Yahoo! News: World News

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• Russia and Ukraine to mull gas dispute plan
• Afghan president fumes at prisoner deal made behind his back: source
• U.S. says to work with, fund Palestinian unity government
• U.S. says troop plan only guarantees NATO Afghan mission until end-2015
• Israeli troops kill Palestinian gunman in West Bank
• Abbas swears in Palestinian unity government shunned by Israel
• Top Asian News at 12:00 a.m. GMT
• Russia calls UN meeting to seek Ukraine cease-fire
• Indonesian and Australian leaders' call recorded
• Peru searches high peak for 2 missing Italians
• Obama to urge Europe to keep up pressure on Russia
• U.S. green groups see need to nudge Obama's 'opening bid' on carbon cuts
• New Libyan government takes office amid fighting in the east
• NATO to consider longer-term response to Ukraine crisis
• Scolari says he can't wait for World Cup to start
• Palestinian killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank
• Spain's king befriended New World despite Chavez spat
• Colombia's Falcao to miss World Cup with injury
• West criticizes Russian draft resolution on Ukraine
• 30 year sentence for killer of two French women in Argentina
• Malawi's president seeks 'new friends' in China, Russia
• Questions loom over Bergdahl-Taliban swap
• Russia says Ukraine situation worsening, submits U.N. resolution
• Column: No need for rush to judgment on Qatar
• Argentine guilty in French tourists' rape, murder
• FARC leader declares opposition to drug trade
• Israeli forces kill Palestinian who shot at them
• 5 die in Guatemala landslide caused by heavy rains
• Brazil judge sentences Pele's son to 33 years
• Brazil denies Snowden applied for asylum
• US targets European bank hackers in mass theft
• Pro-Russia rebels attack Ukrainian border guards
• Libya's new government takes office, says official statement
• Father may need DNA proof for kids in Sudanese jail, says US

Russia and Ukraine to mull gas dispute plan Posted: 02 Jun 2014 11:55 AM PDT By Thomas Grove and Mark Trevelyan DONETSK Ukraine/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine agreed on Monday to consider a proposal for Kiev to pay off a multi-billion-dollar gas bill that has soured relations between Moscow and Kiev, while fighting raged all day in eastern Ukraine. Russia accused NATO of whipping up dangerous tensions near its borders and encouraging Ukraine to use force against pro-Russian separatists. At a tense meeting in Brussels, the alliance urged Moscow to stop arming the rebels.

Afghan president fumes at prisoner deal made behind his back: source Posted: 02 Jun 2014 07:58 AM PDT By Hamid Shalizi and Jessica Donati KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan president is angry at being kept in the dark over a deal to free five Taliban leaders in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, and accuses Washington of failing to back a peace plan for the war-torn country, a senior source said on Monday. The five prisoners were flown to Qatar on Sunday as part of a secret agreement to release Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who left Afghanistan for Germany on the same day. The only known U.S. prisoner of war in Afghanistan, Bergdahl had been held captive for five years. "The president is now even more distrustful of U.S. intentions in the country," said the source close to President Hamid Karzai's palace in Kabul, who declined to be identified.

U.S. says to work with, fund Palestinian unity government Posted: 02 Jun 2014 01:51 PM PDT By Lesley Wroughton and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it plans to work with and fund the new Palestinian unity government formed after an agreement by the Fatah and Hamas factions, and Israel immediately voiced its disappointment with the U.S. decision. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a unity government on Monday in a reconciliation deal with Hamas Islamists, who advocate Israel's destruction. The United States views Hamas as a "terrorist" organization and the U.S. Congress has imposed restrictions on U.S. funding for the Palestinian Authority, which typically runs at $500 million a year, in the event of a unity government.

U.S. says troop plan only guarantees NATO Afghan mission until end-2015 Posted: 02 Jun 2014 01:29 PM PDT By David Brunnstrom and Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's decision to reduce U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan means a NATO plan to train Afghan security forces throughout the country is guaranteed to last only until the end of next year, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said on Monday. Obama last week outlined a plan to withdraw all but 9,800 American troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year and to pull out the rest by the end of 2016, ending a more than decade-old combat role triggered by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Defense ministers from the 28 NATO nations, meeting in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, will discuss the implications of the U.S. timetable for NATO's plans to launch a new mission, dubbed "Resolute Support", next year to train and advise Afghan forces after most NATO combat troops leave by the end of 2014. Several NATO diplomats said the U.S. timetable raises questions about whether the alliance's plan to train the Afghan army from regional bases around Afghanistan can last for more than one year, given the reduced U.S. presence after that.

Israeli troops kill Palestinian gunman in West Bank Posted: 02 Jun 2014 02:54 PM PDT Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian gunman who opened fire at them, wounding one of the troops under the cover of darkness early on Tuesday at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said. A military statement said the gunman "opened fire and wounded a border policeman at the checkpoint, the forces returned fire, killing the perpetrator." Israel's Ynet website said the gunman had fired a pistol, shooting one of the policemen in the leg. An Israeli military official said the policeman was lightly wounded. No other details were immediately available about the incident which came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new unity government, healing a rift with Hamas Islamists in Gaza, and raising tensions with Israel which threatened to hold Abbas responsible for any violent incidents.

Abbas swears in Palestinian unity government shunned by Israel Posted: 02 Jun 2014 02:37 PM PDT By Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a Palestinian unity government on Monday in a reconciliation deal with Hamas Islamists that set Israel on a collision course with Washington over U.S. pledges to work with the new administration while Israel shunned it. Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank depends on foreign aid, appeared to have banked on Western acceptance of a 16-member cabinet of what he described as politically unaffiliated technocrats. Setting a policy in line with U.S. and European Union demands, the Western-backed leader said his administration would continue to honor agreements and principles at the foundation of a peace process with Israel. Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, has run the Gaza Strip since seizing the territory from Abbas's Fatah forces in a brief civil war in 2007.

Top Asian News at 12:00 a.m. GMT Posted: 02 Jun 2014 05:02 PM PDT BEIJING (AP) — Born in 1989, Steve Wang sometimes wonders what happened in his hometown of Beijing that year. But his curiosity about pro-democracy protests and the crackdown on them passes quickly. "I was not part of it," he said. "I know it could be important, but I cannot feel it."

Russia calls UN meeting to seek Ukraine cease-fire Posted: 02 Jun 2014 05:00 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — After months of blocking any Security Council action on Ukraine, Russia called an emergency meeting of the U.N.'s most powerful body Monday to introduce a resolution demanding an immediate halt to deadly clashes in eastern Ukraine.

Indonesian and Australian leaders' call recorded Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:45 PM PDT CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has brushed off a media report that his telephone conversation with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last month was secretly recorded by a journalist.

Peru searches high peak for 2 missing Italians Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:41 PM PDT HUARAZ, Peru (AP) — Mountain rescuers searched a glacier hugging one of Peru's highest peaks Monday for two Italian climbers who disappeared three days earlier at its summit.

Obama to urge Europe to keep up pressure on Russia Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:39 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will urge European leaders this week to keep up pressure on Russia over its threatening moves in Ukraine, while seeking to assuage fears from Poland and other NATO allies that the West could slip back into a business-as-usual relationship with Moscow.

U.S. green groups see need to nudge Obama's 'opening bid' on carbon cuts Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:38 PM PDT By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In large part, the wide-ranging reaction to President Barack Obama's signature effort to cut power plant carbon emissions could have been written months in advance. Key Republicans and many industrial groups decried it as a job-killing war on coal that would drive up power prices; For both sides of the debate, Monday's sweeping proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is only the starting point of a months-long effort to chip away, hone or modify the details of a 645-page plan that may remake the nation's power sector. "This is an excellent opening bid," said Conrad Schneider, advocacy director at Clean Air Task Force, an environmental group that submitted a plan to help guide the agency as it wrote the rules.

New Libyan government takes office amid fighting in the east Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:36 PM PDT Benghazi (Libya) (AFP) - Libya's new government announced Monday it had taken office, despite the refusal of Abdullah al-Thani's cabinet to leave power, as violence intensified in the east of the country following the launch of a deadly "anti-terrorist" campaign. Prime Minister Ahmed Miitig, 42, said in a statement he had convened his ministers for the first time since his disputed election in May, amid an ongoing power struggle in Tripoli. Miitig is Libya's fifth prime minister since dictator Moamer Kadhafi was toppled and killed in a 2011 uprising. Fierce fighting between Islamists and a rogue general's forces in the eastern city of Benghazi meanwhile killed 21 people earlier Monday.

NATO to consider longer-term response to Ukraine crisis Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:34 PM PDT By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO defense ministers will consider on Tuesday what longer term steps the alliance needs to take to bolster its eastern defenses and improve its ability to respond to the unorthodox tactics used by Russia in Ukraine. In the three months since the Ukraine crisis erupted, the U.S.-dominated alliance has sent fighter planes and ships and stepped up military exercises to reassure eastern European allies alarmed by Russia's actions, while making clear it has no intention of intervening militarily in Ukraine. At a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, defense ministers from the 28 NATO members will look at longer term measures to strengthen alliance defenses in eastern Europe and consider how to combat the tactics used by Russia in Ukraine, which one senior military officer described as "half insurgency, half deliberate destabilization." "It is ... clear to the alliance that this is the most severe challenge to stability in Europe since the end of the Cold War," the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Douglas Lute, told reporters on Monday.

Scolari says he can't wait for World Cup to start Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:33 PM PDT GOIANIA, Brazil (AP) — Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari says he is anxious to get Brazil's World Cup campaign underway and wishes the tournament was starting right now.

Palestinian killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:30 PM PDT Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian after he shot and wounded a border guard in the northern West Bank late Monday, the army said. "An armed Palestinian opened fire at the Tapuach junction and wounded an Israeli border guard," said an army spokeswoman.

Spain's king befriended New World despite Chavez spat Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:27 PM PDT King Juan Carlos championed strong ties between Spain and its former empire in Latin America, except for the time the departing monarch told Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to "shut up." The famous clash took place during an Ibero-American summit in Chile in 2007, when Chavez angered Juan Carlos by calling Spanish conservative ex-prime minister Jose Maria Aznar a fascist. Chavez was having a tense exchange with then prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero when the king chimed in, waving his left hand toward the socialist Venezuelan leader and saying "why don't you just shut up" in front of other regional leaders. The incident caused a diplomat spat between Venezuela and Spain, with Chavez demanding an apology from the monarch and ordering a review of bilateral relations.

Colombia's Falcao to miss World Cup with injury Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:25 PM PDT BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Monaco striker Radamel Falcao has been left off Colombia's squad for the World Cup after failing to recover from a knee injury.

West criticizes Russian draft resolution on Ukraine Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:17 PM PDT United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A Russian draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and a humanitarian corridor met with criticism from the West and cool response at the Security Council Monday. Moscow drafted the resolution at the start of its month-long presidency of the Council as Western powers want to enforce humanitarian corridors in Syria -- a prospect blocked by Russia. Moscow said it wanted to stop the violence in Ukraine, which has escalated between pro-Russian separatists and government forces, but its resolution met with strong rebuke from Washington.

30 year sentence for killer of two French women in Argentina Posted: 02 Jun 2014 04:02 PM PDT Salta (Argentina) (AFP) - A court in Argentina's Salta province Monday sentenced to 30 years in prison the man who raped and killed two young French women tourists out for a hike. Three judges found the preponderance of evidence showed that Gustavo Lasi, 27, raped and then murdered Cassandre Bouvier and Houria Moumni, in 2011 when they were visiting the country's northwest.

Malawi's president seeks 'new friends' in China, Russia Posted: 02 Jun 2014 03:59 PM PDT Blantyre (Malawi) (AFP) - Malawi, traditionally dependent on Western aid donors, will look for "new friends" in countries such as China and Russia, newly elected President Peter Mutharika said at his inauguration Monday. The ceremony at a stadium in the commercial capital Blantyre was boycotted by outgoing president Joyce Banda, who was soundly beaten by Mutharika in disputed elections held on May 20. Mutharika, who takes power in one of the world's poorest countries where 40 percent of the budget comes from aid, said the donor nations were "welcome to stay here". Foreign policy would be based on what is best for Malawi, he said.

Questions loom over Bergdahl-Taliban swap Posted: 02 Jun 2014 03:42 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon concluded in 2010 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his unit, and after an initial flurry of searching the military curbed any high-risk rescue plans. But the U.S. kept pursuing avenues to negotiate his release, recently seeking to fracture the Taliban network by making its leaders fear a faster deal with underlings could prevent the freedom they sought for five of their top officials, American officials told The Associated Press.

Russia says Ukraine situation worsening, submits U.N. resolution Posted: 02 Jun 2014 03:35 PM PDT By Steve Gutterman and Michelle Nichols MOSCOW/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia on Monday circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution calling for humanitarian corridors in eastern Ukraine but said that Western council members raised so many questions about the text that Moscow would now contemplate what its next move would be. The 15-member council met briefly behind closed doors to discuss the one-and-a-half page draft resolution, which calls for an end to the worsening violence in southeastern Ukraine and for safe and unhindered humanitarian aid. However, others were asking so many questions that if we were to try to answer them then we would be talking about things for weeks," Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the Security Council for June, told reporters after the meeting. "We have not yet decided what out next move is going to be in terms of working on this resolution," he said.

Column: No need for rush to judgment on Qatar Posted: 02 Jun 2014 03:32 PM PDT Secret slush funds, junkets, gifts and payments to football officials. At first glance, the latest allegations that a Qatari official greased palms to help buy the 2022 World Cup for his Gulf nation make very depressing reading for anyone who loves the global game and its showcase tournament.

Argentine guilty in French tourists' rape, murder Posted: 02 Jun 2014 03:20 PM PDT BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine court has convicted one man in the rape and murder of two French tourists three years ago, while two alleged accomplices have been acquitted.

FARC leader declares opposition to drug trade Posted: 02 Jun 2014 03:09 PM PDT The head of Colombia's FARC rebels, long believed to fund guerrilla activities via the drug trade, said Monday that he opposes the trade as "counter-revolutionary." Timoleon Jimenez, known by his nom de guerre "Timochenko," said in an interview posted on the Internet that the FARC is opposed at its core to drug trafficking, "because it has killed many of our colleagues." Jimenez, chief commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, added in the interview that drug trafficking "has slowed development and has done a lot of harm," particularly in terms of "large number of youths" lost to the drug trade.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian who shot at them Posted: 02 Jun 2014 03:04 PM PDT JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says troops shot and killed a Palestinian man after he opened fire at them at a West Bank checkpoint.

5 die in Guatemala landslide caused by heavy rains Posted: 02 Jun 2014 03:03 PM PDT GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Heavy rains have killed at least five people in Guatemala, where authorities on Monday urged residents to take precautions because showers and thunderstorms are expected to continue this week.

Brazil judge sentences Pele's son to 33 years Posted: 02 Jun 2014 02:55 PM PDT SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian judge sentenced the son of soccer legend Pele to 33 years in prison after finding him guilty of laundering money for a drug gang.

Brazil denies Snowden applied for asylum Posted: 02 Jun 2014 02:55 PM PDT Brasília (AFP) - Brazil's foreign minister denied Monday that fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden had applied to the Brazilian government for asylum. Snowden, who is currently in Russia on temporary asylum that expires in August, told Brazil's Globo TV in an interview aired Sunday that he "would love to live in Brazil" and had formally applied for asylum there.

US targets European bank hackers in mass theft Posted: 02 Jun 2014 02:52 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — A band of hackers implanted viruses on computers around the world, seized customer bank information and stole more than $100 million from businesses and consumers, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday in announcing charges against the Russian man accused of masterminding the effort.

Pro-Russia rebels attack Ukrainian border guards Posted: 02 Jun 2014 02:49 PM PDT LUHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of pro-Russia rebels armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades mounted a daylong assault Monday on a key government base used to coordinate the defense of the country's border with Russia, prompting the deployment of air support by government forces.

Libya's new government takes office, says official statement Posted: 02 Jun 2014 02:47 PM PDT Tripoli (AFP) - Libya's new government, headed by Ahmed Miitig announced on Monday evening that it had taken office, despite the refusal of Abdullah al-Thani's cabinet to leave power.

Father may need DNA proof for kids in Sudanese jail, says US Posted: 02 Jun 2014 02:39 PM PDT State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki finally acknowledged that Daniel Wani is a US citizen after he waived his right to privacy, and said he was receiving help from the US embassy in Khartoum. His wife, Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, who is a Christian like her husband, was sentenced to death on May 15 under the Islamic sharia law that has been in place since 1983 and outlaws conversions under pain of death. But Psaki said the State Department did not yet have all the information needed to confer US citizenship on the two infants. "To transmit US citizenship to a child born abroad, there must be, among other requirements, a biological relationship between the child and a US citizen parent or parents," Psaki told reporters, quoting from the US immigration and nationality act.

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