| EU leaders seek unity on refugee plans Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:53 PM PDT  By Alastair Macdonald and Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders concluded a summit early on Thursday that was expected to back offers of new aid for Syrian refugees and also patch up bitter divisions over the migration crisis. Meeting a day after their interior ministers overrode furious objections from four eastern states in a vote that will distribute asylum-seekers around the bloc according to mandatory national quotas, government leaders tried to focus on ways to curb the inflow of migrants that has hit records this summer. Feelings have been running high as chaotic crowds and varied responses from national capitals have seen borders close inside Europe's cherished passport-free Schengen zone.
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| Egypt's Sisi pardons 100 prisoners, including Jazeera journalists Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:15 PM PDT  Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned 100 prisoners including three Al Jazeera television journalists, on Wednesday, a day before he plans to head to the annual United Nations summit of world leaders. The Al Jazeera journalists, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste, were sentenced to three years in prison in a retrial last month for operating without a press license and broadcasting material harmful to Egypt.
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| U.S., rebutting Kremlin, says no change in Syria position Posted: 23 Sep 2015 08:21 AM PDT  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday the United States was increasingly receptive toward Moscow's position on the conflict in Syria, an assertion quickly disputed by Washington. "I think the Americans are much more receptive (now) of the arguments we have been presenting for several years now," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. Lavrov referred to comments by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week after military talks restarted between Washington and Moscow on Syria, where a war shows no signs of abating after 4-1/2 years.
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| Russia plans second big military base near Ukrainian border Posted: 23 Sep 2015 10:51 AM PDT  By Anton Zverev BOGUCHAR, Russia (Reuters) - Russia is planning a second major military base near the border with Ukraine, where NATO accuses Russian troops of helping pro-Moscow separatists fight Kiev's forces. It is further east than one under construction in Belgorod region reported by Reuters earlier this month but still close to the border with separatist-held parts of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, where there has been heavy fighting. Russia has also increased its military presence in Syria.
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| New Greek government gets off to bumpy start, with a row over tweets Posted: 23 Sep 2015 11:53 AM PDT  By Renee Maltezou ATHENS (Reuters) - Newly elected Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras demanded explanations from his coalition partners on Wednesday, after allegations a member of his new cabinet had made anti-semitic and racist remarks on social media. Kammenos is a member of the right-wing Independent Greeks (IG) party, coalition partners with Tsipras's leftist Syriza party. Kammenos said his social media posts were handled by a team of aides, and his accounts had been hacked many times.
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| EU to set up special migrant reception centres by November: Tusk Posted: 23 Sep 2015 04:29 PM PDT  Brussels (AFP) - The EU will set up special reception centres for migrants in frontline states by the end of November, the bloc's President Donald Tusk said Thursday after an emergency summit of European leaders.
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| Colombia-FARC peace deal 'within six months': president Posted: 23 Sep 2015 04:27 PM PDT  The Colombian government and FARC rebels will sign a definitive peace deal within six months to end their half-century conflict, President Juan Manuel Santos said Wednesday as the two sides announced a major breakthrough. Santos and FARC leader Timoleon "Timochenko" Jimenez presided over a ceremony where the government and rebel leaders signed a deal on justice for crimes committed during the conflict, which had been the key issue blocking progress in the negotiations. Santos made a surprise trip to Havana, where the talks have been taking place, for the signing ceremony -- the first time he has appeared at the negotiations he set in motion and has staked his presidency on successfully concluding.
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| Argentina's Macri would give provinces more mining profits: adviser Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:46 PM PDT  Argentina's leading opposition candidate Mauricio Macri would give provinces a bigger share of profits from miners operating there and improve environmental inspections in the industry, an adviser said in an interview on Wednesday. Santiago Dondo, a mining specialist at Pensar, the think tank of Macri's business-friendly PRO party, said 80 to 85 percent of mining tax revenue currently goes to national coffers. "If Argentine society and politicians do not understand where we are going with the mining sector, doesn't share that aim or want it, then it will be very difficult," said Dondo.
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| US man arrested over Bali body-in-bag murder plot Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:46 PM PDT  Police arrested a Chicago man Wednesday in connection with an alleged murder plot that resulted in a dead body found stuffed in a suitcase in a taxi outside a Bali resort. Robert Ryan Justin Bibbs was charged by the US Department of Justice with advising his cousin Tommy Schaefer and his cousin's girlfriend Heather Mack on how to go about killing Mack's mother, Sheila Von Wiese, during an Indonesian vacation in August 2014. Von Wiese's body was later found bludgeoned to death in a suitcase.
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| Burkina president resumes power after week-long coup Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:39 PM PDT  Burkina Faso's interim President Michel Kafando officially resumed power Wednesday after a week-long coup by renegade troops, whose leader conceded the enterprise had been a "mistake" lacking popular support. "The coup is over," the putschists' leader General Gilbert Diendere said as he and his backers bowed to pressure from regional powers and former colonial ruler France. The move came after marathon talks brokered by the ECOWAS west African regional bloc in bid to restore calm to a country in transition following 27 years of iron-fisted rule by Blaise Compaore, who was ousted as president last October and fled the country.
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| Madrid says breakaway Catalans would lose Spain nationality Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:38 PM PDT  Spain's foreign minister Wednesday warned Catalans they would lose their Spanish nationality if the region became independent and urged them against what he said would be a suicidal vote for secession. Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo raised the pressure in tense campaigning four days ahead of a regional election that Catalan leaders are framing as an indirect vote on independence. "When one leaves a country it is obvious that one abandons all the qualities that belonging to that country gives you," Garcia-Margallo told reporters in Barcelona.
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| Liverpool survive League Cup scare, Newcastle out Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:36 PM PDT  Liverpool survived an almighty scare in the League Cup by edging fourth-tier Carlisle United on penalties on Wednesday, while Sheffield Wednesday dumped Newcastle United out of the tournament. Carlisle, the lowest-ranked team in the competition, took Liverpool to penalties at Anfield after the game finished 1-1 following extra time, Derek Asamoah having cancelled out Danny Ings' 23rd-minute opener. Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho both saw penalties saved by Mark Gillespie, but reserve goalkeeper Adam Bogdan parried the decisive spot-kick from Carlisle's French forward Bastien Hery to earn Liverpool a 3-2 shootout win and spare manager Brendan Rodgers a humiliating exit.
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| Stick with Spain, urges foreign minister in Catalan secession debate Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:33 PM PDT  Catalonia should stick with Spain and avoid disaster, Spain's foreign minister said on Wednesday, becoming the only member of Madrid's center-right government to debate on television with a secessionist adversary on the heated topic of Catalan independence. The fact that Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo had agreed to participate in the televised debate at all was in itself a "great success" for the separatist camp, argued Oriol Junqueras, head of the leftist Catalan republican party, given the lack of dialogue with Madrid. The sparring match came ahead of Sunday's Catalan regional election which separatists have billed as a proxy vote on independence from Spain - a description rejected by Madrid.
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| Syrian rock musicians on unexpected 'exile tour' Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:25 PM PDT  Like tens of thousands of their fellow countrymen fleeing war, members of a Syrian rock group exiled in Lebanon undertook a perilous journey to reach Europe. Khebez Dawle, an alternative rock band from Damascus, fled Syria to neighbouring Lebanon in 2013, a year after a fellow band member was killed.
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| EU urged to secure borders from 'millions' of migrants Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:22 PM PDT  The EU's president urged leaders gathering for an emergency summit Wednesday to stop fighting over a refugee quota deal and take urgent action to secure the bloc's borders in the face of "millions" of migrants. After ministers forced through a deal to relocate 120,000 refugees in the teeth of opposition from eastern states, Hungary's hardline prime minister angrily denounced Germany's "moral imperialism". Slovakia furiously vowed to dispute the quota deal in court, underscoring the deep divisions that have emerged over Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II.
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| At busy Lebanese port, Syrians set their sights on Europe Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:12 PM PDT By Sylvia Westall TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Hundreds of Syrians gather at dusk for a passenger ferry from Lebanon's northern port of Tripoli to Turkey, the next step on their long trek toward what they hope will be a better, safer life in western Europe. For more than four years, Lebanon has drawn refugees fleeing Syria but in the past three months it has increasingly become a 24-hour transit point for mainly middle class Syrians who can afford to take the onward trip by boat and plane. "Syria is finished, there is nothing there. |
| Serbia bans Croatian cargo vehicles and goods in migrant row Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:11 PM PDT BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia has banned the entry of all Croatian-registered cargo vehicles and Croatian goods in retaliation for border restrictions imposed by Croatia over the flow of migrants across their joint border, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said. "From this moment, the Serbian police will not allow the entry through any border crossing any cargo vehicle registered in Croatia nor any truck carrying goods made in Croatia," Stefanovic told reporters. (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Writing by Matt Robinson) |
| Exclusive: Storm suspected of carrying new corn disease into U.S. Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:02 PM PDT By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) - A tropical storm could have carried the corn disease tar spot into the heart of the U.S. farm belt for the first time, as winds and rain blew in from Latin America, researchers told Reuters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed cases of tar spot in four locations in Indiana and three in Illinois. The fungal disease has been a problem for years in Mexico and in Central and South America, with farmers fighting infections that can lower yields. |
| VW chief quits as cheating scandal snowballs Posted: 23 Sep 2015 03:01 PM PDT  Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned Wednesday over a pollution cheating scandal that has sparked a US criminal investigation and worldwide legal action with unfathomable financial consequences for the auto giant. Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group,"Winterkorn said in a statement issued by the carmaker. "Volkswagen needs a fresh start -- also in terms of personnel.
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| Muslim pilgrims gather pebbles for last major hajj rite Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:58 PM PDT  A sea of Muslim pilgrims moved on Wednesday towards the holy site of Muzdalifah in Saudi Arabia, where they gather pebbles for the last major rite of this year's hajj. Around two million white-clad faithful spent a day of prayer Wednesday on a vast Saudi plain and its Mount Arafat for the peak of the hajj pilgrimage. Police sirens pierced the air and helicopters hovered overhead as the faithful later arrived at nearby Muzdalifah, where water sprays cooled them.
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| Pope wows Washington but takes on controversy Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:50 PM PDT  Pope Francis received a rapturous welcome to Washington on Wednesday but did not shy away from controversy, addressing church sex abuse and urging action on immigration and climate change. President Barack Obama was clearly delighted to welcome to the White House a pontiff who can lend moral and spiritual force to his own priorities, but others may be left uncomfortable by the pope's stances. Meeting Catholic bishops in Washington, he praised their handling of the child sex abuse scandal that rocked the US church.
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| Freed Jazeera journalists conflict-hardened veterans Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:48 PM PDT  The two journalists for Al-Jazeera television's English-language channel pardoned by Egypt's president Wednesday after being jailed for broadcasting false news are conflict-hardened veteran correspondents. Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were released from jail Wednesday after being convicted in a retrial last month and sentenced to three years, along with Australian reporter Peter Greste, who was already deported back in February. Fahmy had only been named head of Al-Jazeera's Cairo office in September 2013, three months before his arrest.
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| Surging Day hungry for wins Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:44 PM PDT  Newly minted world number one Jason Day is on quite a ride, and the Aussie golfer isn't planning to take his foot off the accelerator at the Tour Championship. "It's great to see my name up there, it's pretty cool to be the best player on the planet," Day told reporters at East Lake on Wednesday as he prepared for the US PGA Tour's season finale.
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| Ireland court releases Congo plane grounded in debt row Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:38 PM PDT An airplane belonging to Democratic Republic of Congo's new national carrier was released by an Irish court on Tuesday after it was grounded over a debt row with two American investors, Congo's justice minister said. The Airbus A320 is one of two planes recently purchased by the government for the launch of Congo Airways, expected before the end of this year. It was being painted at Dublin airport ahead of its arrival in Congo. |
| Ex-Bissau military chief jailed over plot against president Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:36 PM PDT  A former head of Guinea-Bissau's armed forces, held under house arrest for the past month, was transferred to a military prison on Wednesday over his suspected involvement in an aborted plot to kill President Jose Mario Vaz, his lawyer and police said. Rear Admiral Jose Zamora Induta, who headed the volatile West African nation's military from 2009 until he was pushed out in 2010 by General Antonio Indjai, returned from exile in Portugal in July. Police sources said they had driven Induta to the Mansoa prison, around 50 km (30 miles) northeast of the capital, on the orders of a military tribunal in connection to the August plot and other crimes.
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| Nobel winners urge Obama to raise dissident's case with Xi Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:30 PM PDT  Twelve Nobel peace prize winners have urged fellow laureate US President Barack Obama to press for the release of jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo when he meets his Chinese counterpart on Friday. Obama, who won the 2009 award, will meet President Xi Jinping at the White House and is under pressure to deliver the Chinese leader a strong human rights message. In a letter dated September 2 and seen by AFP, a dozen peace prize winners -- including revered South African churchman Desmond Tutu, Polish anti-Communist leader Lech Walesa and exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama -- call for Liu's release.
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| Canada rail terror plotters jailed for life Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:28 PM PDT  Two radical Islamists who plotted to derail a packed passenger train travelling between Toronto and New York were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison in Canada. Tunisian national Chiheb Esseghaier was found guilty in March of all five charges against him, including conspiracy to participate in or contribute to terrorist activities. Raed Jaser, a Canadian resident of Palestinian descent, was found guilty of three of four charges but the jury remained deadlocked on a conspiracy charge.
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| China's Xi promises better investment climate as Boeing announces China plant Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:22 PM PDT  By Michael Martina and Eric M. Johnson SEATTLE (Reuters) - Seeking to project a sunny climate for U.S. business, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday his country planned to greatly reduce restrictions on foreign investment, as Boeing announced plans for an aircraft finishing center in China, its first outside the United States. Boeing's long-expected move into manufacturing in low-cost China followed its news of a big order for some 300 planes from China, valued at about $38 billion at list prices.
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| Central Asia jihadists in Syria declare allegiance to Qaeda Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:15 PM PDT  A group of mainly Central Asian jihadists fighting in Syria on Wednesday declared allegiance to Al-Qaeda's offshoot in the country to battle the regime, its ally Russia and a US-led coalition. Jaish al-Muhajireen wal Ansar -- which includes Chechens, Uzbeks and Tajiks -- first appeared in Syria in 2012 and has around 1,500 fighters in the northern province of Aleppo. "Those who follow the course of events in Syria noticed the ferocity of the war against our brothers... and the alignment of the infidels, the Nusayris, the rawafed, the Russians and the Crusaders," said a statement posted online.
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| 2 men charged in Canada train terror get life in prison Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:06 PM PDT  TORONTO (AP) — Two men found guilty of plotting to derail a passenger train in Canada with support from al-Qaida were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.
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| In South Korea, Park's revamp of rigid labor laws faces opposition Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:06 PM PDT  "The situation is just getting tougher." South Korea's rigid labor market is increasingly seen as a drag on an ailing economy that President Park Geun-hye says needs "major surgery." Park is pushing a revamp in labor laws that would be the biggest in nearly two decades. It would change the system of stable employment and seniority-based remuneration that was part of a social contract enforced by the unions and underpinned South Korea's breakneck economic growth into the 1990s.
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| Zimbabwean behind Cecil hunt bailed on poaching charge Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:04 PM PDT  The professional hunter who helped an American dentist kill Zimbabwe's popular lion Cecil was freed on bail Wednesday on new charges of planning to smuggle sable antelope out of the country. Magistrate Innocent Bepura set bail at $500 (450 euros) for Theo Bronkhorst after he was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 29 sable -- a rare and expensive breed of antelope -- out of Zimbabwe into South Africa. The killing of Cecil, a famed lion who was tracked by researchers as part of an Oxford University project, provoked outrage among animal lovers worldwide.
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| Top Asian News at 9:00 p.m. GMT Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:03 PM PDT SEATTLE (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that China and the United States could work together to address cyber crimes, a problem that has sparked mutual tension. Xi's statement came shortly after leaders from both countries signed an agreement to advance renewable energy and clean technologies to combat climate change. |
| China dissident's wife rejects invite to State Department Posted: 23 Sep 2015 02:01 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Relatives of Chinese dissidents met Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry as the Obama administration sought to demonstrate it won't gloss over human rights during this week's state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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| Stunner: Frosinone earns 1st ever Serie A point at Juventus Posted: 23 Sep 2015 01:59 PM PDT  ROME (AP) — Promoted Frosione earned its first ever Serie A point in stunning fashion Wednesday, scoring a last-minute equalizer for a 1-1 draw at four-time defending champion Juventus.
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| How the Dow Jones industrial average fared on Wednesday Posted: 23 Sep 2015 01:58 PM PDT Stocks closed mostly lower Wednesday, led by another drop in materials and energy companies as worries about global growth continue. |
| New Newcastle loss with League Cup humiliation vs Sheff Weds Posted: 23 Sep 2015 01:58 PM PDT LONDON (AP) — Newcastle's troubled season lurched to another low when the Premier League strugglers were knocked out of the League Cup by second-tier Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday, while Arsenal eliminated Tottenham in a north London derby. |
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