| Police storm Sydney cafe to end hostage siege, three dead Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:16 PM PST  By Lincoln Feast and Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Heavily armed Australian police stormed a Sydney cafe early on Tuesday morning and freed a number of hostages being held there at gunpoint, in a dramatic end to a 16-hour siege in which three people including the attacker were killed. Police have not publicly identified the gunman but a police source named him as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee and self-styled sheikh known for sending hate mail to the families of Australian troops killed in Afghanistan. ...
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| White House has not yet decided on Russia sanctions bill Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:44 PM PST  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Monday that President Barack Obama had not yet decided how to respond to a bill authorizing new sanctions against Russia over its activities in Ukraine, although some lawmakers said they expected he would sign the measure into law. "This is something that has been the source of some discussions at the White House over the last several days," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One. ...
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| Obama vows no safe haven for Islamic State Posted: 15 Dec 2014 01:15 PM PST  By Steve Holland FORT DIX, N.J. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama used a holiday season visit to a U.S. military base on Monday to issue a tough warning to Islamic State militants, saying a U.S.-led coalition will permit no safe haven to the group and will destroy it eventually. Obama spoke to hundreds of camouflage-wearing troops in a hangar at Fort Dix to thank the U.S. military for its actions around the world. In a display of bipartisan support for the troops, Obama was joined by New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie, a potential candidate to succeed Obama in 2016. The U.S. ...
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| Israel seeks U.S. block of Palestinian statehood drive Posted: 15 Dec 2014 02:36 PM PST  By Lesley Wroughton ROME (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday sought assurances from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Washington would block efforts by Palestinians and Europeans on Palestinian statehood. "Our expectation is that the United States will stand by its position for the past 47 years that a solution to the conflict will be achieved through negotiations, and I do not see a reason for this policy to change," Netanyahu told reporters after a meeting in Rome that lasted some three hours. ...
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| Parts of Zurich airport shut after unspecified threat Posted: 15 Dec 2014 02:28 PM PST ZURICH (Reuters) - Zurich airport was partially closed on Monday evening after receiving an unspecified threat, a spokeswoman said. The airport shut Check-in 1 and 2 as well as Arrivals 2, and passengers were being redirected to Check-in 3, the spokeswoman said, adding that waiting time was still only about 15 minutes. "A threat was received in the course of the evening," she said, declining to elaborate apart from saying Zurich's cantonal police were currently looking into the matter. ... |
| Anti-immigration protests grow in Germany Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:24 PM PST  By Erik Kirschbaum DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) - A new grass-roots movement that assails the German government for ignoring its fears of being overrun by Muslims and other immigrants attracted a record 15,000 marchers on Monday in the eastern city of Dresden. The fast-growing movement that calls itself PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, has drawn support from the far-right as well as some ordinary Germans alarmed by a sharp rise in refugees, many fleeing conflict in the Middle East. ...
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| Images capture drama of Australia hostage siege Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:51 PM PST  SYDNEY (AP) — A hostage siege in Sydney that began Monday morning and ended with a police raid 16 hours later unfolded before the world through a stream of nail-biting images.
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| Border fence knocked down by storm repaired Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:50 PM PST TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A section of the steel fence that divides the U.S. and Mexico has been repaired several months after debris from a rainstorm knocked it down. |
| Why oil is down by half, what it means for you Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:50 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil has fallen by nearly half in just six months, a surprising and steep plunge that has consumers cheering, producers howling and economists wringing their hands over whether this is a good or bad thing.
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| Sweden urges fresh look into secretary general death Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:46 PM PST  Hammarskjold died when his plane went down near Ndola in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, on September 18, 1961, but countless studies have failed to nail down the cause of the crash. Ambassador Per Thoresson presented a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly on setting up a panel of experts that would follow up on a report last year by an independent commission that cited new information in the baffling case.
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| US seeks to use bin Laden letters at terror trial Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:42 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — |
| N. Korea seeks UN meeting on CIA torture Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:33 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea asked the U.N. Security Council in a letter Monday to take up the CIA's harsh treatment of terror suspects, instead of the North's own human rights situation. |
| Top Asian News at 12:30 a.m. GMT Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:32 PM PST SYDNEY (AP) — The deadly siege began in the most incongruous of ways, on a sunny Monday morning inside a cheerful cafe in the heart of Australia's largest city. An Iranian-born gunman burst in, took 17 people hostage, and forced some to hold a flag with an Islamic declaration of faith above the shop window's festive inscription of "Merry Christmas." It ended after midnight with a barrage of gunfire that left two hostages and the gunman dead, four others wounded, and a nation that has long prided itself on its peace rocked to its core. |
| Japan orders chicken cull after bird flu outbreak Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:31 PM PST  Japan on Tuesday ordered the slaughter of some 4,000 chickens after officials confirmed bird flu at a poultry farm in the southwest of the country. DNA tests confirmed the H5 strain of the virus at a farm in Miyazaki after its owner reported more than 20 sudden deaths among his poultry on Sunday and Monday, the agriculture ministry said. It was the first confirmed outbreak of bird flu at a Japanese poultry farm since April. Authorities in Miyazaki prefecture, on Kyushu island, have locked down the affected farm and nearby farms, with the movement of chickens banned while the areas are being sanitised.
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| Accused of rights abuses, North Korea urges UN meeting on CIA torture Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:31 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea on Monday asked the United Nations Security Council to add the issue of torture by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to its agenda as the council prepares to hold a meeting next week on alleged human rights abuses by the Asian state. The council is due to meet on Dec. 22 or Dec. 23 on human rights in North Korea after two-thirds of the 15-members pushed for the issue to be added to the body's agenda. A U.N. report in February detailed abuses in North Korea that it said were comparable to Nazi-era atrocities. ...
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| Kerry, Netanyahu meet as UN efforts heat up Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:30 PM PST  ROME (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry met Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the U.S. and Israel developed their responses to a draft U.N. resolution that would set a two-year timetable for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.
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| European help for Palestinians 'endangers Israel': Netanyahu Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:29 PM PST  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that European support for a Palestinian bid at the UN to force an Israeli military withdrawal could harm his country as the US sought to head of a diplomatic crisis. "I said that the attempts of the Palestinians and of several European countries to force conditions on Israel will only lead to a deterioration in the regional situation and will endanger Israel," he said in a statement. The comments followed almost three hours of talks in Rome between Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who jetted across Europe on Monday for a hectic round of meetings. A State Department official said Kerry and Netanyahu "had a long and thorough discussion about Israel's security and developments at the United Nations".
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| Iraq jihadists release pictures of mass execution Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:25 PM PST  The Islamic State (IS) group on Monday released pictures of the execution of 13 men described as anti-jihadist Sunni tribal fighters near the northern city of Tikrit. Local residents confirmed to AFP that a mass execution had taken place on a large roundabout six kilometres (four miles) east of the city of Tikrit at around 3:30 pm (1230 GMT). Residents said the roundabout is at an intersection for roads leading to Tikrit, Kirkuk and the town of Al-Alam. They said the men who were executed were members of an anti-IS group of Sunni tribal fighters known as the Knights of Al-Alam who were captured by jihadists in Tikrit and Al-Alam around 10 days earlier.
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| Timeline of Australia hostage drama at Sydney cafe Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:25 PM PST  SYDNEY (AP) — An armed gunman entered a Sydney cafe during Monday morning's rush hour and took an unknown number of hostages. Hours after the crisis began, five people escaped but a number of others remained inside. Then early Tuesday morning, a loud bang was heard and police stormed the cafe.
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| UN Security Council to meet next week on North Korea Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:17 PM PST  The UN Security Council will meet next week to discuss North Korea's rights record amid calls for Pyongyang to be referred to the international court for crimes against humanity. After weeks of discussion, the council set December 22 or 23 as the date for the open meeting on Pyongyang's rights violations, said a spokesman from Chad, which holds the council's presidency. Ten of the 15 ambassadors at the council had been pushing for a meeting this month, but ran into strong opposition from China and Russia who argued that the matter should be dealt by the UN Human Rights Council. The 10 ambassadors cited the findings of a commission of inquiry report on North Korea that was released in February, and argued that Pyongyang's rights violations posed a threat to international peace and security.
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| Ukrainian PM appeals to EU for immediate financial aid Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:12 PM PST  By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk appealed to the European Union for urgent financial aid on Monday, saying the government was doing all it could to fix a shattered economy but needed help. A year of revolution and war with pro-Russian separatists has pushed Ukraine's hryvnia currency to record lows and crippled the economy, which was already near bankruptcy after years of corruption and economic mismanagement. Asked when Ukraine needed new financial assistance, Yatseniuk told reporters in Brussels: "Let me put it in a nutshell - yesterday. ...
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| Tens of thousands dead in South Sudan conflict: UN Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:05 PM PST  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have died in South Sudan during one year of warfare and the country's leaders are putting their "personal ambitions" ahead of the young nation's future, the U.N. secretary-general said Monday.
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| Russia raises key rate to protect ailing economy Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:01 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bank of Russia has raised its key interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent in a desperate move to boost its currency and rescue its troubled economy. |
| Jailed Venezuela opposition leader rattles cage Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:47 PM PST  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Locked up and denounced by Venezuela's government as a terrorist, Leopoldo Lopez may be out of sight, but he is not out of mind.
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| Saudi-Egypt power link project to start in new year Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:44 PM PST  A project to link the electricity grids of Egypt and Saudi Arabia will start next year at a cost of at least $1.5 billion, officials said on Monday. "The project will be awarded mid-2015, and take three years to complete," Saleh al-Awaji, an undersecretary in the kingdom's Ministry of Water and Electricity, said at an energy technology conference in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. It will cost $1.5-2.0 billion, Awaji told reporters during the 4th Saudi Arabia Smart Grid and Green Energy conference. "The power link project with Saudi Arabia is in the final stages of the award," said Gaber Desouky, chairman of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company.
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| Haiti PM defends tenure after forced resignation Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:41 PM PST  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Haitian prime minister who resigned under pressure over the weekend said Monday that the country has made significant progress during his tenure even as the political standoff that led to his ouster continues.
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| Navajos buy back artifacts at disputed auction Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:36 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — The largest Native American tribe in the American Southwest won its bid Monday to buy back seven sacred masks at a contested auction of tribal artifacts in Paris that netted over a million dollars.
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| Stocks fall after biggest weekly loss since 2012 Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:29 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — Falling oil prices pushed U.S. stocks down broadly on Monday, extending losses into a second week.
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| Romanian parliament approves new Ponta cabinet Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:23 PM PST  Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta's revamped government sailed through a vote of confidence in parliament Monday on a promise of continued economic growth and improved social programmes. "I want 2016 to be the fifth consecutive year of economic growth, based on a social model that is not associated with suffering and austerity," Ponta said in a speech to both houses of parliament. Romania's Social Democratic premier of the past two-and-a-half years also pledged to step up the fight against tax evasion and make better use of European Union funding. Budget Minister Darius Valcov's remit was expanded to include finance.
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| Canada, China to sign deal on return of fugitives' seized assets Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:18 PM PST By Megha Rajagopalan and David Ljunggren BEIJING/OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is set to finalize a deal with China to return ill-gotten assets seized from those suspected of economic crimes, the official China Daily reported on Monday, as Beijing works to track down corrupt officials who have fled overseas. China has vowed to pursue a search, dubbed Operation "Fox Hunt," beyond its borders for corrupt officials and business executives, and their assets. ... |
| Iraq reports 2,700 missing since June jihadist onslaught Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:17 PM PST  At least 2,700 people, mostly soldiers, are missing as a result of attacks by the Islamic State group in Iraq, the human rights ministry said on Monday. Badush is a prison outside the northern city of Mosul, which IS has used as its main hub in Iraq. According to Human Rights Watch, IS gunmen executed up to 600 inmates from Badush prison on June 10, forcing them to kneel along a nearby ravine before pushing them in and setting fire to the bodies.
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| US can't apply 'Buy America' rule in Canada Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:08 PM PST  Ottawa cried foul Monday over Washington's insistence on using only American steel for its renovation of a ferry terminal on Canadian soil. The so-called "Buy America" policy, written into the US stimulus plan after the 2008 economic crisis, has been roundly criticized by Washington's trade partners as protectionist. "The application of these protectionist trade restrictions on projects on Canadian soil by a foreign government is unreasonable," said Max Moncaster, spokesman for Trade Minister Ed Fast. At the center of the dispute is a ferry terminal in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, leased by the Alaska ferry service from a Canadian government port authority.
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| 'Super bacteria' found in Rio's Olympic waters Posted: 15 Dec 2014 02:58 PM PST  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A drug-resistant "super bacteria" that's normally found in hospitals and is notoriously difficult to treat has been discovered in the waters where Rio de Janeiro's Olympic sailing events will be held, scientists said Monday.
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| United can win the title roars Rooney Posted: 15 Dec 2014 02:58 PM PST  London (AFP) - Wayne Rooney has warned Premier League leaders Chelsea that Manchester United are capable of winning the title this season.
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| Inter wins 2-0 at Chievo for Mancini's 1st victory Posted: 15 Dec 2014 02:46 PM PST  MILAN (AP) — Roberto Mancini recorded his first league victory back in charge at Inter Milan with a 2-0 win at 10-man Chievo Verona on Monday.
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| Andrea Pirlo voted Serie A player of the year Posted: 15 Dec 2014 02:37 PM PST  MILAN (AP) — Juventus and Italy playmaker Andrea Pirlo has been voted best player of the 2013-14 season in Serie A.
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