| Kerry to join Iran nuclear talks in bid to reach deal Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:30 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau, Fredrik Dahl and Justyna Pawlak GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will join nuclear talks between major powers and Iran in Geneva on Friday in an attempt to nail down a long-elusive accord to start resolving a decade-old standoff over Tehran's atomic aims. Kerry, on a Middle East tour, will fly to the Swiss city at the invitation of European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in "an effort to help narrow differences" in the negotiations, a senior U.S. State Department official said. Ashton is coordinating talks with Iran on behalf of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany. Iran rejects Western accusations that it is seeking the capability to make nuclear weapons.
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| Evidence supports Arafat poisoning theory, wider probe needed: experts Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:02 PM PST  By Stephanie Nebehay LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - The remains of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat showed test results consistent with polonium poisoning and should lead to a judicial investigation even if they were not absolute proof that he died that way, Swiss experts said on Thursday. The two forensic experts were part of an international team that opened Arafat's grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah last November and took samples from his body to see if there was evidence he was poisoned with the radioactive element.
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| Video emerges of 'extremely inebriated' Toronto mayor Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:02 PM PST  (Note: Strong language in the fifth paragraph) By Allison Martell TORONTO (Reuters) - Just days after Toronto Mayor Rob Ford apologized for smoking crack cocaine, he admitted on Thursday he was "extremely, extremely inebriated" in a short expletive-laden video posted online. Toronto city council does not have the power to remove Ford itself. The blurry, 80-second clip, posted on the Toronto Star newspaper's website and shown on Canadian television, shows a clearly agitated Ford ranting, making threats and pounding his hands together, while at least one other person seems to be goading him on. The Star said it had paid for the video, and said the context of the clip was not clear.
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| Super typhoon Haiyan slams central Philippines, millions seek shelter Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:36 PM PST  Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm on earth this year, slammed into the Philippines' central islands on Friday forcing millions of people to move to safer ground and storm shelters, cutting power and phone lines, and grounding air and sea transport. The maximum category-five super typhoon, with destructive winds gusting of up to 275 kph (170 mph), whipped up giant waves as high as 4-5 meters (12-15 feet) that lashed the islands of Leyte and Samar, and was on track to hit holiday destinations. "We are fearful because there is talk that the sea will rise," an elementary school teacher in Southern Leyte province who only gave her name as Feliza told a local radio station. Trees in coastal areas have already fallen." About a million people are in shelter areas in more than 20 provinces, after Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Thursday appealed to people in Haiyan's path to evacuate danger areas, like river banks, coastal villages and mountain slopes.
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| Suicide bombers kill at least 16 soldiers at Iraqi base Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:51 PM PST Two suicide bombers blew themselves up minutes apart at an Iraqi army base late on Thursday, killing at least 16 soldiers, police and medics said. Security forces are a prime target for Sunni Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda who have been regaining momentum in an insurgency against Iraq's Shi'ite-led government this year. The first suicide bomber detonated his charge at the main gate of the military base in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad, and the second struck a group of soldiers who had gathered to evacuate the wounded. Violence in Iraq, which had eased since a peak in 2006-07, is rising again, with more than 7,000 civilians killed this year, according to monitoring group Iraq Body Count. |
| United Nations needs to deal with excessive spying: Germany, Brazil Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:35 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Revelations of U.S. global spying have raised digital privacy protection questions the United Nations needs to address, Germany and Brazil said on Thursday as they introduced a resolution calling for an end to excessive electronic surveillance. The draft resolution expressed deep concern "at human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications." It does not name specific countries, but comes after former U.S. contractor Edward Snowden released details of global spying by the U.S. National Security Agency.
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| Kerry heading to Geneva for Iran nuclear talks Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:57 PM PST  In a landmark move, US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Geneva Friday to join nuclear talks with US arch-foe Iran, fuelling hopes a historic deal may be in sight. Upending an 11-day tour mostly of the Middle East, Kerry was due to arrive in Switzerland later Friday for the talks which had dragged for years until new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came to power in August. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and six world powers, known as the P5+1, are in the Swiss city aiming to broker a deal that could see Tehran freeze its disputed nuclear programme in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions. Kerry, who is in Amman, will first fly to Tel Aviv to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau and his surprise decision to go to Geneva is sure to infuriate key US ally Israel.
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| One of most intense typhoons ever recorded hits Philippines Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:55 PM PST  One of the most intense typhoons ever recorded tore into the Philippines on Friday, triggering flash floods and ripping down buildings as millions of people huddled indoors. Super Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the central island of Samar, about 600 kilometres southeast of Manila, at 4:40am (2040 GMT Thursday) and was travelling quickly northwest, state meteorologist Romeo Cajulis told AFP. President Benigno Aquino had on Thursday warned his countrymen to make all possible preparations for Haiyan, which was packing monster wind gusts of nearly 380 kilometres (235 miles) an hour as it approached the Philippines. Let us do all we can while (Haiyan) has not yet hit land," Aquino said in a nationally televised address.
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| Kerry heading to Geneva in sign of Iran progress Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:46 PM PST  GENEVA (AP) — Iran's chief nuclear negotiator signaled progress at talks with six world powers Thursday on a deal to cap some of his country's atomic programs in exchange for limited relief from sanctions stifling Iran's economy, saying the six had accepted Tehran's proposals on how to proceed.
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| Arafat's mysterious death becomes a whodunit Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:23 PM PST  RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Yasser Arafat's mysterious 2004 death turned into a whodunit Thursday after Swiss scientists who examined his remains said the Palestinian leader was probably poisoned with radioactive polonium.
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| Polio in Syria poses risk for Europe Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:17 PM PST  An outbreak of polio in Syria poses a threat to Europe, where the crippling and potentially fatal disease was declared eradicated in 2002, doctors warned on Friday. Europe is exposed because some countries have low rates of innoculation, which lowers "herd immunity", or protection through community-wide vaccination, a pair of German epidemiologists warned in The Lancet. In addition, most countries use a type called inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which is less effective against the virus than an oral vaccine which is now largely discontinued because it causes rare cases of paralysis, they warned. At least 10 cases of polio have been confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Syria, where vaccination has been disrupted by the war.
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| New video emerges of ranting Toronto mayor Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:59 PM PST  TORONTO (AP) — A new video that surfaced Thursday showed Toronto Mayor Rob Ford threatening to "murder" someone and "poke his eyes out" in a rambling rage, deepening the conviction among both critics and allies that he is no longer fit to lead North America's fourth largest city.
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| Obama: Iran could get 'very modest' sanctions relief - NBC Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:58 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday the international community could slightly ease sanctions against Iran in the early stages of negotiating a deal on Tehran's nuclear program. "There is the possibility of a phased agreement in which the first phase would be us, you know, halting any advances on their nuclear program ... and putting in place a way where we can provide them some very modest relief, but keeping the sanctions architecture in place," he said in an interview with NBC News. ... |
| Kerry will head to Geneva to help clinch Iran nuclear deal: U.S. Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:57 PM PST U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Geneva on Friday in an effort to help secure a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, a senior U.S. State Department official said. "Secretary Kerry will travel to Geneva, Switzerland on Friday at the invitation of EU High Representative (Catherine) Ashton in an effort to help narrow differences in negotiations," the official said. Diplomats in Geneva said work on a possible deal aimed at ending a decade-long nuclear standoff between Iran and the West was continuing. |
| Heavy fighting rocks Libyan capital as rival militia battle Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:45 PM PST By Ghaith Shennib and Feras Bosalum TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Rival militiamen battled each other for hours with anti-aircraft guns and grenades across Tripoli on Thursday, killing at least one person and wounding 12 in the worst fighting for months in the Libyan capital, medical sources said. The second outbreak of street fighting within days shows how the government is struggling to contain militias which helped overthrow Muammar Gaddafi two years ago but kept their guns after the NATO-backed uprising. A security source told Reuters that a heavily-armed group from the central city of Misrata had entered the capital in the evening to take revenge for the killing of one of its fighters in a smaller shootout in Tripoli on Tuesday. Toyota trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns arrived in several parts of Tripoli, opening fire as they tried to storm the eastern Suq al-Juma district, witnesses said. |
| Albania confirms US demand on Syria chemical weapon destruction Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:42 PM PST  Albania confirmed Thursday it was asked by the US to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal on its soil, as protesters gathered outside the parliament in Tirana to demonstrate against any such plans. "We were contacted by the United States, but no decision has been made yet," parliamentary speaker Ilir Meta said late Thursday in an interview to Top Channel television. "I do not think that Albania has the capacity, even other much bigger and more developed countries do not accept to do it," he added. Earlier in the day the activists pleaded with the Albanian government to resist any requests from foreign governments to help eliminate Syrian weapons in Albania, chanting "No to chemical arms."
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| Iran: nuclear plan 'backed' by 6 world powers Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:36 PM PST GENEVA (AP) — Iran's chief nuclear negotiator signaled progress at talks with six powers Thursday on a deal to cap some of his country's atomic programs in exchange for limited relief from sanctions stifling Iran's economy, saying the six had accepted Tehran's proposals on how to proceed. |
| Strongest typhoon of the year slams Philippines Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:35 PM PST  MANILA, Philippines (AP) — One of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded slammed into the Philippines early Friday, and one weather expert warned, "There will be catastrophic damage."
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| Kerry ready to come to Geneva on Friday if Iran deal reached: sources Posted: 07 Nov 2013 03:28 PM PST GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is ready to travel to Geneva on Friday if a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers is reached in the coming hours, diplomatic sources said. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said work on a possible deal aimed at ending a decade-long nuclear standoff between Iran and the West was continuing. Iranian officials said on Thursday that they were cautiously optimistic about prospects for an agreement but noted that nothing had been finalized. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau) |
| Record-setter Defoe fires Spurs into knockout phase Posted: 07 Nov 2013 02:34 PM PST  Jermain Defoe broke Tottenham's European goal-scoring record on Thursday as he steered his side into the knockout phase of the Europa League with a tough 2-1 victory over Moldova's Sheriff Tiraspol. Spurs join Valencia, Salzburg, Esbjerg, Fiorentina and Dninpro in the last-32 who all booked their places with two matches still remaining in the group phase. Defoe's clinical 67th minute penalty, which not only makes him the competition's top scorer with five goals from four matches, also gave him 23 European goals, one more than former England international Martin Chivers. Chivers, who scored 13 goals in 24 matches for England, helped the side win the same competition in 1972 when it was known as the UEFA Cup.
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| US to lose vote at UNESCO, incurs debts Posted: 07 Nov 2013 02:32 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — American influence in culture, science and education around the world is facing a high-profile blow Friday as the U.S. is stripped of its voting rights at the world's cultural agency, UNESCO. And it would cost the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars to win this voice back.
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| Libya militias clash after leader dies: security official Posted: 07 Nov 2013 02:14 PM PST  Tripoli (AFP) - Members of two Libyan militias clashed in Tripoli Thursday after the death of one of their leaders, witnesses and security officials said as intense gunfire could be heard in the capital.
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| Military base bombings, attacks in Iraq kill 30 Posted: 07 Nov 2013 02:06 PM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of attacks in Iraq, including a double suicide car bombing targeting a military base, killed 30 people across the country Thursday, officials said.
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| Morocco king hits back at W.Sahara rights criticism Posted: 07 Nov 2013 02:02 PM PST  King Mohammed VI has reacted angrily to international criticism of Morocco's human rights record in the annexed Western Sahara, insisting the kingdom needed no lessons from anybody. The king said late Wednesday the human rights situation was far worse in the small part of the former Spanish colony controlled by the pro-independence Polisario Front and in the refugee camps it runs in the Tindouf region of neighbouring Algeria. In a speech commemorating the so-called Green March of 1975 in which Morocco sent in tens of thousands of settlers to lay claim to the territory, the king reserved particular anger for Algeria, Rabat's regional rival and the Polisario's main backer.
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| Senior Iran negotiator says 'a bit optimistic' on nuclear deal Posted: 07 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST GENEVA (Reuters) - A senior Iranian negotiator said on Thursday that it was too early to say with certainty whether a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers would be possible this week, though he voiced cautious optimism that an agreement was close. "Too soon to say," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiator Abbas Araqchi told reporters after the first day of talks between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany. "I'm a bit optimistic," he added when asked about the possibility of a deal this week. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau) |
| Makenga, DRC's wily rebel chief seen as war criminal by UN Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:56 PM PST  Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) - Sultani Makenga, the 39-year-old chief of the Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 guerrillas, proved a wily commander in his long military career -- but also, according to the UN, a vicious war criminal. The chief of the former insurgents and his fellow M23 commanders have been branded "among the worst perpetrators of human rights violations in the DRC, or in the world for that matter," by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. Born Emmanuel Sultani Makenga on Christmas Day -- December 25, 1973 -- in the chronically unstable North Kivu region of the DRC, north of Goma, he grew up to spend almost all of his adult life fighting in various rebellions. Like many of the ethnic Tutsi officers who fought alongside him, he cut his teeth in the ranks of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, now in power in neighbouring Rwanda, when it launched a rebellion in the early 1990s.
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| Iraqi Kurdistan reiterates objection to BP's Kirkuk oil deal Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:53 PM PST Iraq's Kurdistan region reiterated its objection to a deal between BP and the central government to develop the northern Kirkuk oilfield, a day after the local governor, a Kurd, voiced full support for the British company's plans. Kirkuk lies on the disputed boundary between the autonomous Kurdish region and the rest of Iraq, and is at the heart of a dispute between Baghdad and the region over territory and resources. The Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) difference with the Kirkuk governor's stance on the BP deal also points to tensions within the autonomous region over how to manage resources. |
| Bachelet lead firm in Chile election, but runoff likely: IPSOS Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:43 PM PST  Front-runner Michelle Bachelet is holding onto her substantial lead ahead of Chile's presidential election on November 17, an IPSOS survey showed on Thursday, but the pollster again suggested she won't garner enough support to avoid a December runoff. Center-left favorite Bachelet was supported by 32 percent of likely voters, with undecideds included, compared to 20 percent for Evelyn Matthei, the candidate for the right-wing incumbent coalition. The results were unchanged from an October 22 IPSOS poll and well below the 50 percent of votes Bachelet needs to pocket to dodge the December 15 runoff. The clear favorite and Chile's first woman president from 2006 to 2010, Bachelet has been urging supporters to hand her a clear-cut victory in November.
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| UK spymasters say Al-Qaeda 'lapping up' Snowden leaks Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:42 PM PST  Britain's top spy chiefs warned in an unprecedented television appearance on Thursday that Al-Qaeda and other enemies were "lapping up" intelligence leaks by Edward Snowden and using them to change the way they operate. The heads of the foreign spy agency MI6, the domestic intelligence service MI5 and the electronic listening station GCHQ however used their appearance before a parliamentary committee to deny that Britons were under mass surveillance.
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| Sudanese rebels tell world to 'wake up' to war Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:40 PM PST By John Irish PARIS (Reuters) - The main rebel alliance fighting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir called on the world on Thursday to "wake up" to the war, saying atrocities in Sudan were as bad as those in Syria. Sudan has suffered decades of conflict. Fighting has intensified in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since South Sudan won independence in 2011, while international efforts have failed to bring peace to the westerly region of Darfur. Speaking in Paris on a rare lobbying visit to Europe, the president of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) accused Bashir of exploiting the world's preoccupation with wars such as those in Syria and Mali to try to crush the rebels and kill civilians through indiscriminate bombing and starvation. |
| DR Congo's M23 rebels surrender to Uganda Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:27 PM PST  Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 guerrillas have surrendered en masse in Uganda, where rebel supremo Sultani Makenga is also in the hands of the army, officers said Thursday, signalling the end of an 18-month insurgency. The rebel surrender follows a crushing defeat at the hands of the UN-backed Congolese armed forces. "He is with our forces, yes, Makenga has crossed into Uganda," a senior Ugandan military officer told AFP, although he declined to clarify if he had formally surrendered or was under arrest. Paddy Ankunda, a colonel in the Ugandan army, told AFP that 1,500 men from the M23 -- a number thought to account for more or less the entire force -- had crossed into Uganda and given themselves up, and were now being held in the Kisoro border district.
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| Iraq attacks kill 30 ahead of Shiite pilgrimage Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:21 PM PST  Attacks in Iraq -- including twin suicide blasts against an army base and a car bomb targeting Shiite Muslims -- killed 30 people Thursday, a week ahead of a major Shiite pilgrimage. The bloodshed follows the start of the Islamic new year just days earlier and as Shiite Muslims converge on the shrine city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, for commemoration ceremonies, a period during which Sunni militants often try to target Shiites and the security forces. Thursday's deadliest violence saw 16 people killed just north of Baghdad. A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle rigged with explosives at the entrance of an army base just north of Baghdad during the evening, before another suicide car bomber managed to enter the compound and blow himself up.
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| EU gay asylum ruling gets divided reception Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:20 PM PST  Gays can seek asylum in the European Union when threatened with jail for same-sex activity, but only when such persecution is "sufficiently serious", Europe's top court ruled on Thursday. The judgement by the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice was seen as divisive, with rights groups differing widely in their reading of what this could mean in practice. The court found that jail terms for homosexual behaviour could be considered "an act of persecution" warranting asylum. But it said the threat of persecution must be enforced and "sufficiently serious" with courts in home countries regularly throwing people behind bars.
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| Report: IRS refunded $4B to identity thieves Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:20 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds last year to people using stolen identities, with some of the money going to addresses in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland, according to an inspector general's report released Thursday.
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| Syria army retakes town near Damascus from rebels Posted: 07 Nov 2013 01:13 PM PST  Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and other pro-regime militiamen retook a major rebel enclave south of Damascus on Thursday, severing a key opposition supply line. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Amman he believed peace talks that had been proposed for the end of November could still be held in the coming weeks. And in The Hague, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said inspectors had verified all but one of Syria's 23 declared chemical weapons sites. The regime's recapture of Sbeineh comes nine days into a campaign aimed at cutting off one of the main rebel supply lines into southern Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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