| New Saudi king seeks to reassure on succession and policy Posted: 23 Jan 2015 09:55 AM PST  By Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's new King Salman pledged continuity in energy and foreign policies on Friday and moved quickly to appoint younger men as his heirs, settling the succession for years to come by naming a deputy crown prince from his dynasty's next generation. King Abdullah, who died early on Friday after a short illness, was buried in an unmarked grave in keeping with local religious traditions. By appointing his youngest half-brother Muqrin, 69, as Crown Prince and nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, as Deputy Crown Prince, Salman has swiftly quelled speculation about internal palace rifts at a moment of regional turmoil. Salman must navigate an intense rivalry with Shi'ite Muslim power Iran playing out in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain, open conflict in two neighboring states, a threat from Islamist militants and bumpy relations with the United States.
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| Islamic State deadline on Japanese captives passes with no word on fate Posted: 23 Jan 2015 06:13 AM PST  By Mari Saito TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Friday it was still trying to secure the release of two Japanese hostages held by Islamic State militants after a deadline to pay ransom for their release passed and there was no immediate word on their fate. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government considered whether planned legislative changes would give it the legal basis for a military strike on the Islamic State militants and concluded it did not, according to a briefing document reviewed by Reuters. The capture of two Japanese citizens in Syria represents an "unacceptable act of terror," the document said. In an online video released on Tuesday, a black-clad figure holding a knife stood between journalist Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, threatening to kill them if Tokyo did not pay Islamic State $200 million within 72 hours.
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| Senior U.S. diplomat ruffles Cuba by meeting dissidents Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:57 PM PST  By Lesley Wroughton and Daniel Trotta HAVANA (Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat in Cuba for negotiations on restoring long-frozen diplomatic relations met a group of dissidents on Friday, seeking to underline Washington's concern over human rights but irritating the island's communist government. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, the highest-ranking U.S. government official to visit the island in nearly 40 years, held a breakfast meeting with the dissidents a day after talks with Cuban government officials.
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| Argentina suspects rogue agents were behind death of prosecutor Posted: 23 Jan 2015 12:54 PM PST  By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina suspects rogue agents from its own intelligence services were behind the death of a state prosecutor investigating the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment late on Sunday, a gunshot wound to his head and a 22 caliber pistol by his side along with a single shell casing. He had been scheduled to appear before Congress on Monday to answer questions about his allegation that President Cristina Fernandez conspired to derail his investigation of the attack. His death and a blizzard of conspiracy theories around it have rocked Argentina.
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| U.S.' Kerry, Iran foreign minister confer on nuke talks Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:49 PM PST  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif met here on Thursday, a senior State Department official said, the latest in an intensifying series of talks to reach a deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program. There was no immediate word on whether the two men had made progress in the hour-long session on a deal to curb Iran's nuclear work in return for an unraveling of Western economic sanctions on Tehran. Meanwhile, Zarif, speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, warned that more sanctions by the U.S. Congress would kill the negotiating process between Iran and major powers on its nuclear program.
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| Greek anti-austerity party holds lead before Sunday elections Posted: 23 Jan 2015 11:56 AM PST  By Renee Maltezou ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's leftist Syria party held onto its opinion poll lead on Friday as it campaigns to form the first euro zone government committed to scrapping austerity outright after elections this weekend. With the fate of Greece's 240-billion-euro bailout from the European Union and IMF unclear, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras rejected any suggestion that Athens was under pressure to come to terms with its creditors by the end of next month. Among the final surveys published before Sunday's snap election, two showed Syriza's lead over the conservative New Democracy Party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras widening, while another showed it narrowing slightly.
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| Niger's Christians live in fear after deadly attacks Posted: 23 Jan 2015 04:48 PM PST  The religious violence that engulfed Niger last week has traumatised the country's Christian community, with many living in fear of further persecution. "They are looking for Christians. They burned everything with any Christian symbols on it, whether Catholic or Evangelical," said one churchgoer in the southern city of Zinder, the second largest in Niger. On January 16, protests against the publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed by the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo turned deadly in Zinder, leaving five people dead and 45 wounded.
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| Top Asian News at 12:30 a.m. GMT Posted: 23 Jan 2015 04:32 PM PST TOKYO (AP) — Prayers were offered Friday at Tokyo's largest mosque for two Japanese hostages threatened with beheading by Islamic militants who had demanded a $200 million ransom for their release. Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group posted an online warning that the "countdown has begun" for the extremists to kill 47-year-old Kenji Goto and 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa. The extremists gave Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 72 hours to pay the ransom, and the deadline expired Friday. |
| Khan eyes clash with old friend Pacquiao Posted: 23 Jan 2015 04:27 PM PST  British welterweight Amir Khan revealed a fight against Manny Pacquiao could be on the cards after a meeting with his former sparring partner on Friday. Khan trained alongside Pacquiao for several years under his old mentor Freddie Roach and had previously maintained they would never fight. "It was great seeing Manny again as it's been a while since we last met up," Khan said on Friday. "He's a good friend and we chatted about the past when we were training together, his visit to London and also a bit about the future.
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| UN official backs N. Korea abuses despite defector's changes Posted: 23 Jan 2015 04:20 PM PST  TOKYO (AP) — The United Nations' official in charge of investigating human rights violations in North Korea said he stands by U.N. findings of widespread abuses there despite recent backtracking by a prominent defector on the details of his life in the North's prison system.
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| EU tells Moscow to 'assume its responsibility' in Ukraine war Posted: 23 Jan 2015 04:18 PM PST  The European Union called Friday on Moscow to "assume its responsibility" in ending the separatist war in Ukraine. "Time is running out in eastern Ukraine where the escalation of fighting has caused far too many civilian as well as military casualties," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement. Hours before her statement, the pro-Russian separatists announced they would follow up their capture of Donetsk's ruined international airport from Ukrainian government forces with a wider offensive to win more territory. "We call notably on Russia to fully assume its responsibility.
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| Mosul strikes are start of new effort against Islamic State Posted: 23 Jan 2015 04:16 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — An uptick in airstrikes in northern Iraq this past week marks the beginning of a broader effort to disrupt Islamic State supply lines ahead of an expected operation later this year to take back the city from militants, U.S. military officials said Friday. |
| Canadian due in court over Iraq killings of 5 US soldiers Posted: 23 Jan 2015 04:04 PM PST  A Canadian man will go before a New York court on Saturday accused of murder and conspiracy over the killing of five US soldiers in Iraq, American prosecutors said. Faruq Khalil Muhammad Isa, 36, allegedly helped to orchestrate a truck bombing carried out by a Tunisian jihadist on a US base in Mosul, northern Iraq, on April 10, 2009 that killed the five American soldiers. "We will continue to use every available means to bring to justice those who are responsible for the deaths of American servicemen and women who paid the ultimate price in their defense of this nation," said Loretta Lynch, US attorney for the eastern district of New York. Isa, who was arrested in Canada on Monday and extradited to New York, will appear in a US federal court in Brooklyn.
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| Marseille's poor form continues as it loses 2-1 at Nice Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:43 PM PST PARIS (AP) — Marseille failed to win away from home for the eighth consecutive game as it lost 2-1 against Nice on Friday to stay in second place behind league leader Lyon. |
| Founder of Russian gay teen site convicted of 'propaganda' Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:40 PM PST  A Russian court on Friday convicted a journalist who set up a website to support gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers under a controversial law banning "gay propaganda" aimed at minors. The social networking site, called Children 404, is used by thousands of teenagers to post heart-rending accounts of realising they are gay and their experiences of coming out to family, friends and teachers. The site's 26-year-old founder, Yelena Klimova, wrote on Facebook that a magistrate's court found her guilty of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors", a law signed by President Vladimir Putin in 2013 despite opposition from rights activists and stars including Madonna. It was launched after a complaint from Young Guard, the youth wing of ruling party United Russia to prosecutors and the media and mass communications watchdog.
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| New UN program sends 54 convoys to Syria Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:38 PM PST  The United Nations says it has carried out 54 aid deliveries to Syrians through newly-authorized convoys from neighboring countries since July, helping around 600,000 people in rebel-held territory. The latest monthly report on the humanitarian situation in Syria will be discussed Wednesday at a UN Security Council meeting. "Access to medical supplies and equipment continued to be restricted by insecurity and constraints imposed on humanitarian operations by parties to the conflict," the report said. The aid convoy program was authorized in July without approval from Damascus.
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| Police investigated in case of dead Argentine prosecutor Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:37 PM PST  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The 10 police officers assigned to protect a federal prosecutor who accused President Cristina Fernandez of shielding Iranians sought in an Argentine terrorist bombing are being investigated for their actions on the day the prosecutor was found shot to death.
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| Settlements reached in so-called 'hot fuel' litigation Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:28 PM PST KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Twenty-eight oil companies and retailers have agreed to settle litigation claiming customers were knowingly overcharged when gas station fuel temperatures rose, plaintiffs announced Friday. |
| US appeals court upholds dismissal of Holocaust suits Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:25 PM PST CHICAGO (AP) — Holocaust survivors and heirs of victims can't sue Hungary's national bank and railway in the U.S. for the theft of cash, art and other assets from Hungarian Jews until they first exhaust their legal options in Hungary itself, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. |
| Clashes with gunmen on Syria border kill 5 Lebanese troops Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:24 PM PST  The Lebanese military said in a statement late Friday that five troops, including an officer, were killed in clashes with gunmen near the Syrian border. "The Lebanese army... is mourning a number of troops who were martyred in clashes that pitted the military against terrorist groups near Ras Baalbek," said the statement, which went on to list the names of the killed. Among them was Lieutenant Ahmad Mahmud Tabikh, said the army. The clashes erupted in the Ras Baalbek area early on Friday, after around 200 gunmen coming from the Qalamun region of Syria attacked a Lebanese military post, according to a security source.
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| In a first, sea otter pup conceived in wild born in California lab Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:23 PM PST A baby sea otter has made history as the first pup born in captivity to a mother impregnated in the wild, and is healthy and developing normally, researchers in California said on Friday. The bundle of joy was born in November at the Long Marine Laboratory on the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz, said Nicole Thometz, a researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. To better the otter's chance of survival off the Central California shoreline, researchers are limiting their interaction with the pup, who was not named and whose sex is not known, she said. |
| City that sparked Venezuela protests braces for more unrest Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:15 PM PST  SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (AP) — The young men move furtively among the would-be shoppers queued outside a supermarket, passing out pamphlets calling for the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro, whose socialist policies they blame for leaving store shelves barren and Venezuela's economy in shambles.
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| Guantanamo ex-inmate seeks bail in Canada Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:14 PM PST  Former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr will seek bail in Canada pending an appeal of his war crimes conviction in the United States, his lawyer told AFP Friday. Nathan Whitling said a bail hearing to get Khadr out of a Canadian prison, where he is serving the remainder of an eight-year sentence for an array of war crimes including killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, is set for March 24-25. Khadr was repatriated to Canada in September 2012 after spending 10 years in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba following his arrest in Afghanistan as a teenager.
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| U.S. aims to sustain counterterrorism cooperation with Yemen: White House Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:11 PM PST By Doina Chiacu and Julia Edwards WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants to continue its close counterterrorism cooperation with Yemen and does not see the Houthi rebel takeover of that government as a sign that Iran or al Qaeda are exerting control there, the White House said on Friday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he knew of no changes involving U.S. drone strikes on al Qaeda in Yemen, which Washington had conducted with the support of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who resigned on Thursday. |
| Murders linked to organized crime fall: Mexico presidency Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:07 PM PST  Murders linked to organized crime dropped 33 percent in Mexico last year, official figures showed Friday, as the country struggles with a bloody drug war. Security experts however have consistently questioned the reliability of the government's crime statistics, which showed such murders fell to 6,797 in 2014, compared to 10,076 in 2013, the first year that President Enrique Pena Nieto was in power.
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| Pro-Russian rebels reject peace deal, launch new offensive Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:04 PM PST  DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine rejected a previously signed peace deal Friday and launched a new multipronged offensive against Ukrainian government troops, upending recent European attempts to mediate an end to the fighting.
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| Hundreds join peaceful 'Je suis Muslim' rally in Sydney Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:03 PM PST SYDNEY (AP) — Hundreds of Muslims rallied in Sydney on Friday night to protest negative media coverage of Islam and the French magazine Charlie Hebdo's depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. |
| Australia's David Pocock returns from knee injury Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:02 PM PST PERTH, Australia (AP) — David Pocock's chances of playing at this year's Rugby World Cup have risen after the former Wallabies captain safely negotiated his first match since a knee reconstruction. |
| Yemen's Shiite rebels try to avoid overstepping amid protest Posted: 23 Jan 2015 03:01 PM PST  SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's Shiite rebels faced mounting pressures and signs of internal divisions Friday after the U.S.-backed president and his cabinet resigned rather than submit at gunpoint to their increasing demands for greater power.
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| Pope to new cardinals: No flashy parties Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:57 PM PST VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is warning his new cardinals to keep the partying to a minimum — and keep their egos in check — when they are formally elevated at a Vatican ceremony next month. |
| US, Cuba end historic talks with more questions than answers Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:53 PM PST  HAVANA (AP) — After a euphoric month that left Americans dreaming of holidays in Havana and Cubans imagining U.S. products at their corner stores, the first real effort at forging a new era was sobering: Much bitter disagreement still stands in the way of normal relations.
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| Spain negotiates permanent US Marines Africa force Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:51 PM PST  Spain said Friday it was starting negotiations with Washington to host a permanent US Marines intervention force for deployment on missions to Africa. The Spanish government said it was ready to permanently extend an agreement under which the force has been based at Moron de la Frontera, near Seville in southern Spain. The government approved negotiations to amend the two countries' 1988 defence accord, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said after a cabinet meeting. Spain's foreign and defence ministers will negotiate the amendment, as requested by the United States last month, "with a view to hosting the deployment for an indefinite time", she told a news conference.
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| Top US official meets dissidents in Cuba Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:50 PM PST  The highest-ranking US official to visit Cuba in 35 years met with leading dissidents on Friday, but one prominent opposition figure stayed out amid differences over Washington's rapprochement with Havana. The Cuban government criticized the meeting between Roberta Jacobson, the State Department's top official for Latin America, and regime critics but indicated that it would not derail negotiations to normalize ties. Berta Soler, the head of the Ladies in White group of spouses of political prisoners, turned down the invitation to attend the breakfast meeting over eggs and bacon with Jacobson. "This question of whether or not we welcome this dialogue between the US and Cuban government is secondary," Jose Daniel Ferrer, the leader of a dissident group in western Cuba, told reporters.
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| Real Madrid signs Brazilian midfielder Lucas Silva till 2020 Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:45 PM PST MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid has reached a deal to sign midfielder Lucas Silva from Brazilian club Cruzeiro on a long-term contract. |
| Hospital 'targeted' in Sudan government air raid: MSF Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:40 PM PST  A Sudanese warplane deliberately targeted one of the few hospitals operating in South Kordofan state, where ethnic minority rebels have been fighting government troops, an international medical charity charged Friday. Two people were wounded in the Tuesday raid in Frandala in the Nuba Mountains, where rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N) have been fighting since 2011, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said. "We condemn in the strongest terms the bombing of the Frandala hospital," Marc Van der Mullen, MSF head of mission in Sudan, said in a statement. "There can be no doubt that this was a deliberate and targeted bombing on a civilian hospital structure and part of a strategy to terrorise the community," he added.
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| US man convicted of lying about Bosnian war crimes role Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:38 PM PST BURLINGTON, Vermont (AP) — A man charged with lying about his role in Bosnian war crimes when he applied for U.S. citizenship after moving to Vermont more than a decade ago was convicted on Friday. |
| Soweto looting spree sends foreign shopkeepers fleeing Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:33 PM PST  Nazil Munssi stared at his ravaged hardware store near Soweto township with tears in his eyes, despondent and terrified after anti-foreign mobs went on a looting rampage this week in South Africa. "They are targeting all the foreigners," said Munssi, an Indian national who has lived in South Africa for 26 years. The outbreak of pillaging, which targeted dozens of stores, began in Soweto after a foreign shopkeeper shot dead a teenager who allegedly tried to rob him on Monday night. With poverty and unemployment widespread, frustration in Johannesburg's run-down neighbourhoods often boils over into anti-immigrant violence.
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| Maduro criticizes visit by 3 former Latin American leaders Posted: 23 Jan 2015 02:33 PM PST  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro on Friday blasted a weekend visit to Venezuela by the former leaders of Mexico, Chile and Colombia, accusing them of inadvertently lending support to extremist groups trying to oust him from power.
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