| Ukraine seeks to join NATO; defiant Putin compares Kiev to Nazis Posted: 29 Aug 2014 01:21 PM PDT  By Alexei Anishchuk and Richard Balmforth LAKE SELIGER Russia/KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine called on Friday for full membership in NATO, its strongest plea yet for Western military help, after accusing Russia of sending in armored columns that have driven back its forces on behalf of pro-Moscow rebels. Russian President Vladimir Putin, defiant as ever, compared Kiev's drive to regain control of its rebellious eastern cities to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in World War Two. Speaking to young people at a summer camp, Putin told his countrymen they must be "ready to repel any aggression towards Russia." He described Ukrainians and Russians as "practically one people," language that Ukrainians say dismisses the very existence of their thousand-year-old nation. Kiev and Western countries say the reversal was the result of the arrival of armored columns of Russian troops, sent by Putin to prop up a rebellion that would otherwise have been near collapse.
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| Silva widens lead ahead of Brazil presidential election: poll Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:49 PM PDT  Environmentalist Marina Silva has widened her lead over President Dilma Rousseff to 10 percentage points in a likely second-round runoff in Brazil's October election, a survey by polling firm Datafolha showed on Friday. It was the third poll in less than a week that projected the Oct. 5 election would go to a second-round vote in which Rousseff would be unseated by Silva, who entered the race just 10 days ago following the death of her party's candidate. Silva has surged to 34 percent from 21 percent in a previous Datafolha poll conducted before she launched her candidacy, while Rousseff's support has fallen to 34 percent from 36 percent in a first-round vote. If the race goes to a runoff on Oct. 26 as expected, Silva would win 50 percent of the votes, while Rousseff would get 40 percent, widening her margin of victory from six to 10 percentage points, according to Datafolha.
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| After hard bargaining, EU set for deal on new leadership Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:02 PM PDT  By Alastair Macdonald and Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders are set to end weeks of wrangling over top jobs in Brussels and agree on Saturday on who will fill key posts in EU institutions that face major challenges from a combative Russia and a stuttering economy. A summit in Brussels that was called after a pre-vacation meeting two months ago ended in deadlock is likely, diplomats and officials said, to hand Poland's conservative prime minister the influential role of European Council president and Italy's little tested young foreign minister given the running of the EU's common diplomatic efforts.
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| Obama, in Estonia and at NATO summit, to send strong message to Putin Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:00 PM PDT  President Barack Obama will visit Estonia and attend a NATO summit in Wales next week to send a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his incursion into Ukraine must be reversed and to keep his hands off the Baltic nations. A fresh move into eastern Ukraine by Russian forces in support of separatists is rattling the region, and Obama will reassure NATO's Baltic allies Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that the alliance will stand with them should Moscow turn its attention to them. It will be the second visit ever to Estonia by an American president, following George W. Bush's 2006 stop there.
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| U.N. was told Golan peacekeepers seized 'for their protection' Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:23 PM PDT  The United Nations on Friday said it had been informed that the Islamist militants who seized 44 Fijian peacekeepers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights did so "for their own protection" and that all the detained blue-helmeted soldiers are safe. U.N. officials had been trying to establish the whereabouts of the peacekeepers, who were seized by al-Qaeda-linked rebels this week inside Syrian territory along the rocky frontier between Syria and the Golan Heights. "The United Nations has received assurances from credible sources that the 44 peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) who were taken from their position on the morning of Thursday, 28 August, are safe and in good health," the U.N. press office said in a statement.
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| Ebola outbreak reaches Senegal, riots break out in Guinea Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:07 PM PDT  By Diadie Ba and Saliou Samb DAKAR/CONAKRY (Reuters) - The West African state of Senegal became the fifth country to be hit by the world's worst Ebola outbreak on Friday, while riots broke out in neighboring Guinea's remote southeast where infection rates are rising fast. In the latest sign that the outbreak of the virus, which has already killed at least 1,550 people, is spinning out of control, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that Ebola cases rose last week at the fastest pace since the epidemic began in West Africa in March. The epidemic has defied efforts by governments to control it, prompting the leading charity fighting the outbreak, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), to call for the U.N. Security Council to take charge of efforts to stop it. Including the fatalities, more than 3,000 have been infected since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea in March and quickly spread across the border to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
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| Palmer opens with a 63 to lead in Boston Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:47 PM PDT  NORTON, Mass. (AP) — Ryan Palmer has felt all year that something special was going to happen. For now, he'll take his lowest round of the season.
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| Time running out for 'kidnapped' brain tumour boy taken to France Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:46 PM PDT  A frantic police hunt was underway Saturday for a five-year-old boy with a brain tumour taken from a British hospital by his family, as fears for his life intensified with every passing hour. Ashya King's parents took him Thursday from a hospital in the British south coast city of Southampton without doctors' consent and boarded a ferry to the French port of Cherbourg. It is not known why Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, took their son. While they are Jehovah's Witnesses, the movement said Friday there was no indication their decision was motivated by religious convictions.
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| El Salvador detains US man sought in abuse case Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:32 PM PDT SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in El Salvador says Salvadoran authorities have detained a U.S. man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl for several years in the state of New Jersey and have sent him back to face charges. |
| Sara Errani outlasts Venus Williams at US Open Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:31 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — Sara Errani wagged her finger and cupped her hand to her ear for the U.S. Open fans who tried to will Venus Williams to victory.
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| Ghana to serve as UN base for supplies bound for Ebola countries Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:27 PM PDT The United Nations will use Ghana as a base for supplies bound for countries stricken by an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 1,550 people in West Africa, the Ghanaian presidency said in a statement on Friday. UN chief Ban Ki-moon had a telephone conversation on Friday evening with Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, who agreed to let international agencies use Ghana's capital Accra as a base for air lifting supplies and personnel to affected countries, the statement said. The statement said the UN and local authorities would work closely to put in place appropriate screening and prevention measures to avoid any adverse effects on Ghana as a result of the international operations. The UN will also help review and strengthen Ghana's Ebola preparedness as steps are taken to prevent the virus from spreading to that country, according to the statement. |
| UN: 'Very fluid' situation on held peacekeepers Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:23 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The plight of dozens of U.N. peacekeepers in Syria remained "very, very fluid" Friday, the secretary-general's spokesman said, as talks aimed at their release stretched into a second day.
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| Members of Jewish sect leave Guatemala village Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:21 PM PDT GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group have been forced out of a village in western Guatemala after disputes with indigenous residents over cultural and religious differences. |
| Haitian authorities burn 4.5 tons worth of drugs Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:15 PM PDT PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Authorities in Haiti have destroyed nearly 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) of marijuana and 57 kilograms (126 pounds) of cocaine seized in the past two years. |
| Pentagon: Iraq operations cost $560 million so far Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:09 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military operations in Iraq, including airstrikes and surveillance flights, have cost about $560 million since mid-June, the Pentagon said Friday. |
| Huge rival protests in Yemen capital amid UN warning Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:02 PM PDT  Tens of thousands of supporters of Yemen's Shiite rebels rallied Friday in Sanaa to press for the government to step down, as a large number of its backers held a counter-demonstration. The UN Security Council called on the rebels to end their armed uprising and warned of sanctions. They massed on a road leading to Sanaa airport after the weekly Muslim prayers. At the same time, tens of thousands of government supporters rallied in southern Sanaa, calling for unity and solidarity with the cabinet.
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| Senegal confirms Ebola case as outbreak hits 5th WAfrican country Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:01 PM PDT  The Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 1,500 people across West Africa spread to a fifth country in the region on Friday with the first confirmed case of the deadly virus in Senegal. The case marks the first time a new country has been hit by the outbreak since July and comes a day after the World Health Organization warned the number of infections is increasing rapidly. Senegal's health ministry said the patient is a young Guinean man who was immediately quarantined at a Dakar hospital, where he is in a "satisfactory condition". The man is believed to have been infected in Guinea's capital Conakry, and may have travelled to Senegal before Dakar closed its land border with Guinea on August 21.
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| Besieged UN peacekeepers in Syria ready to use 'deadly force' Posted: 29 Aug 2014 04:00 PM PDT  Seventy-five Filipino members of a UN peacekeeping force besieged by Syrian rebels on the Golan Heights are ready to use "deadly force" to defend themselves, their commander in Manila said Friday. Talks were underway to free a separate group of 43 peacekeepers from Fiji who have been taken hostage by anti-Assad fighters, officials said. The United Nations Security Council "strongly condemned" the assaults against the peacekeepers, which it said were carried out by "terrorist groups and by members of non-state armed groups". The Filipino peacekeepers trapped at two posts on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights were prepared to fight back rather than surrender, their commander in Manila said.
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| Turkey unveils new cabinet of Erdogan allies Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:59 PM PDT  Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday approved a new cabinet stacked with loyal allies just a day after he became head of state, with former Europe minister Mevlut Cavusoglu promoted to foreign minister.
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| US arms Lebanon for fight against jihadists Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:58 PM PDT  The United States is supplying weaponry to Lebanon's armed forces to help it battle jihadists near the Syrian border, Washington's ambassador to Beirut said on Friday. Lebanese troops this month clashed with gunmen in a mainly Sunni Muslim enclave of the largely Shiite Bekaa Valley, which is hosting tens of thousands of Sunni refugees from Syria. On Friday, Ambassador David Hale said Washington offered its help to Beirut after clashes first flared in early August when extremists attacked Arsal, leaving 19 soldiers, 16 civilians and dozens of jihadists dead.
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| Britain raises terror threat level on Iraq, Syria fears Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:55 PM PDT  Britain raised its terror threat risk level to "severe" on Friday, meaning an attack is thought to be "highly likely", due to fears over the situation in Iraq and Syria. The move comes after the killing of US journalist James Foley, apparently by a man speaking with an English accent who belonged to the jihadist group Islamic State. While there was no intelligence to suggest that an attack on Britain is imminent, Prime Minister David Cameron said there was "no doubt in my mind" that IS had its sights set on targets in Europe. "What we are facing in Iraq now with ISIL (IS) is a greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before," he told a press conference just after the threat level was raised.
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| NATO warns Russia over 'blatant violations' in Ukraine conflict Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:52 PM PDT  NATO warned Russia on Friday over what it described as a "blatant violation" of Ukraine's sovereignty after the West accused Moscow of direct involvement in the escalating conflict. Fears of a wider confrontation have spiralled after NATO said Russia had sent troops to fight in Ukraine and funnelled huge amounts of heavy weaponry to pro-Kremlin rebels in what Kiev branded an invasion. "This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilise Ukraine as a sovereign nation," NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, describing the massing of Russian troops on the border as a "blatant violation" of Ukrainian sovereignty.
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| Ghana says poverty cut by half since 1992 Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:44 PM PDT  The number of people living in poverty in Ghana halved between 1992 and 2013, the government said Friday, with the country meeting a key developmental benchmark even as its economy struggles. The figures were based on Ghana's own measure of poverty which for 2013 counted individuals living on less than 3.60 cedis -- equivalent last year to an average of $2.34 or 2.21 euros -- a day. By halving the poverty rate, Ghana becomes one of the few African countries to achieve the first of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, a set of benchmarks that developing countries are aiming to meet by next year. Anthony Amuzu, from the Ghana Statistical Service, said anti-poverty initiatives such as cash transfers and school feeding programmes were behind Ghana's success.
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| Gulbis, seeded 11th, 1st top-20 man out of US Open Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:27 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — Ernests Gulbis became the first man seeded in the top 20 at this year's U.S. Open to lose, blowing a two-set lead in the second round Friday against his pal and frequent practice partner, 45th-ranked Dominic Thiem of Austria. |
| Tony Stewart back at the track, looking to heal Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:27 PM PDT  HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Tony Stewart took his seat on the podium — unshaven, his eyes glassy — and unfolded a sheet of paper. His voice quivered as he read, pausing to maintain his composure as he described the death of a driver he hit as "one of the toughest tragedies I've ever had to deal with."
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| Egg-throwing and road rage as Scotland campaign heats up Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:24 PM PDT  Insults, egg-throwing and rage: the campaign ahead of Scotland's independence referendum is heating up, even forcing an intervention by British Prime Minister David Cameron. The victim of the egg attack was Jim Murphy, an ex-Europe minister and formerly the Scotland secretary in the British government. Murphy said Friday he was temporarily suspending his grassroots tour, accusing the "Yes" campaign of employing intimidation tactics. Pro-independence leader Alex Salmond also condemned the incident but said he too had been a victim of harassment, being chased by an angry driver brandishing a "No" sign.
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| Valencia beats 10-man Malaga 3-0 in home opener Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:12 PM PDT BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Valencia striker Paco Alcacer celebrated his first call-up for Spain by scoring the opening goal in a 3-0 win over 10-man Malaga in the Spanish league on Friday. |
| Jamaican ends legal challenge to anti-sodomy law Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:03 PM PDT KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A young Jamaican gay rights activist who brought an unprecedented legal challenge to the Caribbean island's anti-sodomy law has withdrawn the claim after growing fearful about violent backlashes, advocacy groups and colleagues said Friday. |
| Top Asian News at 10:00 p.m. GMT Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:02 PM PDT HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's simmering summer of discontent gets even hotter Sunday when Beijing is expected to recommend restricting the first direct elections for the Chinese-controlled financial hub's leader, stepping up chances of a showdown with democracy groups. The former British colony, which was handed back to China in 1997, has been the scene of escalating tension for the past year after activists threatened a mass sit-in paralyzing the financial district if Beijing rules out genuine democratic reforms. |
| Stocks end higher following strong run in August Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:54 PM PDT  The Standard & Poor's 500 index delivered its fourth record high in five days Friday, ending with the biggest monthly gain since February.
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| Italy's Renzi tries new reform plan as economy sinks Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:51 PM PDT  By Isla Binnie and Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Friday presented a plan to quicken the pace of Italian justice and break down bureaucratic obstacles to investment as fresh data pointed to a further deterioration in Italy's recession bound economy. The 39-year-old prime minister, due to attend a European Union summit in Brussels on Saturday, needs to restore international confidence in Italy and show he can make good on repeated pledges to revive growth and turn ambitious reform promises into concrete results. Italy posted its first annual fall in consumer prices in 55 years in August and statistics bureau ISTAT said on Friday deflation would deepen in coming months. Speaking after a three-hour cabinet meeting, Renzi called the measures approved a "revolution" and said they would bring Italy's notoriously slow civil justice system more into line with those of its European peers and halve the backlog of cases.
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| Defiant Putin eyes pro-Russian statelet in Ukraine: analysts Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:45 PM PDT  Russian strongman Vladimir Putin first used "Novorossiya" -- the loaded Tsarist-era name for what is now southern and eastern Ukraine -- just after annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March, sparking outrage in Kiev. The Kremlin made a reference to the term again on Friday when it released Putin's address to Ukraine's pro-Russian separatists, pointedly calling them defenders of "Novorossiya" (New Russia).
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| Economic sanctions spare Western-tied Russian fund Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:43 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Western business connections are complicating efforts to bring economic sanctions against executives and companies closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. A prime example: the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a $10 billion sovereign wealth fund that's escaped sanctions in spite of international efforts to punish Russia for its incursions in Ukraine.
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| US OPEN SCENE: Monfils wonders about net's height Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:39 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — As Gael Monfils hit ball after ball into the net during his first service game Friday at the U.S. Open — resulting in four double-faults — a thought occurred to him: "Seems pretty high, huh?"
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| Top Asian News at 9:30 p.m. GMT Posted: 29 Aug 2014 02:32 PM PDT HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's simmering summer of discontent gets even hotter Sunday when Beijing is expected to recommend restricting the first direct elections for the Chinese-controlled financial hub's leader, stepping up chances of a showdown with democracy groups. The former British colony, which was handed back to China in 1997, has been the scene of escalating tension for the past year after activists threatened a mass sit-in paralyzing the financial district if Beijing rules out genuine democratic reforms. |
