| After 2016 campaign, more Americans consider Russia a threat: Reuters/Ipsos poll Posted: 13 Jan 2017 01:39 PM PST  By Chris Kahn NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans are more concerned than they were before the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign began about the potential threat Russia poses to the country, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday. The Jan. 9-12 survey found that 82 percent of American adults, including 84 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans, described Russia as a general "threat" to the United States. The increased concern comes after a brutal election season during which Democrats and others raised questions about President-elect Donald Trump's financial ties to Russia and the U.S. intelligence community accused Russia of engaging in cyber attacks during the election.
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| Trump team struggles for cohesion on tougher China policy Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:20 PM PST  By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The incoming U.S. administration's tough talk against China has set the stage for showdowns on everything from security to trade and cyberspace, but contradictory signals are sowing uncertainty over how far President-elect Donald Trump is prepared to go in confronting Beijing. Highlighting the contested South China Sea as a potential flashpoint, Trump's Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson threw out an explosive challenge to Beijing on Wednesday by calling for it be denied access to artificial islands it is building in the strategic waterway. A Trump transition adviser told Reuters that Tillerson, Trump's pick to be America's top diplomat, did not mean to suggest the new administration would impose a naval blockade, which would risk armed confrontation with China, something the new administration was not seeking.
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| Exclusive: Assad linked to Syrian chemical attacks for first time Posted: 13 Jan 2017 11:08 AM PST  International investigators have said for the first time that they suspect President Bashar al-Assad and his brother are responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, according to a document seen by Reuters. A joint inquiry for the United Nations and global watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had previously identified only military units and did not name any commanders or officials. Now a list has been produced of individuals whom the investigators have linked to a series of chlorine bomb attacks in 2014-15 - including Assad, his younger brother Maher and other high-ranking figures - indicating the decision to use toxic weapons came from the very top, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.
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| Cubans sold everything to reach U.S., now hundreds stranded Posted: 13 Jan 2017 10:44 AM PST  By Elida Moreno PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Hundreds of Cubans who sold their homes and belongings in pursuit of an American dream that now lays in tatters were stranded in Central America and Mexico on Friday after Washington abruptly ended a lenient immigration policy. U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday repealed a measure granting automatic residency to virtually every Cuban who arrived in the United States, whether or not they had visas, ending a longstanding exception to U.S. policy. The end of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which allowed any Cuban who reached U.S. soil to stay, but returned any picked up at sea, took effect immediately.
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| PM May must set out Brexit plan by mid-Feb to allow scrutiny: UK lawmakers Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:09 PM PST  By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - The British government must publish a detailed plan for Brexit by mid-February setting out its position on future membership of the European Union's single market and customs union, a committee of lawmakers said in a report published on Saturday. Parliament's Exiting the EU committee, made up of lawmakers from several parties including Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives and opposition Labour, also said the government should seek a transitional deal with the bloc. May, who has said she will begin formal divorce talks with the EU by the end of March, has come under fire from businesses, investors and lawmakers for having revealed little about the government's Brexit plans more than six months after the country voted to leave in last June's referendum.
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| Top Trump aide in frequent contact with Russia's ambassador Posted: 13 Jan 2017 05:34 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump's national security adviser and Russia's ambassador to the U.S. have been in frequent contact in recent weeks, including on the day the Obama administration hit Moscow with sanctions in retaliation for election-related hacking, a senior official said Friday.
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| Top Asian News 1:31 a.m. GMT Posted: 13 Jan 2017 05:31 PM PST BEIJING (AP) — Writer Lu Yong had merely wanted to show support for a professor who had taken flak online for criticizing Mao Zedong, the founder of the communist state who died more than four decades ago. Yet minutes after raising a sign to defend Deng Xiangchao's right to free speech, Lu found himself surrounded by a group of Mao supporters who grappled at his face. Other companions were punched and kicked. Video taken hours later showed the Mao loyalists parading through the campus of eastern China's Jinan University with large banners while chanting "Down with Deng Xiangchao, down with traitors." Within days, Deng was forced to retire and stripped of his Communist Party titles. |
| Beaten finalists Qatar lower expectations in 2017 Posted: 13 Jan 2017 05:22 PM PST  Surprise finalists in 2015, Qatar began their quest for the world handball crown with a disappointing defeat against Egypt, and have appropriately set their sights a little lower this year. "Qatar's goal at the World Cup is to finish in the top eight, and we will fight for it," said Valera.
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| 2 years after the hack, Sony CEO Lynton exits for Snap Inc. Posted: 13 Jan 2017 05:21 PM PST  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two years after guiding the company through an unprecedented email hack, Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton is leaving the company to become the chairman of the board for Snap Inc., the company behind Snapchat.
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| Kerry defends trade pact on last trip as top US diplomat Posted: 13 Jan 2017 05:11 PM PST  HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry, making his last trip as the top U.S. diplomat, defended the 12-nation trade pact that the incoming administration said it would scrap and urged countries to refrain from provocative acts in the South China Sea.
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| Ivory Coast announces deal to end standoff with soldiers Posted: 13 Jan 2017 05:01 PM PST  BOUAKE, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast announced a deal Friday night to end a standoff with soldiers who staged a mutiny last week, though the terms were not confirmed and it was unclear whether security would be fully restored in Africa's fastest-growing economy.
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| Toure sounds title rallying call to Manchester City team-mates Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:52 PM PST  Yaya Toure suggests Manchester City can forget about winning the Premier League this season if they fail to beat Everton this weekend. Both displays showed significant improvement after a costly December, in which Pep Guardiola-managed City lost three times and fell seven points behind league leaders Chelsea. Having had nine days to recover from the West Ham game, City should be fresh for their trip to Goodison Park.
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| Costa Rica's Alvaro E. Ortiz leads Latin America Amateur Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:52 PM PST PANAMA CITY (AP) — Costa Rica's Alvaro E. Ortiz shot a 4-under 66 on Friday to take the second-round lead in the Latin America Amateur Championship. |
| U.S. State Department nominee Tillerson fights climate deposition Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:42 PM PST  By Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rex Tillerson, the former oil executive under consideration for U.S. secretary of state, is trying to avoid giving testimony in a federal lawsuit over climate change, according to a lawyer for a group of teenagers who filed the suit. Lawyers for the teenagers, who sued the federal government claiming it violated their constitutional rights by causing global warming, were scheduled to depose Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, in his capacity as a board member of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group.
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| Woman stolen at birth learns true identity; 'Momma' charged Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:34 PM PST  WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) — Stolen from a hospital just hours after she was born, an 18-year-old woman finally learned her true identity and was reunited Friday with her birth family, by video chat. The woman she thought was her mother was charged with her kidnapping.
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| New Zealand 55-1 at lunch on day 3, 1st test vs. Bangladesh Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:30 PM PST WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand reached 55-1 at lunch on Saturday after Bangladesh declared its record-breaking first innings at 595-8 on day three of the first test. |
| Mexico drug lord told to pay $1M in DEA agent's 1985 murder Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:28 PM PST  MEXICO CITY (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a drug lord convicted in the 1985 killings of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a Mexican government pilot to pay relatives of the victims nearly $1 million in compensation, officials said Friday.
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| US envoy warns against cutting funding to UN Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:21 PM PST  US Ambassador Samantha Power on Friday warned that cutting US funding to the United Nations would be "extremely detrimental" to American interests, one week before Donald Trump's administration takes office. Addressing her final news conference, Power told reporters that "countries like Russia and China" would benefit from Washington's reduced standing at the United Nations if funding were withdrawn. "We lead the world, in part, by leading at the UN," said Power, who is stepping down next week after four years as President Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations.
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| MPs demand Brexit plan by mid-Feb, urge transitional deal Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:17 PM PST  An influential group of MPs called on Prime Minister Theresa May Saturday to publish by mid-February her plans for leaving the EU, and urged her to prepare for a transitional deal to limit uncertainty for business. The cross-party Brexit committee called for a policy document clarifying the government's "broad aims", including whether Britain should stay in the single market and customs union, to allow proper scrutiny before exit talks start. "We're not asking the government to give away its red lines or negotiating fallback positions, but we do want clarity on its broad aims given the significance and complexity of the negotiating task," said committee chairman Hilary Benn.
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| EU top negotiator wants 'special' Brexit deal with UK finance sector: report Posted: 13 Jan 2017 04:12 PM PST  The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator has told colleagues that they need to strike a "special" deal with Britain's finance sector in order to keep credit flowing to the continent, the Guardian reported Friday. Michel Barnier told MEPs that he wanted to guarantee that banks, businesses and governments from the other 27 member nations will still have access to the City of London after Britain leaves the bloc, according to unpublished minutes of the private meeting seen by the British newspaper. European leaders have eyed London's finance sector as a potential weak spot in Britain's negotiating hand, with the government desperate to defend the jewel in its economic crown and maintain cross border trade with the continent.
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| Ivory Coast mutineers say reach deal amid fears of renewed revolt Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:59 PM PST  By Ange Aboa BOUAKE, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Disgruntled soldiers in Ivory Coast reached an agreement with the government late on Friday resolving a dispute over bonus payments that had threatened to reignite a nationwide army mutiny, negotiators for the mutineers said. There was no confirmation of the deal from the government, and it was not immediately evident that the terms had been accepted by the rank and file, who took to the streets in Bouake, the second largest city, and other locations on Friday. Soldiers, most of them former rebel fighters, launched a revolt in Bouake a week ago that rapidly gained momentum in the world's top cocoa grower until the government was forced to yield to the mutineers' demands after two days.
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| Gunfire erupts inside two military camps in Ivory Coast's main city Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:59 PM PST ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Gunfire was heard coming from two military bases in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan on Friday night, residents living nearby said. "There's shooting in the two Akuedo camps, the new camp and the old camp. It had stopped but it just started up again," said Joseph Kouassi. The gunfire was confirmed by a second resident. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Angus MacSwan) |
| Ivory Coast army mutineers strike deal with government over bonuses Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:59 PM PST YAMOUSSOUKRO (Reuters) - Disgruntled soldiers in Ivory Coast reached an agreement with the government late on Friday in a dispute over bonus payments that had threatened to reignite a nationwide army mutiny, negotiators for the mutineers said. The deal was struck between the soldiers and a government delegation headed by Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi during negotiations in the country's second-largest city, Bouake. (Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by James Dalgleish) |
| France should sell non-strategic stakes in firms: Fillon Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:56 PM PST  Francois Fillon, the conservative politician seen by opinion polls as most likely to win the French presidential election this year, says France should sell state stakes in firms deemed as not having a strategic importance for the country. "The state should only be a shareholder in strategic companies," Fillon said in an interview with French magazine Capital. Fillon's interview echoed similar comments last month, when he said he was favorable toward privatizations of state shareholdings in order to raise cash for investments in major infrastructure projects.
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| Explosive device injures top official with Chile's Codelco Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:56 PM PST SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The Chilean state-run mining company Codelco says the president of its board of directors is recovering from injuries caused by an explosive device that was delivered to his home on Friday. |
| No deal in talks to persuade Gambian leader to step down Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:53 PM PST  DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — No deal was reached Friday in last-ditch attempts by a regional mediation team to persuade Gambia's longtime leader to step down, and while mediation will continue, the inauguration next week of the elected opposition coalition leader will go forward, the spokesman for coalition said.
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| Ebola's long-term effects revealed Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:35 PM PST  People who survive Ebola may still battle debilitating health problems a year after being declared infection-free, according to an ongoing trial in Guinea which highlighted the need for patient followup. Three-quarters of survivors had post-Ebola symptoms when they enrolled for the trial about a year, on average, after they were discharged from hospital, researchers reported Saturday. Eighteen percent experienced eye problems, including eight individuals who went blind, a team wrote in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
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| Spain, Hungary arrest five with alleged IS links Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:33 PM PST  Five people with suspected links to Islamic State jihadists were arrested Friday in separate incidents in Spain and Hungary, with several weapons also being seized, authorities said. Spain's interior ministry said police detained a Moroccan man with Dutch identity documents in the northwestern city of Figueras suspected of belonging to IS who recently returned to Spain from Turkey. The authorities are investigating whether his return "was motivated by a desire to carry out some sort of action in Europe," the ministry said in a statement.
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| As talks loom, 'hard Brexit' option raises fear of tariffs Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:29 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — Is it cod or haddock?
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| Peterhansel reels in Loeb to all but secure 7th Dakar title Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:15 PM PST RIO CUARTO, Argentina (AP) — French driver Stephane Peterhansel has to negotiate only a short ceremonial drive to Buenos Aires to complete a record-extending seventh Dakar Rally title on Saturday. |
| Minnesota gets UCLA's Danladi with MLS SuperDraft's top pick Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:14 PM PST LOS ANGELES (AP) — Expansion Major League Soccer franchise Minnesota United has chosen UCLA forward Abu Danladi with the first overall pick in the MLS SuperDraft. |
| One dead as ice storm targets central United States Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:07 PM PST  (Reuters) - A winter storm bringing icy rain to the Great Plains and Midwest claimed the life of a Missouri woman on Friday, prompted the delay of an NFL football game and threatened power outages and treacherous conditions throughout the weekend. Ice, freezing rain and winter storm warnings were in effect from the Texas panhandle north into Iowa and east through central Indiana, the Weather Service said in an advisory, and both Missouri and Oklahoma had declared states of emergency. "Significant amounts of ice accumulations will make travel dangerous or impossible," the weather service said.
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| Chelsea drops Diego Costa amid rift, unsettling Chinese link Posted: 13 Jan 2017 03:04 PM PST LONDON (AP) — Diego Costa's Chelsea career could be coming to a fiery abrupt end, in a setback to the English Premier League leaders' pursuit of the title. |
| U.S. State Department nominee Tillerson fights climate deposition Posted: 13 Jan 2017 02:51 PM PST By Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rex Tillerson, the former oil executive under consideration for U.S. secretary of state, is trying to avoid giving testimony in a federal lawsuit over climate change, according to a lawyer for a group of teenagers who filed the suit. Lawyers for the teenagers, who sued the federal government claiming it violated their constitutional rights by causing global warming, were scheduled to depose Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, in his capacity as a board member of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group. |
| Champions France cruise past Japan Posted: 13 Jan 2017 02:51 PM PST  Defending champions France cruised to a 31-19 win over Japan for a second victory in two games at the world handball championship on Friday but their joy was tempered by injury to star player Luka Karabatic. The pivot of the champions suffered a right foot injury and was replaced although an outclassed Japan were unable to build on his absence as France kept up their perfect record after an opening 31-16 win against Brazil on Wednesday. Luka will have a scan on Saturday morning," said coach Didier Dinart.
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| Abbas may 'reverse' Israel recognition if Trump moves embassy Posted: 13 Jan 2017 02:49 PM PST  Th Palestinians may consider "reversing recognition" of Israel if Donald Trump moves the US embassy to Jerusalem, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said in an interview released by the French daily Le Figaro on Friday. "I wrote to president(-elect) Trump to ask him not to do it. Not only would this move deprive the United States of all legitimacy in playing a role in conflict resolution, it would also destroy the two-state solution," Abbas was quoted as saying.
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| Cuban migrants furious, disconcerted by end of US welcome policy Posted: 13 Jan 2017 02:48 PM PST  For Cubans trekking through Latin America to the United States, the sudden decision by President Barack Obama to end a longstanding policy giving them automatic entry has come as a cold, hard punch to the gut. "Obama has screwed all Cubans," Yadiel Cruz, a 33-year-old Cuban man in a Panama shelter, told AFP bitterly. The long route from South America, through Central America and into Mexico to the US border is a migration pipeline that can take years for Cubans to complete, with pit stops to earn money along the way.
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| Shots heard from inside military camp in I.Coast's Abidjan Posted: 13 Jan 2017 02:43 PM PST  Shooting was heard late Friday from inside the main military camp in Abidjan, Ivory's Coast's economic capital, witnesses said Friday, days after a brief mutiny by the armed forces. It stopped and started again," Mathilde Kouadio, a teacher living nearby, told AFP. The revolt, which lasted two days, saw soldiers seize Bouake, firing shots in the air and terrifying residents, while demanding bonuses, better pay and houses.
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