| Possible debris off Australia a "credible lead" for missing Malaysia jet Posted: 20 Mar 2014 12:59 PM PDT  By Jane Wardell and Siva Govindasamy SYDNEY/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Aircraft and ships ploughed through dire weather in search of objects floating in remote seas off Australia that Malaysia's government called a "credible lead" in the trans-continental hunt for a jetliner missing for nearly two weeks. New Zealand's air force, whose P-3K2 Orion returned from a 2 1/2-hour search mission in the Indian Ocean early on Friday, said it had found nothing that could have come from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 which disappeared on March 8. "The crew never found any object of significance," Kevin Short, air vice marshal at New Zealand's Defense Forces, told Radio New Zealand. The large objects which Australian officials said were spotted by satellite four days ago are the most promising find in days as searchers scour a vast area for the plane lost with 239 people on board.
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| Obama hits closest Putin allies with sanctions over Crimea Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:30 PM PDT  By Steve Holland and Maria Tsvetkova WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama raised the stakes in an East-West confrontation over Crimea on Thursday by targeting some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest long-time political and business allies with personal sanctions. The extension of visa bans and asset freezes into Putin's inner circle came as Moscow rushed to consolidate the annexation of the Black Sea peninsula, seized from Ukraine last month, and to boost its military presence in the region. Russian troops took over three Ukrainian warships in Crimea on Thursday, using stun grenades in one incident, a Ukrainian spokesman said. Kiev also said it had begun withdrawing its border guards, surrounded and outnumbered by Russian forces, from Crimea to the mainland.
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| Gunmen attack hotel in Afghan capital; police kill 4 attackers Posted: 20 Mar 2014 12:41 PM PDT  By Jessica Donati and Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban gunmen attacked a luxury hotel on Thursday in the centre of the Afghan capital Kabul, police said, and four of the assailants were killed in a shootout with Afghan security forces. Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told Reuters all the gunmen were dead and security forces were in control of the hotel. He said he was not aware of deaths among the staff or guests, but checks were under way and Afghan special forces were on the scene. They fired on guests and then hid in bathrooms when security forces arrived, he said.
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| U.S. eyes military supplies for Ukraine, seeks to avoid escalation Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:00 PM PDT  By Phil Stewart and David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Thursday it was focusing for now on Ukrainian requests for non-lethal support, as opposed to any weaponry, as a senior U.S. official said Washington wanted to avoid further militarizing the standoff with Russia. Ukraine's government has put its heavily outnumbered and outgunned forces on alert for an invasion from Russia in the east following Moscow's seizure of Crimea. Kiev has asked for military support from the United States, which U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say includes small arms, as well as non-lethal assistance, such as medical supplies. So far, the U.S. government has only approved providing military food rations, officials say, as President Barack Obama's government instead focused on financial support for Ukraine and pressuring Russia diplomatically.
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| Ivory Coast to send Ble Goude to The Hague court Posted: 20 Mar 2014 12:52 PM PDT  By Loucoumane Coulibaly ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast will send Charles Ble Goude, a close ally of ex-President Laurent Gbagbo, to the International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity, the justice minister said on Thursday. The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said in October it had issued an arrest warrant for Ble Goude, who headed the Young Patriots street militia during Gbagbo's presidency, for his alleged role in violence after a disputed 2010 general election. "The cabinet has agreed to send Ble Goude to the International Criminal Court," minister Gnenema Mamadou Coulibaly told reporters.
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| Brazil's president holds wide lead ahead of re-election bid -poll Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:29 PM PDT  By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is holding on to her wide lead over potential rivals and would win a second term outright in the October 5 general election, according to a poll published on Thursday. Despite Brazil's lackluster economic performance and stubbornly high inflation on her watch, Rousseff would be re-elected in the first round if the vote was held today, the Ibope poll showed. The survey of voter intentions found Rousseff has 43 percent of the electorate's support, against 15 percent for Senator Aecio Neves of the main opposition party PSDB and 7 percent for Eduardo Campos, governor of Pernambuco state. Brazil's presidential election race will get serious after the World Cup for soccer ends in mid-July and while no one has officially declared themselves a candidate, all three are expected to run.
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| Google enhances encryption technology for email Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:40 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Google has enhanced the encryption technology for its flagship email service in ways that will make it harder for the National Security Agency to intercept messages moving among the company's worldwide data centers. |
| EU asks preparations for wider Russia sanctions -Merkel Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:38 PM PDT European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to widen the list of Russian officials subject to personal sanctions over Moscow's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and asked the European Commission to prepare for broader economic sanctions if the crisis escalates. Merkel said the EU was ready to support Ukraine's new government financially, provided it reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund, oh which she said talks had made substantial progress and a deal was expected soon. She told a news conference after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels that the EU was prepared to send an observer mission to Ukraine but would prefer the pan-European security watchdog OSCE to send monitors if Russia will agree on a mandate. |
| U.S. sanctions against Putin allies include two Finns Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:38 PM PDT The personal sanctions against 20 close allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin announced by the United States on Thursday also include two Finnish, and thus European Union, citizens. The extension of visa bans and asset freezes into Putin's inner circle came as Moscow rushed to consolidate the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, seized from Ukraine. Oil trader Gennadi Timchenko and Boris Rotenberg, who received major contracts linked to Sochi Olympics, carry Finnish as well as Russian passports. "We feel the situation is unjust but can say that the U.S. action does not have any immediate impact on the Rotenberg's businesses in Finland," Rotenberg's son Roman Rotenberg said in a statement. |
| 3 Mexican immigrants found hidden in box under RV Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:35 PM PDT  SAN DIEGO (AP) — Border Patrol officials say three adult Mexican immigrants were found inside a wooden box carried under a recreational vehicle stopped at a checkpoint near the California-Mexico border.
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| SA retailer defies security fears to open in north Nigeria Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:32 PM PDT  Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - South African retailer Shoprite on Thursday opened its first outlet in northern Nigeria, as part of an aggressive expansion drive and defying wider concerns about security in the region. The store in Kano -- the north's largest city and main commercial hub -- is situated in the new $110-million (80-million-euro) Ado Bayero Mall that has taken three years to construct and claims to be Nigeria's biggest. Private security guards searched vehicles for weapons and explosives and armed police kept watch on shoppers. The new venture, at a cost of $20 million, brings to eight the number of Shoprite stores in Nigeria.
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| Obama urges Iran to seize opportunity of nuclear talks Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:24 PM PDT  US President Barack Obama urged the "entire" Iranian government Thursday to seize on nuclear talks with world powers to end Tehran's economic isolation. Obama made a direct effort to build political support among Iranians in favor of the nuclear diplomacy led by the government of President Hassan Rouhani in an annual video message marking Nowruz new year celebrations. Obama noted that Iranians elected the comparatively moderate Rouhani last year to strengthen the economy, improve their lives and engage constructively with the world. "I hope that the entire Iranian government hears that message too," he said.
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| Bellini, captain of '58 WCup champ Brazil, dies Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:21 PM PDT SAO PAULO (AP) — Bellini, Brazil's captain when it won its first World Cup in 1958, died on Thursday from complications following a heart attack. He was 83. |
| 'Best lead' in plane search: 2 objects seen in sea Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:21 PM PDT  KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A freighter used searchlights early Friday to scan rough seas in one of the remotest places on Earth after satellite images detected possible pieces from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the southern Indian Ocean.
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| Pirlo puts Juventus into Europa League quarters Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:08 PM PDT  Andrea Pirlo's sumptuous free kick earned Juventus a place in the Europa League quarterfinals, where the competition favorites were joined in an attractive lineup by Sevilla after its penalty-shootout win over fierce Spanish rival Real Betis on Thursday.
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| Syria asylum claims in rich nations more than double in 2013: UN Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:08 PM PDT  Syrian asylum claims in 44 industrialised countries soared to 56,400 in 2013 from 25,200 such applications a year earlier and 8,500 in 2011, the UN's refugee agency said in a report. "There is clear evidence in these numbers of how the Syria crisis in particular is affecting countries and regions of the world far removed from the Middle East," UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. Afghanistan, which in recent years has produced the most asylum seekers, was bumped to third place in 2013, with Russia taking a surprising second, after coming in sixth last year. But "there are indications that they are mostly Chechens," Volker Turk, the UNHCR's head of international protection, told reporters.
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| Denis Johnson, Tobias Wolff to enter arts academy Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:07 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — Fiction writers Denis Johnson, Ha Jin and Tobias Wolff are among this year's inductees into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. |
| Kim Dotcom loses ruling in New Zealand's top court Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:05 PM PDT WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Indicted Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom on Friday lost a ruling in New Zealand's highest court as part of his legal battle to try and avoid extradition to the United States. |
| US reaffirms military ties with Saudi despite tensions Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:03 PM PDT  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosted Saudi Arabia's deputy defense minister for talks Thursday, reaffirming US military ties to Riyadh despite discord over Washington's Iran and Syria policies, officials said. While Hagel made clear to Prince Salman bin Sultan that the United States would continue its diplomacy with Iran, he underscored the importance of US-Saudi military cooperation, a defense official told AFP.
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| EU nations agree on rules to fight tax evasion Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:03 PM PDT  BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union nations on Thursday agreed on a sweeping policy to fight tax evasion after tiny Luxembourg dropped its reservations to new rules which render its secretive banking culture more transparent.
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| UN: Syrians, Russians, Afghans lead asylum list Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:02 PM PDT  GENEVA (AP) — Syria, Russia and Afghanistan have the largest numbers of people fleeing their homelands to seek asylum, and most are turning to Europe, the United Nations refugee agency said in a report Friday.
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| Australia resumes ocean search for possible plane debris Posted: 20 Mar 2014 04:00 PM PDT  Australia prepared to resume its search Friday for possible plane wreckage floating in a remote and stormy section of the Indian Ocean, as the vast international hunt for a missing passenger jet entered its 13th day. Surveillance aircraft on Thursday searched for a pair of floating objects captured by satellite imagery, which Australia and Malaysia guardedly called a "credible" lead in the baffling mystery surrounding missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The Australian-led search was due to restart at first light, as a Norwegian merchant ship arrived in the target area about 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth, after warnings of poor weather conditions and limited visibility. Four aircraft suspended their search at nightfall Thursday without any sighting of the possible debris after scouring a 23,000-square-kilometre (8,900-square-mile) area where the grainy images were snapped, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
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| US, UK urge UN probe of Israeli rocket seizure Posted: 20 Mar 2014 03:44 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.S. and Britain called Thursday for a U.N. investigation of Israel's claim that it intercepted an Iranian shipment of rockets headed for the Gaza Strip. |
| Venezuela moves swiftly against opposition Posted: 20 Mar 2014 03:38 PM PDT  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has used the military, legislative and judicial power consolidated during 15 years of socialist rule in a sudden series of blows against opponents who have spent more than a month protesting in the streets, knocking down their barricades and throwing dissident leaders in jail.
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| At least 14 Iraq SWAT forces killed in explosives-rigged house Posted: 20 Mar 2014 03:32 PM PDT At least 14 Iraqi SWAT forces were killed on Thursday when they entered a house rigged with explosives in the western province of Anbar, where the army is engaged in a near-three month conflict with Sunni militants. Security and medical sources said more than 20 SWAT entered the house in the provincial capital Ramadi after gunmen left the area. Security forces have been fighting insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Ramadi and another city, Falluja, since January. |
| Echoes of Crimea keep Ukraine's east rumbling Posted: 20 Mar 2014 03:25 PM PDT  ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine (AP) — The disheveled men barricading the muddy lane leading into a military facility in this eastern Ukraine town say they are making a stand to defend the region's Russian-speaking majority.
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| Uruguay leader open to Guantanamo detainees Posted: 20 Mar 2014 03:21 PM PDT MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay's president indicated Thursday he's open to taking some former terror suspects still held at Guantanamo Bay, but the U.S. ambassador in the country cautioned that no agreement has been reached. |
| Workers occupy Paris opera in protest Posted: 20 Mar 2014 03:08 PM PDT PARIS (AP) — Union members have occupied Paris' Opera Garnier in a protest over proposed changes to labor rules for theater workers. |
| Canada prime minister to visit Ukraine Posted: 20 Mar 2014 03:04 PM PDT OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canada's prime minister is headed to Ukraine as the first leader among the Group of Seven nations to visit the eastern European nation since pro-Western demonstrators drove out its government last month. |
| Ahead of referendum, UK's Labour promises Scots greater powers Posted: 20 Mar 2014 03:03 PM PDT  Britain's opposition Labour Party will give the Scottish parliament greater tax powers if Scots vote against independence from the United Kingdom, its leader Ed Miliband will say on Friday. Polls show Scots are likely to vote "no" to independence in a referendum in six months' time, but the main parties in the Westminster parliament are trying to court undecided voters with promises of more devolution. "A Labour government for the UK and a Scottish Labour government will be two governments working together on common challenges - not wrestling against each other," Miliband will tell a Scottish Labour Party conference on Friday, according to extracts of the speech supplied in advance.
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| Clashes in Caracas after opposition mayors arrested Posted: 20 Mar 2014 02:56 PM PDT  Demonstrators clashed with riot police in Caracas on Thursday after a march against the arrest of two opposition mayors accused of failing to stop violence in protests that have rocked Venezuela. Some 3,000 people had rallied against the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro before a subgroup of protesters threw rocks at police who responded with tear gas and water cannons. The skirmish ended a three-day lull in violence after the military removed hardline protesters from a plaza in a Caracas opposition stronghold. Maduro's government has been the target of near daily protests fueled by public anger over soaring crime, hyper inflation, shortages of such basic goods as toilet paper and further stoked by heavy-handed police tactics.
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| US questioning more than 100 from 'stash house' Posted: 20 Mar 2014 02:56 PM PDT  HOUSTON (AP) — U.S. immigration authorities on Thursday were interviewing more than 100 people presumed to be in the country illegally after they were discovered crammed into a small house in the city of Houston.
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| Iraqi families drop claims of unlawful killings Posted: 20 Mar 2014 02:54 PM PDT LONDON (AP) — Lawyers representing Iraqi families say they concede there is insufficient evidence to back their claims that British soldiers unlawfully killed civilians in southern Iraq in 2004. |
| Jagger comforted by daughters in Los Angeles Posted: 20 Mar 2014 02:51 PM PDT  Mick Jagger is being comforted by his daughters in Los Angeles after postponing a Rolling Stones tour following his girlfriend's suicide in New York, a spokesman said Thursday. The grieving Stones frontman flew from Australia to California, where one of his daughters lives and two others are staying following L'Wren Scott's shock death. "No information on funeral yet," Jagger's spokesman Bernard Doherty told AFP in an email, confirming the 70-year-old was in Los Angeles with his daughters, but giving no further details.
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