| Iran's October missile test violated U.N. ban: expert panel Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:27 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran violated a U.N. Security Council resolution in October by test firing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, a team of sanctions monitors said, leading to calls in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday for more sanctions on Tehran. The White House warned that it would not rule out additional steps against Iran over the test of the medium-range Emad rocket. The Security Council's Panel of Experts on Iran said in a confidential new report, first reported by Reuters, that the launch showed the rocket met its requirements for considering that a missile could deliver a nuclear weapon.
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| Exclusive: U.S. to charge Venezuela's National Guard chief with drug trafficking Posted: 15 Dec 2015 12:47 PM PST  By Julia Harte and Nate Raymond WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors are preparing to unveil drug trafficking charges against the head of Venezuela's National Guard, according to people familiar with the case, as the United States investigates the suspected involvement of senior Venezuelan officials in the cocaine trade. Nestor Reverol, the former head of Venezuela's anti-narcotics agency and a long-time ally of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, is named in a sealed indictment pending in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, according to the people. Reverol, who leads the branch of Venezuela's armed forces that controls the country's borders, could not be reached for comment by Reuters.
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| Russia, U.S. clear way for Syria meeting after Kerry Moscow talks Posted: 15 Dec 2015 01:26 PM PST  By Lesley Wroughton and Jack Stubbs MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States see enough common ground on Syria for world powers to meet on the troubled country's peace process in New York on Friday, but views on the future of President Bashar-al Assad still diverge. Secretary of State John Kerry went into meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday not knowing whether Moscow would veto a third round of international talks on Syria on Friday after the Kremlin spoke of preconditions needing to be met.
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| U.N. watchdog decides to close nuclear weapons probe of Iran Posted: 15 Dec 2015 11:15 AM PST  By Francois Murphy and Shadia Nasralla VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation board decided on Tuesday to close its investigation into whether Iran once had a secret nuclear weapons programme, opting to support Tehran's deal with world powers rather than dwell on its past actions. In a symbolic victory for Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors passed a resolution ending its long-running inquiry but allowing inspectors to continue to police the country's nuclear programme. "The decision by the Board of Governors today ... will open a new chapter for cooperation between Iran and the agency," Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, told reporters after the resolution was passed by consensus unopposed.
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| EU expected to agree on extending Russian sanctions on Friday Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:22 PM PST  By Robin Emmott and Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is set to agree a six-month extension of its economic sanctions on Russia on Friday, once Italy's prime minister has discussed the issue with his fellow leaders at a summit in Brussels, diplomats said on Tuesday. Italy's Matteo Renzi has been seeking to raise the issue of the sanctions, imposed on Moscow last year over the Ukraine conflict, since last week, when Rome unexpectedly held up approval by EU envoys after an agreement by leaders in November.
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| Afghan security worsens, casualties spike in 2015: Pentagon Posted: 15 Dec 2015 01:34 PM PST  By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghanistan's overall security deteriorated in the second half of this year, with Taliban militants staging more attacks and inflicting far more casualties on Afghan forces, the Pentagon said in a grim report to the U.S. Congress released on Tuesday. The Pentagon's assessment, offering statistics and details on attack trends, was yet more evidence of Afghanistan's struggle to blunt a resilient Taliban insurgency despite 14 years of U.S. military engagement. Recent setbacks include the brief fall of the northern city of Kunduz to the Taliban, a months-long struggle in Helmand province and an insurgent raid on the airport in the southern city of Kandahar last week that killed 50 civilians, police and security personnel.
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| US, Russia agree to push ahead with Syria talks Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:55 PM PST  The United States and Russia agreed to plough on with efforts to halt Syria's brutal civil war, with a fresh round of international crisis talks set for this week in New York. After a three-hour meeting in Moscow between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State John Kerry, the two sides appeared to be a step closer to each other's positions on Syria, though differences remained on the fate of President Bashar al-Assad. "We support the idea of convening in New York another meeting of the International Syria Support Group at the ministerial level this Friday, December 18," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the talks, which also touched on counterterrorism and Ukraine.
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| NY, LA schools receive same email threat; LA cancels classes Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:47 PM PST  LOS ANGELES (AP) — The nation's two biggest school systems — New York City and Los Angeles — received threats Tuesday of a large-scale jihadi attack with guns and bombs, and LA reacted by shutting down the entire district, while New York dismissed the warning as an amateurish hoax and held classes as usual.
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| Auction of Thatcher possessions raises £3.3 mn Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:45 PM PST  The sale of late British leader Margaret Thatcher's possessions has raised £3.3 million (4.5 million euros, $5 million), auction house Christie's said on Tuesday. A model of an American bald eagle given to Thatcher by close ally and former US president Ronald Reagan fetched the highest price for an individual item at £266,500 after a flurry of bidding in person, online and by phone. The model, with the message "with best wishes from Ronald Reagan", was sold to an online buyer and had been given a top estimated sale price of £8,000 at the London auction.
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| Los Angeles defends school closure after apparent email hoax Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:40 PM PST  Los Angeles city officials defended their decision to shut down all public schools on Tuesday in response to an email threat that appears to have been a hoax. The drastic measure was ordered as a precaution, triggered in part by the December 2 attacks in nearby San Bernardino that left 14 people dead, said Ramon Cortines, the superintendent of Los Angeles schools -- the second-largest school district in the US with 640,000 students. A similar threat was also made against New York City schools, but officials there said they deemed it not credible from the onset and accused Los Angeles school officials of badly overreacting.
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| Texas extends National Guard order amid new border crossings Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:40 PM PST  AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered Texas National Guard troops on Tuesday to remain at the Mexico border, extending again a mission that began in 2014 when unaccompanied children started pouring into the country and that will continue amid another wave of arrivals.
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| The Latest: GOP presidential candidates meet for 5th debate Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:31 PM PST  LAS VEGAS (AP) — The 2016 Republican presidential candidates are debating for the last time in 2015, this time in Las Vegas, as they race for advantage seven weeks before the first votes are cast in Iowa.
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| Colombia's rebels take another step toward ending conflict Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:20 PM PST  HAVANA (AP) — Colombia's government and the country's largest rebel group took another major step toward signing a peace deal, agreeing on a framework to address the needs of millions of victims left by a half century of fighting.
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| Durbin asks Pope Francis to defend gay US official Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:16 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — A high-ranking Democratic senator called on Pope Francis Tuesday to personally intervene with a cardinal in the Dominican Republic who has made derogatory comments about the openly gay man who is the U.S. ambassador to the Caribbean country. |
| UN experts say Iran missile firing violated UN sanctions Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:04 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran's firing of a medium-range ballistic missile in October violated U.N. sanctions banning the Islamic Republic from launches capable of delivering nuclear weapons, U.N. experts said in a new report. |
| Federal judge denies request to dismiss hacking charges Posted: 15 Dec 2015 04:02 PM PST SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected claims by a Russian man's lawyers that the federal agents who took him into custody in the Maldives violated local and U.S. law and refused to dismiss the charges against him. |
| Peru may fine Kimberly-Clark for alleged price fixing Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:56 PM PST LIMA, Peru (AP) — Antitrust regulators in Peru are considering fining Kimberly-Clark up to 12 percent of its earnings for allegedly conspiring for almost a decade with a competitor to set prices for toilet paper and other products in the South American country. |
| Mexico finds 17 bodies dumped in ravine Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:55 PM PST  Mexican authorities have found at least 17 bodies rotting at the bottom of a 500-meter-deep (1,650-foot) ravine in the violent southern state of Guerrero, a federal official said Tuesday. "There were nine complete bodies and eight half-burned," the official from the attorney general's office said on condition of anonymity, adding that they were found between December 8 and 11 in the village of Chichihualco. A member of an organization of relatives of missing people in Guerrero, Isabel Rosales, said the corpses were sent to Mexico City to be identified.
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| Iran missile launch violated UN resolution: UN experts Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:31 PM PST  Iran violated a UN resolution in October when it test-launched a medium-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, a UN panel of experts has concluded in a report that could lead to sanctions. Britain, France, Germany and the United States had asked a UN Security Council sanctions committee to investigate the launch of the Emad missile on October 10, three months after the historic nuclear deal was reached. "On the basis of its analysis and findings, the panel concludes that Emad launch is a violation by Iran of paragraph 9 of Security Council resolution 1929", said the report presented to the council last week and obtained by AFP on Tuesday.
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| Mali hotel reopens after deadly Islamist siege Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:28 PM PST  Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on Tuesday hailed the reopening of a luxury hotel at the centre of a deadly Islamist attack, saying it was a victory over the scourge of jihadist violence. Gunmen took guests and staff hostage at the 190-room Radisson Blu in Bamako on November 20 in a siege that left 20 people dead, most of them foreigners. Al-Murabitoun, an Al-Qaeda affiliate led by notorious Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed it was behind the raid while another jihadist group from central Mali, the Macina Liberation Front, also claimed responsibility.
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| Triumphant return for Cuban baseball defectors Puig, Abreu Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:27 PM PST  HAVANA (AP) — A lineup of Cuban-born baseball stars, including some of the most famous defectors in recent memory, made a triumphant return to the island Tuesday as part of the first Major League Baseball trip here since 1999.
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| Kings' Rondo issues stronger apology for gay slur toward ref Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:17 PM PST  SACRAMENTO, California (AP) — Sacramento Kings guard Rajon Rondo has offered a stronger apology for directing a gay slur at veteran NBA referee Bill Kennedy.
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| 30 dead in Boko Haram attack on three Nigeria villages: vigilantes Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:15 PM PST  Brutal weekend attacks on three villages by Boko Haram Islamists in the restive northeast of Nigeria have left 30 dead and 20 others wounded, a vigilante told AFP. "Most of the victims were slaughtered and most of the wounded (had suffered) machete cuts," Mustapha Karimbe, a civilian helping the Nigerian military fight Boko Haram, said of Saturday's attacks in the villages of Warwara, Mangari and Bura-Shika in Borno state. News of the attacks has been slow to emerge because telecom masts in the area have been destroyed in previous Boko Haram raids, hindering communication.
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| Coalition efforts to stem IS oil yielding results, official says Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:11 PM PST  Stepped-up attacks against the oil infrastructure of the Islamic State group have hurt its bottom line, a senior US official said Tuesday, as the Obama administration tries to rebut claims it is moving too slowly against the jihadists. The US-led coalition that has been bombing IS fighters in Iraq and Syria since August last year has started targeting fuel tankers that move oil around Syria and provide IS fighters with vital funding. Speaking to Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity, the official said the IS group had been making between $40 million and $48 million a month from oil sales.
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| Shiffrin unsure how long she will be out with knee injury Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:08 PM PST  Over the next few weeks, Mikaela Shiffrin will slalom between rest and rehab.
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| Inter, Alessandria through to Italian Cup quarterfinals Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:07 PM PST  MILAN (AP) — League leader Inter Milan eased through to the Italian Cup quarterfinals by beating Cagliari 3-0, while third-division Alessandria also advanced after upsetting Genoa 2-1 on Tuesday.
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| One year on, embargo still overshadows US-Cuba thaw Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:02 PM PST  Thursday marks one year since the United States and Cuba surprised the world by announcing they would end decades of Cold War hostility, but the budding rapprochement is still overshadowed by the US embargo. After months of secret negotiations, Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced last December 17 that they were ready to bury the hatchet after more than half a century of enmity between the small communist island and the capitalist behemoth across the Florida Straits. Since then, there has been one history-making photo op after another, from Obama's and Castro's handshake at a regional summit in Panama in April, to the reopening of embassies in July, to the homecoming of a group of defected Cuban baseball stars Tuesday.
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| Assad can stay, for now: Kerry accepts Russian stance Posted: 15 Dec 2015 03:01 PM PST  MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday accepted Russia's long-standing demand that President Bashar Assad's future be determined by his own people, as Washington and Moscow edged toward putting aside years of disagreement over how to end Syria's civil war.
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| Four killed as police open fire on Shiite protesters in Nigeria Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:57 PM PST  At least four people were killed on Tuesday when riot police opened fire on Shiite Muslims demanding the release of their leader in Nigerian city of Kaduna, a sect spokesman and residents said. Hundreds of supporters of the pro-Iranian Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) had been marching through the streets of Kaduna's Unguwar Nupawa area, calling for the release of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been detained by the military since Sunday. "Armed policemen ambushed the procession unprovoked and threw tear gas into the crowd before opening fire, killing four people and injuring 25," IMN spokesman Ibrahim Musa told AFP.
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| Mao Zedong's letter to UK politician sells for £600,000 Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:52 PM PST  In the letter, typed in English and signed by Mao, the founder of Communist China asks Clement Attlee, Labour leader and future prime minister, to lend the support of his party to "any measures of practical assistance". The letter was one of the first communications between the Chinese leader and a Western politician, and only the second letter from Mao to be sold at auction in decades, Sotheby's said. In the letter, Mao expressed solidarity with the British people and hoped they would urge the government to help him resist the Japanese invaders, "a danger that ultimately threatens them no less than ourselves".
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| Yemen peace talks underway as fighters ignore cease-fire Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:44 PM PST  GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-brokered peace talks between Yemen's internationally recognized government and Shiite rebels opened Tuesday in Switzerland with expectations for a deal low as fighters on both sides failed to honor a weeklong cease-fire in some parts of the country.
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| UN kicks off race for next secretary-general Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:36 PM PST  The United Nations on Tuesday kicked off the race to be the next secretary-general with a letter that for the first time invited candidates to become the world's top diplomat. The choice of the UN chief has for decades been the purview of the five permanent Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- in a selection process kept mostly behind closed doors.
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| US envoy: Raid in May led to plan to attack IS oil targets Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:34 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. military raid that killed an Islamic State leader in Syria last spring yielded intelligence that allowed the U.S. to more effectively target the extremist group's oil revenues, the State Department's top diplomat for energy affairs said Tuesday. |
| Top Asian News 10:31 p.m. GMT Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:32 PM PST BANGKOK (AP) — The president of one of the world's biggest seafood exporters expressed frustration and promised change Tuesday after saying an Associated Press investigation that linked slave-peeled shrimp to his company should be a "wake-up call" to the industry. Thiraphong Chansiri said Thai Union will spend millions of dollars to end reliance on poorly regulated contractors that have been responsible for much of the abuse. He added that under the current system, it's almost impossible to ensure that supply chains are clean. Like other exporters in Thailand, his company has for years relied heavily on poor migrants working in factories in the port town of Samut Sakhon to peel, gut and devein shrimp. |
| Hill aides: US plans 1st arms sale to Taiwan in 4 years Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:32 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is planning its first arms sale to Taiwan in four years, congressional aides said Tuesday, a move that typically draws stiff criticism from Beijing but is unlikely to derail U.S.-China relations. |
| Deportivo draws Llagostera 1-1, advances in Copa del Rey Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:14 PM PST MADRID (AP) — Deportivo La Coruna held on to a 1-1 home draw against second-division club Llagostera to advance to the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey on Tuesday. |
| Bayern edges Darmstadt 1-0 to reach German Cup quarters Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:13 PM PST  FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Xabi Alonso scored a spectacular goal for Bayern Munich to beat Darmstadt 1-0 and earn a place in the German Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday.
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| South Africa's ANC rallies round Zuma; Moody's cuts outlook Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:10 PM PST  By Thekiso Lefifi JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling ANC rallied round President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday, rejecting calls for him to stand down after he rocked financial markets last week by appointing an unknown backbencher as finance minister. Zuma appointed David van Rooyen, a former mayor, to replace the widely respected Nhlanhla Nene last Wednesday, a move that sparked a selling frenzy in the rand, bonds and stock market. The dramatic U-turn caused a relief rally in South African assets.
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| FIFA bribery case suspect Eduardo Li agrees to be extradited Posted: 15 Dec 2015 02:07 PM PST BERN, Switzerland (AP) — FIFA bribery case suspect Eduardo Li has agreed to be extradited to the United States after more than six months in jail. |
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