| Greeks deeply divided heading into crucial vote Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:08 PM PDT  By Michele Kambas and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets on Friday in rival rallies that laid bare the deep divide heading into a referendum that may decide the country's future in Europe's single currency. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, elected in January on a promise to end years of austerity, urged people packing Syntagma square in central Athens to spurn the tough terms of an aid deal offered by international creditors to keep the country afloat. Tsipras says they are bluffing, fearing the fallout for Europe and the global economy.
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| Rockets land in Israel, Egypt's IS affiliate claims responsibility Posted: 03 Jul 2015 02:05 PM PDT By Maayan Lubell and Mostafa Hashem JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) - Militants in Egypt's Sinai peninsula fired rockets into southern Israel on Friday in an incident that caused no casualties but appeared to be linked to fighting between Islamist insurgents and Egyptian security forces. Islamic State's Egypt affiliate, Sinai Province, said in a statement posted on Twitter by supporters that it had launched three Grad rockets toward "occupied Palestine". An Israeli military source earlier said the rockets had been fired from Sinai, which borders Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal. |
| Iran nuclear talks in endgame, negotiators push on sticking points Posted: 03 Jul 2015 01:59 PM PDT  By John Irish and Louis Charbonneau VIENNA (Reuters) - A year and half of nuclear talks between Iran and major powers were creeping toward the finish line on Friday as negotiators wrestled with sticking points including questions about Tehran's past atomic research. Iran is in talks with the United States and five other powers - Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia - on an agreement to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. "We are coming to the end," said a senior Western diplomat, who added there was no plan to carry on for long past next Tuesday.
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| At least 25 Syrian al Qaeda members dead in mosque blast in Syria's Idlib: monitor Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:18 PM PDT An explosion at a mosque in Syria's Idlib province on Friday killed at least 25 members of the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, the British-based Observatory monitoring group said. The blast in the town of Ariha in northwestern Syria went off as members of the Nusra Front gathered at the mosque for iftar, the meal with which Muslims break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, Observatory, which tracks the war, said the explosion in Salem Mosque in Ariha, also killed a senior non-Syrian member of the hardline jihadist organization. No group announced responsibility for the blast, but supporters of Nusra Front blamed rival ultra hardline Islamic State militants who have fought the group on several frontlines in Syria. |
| Car bombs explode in Libya's Derma, at least six killed Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:09 PM PDT BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - At least six people were killed and 10 others wounded when several car bombs exploded in the Libyan city of Derna, a medical source said on Friday. Derna has been caught in fighting between Islamic State militants, rival Islamist fighters and armed forces with the country's internationally recognized government. The eastern port city is just one front in a multi-sided conflict in the North African country, where two rival governments and various armed groups are fighting for control four years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. ... |
| Yemen's Houthis attack Saudi Arabia's Najran and Jizan Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:34 PM PDT Yemen's dominant Houthi group and its army allies said on Saturday it had shelled various areas in Saudi Arabia's Jizan and Najran, killing and wounding several soldiers. The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said 13 shells had been launched on Friday, targeting several areas including Jizan's airport. An alliance of Gulf Arab nations has been bombing Yemen's Houthi militia and allied army units loyal to powerful ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh since March 26 in an attempt to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. |
| Defiant PM rejects Grexit fears as he rallies 'No' vote Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:53 PM PDT  Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras got a rock-star welcome at an Athens rally Friday as he sought to revive support for a "No" vote in a referendum called to strengthen his hand in talks with international creditors. Countering EU leaders' warnings that a "No" could cause Greece to crash out of the eurozone, Tsipras told the crowd of 25,000 cheering supporters: "We are not simply deciding to remain in Europe -- we are deciding to live with dignity in Europe. Just 800 metres (yards) away, separated by police with riot shields, a rival rally of 20,000 "Yes" supporters shouted pro-European slogans and voiced fears of a so-called "Grexit" from the eurozone if Tsipras got his way.
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| Barcelona loans defender Martin Montoya to Inter Milan Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:39 PM PDT BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona says it has agreed to loan its defender Martin Montoya to Inter Milan for a season. |
| Southern African leaders to probe Lesotho ex-army chief murder Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:36 PM PDT  Southern African leaders on Friday ordered a regional probe into the murder last week of Lesotho's former army chief, an incident that has plunged the kingdom into fresh security crisis. Leaders and representatives from six member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) resolved to send investigators to the tiny mountain nation after emergency talks over the crisis sparked by the killing of Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao. Mahao, who was aligned with former prime minister Thomas Thabane, was shot and killed late last week, reportedly by a group of soldiers.
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| France's Hollande says ready to hold new summit on Boko Haram Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:35 PM PDT  French President Francois Hollande said on Friday he is ready to organize a new summit of nations fighting Boko Haram, a militant group that has suffered defeats in recent months in its campaign to forge an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria. Hollande was speaking after talks in the capital of Cameroon with President Paul Biya. Cameroon is part of a regional group of nations including Nigeria, Niger and Chad that began a campaign against Boko Haram this year.
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| Clinton says hopes Iran talks yield deal in the next week Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:34 PM PDT  By Amanda Becker HANOVER, N.H. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton said on Friday she hoped 18 months of nuclear talks between Iran and major powers would yield a deal in coming days to curb Iran's nuclear program. The groundwork for the talks was laid when Clinton was U.S. Secretary of State and she had not commented recently on the negotiations as she seeks the Democratic Party nomination to run in the November 2016 presidential election. "I so hope that we are able to get a deal in the next week that puts a lid on Iran's nuclear weapons program," Clinton told a rally on the Dartmouth College campus in Hanover, New Hampshire.
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| Top Asian News at 11:30 p.m. GMT Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:32 PM PDT CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Amid rising frustrations over the expensive, so-far fruitless search for vanished Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, experts are questioning the competence of the company in charge, including whether crews may have passed over the sunken wreckage without even noticing. Such carping in a small, fiercely competitive and highly specialized industry isn't unusual — and some of the strongest comments have come from a company whose bid for the lucrative job failed. But others have also criticized what they suspect is shoddy work, inappropriate equipment use and a focus on speed over thoroughness by the Dutch underwater survey company hired by Australia to find the plane that vanished in the Indian Ocean on March 8 last year with 239 people aboard. |
| Astana rider Lars Boom facing Tour de France exit Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:25 PM PDT  UTRECHT, Netherlands (AP) — Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali's under-pressure Astana team requested teammate Lars Boom be removed from cycling's showpiece race for anomalous blood-testing results announced Friday.
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| Canadian economy not heading for recession: minister Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:15 PM PDT  Canada's finance minister denied Friday that the country is heading for recession, a day after two major banks predicted economic doomsday. Canada, the world's fifth-biggest oil producer, has been hard hit by tumbling global oil prices and its economy shrank 0.6 percent at an annualized rate in the first quarter. On Thursday, Nomura bank said it expected Gross Domestic Product to contract 0.5 percent in the second quarter, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch said a 0.6 percent decline in that period was likely.
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| Mexico may soon free vigilante movement founder Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:12 PM PDT  Mexican authorities may soon release a founder of the vigilante movement who fought against a powerful drug cartel in the western state of Michoacan until he was jailed last year. The attorney general's office said Friday it was dropping its opposition to a petition to free Jose Manuel Mireles, though an official said prosecutors were not dropping the drugs and weapons charges against the controversial doctor. The tall, mustachioed Mireles, who became the most famous figure of Michoacan's vigilante movement, was arrested in June 2014 shortly after his armed group entered a town, despite a pact that the vigilantes made with the government to disarm.
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| Ecuador, first stop on Pope tour, highlights environment exhortation Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:10 PM PDT  By Girish Gupta QUITO (Reuters) - It is one of the most biodiverse nations on earth, boasting Amazon rainforest, Andean mountains and the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution. In the first papal document dedicated to the environment, the Argentine-born pontiff urged world leaders to hear "the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor" and reverse mankind's degradation of the planet. "This century may well witness extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems," warned the Pope, who arrives in the capital Quito on Sunday on the first stop of a tour also including Bolivia and Paraguay.
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| Tunisian Abu Iyadh, reported dead in Libya, is Qaeda veteran Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:06 PM PDT  Abu Iyadh, the founder of Tunisia's main jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia reported Friday to have been killed in a US air strike in Libya, is a veteran of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Real name Seifallah Ben Hassine, and listed as a "global terrorist" by the United States, he was killed in mid-June, The New York Times reported. A US official told the daily that Ben Hassine died in a strike that targeted Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a top Al-Qaeda-linked militant believed to have masterminded a deadly attack on an Algerian gas plant in 2013.
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| New Puerto Rico agencies to buy TRANs amid economic crisis Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:04 PM PDT  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico's governor signed a bill late Friday that allows certain public agencies to buy up to $400 million in tax and revenue anticipation notes as the government of the U.S. territory seeks more cash amid a worsening economic crisis.
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| Mexico City proposes regulations for Uber Posted: 03 Jul 2015 04:00 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City is proposing regulations that would allow Uber and other smartphone-based ride-sharing apps to operate, while requiring drivers and cars to be registered, the city's Office of Legal and Legislative Studies said Friday. |
| England to face Germany for 3rd place in Women's World Cup Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:58 PM PDT  EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Though Mark Sampson already knew what answer he'd get, England's coach felt obligated to ask defender Laura Bassett whether she was emotionally ready for one more game at the Women's World Cup.
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| France charges soldier over Burkina child sex abuse Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:56 PM PDT  A French soldier accused of sexually abusing two girls aged three and five in Burkina Faso was charged Friday in Paris, a judicial source told AFP. The man, 38, was charged for sexually abusing a minor and for recording images of a pornographic nature involving a minor, the source said. Sources close to the Burkina Faso investigation say the two soldiers -- aged 36 and 38 -- met the mother of the youngest girl at the swimming pool on Sunday and were invited to her home for a drink.
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| Five killed in east Libya car bomb attack: report Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:46 PM PDT  At least five people were killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb attack in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, national news agency LANA reported. The news agency, which has links to the militia-backed government in Tripoli that is not recognised by the international community, added that it was a suicide attack. Libya descended into chaos after a revolt unseated longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
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| Dalai Lama celebrates 80th birthday with California summit Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:45 PM PDT  IRVINE, California (AP) — It won't be a small, private affair when the Dalai Lama celebrates his 80th birthday this weekend in southern California.
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| 'Series of errors' caused Air Algerie crash: report Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:39 PM PDT  A French judicial probe has found a series of "tragic" errors that caused an Air Algerie plane to crash in the Malian desert last year with 116 people on board, Le Figaro reported Thursday. The French civil aviation authority BEA in April said the McDonnell Douglas 83 jet ran into trouble after the crew did not activate the system, causing the failure of certain sensors. The situation would have been compounded when the pilot attempted to regain altitude by pulling back on the joystick, instead of pushing it forward, Le Figaro added.
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| UN rights body calls for Gaza war crimes trials Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:36 PM PDT  The United Nation's Human Rights Council called overwhelmingly Friday for those responsible for war crimes during last summer's Gaza conflict to be brought to trial. Forty-five countries, including France, Germany and Britain supported the resolution, with only the United States voting against. Israel's representative Eviatar Manor lambasted the decision, accusing the council of being an "agent provocateur", while his Palestinian opposite number Ibrahim Khraishi was jubilant.
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| Wimbledon at a glance Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:35 PM PDT LONDON (AP) — A look at Wimbledon on Friday: |
| Greek campaigns, neck and neck, reach dramatic finale Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:28 PM PDT  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greeks packed city squares for dueling rallies late into the night Friday, as polls showed a dead heat between the 'yes' and 'no' camps ahead of a bailout referendum Sunday that could be Greece's most important vote since it joined the European Union.
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| The diplomatic Viennese waltz at the Iran talks Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:25 PM PDT  Tucked away behind some trees is a serene rooftop garden at the luxury Viennese hotel hosting the Iran nuclear talks. Temperatures have soared in the Austrian capital this week as a heatwave hits Europe, and Vienna's famous squares and coffee houses have overflowed with sun-seekers soaking up the unique atmosphere in the city of Mozart and the painter Gustav Klimt. Over the past weeks Vienna has become a home-from-home to many of the experts gathered from the US, EU and Iran who are doing the heavy lifting to reach a complex, highly technical and politically sensitive accord.
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| Mexico govt denies army gave orders to 'kill' criminals Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:22 PM PDT  Mexico's government denied on Friday that soldiers were given standing orders to kill criminals days ahead of an alleged massacre of gang suspects last year. The military faced allegations of committing extrajudicial killings after reporting on June 30, 2014, that troops had killed 22 suspects in a shootout in a warehouse in central Mexico State while only one soldier was wounded. "The word 'abatir' has many definitions and none means to deprive of life," Campa told Radio Formula, noting that the military documents also clearly order soldiers to respect human rights.
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| Wimbledon Lookahead: Dustin Brown tries for encore Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:22 PM PDT  LONDON (AP) — After his stunning win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, Dustin Brown said it was easy to play well when expectations were so low.
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| Iran to US: Nuke deal could result in joint cooperation Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:15 PM PDT  VIENNA (AP) — In a message to Washington, Iran's foreign minister on Friday called for an end to "coercion and pressure" at the nuclear talks, suggesting a deal acceptable to his country will open the door to cooperation on fighting the upsurge of Middle East extremism threatening both nations' interests.
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| Leftist Spanish parties back 'No' vote in Greek referendum Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:14 PM PDT  Six Spanish leftist parties and platforms on Friday backed a "No" vote in Sunday's Greek referendum on its bailout terms. "We think that the Greek people will be courageous, that they will be on the 'No' side," said Rommy Arce, a Madrid city councillor who belongs to a leftist "Ahora Madrid" citizens platform that took power in the capital last month. Voting "No" to the latest bailout terms offered to Greece by the IMF and the European Union "is a rejection of all the governments that apply these policies on the rest of Europe," she added.
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| Young man who stormed Dutch TV gets 2.5 years in jail Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:07 PM PDT  Identified only as Tarik Z., the 20-year-old forced his way into the NOS public broadcaster's building just before the 8 pm news broadcast on January 29, armed with a fake pistol and a threatening letter. "The court finds the man guilty of hostage taking, and claiming to have a weapon at the NOS's building," said the Central Netherlands district court in the city of Lelystad. Tarik Z., whose last name was not given due to privacy rules in the Netherlands, had claimed when he entered the NOS headquarters in the city of Hilversum that he represented a hackers' collective.
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| Solar plane lands in Hawaii after record-breaking flight Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:04 PM PDT  KAPOLEI, Hawaii (AP) — A plane powered by the sun's rays landed in Hawaii Friday after a record-breaking five-day journey across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.
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| Colombian president blames ELN rebels for Bogota blasts Posted: 03 Jul 2015 03:00 PM PDT  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Friday blamed leftist ELN guerrillas for two explosions that rocked Bogota and left 10 people slightly injured a day earlier. The National Liberation Army (ELN) is Colombia's second-largest guerrilla group, after the FARC, and is in preliminary peace talks with the government, though little progress has been made.
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| UNESCO condemns IS destruction of Syria's Palmyra antiquities Posted: 03 Jul 2015 02:56 PM PDT  UNESCO on Friday condemned the destruction of antiquities by Islamic State jihadists in the Syrian city of Palmyra, describing it as an attempt to strip the people of their heritage in order "to enslave them". "These new destructions of cultural goods of the site of Palmyra reflect the brutality and ignorance of extremist groups and their disregard of local communities and of the Syrian people," said Irina Bokova, UNESCO director-general. Among the antiquities destroyed was the Lion Statue of Athena -- a unique piece of more than 3 metres high (ten feet) that stood outside a museum, which was smashed on Saturday, Bokova said.
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| Greek bank official dismisses 'haircut' report as 'baseless' Posted: 03 Jul 2015 02:48 PM PDT The Financial Times reported on Friday that Greek banks were preparing contingency plans for a possible "haircut" on deposits amid fears of financial collapse, a report the country's banking association said was "completely baseless". |
| Greek finance minister Varoufakis says bail-in report 'malicious rumor' Posted: 03 Jul 2015 02:47 PM PDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Friday a Financial Times report that Greece was making contingency plans for the possible bail-in of deposits was a "malicious rumor". |
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