| | |
| Iranian dissidents say rockets hit their Baghdad camp, kill two Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:18 PM PST A camp of Iranian dissidents in the Iraqi capital was hit by rockets on Thursday in an attack the group said killed at least two people and seriously wounded several others. A Shi'ite militia claimed responsibility for the attack on the Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MEK) camp in western Baghdad, which has repeatedly been the target of mortar and rocket attacks in recent months. The group, which calls for the overthrow of Iran's clerical leaders and fought on Iraq's side during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi'ite-led government that came to power after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. It accused the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of being behind the attack in an attempt to win support from Iran's government ahead of elections next year. Full Story | Top |
| Dozens of bodies recovered after violence in Central African Republic Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:01 PM PST  By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Red Cross workers have recovered 44 bodies from the streets of Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, they said on Thursday after inter-religious fighting in the last two days. Six Chadian peacekeepers have also been killed in the former French colony, while judicial authorities said they had uncovered a mass grave with 30 bodies, many of them showing signs of torture, near a military base used by Seleka rebels. The rebels seized power in March, unleashing a wave of looting and killing on the mostly Christian population. The mostly Muslim Seleka and Christian self-defense militias have carried out tit-for-tat attacks on each other and on the local population. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests dozens under anti-terror law, one killed in Cairo Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 04:55 PM PST  By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt stepped up pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood a day after declaring it a terrorist group, using the new classification to detain dozens of its supporters on Thursday, while one person died in street clashes ignited by political tension. A bomb blast in a Cairo suburb wounded five people - the second attack this week after a suicide bomber killed 16 people north of the capital on Tuesday. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, said Egypt would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy and "expressed concern" about the terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and recent detentions and arrests in Egypt, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Full Story | Top |
| Attack on reporter restores passion to Ukraine demonstrations Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:31 PM PST  By Jack Stubbs KIEV (Reuters) - Protesters demanded Ukraine's interior minister resign on Thursday after an opposition journalist known for documenting the extravagance of the country's political elite was chased down in her car and savagely beaten in a midnight attack. Clutching pictures of Tetyana Chornovil's badly bruised face, hundreds marched on the Interior Ministry in the capital, Kiev. The attack on the 34-year-old restored passion to protests that have been losing steam more than a month after the government spurned a pact on closer ties with the European Union, turning instead to former Soviet master Moscow. Pro-EU demonstrators have been occupying central Kiev, but their numbers have been falling since Russia offered Ukraine a $15 billion bailout this month. Full Story | Top |
| One killed in Cairo clash: Interior Ministry Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:21 PM PST One person was killed on Thursday when student supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood clashed with residents of a Cairo district where they were protesting, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It said the police fired teargas after the Al-Azhar University students clashed with residents in the Nasr City district of northeast Cairo. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests dozens under anti-terror law, bomb hits Cairo Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:41 PM PST By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt increased pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, detaining dozens of its supporters on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government, security officials said. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, said Egypt would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism. The government declared Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group on Wednesday in response to the suicide attack that targeted a police station a day earlier in the city of Mansoura. Full Story | Top |
| Turks and Caicos police end search for survivors of capsized boat Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:39 PM PST Police do not expect to find any more casualties from the Christmas Day accident that involved a boat carrying more than 50 immigrants from Haiti, government spokesman Neil Smith said in a tweet. Meanwhile, health officials in the small eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia said flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed six people. Full Story | Top |
| Gaza rocket fire draws Israeli air strikes Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:37 PM PST Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, and Israel's military responded with a pair of air strikes, officials said. The rockets from Gaza fell in open areas, causing no damage or injuries, Israel's military said. It said its aircraft then hit a weapon manufacturing facility and a weapon storage facility in the enclave, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas. One Palestinian was wounded by the air strikes, medical workers said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. expedites delivery of missiles, drones to Iraq amid violence Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:12 PM PST  The United States has delivered dozens of Hellfire air-to-ground missiles to Iraq in recent weeks and plans shipments of Scan Eagle drones next year amid a surge in violence, U.S. officials said on Thursday, a day after at least 34 people died in Christmas day bomb attacks in Baghdad. Al Qaeda-linked militants have stepped up attacks on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government and anyone seen to be supporting it. The United Nations estimates that more than 8,000 people have been killed in attacks in Iraq this year. A U.S. official said that about 75 Hellfire missiles were delivered to Iraq last week, earlier than originally envisioned, and a shipment of 10 unmanned Scan Eagles surveillance drones is due next year. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan rebels seize oil wells, mediators urge talks Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 12:52 PM PST  By Carl Odera and Aaron Maasho JUBA (Reuters) - Rebels in South Sudan have seized some oil wells and captured half of the capital of the main oil-producing region, the government and army said on Thursday as African leaders held talks to avert civil war. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn met South Sudan's President Salva Kiir in the capital Juba in an attempt to end nearly two weeks of fighting in the world's newest state. "South Sudan is a young nation that should be spared unnecessary distractions in its development agenda. It was not clear whether the delegation also met the rebel leader, former vice president Riek Machar, who was sacked by Kiir in July. Full Story | Top |
| Protesting Turkish prosecutor piles pressure on PM Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 11:56 AM PST  By Ece Toksabay and Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish prosecutor accused police on Thursday of obstructing his pursuit of a high-level graft case, adding to public scrutiny of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government as it hunkered down defiantly. Three ministers had resigned after their sons were among dozens of people detained on December 17 as part of the probe into corrupt procurement practices, which has exposed Turkey's deep institutional divisions and left the pugnacious premier facing arguably the biggest crisis of his 11 years in power. The new interior minister, Efkan Ala, will be in charge of Turkey's domestic security and is considered especially close to Erdogan, who called the secretive investigation a foreign-orchestrated plot without legal merit and responded by sacking or reassigning some 70 of the police officers involved. In allegations disseminated to Turkish media in writing, prosecutor Muammer Akkas said he had also been removed from the case, which he described as compromised by police who had refused to comply with his orders to arrest more suspects. Full Story | Top |
| Kenyan police seek youths over Christmas Day church burnings Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 11:43 AM PST By Joseph Akwiri MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Youths threw petrol bombs at two Kenyan churches on Christmas day, police said on Thursday, in the latest bout of violence against Christians on the country's predominantly Muslim coast. Police and witnesses said the churches on the edge of port city of Mombasa were attacked in the early hours of December 25 after churchgoers held services to usher in Christmas. Police had no suspects but were exploring the possibility that the attacks may have been launched by Muslim militants or by supporters of the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), an illegal movement that wants the coastal region to secede from Kenya. Many Muslims on the Indian Ocean coastline feel marginalized by Kenya's predominantly Christian government and the historically cordial relations between the two communities have suffered strains in recent years. Full Story | Top |
| Tribesmen seize oil ministry building in east Yemen Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 11:23 AM PST Tribesmen seized an oil ministry building in Yemen's eastern Hadramout province on Thursday and exchanged gunfire with a pro-government tribe seeking to regain control of the premises, tribal sources and ministry employees said. Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries, is struggling to restore state authority after long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step down in 2011. The authorities face regular challenges from tribesmen who attack oil pipelines and power lines for reasons including demands for more employment and the release of jailed relatives. Sources said the building was under the control of al-Kathiry tribe who had told the oil ministry workers to leave. Full Story | Top |
| Icebreakers rush to help ship trapped in Antarctic ice Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 11:05 AM PST (Reuters) - Three icebreakers are en route to an area off the coast of Antarctica to help free a vessel carrying 74 people, including a scientific expedition team, which is stranded in thick sheets of ice, officials said on Thursday. "We're surrounded by sea ice, we just can't get through," Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at the University of New South Wales said in a video posted on YouTube. Three ships with icebreaking capability have been dispatched to help dislodge the vessel, which is located about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Tasmania, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. Full Story | Top |
| First Greenpeace activist leaves Russia Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:35 AM PST  The first of 30 Greenpeace activists arrested after a protest over Arctic oil drilling has left Russia, the environmental group said on Thursday, with all expected to get clearance to leave Russia by Friday. Soviet-born Swedish activist Dima Litvinov crossed the Finnish border after receiving an exit stamp in his passport. Thirteen others have also received the stamp which allows them to leave, Greenpeace said, with rest of the "Arctic 30" expected to go through the process on Friday. "I'm leaving Russia feeling like we won something here." Russia's treatment of the 30 activists from 18 countries - who spent two months in detention and faced hooliganism charges punishable by seven years in jail - had drawn heavy criticism from Western nations and celebrities. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. hopes for South Sudan reinforcements within 48 hours Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:33 AM PST  By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Thursday said it hopes to begin receiving within the next 48 hours critical reinforcements of military hardware and personnel for its overstretched peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which is on the verge of civil war. Hilde Johnson, head of the U.N. mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, told reporters that some 50,000 civilians were seeking protection at U.N. bases across Africa's youngest country, which gained independence from Khartoum in 2011. "We are working around the clock to get assets in that can assist us in the current crisis as quickly as ever possible, and we have had conversations with other (U.N.) missions today," she told reporters by video link from Juba. U.N. officials have said that the South Sudan peacekeeping mission needs transport helicopters and planes, as well as troops. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan rebels capture some oil wells in Unity state: Minister Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:33 AM PST JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar have captured some oil wells in Unity state where production was shut down earlier this week due to fighting, the petroleum ministry told Reuters on Thursday. "Some oil wells are in the hands of rebel soldiers loyal to former vice president Riek Machar and we fear they may cause damage to the facilities and the environment," Petroleum Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said by telephone. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lufthansa cancels flights as Paris staff call in sick Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:27 AM PST German airline Lufthansa cancelled four flights to and from Paris after most of its workers there called in sick on Thursday morning, a spokesman for the company said. Some passengers due to fly to Paris from Frankfurt were taken there by bus, the spokesman said, adding flight operations had returned to normal by the afternoon. The other affected flights were from Munich to Paris and back. The move comes about a month after Germany's flagship carrier was forced to cancel around 100 flights to and from Paris Charles de Gaulle due to a strike by ground staff over plans to outsource ground operations at the French airport to a third-party provider. Full Story | Top |
| Japan's Abe visits shrine for war dead, China, South Korea angered Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:23 AM PST By Antoni Slodkowski and Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a shrine on Thursday that is seen by critics as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression, infuriating China and South Korea and prompting concern from the United States about deteriorating ties between the North Asian neighbors. China and South Korea have repeatedly expressed anger in the past over Japanese politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal after World War Two are honored along with those who died in battle. The two countries have been especially touchy about visits to the shrine by serving Japanese prime ministers, and Abe is the first leader in office to pay homage at Yasukuni in the past seven years. Business ties between China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest economies, have improved after a downturn sparked by a flare-up last year in a row over tiny East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. Full Story | Top |
| China celebrates Mao's birthday, but events scaled back Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 09:04 AM PST  By Ben Blanchard and Benjamin Kang Lim BEIJING (Reuters) - China celebrated the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, on Thursday, but with scaled-back festivities as President Xi Jinping embarks on broad economic reforms that have unsettled leftists. Mao has become a potent symbol for leftists within the ruling Communist Party who feel that three decades of market-based reform have gone too far, creating social inequalities like a yawning rich-poor gap and pervasive corruption. While all seven members of the party's elite inner core, the Politburo Standing Committee, visited Mao's mausoleum on Tiananmen Square, other activities nationwide were toned down. The state-run Xinhua news agency said that the leaders, including Xi, bowed three times in front of a statue of Mao and payed their respects to his embalmed body, "recalling Comrade Mao Zedong's great achievements." Xi said Mao was a great person who stuck to his beliefs and won the love and respect of the people but who also made "serious mistakes" like the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Xinhua reported. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests dozens under new anti-terror law Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 08:44 AM PST  By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt increased pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, detaining at least 38 of its supporters on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government, security officials said. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who led the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July, said the country would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism, after a small bomb went off in Cairo, wounding five people. The government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group on Wednesday in response to a suicide attack a day earlier that killed 16 people in the Nile Delta, accusing the group of carrying out the bombing. The Brotherhood, which claims up to 1 million members, condemned the attack. Full Story | Top |
| Prominent Egyptian activists start hunger strike in prison Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 08:13 AM PST Three jailed Egyptian political activists have started a hunger strike against what they describe as mistreatment in prison, said a statement on the website of the April 6 protest movement that two of them belonged to. A court this month gave three-year jail sentences to Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma, symbols of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, for protesting without permission and assaulting police. The statement on the April 6 website said they started the hunger strike on Wednesday, having been denied winter clothes and subjected to psychological abuse by prison staff. Douma, a prominent blogger, was previously detained in a separate case under ousted President Mohamed Mursi for calling him a criminal and inciting violence. Full Story | Top |
| Turkish official says graft prosecutor removed for mishandling case Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 07:41 AM PST ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish prosecutor who went public on Thursday with allegations of police obstruction in a high-level corruption case had himself mishandled the proceedings and was therefore removed, his superior said. Turhan Colakkadi, Istanbul's chief prosecutor, told reporters Muammer Akkas had leaked information to the media and had not given superiors timely updates on the case as required. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) Full Story | Top |
| U.N. rights boss urges Thailand to drop defamation charges Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 07:36 AM PST The top U.N. human rights official urged Thailand on Thursday to drop criminal charges against two journalists accused of defamation for citing a Reuters investigation into the role of Thai naval security forces in smuggling Rohingya asylum seekers. A Reuters investigation, based on interviews with people smugglers and more than two dozen survivors of boat voyages, revealed in July how some Thai naval security forces work systematically with smugglers to profit from the surge in Rohingya fleeing Myanmar to escape religious persecution. Thailand's navy denied the Reuters report, which was published in July. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay voiced concern on Thursday that two Phuket-based journalists, editor Alan Morison and reporter Chutima Sidasathian, have been charged with defamation and breaching the Computer Crimes Act for quoting the Reuters article. Full Story | Top |
| Inside Germany's campaign to free Khodorkovsky Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 07:29 AM PST  By Michelle Martin and Lidia Kelly BERLIN/MOSCOW (Reuters) - One spring day in 2011 five people gathered around a small table at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin and hatched the beginnings of a plan to get former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky out of prison. Seated in a corridor of the five-star hotel's lobby, former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and his advisor Alexander Rahr put their heads together with Khodorkovsky's lawyers and Alexandra Hildebrandt, head of a Berlin Wall museum. They decided Genscher, who was trusted by the Germans, supported by Chancellor Angela Merkel and well known to the Russians, in part due to the role he played in negotiations on German reunification, would launch a behind-the-scenes diplomatic offensive. It was the start of a concerted German effort that reached from Genscher to the top of the Chancellery, to apply pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to free Khodorkovsky, who had been jailed in 2003 on fraud and tax evasion charges but who was considered by many in the West to be a political prisoner. Full Story | Top |
| Israeli court cancels mayoral vote in town divided by religion Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 07:25 AM PST An Israeli court dealt a blow on Thursday to the ultra-Orthodox community's political hold over a town that has been a focus of national divisions between the Jewish state's secular majority and its religious minority. Citing voter fraud in Beit Shemesh, a town of 80,000, a court in nearby Jerusalem cancelled the result of an October mayoral election, won by the ultra-Orthodox incumbent Moshe Abutbul, and ordered a new ballot. It used evidence from a police investigation that found some people had voted with others' identity cards, and non-residents had been able to cast ballots using fake addresses. Abutbul stoked controversy during campaigning when he said on television there were no gays in what he called his "holy and pure" town, a once largely secular, working-class community. Full Story | Top |
| Rebel group attack kills 40 in eastern Congo Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:31 AM PST By Pete Jones KINSHASA (Reuters) - At least 40 civilians have been killed in a rebel attack on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials and civil society groups said. Thomas D'Acquin, head of civil society in Congo's North Kivu province, said the attack by the ADF-NALU rebel group on Wednesday had destroyed many homes in Kamango, a village near the Ugandan border. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) emerged in the 1990s in opposition to the Ugandan government, allying itself with the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). Full Story | Top |
| Plane crash in Siberia kills nine people: agencies Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:21 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian plane crashed in Siberia on Thursday, killing nine people, domestic news agencies reported, citing local emergency service officials. The Soviet-built Antonov An-12 plane belonging to an aircraft factory in Novosibirsk was carrying six crew and three others on a flight to another factory in Irkutsk, Itar-Tass reported. The turboprop plane fell on warehouses at a military unit outside Irkutsk, causing a fire, but no casualties were immediately reported on the ground, an emergency service official said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Indian court rejects riots petition against vote front-runner Modi Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:04 AM PST  By Sruthi Gottipati NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian court upheld on Thursday the result of an investigation that cleared Gujarat state chief minister Narendra Modi of complicity in riots in 2002, giving the opposition politician a boost as he runs for prime minister. Modi, a leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has used the report to defend himself in the past, saying he was "given a thoroughly clean chit" and insisting he did all he could to stop the violence. A special team appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate the role of Modi and 62 other people in the violence said in a 541-page report in 2012 it could find no evidence to prosecute the chief minister. Zakia Jafri, the widow of a politician belonging to the ruling Congress party who was killed by rioters along with dozens of neighbors, had filed a protest petition against the team's report in April. Full Story | Top |
| Thai government rejects call to delay election after clashes erupt Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 05:53 AM PST  By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Martin Petty BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's government rejected a call from the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday to postpone a February vote after clashes between police and anti-government protesters in which a policeman was killed and nearly 100 people were hurt. The EC urged the government to delay the February 2 election until there was "mutual consent" from all sides. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's ruling Puea Thai party would likely win an election. The protesters are demanding that Yingluck steps down and political reforms be introduced before any vote, to try to neutralize the power of the billionaire Shinawatra family. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says Arafat died of natural causes Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 05:38 AM PST By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning, but a Palestinian official called the finding "politicized" and said an investigation would continue. Samples were taken from Arafat's body last year by Swiss, French and Russian forensics experts after an al Jazeera documentary said his clothes showed high amounts of deadly polonium 210. The Swiss said last month their tests were consistent with polonium poisoning but not absolute proof of the cause of death. "Yasser Arafat died not from the effects of radiation but of natural causes," Vladimir Uiba, head of Russia's state forensics body, the Federal Medico-Biological Agency, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. Full Story | Top |
| Plane crash in Siberia kills six crew: Interfax Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 05:14 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - A plane crashed in eastern Russia on Thursday, killing all six crew members, Interfax news agency reported, citing a local emergency services official. The Soviet-built Antonov An-12 plane was carrying no passengers and crashed during a flight from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk in Siberia, the official said. Russia and the other former Soviet republics together have one of the world's worst air-traffic safety records, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average in 2011, according to the International Air Transport Association. ... Full Story | Top |
| Court rejects BP bid to require proof of Gulf oil spill losses Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 05:07 AM PST  BP Plc has failed to persuade a federal judge to require businesses seeking to recover money over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill to provide proof that their economic losses were caused by the disaster. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans said the British oil company would have to live with its earlier interpretation of a settlement agreement over the spill, in which certain businesses could be presumed to have suffered harm if their losses reflected certain patterns. Barbier said BP could not now take a new position on causation of damages, and reverse an interpretation that it had once termed "more than fair," even if this resulted in the substantially higher payouts that the oil company feared. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests Muslim Brotherhood supporters under terror law Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 04:44 AM PST Police arrested 16 Muslim Brotherhood supporters on Thursday, the state news agency said, the first arrests on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization since the group was declared one by the government. The men were arrested in the Nile Delta province of Sharkiya on suspicion of crimes including "promoting the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood group, distributing its leaflets, and inciting violence against the army and police". The government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization on Wednesday, accusing it of carrying out a suicide attack that killed 16 people the previous day. The Brotherhood condemned the attack. Full Story | Top |
| Thai government rejects call to postpone February election Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 04:23 AM PST Thailand's government on Thursday rejected a call from the Election Commission to postpone a February poll, insisting the vote would go ahead as planned, despite clashes between police and anti-government demonstrators. The Election Commission urged the government to delay the election until there was "mutual consent between all related parties". Anti-government demonstrators insist they will not allow an election to take place until Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra resigns. "There is no law allowing the government to delay the election" Clashes erupted outside an election registration venue in Bangkok on Thursday, when riot police fired teargas and rubber bullets at rock-throwing protesters. Full Story | Top |
| Libyan militiamen briefly block entrance to central bank Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 04:13 AM PST Dozens of Libyan militiamen briefly blocked the entrance to the central bank on Thursday, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, witnesses and a central bank official said. Libya is in turmoil, with Zeidan's government struggling to assert control of a country awash with arms from the 2011 uprising which ousted Muammar Gaddafi. Armed men drove up to the central bank in trucks on the seafront in central Tripoli and stopped staff from entering the building, the witness said. "Central bank staff were told to go home," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Struggle for resources at root of Central Africa religious violence Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:47 AM PST  By Bate Felix and Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Mariam watched in horror as militiamen burst through the gate of her home in Central African Republic's capital Bangui and demanded her husband say whether he was Muslim. "Then they hacked and clubbed our neighbors, a husband and wife, to death." The two-day frenzy of violence in Bangui this month fed fears that Central African Republic was about to descend into religious warfare on a scale comparable to Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Full Story | Top |
| Truce in besieged Damascus suburb may bring food to starving residents Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:36 AM PST  By Stephen Kalin BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and rebel fighters in a besieged Damascus suburb have agreed to a 48-hour truce that could result in food being allowed in for residents threatened with starvation, activists said on Thursday. Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels occupied Mouadamiya last year and the government has been trying to win it back since with a siege that has choked off food, medicine and fuel. If the truce holds until Friday, the army has said it will allow food in. If the truce holds and the government provides access to food, the activist said, a broader agreement could be implemented which might include the rebels giving up heavy weapons. Full Story | Top |
| Bangladesh troops sent out to try to stem election violence Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:52 AM PST  Tens of thousands of troops fanned out across Bangladesh on Thursday in a bid to stem political violence ahead of next month's elections, which the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has boycotted. Violence has gripped the country as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling Awami League press ahead with the January 5 vote. BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia has called on Bangladeshis to march to the capital on Sunday to protest against the elections, declaring "democracy is dead". With the BNP's boycott, more than half the 300 parliament seats will go uncontested, making it unlikely the vote will do anything to restore stability in one of the world's poorest countries. Full Story | Top |
| If U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, much civilian aid may go too Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:51 AM PST  By Missy Ryan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For years, U.S. officials have pointed to the improvements in the everyday lives of Afghans made possible by billions of dollars in aid from the United States and elsewhere. In Afghanistan, people now live 20 years longer on average than under Taliban rule, they say; The specter of an abrupt departure of all U.S. and NATO soldiers from Afghanistan at the end of next year now imperils these gains, they warn, and endangers progress on the massive development challenges that remain. Unless the Obama administration can persuade Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a security pact that would permit a modest U.S. force to remain beyond 2014, the United States is almost certain to drastically scale back aid to Afghanistan. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment