refugees, a rights group said Wednesday in a report.
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| Haiti's prime minister tours Silicon Valley Posted: 20 Nov 2013 03:16 PM PST  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — From Google to Facebook to Apple, Haiti's Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe took a whirlwind tour through Silicon Valley's most elite tech firms, persuading some of the world's wealthiest and most successful corporate executives to share support and innovation with the poorest country in the Americas.
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| Canadian PM's ex-top aide accused of bribery, fraud Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:45 PM PST  Federal police are accusing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former right-hand man of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, court documents showed Wednesday. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Nigel Wright illegally helped Conservative Senator Mike Duffy about Can$90,000 ($86,150) in fraudulent expense claims. It saw Wright leave the prime minister's office in May, and Duffy be effectively expelled from the Senate earlier this month.
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| France: Possible newspaper attack suspect arrested Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:40 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — French police arrested a man Wednesday night believed to be the suspect in a Paris newspaper office shooting that left a photographer gravely wounded and in other attacks that triggered a two-day nationwide manhunt, authorities said.
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| Defiant Toronto mayor still in 'Desert Storm mode' Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:31 PM PST  Toronto's disgraced mayor is in "Desert Storm mode" and will fight to regain the powers stripped from him after he admitted smoking crack and binge drinking, his deputy said Wednesday. Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, who assumed most of Mayor Rob Ford's powers after a vote of the City Council on Monday, told the Toronto Star that he would like to come to terms with his colleague. But he added: "I said I reached my hand out to him, but he seems to still be in a Desert Storm mode."
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| Too fat to fly: Stranded Frenchman's ordeal ending Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:13 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — He's been turned down by planes, trains and even a cruise ship in his quest to return home — and his family says it's because he has been deemed too fat to travel.
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| Afghanistan-U.S. reach draft security agreement Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:08 PM PST By Hamid Shalizi and Arshad Mohammed KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Afghanistan on Wednesday reached a draft agreement on a crucial security pact, a day before thousands of Afghan elders are set to debate whether to allow U.S. troops to stay in the country after 2014. Thousands of Afghan dignitaries and elders are due to convene in a giant tent in the capital Kabul on Thursday to debate the fate of U.S. forces after a 2014 drawdown of a multinational NATO force. "We have reached an agreement as to the final language of the bilateral security agreement that will be placed before the Loya Jirga tomorrow," Kerry told reporters. Intense negotiations between Kabul and Washington have provoked frustration among the Afghan tribal and political elders who made perilous journeys from all over the country to the capital Kabul for a grand assembly to debate the pact. |
| Too fat to fly? Stranded Frenchman's long ordeal Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:07 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — He's been turned down by planes, trains and even a cruise ship in his quest to return home — and his family says it's because he has been deemed too fat to travel.
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| Protest planned at Australian embassy in Jakarta as spy row grows Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:05 PM PST  Australia warned travelers to Indonesia of a planned demonstration at its embassy in Jakarta on Thursday as anger grows over reports Canberra spied on top Indonesians, including the president and his wife. Relations between the key trading and strategic neighbors have slumped to their lowest ebb since 1999 after media this week reported that Australia's spy agency had tried to tap President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's mobile phone and those of his wife and senior officials in 2009. Yudhoyono went on national television on Wednesday to announce that he was freezing military and intelligence cooperation, including over the issue of asylum seekers, that has long been an irritant in relations. "Local police advise that a demonstration is planned for outside the Australian Embassy on 21 November 2013," Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in updated travel advisory for Indonesia, the country's No. 2 tourist destination after New Zealand.
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| Kerry: Muslim Brotherhood 'stole' Egypt revolution Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:02 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday accused Egypt's well-organized Muslim Brotherhood of having "stolen" the revolution that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011. |
| Afghanistan’s Big Tent Politics: TIME Explains the Loya Jirga Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:48 PM PST Thousands of tribal elders from across Afghanistan will gather in Kabul on Thursday for a Loya Jirga, which is Pashto for grand council. Delegates to the Loya Jirga meet now with the shadow of an American withdrawal looming over Afghanistan. For the past year, U.S. and coalition troops have been packing their equipment, while international aid has started to dry up. A cloud of uncertainty still hangs over negotiations to keep U.S. troops in the country after 2014. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the U.S. and Afghanistan had reached a bilateral security agreement to govern U.S. forces after NATO's combat mission ends next year. But before Afghan President Hamid Karzai signs the accord, it will face consideration by the Loya Jirga. |
| 'Too fat to fly' Frenchman arrives home after ordeal Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:43 PM PST  A clinically obese Frenchman who had been stranded in the United States returned home by ferry on Wednesday after a long ordeal during which he was refused passage by an airline and by the Eurostar train. Kevin Chenais, 22, who weighs 230 kilos (500 pounds) due to a hormonal imbalance, arrived in the French port of Calais on a P&O ferry from Dover on the southeast coast of England, the ferry company said. "He did travel as planned on the Spirit of Britain at 4:40 pm and the ship arrived in France on schedule," a P&O spokesman said. Chenais had been treated for his condition in the specialist Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, but he was stranded in the United States after British Airways deemed him too heavy to fly.
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| Mozambique polls close peacefully Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:41 PM PST  Mozambican local elections passed off peacefully Wednesday despite concerns that a recent upsurge in political violence would mar voting. Polling was calm in zones worst affected by recent deadly fighting between government troops and supporters of the main opposition party Renamo, according to local media reports. President Armando Guebuza claimed there was a high turnout in a sign of confidence in his ruling Frelimo ruling party. The vote is seen as a key indicator of Frelimo's grip on power less than a year before the country goes to presidential polls next October.
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| Analysis - Beirut blast: jolt from past and omen of dark future Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:38 PM PST  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thirty years after the Lebanese capital gave birth to the modern suicide bomber, a killer has again driven his explosive-packed car towards an embassy in Beirut, hurling charred corpses through the street. Many Lebanese say they now believe their country is doomed to become the next battlefield for Sunni jihadists, looking for soft targets to inflict blows on the Shi'ite supporters of neighboring Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. Lebanon has already been caught in the blowback from the 2 1/2-year-old civil war in Syria, with scores killed in clashes between Shi'ite Muslim supporters of Assad and their Sunni foes. It resurrected the tactics born in a previous generation's Lebanon war, which are now the signature of neighboring states' bloodbaths.
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| Libya MP says grenade in her bag was for self-defence Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:35 PM PST  A Libyan MP, stopped by officials at Tripoli's city hall Wednesday when her handbag set off a security alarm, said a hand grenade inside was for her own defence. Souad Soltan, a member of the General National Congress, had arrived at city hall for a meeting when she put her bag through the metal detector and set off the alarm, the city government said on its Facebook page. "When the security officer asked her what was in the bag, she admitted there was a grenade that she carried for her own defence," a statement said. "After she left the meeting, she wanted the grenade back but the security officer refused."
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| Malta postpones citizenship sale after opposition Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:25 PM PST VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Malta has indefinitely postponed implementing a law to sell its citizenship — and entrance into the European Union — for 650,000 euros ($850,000) following massive outcry on the Mediterranean island. |
| 1 year down: American walking from Africa to Chile Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:24 PM PST  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — In Paul Salopek's first year of his trek across the globe, the reporter walked alongside his camels for days in Ethiopia without seeing glass or bricks or any other signs of modern humanity, ate a hamburger on a U.S. military base and was shadowed by minders in the Saudi desert. He has only 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) to go.
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| Lebanon blasts expose Iran and Qaeda face-off over Syria Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:24 PM PST  Twin bombings against Iran's embassy in Hezbollah's Beirut stronghold point to a confrontation between Tehran and Al-Qaeda in Lebanon, which is paying a heavy price for the Syrian war, analysts said. "It is a direct confrontation between Al-Qaeda on one side, and all those who back the Syrian regime and Iran on the other," said Hilal al-Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut. "The two blasts are a direct message to Iran that says: 'You are the origin of the problem in Syria, we will face you directly, not by proxy.'"
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| Ivory Coast raises minimum wage by 60 percent Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:23 PM PST  The Ivorian government announced Wednesday it would raise the minimum wage by more than 60 percent after 19 years at the same level. "This decision... will ease the burden on workers who have been hit far too hard by price rises," said government spokeswoman Affoussiata Bamba. The minimum monthly wage was fixed at 36,600 CFA Francs (55 euros, $75), and will rise to 60,000 CFA Francs (90 euros, $120) for the first time since 1994, when the CFA currency was devalued by half, according to a labour department document seen by AFP. The 61-percent increase is not expected to have a great impact on workers' wages as so few are paid the minimum, which is far from enough to live on in Ivory Coast.
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| Scandal-hit Co-op Bank to face independent probe Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:18 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — Britain's prime minister said Wednesday the ailing Co-operative Bank will face an independent inquiry into the role of its former chairman, a minister who was filmed allegedly buying crystal meth and other drugs.
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