| German killed in Kabul attack on play condemning suicide bombings Posted: 11 Dec 2014 10:27 AM PST  By Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - A teenaged bomber on Thursday targeted a Kabul auditorium packed with people watching a drama condemning suicide attacks and being staged at a French cultural center, killing a German man and wounding 16 people, officials and a witness said. The suicide blast was the second to strike the Afghan capital in a day, after six Afghan soldiers perished when their bus was hit on the outskirts of the city as they rode into work. ...
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| 'We'll be back' Hong Kong protesters chant, as camp site dismantled Posted: 11 Dec 2014 12:30 PM PST  By James Pomfret and Clare Baldwin HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police arrested pro-democracy activists and cleared most of the main protest site on Thursday, marking an end to more than two months of street demonstrations in the Chinese-controlled city, but many chanted: "We will be back". Most activists chose to leave the Admiralty site, next to the Central business area, peacefully, despite their demands for a free vote not being met. But the overall mood remained defiant. ...
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| Large crowds turn out for Palestinian minister's funeral Posted: 11 Dec 2014 10:24 AM PST  By Noah Browning and Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Thousands of mourners turned out on Thursday for a Palestinian state funeral for a minister who died after being grabbed by the neck by an Israeli policeman at a West Bank protest, an incident that has raised tensions with Israel. To the sounds of drums and bagpipes, Ziad Abu Ein's Palestinian flag-draped coffin was carried by pallbearers in military uniform along a red carpet at the presidential compound in the city of Ramallah. The funeral procession then streamed through the streets to a cemetery as people fired in the air. ...
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| In 2003, U.S. experts doubted key Iraq war claim: cable Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:31 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A CIA cable disclosed on Thursday showed that U.S. counter terrorism officials in 2003 discounted reports that a leader of the Sept. 11 attacks met an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague just before the attacks, further undermining a Bush administration argument for the invasion of Iraq. Senator Carl Levin released a newly declassified section of a March 11, 2003 cable that undercut administration statements that Mohammed Atta and Iraqi agent Ahmad al-Anian had met in the Czech capital in April 2001. "here is not one or FBI expert that ... ... |
| U.S. 'troubled' that Crimean leader in India with Putin Posted: 11 Dec 2014 11:39 AM PST  By Douglas Busvine NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The leader of Crimea, the former Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia, visited India on Thursday as a member of President Vladimir Putin's annual summit delegation, and the United States said it found the reports troubling. India does not back Western sanctions against Russia, but the unofficial trip by Sergey Aksyonov could spoil the mood before Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts U.S. President Barack Obama for India's Republic Day festivities in January. ...
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| IAEA to get more money for Iran nuclear deal monitoring Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:08 PM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Several states pledged on Thursday to back a U.N. nuclear agency request for 4.6 million euros ($5.7 million) as soon as possible to pay for its monitoring of an extended, interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The support voiced at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) highlighted the political importance of efforts to end a 12-year dispute over Iran's nuclear program, also for countries not directly involved in the diplomacy. ...
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| Quade Cooper signs new 1-year Australia contract Posted: 11 Dec 2014 04:46 PM PST SYDNEY (AP) — Wallaby and Queensland flyhalf Quade Cooper has signed a one-year contract extension with the Australian Rugby Union that will take him through to the end of 2015, including next year's Rugby World Cup. |
| UN says several months needed to control Ebola Posted: 11 Dec 2014 04:36 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Ebola chief said Thursday it will take several more months before the outbreak in West Africa is under control, an assessment that makes clear the U.N.'s goal of isolating 100 percent of Ebola cases by Jan. 1 won't be met. |
| Kerry to climate talks: No excuses, get to work Posted: 11 Dec 2014 04:35 PM PST  LIMA, Peru (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry tried to spur slow-moving U.N. climate talks Thursday, telling nations to stop bickering over who is to blame for global warming and to shun the cheap route of high-polluting coal to grow their economies.
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| Top Asian News at 12:30 a.m. GMT Posted: 11 Dec 2014 04:32 PM PST HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities demolished a protest camp Thursday at the heart of the city's 2 ½-month pro-democracy movement but scores of activists taken away by police vowed their fight for genuine elections wasn't over. Hundreds of police officers armed with chain saws and bolt cutters methodically dismantled barricades, tore down canopies and removed banners in a daylong operation to shut the protest site sprawled across a normally busy highway next to the specially administered Chinese city's business district. |
| 3 die in St. Lucia cruise fire; passengers safe Posted: 11 Dec 2014 04:26 PM PST SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A crew member and two contractors have died in a fire aboard an Oceania cruise ship that was docked at the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia. |
| Radford skating with new freedom at GP final Posted: 11 Dec 2014 04:19 PM PST  Canada's Eric Radford admitted that he was skating with a new-found freedom as he and pairs partner Meagan Duhamel surged to the lead after the short programme at the ISU Grand Prix final on Thursday. Radford, 29, was performing in Barcelona just days after coming out as gay. The Canadians spoilt what would have been a dream opening day for Russia who dominated the women's event on the first day of competition with Elizaveta Tuktamysheva leading the way ahead of three countrywomen -- Julia Lipnitskaya, Elena Radionova and Anna Pogorilaya -- in the six-woman field.
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| Senator: USAID's Cuba hip-hop project 'reckless' Posted: 11 Dec 2014 04:10 PM PST  HAVANA (AP) — A U.S. agency's secret infiltration of Cuba's underground hip-hop scene to spark a youth movement against the government was "reckless" and "stupid," Sen. Patrick Leahy said Thursday after The Associated Press revealed the operation.
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| Cutting carbon a good business opportunity, private sector told Posted: 11 Dec 2014 04:09 PM PST By Gerard Wynn LIMA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Whatever the global climate agreement reached next year in Paris looks like, the private sector will need to dramatically step up efforts to cut global carbon emissions, negotiators and analysts said at U.N. climate talks in Lima Thursday. Political leaders including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon and Peru's President Ollanta Humala urged the private sector to play a bigger role in cutting carbon emissions because it makes good business sense. ... |
| Brazil charges 35 in Petrobras scandal Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:58 PM PST SAO PAULO (AP) — Prosecutors investigating a sprawling kickback scheme at Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras filed charges Thursday against 35 people, including executives from some of the nation's biggest construction firms. |
| Russians sweep GP Final short program Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:54 PM PST  BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Elizaveta Tuktamysheva led a Russian teen sweep of the short program at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final on Thursday.
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| Abbas backs Egypt crackdown on Gaza tunnels Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:46 PM PST  Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he supported Egypt's crackdown on tunnels linking the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to the Sinai Peninsula and any other action the country took to protect itself from militants, according to a media report Thursday. "We have supported all the precautionary measures taken by the Egyptian authorities to close the tunnels and stop the trafficking of arms and the passage of people between Gaza and the Sinai," Abbas said in an interview with Egyptian magazine Al-Ahram Al-Arabi due to be published on Saturday, extracts of which were published by MENA news agency. "We will continue to support any measure protecting Egypt from danger," Abbas was quoted as saying. Since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army, the country's new authorities have accused Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of conspiring with Hamas.
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| Muhammadu Buhari: Nigeria's former military ruler Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:41 PM PST  Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari has tried three times to become president of Nigeria since the return to civilian rule in 1999 and failed on each occasion. The 71-year-old was Nigeria's military dictator from December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1985 after he ousted elected president Shehu Shagari, who was widely seen as corrupt and inept. One former senior military officer told AFP that Buhari, a devout Muslim, was "exceptionally corruption-free" and, unusually for a Nigerian leader, did not accumulate much in the way of spoils.
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| UK court jails woman who promoted jihad on social media Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:32 PM PST  London (AFP) - A British mother of six who hoped one of her sons would become a jihadist was on Thursday jailed for five years and three months after she used social media to encourage acts of terror in Syria.
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| Major storm knocks out power, disrupts flights in California Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:28 PM PST  By Curtis Skinner and Emmett Berg SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Pacific storm pummeled drought-parched northern and central California on Thursday with heavy rain and high winds, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes, disrupting flights, washing out roads and prompting school closures in the Bay Area. Some 240 departing and incoming commercial flights were canceled at San Francisco International Airport by late morning, and others were delayed for more than two hours, airport managers said. ...
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| Volleyball confederation loses bank sponsorship Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:26 PM PST RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The state-run Banco do Brasil said Thursday it was cutting off sponsorship payments to Brazil's volleyball confederation following a report by the country's watchdog auditing office citing irregular payments by the sports body. |
| Med nations to boost cooperation against Islamist radicalism Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:18 PM PST  Ten Mediterranean nations -- including France, Italy, Algeria and Libya -- on Thursday pledged greater cooperation in the fight against Islamic radicalism and illegal immigration during talks in Spain. The vow came at the close of a meeting of defence ministers in the southern city of Granada from the so-called 5+5 initiative set up in 2004 to boost cooperation in security matters among 10 nations from around the Mediterranean. In a joint statement they promised to "work with a renewed strength" to "tackle the security changes that we face, in particular illegal immigration, organised crime and terrorism". The 5+5 initiative also includes Tunisia, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal and Malta.
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| Marzouki reprimanded for doubting Tunisia vote integrity Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:00 PM PST  Tunisia's incumbent President Moncef Marzouki was reprimanded by the electoral commission on Thursday for saying the only way he could lose this month's run-off vote would be through fraud. Marzouki came second to Beji Caid Essebsi in the first round of polling last month, and will face him again on December 21.
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| British Olympians robbed at knifepoint in Rio Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:00 PM PST  Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) (AFP) - British sailors and 2012 London Olympic Games silver medalists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark said Thursday they had been robbed at knifepoint after a training session in 2016 host city Rio.
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| Swiss to host conference on occupied Palestinian territories Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:56 PM PST  A conference will be held this month in Geneva to examine respect for international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories, Switzerland announced Thursday. Israel and the United States are however not expected to attend the December 17 conference devoted to the Fourth Geneva Convention, which defines humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone. The conference, long in the works, comes after a senior Palestinian official died in a confrontation with Israeli troops, adding to tensions that have threatened to boil over into another round of violence in the occupied territories.
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| 1901 San Francisco Bay ship wreck found Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:55 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Scientists have located the wreckage of a passenger ship that crashed in 1901 near the site of what is now the Golden Gate Bridge, killing 128 people. |
| Mexico opens bidding for outsider oil exploration Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:53 PM PST  MEXICO CITY (AP) — The government announced on Thursday the start of bidding for oil exploration rights in 14 areas of the Gulf of Mexico being opened to domestic and international companies as Mexico ends a seven-decade state monopoly on the petroleum business.
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| Hong Kong police arrest protesters, dismantle main rally site Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:50 PM PST  Hong Kong police dismantled the city's main pro-democracy protest site Thursday, clearing tents and barricades after more than two months of rallies and arresting more than 200 demonstrators, who vowed their struggle lives on. As police cleared the last handful of protesters late Thursday, parts of the site reopened to traffic for the first time since September. Those making a last stand were the remnants of what once numbered tens of thousands of people at the height of the protest movement, before public support waned. The call for free leadership elections has underpinned the demonstrations, and protesters have vowed the clearance operation will not end a campaign they say has redefined the city's vexed relationship with Beijing.
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| Torino completes Italian sweep in Europa League Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:49 PM PST  ROME (AP) — The entire Italian league stands to benefit after Torino came back to beat nine-man Copenhagen 5-1 Thursday and complete a clean sweep with all four Serie A clubs advancing from the group phase of the Europa League.
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| Last known Ebola patient in Mali cured Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:48 PM PST  The last patient to be treated for Ebola in Mali has made a full recovery, a senior health ministry official told AFP Thursday. "The recovery of a second Malian patient infected with the Ebola virus was officially recorded in Bamako Thursday," the official, who did not wish to be identified, said. The source said the patient was the only person being treated for Ebola in Mali after another person treated for the deadly virus was discharged from hospital 12 days ago after being declared Ebola-free. No new cases of infection have been reported in Mali for several days.
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| S. Korean vessel heads to Bering Sea where 27 died Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:45 PM PST JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Ongoing search efforts at the site where a South Korean fishing ship sank in the Bering Sea, killing at least 27 people, likely will be measured in weeks, not days, a representative of the Seoul government said Thursday. |
| Spanish news to vanish from Google News globally Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:35 PM PST  MADRID (AP) — Google is locking Spanish publishers out of its popular Google News service in response to a new Spanish law that imposes fees for linking to the headlines and news stories on other websites.
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| Obama push leaves 136 prisoners held at Guantanamo Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:33 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is driving a new push to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center despite congressional opposition. A dozen prisoners recently transferred out since Obama vented his frustration to senior administration officials in a rare private meeting.
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| Man jailed for attack on British politician Galloway Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:31 PM PST  London (AFP) - A man who attacked British pro-Palestinian lawmaker George Galloway in a London street while calling him "anti-Semitic" was jailed for 16 months on Thursday.
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| Ecuador case against Chevron before Canadian court Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:28 PM PST TORONTO (AP) — Lawyers for a group of Ecuadoran villagers are asking Canada's high court on Thursday to grant their clients access to Canadian courts to enforce a US$9.5-billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron Corp for rainforest damage. |
| Kenya defends international court cooperation on president's case Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:27 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Kenya defended its involvement with the International Criminal Court on Thursday as prosecutors seek to have the country held accountable by the court's member states for failing to cooperate on an investigation of President Uhuru Kenyatta. Prosecutors last week dropped charges of crimes against humanity against Kenyatta, who was accused of orchestrating a wave of deadly violence after Kenya's 2007 elections, due to a lack of evidence. ...
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| Jin Jeong takes 1st-round lead at Australian PGA Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:26 PM PST GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) — South Korea's Jin Jeong birdied three of the six holes he played Friday to conclude his first round for a 7-under 65 and a one-stroke lead at the weather-delayed Australian PGA. |
| Retail sales report boosts US stock market Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:15 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — Good news on U.S. retail sales lifted the stock market Thursday, although worries about the latest plunge in oil prices kept the gains in check.
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| CIA chief defends agency, but admits 'abhorrent' abuses Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:13 PM PST  US spymaster John Brennan admitted Thursday that some CIA interrogators had used unauthorized and "abhorrent" tactics in the past decade and said he believes torture tends to lead to false intelligence. In an extraordinary news conference, broadcast live from the agency's Langley headquarters in what is believed to be a first in CIA history, Brennan mounted a stout defense of his officers, saying the vast majority of them did not mistreat prisoners. Brennan said the torture came amid fear of another wave of violence from Al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 attacks, as the Central Intelligence Agency scrambled to take on a task it had virtually no experience with. "We were not prepared," he said, describing how then president George W. Bush had approved the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" now denounced as torture.
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| As war rages, Syrian women look to keep up appearances Posted: 11 Dec 2014 02:13 PM PST  The echoes of government air strikes and incoming rebel mortar fire rattle buildings in the distance, but inside a beauty exhibition in Damascus the shoppers try not to notice. Surrounded by Syria's raging civil war, some women in the bubble of regime-held Damascus are determined to keep up appearances, intent on maintaining their beauty regimes despite the ugliness of the conflict. The war "feels as though it has been going on for 100 years," customer Lubana Murshid said as she toured the recent exhibition featuring everything from creams to Botox injections. Much of Syria has been devastated by the war that erupted against President Bashar al-Assad's regime in March 2011, leaving more than 200,000 dead and half of the country's population forced from their homes.
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