| Iraqi forces pause in battle to drive Islamic State from Tikrit Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:13 PM PDT  By Saif Hameed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Frustrated by guerrilla tactics from Islamic State militants, Iraqi forces paused for reinforcements on Friday in a major offensive to take back the city of Tikrit. The operation appeared to have stalled for the time being, two days after Iraqi security forces and their mainly Shi'ite militia allies pushed into Tikrit, the home city of executed ex-president Saddam Hussein. A source in the military command said Iraqi forces would not move forward until reinforcements reached Tikrit, of which Islamic State still holds around half. If government forces wrest full control, it will be the first time they have won back a city from Islamic State since it over-ran large areas of the country last year and declared an Islamic caliphate in territory it is holding in Iraq and Syria.
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| Russia rejects U.S. concerns over Vietnam base role in bomber flights Posted: 13 Mar 2015 10:10 AM PDT  By Jack Stubbs and David Brunnstrom MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia on Friday rejected U.S. concerns about its use of a former American base in Vietnam for the refueling of Russian bomber flights around U.S. territory in the Pacific, dismissing recent U.S. statements as "puzzling" and "strange". Reuters reported on Wednesday that the United States had asked Vietnam to stop letting Russia use Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay for tanker aircraft that have refueled nuclear-capable bombers engaged in shows of strength over the Asia-Pacific region.
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| U.S. to send $70 million in non-lethal aid to Syrian opposition Posted: 13 Mar 2015 11:24 AM PDT  The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was working with Congress to provide about $70 million in new non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition fighting President Bashar al-Assad. The aid comes as the U.S. military separately prepares to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State militants in Syria. The non-lethal aid will go toward basic community services, supporting "vetted units of the armed opposition," digital security training, and documentation of war crimes and other violations by the Syrian regime, the State Department said. "As we have long said, Assad must go and be replaced through a negotiated political transition that is representative of the Syrian people," said Alistair Baskey, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, in a statement.
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| What happened to Putin? Satirists run riot online Posted: 13 Mar 2015 01:07 PM PDT  A wave of savage mockery broke over President Vladimir Putin across the Internet on Friday, sparked by days of absence from public view, despite official insistence it was business as usual in the Kremlin. State television footage of Putin working at his residence failed to quell the tide of fantastical theories circulating online that the 62-year-old Kremlin leader had died, been deposed, or traveled to Switzerland to watch his girlfriend give birth. Ukrainian children produced a cartoon showing Putin abducted from the Kremlin by aliens. The hashtag #putinumer (putin died) began trending on Twitter, and a website, putinumer.com, offered readers advice on how to gauge whether the rumors were true.
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| U.N. fears 'the worst' after typhoon batters Vanuatu Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:54 PM PDT Widespread casualties are feared after a powerful typhoon battered Vanuatu overnight, triggering flash floods and knocking out telephone lines in the isolated Pacific island nation, aid officials said on Saturday. At least one person has been confirmed dead in Papua New Guinea, one of several other Pacific island nations also affected by the Category 5 storm, named Pam. The United Nations was preparing to deploy emergency rapid response units to Vanuatu on Sunday. "We fear the worst," Sune Gudnitz, the regional head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said, speaking from Fiji. |
| Last polls give center-left opposition solid lead before Israel's election Posted: 13 Mar 2015 12:19 PM PDT  By Luke Baker JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's center-left opposition is poised for an upset victory in next week's parliamentary election, with the last opinion polls before Tuesday's vote giving it a solid lead over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party. Final polls published by Israel's Channel 10 and Channel 2 on Friday evening respectively predicted the Zionist Union would win 24 and 26 seats against 20 and 22 for Netanyahu's Likud, echoing earlier surveys which all gave the opposition a clear lead. Polls in two of Israel's leading newspapers predicted the Zionist Union would secure 25 or 26 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, against 21 or 22 for Likud. No party has ever won an outright majority in Israel's 67-year history, making coalition-building critical to the formation of a government.
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| Cash-cow Clarkson gives BBC major headache Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:38 PM PDT  Hosts of motoring television shows rarely generate headlines, but the furore over the suspension of "Top Gear" host Jeremy Clarkson reveals much about British society and national broadcaster the BBC. To his supporters, Clarkson is a humorous, straight-talking man-of-the-people standing up to the petty bureaucracy and political correctness which they blame for the country's ills.
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| Saudi convict sues Colorado prosecutors, FBI for defamation Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:35 PM PDT DENVER (AP) — A Saudi national who was denied a request to serve out the reminder of a Colorado prison sentence in his home country is suing prosecutors and FBI agents for defamation. |
| Top Asian News at 11:30 p.m. GMT Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:33 PM PDT BEIJING (AP) — Britain has become the first major Western government to apply for membership in a proposed Chinese-led Asian regional bank that Washington worries will undercut institutions such as the World Bank. The British Treasury said Thursday it will join talks this month on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's structure and governance arrangements. |
| British, Argentine swimmers to take Falklands plunge Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:30 PM PDT  Two swimmers from Argentina and Britain will brave the frigid waters that separate the two main islands in the Falklands in an event to mark the 1982 war between the nations over the remote South Atlantic archipelago. Argentine Matias Ola and Jackie Cobell of Britain will cross the five-kilometer (three-mile) waterway known as the Falkland Sound without wetsuits. Although the islands have been ruled by Britain since 1833, Argentina claims them as their own and 33 years ago attempted to seize control in a brief but bloody war that has tarnished ties between London and Buenos Aires ever since.
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| Venezuelan arrested during protests dies in police custody Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:30 PM PDT  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A man arrested last year during demonstrations against Venezuela's socialist government died in state custody, an apparent suicide that his family said Friday was the result of harsh prison conditions and unjust punishment.
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| Cyclone Pam leaves trail of destruction in Pacific's Vanuatu Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:23 PM PDT  WELLNGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Winds from an extremely powerful cyclone that blew through the Pacific's Vanuatu archipelago were beginning to subside Saturday, revealing widespread destruction and unconfirmed reports of dozens of deaths.
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| Sudan rebel offensive to disrupt elections: spokesman Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:11 PM PDT  Sudanese insurgents said Friday they had launched an offensive in war-torn South Kordofan to try to disrupt nationwide elections due next month, which the army said it repelled. The Sudan People's Liberation Army-North launched "lightning operations" against garrisons in Kalogi, Tusi and Rahmaniya towns in the south and east of the region Thursday, spokesman Arnu Lodi said in a statement. The goal was to integrate "the various means of struggle, armed uprising and civil disobedience, to work together to stop the elections" due in April, Lodi said. President Omar al-Bashir has been battling an insurgency in South Kordofan and neighbouring Blue Nile states since 2011, when the SPLA-N mounted a revolt, complaining of being marginalised by his Arab-dominated government.
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| World's first successful penis transplant performed in S. Africa Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:08 PM PDT  South African doctors announced Friday that they had performed the world's first successful penis transplant, three months after the ground-breaking operation. The 21-year-old patient had his penis amputated three years ago after a botched circumcision at a traditional initiation ceremony. In a nine-hour operation at the Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, he received his new penis from a deceased donor, whose family were praised by doctors. "We've proved that it can be done –- we can give someone an organ that is just as good as the one that he had," said Professor Frank Graewe, head of plastic reconstructive surgery at Stellenbosch University.
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| Swiss bank UBS settles currency-rigging claims for $135M Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:06 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has agreed to pay $135 million to settle claims that it helped rig currency-exchange rates in a scheme involving some of the world's biggest banks. |
| Israel security officials recommend barrier on Jordan border Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:04 PM PDT  Israeli security officials have recommended building a barrier along the border with Jordan -- the Jewish state's only frontier that does not yet feature a fence. "Security officials recommended the construction of a security barrier to protect the new airport which will be built at Timna" some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of resort city Eilat, an army spokeswoman said, without elaborating. Work has already begun on the new airport near Eilat, which lies across the Jordanian border from the port city of Aqaba. Newspaper Haaretz reported that the planned 30-kilometre (19-mile) barrier was designed both to protect the airport and to foil attempts by would-be "jihadist infiltrators" from Jordan, which is home to some extremist sympathisers and a number of radical clerics.
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| Basketball body FIBA grants Kosovo full membership Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:02 PM PDT PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The governing body of basketball, FIBA, says Kosovo has become a full member of the organization, allowing its national teams to take part in international competitions. |
| Ten years on, police to be tried for deaths provoking French riots Posted: 13 Mar 2015 04:00 PM PDT  Nearly a decade after three weeks of nightly rioting raged across disaffected French housing projects, two police officers go on trial on Monday over the deaths of two youths that detonated the explosion of violence. Officers Sebastien Gaillemin and Stephanie Klein will face a court in Rennes on charges they failed to prevent the electrocution deaths of Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, after the pair hid from police in a high-voltage electricity transformer near their Clichy-sous-Bois housing project northeast of Paris. Benna and Traore died in the fenced-off power facility on the afternoon of October 27, 2005 as police milled nearby. News of Benna and Traore's deaths ignited the pent-up rage of younger Clichy residents over poor living conditions, discrimination, economic deprivation, police harassment and general alienation in the ghetto-like projects -- areas that, nearly a decade later, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls in January said still represent "territorial, social and ethnic apartheid" within French society.
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| Argentina warns Citibank it could lose banking license Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:56 PM PDT BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina threatened Friday to revoke Citibank's operation license if it refuses to process payments to bondholders, a move ordered by a New York judge presiding over a long fight between the country and a U.S. investment group. |
| Anthony Martial scores twice as Monaco beats Bastia 3-0 Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:54 PM PDT  PARIS (AP) — Teen striker Anthony Martial scored twice as fourth-place Monaco warmed up for its Champions League encounter against Arsenal with a comfortable 3-0 home win Friday against Corsican side Bastia, which finished the match with nine men.
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| Adam Scott misses 1st cut in nearly 3 years Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:53 PM PDT  PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — Adam Scott packed up his bags and headed to the next tournament, a common sight except for one tiny detail.
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| Ukraine leader reports 'de-escalation' in fighting with separatists Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:43 PM PDT  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko reported Friday a "gradual de-escalation" in the conflict between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the country's east as Kiev received the first tranche in a multi-billion-dollar IMF bailout. The US show of support came on the same day the International Monetary Fund confirmed a $17.5-billion aid package to Ukraine to shore up its ailing economy.
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| It's a bird! It's a plane! Google balloon crash alarms town Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:37 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — It's a bird. It's a plane. Actually, it was a balloon. |
| Raptors' Valanciunas gets night off after birth of son Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:36 PM PDT  TORONTO (AP) — Toronto center Jonas Valanciunas sat out the Raptors' game against the Miami Heat on Friday night, a day after the birth of his son.
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| Top Mexico journalist demands lifting of colleagues' firing Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:31 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — The host of Mexico's top-rated national morning news and commentary radio show is demanding that her station reinstate two investigative reporters who were fired for misusing its image. |
| Nigerian troops discover Boko Haram 'bomb factory': military Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:30 PM PDT  Nigeria's military said on Friday that it had uncovered a Boko Haram bomb-making factory in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi after soldiers retook the town from the insurgents. Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said that search operations in the area led to the discovery of the bomb-making factory manufacturing improvised explosive devices or IEDs. "The factory, which was located in a fertiliser company, has also converted some of the materials therein for production of all types of IEDs. Boko Haram has increasingly used suicide attacks in its six-year campaign to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
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| Tropical Storm Bavi heading for Guam, Northern Marianas Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:20 PM PDT HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are preparing for a major storm that may become a typhoon. |
| Brazil marchers hit streets to support Petrobras, president Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:16 PM PDT  SAO PAULO (AP) — Unions and backers of President Dilma Rousseff marched Friday in several cities in Brazil, mostly to show support for state-run oil company Petrobras as it is engulfed by a corruption scandal, but also to bolster the leader.
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| Maldives' ex-president Nasheed sentenced to 13 years in prison Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:12 PM PDT  By Daniel Bosley and Shihar Aneez MALE/COLOMBO (Reuters) - Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday after being found guilty of terrorism for ordering the arrest of a judge when he was in power in 2012. The verdict is the latest chapter in three turbulent years in which Nasheed, the Indian Ocean archipelago's first democratically elected leader, was ousted in disputed circumstances, then narrowly defeated in a controversial election, and then, last month, cleared over the incident for which he has now been convicted. "The prosecution's evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that Nasheed ordered the chief judge's arrest or forceful abduction and detention on Girifushi island," Judge Abdulla Didi said in the court in the capital, Male. The three-judge bench's verdict was unanimous, and the office of President Abdulla Yameen, who had denied that the prosecution was political, confirmed the 13-year sentence.
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| Ex-Canada ski coach charged with sexually assaulting athletes Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:11 PM PDT  A former coach of Canada's national junior women's ski team has been charged with nearly four dozen counts over sexually abusing young athletes before being forced out of his job, police and other sources said Friday. Bertrand Charest was arrested Wednesday after a former junior skier filed a complaint with police, according to authorities in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. He is expected to appear in court Monday for a bail hearing, Mont-Tremblant police spokesman Eric Cadotte said. "Mr. Charest is accused of having sexually abused adolescents while he was a ski instructor with the Quebec ski team, the Laurentians regional team and the Canadian junior team," police said.
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| Iraschko-Stolz clinches women's ski jump World Cup title Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:11 PM PDT  OSLO, Norway (AP) — Sara Takanashi of Japan won the last women's ski jump World Cup event of the season Friday but it wasn't enough to prevent Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria from clinching the overall title.
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| Women's groups want Libya activist's murder investigated Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:08 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Women's rights groups on Friday demanded an international investigation into the killing of a Libyan activist who had become a symbol of her country's efforts to create a democracy. |
| Egypt unveils plans for new administrative capital Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:05 PM PDT  Egypt plans to build a new administrative and business capital east of Cairo that will house five million people, a minister announced Friday at a global investor conference. The proposed new city was presented to potential investors at the three-day conference, which began Friday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Unveiling an initial plan in front of global leaders and diplomats attending the conference, Housing Minister Mustafa Kamel Madbuli said the new city will be built between Cairo and the canal city of Suez. "The idea to build the new city originated from our awareness that Cairo's current population will double in the next 40 years," Madbuli said in a presentation showcasing the details.
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| Human rights concerns limit U.S. intelligence, military aid to Nigeria Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:04 PM PDT By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is limiting its intelligence and military aid to Nigeria during Boko Haram's deadly insurgency due to concerns over the country's human rights record, U.S. officials say. Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria in its six-year insurgency and has also pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which has created a self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. The United States has shied away from providing Nigeria with real-time information for targeting Boko Haram militants, a U.S. government official said, partly in fear that the Nigerians will use the information to target the wrong people. Human-rights concerns have also hindered the ability of the United States to assist security forces in Nigeria's neighbors, including Cameroon, Chad and Niger, which recently have stepped up their engagement in the conflict against Boko Haram, the officials said, requesting anonymity. |
| Clarification: Venezuela-Wynton Marsalis story Posted: 13 Mar 2015 03:00 PM PDT  BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — In a story March 12, The Associated Press reported that jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was to perform in Venezuela's capital with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra originally announced Dudamel as the conductor, but the role was later switched to Diego Matheuz.
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| Ikea drops lifestyle website in Russia over 'gay propaganda' fears Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:58 PM PDT  Ikea said Friday it was closing its lifestyle website in Russia over fears it could flout a controversial law banning promotion of gay values to minors. The Swedish flat-pack giant, said it was dropping the magazine website, Ikea Family Live, because "a number of articles could be assessed as propaganda" under the law signed by President Vladimir Putin in 2013 despite opposition from activists and stars including Madonna. The vaguely worded law, which penalises "propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation among minors" -- using a euphemism for gay, has been used as a reason to ban gay rights protests and to prosecute the founder of a website offering advice to gay teens. "When we do business, we observe the legislation of the countries where we work, therefore to avoid violations, we have taken the decision to stop publishing the magazine in Russia," Ikea said in a statement.
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| Valencia beats Deportivo 2-0 to move 3rd in Spanish league Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:55 PM PDT VALENCIA, Spain (AP) — Dani Parejo and Paco Alcacer scored goals in the second half to help Valencia beat Deportivo La Coruna 2-0 and move into provisional third place in the Spanish league on Friday. |
| World carbon emissions stall after almost 40 years of gains: IEA Posted: 13 Mar 2015 02:54 PM PDT Global emissions of carbon dioxide in the energy sector stalled in 2014, breaking steady rises over the past four decades except in years with an economic downturn, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. Emissions of carbon dioxide were flat at 32.3 billion tonnes in 2014 from 2013, according to the IEA. "This is both a welcome surprise and a significant one," IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said in a statement. "This gives me even more hope that humankind will be able to work together to combat climate change, the most important threat facing us today." The Paris-based IEA, which advises governments of developed nations, said the halt in emissions growth was linked to greener patterns of energy consumption in China, the top carbon emitter ahead of the United States, and in developed nations. |
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