| Iran's Zarif says nuclear deal dead if U.S. passes new sanctions Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:41 PM PST  By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the Iranian nuclear deal would be dead if the U.S. Congress imposes new sanctions, even if they do not take effect for six months, Time Magazine said on Monday. In a transcript of the interview, which was conducted on Saturday and posted online on Monday, Time said it asked Zarif what would happen if Congress imposed new sanctions, even if they did not go into effect for six months. He was referring to a November 24 interim agreement with six world powers under which Tehran would curb its nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions over the next six months. The Iranian foreign minister's comments had little apparent effect on U.S. senators who are preparing legislation to impose new sanctions on Iran in six months if the deal reached in Geneva goes nowhere.
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| Eight bodies, some dismembered, found on Mexican highway Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:45 PM PST By Lizbeth Diaz MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities found the bodies of eight kidnap victims, some dismembered, on a highway in the troubled southern state of Guerrero where government troops have been deployed to stem violence, officials said on Monday. The numbers of killings have fallen slightly since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office last December. |
| Ukraine protesters hold firm, defying riot police Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:13 PM PST  By Alissa de Carbonnel KIEV (Reuters) - Thousands of Ukrainian protesters huddled by braziers in their tented camp in the snowbound capital Kiev into Tuesday morning, in defiance of riot police who took up positions throughout the capital as a deadline to clear the streets expired. In a second week of protests against President Viktor Yanukovich's decision to abandon a trade deal with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia, demonstrators feared the arrival of riot police heralded a plan to crush them by force. "If blood is spilled during this dispersing, this blood will be on the hands of the person who ordered it ... Yanukovich." Yanukovich is expected to meet the EU foreign affairs chief on Tuesday as well as three former Ukrainian presidents who have proposed talks. But in a sign of a firm hand, masked police raided the office of Fatherland, a major opposition party whose jailed leader Yulia Tymoshenko the EU considers a political prisoner.
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| Palestinians say Kerry appeasing Israel over Iran at their expense Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:44 PM PST  By Ali Sawafta JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A senior Palestinian official said the United States was asking Palestinians to make security concessions in peace talks with Israel in order to silence the Jewish state's criticism of world power diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program. The accusations by Yasser Abed Rabbo, who joined Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week, further clouded hopes of achieving a negotiated accord by an April target date. Kerry, who will return to Israel and the Palestinian territories this week, presented both sides with suggestions on Thursday about how Israel might fend off future threats from a Palestinian state envisaged in West Bank land it now occupies. Israel has long demanded that under any eventual accord it retain swathes of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as well as military control of the territory's eastern Jordan Valley - effectively, the prospective Palestine's border with Jordan.
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| World pays homage to Mandela in mass memorial service Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:09 PM PST  By Stella Mapenzauswa and David Dolan JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - World leaders, from U.S. President Barack Obama to Cuba's Raul Castro, will pay homage to Nelson Mandela at a mass memorial in South Africa on Tuesday that will recall his gift for bringing enemies together across political and racial divides. Obama and Castro, whose countries maintain an ideological enmity lasting more than 50 years, are among the designated orators at a Johannesburg soccer stadium where 23 years earlier Mandela - freshly freed from apartheid jail - was hailed by cheering supporters as the hope for a new South Africa. Coinciding with U.N.-designated Human Rights Day, the memorial service for Mandela in the 95,000-seat Soccer City stadium is the centerpiece of a week of mourning for the globally-admired statesman, who died on Thursday aged 95. Tens of thousands of ordinary South Africans will be joining scores of leaders from across the world to honor a leader whose life of imprisonment and political struggle made him a global symbol of integrity and forgiveness.
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| Chinese hackers spied on Europeans before G20 meeting: researcher Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:57 PM PST  By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) - Chinese hackers eavesdropped on the computers of five European foreign ministries before last September's G20 Summit, which was dominated by the Syrian crisis, according to research by computer security firm FireEye Inc The hackers infiltrated the ministries' computer networks by sending emails to staff containing tainted files with titles such as "US_military_options_in_Syria," said FireEye, which sells virus fighting technology to companies. For about a week in late August, California-based FireEye said its researchers were able to monitor the "inner workings" of the main computer server used by the hackers to conduct their reconnaissance and move across compromised systems. FireEye lost access to the hackers after they moved to another server shortly before the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. FireEye said it believes the hackers were preparing to start stealing data just as the researchers lost access.
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| Three Cuban migrants feared killed off Florida coast Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:55 PM PST One suspected Cuban migrant was found dead on Monday, and two others were missing and feared drowned, after a homemade raft with a sole survivor on board was found floating in Biscayne Bay southwest of Miami, authorities said. A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard said the rafter was plucked to safety after being spotted by a boater in the open water about seven miles southwest of Key Biscayne, an island just off the coast of Miami. The man said three other people who shared the raft with him had possibly drowned, after he lost contact with them on their treacherous journey across the Florida Straits, the Coast Guard said. The shark-infested Florida Straits, known for its difficult currents and sudden squalls, separates the southeast coast of Florida from Cuba. |
| Canada plans claim that would include North Pole Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:44 PM PST  TORONTO (AP) — Canada plans to make a claim to the North Pole in an effort to assert its sovereignty in the resource-rich Arctic, the country's foreign affairs minister said Monday.
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| Kerry jetting back to Israel, West Bank Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:39 PM PST  Secretary of State John Kerry will return to Israel and the West Bank this week just days after his last visit, a US official said Monday, denying he was only focused on an interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Amid intense diplomatic activity, Kerry will leave again for Israel on Wednesday, five days after he landed back from Jerusalem and after spending most of the weekend meeting in Washington with Israeli leaders. "This is an important time in the negotiations, and he felt it was important to return to the region," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, adding Kerry would spend two days in Israel and Ramallah for talks. But she denied reports that Kerry and the administration of President Barack Obama were seeking some kind of interim framework ahead of a full accord.
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| Recalling life under apartheid in South Africa Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:35 PM PST  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — My mother was furious. The operators of the gas station in rural, racist South Africa had taken her money to fill the car, but would not give her the key to the toilets. They were for whites only.
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| Hagel orders airlift for Central African Republic Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:35 PM PST DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the U.S. military to transport troops from Burundi into the Central African Republic to help quell the latest upsurge in violence there. |
| French army battles militias in Central African Republic's capital Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:26 PM PST  By Emmanuel Braun BANGUI (Reuters) - The French army said it has restored some stability in the capital of Central African Republic after battling gunmen on Monday in an operation to disarm rival Muslim and Christian fighters responsible for killing hundreds since last week. Shooting erupted near Bangui's airport in the morning when gunmen refused to hand over weapons and French forces later came under attack by former rebels in the city center, but by evening there were no armed groups on the streets, the army said. "There are no more patrols by armed groups in the city and the population is no longer threatened by the terror that these groups caused," said Colonel Gilles Jaron, spokesman for the French army joint staff in Paris. We are still deployed in Bangui to carry out our mission," Jaron said.
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| U.S. Korean War veteran released by North says made 'confession' under duress Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:08 PM PST  By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An elderly U.S. Korean War veteran released from detention in North Korea said on Monday a videotaped "confession" he made was given under duress and that he believed he may have been held in a misunderstanding over his interest in the war. Merrill Newman, 85, said in a statement that he was kept under guard in a North Korean hotel during a detention that lasted over a month, and that his interrogator told him he would be sentenced to jail for 15 years if he did not cooperate. Newman, who was a U.S. special forces soldier during the 1950-53 Korean War and worked with guerrillas fighting behind the lines against the communists in the north, was pulled off a flight on October 26 as he was about to leave the reclusive Asian nation at the end of a tourist visit. He was held for over a month for crimes North Korea said he committed during the war, when he was a lieutenant with a U.S. Army unit nicknamed the "White Tigers," serving as an adviser to a group of partisans who fought deep behind enemy lines.
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| Obama urges calm in Central African Republic Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:03 PM PST ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Barack Obama is urging the people of the Central African Republic to remain calm amid mounting sectarian violence. |
| Two Spanish journalists held by Al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:03 PM PST  A radical group linked to Al-Qaeda kidnapped two Spanish journalists reporting in Syria in September and is holding them captive, El Mundo newspaper reported on Tuesday. El Mundo correspondent Javier Espinosa and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, a freelance photographer, were seized on September 16 in Raqqa province, the Spanish daily said on its website. They were kidnapped at a checkpoint near the Turkish border as they tried to leave Syria at the end of a two-week reporting mission. They were captured along with four members of the Free Syrian Army, the main western-backed rebel group fighting against President Bashar al-Assad, who were supposed to protect them, the newspaper said.
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| Big tech companies lash out at government snooping Posted: 09 Dec 2013 04:00 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Silicon Valley is escalating pressure on President Barack Obama to curb the U.S. government surveillance programs that vacuum personal information off the Internet and threaten the technology industry's financial livelihood.
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| Egypt to hold mid-January constitutional referendum: minister Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:49 PM PST  Egypt will hold a referendum on a new constitution in the middle of January, a government minister said on Monday. Hany Mahmoud, minister of administrative development, said the vote would be held nationwide over two days. The new constitution is an important milestone in the political transition plan drawn up by the army-installed interim government that took office after Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was deposed by the military on July 3. A 50-member assembly finished the draft last week and handed it to interim President Adly Mansour, who has yet to set the referendum date.
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| Israel, Jordan, Palestinians ink water-sharing deal Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:42 PM PST  Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians signed a historic water-sharing initiative at the World Bank in Washington Monday that could protect water resources in the region amid rising demand. The project envisions a new desalination plant at Aqaba as the lynchpin of a sharing deal involving end-users in all three parties to the deal. "It gives a glimmer of hope that we can overcome more obstacles in the future," said Silvan Shalom, Israel's Minister of Energy and Water Resources at the signing.
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| Middle East water deal brings Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline one step closer Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:38 PM PST  Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority on Monday signed a water-sharing agreement that includes the building of a desalination plant on the Gulf of Aqaba and a pilot study for a pipeline linking the Red Sea with the Dead Sea, the World Bank said. The plant will be built in the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba on the Red Sea and will desalinate water to be shared by the neighbors. The salty by-product, known as brine, will be sent north in a 112-mile (180-km) pipeline to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has been found to be receding at a rate of more than 3.3 feet (1 meter) every year.
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| World must act fast to help C.Africa: aid group Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:24 PM PST  The global community needs to move fast to stop the violence in Central African Republic spiralling out of control and must send in international peacekeeping troops to restore security, a leading US aid organization said Monday. While the weekend deployment of French troops has calmed tensions in the capital Bangui, "there's a lot more that can be done and it needs to be done immediately," said Su'ad Jarbawi, interim director in Central African Republic for the non-governmental group Mercy Corps. "The situation in Central African Republic is declining rapidly in terms of security, which is leading to a humanitarian crisis that will continue to augment and become larger in scale unless the international community intervenes now," she told AFP in Washington. Washington announced Monday it was to help fly African Union troops deploying as part of the French-led effort, transporting them from Burundi to the Central African Republic.
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| Cold, ice grip U.S. as more snow to blanket East Posted: 09 Dec 2013 03:03 PM PST A deadly winter storm kept a tight grip on much of the United States on Monday as cold, snow and ice spread across the East Coast, snarling traffic and knocking out power to thousands. As much as 5 inches of snow were forecast for Monday night into Tuesday as much of the area from Virginia to coastal New England were under winter weather advisories, the National Weather Service (NWS) said in a forecast. Bitter Arctic air in the upper Great Plains and Rocky Mountains is expected to persist through Wednesday, with the coldest weather extending from the Nevada-Utah region into Minnesota, the NWS said. "I don't think things are going to warm up any time soon," said Bruce Sullivan, an NWS meteorologist. |
| World leaders to speak at massive Mandela memorial Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:58 PM PST  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — An eclectic mix of world leaders including President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro will eulogize Nelson Mandela before a crowd of nearly 100,000 mourners at a massive memorial service Tuesday in the World Cup soccer stadium where the anti-apartheid champion made his last public appearance.
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| Mexico Senate panels OK energy reform; leftists oppose Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:55 PM PST  By Adriana Barrera MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican Senate committees on Monday gave general approval to a draft energy bill allowing private investment in the world's No. 10 oil producer in what would be the biggest opening of the state-controlled sector in its 75-year history. The bill, unveiled by senators from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and opposition conservatives on Saturday, would let private firms partner with ailing state oil firm Pemex via profit-sharing, risk-sharing and service contracts as well as licenses. The revised draft was a positive surprise for many in the oil industry, and the government hopes it will help stem a decade-long slide in crude oil output. Mexico's peso rallied on Monday to a seven-week high.
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| Mandela: Shining light for Turkey's Kurds Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:49 PM PST  To the Kurds of Turkey, Nelson Mandela was a source of inspiration for their own struggle -- a freedom fighter who was jailed in isolation like their own leader. Turkey's leaders hailed Mandela as a "great statesman" and a "legendary leader", although Ankara is sending a low-level official to his memorial on Tuesday, in contrast to many world governments who are sending heads of state or top royals. And two international Ivorian players have been threatened with disciplinary action by the Turkish Football Federation for wearing T-shirts paying homage to Mandela after a match on Friday. But dozens of Twitter users reacted by accusing the football authorities of "fascism".
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| Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia dam talks 'successful' Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:31 PM PST  Water ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on Monday "successfully" held talks on an Ethiopian dam project, Sudan's minister said, after Egypt's objections delayed formation of a committee to implement expert advice. Cairo fears the Grand Renaissance dam project could diminish its water supply. "We have addressed a significant part of the issues on the follow-up of the implementation of the recommendations of the international panel of experts," Sudan's Water Resources and Electricity Minister, Muattaz Musa Abdallah Salim, said in a brief statement to reporters after the talks which lasted several hours. At a meeting in Khartoum last month, ministers from the three nations failed to agree on the composition of the committee which would follow through on expert recommendations about the Grand Renaissance project, Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti said earlier.
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| French say most armed groups leave Bangui streets Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:26 PM PST  Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - French troops on Monday began disarming fighters in the Central African Republic to try to restore security after a swell in sectarian violence that claimed hundreds of lives. Bangui was relatively calm after days of fighting involving former Seleka rebels in which nearly 400 people were killed, although the stench of dead bodies still permeated some areas of the capital. The armed men who spread terror on the streets of Bangui had all but disappeared by Monday, and French military spokesman Gilles Jaron said some had already disarmed. France has deployed 1,600 soldiers to the notoriously unstable country, which has plunged into chaos since the Seleka rebels seized power in a March coup, with reports of widespread rape and public killings.
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| Bangui residents guide French troops in weapons hunt Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:22 PM PST  Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - A swarm of Bangui residents trailed French troops as they began combing the streets for rogue rebels Monday, egging them on with a deluge of tips and tip-offs. "There were a lot of Seleka here.
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| Hull's Graham makes a point on return to Swansea Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:17 PM PST  Swansea (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Danny Graham finally ended his 11-month goal drought as the Hull striker returned to haunt his former club in a 1-1 draw against Swansea on Monday. Graham enjoyed a prolific 18-month spell with Swansea before moving to Sunderland for £5 million in January and then onto Hull on loan in August. The 28-year-old has struggled at both Sunderland and Hull, but he produced a fine strike early in the first half at the Liberty Stadium to put his name on the scoresheet for the first time since he netted for Swansea in a League Cup win at Chelsea in January. Graham's first goal for Hull wasn't enough to secure the points however as Swansea defender Chico Flores equalised in the second half.
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| Witness: 100 aboard Costa ship when captain fled Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:03 PM PST  ROME (AP) — Hundreds of people were still aboard the Costa Concordia when the commander fled in a lifeboat, an Italian Coast Guard official testified Monday, adding that rescuers received first word of the seriousness of the shipwreck only after a passenger used a cell phone to call family.
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| Canada G20 policeman sentenced to 45 days Posted: 09 Dec 2013 02:02 PM PST  A Canadian policeman convicted of assaulting a protestor at the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto was sentenced on Monday to 45 days in prison. Police were roundly criticized for using what a watchdog last year concluded was "excessive force" and breaches of civil rights during the 2010 Group of Eight and G20 summit in Toronto. But Constable Babak Andalib-Goortani is the first to be held accountable for the crackdown. Andalib-Goortani argued in his defense that activist Adam Nobody had been resisting arrest when the Toronto policeman struck him with his baton after the suspect had been wrestled to the ground by fellow officers.
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| Turkish students found guilty of Nazi salute at Auschwitz Posted: 09 Dec 2013 01:59 PM PST  Two Turkish history students were handed a six-month suspended jail term Monday for giving the Nazi salute at the former Auschwitz death camp, Polish police said. The 22-year-old man and woman were detained on Sunday while taking pictures of each other performing the salute at the gates of the former Nazi German death camp in the southern Polish city of Oswiecim. The two were found guilty of "propagating Nazism" and "desecrating a place of memory", regional police spokesman Mariusz Ciarka said, according to the Polish news agency PAP. The Turks -- both history students in the Hungarian capital Budapest -- were freed on Monday.
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| U.S. approves use of transport planes in Central African mission Posted: 09 Dec 2013 01:53 PM PST DOHA (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has authorized military transport aircraft to carry troops from Burundi to the Central African Republic to support a French-led effort to stop the spread of sectarian violence in that country, a Pentagon spokesman said. Hagel, who is traveling in Qatar, authorized the use of U.S. transport planes on Sunday after being asked for airlift assistance by French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the spokesman said in a statement. (Reporting by David Alexander; editing by Christopher Wilson) |
| U.S. to fly African troops to Central African Republic to ease violence Posted: 09 Dec 2013 01:53 PM PST By Phil Stewart and David Alexander WASHINGTON/DOHA (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday that it will fly African forces into Central Africa Republic, responding to a request by France to bolster international efforts to halt the spread of violence between Christians and Muslims. Two U.S. military C-17 aircraft will fly about 850 troops from Burundi into Central African Republic within the next 24 hours, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Firman, a Pentagon spokesman, said. Pentagon spokesman Carl Woog said the military was working to identify additional resources that could help address further requests for assistance. |
| End attacks on civilians in Central African Republic: Hague prosecutor Posted: 09 Dec 2013 01:53 PM PST AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court's prosecutor called for an end to attacks on civilians in the Central African Republic on Monday, saying parties involved in the escalating violence risked being investigated and prosecuted. "The deteriorating security situation over the past several days has contributed to the escalation of unlawful killings, sexual violence, recruitment of child soldiers and other grave crimes, across the country," Fatou Bensouda said in a statement. ... |
| Israel says Iran embassies used as 'terror bases' Posted: 09 Dec 2013 01:52 PM PST  Israel's defence minister on Monday accused Iran of using its embassies as terrorist bases and transferring guns and bombs through diplomatic pouches, without providing evidence for the claims. The two regional foes are widely believed to be locked in a covert war over Iran's nuclear programme, with Tehran blaming Israel for the killing of its nuclear scientists and Israel accusing Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of terror attacks in third countries. "Wherever there are Iranian embassies, they also serve as bases for espionage and terrorism," Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement after meeting with visiting Guatemalan President Otto Perez. "We know there are South American countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia where the Iranians maintain terror bases in their embassies and among the local Shiite Muslim population," Yaalon said.
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