| Iran rejects U.S. suggestion of Syrian peace talks role Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:07 PM PST  By Parisa Hafezi and Arshad Mohammed ANKARA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran on Monday appeared to rule out participation in Syrian peace talks later this month, dismissing a U.S. suggestion that it could be involved "from the sidelines" as not respecting its dignity. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Sunday there might be ways Iran could "contribute from the sidelines" in a so-called Geneva 2 peace conference in Montreux, Switzerland, on January 22, and on Monday U.S. officials said Tehran might still be able to play a helpful role. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was sending out invitations on Monday to potential participants the talks, but while he wants Iran to attend there was no agreement yet on whether to invite it. The key players in the talks are President Bashar al-Assad's government and opposition rebels who have been fighting for nearly three years to oust him.
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| Egypt's army chief Sisi seen edging closer to presidential bid Posted: 06 Jan 2014 11:03 AM PST  By Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - In Egypt, it no longer appears to be a question of if, but when army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will declare his candidacy for president. For the second time in three days, local media reported on Monday that Sisi had finally made up his mind. With no other obvious candidates for the post, the general who deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July has kept Egyptians guessing about his intentions as the clock ticks down to the presidential vote that could happen as soon as April. Sisi's candidacy would further deepen divisions between the many Egyptians who believe a firm hand is needed to steer the country through crisis and Islamists bearing the brunt of a state crackdown on dissent.
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| U.S. wants Afghanistan to sign security deal in 'weeks not months' Posted: 06 Jan 2014 03:27 PM PST  The United States wants the Afghanistan government to sign a bilateral security agreement in matter of weeks if a contingent of U.S. troops is to remain there after 2014, the White House said on Monday. The Afghan government had ignored U.S. demands for it to sign a framework security agreement by the end of 2013, after protracted negotiations that have strained relations between the two countries. U.S. officials say unless a deal is reached to keep upwards of 8,000 U.S. troops inside the country after 2014, the United States might instead completely withdraw from the country. "Our position continues to be that if we cannot conclude a bilateral security agreement promptly, then we will be forced to initiate planning for a post-2014 future in which there would be no U.S. or NATO troop presence in Afghanistan," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
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| Insight: Fuelled by Syria war, al Qaeda bursts back to life in Iraq Posted: 06 Jan 2014 01:52 PM PST  By Suadad al-Salhy BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda gunmen seeking to form a radical Islamic state out of the chaos of Syria's civil war are fighting hard to reconquer the province they once controlled in neighboring Iraq, stirring fears the conflict is exporting ever more instability. Exploiting local grievances against Baghdad's rule and buoyed by al Qaeda gains in Syria, the fighters have taken effective control of Anbar's two main cities for the first time since U.S. occupation troops defeated them in 2006-07. Their advance is ringing alarm bells in Washington: The United States has pledged to help Baghdad quell the militant surge in Anbar -- although not with troops -- to stabilize a province that saw the heaviest fighting of the U.S. occupation. Washington announced it was speeding up deliveries of military equipment to help Baghdad fight the gunmen.
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| U.S. woman known as Jihad Jane sentenced to 10 years in plot Posted: 06 Jan 2014 10:54 AM PST  By John Shiffman PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday sentenced an American woman who called herself Jihad Jane to 10 years in prison - at least a decade less than prosecutors had sought for her role in a failed plot to kill a Swedish artist who had depicted the head of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad on a dog. Colleen R. LaRose, 50, who converted to Islam online and has maintained her faith, was given credit for the four years she has already served. LaRose, who pleaded guilty to following orders in 2009 from alleged al Qaeda operatives, could have received a life sentence. "It's a just and reasonable sentence," her attorney, Mark Wilson, told reporters after the hearing.
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| Iraq PM urges Falluja to expel al Qaeda-linked militants Posted: 06 Jan 2014 02:25 PM PST By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister urged people in the besieged city of Falluja on Monday to drive out al Qaeda-linked insurgents to preempt a military offensive that officials said could be launched within days. In a statement on state television, Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim whose government has little support in Sunni-dominated Falluja, said tribal leaders should help expel the militants, who last week seized key towns in the desert leading to the Syrian border. "The prime minister appeals to the tribes and people of Falluja to expel the terrorists from the city in order to spare themselves the risk of armed clashes," read the statement. A provincial official said security forces had regained control of another town, Ramadi, forcing militants to the east where they were holding out in mosques and homes. |
| Polar freeze grips United States, disrupting travel, business Posted: 06 Jan 2014 05:01 PM PST  By Nick Carey and Kim Palmer CHICAGO/CLEVELAND, Ohio (Reuters) - A blast of Arctic air gripped the vast middle of the United States on Monday with the coldest temperatures in two decades causing at least four deaths, forcing businesses and schools to close and canceling thousands of flights. Shelters for the homeless were overflowing due to the severe cold described by some meteorologists as the "polar vortex" and dubbed by media as the "polar pig." Temperatures were 20 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 22 degrees Celsius) below average in parts of Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service. It was colder in Brimson, Minnesota, where the mercury plunged to minus 40 Fahrenheit (minus 40 Celsius) than in Arctic Bay, Canada, where it was minus 31F (minus 35C).
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| Rodman, ex-NBA All Stars arrive in North Korea Posted: 06 Jan 2014 04:59 PM PST PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Dennis Rodman said Monday that a game he and other former National Basketball Association players are planning in North Korea will be a "birthday present" for one of their most unlikely fans: leader Kim Jong Un. |
| Prague seeks answers as Palestinian envoy's body flown home Posted: 06 Jan 2014 04:55 PM PST  Czech authorities are seeking answers over an arms find at the Palestinian mission in Prague, as the body of an envoy killed by an apparently accidental explosion there was flown home. The coffin bearing the remains of 56-year-old Palestinian ambassador Jamal al-Jamal was placed aboard a regular flight to Amman from where it will be repatriated to the Palestinian Territories, the Czech CTK agency reported. Jamal, who had been ambassador to the Czech Republic since October, died on January 1 of injuries caused by the explosion, which police suggest was triggered by an anti-theft device inside a safe Jamal was manipulating. On Sunday Czech police announced that investigators had found 12 weapons inside the Palestinian mission in Prague where the New Year's day explosion happened.
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| Plan for a New Indian Time Zone Shows How Strange Time Zones Are Posted: 06 Jan 2014 04:54 PM PST Hundreds of miles to the east, at that exact same moment, the sun is up above the terraced slopes of Assam, a northeastern Indian state. Following a new edict by Assam's Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, the state plans to shift its clock one hour ahead of the rest of India, officially embracing the "garden time" which has been used on Assam's famed tea estates for decades. |
| Arctic air brings record cold to huge swath of US Posted: 06 Jan 2014 04:15 PM PST Dangerously cold arctic air swept across a huge swath of the United States on Monday, making travel treacherous, forcing schools to close and prompting officials to plead with residents to stay indoors. A shift in a weather pattern known as the "polar vortex" triggered a drastic drop in temperatures to lows not seen in two decades, and coincided with wind chill warnings in much of the east of the country. Comertown, Montana recorded the lowest wind chill value so far at -63 Fahrenheit (-53 Celsius) while North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota were not much warmer. For comparison, this was significantly colder than the South Pole, which recorded a wind chill reading of -29 Fahrenheit (-34 Celsius). |
| Factbox: Tips to stay safe during severe winter weather Posted: 06 Jan 2014 03:41 PM PST The following guidance was provided by agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. SNOW REMOVAL When the temperature drops into dangerously cold ranges below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius), avoid going outside to shovel snow or to remove ice from sidewalks and driveways. |
| Rio garbage boats aim to clean Olympic waters Posted: 06 Jan 2014 03:13 PM PST  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A stout green catamaran plied the polluted waters of Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay Monday alongside the local fishing boats, but instead of grouper and swordfish its catch consisted of plastic bags, soda bottles and a discarded toilet seat.
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| China urges South Sudan ceasefire as peace talks stutter Posted: 06 Jan 2014 03:04 PM PST  By Aaron Maasho and Khaled Abdelaziz ADDIS ABABA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - China, the biggest investor in South Sudan's oil industry, called on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in the world's newest state, as rebel and government negotiators haggled over the scope of peace talks meant to end three weeks of fighting. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing was deeply concerned by the unrest in South Sudan that has killed more than a thousand people and forced the government to cut oil production by about a fifth. Sudan, which also has an economic interest in its southern neighbor's oil output, said the Juba government discussed the deployment of a joint force to secure its oilfields during a visit by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. "China's position with regard to the current situation in South Sudan is very clear," Wang told reporters in Addis Ababa, where the peace talks are taking place.
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| Rodman lands in North Korea for basketball on Kim's birthday Posted: 06 Jan 2014 03:03 PM PST  By Maxim Duncan BEIJING (Reuters) - Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea on Monday with a team of retired professional basketball players to mark the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. This marks Rodman's fourth trip to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, where he and his team of fellow former National Basketball Association stars will hold basketball games on Kim's birthday, which is believed to fall on Wednesday, although it has never been officially confirmed. "People always say that North Korea is like a really communist country, that people are not allowed to go there," Rodman told reporters at an airport in Beijing. Rodman's latest visit follows the rare public purge of Kim's powerful uncle Jang Song Thaek, who was executed in December.
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| US moves to stop airplane engine export to Iran Posted: 06 Jan 2014 02:50 PM PST ISTANBUL (AP) — The United States Commerce Department has issued an emergency order using U.S. anti-terrorism export control laws against a Turkish company in an attempt to stop it from exporting two Boeing airplane engines to Iran. |
| Iran not on Syria peace conference list: UN Posted: 06 Jan 2014 02:37 PM PST  UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Monday sent invitations to 30 countries to attend a Syria peace conference this month, but did not include Iran, a spokesman said. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet on January 13 in a bid to decide Iran's role in ending the nearly three-year-old war, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq. Russia supports the participation of Iran, a major backer of President Bashar al-Assad, at talks scheduled to start in Switzerland on January 22. The United States and other western nations say Iran must first support a 2012 declaration by the major powers calling for a transitional government in Syria before it can play a frontline role in the peace talks.
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| Flydubai confirms order of 86 Boeing jets Posted: 06 Jan 2014 02:13 PM PST  Boeing and flydubai announced Monday a firm order for 75 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and 11 Next-Generation 737-800s, the US company's largest single-aisle airplane order in the Middle East. The purchase was first announced at the 2013 Dubai Airshow in November.
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| Mali, Senegal evacuate hundreds from restive C.Africa Posted: 06 Jan 2014 02:09 PM PST  Mali and Senegal have repatriated hundreds of their nationals fleeing sectarian violence in the Central African Republic, officials in Bamako and Dakar told AFP on Monday. In the Malian capital Bamako the minister in charge of expatriate Malians, Abdramane Sylla, and two other officials welcomed a group of nearly 270 people who returned in a plane chartered by their government. Mali's ambassador to Gabon, Diadie Yacouba Dagnoko, who travelled with the evacuees from Bangui, put their exact number at 267.
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| Website: Terror group threatens France over Mali Posted: 06 Jan 2014 02:01 PM PST DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A terror group active in West Africa has threatened to target the interests of "France and her allies" in retaliation for France's military intervention in Mali last year, according to a Mauritanian website frequently used by local jihadists to communicate with the outside world. |
| Gunmen kill 30 in central Nigerian village attack Posted: 06 Jan 2014 01:52 PM PST Gunmen killed 30 people in a village in central Nigeria on Monday, officials said, in a religiously-mixed region with a long history of ethnic and communal violence. Violence in central Nigeria is frequently fuelled by long-running land disputes between semi-nomadic communities like the Muslim Fulani and farming settlers including mainly Christian Berom, both often armed with automatic weapons. Gunmen stormed the majority-Berom Shonong village in the Riyom local government area in the early hours, opening fire on residents and torching dozens of houses to the ground, a member of the state house of assembly Daniel Dem told Reuters. Such battles, far from economic centers or oilfields in Africa's second-biggest economy and top oil producer, are largely ignored by central government, rights groups say. |
| U.S. Congressman, North Korean Exiles Ask Rodman to Call Off Pyongyang Game Posted: 06 Jan 2014 01:41 PM PST New York Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel condemned former NBA star Dennis Rodman's upcoming basketball match in North Korea as "bizarre and grotesque," likening it to sitting down to lunch with Adolf Hitler. Engel joined a mother and daughter who escaped North Korea at a press conference in New York City Monday to urge Rodman and his team of former NBA stars to call off the game. "I don't think we should ignore the real suffering in this gulag state," said Eliot Engel, the minority leader of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs who has twice visited the communist state. "And Dennis Rodman wants to go there and play basketball. It would be like inviting Adolf Hitler to lunch." |
| Security tight as Egypt Christians mark Christmas Posted: 06 Jan 2014 01:36 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Millions of Egyptian Christians thronged churches across this mainly Muslim nation for Christmas Mass, held Monday amid unusually tight security but with congregations filled with hope ahead of a key vote on a new constitution that enshrines equality and criminalizes discrimination.
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| Gunmen raid central Nigerian village: police, witnesses Posted: 06 Jan 2014 01:22 PM PST  Jos (Nigeria) (AFP) - Witnesses and survivors on Monday described how gunmen attacked a village in central Nigeria, burning houses and animals in the latest outbreak of violence blamed on long-standing ethnic divisions. It was not immediately clear how many people were killed in the incident in Shonong village in the Riyom area of Plateau state, which along with neighbouring Kaduna has been plagued by communal strife.
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| 'Frozen' tops North American box office Posted: 06 Jan 2014 01:22 PM PST  Disney animated musical "Frozen" claimed top spot at the North American box office this weekend, dethroning the latest instalment of "The Hobbit" fantasy trilogy, final figures showed Monday. A loosely based retelling of a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, "Frozen" added another $19.6 million in earnings, taking its seven-week haul in the United States and Canada to just under $297 million. In second was horror film "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones," the fifth movie of the hugely successful franchise which opened with $18.3 million, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations confirmed. The "Paranormal Activity" franchise has earned more than $750 million worldwide since the original low-budget film, made for just $15,000, took the box office by storm in 2009.
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| Workers seize 2 bosses at French Goodyear site Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:58 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — Monday's meeting in northern French city of Amiens was not going well.
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| England's Walcott out of World Cup Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:58 PM PST  England forward Theo Walcott will miss this year's World Cup in Brazil after being ruled out for at least six months with a knee injury, his club, Arsenal, said Monday. Walcott suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee during Premier League leaders Arsenal's 2-0 FA Cup win at home to arch north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
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| French minister: OK to ban comic's show Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:43 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — France's interior minister said Monday that local officials have the right to ban shows on a national tour of a comic whose performances are considered anti-Semitic.
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| Bangladesh PM defiant after violent election victory Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:41 PM PST  Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina insisted Monday her walkover win in an election boycotted by the opposition was legitimate and blamed her rivals for the unprecedented bloodshed on polling day. In defiant comments the day after her re-election, Hasina accused the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party of making a mistake by shunning the vote and made clear she was not in the mood to offer any olive branches to BNP leader Khaleda Zia, her arch-enemy. Hasina's ruling Awami League cruised to victory in Sunday's election after the BNP and 20 other opposition parties refused to take part over fears the contest would be rigged.
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| Israel pursues plans for settler homes as Kerry departs Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:39 PM PST  Israel published plans on Monday to build 272 homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank even as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped up his 10th visit in a year trying to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Palestinians fear Israeli settlements, built on occupied land and deemed illegal by the United Nations, will deny them a viable state and have warned that further construction could derail the talks that Kerry has struggled to keep on track. Israel says it is building settler homes in areas it intends to keep in any final peace agreement. "What we're seeing today is the implementation of a decision from October," said an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
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| Syria rebels besiege Qaeda-linked jihadists Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:28 PM PST  Syrian rebels laid siege to jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in their northern stronghold Monday, hoping to crush the Al-Qaeda affiliate accused of widespread abuses. A broad coalition of moderates and Islamists opposed to President Bashar al-Assad is seeking to drive ISIL -- which is accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing rival rebels and civilians -- from its stronghold in the northern city of Raqa. The new front in Syria's increasingly complex civil war opened less than three weeks away from a planned peace conference, for which the United Nations has started sending out invitations, excluding Assad's ally Iran. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels in Raqa managed to free 50 Syrian prisoners held by the Sunni extremists, who are believed to be holding hundreds of prisoners, including foreign journalists.
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| Ex-UK foreign minister Straw visiting Iran Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:28 PM PST  Former British foreign minister Jack Straw was leading a delegation of lawmakers to Iran on Monday, his office said, as London and Tehran sought to improve diplomatic relations. The visit by opposition Labour party MP Straw comes two months after Britain and Iran named non-resident envoys, restoring ties which were severed in 2011 after Iranian protesters stormed and ransacked the British embassy in Tehran. Straw, 67, was foreign secretary under prime minister Tony Blair as Britain went to war in Iraq in 2003.
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| Israel: Migrants protest outside foreign embassies Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:26 PM PST  JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of African migrants in Israel marched up to the embassies of the United States and European countries on Monday to demand asylum and work rights from the government.
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| Rwanda government: no sympathy for dead spy chief Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:25 PM PST  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Rwanda's foreign minister says her government has no sympathy for a slain former spy chief who had a falling out with the country's president and who was killed in South Africa, while Rwanda's prime minister warned on Monday that betraying one's country brings consequences.
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| Kerry ends Mideast trip without framework deal Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:24 PM PST  US Secretary of State John Kerry headed home from the Middle East on Monday, insisting progress had been made despite failing to reach a framework to guide Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. On his 10th visit to the region as the top US diplomat, Kerry devoted four days to intense diplomacy and spent hours locked in separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. He also made a surprise day trip to two key Arab allies, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. "There's a lot of work that needs to happen, a lot of tough decisions that need to be made," a State Department official told reporters aboard Kerry's plane as it headed back to the United States.
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| Iraq calls on Fallujah residents to expel al-Qaida Posted: 06 Jan 2014 12:23 PM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister urged Fallujah residents on Monday to expel al-Qaida militants to avoid an all-out battle in the besieged city, a sign that the government could be paving the way for an imminent military push in an attempt to rout hard-line Sunni insurgents challenging its territorial control over the western approaches to Baghdad.
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