| Iran nuclear deal to take effect on January 20 Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:58 PM PST  By Parisa Hafezi and Justyna Pawlak ANKARA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A deal between Iran and six major powers intended to pave the way to a solution to a long standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions will come into force on January 20, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the European Union said on Sunday. Shortly after the interim accord takes effect, an Iranian official added, Tehran and world powers will start negotiating a final settlement of their differences about activity the West suspects is aimed at obtaining a nuclear weapons capability. Iran says its atomic energy program is aimed purely at electricity generation and other civilian purposes, although past Iranian attempts to hide sensitive nuclear activity from U.N. non-proliferation inspectors raised concerns. The November 24 agreement appeared to halt a slide towards another, wider Middle East war over Iran's nuclear aspirations, but diplomats warn it will not be easy to carry out because of long-standing mutual mistrust.
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| Al Qaeda Syria unit executes dozens of rivals in Raqqa: activists Posted: 12 Jan 2014 04:28 PM PST  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - The al Qaeda-linked Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday. One of the activists, who spoke from the province on condition of anonymity, said up to 100 fighters from the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, and the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, captured by ISIL in the town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey, the nearby area of Qantari and the provincial capital city of Raqqa, were shot dead. "About 70 bodies, most shot in the head, were collected and sent to the Raqqa National hospital," the activist said. The fact that Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham are ideologically similar to the ISIL did not matter," he added.
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| Exclusive: Iran to get first $550 million of blocked $4.2 billion on February 1 Posted: 12 Jan 2014 02:08 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran would receive the first $550 million installment of a total of $4.2 billion in previously blocked overseas funds on or about February 1, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday. Under a November 24 nuclear agreement, six major powers agreed to give Iran access to $4.2 billion in revenues blocked overseas if it carries out the deal, which offers sanctions relief in exchange for steps to curb the Iranian nuclear program. Some payments are contingent on Iran diluting its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium to no more than 5 percent enriched uranium. The U.S. ...
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| Obama hails Iran deal, argues against new sanctions Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:04 PM PST  By Arshad Mohammed and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama hailed an agreement struck on Sunday to curb Iran's nuclear program over six months and argued that imposing additional U.S. sanctions could scupper the deal. "Now is the time to give diplomacy a chance to succeed," Obama said in a written statement after the European Union said that Iran and six major powers had reached an accord to implement a November 24 nuclear agreement with Iran. That agreement is designed to curtail Iran's nuclear activities for a six-month period beginning on January 20 in exchange for sanctions relief from the six major powers: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Obama also urged the U.S. Congress not to impose additional sanctions on Iran, saying that doing so risked undermining the November 24 agreement, known as the Joint Plan of Action (JPA), which aims to give the two sides six months to reach a comprehensive deal to address all questions about whether Iran seeks nuclear arms.
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| Thai protesters move to shut down Bangkok to force out PM Posted: 12 Jan 2014 04:29 PM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand braced for a "shutdown" of its capital on Monday by protesters who want to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and install an unelected government, as fears grew that the southeast Asian country could be heading for civil war. Protesters led by former opposition politician Suthep Thaugsuban started blocking major intersections late on Sunday, aiming to create traffic chaos in a city of an estimated 12 million people where roads are clogged at the best of times. The upheaval is the latest chapter in an eight-year conflict pitting Bangkok's middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poorer, rural supporters of Yingluck and her self-exiled brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was ousted by the military in 2006 and sentenced to jail in absentia for abuse of power in 2008, but he still looms large over Thai politics and is the dominant force behind his sister's administration from his home in Dubai.
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| Israelis pay last respects to warrior-statesman Sharon Posted: 12 Jan 2014 04:26 PM PST  By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Thousands of Israelis bade farewell on Sunday to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the maverick warrior-statesman who helped reshape the Middle East, as his body lay in state outside parliament in Jerusalem. Sharon died at the age of 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma caused by a stroke he suffered at the pinnacle of his political power. He will be buried on Monday in a military funeral on his farm in southern Israel. Arik Sharon faded away eight years ago, and now we truly say goodbye to him," Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, using Sharon's nickname, wrote in a tribute on Sunday.
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| Iran, world powers reach deal opening nuke program Posted: 12 Jan 2014 04:53 PM PST  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has agreed to limit uranium enrichment and to open its nuclear program to daily inspection by international experts starting Jan. 20, setting the clock running on a six-month deadline for a final nuclear agreement, officials said Sunday.
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| SHOW BITS: Steady as they go Posted: 12 Jan 2014 04:37 PM PST  LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Show Bits brings you Sunday's 71st annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills through the eyes of Associated Press journalists. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.
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| Deal curbing Iran nuclear drive to take effect Jan 20 Posted: 12 Jan 2014 04:27 PM PST  A landmark deal that curbs parts of Iran's disputed nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief will take effect from January 20, Tehran and Western powers said Sunday. US President Barack Obama welcomed the news, but warned there was still a rough road ahead to clinch a comprehensive deal. Western nations and Israel have long suspected Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian programme, charges the Islamic republic fiercely denies. Tehran agreed in November to roll back parts of its nuclear work and halt further advances in exchange for the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and limited relief from sanctions that have choked its economy.
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| Bangkok braces as Thai protesters set for shutdown Posted: 12 Jan 2014 04:21 PM PST  BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand braced for a new wave of mass unrest Monday as anti-government demonstrators blocked major roads to "shut down" Bangkok in a bid to thwart February elections and overthrow the nation's democratically elected prime minister.
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| 'Treason brings consequences', Rwanda president says of slain ex-spy Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:56 PM PST  Rwandan President Paul Kagame Sunday warned that "treason brings consequences", apparently referring to the country's former spy chief, found dead in South Africa. The body of Patrick Karegeya -- a fierce critic of Kagame -- was found on New Year's Day in a luxury hotel room in Johannesburg where he had spent the past several years in exile. "Treason brings consequences," he warned Karegeya's fellow dissidents and other former allies who have gone into exile. "All those fellows would have been nothing if it wasn't for Rwanda," he went on.
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| For settlers, Sharon's legacy tarred by Gaza pullout Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:51 PM PST  GUSH ETZION (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - For Jewish settlers, Ariel Sharon, who spent much of his life building up the settlements, will only be remembered for one thing: the bitterly-contested withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The former premier, who died on Saturday after spending eight years in a coma, was once the darling of Israel's rightwing nationalists, but the love affair ended in tears in 2005 after the burly white-haired leader evacuated all troops and more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza. "Ariel Sharon was the greatest of Israel's military leaders... who was behind the establishment of dozens of towns and settlements throughout the entire Land of Israel," said settler spokesman Dani Dayan, referring to Israel and the territories it seized in the 1967 Six-Day War.
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| Jets fire Noel as coach, name Maurice replacement Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:42 PM PST  Winnipeg (Canada) (AFP) - The Winnipeg Jets, last in the National Hockey League's central division, fired coach Claude Noel on Sunday and replaced him with former Carolina and Toronto coach Paul Maurice.
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| Firefight in western Mexico as vigilantes advance Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:41 PM PST  NUEVA ITALIA, Mexico (AP) — Gunfire erupted Sunday in western Mexico as hundreds of vigilantes pressed their fight over territory with a drug cartel, and Mexico's top security officials prepared to make yet another effort to try to stop the violence.
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| Al Qaeda Syria unit executes dozens of rival Islamists: activists Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:40 PM PST The al Qaeda-linked Islamist state of Iraq and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday. One of the activists, who spoke from the province on condition of anonymity, said up to 100 fighters from the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, and the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, captured by ISIL in the town of Tel Abiad on the border with Turkey, the nearby area of Qantari and the provincial capital city of Raqqa, were shot dead. |
| Chan eyes tweaks to outfox rivals in Sochi Posted: 12 Jan 2014 03:23 PM PST  Three-time reigning men's world champion Patrick Chan was fine-tuning his routines for the Sochi Winter Olympics even as he won his seventh title at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships. "I'm learning from this, not just going out and having a blast," Chan said Sunday. Chan was named to the Canadian Olympic squad Sunday, a day after defending his national title.
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| LET THE SUNSHINE IN Posted: 12 Jan 2014 02:28 PM PST Overcast skies parted to let the sun shine on the Golden Globe Awards red carpet moments before the stars started arriving for Sunday's telecast. |
| Biden to meet Israel's Netanyahu during visit for Sharon funeral Posted: 12 Jan 2014 02:24 PM PST By Matt Spetalnick SHANNON, Ireland (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden will hold talks with Israeli leaders during a visit to the Jewish state as head of a U.S. delegation to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's funeral on Monday, Biden's office said. Biden's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be a chance for the vice president to try to further Middle East peace efforts and ease Israeli concerns about nuclear talks with Iran, according to leading U.S. lawmakers flying with him to Tel Aviv on Sunday. Sharon died at age 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma caused by a stroke he suffered at the pinnacle of his power. He was one of Israel's finest military strategists and top political figures, spearheading military invasion, Jewish settlement-building on land the Palestinians want for a state, and making the decision to withdraw from one of those territories, the Gaza Strip. |
| Athletic looks dominate Milan runways Posted: 12 Jan 2014 02:17 PM PST  MILAN (AP) — Designers are offering alternate realities for men next winter.
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| Mexican vigilantes seize drug cartel bastion Posted: 12 Jan 2014 02:02 PM PST  Morelia (Mexico) (AFP) - Armed vigilantes seized a drug cartel bastion in western Mexico on Sunday, sparking a shootout between the two groups, an official said. There were no immediate reports of casualties following the gunfight in Nueva Italia between the self-defense forces and the Knights Templar gang in Michoacan state, the senior state government official said on condition of anonymity. On its Facebook page, the Tepalcatepec vigilante force said around 100 pick-up trucks entered Nueva Italia and that a "light confrontation took place at the entrance, everything is fine." The growing civilian militia movement, which first emerged in Michoacan nearly a year ago, has seized more communities in recent weeks in their bid to oust the Templars from the state.
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| Egyptians set to vote on army-backed post-Mursi constitution Posted: 12 Jan 2014 02:02 PM PST  By Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians vote this week for the first time since Mohamed Mursi's downfall in a constitutional referendum that will likely give a final push to a presidential bid by the man who deposed him, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Approval of the rewritten constitution appears a foregone conclusion: Mursi's now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is urging a boycott rather than a 'no' vote, while many Egyptians who backed his overthrow are expected to vote 'yes' in a show of support for the army-backed order that has replaced Islamist rule. Analysts say it hopes that the turnout and the 'yes' vote will outstrip ballots won by the Muslim Brotherhood to give the new order an electoral seal of legitimacy. "Egypt is on the threshold of a decisive stage in its history, the results of which are awaited by the world," Sisi said on Saturday in public remarks that included the clearest indication to date that he will stand for election.
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| Top envoys insist Syria peace talks must proceed Posted: 12 Jan 2014 02:01 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — Syria's Western-backed opposition came under steely pressure Sunday to attend peace talks in just over a week as envoys from 11 countries converged to help restore, and test, credibility of a rebel coalition sapped by vicious infighting and indecision.
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| Dozens of Palestinians wounded in West Bank protests Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:52 PM PST  Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian police clashed Sunday with West Bank youths who were protesting against a UN strike that has paralysed services in refugee camps leaving dozens wounded, sources said. United Nations Relief and Works Agency employees have been on strike for more than a month, forcing cash-strapped UNRWA to shut schools and stop collecting garbage from West Bank refugee camps. Palestinian police fired tear gas and live ammunition in the air to prevent youths from the Jalazun refugee camp in the central West Bank from blocking the road between Ramallah and Bir Zeit, an AFP correspondent said, adding that many were injured.
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| Thai opposition protesters attempt Bangkok "shutdown" Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:38 PM PST  Thai anti-government protesters are vowing to "shut down" Bangkok Monday in an effort to prevent upcoming elections and topple the government as the country's political crisis teeters on the brink of a tumultuous new phase. Opposition demonstrators began massing at sites across the city over the weekend in their latest push to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office and deal a blow to the power of her divisive brother Thaksin -- a former premier ousted in a 2006 coup. The protesters began blocking major intersections in the capital late Sunday as they looked to ramp up their rallies, in the run up to the February 2 elections which they have set out to disrupt. "It's going to be very volatile," said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a former Thai diplomat and associate professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Japan's Kyoto University.
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| Rumoured affair turns messy for France's Hollande Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:29 PM PST  French President Francois Hollande's political and personal woes deepened on Sunday after it emerged that his girlfriend had been rushed to hospital following a report he has been having an affair with an actress. Valerie Trierweiler, who lives with the president in the Elysee Palace, his official residence, was admitted to hospital on Friday "for a rest and to undergo some tests," aides said, adding that they expected her to leave the clinic on Monday. Closer magazine reported in its edition published on Friday that Hollande, 59, has been having an affair with actress Julie Gayet, 41. The weekly glossy printed photos which it claimed showed Gayet and Hollande arriving separately at a flat near the presidential Elysee Palace for secret trysts.
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| Iran's Zarif to visit Syria ahead of peace talks Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:17 PM PST  Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is due to travel to Tehran ally Damascus in the next few days, media reported Sunday, amid preparations for a Syria peace conference. Zarif was Sunday in Lebanon, which neighbours war-torn Syria, and said that his country is not seeking an invitation at all costs to the peace conference to be held in Switzerland on January 22. He is visiting Lebanon as part of a regional tour that will also take him to Iraq, Jordan and Syria, Iran's official Al-Alam Arabic-language television said, without giving further details.
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| US: Syria peace talks test credibility for parties Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:04 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says a meeting next week on peace for Syria is a credibility test for necessary participants who are threatening to skip it.
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| Court sentences leader of 2004 Saudi attack to death Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:04 PM PST A Saudi court on Sunday sentenced the leader of a militant cell involved in a suicide attack on the offices of a foreign company in the Red Sea city of Yanbu nearly 10 years ago in which five Westerners were killed, Saudi media reported. The May, 2004 attack was part of a campaign launched by al Qaeda in 2003 intended to destabilize the U.S.-allied kingdom. Gunmen killed two Americans, two Britons and an Australian at the firm's offices in the Saudi oil and petrochemical hub. "Suspect number one was convicted of participating with the terrorist cell that carried out the suicide operation at one of the companies in Yanbu," SPA said, without elaborating on his position in the cell. |
| Vote on charter defines Egypt's post-Morsi future Posted: 12 Jan 2014 01:01 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — With a presidential run by Egypt's powerful military chief seeming more likely by the day, this week's constitution referendum, to be held amid a massive security force deployment, is widely seen as a vote of confidence in the regime he installed last summer.
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| Kerry lauds deal to freeze Iran's nuclear program Posted: 12 Jan 2014 12:32 PM PST PARIS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says negotiations with Iran represent the "best chance" for the world to calm fears about Tehran's nuclear program and achieve long-term peace. |
| Iran, 6 world powers agree to nuclear deal terms Posted: 12 Jan 2014 12:30 PM PST TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran and six world powers have agreed on how to implement a nuclear deal struck in November, with its terms starting from Jan. 20, officials announced Sunday. |
| Friends of Syria group urges opposition to attend Geneva talks Posted: 12 Jan 2014 12:13 PM PST  By John Irish and Warren Strobel PARIS (Reuters) - The "Friends of Syria", an alliance of mainly Western and Gulf Arab countries who oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, urged opposition groups on Sunday to attend this month's peace talks, saying there was no other route to a political solution. With 10 days to go until the first direct talks between the opposition and President Bashar al-Assad's government - set for January 22 in Switzerland and dubbed "Geneva 2" - Western backers have struggled to unify rebel groups. The main political opposition body in exile, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), has been plagued by internal bickering. In a final statement, the 11 core Friends of Syria nations urged the SNC to attend the talks on the shores of Lake Geneva.
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| Three more Greek far-right party MPs ordered held awaiting trial Posted: 12 Jan 2014 12:07 PM PST Three more far-right Golden Dawn lawmakers have been ordered detained pending trial in Greece on charges of belonging to a criminal group, as part of a crackdown on the party following the killing of an anti-fascist rapper by one of its supporters last year. The stabbing of Pavlos Fissas in September, to which a Golden Dawn sympathizer has confessed, provoked protests across the country, a shakeup of the police and a broad investigation into the party. Party leader Nikos Mihaloliakos and dozens more senior party officials were arrested last September, riveting a country which has not witnessed a mass round-up of elected politicians since a military coup nearly five decades ago. Golden Dawn members have been charged on evidence linking the party with a string of attacks, including Fissas's stabbing and the killing of an immigrant last year. |
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