| Egypt arrests dozens under anti-terror law, one killed in Cairo Posted: 26 Dec 2013 04:55 PM PST  By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt stepped up pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood a day after declaring it a terrorist group, using the new classification to detain dozens of its supporters on Thursday, while one person died in street clashes ignited by political tension. A bomb blast in a Cairo suburb wounded five people - the second attack this week after a suicide bomber killed 16 people north of the capital on Tuesday. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, said Egypt would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy and "expressed concern" about the terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and recent detentions and arrests in Egypt, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
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| Gaza rocket fire draws Israeli air strikes Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:37 PM PST Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, and Israel's military responded with a pair of air strikes, officials said. The rockets from Gaza fell in open areas, causing no damage or injuries, Israel's military said. It said its aircraft then hit a weapon manufacturing facility and a weapon storage facility in the enclave, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas. One Palestinian was wounded by the air strikes, medical workers said. |
| Attack on reporter restores passion to Ukraine demonstrations Posted: 26 Dec 2013 03:31 PM PST  By Jack Stubbs KIEV (Reuters) - Protesters demanded Ukraine's interior minister resign on Thursday after an opposition journalist known for documenting the extravagance of the country's political elite was chased down in her car and savagely beaten in a midnight attack. Clutching pictures of Tetyana Chornovil's badly bruised face, hundreds marched on the Interior Ministry in the capital, Kiev. The attack on the 34-year-old restored passion to protests that have been losing steam more than a month after the government spurned a pact on closer ties with the European Union, turning instead to former Soviet master Moscow. Pro-EU demonstrators have been occupying central Kiev, but their numbers have been falling since Russia offered Ukraine a $15 billion bailout this month.
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| Turks and Caicos police end search for survivors of capsized boat Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:39 PM PST Police do not expect to find any more casualties from the Christmas Day accident that involved a boat carrying more than 50 immigrants from Haiti, government spokesman Neil Smith said in a tweet. Meanwhile, health officials in the small eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia said flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed six people. |
| U.S. expedites delivery of missiles, drones to Iraq amid violence Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:12 PM PST  The United States has delivered dozens of Hellfire air-to-ground missiles to Iraq in recent weeks and plans shipments of Scan Eagle drones next year amid a surge in violence, U.S. officials said on Thursday, a day after at least 34 people died in Christmas day bomb attacks in Baghdad. Al Qaeda-linked militants have stepped up attacks on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government and anyone seen to be supporting it. The United Nations estimates that more than 8,000 people have been killed in attacks in Iraq this year. A U.S. official said that about 75 Hellfire missiles were delivered to Iraq last week, earlier than originally envisioned, and a shipment of 10 unmanned Scan Eagles surveillance drones is due next year.
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| Iranian dissidents say rockets hit their Baghdad camp, kill two Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:01 PM PST A camp of Iranian dissidents in the Iraqi capital was hit by rockets on Thursday in an attack the group said killed at least two people and seriously wounded several others. A Shi'ite militia claimed responsibility for the attack on the Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MEK) camp in western Baghdad, which has repeatedly been the target of mortar and rocket attacks in recent months. The group, which calls for the overthrow of Iran's clerical leaders and fought on Iraq's side during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi'ite-led government that came to power after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. It accused the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of being behind the attack in an attempt to win support from Iran's government ahead of elections next year. |
| African leaders seek peace talks in South Sudan Posted: 26 Dec 2013 04:52 PM PST  JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — African leaders tried Thursday to advance peace talks between South Sudan's president and political rivals he accuses of attempting a coup to topple the government of the world's newest country.
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| Attack on presidential palace thwarted in Bangui Posted: 26 Dec 2013 04:10 PM PST  BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Assailants armed with heavy weapons attempted late Thursday to attack the presidential palace as well as the residence of the Central African Republic's embattled leader, but were pushed back, officials said.
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| At least 44 dead in Brazil's flooding and landslides Posted: 26 Dec 2013 04:10 PM PST  Brasília (AFP) - At least 44 people have died and more than 60,000 have been left homeless following torrential rain in southeast Brazil over the past few weeks, officials said Thursday. In Espirito Santo state, Civil Defense officials reported a total of 27 fatalities, including eight Thursday, in what they described as the worst rains in 90 years. "We are going to have to rebuild the state," said Governor Renato Casagrande amid extensive flooding and damage to bridges and roads. In neighboring Minas Gerais state, where the downpours began in October and have worsened in the past few days, authorities reported 17 deaths and said 4,150 people were forced to evacuate their homes.
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| Dozens of bodies recovered after violence in Central African Republic Posted: 26 Dec 2013 03:57 PM PST  By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Red Cross workers have recovered 44 bodies from the streets of Central African Republic's capital Bangui, they said on Thursday after inter-religious fighting in the last two days. Six Chadian peacekeepers have also been killed in the former French colony, while judicial authorities said they had uncovered a mass grave with 30 bodies, many of them showing signs of torture, near a military base used by Seleka rebels. Georgios Georgantas, head of an International Committee of the Red Cross delegation, said the 44 bodies were probably only a fraction of those killed in Bangui in the last two days given that his team had been unable to go into parts of the city. "We have information about more bodies in certain parts of town which we have been unable to access because the fighting was so intense." A representative of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres at Bangui's main hospital said it had seen more than 50 people since Wednesday night with gunshot or machete wounds from the fighting which raged for hours across Bangui.
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| Yen falls against dollar, euro Posted: 26 Dec 2013 03:37 PM PST  The yen has been in retreat for most of 2013 in the wake of aggressive monetary stimulus measures enacted by the Bank of Japan to stimulate growth and prevent deflation. On Thursday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe amid speculation more easing will be implemented next year. The outlook for the BOJ contrasts with that of the US Federal Reserve, which last week announced it would scale back its bond-buying program starting in January, said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange. "In contrast to the expectations for the Fed to continue removing policy accommodation throughout next year, the Bank of Japan is expected to maintain a historically accommodative policy stance, and could even add to stimulus," Esiner said.
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| Turkey graft probe blocked as defiant PM digs in Posted: 26 Dec 2013 03:34 PM PST  A graft probe that has shaken Turkey's government to its core and threatened Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule has been blocked, a prosecutor alleged Thursday. "Clear pressure" from Istanbul's chief prosecutor and police commanders have stymied further arrests in the investigation, which has already netted several high-profile political and business figures suspected of bribery and corruption, state prosecutor Muammer Akkas said in a statement. The outgoing environment minister, Erdogan Bayraktar told NTV television he had been pressured to quit, and stated "I believe the prime minister should also resign".
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| Netanyahu says Hamas responsible for any Gaza fire Posted: 26 Dec 2013 03:25 PM PST  HATZERIM AIR FORCE BASE (Israel) (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Gaza rulers Hamas were responsible for any attacks from the Palestinian enclave, after deaths on both sides. "We have recently been subject to attacks against us," he said at a pilots' graduation ceremony at the Hatzerim air force base in southern Israel. "Israel holds Hamas responsible for all the attacks launched on us. Confrontations between the sides peaked on Tuesday, when a sniper inside the Gaza Strip killed an Israeli fixing the border fence.
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| One killed in Cairo clash: Interior Ministry Posted: 26 Dec 2013 03:21 PM PST One person was killed on Thursday when student supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood clashed with residents of a Cairo district where they were protesting, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It said the police fired teargas after the Al-Azhar University students clashed with residents in the Nasr City district of northeast Cairo. |
| Egypt arrests dozens under anti-terror law, bomb hits Cairo Posted: 26 Dec 2013 02:41 PM PST By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt increased pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, detaining dozens of its supporters on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government, security officials said. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, said Egypt would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism. The government declared Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group on Wednesday in response to the suicide attack that targeted a police station a day earlier in the city of Mansoura. |
| Egypt’s Military-Backed Rulers Brand Muslim Brotherhood ‘Terrorist’ and Extend Crackdown Posted: 26 Dec 2013 02:37 PM PST Students carrying books, coming from the Islamic Al-Azhar University, paused as they walked past. Fifteen people were killed in a much larger explosion, a suicide car bombing according to the Interior Ministry, at a police headquarters in the Nile Delta town of Mansoura early on Tuesday. In response to the Mansoura bombing, the military-backed government officially branded the Muslim Brotherhood a "terrorist" organization, a measure that deepens the military-backed government's clampdown on the Islamist group following the military's removal of Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Morsi from power in July. No evidence has surfaced linking the Muslim Brotherhood to either attack. |
| Activists: Syria will let food into rebel town Posted: 26 Dec 2013 02:30 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Residents of a blockaded rebel-held town near Damascus raised the flag used by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a deal that sees them accept symbolic humiliation in exchange for food, activists said on Thursday. |
| Turks and Caicos ends search for capsizing victims Posted: 26 Dec 2013 02:21 PM PST PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands (AP) — Authorities ended the search Thursday for additional victims from the Christmas Day capsizing of a Haitian migrant vessel in which at least 17 people died. |
| Bomb hits Cairo bus as Egypt rounds up Brotherhood Posted: 26 Dec 2013 02:07 PM PST  A bomb exploded near a Cairo bus wounding five people on Thursday, as authorities rounded up members of deposed president Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood after declaring it a terrorist group. The intensified crackdown on the Brotherhood, which prevailed in a series of polls held after the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, came after the military-installed government blamed it for a suicide bombing against police that was claimed by a jihadist group. Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has ridden a wave of popularity since ending Morsi's divisive year-long rule in July, meanwhile vowed to eliminate terrorism as he urged Egyptians to trust the military. Police General Mohamed Gamal showed reporters a defused pipe bomb he said had been placed inside a nearby advertising display and primed to explode when police arrived at the scene.
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| First Greenpeace activist departs Russia Posted: 26 Dec 2013 02:02 PM PST  A first Greenpeace activist was on a train out of Russia Thursday, more than three months after he was arrested along with 29 fellow crew members of a ship protesting against Arctic oil drilling, an AFP journalist saw. Dmitri Litvinov, a Swedish-American of Russian origin, left Saint Petersburg for Finland's capital Helsinki on a train departing at 8:25 pm (1625 GMT) after Russia issued exit visas for 14 of the crew following a pardon by President Vladimir Putin. Most of the activists who received visas are expected to leave Russia on Friday, according to a Greenpeace statement.
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| US sends Hellfire missiles to Iraq Posted: 26 Dec 2013 02:02 PM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S. has sent Hellfire air-to-ground missiles to Iraq's air forces, which is using them in an ongoing campaign against the country's branch of al-Qaida, officials in Washington and Baghdad said Thursday.
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| Israel says to free Palestinians, build more settlements Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:52 PM PST  Israel will announce plans for new settlement construction next week, coinciding with the release of a third batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of peace talks, an official said Thursday. Palestinians have warned repeatedly that settlement building destroys the fragile US-brokered peace talks process that resumed in July after a three-year hiatus. "The Israeli government will announce tenders for new construction in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem which will coincide with the release of a third group of Palestinian prisoners," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The comments come days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to push ahead with settlement construction despite calls for restraint by US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union.
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| Israel launches airstrikes in Gaza Posted: 26 Dec 2013 01:26 PM PST JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says it has carried out airstrikes on two targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a pair of rocket attacks. |
| South Sudan rebels seize oil wells, mediators urge talks Posted: 26 Dec 2013 12:52 PM PST  By Carl Odera and Aaron Maasho JUBA (Reuters) - Rebels in South Sudan have seized some oil wells and captured half of the capital of the main oil-producing region, the government and army said on Thursday as African leaders held talks to avert civil war. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn met South Sudan's President Salva Kiir in the capital Juba in an attempt to end nearly two weeks of fighting in the world's newest state. "South Sudan is a young nation that should be spared unnecessary distractions in its development agenda. It was not clear whether the delegation also met the rebel leader, former vice president Riek Machar, who was sacked by Kiir in July.
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| At least 40 civilians killed in attack in east DR Congo: NGO Posted: 26 Dec 2013 12:33 PM PST  At least 40 civilians have been killed in an attack on a village in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a non-governmental organisation said on Thursday. "Up to this morning we have found more than 40 bodies, all of them civilians, in the latrines," Teddy Kataliko, the head of civil society in the Beni region where the attack took place on Wednesday, told AFP. The attack took place in the town of Kamango before dawn, with the civil society blaming it on the Islamist Ugandan rebel group ADF-Nalu, one of the oldest but least-known armed groups operating in the mineral-rich DR Congo. The UN's special force in DR Congo used helicopters on Wednesday to fire on the rebels and help government troops retake Kamango after the attack.
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| Arsenal profit as Man City dethrone Liverpool Posted: 26 Dec 2013 12:01 PM PST  Liverpool slipped from first to fourth in the Premier League after losing 2-1 at Manchester City on Thursday, leaving Arsenal in first place following a frantic Boxing Day programme. Brendan Rodgers's Liverpool started the day in first place and they made an impressive start at the Etihad Stadium, with Philippe Coutinho giving the visitors a 24th-minute lead after a neat team move. However, City captain Vincent Kompany headed home an equaliser seven minutes later and Alvaro Negredo put the hosts in front on the stroke of half-time with a tame shot that Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet could only palm into the net.
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| 6 peacekeepers killed in C. African Republic Posted: 26 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Elodiane Baalbe hid underneath her bed as gunfire echoed around her on Christmas Day in the capital of Central African Republic. When it finally died down on Thursday, she made a dash for safety, hiding behind houses as she fled her neighborhood. |
| Hazard strikes as Chelsea edge Swansea Posted: 26 Dec 2013 11:58 AM PST  Chelsea remain within two points of top spot in the Premier League after Eden Hazard's first-half goal secured a 1-0 victory over Swansea City at Stamford Bridge on Thursday. Hazard's effort proved the difference between the teams, but Chelsea's failure to build on the Belgium international's ninth goal of the season meant it continued the run of recent underwhelming displays by the Blues. Chelsea's performance in grinding out a scoreless draw at Arsenal three days previously was described as a return to an approach that had been familiar during manager Jose Mourinho's first spell in charge. Mourinho dismissed suggestions that the performance had been negative, but having consolidated their position within striking distance of the leaders, they needed victory over a stuttering Swansea to build on that hard-earned point.
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| Liverpool toppled at Man City's citadel Posted: 26 Dec 2013 11:57 AM PST  Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Alvaro Negredo's ninth goal in nine home games saw Manchester City continue their peerless home form as they beat Liverpool 2-1 in a gripping Premier League encounter on Thursday. Vincent Kompany and Negredo were City's goalscorers as they responded to Philippe Coutinho's opener to maintain the division's only perfect home record and move their team, ominously, into second place in the table. Liverpool, meanwhile, fell from first place to fourth, but they trail new leaders Arsenal by only three points. Having weathered a characteristically strong start to the game from the hosts, Liverpool stunned Manuel Pellegrini's men by taking the lead after 24 minutes.
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| Protesting Turkish prosecutor piles pressure on PM Posted: 26 Dec 2013 11:56 AM PST  By Ece Toksabay and Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish prosecutor accused police on Thursday of obstructing his pursuit of a high-level graft case, adding to public scrutiny of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government as it hunkered down defiantly. Three ministers had resigned after their sons were among dozens of people detained on December 17 as part of the probe into corrupt procurement practices, which has exposed Turkey's deep institutional divisions and left the pugnacious premier facing arguably the biggest crisis of his 11 years in power. The new interior minister, Efkan Ala, will be in charge of Turkey's domestic security and is considered especially close to Erdogan, who called the secretive investigation a foreign-orchestrated plot without legal merit and responded by sacking or reassigning some 70 of the police officers involved. In allegations disseminated to Turkish media in writing, prosecutor Muammer Akkas said he had also been removed from the case, which he described as compromised by police who had refused to comply with his orders to arrest more suspects.
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| Kenyan police seek youths over Christmas Day church burnings Posted: 26 Dec 2013 11:43 AM PST By Joseph Akwiri MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Youths threw petrol bombs at two Kenyan churches on Christmas day, police said on Thursday, in the latest bout of violence against Christians on the country's predominantly Muslim coast. Police and witnesses said the churches on the edge of port city of Mombasa were attacked in the early hours of December 25 after churchgoers held services to usher in Christmas. Police had no suspects but were exploring the possibility that the attacks may have been launched by Muslim militants or by supporters of the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), an illegal movement that wants the coastal region to secede from Kenya. Many Muslims on the Indian Ocean coastline feel marginalized by Kenya's predominantly Christian government and the historically cordial relations between the two communities have suffered strains in recent years. |
| Mass grave found in Central African Republic Posted: 26 Dec 2013 11:26 AM PST BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic says a mass grave has been unearthed in the country's troubled capital. |
| American abducted in Pakistan calls for US help Posted: 26 Dec 2013 11:24 AM PST  ISLAMABAD (AP) — A 72-year-old American development worker who was kidnapped in Pakistan by al-Qaida more than two years ago appealed to President Obama in a video released Thursday to negotiate his release, saying he feels "totally abandoned and forgotten."
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