| Maliki refuses to go as Iraqis turn to new leader Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:43 PM PDT  By Alexander Dziadosz and Raheem Salman BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An increasingly isolated Nuri al-Maliki again protested his removal as Iraqi prime minister on Wednesday, as his own political party and his former sponsor in Iran publicly endorsed a successor who many in Baghdad hope can halt advancing Sunni jihadists. Although abandoned by former backers in the United States and Iraq's Shi'ite political and religious establishment, Maliki pressed his legal claim on power. Premier-designate Haider al-Abadi, meanwhile, held consultations on forming a coalition government that can unite warring factions after eight years that drove Sunnis to revolt over what they say was Maliki's sectarian bias. Shi'ite-led government forces and their allies among the ethnic Kurdish militias of northern Iraq were in action on the frontlines against the Sunni fighters of the Islamic State as European Union states began to follow the U.S. lead and provide arms directly to the Kurds and step up efforts to help tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the advancing hard-line Islamists.
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| Palestinians says Gaza truce extended five days Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:47 PM PDT  By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Lin Noueihed GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians agreed on Wednesday to extend a Gaza truce by five days minutes before an earlier ceasefire was set to expire, a Palestinian official said in Cairo. Israel, which had no comment, bombed several Gaza sites early on Thursday, minutes after the truce extension was to have taken hold, in response to Palestinian rocket fire that violated the earlier truce. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israeli forces to "respond" to two instances of rocket fire by Gaza militants at Israel in violation of the truce on Wednesday.
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| Ukraine accuses Russia of cynicism over convoy; death toll rises sharply Posted: 13 Aug 2014 09:08 AM PDT By Natalia Zinets and Dmitry Madorsky KIEV/VORONEZH Russia (Reuters) - Ukraine described Russia's dispatch of an aid convoy advancing now towards its border as a cynical act designed to fan a pro-Russian rebellion the UN said on Wednesday had claimed nearly 1,000 lives, fighters and civilians, in two weeks. Kiev declared that the convoy would not be allowed to pass; "First they send tanks, Grad missiles and bandits who fire on Ukrainians and then they send water and salt," Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said of a conflict that has killed over 2,000 since mid-April. "The level of Russian cynicism knows no bounds." The comments reflected suspicions in Kiev and Western capitals that passage of the convoy onto Ukrainian soil could turn into a covert military action to help separatists in the Russian-speaking east now losing ground to government forces. |
| Brazil presidential candidate Campos killed in plane crash Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:46 PM PDT  By Gustavo Bonato SANTOS Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday, throwing the October election and local financial markets into disarray. A private jet carrying Campos and his entourage crashed in a residential area in bad weather as it prepared to land in the coastal city of Santos. Campos, 49, was running on a business-friendly platform and was in third place in polls with the support of about 10 percent of voters. While he was not expected to win the Oct. 5 vote, he was widely seen as one of Brazil's brightest young political stars and his death instantly changes the dynamics of the race.
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| Egypt's Mubarak tells Cairo court his conscience is clear Posted: 13 Aug 2014 11:42 AM PDT  By Lin Noueihed CAIRO (Reuters) - In rare testimony to a Cairo court, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied on Wednesday that he ordered the killing of protesters in a 2011 uprising, saying history would vindicate him. Mubarak, 86, was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for complicity in the deaths of demonstrators and the breakdown of law and order during the 18-day revolt that ended his 30-year presidency, but an appeals court subsequently ordered a retrial.
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| Consignment of experimental Ebola drug arrives in Liberia Posted: 13 Aug 2014 12:29 PM PDT  By Clair MacDougall MONROVIA (Reuters) - A consignment of experimental Ebola drugs arrived by plane in Liberia on Wednesday to treat two doctors suffering from the virus, which has killed more than 1,000 people across four West African countries. The drug, ZMapp, arrived in two boxes on a commercial flight from the United States carried by Liberia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augustine Ngafuan, and was unloaded at the VIP terminal, a Reuters witness said. It will be taken to a hospital in the capital and administered to Liberian doctors Zukunis Ireland and Abraham Borbor, who officials said contracted the disease while attending to patients, including a late colleague. The world's worst outbreak of Ebola has claimed the lives of 1,069 people and there are 1,975 probable and suspected cases, the vast majority in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to new figures from the World Health Organisation.
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| Brazil: Presidential candidate dies in plane crash Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:54 PM PDT  SANTOS, Brazil (AP) — Presidential candidate Eduardo Campos died Wednesday when the small plane that was carrying him and several campaign officials plunged into a residential neighborhood in the Brazilian port city of Santos.
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| Tunisia Islamist chief urges men to wed women over 30 Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:53 PM PDT  Rached Ghannouchi, head of Tunisia's powerful Islamist Ennahda party, called on young men on Wednesday to marry divorcees and women over 30. "We want to draw attention to imbalances in family life, the rising divorce rate, the drop in the age of marriage," Ghannouchi said in a recording broadcast on private radio station Mosaique FM. Recalling that Prophet Mohammed married wife Khadija when she was more than 40, the Ennahda chief said he wants to "encourage young people to wed women of advanced age." Ghannouchi was speaking on women's day, an annual holiday in Tunisia commemorating a 1956 law granting women several new rights and abolishing polygamy and men's right to repudiate women.
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| Plan 'under way' to rescue refugees on Iraq mountain: Cameron Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:47 PM PDT  An international plan is under way to rescue civilians trapped by Islamic State fighters on a mountain in northern Iraq, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday. Cameron declined to give details of the operation but said Britain would play a role, just as it had worked alongside the United States in conducting humanitarian aid drops to thousands of Yazidis and other minorities who have fled to Mount Sinjar. "Clearly there is an absolutely desperate situation in Iraq, particularly on this mountainside," Cameron said after chairing a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee. "I can confirm that detailed plans are now being put in place and are underway and that Britain will play a role in delivering them."
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| US forces assess Iraq mountain refugees' needs Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:45 PM PDT  US troops assessed the situation Wednesday of thousands of civilian refugees trapped by jihadists on a northern Iraqi mountain, after the United States carried out air strikes against Islamic State militants. A US military official said the small party of special forces soldiers returned safely to base. A Kurdish spokesman earlier said US military advisors would study means of evacuating the besieged civilians left with little food or water on Mount Sinjar. The United States, which has a consulate and other facilities in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, deployed around 130 troops on the assessment mission.
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| Pioneering Chicano artist Emigdio Vasquez dies Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:41 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) — Emigdio Vasquez, whose bold use of color, exacting brush skills and uncanny ability to capture everyday people in dramatic moments made him one of the most influential pioneers of the Chicano art movement, has died in California. He was 75. |
| UN says Iraq humanitarian crisis at highest level Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:41 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — The United Nations on Wednesday announced its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes and tens of thousands had been trapped on a desert mountain by the advance of Islamic militants across the north of the country.
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| Obama weighing options for rescuing Iraqi refugees Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:36 PM PDT  EDGARTOWN, Massachusetts (AP) — President Barack Obama is considering a range of military options, including airlifts and creating safe passages, for rescuing thousands of Iraqi refugees trapped on a mountain, the White House said. A small team of U.S. troops secretly scouted the site Wednesday.
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| Hagel: Far fewer Iraqi refugees now on Sinjar Mt. Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:33 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says far fewer refugees are stranded on Iraq's Sinjar Mountain and that it's far less likely that the U.S. will undertake a rescue mission there. |
| U.S. team lands on Iraqi mountain where Yazidis are trapped Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:27 PM PDT The United States has not ruled out using American ground forces in an operation to extract thousands of desperate civilians trapped on a mountain by Islamist militants, but they will not engage in combat, a senior White House official said on Wednesday. A team of 130 U.S. military personnel is in the Kurdistan capital of Arbil, urgently drawing up options ranging from creating a safe corridor to an airlift to rescue those besieged on Mount Sinjar for over a week, most of them members of the Yazidi religious minority. "These 130 personnel are not going to be in a combat role in Iraq," White House deputy spokesman Ben Rhodes told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama, who is on vacation on Martha's Vineyard island in Massachusetts. Rhodes noted that Obama had repeatedly ruled out "reintroducing U.S. forces into combat on the ground in Iraq." But he added: "There are a variety of ways in which we can support the safe removal of those people from the mountain." Rhodes said the intention was to work with Kurdish forces already operating in the region and with the Iraqi military. |
| Nigeria fears Ebola spread to east by infected nurse Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:24 PM PDT  A nurse who contracted Ebola at a Lagos hospital travelled to the eastern part of Nigeria before falling sick, raising fears of new infections outside the city, officials said Wednesday. The nurse was infected with the deadly tropical disease while caring for Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian government employee who brought Ebola to Lagos on July 20. He died on July 25 under quarantine at the First Consultants hospital in Lagos. Information Minister Labaran Maku earlier told journalists that the nurse "disobeyed medical instructions" given to hospital staff by travelling to Enugu, a major city in the east.
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| Ex-Catalan leader hit with corruption lawsuit in Spain Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:23 PM PDT  A right-wing Spanish public sector union filed a lawsuit Wednesday against an ex-president of the autonomous region of Catalonia, accusing him of graft involving up to 18 million euros ($24 million). Jordi Pujol, who was president of Catalonia from 1980 to 2003, stunned supporters when he announced last month that his family had hidden an inheritance from his father in offshore accounts for the past 34 years. The 84-year-old, who in recent years has become a leading advocate of Catalonia's independence from Spain, did not say how much money he had hidden abroad to avoid tax but Catalan daily newspaper La Vanguardia reported that four million euros was kept in a bank account in Andorra. Manios Limpias accuses the former head of the Catalan government of bribery, misappropriation of public funds, influence peddling, tax fraud, falsification of public documents, money laundering and breach of trust.
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| Deep divisions over Nigerian child bride on murder charge Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:18 PM PDT  Many see Wasila Tasi'u as a victim: a 14-year-old girl from a poor, strictly Muslim family in northern Nigeria, who killed her 35-year-old husband using rat poison after a forced marriage. The trial, which is set to begin in the coming weeks, has thrown the spotlight on Nigeria's deep religious and cultural divides, especially the influence of Islamic law in the mainly Muslim north. It is the norm here to marry off a girl at 14," said the dead groom's father, Sani Garba. According to police, Tasi'u confessed to putting poison in food she prepared for a party two weeks after her April wedding in Unguwar Yansoro, a remote village some 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Nigeria's second city of Kano.
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| Brazil candidate's death makes runoff more likely, pressures Rousseff Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:17 PM PDT By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - The death of presidential candidate Eduardo Campos makes it even more likely Brazil's October election goes to a second round and could put President Dilma Rousseff under more pressure as she seeks a second term. Campos died in a plane crash on Wednesday and his running mate Marina Silva is expected to pick up the baton and run for president herself. Her candidacy could give his Brazilian Socialist Party a boost and deprive Rousseff of votes she needs to avoid a second-round runoff against her main contender, Senator Aecio Neves. "The chances of a second round have increased a lot, because Marina Silva will draw more votes away from Rousseff than she will from Aecio Neves," said David Fleischer, a professor of politics at the University of Brasilia. |
| NZ favors Smith at fullback against Australia Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:12 PM PDT WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Ben Smith has been preferred to Israel Dagg at fullback in the All Blacks' lineup for Saturday's Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup opener against Australia. |
| 'Vape', 'binge-watch' added to Oxford Dictionaries Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:09 PM PDT LONDON (AP) — Don't know what "vaping" is? How about "listicle"? |
| Arrest warrant issued for Haiti ex-president Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:07 PM PDT  Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haiti issued an arrest warrant for former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide -- under investigation for corruption, money laundering, and drug trafficking -- after he failed to appear before a judge Wednesday, authorities said. Answering a question on whether there was a warrant, Judge Lamarre Belizaire said "I believe so." Aristide had been ordered to appear before the examining magistrate for questioning in an investigation involving illicit drug trafficking, embezzlement of public funds, abuse of authority and misappropriation, bribery and money laundering.
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| Gulf states discuss Ebola precautions ahead of hajj Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:05 PM PDT  Representatives of the Gulf monarchies met in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss precautions against the Ebola epidemic ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in early October. The executive bureau of the Gulf Cooperation Council's committee of health ministers met in the light of "preventive measures taken by some countries to protect against the Ebola virus... and the approach of the hajj," bureau director Taufik Khoja said. The pilgrimage, the world's biggest Muslim gathering, draws two million people to Saudi Arabia each year, including many from the West African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak.
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| Saudi Arabia gives UN $100 mln to fight terrorism Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:58 PM PDT  Saudi Arabia on Wednesday gave $100 million to the United Nations to support counter-terrorism efforts and called on other countries to do the same. "We have been stung by the evil of terrorism," Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir told reporters. The funds will go to the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre, set up in 2011 to tackle new security threats from terrorism.
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| Israel, Gaza violence defies truce 'deal' Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:49 PM PDT  Israeli jets bombed targets across Gaza early Thursday, retaliating to Palestinian rocket attacks in spiralling violence that left a truce extension teetering on the brink of collapse. The resumption of hostilities shattered nearly three days of calm over the skies of Gaza and southern Israel, raising fears that a new ceasefire announced in the Egyptian capital could quickly unravel. More than 1,950 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side have been killed since July 8, when Israel launched an offensive to destroy Hamas rockets and attack tunnels burrowing under the Jewish state. An official at the Palestinian interior ministry reported four air strikes over open ground about 30 minutes into the extension of a new truce, from midnight.
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| Gaza truce extended for five days to allow more talks: Palestinians Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:47 PM PDT By Stephen Kalin CAIRO (Reuters) - Israel and Palestinian factions negotiating in Cairo agreed on Wednesday to extend a truce for five more days to allow them to reach a lasting agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, the head of the Palestinian delegation said. Azzam Ahmed, a senior Fatah official, told reporters after a day of intense talks mediated by Egyptian intelligence that the Palestinians hoped to reach a final deal in the coming weeks, with Arab and international backing. Speaking as an existing 72-hour truce expired, Ahmed said that agreement had been reached on many issues but a few key sticking points remain, including on security. "I say yes, there was progress and agreement on many of the sticking points," said Ahmed. |
| US immigration judge sues over recusal from cases Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:46 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) — An immigration judge has sued the U.S. Justice Department, alleging that an order recusing her from hearing the cases of Iranian immigrants because of her involvement in the Iranian-American community is discriminatory. |
| Hamas official accuses Israel of violating truce Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:46 PM PDT A Hamas official accused Israel early on Thursday, of violating a newly-agreed truce aimed at securing a lasting end to the fighting in Gaza by shelling the coastal enclave. "There is no violation of the calm from any Palestinian side and nobody in Gaza has heard rocket fire," Izzat Reshiq, a Hamas official who is in Cairo for Gaza truce talks, said. "We denounce the Israeli shelling of Gaza which is continuing. This is a violation of the calm." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to respond to Gaza rocket fire moments before a three-day truce expired on Wednesday, an Israeli official said. |
| U.S. team landed on Mount Sinjar to assess possible evacuation Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:43 PM PDT A team including personnel from the U.S. military and the U.S. Agency for International Development landed on Iraq's Mount Sinjar early on Wednesday to assess how to evacuate civilians, a U.S. official said. |
| Syria's sarin precursor chemicals destroyed Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:37 PM PDT  All Syria's precursor chemicals that could be used to make deadly sarin gas have been destroyed on board a US Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea, the world's chemical watchdog said on Wednesday. "All 581 metric tonnes of a precursor chemical for sarin gas that were removed from Syria and trans-loaded onto the US vessel Cape Ray, have been destroyed with neutralisation technology on board the ship," the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said, confirming an Pentagon report on Tuesday. The precursor chemical, called methylphosphonyl difluoride, or DF, was neutralised with two field hydrolysis systems installed on the Cape Ray, the Hague-based watchdog said.
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| Egypt: Israel, Hamas to extend temporary truce Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:35 PM PDT  Egyptian mediators raced Wednesday to pin down a long-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas to prevent more violence in the Gaza war when their current truce ends at midnight.
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| France's 'Death to Jews' hamlet to mull name change Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:23 PM PDT  French authorities will next month consider changing the name of a tiny hamlet near Paris which is officially known as La-Mort-aux-Juifs ("Death to Jews") after a top Jewish group protested. "We will look at this problem right at the beginning of September" to find "a new name for the hamlet," Serge Montagne, a senior official from the village of Courtemaux, which has jurisdiction over the hamlet, told AFP on Wednesday. Montagne explained that the name, which dates back at least as far as the Middle Ages, is still on the official cadastral list, although the tiny hamlet of one farm and two houses has been known as "Route de Louzouer" on the postal register since 1992. A possible name change will be on the agenda of the next municipal council meeting, said Paul Laville, a town hall official at Montargis, the closest large town.
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| Brazil's biggest city faces rationing amid drought Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:21 PM PDT  SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's biggest city is running out of water and options.
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| Jewish groups accuse UN chief of being one-sided Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:20 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Leaders of major Jewish organizations on Wednesday accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of being one-sided in his handling of the crisis in Gaza. |
| Doctors: Ebola drug poses 'impossible dilemma' Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:19 PM PDT  DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Doctors treating a Sierra Leone physician with Ebola defended their decision not to give him an experimental drug, saying Wednesday they feared it was too risky.
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| Pope visits S. Korea with Asia in his sights Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:13 PM PDT  Pope Francis arrives in Seoul on Thursday looking to fuel a new era of Catholic growth in Asia -- a mission fraught with complex political challenges but huge potential rewards. His five-day visit to South Korea is recognition for one of Asia's fastest-growing, most devoted and most influential Roman Catholic communities, and will feature a special "reconciliation" mass with a message for isolated North Korea. The pope will bring a message about the "future of Asia" and will use his trip to "speak to all the countries on the continent", the Vatican's number two, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said in a television interview. Early in his pontificate, Francis made it clear that Asia, which his predecessor Benedict never visited, would be a priority.
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