| Greek leftist leader Tsipras claims victory over austerity Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:49 PM PST  By Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras promised on Sunday that five years of austerity, "humiliation and suffering" imposed by international creditors were over after his Syriza party swept to victory in a snap election on Sunday. With about 92 percent of votes counted, Syriza was set to win 149 seats in the 300-seat parliament, taking 36.3 percent of the vote, 8.5 points ahead of the conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Nevertheless, the 40-year-old Tsipras is on course to become prime minister of the first euro zone government openly opposed to the kind of severe austerity policies which the European Union and International Monetary Fund imposed on Greece as a condition of its bailout. Financial markets reacted nervously to the victory of Tspiras, who has promised to renegotiate Greece's debt agreements, fearing potential conflict with other euro zone governments that could put more strain on the currency bloc.
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| Rebels press Ukraine offensive, Obama promises steps against Russian-backed 'aggression' Posted: 25 Jan 2015 11:41 AM PST  By Douglas Busvine and Alessandra Prentice NEW DELHI/KIEV (Reuters) - Pro-Moscow rebels, backed by what NATO says is the open participation of Russian troops, pressed on with their offensive on Sunday after restarting the war in eastern Ukraine with the first all-out assault since a truce five months ago. U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington was considering all options short of military action to isolate Russia. The European Union called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of its 28 member states. "We are deeply concerned about the latest break in the ceasefire and the aggression that these separatists -- with Russian backing, Russian equipment, Russian financing, Russian training and Russian troops -- are conducting," Obama told a news conference during a visit to India.
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| Three Malian soldiers killed in clash with gunmen in north Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:18 PM PST Unidentified gunmen clashed with Malian security forces in the northern region of Timbuktu on Sunday, killing at least three soldiers, officials said. The fighting took place between Timbuktu and the town of Goundam after security forces came across gunmen who had seized and were robbing a group of travelers on the remote desert road. Oumar Abocar Toure, the mayor of the nearby commune of Douekire who was among the group initially seized by the gunmen, said the major in charge of the Malian military unit and two other soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire. Colonel Souleymane Maiga, spokesman for Mali's armed forces, said a pickup truck with a mounted machinegun had been recovered and the situation was now under control. |
| Obama reveals nuclear breakthrough on landmark India trip Posted: 25 Jan 2015 09:36 AM PST By Roberta Rampton and Sanjeev Miglani NEW DELHI (Reuters) - In a glow of bonhomie, U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled plans to unlock billions of dollars in nuclear trade and to deepen defense ties, steps they hope will establish an enduring strategic partnership. The two countries reached an understanding on two issues that, despite a groundbreaking 2006 agreement, had stopped U.S. companies from setting up reactors in India and had become one of the major irritants in bilateral relations. "We are committed to moving towards full implementation," Obama told a joint news conference with Modi. "This is an important step that shows how we can work together to elevate our relationship." The new deal resolved differences over the liability of suppliers to India in the event of a nuclear accident and U.S. demands on tracking the whereabouts of material supplied to the country, U.S. ambassador to India Richard Verma told reporters. |
| Afghan air force ascent slow, imperiling battle with Taliban Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:28 PM PST  By Kay Johnson KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's armed forces are so short of combat-ready aircraft that, late last year, they began fitting machine guns and rockets to Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopters, dubbed "flying tractors", to bolster their air power. With new planes capable of engaging Taliban insurgents delayed by over two years, and NATO air missions backing up troops on the ground now at a minimum, the fledgling Afghan Air Force is scrambling to provide even basic support. Without air support they say they will struggle to defeat the enemy, especially now that tens of thousands of foreign troops supporting them have ended their mission. NATO is training and advising some 390 Afghan pilots, most with no tactical combat experience, and a limited number of planes and helicopters have been promised to bolster an air force of around 140 aircraft, mostly transport helicopters.
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| Morocco arrests suspected Algerian militant tied to Frenchman's murder Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:34 PM PST  Moroccan authorities said on Sunday they arrested a suspected Algerian member of the militant group responsible for kidnapping and beheading French tourist Herve Gourdel east of Algiers in September. An al Qaeda splinter group known as Caliphate Soldiers kidnapped Gourdel when he was hiking in the Algerian mountains. The suspect, who was with another individual still on the run, was arrested in Beni Drar, near the Moroccan city of Oujda, a statement from the Moroccan interior ministry said. Oujda is located a few kilometers from the Algerian border.
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| UN Security Council faces Ukraine, Yemen emergency meetings Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:53 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Diplomats say the U.N. Security Council will hold emergency meetings Monday on the crises in Yemen and Ukraine. |
| Greek radical left wins election, threatening market turmoil Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:53 PM PST  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A radical left-wing party vowing to end Greece's painful austerity program won a historic victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections, setting up a showdown with the country's international creditors that could shake the eurozone.
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| Crisis-hit Venezuela bars ex-presidents from talks with opposition Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:49 PM PST  Venezuela, which has accused a pair of Latin American ex-presidents of trying to spark a coup, on Sunday denied them permission to speak to jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. "Regrettably, despite all the effort we made with General Rall and even the Vice President (Jorge Arreaza), we have been denied a chance to visit Leopoldo Lopez," Chilean ex-president Sebastian Pinera said outside the Ramo Verde military prison. He was joined by Colombian ex-president Andres Pastrana, seeking to help Venezuela -- which is facing economic crisis and political impasses under President Nicolas Maduro, an elected socialist.
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| Possible allies for Greek election victors Syriza Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:45 PM PST  Greek anti-austerity party Syriza on Sunday won a historic election promising to alter the course of austerity in Europe, but with 80 percent of votes counted it was short of an outright majority. There are two parties with which Syriza can find enough common ground to form a coalition with: the pro-European To Potami (The River) and the nationalist Independent Greeks. Its founder, 51-year-old former star journalist Stavros Theodorakis, shares Syriza's conviction that Greece's debt needs to be renegotiated, but not at the cost of risking the country's place in Europe. "We will back the effort to keep the country in Europe," Theodorakis said late on Sunday, with his party seemed set to finish in fourth place with nearly 6.0 percent of the vote, enough for 16 seats in parliament.
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| Extreme right party headed for 3rd place in Greek election Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:41 PM PST  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The specter of Neo-Nazism is no longer haunting Greece. It looks like it is here to stay.
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| Top Asian News at 12:30 a.m. GMT Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:32 PM PST MANILA, Philippines (AP) — More than 30 police commandos were killed in a clash with Muslim insurgents Sunday in the southern Philippines in the biggest single-day combat loss for Filipino forces in many years, officials said. Dozens of commandos had entered the far-flung village of Tukanalipao at dawn looking for a top terror suspect, but had a "misencounter" with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Mayor Tahirudin Benzar Ampatuan of Mamasapano town told The Associated Press by telephone. |
| Japan stunned by video claiming death of 1 of 2 IS hostages Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:21 PM PST  TOKYO (AP) — From the prime minister to ordinary people, Japanese were shocked Sunday at a video purportedly showing one of two Japanese hostages of the extremist Islamic State group had been killed.
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| Syriza supporters hail Greek effect in Europe after historic win Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:15 PM PST  Supporters of Greek anti-austerity party Syriza wildly cheered Sunday's election victory, confident that the first-ever victory by a leftist party in Greece would help turn back austerity in Europe. Red and white flags emblazoned with Syriza's tricolour motif waved outside the main party platform in central Athens, where hundreds of supporters gathered as election results poured in. Many Syriza supporters said they were pinning their hopes on party leader Alexis Tsipras turning the country around after six years of recession which led to a massive international bailout. "It's a new team and its policy programme has us smiling," said Eleni Papadopoulou, a 43-year-old private sector employee.
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| Obama: Counterterrorism operations in Yemen not affected Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:13 PM PST  NEW DELHI (AP) — President Barack Obama defended his counterterrorism strategy in tumultuous Yemen Sunday, saying efforts to root out a dangerous al-Qaida affiliate there would not be affected by the political vacuum in the country.
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| Belgium sees some room to discuss Greek debt program Posted: 25 Jan 2015 04:04 PM PST  BRUSSELS (AP) — Britain's Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron predicted that the election victory of Greece's radical left-wing Syriza party would create "economic uncertainty" across Europe, while left-of-center parties welcomed the results as a message that the European Union should change its economic policy.
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| 'We have a deal': insurance may unlock India-U.S. atomic trade Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:52 PM PST By Frank Jack Daniel and Douglas Busvine NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled a plan centered on insurance on Sunday that they hope will convince U.S. companies to build nuclear power stations in India, but stopped short of demands to soften a liability law. With the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy still fresh in India's mind, parliament five years ago passed a law that makes equipment suppliers ultimately responsible for an accident, a deviation from international norms that the companies found hard to swallow. India's top diplomat, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, said the new plan was "squarely within our law". "The India nuclear insurance pool is a risk transfer mechanism which is being formed by GIC Re and four other public sector undertakings in the general insurance business in India," foreign ministry joint secretary Amandeep Singh said. |
| Voters go to polls in Comoros ahead of 2016 presidential race Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:52 PM PST  Voters went to the polls Sunday in the chronically unstable Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros in a parliamentary election seen as a test for former leader Abdallah Sambi, a Muslim populist poised to make a comeback. The vote, which was reported to be peaceful, is the first in a cycle of legislative and local government polls culminating in 2016 presidential elections. Ismael Saadi, the head of the election monitor in the Comoros, said voter participation had reached 60 to 70 percent. Finance Minister and Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi, speaking as he cast his vote, told reporters the results would shape the political landscape over coming months and be a "barmometer" of opinion ahead of next year's polls.
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| WHO pledges reforms as it admits Ebola mistakes Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:27 PM PST  The World Health Organization's chief on Sunday admitted the UN agency had been caught napping on Ebola and pledged reforms to avoid similar mistakes in future. Despite turning a corner in the fight against Ebola, there was no room for complacency, WHO head Margaret Chan told a rare emergency session of the agency. "The world, including WHO, was too slow to see what was unfolding before us," she told delegates at only the third emergency session in the history of the WHO.
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| Insults fly as British MEP leaves anti-EU party for Tories Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:16 PM PST  Britain's anti-EU UKIP party, which threatens to split the right wing vote and hand victory to Labour in 2015 elections, has suffered a reverse with the defection of one of its members to the Tories, triggering a war of words Sunday. Amjad Bashir, a little-known member of the European Parliament, described his former party in The Sunday Telegraph as one of "ruthless self-interest" with a "ridiculous" lack of policies, while UKIP said it had already suspended Bashir after becoming "alarmed" by his behaviour. UKIP, often mocked for its members' lack of party discipline and unsophisticated policies, has nevertheless shaken up the political landscape in Britain over the past few years. The Tories have become increasingly concerned by the popularity of UKIP's anti-EU stance and leader Nigel Farage's 'man of the people' appeal.
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| Greek election to raise European economic uncertainty: UK's Cameron Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:12 PM PST LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron warned on Sunday that the Greek election would raise economic uncertainty across Europe, saying it meant his country had to stick to his plan for Britain's own economy. "The Greek election will increase economic uncertainty across Europe. That's why the UK must stick to our plan, delivering security at home," Cameron said on his official Twitter feed. ... |
| U.S. East Coast braces for 'historic' blizzard on Monday Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:09 PM PST  By Brendan O'Brien and Jon Herskovitz (Reuters) - A swath of the U.S. East Coast from Philadelphia to New York City to Maine was bracing for a potentially historic blizzard on Monday that is expected to dump as much as 3 feet (90 cm) of snow and snarl transportation for tens of millions of people. The National Weather Service on Sunday issued a blizzard warning for the northern section of the East Coast from Monday afternoon until Tuesday, placing states from New Jersey to Indiana under winter storm watches and advisories. "This could be the biggest snowstorm in the history of this city," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference, saying snowfall could reach up to 3 feet.
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| British PM warns of uncertainty after Greek vote Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:07 PM PST  London (AFP) - British Prime Minister David Cameron warned of economic risks across Europe after anti-austerity party Syriza swept to victory in Greece's general elections on Sunday.
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| Reporter flees Argentina after threats in dead prosecutor case Posted: 25 Jan 2015 03:03 PM PST  A reporter who broke the story that an Argentine prosecutor was found dead shortly before he was about to make explosive allegations about President Cristina Kirchner fled Argentina on Sunday after threats. We'll talk soon," Damian Pachter tweeted. A citizen of Argentina and Israel, he worked for the English-language Buenos Aires Herald. Pachter fled Argentina after receiving threats, and being followed, he told colleagues in other media.
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| Juventus beats Chievo 2-0 to move 7 points clear Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:52 PM PST  MILAN (AP) — Paul Pogba showed why the top European teams are interested in him as he orchestrated a 2-0 win for Juventus against Chievo Verona, sending the defending champion seven points clear atop the Serie A table on Sunday as Roma drew 1-1 at Fiorentina.
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| Greece's Syriza: what does it want and what is possible? Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:48 PM PST  The left-wing Syriza party led by Alexis Tsipras won Greece's general election on Sunday after campaigning on a pledge to renegotiate the country's international bailout and reverse years of spending cuts and painful economic reforms. They have also alarmed Greece's international creditors, who fear a Syriza government might default on its massive debt and turn its back on the terms of a 240-billion-euro ($269 billion) bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
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| Cuba digs in heels on concessions as part of better US ties Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:44 PM PST  HAVANA (AP) — The start of talks on repairing 50 years of broken relations appears to have left President Raul Castro's government focused on winning additional concessions without giving in to U.S. demands for greater freedoms, despite the seeming benefits that warmer ties could have for the country's struggling economy.
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| Alexis Tsipras, Greek 'Che Guevara' on the brink of power Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:42 PM PST  Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party won the Greek general election for the first time in its history on Sunday, is set to become the country's first radical left-wing prime minister, and the youngest in over 150 years. "Greece is turning a page, leaving behind disastrous austerity... and five years of humiliation," Tsipras told a jubilant crowd of supporters in central Athens after his party won a clear victory.
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| Porto stumbles in title race with 1-0 loss at Maritimo Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:38 PM PST LISBON, Portugal (AP) — FC Porto stumbled to a 1-0 loss at Maritimo on Sunday, giving Benfica the chance to increase its lead of the Portuguese league. |
| Order restored in FA Cup as big teams avoid upsets Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:37 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — After one of the most astonishing days in the FA Cup's 144-year history, order was restored in the famous English competition as a trio of Premier League sides won Sunday to stem the flow of upsets in the fourth round.
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| UN council calls for vote, inclusive governance in Haiti Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:27 PM PST  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Visiting members of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday called for Haiti to organize credible elections as soon as possible and for the country's leadership to govern responsibly and inclusively in the absence of a functioning legislature.
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| Valencia beats Sevilla 3-1 to take over 4th place in Spain Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:26 PM PST BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Dani Parejo scored twice to lead Valencia to a 3-1 win over Sevilla as the hosts moved past the Andalusian side into fourth place in the Spanish league on Sunday. |
| PSG wins 1-0 at Saint-Etienne to stay 4 points behind Lyon Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:22 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored for the first time in five league games, blasting home a penalty as Paris Saint-Germain secured a scrappy 1-0 win at Saint-Etienne to stay four points behind leader Lyon, which beat 10-man Metz 2-0 in Sunday's earlier game with top scorer Alexandre Lacazette limping off shortly after scoring.
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| Greek centrists open to support leftist Syriza Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:19 PM PST The leader of Greek centrist party To Potami (River) said on Sunday that his party would be open to supporting a leftist Syriza-led government but appeared to rule out a formal coalition. We will say yes to the things that we agree to and no when the country is being put at risk," leader Stavros Theodorakis said. Projections indicate the party of leftist leader Alexis Tsipras is on course to win the snap poll but it is unclear whether he will gain an overall majority or require the support of smaller parties. |
| UK reviewing security after hoax call to Cameron Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:06 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — British officials are reviewing security measures Sunday after a hoax caller pretending to be the director of the government's eavesdropping agency managed to get through to Prime Minister David Cameron on the phone.
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| C. Africa minister kidnapped by armed men Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:05 PM PST  Armed men on Sunday kidnapped the Central African Republic minister for sport and young people and former rebel chief Armel Ningatoloum Sayo as he returned from church in the capital Bangui, his wife said. Sayo is the former leader of the Revolution and Justice movement based in the country's north east but entered the government of Prime Minister Mahamat Kamoun after the signing of a peace agreement in July 2014. On Monday French aid worker Claudia Priest was snatched by the country's Christian anti-balaka militia and subsequently freed.
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| Images of shot Egypt protester revive criticism of police Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:05 PM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Images of a mortally wounded protester, blood running down her face and hair as she was lifted from the pavement by a comrade, have touched off powerful criticism of Egypt's government on the anniversary of a revolution initially sparked by police brutality.
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| Six Nations injury scare for England's Farrell Posted: 25 Jan 2015 02:04 PM PST  Clermont-Ferrand (France) (AFP) - England international fly-half Owen Farrell will undergo tests after hobbling off with a knee injury during Saracen's European Champions Cup defeat at Clermont on Sunday. Farrell was forced off in the 19th minute after twisting his left knee in a collision with Clermont flanker Julien Bardy. Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said the 23-year-old would now undergo further tests to see if he can compete in the Six Nations which gets underway on February 6.
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