| Iran nuclear talks make some progress, but still differences Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:31 PM PST By John Irish, Parisa Hafezi and Justyna Pawlak GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran and six major powers have made some progress toward an interim deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, but both sides said on Thursday they still have significant differences to overcome. Negotiators appeared to downplay anticipation of an imminent breakthrough in the three-day talks that began on Wednesday after the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany came close to winning concessions from Iran in the last round of negotiations two weeks ago. Several Western diplomats said there was a good chance that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry would join foreign ministers from the other five members of the six nation group in Geneva in another attempt to nail down a long elusive deal with Iran. A senior European diplomat told reporters the ministers would only travel to Geneva if there was a deal to sign. |
| Car bomb in northern Iraq kills 25 Posted: 21 Nov 2013 11:07 AM PST  A car bomb exploded in a busy market in northeastern Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 30, the town's mayor and medical sources said. Iraq is suffering its worst wave of violence in at least five years, with insurgents targeting mainly Shi'ite Muslim civilians in attacks on public places such as shopping areas and cafes. The attack took place in Sadiya, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Shattered glass was everywhere," grocery store owner Suhair Gadhban told Reuters by telephone, adding that he was wounded in the leg.
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| Companies, port sought to destroy Syria poisons Posted: 21 Nov 2013 08:57 AM PST By Anthony Deutsch THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The global chemical weapons watchdog is urgently seeking commercial firms to destroy toxins from Syria's poison gas arsenal, and trying to find a Mediterranean port where the deadliest chemicals can first be processed off-shore. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is racing to cobble together a "Plan B" to eradicate Syria's poison gas arsenal, after Albania abruptly backed out of an offer last week to host the destruction. The OPCW is expected to ask companies formally on Thursday to bid for commercial contracts to treat around 800 tonnes of bulk industrial chemicals that are safe to destroy in commercial incinerators, a document reviewed by Reuters shows. The OPCW would need to find a port in the area where it can oversee the offshore work and then ship out the waste products. |
| Ukraine drops plan to go West, turns East to Moscow Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:23 PM PST  By Richard Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine abruptly spurned an historic new alliance with its western neighbors on Thursday, suspending an imminent trade pact with the European Union and saying it would revive talks on a deal instead with Russia, its old Soviet master. Kiev's sudden eastward pivot was a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who once described the Soviet Union's demise as the tragedy of the century. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, a veteran of east-west diplomacy, tweeted: "Ukraine government suddenly bows deeply to the Kremlin. Politics of brutal pressure evidently works." Ukraine had been due to sign a wide-ranging trade and cooperation agreement with the EU on November 29 which would have tugged it westwards and away from Russia's sphere of influence.
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| Six dead, dozens feared trapped in Latvia supermarket collapse Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:36 PM PST  By Aija Braslina RIGA (Reuters) - Six people, including two firefighters, were killed and dozens more were feared trapped after the roof of a busy supermarket in Latvia's capital, Riga, collapsed on Thursday evening, a rescue official said. TV pictures showed the Maxima store surrounded by fire trucks and ambulances with rescue workers using their hands and crowbars to pull away rubble from inside the single-storey concrete and glass building. "There are six people dead, four of them are shop clients and two are firefighters," Latvian rescue service spokeswoman Viktorija Sembele told Reuters. Earlier news agency RIA Novosti quoted Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs as saying 70 people were trapped in the building.
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| Gurkha breaks hunger strike after Britain launches inquiry Posted: 21 Nov 2013 04:32 PM PST  A former Gurkha ended a two-week hunger strike on Thursday after British lawmakers launched a probe into pension and other rights for the Nepalese soldiers. Gyanraj Rai, 55, had been camped out opposite Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office in London threatening to starve himself to death. Lawmaker Rob Wilson from Cameron's Conservative party brokered a deal between campaigners and parliamentarians to end the protest. Actress Joanna Lumley, a fervent supporter of the Gurkhas' cause, gave Rai a glass of fruit juice with which he broke his hunger strike.
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| U.S. signals North Korea can improve ties by freeing Americans Posted: 21 Nov 2013 04:23 PM PST  The United States signaled to North Korea on Thursday that it could improve its strained ties with Washington by releasing U.S. citizens, after Pyongyang detained an 85-year-old retiree from California who is an American veteran of the Korean War. Months of hostile rhetoric early this year pushed tension to some of the highest levels in years with North Korea, which has conducted nuclear tests, threatening a nuclear strike on the United States and South Korea. North Korea last month detained Merrill Newman, a veteran of the Korean War and a retiree from the upscale Northern California city of Palo Alto, taking him off a plane as he was about to leave the country where he had been visiting on a tourist visa. His detention followed a long series of acrimonious exchanges between North Korea and the United States over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
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| EU 'disappointed' after Ukraine scraps plan to sign historic deal Posted: 21 Nov 2013 04:22 PM PST  Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine on Thursday halted preparations to sign a landmark trade and political agreement with the European Union this month, in a dramatic development Brussels said came as "a disappointment".
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| North Korea detains US war veteran, 85, son says Posted: 21 Nov 2013 04:09 PM PST  PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — Despite strong warnings from the U.S. State Department, hundreds of Americans like the 85-year-old Korean War veteran apparently being detained in North Korea travel to the communist nation each year. Many go as part of humanitarian efforts or to find long-lost relatives. Some, like the war vet, simply want to see a closed society shrouded in mystery.
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| Putin Wins Again as Ukraine Snubs EU, Keeps Opposition Leader in Prison Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:46 PM PST At the start of November, the opposition camp in the center of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, was getting ready to wrap up its protest. It had been going round-the-clock by that point for more than 800 days – a political vigil far longer than any Occupy movement – in the hope of winning the release from prison of Ukraine's main opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko. As a condition of signing a trade and cooperation deal with the EU, President Viktor Yanukovych seemed ready to release his rival, whom the EU considers a political prisoner. Sitting in their tents, which had turned brown after years of dirt and exhaust from passing cars, the activists beamed at the prospect of Ukraine growing closer to Europe, though their main concern at that point was getting to spend this winter away from the camp. |
| UK hacking suspect warned boss of jail risk, trial hears Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:39 PM PST  The former royal editor of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid warned his boss that if payments to his sources were traced they could all "end up in jail", Britain's phone-hacking trial heard on Thursday. Clive Goodman said in an email to former managing editor Stuart Kuttner in July 2005 that because two of his contacts were in uniform he was taking a serious risk with the cash-only payments he made to them. Eight defendants, including Goodman and former editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, are on trial in the blockbuster case which arose from the scandal that shut the News of the World in July 2011. Goodman added that he was also making payments to an executive at a rival newspaper who insisted on cash payments because he was taking on "potentially life-altering risks for us".
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| Rescue workers among six dead in Latvia supermarket cave-in Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:36 PM PST  Six people including two rescue workers were killed and 35 others injured on Thursday when the roof of a supermarket collapsed in a suburb of Latvia's capital Riga, emergency services confirmed. "Rescue efforts will continue through the night but it's too early to name a cause or say whether there will be more victims or survivors," emergency services spokeswoman Viktorija Sembele told AFP. Visiting the scene while rescue efforts continued, Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis confirmed that police had launched a criminal investigation to determine the cause of the roof collapse and said he would be holding an emergency meeting Friday morning. Mayor Nils Usakovs announced he was cancelling leave and was also calling an emergency meeting of municipal and rescue services for Friday.
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| Three women rescued in London 'after 30 years in slavery' Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:32 PM PST  Three traumatised women have been rescued from a house in London after being held as slaves for at least 30 years with one of them having spent her entire life in servitude, police said Thursday. A man and a woman, both aged 67 and described as non-British, were arrested at their home on Thursday as part of an investigation into slavery and domestic servitude, Scotland Yard said. "We have never seen anything of this magnitude before," said Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland, who leads Scotland Yard's Human Trafficking Unit. "However, we believe that the 30-year-old woman had been in servitude all her life," a Scotland Yard statement said.
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| Ukraine suspends preparations for signing EU deal Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:27 PM PST  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine said Thursday it was suspending preparations to sign a landmark agreement with the European Union and would focus instead on restoring ties with Russia, appearing to yield to pressure from its powerful neighbor and dealing a harsh blow to plans for the ex-Soviet nation to integrate further with the West.
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| Mexico vows to stop vigilante expansion Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:23 PM PST  Morelia (Mexico) (AFP) - Mexican authorities warned Thursday that they would not allow vigilante "self-defense" groups to take over more towns in a western state where civilians are arming themselves to combat drug gangs. Vigilantes are now providing security in six Michoacan state towns after self-defense forces seized the municipality of Tancitaro last weekend following clashes that left three people dead. Self-defense leaders say they next plan to take over another town, Los Reyes, with about 40,000 residents, as part of their drive to chase the Knights Templar drug cartel out of the region. But Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam insisted that the self-defense groups "will not spread.
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| Three 'slave' women held for 30 years rescued from London house Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:22 PM PST By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - Three women enslaved for 30 years have been rescued from a house in London including one who has spent her entire life in domestic servitude, police said on Thursday. The women were doing "remarkably well" physically and mentally under the circumstances, Prem said. |
| Death of a Honduran Taxi Driver Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:20 PM PST  TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Benjamin Alvarez Moncada pulled his cab to the front of the taxi stand behind Los Dolores church and half a block from the capital's main police station. He was the first in line, so he was the one to die, the other drivers said.
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| 6 dead after roof collapse at Latvian store Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:05 PM PST  RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Large sections of roof collapsed Thursday at a grocery store in Latvia's capital, killing six and injuring at least 30, rescue officials said. Firefighters and soldiers were searching for survivors amid the debris.
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| U.N. anti-spying resolution weakened in bid to gain U.S., British support Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:04 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A draft U.N. resolution that some diplomats said suggested spying in foreign countries could be a human rights violation has been weakened to appease the United States, Britain and others ahead of a vote by a U.N. committee next week. Germany and Brazil drafted the resolution calling for an end to excessive electronic surveillance. It does not name specific countries but comes after former U.S. contractor Edward Snowden released details of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency. The U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues, is to vote on the draft next week, and it is then expected to be put to a vote by the 193-nation General Assembly in December.
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| 2nd firefighter dies in Latvia roof collapse Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:56 PM PST RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Latvia's rescue service says a second firefighter has been found beneath the rubble of a large supermarket in the country's capital after large sections of the roof collapsed. |
| Iran nuke talk issues: Enrichment, sanctions Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:54 PM PST  GENEVA (AP) — Iran nuclear talks entered a delicate phase Thursday as negotiators tried to fine-tune a draft agreement that would limit Tehran's atomic program in return for easing some sanctions. Iran's ability to produce nuclear fuel and relief for Iran's oil and banking sectors appeared to be among the sticking points.
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| Nigerian hunger striker in Britain loses release bid Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:48 PM PST  A Nigerian asylum seeker said to be near death from a hunger strike failed in his bid on Thursday to be freed from a British detention centre. Isa Muazu, 45, from the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, came to Britain in 2007 and claimed asylum saying that the Islamist group Boko Haram was trying to kill him. He has challenged Interior Minister Theresa May's decision to keep him in detention and has been on hunger strike for 90 days. But they refused to direct his release from the Harmondsworth immigration removal centre near Heathrow Airport in west London until the hearing.
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| UK police: 3 women held captive for 30 years Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:43 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — Three women have been freed after spending 30 years held captive in a south London home, including one woman believed to have spent her entire life in domestic slavery, police announced Thursday.
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| US warns Karzai to sign security pact Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:41 PM PST  The United States Thursday warned Afghanistan to sign a new security pact as soon as possible, as top officials hinted that prolonged delays could mean no post-2014 US troop presence. Washington's latest run-in with President Hamid Karzai was set off by the Afghan leader's statement that the painstakingly negotiated pact should not be signed until after his country's next election in April. But US officials bristled, saying the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which governs conditions of any post-war American counter terrorism and training mission in Afghanistan, must be signed by the end of the year. The White House said it needed a swift decision from Karzai to start planning the footprint of any US forces, and trying to exert leverage, said Obama had not yet decided on whether to keep US forces in Afghanistan.
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| Egypt gives police new powers as students clash Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:33 PM PST  Egypt's interim rulers gave police on Thursday the power to enter university campuses to quell protests without seeking prior permission, after a student was killed in clashes. Students who support the new military-installed authorities and those who oppose it have clashed regularly in Cairo and elsewhere since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3. Previously, police had to obtain permission from the prosecutor general or university authorities before entering campuses or dormitories to deal with demonstrators or fighting. Thursday's move came after a student was killed overnight at an Al-Azhar University dorm in Cairo's Nasr City district, a security official and a medic said.
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| Libya militias say they have left Tripoli Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:31 PM PST  Libyan militias including two groups from the western city of Zintan have withdrawn from the capital in response to public pressure nearly a week after deadly violence, they said Thursday. Brigade commander Othman Mligta, a civilian, told AFP members of the group include military-registered border guards. Another Zintan-based group, the Sawaek Brigade, which is one of the most heavily armed units that battled dictator Moamer Kadhafi, also said it was pulling out. On Tuesday, the government announced plans to remove militias from Tripoli and eventually integrate them into the security forces, after a weekend of deadly clashes between militiamen and residents.
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| Ghana impounds ship carrying cocaine worth $50 million Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:27 PM PST  Ghanaian authorities have impounded a South American ship carrying 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds) of cocaine and arrested its crew, the nation's anti-narcotics agency said Thursday. "It has a street value of about US$50 million," said the statement by the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) seen by AFP. "The vessel had been monitored at the high seas and when she got into the Ghanaian waters the Ghana navy and NACOB officers arrested and escorted her to the Sekondi Naval Base," it said. Ghana was investigating the case, it added.
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| Iran says 'no progress' in nuclear talks so far Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:23 PM PST  Iran and world powers locked horns in an intense second day of nuclear talks Thursday, with Tehran saying "no progress" was made towards clinching a long-awaited breakthrough deal. Both sides, seeking to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme after a decade of rising tensions, stressed however that the talks in Geneva were detailed, serious and constructive. Speculation swirled that US Secretary of State John Kerry and other top diplomats were gearing up to fly to Switzerland to join the talks for the second time in two weeks but this was not confirmed. The United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- the so-called P5+1 -- want Iran to freeze parts of its nuclear programme for six months in return for relief from painful sanctions.
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| French hostage recounts daring escape after captor left door open Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:20 PM PST  The French hostage held for 11 months by an Islamist group in Nigeria told French television on Thursday he made his audacious run for freedom after his captor left a key in the door by mistake. Francis Collomp, speaking on the TF1 channel, described how on the night of November 16 one of his captors entered the dungeon where he was kept to perform the ablutions required for Islamic prayer, but left the keys in the door.
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| Vancouver shows doorknobs the door Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:17 PM PST  The city of Vancouver has banned doorknobs in new construction, a city official said Thursday. Wrist-twisting doorknobs will be replaced with levers to make it easier on seniors and those with disabilities, city spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco told AFP. "This is very progressive of Vancouver," Howard Gerry, a design professor at Toronto's OCAD University, told the daily Toronto Star.
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| Nigeria to probe state oil firm over alleged unaccounted sales Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:12 PM PST  Nigeria's lower house of parliament Thursday voted to probe giant state-run oil firm NNPC over its alleged failure to account for about $13 billion from crude sales this year. The House of Representatives adopted a motion sponsored by one of its members, Haruna Manu, asking the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to account for the volume and value of crude sold in the first eight months of 2013. "NNPC has remained in a dark tunnel. How long will it remain in that tunnel?," asked lawmaker Samson Osagie during the debate before the motion was adopted.
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| Portuguese police stage rowdy Parliament protest Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:03 PM PST  LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Several thousand off-duty Portuguese police offers protesting against austerity measures have broken through a line of riot police protecting the country's Parliament.
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| Morocco dismisses rights criticism as king visits US Posted: 21 Nov 2013 02:02 PM PST  A senior Moroccan official rejected recent criticism of the country's human rights record on Thursday ahead of King Mohammed VI's upcoming visit to the United States. And in an exclusive interview to AFP, Morocco's Deputy Foreign Minister Mbarka Bouaida renewed opposition to a US plan to broaden the UN mission to the Western Sahara. King Mohammed will hold talks with US President Barack Obama on Friday at the White House to highlight US support for his country's democratic and economic reforms, the US administration has said. Bouaida told AFP that criticism of her country's human rights only concerned a few "isolated cases."
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| French shooting suspect left conspiracy letters Posted: 21 Nov 2013 01:56 PM PST  France said Thursday the suspect arrested over this week's shootings in Paris was previously jailed for his role in a "Bonnie-and-Clyde" style multiple murder and left rambling letters denouncing conspiracies and media manipulation. Abdelhakim Dekhar, 48, was arrested on Wednesday after a major manhunt following a shooting at the left-wing newspaper Liberation that left a photographer's assistant seriously hurt, and a separate incident where shots were fired at the headquarters of the Societe Generale bank. He was found in a vehicle in an underground parking lot in the northwestern Paris suburb of Bois-Colombes, after apparently trying to commit suicide, and was in a semi-conscious state. Dekhar was transferred to a police station in central Paris on Thursday, where the authorities were granted an extra 24 hours to keep him in custody.
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| Malawi hits back at Western donors for $150 mn aid freeze Posted: 21 Nov 2013 01:52 PM PST  Blantyre (Malawi) (AFP) - A Malawian minister on Thursday criticised Western donors for withholding aid worth $150 million after the government exposed corruption, saying it could prompt other African leaders to stop fighting graft fearing they will lose funds. "The government does not understand the decision taken by donors to withhold support because the (Malawi President) Joyce Banda administration has exposed fraud and corruption in the civil service," Information Minister Brown Mpinganjira said at a ceremony to launch a community radio station for the main Protestant church in Malawi. His comments were the first official reaction to Western donors shutting down aid.
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| Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gives $3 million grant to save tigers Posted: 21 Nov 2013 01:51 PM PST  Actor Leonardo DiCaprio's conservation foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to the World Wildlife Fund to help Nepal increase its tiger population. The WWF said on Thursday that the money from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, set up by the 39-year-old star of "The Great Gatsby" and the upcoming film "The Wolf of Wall Street," will be used for an initiative to double the number of tigers in Nepal by 2022 - the next Chinese year of the tiger. nowhere is that more evident than in Nepal," Carter Roberts, the president and CEO of the WWF, said in a statement.
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| 11 of 30 Greenpeace protesters freed on bail Posted: 21 Nov 2013 01:45 PM PST  ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian jails have freed on bail 11 of the 30 people arrested following a Greenpeace ship protest in Arctic waters two months ago, but the charges against them still stand.
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