| Plane taking Brazilian soccer team to cup final in Colombia crashes, 71 dead Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:43 PM PST  The plane slammed into a mountainside near Medellin on Monday night as the team flew to face Atletico Nacional for the Copa Sudamericana, which is South America's equivalent of the Europa League. It was Colombia's worst air disaster in two decades and there were only six survivors.
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| Fire in Turkish dormitory kills 12, including 11 teenage girls: officials Posted: 29 Nov 2016 12:32 PM PST ANKARA (Reuters) - Twelve people, including eleven teenagers, were killed when a fire swept through a girls dormitory in the southern Turkish province of Adana on Tuesday, officials said. The fire, which broke out in a dormitory housing middle and high school students, may have been caused by an electrical fault, Omer Celik, a senior government official who represents the province in parliament, told broadcaster CNN Turk. At least twenty-two other girls were injured, Celik said. Also among the dead was a woman who worked at the dormitory. ... |
| Assad, allies aim to seize all Aleppo before Trump takes power: official Posted: 29 Nov 2016 09:00 AM PST  By Laila Bassam and Ellen Francis BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria and its allies aim to drive rebels from Aleppo before Donald Trump takes office as U.S. President, a senior official in the pro-Damascus military alliance said, as pro-government forces surged to their biggest victories in the city for years. Government forces backed by Shi'ite militias from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq punched into the rebel-held area from the northeast last week.
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| Water cuts and rising food prices leave Mosul facing crisis Posted: 29 Nov 2016 09:32 AM PST  By Ulf Laessing and Maher Chmaytelli MOSUL/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Fighting between Iraqi troops and Islamic State militants has cut water supplies across a large part of Mosul, where poorer families are already struggling to feed themselves, and a local official said the increasingly encircled city was in crisis. Water was cut to 650,000 people - or 40 percent of residents - when a pipeline was hit during fighting between the jihadists and U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces trying to crush them in their northern Iraq stronghold, a local official said. "We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe," said Hussam al-Abar, a member of Mosul's Nineveh provincial council, adding that 1.5 million people were still inside Mosul.
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| Peace talks on Ukraine end without agreement Posted: 29 Nov 2016 12:14 PM PST  By John Irish and Sabine Siebold MINSK (Reuters) - Four-way talks on ending a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine finished without a breakthrough on Tuesday, with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier declaring that "lip service" statements were not enough to achieve lasting peace. Amid low expectations, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia met in the Belarussian capital to discuss ways of implementing last year's Minsk ceasefire accord for Ukraine's Donbass region. Steinmeier said both Ukraine and Russia had hardened their positions and there was no political agreement in sight on holding local elections in Donbass, as demanded by Russia and the Kremlin-backed separatists.
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| After Trump and Brexit, EU to launch defense research plan Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:22 PM PST  By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will unveil its biggest defense research plan in more than a decade on Wednesday to reverse billions of euros in cuts and send a message to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that Europe wants to pay for its own security. Part of a broader push to revitalize defense cooperation, the European Commission will propose a defense fund and seek to lift a ban on the EU's common budget and its development bank investing in military research. The fund, which could start on a small scale in 2017, could be backed by the European Investment Bank to finance projects if governments agree to remove the ban on backing military projects.
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| Brazilian Senate approves austerity after violent protest Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:28 PM PST  Brasília (AFP) - Brazil's Senate approved the cornerstone of an austerity program aimed at putting the country's finances in order, but violent clashes between police and protesters highlighted growing tensions. "This constitutional amendment is fundamental for controlling public spending," said Senate Speaker Renan Calheiros, a key figure in center-right President Michel Temer's PMDB party. Temer says the freeze, which he wants followed by even more controversial pension reform and possible cutbacks, is needed to prevent Latin America's biggest economy from bankruptcy.
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| Top Asian News 1:28 a.m. GMT Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:28 PM PST SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that she'll resign — if parliament arranges the technical details — in her latest attempt to fend off impeachment efforts and massive street protests amid prosecution claims that a corrupt confidante wielded government power from the shadows. Opponents immediately called Park's conditional resignation offer a stalling tactic, and analysts said her steadfast denial that she has done anything wrong could embolden her enemies. The country's largest opposition party, the Minjoo Party, said it would not let Park's "ploy to avoid impeachment" interfere with a planned vote on impeachment that could take place this Friday or the next. |
| Accident leaves 22 coal miners trapped in northeastern China Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:28 PM PST BEIJING (AP) — Rescuers are searching for 22 miners trapped underground in northeastern China. |
| Beijing untypically quiet on Taiwan drills in South China Sea Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:25 PM PST  By J.R. Wu ITU ABA, South China Sea (Reuters) - Taiwan held rescue drills on Tuesday off the coast of its sole outpost in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, but the biggest claimant in the disputed area kept uncharacteristically quiet. China and self-governed Taiwan seldom see eye to eye, but in responding to Taipei's latest assertion of sovereignty over Itu Aba, Beijing has avoided the harsh language it often directs at other claimants to the busy waterway.
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| Bill for Japan's Fukushima cleanup to double to $201 billion: source Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:25 PM PST  By Takaya Yamaguchi TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 is likely to cost 22.6 trillion yen ($201 billion), slightly more than double a previous estimate, according to a source involved in government discussions on the issue. In 2013, Japan's industry ministry estimated the disaster would cost about 11 trillion yen ($97.9 billion), including compensation to those forced to flee their homes or who lost their livelihoods, radiation decontamination and for decommissioning the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Three reactors melted down at the plant after a magnitude 9 earthquake in March 2011, which caused a tsunami that devastated a large section of Japan's northeastern coastline.
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| Blunders behind botched U.S.-led strike in Syria in September: inquiry Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:24 PM PST By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military investigation has concluded that a series of "unintentional human errors" led to a Sept. 17 coalition air strike that killed fighters aligned with the Syrian government instead of the targeted Islamic State militants. The strike, which Moscow said killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers, prompted an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting as tensions between Russia and the United States spiked. Brigadier General Richard Coe, who led the investigation, told reporters at the Pentagon on a conference call on Tuesday that the major errors ranged from a basic misidentification of targets to "group think" during intelligence development and even a communications blunder on a hotline with Russia. |
| China to limit water usage to below 670 billion cu m to 2020 Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:22 PM PST  China will keep national annual water consumption below 670 billion cubic meters through to 2020, the state planning agency said on Wednesday, part of efforts to ease chronic regional shortages by cutting waste and boosting efficiency. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said it would also aim to cap total water consumption at less than 700 billion cubic meters a year though to 2030. Consumption last year stood at 635 billion cubic meters, and supplies have been put under increasing pressure as a result of growing demand from agriculture, energy and manufacturing, as well as widespread pollution problems.
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| Brazilian town grieves loss of Cinderella soccer team Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:11 PM PST By Brad Haynes CHAPECO, Brazil (Reuters) - Thousands of grieving fans in green and white filled the Chapecoense stadium in remote southern Brazil on Tuesday, singing their team's praises and chanting one by one the names of players who lost their lives in a plane crash a day earlier. |
| Brazil Senate back spending cap despite violent protests Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:10 PM PST  By Anthony Boadle and Lisandra Paraguassu BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's Senate on Tuesday approved a strict cap on federal spending in a first-round vote that hands a timely victory to President Michel Temer, who is struggling to restore fiscal discipline amid an economic recession and political crisis. The Senate voted by 61-14 to back the constitutional amendment that would limit federal spending to the rate of inflation for 20 years, with an option for a presidential revision after 10 years. Brazil's leftist opposition says the spending cap proposed by Temer would cripple public education and health services.
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| Massive rally begins honoring Fidel Castro Posted: 29 Nov 2016 05:04 PM PST  HAVANA (AP) — Regional leaders and tens of thousands of Cubans filled Havana's Plaza of the Revolution Tuesday night for a service honoring Fidel Castro on the wide plaza where the Cuban leader delivered fiery speeches to mammoth crowds in the years after he seized power.
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| Dakotas' first widespread snowstorm of season forces key highway closure Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:53 PM PST The first widespread winter storm to sweep the Dakotas this season unleashed heavy snow and howling winds from the Black Hills to Bismarck on Tuesday, creating whiteout conditions and forcing the closure of a stretch of Interstate 90. The late-November storm caps an unusually warm and mild weather month in most of North and South Dakota, two states in the upper Midwest that normally see multiple snowfalls by Thanksgiving Day, according to National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists. "This storm is hitting western and central North Dakota hard with snow," with accumulations ranging from 10 to 20 inches (25-51 cm) across the entire region, said NWS meteorologist Janine Vining in Bismarck, the state capital. |
| Cuba's allies join thousands to honor Castro in Havana; Obama absent Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:50 PM PST  By Daniel Trotta and Sarah Marsh HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's leftist allies and Washington's top diplomat in Havana joined a sprawling throng of Cubans at a rally on Tuesday to commemorate Fidel Castro, the man who built a Communist state on the doorstep of the United States. Castro died on Friday at age 90, a decade after ceding control to his younger brother Raul Castro, 85. With Raul Castro at his side, the charismatic Fidel Castro led the bearded rebels who seized power in a 1959 revolution and ruled the island in the face of U.S. opposition that endured until President Barack Obama reversed course in 2014 and set out to restore diplomatic relations.
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| FA expected to confirm Southgate as England boss Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:47 PM PST  Gareth Southgate is expected to be approved as the new England manager by Football Association chiefs on Wednesday, according to British media reports. Southgate has been in interim charge since replacing Sam Allardyce in September after he was forced out just 67 days into his reign following a Daily Telegraph investigation into corruption in football. The 46-year-old Southgate has made it clear he wants the job and, given the lack of other quality candidates, is believed to have done enough during his four games in charge to convince the FA to hand him the post on a permanent basis.
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| Foes of Nicaragua canal say police trying to disrupt protest Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:42 PM PST MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Opponents of a Chinese company's planned interoceanic canal across Nicaragua charged that police have set up roadblocks and are harassing demonstrators heading to a Wednesday protest in the nation's capital. |
| 1 miner killed, 7 missing after copper mine tremor in Poland Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:39 PM PST WARSAW, Poland (AP) — One miner has died and seven are missing underground following a strong tremor that caused a cave-in Tuesday at a copper mine in southwestern Poland, a mining company spokeswoman said. |
| Cubans hold mass rally for late leader Fidel Castro Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:35 PM PST  Hundreds of thousands of Cubans packed Havana's Revolution Square on Tuesday for a massive rally in honor of late leader Fidel Castro. The crowd chanted "long live the revolution!" and "Fidel! Fidel!" as Castro's leftist Latin American allies and other leaders from the region and Africa joined the commemoration. A giant picture of a young, bearded Castro in his guerrilla uniform and rifle hung on the National Library as his brother and successor, Raul Castro, waved at the crowd.
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| Australian government breaks legislative stalemate with bill Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:33 PM PST CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government won a crucial victory in Parliament on Wednesday by breaking a political stalemate that sent the country to an early election five months ago. |
| OAS chief calls for release of jailed Argentine social activist Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:20 PM PST  The head of the Organization of American States (OAS) has called for the release of jailed Argentine social activist Milagro Sala, according to a letter posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday. The letter marked an escalation in international pressure on Argentina to release Sala, a leader of the Tupac Amaru social organization in Argentina's northwestern Jujuy province. Sala was detained in January on charges of "instigation to commit crimes and disturbances," Amnesty International said, after protesting in front of provincial government offices.
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| Report points to Iran arms 'pipeline' to Yemen Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:17 PM PST  International investigators have found a suspected "weapon pipeline" from Iran through Somalia to Yemen where Shiite rebels are battling the government, according to a report released on Wednesday. Saudi Arabia and the United States have accused Iran of arming the Huthi rebels in Yemen, but Tehran denies the charges. Since March last year Riyadh has led an Arab coalition fighting the Huthis and their allies in support of Yemen's internationally recognised president, Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, after the rebels overran much of the country.
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| Canada approves tripling capacity of Trans Mountain pipeline to Pacific Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:13 PM PST  Canada on Tuesday approved two new pipelines including one to the Pacific coast that will allow producers to sell into new Asian markets, while rejecting a third project. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a press conference his government has agreed to tripling the capacity of Kinder Morgan's half-century-old Trans Mountain pipeline to move crude from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast, to 890,000 barrels per day. The three projects aimed to get Canada's abundance of landlocked Alberta oil to new buyers.
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| Erdogan says Turkey has 'many other alternatives' to EU Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:12 PM PST  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said his country has not yet given up on its ambition to join the European Union but has "many other alternatives" if the stalled process goes nowhere. "We have not yet closed the European Union book right now," Erdogan told an international conference in Istanbul. Last week the European Parliament backed a freeze in Turkey's membership talks, angering Erdogan who threatened to retaliate by rupturing a migrant deal curbing the flow of refugees to Europe.
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| German intelligence agent exposed as 'suspect Islamist' Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:10 PM PST  A German working in intelligence has been exposed as "a suspect Islamist", Germany's domestic security agency said on Tuesday, following reports he was planning an attack on the agency's headquarters. "The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has managed to expose a suspected Islamist among its associates," the agency said in a statement, confirming information published earlier by the Der Spiegel weekly and the daily Die Welt. The 51-year-old German, who was arrested for sharing "sensitive information" online, is believed to have been planning a bombing at the BfV headquarters in the western city of Cologne, according to the German press.
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| Major UK hotels Hilton, Shiva join fight against modern slavery Posted: 29 Nov 2016 04:06 PM PST By Lin Taylor LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Hotels across Britain are joining forces to fight modern slavery in an initiative to be unveiled on Wednesday that will encourage staff and guests to help spot signs of trafficking in hotel foyers and corridors. Major hotel groups, including the Hilton and Shiva Hotels, will pledge to examine their supply chains for forced labor, train staff how to spot and report signs of trafficking, and raise awareness of the issue among hotel guests. |
| Venezuela lawmakers condemn massacre in rare show of unity Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:58 PM PST  Venezuelan lawmakers voted unanimously Tuesday to issue a declaration condemning the massacre of 12 civilians by soldiers, a rare display of unity in a country torn by a political crisis. President Nicolas Maduro's allies and the opposition majority came together to "condemn the forced disappearance and killing of a number of citizens... by members of the military," they said. Eleven soldiers were arrested for the killings.
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| AP PHOTOS: Cubans honor Castro, express sadness, gratitude Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:55 PM PST  HAVANA (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Cubans have filed solemnly through a memorial to the late leader Fidel Castro.
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| Moise wants to lift Haiti's fortunes with farming Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:51 PM PST  Port-au-Prince (AFP) - The man who appears to have won the first round of Haiti's presidential election, Jovenel Moise, says he wants to lift the Caribbean country out of poverty by reviving its agricultural sector. Moise, a 48-year-old political novice and entrepreneur who worked in agriculture mostly growing bananas, has been nicknamed "banana man" since former president Michel Martelly chose him to represent the PHTK party. "We will need to mobilize all the resources of the country, as I repeated during my campaign: men, land, sun and rivers to put food on people's plates and money in their pockets," Moise said late Monday, shortly after the preliminary results of the first-round election were announced.
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| UN council sets meeting on Aleppo crisis: diplomats Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:50 PM PST  The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday on the dire humanitarian crisis unfolding in Aleppo, diplomats said. The meeting will begin immediately following a Security Council session on the adoption of a resolution reinforcing sanctions against North Korea, which is scheduled to begin at 1400 GMT. The 15 ambassadors of the Security Council will get a videoconference briefing on the situation in Aleppo by a UN official in charge of humanitarian operation and the UN mediator in Syria, Staffan de Mistura.
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| Germany's Merkel opposes new talks with Turkey on EU accession: Bild Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:50 PM PST  German Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliamentary members of her conservative Christian Democrats on Tuesday that she opposed opening new negotiations with Turkey as part of its quest to join the European Union, the Bild newspaper reported. Merkel recommended spelling that out to voters who asked about the party's position on Turkey, the newspaper said. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said his country has not yet "closed the book" on the EU after the European Parliament recommended freezing accession talks last week, but said Ankara had other options with other partners.
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| Callers for dollars: Inside India's scam call centers Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:47 PM PST  By Rajendra Jadhav, Euan Rocha and Rahul Bhatia MUMBAI (Reuters) - In late September, a woman in National City, California, received a voice message on her phone saying she was in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over "tax evasion or tax fraud". Police said Thakkar led a lavish lifestyle, frequenting 5-star hotels and driving expensive cars with proceeds from the scam.
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| Great Smoky Mountains fires leave three dead, 'scene of destruction' Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:39 PM PST  Local officials said on Tuesday that "the worst is over" for two small Tennessee resort towns in the Great Smoky Mountains where wildfires killed three people, destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes, forced thousands to flee and threatened country music star Dolly Parton's theme park, Dollywood. The flames, driven to the outskirts of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge overnight by hurricane-force winds and fed by drought-parched brush, forced 14,000 people to flee and sent three to hospitals with severe burns, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said.
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| Rescuers searching for miners trapped after quake in Poland: local media Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:38 PM PST Ten miners are missing after an earthquake occurred at the Rudna mine in Polkowice in southwestern Poland, state news agency PAP reported on Tuesday. An earthquake of magnitude 4.4 struck at 2009 GMT, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. According to Polish state authorities, quoted by PAP, the earthquake's epicentre was located 1500 metres underground. |
| I. Coast's ex-first lady clashes with judge at trial Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:37 PM PST  Ivory Coast's former first lady Simone Gbagbo and the judge trying her for crimes against humanity clashed Tuesday, with military police forced to prevent her from leaving the courtroom. Stop her" the court president Boiqui Kouadjo told gendarmes as Gbagbo left the witness box to follow her lawyer who exited the Abidjan courtroom in protest against the proceedings. Gbagbo refused to sit down.
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| Petition for Bank of England to remove £5 note gathers pace Posted: 29 Nov 2016 03:37 PM PST  A petition calling for the Bank of England to remove a new banknote from circulation had on Tuesday received more than 70,000 signatures, with critics angry it is produced with animal product. The polymer £5 notes ($6.2, 5.9 euros) were unveiled in September, with the Bank of England extolling the new banknotes for being waterproof and having enhanced security features. A Change.org petition calling for animal products to be removed from banknotes has now gained more than 70,000 signatures.
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