| Israeli civilian, Palestinian girl killed in Gaza flare-up Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:52 AM PST By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - A Gaza sniper shot dead an Israeli civilian over the border on Tuesday and Israel hit back with air strikes on two Hamas training camps which hospital officials said killed a Palestinian girl near one of the targets. The Israeli man, who the military said was working on Israel's security fence, was the first Israeli killed on the Gaza frontier in more than a year. His death, which drew a swift threat of retaliation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, came amid heightened tensions after two suspected Palestinian attacks - a bus bombing near Tel Aviv on Sunday that caused no casualties and the wounding of an Israeli policeman in a stabbing on Monday. Officials from Hamas, the Islamic group which rules Gaza, and witnesses said Israeli aircraft bombed the group's training camps in Khan Younis and al-Bureij. |
| Egypt arrests Mursi's ex-prime minister on his way to Sudan Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:34 PM PST  Egyptian security forces on Tuesday arrested the former prime minister of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi who was sentenced to one year in jail for failing to implement a court ruling to renationalize a textile firm. "Security forces managed to arrest Hisham Kandil, former prime minister, in carrying out a court order issued against him. He was caught in a mountain area with smugglers trying to flee to Sudan," Egypt's interior ministry said in a statement. Kandil was appointed in July 2012 by Mursi after he won Egypt's first truly democratic elections that followed the fall of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
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| Turkey vows no cover-up despite purge of graft investigators Posted: 24 Dec 2013 01:47 PM PST  By Orhan Coskun and Humeyra Pamuk ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's president pledged on Tuesday there would be no cover-up in a high-level corruption case, despite a government-ordered purge of police investigating it that drew protests at home and a caution from the European Union. The week-long scandal, which erupted with the arrest for graft of 24 people, including the chief of a state-run bank and the sons of two ministers, pits Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan against the judiciary and has rattled investor confidence. Erdogan, a third-term premier under whom Turkey's economy has blossomed, portrays the probe as a foreign-orchestrated plot against national unity. President Abdullah Gul, a more unifying figure, sought to calm the furore.
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| Amid Nepal's chaos, royalists spy chance for a comeback Posted: 24 Dec 2013 01:05 PM PST  By Sanjeev Miglani and Gopal Sharma KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Just a few years ago, Nepal's royal family looked consigned to the history books. The Rastriya Prajantantra Party Nepal, a royalist group led by Kamal Bahadur Thapa, who was interior minister at the height of anti-monarchy protests, has found a way back into the political fray with a strident campaign to once again make Nepal the world's only Hindu state. "Our main agenda is a Hindu state with a constitutional monarchy," Thapa told Reuters. "The monarchy should be the last custodian of the country during the times of crisis." "We want Nepal to be a Hindu nation where all religions will co-exist, all religions will be free and equal.
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| Wife of Kazakh oligarch thanks Italy after travel ban dropped Posted: 24 Dec 2013 09:45 AM PST  The wife of an exiled Kazakh oligarch accused of embezzling millions of dollars from his former bank thanked Italy on Tuesday for helping her to overturn a travel ban, months after she was expelled from Rome. Alma Shalabayeva, the wife of exiled oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, thanked Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino in a phone call for helping to persuade the Kazakh government to allow her return to Europe, the Italian foreign ministry said. The ministry said in a statement it would follow the case closely and that the Italian charge d'affaires in Kazakhstan was helping Shalabayeva with the formalities of obtaining a visa to return to Europe. Critics including the Italian press, politicians and the Ablyazov family's lawyers accused the government of ignoring normal procedures to please Kazakhstan, a major oil producer.
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| Ukraine receives first tranche of Russian bailout Posted: 24 Dec 2013 09:15 AM PST  By Denis Dyomkin MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia told Ukraine on Tuesday it had transferred the first $3 billion tranche of a $15 billion bailout, part of plans to keep Kiev firmly within Moscow's orbit and out of the European Union's embrace. President Vladimir Putin offered Ukraine the lifeline last week, along with a big cut in the price Kiev pays for vital Russian gas supplies, as he tries to persuade Russia's Slavic neighbor to join a customs union of ex-Soviet republics.
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| Storms wreak havoc in Britain, France on Christmas Eve Posted: 24 Dec 2013 04:11 PM PST  LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Hurricane-force winds and torrential rain disrupted transport networks and cut power supplies in Britain and France on Tuesday, one of the busiest travel days of the year just before Christmas, pushing the death toll to at least six people. In Britain the number of people killed in two days of storms rose to at least five after a man died trying to rescue his dog from fast-flowing waters in Devon, southwest England. A teenager died in France on Monday after a wall collapsed on him. Airports in southern England were disrupted, with some flights from Britain's busiest airport, Heathrow, canceled or delayed.
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| Crowds throng Bethlehem for Christmas Posted: 24 Dec 2013 03:55 PM PST  BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world packed the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations on Tuesday, bringing warm holiday cheer to the biblical birthplace of Jesus on a cool, clear night.
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| Curbishley, Dempsey sign on for struggling Fulham Posted: 24 Dec 2013 03:28 PM PST  Former Charlton and West Ham manager Alan Curbishley and American international midfielder Clint Dempsey signed on at Fulham on Tuesday with the Premier League club staring at relegation. Curbishley, 56, was named first team technical director to work alongside head coach Rene Meulensteen while former star Dempsey, who plays for Seattle Sounders in the MLS, penned a two-month loan deal. "I'm very happy that Alan has joined us as I know his expertise will be invaluable as we enter the remaining months of the season," said Meulensteen, who took over from Martin Jol three weeks ago but is in charge of a side which is second from bottom of the Premier League.
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| UN says mass grave of 34 found in South Sudan Posted: 24 Dec 2013 02:49 PM PST  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — U.N. investigators discovered a mass grave in a rebel-held city in South Sudan, the United Nations said Tuesday, as a possible opening occurred for negotiations to avert civil war in the world's newest country where ethnic violence has erupted.
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| Pope on Christmas Eve lauds Jesus' 'humble' start Posted: 24 Dec 2013 02:44 PM PST  VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis lauded Jesus' humble beginning as a poor and vulnerable baby as he celebrated his first Christmas Eve Mass as pontiff Tuesday in St. Peter's Basilica.
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| U.N. sends more peacekeepers to South Sudan as violence spreads Posted: 24 Dec 2013 02:31 PM PST By Carl Odera and Michelle Nichols JUBA/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council approved plans on Tuesday to almost double the number of peacekeepers in South Sudan in a bid to protect civilians from violence as reports of mass graves fueled fears of ethnic bloodshed in the world's newest state. The 15-member council unanimously authorized a plan by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's to boost the strength of the force in South Sudan to 12,500 troops and 1,323 police, as some 45,000 civilians seek protection at U.N. bases. The additional U.N. troops and police will reinforce U.N. bases where civilians are seeking shelter. But Ban warned, "Even with additional capabilities, we will not be able to protect every civilian in need in South Sudan." Violence erupted in the capital Juba on December 15 and quickly spread, dividing the land-locked country of 10.8 million along ethnic lines of Nuer and Dinka. |
| Uruguay President Mujica signs marijuana law Posted: 24 Dec 2013 02:01 PM PST  MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — A spokesman for President Jose Mujica of Uruguay says the leader has quietly signed into law the government's plan to create a regulated, legal market for marijuana.
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| UN Council approves 6,000 more S.Sudan peacekeepers Posted: 24 Dec 2013 01:25 PM PST  UNITED NATIONS (United States) (AFP) - The United Nations Security Council agreed on Tuesday to almost double the size of the peacekeeping force in troubled South Sudan, adding nearly 6,000 extra soldiers and police. UN chief Ban Ki-moon had called for the UNMISS force to be increased to counter a major outbreak of violence, and member states agreed to increase the military contingent to 12,500 troops. In the meantime, Council members demanded an end to hostilities between forces loyal to South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and to his rival deposed vice president Riek Machar. On Tuesday, UN officials said they are investigating massacres that could amount to "war crimes and crimes against humanity," and a senior envoy inside Sudan said the death toll was in the thousands.
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| Snowden 'an indoor cat' in Moscow, says he's 'won' Posted: 24 Dec 2013 01:21 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — Keeping a mostly low-profile as a U.S. fugitive in Moscow, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has suddenly resurfaced in the media, saying he is confident his personal "mission is already accomplished" and he has "already won" after leaking NSA secrets. The challenge now, he believes, is to stress the importance of privacy and urge an end to mass government surveillance.
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| U.N. Security Council OKs thousands more South Sudan peacekeepers Posted: 24 Dec 2013 01:13 PM PST By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council approved plans on Tuesday to almost double the number of U.N. peacekeepers in South Sudan as soon as possible to protect civilians from worsening violence that has pushed the world's newest state to the verge of civil war. The 15-member council unanimously authorized a request by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to boost the strength of the U.N. mission in South Sudan to 12,500 troops and 1,323 police, from its previous mandate of 7,000 troops and 900 police. Violence erupted in South Sudan's capital Juba on December 15 and has spread to oil-producing regions and beyond, dividing the two-year-old land-locked country along ethnic lines. The additional troops and police will help reinforce the U.N. bases in a bid to protect the civilians sheltering there. |
| 'Thousands' killed as South Sudan slides towards civil war Posted: 24 Dec 2013 01:04 PM PST  Thousands of South Sudanese have been killed in over a week of violence with reports of bodies piled in mass graves, the UN said Tuesday, as the Security Council agreed to nearly double its peacekeepers in the young nation threatening to slide into civil war. The top UN humanitarian chief in the country Toby Lanzer said Tuesday there was "absolutely no doubt in my mind that we're into the thousands" of dead, the first clear indication of the scale of the conflict engulfing South Sudan, which won independence from Sudan to much fanfare just two years ago. Earlier, UN rights chief Navi Pillay said a mass grave had been found in the rebel-held town of Bentiu, while there were "reportedly at least two other mass graves" in the capital Juba. The grim discovery follows escalating battles between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing his rival Riek Machar, a former vice president who was sacked in July.
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| Pope carries baby Jesus statue on Christmas Eve Posted: 24 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has begun celebrating his first Christmas Eve Mass as pontiff by placing a baby Jesus statue in a replica of a manger in St. Peter's Basilica. |
| Gazan child, Israeli killed in cross-border attacks Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:54 PM PST  Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - A three-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in an Israeli raid on the Gaza Strip after the fatal shooting Tuesday of an Israeli near the Gaza border, in the latest uptick in Israeli-Palestinian violence. Cross-border exchanges between Israel and Gaza have increased in recent days, and Israel said Tuesday it holds Islamist movement Hamas responsible, as rulers of the Palestinian enclave, for any fire directed from there at the Jewish state. Palestinian medics named the dead girl as Hala Abu Sabikha from a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. They said at least six other people had been wounded in the series of tank and air strikes throughout Gaza, including on militant positions.
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| Powerful bombing at Egypt police station kills 15 Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:48 PM PST  MANSOURA, Egypt (AP) — A powerful blast ripped through a police headquarters in an Egyptian Nile Delta city Tuesday while top security officials met to work out arrangements for an upcoming constitutional referendum, killing 15 people and wounding more than 100 in the deadliest bombing yet in a campaign of violence blamed on Islamic militants.
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| Huge car bomb attack on Egypt police HQ kills 15 Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:35 PM PST  Mansoura (Egypt) (AFP) - A suspected suicide car bombing outside an Egyptian police headquarters killed at least 15 people Tuesday in one of the deadliest attacks since the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The explosion in a city north of Cairo, which military-installed authorities suggested was carried out by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, comes as the country is bitterly polarised over the president's ouster, with more than 1,000 people killed in months of unrest. The Muslim Brotherhood, which publicly renounced violence decades ago, condemned the bombing. Analysts said the attack was likely the work of more radical Islamists, who have carried out a string of similar attacks in the Sinai peninsula targeting security forces.
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| Christmas Violence in the Holy Land Shadows Middle East Peace Talks Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:33 PM PST Israelis are alarmed by three attacks by Palestinians in as many days, including a bomb that exploded on a just-evacuated city bus, an Israeli policeman stabbed in the back outside a West Bank settlement, and the Christmas Eve death by sniper bullet of a man working on the fence that confines 1.7 million residents of the Gaza Strip. Palestinians are seething over a surge in deaths on the West Bank, which after the latest addition — a three-year old Gaza girl killed by shrapnel from the Israeli airstrike intended to avenge the sniper death — stands at 28 so far this year. Christians account for only 3 percent of the combined population of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, so the juxtaposition with Christmas is more apparent to a world that, on Christmas Eve, checks in at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, occupied by Israeli forces since 1967 and separated from adjacent Jerusalem by a towering concrete barrier. "Are we facing a new intifada?" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked in a speech Tuesday, using the Arabic term for uprising first used to name the spontaneous revolt of slingshots and stone-throwing that occurred in the late 1980s. |
| UN increases troops in South Sudan to 12,500 Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:15 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has voted to temporarily increase the U.N. peacekeeping force in conflict-torn South Sudan to 12,500 troops from 7,000, a nearly 80 percent increase. |
| Report: Egypt's former prime minister arrested Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:11 PM PST CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian state television is reporting that the country's former prime minister — who served under the nation's toppled Islamist president — has been arrested to serve a one-year prison sentence. |
| Britain extradites Algeria ex-tycoon Khalifa Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:11 PM PST  Rafik Khalifa, a former Algerian tycoon who once owned an airline and a string of companies, was extradited to his homeland from Britain Tuesday, Algeria's APS news agency reported. He took refuge in Britain in 2003 when his business collapsed, costing the Algerian state and individuals between $1.5 billion and $5 billion (1.1 billion and 3.6 billion euros). In 2007, Algeria convicted him in absentia of criminal involvement and fraud, sentencing him to life in prison and demanding his extradition. Britain's Home Office said last week that Khalifa had been refused leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on December 3 and would be extradited within 28 days of that date.
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| Egypt police arrest former Morsi PM: ministry Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:07 PM PST  Egyptian police arrested on Tuesday Hisham Qandil, who was prime minister under deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the interior ministry said. The ministry said he was arrested in the desert outside Cairo with a "smuggler attempting to escape to Sudan," south of Egypt. During his time in office, a court had sentenced Qandil to a year in prison for not carrying out a ruling to re-nationalise a company that had been privatised in 1996. A Cairo appeals court upheld the sentence in September.
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| Mikhail Khodorkovsky applies for Swiss visa Posted: 24 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST  BERLIN (AP) — Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has applied for a Swiss visa less than a week after being released from decade-long imprisonment in Russia, officials said Tuesday.
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| Arctic protester vows to fight on after Russian case closed Posted: 24 Dec 2013 11:59 AM PST  A British Greenpeace protester Tuesday said he was "jubilant" after Russia closed the criminal case against him for staging a protest on an oil rig, and vowed to keep fighting for environmental issues. Russia has dropped the case against Anthony Perrett, one of the 30 crew members of a Greenpeace ship who were charged with hooliganism over a protest against Gazprom oil drilling in the Arctic, the group said. The move, part of a Kremlin-backed amnesty, should pave the way for the other 29 crew members to have their cases closed and then allow the 26 foreign nationals charged in the saga to finally leave Russia.
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| Most Palestinians believe Israel poisoned Arafat: poll Posted: 24 Dec 2013 11:58 AM PST  Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - A majority of Palestinians believe Israel poisoned their late leader Yasser Arafat, according to poll published Tuesday, which also highlights a decline in Hamas popularity compared to rival Fatah. The poll, released by Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, showed 59 percent of respondents believe Israel fatally poisoned Arafat, while 21 percent "believe that a Palestinian party or group or a joint Palestinian-Israeli party or group is responsible." The cause of Arafat's 2004 death in a French military hospital have yet to be finally clarified, with many Palestinians blaming Israel for it, a charge the Jewish state has consistently denied.
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| Astronauts wrap up successful spacewalk to fix station Posted: 24 Dec 2013 11:48 AM PST  Two NASA astronauts wrapped up successful repairs at the International Space Station on Tuesday after a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk to fix an equipment cooling system. Americans Rick Mastracchio, 53, and Mike Hopkins, 44, floated outside the orbiting lab for seven and a half hours to replace an ammonia pump whose internal control valve failed on December 11. "We have a pump that is alive and well," said a NASA commentator on the US space agency's live television feed after a successful jumpstart test on the newly installed pump module, a bulky piece of gear the size of a refrigerator. More checks will be done later Tuesday, but the pump appeared to be "in good shape" and would be fully activated in the coming hours, a NASA commentator said from mission control in Houston.
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| Storms batter Britain, France, disrupting travel, power Posted: 24 Dec 2013 11:41 AM PST  Gale-force winds and pounding rain Tuesday lashed Britain and France, killing at least five people, disrupting Christmas travel and leaving tens of thousands without power. In Britain, three people died in pre-Christmas storms, including a man in Devon, southwest England, who jumped into a fast-flowing river to rescue his dog, police said. In another incident, Swiss sailor Bernard Stamm and Frenchman Damien Guillou were rescued from their racing yacht by a Norwegian vessel. Britain's Energy Networks Association said engineers had restored power to some 420,000 homes but 130,000 remained cut off.
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| Abu Qatada rejects terror charges at Jordan trial Posted: 24 Dec 2013 11:19 AM PST  Radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada on Tuesday insisted he was not guilty of terrorism as his trial resumed in Jordan, accusing a presiding judge of being "dishonest." "I am not guilty, and you are a dishonest judge," Abu Qatada, who was deported by Britain in July after a nearly decade-long legal battle, told judge Ahmad Qatarneh. In 2000, he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years for plotting to attack tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations, and videotapes of his sermons were allegedly found in the Hamburg flat of 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. Qatarneh led a panel of civilian judges after Abu Qatada and his lawyer contested the presence of a military judge at the start of his trial on December 10, saying it was against a Jordanian-British deal which cleared the way for him to be tried in the kingdom.
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| A decade on, Iran's quake-hit Bam eyes new era Posted: 24 Dec 2013 11:11 AM PST  Bam (Iran) (AFP) - There are few signs left of the killer earthquake that reduced to rubble the Iranian city of Bam and its celebrated citadel, but a decade later survivors are still haunted. The 6.6 magnitude quake struck at dawn on December 26, 2003, devastating Bam, killing 26,000 people and leaving 75,000 homeless. Nearly 80 percent of Bam's infrastructure was damaged, while the desert citadel, once considered the world's largest adobe building, crumbled. The disaster was so severe that Iran agreed to open up its doors to international aid, even allowing US planes loaded with humanitarian supplies to land on its soil for the first time since the two countries severed relations in 1980.
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| Putin says new post-Soviet union ready for 2015 launch Posted: 24 Dec 2013 11:04 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the final pieces were in place for the 2015 launch of an economic union with Belarus and Kazakhstan that Moscow hopes can also be joined by Ukraine. Putin promised following talks with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko that the so-called Eurasian Economic Union would turn into a new source of growth for all involved.
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| Murray plays down new Lendl, Becker rivalry Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:50 AM PST  Andy Murray believes the intense rivalry between his coach Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker, the newly-appointed coach of Novak Djokovic, which was a feature of the 1980s, won't be rekindled in 2014. Lendl took Murray to a breakthrough major at the 2012 US Open as well as this year's historic Wimbledon triumph while Djokovic has turned to Becker to help add to his six Grand Slam titles. In their playing careers, Becker defeated Lendl in the 1986 Wimbledon final, the 1989 US Open championship match as well as the 1991 Australian Open final.
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| Brazil leader overflies flood-hit region Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:43 AM PST Brasília (AFP) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Tuesday flew over the flood-hit southeastern state of Espirito Santo, where at least 14 people have died in days of torrential rain. It said 47 cities in Espirito Santo, which borders Rio de Janeiro state, were affected by the flooding, including many left without communications, drinkable water and power. "The tragedy in Espirito Santo destroyed homes, roads and dreams. Espirito Santo Governor Renato Casagrande, who Saturday declared a state of alert in the area, said the rains were the worst in the past 90 years. |
| Iran's parliament looks at moving nation's capital Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:38 AM PST  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The Iranian parliament voted Tuesday to consider a proposal to pick another city as the nation's capital, potentially moving the seat of the government from the overcrowded and heavily polluted city of Tehran despite government opposition to the plan.
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| Snowden declares 'mission accomplished' on leaks Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:34 AM PST  American intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on Tuesday declared his "mission accomplished" after unveiling huge US surveillance programmes, but urged citizens to insist their governments stop spying on them. In his first major media appearances since claiming asylum in Russia, Snowden -- who sent shockwaves around the world by revealing the extent of Washington's electronic eavesdropping -- issued a staunch defence of individual privacy. The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor is to deliver a Christmas Day broadcast on British television, calling on citizens to work together to end mass surveillance, Channel 4 said on Tuesday. "Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying," he says in extracts released by the TV station.
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| Israel launches Gaza airstrikes for worker killing Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:27 AM PST GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli air and ground forces launched a series of attacks Tuesday on targets across the Gaza Strip, killing a young girl and wounding 10 in response to the deadly shooting of an Israeli civilian by a Palestinian sniper. |
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