| Migrants' bodies brought ashore as EU proposes doubling rescue effort Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:17 PM PDT  By James Mackenzie and Robin Emmott CATANIA, Italy/LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union proposed doubling the size of its Mediterranean search and rescue operations on Monday, as the first bodies were brought ashore of as many as 900 people feared killed in the deadliest known shipwreck of migrants trying to reach Europe. Three other rescue operations were underway on Monday to save hundreds more migrants in peril on overloaded vessels making the journey from the north coast of Africa to Europe. The mass deaths have caused shock in Europe, where a decision to scale back naval operations last year seems to have increased the risks for migrants without reducing their numbers. "The situation in the Mediterranean is dramatic.
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| Air strike on missile base in Yemen capital kills 25, wounds hundreds Posted: 20 Apr 2015 11:44 AM PDT  An air strike on a Scud missile base in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa triggered a big explosion that killed 25 people and wounded almost 400 on Monday, state news agency Saba said. Saudi Arabia has led an alliance of Sunni Arab countries in air strikes against the Iran-allied Shi'ite Houthi group and army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
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| U.S. Navy sends more warships near Yemen in security move Posted: 20 Apr 2015 01:40 PM PDT  The U.S. Navy has sent an aircraft carrier and a guided-missile cruiser into the waters near Yemen, officials said on Monday, heightening the U.S. maritime security presence as concerns mount over Yemen's escalating conflict. The U.S. Navy sent the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its escort cruiser, USS Normandy, from the Gulf into the Arabian Sea on Sunday. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, denied reports the ships were on a mission to intercept Iranian arms shipments to Yemen. The ships will join seven other U.S. warships in the waters near Yemen, which is torn by civil strife as Iranian-backed Houthi rebels battle forces loyal to the U.S.-backed president.
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| U.S. says might talk to Iran about regional stability, cites Syria Posted: 20 Apr 2015 02:36 PM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Monday it might talk with Iran about promoting regional stability, noting it had been open to including Iran in past efforts to achieve a Syrian peace deal if Tehran had altered its policy. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf made the comments when asked about a call by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif in a New York Times opinion piece for regional dialogue to address the crises in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
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| Iran charging U.S. journalist Rezaian with four crimes: Washington Post Posted: 20 Apr 2015 10:04 AM PDT  Iran is charging Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian with four crimes, including espionage, the newspaper said on Monday in a report offering the first details about the exact charges against him. Rezaian, the Post's bureau chief in Tehran, was detained last year in Iran. Among the charges, he is accused of "collaborating with hostile governments" and "propaganda against the establishment," according to a statement from Rezaian's attorney, Leilah Ahsan, the Post reported. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 to 20 years in prison, Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said in a separate statement.
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| Bomb explodes at Spanish embassy in Libyan capital Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:57 PM PDT A bomb exploded in front of the Spanish embassy in the Libyan capital late on Monday, residents said, the latest in a string of attacks on foreign missions in the North African country. Spain's El Mundo newspaper said nobody had been hurt as Spain, like most Western and Arab countries, had pulled out its diplomats in summer during weeks of heavy fighting between rival armed groups in Tripoli. Militants loyal to Islamic State have claimed a string of killings of foreigners as well as attacks on embassies and oilfields in Libya. Libya's internationally recognized government has been based in the east since a rival faction called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in August, setting up a rival administration. |
| EU foreign ministers to meet after latest migrant tragedy Posted: 20 Apr 2015 05:00 PM PDT  MILAN (AP) — Rescue crews searched Monday for survivors and bodies from what could be the Mediterranean's deadliest migrant tragedy ever as hundreds more migrants took to the sea undeterred and European Union leaders said they would hold an emergency summit Thursday to address the crisis.
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| Mexico investigates alleged police massacre Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:59 PM PDT  Mexican prosecutors and the federal police's internal affairs are investigating claims that officers killed 16 unarmed civilians in January, authorities said Monday, in the latest abuse allegations to hit security forces. Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong spoke a day after a media report concluded that federal police opened fire on people wielding nothing more than sticks on January 6 in Apatzingan, a city in the troubled western state of Michoacan. The report by prominent journalist Laura Castellanos, published Sunday by the magazine Proceso and the news website Aristegui Noticias, contradicts official accounts that nine people died in the crossfire of a shootout between police and former rural militiamen. "We hope that the attorney general's office will draw its own conclusions and make them known," Osorio Chong told reporters, adding that the federal police was cooperating and conducting an internal investigation.
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| AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd pleads guilty to threatening to kill Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:56 PM PDT  TAURANGA, New Zealand (AP) — AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd pleaded guilty in a New Zealand court Tuesday to a charge of threatening to kill a man who used to work for him. He also pleaded guilty to possessing methamphetamine and marijuana.
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| UN refugee agency says Australia rejected Vietnamese at sea Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:51 PM PDT CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports that the United Nations refugee agency says a boat load of 46 Vietnamese asylum seekers had their refugee applications rejected at sea before the Australian navy secretly returned them to Vietnam. |
| The Latest: Captain and crew member arrested Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:50 PM PDT  01:41 a.m. (2341 GMT, 7:41 p.m. EDT)
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| Japanese PM Abe makes ritual offering at Yasukuni shrine Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:47 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday sent a ritual offering to a controversial Tokyo shrine for war dead, Jiji news agency said, a day before he makes remarks at an international summit that will be watched for his stance on Japan's wartime history. The tone of his comments at the Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta on Wednesday could determine whether he meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the conference, the latest sign of a possible thaw in Tokyo's troubled ties with Beijing. ...
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| Worker hurt in London building collapse Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:46 PM PDT  A man was injured and hundreds evacuated when a building under demolition in central London partially collapsed on Monday. After hearing a loud bang, construction workers fled the six-storey building, located in Holborn near the London School of Economics (LSE). The third, fourth and fifth floors of the structure collapsed along with scaffolding, according to the London Fire Brigade. Debris fell into a central courtyard and broke the windows of cars on the street.
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| Drug trial of 4 Frenchmen postponed in Dominican Republic Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:35 PM PDT SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A trial for four Frenchmen accused of trying to smuggle more than 1,500 pounds of cocaine on a jet has been postponed again in the Dominican Republic. |
| Top Asian News at 11:30 p.m. GMT Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:32 PM PDT ITOMAN, Japan (AP) — In Norman Baker's mind, the Japanese were fanatical, brutal animals with no respect for life. To Yoshiko Shimabukuro, Americans were long-nosed demons who rained hellfire from the skies before raping and pillaging anything with the worse-than-death fate of crossing their path. Both the 18-year-old U.S. Marine and the 17-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl had known the enemy only from the virulent propaganda they had been fed. When they finally met their foes in the closing months of World War II, in separate, back-to-back battles hundreds of miles apart, it was on the most terrifying terms. And in the 70 years since, it has been difficult to reconcile the hatred of the past with the peace of the present. |
| Six tourists, pilot killed in Dom. Republic plane crash Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:29 PM PDT  Six tourists from Britain and Spain and their local pilot were killed Monday when their small plane crashed into a golf course after takeoff from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, authorities said. "Seven people were aboard the plane from Punta Cana to Arroyo Barril," the Dominican Civil Aviation office said in a statement. The victims were identified as Dominican pilot Hector Soriano, 37, and six passengers who were Spanish and British tourists, the office said.
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| Argentine prosecutor rejects case against president Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:22 PM PDT  BUENOS AIRES (AP) — An Argentine prosecutor on Monday dismissed accusations against President Cristina Fernandez that she helped shield Iranian officials allegedly behind the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center, effectively putting an end to a case that had exposed deep divisions in the South American nation.
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| 'Groundhog Day' musical to premiere at London's Old Vic Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:14 PM PDT  LONDON (AP) — A stage musical based on the time-looping movie "Groundhog Day" is to have its world-premiere production at London's Old Vic Theatre. Day after day after day.
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| Palestinian ministers cut short Gaza visit over dispute with Hamas Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:07 PM PDT  By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian cabinet ministers from the occupied West Bank cut short a visit to Gaza on Monday over disputes between the Western-backed Fatah movement and Islamist group Hamas which dominates the territory, officials said. The truncated visit reflected tensions threatening a year-old "unity" government, harming internationally-backed efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip after a war with Israel and complicating Palestinian statehood ambitions. Palestinians in Gaza had hoped Fatah, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas could resolve a crisis over salaries owed to about 40,000 public servants hired by Hamas in the past eight years it has dominated the Gaza Strip.
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| U.S. begins training Ukrainian guardsmen despite Russia's concerns Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:03 PM PDT By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Army paratroopers began military training for small units of the Ukrainian national guard on Monday despite Russian warnings that the action could destabilize the country's tenuous cease-fire. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said 300 members of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, began long-planned training for about 300 Ukrainians at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center at Yavoriv, in western Ukraine near the Polish border. He rejected Russia's suggestions the U.S. action was destabilizing. "I would say it's Russia that is destabilizing Ukraine," Warren said. |
| Small plane crash in eastern Dominican Republic kills 7 Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:02 PM PDT SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A small plane crashed shortly after takeoff Monday from a resort area on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, killing all seven people on board, officials said. |
| US starts training Ukrainians to fight pro-Russia forces Posted: 20 Apr 2015 04:00 PM PDT  US paratroopers on Monday began training Ukrainian government forces who will fight pro-Russian separatists in the east, angering Moscow as the deadly conflict rumbles on in the ex-Soviet country. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko welcomed troops from the US 173rd Airborne Brigade in a rain-soaked ceremony at a military base in Yavoriv, western Ukraine, to launch Operation Fearless Guardian. "We are the eyewitnesses and direct participants in forming the new Ukrainian military, which like the phoenix is rising again after years of decline," Poroshenko told the assembled troops. Officials said some 300 US troops will train 900 members of Ukraine's National Guard, which is deployed in the east where heavy artillery fire is rumbling on despite a February ceasefire.
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| Argentine prosecutor dismisses case against president Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:59 PM PDT  By Nicolás Misculin and Jorge Otaola BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An Argentine prosecutor on Monday dismissed allegations that President Cristina Fernandez tried to derail an inquiry into the bombing of a Jewish center in 1994, likely marking the end of the case. Federal prosecutor Javier De Luca was assigned by Argentina's top appeals court after the case had already been rejected by a lower court in February, a decision upheld by a lower appeals court on account of "lack of evidence." "There has been no crime," De Luca told Reuters. In his official statement, he said his decision was "equivalent to a definitive sentence." The allegations against Fernandez were originally leveled by prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in his flat with a bullet wound to the head on Jan. 18 the day before he was due to testify about them to parliament. Nisman had accused Fernandez of trying to cover up allegations made in Argentina courts that Iran was involved in the truck bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community center in Buenos Aires in order to clinch a grains-for-oil deal with Tehran.
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| Verona beats Fiorentina 1-0 in Serie A with late strike Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:57 PM PDT  ROME (AP) — Mounir Obbadi scored in the 89th minute as Hellas Verona won 1-0 at Fiorentina on Monday in Serie A.
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| Bombs shatter houses in Yemen capital, hit near Iran Embassy Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:46 PM PDT  SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Saudi-led airstrikes hit weapons caches held by Iran-backed Shiite rebels, touching off massive explosions Monday in Yemen's capital that killed at least 19 people and buried scores of others under the rubble of flattened homes.
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| AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd pleads guilty to charges of threatening to kill, drugs possession Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:41 PM PDT TAURANGA, New Zealand (AP) — AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd pleads guilty to charges of threatening to kill, drugs possession. |
| NY Gov. Cuomo meets with top officials in Havana Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:41 PM PDT  HAVANA (AP) — Cuban officials and New York business executives are exploring ways for American companies to do business on the communist-run island despite the longstanding U.S. embargo that makes most trade and investment illegal, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
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| Staff at Britain's National Gallery go on strike over privatisation Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:39 PM PDT  Workers at Britain's world-renowned National Gallery are going on strike this week due to a dispute over a privatisation plan, a labour union said on Monday. Staff are to strike this week and on May 1 to protest a plan for visitor services to be provided by an outside company, which the Public and Commercial Services union said is being rushed through ahead of Britain's general election on May 7. "It is cynical of the gallery to try to press ahead with this sell-off in the run-up to the general election and before the new director has taken over," said PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka. The National Gallery -- which is the world's fourth most-visited museum and home to masterpieces by JMW Turner, Vincent van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci -- said that public access to some areas would be limited from April 20 to 24 as a result of the strike.
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| Police hunt for baby sea lion snatched from Los Angeles beach Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:38 PM PDT (Reuters) - Police were searching on Monday for a baby sea lion snatched from a Los Angeles beach over the weekend, as well as four suspects in their twenties seen harassing and taunting two pups, authorities said. A record 2,250 sea lions, mostly pups, have washed up starving and stranded on Southern California beaches so far this year, a worsening phenomenon blamed on warming seas in the region that have disrupted the marine mammals' food supply. The Los Angeles Police Department was notified early on Sunday that a baby sea lion had been taken from Dockweiler State Beach, next to L.A. International Airport. The suspects were seen taking one baby sea lion, getting into a dark Honda Civic, and leaving the area, police said. |
| US warship heads to Yemeni waters; could block Iran weapons Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:23 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt is steaming toward the waters off the country to beef up security and join other American ships that are prepared to intercept any Iranian vessels carrying weapons to the Houthi rebels.
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| US officers suspended after latest death of black man in custody Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:22 PM PDT  Several Baltimore police officers have been suspended after an African American man died of spinal cord injuries in police custody, police said Monday, pledging to thoroughly investigate the incident. Freddie Gray, 25, who died Sunday, was arrested on April 12 without force and was later charged with possession of a switchblade knife, according to a police report. He did suffer a very tragic injury to his spinal cord, which resulted in his death," said deputy police commissioner Jerry Rodriguez, adding that the officers were suspended.
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| Child among migrants drowned off Greece in new tragedy Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:10 PM PDT  At least three people, including a child, died when a boat carrying more than 90 migrants sank off the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday, police said. The sailing boat carrying the migrants ran aground on rocks off the Aegean island on a crossing from Turkey, a police spokesman told AFP. Greek authorities said they rescued 93 migrants, 30 of whom were subsequently hospitalised. There has been a surge in migrants trying to reach Greece's Aegean islands from the Turkish coast in the last 10 days.
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| Ethiopia in mourning after IS kills Christians Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:07 PM PDT  Ethiopia will on Tuesday begin three days of national mourning for more than 20 Ethiopian Christians killed by Islamic State militants in Libya. Ethiopian Communications Minister Redwan Hussein told AFP on Monday that parliament would launch the official start of the mourning period on Tuesday, while state television said flags would fly at half mast. The murders have horrified Ethiopians and sparked global condemnation, including from Pope Francis who expressed "great distress and sadness" over the "shocking" violence. A 29-minute video released Sunday by the IS group purports to show militants in Libya holding two groups of captives, described in text captions as "followers of the cross from the enemy Ethiopian Church".
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| US, UK, Norway slam Sudan polls as not credible Posted: 20 Apr 2015 03:03 PM PDT  The US, Britain and Norway on Monday blasted Sudan for failing to hold free and fair elections which alleged war criminal President Omar al-Bashir is widely expected to win. He was virtually unopposed in the race, facing 13 little known challengers and an opposition boycott.
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| Turkey says shares Armenian pain over Ottoman killings Posted: 20 Apr 2015 02:56 PM PDT  Turkey on Monday sought to reach out to Armenians ahead of the 100th anniversary of the mass killings of their ancestors in the Ottoman Empire, saying it shared their pain and wanted to heal the wounds of the past. The statement by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stopped well short of recognising the World War I killings as a genocide -- as Armenians want -- but explicitly referred to deadly deportations of "Ottoman Armenians". "We once again respectfully remember and share the pain of grandchildren and children of Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during deportation in 1915," Davutoglu said in a statement released by his office to mark the centenary of the start of the tragedy on April 24. Armenians consider the mass killings a genocide, a term Turkey has consistently rejected.
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| US stocks gain, rebounding from Friday's slump; Hasbro jumps Posted: 20 Apr 2015 02:49 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market bounced back on Monday after getting a boost from some good first-quarter earnings reports.
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| Obama, Abu Dhabi crown prince discuss need for military equipment Posted: 20 Apr 2015 02:49 PM PDT  President Barack Obama met for more than an hour with Abu Dhabi's crown prince on Monday and discussed the conflicts in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Libya, and the United Arab Emirates' need for military equipment, the White House said. Obama and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan "reaffirmed their mutual commitment to close defense and security cooperation," the White House said in a statement after the meeting.
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| Israel frees impounded Palestinian funds Posted: 20 Apr 2015 02:45 PM PDT  Israel on Monday unblocked close to half a billion dollars it confiscated from Palestinian tax revenues since the beginning of the year, the Palestinian Authority said. The Palestinian finance ministry said it received 1.8 billion Israeli shekels ($460,000, 428,500 euros) and would from Wednesday pay December and January salary arrears to 180,000 civil servants, who have been on 60 percent pay. The Palestinians had threatened to turn to the International Criminal Court over Israel's decision in early January to retain the taxes in retaliation for the Palestinians joining the International Criminal Court. Israel agreed at the start of April to release the funds after deducting debts due for electricity, water and medical services, a proposal rejected by the Palestinians who insisted on full payment.
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