| Syria talks bring offer of exit from siege of Homs Posted: 26 Jan 2014 12:43 PM PST  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian government said women and children could leave the besieged rebel city of Homs on Sunday as negotiators from the warring sides discussed humanitarian gestures on a second day of face-to-face talks in Geneva. Government and opposition delegates also spoke of releasing prisoners and enabling access for aid convoys during what the U.N. mediator acknowledged was a slow process but one which he hopes will lead on Monday to broaching the central issue that divides them after three years of civil war - namely Syria's political future and that of President Bashar al-Assad. Homs, occupying a strategic location in the center of the country, has been a key battleground. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told a news conference after Sunday's meetings that the government would let women and children leave the city center if rebels gave them safe passage.
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| Libya says five kidnapped Egyptian diplomats freed Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:08 PM PST By Patrick Markey TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Five Egyptian diplomats kidnapped in Tripoli in retaliation for Egypt's arrest of a Libyan militia commander have been freed, Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Razak Al-Grady said on Sunday. The abduction of diplomats in the Libyan capital illustrated the fragility of government control over former rebels and militias who two years ago helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed revolution. Libya's government said earlier the diplomats had been snatched in reaction to the arrest of Shaban Hadia, commander of the Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries, a powerful militia in Libya. Heavily armed ex-fighters, militiamen and Islamist militants who battled Gaddafi forces in 2011 have refused to disarm and often remain more loyal to their brigades, tribal leaders or local regions than to the new Libyan government. |
| New clashes as Ukraine's president tries to tempt opposition Posted: 26 Jan 2014 12:14 PM PST  By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets KIEV (Reuters) - Police clashed with protesters in central Kiev on Sunday and the fate of Ukraine's government was uncertain after embattled President Viktor Yanukovich offered important posts to opposition leaders, including the role of prime minister. The demonstrations erupted late last year when Yanukovich ditched landmark agreements with the European Union and opted instead for closer ties with Russia. Emboldened opposition leaders said they would press for more concessions, including early elections, setting the stage for a tough political battle when parliament meets for a special session on Tuesday. The two-month standoff has sparked the worst violence in Ukraine since it won independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed.
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| Tunisia approves new constitution, appoints government Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:37 PM PST  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's national assembly approved the country's new constitution on Sunday in one of the final steps to full democracy three years after protests erupted into an uprising that toppled autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Just before the constitution's approval, Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa named a new caretaker cabinet appointed to ease a crisis between Islamists and secular opposition until new elections later this year. Tunisia's compromise and progress contrasts sharply with messy democratic transitions in Libya, Egypt and Yemen which are caught up in turmoil after ousting their own long-standing leaders in 2011 revolts and uprisings. "This constitution was the dream of Tunisians, this constitution is proof of the revival of the revolution, this constitution creates a democratic civil nation," Assembly chief Mustapha Ben Jaafar said.
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| Thai anti-government protester killed, adds to doubts over election Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:31 PM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai anti-government protest leader was shot and killed in Bangkok on Sunday when violence erupted as demonstrators blocked early voting in many areas of the capital ahead of a disputed election next week. It brought the death toll to 10, with scores wounded, since protesters took to the streets in November, vowing to shut down the capital and force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office. A spokesman for the national police, Piya Utayo, identified the dead man as Suthin Tharatin, one of the protest leaders. Yingluck called the February 2 election, hoping to cement her hold on power, but the protests have continued and the Election Commission has been pushing to delay the vote.
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| Netanyahu would let Israeli settlers live in future Palestine: report Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:42 PM PST  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will insist that Jewish settlers in the West Bank have a right to remain under Palestinian rule in any future peace deal, a government official was quoted as saying on Sunday. The apparent trial balloon, reported on the English-language Times of Israel website, drew a no-comment from a spokesman for Netanyahu and angry words from Naftali Bennett, a key pro-settlement partner in his governing coalition. The Israeli report quoted an official in Netanyahu's office as saying he did not intend to uproot Jewish settlements anywhere in the West Bank, land that Palestinians seek for a state under U.S.-brokered peace talks showing few signs of progress since they resumed in July after a three-year break. Netanyahu would "insist that settlers be given the free choice of remaining in place and living under Palestinian rule, or relocating to areas under Israeli sovereign rule," the official was quoted as saying.
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| U.S. threatens sanctions to curb Central African Republic conflict Posted: 26 Jan 2014 04:51 PM PST  The United States is deeply concerned with the escalation in clashes in Central African Republic and is prepared to impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for the religious-based violence, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Sunday. At least eight people were killed in mob violence in the capital Bangui on Sunday, the country's Red cross said. A Muslim former minister was hacked to death on Friday by militia, and at least nine others were killed when bands of people, some of them Christian groups, attacked and looted shops in a mostly Muslim neighborhood in the capital. "The United States is prepared to consider targeted sanctions against those who further destabilize the situation, or pursue their own selfish ends by abetting or encouraging the violence," Kerry said in a statement.
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| US officials probe illnesses on Caribbean cruise Posted: 26 Jan 2014 04:49 PM PST  KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — U.S. health officials on Sunday boarded a cruise ship docked in the U.S. Virgin Islands to investigate an illness outbreak that has stricken at least 300 people with gastrointestinal symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea.
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| US forces launch missile strike against Shebab leader in Somalia Posted: 26 Jan 2014 04:46 PM PST  The US military launched a missile strike in Somalia on Sunday targeting a suspected Shebab militant leader, defense officials said. The US government has "been tracking this guy for years," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The US strike took place just a day after the Shebab, which are linked to Al-Qaeda, called for attacks against foreign forces after arch-enemy Ethiopia joined the African Union force battling the extremists. Hardline Shebab insurgents control large parts of rural southern Somalia, and despite having been driven from a string of towns by the UN-backed mission known as AMISOM, guerrilla units stage regular deadly attacks in the capital Mogadishu.
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| Tunisia gets new constitution and caretaker cabinet Posted: 26 Jan 2014 04:45 PM PST  Tunisia's lawmakers adopted a new constitution Sunday and the prime minister named a caretaker cabinet tasked with organising fresh polls -- two key goals of the revolution that touched off the Arab Spring three years ago. The North African country's Constituent Assembly adopted the new charter, seen as one of the most modern in the Arab world, with an overwhelming majority of 200 votes in favour, 12 against and four abstentions. "This day will be proudly remembered in history," Speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar said. "All Tunisian men and women can identify with this constitution, which preserves our past accomplishments and lays the foundations of a democratic state," he said.
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| Mata will be United centre of attention, says Mourinho Posted: 26 Jan 2014 04:42 PM PST  Jose Mourinho revealed Juan Mata has been told he will operate in his favoured central role at Manchester United. The £37 million sale of Mata to the Old Trafford club has drawn criticism from some Chelsea supporters and prompted questions about how United manager David Moyes will combine the Spain international with Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie. But Mourinho confirmed Mata had grown unhappy at being asked to play wide following the Chelsea managerâ s decision to build his team around Oscar and has been promised a return to his regular position. I'm sorry I didn't make him happy, but football is football," said the Chelsea boss.
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| SHOW BITS: Let the music begin Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:51 PM PST  Show Bits brings you Sunday's 56th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles through the eyes of Associated Press journalists. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.
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| Killed protester mourned in Kiev amid crisis Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:43 PM PST  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Thousands of Ukrainians chanted "Hero!" and sang the national anthem on Sunday, as a coffin carrying a protester who was killed in last week's clashes with police was carried through the streets of the capital, underscoring the rising tensions in the country's two-month political crisis.
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| Italy minister resigns, adding to headaches for government Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:35 PM PST By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italian Agriculture Minister Nunzia De Girolamo resigned on Sunday, following heavy criticism after she was caught on tape discussing public contracts, adding a further complication to Prime Minister Enrico Letta's fragile coalition. De Girolamo, a member of the small New Centre Right (NCD) party which supports Prime Minister Enrico Letta's left-right coalition, denied any wrongdoing in the affair and said that she had quit her ministerial post to defend her dignity. "I cannot remain in a government which has not defended my honor," she said in a statement. The resignation adds another twist to the delicate situation facing the coalition between Letta's center-left Democratic Party (PD) and the NCD, already tested by strains over plans to reform electoral laws which could penalize smaller parties in a future election. |
| U.S. carries out air strike in Somalia targeting militant suspect Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:31 PM PST The U.S. military carried out a missile strike in Somalia on Sunday targeting a suspected militant leader with ties to al Qaeda and al Shabaab, a U.S. military official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The strike took place in southern Somalia, the official said, without offering further information, including the identity of the suspect or whether the strike was believed to have been successful. |
| Owner of fire-ravaged Quebec home speaks out Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:27 PM PST  L'ISLE-VERTE, Quebec (AP) — The owner of a Quebec seniors' residence that burned to the ground offered his condolences Sunday to the families of the 32 people feared dead as search crews had trouble recovering any more bodies in the ice-covered rubble due to the frigid temperatures and swirling snow. Officials have so far have recovered 10 bodies from the massive fire.
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| Springsteen pays tribute to Mandela at 1st S.African show Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:18 PM PST  Rocker Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band wowed fans on Sunday night opening their first concert in South Africa with a rousing tribute to the late Nelson Mandela. He kicked off the show in Cape Town with "Free Nelson Mandela", a song written by British musician Jerry Dammers and made famous in the 1980s by The Specials later renamed The Special AKA. The track was released to protest against the imprisonment of Mandela by the apartheid regime. But it soon became the unofficial anthem for the international anti-apartheid movement that piled pressure on the then white minority regime in South Africa.
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| Dozens of dissidents arrested in Cuba as major summit looms Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:12 PM PST  Dozens of dissidents have been detained in a "wave of political repression" ahead of a major international summit in Cuba, activists said Sunday. "The government is carrying out a wave of political repression ahead of the summit" in Havana that ends Wednesday, warned dissident Elizardo Sanchez. One dissident who planned to attend an event on the summit's sidelines, Jose Daniel Ferrer, was arrested Friday after meeting with European diplomats, Sanchez said. No one knows where he is," said Sanchez, who heads the outlawed Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
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| Tunisia finally passes progressive constitution Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:09 PM PST  TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — After decades of dictatorship and two years of arguments and compromises, Tunisians on Sunday finally have a new constitution laying the foundations for a new democracy.
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| Hungarian far-right leader addresses London rally Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:04 PM PST  Hungarian far-right leader Gabor Vona addressed supporters in London on Sunday despite anti-fascist protesters attempting to stop him. Vona, who leads the anti-Roma and openly anti-Semitic Jobbik party, spoke to British-based supporters in Hyde Park, with a large police presence in place. Vona was due to speak outside the London Underground station Holborn, but was detained inside with supporters for more than an hour while around 150 anti-fascist protesters demonstrated outside.
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| Egypt announces early election a day after carnage Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:57 PM PST  Egypt Sunday announced early presidential elections likely to anoint the general who overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, as jihadists claimed they downed a military helicopter over a bloody weekend that killed dozens nationwide. Interim president Adly Mansour announced the poll in a televised address, a day after 49 people died in clashes between Islamist protesters and police and thousands rallied in support of military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The weekend clashes and bombings also highlighted the interim government's precarious grip seven months after Morsi's overthrow. On Sunday, an Al-Qaeda inspired group released a video it said showed its fighters downing with a missile a military helicopter in the lawless Sinai peninsula.
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| Support for Scottish independence increasing Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:54 PM PST  Support for the "Yes" campaign backing an independent Scotland is growing sharply, eight months of a referendum on the issue, according to a poll published in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper. Some 37 percent of those surveyed said they supported independence, with 44 percent opposed and 19 percent undecided. "Once the 'Don't Knows' are excluded from the calculation, those figures translate into 46 percent Yes, 54 percent No, the highest Yes proportion yet in any poll, other than in a much-criticised poll conducted by Panelbase for the SNP (Scottish National Party) in August last year," explained poll expert John Curtice. Scots will vote on their independence on September 18 this year.
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| All five Egyptian diplomats seized in Libya released Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:53 PM PST  Tripoli (AFP) - Five Egyptian diplomats kidnapped in Tripoli were released on Sunday evening, the Libyan vice-minister for foreign affairs Abderrazak al-Gridi told AFP.
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| Thai protesters obstruct vote; 1 dead in violence Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:52 PM PST  BANGKOK (AP) — Anti-government demonstrators swarmed dozens of polling stations in Thailand on Sunday to stop advance voting for next week's general elections, chaining gates shut, threatening voters and preventing hundreds of thousands of people from casting ballots.
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| Tunisia's constituent assembly adopts new constitution Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:52 PM PST  Tunis (AFP) - Tunisia's constituent assembly late on Sunday adopted a new constitution, more than three years after the revolution which began the Arab Spring.
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| Tunisia assembly passes democratic constitution Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:49 PM PST  TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia's National Constitutional Assembly approved the country's landmark post-revolutionary constitution its members have spent the last two years writing by 200 out of 216 votes.
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| Crocodile takes Australian boy, mauls another Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:19 PM PST DARWIN, Australia (AP) — Rangers resumed hunting Monday for a four-meter (13-foot) crocodile that snatched a 12-year-old boy and mauled his friend as they swam in a water hole in a popular Outback tourist destination in northern Australia. |
| German TV: Snowden says NSA also spies on industry Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:16 PM PST BERLIN (AP) — Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden claimed in a new interview that the U.S. agency is involved in industrial espionage. |
| Trierweiler arrives in India after split with Hollande Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:14 PM PST  Valerie Trierweiler, the ex-partner of French President Francois Hollande, arrived in India Monday on a charity mission despite an announcement two days earlier that the couple have split. Trierweiler will promote a French charity in the financial hub Mumbai during the two-day trip, in her first public appearance since it emerged that Hollande was having an affair with a French actress. She arrived at Mumbai international airport on an Air France flight just after midnight from Paris for the mission organised by Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim, ACF), despite no longer being France's first lady. Trierweiler, wearing a navy coat, did not speak with some 50 media gathered, and instead walked from the terminal building to a waiting car which was expected to take her to the luxury Taj Mahal hotel, an AFP reporter said.
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| Jihadist group claims downing of Egypt army helicopter Posted: 26 Jan 2014 02:01 PM PST  An Al-Qaeda inspired group claimed in a video it shot down an Egyptian military helicopter in the Sinai peninsula, in an escalation of a months-long insurgency that has spilled into the capital. A video released by the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group showed a surface to air missile hitting the helicopter, which burst into flames and plummeted to the ground. The military has acknowledged five soldiers were killed in an incident involving a helicopter on Saturday, but said it was "an accident". If the helicopter was indeed brought down by a missile, as witnesses have also said, it would present a threat not only to the military but also the country's crucial tourism industry.
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| Hungary addresses Holocaust after accusations it 'whitewashed' past Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:59 PM PST By Marton Dunai BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarians collaborated with Nazis in sending nearly half a million Jews to their deaths, Hungary's president said on Sunday in a rare public acknowledgement of a war-time past that Jewish groups say is often glossed over. Earlier on Sunday, an American historian said he was returning an award he received from the previous head of state in protest at what he called the government's attempt to erase Hungary's role in the Holocaust. In a statement prepared for Monday's Holocaust Memorial Day, President Janos Ader said that if the war had gone according to the plans of Adolf Hitler and his Hungarian fascist allies, Jews would have been exterminated completely from Hungary. "Auschwitz may be hundreds of kilometers from Hungary but it is part of Hungarian history," Ader wrote. |
| Tunisia's Jomaa, technocrat PM tasked with ending crisis Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:43 PM PST  Tunisian premier-designate Mehdi Jomaa, who presented the president Sunday with his cabinet of independents under a roadmap to end a political deadlock, is an engineer and relative newcomer to politics. "I have submitted the list of members of the proposed government to be subjected to a confidence vote in the National Constituent Assembly," Jomaa said, adding that he hoped it would secure the vote "as quickly as possible." Jomaa, who will also oversee fresh elections, was picked in December as the consensus candidate to head the caretaker administration and resolve Tunisia's festering political crisis, nearly three years after the uprising that toppled former strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. A former industry minister, Jomaa has made the bare minimum of public appearances and statements since taking over from Islamist prime minister Ali Larayedh earlier this month, at a time when the political climate is dogged by mistrust between the Islamist former ruling party Ennahda and its mainly secular opponents.
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| Pirates hijacked tanker off Angola, stole cargo: owners Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:34 PM PST LISBON/ATHENS (Reuters) - The Greek owners of an oil tanker that vanished off the Angolan coast on January 18 said on Sunday that pirates had hijacked the vessel and stolen a large quantity of cargo, contradicting the Angolan navy's denial that such an assault took place. Greece-based Dynacom, owners of the 75,000 deadweight tonne Liberian-flagged tanker MT Kerala, said it had managed to contact crew on the vessel who reported the pirates had left. "Pirates hijacked the vessel offshore Angola and stole a large quantity of cargo by ship-to-ship transfer. Dynacom's version of the events contradicted an account from the Angolan navy, which alleged the crew had turned off the ship's communications to fake a pirate attack. |
| Thousands stage 'Day of Anger' protest against French president Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:32 PM PST  Several thousand people marched through Paris on Sunday in a "Day of Anger" against embattled President Francois Hollande which ended in clashes between police and protesters. Police said at least 150 people had been arrested after the clashes, during which 19 officers were injured, one of these "potentially seriously", according to one police source. Interior Minister Manuel Valls condemned the violence "by individuals, varied groups from the extreme and ultra-right, whose only goal is to create unrest".
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| Egypt set to have presidential elections first Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:30 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's interim leader on Sunday said the country will pick a president before parliament, a widely expected change in a political transition plan as public support for army chief and July coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi grows stronger. But Egypt remains dangerously divided, as seen in clashes that killed at least 49 people a day earlier and militant attacks in the country's restive Sinai Peninsula that left several soldiers dead.
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| Police identify gunman in Maryland mall shooting, motive unclear Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:20 PM PST  By Alice Popovici COLUMBIA, Maryland (Reuters) - A gunman who shot and killed two people at a Maryland mall was a 19-year-old man who lived with his mother in the city of College Park and arrived at the shopping center in a taxi about an hour before opening fire, police said on Sunday. But a day after Saturday's shootings, police could provide no immediate insight into why Darion Marcus Aguilar killed a young man and a young woman at the mall in Columbia, Maryland, about 20 miles west of Baltimore, before apparently killing himself. Police have yet to find any ties between Aguilar and the two people he killed, employees at a skate shop at the mall, Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon told a Sunday morning news conference. "We do know that one of our victims also lived in College Park," McMahon said.
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| Ex-French first lady travels to India for charity Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:19 PM PST  MUMBAI, India (AP) — A day after splitting up with France's president, Valerie Trierweiler launched a new stage in her life Sunday with a charity visit to India.
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