| Israel, Palestinians battle as Egyptian-proposed Gaza ceasefire collapses Posted: 15 Jul 2014 10:51 AM PDT  By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel resumed air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after agreeing to an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire deal that failed to get Hamas militants to halt rocket attacks. The week-old conflict seemed to be at a turning point, with Hamas defying Arab and Western calls to cease fire and Israel threatening to step up an offensive that could include an invasion of the densely populated enclave of 1.8 million. Under a blueprint announced by Egypt - Gaza's neighbour and whose military-backed government has been at odds with Islamist Hamas - a mutual "de-escalation" was to have begun at 9 a.m. (0600 GMT), with hostilities ceasing within 12 hours. Hamas' armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, rejected the ceasefire deal, a proposal that addressed in only general terms some of its key demands, and said its battle with Israel would "increase in ferocity and intensity".
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| Libyan militia tighten control of Tripoli airport Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:52 PM PDT  By Ulf Laessing TRIPOLI Libya (Reuters) - Libyan militia fighters with anti aircraft guns and mortars fanned out on Tuesday across Tripoli's airport, transformed into a battlefield by two days of fighting that has cut the Libyan capital off from the outside world. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was working to help end to violence that has brought the north African country to the edge of chaos three years after the uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi. At least 15 people have been killed in the capital and the eastern city of Benghazi since Sunday. Fighting between rival militias at the capital's airport damaged the control tower and wrecked 11 civilian aircraft parked on the tarmac.
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| Iraq names moderate Sunni parliament speaker in move to break political deadlock Posted: 15 Jul 2014 11:20 AM PDT  By Isra' al-Rubei'i and Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi politicians named a moderate Sunni Islamist as speaker of parliament on Tuesday, a long-delayed first step towards a power-sharing government urgently needed to save the state from disintegration in the face of a Sunni uprising. Iraq's army and allied Shi'ite militia launched an assault to retake the executed former dictator Saddam Hussein's home city Tikrit from the al Qaeda offshoot known as the Islamic State and allied militants, who seized it in mid-June during a lightning assault through the north. The stunning advance by the militants over the past month has put Iraq's very survival in jeopardy even as its politicians have been deadlocked over forming a new government since an election in April.
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| Ukraine sees Russian role in air strike on town Posted: 15 Jul 2014 08:53 AM PDT  By Natalia Zinets and Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has made fresh charges of Russian involvement in its conflict with separatist rebels, suggesting Moscow may have had a role in an air strike on Tuesday that killed 11 people. In other fighting in the three-and-a-half month conflict with separatists in the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine, government forces said they had lost another six soldiers in attacks on their positions near the border with Russia. In all, since the start of the government's "anti-terrorist" operations in mid-April, a total of 258 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed, 922 injured and 45 are captive, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. Pushing hard for the EU - Ukraine's new strategic partner - to take tougher measures against Russia at its Brussels summit on Wednesday, Kiev pointed to the downing of an An-26 military transport plane on Monday and Tuesday's air strike on the Ukraine town of Snizhne.
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| North Korea's Kim Jong Un supervises rocket launches near South Korea border Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:58 PM PDT  By James Pearson SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Tuesday showed detailed photos of Kim Jong Un directing rocket launches from a site close to the South in an apparent act of defiance that puts a personal face of its leader to actions provoking its neighbours. Satellite imagery and photos released by state media show the rockets were fired several kilometers north of a popular South Korean tourist observatory near the inter-Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). The roar of rockets and the burning trails from the Soviet-era projectiles on Monday could be seen rising from clouds of smoke between mountains on the North Korean side, footage filmed by staff members at the observatory and obtained by Reuters showed. It was not immediately clear why North Korea conducted drills so close to the border, but state media has in recent days called the presence of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in South Korea a "sinister interference." The United States, which has more than 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea, said it was concerned by reports of recent North Korean missile launches.
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| Car bomb attack kills at least 89 in Afghanistan Posted: 15 Jul 2014 10:04 AM PDT  By Samihullah Paiwand GARDEZ Afghanistan (Reuters) - A car packed with explosives exploded on Tuesday as it sped through a crowded market in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktika, killing at least 89 people, officials said, one of the most violent attacks in the country in a year. The huge explosion took place not far from the porous border with Pakistan's North Waziristan region, where the military has been attacking hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban in the past few weeks, prompting militants to retreat toward Afghanistan. The attack comes at an uneasy time in Afghanistan as the country recounts votes from a disputed presidential election which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt. "The truth behind this attack will become clear after an investigation, but we clearly announce that it was not done by the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said in a statement.
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| Obama, Germany's Merkel speak amid spying flap Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:56 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has spoken with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about cooperation between the United States and Germany. |
| Kerry confers premature knighthood on departing friend Hague Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:45 PM PDT  By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday heaped praise on William Hague after his resignation as British foreign secretary, and even went as far as conferring on him a premature knighthood via Twitter. "Will miss working so closely with my friend Sir William -- when @WilliamJHague spoke, we all listened," Kerry said in a tweet on his page on the social media site, to which a photograph of the two men was attached. Hague has not been knighted - an honor normally bestowed by the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth, and which carries with it the title "Sir." It is an honor often given to statesmen, as well as other distinguished citizens from business leaders to entertainers. Hague said on Monday he was stepping down from his post as Britain's top diplomat after four years in the job, an unexpected move prompted by a government reshuffle by Prime Minister David Cameron.
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| U.S. preparing unilateral sanctions on Russia Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:45 PM PDT  The United States is considering imposing unilateral sanctions on Russia over its threatening moves in Ukraine, a shift in strategy that reflects the Obama administration's frustration with Europe's reluctance to take tougher action against Moscow, according to U.S. and European officials.
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| Emergency data law passed in British lower house Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:37 PM PDT  Britain's lower house of parliament voted in favour of emergency legislation to allow police and security services to continue accessing Internet and mobile phone data following angry exchanges between lawmakers on Tuesday. A group of 56 members of parliament confronted the three main parties, which had agreed to rush the new legislation into law, claiming the move was an abuse of parliament. The bill, which will allow mobile networks and Internet providers to keep information on communications between people in case they are needed for investigations, was ultimately passed in the House of Commons by a large majority. Prime Minister David Cameron had argued that the emergency laws were necessary to protect national security, after the European Court of Justice threw out a law that forced companies to retain data for at least six months, saying it breached the right to privacy.
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| Journalist, activist released by U.S. Border Patrol Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:35 PM PDT  The U.S. Border Patrol has released prominent immigration activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas after detaining him at a Texas airport for being in the country illegally.
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| Arizona protesters hope to stop immigrant transfer Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:31 PM PDT  ORACLE, Arizona (AP) — Protesters carrying "Return to Sender" and "Go home non-Yankees" signs faced off with immigrant rights activists Tuesday in a small Arizona town after a sheriff said a bus filled with Central American children was on its way.
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| Surge in Libya violence raises spectre of civil war Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:30 PM PDT  Libya's government said on Tuesday it was considering calling for international forces to help restore security, as fighting between rival militias around Tripoli airport pushed the country closer to civil war. With liberal and Islamist militias locked in a brutal power struggle, the country's main international airport, which was shut down on Sunday for security reasons, came under renewed attack late Monday. Shortly afterwards the government said it was "looking into the possibility of making an appeal for international forces on the ground to re-establish security and help the government impose its authority". NATO warplanes helped topple dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, sparking a power struggle between rival armed groups that has wracked the country ever since.
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| French soldier killed in Mali suicide bombing Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:29 PM PDT  By Marine Pennetier and Tiemoko Diallo PARIS/BAMAKO (Reuters) - A French soldier was killed in the first suicide bombing targeting France's forces in northern Mali, where local and foreign troops are struggling to restore order after putting down an Islamist insurgency last year, officials said. The attack came just days before French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was due to visit Mali and President Francois Hollande's visit to West Africa later this week. Both had been expected to play up the improved security situation in Mali and tout the planned reorganization of France's 1,700 troops there into a regional counter-terrorism operation. He was part of a monitoring mission in the Al Moustarat region north of Gao, Colonel Gilles Jaron, an army spokesman, said.
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| BRICS set up bank to counter Western hold on global finances Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:01 PM PDT  By Alonso Soto and Anthony Boadle FORTALEZA Brazil (Reuters) - Leaders of the BRICS emerging market nations launched a $100 billion development bank and a currency reserve pool on Tuesday in their first concrete step toward reshaping the Western-dominated international financial system. The bank aimed at funding infrastructure projects in developing nations will be based in Shanghai and India will preside over its operations for the first five years, followed by Brazil and then Russia, leaders of the five-country group announced at a summit. The long-awaited bank is the first major achievement of the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - since they got together in 2009 to press for a bigger say in the global financial order created by Western powers after World War Two and centered on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
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| BRICS leaders create emergency reserve fund, development bank Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:01 PM PDT FORTALEZA Brazil (Reuters) - The leaders of the group of five BRICS emerging market countries signed on Tuesday a deal to create a new development bank and an emergency reserve fund, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff announced at a summit of the group in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza. The BRICS group consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. (Reporting by Alonso Soto, writing by Walter Brandimarte; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) |
| BRICS stand against Western sanctions: Russian foreign minister Posted: 15 Jul 2014 04:01 PM PDT Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the BRICS bloc stood against one-sided economic and political measures by third countries, but that the emerging nations were not seeking confrontation with the West. Speaking to reporters after a meeting between the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Lavrov said the BRICS were opting for a common approach to resolve global issues. "The summit has confirmed that by speaking against one-sided steps in global politics and economy, BRICS members are not seeking confrontation, but are offering to work out collective approaches to resolve all (global) issues," he told reporters at a BRICS summit. The United States has imposed sanctions against Russia including asset freezes and visa bans against officials and businessmen thought to be close to President Vladimir Putin in response to the annexation of Crimea. |
| Eurosceptic named new UK foreign minister as EU vote looms Posted: 15 Jul 2014 03:58 PM PDT  British Prime Minister David Cameron named eurosceptic Philip Hammond as his new foreign secretary on Tuesday in a major cabinet reshuffle ahead of next year's general election. Former defence secretary Hammond, who replaces William Hague, supports Britain leaving the European Union unless significant powers are returned to London before a referendum promised for 2017. The reshuffle is the biggest since Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government took office in 2010 and marks a bid to broaden his party's appeal at the general election in May 2015.
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| AP INTERVIEW: Afghan hopeful credits US deal Posted: 15 Jul 2014 03:48 PM PDT  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Somber and reflective, Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah says his country was on the verge of a "very serious, serious situation" before he struck a U.S.-brokered deal with his rival to avert the crisis by holding a fully audited vote count.
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| UN: Sanctions must be enforced on Iraq extremists Posted: 15 Jul 2014 03:46 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging all countries to enforce sanctions against the Islamic State extremist group that has captured a vast stretch of territory in Iraq, warning that "terrorism" must not be allowed to steer the country away from its path toward democracy. |
| Colombia: Oil spill by rebels not as bad as feared Posted: 15 Jul 2014 03:40 PM PDT  PUERTO ASIS, Colombia (AP) — Colombian officials say an oil spill caused by rebels in the country's southwest may not have been as big as originally thought nor has it caused significant environmental damage.
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| Gaza rocket kills first Israeli as truce bid fails Posted: 15 Jul 2014 03:29 PM PDT  Israel resumed a punishing air campaign against Gaza Tuesday after its Palestinian foe Hamas rejected a truce and fired dozens of rockets over the border, killing an Israeli for the first time. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the army would "expand and intensify" its Gaza operation after Hamas rejected the Egyptian truce proposal. The renewed Israeli strikes killed five Palestinians, raising the Gaza death toll in eight days of violence to 197, medics said. An Israeli man was killed in a rocket attack on an Israeli position near the Erez crossing with Gaza, the army said.
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| Abuja blast suspect extradited to Nigeria: police Posted: 15 Jul 2014 03:11 PM PDT  A man alleged to be the co-mastermind of April's deadly Abuja bus station bombing was extradited to Nigeria Tuesday, according to police. The attack -- which was claimed by Boko Haram Islamists -- killed at least 75 people, making it the deadliest ever bombing in the Nigerian capital. Nigerian police said Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche had been extradited from Sudan. "The terror fugitive who had long since been arrested in Sudan following an international red notice issued for his arrest" had arrived at the Abuja airport, police said in a statement.
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| BRICS nations agree to create own development bank Posted: 15 Jul 2014 03:08 PM PDT  FORTALEZA, Brazil (AP) — The leaders of five emerging market powers said at a summit Tuesday that they gave final agreement to creating their own development bank worth $100 billion that will have its headquarters in China.
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| Thousands flee as typhoon batters east Philippines, heads to Manila Posted: 15 Jul 2014 03:01 PM PDT  By Rosemarie Francisco MANILA (Reuters) - Thousands of people in the Philippines fled from their homes on Tuesday as the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year made landfall, toppling trees and cutting power as it made its way straight towards the capital, Manila. Parts of the Philippines are still recovering from Typhoon Haiyan, one of the biggest cyclones known to have made landfall anywhere, which killed more than 6,100 people last year, many in tsunami-like sea surges, and left millions homeless. "The wind is very strong, we are really being battered," Joey Salceda, governor of coconut- and rice-growing Albay province said in a television interview, adding he expected high economic losses rather than casualties. Tropical Storm Risk upgraded Rammasun to a category-three typhoon, on a scale of one to five of which five is the most severe.
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| Oil falls below $100 for first time since May Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:52 PM PDT The price of oil fell below $100 a barrel for the first time since May even as the deteriorating security situation in Libya has raised questions about whether the country can soon increase crude exports. |
| Biden vows to work closely with new Iraqi speaker Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:50 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden is congratulating Iraq's new parliamentary speaker on his election and says he will work closely with him. |
| US, Iran lay ground for nuclear talks extension Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:50 PM PDT  US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart laid the groundwork Tuesday for an extension of a Sunday deadline to strike a historic nuclear deal after intense talks in Vienna. A Western diplomat went as far as to say that it was now "highly probable" Iran and world powers would agree to such a move, and that the extension would be months not weeks. "As it's highly improbable that we will finalise in Vienna before the weekend, it is highly probable that there will be a wish to continue to negotiate in the coming months," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity. After a decade of rising tensions, the mooted accord between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany is aimed at easing concerns that Iran might develop nuclear weapons and silencing talk of war.
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| Turkey PM accuses Israel of 'state terrorism' over Gaza Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:49 PM PDT  Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday stepped up his rhetoric against Israel over its deadly air offensive on Gaza, accusing the Jewish state of committing "state terrorism" against the Palestinians. Presenting himself as the sole world leader speaking up for the Palestinians, Erdogan said any normalisation in the troubled ties between Israel and Ankara was out of the question. "Israel is continuing to carry out state terrorism in the region. Nobody, except us, tells it to stop," Erdogan told members of his ruling party in parliament, accusing Israel of perpetrating a "massacre" of Palestinians.
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| Texas judge upholds $3 million fracking verdict Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:44 PM PDT A Texas judge upheld a $3 million jury verdict by ruling in favor of a family who claimed that oil and gas drilling near their land made them sick, in a landmark case hailed as a victory by anti-fracking activists. Last week's ruling, confirmed by lawyers on Tuesday, is the latest step in a three-year case that began when Bob and Lisa Parr filed suit against a handful of oil companies claiming that fumes from drilling around their 40-acre (16-hectare) ranch exposed them and their livestock to hazardous gases and industrial chemicals. Some of the initial claims related to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations were settled out of court or dismissed, leaving the couple, who have a young daughter, to face Aruba Petroleum in a jury trial in Dallas County Court. Judge Mark Greenberg on July 9 entered a final judgment for the Parrs and denied Aruba's bid to overturn the multimillion dollar jury award. |
| Top UN official supporting peacekeepers resigns Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:43 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Ameerah Haq is stepping down as the U.N. undersecretary-general in charge of providing logistics and support for the more than 100,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed around the world. |
| One down, one to go: Rio Olympics next for Brazil Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:43 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil just pulled off the World Cup. Next up is Rio de Janeiro's 2016 Olympics, which poses an even bigger challenge.
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| Canada regulator delays decision on west coast pipeline expansion Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:40 PM PDT A Canadian regulator said on Tuesday it had delayed a decision on Kinder Morgan Energy Partner's Trans Mountain expansion project by about six months to January 2016, after requesting additional information from the pipeline company on changes to a small portion of the route. The National Energy Board said the company now wants to route a 4-km (2.5-mile) portion of the project through Burnaby Mountain, a conservation area in Metro Vancouver. "In order for the board to properly assess this pipeline corridor, we require more information and study," Sarah Kiley, a spokeswoman with the NEB, told reporters on a conference call. The NEB now expects to release its final recommendation on the proposed expansion by Jan. 25, 2016, rather than a previous deadline of July 2, 2015. |
| US lawmakers boost funding for Israel's Iron Dome Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:38 PM PDT  With US ally Israel facing a barrage of rocket attacks from Gaza, a Senate panel on Tuesday approved a 50 percent funding boost for the Jewish State's Iron Dome anti-missile system. The measure, if it becomes law, would provide $621.6 million for Israeli missile defense programs for the 2015 fiscal year starting in October, including $351 million for the short-range Iron Dome system that has been put to the test over the past eight days amid a raging conflict between Israel and Hamas. Congress appropriated $235 million to Iron Dome last year. The White House had requested about $176 million for the system for 2015, but lawmakers doubled the amount.
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| Colombia's Cerrejon coal mine partially closed due to dust Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:36 PM PDT Colombia coal producer Cerrejon has slowed operations in the southern zone of its mine in order to keep particulate levels within legal limits amid a lack of rainfall, but said it still expected coal output to rise this year over last. The country's biggest coal miner said in an emailed statement that it stopped some of its machinery in June and that the dryness was linked to the El Nino weather pattern. "In August we'll look again at weather conditions and what possibility there is to resume operations in all of the mine," the statement said. Chief Executive Roberto Junguito said in May that exports should rise from 33 million tonnes last year. |
| Top Asian News at 9:30 p.m. GMT Posted: 15 Jul 2014 02:32 PM PDT KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah says Afghanistan was on the verge of a "very, very serious situation" before he struck a U.S.-brokered deal with his rival to avert the crisis by holding a fully audited vote count. The ex-foreign minister, who is competing against Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai to succeed Hamid Karzai as president, spoke to The Associated Press Tuesday in an interview. |
