| Thai PM calls for talks, protest leader defiant Posted: 02 Dec 2013 06:54 AM PST By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Aubrey Belford BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Monday she would "open every door" to find a peaceful solution to a political crisis gripping Bangkok as police used rubber bullets against protesters seeking to topple her government. The violence is the latest twist in a conflict pitting Bangkok's middle class and royalist elite against the mostly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile. Yingluck told a news conference that police would not use force but the national security chief said rubber bullets were being used as protesters threatened to advance on Yingluck's office, the focal point of the demonstrations since the weekend. A Ramathibodi Hospital official later said two protesters had been wounded by gunfire but it was not known who shot them. |
| NATO says Karzai failure to sign pact would end Afghan mission Posted: 02 Dec 2013 12:28 PM PST  By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO would have to pull all its troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 if Afghan President Hamid Karzai does not sign a security pact with the United States, alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday. An assembly of Afghan elders, the Loya Jirga, last month endorsed the security pact intended to shape the U.S. military presence in the country beyond 2014. But Karzai said he might not sign it until after elections in April. The NATO-led force currently has around 80,000 troops in Afghanistan, the majority American.
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| Myanmar looks abroad for investment in healthcare Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:25 PM PST  By Jared Ferrie YANGON (Reuters) - Yangon General Hospital was once the jewel in the crown of one of Southeast Asia's best healthcare systems. It is a scene that Myanmar's reformist government hopes to change as it ratchets up spending on the sector and seeks foreign investment to revive one of Asia's sickest healthcare systems. Several leading regional healthcare companies are already operating in Myanmar and others plan to enter soon, seeing huge potential in the country's underserved population of about 60 million people. Attracting foreign investment is part of an overhaul of the healthcare system by the quasi-civilian government that took over from the army in 2011.
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| Colombian president 'optimistic' about peace, to meet Obama Tuesday Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:48 PM PST  By David Adams MIAMI (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, bound for Washington on an official visit, said on Monday he remains cautiously optimistic about peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels taking place in Cuba. "I think the conditions are there" for a successful conclusion to the talks, Santos told an audience of academics, students and diplomats at the University of Miami. "Things are moving hopefully in the correct direction." But he quoted a Colombian proverb as a cautionary note, saying, "The bread can very well burn right at the door of the oven." Santos, a Harvard-educated journalist, spoke eloquently in English about his hopes for peace and economic growth in Colombia during a 30-minute speech at the invitation of University of Miami President Donna Shalala, who awarded him the school's President's Medal for service to society. Santos, on his second official visit to the United States since taking office in 2010, hailed both the year-old peace talks as well as economic progress at home.
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| Mexican Congress committees give green light to electoral reform Posted: 02 Dec 2013 04:06 PM PST  By Adriana Barrera MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican congressional committees on Monday gave the green light to an electoral reform demanded by the opposition, paving the way for lawmakers to push ahead with the energy sector overhaul at the center of President Enrique Pena Nieto's reform agenda. The reform will allow federal lawmakers to serve consecutive terms, sets out rules for coalition governments and should strengthen Congress at the expense of the president. It is the last major hurdle to approval of the energy reform. The progress on the electoral bill comes after Mexico's main leftist party pulled out of a political pact that Pena Nieto's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) forged a year ago with opposition leaders to push through economic reforms.
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| Syria death toll hits nearly 126,000: monitoring group Posted: 02 Dec 2013 05:17 AM PST  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - The death toll in Syria's civil war has risen to at least 125,835, more than a third of them civilians, but the real figure is probably much higher, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday. The pro-opposition monitoring group also appealed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and "all people in the international community who have a conscience" to increase their efforts to end the 2-1/2 year war. The conflict began as peaceful protests against four decades of rule by President Bashar al-Assad's family, but under a fierce security force crackdown, turned into an armed insurgency whose sectarian dimensions have echoed across the Middle East. The Observatory, based in Britain but with a network of activists across Syria, put the number of children killed in the conflict so far at 6,627.
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| Salvage operation ends as Scotland helicopter is removed Posted: 02 Dec 2013 04:58 PM PST  The search and recovery operation carried out after a police helicopter smashed through the roof of a Glasgow pub concluded Monday, with the final death toll standing at nine, police said. Three people on board the helicopter were killed and six died in the Clutha pub, where around 120 people were watching a performance by a ska band when the aircraft plunged on to the building on Friday evening. Police in Scotland confirmed that all the bodies had been removed and named all nine victims. Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick said: "I can confirm that the search and recovery operation has now concluded and we are satisfied there are no further fatalities at the scene.
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| VP Biden opens weeklong Asia trip with Tokyo stop Posted: 02 Dec 2013 04:57 PM PST  TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has opened a weeklong trip to Asia aimed at showing the U.S. is still committed to increasing its engagement and influence in the region.
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| Five-story building collapses in Sao Paulo Posted: 02 Dec 2013 04:14 PM PST  A five-story building under construction collapsed outside Sao Paulo late Monday but officials said there was no word on casualties. More than 70 firefighters, accompanied by sniffer dogs, were on the scene, combing through the rubble of the building in search of possible victims in the city of Guarulhos, the fire department said. "It was a building under construction, with all the features of a commercial building," Civil Defense coordinator Victor Novaes told Globonews. Guarulhos is home to Sao Paulo's main international airport.
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| Retooled Obamacare website traffic surges but problems remain Posted: 02 Dec 2013 03:48 PM PST A surge of visitors clogged the U.S. government's revamped healthcare insurance shopping website on Monday, signaling that President Barack Obama's administration has a way to go in fixing the portal that showcases his signature domestic policy. By 5:30 p.m. EST, the website had logged 750,000 visitors, the White House said, nearly the 800,000 daily users the refurbished site is supposed to be able to handle. That was significant progress for a website that has become the face of one of the biggest crises of Obama's administration, one that has undermined the Democratic president's promotion of an activist government and threatened to become a drag on Democrats in next year's elections, when control of Congress will be at stake. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was passed in 2010. |
| New York train was speeding before derailment: investigators Posted: 02 Dec 2013 03:29 PM PST By Curtis Skinner YONKERS, New York (Reuters) - A New York commuter train that derailed on Sunday morning, killing four people, was traveling nearly three times faster than the speed limit for the curved section of track where it crashed, officials said on Monday. The seven-car Metro-North train's brakes were working properly but were applied just seconds before it derailed, investigators said. They said black-box recorders recovered from the train showed it had been traveling at 82 miles per hour before entering the 30-mile-per-hour (48-kph) curve. The recorders showed the train's brakes were applied "very late in the game," National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener told reporters. |
| Ukraine protests increase risks of currency crisis Posted: 02 Dec 2013 03:13 PM PST By Douglas Busvine MOSCOW (Reuters) - Massive protests against Viktor Yanukovich hammered Ukraine's financial markets on Monday, increasing the risk of a currency crisis as the president tries to hold on until an election in early 2015. Ukraine's debt insurance costs jumped and currency traders increased bets on a devaluation after 350,000 people protested on Sunday against Yanukovich's decision to ditch a trade pact with the European Union. Yet even though the protest was the largest since the Orange revolution that overturned Yanukovich's election victory in 2004, analysts stopped short of predicting wholesale upheaval. "I'm trying to work out when a country has ever provoked a revolution over a trade deal," said Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital in London. |
| Ukraine looks to China for money as debt crunch looms Posted: 02 Dec 2013 03:11 PM PST By Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich will head to China on Tuesday looking for loans and investment, despite the massive protests unleashed by his decision not to sign a trade pact with the European Union. Protesters blockaded the main government building in Kiev on Monday and brought traffic to a halt, seeking to force Yanukovich from office, after hundreds of thousands demonstrated on Sunday against his decision to turn away from the EU towards Russia. Ukraine's currency and bonds came under pressure, along with share prices. But the tug-of-war between Brussels and Moscow for influence in Ukraine has so far done little to alleviate its looming debt crisis, and Yanukovich confirmed on state television on Monday that the visit would go ahead. |
| Ivory Coast denies sending hit squads to target opponents Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:52 PM PST  Ivory Coast on Monday denied a United Nations report that it sent hit squads to Ghana to kill followers of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was forced to cede power in 2011 after a post-election crisis. "(The report) itself says the experts are not in a position to independently verify the information given by the Ghanaian government," he said. "President Alassane Ouattara has been in power for two and a half years now," he added. The report, obtained Sunday by AFP, says Ghana's government told UN sanctions experts they had "foiled" at least two missions this year by Ivory Coast agents to kill or abduct Gbagbo associates.
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| Tripoli under Lebanon army control after sectarian killings Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:40 PM PST  Tripoli (Lebanon) (AFP) - Lebanese authorities decided Monday to place Tripoli under army control for six months after a wave of sectarian killings linked to Syria's war left 11 dead in the main northern city. The decision was taken at a meeting between President Michel Sleiman, army chief General Jean Kahwaji and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the premier's office said. A man was killed Monday in Tripoli, a security source said, raising to 11 the toll in three days of sectarian clashes linked to the war in neighbouring Syria. The man, Issa Tiba, was from the Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen, whose residents have been locked in fierce fighting with rivals in the neighbouring Sunni district of Bab el-Tebbaneh since Saturday.
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| British PM emphasises business in China visit Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:39 PM PST  British Prime Minister David Cameron stressed his country is open to Chinese investment Monday on his first visit to China since meeting the Dalai Lama, keeping human rights to the sidelines. Cameron, whose meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in 2012 was condemned by Beijing and led to a diplomatic deep-freeze between the two nations, emphasised business ties as he began what embassy officials called the "the largest British trade mission ever to go to China". Cameron also vowed to push for a free-trade agreement between China and the EU. "Some in Europe and elsewhere see the world changing and want to shut China off behind a bamboo curtain of trade barriers.
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| Mali defence minister vows to support coup leader's trial Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:38 PM PST  Mali's defence minister vowed Monday he would not pose "any obstacle" to the court case against General Amadou Sanogo, the leader of a March 2012 coup that plunged the country into crisis. Sanogo, a divisive figure in the west African country, was arrested on November 27 and charged along with 15 other people, mostly fellow soldiers from his inner circle, for alleged crimes during the coup and its aftermath. Sanogo still commands support in some circles, including key segments of the army, but Defence Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga -- part of a new government sworn in after presidential elections in July and August -- said he would fully cooperate with judicial authorities. He said Sanogo's arrest was not at the "government's initiative".
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| Outages in Tripoli as minorities block power output: government Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:30 PM PST Libya's government blamed protests by two minority groups demanding more political rights for outages in the capital, Tripoli, and other parts of the North African country, state media said on Monday. Both groups are demanding that their languages and cultural identities be guaranteed in a new constitution two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. The strikes come on top of widespread protests at oilfields and ports over higher pay and political rights that halted most exports and dried up state revenues. |
| French artist Laure Prouvost wins Turner Prize Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:26 PM PST LONDON (AP) — French filmmaker and installation artist Laure Prouvost on Monday won this year's Turner Prize, the prestigious British award for contemporary art. |
| Fifty Shades of Grey movie begins filming Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:10 PM PST  The movie adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, the bestselling erotic novel by E.L. James, has started filming in westernmost Canada. Due to be released on Valentine's Day 2015, the first of the trilogy began shooting in Vancouver's historic cobblestone Gastown neighborhood on Sunday, said the daily Vancouver Sun. Actor Jamie Dornan was cast as the young business magnate Christian Grey, who takes a romantic interest in literature student Anastasia Steele, played by Dakota Johnson.
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| Honduras authorities to review election fraud claim Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:09 PM PST  Honduras' top electoral authority on Monday agreed to review electoral rolls and results from the country's November 24 presidential vote after a leading candidate charged fraud. Leftist Xiomara Castro, wife of the ousted former president Manuel Zelaya, claims officials manipulated the outcome to hand the presidency to conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez. "Let us find the tools for it, and let's do this in the most public way possible so that absolutely no doubt remains," David Matamoros, head of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) told Castro and Zelaya, lead of her Libre party, after they headed to TSE headquarters to press for a new vote count or procedural review. The electoral roll and results documents, which include the voters' registry and the results for each party, were scanned and sent to the TSE's tallying center in the capital.
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| US prepares ship to destroy Syria's chemical weapons Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:07 PM PST  The US military has begun outfitting a ship with special equipment that will be used to destroy part of Syria's chemical arsenal, the Pentagon said Monday. A hydrolysis unit is being installed on the MV Cape Ray, a 650-foot (200 meters) cargo ship, which would be employed to neutralize some of Syria's lethal chemical agents, a spokesman said. "We are preparing the Cape Ray to be part of the destruction process if we're tasked with that mission," Colonel Steven Warren told reporters. The Pentagon acknowledged the preparations after the world's chemical watchdog agency, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Saturday that an American ship would help destroy the most dangerous of Syria's chemical agents.
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| Ukraine president turns his back on turmoil, heads for China Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:05 PM PST By Thomas Grove KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich is set to head for China on Tuesday, leaving a country plunged into crisis by his decision to forego a free trade deal with Europe under pressure from Russia. With pro-Europe demonstrators blockading the government's main building in Kiev, their allies in parliament called for a vote of no confidence in the cabinet on Tuesday over what they say is a lurch back towards Soviet-style rule from Moscow. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said the government could not perform its basic functions which could affect the payment of pensions and salaries. This is a very serious matter," Interfax news agency quoted him telling the ambassadors of the European Union, United States and Canada. |
| UK investigators: No emergency call from chopper Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:05 PM PST LONDON (AP) — The pilot of a Scottish police helicopter did not put out any emergency calls before crashing through the roof of a crowded Glasgow pub, killing nine people, investigators said Monday. |
| Gunman killed in rare Iceland police shooting Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:55 PM PST LONDON (AP) — Police in Iceland said Monday they shot dead a gunman — the first time armed police have killed someone in the nation. |
| Lebanese army taking over in second-largest city Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:50 PM PST  TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — The government authorized the army Monday to take charge of security in Lebanon's second-largest city of Tripoli for six months following deadly sectarian clashes by rival sides stemming from the civil war in neighboring Syria.
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| U.S. sends new submarine-hunting jets to Japan amid East Asia tension Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:43 PM PST  By Tim Kelly and Phil Stewart TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy's first two advanced P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft have arrived in Japan, U.S. military officials said on Monday, helping to upgrade America's ability to hunt submarines and other vessels in seas close to China as tension in the region mounts. The initial deployment - another four of the aircraft are due to arrive in the coming days - was planned before China last month established an air defense identification zone covering islands controlled by Japan and claimed by Beijing. The Pentagon says it is routinely flying operations in the region, including in China's newly declared air defense zone, without informing Beijing ahead of time.
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| Israel admitted into advisory body to UN Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:41 PM PST GENEVA (AP) — The U.S. and other Western countries have admitted Israel into an informal group in Geneva that will provide it with some influence before the U.N. top human rights body, officials said Monday. |
| Thai protest leader vows to escalate offensive Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:40 PM PST  BANGKOK (AP) — A firebrand opposition leader vowed Monday to escalate his campaign to topple Thailand's government, and ordered his followers to storm Bangkok's police headquarters after they fought all day with riot police protecting heavily barricaded key buildings.
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| Syria war crimes evidence implicates Assad Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:34 PM PST  Evidence has been uncovered in Syria that implicates President Bashar al-Assad and members of his inner circle in war crimes and crimes against humanity, a top UN official said Monday. The allegations came as Syrian rebels, including jihadists, captured the historic Christian town of Maalula north of Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group. A UN probe into rights violations committed during 33 months of brutal conflict "has produced massive evidence ... (of) very serious crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity," United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said in Geneva. It is the first time evidence by a UN-mandated commission has directly implicated Assad in crimes committed during Syria's civil war, which has killed an estimated 126,000 people, according to new figures released by the Observatory.
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| Yanukovych: the man who provokes Ukraine's wrath Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:29 PM PST  Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was in 2004 one of the villains of the country's Orange Revolution uprising that forced the annulment of rigged elections he claimed to have won. Yanukovych, who defeated Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko in a poll in 2010 and then saw her sentenced to seven years in prison, risks losing power to huge protests sparked by the scrapping of a landmark cooperation deal with the EU. "Yanukovych risks going down in history as a man who over the past 10 years has twice been deprived of power by the square," said Russia's liberal Vedomosti daily, referring to mass protests in the capital Kiev. In a matter of weeks, ex-Soviet Ukraine's fourth president has gone from a statesman seeking to guide Kiev closer toward EU membership to an autocratic leader brutally dispersing protests.
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| Biden to meet Japan leaders amid China tensions Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:28 PM PST  US Vice President Joe Biden will meet Japanese leaders Tuesday, with Tokyo hoping for some fulsome backing in its vicious territorial spat with China. Biden arrived in Tokyo late Monday on the first leg of an Asian tour that will also take him to Beijing and to Seoul. It comes as tensions in the region are at their highest for years, with China and Japan squaring off over a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. "In Tokyo, the Vice President will reaffirm the enduring strength of the US-Japan alliance as a cornerstone of peace and stability in the region," the White House said in a statement.
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| New Egypt draft charter sets powers for military Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:23 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Extensive amendments of the constitution adopted under Egypt's ousted Islamist president give the military more privileges, enshrining its place as the nation's most powerful institution and the source of real power, while removing parts that liberals feared set the stage for the creation of an Islamic state.
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| Facing protests, Ukraine leader again courts EU Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:22 PM PST KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Facing huge anti-government demonstrations after spurning a deal with the European Union, Ukraine's embattled president sought Monday to quell public anger by moving to renew talks with Brussels. |
| Saudi Arabia hints OPEC oil output limit won't change Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:12 PM PST  Saudi Arabia is satisfied with current crude prices as well as global supply and demand levels, its oil minister said Monday, indicating OPEC will freeze its output ceiling. "The market is in the best position it can be," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters in Vienna ahead of a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Wednesday to decide on production. "Demand is great, economic growth is improving," said Naimi, who represents the world's biggest producer of crude oil.
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| Syria rebels capture Christian town of Maalula Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:12 PM PST  Syrian rebels, including jihadist groups, captured the historic Christian town of Maalula north of Damascus on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The picturesque town is considered a symbol of the ancient Christian presence in Syria, and its 5,000 pre-war residents are among the few in the world who still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. The rebels abducted 12 Syrian and Lebanese Orthodox nuns from their convent after moving into the town, Vatican Radio reported, citing Mario Zenari, the nuncio (ambassador) of the Holy See in Syria.
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