Yahoo! News: World News

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• Iran's Khamenei rebuffs U.S. offer of direct talks
• Syrian jets bomb Damascus ring road to halt rebel push
• Islamic summit urges dialogue on Syria transition
• South Korean military sharpens reflexes on divided peninsula
• Ecuador's Correa has large lead in presidential race: polls
• Turkish parliament approves anti-terrorism financing law
• Famine hit North Korea's rice basket in 2012, report says
• President's son leads Chadians against Islamists in Mali
• Afghan corruption worth twice government revenue: report
• After fatwas, security hiked for Egypt opposition
• Iran: Sanctions make nuclear talks with US futile
• In wealthy Hong Kong, poorest live in metal cages
• Afghan boys from nominated film to walk red carpet
• Egyptians abuzz over prime minister's breast talk
• Back in the USSR? Key Soviet document is missing
• Tunisia Islamists say no new gov't as crisis grows
• South Africa outraged at gang rape of teenager
• Syrian soldiers dance to Usher in online video
• Alleged witch burned alive in Papua New Guinea
• Tunisia, a model in Arab uprisings, scrambles to get back on track
• Jail for journalist working on rape story in Somalia
• ECB nod allows Ireland to shut down toxic bank, easing debt pressures
• New mission for Knights of Malta: rescue Europe's poor
• Russian bill looks to hide gay identity, affirm democracy of the majority
• Iran's supreme leader shuts down possibility of direct nuclear talks with US
• EU pressured to blacklist Hezbollah in wake of Bulgaria bus attack report

Iran's Khamenei rebuffs U.S. offer of direct talks Posted: 07 Feb 2013 12:12 PM PST DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday slapped down an offer of direct talks made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden last week, saying they would not solve the problem between them. "Some naive people like the idea of negotiating with America, however, negotiations will not solve the problem," Khamenei said in a speech to officials and members of Iran's air force carried on his official website. "If some people want American rule to be established again in Iran, the nation will rise up to face them," he said. ...

Syrian jets bomb Damascus ring road to halt rebel push Posted: 07 Feb 2013 12:52 PM PST AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian government jets bombarded the Damascus ring road on Thursday in a bid to halt a rebel advance which threatens President Bashar al-Assad's hold on the capital, insurgent commanders and opposition activists said. Warplanes fired rockets at southern parts of the route where rebels have spent the past 36 hours overrunning army positions and road blocks encircling the heart of the city, the site of key state security and intelligence installations. ...

Islamic summit urges dialogue on Syria transition Posted: 07 Feb 2013 09:14 AM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - Leaders of Muslim nations called on Thursday for a "serious dialogue" between Syria's government and an opposition coalition on a political transition to end nearly two years of civil war, but pinned most of the blame for the bloodshed on the state. A two-day summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation backed an initiative by Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia to broker negotiations to stop the fighting in which at least 60,000 people have died. ...

South Korean military sharpens reflexes on divided peninsula Posted: 07 Feb 2013 01:08 PM PST YEONCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) - As North Korea prepares a third nuclear test, South Korean soldiers on the world's most heavily armed border now have orders to shoot back immediately if they come under attack, a move that risks escalating any small-scale conflict. Stung by criticism three years ago of the time it took South Korean artillery to respond to a burst of shelling from the North, Seoul's Defence Ministry has relaxed rules that required officials at its command centre to sanction a response. ...

Ecuador's Correa has large lead in presidential race: polls Posted: 07 Feb 2013 04:23 PM PST QUITO (Reuters) - Leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has maintained a huge lead over his nearest opposition rival in the run-up to the February 17 elections, recent polls show. Correa's popularity has remained above 50 percent throughout his six years in office, buoyed by his personal charisma as well as his government's heavy spending on hospitals, roads and schools. Leading opposition candidate, Guillermo Lasso, has tried to woo voters by promising lower taxes. ...

Turkish parliament approves anti-terrorism financing law Posted: 07 Feb 2013 01:10 PM PST ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament has approved a long-awaited anti-terrorism financing law two weeks ahead of a deadline which could have seen it expelled from an international watchdog, parliamentary officials said on Thursday. Turkey is on a "grey list" of countries drawn up by the 36-member Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a money-laundering watchdog, for failing to implement the legislation required by its members despite being pressed for years. ...

Famine hit North Korea's rice basket in 2012, report says Posted: 07 Feb 2013 01:56 PM PST SEOUL (Reuters) - A famine in a key North Korean grain-growing region in 2012 may have killed thousands of people at the same time as the country was staging mass celebrations to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the state's founder, according to a news agency based in Japan. It was impossible to verify the report independently, and sporadic famines are commonplace in North Korea, according to experts based in South Korea. A United Nations analysis in 2011 showed that around a third of children were malnourished. ...

President's son leads Chadians against Islamists in Mali Posted: 07 Feb 2013 09:43 AM PST KIDAL, Mali (Reuters) - Around 1,000 troops from Chad led by the president's son advanced towards the mountains of northeast Mali on Thursday to join French search-and-destroy operations hunting Islamist jihadists. A column of 100 Chadian armored vehicles, jeeps and supply trucks rolled out of Kidal, the Saharan town 1,200 km (750 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako. From Kidal, French and Chadian forces backed by French warplanes are striking against Islamist rebel hideouts in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountain range straddling the border with Algeria. ...

Afghan corruption worth twice government revenue: report Posted: 07 Feb 2013 10:39 AM PST KABUL (Reuters) - A figure equal to twice the Afghan government's domestic revenue - $3.9 billion - was gouged from the country by public sector corruption last year, a U.N. report said on Thursday. This amount is also roughly equal to the annual aid pledged to Afghanistan until 2015 by the international community at last year's Tokyo Conference. The report, by the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will lead to concerns about the mismanagement of those donor funds by Afghan officials in a country which has been consistently ranked as one of the world's most corrupt. ...

After fatwas, security hiked for Egypt opposition Posted: 07 Feb 2013 03:29 PM PST CAIRO (AP) — One hardline Muslim cleric on an Egyptian TV station justified sexual assaults on women protesters. Others issued religious edicts saying opposition leaders must be killed. Television screeds by ultraconservative sheiks are raising fears of assassinations here a day after a top anti-Islamist politician was gunned down in Tunisia.

Iran: Sanctions make nuclear talks with US futile Posted: 07 Feb 2013 10:11 AM PST TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — American proposals for direct talks with Iran are pointless while Washington is "holding a gun" to the country through sanctions, Iran's supreme leader said Thursday, quashing a possible breakthrough in contacts with the West over the nuclear standoff.

In wealthy Hong Kong, poorest live in metal cages Posted: 07 Feb 2013 05:07 PM PST HONG KONG (AP) — For many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities, home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak. For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage.

Afghan boys from nominated film to walk red carpet Posted: 07 Feb 2013 02:06 PM PST KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Fawad Mohammadi has spent half his life peddling maps and dictionaries to foreigners on a street of trinket shops in Kabul. Now the 14-year-old Afghan boy with bright green eyes is getting ready for a trip down the red carpet at the Oscars.

Egyptians abuzz over prime minister's breast talk Posted: 07 Feb 2013 01:14 PM PST CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's prime minister faced uproar, derision and even lawsuits Thursday after he blamed health problems of babies in impoverished villages on nursing mothers who "out of ignorance" don't clean their breasts and talked of village women getting raped in the fields.

Back in the USSR? Key Soviet document is missing Posted: 07 Feb 2013 02:05 PM PST MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The powerful Soviet Union may still exist after all — at least on paper.

Tunisia Islamists say no new gov't as crisis grows Posted: 07 Feb 2013 04:34 PM PST TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia sank deeper into political crisis Thursday, as the ruling Islamist party rejected its own prime minister's decision to replace the government after the assassination of a leftist politician led to a wave of angry protests.

South Africa outraged at gang rape of teenager Posted: 07 Feb 2013 09:36 AM PST JOHANNESBURG (AP) — In a country where one in four women is raped and where months-old babies and 94-year-old grandmothers are sexually assaulted, citizens are demanding action after a teenager was gang-raped, sliced open from her stomach to her genitals, and left for dead on a construction site last week.

Syrian soldiers dance to Usher in online video Posted: 07 Feb 2013 11:22 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — A video posted online purportedly shows Syrian soldiers taking a break from the country's civil war by bopping around to American R&B star Usher's hit song "Yeah!"

Alleged witch burned alive in Papua New Guinea Posted: 07 Feb 2013 04:17 PM PST PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) — A woman accused of witchcraft has been burned alive in front of hundreds of witnesses in Papua New Guinea town in one of the highest profile sorcery-rated murders in this South Pacific island nation, police said Friday.

Tunisia, a model in Arab uprisings, scrambles to get back on track Posted: 07 Feb 2013 02:39 PM PST With turmoil in Egypt and militias in Libya, Tunisia has stood out among Arab Spring peers for the comparative smoothness of its progress toward democracy. But now, a day after a politician's murder plunged the country into crisis, Tunisian leaders are scrambling to keep things on track.

Jail for journalist working on rape story in Somalia Posted: 07 Feb 2013 11:09 AM PST The imprisonment of a Somali journalist and the conviction of a rape victim who told him her story have raised a storm of international protest with critics claiming the cases fly in the face of promises from the country's new government to safeguard human rights.

ECB nod allows Ireland to shut down toxic bank, easing debt pressures Posted: 07 Feb 2013 10:14 AM PST After a dramatic night in the Irish parliament that ended with the shutdown of a bankrupt Irish bank, the European Central Bank (ECB) has signed off on allowing Ireland to restructure some of its debt.

New mission for Knights of Malta: rescue Europe's poor Posted: 07 Feb 2013 09:19 AM PST They trace their origins back to the warrior monks who tended to fallen soldiers of the Crusades, but have since become a humanitarian organization running hospitals, clinics, and relief operations in 120 countries around the world.

Russian bill looks to hide gay identity, affirm democracy of the majority Posted: 07 Feb 2013 08:51 AM PST Russia's State Duma is preparing a bill that will ban "homosexual propaganda," which even supporters admit will effectively criminalize almost any overt public expression of gay sexual identity.

Iran's supreme leader shuts down possibility of direct nuclear talks with US Posted: 07 Feb 2013 06:53 AM PST Iran's supreme leader today rejected the possibility of direct talks with the United States, nixing a proposal by Washington to ease the stalemate over Iran's nuclear program.

EU pressured to blacklist Hezbollah in wake of Bulgaria bus attack report Posted: 07 Feb 2013 05:54 AM PST • A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

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