| U.S. envoy hits back at suggestion U.S. provoked North Korea Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:43 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, hit back on Wednesday at suggestions that a United States decision to deploy an advanced anti-missile defense system in South Korea had provoked recent ballistic missile tests by North Korea. Pyongyang's ally China has said Washington's decision last month to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would only worsen tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea threatened a physical response to the deployment decision.
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| Obama administration denies Iran cash payment was ransom for prisoners Posted: 03 Aug 2016 10:58 AM PDT  The Obama administration said on Wednesday that $400 million in cash paid to Iran soon after the release of five Americans detained by Tehran was not ransom for them as some Republicans have charged. The five, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were released on Jan. 16 in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States for sanctions violations. At the time, the United States said it had settled a longstanding Iranian claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague, releasing $400 million in funds frozen since 1981, plus $1.3 billion in interest that was owed to Iran.
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| Colombia opposition, headed by Uribe, to vote 'no' in peace plebiscite Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:46 PM PDT  Colombia's principal opposition party, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, announced on Wednesday it would back a 'no' vote in a plebiscite on a peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels that would put an end to five decades of war. The right-wing Centro Democratico party has sharply criticized the ongoing peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) launched by the government in late 2012. "We can only say yes to peace by voting no to the plebiscite", Uribe, president from 2002 to 2010, said at an event to announce the decision.
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| U.S. strikes easing advance against Islamic State in Sirte, says commander Posted: 03 Aug 2016 01:44 PM PDT  By Aidan Lewis SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - U.S. air strikes are easing the passage of Libyan forces as they seek to clear Islamic State from the militant group's former North African stronghold of Sirte, a senior field commander said on Wednesday. Mohamed Darat said the first strikes, which took place on Monday, had helped Libyan brigades under his command secure the Dollar residential neighborhood by targeting militants who had been holding out on the district's edge. Libya's U.N.-backed government requested the strikes nearly three months into a campaign that had slowed due to heavy casualties from sniper fire, mines and mortars.
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| Syrian government forces hit hospitals in Aleppo's 'worst week': rights group Posted: 03 Aug 2016 11:02 AM PDT  Syrian government forces launched air strikes against six hospitals in the Aleppo area within a week in attacks that amounted to war crimes, a U.S.-based rights group said on Wednesday. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said it was the worst week for attacks on medical facilities in the Aleppo region since the beginning of Syria's five-year conflict, which has killed more than 250,000 people. The medical facilities were hit between July 23 and 31, the New York-based group said.
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| South Africa's ANC takes early lead in vote, may still lose grip on cities Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:53 PM PDT  By TJ Strydom PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party took an early lead on Thursday as vote counting continued in local government elections where it faces the risk of losing control of key cities for the first time since coming to power. The party, which toppled white apartheid rule after the country's first democratic elections in 1994, is up against its stiffest electoral challenge to date against the backdrop of high unemployment, a stagnant economy and controversies surrounding President Jacob Zuma. With 5 percent of the votes in so far, the ANC held a 54 percent lead, against 33 percent for the Democratic Alliance (DA) and 5 percent for the Economic Freedom Fighters, which is participating in only its second election.
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| Empty feeling as Brazil, USA women off to winning start Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:44 PM PDT  Hosts Brazil and world champions the United States got off to winning starts in the Olympics women's football tournament although the competition met with a lukewarm response from fans. Brazil comfortably saw off the challenge of China 3-0 at the Olympic stadium in Rio thanks to goals from Monica, Andressa Alves and Cristiane. The US began their quest for a fifth Olympic gold in six Games with a 2-0 win over New Zealand in Belo Horizonte.
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| Top Asian News 12:30 a.m. GMT Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:30 PM PDT SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A medium-range ballistic missile fired Wednesday by North Korea flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) and landed near Japan's territorial waters, Seoul and Tokyo officials said, one of the longest flights by a North Korean missile. The U.S. Strategic Command said North Korea fired two presumed Rodong missiles simultaneously, not just one. The command said initial indications were that one of the missiles exploded immediately after launch, while the second was tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan. North Korea has recently claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in its goal of developing a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental U.S. |
| US predicts UN will swiftly condemn North Korea launches Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:30 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power predicted that the Security Council will swiftly condemn North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches following an emergency meeting Wednesday of the U.N.'s most powerful body. |
| Chile nixes Facebook, Twitter campaign bans after outcry Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:29 PM PDT  Chile backpedaled on a decision to ban election campaigning on social media after the ruling united politicians from both left and right in outcry. With candidates gearing up for local elections on October 23, the Chilean Electoral Service (Servel) issued a manual on the country's new electoral law that included blanket bans on campaigning via Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp or newspaper websites.
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| Hurricane Earl aims for Belize, threatens rains and floods Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:28 PM PDT  BELMOPAN, Belize (AP) — Earl strengthened into a hurricane Wednesday and roared toward a nighttime landfall in the Caribbean nation of Belize as it brushed by Honduras, leaving felled trees and power lines in its wake.
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| You're in! Baseball/softball, 4 other sports make Tokyo cut Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:16 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Baseball and softball are returning to the Olympics in 2020, while skateboarding, surfing, karate and sport climbing are joining the games for the first time.
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| China's Muni He advances in US Women's Amateur Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:13 PM PDT SPRINGFIELD, Pa. (AP) — China's Muni He made a 35-foot birdie putt on the 22nd hole to beat qualifying medalist Mariel Galdiano on Wednesday in the first round of the U.S. Women's Amateur. |
| Islamic State group announces new Boko Haram leader Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:12 PM PDT  LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The Islamic State group's newspaper has identified a new leader of the group's West Africa Province, popularly known as Nigeria's Boko extremists, and says he is threatening to bomb churches and kill Christians while stopping attacks on mosques and ordinary Muslims.
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| The Latest: US beats New Zealand in Olympic opener Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:01 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Latest on the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):
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| Nike to get out of golf equipment business Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:56 PM PDT  Nike is getting out of the golf equipment business, a surprising announcement Wednesday that is sure to send Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and other players searching for new clubs and golf balls next season.
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| Zonderland, Uchimura set for high drama in Rio Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:47 PM PDT  Epke Zonderland faces a battle to hold on to his Olympic horizontal bar title as the Dutch gymnast beset by injuries faces the menacing challenge of Japanese superstar Kohei Uchimura. The 30-year-old, who won a stunning gold in London 2012 by pulling off the most difficult release combination -- a Cassina to Kovacs to Kolman -- has struggled over the past year. Zonderland followed on from his London heroics by winning world titles in 2013 and 2014, but in 2015 lost both his European title after a fall off the apparatus, and his world crown to Uchimura after suffering concussion.
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| US, allies push UN to condemn North Korea missile test Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:43 PM PDT  The United States and its allies on Wednesday pressed the UN Security Council to condemn North Korea after it test-fired a missile into Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, but they encountered resistance from China.
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| Mexico under growing pressure to stop highway blockades Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:40 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — With a top Mexican business group calling for a tax protest, authorities are under growing pressure to stop blockades of streets and highways by demonstrating teachers. |
| Argentina won't make 'savage' reforms: finance minister Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:28 PM PDT  Argentine President Mauricio Macri's free-market reforms are designed to kick-start a stalled economy but will not subject local businesses to a "savage opening" overnight, his finance minister said Wednesday. Macri swept to office in December vowing to undo 12 years of left-wing policy he blamed for derailing Latin America's third-largest economy. "We're going from a closed economy, based on handouts, to a competitive economy," Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said in an interview with foreign correspondents.
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| Ready, set, climb! Guide to the new 2020 Olympic sports Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:21 PM PDT  Olympics organisers rubber-stamped five sports for the Tokyo 2020 Games on Wednesday, four of them new, with the emphasis firmly on youth. Surfing's laid-back image is far from the ideal of the Olympic motto "faster, higher, stronger", and the sport has a strong anti-establishment tradition to boot. Plans to use an artificial wave machine have been ditched and the race is now on to become one of the 40 surfers, 20 men and 20 women, who will compete on coastline south of Tokyo to become the sport's first Olympic medallists.
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| Real estate developer, Holocaust survivor Joseph Wilf dies Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:21 PM PDT  HILLSIDE, N.J. (AP) — A Holocaust survivor who along with his brother founded one of the nation's largest real estate development firms has died. Joseph Wilf was 91.
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| Republicans mull Clinton amid repeated Trump stumbles Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:16 PM PDT  Internal party turmoil over Donald Trump spilled into public alarm Wednesday following unprecedented self-inflicted mistakes by the Republican nominee, as some conservatives prepared to do the unthinkable: vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton. While "dump Trump" calls have continued since the 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney trashed the billionaire's candidacy early this year, it is unclear whether the trickle of defections to Clinton's camp will become a flood after a series of bad stumbles by Trump. A nightmare 48 hours for the embattled Republican flagbearer -- he deepened his public feud with the parents of a fallen Muslim American soldier, refused to back House Speaker Paul Ryan's re-election bid and used crass language while accepting a supporter's Purple Heart as a gift -- has highlighted Republicans' concerns.
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| Indonesian tax amnesty pitch: Bring it home to a new home Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:06 PM PDT  By Cindy Silviana and Eveline Danubrata JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesians who have stashed billions of dollars abroad over the years can now bring their hoard safely back home - literally, to a newly bought condo. Intiland has launched a new marketing campaign featuring a bird soaring above high-rise towers, with the slogan: "Buy property with tax amnesty." "This is a positive momentum for the tax amnesty, which we will take advantage of as maximally as we can," Intiland director Archied Noto Pradono told reporters last week. Indonesia will impose a 2-5 percent tax for assets brought back by March 2017 in return for a pardon for past evasions.
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| Seoul to limit old diesel vehicles to fight air pollution Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:06 PM PDT  South Korea's capital of Seoul will limit the number of old diesel vehicles on the roads starting next year, as the country tackles rising air pollution. Asia's fourth-biggest economy in June announced a string of measures to address growing concerns about air quality following fine dust particle warnings and Volkswagen's emissions-test cheating scandal. Seoul aims to bring its air quality to the levels of European peers like London and Paris within a decade.
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| Obama administration denies Iran cash payment was a ransom Posted: 03 Aug 2016 04:03 PM PDT By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Wednesday that $400 million in cash paid to Iran soon after the release of five Americans detained by Tehran was not ransom as some Republicans have charged. The five, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were released on Jan. 16 in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States for sanctions violations. At the time, the United States said it had settled a longstanding Iranian claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague, releasing $400 million in funds frozen since 1981, plus $1.3 billion in interest that was owed to Iran. |
| Venezuela opposition says protesters attacked at rally Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:48 PM PDT  Venezuela's opposition said Wednesday supporters of President Nicolas Maduro attacked its protesters at a rally calling for a referendum on removing the leftist leader from power. The opposition has called two days of nationwide rallies to pressure Maduro's government to let them advance to the next stage of the lengthy recall vote process. On the first day of rallies, Maduro supporters punched and kicked anti-government protesters in Los Teques, a suburb of the capital Caracas, said the opposition coalition pushing the referendum, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).
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| Nike is dropping its golf equipment business Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:43 PM PDT BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) — Nike is dropping its golf equipment business to focus on shoes and apparel. |
| Tunisia names Youssef Chahed, 40, as PM-designate Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:42 PM PDT  Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on Wednesday named local affairs minister Youssef Chahed, 40, as prime minister-designate tasked with forming a unity cabinet to tackle major economic and security challenges. If he wins the backing of parliament, Chahed will be the North African country's youngest premier since it won independence from France in 1956. "Today we are entering a new stage that requires effort, sacrifice, audacity, courage, selflessness and unorthodox solutions," Chahed told reporters outside the presidential palace in Carthage.
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| Zimbabwe police break up anti-Mugabe protest Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:41 PM PDT  Riot police in Zimbabwe used tear gas and water cannon Wednesday to break up a protest by several hundred demonstrators gathered in Harare in a fresh outbreak of opposition to President Robert Mugabe. Many of the marchers wore the national flag around their necks -- seen as a symbol of a surge in recent protests -- while unemployed graduates wore academic gowns and others held wooden Christian crosses. Zimbabwe's economic collapse has worsened this year, with the government now without the funds to pay even its military or civil servants on time.
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| Passengers flee Emirates jet after Dubai crash-landing Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:40 PM PDT  Hundreds of passengers fled an Emirates airliner that crash-landed and caught fire in Dubai Wednesday, resulting in the death of a firefighter and a four-hour shutdown of the busy airport but no other fatalities. The exact circumstances of the accident involving a Boeing 777 flying from India with 300 people on board were not immediately clear. Emirates chief executive officer Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum spoke of an "operational incident" that happened on landing and ruled out any "security issue".
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| Syria regime in Aleppo fightback Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:39 PM PDT  Syrian regime forces bolstered by Russian air strikes are making progress in the battleground city of Aleppo, rolling back the short-lived gains of a rebel offensive. The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in it "continues to examine any credible reports" of such attacks in the war-ravaged country. It came as Moscow alleged a "poisonous agent" was fired Tuesday on the Salaheddin district of Aleppo from an area controlled by Islamists of the Nureddin al-Zenki rebel group, killing seven people.
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| Mexican firms freeze $2.6 bn outlay over teacher protests Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:25 PM PDT  A Mexican industrial trade group said Wednesday it was freezing $2.6 billion in investments in regions hit by protests by teachers who have blocked roads and railroads. The CNTE, a dissident wing of the country's teachers union, has held protests against President Enrique Pena Nieto's education reform in the western state of Michoacan and the southern states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas.
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| Chase seals draw for West Indies against India on final day Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:22 PM PDT  KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — An unbeaten century from Roston Chase helped West Indies fight back for an unlikely draw against India on the final day of the second test on Wednesday.
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| California wildfire near Big Sur coast steered away from homes Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:20 PM PDT  Crews battling a deadly wildfire burning well into its second week near California's Big Sur coast have carved buffer lines around a quarter of its perimeter, steering flames more deeply into the forest and away from populated areas, officials said on Wednesday. The gradual but steady progress being made against the so-called Soberanes blaze comes as wildfire season in the western United States was reaching its traditional peak, intensified by prolonged drought and extreme summer heat across the region. The 13-day-old conflagration near Big Sur is one of nearly 30 major wildfires reported to have scorched roughly 700 square miles (1,813 sq km) in 12 states, mostly in the West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
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| Olympic sailors may see dolphins in Rio's Guanabara Bay Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:10 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Olympic sailors competing in the Rio de Janeiro may navigate through fetid waters and possibly bump into floating trash. But if they are lucky enough, they might also sail past a few dozen dolphins that live in Guanabara Bay.
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| Rio Olympics action starts in empty stadium as doping storm rumbles Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:06 PM PDT  The first sporting action of the 2016 Olympics began in a nearly empty stadium on Wednesday as sport's top court confirmed it had opened a record number of cases following the Russian doping scandal. The stadium was closer to capacity for the second match at the same venue later Wednesday, when hosts Brazil, led by Marta, made their bow against China. The women's football tournament launched what Brazilian fans hope will be a golden campaign for their men's and women's teams.
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| Hurricane Earl bears down on Central America Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:04 PM PDT  The outlying sweep of a tropical hurricane gliding across the Caribbean started lashing northern Central American countries Wednesday amid warnings from authorities of the risk of impending floods and mud slides. Honduras, which issued a red alert for its islands in the Caribbean, reported the advance fringe of Hurricane Earl was hitting its northern coast, but there was no emergency reported as yet. The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said a weather-spotting aircraft had flown up to Earl and measured its maximum sustained winds at 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour.
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| Ozzy Osbourne in therapy for sex addiction Posted: 03 Aug 2016 03:01 PM PDT  Metal legend Ozzy Osbourne revealed Wednesday that he has been undergoing therapy for sex addiction as he tries to reconcile with his wife. The Black Sabbath singer, whose instantly recognizable voice has driven songs from "Iron Man" to "Crazy Train," went public about the treatment after a hair colorist revealed she was one of his mistresses. "Over the last six years, I have been dealing with a sex addiction," the 67-year-old English rocker wrote on Facebook.
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| Hurricane Earl nears Belize, dumping rains on Honduras Posted: 03 Aug 2016 02:59 PM PDT  Hurricane Earl thundered towards the shores of Belize on Wednesday, dumping heavy rains on Honduras and prompting hundreds of people to take cover on the Caribbean coastline as the large storm closed in. Four hundred people have so far been evacuated from Belize's northern islands Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, Lionel Cuthkelvin, operations officer at the National Emergency Management Organization, said by telephone. Cuthkelvin said at least 20 shelters were already harboring people, mainly in Belize City, Stann Creek and some villages off the Caribbean coast.
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