2013年4月14日星期日

Yahoo! News: World News

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yahoo! News: World News


Venezuelans vote on future of "Chavista" socialism

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 02:37 PM PDT

Venezuelan opposition candidate Capriles greets supporters in front of campaign poster of Venezuela's acting president and presidential candidate Maduro during campaign rally in MeridaBy Daniel Wallis and Todd Benson CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans went to the polls on Sunday to vote whether to honor Hugo Chavez's dying wish for a longtime loyalist to continue his self-proclaimed socialist revolution or hand power to a young challenger vowing business-friendly changes. Acting President Nicolas Maduro had a double-digit lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in most polls heading into election day, buoyed by Chavez's public blessing before he died from cancer last month. But the gap narrowed in recent days, with one survey putting it at 7 percentage points. ...


Defiant North Korea readies mass parade for founder

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 04:50 PM PDT

KCNA picture shows attendees at a central report meeting to celebrate the 101st birth anniversary of North Korean founder Kim Il-Sung, in PyongyangBy David Chance SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea prepared for the annual celebration of its founder's birth on Monday, having rejected talks with South Korea aimed at reducing tensions and reopening a joint industrial park between the two countries. The North has threatened for weeks to attack the United States, South Korea and Japan since new U.N. sanctions were imposed in response to its latest nuclear arms test in February. ...


Kremlin criticises U.S. blacklist ahead of Obama adviser visit

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 01:11 PM PDT

Russian President Putin listens during an interview with German public broadcaster ARD at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside MoscowBy Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said on Sunday called a U.S. law barring Russians from the country over alleged rights abuses unacceptable interference in Russia's affairs, setting a tough tone before a visit by a senior White House adviser. Dmitry Peskov's remarks were the first comment from Putin's office after the U.S. administration named 18 Russians subject to visa bans and asset freezes over the Magnitsky Act legislation passed by Congress late last year. ...


Al Qaeda adds urgency to search for Syrian peace

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 01:32 PM PDT

Abandoned tank is seen on a street near the damaged minaret of the Omari mosque in DeraaBy Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - International powers will search for a peaceful settlement to Syria's civil war with fresh urgency at an Istanbul meeting after a rebel faction aligned itself with al Qaeda, diplomats and opposition sources said on Sunday. Saturday's meeting of 11 countries from the Friends of Syria alliance will come after the al-Nusra Front, among the strongest formations seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad, pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri on April 10. "We will be meeting under the shadow of the advances of Nusra and other militants. ...


Exclusive: Lion Air crash pilot felt jet "dragged" from sky

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 04:07 PM PDT

The wreckage of a Lion Air Boeing 737 -800 airplane is seen in the water near Ngurah Rai airport in DenpasarBy Tim Hepher PARIS (Reuters) - The pilot whose Indonesian jet slumped into the sea while trying to land in Bali has described how he felt it "dragged" down by wind while he struggled to regain control, a person familiar with the matter said. All 108 passengers and crew miraculously survived when the Boeing 737 passenger jet, operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air, undershot the tourist island's main airport runway and belly-flopped in water on Saturday. ...


Egypt to try Brotherhood members accused of torture

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 01:36 PM PDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - Two Muslim Brotherhood members in northern Egypt have been ordered to stand trial on charges of detaining and torturing students during a protest against the president the group propelled to power. The charges are a rare acknowledgement of the alleged role that some of the president's supporters have had in attacks on his opponents. The U.S. State Department suggested this month that Egypt was selectively prosecuting those accused of insulting the government while ignoring or playing down attacks on anti-government demonstrators. ...

EU's Ashton to visit Balkans as Serbia awaits talks verdict

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 03:35 PM PDT

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton attends a news conference after the talks on Iran's nuclear programme in AlmatyBRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will visit the Western Balkans this week, when the European Commission is due to decide whether to recommend the start of EU membership talks with Serbia and possibly Macedonia. Ashton's trip will take her to Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia, an EU statement said on Sunday. It said further stops on the tour would be announced later, leaving open the possibility that Serbia could be included. "I travel to the Western Balkans to reinforce the EU's commitment to the European perspective for the countries in the region. ...


World military spending dips in 2012, first fall since 1998

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 03:04 PM PDT

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Global military spending dropped in 2012 for the first time in more than a decade thanks to deep cuts in the United States and Europe which made up for increases in countries such as China and Russia, a leading think-tank said on Monday. Big powers the United States and its European allies face tight budgets in an economic downturn and have scaled back involvement in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The world's second biggest economy China, however, is ramping up spending and registered 7.8 percent growth in 2012 from the year before, up 175 percent from 2003. ...

Iraq election candidates killed before local vote

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 01:21 PM PDT

An Iraqi policewoman casts her vote at a polling station in KerbalaBAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two Iraqi Sunni Muslim candidates were killed less than a week before local elections that will be a test of the country's political stability after U.S. troops left more than a year ago. The election on Saturday to select provincial council members will measure Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political muscle against Shi'ite and Sunni rivals before the parliamentary election in 2014. ...


Chad says troops unsuited to guerrilla war, quitting Mali

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 02:27 PM PDT

Chad president Idriss Deby smiles after arriving at Khartoum Airport on an official visitBy David Lewis DAKAR (Reuters) - Chad will withdraw its troops from Mali where they risk being bogged down in guerrilla war after helping to drive Islamists from northern towns, President Idriss Deby said in comments broadcast on Sunday. His words came days after a suicide bomber killed three Chadian troops in the northern town of Kidal, demonstrating how al Qaeda-linked Islamists are still able to strike in the heavily-defended towns they once controlled. ...


Venezuelans choose between Chavez heir, new path

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 04:57 PM PDT

Venezuelan voters who reside in Mexico chant the name of Venezuela's opposition presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles, outside Venezuela's consulate office that was serving as a polling station, in Mexico City, Sunday, April 14, 2013. Voters were deciding Sunday whether to elect interim President Nicolas Maduro, who served as late President Hugo Chavez's foreign minister and vice president, or Capriles in a special presidential election to replace Chavez who died on March 5. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Voters chose Sunday between the hand-picked successor who campaigned to carry on Hugo Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution and an emboldened second-time challenger who warned that the late president's regime has Venezuela on the road to ruin.


Investigators probe jet's crash into sea in Bali

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 11:59 AM PDT

This photo released by Indonesia's National Rescue Team shows rescuers at the crash site of a Lion Air plane in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The plane carrying more than 100 passengers and crew overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday and crashed into the sea, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said. (AP Photo/National Rescue Team)BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian investigators on Sunday began working to determine what caused a new Lion Air passenger jet to miss a runway while landing on the resort island of Bali, crashing into the sea without causing any fatalities among the 108 on board.


16 killed in attack on Somali Supreme Court

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 10:21 AM PDT

Survivors are helped to escape from a window at Mogadishu's court complex in Mogadishu, Somalia, Sunday, April 14, 2013. Militants launched a serious and sustained assault on Mogadishu's main court complex Sunday, detonating at least two blasts, taking an unknown number of hostages and exchanging extended volleys of gunfire with government security forces, witnesses said.(AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A barrage of bullets and two car bomb blasts rattled Mogadishu on Sunday when nine al-Shabab Islamic extremists stormed Somalia's main court complex, officials said, in a two-hour attack that shows the country's most dangerous militant group may be down but not defeated.


Despite tension, NKorea lets in tourists, athletes

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 08:41 AM PDT

South Korean members of the Abductees Family Association with their national flags hold an anti-North Korea rally in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 14, 2013. As the world watches to see what North Korea's next move will be in a high-stakes game of brinksmanship with the United States, residents of its capital aren't hunkering down in bunkers and preparing for the worst. Instead, they are out on the streets en masse getting ready for the birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung - the biggest holiday of the year. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Despite North Korea's warnings that the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula is so high it cannot guarantee the safety of foreign residents, it literally trotted out athletes from around the world on Sunday for a marathon through the streets of its capital — suggesting its concerns of an imminent military crisis might not be as dire as its official pronouncements proclaim.


Head of Libyan Islamic extremist militia shot

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 02:31 PM PDT

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A security official says the leader of an Islamic extremist militia in Libya suspected of involvement in an attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador has been shot.

As US talks up diplomacy, NKorea takes hard line

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 12:18 PM PDT

U.S. Secretary of Sate John Kerry, left, is greeted by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida prior to their meeting at Foreign Ministry's Iikura Guesthouse in Tokyo Sunday, April 14, 2013. After meeting with top Chinese leaders in Beijing, Kerry traveled to Tokyo to discuss the continuing North Korea crisis with Japanese officials. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)TOKYO (AP) — The United States and Japan opened the door Sunday to new nuclear talks with North Korea if the saber-rattling country lowered tensions and honored past agreements, even as it rejected South Korea's latest offer of dialogue as a "crafty trick."


Anti-euro party a wildcard in German elections

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 10:09 AM PDT

The founder of the new German anti-Euro party 'Alternative fuer Deutschland' (Alternative for Germany), Bernd Lucke, attends the party's founding convention in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, April 14, 2013. The organizers had to open a second room to squeeze in more than 1,500 members who had come from across the country to adopt a program and vote for a party board. The two spacious halls at the city's upscale Intercontinental Hotel were noticeable filled with lots of gray-haired, elderly men and only few women. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)BERLIN (AP) — The leader of a new anti-euro party called Sunday for Germany to leave the common currency, telling an inaugural convention that the euro forces German taxpayers to rescue bankrupt southern European countries whose people denounce them as Nazis for their efforts.


Hezbollah-backed Lebanese Shiites fight in Syria

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 12:58 PM PDT

In this Friday, April 12, 2013 photo, members of the Lebanese pro-Syrian Popular Committees stand guard at the Lebanon-Syria border, near the northeastern Lebanese town of al-Qasr, Lebanon. Masked men in camouflage toting Kalashnikov rifles fan out through a dusty olive orchard, part of a group of Hezbollah-backed fighters from Lebanon who are patrolling both sides of a porous border stretch with Syria. The gunmen say their mission to protect Shiites in both countries and counter what they see as a growing threat from Sunni rebels in Syria. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)AL QASR, Lebanon (AP) — Masked men in camouflage toting Kalashnikov rifles fan out through a dusty olive grove, part of a group of Hezbollah-backed fighters from Lebanon who are patrolling both sides of a porous border stretch with Syria.


Brotherhood members face torture charge in Egypt

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 01:19 PM PDT

FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 file photo, Protesters storm an office of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice party and set fires in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, Egypt. The accusations against two Muslim Brotherhood officials that have been ordered to stand trial for allegedly kidnapping and torturing three men at the group's headquarters there, according to the city prosecutor's office, stem from November protests that swept much of the country, including Damanhour in the Nile Delta. The protests followed President Mohammed Morsi's decrees, which have since been rescinded, giving himself near absolute powers. (AP Photo/Amira Mortada, El Shorouk Newspaper, File)CAIRO (AP) — Two Muslim Brotherhood officials have been sent to trial on charges of kidnapping and torturing three men during protests in November following Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's decrees, since rescinded, that granted him near absolute powers.


Venezuela's choice: Chavez heir or fresh start

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 09:25 AM PDT

Residents wait to enter a polling station where a nearby wall is covered with a mural of interim President Nicolas Maduro during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, early Sunday, April 14, 2013. Interim President Nicolas Maduro, who served as the late President Hugo Chavez's foreign minister and vice president, is running against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Voters who kept Hugo Chavez in office for 14 years were deciding Sunday whether to elect the devoted lieutenant he chose to carry on the revolution that endeared him to the poor but that many Venezuelans believe is ruining the nation.


In Morocco, activists struggle to keep protest fervor alive

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 02:17 PM PDT

Avenue Mohammed V, a wide street that runs directly through Rabat's centre-ville and past Morocco's parliamentary headquarters, is the site of nearly daily protests against the country's government.

Venezuelans head to polls to choose Chávez successor

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 02:10 PM PDT

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, Caraqueños were awakened by the sound of fireworks and blaring bugles, prompting voters to get to the polls and pick their successor to the late President Hugo Chávez.

Deadly day in Mogadishu shows weakened Somali militants not yet defeated

Posted: 14 Apr 2013 10:40 AM PDT

Al Shabab militants killed 19 people Sunday in bomb attacks that targeted Mogadishu's main court complex and an aid convoy, underscoring the fact that Somalia's weakened Al Qaeda-allied militia has not yet been beaten.
bnzv