| Kerry says Israeli-Palestinian deal possible by end-April Posted: 13 Dec 2013 01:01 PM PST By Lesley Wroughton TEL AVIV, Israel (Reuters) - Shrugging off gloomy predictions of failure, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Israelis and Palestinians remained committed to peace talks and were on course to wrap up a full deal by April. Speaking at the end of his second visit to the region in just a week, Kerry said the two sides were discussing a framework for a final-status accord to resolve the core issues at the heart of the decades-old conflict. "Both parties remain committed to fulfilling their obligations to stay at the table and negotiate hard during the nine-month period that we set for that," Kerry told reporters after separate talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders. |
| U.S. sanctions move angers Iran, Russia sees threat to nuclear deal Posted: 13 Dec 2013 03:43 PM PST  By Fredrik Dahl and Steve Gutterman VIENNA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - A breakthrough agreement to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear program appeared to face its first major difficulty on Friday with Russia warning that expanding a U.S. sanctions blacklist could seriously complicate the deal's implementation. Russia, which, along with the United States, is among the six world powers that negotiated the November 24 interim accord with Tehran, echoed Iranian criticism that it violated the spirit of the deal and could "block things". The United States on Thursday blacklisted additional companies and people under existing sanctions intended to prevent Iran from obtaining the capability to make nuclear weapons.
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| North Korea executes leader's powerful uncle in public purge Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:25 PM PST  By Jack Kim and David Chance SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has executed the powerful uncle of young leader Kim Jong Un, state media said on Friday, the biggest upheaval in years as the ruling dynasty sought to distance itself from responsibility for the isolated states's dire living standards. Jang Song Thaek, considered the second most powerful man in the secretive country, was killed just days before the second anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, the father of North Korea's current ruler. The execution came as Kim Jong Un - the third Kim to rule North Korea - began being portrayed in state media as the image of his father rather than his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, who is still revered as the founder of the nation. Kim Jong Il was blamed by some for the 1990s famine that killed a million people.
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| Gunmen kill Iranian gas workers in Iraq: witnesses Posted: 13 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST Masked gunmen killed 18 people, most of them Iranians, working on a gas pipeline outside the northeastern Iraqi town of Muqdadiya on Friday, witnesses and officials said. "Three of them got out of a car and started firing on the workers inside and outside the trench," said Ibrahem Aziz by phone from hospital. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the workers, 15 of them from Shi'ite Muslim power Iran. Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds have yet to find a stable power-sharing deal and violence is again on the upswing. |
| U.N. peacekeepers find arsenal of weapons left by Congo M23 rebels Posted: 13 Dec 2013 03:14 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers found an arsenal of weapons, including heavy caliber arms and enough ammunition to last a year, at the site of the last stand by M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said on Friday. Congolese troops and the U.N. peacekeeping mission - which includes a unique Intervention Brigade mandated to eliminate armed groups - last month defeated M23, which signed a peace deal with the Congo government on Thursday.
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| High society hits the streets as prominent Thais join protests Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:05 PM PST  By Andrew R.C. Marshall BANGKOK (Reuters) - Chitpas Bhirombhakdi is heiress to a $2.6 billion family fortune and, according to high-society magazine Thailand Tatler, one of Bangkok's "most eligible young ladies". On December 2, as anti-government demonstrations in Bangkok turned violent, the 27-year-old climbed aboard a front-loader brought in by protesters to break down police barricades. But her gung-ho act showed how members of Thailand's most celebrated families are discarding all past pretence of neutrality to hit the streets in the hope of toppling Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Along with their wealth and privilege, these elite protesters share a declarative love of Thailand's aging King Bhumibol Adulyadej and an abhorrence for Yingluck and her brother Thaksin, a billionaire ex-prime minister ousted by a 2006 military coup, whom they accuse of corruption and abuse of power.
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| Does Bogota mayor's ouster threaten peace process? Posted: 13 Dec 2013 04:48 PM PST  BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Thousands of people massed in Bogota's main square on Friday evening to support Bogota's leftist mayor, whose dismissal is considered by some Colombians to be a potential blow against attempts to make peace with the country's main leftist rebel group.
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| British monarchy treason law still stands after blunder Posted: 13 Dec 2013 04:44 PM PST  Section three of the Treason Felony Act 1848, which has not been used to prosecute anyone since 1879, was included on a list of 309 obsolete offences to be repealed in the year to May, published by the Ministry of Justice on Thursday. "Section three of the Treason Felony Act 1848 has not been repealed," a spokeswoman for the ministry said.
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| Blackhawks' Mayers hangs up skates Posted: 13 Dec 2013 04:37 PM PST  Jamal Mayers, who won a Stanley Cup title last season with the Chicago Blackhawks, announced his retirement from the National Hockey League on Friday. The 39-year-old Canadian played the final two of his 14 seasons with the Blackhawks. He also played for the St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks. "It really has been an amazing experience to have had the chance to play 14 seasons in the NHL, and finish it all off last season as a part of the Chicago Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup," said Mayers.
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| Beyond Obama-Castro handshake, Cuban reconciliation takes shape Posted: 13 Dec 2013 03:59 PM PST  Beyond this week's handshake between the presidents of the United States and Cuba, a slow thaw in bilateral ties has helped foster reconciliation among Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits. The rare encounter between Barack Obama and Raul Castro during a memorial in South Africa for anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela came as the two countries work towards revamping their longstanding frosty relationship, a US diplomat in Havana told AFP. The improved relations have had a tangible impact both for the 1.5 million people of Cuban descent who live in the United States and for the 11 million people living on the Caribbean island. Remittances sent home by the Cuban diaspora -- 80 percent of whom live in the United States -- have also reached record levels: some $2.5 billion a year, the second biggest source of foreign currency on the island.
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| Exclusive: After 'cataclysmic' Snowden affair, NSA faces winds of change Posted: 13 Dec 2013 03:56 PM PST  By Tabassum Zakaria and Warren Strobel FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency has made dozens of changes in its operations and computer networks to prevent the emergence of another Edward Snowden, including potential disciplinary action, a top NSA official said on Friday, as a White House review panel recommended restraints on NSA spying. Former NSA contractor Snowden's disclosures have been "cataclysmic" for the eavesdropping agency, Richard Ledgett, who leads a task force responding to the leaks, said in a rare interview at NSA's heavily guarded Fort Meade headquarters. In the more than hour-long interview, Ledgett acknowledged the agency had done a poor job in its initial public response to revelations of vast NSA monitoring of phone and Internet data; He also stoutly defended the NSA's mission of tracking terrorist plots and other threats, and said its recruiting of young codebreakers, linguists and computer geeks has not been affected by the Snowden affair - even as internal morale has been.
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| Mugabe lashes out at divisions in party eyeing successors Posted: 13 Dec 2013 03:31 PM PST  CHINHOYI (Zimbabwe) (AFP) - Africa's oldest leader, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, on Friday denounced divisions in his ZANU-PF party as factions aligned themselves with senior members hoping to become his successor. "We cannot build a united party when we divide people into camps of those who belong to so and so and those who belong to so and so," the 89-year-old told thousands of stalwarts at an annual conference of the ruling party. ZANU-PF will hold its elective congress next year. Divisions over Mugabe's succession cost ZANU-PF the 2008 general election when it lost its majority in parliament for the first time since independence in 1980.
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| North Korea purge mirrors those in 20th century Posted: 13 Dec 2013 03:17 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — For people familiar with the way that dictators such as Stalin, Hitler and Mao methodically ousted their opponents, the purging and execution of the No. 2 official in North Korea is nothing new.
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| UN chief pleads for religious harmony in C. Africa Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:52 PM PST  United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic not to succumb to hate and vengeance in a radio message Friday to a country that has seen a surge in sectarian violence.
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| White House to keep NSA, cyber oversight together Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:31 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration will continue the National Security Agency's surveillance programs and cyber command operations under the direction of a single military commander, officials said Friday, the same day a review board sent the White House more than 40 recommendations on intelligence collection and government spying.
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| Fake interpreter reportedly faced murder charge Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:31 PM PST  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's government was confronted Friday with a new and chilling allegation about the bogus sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial: He was reportedly accused of murder 10 years ago.
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| New US school shooting on eve of Newtown anniversary Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:25 PM PST  Two students were injured, one seriously, in a US school shooting Friday before the suspected gunman killed himself, on the eve of the anniversary of the Newtown massacre. Police said the suspect was also a student at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, just a few miles from the sites of last year's Aurora movie theater shooting and the 1999 Columbine massacre. America's perennial debate about gun control is back in the headlines ahead of the anniversary Saturday of last year's Newtown, Connecticut shooting in which 26 people, including 20 young children, were killed.
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| Kerry 'hopeful' can strike final Mideast peace deal Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:14 PM PST  JERUSALEM (Undefined) (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday he hoped to help achieve a peace agreement encompassing Israeli security needs and Palestinian sovereignty, as he wrapped up his regional visit. But Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas dampened hopes by rejecting US proposals for Israel to keep a military presence in a future Palestinian state. "We are working on an approach that both guarantees Israel's security and fully respects Palestinian sovereignty," Kerry told reporters in Tel Aviv before boarding a plane to Vietnam. Kerry insisted the goal remained for the sides "to reach a final status agreement – not an interim agreement", and said Israel will release as planned a new group of Palestinian prisoners on December 29.
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| White House receives intel review board report Posted: 13 Dec 2013 01:42 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has received an intelligence review board report analyzing the National Security Agency's vast surveillance programs. |
| Canada to boost rail safety after deadly oil blast Posted: 13 Dec 2013 01:40 PM PST  New stricter safety measures for shipping oil by rail across Canada are expected in response to the worst tanker train disaster in the country's history, it was reported Friday. Transportation Minister Lisa Raitt told the daily Globe and Mail the change is an acknowledgement that crude oil is "a dangerous good, and should be treated as such." The change comes as trains are set to resume rolling again next week through Lac-Megantic, a Quebec town whose downtown area suffered a devastating rail disaster caused by a runaway train. Raitt's spokeswoman Ashley Kelahear told AFP the minister met with officials last month "to discuss issues surrounding the transport of dangerous goods."
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| Yemen says airstrike targeted al-Qaida militants Posted: 13 Dec 2013 01:09 PM PST SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's official security committee said on Friday that people targeted in an airstrike in central city were al-Qaida militants including those who masterminded attacks on vital institutions, the police and army. |
| U.S. to keep 1,500 troops in Jordan for time being Posted: 13 Dec 2013 01:07 PM PST The United States has about 1,500 U.S. troops in Jordan and they will remain there until the security situation improves, the White House told Congress on Friday. The U.S. contingent in Jordan, which includes Patriot missile systems and fighter aircraft, is there to help the Jordanian government as it grapples with strains from the civil war in neighboring Syria. A flood of refugees from Syria into Jordan has tested the Jordanian government of King Hussein, a close U.S. ally. "These forces will remain in Jordan, in full coordination with the government of Jordan, until the security situation becomes such that they are no longer needed," a White House report said. |
| Toulon open door to Halfpenny, close it on Warburton Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:44 PM PST  Toulon (France) (AFP) - Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal says he is trying to sign Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny but has ruled out a move for his countryman Sam Warburton. Speaking to the La Provence newspaper, which covers the south of France, in an interview published on Friday, Boudjellal said British and Irish Lions and Wales captain Warburton had priced himself out of a potential move.
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| Egypt's security forces disperse Islamist protests Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:27 PM PST CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian security forces fired tear gas Friday to disperse hundreds of Islamist demonstrators marching across the country to demand the release of detained student protesters. One person was killed south of the capital and another in the canal city of Suez. |
| Iran quits nuclear talks protesting US blacklist move Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:25 PM PST Iran has quit nuclear talks with world powers, accusing Washington on Friday of going against the spirit of a landmark agreement reached last month by expanding its sanctions blacklist. US Secretary of State John Kerry and a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the major powers in the talks, both played down the suspension and said talks were expected to resume soon. But Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said the US move went against the spirit of the deal struck in Geneva under which the powers undertook to impose no further sanctions for six months in exchange for Iran curbing its controversial nuclear activities. |
| Yemen: Airstrike targeted al-Qaida militants Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:19 PM PST SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's official security committee says people targeted in an airstrike in central city were al-Qaida militants including those who masterminded attacks on vital institutions, police and army. |
| Sister of fugitive mobster is arrested in Italy Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:19 PM PST  ROME (AP) — Police searching for Italy's No. 1 Cosa Nostra fugitive arrested 30 people Friday in a pre-dawn sweep of his stronghold in Sicily, including his sister, whom prosecutors say was helping to transmit the Mafioso's orders and run extortion rackets during his years on the run.
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| Syrian rebels say Islamic fighters seize weapons Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:15 PM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Warehouses captured by Islamic militants in Syria last weekend contained a cache of machine guns and ammunition intended for Syria's Western-backed rebels, a senior opposition official said Friday, demanding the gear be returned.
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| Ukraine talks give no indication crisis is over Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:15 PM PST  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The meeting Friday of Ukraine's president and the leaders of mass protests against him was billed as a round table, but it was essentially a square-off.
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| Jerusalem buried in snow as rare storm pounds Mideast Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:15 PM PST  A fierce winter storm shut down much of the Middle East Friday, burying Jerusalem in snow, flooding parts of Gaza and bringing frigid, wet weather to war-ravaged Syria. The hilltop city of Jerusalem was paralysed by its fiercest snowstorm in years, with its mayor calling out the army to help stranded motorists and authorities urging residents to stay indoors. "We are battling a storm of rare ferocity," Mayor Nir Barkat said as snow in the Holy City piled up to around 37 centimetres (15 inches) and thousands of homes lost power. He said about 1,000 stranded travellers were given shelter at the Jerusalem International Conference Centre while hundreds more were taken to a nearby military base.
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| Gunmen kill 15 Iranian pipeline workers in Iraq Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:12 PM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Gunmen in Iraq killed 15 Iranian pipeline workers and two Iraqi guards northeast of Baghdad on Friday, officials said. Separate attacks across the country killed 23 other people. |
| Small blast in Northern Ireland's Belfast Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:09 PM PST  Belfast (United Kingdom) (AFP) - A small explosion hit Northern Ireland's capital Belfast Friday after authorities received a telephone bomb warning, police said. Police warned last month of an upsurge in activity by dissident republican groups who still want the British province to be part of the Republic of Ireland. "A number of businesses and streets in the Cathedral area of Belfast have been cordoned off following a small explosion," a police spokesman said. The blast comes after a large bomb placed in a hijacked car partially exploded in Belfast on November 24, also without causing any casualties.
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| UN warns over 'vacuum' in eastern DRC Posted: 13 Dec 2013 12:04 PM PST  Congolese security forces must be deployed rapidly in areas liberated from the grip of armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) so as "not to leave a vacuum," a senior UN official warned Friday. Herve Ladsous, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said it was also urgent for Kinshasa to implement a program of reintegration of some 2,300 former members of armed groups, notably M23 and Mai Mai rebels.
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| Two killed in Egypt clashes over Morsi ouster Posted: 13 Dec 2013 11:58 AM PST  Two young men were killed in clashes Friday between supporters and opponents of Egypt's toppled Islamist president as police used tear gas to disperse protests, officials said. Protesters across the country defied the icy weather brought by a rare winter storm to vent anger over the military's July 3 overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president. A 23-year-old was hit by gunfire in Suez when clashes broke out between supporters and opponents of Mohamed Morsi, and three policemen were wounded, local officials and medics in the canal city said. Protesters in Suez also torched a police car, security officials said, adding that a similar incident took place in Qena in southern Egypt.
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