| Closing in on nuclear deal, U.S. demands 'tough choices' from Iran Posted: 16 Mar 2015 02:18 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton and Parisa Hafezi LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - The United States and Iran inched closer to a political deal that would set the stage for a landmark nuclear agreement, but a U.S. official warned on Monday that Iran must make tough choices to allay fears about its atomic ambitions. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held nearly five hours of talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne before the Iranian delegation headed to Brussels for meetings with European ministers. After the Lausanne talks, a senior U.S. official said it was not clear if an end-March deadline for a framework agreement between Iran and six major powers could be met.
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| Russia's Putin reappears after 10 day absence, laughs off 'gossip' Posted: 16 Mar 2015 10:57 AM PDT  By Denis Dyomkin STRELNA, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin reappeared on Monday after 10 unexplained days out of public view, laughing off the "gossip" over his health that had erupted during his absence. His absence had fueled rumors he was ill, had been overthrown by the army or had even flown abroad to attend the birth of a love child.
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| Kurds report more chlorine attacks, Iraq pauses Tikrit offensive Posted: 16 Mar 2015 01:22 PM PDT  By Isabel Coles and Maggie Fick ARBIL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq paused its Tikrit offensive on Monday and officials called for more air strikes against Islamic State militants, while an officer said Kurdish forces sustained two more chlorine gas attacks by insurgents. General Aziz Waisi told journalists the insurgents used chlorine twice during a January offensive west of Mosul and once in a December attack on his military police brigade in the Sinjar mountain area. Waisi said a number of military police - he did not say how many - were taken to hospital, where blood tests indicated they had inhaled chlorine gas released by the bombs.
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| 'King Bibi's' reign challenged in Israeli election Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:06 PM PDT  By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's march towards becoming the longest-serving leader of Israel could be halted on Tuesday in an election that has exposed public fatigue with his stress on national security rather than socio-economic problems. Surging rhetoric against Iran and the Palestinians has apparently done little to close Netanyahu's lag behind center-left opponent Isaac Herzog in opinion polls. Much will depend on which candidate the smaller, centrist parties choose to crown, and the leaning of a joint list uniting Israel's four Arab parties, which is expected to come in third. Dubbed "King Bibi" by Time magazine just three years ago, Netanyahu, 65, has cast the threat to his reign as a foreign-orchestrated campaign to install an Israeli leader who might yield to Palestinian statehood or nuclear diplomacy with Iran.
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| Fighting rages near Donetsk airport despite Ukraine ceasefire Posted: 16 Mar 2015 10:22 AM PDT  By Gabriela Baczynska SPARTAK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Heavy machinegun and light artillery fire pounded a district of Donetsk, the biggest city of eastern Ukraine, on Monday and pro-Russian rebels said there had been no lull in the fighting since a February ceasefire. The Spartak district, adjacent to the city's now-flattened airport, is one of several sites in eastern Ukraine to have seen continued hostilities between the rebels and Ukrainian government forces since last month's ceasefire, brokered by France and Germany in the Belarussian capital Minsk. The ceasefire is broadly holding in the rest of the region.
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| No place for Assad in Syria talks, U.S. officials say Posted: 16 Mar 2015 01:47 PM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States insisted on Monday it would never negotiate directly with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, edging away from comments made by Secretary of State John Kerry, and it cast doubt on any immediate prospects for third-party talks to resolve Syria's civil war. Kerry's apparent suggestion in a CBS television interview on Sunday that there could be a place for Assad in efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict drew swift criticism from European and Arab allies. Seeking to calm the diplomatic storm, State Department and White House officials sought to clarify Kerry's remarks and show that Washington's position on Assad had not softened. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that while the United States accepted the need for representatives of Assad's government to participate in any negotiations, "it would not be and would never be - and it wasn't what Secretary Kerry was intending to imply - that that would be Assad himself." "We continue to believe ... that there's no future for Assad in Syria," Psaki told reporters.
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| Poor farmers bear heavy burden from increased natural disasters Posted: 16 Mar 2015 05:04 PM PDT By Chris Arsenault ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Economic losses due to natural disasters have tripled over the past decade, with farmers bearing nearly a quarter of the burden in poor countries, a U.N. study said on Tuesday. Floods, droughts, storms and other natural disasters cost the agricultural sector in developing countries $70 billion in damages between 2003 and 2013, said the study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) released during an international conference on reducing disaster risk in Sendai, Japan. |
| No more soldier prince: UK's Harry to leave army in June Posted: 16 Mar 2015 05:03 PM PDT LONDON (AP) — It's a soldier's life no more for Britain's Prince Harry. |
| Top Asian News at 12:00 a.m. GMT Posted: 16 Mar 2015 05:02 PM PDT WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The United Nations reported Monday that 24 people are confirmed dead and 3,300 have been displaced by Cyclone Pam in the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu. Radio and telephone communications with outer islands have not yet been established two days after what the country's president called a "monster" storm, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. |
| Police trial opens decade after deaths triggered French riots Posted: 16 Mar 2015 05:00 PM PDT  Two police officers went on trial Monday over the deaths of two youths that sparked weeks of deadly rioting in France's deprived housing estates nearly a decade ago. The two officers, Sebastien Gaillemin and Stephanie Klein arrived stony-faced at the court in Rennes, west of Paris, to face charges they failed to prevent the electrocution deaths of Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17. The teenagers died on October 27, 2005, in a high-voltage electricity sub-station near their Clichy-sous-Bois housing project northeast of Paris, as they hid from police officers milling nearby. We've been waiting for this moment for 10 years," said Adel Benna, Zyed's brother, as he arrived for the trial.
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| US tycoon in court on murder charge after TV 'confession' Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:57 PM PDT  Robert Durst, 71, the scion of a New York real estate dynasty worth $4.4 billion, was arrested in New Orleans on Saturday and faces extradition to California for the 2000 murder of his close friend Susan Berman. "We're ready to go to California and have a trial," DeGuerin added.
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| Nigerian, Cameroon troops oust Boko Haram from town, village Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:52 PM PDT LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian troops have ousted Boko Haram from a northeastern town while Cameroon soldiers killed several of the extremists in an attack on a Nigerian village, military officials reported Monday of the latest successes in a multinational bid to curb the Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria. |
| Many schools close in Jamaica's capital due to dump fire Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:52 PM PDT KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Noxious smoke continued to spiral Monday from a sprawling trash dump five days after a major blaze erupted, closing a number of schools and businesses across the island's capital and sent hundreds of people to clinics and hospitals. |
| Number's up for Cricket World Cup superstitions Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:27 PM PDT  They are just two players whose superstitions have influenced their choice of shirt numbers at the tournament. The 24-year-old wicketkeeper/batsman, who has handed over the gloves at the World Cup to Sarfraz Ahmed after a poor stretch of form behind the stumps, said he acted on the advice of his 'Pir' or spiritual adviser. Oddly, Sarfraz, who is not known to have sweated too much over his shirt number -- 54 incidentally -- has thrived in his two games, scoring 49 against South Africa, and taking six catches, before hitting an undefeated 101 opening the innings in the crucial win over Ireland on Sunday. Surprise call-up Haris Sohail changed his number to 89 instead of 80 and has enjoyed knocks of 70 against the UAE and 36 in the game against India.
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| Liverpool gets lucky break, Reading into FA Cup semifinals Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:24 PM PDT  A huge slice of fortune kept Liverpool in the hunt for Champions League qualification on Monday, while second-tier Reading reached its first FA Cup semifinal since 1927 by ending Bradford's surprise run in the competition.
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| Putin laughs off 'rumours' over his 10-day absence Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:18 PM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday laughed off days of frenzied "rumours" over his health and whereabouts as he reappeared in public after an unusually long 10-day absence. Emerging after days of speculation that he was either ill or had even been deposed in a palace coup, Putin met with the leader of ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan just outside Saint Petersburg. The typically tardy Putin was two hours late but showed up looking relaxed with no visible signs of ill-health, quelling the rumours that had nevertheless highlighted the fragility of Russia's tightly-controlled political system dominated by one man. "We would be bored if there were no rumours," Putin said as he met Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev at the sumptuous Konstantinov's Palace outside Saint Petersburg.
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| Sunderland fires manager Gus Poyet with club struggling Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:17 PM PDT  SUNDERLAND, England (AP) — Sunderland reacted to its latest humiliating loss in the Premier League by firing manager Gus Poyet on Monday, in a late attempt to retain its place in England's top division.
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| Jeers ring out as Roma loses 2-0 at home to Sampdoria Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:08 PM PDT  MILAN (AP) — Roma's season went from bad to worse as it lost 2-0 at home to Sampdoria on Monday to leave Rudi Garcia's team in danger of losing out on second place in Serie A after Lazio won 2-0 at Torino.
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| Aid agencies to begin helicopter flights to cyclone-stricken Vanuatu Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:07 PM PDT  By Stephen Coates PORT VILA (Reuters) - International aid agencies are preparing to begin emergency helicopter flights on Tuesday to the remote outer islands of Vanuatu, which they fear have been devastated by a monster cyclone that tore through the South Pacific island country. Disaster management officials and relief workers are still struggling to establish contact with the islands that bore the brunt of Cyclone Pam's winds of more than 300 kph (185 mph) on Friday and Saturday. Officials anticipate that number will rise once they are able to land on the outer islands of the scattered archipelago to inspect the damage there. "We have no contact of any sort with the outer islands, the priority is to get communications up and running.
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| US returns Iraq treasures as IS threatens heritage Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:07 PM PDT  As Iraq struggles to protect its ancient sites and heritage from the Islamic State group, the United States returned some 60 historical items to the country on Monday, many dating to thousands of years ago. Ancient glass vessels, clay images and bronze spears and axes were on display in Iraq's consulate in the United States as part of the hand over. The head of an Assyrian lamassu, or winged bull, taken from the palace of Sargon II in northern Iraq, was among the items that are headed back to Iraq's recently reopened national museum in Baghdad. Sargon's palace is in the province of Nineveh where the Islamic State group (IS) was seen in videos destroying and defacing ancient sites and items, including a winged bull like the one returned Monday.
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| Talks to save Belfast power-sharing overshadow St Pat's Day Posted: 16 Mar 2015 04:06 PM PDT  DUBLIN (AP) — It has become a hallmark of the St. Patrick's Day holiday: the entire political elite of Ireland descending on the White House.
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| Slice of fortune hands Liverpool 1-0 win over Swansea Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:56 PM PDT  SWANSEA, Wales (AP) — Jordan Henderson scored a fortunate second-half winner as Liverpool beat Swansea 1-0 in the Premier League on Monday to keep the pressure on the top four in the race for Champions League qualification.
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| Sunderland sack manager Poyet - club Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:48 PM PDT  Sunderland sacked their manager Gus Poyet on Monday, less than 48 hours after a humbling home loss to fellow Premier League strugglers Aston Villa. The Uruguayan paid the price for a poor run of results that has left the Black Cats fourth from bottom after Saturday's 4-0 rout, the club's sixth game without a win.
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| Brazil's Rousseff pledges talks after mass protests Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:46 PM PDT  Brasília (AFP) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff pledged Monday to hold talks with her growing number of critics and said her embattled government needed to show humility, a day after massive protests erupted across the country. Rousseff was narrowly re-elected less than six months ago in a bitterly fought runoff but is already facing pressure to quit over a snowballing $3.8 billion graft scandal at state oil firm Petrobras which has dragged in her ruling coalition and seen calls for her to be impeached. Her mounting woes include a badly faltering economy and on Sunday protests against her took place in major towns and cities across Brazil, laying bare the scale of public discontent.
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| Official: Iran confronts US at nuke talks over GOP letter Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:42 PM PDT  LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Iranian diplomats twice confronted their American counterparts about an open letter from Republican senators who warned that any nuclear deal could expire the day President Barack Obama leaves office, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
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| Gazan gets 15 years' hard labour for 'spying' for Israel Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:38 PM PDT  A court in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has handed a Palestinian convicted of "spying" for Israel 15 years' hard labour, a judicial source said on Monday. Under Palestinian law, those convicted of collaboration with Israel, murder and drug trafficking face the death penalty. Since the start of the year, at least one person convicted of "collaboration" with Israel has been sentenced to death in the West Bank. A Gaza-based human rights watchdog in January called on authorities in the Palestinian territories to abolish the death penalty.
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| First lady won't avoid Cambodia human rights concerns Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:35 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama won't avoid Cambodia's human rights record when she visits the southeast Asian nation this week, her final stop on a two-country trip to promote a new U.S. initiative to help millions of girls worldwide attend and complete school, the White House said Monday.
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| 'Rollercoaster' Iran nuclear talks in the balance Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:33 PM PDT  Iran nuclear talks hung in the balance Monday with a senior US official saying it remained unclear whether the outlines of a deal could be agreed by a March 31 deadline. After a five-hour meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, the official said Iran still had "very tough choices" to make. "Iran still needs to make some very tough and necessary choices," the official said in the Swiss city of Lausanne where the crucial round of talks was being held this week. Iran and six world powers are pushing to reach by the end of the month what the official called a "political framework that addresses the major elements of a comprehensive deal".
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| Mali rebels ask to meet mediators to improve peace deal Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:32 PM PDT  Mali's Tuareg-led rebels called Monday for a meeting with Algerian mediators to "improve" a proposed peace deal with the government in Bamako, describing the accord as a "good basis" for progress. The Algiers Agreement, hammered out over eight months of tough negotiations, aims to bring a lasting peace to a sprawling area of northern desert that the rebels refer to as "Azawad". It has been signed by Mali's government and smaller armed groups but the rebel alliance -- in meetings with its members in the northern Tuareg stronghold of Kidal since Wednesday last week -- has asked for more time to consider the offer.
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| Assad will 'never' have role in peace talks: US Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:29 PM PDT  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will never be part of peace negotiations to halt the brutal civil war, US officials vowed Monday, adding they were taking every step to bring an end to his rule. Top US diplomat John Kerry appeared to suggest in a weekend interview that Washington would have to talk with Assad eventually if peace was to be forged, but State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki moved to clarify that assertion. "As we have long said, there always has been a need for representatives of the Assad regime to be a part of that process," said Psaki.
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| Brazil: Ruling party treasurer charged in graft probe Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:27 PM PDT RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian prosecutors on Monday charged the treasurer of the ruling Workers' Party with corruption in connection to a sprawling graft scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras. |
| France says Assad talks would be 'scandalous gift' to IS Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:25 PM PDT  French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday rejected any role for President Bashar al-Assad in Syrian peace talks, saying it would be a "scandalous gift" to the Islamic State group. Fabius's comments came a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that talks with Assad were necessary to bring the bloody conflict in Syria to an end as it enters its fifth year. "The solution is a political transition which would preserve regime institutions, not Mr. Bashar al-Assad. Any other solution which would keep Mr. Assad in the saddle would be an absolutely scandalous, gigantic gift to Daesh," Fabius said in Brussels, using another name for IS.
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| Iraqi intelligence reveals Baghdad car bombers' tricks Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:24 PM PDT  Trap doors in floorboards and liquor bottles on backseats -- Iraq's intelligence service on Monday detailed how the Islamic State (IS) group's car bomb cell eluded the police for months. The suspected leader of the group was arrested riding a bicycle in an upmarket neighbourhood, a spokesman told AFP at the intelligence headquarters in Baghdad. The Iraqi national intelligence service (INIS) announced on Sunday it had arrested 31 people responsible for planning and carrying out 52 attacks in Baghdad in 2014 and 2015. "When we first picked up a scent in our hunt for this network, we organised surveillance that lasted six months," spokesman Fahim al-Atraqchi told AFP.
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| European powers, Iran make little progress in nuclear talks Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:23 PM PDT  BRUSSELS (AP) — European powers and Iran made little progress late Monday toward reaching an agreement to end the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program as an end-of-March deadline closes in.
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| Real Sociedad beats Getafe 1-0 in Spanish league Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:07 PM PDT MADRID (AP) — A second-half own goal by Vicente Guaita gave Real Sociedad a 1-0 win at Getafe in the Spanish league Monday, for its first away win of the season. |
| Cuba, US hold new round of talks on diplomatic ties Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:05 PM PDT  HAVANA (AP) — U.S. and Cuban diplomats talked behind closed doors Monday in a last-minute round of negotiations aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations before a key regional summit in less than a month.
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| Nigeria military retakes towns from Boko Haram in Yobe, Borno Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:00 PM PDT  Nigeria's military said it had cleared Boko Haram from the northeastern state of Yobe on Monday, while also claiming victory over the militants in the strategic town of Bama in neighbouring Borno state. "We announced the reclaiming of (the town of) Goniri today," defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said on his Twitter account @GENOlukolade. Olukolade added in a later tweet that Nigerian troops had also ousted the insurgents from Bama, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri. "Nigerian troops have this afternoon routed terrorists from in state.
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| Arsenal won't go out with a whimper says Wenger Posted: 16 Mar 2015 03:00 PM PDT  Arsene Wenger insists Arsenal are confident of completing a miraculous fightback in their Champions League last 16 second leg against Monaco on Tuesday. Wenger's side arrived in the millionaires' playground, famous for its picturesque casino, knowing the odds are against them progressing to the quarter-finals after losing the first leg 3-1. Wenger accepts his players were well below their best in the first leg and he knows Monaco are also a formidable defensive force at home, having not conceded at all during the group stages earlier this season. Leonardo Jardim's team extended their unbeaten record at the Stade Louis II Stadium to 16 games with a 3-0 win over Bastia on Friday.
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| North Kenya official says security situation 'hopeless' Posted: 16 Mar 2015 02:54 PM PDT  The governor of northern Kenya's Mandera county on Monday attacked what he called a "hopeless" security situation due to a wave of cross-border attacks by Somalia's Shebab militants. Speaking in the capital Nairobi, Ali Roba said he had survived six attempts on his life -- including an ambush of his convoy on Friday -- and questioned why Kenyan soldiers were part of an African Union force supporting Somalia's government while leaving their own country unprotected.
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