| Pentagon announces single largest transfer of Guantanamo inmates Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:20 PM PDT  By Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials said on Monday 15 inmates from the Guantanamo prison were transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the single largest transfer of Guantanamo detainees during President Barack Obama's administration. The transfer of the 12 Yemeni and three Afghan citizens brings the total number of detainees down to 61 at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama, who had hoped to close the prison during his first year in office, rolled out his plan in February aimed at shutting the facility.
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| Air strike on MSF hospital in Yemen kills at least 11: aid group Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:53 PM PDT A Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres in northern Yemen on Monday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 19, the aid group said. "The location of the hospital was well known, and the hospital's GPS coordinates were repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition," the aid group also known as Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement. "Even with the recent United Nations resolution calling for an end to attacks on medical facilities and high-level declarations of commitment to international humanitarian law, nothing seems to be done to make parties involved in the conflict in Yemen to respect medical staff and patients." A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment. |
| Kurdish forces open new front on Islamic State capital Mosul Posted: 15 Aug 2016 09:03 AM PDT  By Maher Chmaytelli and Saif Hameed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Monday said they had secured a river crossing point enabling them to open a new front against Islamic State and further tighten their grip on the militants' capital Mosul. The militants damaged the bridge, across the Grand Zab river and to the southeast of Mosul, two years ago as they swept through northern and western Iraq. Repairing the bridge would allow Peshmerga and other anti-IS forces to move toward Mosul from a new front.
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| Venezuelan President's approval rating falls to nine-month low Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:08 PM PDT  By Corina Pons CARACAS (Reuters) - - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's approval rating fell to a nine-month low of 21.2 percent in July amid calls from government critics for a recall referendum next year, according to a local pollster Datanalisis. The poll of 1,000 people, conducted July 13-21, also showed more than three-quarters of those surveyed disapproved of Maduro's tenure, while 93.6 percent saw the country's situation negatively. Only 22.1 percent believed that Maduro should finish his term.
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| 'We owe you so much,' Kosovo to tell Biden as street named after late son Posted: 15 Aug 2016 06:47 AM PDT  By Fatos Bytyci SOJEVE, Kosovo (Reuters) - On a busy road in Kosovo, brand new signs have been put up ahead of a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, showing the 35-km route in the southeast of the small Balkan nation that has been renamed after his late son Beau. Naming streets after U.S. officials is becoming something of a tradition in Kosovo, whose population is mainly ethnic Albanian and which considers the United States its savior since 1999 NATO air strikes halted killings by Serbian troops. Beau Biden worked in Kosovo after the 1998-99 war ended, helping train local prosecutors and judges for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
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| Kidnappers abduct group from restaurant in Mexican tourist resort Posted: 15 Aug 2016 01:45 PM PDT  Armed men kidnapped a group of people from a restaurant in the heart of Mexico's major Pacific tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta early on Monday morning, the state attorney general's office said. Puerto Vallarta, in the state of Jalisco, is one of Mexico's top vacation destinations, luring all-inclusive tourists and high-end sunseekers to its beaches.
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| The Latest: China leads after men's springboard prelimaries Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:45 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):
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| Police: Man arrested in hit-and-run likely shot imam, friend Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:28 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — Police looking for the gunman who shot an imam and his friend as they left a New York City mosque zeroed in on a man who hit a bicyclist with his SUV just 10 minutes after the brazen daytime double slaying, a top police official said Monday.
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| Top Asian News 12:28 a.m. GMT Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:28 PM PDT BANGKOK (AP) — It happens with horrifying frequency in southern Thailand, a country much of the world associates with pristine beaches and alluring, sapphire blue seas: a bomb goes off. Victims are maimed or killed. Security forces comb through blood-spattered wreckage and debris. On Thursday and Friday, 11 more bombs rattled seven Thai provinces, killing four people and wounding dozens more. But this time was different: the targets were not in the country's three southernmost provinces, where a bitter war waged by Muslim separatists has flared for more than a decade. Instead, they shook towns filled with tourists further north, places like Hua Hin, where 11 foreigners were injured, most by a small explosive device that detonated in a narrow alley filled with bars, restaurants and massage parlors. |
| The Latest: Police believe man arrested shot NY imam, friend Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:28 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shootings of a New York City mosque leader and his associate (all times local):
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| Column: Judging problems return to Olympic boxing Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:27 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Maybe having pros box in the Olympics isn't such a bad idea after all.
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| Paralympics faces further cuts amid Rio funding crisis Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:26 PM PDT RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — More cuts will be made to services for athletes at the Paralympics next month unless additional funding is rapidly secured for the cash-strapped games in Rio de Janeiro, officials said Monday. |
| Thai bombings draw attention to forgotten war in south Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:20 PM PDT  BANGKOK (AP) — It happens with horrifying frequency in southern Thailand, a country much of the world associates with pristine beaches and alluring, sapphire blue seas: a bomb goes off. Victims are maimed or killed. Security forces comb through blood-spattered wreckage and debris.
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| US, Hungary advance to women's water polo semifinals Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:19 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The U.S. women's water polo team pushed around Brazil for most of Monday afternoon. Led by Ashleigh Johnson's six saves, the Americans carried a shutout into the fourth quarter.
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| Gunmen kidnap at least 10 in Mexico resort city Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:16 PM PDT  Gunmen stormed a bar and kidnapped at least 10 people in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta, state prosecutors said, linking it to a war between rival gangs. Chief prosecutor Eduardo Almaguer said that between "10 and 12" people had been kidnapped. Puerto Vallarta, which sits on Mexico's Pacific coast, is home to the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, which emerged in 2010 after the death of the local boss of the Sinaloa cartel, Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel.
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| Biles' run at Olympic history ends with bronze on the beam Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:12 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Simone Biles felt her right foot slip. Then her left.
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| Wildfire burns more than 175 homes, businesses in California town Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:07 PM PDT  By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A wildfire that spread into a small Northern California town over the weekend has destroyed more than 175 homes and businesses, authorities said on Monday, as crews fought to save more dwellings from the flames. The Clayton fire, named for the creek near where it broke out, was driven by fierce winds into the foothill community of Lower Lake, 80 miles (130 km) north of San Francisco, forcing hundreds of residents to flee. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said on Monday afternoon that more than 175 structures had been destroyed by the fire and that 1,500 others were threatened.
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| Mexico announces launch of cap-and-trade pilot program Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:05 PM PDT  By Natalie Schachar MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will launch a year-long simulation of a cap-and-trade program in November, Mexican officials said on Monday, in a test run for a national carbon market expected to launch in 2018. The pilot program will involve the voluntary participation of up to 60 companies, giving them a chance to adapt to a forthcoming carbon credit system in which polluters will be obligated to offset emissions with tradeable certificates. "When we have mechanisms that facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gases, we're implicitly reducing pollution," Mexico's deputy minister for environmental policy and planning, Rodolfo Lacy, said at an event in Mexico City.
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| Spain beats Argentina 92-73 in men's basketball to advance Posted: 15 Aug 2016 05:01 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Spanish men's basketball avoided elimination with a 92-73 win against Argentina on Monday, climbing out of a 0-2 hole to start the Olympics and advance to the quarterfinal round of the Rio Games.
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| FACT CHECK: Trump gets his Mideast history wrong Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:45 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump on Monday painted the Middle East as an oasis of stability before Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, arguing that she and President Barack Obama "launched" the Islamic State group onto the world.
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| Icahn urges EPA to change renewable fuel credit market Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:45 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has called on the top U.S. environmental regulator to make changes to a market for renewable fuel credits or else risk "the mother of all short squeezes" that could bankrupt refiners. In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency administrators seen by Reuters on Monday, Icahn said "a number" of refiners could go bankrupt if the playing field is not leveled to stop disfavoring independent refiners such as CVR Energy Inc , in which Icahn owns an 82 percent stake. Icahn expressed worries about the market for renewable identification number (RIN) credits, which the EPA calls the "currency" of a renewable fuel standard program designed to reduce reliance on imported oil and the emission of greenhouse gases.
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| Shallow quake in Peru kills at least 4, including US tourist Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:44 PM PDT  LIMA, Peru (AP) — A shallow, magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook southern Peru's picturesque Colca Valley, killing at least four people, including a U.S. tourist, and injuring 52 as it toppled adobe homes, authorities said Monday.
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| 15 Guantanamo detainees sent to UAE in major transfer Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:33 PM PDT  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Fifteen prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center were sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the Obama administration, the Pentagon announced Monday.
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| 15 Guantanamo inmates transferred to UAE Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:22 PM PDT  Fifteen Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the largest such release in years, the Pentagon announced Monday. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, about 780 inmates have been housed in the US military-run facility. The Pentagon has previously struggled to find a third country to take Yemeni detainees, given that they can't go home because of the civil war in their nation.
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| Pacific islander dances to raise climate change awareness Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:22 PM PDT  By Brian Oliver RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A weightlifter who lost his family's house in a cyclone danced off stage at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday to raise awareness of the threat climate change poses to his remote Pacific nation David Katoatau got more cheers than any other lifter, including a Brazilian, throughout the men's 105kg B Group. Katoatau's dances became a trademark of his victory in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland two years ago. Kiribati, located in the Central Pacific, is suffering "extreme coastal erosion not just of the beaches but also of the land" according to its government.
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| Viviani wins gold for Italy, Cavendish adds to British haul Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:10 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Elia Viviani slammed hard into the wooden surface of the Olympic velodrome and thought, just for a fleeting moment, that perhaps his chances of winning a track cycling gold medal were over.
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| Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez rolls to 3rd Olympic title Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:06 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Cuban heavyweight Mijain Lopez once again bested Turkish rival Riza Kayaalp — this time with an Olympic performance that put him in the company of wrestling great Alexander Karelin.
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| Suspected New York imam killer in custody: police Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:03 PM PDT  The chief suspect wanted for the double murder of a New York imam and his friend that sent shock waves through Muslim communities is in custody and charged with another crime, police said Monday. Fearful Muslim New Yorkers have demanded stepped-up security and justice as hundreds of mourners attended their funeral service in the borough of Queens. Maulama Akonjee, 55, who migrated to the United States from Bangladesh, and his friend, 64-year-old Thara Uddin, were shot dead in broad daylight on Saturday afternoon in the Ozone Park neighborhood.
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| Olympic fans injured outside arena when camera falls Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:01 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Seven people were injured Monday when an elevated television camera plummeted more than 60 feet to the ground Monday in the Olympic park outside the basketball venue in the latest in a string of mishaps at the Rio Games.
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| UK workers won't benefit from migration cuts: report Posted: 15 Aug 2016 04:00 PM PDT  The weak outlook for the UK economy will outweigh any potential pay rise for British workers if the country's EU exit leads to immigration cuts, a report warned on Monday. Future cuts to immigration could have a positive impact on the income of some British workers, but they will still be exposed to Brexit's impact on the broader economy, the Resolution Foundation think tank said. Cleaners, security employees and sales staff are among those who have seen their income fall in recent years as a result of immigration, it said in an analysis.
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| Zambia's Lungu re-elected president as rival cries foul Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:58 PM PDT  Zambia's incumbent president Edgar Lungu was declared the winner of a closely-fought election on Monday but the victory was immediately challenged by his main rival. Election commission chief Esau Chulu announced Lungu was "duly elected" after releasing the final results from Thursday's election, which put the president ahead of his main rival Hakainde Hichilema by 2.5 percent or around 200,000 votes. "We are going to take up this matter legally," Jack Mwiimbu, legal specialist for the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND), told reporters after the results were announced.
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| Mexico: Gunmen abduct presumed gang members in resort city Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:51 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — Armed men abducted 10 to 12 presumed members of a crime gang who appeared to be celebrating at an upscale restaurant in the popular Mexican beach resort city of Puerto Vallarta, authorities said Monday. |
| At least 11 killed in coalition air raid on Yemen hospital: MSF Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:48 PM PDT  An Arab coalition air raid hit a Yemeni hospital on Monday, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than 19, just 48 hours after strikes that killed children, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said. The United States and Amnesty International separately condemned the attack. "Once again, a fully functional hospital full of patients and MSF national and international staff members, was bombed in a war that has shown no respect for medical facilities or patients," Teresa Sancristoval, of MSF's Emergency Unit in Yemen, said in a statement.
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| Costa steers Conte's Chelsea to winning start vs West Ham Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:45 PM PDT  LONDON (AP) — Striker Diego Costa struck in the 89th minute as Chelsea won its first competitive match under new manager Antonio Conte, beating West Ham 2-1 Monday night in the English Premier League.
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| IAAF explores tightening rules on athletes changing nations Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:40 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The IAAF is exploring tightening the rules that allow athletes to switch the country they represent in track and field.
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| Suspected rebels kill at least 36 civilians in eastern Congo Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:28 PM PDT KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Suspected rebels have killed at least 36 people in northeastern Congo, spurring residents to stage street protests against the ongoing violence, officials said Sunday. |
| Volkswagen, U.S. Justice Dept discuss settling criminal probe: sources Posted: 15 Aug 2016 03:24 PM PDT  By David Shepardson and Joel Schectman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG and the U.S. Justice Department have held preliminary settlement talks about resolving a criminal probe into the automaker's diesel emissions scandal, two sources briefed on the matter said. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the fines could top $1.2 billion. The pace of VW's internal investigation together with complications from separate civil suits filed in July by three U.S. states have slowed progress on reaching a settlement of the criminal investigation, according to people familiar with the probe.
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