| From Russia with love: Putin, Trump sing each other's praises Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:43 PM PST  By Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump praised each other on Thursday, saying they would welcome an improvement in the now-icy relations between their two nations. Trump - who holds the lead in opinion polls in his bid for the Republican nomination and was dubbed the "absolute leader" in the race by Putin - said that by working together, the United States and Russia could work toward defeating terrorism and "restoring world peace." The billionaire businessman's remarks were in stark contrast to his Republican rivals' rhetoric. Republicans have frequently taken to bashing Putin and have used his rocky relationship with Democratic President Barack Obama as evidence that the administration lacks strength in international affairs.
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| U.S. says considering response to Iran ballistic missile test Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:41 PM PST  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is considering how to respond to an Iranian ballistic missile launch that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions, senior U.S. officials said on Thursday, as senators pressed for a strong reaction. "We are now actively considering the appropriate consequences to that launch in October," Stephen Mull, the State Department's lead coordinator for implementing an international nuclear deal with Iran, told a Senate committee hearing. Almost every Republican U.S. lawmaker, as well as several of President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats, opposed the nuclear agreement announced in July, in which Iran agreed with major powers to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
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| After half a century, U.S. and Cuba to resume scheduled flights Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:14 PM PST  By Arshad Mohammed and Jeffrey Dastin WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States and Cuba have agreed to restore scheduled commercial airline service for the first time in more than five decades in a deal allowing 110 round-trip flights a day between the former Cold War foes. Under the pact, U.S. airlines will be able to sell tickets on their websites for flights to Cuba but they must first apply for permission from U.S. regulators to fly specific routes. Charter flights operated by U.S. carriers already connect the countries.
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| Russia open to Assad's ouster after Syria transition: diplomats Posted: 17 Dec 2015 02:41 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau and Parisa Hafezi UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia has made clear to Western nations that it has no objection to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stepping down as part of a peace process, in a softening of its publicly stated staunch backing of Assad ahead of talks in New York, diplomats said. Russia, like Iran, has been a firm ally of Assad and is intervening militarily on his behalf against anti-government forces in the five-year civil war that has claimed more than a quarter million lives. Both Russia and Iran have long insisted Assad's fate should be decided in a nationwide vote.
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| Niger government foils coup attempt, president says on TV Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:13 PM PST  By Abdoulaye Massalaki NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's government has foiled an attempted coup and arrested people who planned to use aerial firepower to seize control, President Mahamadou Issoufou said on national television on Thursday. Issoufou was elected in 2011, one year after a coup. Political tension is high ahead of a presidential election set for Feb. 21.
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| Brazil court rulings help Rousseff fend off impeachment Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:25 PM PST  By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court handed embattled President Dilma Rousseff two victories on Thursday in rulings that improve her chances of blocking an impeachment bid by opponents seeking to oust the unpopular leftist leader. The judges voted to give the Senate the authority to review the grounds for Rousseff's impeachment even if the lower house votes to impeach her for allegedly breaching budget laws last year. A majority of the court also ruled against the validity of a secret lower house ballot last week that stacked an impeachment committee with her opponents, forcing the selection of its members to be redone with an open vote.
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| Cameron pleads for leaders' help to keep Britain in EU Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:50 PM PST  By Elizabeth Piper and Paul Taylor BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday he could see a pathway to a deal to keep Britain in the European Union after EU leaders told him at a summit in Brussels they would not accept discrimination against EU migrant workers in the UK. "Nothing is certain in life, nor in Brussels, but what I would say is there is a pathway to a deal in February," Cameron told a news conference after a substantial discussion of Britain's demands to renegotiate the terms of its membership of the 28-nation bloc before a referendum on whether to stay. In his longest address in more than five years of attending EU summits, the conservative leader told the 27 other national leaders over dinner that if they wanted to keep Britain in, they must address his voters' concerns about curbing immigration.
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| US evangelical leaders urge Christian acceptance of refugees Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:43 PM PST NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Evangelical leaders are urging fellow Christians to welcome refugees from Syria and Iraq despite opposition by many governors and presidential candidates. |
| W. African leaders seek ban on full-face veil to prevent attacks Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:38 PM PST  West African leaders said Thursday they were seeking to "forbid" women wearing full-face veils in an effort to curb the growing number of female suicide bombers unleashed by Boko Haram jihadists. Losing swathes of territory to the Nigerian army, Boko Haram jihadists have since July started using young women and girls as suicide bombers by hiding explosives in their loose-fitting clothes. The radical Sunni group has also used the tactic in Cameroon, Chad and Niger -- countries that have already enforced bans on veils this year.
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| Cameron hails progress on EU deal Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:33 PM PST  British Prime Minister David Cameron closed in on a difficult reform deal with European Union leaders at a summit on Thursday but warned there would be hard work to seal an accord by February as hoped. After appealing to sceptical EU counterparts for help at a dinner in Brussels, Cameron said afterwards there was a "pathway" to an agreement but that it would be "tough" to hammer out differences over his demand for a freeze on benefits for EU migrants. The other 27 leaders agreed to work for a compromise despite reservations over Cameron's reforms, which he says he wants to secure before holding a referendum by the end of 2017 on a possible "Brexit" from the EU.
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| Cueto joins Giants ready to win an 'even year' World Series Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:26 PM PST  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Johnny Cueto's elbow checked out just fine. The dreadlocks, too.
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| Southee snaps up Sri Lanka cricket openers Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:18 PM PST  Seamer Tim Southee claimed both Sri Lankan openers before Dinesh Chandimal and Udara Jayasundera mounted a recovery operation on day one of the second Test against New Zealand in Hamilton on Friday. Sri Lanka, sent into bat on a green-top wicket, were 108-2 at lunch with Chandimal on 41 after facing 40 deliveries and Jayasundera on 31. Southee took two for 24 and was the most threatening of the New Zealand seamers who were nonetheless guilty of not showing line and length consistency.
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| EU summit kicks off British reform talks in earnest Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:13 PM PST  BRUSSELS (AP) — With an impassioned plea to European Union leaders to fundamentally change the way the EU is run, David Cameron kicked of two months of negotiations on many of the cornerstones on which the 28-nation bloc is built, with the survival of Britain as a member state hanging in the balance.
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| Violence, fear in northern Mali deprive children of education Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:04 PM PST By Kieran Guilbert DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Insecurity in northern Mali has forced teachers to flee and schools to remain closed, leaving hundreds of thousands of children out of education three months into the academic year, the United Nations said on Friday. More than 380,000 children aged seven to 15 are still out of school almost four years after conflict involving rival armed groups and Islamist militants erupted in the West African nation, according to the U.N. children's agency UNICEF. One in six schools in conflict-hit areas in northern Mali - nearly 300 - remains closed, many for the third year in a row, after being damaged, destroyed, or occupied by armed groups. |
| Sri Lanka reaches 108-2 in 2nd test against New Zealand Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:03 PM PST  HAMILTON, New Zealand (AP) — Sri Lanka's batsman showed defiance after losing an influential toss on a green pitch to reach 108-2 at lunch Friday on the first day of the second test against New Zealand.
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| 'Concussion' movie subject exaggerated role, researchers say Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:02 PM PST  BOSTON (AP) — In the trailer for the movie "Concussion," star Will Smith says: "I found a disease that no one has ever seen."
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| UN adopts resolution to disrupt Islamic State funds Posted: 17 Dec 2015 04:00 PM PST  UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Thursday aimed at disrupting revenue that the Islamic State extremist group gets from oil and antiquities sales, ransom payments and other criminal activities — a goal that finance ministers agree will be challenging.
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| EU leaders set June 30 deadline for new border force Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:58 PM PST  Leaders also urged EU ambassadors to arrange for the rapid delivery of a promised three billion euros ($3.25 billion) in aid for refugees in Turkey in return for its help in stemming the flow. Following a slew of emergency summits this year, they acknowledged they had been too slow to carry out a joint strategy to tackle Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II. "Implementation is insufficient and has to be speeded up," the leaders declared in the conclusions on migration at their last summit of the year in Brussels.
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| EU leaders agree to 'look for compromise' on British demands: Tusk Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:45 PM PST  EU leaders agreed to look for a compromise on British Prime Minister David Cameron's controversial reform demands after a summit on Thursday, the bloc's president Donald Tusk said. "Leaders voiced their concerns but also demonstrated willingness to look for compromise," Tusk told a press conference, adding that he was "much more optimistic" than before the discussion. Cameron's key demand is that EU migrants in Britain must live there for at least four years before they can get welfare benefits but his peers says this is discriminatory and undercuts the core EU principle of free movement.
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| Strong 6.6-magnitude quake strikes southern Mexico Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:45 PM PST  Tuxtla Gutiérrez (Mexico) (AFP) - A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake rattled southern Mexico on Thursday, prompting people to evacuate buildings and schools, while the quake was also felt in neighboring Guatemala. The quake was strongly felt in Chiapas, as buildings and schools were emptied in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez. Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said it was "lightly felt" in the mega-capital of 21 million people but no immediate damage was reported.
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| US and Cuba to resume regular flights Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:36 PM PST  The United States and Cuba on Thursday announced plans to resume flights between the two nations, erasing another vestige of what had been strained ties rooted in the Cold War. The latest progress as the countries work to build on their restoration of full diplomatic relations this summer was made public a year to the day after President Barack Obama and counterpart Raul Castro first said they would bury the hatchet. This does not mean American tourists can now start flocking to communist-run Cuba to lie on beaches, sip rum and fire up cigars.
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| Venezuelan first lady's nephews plead not guilty in NYC Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:34 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — One of two nephews of Venezuela's powerful first lady had an emotional reaction in a Manhattan courtroom as the pair entered not guilty pleas to U.S. cocaine-smuggling charges, his lawyer said.
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| UN tightens net around IS finances Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:32 PM PST  Finance ministers from the UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously backed a resolution aimed at ramping up sanctions against the Islamic State group and cutting off its revenue flows. US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew led the council's first-ever meeting of finance ministers, shoring up a major diplomatic push to end the war in Syria, where IS jihadists control a large swathe of territory and have installed their de facto capital. Drafted by the United States and Syrian ally Russia, the measure will update an Al-Qaeda blacklist by renaming it the "ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaeda sanctions list" to signal the UN's focus on the IS extremists.
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| California man accused of trying to join terrorist group Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:28 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A man was charged with trying to join a terrorist group active in Syria after he expressed his love for the head of the group and tried to board a flight to the region, authorities said. |
| Remains of Colombia 'disappeared' returned to families Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:28 PM PST  The remains of 29 people who disappeared during the half-century conflict in Colombia were handed over to their families Thursday under a deal between the FARC rebels and the government. The small brown coffins were presented to relatives in a ceremony in the central town of Villavicencio, a traditional stronghold of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). "It's hard to finally find him under these conditions," said 60-year-old farmer Jose Manuel Calderon, who had spent more than a decade searching for his son after he was abducted and forced to join the FARC at age 11.
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| Friend of San Bernardino shooter arrested and charged Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:28 PM PST  US authorities arrested and charged Thursday a man who allegedly bought the assault rifles used by Syed Farook and his wife to kill 14 people in the San Bernardino mass shooting earlier this month, justice officials said. Enrique Marquez, 24, who had been cooperating with authorities, was charged with conspiring with Farook -- a longtime friend and former neighbor -- to commit crimes of terrorism in 2011 and 2012, though those plots were never carried out. Marquez was also charged with the unlawful purchase of the two assault rifles used in the shooting on December 2 carried out by US-born Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik, in what the FBI is investigating as a terrorist attack.
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| Jamaican dancehall DJ convicted for role in drug ring Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:26 PM PST CAMDEN, New Jersey (AP) — A Jamaican dancehall DJ was convicted Thursday for his part in a drug ring that used the U.S. Postal Service and other delivery services to ship cocaine from California to New Jersey. |
| US military to limit media access to Guantanamo Bay prison Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:21 PM PST  MIAMI (AP) — New limits are being imposed on media access to the detention center at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the commander of the military's Southern Command said Thursday, outlining rules that will limit what journalists can see and how often they can visit the already highly restricted site.
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| Juventus, Tottenham set to play in Australia in July Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:14 PM PST MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Juventus and Tottenham will play matches in Melbourne in July as part of the International Champions Cup. |
| Volkswagen creates U.S. diesel emissions claims program Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:09 PM PST  By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen of America said on Thursday it is creating an independent claims program for the owners of nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles that emit up to 40 times legally allowable emissions. The German automaker said it was naming compensation expert Ken Feinberg, who administered compensation funds for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, BP Plc Deepwater Horizon oil spill and General Motors Co ignition switch crashes, to create and administer the program. VW has acknowledged that 482,000 2.0 liter 2009-2015 diesel cars and 85,000 3.0 liter SUVs and larger cars have higher-than-allowed emissions and faces more than 500 U.S. lawsuits.
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| VW hires Kenneth Feinberg to handle emission-cheating claims Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:07 PM PST  DETROIT (AP) — Compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg, who has worked out payments to victims of the BP Gulf oil spill, General Motors ignition switch scandal and other high-profile cases, has been hired by Volkswagen to do the same thing for car owners caught in an emissions-cheating scandal.
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| US special ops troops kicked out of Libya Posted: 17 Dec 2015 03:00 PM PST  A group of US special operations troops who had traveled to Libya to "foster relationships" was kicked out of the conflict-torn country soon after they arrived, the Pentagon said Thursday. A Facebook page belonging to the Libyan air force posted photographs of the men, who were dressed in rugged civilian clothing, including plaid shirts, and were carrying assault rifles. A US defense official confirmed that the men in the photo were indeed US troops in Libya on Monday.
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| EU sets six-month deadline to rule on border guard plan Posted: 17 Dec 2015 02:52 PM PST  BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders on Thursday set a six-month deadline for deciding whether to push ahead with plans for a border guard agency that could deploy to member states unable or unwilling to manage their borders as thousands of migrants continue to arrive in Europe daily.
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| IMF chief Lagarde facing French trial over payout to tycoon Posted: 17 Dec 2015 02:49 PM PST  International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde was ordered Thursday to stand trial over her handling of a massive state payout to French tycoon Bernard Tapie when she was finance minister. Lagarde was placed under formal investigation in 2014 for negligence in a protracted legal drama pitting Tapie against a bank which he accused of defrauding him during his sale of sports clothing giant Adidas in the 1990s. The 59-year-old Frenchwoman was finance minister under former president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 when she decided to allow arbitration in the dispute between Tapie and partly state-owned Credit Lyonnais.
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| Christine Lagarde: Meteoric rise clouded by Tapie affair Posted: 17 Dec 2015 02:47 PM PST  Four years ago Christine Lagarde smashed through the glass ceiling at one of the world's leading institutions, becoming the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund. The silver-haired French lawyer and former finance chief under then-president Nicolas Sarkozy has seen her popularity in France hit a peak and some see hints of political ambitions. Lagarde, 59, has brushed aside the chatter, saying she is open to another five-year term as IMF managing director when her current one expires next July.
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| Putin praises Donald Trump as 'bright and talented' Posted: 17 Dec 2015 02:47 PM PST  MOSCOW (AP) — In Vladimir Putin's view, Donald Trump is "bright and talented." But as much as those words sound overtly like praise, there are some murky nuances.
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| Atletico Madrid secures spot in round of 16 of Copa del Rey Posted: 17 Dec 2015 02:44 PM PST MADRID (AP) — Atletico Madrid defeated third-tier team Reus 1-0 on Thursday, comfortably advancing to the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey 3-1 on aggregate. |
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