| Pro-Russian rebels attack key port; Ukraine says at least 30 dead Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:17 PM PST By Alessandra Prentice and Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - Pro-Russian rebels launched an offensive against the strategic port of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, prompting the European Union's foreign policy chief to warn of a further "grave deterioration" in EU-Russian relations. Mariupol's city administration said the rebels had killed at least 30 people and injured 83 others by firing rockets from long-range GRAD missile systems. The city of 500,000, on the Sea of Azov, is vital for eastern Ukraine's steel and grain exports and straddles the coastal route from the Russian border to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula in southern Ukraine seized by Russia last March. |
| Japan condemns apparent Islamic State execution, demands hostage release Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:59 PM PST  By Antoni Slodkowski and Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday called for the immediate release of a Japanese journalist held by Islamic State after a video surfaced claiming that a fellow Japanese captive had been executed. Japan government officials said they had not confirmed the authenticity of the recording and an image of what appeared to be the decapitated body of Japanese captive Haruna Yukawa, who went missing in Syria last August. Abe called for the immediate release of the remaining Japanese captive, reporter Kenji Goto. U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the brutal murder of Yukawa in a statement released by the White House, which did not address how Washington had confirmed his killing.
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| Boko Haram releases about 190 people in Nigeria's Yobe state Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:58 PM PST Nigerian Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram released about 190 captives, who returned to their community in the northeast state of Yobe between Friday and Saturday, while other people were still being held, local and state officials said. Abdullahi Bego, spokesman for the state governor, said the militants released young men, women and children who were kidnapped on Jan 6. Boko Haram has been waging a five-year insurgency to establish an Islamic state in the northeast of the country. Borno state is the worst hit followed by Adamawa and Yobe. |
| Obama, world leaders head to Saudi Arabia to offer condolences Posted: 24 Jan 2015 09:43 AM PST  U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to meet its new King Salman after the death of his predecessor Abdullah on Friday, testimony to Riyadh's important role in energy markets and the fight against Islamist militancy. Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande and Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito will visit on Saturday and Sunday to offer condolences. Obama will cut short a visit to India to pay his respects instead of Vice President Joe Biden, who had been scheduled to fly in from Washington, the White House said on Saturday.
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| Greek leftists Syriza aim for historic election win Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:10 PM PST  By James Mackenzie ATHENS (Reuters) - Greeks vote on Sunday in a historic election expected to bring in a government led by the leftwing Syriza party, which has promised to take on international lenders and roll back painful austerity measures imposed during years of economic crisis. Barring a huge upset, victory for Syriza, which has led opinion polls for months, would produce the first euro zone government openly committed to cancelling the austerity terms of its EU and IMF-backed bailout program. A Syriza win would represent another turning point for Europe after last week's announcement by the European Central Bank of a massive injection of cash into the bloc's flagging economy after years of trying to clamp down on budgets and pushing countries to pass structural reforms. Final polls on Friday gave the party led by 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras a lead of up to 6.7 points with 31.2 to 33.4 percent of the vote, close to the level needed for an outright victory.
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| Congo parliament says to drop controversial part of election law Posted: 24 Jan 2015 01:04 PM PST  By Aaron Ross KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's lawmakers will remove part of an electoral reform bill the opposition says was aimed at keeping President Joseph Kabila in power, the head of the national assembly said on Saturday. Parliamentarians will vote on the bill on Sunday, Aubin Minaku said, potentially ending a violent standoff in which some 42 people have been killed in the capital and other parts of the country during violent protests over recent days. "The line in question (will) be purely and simply withdrawn from the law," Minaku told journalists in Kinshasa. "We have responded to [the people's] expectations so that there is serenity." Under Kabila's proposed law, a national census would have to be completed before the next presidential elections, expected in 2016.
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| Canadian pleads not guilty in US terror case Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:57 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — A Canadian man pleaded not guilty Saturday to U.S. charges that he sent money and provided other long-distance support to Tunisian jihadists believed responsible for a 2009 suicide attack in Iraq that killed five American soldiers. |
| Spanish police arrest 4 suspected members of a jihadi cell Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:50 PM PST MADRID (AP) — Spanish National Police arrested four suspected jihadis Saturday in the country's North African enclave of Ceuta who allegedly had formed a terror cell and were ready to carry out an attack, the Interior Ministry said. |
| Japan PM says 'credibility' of hostage video is 'high' Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:44 PM PST  Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday the "credibility" of a video announcing the execution of a Japanese hostage by the Islamic State militant group was "high". "We have been looking into its authenticity, but unfortunately at the moment we cannot help saying its credibility is high," he said on the public network NHK. The government will continue analysing the images to fully confirm the authenticity of the video, Abe said. The nearly three-minute recording, posted online Saturday, shows a still image of Kenji Goto holding an apparent photograph of Haruna Yukawa's slain body, with an audio recording in which Goto spoke of the IS group's demand for a prisoner exchange to guarantee his release.
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| Lungu: Zambia's 'humble' new president with fighting spirit Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:37 PM PST  Zambia's new president Edgar Lungu describes himself as an "ordinary Zambian of humble beginnings" but he showed his fighting spirit when he overcame a bruising internal power struggle to become the ruling Patriotic Front's candidate to replace the late Michael Sata. Lungu's slim victory puts him in charge of Africa's second biggest copper producer until elections next year. "He is a team player, he does not look down on others and he is not the 'I know it all' type as the case is with some legal brains," said Alex Ng'oma, a political analyst at the University of Zambia.
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| Top Asian News at 12:30 a.m. GMT Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:32 PM PST TOKYO (AP) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe angrily demanded Sunday that the extremist Islamic State group release a Japanese journalist it is holding hostage after a new online video purported to show that another hostage had been killed. While the Japanese government and others cast doubt on the authenticity of the video, President Barack Obama issued a statement condemning what he called "the brutal murder" of one of the hostages. His statement did not say how the United States knows that Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer, is dead, and the Japanese government still was trying to verify the video. |
| Israeli book chain scales back Charlie Hebdo sales drive Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:28 PM PST  An Israeli book chain has dropped plans for an in-store promotion for the latest edition of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, with a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed, local media said Saturday. Public Radio said that the Steimatzky chain had intended to hold a promotional event in a branch in the Tel Aviv area but later decided that orders for the issue -- which has sparked sometimes deadly protests across the Muslim world -- would now be taken only through its website. The radio quoted the firm as saying it had not received threats or come under pressure but had changed its plans due to complaints from customers living far from the Tel Aviv area who would be unable to buy the magazine in person. Internet news site Ynet said the issue would go on sale on Monday and continue for as long as stocks last.
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| Wales prop Adam Jones retires from internationals Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:11 PM PST CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Adam Jones, who propped 95 times for Wales and five tests for the British and Irish Lions, retired from international rugby on Saturday. |
| Factbox: How the Greek election works Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:06 PM PST Greeks vote on Sunday in an election expected to bring in a government led by the leftwing Syriza party. The anti-bailout party led by Alexis Tsipras is leading in the polls but it is unclear if it can win enough seats to govern without having to rely on one or more of the smaller parties. - A total of 18 parties and 4 party alliances are running. |
| Boko Haram frees 192 people held in NE Nigeria Posted: 24 Jan 2015 04:06 PM PST  Boko Haram has released nearly 200 hostages, most of them women, who were kidnapped from a village in the northeast Nigerian state of Yobe, a community leader and a military source told AFP Saturday. A total of 192 people were released on Friday from two Islamist enclaves, where they had been kept since a January 6 raid on Katarko, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the state capital Damaturu. In all, 218 women and children were abducted. "Boko Haram have released 192 of our women they kidnapped early this month," Goni Mari, a Katarko community leader told AFP from Damaturu.
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| Ukraine rebels announce new offensive as rockets kill 30 Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:50 PM PST  Pro-Kremlin rebels in eastern Ukraine announced a major new offensive Saturday after heavy rocket fire killed at least 30 people in the government-held port of Mariupol, sparking international calls for Moscow to stop backing the separatists. "Obviously, everyone in the city is very scared," Mariupol native Eduard told AFP. "Today, we launched an offensive against Mariupol," Russia's RIA Novosti quoted the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic's leader Alexander Zakharchenko as saying.
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| Thousands march in Venezuela over economic crisis, shortages Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:33 PM PST  Demonstrators against Venezuela's economic crisis -- facing sky-high inflation and shortages of food and consumer goods -- took to the streets in their thousands Saturday, banging pots and demanding an end to President Nicolas Maduro's term. With the precipitous drop of oil, Maduro has traveled in recent days to Algeria, China, Iran, Qatar, Russia and Saudi Arabia as he makes an urgent appeal for cash.
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| Sturridge set for Liverpool return; Balotelli warning Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:30 PM PST LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge is closing in on a return to action after more than four months out injured but Mario Balotelli's exile from the first team is set to continue. |
| Cup of Nations quick on the draw Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:25 PM PST  The Ivory Coast again needed a late Max-Alain Gradel goal just to earn a draw at the Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday, while Cameroon were held by Guinea in the tightest group in the competition. The Ivorians drew 1-1 with Mali before Cameroon and Guinea drew by the same scoreline in Malabo in Group D, which has now seen four matches all end one apiece and will go right down to the wire.
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| Libya's Ansar al-Sharia group confirms chief's death Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:23 PM PST  Libya's Ansar al-Sharia jihadist group on Saturday confirmed the death of its leader Mohamed al-Zehawi, after Islamist websites reported he had been mortally wounded in fighting in October. "We mourn the death of the Emir of Ansar al-Sharia Sheikh Mohamed al-Zehawi," the group said in a statement, without giving details about the time or circumstances of his death. Zehawi's fate has been a mystery since the October clashes between pro-government forces and Islamist militias in the eastern city of Benghazi in which dozens died. Ansar al-Sharia is classified by the United States and the United Nations as a terrorist organisation.
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| Morocco seizes 24 tonnes of hashish after Spain busts ring Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:21 PM PST  Moroccan security forces seized nearly 24 tonnes of hashish from a number of boats and arrested 11 people after an overnight chase off the northern coast, the MAP news agency reported Saturday. Spain's proximity to north Africa, a major source of hashish, and its close ties with its former colonies in Latin America, a key cocaine-producing region, have made it the main gateway into Europe for narcotics. The Spanish raids were carried out throughout the country, including Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, as well as the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on Morocco's Mediterranean coast. Spanish police also seized two million euros ($2.2 million) in cash as well as several weapons, including assault rifles, as part of the operation that followed a two-year investigation.
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| Argentine prosecutor shot point blank in forehead: official Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:16 PM PST  An Argentine prosecutor found dead shortly before he was about to make explosive allegations about President Cristina Kirchner took a bullet point-blank to his forehead, justice officials said Saturday. Authorities said Diego Lagomarsino, a computer expert and colleague who said he had brought prosecutor Alberto Nisman a handgun Saturday night at his request, has been barred from leaving Argentina. Nisman was found dead with a bullet to the head in his Buenos Aires home on Sunday, just before he was set to go before a congressional hearing to accuse Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman of shielding Iranian officials implicated in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. It was Argentina's worst terror attack in modern history.
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| Reporter covering prosecutor's death leaves Argentina Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:15 PM PST BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A journalist credited with being the first to report the gunshot death of federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman has left Argentina because of fear for his safety. |
| Ronaldo sees red in Madrid win; Messi nets 2 as Barca rolls Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:07 PM PST  BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for kicking an opponent in Real Madrid's 2-1 win at Cordoba, and Lionel Messi reached the 30-goal mark for a seventh straight season in the Spanish league on Saturday.
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| Wales's Adam Jones retires from Test rugby Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:07 PM PST  Wales and British and Irish Lions prop Adam Jones has announced his retirement from international rugby union, in an interview published with Britain's Sunday Times. The 33-year-old prop made 100 Test appearances in total, 95 for Wales and five for the Lions, and played in three Grand Slam-winning teams. Jones's last appearance for Wales was the 38-16 defeat by South Africa in the first Test of their tour in June. His international future was called into question after he was replaced by Samson Lee just 30 minutes into that match after struggling in the scrum and his announcement means Jones has given up hope of earning a Wales recall in time for this year's World Cup in England.
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| Celebrities gasp at Dior's hidden orchestra in Paris Posted: 24 Jan 2015 03:02 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — From behind a black curtain in the central catwalk, fashion powerhouse Dior pulled a surprise on its guests in unveiling a concealed orchestra at the start of the Paris menswear show.
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| DR Congo drops contested part of election bill after deadly protests Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:59 PM PST  The Democratic Republic of Congo's lawmakers on Saturday agreed to scrap a contested part of an electoral bill that triggered days of deadly protests over claims it would have enabled President Joseph Kabila to extend his grip on power. National Assembly speaker Aubin Minaku told AFP that MPs will withdraw a controversial provision from the planned legislation that required a census to be held before the next election in 2016. "This is a victory.... because there won't be (a delay) of the presidential election," Vital Kamerhe, head of the opposition Union for the Congolese Nation, told AFP. Angry demonstrations erupted across the country after the National Assembly last week passed the original version of the electoral reform bill with the contested provision that many saw as an attempt by Kabila, in power for 14 years, to stay on past his mandate.
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| US works to ease Caribbean dependence on Venezuelan oil Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:57 PM PST  MIAMI (AP) — A decade-long addiction to oil subsidized by Venezuela may be coming to an end for several Caribbean nations, with a nudge from the United States.
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| Defence Minister Lungu wins Zambia's presidential race Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:48 PM PST  Zambia's defence minister Edgar Lungu, of the ruling Patriotic Front, has narrowly won the country's presidential race, the electoral commission announced Saturday. Lungu won 48.33 percent of the vote, beating his rival Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) who garnered 46.67 percent. Lungu's victory was greeted with cheers and dancing after the chairwoman of the Electoral Commission of Zambia, Ireen Mambilima, announced the results of this week's vote which Hichilema has denounced as a sham.
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| Guimaraes rallies for 2-2 with Gil Vicente in Portugal Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:41 PM PST LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Guimaraes fought back to salvage a 2-2 draw with bottom side Gil Vicente after Andre Andres scored an injury-time goal in the Portuguese league on Saturday. |
| Egypt protester killed on eve of uprising anniversary Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:40 PM PST  A female demonstrator was killed in clashes with Egyptian police during a rare leftwing protest in central Cairo Saturday, the eve of the anniversary of the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak, an official said. Shaima al-Sabbagh, who friends said was 34 and the mother of a five-year-old boy, died of birdshot wounds, a health ministry spokesman said. A senior interior ministry official denied police had used birdshot to disperse the protest. "No weapons such as birdshot or rubber bullets were used, it was a small protest that did not require the use of such weapons," an aide to the interior minister, Abdel Fattah Osman, told AFP.
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| British Airways parent makes 3rd takeover bid for Aer Lingus Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:35 PM PST  DUBLIN (AP) — Officials say the parent company of British Airways has made a third, improved takeover approach to Irish airline Aer Lingus and an announcement of the offer is expected Monday.
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| Leftists ahead in last polls before Greek national election Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:35 PM PST  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Syriza, the radical left-wing party that has vowed to rewrite the terms of the country's international bailout and end harsh austerity measures, held the lead in the last polls released ahead of Sunday's national election.
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| World Cup returns, three 2016 outdoor games set Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:31 PM PST  The World Cup of Hockey, an infrequent global showdown of elite ice hockey talent last staged in 2004, will return in 2016 with eight teams competing over two weeks at Toronto. The National Hockey League announced Saturday that Canada, Russia, United States, Sweden, Finland and Czech Republic would be joined by Team Europe, an all-star collection from other European nations, and a 23-and-under team from the host region dubbed the North American Youngstars. The NHL also announced 2016 outdoor game plans, with the Boston Bruins, Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche set to host games next year. "We are thrilled to partner with the (union) in planning and producing what we expect will be the world's best international hockey tournament," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said.
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| Rockets kill 30 in Ukrainian city as rebels launch offensive Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:20 PM PST KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Indiscriminate rocket fire slammed into a market, schools, homes and shops Saturday in Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol, killing at least 30 people, authorities said. The Ukrainian president called the blitz a terrorist attack and NATO and the U.S. demanded that Russia stop supporting the rebels. |
| Obama, Cameron condemn Japan hostage 'murder' Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:15 PM PST  US President Barack Obama strongly condemned the killing of one of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State group, announced in a video that has not yet been officially authenticated. Obama's comments, echoed Saturday by British Prime Minister David Cameron who condemned the group's "murderous barbarity," suggested that Western intelligence had authenticated the video posted online. The nearly three-minute recording shows a still image of Kenji Goto holding an apparent photograph of Haruna Yukawa's slain body, with an audio recording in which Goto spoke of the IS group's demand for a prisoner exchange to guarantee his release.
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| Olympiakos beats OFI 3-0 to keep Greek lead Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:13 PM PST ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Olympiakos won 3-0 at OFI to stay two points ahead of PAOK in the Greek league on Saturday. |
| Klose scores 1, sets up another as Lazio beats AC Milan 3-1 Posted: 24 Jan 2015 02:01 PM PST  ROME (AP) — Lazio came back to beat visiting AC Milan 3-1 and move into third place in Serie A on Saturday.
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