| U.S.-backed alliance pushes toward Islamic State-held dam in northern Syria Posted: 24 Dec 2015 08:13 AM PST  By Suleiman Al-Khalidi BEIRUT (Reuters) - A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups advanced toward a dam in northern Syria held by Islamic State fighters on Thursday, in an assault aimed at capturing the militants' stronghold of Raqqa, rebels and a monitor said. Further south of the dam that still supplies power to large areas in northern Syria is the even larger Baath Dam. Its power plant, under militant control, feeds much of the territory under Islamic State and is 22 km (15 miles) upstream from Raqqa.
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| Coalition planes pound ISIS in Iraq's Ramadi to aid attack, TV says Posted: 24 Dec 2015 05:50 AM PST  Coalition air forces pounded positions held by Islamic State in Ramadi on Thursday, Iraqi military statements said, in support of government troops seeking to retake the western Iraqi city and push on to drive the militants from key population centers. Warplanes from the US-led coalition carried out 27 strikes against insurgent position in the last district they hold in the center of the Sunni Muslim city, which lies on the river Euphrates some 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, according to a military statement on state TV.The long-awaited drive to dislodge the militants from Ramadi, the loss of which in May dealt a blow to government efforts to root out Islamic State, started early on Tuesday. Army commanders said on Wednesday the battle would take several days.If captured, Ramadi will be the second major city after Tikrit to be retaken from Islamic State in Iraq.
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| As Islamic State threat mounts on its doorstep, Indonesia scours a jungle Posted: 24 Dec 2015 11:51 AM PST  By Kanupriya Kapoor and Randy Fabi POSO, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian forces are mobilizing for a manhunt in steamy jungles on the far-flung island of Sulawesi to flush the country's most-wanted man from his hideout and deal a pre-emptive blow to Islamic State. Militant leader Santoso, the first Indonesian to publicly pledge loyalty to the radical jihadist group that holds swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, has eluded capture for years. Raids by security forces across the populous island of Java last week netted several Islamic State supporters and foiled a string of attacks.
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| Fire sweeps through Saudi hospital, at least 24 dead Posted: 24 Dec 2015 09:47 AM PST  The fire broke out at the general hospital in the southwestern port city of Jazan, the capital of the Jizan region, one of Saudi Arabia's poorest areas. The civil defense agency said 25 people died but a later statement by Health Minister Khalid al-Falih put the death toll at 24. Photographs published on Twitter by the civil defense agency showed heavy smoke and an intense blaze which appeared to have severely damaged the interior of the white-walled hospital.
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| Pope, on Christmas, urges return to essential values Posted: 24 Dec 2015 01:29 PM PST  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis led the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas on Thursday, urging those "intoxicated" by possessions and superficial appearances to return to the essential values of life. Celebrating a Christmas eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, Francis, whose nearly three-year-old papacy has been marked by calls for sobriety and compassion for the less fortunate, said Christmas was the time to "once more discover who we are".
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| Clashes persist in Turkey's southeast; PKK militants killed in attack on police Posted: 24 Dec 2015 09:02 AM PST  By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) - Three Kurdish rebels were killed in clashes with police in Turkey's southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Thursday, security sources said, and shots and shellfire could be heard around an area that has been focus of an army offensive against rebels. Turkish police fired tear gas and sprayed water on hundreds of people after they attempted to march toward the city center carrying the coffin of two Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants killed in another incident this week. The three were killed in clashes with special forces in Diyarbakir's Yenisehir district after the PKK launched an attack on security forces, security sources said.
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| China needs 10 trillion yuan green investment by 2020 - China Securities Journal Posted: 24 Dec 2015 04:53 PM PST China needs at least 2 trillion yuan ($308.84 billion) of green investment annually over the next five years, which is probably a "conservative" estimate, China's central bank chief economist Ma Jun told the China Securities Journal on Thursday. Ma's comments came the same day that the People's Bank of China held a press conference on promoting green bonds as a way to help promote environmentally friendly investment in China. The Agricultural Bank of China, the country's third-largest listed lender, became the first mainland Chinese entity to issue a green bond in October in London. |
| Beleaguered Van Gaal faces Britannia ordeal Posted: 24 Dec 2015 04:40 PM PST  Stoke-on-Trent (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Embattled Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has been involved in a very public battle to save his job in the days leading up to Saturday's game at Stoke City. Van Gaal's future is looking increasingly uncertain after a run of six matches in all competitions without a victory, coupled with a series of uninspiring performances. A group-stage exit from the Champions League earlier this month was a significant disappointment for a club who won the trophy in 2008 and have reached two finals since.
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| Khawaja in Australian side for 2nd test, Shaun Marsh out Posted: 24 Dec 2015 04:28 PM PST MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Usman Khawaja has returned to Australia's lineup for the second test against the West Indies, forcing Shaun Marsh out of the team despite scoring 182 runs in the opening match at Hobart. |
| Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas message: Light can triumph Posted: 24 Dec 2015 04:15 PM PST LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II will use her Christmas broadcast to emphasize that light can triumph over darkness after a difficult year. |
| IWF suspends world champion Aleksei Lovchev Posted: 24 Dec 2015 04:14 PM PST BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — World champion weightlifter Aleksei Lovchev has been provisionally suspended after failing a drug test, the International Weightlifting Federation said Thursday. |
| Pope contrasts Jesus' birth, excess in Christmas Eve homily Posted: 24 Dec 2015 04:07 PM PST  VATICAN CITY (AP) — In his Christmas Eve homily Thursday, Pope Francis noted the simplicity of Jesus' birth as he rebuked what he called societies' intoxication with consumerism, pleasure, abundance and wealth.
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| UK queen hails triumph over 'moments of darkness' in Christmas message Posted: 24 Dec 2015 04:04 PM PST  Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will use her Christmas address Friday to highlight the triumph of good over evil after a string of attacks in 2015 including in Paris. The queen will quote from the Bible's Gospel of St John while describing the Christmas period as "a time to remember all that we have to be thankful for," according to extracts released in advance by Buckingham Palace. "It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year, but the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,'" she will say.
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| Madrid city hall hosts Christmas Eve feast for homeless Posted: 24 Dec 2015 03:54 PM PST  Two hundred homeless people feasted on an exquisite Christmas Eve meal of seafood soup, prawns, baked gilthead bream and roast shoulder of lamb on Thursday, in the Spanish capital's palatial city hall. "It's wonderful," said Francisco Lopez, 67, seated at a table decorated with red ribbons in the courtyard of the Cybele Palace, a monumental wedding-cake shaped building that houses Madrid city hall. Madrid city hall, run since June by a left-wing alliance backed by Spain's anti-austerity party Podemos, allowed a Spanish NGO to host the Christmas Eve dinner in the building.
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| Five dead, 150,000 evacuated in Latin America floods Posted: 24 Dec 2015 02:54 PM PST  Flooding dampened Christmas eve celebrations in parts of Latin America on Thursday, leaving five people dead and driving almost 150,000 from their homes in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay. Some 130,000 people have been forced from their homes across Paraguay, officials said, as President Horacio Cartes declared a state of emergency to free up more than $3.5 million in disaster funds. Three people traveling Paraguay's international Route 2, which links Asuncion and Foz de Iguazu in Brazil were killed when a tree fell on their vehicle before dawn.
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| Argentine judge orders defiant media regulator evicted Posted: 24 Dec 2015 02:52 PM PST  An Argentine judge on Thursday ordered police to raid the national broadcast media regulator and evict its sacked director after he defied conservative President Mauricio Macri's decision to replace him. Macri issued a decree Wednesday sacking Martin Sabbatella, a top ally of his leftist predecessor Cristina Kirchner, as director of the Federal Authority for Audiovisual Communication Services (AFSCA). The law must be obeyed," Sabbatella, who has filed a court challenge against his ouster, told journalists outside AFSCA's offices.
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| Argentina activist finds stolen granddaughter 39 years on Posted: 24 Dec 2015 02:31 PM PST  The long-lost granddaughter of a founder of an Argentine rights group that fights to find babies stolen by the 1976-1983 military dictatorship has been found, her organization said Thursday. Clara Anahi Mariani, who was abducted at three months old when regime agents killed her mother, is the 120th stolen baby to be found since her grandmother Maria "Chicha" Mariani helped found the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo to look for them in 1977. "After 39 years of tireless searching, Chicha Mariani and her granddaughter Clara Anahi have found each other," said a statement from the Anahi Foundation, which Mariani created in 1989 after stepping down as president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
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| Christmas cards in Brazil, for those who can't write Posted: 24 Dec 2015 01:47 PM PST  Roberia Lima dos Santos steps timidly up to the counter and asks in a tiny voice if this is the place where they write letters. "I want to wish my son a merry Christmas and tell him I won't be able to visit him in prison," says the Brazilian woman. Dos Santos, a 64-year-old cook who is functionally illiterate, is one of thousands of Brazilians who have turned to a free service provided by the Sao Paulo state government since 2001 to write letters on behalf of those who cannot write their own.
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| Text of Pope Francis' homily during Christmas Eve Mass Posted: 24 Dec 2015 01:41 PM PST VATICAN CITY (AP) — The following is the Vatican's official English translation of Pope Francis' Christmas Eve Mass homily, which he delivered in Italian. |
| Smoggy Christmas eve in Italy prompts emergency measures Posted: 24 Dec 2015 01:34 PM PST Italy's two largest cities, Rome and Milan, adopted emergency measures on Thursday to lower air pollution levels during the Christmas season. Officials in Rome had already banned the most polluting, older type of vehicles from circulating in a large part of the city. Milan was even more drastic. |
| Spanish king appeals for dialogue, unity after vote Posted: 24 Dec 2015 01:04 PM PST  Spain's King Felipe VI appealed for dialogue and unity in his Christmas Eve message Thursday after an inconclusive weekend general election. The message comes after an election on Sunday which saw two new parties, anti-austerity Podemos and centre-right Ciudadanos, enter parliament with force, ending three decades of two-party domination by the Socialists and the ruling, conservative Popular Party (PP). "Now, what should matter to all, first and foremost, is Spain and the general interest of the Spanish people," the monarch, who sat in a chair in the throne room of the royal palace in Madrid.
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| More than money: Employees in China demand cleaner office air Posted: 24 Dec 2015 01:04 PM PST  By Jessica Macy Yu BEIJING (Reuters) - It's not only about salaries, promotions and career prospects - many companies in China have found they need to offer cleaner air within their offices to lure and retain staff. Air quality has deteriorated badly in China's north and east, including in Beijing and Shanghai. Companies, especially multinationals, based in these cities are spending tens of thousands of dollars to install air filtration systems and real-time pollution monitoring devices in their offices.
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| US Iran hostages compensated decades after ordeal Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:54 PM PST  The 53 Americans taken hostage in Iran in 1979 will finally get financial compensation that had eluded them for decades, after US lawmakers included a payment provision in sweeping spending legislation. Because the agreement that freed the hostages in January 1981 barred them from collecting restitution from the Iranian government, the victims spent decades unsuccessfully pursuing claims. "It's been a long arduous, epic struggle," attorney Thomas Lankford, who represents nearly all of the hostages and relatives, told AFP on Thursday, explaining that the funding will come from the penalties paid by companies that violated sanctions and conducted illegal business with Iran, North Korea, Syria and other nations.
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| Russian Orthodox Church sacks outspoken cleric in Moscow Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:51 PM PST  MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian Orthodox Church has sacked an outspoken official who pushed the church to take a more aggressive role in public life.
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| Trinidad fires bank chief who named foreign exchange buyers Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:47 PM PST PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — The governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has been fired after releasing the names of companies that have bought one-third of the foreign exchange sold in the last three years, officials said Thursday. |
| Spain: King Felipe decries Paris attacks in Christmas speech Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:42 PM PST  MADRID (AP) — Spain's King Felipe VI, in his annual Christmas Eve speech, has decried the Paris attacks that killed 130 people and left hundreds wounded.
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| Syria says ready to enter new peace talks Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:33 PM PST  Syria's regime said Thursday it was ready to take part in new talks in Geneva aimed at ending the war but appeared to make its participation conditional on which opposition groups attend. On the ground, regime air raids killed seven children among 20 civilians in the rebel-held area of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, said a monitor. Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Damascus "is ready to participate in the Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva without any foreign interference".
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| New York spends Christmas Eve in T-shirts, ice-skating puddles Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:26 PM PST  New Yorker Tyler Hickey usually spends Christmas Eve snowboarding on the nearest mountain. This year, he's in a T-shirt and jeans while traversing Manhattan's Bryant Park ice skating rink, which is melting into patchy puddles in record high temperatures. "Last year, it was snowing like every day," Hickey, 22, said as he caught his breath with friend Raj Latcha, 27, at the edge of the popular rink.
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| Good news for woe-plagued Pompeii: 6 restored sites now open Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:17 PM PST  ROME (AP) — Tourists in ancient Pompeii have freshly-restored marvels to admire, including a merchant's luxuriously decorated home and a more modest middle-class dwelling.
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| Report: US planning immigration raids early next year Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:17 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning nationwide raids aimed at deporting adults and children who have been ordered removed by an immigration judge. |
| Spaniards don't want election re-run: poll Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:16 PM PST  Less than one third of Spaniards want a re-run of last Sunday's election, which resulted in a stalemate, with two-thirds favoring a pact between parties, a poll showed on Thursday. Just seven percent of those surveyed said they would change their votes in a fresh election, while 87.1 percent said they would vote the same way. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative People's Party (PP) won the most votes in Sunday's election but lost its parliamentary majority, with the opposition Socialists (PSOE) in second place.
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| C. Africa authorities propose delaying elections to Dec 30 Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:16 PM PST  The authorities suggested delaying Sunday's elections by three days until December 30, citing the preparations for the voting and in particular the need to better train poll workers. The country's transitional president, Catherine Samba Panza, asked the head of the national elections authority to cite a date if it is necessary to delay the vote. "The date of December 30 would be better for us," said Marie-Madeleine N'kouet Hoornaert, in charge of organising the vote.
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| Bethlehem pilgrims celebrate Christmas against backdrop of violence Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:14 PM PST  Pilgrims began celebrating Christmas Thursday in the birthplace of Jesus, but festivities were subdued against a backdrop of violence in the Holy Land and a growing jihadist threat across the Middle East. In other parts of the Middle East, and in the world beyond, Christians were fearful for their future, and some even prohibited from celebrating the holy day. In Bethlehem, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land arrived ahead of the traditional midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity, built over the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.
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| Argentine group IDs 120th person taken as baby Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:09 PM PST BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine human rights group says DNA tests have determined the identity of another person taken from her parents by the country's former dictatorship, bringing the number of such cases to 120. |
| Central African Republic delays national election to Dec. 30 Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:01 PM PST BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — A national election in Central African Republic, designed to replace its transitional government and bring stability to a nation wracked by years of sectarian violence, has been postponed to Dec. 30, officials said Thursday. |
| In a first, rival Cyprus leaders offer joint holiday wishes Posted: 24 Dec 2015 11:47 AM PST  NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — For the first time, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders of the ethnically divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus took to the airwaves together to send out holiday wishes in both Greek and Turkish.
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| Arab League denounces Turkish troop deployment in Iraq Posted: 24 Dec 2015 11:42 AM PST  Arab foreign ministers condemned on Thursday a Turkish military deployment in Iraq as an "assault" on the country's sovereignty, demanding Ankara withdraw the forces. The Turkish deployment "is an assault on Iraqi sovereignty and a threat to Arab national security," they said in an Arab League statement after meeting at the pan-Arab bloc's Cairo headquarters. Turkey announced on Saturday that it had begun withdrawing troops in a bid to de-escalate a bitter row with Baghdad and following a call from US President Barack Obama.
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