| In court, defiant Mursi says he is still Egypt's president Posted: 04 Nov 2013 11:38 AM PST  By Yasmine Saleh and Yara Bayoumy CAIRO (Reuters) - Ousted Egyptian leader Mohamed Mursi, given his first public forum since his overthrow in a trial where he could face execution, declared on Monday he was still Egypt's legitimate president and shouted: "Down with military rule!" Mursi, an Islamist who was toppled by the army in July after mass protests against him, spoke with anger and passion, interrupting the first day of his trial repeatedly from his cage during an unruly hearing that the judge adjourned to January 8. State television aired brief footage of Mursi, the first public sighting of the president since his overthrow in July. Mursi, Egypt's first freely elected president, had been kept in an undisclosed location since then. "I am Dr. Mohamed Mursi.
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| Heavy gunfire heard in Libya's capital Tripoli Posted: 04 Nov 2013 04:46 PM PST TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Heavy shooting from guns and anti-aircraft weapons could be heard early on Tuesday in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Reuters witnesses said. Fighting erupted between militias in the eastern Suq al-Juma area, said a militia source with government ties, adding that he had no further information. A Facebook website showed what it said were two burned-out cars though Reuters could not verify its authenticity. An interior ministry official said he had no information about the shooting, when contacted by Reuters. A defense ministry official declined to comment. ... |
| Nobel winner Ebadi urges EU, U.S. to ban Iran from TV satellites Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:51 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Monday called on the European Union and United States to ban Iran from using U.S. and European satellites to broadcast what she described as the Islamic Republic's propaganda. Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and former judge who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting human rights in Iran, also accused Western powers of focusing too little attention on rights abuses as they pursue a deal with Tehran aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions. She criticized the economic and financial sanctions regime against Iran, a web of U.S., EU and U.N. measures aimed at crippling Tehran's nuclear and missile programs and pressuring the government to abandon what Western powers and their allies suspect is a quest to develop an atomic weapons capability. Some kinds of medications cannot be found in Iran.
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| About 40 percent of Syrians need humanitarian aid: U.N. Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:11 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations estimates that around 9.3 million people in Syria or about 40 percent of the population need humanitarian assistance due to the country's 2-1/2-year, the U.N. humanitarian office said on Monday. "The humanitarian situation in Syria continues to deteriorate rapidly and inexorably," U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors, according to her spokeswoman Amanda Pitt. "The number of people we estimate to be in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria has now risen to some 9.3 million," Pitt said, summarizing Amos' remarks to the 15-nation council. "Of them, 6.5 million people are displaced from their homes, within the country." The population of Syria is around 23 million.
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| Tunisia's ruling Islamists, opposition suspend talks over new government Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:58 PM PST  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's ruling Islamists and opposition parties suspended talks on Monday over forming a new caretaker government to end the country's crisis after the two sides failed to agree on naming a prime minister. Tunisia's Islamist-led government has already agreed to step down later this month to make way for a temporary administration that will govern until elections, but the two sides remain deeply split over details of their agreement. The dialogue has been suspended until there is solid ground for negotiations," said Hussein Abassi, leader of the powerful UGTT union that brokered the talks. He said the union may propose names for the premier if moderate ruling Islamist party Ennahda and the opposition were unable to reach agreement.
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| Shi'ite, Sunni ceasefire in north Yemen appears crumbling Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:56 PM PST By Mohammed Ghobari SANAA (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Yemeni Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims fighters intended to end days of clashes that have killed at least 100 combatants and civilians appeared to be crumbling on Monday after Sunnis reported a resumption of fighting. "The Houthis are shelling Damaj now with mortars causing five injuries," Salafist spokesman Surour al-Wadi'i said. "The cease fire has not taken hold so far." A Red Cross delegation had managed to enter the town of Damaj to treat and evacuate those wounded in the fighting, but a translator with the team was shot and killed, he said. The ceasefire had been announced for Monday by the U.N. envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, according to the state news agency. |
| African leaders call for Congo peace as army, rebels clash Posted: 04 Nov 2013 04:54 PM PST  By Kenny Katombe and Pascal Fletcher MBUZI, Democratic Republic of Congo/PRETORIA (Reuters) - African leaders and international envoys appealed to Congo's government and M23 rebels on Monday to stop fighting and embrace a peace deal after the two sides bombarded each other near the Ugandan border. The appeals were made as United Nations and U.S. envoys said the elements of an accord to end the 20-month insurgency in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were broadly agreed and only required public commitments to end the hostilities. A rapid Congolese army advance in recent weeks has driven the M23 rebels from towns and cornered them in the steep, forested hills along the Ugandan border, raising the prospect of peace for Congo's mineral-rich eastern borderlands. But before leaders from southern Africa and the Great Lakes region that includes Congo met in Pretoria late on Monday to back the peace moves, Congolese authorities accused the rebels of shelling the frontier town of Bunagana and said it showed M23's weekend ceasefire declaration was worthless.
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| Mexico imposes military control over major seaport Posted: 04 Nov 2013 04:50 PM PST MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's military has taken control of one of the nation's biggest seaports as part of an effort to bring drug-cartel activity under control in the western state of Michoacan, officials said Monday. |
| CO2 injections likely culprit in Texas earthquakes -study Posted: 04 Nov 2013 04:49 PM PST Carbon dioxide injected into oil and gas wells may have caused a series of minor earthquakes in Texas long before the adoption of current hydraulic fracking, according to a study published on Monday in a national science journal. The study, which analyzed 93 earthquakes that occurred between March 2009 and December 2010, appears to be the first to link earthquakes of magnitude 3 and above and carbon dioxide injections in the Cogdell oil field near Snyder, Texas. Tremors in the area that occurred between 1975 and 1982 were previously linked to the injection of water into wells but the same explanation could not be applied to earthquakes that occurred in late 2000s, the paper's two authors said. |
| Mexican military takes over drug-ridden state's port Posted: 04 Nov 2013 04:01 PM PST  The Mexican military was put in charge of security and operations Monday at a major Pacific port in Michoacan, a western state plagued by drug cartel violence. Government security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said high-ranking navy officers were taking over the administration and captaincy at the port of Lazaro Cardenas, which has the country's largest general cargo volume. The move came one week after armed groups sabotaged government-owned power stations in Michoacan, causing blackouts in an attack that officials suspect was orchestrated by the Knights Templar gang. The federal government deployed thousands of troops to Michoacan in May in an effort to rein in the cartel, whose reign of violence has prompted several towns to form vigilante groups.
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| Report slams US doctors involved in interrogations Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:48 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — A report by a medical task force says Defense Department and CIA health professionals violated professional ethics standards by helping to develop interrogation and torture techniques and participating in force-feeding of terror suspects over the last decade. |
| Canadian appeals extradition over 1980 French bombing Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:47 PM PST  Toronto (Canada) (AFP) - Lawyers on Monday challenged a decision to extradite a Canadian university professor accused of a deadly 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue, calling France's key handwriting evidence "fatally flawed." Hassan Diab is appealing a 2011 court decision and the Canadian government's order to extradite the University of Ottawa sociologist to France, despite the court's concerns that the case was "weak." Diab denies any involvement in the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation in World War II, which left four dead and many wounded.
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| Mali official: 5 held in French journalist deaths Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:32 PM PST  DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — French troops who found the bodies of two slain French radio journalists in northern Mali followed footprints in the sand near the corpses to hunt their abductors, part of a search that eventually led to five arrests Monday, a Mali military official said. He added that the kidnappers' vehicle had broken down, possibly prompting their decision to kill the captives.
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| Talks to name new Tunisia PM suspended indefinitely Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:21 PM PST  Tunis (AFP) - Tunisia's ruling Islamists and the opposition failed Monday to agree on a new prime minister to steer the country out of a political crisis and talks have now been suspended indefinitely, the mediator said.
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| Saudi foreign minister, Kerry patch over relations Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:11 PM PST  RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The United States and Saudi Arabia promised each other and the region Monday that they would continue to work together, with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal saying "our two friendly countries" are busy dealing jointly with troublesome issues like Syria, Iran and the Mideast peace process.
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| Greece's debt inspectors back amid austerity anger Posted: 04 Nov 2013 03:05 PM PST  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Inspectors from Greece's bailout creditors have restarted talks on spending reforms that the government is resisting, with Greek officials ruling out any further blanket wage and pension cuts, and accusing the negotiators of adopting a "punitive approach."
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| Syrian regime says not going to Geneva talks to hand over power Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:59 PM PST  The Syrian regime will not attend a proposed Geneva peace conference if the aim is for President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power, the country's information minister said Monday. "We will not go to Geneva to hand over power as desired by (Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud) al-Faisal and certain opponents abroad," said Omran al-Zohbi in comments carried by the official SANA news agency. "President Bashar al-Assad will remain head of state," he added. Syria's opposition has refused to attend unless Assad's resignation is on the table.
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| Mexican armed forces take over security in key Pacific port Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:55 PM PST Mexican armed forces have taken charge of security in the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, a major cargo hub in a part of the country struggling to contain violent drug gangs. The government said on Monday that units of the army, navy and federal police were moving in to oversee access to and around Lazaro Cardenas, one of Mexico's principal gateways to trade with Asia on the southern flank of Michoacan state. Michoacan has been a regular flashpoint for shootings and attacks on officials since President Enrique Pena Nieto took power 11 months ago pledging to bring an end to widespread violence stemming from warring drug cartels. Government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said the decision to replace local police in Lazaro Cardenas was part of a series of measures aimed at restoring stability to Michoacan. |
| UN brigade in direct combat as DR Congo army pounds rebels Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:45 PM PST Ntamugenga (DR Congo) (AFP) - The UN special force in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo engaged in direct combat with besieged M23 rebels on Monday, throwing its weight behind a crushing army assault despite calls for a truce. A UN source said the intervention brigade fired mortar rounds after getting the "green light" to bombard the last positions of the M23, in what appeared to be the first time the force has actively taken part in the fighting since the army launched its offensive late-October. Until now, the UN intervention brigade had been backing the Congolese forces with aerial reconnaissance, intelligence and planning. News of the UN force's intervention came hours after the Congolese army said it had seized a key rebel position, the latest in a string of military victories over the rebels since a major offensive was launched on October 25. |
| Norway: Bus hijacker stabs 3 to death Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:37 PM PST  STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — A knife-wielding man hijacked a bus Monday in rural Norway and killed the driver and two passengers before he was detained by authorities, officials said.
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| African leaders meet to discuss DR Congo crisis Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:27 PM PST  African leaders went into talks Monday to discuss the possibility of reinforcing a UN special brigade deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as rebels there are forced onto the back foot. South African President Jacob Zuma opened the talks urging his fellow leaders "to continue to do everything we can to act together in partnership, to respond to the urgent challenges of restoring peace and stability". Zuma is hosting leaders from some of the 15-country Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and some of DR Congo's neighbours at the summit in Pretoria. The 3,000-strong UN intervention brigade in eastern DR Congo is drawn from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania.
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| Kerry tries to soothe relations with Saudi Arabia but tensions evident Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:26 PM PST  By Lesley Wroughton and Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry met King Abdullah on Monday and praised the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia as strategic and enduring, but strains in the nearly 70-year-old relationship were apparent over Syria and other issues. Kerry visited the Gulf oil power on a mission to soothe disagreements that also extend to U.S. policy on Iran, Egypt and the Palestinian issue, but despite a public show of friendship, big differences remained. The visit is the first since Saudi anger boiled over at the U.S. decision not to bomb Syria in the wake of a chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus in August. A senior prince said at that time that Riyadh was contemplating a "major shift" away from Washington.
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| UN chief arrives in Mali for anti-poverty mission Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:19 PM PST  UN leader Ban Ki-moon touched down in Mali late Monday, the foreign ministry said, to begin a tour of the region highlighting the battle against poverty but overshadowed by the murder of two French journalists. Ban, World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim and top officials from the African Union, African Development Bank and European Union will spend Tuesday in Mali before travelling to Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad. The deaths have highlighted the ongoing security threat just three weeks ahead of parliamentary elections supposed to mark the completion of Mali's transition back to democracy following a military coup in March last year. Ban said ahead of his visit that the Mali crisis, when Islamic radicals and rebel allies took over the north for nearly a year, "underscored the need to do more than fight fires in the region -- we need to clear away the problems that could ignite conflict and instability".
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| Niger rescues 72 migrants stranded in desert Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:13 PM PST  The Niger authorities on Monday rescued 72 illegal migrants stranded in the scorching Sahara desert after their truck got a flat tyre. Mamane said the group, mostly women and children under the age of 10, were on their way back from Algeria. Upon hearing of last month's tragedy, in which 92 migrants perished stranded in the desert when their truck broke down, they had decided to leave their life of begging in southern Algeria and return home. One of the group's rescued women, Baraka Souley, said the migrants, from southern Niger, "were voluntarily returning to their homeland after those horrible deaths".
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| France, Mali hunt killers of French journalists Posted: 04 Nov 2013 02:09 PM PST  Mali paid homage on Monday to two French journalists shot dead in the west African nation's rebel-infested northern desert as the hunt for the killers by French troops and Malian security forces intensified. Ghislaine Dupont, 57, and Claude Verlon, 55, were kidnapped and killed by what French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said were "terrorist groups" in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal on Saturday. "We will do everything to find the culprits," Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita vowed as he met in Bamako with members of the management of Radio France Internationale (RFI), the station where the pair worked.
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| Madrid trash collectors protest against layoffs Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:59 PM PST MADRID (AP) — Trash collectors in Madrid have started bonfires and set off firecrackers during a noisy protest in one of the Spanish capital's main squares as they prepare to start an open-ended strike. |
| Iraq VP sets parliamentary poll for April 30 Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:57 PM PST  Iraq will hold a general election on April 30 after lawmakers agreed on polling regulations Monday, setting a marker that officials hope could end political deadlock fuelling a surge in violence. The poll will come amid concern that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has amassed too much power, and criticism from voters over rampant corruption, poor basic services and high unemployment despite swelling government coffers thanks to rising oil exports. Khuzaie is standing in for President Jalal Talabani, who has been in Germany for nearly a year receiving treatment for a stroke. The parliamentary election would be the first national poll since March 2010, and comes amid prolonged political deadlock, long-standing disputes within the national unity government and a months-long spike in violence.
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| Defiant Morsi tells Egypt court to try 'coup' leaders Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:56 PM PST  Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi appeared in court Monday on the first day of his trial for incitement to murder, rejecting its legitimacy and demanding that "coup" leaders be prosecuted. In his first public appearance since the military toppled him in July, Morsi was indignant and outraged in the makeshift courtroom at a police academy in east Cairo, where his trial was adjourned until January 8. "I am Dr Mohamed Morsi, the president of the republic," the defiant Islamist told the court. Morsi, held at a secret location since July 3, was then flown to Borg al-Arab prison outside Egypt's second city, Alexandria.
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| Egypt's Morsi defiant as his trial begins Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:53 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Ousted President Mohammed Morsi refused to wear a prison jumpsuit, entering the caged dock in a dark business suit as his co-defendants applauded. He defiantly questioned the legitimacy of the court and proclaimed himself still Egypt's leader. His fellow Muslim Brotherhood members chanted, "Down with military rule!"
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| No end in sight to Libya's costly oil facility strikes Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:53 PM PST  Talks between Libyan authorities and protesters blockading oil terminals have reached a deadlock after three months, prolonging a crisis that has cost the increasingly volatile country an estimated $13 billion. The protests have caused an 80 percent drop in production in a country that is almost entirely dependent on oil and gas for its foreign exchange earnings, and which is struggling to impose order after the 2011 revolution that toppled Moamer Kadhafi. Security guards from the oil installations have been on strike since the end of July, blockading the country's main terminals at Zueitina, Ras Lanouf, and Al-Sedra in eastern Libya, where the Arab Spring-inspired uprising began. "The oil terminals crisis is continuing and the situation is totally deadlocked," he said.
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| Kerry visits Poland to discuss security, business Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:44 PM PST  WARSAW, Poland (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Poland on Monday to discuss issues ranging from international security and the situation in the Middle East to economic cooperation.
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| East Africa art on rise as Kenya holds first commercial auction Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:40 PM PST  Kenyan artist Boniface Maina, dreadlocks peeping out from a woolly hat, strolls round paintings and sculptures going under the hammer Tuesday in the first commercial auction of east African art. The auction in Kenya's capital Nairobi is a sign of the growing profile of the region's flourishing art scene. "It's a great step towards east African art becoming better known," Maina said, adding he hopes in the future to collect art as well as create it.
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| BlackBerry scraps search for buyer, ousts CEO Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:28 PM PST  BlackBerry abandoned hopes of finding a buyer, and instead pegged its future on a $1 billion cash infusion as it shook up top management Monday and named a new chief executive. Fairfax instead will invest $1 billion in a private placement, and Fairfax boss Prem Watsa will become lead director of BlackBerry. BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins meanwhile will step down after only 22 months on the job, and will be replaced on an interim basis by longtime technology executive John Chen, a statement said. "Today's announcement represents a significant vote of confidence in BlackBerry and its future by this group of preeminent, long-term investors," said Barbara Stymiest, chair of BlackBerry's board.
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| Nicaragua ruling party seek seeks to remove presidential term limits Posted: 04 Nov 2013 01:28 PM PST  By Ivan Castro MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front party will seek to change the constitution by year-end to remove presidential term limits, lawmakers said on Monday. Ortega has not said publicly whether he would like another term as president, but such a reform would allow him to follow in the footsteps of his ideological ally, late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who called a referendum in 2009 to change Venezuela's constitution to allow indefinite reelection. Nicaragua's law has included a two-term limit, but that was overridden by a Supreme Court ruling that allowed Ortega to run again in 2011. The 63-strong bench of lawmakers from President Daniel Ortega's party presented a reform proposal to the national assembly on Friday and have just over the two-thirds majority necessary in the 92-person body needed to pass it.
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