| Erdogan vows military shake-up as Turkey seeks to assuage critics Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:01 PM PDT  By Samia Nakhoul, Nick Tattersall and Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan promised on Thursday to quickly restructure the armed forces in order to prevent another coup attempt, signaling a major overhaul in the military as emergency rule took hold across the country. Erdogan's comments to Reuters in an interview - his first since announcing the state of emergency late on Wednesday - come as Turkey seeks to assure its citizens and the outside world that the government was not turning its back on democracy and returning to the harsh repression of past regimes. With authorities cracking down on tens of thousands of people in the judiciary, military, education and civil service sectors after last weekend's failed military coup, a lawmaker from the main opposition party said the state of emergency created "a way of ruling that paves the way for abuse".
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| Exclusive: Possible early North Korean nuclear site found - report Posted: 21 Jul 2016 02:10 PM PDT  By Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. policy institute said it may have located a secret facility used by North Korea in the early stages of building its program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, which if confirmed would be critical to the success of any future nuclear deal, according to a report seen by Reuters on Thursday. The report by the Institute for Science and International Security said there has always been doubt about whether North Korea has disclosed all of its nuclear facilities. Confirming their location would be critical to the success of any future agreement to freeze and dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program, it said.
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| Erdogan says Turkey's military to be restructured after abortive coup Posted: 21 Jul 2016 05:07 PM PDT  By Samia Nakhoul, Nick Tattersall and Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Reuters on Thursday that there were significant intelligence failures ahead of last week's attempted military coup and that the armed forces would quickly be restructured and have "fresh blood". In his first interview since declaring a state of emergency following last Friday's abortive coup, Erdogan said a new coup attempt was possible, but would not be easy, saying "we are more vigilant". "It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it.
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| Kerry calls for new measures to counter changing Islamic State Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:10 PM PDT  By Idrees Ali and Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Thursday called on partners in the coalition against Islamic State to increase intelligence sharing as the militant group morphs to focus on attacks beyond its shrinking self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. "Even as it is losing ground in the Middle East, we know already that they're going to try to transform themselves into (a) global terrorist organization," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after a meeting of defense and foreign affairs chiefs from about 40 nations in the U.S.-led coalition. "We talked about the importance of real-time communication between countries, information sharing" about militant suspects, he said.
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| Trump warns he could end NATO guarantee, scrap NAFTA Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:43 PM PDT  By Ginger Gibson CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he might abandon NATO's guarantee of mutual defense and would renegotiate or scrap the NAFTA trade deal if he is elected, drawing fire from some senior Republicans and his Democratic rival. In response to a question about potential Russian aggression against the Baltic states, Trump told the New York Times that Washington would help defend other NATO members only if they had "fulfilled their obligations to us." All three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are former Soviet republics and now NATO members. Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort did not dispute the quotes, saying they were consistent with the candidate's desire to modernize the United States' international treaties.
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| Vatican invited to mediate in Venezuela crisis Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:57 PM PDT  The Roman Catholic Church may soon join Ibero-American leaders seeking dialogue between Venezuela's feuding government and opposition, the head of a regional bloc said on Thursday. It will enrich us spiritually and, hopefully, politically," said former Colombian president Ernesto Samper, who heads the UNASUR bloc of South American states. With Venezuela enduring an unprecedented economic crisis, President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government is locked in a bitter standoff with the Democratic Unity opposition coalition.
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| Australia's Lee beats medalist Vick in US Junior Amateur Posted: 21 Jul 2016 05:33 PM PDT  OOLTEWAH, Tenn. (AP) — Australia's Fred Lee beat stroke-play medalist Travis Vick of Houston 2 and 1 on Thursday to advance to the U.S. Junior Amateur quarterfinals.
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| UN bans 12 European peacekeepers from South Sudan mission Posted: 21 Jul 2016 05:27 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A dozen police officers from Britain, Germany and Sweden have been banned from returning to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan after they left during recent fighting without consulting mission chiefs, U.N. officials said Thursday. |
| Defending champ Seong reaches US Girls' Junior quarters Posted: 21 Jul 2016 05:20 PM PDT PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — Defending champion Eun Jeong Seong of South Korea won two matches Thursday at Ridgewood Country Club to advance to the U.S. Girls' Junior quarterfinals. |
| Up late, Steve Johnson not excited about early start in DC Posted: 21 Jul 2016 05:14 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — After playing doubles past midnight and getting to sleep at about 3 a.m., Steve Johnson was less than thrilled to be playing in the first Citi Open men's match in the main stadium at 4 p.m. Thursday. |
| EU watching Turkey state of emergency 'with concern' Posted: 21 Jul 2016 05:11 PM PDT  The European Union expressed "concern" over Turkey's decision to impose a state of emergency following the attempted coup, and urged the country to respect human rights and the rule of law. Turkey earlier announced a three-month state of emergency, strengthening state powers to round up suspects behind the failed military coup and suspending a key European rights convention. "We are following the developments regarding the state of emergency Turkey has declared after the attempted coup, which the European Union condemned, very closely and with concern," said a statement jointly issued by the bloc's foreign affair's chief Federica Mogherini and enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn.
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| Trump NATO plan would be sharp break with decades-long U.S. policy Posted: 21 Jul 2016 05:02 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican foreign policy veterans and outside experts warned that the suggestion by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that he might abandon NATO's pledge to automatically defend all alliance members could destroy an organization that has helped keep the peace for 66 years and could invite Russian aggression."Statements like these make the world more dangerous and the United States less safe," Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump critic who is one of the Republican Party's leading foreign policy voices and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. "I can only imagine how our allies in NATO, particularly the Baltic states, must feel after reading these comments from Mr. Trump.
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| Kohli ton puts India on top after day 1 of test vs. WIndies Posted: 21 Jul 2016 05:01 PM PDT  ST. JOHN'S, Antigua and Barbuda (AP) — India captain Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 143 to put India in a powerful position at 302-4 after Thursday's opening day of the first test against the West Indies.
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| In hot Acapulco, too many bodies in morgue's fridges Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:54 PM PDT  Morgue workers lift a dismembered male body dumped on the street of a poor Acapulco neighborhood in broad daylight, then pick up his severed leg and a bag containing his head. Doctors Without Borders, the international charity group that helps victims of wars and natural disasters, launched a mental health program in January 2015 for those affected by crime.
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| Dustin Johnson, Luke List share Canadian Open lead Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:47 PM PDT  OAKVILLE, Ontario (AP) — Dustin Johnson made a 10-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole Thursday for a 6-under 66 and a share of the Canadian Open lead with Luke List.
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| Another journalist killed in Mexico Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:46 PM PDT  A Mexican journalist was shot dead in front of his wife and two adult children outside his home in a crime-ridden eastern state where 18 other reporters have been murdered since 2010. Pedro Tamayo Rosas, a 45-year-old who covered the police beat for two online dailies in Veracruz state, was killed late Wednesday in the town of Tierra Blanca, prosecutors said. The preliminary investigation indicates "there were two assailants who approached Tamayo to greet him at a business in his home," the Veracruz prosecutor's office said in a statement.
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| Brazilian scientists ID common mosquito as a Zika source Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:26 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian researchers said Thursday that they have found that another species of mosquito is able to transmit the Zika virus to humans.
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| Albania passes judicial reform, key in EU integration steps Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:21 PM PDT  TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania's Parliament on Friday approved a judicial reform package following lengthy international mediation between its bickering two main political parties.
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| New UK finance minister to talk up trade on China visit Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:17 PM PDT  New finance minister Philip Hammond will on Friday meet Chinese business leaders and officials to drum up support for Britain's economy ahead of talks with G20 counterparts in Chengdu. Former foreign minster Hammond will be joined by business leaders as he seeks to reassure Chinese investors and politicians that "Britain is open for business" despite voting last month to leave the European Union. Hammond will visit Beijing and Hong Kong "to promote British business opportunities, with a strong emphasis on the financial services sector," the treasury said.
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| Fighting erupts over northern Mali town of Kidal Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:14 PM PDT By Souleymane Ag Anara BAMAKO (Reuters) - Fighting broke out in the town of Kidal in Mali's desert north on Thursday between pro-government militia and a Tuareg-dominated rebel coalition, town residents and the United Nations said. Mali's U.N. peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA, said the fighting was a violation of the ceasefire both groups - the Tuareg separatist Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and pro-government Gatia militia - agreed to as part of the deal. The sound of gunfire rang out in Kidal, one of northern Mali's main towns, from around 4 p.m. (1600 GMT) and sent residents fleeing indoors for cover as clashes quickly spread. |
| Homicides rise 15.4 percent in Mexico in 1st half of 2016 Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:14 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican government figures released Thursday say homicides rose 15.4 percent in the first half of 2016 from the same period of last year. |
| Zimbabwe leader's loyalists make surprise break with Mugabe Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:12 PM PDT  HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war made a significant break with President Robert Mugabe for the first time Thursday, calling him dictatorial, manipulative and egocentric.
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| Mexican musician decapitated, wife and son killed Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:10 PM PDT  Gunmen burst into a musician's home in southern Mexico before dawn on Thursday, decapitated him and killed his wife and son, police said. The armed group entered the family's home in Juchitan, Oaxaca state, at 2:30 am and killed Victor Sanchez, 40, the singer of the tropical band Sensacion Caribu, the police said in a statement. It was the second slaughter of a family this week in Oaxaca, a state that has been relatively spared of the drug violence afflicting other regions of Mexico.
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| Peru searchers recover bodies of 2 climbers hit by avalanche Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:05 PM PDT LIMA, Peru (AP) — Searchers on Thursday recovered the bodies of two of four mountaineers who were on an expedition that was hit by an avalanche on Peru's tallest peak this week. |
| Turkey suspends rights convention under emergency powers Posted: 21 Jul 2016 04:04 PM PDT  Turkey imposed a three-month state of emergency on Thursday, strengthening state powers to round up suspects behind the failed military coup and suspending a key European rights convention. The moves came in defiance of growing global alarm over the extent of legal retribution after the coup that unsuccessfully tried to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but ended with some 50,000 alleged sympathisers in state offices losing their jobs and around 9,200 suspects detained. After a marathon meeting of his national security council on Wednesday, Erdogan declared Turkey's first state of emergency since 2002, the year before he first came to power as prime minister.
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| Greece to lower voting age, adopt proportional system Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:59 PM PDT  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's parliament has approved plans to lower the voting age by a year to 17 and adopt a proportional representation system, after years of economic austerity have hammered popular support for traditionally dominant political parties.
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| Truck attacker in Nice had accomplices, planned fo Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:53 PM PDT  PARIS (AP) — The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five people facing terror charges.
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| Five suspects charged, held over Nice attack: prosecutor Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:51 PM PDT  French judges on Thursday charged five suspects who were in contact with truck attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the lead-up to the Nice attack that left 84 people dead, the Paris prosecutor's office said. Three of the suspects were formally accused of acting as accomplices in "murder by a group with terror links", the prosecutor's office said.
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| Anti-IS coalition meets with Mosul in its sights Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:51 PM PDT  Top diplomatic and military officials from the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group met Thursday to prepare the assault on the city of Mosul, the jihadists' Iraqi bastion. Defense and foreign ministers from more than 40 countries gathered in Washington for a second day as their local militia allies made advances in Syria. While news from that front was dominated by the Syrian Democratic Forces' siege of Manbij, a city in northern Syria, the leaders in Washington were focused on a far bigger prize.
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| Leading Cuban dissident begins hunger strike Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:46 PM PDT  Renowned Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas said Thursday he has begun a hunger strike demanding the Raul Castro government end torture and other human rights abuses against opponents. Farina, awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights prize in 2010, told AFP that he stopped consuming food and liquids on Wednesday to coincide with the first anniversary of the reestablishment of Cuba-US diplomatic relations. "We are not asking that the government stop arresting us -- that makes us proud --but that they stop the beatings, the tortures when they arrest us," Farinas said in a phone interview from his home in Santa Clara, in western Cuba.
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| Turkey's Erdogan says military to be restructured after abortive coup Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:38 PM PDT By Samia Nakhoul, Nick Tattersall and Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Reuters on Thursday that there were significant failures in intelligence ahead of last Friday's attempted military coup and that the armed forces would quickly be restructured and have fresh blood. In his first interview since declaring a state of emergency following the abortive coup, Erdogan said a new coup attempt was possible but would not be easy, saying "we are more vigilant". "It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it. |
| French, British, US soldiers 'monitoring' Libya: commander Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:37 PM PDT  French, British and American soldiers are in Libya to "monitor" Islamic State group jihadists, a military commander in the east of the country told AFP on Thursday. "French, American and British soldiers are in the Benina base" near Benghazi, said air force chief Saqr al-Jaroushi, whose forces are allied with a government based out of the eastern city of Tobruk that is not recognised by the international community. Jaroushi commands the air force that forms part of the forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar and the House of Representatives in Tobruk, a rival to the Government of National Unity (GNA) that operates out of Tripoli.
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| Nice killer and suspected accomplices: what we know Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:37 PM PDT  Truck attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had long plotted the carnage in the French city of Nice that killed 84 people, with the assistance of five suspects who are now in custody, prosecutor Francois Molins said Thursday. Here is what we know so far about Bouhlel and his alleged accomplices. Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian who had been living in France since 2005, carried out the attack during Bastille Day celebrations on July 14, ramming a truck into a crowd that had been enjoying a fireworks display.
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| US official arrives in Haiti to press for end to impasse Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:35 PM PDT PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The U.S. State Department's special coordinator for Haiti has arrived in the troubled Caribbean country to talk with officials amid a lengthy political impasse. |
| Weston-Webb heads field for Supergirl Pro surfing contest Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:30 PM PDT OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) — Tatiana Weston-Webb of Kauai, Hawaii, returns to defend her title in the ninth annual World Surf League6-Star Paul Mitchell Supergirl Pro, the women's largest women's surfing contest. |
| Fernandez's daughter appeals decision to seize her money Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:30 PM PDT  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The daughter of former President Cristina Fernandez on Thursday appealed a judge's order authorizing the seizure of more than $5 million as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering.
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| Satoransky, Wizards finalize deal to bring him from Spain Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:29 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Guard Tomas Satoransky has signed with the Washington Wizards. |
| Portugal's Guterres leads first-round vote for UN chief Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:27 PM PDT  Antonio Guterres, Portugal's ex-prime minister who was UN refugee chief for 10 years, led the closely watched first straw poll vote Thursday to pick the next UN secretary-general, diplomats said. Slovenia's former president Danilo Turk came second in the secret vote by the UN Security Council to choose a successor to Ban Ki-moon. Guterres won the top score of 12 "encourage" votes with three "no opinion." Turk was close behind with 11 encouragements, two "discourage" votes and three "no opinion," according to diplomats.
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| France's EDF to decide on UK nuclear project next week Posted: 21 Jul 2016 03:18 PM PDT  French energy giant EDF will decide next week whether to give the final green light to the controversial construction of two nuclear reactors in Britain, it said in a statement Thursday. "EDF has today called a meeting of its Board of Directors which will be held on 28 July 2016," said the statement, published on the group's website. The planned nuclear plant at Hinkley Point has been billed as a crucial part of Britain's future energy supply, but critics say it is too expensive.
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