| U.N. nuclear agency may press Iran on rare isotope in probe Posted: 03 Feb 2014 11:30 AM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog says it wants Iran to clarify past production of small amounts of a rare radioactive material that can help trigger an atomic bomb explosion, but which also has non-military uses. The comment about polonium by U.N. atomic agency chief Yukiya Amano at a weekend security conference in Munich suggested the issue may be raised at talks between his experts and Iranian officials on February 8. It also signaled his determination to get to the bottom of suspicions that Iran may have worked on designing a nuclear warhead, even as world powers and Tehran pursue broader diplomacy to settle a decade-old dispute over its atomic aims. "The separation of polonium-210, in conjunction with beryllium, can be part of a catalyst for a nuclear chain reaction," the Arms Control Association, a U.S. research and advocacy group, said on its web site.
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| Iraqi forces kill 57 Islamist militants in Sunni province Posted: 03 Feb 2014 11:49 AM PST  Iraqi troops and allied tribesmen killed 57 Islamist militants in Anbar province on Monday, the Defense Ministry said, in advance of a possible assault on the Sunni Muslim rebel-held city of Falluja. There was no independent verification of the toll among the militants, said to be members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a jihadi group also fighting in the civil war in neighboring Syria. ISIL militants and other Sunni groups angered by the Shi'ite Muslim-led Baghdad government overran Falluja and parts of the nearby city of Ramadi in the western province of Anbar on January 1. The Defense Ministry statement said most of the 57 militants had been killed in the outskirts of Ramadi, but gave few details.
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| Suicide bomb attack hits passenger van in south Beirut Posted: 03 Feb 2014 11:32 AM PST  By Laila Bassam BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up in a passenger van in a southern suburb of Lebanon's capital Beirut on Monday as the country continued to struggle with the fallout from the civil war in neighboring Syria. The explosion occurred in a van that was taking passengers along the highway in Choueifat, a district of south Beirut, to a suburban area where the Shi'ite Muslim political and militant movement Hezbollah has a heavy presence. Hezbollah has sent fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Alawite offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, against the majority Sunni Muslim rebels. Lebanese and Syrian Sunni militants supportive of the Syrian uprising have targeted Hezbollah areas, including with a bomb attack on Sunday in the northern Shi'ite town of Hermel.
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| Italian judge who convicted Knox investigated for media comments Posted: 03 Feb 2014 01:45 PM PST  By Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - Italy's justice minister ordered an investigation on Monday into comments to the media by the judge who reinstated murder convictions for U.S. student Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. Alessandro Nencini, who last Thursday sentenced Knox to 28 years and six months and Italian Sollecito to 25 years in jail for the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher, spoke to several Italian newspapers the morning after the verdict. Sollecito's lawyers said the comments showed the judge had been biased against their client and had violated the legal maxim that jury deliberations remain secret. They asked Italy's judicial governing body to consider disciplinary action and queried whether the court's decision was still valid.
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| Over 70 killed during clashes in Central African Republic town: official Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:47 PM PST  At least 70 people have been killed and dozens of houses torched in clashes between Muslim and Christian communities in a town in Central African Republic, a local police official said on Monday. The scale of the violence underscores the challenge facing French and African peacekeepers trying to restore order to a country that has been torn apart by inter-communal violence since mainly Muslim rebels seized power in March. Elie Mbailao, police commissioner of Mbaiki, about 100 km (62 miles) from the area around the town of Boda where the killings took place, said Christians attacked Muslims after Seleka passed through.
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| Conclude talks or see rebels radicalize, U.N. Security Council tells Mali Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:41 PM PST  By Adama Diarra and Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Monday called on Mali's government and rebels conclude talks as soon as possible, warning that the failure to do so risked radicalizing fighters and undoing fragile security gains. Members of the Security Council visited Mali over the weekend to assess progress in stabilizing the country, a year after France dispatched thousands of troops to end an occupation of the north by al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels. The Islamists have been scattered, elections were held and a U.N. peacekeeping mission is rolling out. However, talks between Bamako and rebel groups with political demands have stalled.
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| Car-to-car talk: Hey, look out for that collision! Posted: 03 Feb 2014 04:20 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Your car might see a deadly crash coming even if you don't, the government says, indicating it will require automakers to equip new vehicles with technology that lets cars warn each other if they're plunging toward peril.
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| House Dems say give diplomacy a chance with Iran Posted: 03 Feb 2014 04:08 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 70 House Democrats have signed a letter to President Barack Obama backing diplomatic efforts with Iran over its nuclear development. |
| Chelsea beats Man City 1-0 in title showdown Posted: 03 Feb 2014 04:06 PM PST  MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Chelsea delivered a potent mix of defensive resilience and effective counter-attacking in a 1-0 victory over Manchester City on Monday, neutralizing the Premier League's most rampant attack to provide a new twist in the title race.
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| Man says he ate birds, turtles in 13 months adrift Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:43 PM PST  WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — It's a story that almost defies belief: A man leaves Mexico in December 2012 for a day of shark fishing and ends up surviving 13 months on fish, birds and turtles before washing ashore on the remote Marshall Islands thousands of miles (kilometers) away.
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| Search ends at Canada seniors home where fire killed 28 Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:35 PM PST  Canadian authorities on Monday called off a search for remains in the rubble of a Quebec retirement home ravaged by a fire that killed at least 28 people. The blaze at the 52-unit residence in the small town of L'Isle-Verte, 450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of Montreal, broke out just after midnight on January 23.
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| Magnitude-6.1 earthquake hits Indonesia Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:33 PM PST GOLDEN, Colorado (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude-6.1 earthquake has been recorded in Indonesia. |
| Kinnear resigns as Newcastle director of football Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:19 PM PST NEWCASTLE, England (AP) — Newcastle says Joe Kinnear has resigned from his position as the club's director of football. |
| Reggae singer 'Bunny Rugs' Clarke dies at age 65 Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:19 PM PST KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — William "Bunny Rugs" Clarke, the husky-voiced lead singer of internationally popular reggae band Third World, died of leukemia at his home in Florida, longtime friends and colleagues said Monday. He was 65. |
| Villarreal gains on 4th with 3-1 win over Osasuna Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:17 PM PST VILLARREAL, Spain (AP) — Villarreal sparked to life in the second half to beat Osasuna 3-1 on Monday, gaining ground on Athletic Bilbao in the chase for the Spanish league's last Champions League place. |
| US approves pill camera to screen colon Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:08 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — A kinder, gentler approach to one of the most dreaded exams in medicine is on the way: U.S. regulators have cleared a bite-size camera to help screen patients who have trouble with colonoscopies. |
| Salvadoran leftist leads vote, but faces runoff Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:07 PM PST  SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador's ruling leftist party appeared to win the presidential vote with nearly all ballots counted by Monday, but candidate Salvador Sanchez of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front probably faces a runoff by narrowly failing to win a simple majority of votes.
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| Georgia Governor announces new severe weather alert system Posted: 03 Feb 2014 03:03 PM PST  By David Beasley ATLANTA (Reuters) - Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, facing heavy criticism for a slow response to last week's winter storm that paralyzed Atlanta, on Monday announced a new severe weather warning system similar to the "Amber Alert" program that sends notification of missing children. "Effective immediately, a storm warning will trigger a message to cell phones in targeted areas, as in the Amber Alert system, and advise against road travel," Deal said in a statement. The state will also email weather updates to school superintendents as they are deciding whether to close schools, Deal said. The governor, a Republican who is seeking re-election this year, was heavily criticized both by members of the public and his political opponents, for the state's slow response to the storm last Tuesday morning.
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| Brazilian football scrutinized again after attack Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:56 PM PST  SAO PAULO (AP) — With the World Cup just months away, Brazilian football is under the spotlight for the wrong reasons again after players from one of the country's most popular clubs were attacked by fans upset with the team's struggles.
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| UN delegation meets with armed groups in Mali Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:53 PM PST BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The U.N. Security Council met Monday with representatives of armed Tuareg groups active in northern Mali as part of an effort to accelerate peace talks with the government, though participants said disagreements on conditions for the talks had not been resolved. |
| California wildlife officials seek cougar that mauled homeless man Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:51 PM PST Wildlife rangers in Southern California were hunting on Monday for a mountain lion that mauled a homeless man at his roadside encampment over the weekend in a rare attack, leaving him in critical condition, fish and game authorities said. The mauling of the 50-year-old man, believed to have occurred on Friday or Saturday in the Riverside County town of Perris, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, marks only the 15th cougar attack on a person reported in California since 1986, the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife said. Rangers set up baited box traps over the weekend, scoured the area for cougar tracks and scanned the vicinity with infrared cameras at night from a helicopter, but have so far found no signs of a mountain lion, said Lieutenant Patrick Foy of the wildlife agency. |
| Libya PM threatens eastern protesters with troops Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:45 PM PST  By Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan stepped up the pressure on protesters blocking eastern ports on Monday, telling them he had weeks ago ordered troops to prepare to move there to end their blockade. Zeidan has repeatedly warned he may use force to free up three key ports where protesters demanding more autonomy from Tripoli have cut off around 600,000 barrels per day of oil exports since summer. Armed protesters who defected from the state-run Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) in August seized Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zuetina ports, led by Ibrahim al-Jathran, a former rebel who fought against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya's 2011 uprising.
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| Ally of Ukraine leader says force won't be used, ready for elections -report Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:38 PM PST A parliamentary ally of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was quoted as saying on Monday that Yanukovich had told his party he would not resort to force against protesters and was ready to hold early elections if a peaceful resolution to the national crisis cannot be found. As quoted by online news site Ukrainska Pravda, Yuri Miroshnichenko told local television channel ICTV that the president had said to lawmakers from his Party of the Regions: "We have every possibility of liberating administrative premises and even liberating Maidan by force ... I will never do that, because these are also our citizens." Maidan, Kiev's Independence Square, has been an anti-government protest camp for more than two months. Miroshnichenko said there had been discussions recently within the party about declaring a state of emergency, a move that could, among other things, let the government use troops. "There will be no state of emergency," Miroshnichenko said. |
| C.Africa violence 'partly halted': French army chief Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:36 PM PST  Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - The violence in Central Africa has been "partly halted", the head of the French army said Monday, even as reports emerged that at least 75 people had been killed in a single town. France's chief of defence staff Edouard Guillaud said during a visit to the capital Bangui that the process of disarming both sides had begun, and that "the violence has been partly halted". His visit comes two months after France sent troops into its former colony to stop the bloodletting between Christians and Muslims that began when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebellion overthrew the government last March. It coincides with fresh reports of fighting in the west of the Central African Republic (CAR), underscoring the scale of the challenge facing the 1,600 French and around 5,500 African Union peacekeepers in the country.
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| Suicide bomber wounds two south of Beirut Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:33 PM PST  A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt inside a minibus south of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Monday, wounding two people, medical and government officials said. "A man wearing an explosive belt boarded a public minibus in Choueifat and blew himself up," Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told Lebanon's Mayadeen television channel. The blast is the fifth to hit Lebanon this year, and comes after at least four people were killed on Saturday in a suicide bombing in the eastern town of Hermel. Ali Mcheik said on LBC television that his brother was the man injured in the blast and had been driving the bus.
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| GE misstated chemical harm to NY's Hudson River: federal trustees Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:31 PM PST  (Reuters) - General Electric Co has understated or misstated the environmental harm of its chemical dumping into New York's Hudson River, federal officials alleged on Monday. The company's recent report to New York state officials failed to mention harm done to fish, waterfowl and groundwater, the Federal Hudson River Natural Resource Trustees said in a letter to the company that the trustees made public. The trustees said the GE report "ignores significant natural resource injuries that have already been established by the Trustees." GE dumped toxic chemicals, in particular polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, some 150 miles north of New York City for three decades prior to discontinuing their use in 1977. In an emailed statement, GE said its report "is a comprehensive and factual analysis of actual Hudson River data, including in substantial part the Trustees' own reports." (Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf;
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| Sampdoria wins derby match against Genoa 1-0 Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:28 PM PST  GENOA, Italy (AP) — Maxi Lopez scored on his Sampdoria return to give the team a 1-0 victory at bitter rival Genoa in the derby della lanterna on Monday.
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| US to play Turkey in basketball World Cup group Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:24 PM PST BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The United States will play Turkey in the group stage of this summer's World Cup of Basketball in a rematch of the 2010 final. |
| In Sudanese tent city, South Sudan remains a promised land Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:24 PM PST  Jebel Aulia (Sudan) (AFP) - For hundreds of people struggling to survive in a tent city on the outskirts of Khartoum, their South Sudan homeland remains a promised land despite weeks of deadly warfare. The violence has killed thousands, destroyed entire towns and displaced more than 850,000 but it did not shake the South Sudanese residents of Dar Al-Salaam camp from their dreams of returning home. Millions of southerners fled north during a 22-year civil war which ended in a 2005 peace deal that paved the way for South Sudan's separation in July 2011 following a referendum. Many hail from South Sudan's Bahr El Ghazal region which, they say, has remained untouched by the fighting that began on December 15 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebel troops and militia who back his sacked vice-president Riek Machar.
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| Italian Justice Ministry investigating Knox judge Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:21 PM PST  MILAN (AP) — Italy's justice minister on Monday announced an investigation into comments to the Italian media made by the judge who read the guilty verdicts against Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.
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| Palestinians flee hunger and hell of besieged Syria camp Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:18 PM PST  Khulud Shehab's withered hands push two of her children out of Yarmuk in southern Damascus, anxious to flee the hell and hunger of the Palestinian refugee camp as fast as possible. Khulud and her family are among the lucky few to be allowed to leave, after a deal was struck following months of negotiations between Syrian authorities and Palestinian factions in Yarmuk. Amid the crush of leaving Yarmuk, Khulud has lost track of her husband and one of her daughters as the family negotiated streets strewn with the rubble of buildings destroyed in months of fierce fighting. The camp began as a home for Palestinian refugees in the 1950s, but Yarmuk evolved over the decades into a bustling residential and commercial district, home to some 150,000 Palestinians as well as Syrians.
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| Qaeda cements split with ex-Iraqi affiliate in Syria Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:12 PM PST  Al-Qaeda's command has cemented its split with its one-time Iraqi affiliate, in a statement distancing itself from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its battle with Syria's rebels. The statement released late Sunday builds on previous comments by Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has called on ISIL to withdraw from Syria and deemed another jihadist group, the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's official Syrian affiliate. "Al-Qaeda announces it is not linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as it was not informed of its creation... (and) did not accept it," the statement said. ISIL "is not a branch of Al-Qaeda, has no links to it, and the (Al-Qaeda) group is not responsible for its acts," it added.
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| El Salvador fisherman washes up in Marshall Islands after year adrift Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:07 PM PST (Reuters) - A fisherman thought to be from El Salvador who washed ashore on the Marshall Islands said he survived more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean, drinking turtle blood and catching fish and birds with his bare hands. Jose Salvador Albarengo, 37, told officials he set sail on a shark fishing trip from Mexico in late December 2012 - some 10,000 km (6,200 miles) away - but was blown out to sea. "It was supposed to be a one-day fishing expedition, but they were blown off course by the northern winds," Thomas Armbruster, the U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, told the media. "He got off the boat with a very bushy beard," Jack Niedenthal, a filmmaker based on Majuro, told Reuters by telephone. |
| Queen Elizabeth II to mark D-Day anniversary Posted: 03 Feb 2014 02:07 PM PST LONDON (AP) — Royal officials say Queen Elizabeth II will travel with her husband to France to attend events marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. |
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