| Israeli air strike kills three Hamas commanders in Gaza Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:03 PM PDT  By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel killed three senior Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip in an air strike on Thursday and said it would continue to target the group's armed leadership after a ceasefire failed. Hamas, which dominates Gaza, named the men as Mohammed Abu Shammala, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhoum, the three highest-ranking casualties it has announced since Israel started its offensive six weeks ago. All three, killed in the bombing of a house in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, had led operations against Israel over the past 20 years, the Islamist movement said. The Israeli military and Shin Bet, the internal security service, confirmed it had targeted two of the men.
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| British Muslims blame jihadi subculture after beheading video Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:26 PM PDT By Kate Holton and Raheem Salman LONDON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A British Muslim leader called for action on Thursday to tackle a jihadi sub-culture after an Islamic State video showed a suspected Briton beheading U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the threat from Islamic State was "beyond anything we've seen" and the U.S. Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the death of Foley on the video, which featured a masked man speaking English with a British accent. As Western officials tried to identify the man, the Muslim Council of Britain denounced Foley's "abhorrent murder" and one of its advisers urged anyone who knows the killer's identity to contact the police. |
| Ukraine's Poroshenko talks tough ahead of meetings with Merkel, Putin Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:15 AM PDT  By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday he would call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to rein in pro-Russian separatists when the two men meet next week and told the Kremlin chief he had "a strong country, a strong army" behind him. Poroshenko spoke as government forces, despite taking heavy losses themselves, thrust deeper into rebel-held territory in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east and kept the separatists whom they have battled since April on the back foot. The Ukrainian battlefield successes, after a faltering start in April when government forces were humiliated, have alarmed some Western governments who fear they could box Putin dangerously into a corner with no way out to save face. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to visit Kiev on Saturday to show her support for Poroshenko - but diplomats say she is also bearing a message that he should consider calling a ceasefire so as not to incur a backlash from Putin.
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| Exclusive: Militants, weapons transit Gaza tunnels despite Egyptian crackdown Posted: 21 Aug 2014 08:34 AM PDT  AL-SARSOURIYA Egypt (Reuters) - A third of the houses on the main street of this Bedouin town near Egypt's border with Gaza look derelict, but inside they buzz with the activity of tunnel smugglers scrambling to survive a security crackdown by the Egyptian army. While tunnels used by Gaza's dominant Hamas militants to infiltrate Israel were a priority target of an Israeli offensive in the Palestinian enclave this summer, many smuggling conduits into Egypt have skirted detection. "During the Gaza war, business has flourished," said a Bedouin guide who gave Reuters access to one of the tunnels and a rare look at how the illicit, lucrative industry has evolved since Egypt began trying to root out the passages in 2012.
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| Turkish foreign minister set to be Erdogan's new PM Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:19 AM PDT  By Gulsen Solaker ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish president-elect Tayyip Erdogan named Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as his future prime minister on Thursday and said a power struggle with a U.S.-based cleric, a Kurdish peace process and a new constitution would be his top priorities. Erdogan said the ruling AK Party's executive board had agreed to nominate Davutoglu as its next leader and, by default, his future premier. The decision must now be endorsed in a party vote next Wednesday, but is unlikely to be opposed. ...
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| Thailand's junta upbeat on economy, but not out of woods yet Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:02 PM PDT  By Orathai Sriring BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's junta wants to sell a positive story about its coup saving a troubled economy from recession, and while it seems to have business on board there is little evidence yet of a sustainable, broad-based recovery. A plethora of Thai companies shared the military government's optimism in recent earnings reports, looking to improved conditions after the May 22 coup ended six months of protests that paralysed the government and bureaucracy. Public spending, consumption and agriculture have picked up, but manufacturing, private investment, exports and tourism remain weak, official data show. Gundy Cahyadi, economist with DBS Bank in Singapore, said higher exports, factory output and capacity utilization were needed to signal the economy was on a sustainable recovery.
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| Police tear gas, water cannons at Chilean protest Posted: 21 Aug 2014 05:07 PM PDT  SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Student protesters fled a tear gas truck and police water cannons used during a march through the Chilean capital Thursday, but no injuries or arrests were reported.
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| Ryu sets course record at Canadian Women's Open Posted: 21 Aug 2014 05:04 PM PDT  LONDON, Ontario (AP) — So Yeon Ryu set a course record with a 9-under 63 to take the lead at the Canadian Pacific Women's Open after one round on Thursday.
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| Top Asian News at 12:00 a.m. GMT Posted: 21 Aug 2014 05:02 PM PDT BANGKOK (AP) — Three months after overthrowing an elected government, Thailand's junta leader is stepping out of his army uniform to take up the post of prime minister in a move critics say will prolong his rule and bolster the military's grip on power. Thailand's legislature voted overwhelmingly Thursday to name Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha to the new job. There was little doubt over the outcome since Prayuth was the only candidate and the assembly — hand-picked by the junta — is dominated by active and retired duty officers. |
| NHC says 60 percent chance of cyclone for storm approaching Leeward Islands Posted: 21 Aug 2014 05:00 PM PDT (Reuters) - A small low-pressure area approaching the Leeward Islands has a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Thursday. "Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for some development during the next day or so, and a tropical depression or tropical storm could still form," the NHC said. The mountainous terrain of Hispaniola could limit development of the storm during the first part of the weekend, but conditions are likely to be more conducive for development by Sunday when the system is forecast to move near or over the Bahamas, the Miami-based weather forecaster said. |
| U.S. watchdog finds Pentagon broke law in Bergdahl transfer Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:49 PM PDT  By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department violated U.S. The Government Accountability Office said the Pentagon broke the law by using money appropriated by Congress to carry out the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners without giving lawmakers the required 30-day notice.
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| McIlroy stumbles to 74, worst start in 2 months Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:44 PM PDT  PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — Rory McIlroy took a week to celebrate his blockbuster summer and paid for it in The Barclays with his worst start in two months.
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| Europeans in push for new UN resolution on Gaza Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:43 PM PDT  Britain, France and Germany have put forward key points of a new UN Security Council resolution on Gaza in a fresh bid to end six weeks of violence, diplomats said Thursday. The European initiative came as fighting flared on the ground, with Israeli airstrikes killing three top Hamas commanders and an Egyptian-led effort to broker peace talks teetering on the verge of collapse. The two-page document obtained by AFP calls for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire that would put an end to the firing of rockets and military operations in the Gaza Strip. It calls for a lifting of the Israeli blockade and a monitoring mechanism to report on ceasefire violations and verify the flow of goods into the Gaza Strip.
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| NY judge scolds Argentina, but no contempt order Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:41 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday said Argentina's plans to evade his orders by failing to make required payments to U.S. bondholders is illegal and cannot be carried out, but he stopped short of finding the South American nation in contempt of court.
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| Abandoned Florida panther kitten gets new home in state park Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:38 PM PDT  By Barbara Liston ORLANDO Fla. (Reuters) - A rare Florida panther, found near death as a 1-pound newborn in January, bounded into its permanent new fenced home in a state park on Thursday, now a lively, nearly 50-pound kitten. "He's really a miracle cat," said Susan Strawbridge of the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. A critically endangered animal, only 100 to 180 Florida panthers are believed to be in existence. State biologists working at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge in Naples stumbled by chance on the kitten that had been abandoned by its mother in her den, according to Karen Parker of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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| UN's top Ebola official wants preparations for 'flareup' Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:36 PM PDT  Conakry (AFP) - The United Nations' new pointman on Ebola said Friday he was preparing for a possible flareup of the epidemic in West Africa.
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| Some US colleges calling students back from Israel Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:34 PM PDT  HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) — Some U.S. colleges are pulling students from overseas study programs in Israel as the Gaza war rages, though the relative calm beyond the immediate battle areas is raising questions in some quarters about why they had to leave.
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| Irish peacemaker, ex-premier Reynolds dies at 81 Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:33 PM PDT  DUBLIN (AP) — Albert Reynolds, the risk-taking Irish prime minister who played a key role in delivering peace to Northern Ireland but struggled to keep his own governments intact, died Thursday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 81.
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| Dominican Republic bans Miley Cyrus concert Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:32 PM PDT  SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The Dominican Republic government commission that oversees public performances is banning a Sept. 13 concert by Miley Cyrus on morality grounds.
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| Charges dropped against Venezuelan protesters Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:28 PM PDT CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan courts have dropped all charges against hundreds of demonstrators detained during anti-government protests that wracked the South American country this spring. |
| Ban on filling swimming pools hits communities in parched California Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:24 PM PDT By Aaron Mendelson SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The California dream of owning a house with a sparkling swimming pool is drying up for would-be swimmers in communities across the state as some local water districts have banned homeowners from filling empty pools in drought-stricken areas. The restrictions come as California struggles through its third year of a catastrophic drought that has threatened a half-million acres of farmland, dried up reservoirs and shrunk the mountain snowpack that provides drinking water for millions of people. "What we're trying to prohibit is someone who makes a decision to empty their pool and then refill it," said Jonathan Volzke, spokesman for the Santa Margarita Water District, which implemented a ban on filling pools this month in several suburbs south of Los Angeles. |
| Palestinian MP to challenge Israel deportation order Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:23 PM PDT  A Palestinian lawmaker said on Thursday she would challenge a deportation order from the Israeli military authorities who have ordered her out of Ramallah. Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said Israeli soldiers stormed her home at dawn Wednesday with the deportation order, saying she must leave Ramallah for Jericho, also on the West Bank. It is my right to stay in my place of residence," she said at a protest tent outside the Ramallah headquarters of the Palestinian parliament. The deportation order says she must stay in Jericho for six months, she said.
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| A-League's Newcastle Jets to be sold Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:11 PM PDT SYDNEY (AP) — Australian A-League side the Newcastle Jets are being sold by the group, owned by financially-troubled mining magnate Nathan Tinkler. |
| Drought hits food supplies in Central America Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:09 PM PDT GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Central America is having one of its worst droughts in decades, and experts warned Thursday that major farm losses and the deaths of hundreds of cattle in the region could leave hundreds of thousands of families without food. |
| Attacks against aid workers in CAR at record high: UN Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:07 PM PDT  Crimes against aid workers have reached a record high in the Central African Republic over the past year, a UN official said Thursday after a Red Cross volunteer was killed. Claire Bourgeois, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in the strife-torn country, said there had been around 50 attacks on aid workers in the last 12 months as she condemned the killing of a volunteer shot Wednesday in Bangui "while he evacuated the injured." "The number of humanitarian workers who have been killed, kidnapped, and seriously injured in the Central African Republic has reached a level never seen in the country before," she said in a statement.
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| Tringale of clear mind after PGA disqualification Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:04 PM PDT PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — Cameron Tringale began the FedEx Cup playoffs with a 66 and a clear conscience. |
| Viviani takes Stage 4 with late surge Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:01 PM PDT COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Italian racer Elia Viviani used a powerful surge near the finish to capture Stage 4 at the USA Pro Challenge on Thursday. |
| Irish ex-premier Reynolds, peace negotiator, dies at 81 Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:00 PM PDT  Former Irish prime minister Albert Reynolds, a central figure in the Northern Ireland peace process who helped broker the 1994 IRA ceasefire, has died aged 81. Reynolds served twice as taoiseach, or prime minister: once in 1992 and then again in 1993-94. His son Philip, who announced that Reynolds had died overnight Wednesday, said his father had recently been suffering from the late stages of Alzheimer's disease. The Irish government said Reynolds would be given a state funeral on Monday, and that all government buildings would fly flags at half mast until the funeral.
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| Foley case lays bare debate over paying ransom Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:59 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The beheading of freelance journalist James Foley has forced a new debate between the longtime U.S. and British refusal to negotiate with terrorists, and Europe and the Persian Gulf's increasing willingness to pay ransoms in a desperate attempt to free citizens. The dilemma: How to save the lives of those kidnapped without financing terror groups, and encouraging more kidnappings.
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| Court decision delayed on Marine's Iraq vanishing Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:51 PM PDT  CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina (AP) — A U.S. defense attorney said Thursday that a Marine accused of deserting his unit a decade ago in Iraq was kept in Lebanon for eight years while he faced a military trial there.
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| Drought is slightly elevating ground in U.S. West, study finds Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:50 PM PDT By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A drought has robbed the U.S. The findings by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, were published in the online edition of the journal Science. The researchers relied on data from global positioning system (GPS) stations throughout the West, measuring how much GPS sensors showed the land had risen beneath them. The research underscores the severity of the drought in the West, which in California is expected to cost the state economy $2.2 billion in lost crops, jobs and other damages. |
| U.S. judge calls Argentina debt swap plan 'illegal' Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:48 PM PDT  District Judge Thomas Griesa on Thursday called Argentina's proposed debt restructuring plan "illegal" but stopped short of holding the country in contempt, saying that would not help resolve the dispute that led to the nation's second default in a dozen years. Griesa said proposed legislation announced on Tuesday by President Cristina Fernandez would violate orders he imposed favoring creditors who refused to accept restructured bonds following the country's 2002 default on $100 billion in debt. Argentina missed a June interest payment after Griesa blocked payments owed to holders of debt issued under U.S.
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| Thousands receiving aid after Boko Haram siege: relief agency Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:43 PM PDT  Nearly 11,500 people from one town in northeast Nigeria are receiving emergency aid after fleeing Boko Haram militants, the country's main relief agency said on Thursday. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said 11,442 men, women and children from Gwoza in Borno state had been registered at two facilities for displaced people in neighbouring Adamawa state. The Islamists took over Gwoza, which lies near the border with Cameroon, on August 7 and NEMA said the town was "still under siege". NEMA had said the insecurity had prevented teams from getting to the displaced.
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| British human rights campaigner Bamber dies Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:41 PM PDT  British human rights campaigner Helen Bamber, an early member of Amnesty International, died at the age of 89 on Thursday, the charity she founded said. Bamber was in one of the first rehabilitation teams to enter the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in 1945 to help the survivors. She went on to work for human rights in a career spanning seven decades, helping to set up the first medical group of Amnesty International in Britain and founding the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture. "Tens of thousands of survivors and their families know that Helen personally changed their lives, and many more have been spared further atrocity by her work," the Helen Bamber Foundation's executive director TJ Birdi said.
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| IS group a danger to all regional states, says Tunisia Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:38 PM PDT  Tunisia Thursday condemned the "savage crimes" of the Islamic State (IS) after it beheaded American journalist James Foley, calling the jihadist group a threat to all states in the region. "After savage and repeated crimes committed by the terrorist organisations in Iraq against its ethnic and religious minorities and the savage execution of one of its hostages, Tunisia strongly condemns these heinous crimes," a presidency statement said. "These terrorist organisations pose a threat to all countries in the region," the presidency statement said. Tunisia "calls on the international community to protect ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq, using methods permitted by international law in such extreme situations", it said.
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| Split loyalties in rocket-hit town in east Ukraine Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:29 PM PDT  Three days after a hail of rocket fire shook their homes, residents in Olenivka are still digging out casings from their gardens and arguing over which side shot at them. "We're trapped between two fires," said Irina Yefimovich, a resident in the town just south of Donetsk, which is now lodged between the positions of pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian troops camped out in the surrounding sunflower fields. The use of Grad rockets in populated areas by both the rebels and Kiev's army has been slammed by human rights organisations. Human Rights Watch said last month the practice "violates international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, and may amount to war crimes."
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| Former Vatican City governor Szoka dies at age 86 Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:29 PM PDT  DETROIT (AP) — Edmund Szoka, an American cardinal who served as governor and financial administrator of the Vatican and was a confidant of St. John Paul II, has died at age 86.
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