| Israel says will seize West Bank land; demolishes EU structures Posted: 21 Jan 2016 05:21 AM PST  By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel confirmed on Thursday it was planning to appropriate a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank, close to Jordan, a move likely to exacerbate tensions with Western allies and already drawing international condemnation. In an email sent to Reuters, COGAT, a unit of Israel's Defence Ministry, said the political decision to seize the territory had been taken and "the lands are in the final stages of being declared state lands". The appropriation, covers 154 hectares (380 acres) in the Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for a state.
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| Russia's Putin probably approved London murder of ex-KGB agent Litvinenko: UK inquiry Posted: 21 Jan 2016 09:52 AM PST  By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin probably approved a 2006 Russian intelligence operation to murder ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 in London, a British inquiry concluded on Thursday, prompting a row with Moscow. Russia, which had declined to cooperate in the inquiry, cautioned pointedly that it could "poison" relations. Britain accused the Kremlin of uncivilized behavior but did not immediately signal it would take any stronger action.
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| Wife of U.S. pastor imprisoned in Iran hopes to reunite, rebuild marriage Posted: 21 Jan 2016 04:37 PM PST  By Ben Klayman BOISE (Reuters) - Naghmeh Abedini is looking forward to reuniting next week with her husband, Saeed, the Iranian-American pastor freed on Saturday after more than three years in an Iranian prison. In an interview at her parent's home in Boise, Idaho on Wednesday, Abedini said that rebuilding their marriage after her husband's imprisonment will take time. Reuters could not independently confirm Abedini's allegations about her husband.
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| Bomb kills nine in Cairo suburb as police raid hideout Posted: 21 Jan 2016 02:35 PM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - Nine people, including six policemen, were killed on Thursday in a Cairo suburb near the pyramids when a makeshift bomb went off as police prepared to raid a militant hideout, security sources said. The Interior Ministry said in a statement that its security forces had arrived in their vehicles to raid an apartment and found the building booby-trapped. The device off when they tried to defuse it. Ten people were wounded, the sources said. ...
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| Iran-linked groups focus of Baghdad kidnapping probe: U.S. sources Posted: 21 Jan 2016 12:17 PM PST  By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies investigating the kidnapping of three Americans in Baghdad, Iraq last week are focusing their probe on three militant Islamic groups closely affiliated with Iran, U.S. government sources said on Thursday. Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kata'ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization are the principle focus of the investigation into the armed kidnapping of the three Americans in the Dora neighborhood, south of Baghdad, the sources said.
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| U.S. gives troops broader order to strike Islamic State in Afghanistan Posted: 21 Jan 2016 12:09 PM PST  U.S. military commanders have been given the authority to target Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Thursday, the first such order beyond Iraq and Syria, where the militants control parts of both countries. The U.S. State Department said last week that it had designated Islamic State's offshoot in Afghanistan, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, as a foreign terrorist organization. U.S. forces could previously strike Islamic State in Afghanistan but it was under more narrow circumstances, such as for protection of troops.
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| The Latest: Rain delays Australian Open start on side courts Posted: 21 Jan 2016 04:40 PM PST  MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The latest from the Australian Open on Friday (all times local):
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| Kerry admits some of Iran funds could be sent to 'terrorist' groups Posted: 21 Jan 2016 04:39 PM PST  US Secretary of State John Kerry admitted Thursday that some of the funds Iran will recover as a result of sanctions relief could be directed to groups that Washington considers "terrorist" organisations. Kerry had earlier said the US stands by separate new ballistic missile-related sanctions on Tehran, a move Iran described as "bizarre".
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| Powerful snowstorm threatens U.S. East Coast; flights canceled Posted: 21 Jan 2016 04:32 PM PST  By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington D.C., New York and other East Coast cities readied fleets of snow plows, thousands of flights were canceled or delayed and residents stocked up on groceries on Thursday ahead of a winter storm expected to dump up to 30 inches (76 cm) of snow on the region. Blizzard warnings were out in the nation's capital and Baltimore, with extreme conditions expected to begin on Friday afternoon, while New York City was under a blizzard watch for Saturday morning. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which includes the second-busiest U.S. subway system, said it would suspend operations from late on Friday through Sunday.
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| Judge skeptical of immunity argument by UN case defendant Posted: 21 Jan 2016 04:31 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — A judge seemed unimpressed Thursday with a U.S. citizen's claims to immunity in a United Nations bribery scandal because he was working as a diplomat for a foreign government. |
| Militant attacks in Asia inject new urgency into U.S. bomb training Posted: 21 Jan 2016 04:05 PM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Andrew R.C. Marshall CHA'AM, Thailand (Reuters) - A major Asian city is rocked by a car bomb as VIPs arrive for a summit. Nearby, a man on a motorbike detonates his suicide vest. The two-week course, taught by experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is held at least once a year in Thailand.
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| Obama calls Germany's Merkel to talk Syrian refugee crisis Posted: 21 Jan 2016 04:05 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is trying to round up support for his plans to host a high-level summit on refugees at the United Nations later this year. |
| WHO confirms second new Ebola case in Sierra Leone Posted: 21 Jan 2016 04:05 PM PST  A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in Sierra Leone, officials said Thursday, the second since west Africa celebrated the end of the epidemic last week. The World Health Organization said the new case involved the aunt of 22-year-old Marie Jalloh, who died of Ebola on January 12. The 38-year-old woman "was a primary caregiver during (her niece's) illness," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told AFP in an email.
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| Two Americans held in Iran arrive home after prisoner swap Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:57 PM PST  By Emily Stephenson ASHEVILLE, N.C. (Reuters) - A Christian minister and a former U.S. Marine who were released by Iran in a prisoner swap returned to the United States on Thursday after years behind bars in the Islamic Republic. Pastor Saeed Abedini, 35, arrived in North Carolina on Thursday afternoon, a spokesman for a Christian group said. Ex-Marine Amir Hekmati, 32, touched down in a private jet at the airport in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and stepped onto a small red carpet on the tarmac.
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| Venezuela ministers shun hearing on economic crisis Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:53 PM PST  Venezuelan government ministers refused Thursday to go before their opposition rivals for a key legislative hearing on economic emergency measures in the crisis-hit nation, officials said. The opposition-controlled National Assembly is due by Friday to vote on a bid by President Nicolas Maduro to decree a state of economic emergency in the oil-rich South American state. The leader of the pro-government bloc in the assembly, Hector Rodriguez, earlier said members of Maduro's economic cabinet "will not take part" in the session.
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| IS jihadists to be 'seriously dented' by end of 2016, says Kerry Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:52 PM PST  US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday said the Islamic State group would be "very seriously" weakened in Syria and Iraq this year, as France announced that some 22,000 jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition. Air strikes by the alliance that includes Gulf states, France and Britain have been pounding IS positions since August 2014, with Washington claiming major gains against the extremists. "I think that by the end of 2016, our goal of very seriously denting Daesh in Iraq and Syria and of trying to have an impact on Mosul (in Iraq) and Raqa (in Syria) will be achieved," Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, using an alternative name for IS.
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| New $130 million project aims to cut food waste from fields to tables Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:50 PM PST By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than a third of the world's food goes uneaten, and many crops harvested in Africa are discarded rather than sold, according to an initiative announced on Thursday by the Rockefeller Foundation to cut food waste and loss by half. The seven-year, $130 million project aims to tackle food waste from crops in the fields to dinner tables in industrialized nations, the Foundation said in its announcement at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Sub-Saharan Africa will receive much of the initiative's resources, the Foundation said. |
| What We Know: New visa rules for some Europeans to visit US Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:48 PM PST The Obama administration is imposing new travel restrictions on certain Europeans who have visited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan in the past five years. |
| U.S. appeals court declines to block Obama carbon emissions plan Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:45 PM PST  By Lawrence Hurley and Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a big victory for the Obama administration, a U.S. federal court on Thursday rejected a bid by 27 states to block its Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of its strategy to combat climate change by reducing carbon emissions from power plants. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a brief order denying an application seeking to stay the rule while litigation continues. The states, led by West Virginia, and several major business groups in October launched the legal challenges seeking to block the Obama administration's proposal to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
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| U.S. congressman from Michigan pushed Iran to free detainee Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:44 PM PST By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressman from Michigan said he worked in public and behind the scenes, once meeting privately with Iran's foreign minister, to win the release of an Iranian-American prisoner from his congressional district sentenced to death for spying. Amir Hekmati, 32, a Marine veteran who grew up in the Flint area, was released as part of a swap of American and Iranian prisoners and arrived back in Michigan on Thursday. Hekmati, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Iranian origin, had been detained in August 2011 while visiting family in Iran. |
| Al-Jazeera says journalist likely kidnapped in Yemen Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:38 PM PST  Pan-Arab television network Al-Jazeera said on Thursday that one of its journalists had gone missing in the battleground Yemeni city of Taez and that it suspects he was kidnapped. The Doha-based channel said it had not been able to contact Hamdi al-Bokari since Monday night, when the correspondent was covering fighting between loyalist and rebel forces in the central city. Al-Jazeera Media Network director general Mostefa Souag called for Bokari's immediate release, saying it was the kidnappers' responsibility to ensure his safety.
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| Millions brace for massive US snow storm Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:27 PM PST  The eastern United States was in panic mode Thursday ahead of what forecasters called a "potentially paralyzing" blizzard, sparking the cancelation of hundreds of flights and the looming closure of Washington's public transportation system. With authorities warning the storm could bury Washington under more snow than it has seen in nearly a century, officials took the unusual step of shutting down the city's rail and bus system from Friday night until Monday morning. The Washington Post reported that officials believed this was to be the longest closing in the system's more than 40-year history.
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| UK prosecutors press ahead with Channel Tunnel case Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:25 PM PST  Prosecutors in Britain pressed forward with a case Thursday against a Sudanese man who walked through the Channel Tunnel from France, despite the fact that he has since been granted asylum. Haroun was arrested close to the end of the 31-mile (50-km) tunnel in southeast England last August, having walked through it from France.
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| Iran-linked groups focus of Baghdad kidnapping probe: U.S. sources Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:23 PM PST  By Mark Hosenball and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON/DAVOS (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies investigating the kidnapping of three Americans in Baghdad last week are focusing their probe on three militant Islamic groups closely affiliated with Iran, U.S. government sources said on Thursday. Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kata'ib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization are the principle focus of the probe into how the men were snatched in the Dora neighborhood, south of Baghdad, the sources said. The U.S. government does not know if any of the three groups seized the men.
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| White House welcomes U.S. court ruling on carbon emissions plan Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:22 PM PST The White House said on Thursday that it was pleased that a U.S. appellate court had denied a bid by 27 states to block the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan while litigation challenging the regulation continues. "We are confident that the plan will reduce carbon pollution and deliver better air quality, improved public health, and jobs across the country," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. The Clean Power Plan is the centerpiece of the Obama administration's strategy to combat climate change. |
| Israel revokes residency of Palestinians accused of deadly attacks Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:21 PM PST  Israel's Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said Thursday he has revoked the permanent residency permits of four Palestinians from east Jerusalem who allegedly killed Israelis in Jerusalem in recent attacks. The rare move is yet another Israeli attempt to stem the nearly four-month wave of Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces, many of which were carried out by east Jerusalem residents. The interior ministry named three of the Palestinians as Walid Atrash, Mohammad Abu Kaf and Abed Dawiat.
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| El Salvador advises women to delay pregnancies due to virus Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:19 PM PST SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Public health officials in El Salvador are advising women to put off pregnancies for the next two years to avoid passing on complications from the mosquito-borne Zika virus. |
| Obama, Merkel discuss aid for Syrian refugees: White House Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:18 PM PST  President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the refugee crisis in Europe during a phone call on Thursday and agreed an upcoming donors' conference in London would be a chance to galvanize global efforts on the issue, the White House said. Obama told Merkel he plans to host a summit for leaders at the UN General Assembly in September to secure new commitments to help address the refugee crisis, the White House said in a statement. "The two leaders committed to working together over the coming months to help protect and provide for the millions of people whose lives have been upturned by war," the White House said.
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| Prisoner refuses to leave Guantanamo as 2 depart for Balkans Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:17 PM PST MIAMI (AP) — A Guantanamo Bay prisoner who protested his indefinite confinement with a lengthy hunger strike has taken the unusual step of turning down a chance to finally leave the U.S. base in Cuba, rejecting an offer to be resettled in an unfamiliar new country. |
| Meeke sets the pace in Monte Carlo, Ogier 2nd after 2 stages Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:17 PM PST  MONACO (AP) — Britain's Kris Meeke took the early lead in the Monte Carlo Rally on Thursday, surging ahead of Sebastien Ogier as the French driver began the defense of his world title. Ogier had set the pace in the first of two nighttime stages, leading Meeke and Andreas Mikkelsen after the climb and descent of the 1,100-meter Col de Laval.
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| EPA official to resign over Flint water crisis Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:14 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Midwest region of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has offered her resignation over the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, the agency said on Thursday. The EPA also issued an emergency order requiring Michigan and the city of Flint to take immediate steps after determining that the response by the local governments has been "inadequate to protect human health." (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Eric Beech)
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| U.S. to tackle oil and gas methane waste on public lands -sources Posted: 21 Jan 2016 03:11 PM PST By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is expected to propose new rules as soon as Friday to curb methane leaks from oil and natural gas production, its latest attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy production under its control, sources familiar with the plan said. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to limit venting and flaring natural gas at wells on public land, practices that let methane into the atmosphere. Methane is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. |
| Reviled pharma exec would decline congressional questioning Posted: 21 Jan 2016 02:56 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, reviled for hiking the price of a life-saving drug, would decline to answer questions if forced to appear before Congress, according to correspondence with lawmakers.
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| U.N. draft calls for 12-month mission to verify Colombia peace deal Posted: 21 Jan 2016 02:51 PM PST  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Members of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday received a draft of a resolution that calls for establishing a U.N. mission to oversee disarmament should Colombia's government and leftist FARC rebels reach a final peace deal. Colombia's government and FARC agreed on Tuesday to ask the 15-nation council to help monitor and verify rebel disarmament should the two sides reach a deal to end their 50-year-old war. The text, drafted by Britain and seen by Reuters, would have the 15-nation council "establish a political mission to participate for a period of 12 months ... to monitor and verify the definitive bilateral ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, and the laying down of arms." To begin the process of creating the mission, it would ask Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "to initiate preparations and to present detailed recommendations to the Security Council for its consideration and approval." It added that the council would establish "a political mission of unarmed international observers" and welcomed the willingness of members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States to contribute personnel.
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| One killed in fresh violence as UN Security Council arrives in Burundi Posted: 21 Jan 2016 02:46 PM PST  At least one person was killed as gunfire and explosions rocked the Burundi capital Thursday evening, a local official and witnesses said, just as a UN Security Council delegation arrived to push for an end to months of political unrest. One youth was shot dead by police after a grenade went off in Bujumbura's northeastern Mutakura area, a local administrative source said, adding that a second person was injured by gun shots. The unrest erupted shortly after UN Security Council ambassadors landed in Bujumbura to push the government to hold serious talks with the opposition and accept peacekeepers.
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| Vice President Biden, Iraq's Abadi discuss Turkish troop issue: White House Posted: 21 Jan 2016 02:42 PM PST  U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday discussed the urgency of mobilizing international support to stabilize the city of Ramadi, which the government recently retook from Islamic State militants, the White House said. "The vice president encouraged continued dialogue between Iraq and Turkey to resolve concerns about Turkish troop deployments in northern Iraq and reiterated U.S. respect for Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House said in a statement about the meeting between the leaders, in Davos, Switzerland.
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| When snow blows, Washington, D.C., cannot seem to cope Posted: 21 Jan 2016 02:41 PM PST  By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As they stocked up on groceries, batteries and booze ahead of the first major snowstorm to hit the U.S. East Coast this year, residents of the nation's capital also shared in a time-honored ritual - complaining about how poorly Washington manages winter. An inch (2.5 cm) of snow on Wednesday brought the evening rush hour in the metropolitan area of more than 4 million people to a halt. "The motto seems to be: 'We're no worse than anybody else,' Patricia DeWolf, a 63-year-old retiree, said outside a Safeway supermarket after buying food and other supplies.
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| Valencia held to 1-1 draw by Las Palmas in Copa quarters Posted: 21 Jan 2016 02:39 PM PST MADRID (AP) — Valencia's Paco Alcacer scored a second-half equalizer to offset an own goal by French teammate Wilfried Zahibo in a 1-1 draw with Las Palmas in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey on Thursday. |
