| Ukraine protesters threaten tighter blockade over spurned EU pact Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:03 PM PST  By Natalia Zinets and Matt Robinson KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's government faced a tightening blockade of key buildings by protesters in the capital Kiev on Wednesday amid a crisis over its rejection of closer ties with the European Union that has piled pressure on the creaking economy. Protesters threatened to extend their blockade to the office of President Viktor Yanukovich, who flew to China on Tuesday leaving behind a country in turmoil over his government's decision last month to spurn a landmark EU trade accord. The crisis has exposed once more the East-West tug-of-war playing out in Ukraine, which has oscillated between the EU and former Soviet master Moscow since the 2004-5 Orange Revolution overthrew the post-Soviet political order. Yanukovich's prime minister, Mykola Azarov, said his cabinet would hold its weekly meeting on Wednesday in the government building, paving the way for a possible showdown with the protesters, who have blocked the entrances since Monday.
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| Militias battle anew in Lebanon's Tripoli, army arrests 21 fighters Posted: 03 Dec 2013 10:29 AM PST  By Oliver Holmes and Laila Bassam TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Clashes resumed on Tuesday between Lebanese militias who back opposing sides of Syria's war and 21 fighters were arrested by the army as it pursued a six-month-long mandate to end bloodshed battering the city of Tripoli. The conflict between the majority Sunni Muslim Bab al-Tabbaneh district and the adjacent Alawite neighborhood of Jebel Mohsen in Tripoli has killed over 100 people this year. The two neighborhoods have been in on-off conflict since the 1980s but the 2-1/2-year-old civil war in neighboring Syria pitting Alawite President Bashar al-Assad against majority Sunni rebels has opened old wounds on both sides in Tripoli, and fighting has become more frequent and intense. Over the weekend, the relatives of the car bomb victims protested in a Tripoli square, demanding that leading Alawite political leaders be arrested and calling for Jebel Mohsen's electricity and water supplies to be cut off.
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| Defense chief could sign Afghan pact instead of Karzai: Kerry Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:16 PM PST  By Adrian Croft and David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Tuesday that Afghanistan's defense minister or government, instead of a reluctant President Hamid Karzai, could sign a security pact enabling some U.S. troops to stay in the country after 2014. An assembly of Afghan elders, the Loya Jirga, last month endorsed the security deal with the United States, but Karzai said he might not sign it until after elections next April. The delay has irritated the United States and its allies, which want to get on with planning for the smaller, NATO-led training mission that is to stay on in Afghanistan after 2014, when most foreign troops that have been battling Taliban insurgents will have pulled out. Kerry urged the Afghan government to sign the security deal "sooner, not later" and said this priority was backed by all NATO foreign ministers taking part in a meeting on Tuesday.
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| Twelve killed in Central African Republic attack: U.N. Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:48 PM PST  Armed men killed at least 12 civilians and wounded 30, including children, northwest of the Central African Republic capital, United Nations officials said on Tuesday ahead of a Security Council move to end anarchy in the country. The Council is to vote on Thursday on dispatching French reinforcements to restore order in Central African Republic, which has slipped into chaos since mainly Muslim rebels seized power, leading to tit-for-tat sectarian violence. BINUCA, as the United Nations office in Bangui is known, said unidentified armed men had targeted Boali, about 95 km (60 miles) from the capital at the weekend. The U.N. office did not give details on who was responsible but it warned of tensions between communities leading to "a climate of increasing violence" in the impoverished landlocked country, which is majority Christian.
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| North Korea's Kim seen behind sacking of powerful uncle Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:28 PM PST  By Jack Kim and Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is believed to have dismissed a powerful uncle, a man key to his rise to power, from his posts, South Korean lawmakers said on Tuesday, a move that could help consolidate his power base with a younger guard of aides. Jang Song Thaek was likely sacked as vice chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission and as a department head of the ruling Workers' Party, lawmaker Jung Cheong-rae said, citing a senior South Korean official with the National Intelligence Service (NIS). Analysts who watch the North's power structure say Jang's removal would not have been possible without the approval of the third Kim to rule in the family dynasty. Choe Ryong Hae, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, has been the most prominent figure to accompany Kim at public events and is a reminder of the state's political roots in military power.
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| Hezbollah chief says he met Qatari envoy in recent days Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:31 PM PST  By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday he recently received an envoy from Qatar, the first contact between the two sides since divisions over the crisis in Syria severed their once strong relations. "There is talk between us ... there was a line between us and Qatar which was reopened (recently) but up to a certain limit," Nasrallah said in an interview with Lebanon's OTV television. He did not disclose details about the identity or seniority of the envoy but when asked by the interviewer if the meeting took place in the past few days Nasrallah said: "Yes, it is true. I cannot hide it." Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim group, had developed relatively strong ties with Qatar, especially after the Gulf state funded the reconstruction of many Shi'ite villages destroyed during a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
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| Thai protests ease ahead of king's birthday Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:56 PM PST BANGKOK (AP) — Anti-government protesters plan to march peacefully on the Thai national police headquarters Wednesday, a day after the political crisis that has shaken Thailand's capital for more than a week eased suddenly when the prime minister ordered police to stop battling anti-government protesters. |
| Nasrallah says Saudi behind blasts at Iran's Beirut embassy Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:54 PM PST  Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday blamed Saudi Arabia for a twin suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut that killed 25 people last month. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an Al-Qaeda affiliate that claimed responsibility for the attacks, "has an emir and he is Saudi, and I am convinced that it is linked to the Saudi intelligence services, which direct groups like this one in several parts of the world," Nasrallah told Lebanese broadcaster OTV. While Hezbollah and its regional backer Iran support Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, Saudi Arabia backs rebel fighters seeking his ouster.
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| Mexican left-wing leader Lopez Obrador has heart attack, surgery Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:36 PM PST  Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was rushed to hospital for surgery on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack, which could undermine his ability to lead protests against President Enrique Pena Nieto's push to open up the oil sector. Lopez Obrador, who was runner-up to Pena Nieto in last year's presidential election, is perceived as one of the biggest threats to the planned reform to open the state-controlled oil sector to private investment. Patricio Ortiz, the cardiologist who attended Lopez Obrador, told a news conference that he was making "satisfactory progress" and was conscious. He could not say how long Lopez Obrador would remain in hospital.
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| Britain to tackle "Islamist extremism" after soldier's murder Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:31 PM PST  By Andrew Osborn SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Britain plans to classify "Islamist extremism" as a distinct ideology, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday, as part the government's response to the murder of a soldier on a busy London street. A court heard that one of them said it was an "eye for an eye" and revenge for what they considered to be Britain's wars against Muslims. "These tragedies were a wakeup call for government and wider society to take action to confront extremism in all its forms, whether in our communities, schools, prisons, Islamic centers or universities." "Islamist extremism" would, for the first time, be classified as a distinct ideology to guard against it being confused with traditional religious practice, he said. The new definition would make it clear that "Islamist extremism" was a distorted interpretation of Islam that betrayed the religion's principles and tried to sow division.
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| UK govt to sell off Eurostar stake Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:30 PM PST  The British government on Wednesday announced it is to sell its 40 percent stake in Eurostar, the high-speed rail service connecting London with Paris and Brussels, as part of a privatisation drive. Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander was to unveil the country's new national infrastructure plan (NIP), which sets out how it will privatise £20 billion ($32 billion, 24.1 billion euros) of financial and corporate assets over the next six years. "This is great news for the people of the UK because after years of neglect, the UK's energy, road, rail, flood defence, communications and water infrastructure needs renewal," Alexander was to say, according to extracts of his speech. It will also make the UK a better place to live for everyone who calls it their home."
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| Health deteriorates for American pastor in Iran prison: law center Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:25 PM PST  An Iranian-American pastor imprisoned in Iran for more than a year because of his Christian faith is in declining health for lack of proper nutrition and necessary medication, a group seeking his release said on Tuesday. An Iranian court in January sentenced Saeed Abedini, 33, a naturalized U.S. citizen, to eight years in prison for undermining national security by working to establish home-based Christian churches in Iran from 2000 to 2005. The Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice, which has petitioned Congress and President Barack Obama to seek Abedini's release, said on Tuesday that the pastor's father was allowed to visit him on Monday for the second time since he was moved a month ago to a prison that houses violent offenders. "It's a worsening situation," said Gene Kapp, spokesman for the center.
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| EPA fracking study could hurt energy boom: U.S. business leader Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:23 PM PST America's largest business lobby group warned the Obama administration on Tuesday against snuffing out the country's energy boom with regulations on new oil and natural gas drilling technologies. U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study due next year could be used to justify clamping down on drilling techniques that have sparked a surge in U.S. oil and natural gas output. A major force in U.S. politics, the Chamber of Commerce is the biggest business lobbying group in the country and has been a steady critic of President Barack Obama. |
| Man survives 3 days at bottom of Atlantic Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:20 PM PST  LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Entombed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in an upended tugboat for three days, Harrison Odjegba Okene begged God for a miracle.
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| US halts shipments from Afghanistan through Pakistan Posted: 03 Dec 2013 04:07 PM PST  The US military on Tuesday suspended shipments of equipment out of Afghanistan through Pakistan, citing protests that posed a risk to truck drivers, officials said. The move came after club-wielding activists in northwest Pakistan forcibly searched trucks for NATO supplies in protest over US drone strikes in the tribal belt. "We have voluntarily halted US shipments of retrograde cargo through the Pakistan Ground Line of Communication (GLOCC) from Torkham Gate through Karachi," Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright in a statement. He was referring to the main overland route used by the Americans and NATO to withdraw military hardware from Afghanistan, as part of a troop pullout set to wrap up by the end of 2014.
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| Canada panel urges better response plan for oil spills Posted: 03 Dec 2013 03:54 PM PST By Julie Gordon VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canada must be better prepared to respond to major oil spills if more crude starts to flow in pipelines to the country's Pacific Coast, a government panel said on Tuesday, as fears of a major marine disaster grow. The report, by the federal transport department, makes 45 recommendations, including ensuring companies are prepared for a worst-case scenario and new guarantees that taxpayers will not be liable for costs related to spills in Canadian waters. Regulators are currently weighing separate proposals from Enbridge and Kinder Morgan to build new pipelines to carry oil from Alberta to the British Columbia coast, which could bring an additional 600 tankers to the region each year. The review of Canada's ship-source oil spill regime is a key part of the federal government's push to reassure Canadians that it has prepared for that additional traffic and has a policy in place to respond if there is a major spill. |
| Pentagon says halts ground shipments out of Afghanistan via Pakistan Posted: 03 Dec 2013 03:39 PM PST  By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has halted ground shipments of cargo leaving Afghanistan via its key Pakistan supply route to ensure the safety of drivers following protests in Pakistan over American drone strikes, a Pentagon spokesman said on Tuesday. The affected route, which runs from Torkham Gate at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to the Pakistani port city of Karachi, has been crucial for the United States as it winds down its combat mission in landlocked Afghanistan and moves equipment out of the country. The route accounts for the vast majority of ground traffic of U.S. military cargo through Pakistan and has been targeted by protesters in Pakistan angered by U.S. drone strikes. "We are aware protests have affected one of the primary commercial transit routes between Pakistan and Afghanistan," Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright told Reuters.
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| France seeks UN vote on Central Africa force Thursday Posted: 03 Dec 2013 03:31 PM PST  France hopes the UN Security Council will vote a resolution on Thursday giving a formal mandate to African and French forces to try to restore order in lawless Central African Republic, a French envoy said. The 15-member council has had "intense negotiations" on a draft resolution and there should be a vote Thursday "at the latest", France's UN ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters. Negotiations are being held amid mounting calls for international action on Central African Republic where the transitional government has lost control of the country since rebels forced the president to flee in March. The proposed UN resolution would give a mandate to an African Union force to "stabilize" the giant, impoverished country and "protect civilians".
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| Nigerian man survives 3 days at bottom of Atlantic Posted: 03 Dec 2013 03:26 PM PST LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — About 100 feet down, on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, divers had already pulled four bodies out of the sunken tugboat. Then a hand appeared on a TV screen monitoring the recovery. |
| Chamakh goal takes Palace off bottom Posted: 03 Dec 2013 03:08 PM PST  Marouane Chamakh's goal took Crystal Palace off the bottom of the Premier League table as they beat West Ham 1-0 in Tony Pulis's first home game in charge at Selhurst Park on Tuesday. Chamakh scored the only goal of the game -- the Moroccan's first since August 24 -- when he headed in Barry Bannan's curling cross in the 42nd minute. The striker had previously scored just one goal this season -- although that was still one goal more than he managed in five months on loan at West Ham last term. West Ham came into this all London clash boosted by a 3-0 win over Fulham but have still to record back-to-back Premier League wins since being promoted last year.
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| Political, business elite mourn Canadian billionaire Paul Desmarais Posted: 03 Dec 2013 03:06 PM PST  A who's who of global politics and business joined about 2,000 mourners Tuesday to pay respects to Canadian billionaire Paul Desmarais. Four Canadian prime ministers and two governors general, French former president Nicolas Sarkozy, US former Secretary of State James Baker, disgraced media mogul Conrad Black and Belgian billionaire Albert Frere were among dignitaries gathered for the memorial. "At the helm of one of the largest commercial empires in Canada, Paul Desmarais will be remembered as a visionary and a builder," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said at Montreal's Notre Dame Basilica. He said Desmarais was an inspiration to Canadian francophones, foresaw the rise of China, and understood early the importance of European unity.
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| For Biden in China, tense reunion with Xi Jinping Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:29 PM PST  TOKYO (AP) — In what was supposed to be a warm reunion, Vice President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet instead Wednesday in a climate fraught with tension over an airspace dispute that has put Asia on edge. A day before seeing Xi, Biden stood in Japan and publicly rebuked China for trying to enforce its will on its neighbors, escalating the risk of a potentially dangerous accident.
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| 'Patriot' Guardian editor defends Snowden leaks Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:27 PM PST  The editor of Britain's Guardian newspaper on Tuesday defended the publication of leaks by Edward Snowden, telling lawmakers under fierce questioning that the daily's staff were "patriots". Alan Rusbridger told a parliamentary committee that his newspaper had published just one percent of the files from former US National Security Agency contractor Snowden and the rest were secure. Britain's spy chiefs told parliament last month that the publication of the Snowden leaks by the Guardian and other papers including the New York Times had helped Britain's enemies. "We are not going to be put off by intimidation but nor are we going to behave recklessly," Rusbridger told the Home Affairs Select Committee, which summoned him as part of its counter-terrorism inquiry.
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| Armed with surveillance drones, UN to 'go after' Congo rebels Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:26 PM PST  Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) - The United Nations said Tuesday its peacekeeping troops would "go after" remaining rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, armed with the UN's first-ever surveillance drones. The UN's special offensive force in DR Congo -- the first of its kind -- chalked up a major victory last month over the armed groups that have long harrowed the country's east, helping the Congolese army fight the powerful M23 rebels into surrender. Well, that's just what we are going to do," said the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, from the northeastern city of Goma. Ladsous was speaking after the UN peacekeeping mission, a 20,000-troop force known as MONUSCO, launched an Italian-made surveillance drone from the airport in Goma -- the first time the United Nations has used such pilotless aircraft in any country.
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| Syrian refugees face another harsh winter in camp Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:24 PM PST ZAATARI CAMP, Jordan (AP) — Cranes are lifting trailers into place and tents are being packed away as international aid workers rush to winterize a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan — trying to avoid a repeat of last year when three days of torrential rain turned the massive site into a muddy swamp. |
| French expert report: No proof Arafat was poisoned Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:13 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — French scientists looking into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat have dismissed poisoning by radioactive polonium, his widow announced Tuesday. The results contradict earlier findings by a Swiss lab, and mean it's still unclear how Arafat died nine years ago.
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| Temperature limit too high to avoid climate change: study Posted: 03 Dec 2013 02:06 PM PST By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - An internationally agreed target to limit rises in global average temperatures to within 2 degrees Celsius is around double the threshold that would avoid catastrophic climate change, a study by 18 eminent scientists said. Governments decided in 2009 that such temperature increases needed to be no more than 2 degrees C (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avoid effects such as more extreme weather, higher sea levels and ocean acidification. They aim to agree by 2015 on a global deal to cut the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, but the reductions will not come into force until after 2020. Last month, a United Nations conference in Warsaw kept alive hopes for the 2015 deal but nations made little progress on committing to ambitious emission cuts to keep the world on track towards the 2 degree target. |
| White and gold gown worn by Diana fetches $167,000 Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:51 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — A lavish white and gold ballet-inspired ball gown worn by Princess Diana has fetched 102,000 pounds ($167,000) at a London auction.
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| Egypt's revolutionary poet Negm dies at 84 Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:45 PM PST  Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm, renowned for his revolutionary poetry and outspoken criticism of Arab political leaders, died on Tuesday at the age of 84, friends said. "Ahmed Fouad Negm passed away. He was 84," publisher Mohammed Hashem told AFP. Negm spent a total of 18 years in jail for his strident criticism of Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat.
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| Trapped French footballer to sue Qatari royal Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:44 PM PST  French footballer Zahir Belounis, who was forced to stay in Qatar for 17 months because his club refused him an exit visa, plans to sue the brother of Qatar's ruler, his lawyer said Tuesday. Belounis had not been able to leave the host nation of the 2022 World Cup due to a pay dispute with his club Al-Jaish, whose chairman Sheikh Joaan Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmad al-Thani is the emir's brother. He was only able to return home late last month after obtaining his exit visa, which is usually controlled by employers in the Gulf state under its controversial "kafala", or sponsorship system. Belounis's lawyer Frank Berton said he would file suit in Paris for fraud, working in inhuman conditions and extortion.
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| US vet detained in NKorea oversaw guerrilla group Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:37 PM PST SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An 85-year-old U.S. veteran being held in North Korea spent his war years there in one of the Army's first special forces unit, helping a clandestine group of Korean partisans who were fighting and spying well behind enemy lines. |
| As C.Africa violence rages, residents flee on foot Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:22 PM PST  Damara (Central African Republic) (AFP) - The dusty road that leads from the Central African town of Damara to the capital some 75 kilometres (45 miles) away is filled with families on foot fleeing the latest deadly clashes between rebels and vigilante groups, leaving behind a ghost town. Traumatised and homeless, residents of the once 30,000-strong town say an international intervention in the strife-torn Central African Republic can't come soon enough. Too scared to stay in their homes, they say they hope to find safety in Bangui, where reinforcements of French and African troops are arriving -- causing an exodus of fighters from the Seleka rebel group that overthrew the government in March. Many say they are haunted by the violence they have witnessed in recent days, accusing both the ex-rebels and their rival vigilante groups of reprisal attacks.
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| Libya hopes to restore full oil output in 10 days Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:22 PM PST  Libya hopes to restore full oil output "in 10 days", its oil minister said Tuesday, after unrest led to the country's production being slashed. "In 10 days if everything goes right, hopefully we'll go back to 1.5" million barrels per day, Abdelbari al-Arusi told reporters gathered for OPEC's oil output meeting in Vienna on Wednesday. Libya's output has plunged to about 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) amid deadly fighting between radical Islamist fighters and the army that erupted earlier this year. He said that fellow OPEC members who have been pumping additional oil to compensate for Libya's loss should make way for a return of full output.
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| Britain pushes U.N. resolution against ransom payments to extremists Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:20 PM PST  Britain submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that calls on countries to prevent the payment of kidnap ransoms to extremist groups, like al Qaeda, which have earned hundreds of millions of dollars from such crimes. British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said he hoped the 15-member council would be able to adopt the resolution by the end of the month. No new legal obligations would be created, he said, as states were already required not to pay kidnap ransoms under an anti-terrorism resolution adopted in 2001. "There is increasing concern about the amount of money that is being raised by terrorists through kidnap for ransom and it has been particularly a tool of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and also al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," Lyall Grant said.
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| Vatican dodges UN sex abuse questions Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:16 PM PST VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Tuesday dodged a series of questions posed by a U.N. committee about clerical sexual abuse by noting that the Holy See doesn't control the actions of every Catholic in the world, much less regulate every Catholic priest, parish or school. |
| Dancing Rain sold for £4.2 million Posted: 03 Dec 2013 01:10 PM PST  Champion mare Dancing Rain, who is carrying a foal by star racehorse Frankel, sold at auction on Tuesday for four million guineas (£4.2 million, $6.8 million). The retired 2011 Oaks winner was sold in Newmarket, eastern England to John Ferguson, bloodstock advisor for Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed who owns the town's Godolphin stables. Frankel rated the world's all-time top racehorse has been at stud since retiring last year following 14 straight wins. "Sheikh Mohammed felt that she's a jewel," Ferguson told the BBC.
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