Yahoo! News: World News

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• Four-way talks call for end to Ukraine violence
• Divers struggle in search for South Korean ferry survivors
• French troops free five aid workers kidnapped in Mali
• Nobel winner Garcia Marquez, master of magical realism, dies at 87
• U.S. envoy Power urges Myanmar action to stop Rakhine violence
• Students add Easter twist to dwindling Venezuela protests
• Nobel laureate Garcia Marquez dies at 87
• World reacts to death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Armed mob under guise of peaceful protest attacks U.N. in South Sudan
• Algeria's ailing Bouteflika poised to clinch 4th term
• US calls on Myanmar to stop violence on Muslims
• UN Security Council meets on rights in North Korea
• Life and times of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Bouteflika aide claims Algeria election victory
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel laureate, dies at 87
• Opposition cries fraud in Algerian election
• The life of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Britain's Labour Party hires Obama election strategist
• U.N. inquiry chief wants North Korea hauled before international court
• UK and US working on tougher possible sanctions for Russia
• Scientists tether lionfish to Cayman reefs
• Jury convicts husband in Iraqi woman's death
• US tells jury London imam pursued global terror
• Nigerian state, army says most abducted schoolgirls still missing
• Gulf Arab states strike new deal to heal rifts
• Briton 'global exporter of terrorism' NY trial hears
• Obama shows skepticism on Russia in Ukraine
• Garcia Marquez, godfather of magic realism, dies at 87
• Russia, West reach deal on Ukraine crisis but Obama cautious
• Gunmen kidnap Tunisian diplomat in Libya
• Top Asian News at 10:00 p.m. GMT
• Works by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Ukraine OKs intl court, may probe Kiev deaths

Four-way talks call for end to Ukraine violence Posted: 17 Apr 2014 02:01 PM PDT By Arshad Mohammed and Alexei Anishchuk GENEVA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union called after crisis talks on Thursday for an immediate halt to violence in Ukraine, where Western powers believe Russia is fomenting a pro-Russian separatist movement. President Barack Obama said the meeting in Geneva between Russia and western powers was promising but that the United States and its allies were prepared to impose more sanctions on Russia if the situation fails to improve. Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in Moscow, accused Ukraine's leaders of committing a "grave crime" by using the army to try to quell unrest in the east of the country, and did not rule out sending in Russian troops.

Divers struggle in search for South Korean ferry survivors Posted: 17 Apr 2014 02:16 PM PDT By Jungmin Jang and Narae Kim MOKPO/JINDO, South Korea (Reuters) - Rescuers struggled with strong waves and murky waters on Thursday as they searched for hundreds of people, most of them teenagers from the same school, still missing after a South Korean ferry capsized on Wednesday. The vessel, carrying 475 passengers and crew, capsized during a journey from the port of Incheon to the holiday island of Jeju. Another 179 passengers have been rescued, leaving 282 unaccounted for and possibly trapped in the vessel.

French troops free five aid workers kidnapped in Mali Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:34 PM PDT By Cheick Dioura and Jean-Baptiste Vey GAO/PARIS (Reuters) - French troops in Mali on Thursday freed five local aid workers kidnapped in February, the French and Malian governments said, killing about a dozen of their captors in the process. Land and air forces were deployed in the rescue mission, which targeted the kidnappers' two pick-up trucks in the remote desert region north of Timbuktu, a spokesman at Central Command of French Armed Forces, Colonel Pascal Georgin said. Two of the aid workers were hit by bullets during the operation and were receiving medical care for minor injuries at a Gao military hospital, according to a Malian employee for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Four of the aid workers belonged to the organization and the employee named them as Filipe Diarra, Ousmane El Ansary, Youssouf Ag Rissa and Amikal Ag Handaka.

Nobel winner Garcia Marquez, master of magical realism, dies at 87 Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:33 PM PDT By Anahi Rama MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian author whose beguiling stories of love and longing brought Latin America to life for millions of readers and put magical realism on the literary map, died on Thursday. A prolific writer who started out as a newspaper reporter, Garcia Marquez's masterpiece was "One Hundred Years of Solitude," a dream-like, dynastic epic that helped him win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. Garcia Marquez died at his home in Mexico City. Known affectionately to friends and fans as "Gabo," Garcia Marquez was Latin America's best-known and most beloved author and his books have sold in the tens of millions.

U.S. envoy Power urges Myanmar action to stop Rakhine violence Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:07 PM PDT U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power on Thursday urged the Myanmar government to intervene in Rakhine State to stop violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid. Power's remarks came after U.N. special adviser on Myanmar Vijay Nambiar briefed the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Thursday on the crisis in the country formerly known as Burma. At least 237 have been killed in religious violence in Myanmar since June 2012 and more than 140,000 displaced, many of them stateless Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, one of Myanmar's poorest regions that is home to 1 million Rohingya.

Students add Easter twist to dwindling Venezuela protests Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:25 PM PDT By Andrew Cawthorne and Deisy Buitrago CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan students are marching barefoot, building crucifixes and planning to burn effigies of President Nicolas Maduro to try and breathe new life into their protest movement over Easter. The religious-themed demonstrations are the latest tactics in anti-government protests since early February that have convulsed the South American OPEC nation and led to 41 deaths. But enthusiasm among opposition supporters for the street protests appears to be waning, with numbers dropping from previous months and Maduro's position seemingly safe despite his constant references to coup plots against him. "We may be fewer, but we are staying on the street!" vowed law student Nicole Gonzalez, who joined hundreds in Caracas at a barefoot march on Wednesday and a staging of Jesus' "Via Crucis" walk with the crucifix on Thursday.

Nobel laureate Garcia Marquez dies at 87 Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:58 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel laureate whose intoxicating novels and short stories exposed millions outside Latin America to its passions, superstition, violence and social inequality, died at home in Mexico City on Thursday. He was 87.

World reacts to death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:58 PM PDT Reaction to death of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez:

Armed mob under guise of peaceful protest attacks U.N. in South Sudan Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:51 PM PDT A mob of armed civilians pretending to be peaceful protesters delivering a petition to the United Nations in South Sudan forced their way into a U.N. base sheltering some 5,000 civilians on Thursday and opened fire, the world body said. A U.N. source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 20 people had been killed and 60 wounded in the attack on the base in Bor in northern Jonglei state, where there are Indian and South Korean U.N. peacekeepers. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said dozens of civilians were wounded, but the exact number of people killed or wounded had not yet been confirmed. "This attack on a location where civilians are being protected by the United Nations is a serious escalation," Dujarric said.

Algeria's ailing Bouteflika poised to clinch 4th term Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:49 PM PDT Ailing incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika was poised to clinch a fourth presidential term despite chronic health problems after Algerians voted Thursday in an election that saw 70 people wounded in protests. In his first public appearance in two years, a smiling Bouteflika arrived at a voting centre in Algiers mid-morning in a wheelchair, waving but making no comment to reporters covering an election tainted by fraud warnings and boycott calls. Sporadic violence marred the election process, especially in the Kabylie, a restive, mostly Berber region east of Algiers. For Algeria's independent newspapers, the election outcome is a foregone conclusion.

US calls on Myanmar to stop violence on Muslims Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:45 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power called on Myanmar's government Thursday to take urgent steps to stop the violence in the western region where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled their homes, warning that continuing unrest could imperil the country's path to democracy and prosperity.

UN Security Council meets on rights in North Korea Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:40 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the commission of inquiry that accused North Korea of crimes against humanity told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that it must take action against "a totalitarian state without parallel in the contemporary world," and he told reporters that most council members "expressly said" the matter should be referred to the International Criminal Court.

Life and times of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:33 PM PDT Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature and popularized the genre of magical realism, died on Thursday at the age of 87. Here are some important dates in his life and career: 1927 - Garcia Marquez is born on March 6 in Aracataca, a backwater banana-growing town near Colombia's Caribbean coast. The oldest child of a large family, he spends part of his childhood living with his grandparents and is especially close to his grandfather, a retired army man who inspired the novel "No One Writes to the Colonel." 1940 - Garcia Marquez moves to Barranquilla, a port city famous for its Carnival, to start high school. 1947 - He studies law at the National University in the Colombian capital Bogota and has two short stories published in the El Espectador newspaper.

Bouteflika aide claims Algeria election victory Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:32 PM PDT ALGIERS (Reuters) - A senior aide to Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika claimed on Thursday the ailing leader had won election to secure a fourth term after 15 years in power. Official results have yet to be released after Thursday's election and may come on Friday. But many Algerians expect the 77-year-old leader to win even though he did not campaign himself and was rarely seen in public after a stroke last year. "Our candidate is the winner," Abdelaziz Belkhadem, Bouteflika's personal representative told Reuters without giving any details. ...

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel laureate, dies at 87 Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:31 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez crafted intoxicating fiction from the fatalism, fantasy, cruelty and heroics of the world that set his mind churning as a child growing up on Colombia's Caribbean coast.

Opposition cries fraud in Algerian election Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:28 PM PDT ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The main opposition candidate in Algeria's presidential elections cried foul late Thursday night hours after voting ended, alleging massive fraud and vowing to reject any results announced.

The life of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:28 PM PDT Colombian author and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who crafted enchanting stories that blurred the line between magic and reality, died on Thursday at the age of 87. * Garcia Marquez was born in 1927 in Aracataca, a town near Colombia's Caribbean coast. * He spent almost two years writing "One Hundred Years of Solitude," the novel that made him famous. It helped him win the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Britain's Labour Party hires Obama election strategist Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:26 PM PDT David Axelrod, the mastermind behind US President Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 election victories, is to advise Britain's Labour Party in the run up to next year's general election, the party announced Thursday. He will work alongside shadow foreign secretary and election strategist Douglas Alexander until the vote, expected to take place in May 2015. "Mr Axelrod will become an integral part of Labour's team," said a Labour statement. "He will also participate in regular strategic discussions with (party leader) Mr Miliband and the Labour campaign team."

U.N. inquiry chief wants North Korea hauled before international court Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:24 PM PDT By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The chief U.N. investigator into human rights abuses in North Korea appealed to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to refer the situation in the reclusive Asian state to the International Criminal Court for prosecution. "In a week of many grave human rights matters occupying the attention of the members of this council, we dare say that the case of human rights in the DPRK (Democratic People Republic of Korea) exceeds all others in duration, intensity and horror," Michael Kirby told an informal meeting of the 15-member council. A year-long U.N. inquiry, led by Kirby, concluded in a February 17 report that North Korean security chiefs and possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un himself should face international justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings comparable to Nazi-era atrocities.

UK and US working on tougher possible sanctions for Russia Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:10 PM PDT British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday pledged an extra £1 million for a monitoring mission to Ukraine and agreed to work with US President Barack Obama on beefing up potential sanctions against Russia. The two leaders talked by telephone following high-level talks in Geneva aimed at de-escalating tensions in Ukraine. The Contact Group meeting, attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia, US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, resulted in agreement that all illegal military formations in Ukraine be dissolved.

Scientists tether lionfish to Cayman reefs Posted: 17 Apr 2014 04:06 PM PDT KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Research done by U.S. scientists in the Cayman Islands suggests that native predators can be trained to gobble up invasive lionfish that colonize regional reefs and voraciously prey on juvenile marine creatures.

Jury convicts husband in Iraqi woman's death Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:52 PM PDT EL CAJON, California (AP) — A jury convicted an Iraqi immigrant Thursday of bludgeoning his wife to death in a case that was initially considered a hate crime.

US tells jury London imam pursued global terror Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:46 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — The Egyptian imam of a London mosque used his influential position in the late 1990s to train and aid terrorists and used the cover of his religion to hide in plain sight, a prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement Thursday before a defense attorney promised that the defendant will explain himself during the trial.

Nigerian state, army says most abducted schoolgirls still missing Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:42 PM PDT By Lanre Ola MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's northeast Borno state said on Thursday only 20 of up to 129 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels were back with their parents, and the military retracted an earlier statement in which it said it had freed most of them. The armed forces said on Wednesday that the military had freed all but eight of the schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels from the Boko Haram group in a rescue operation. Monday's mass abduction of the schoolgirls aged between 15 and 18 shocked Nigeria, a nation growing increasingly inured to tales of horror from its bloody insurgency in the northeast The raid on the Chibok school showed how the five-year-old Boko Haram insurgency has brought lawlessness to swathes of the semi-arid, poor region. The principal of the school has so far received (them)," Borno state Education Commissioner Inuwa Kubo told Reuters by telephone from the school.

Gulf Arab states strike new deal to heal rifts Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:39 PM PDT RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The Western-allied Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council said Thursday the bloc has agreed on the mechanisms to implement a security pact, marking a possible first step toward bridging deep rifts among its six energy-rich states.

Briton 'global exporter of terrorism' NY trial hears Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:19 PM PDT British hate preacher Abu Hamza was a "global exporter" of violence and terrorism intent on waging war against non-Muslims, prosecutors said Thursday as the Egyptian-born cleric's trial opened in New York. Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, 56, better known in Britain as Abu Hamza al-Masri, has pleaded not guilty to 11 kidnapping and terror charges which predate the 9/11 attacks. Prosecutor Edward Kim told the 12-member jury that Abu Hamza had "recruited" and "indoctrinated" men whom he dispatched from the Finsbury Park mosque in north London to all around the world to wage war. "He was a global exporter of violence and terrorism," said Kim.

Obama shows skepticism on Russia in Ukraine Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:17 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama conveyed skepticism Thursday about Russian promises to de-escalate a volatile situation in Ukraine, and said the United State and its allies are ready to impose fresh sanctions if Moscow doesn't make good on its commitments.

Garcia Marquez, godfather of magic realism, dies at 87 Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:16 PM PDT Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel-winning Colombian author who used magical realism to tell epic stories of love, family and dictatorship in Latin America, died Thursday at the age of 87. Known affectionately as "Gabo," the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" became one of the most popular Latin American novelists in the world and the godfather of a literary movement that witnessed a continent in turmoil. The journalist was a colorful character who befriended Cuban leader Fidel Castro, got punched by fellow Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and joked that he wrote to make his friends love him. "One thousand years of solitude and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time," Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos wrote on Twitter.

Russia, West reach deal on Ukraine crisis but Obama cautious Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:10 PM PDT Russia, Ukraine and the West reached a surprise deal Thursday aimed at easing the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, but US President Barack Obama cautioned it was uncertain if Moscow would stand by the agreement. While not spelt out explicitly, that was a likely reference to pro-Kremlin separatists who have taken over parts of Ukraine's restive southeast. The deal appeared to mark a sharp change from the tone taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day, when he left the door open for armed intervention in Ukraine. At the same time, Obama said he was coordinating with leaders in Europe about further sanctions against Moscow if progress was not evident within days.

Gunmen kidnap Tunisian diplomat in Libya Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:10 PM PDT By Feras Bosalum and Tarek Amara TRIPOLI/TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian diplomat was kidnapped on Thursday in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Libya's foreign ministry said, two days after gunmen seized Jordan's ambassador. The weak interim government has been unable to disarm former rebels and Islamist militants who fought to depose leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and who have formed increasingly powerful and violent militias. Libyan foreign minister Mohamed Abdelaziz told Reuters by phone unknown people had seized the diplomat and brought him to an unknown location. The Tunisian diplomat called Aroussi Gantassi had not gone to the embassy on Thursday, a foreign ministry spokesman told state news agency LANA.

Top Asian News at 10:00 p.m. GMT Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:03 PM PDT MOKPO, South Korea (AP) — There was chaos and confusion on the bridge of a sinking ferry, with the captain first trying to stabilize the listing vessel before ordering its evacuation, a crewman said Thursday. By the time the order came, however, he said it had become impossible to help many of the passengers — although the captain and a dozen crew members survived.

Works by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:02 PM PDT Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez was among Latin America's most popular writers and widely considered the father of a literary style known as magic realism.

Ukraine OKs intl court, may probe Kiev deaths Posted: 17 Apr 2014 02:58 PM PDT THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ukraine has accepted the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, opening the way for a possible investigation of the violent crackdown by former President Viktor Yanukovych's government on demonstrators, the court announced Thursday.

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