| Syrian opposition demands answers before joining talks Posted: 27 Jan 2016 11:49 AM PST  By Tom Perry, Tom Miles and John Irish BEIRUT/GENEVA/PARIS (Reuters) - Plans to hold the first negotiations to end the civil war in Syria for two years were in doubt on Wednesday after the opposition said it would not show up unless the United Nations responded to demands for a halt to attacks on civilian areas. The Syrian government has already agreed to join the talks that U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura hopes to convene in an indirect format in Geneva on Friday with the aim of ending the five-year-old war that has killed 250,000 people. Preparations have been beset by difficulties, including a dispute over who should be invited to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad's government as it claws back territory with help from Russia and Iran.
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| Iran's Rouhani in France to revive business ties after nuclear deal Posted: 27 Jan 2016 11:01 AM PST  By John Irish and Bate Felix PARIS (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told French business leaders on Wednesday that Iran was open for investment as he started a visit in France to revive business ties despite diplomatic differences. On Rouhani's first trip abroad since Iran's sanctions-ending nuclear accord with world powers took effect, Italy this week already rolled out the red carpet for the moderate Iranian president and his 120-member delegation of business leaders and cabinet ministers, signing a raft of deals.
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| U.N. says Syria ignored most of its requests to deliver aid Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:33 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Syrian government in 2015 ignored most United Nations requests to deliver humanitarian aid to some of the 4.6 million people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas and only 620,000 received help, the U.N. aid chief said on Wednesday. Stephen O'Brien told the U.N. Security Council that last year the United Nations made 113 requests to the Syrian government for approval of inter-agency aid convoys, but only 10 percent were able to deliver assistance. Another 10 percent were approved in principle by the Syrian government, but could not proceed due to a lack of final approval, insecurity or no deal on safe passage, while the U.N. put 3 percent on hold due to insecurity.
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| North Korea may be readying long-range missile launch soon: Kyodo Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:53 PM PST North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range missile as soon as in a week, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported early on Thursday, citing an unnamed Japanese government official. The report came as U.N. Security Council members were discussing fresh sanctions against the North after it conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6. The North is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes. |
| Taiwan president flies to disputed island in South China Sea Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:17 PM PST  By J.R. Wu TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou flew to Itu Aba island in the disputed South China Sea on Thursday to reaffirm Taipei's sovereignty over the outpost, ignoring criticism from Washington over the trip. Ma's one-day visit to Itu Aba comes amid growing international concern over rising tensions in the South China Sea, especially in the wake of Beijing's rapid creation of seven man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago. The Taiwanese Defense Ministry told Reuters that Ma had departed for Itu Aba.
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| Saudi strikes on Yemen civilians may be crimes against humanity: U.N. Posted: 27 Jan 2016 12:58 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Saudi-led coalition fighting in neighboring Yemen has targeted civilians with air strikes and some of the attacks could be a crimes against humanity, United Nations sanctions monitors said in an annual report to the Security Council. The report by the U.N. panel that monitors the conflict in Yemen for the Security Council, seen by Reuters on Wednesday, sparked calls by rights groups for the United States and Britain to halt sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia that could be used in such attacks. The panel of experts documented 119 coalition sorties "relating to violations of international humanitarian law" and said that "many attacks involved multiple air strikes on multiple civilian objects." The U.N. experts said all parties to the conflict in Yemen were violating international humanitarian law.
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| Arrested Oregon protest leader tells occupiers to go home: attorney Posted: 27 Jan 2016 05:00 PM PST  Ammon Bundy, who led an anti-government occupation at a US wildlife refuge until his arrest in an operation that left one protester dead, Wednesday urged the last remaining holdouts to go home. Let us take this fight from here," said a statement issued via Bundy's attorney Michael Arnold. Bundy paid tribute to the deceased, who has not been formally identified, as his "beloved friend" Lavoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher who became a de facto spokesman for the protest movement.
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| OAS to send special mission to Haiti amid political crisis Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:50 PM PST  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The threat of instability in Haiti prompted the Organization of American States on Wednesday to authorize a special mission to help the troubled nation find a way out of a simmering political crisis.
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| Facebook to expand beyond its 'like' button 'pretty soon' Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:43 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — It won't be long before Facebook's 1.6 billion users have more ways to quickly express their feelings on the world's largest social network. |
| A glance at Zika cases and complications in Latin America Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:42 PM PST  A glance at the number of Zika cases and complications by country in Latin America and the Caribbean:
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| Rain delays play in 2nd ODI between NZ and Pakistan Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:42 PM PST NAPIER, New Zealand (AP) — Rain delayed the start of play Thursday in the second one-day international between New Zealand and Pakistan at McLean Park. |
| Australian Olympic gold diver Mitcham retires Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:40 PM PST  Australia diver Matthew Mitcham announced his surprise retirement on Thursday after winning gold at the Beijing Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games. With his final dive in Beijing he claimed the highest individual score in Olympic history. "I have achieved everything I hoped for, including the big three -- Olympic gold in 2008, world number one in 2010, and Commonwealth gold in 2014, which could never have happened without all the help I've had along the way," Mitcham said.
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| Canada rejects US security concerns over Syrian refugees Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:36 PM PST  Canada rejected Wednesday US security concerns over its fast-tracked resettlement of thousands of Syrian refugees, as the Senate in Washington prepares to hold a hearing on the repercussions for America. "We have put in place layers of security activity to ensure that our refugee initiative with respect to Syria can be successful," Canadian public safety minister Ralph Goodale told parliament. "The program is working well and indeed it will resolve in something that Canadians can be very, very proud of," he added in response to questions about why the Ottawa government declined an invitation to appear before the US Senate hearing.
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| Peru may bar presidential candidate for plagiarism Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:22 PM PST  Peru's electoral committee said on Wednesday it might bar a leading presidential candidate from the race if a university in Spain verifies plagiarism allegations against him. Cesar Acuña, a wealthy former governor and businessman who is tied for second place in recent polls, has denied claims that he copied the work of others without attribution in his 2009 doctoral thesis on education. The Complutense University of Madrid opened an inquiry after Twitter users accused Acuña of plagiarism based on several pages of the thesis.
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| Sweden plans to expel up to 80,000 asylum-seekers: minister Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:21 PM PST  Sweden intends to expel up to 80,000 migrants who arrived in 2015 and whose application for asylum has been rejected, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said Wednesday. "We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000," the minister was quoted as saying by Swedish media, adding that the government had asked the police and authorities in charge of migrants to organise their expulsion. The proposed measure was announced as Europe struggles to deal with a crisis that has seen tens of thousands of migrants arrive on Greek beaches, with the passengers -- mostly fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- undeterred by cold wintry conditions.
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| Samsung Electronics' 4Q earnings sink 40 percent Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:04 PM PST SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics says its earnings for the final quarter of 2015 have plunged 40 percent over a year earlier. |
| Brazil: 270 of 4,180 suspected microcephaly cases confirmed Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:53 PM PST  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — New figures released Wednesday by Brazil's Health Ministry as part of a probe into the Zika virus have found fewer cases of a rare birth defect than first feared.
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| LatAm states ready to oversee Colombia peace Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:51 PM PST  Colombia's regional neighbors are willing to send representatives for a UN mission to monitor the end of the country's half-century conflict under a hoped-for peace deal with FARC rebels, leaders said Wednesday. Leaders at a summit of the Latin American and Caribbean regional bloc CELAC said the mission to oversee an accord between the Colombian government and the Marxist guerrillas would be made up entirely of officials from CELAC countries. "We are offering CELAC with all its capability to support the verification of the agreement," said Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, host of the 33-nation summit in Quito.
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| UN: Ban stands by every word of Israeli settlement comments Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:48 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stands by every word of his criticism of Israeli settlement-building this week and rejects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comment that the remarks justify terrorism. |
| California snow levels above normal for a second month Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:38 PM PST  (Reuters) - Winter storms and cool weather have resulted in slightly more snow than usual accumulating in California's Sierra Nevada mountains for a second month in a row, state data show. The snowpack, which the state counts on to melt in the spring to fill reservoirs and streams, hit normal levels for the first time in three years last month and has held fast throughout January, according to electronic measurements by the California Department of Water Resources. The snowpack level has raised hopes that a wet winter, fueled in part by the weather and oceanic pattern El Nino, will make a dent in California's four-year-old drought, which has parched the most populous U.S. state and cost billions to its agricultural sector.
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| Lawyer criticizes US for nixing charges as part of Iran swap Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:26 PM PST BOSTON (AP) — |
| Egypt F-16 crashes during training drill, kills crew Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:23 PM PST CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's military says an F-16 crashed during a training drill in an undisclosed location in the country, killing its entire crew. |
| Day fights illness ahead of Torrey Pines title defense Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:18 PM PST  Australia's Jason Day withdrew from Wednesday's pro-am on the eve of the US PGA Tour Farmers Insurance Open because of flu-like symptoms, casting doubt upon his Torrey Pines title defense. Day won a playoff last year at the San Diego layout for his third PGA title and his first in a breakout season that saw him win five times, including his first major crown at the PGA Championship, and claim the world number one ranking for the first time in his career. "Looking forward to getting back under way and trying to defend this tournament, which is very special to me," Day said earlier.
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| FBI: Man said Masons 'playing with the world like a game' Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:16 PM PST  MILWAUKEE (AP) — Samy Mohamed Hamzeh wanted to shoot up a Milwaukee Masonic event center in the name of Islam because he thought the group that owns it is "playing with the world like a game," according to federal authorities.
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| Coalition adapts Iraq training to breach IS defences Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:06 PM PST  US-led coalition troops have adapted their training for Iraqi forces to teach them how to breach Islamic State group defences in larger-scale combined assaults on jihadist strongholds. IS, which overran large parts of Iraq in 2014, has saturated territory it controls with bombs, booby-traps and other obstacles that Iraqi forces must break through to drive the jihadists back. Military operations in Ramadi, which was recaptured from IS at the end of last month, as well as other cities and towns showed the need for training in which soldiers combine different capabilities to breach jihadist defences.
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| Michigan governor names panel to fix Flint's contaminated water system Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:02 PM PST Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Wednesday appointed a group of government officials, health and other experts to implement long-term fixes for Flint's lead-contaminated water system, which has become a national scandal. The 17-member committee would recommend ways to help people exposed to lead, study Flint's water infrastructure and determine possible upgrades. The members includes Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and county and state officials. |
| Syria conference to urge doubling of financial contributions: UK Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:52 PM PST  A Syria donors' conference in London next week will urge participating countries to double the amount of money they are giving to tackle the humanitarian crisis, Downing Street said Wednesday. On a call between the leaders of Britain, Germany and Norway, they agreed "that all countries in attendance should look to at least double their 2015 financial contribution to the crisis," Prime Minister David Cameron's office said in a statement. Britain, Germany and Norway are co-hosting the event on February 4 with the United Nations and Kuwait.
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| Romania struggles to confront Holocaust past Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:51 PM PST  More than 70 years after the Holocaust, the suffering of survivors in Romania is often overlooked or played down, even if the country has taken some steps towards recognising what happened, historians and survivors say. After denying its role in the Holocaust for years, in 2003 Romania set up an international commission of historians led by survivor and Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel to look into the matter. Its report said between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews died during the Holocaust in territories run by the pro-Nazi Romanian regime of Ion Antonescu from 1940-1944.
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| Top French court blocks rights body on state of emergency Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:46 PM PST  France's highest administrative court on Wednesday refused to lift the state of emergency imposed after the November terror attacks, despite criticism from the country's Human Rights League about the extraordinary powers given to security services. The judge at the Conseil d'Etat ruled that the "imminent danger justifying the state of emergency has not disappeared, given the ongoing terrorist threat and the risk of attacks", according to a statement issued by the court. The decision echoed arguments put forward in court by the interior ministry to keep the state of emergency in place, after the French Human Rights League (LDH) on Tuesday asked the court to suspend all or at least some of the measures.
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| Palestinian stabs, wounds Israeli in West Bank attack Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:45 PM PST JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian teenager stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli man in the West Bank on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a a relentless outburst of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. |
| Sudan opens border with South Sudan for first time since 2011 secession Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:43 PM PST  Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ordered the opening of his country's border with South Sudan for the first time since the south's secession in 2011, state news agency SUNA reported on Wednesday. "President Omar al-Bashir issued a decree today ordering the opening of borders with the state of South Sudan and ordered the relevant authorities to take all measures required to implement this decision on the ground," SUNA reported. Khartoum accuses Juba, the capital of South Sudan, of backing a rebellion in its Darfur region and a separate but linked insurgency in Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
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| Canada imposes further delays on two major pipeline projects Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:35 PM PST  By Randall Palmer and Leah Schnurr OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada announced new interim rules on Wednesday for environmental reviews that will impose major delays on two projects - TransCanada Corp's Energy East pipeline and Kinder Morgan Inc's expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline. The Liberal government issued the rules on the grounds that public trust needed to be restored in the process for assessing and approving big energy projects. Proponents say that after U.S. President Barack Obama's denial of the Keystone XL pipeline, the all-Canadian projects are needed so the country's oil can reach its east and west coasts and fetch higher prices abroad.
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| US criticizes planned island visit by Taiwan president Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:33 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department is criticizing plans by Taiwan's outgoing president to visit a Taiwanese-occupied islet in the disputed South China Sea. |
| How the Dow Jones industrial average fared on Wednesday Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:29 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks skidded Wednesday after the Federal Reserve gave a cautious assessment of the global economy and said growth in the U.S. has slowed down. |
| Woodward, Hulett to manage in World Classic qualifying Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:27 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — Former big league infielder Chris Woodward will manage New Zealand in qualifying next month for the 2017 World Baseball Classic. |
| De Bruyne sends Man City to League Cup final Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:27 PM PST  Kevin De Bruyne met with controversy, glory and injury as Manchester City defeated Everton 3-1 on Wednesday to set up a League Cup final showdown with Liverpool. Everton extended their 2-1 advantage from the first leg when Ross Barkley scored a fine individual goal in the 18th minute, but Fernandinho quickly equalised before substitute De Bruyne levelled the tie and then set up Sergio Aguero to complete a 4-3 aggregate victory in the 76th minute. Replays, however, suggested that Raheem Sterling had taken the ball beyond the byline before cutting it back for De Bruyne to score and the former Wolfsburg winger finished the match on a stretcher after his knee buckled in a late challenge with Ramiro Funes Mori.
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| French lawmakers approve terminal sedation, not euthanasia Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:14 PM PST PARIS (AP) — France's Parliament has approved a bill that will let doctors keep terminally ill patients sedated until death comes but stops short of legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide. |
| France asks EU partners for new sanctions on Iran Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:02 PM PST  PARIS (AP) — France has asked its European Union partners to consider new sanctions on Iran for its recent missile tests, officials have told The Associated Press, even as Paris welcomed the president of the Islamic Republic, which is flush with funds from the lifting of other sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program.
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