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| China blames religious extremism for attack in Xinjiang Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:56 PM PST Chinese police said the nine people responsible for a deadly "terrorist attack" in the western region of Xinjiang were promoting religious extremism, state media reported on Tuesday. Xinjiang is home to a Turkic-speaking, Muslim people known as Uighurs, some of whom resent what they see as oppressive treatment by the government. The Xinjiang government said police shot dead eight people on Monday during the attack in Yarkand county close to the old Silk Road city of Kashgar in Xinjiang's south. State news agency Xinhua said late on Monday an initial probe showed the gang, led by Usman Barat and Abdugheni Abdukhadir, had gathered to watch terrorist videos and promote religious extremist ideas since August. Full Story | Top |
| Trapped ship passengers set to ring in New Year in Antarctic ice Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:04 PM PST  Fog and heavy snow mean passengers on a Russian ship stranded in Antarctica for over a week are likely to ring in the New Year trapped in the ice, as a rescue helicopter on a nearby Chinese ship waits for the weather to clear. The helicopter on board the Snow Dragon will be used after an Australian icebreaker on Monday failed to reach the trapped Akademik Shokalskiy, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on Tuesday. The Russian ship left New Zealand on November 28 on a private expedition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of an Antarctic journey led by famed Australian explorer Douglas Mawson. The Akademik Shokalskiy's 74 passengers include scientists and tourists, many of them Australian, and 22 Russian crew. Full Story | Top |
| Israel frees Palestinian prisoners, pushes settlement plan Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:30 PM PST  Israel set free 26 Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday as part of U.S.-brokered peace efforts, after pledging to press ahead with plans to build more homes in Jewish settlements. Israel agreed to release 104 long-serving Palestinian prisoners - the latest group is the third of four to go free - as part of the U.S.-led efforts that coaxed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas back to the negotiations after a three-year break. In tandem with the prisoner releases in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel has announced new construction in settlements in occupied territory Palestinians seek for a state. Last week, an Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government - which includes pro-settlement parties - would announce plans after the latest release to build 1,400 more homes for settlers in the West Bank. Full Story | Top |
| Three dead in south Yemen blasts Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:28 PM PST Three people including a suicide bomber were killed in three explosions targeting security offices in Aden, the main city in southern Yemen, al-Arabiya news reported early on Tuesday. Hundreds of security officials have been killed in explosions and shootings over the past two years in southern Yemen, where the government and allied tribal militias are fighting against Islamist militants allied to al Qaeda. Security in Yemen is a priority for the United States and Gulf Arab countries because of its location next to the biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia and big crude shipping routes through the Red Sea. This month al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen's branch of the movement, said it was behind an assault on a Defence Ministry complex in the capital Sanaa in which more than 50 people were killed. Full Story | Top |
| NY City greenhouse gas emissions drop 19 pct since 2005 Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:56 PM PST  New York City's greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 19 percent since 2005, outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday, putting the city nearly two-thirds of the way to meeting the goal that Bloomberg set five years ago. Bloomberg announced the progress report as he prepares to leave the mayor's office on Wednesday after 12 years in office. In the comprehensive climate change blueprint he launched in 2007, called PlaNYC 2030, Bloomberg set a goal to slash citywide emissions 30 percent by 2030 through a number of initiatives, such as requiring hybrid taxi cabs and retrofitting municipal buildings to make them more energy efficient. Sergej Mahnovski, director of the city's office of long-term planning and sustainability, said on Monday that New York's air is the cleanest it has been in 50 years and that the city is on track to make even deeper emissions cuts. Full Story | Top |
| Australia cyclone heads inland after battering iron ore ports Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:26 PM PST  Australia's Pilbara iron ore shipping and mining region, the world's largest, faced cyclonic winds and torrential rains on Tuesday after a cyclone made landfall after intensifying over the last few days in the Indian Ocean. The key shipping ports of Dampier, Cape Lambert and Port Hedland bore the brunt of the storm after clearing dozens of iron ore freighters and evacuating staff over the weekend. Cyclone Christine, the second to batter Western Australia in the November 1-April 30 cyclone season, forced mining companies Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals to suspend loading until emergency authorities sound the all-clear, expected over the next day or two. Full Story | Top |
| Congo's army repels attacks in Kinshasa, dozens killed Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:18 PM PST  By Bienvenu Bakumanya KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese troops killed dozens of armed youths who attacked the airport, a military barracks and state television headquarters in the capital Kinshasa on Monday in incidents claimed by a disgruntled religious leader. Before transmission was shut down at state television, the attackers shouted slogans in favor of pastor Paul Joseph Mukungubila and against President Joseph Kabila. Several corpses lay on the rain-soaked ground outside the brightly painted gates of the state television center after the attack, a Reuters witness said. The broadcaster reported that security forces had killed 46 of the attackers, while government officials said about 20 more had been arrested. Full Story | Top |
| Uganda says region ready to take on, defeat South Sudan rebel leader Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:01 PM PST  By Aaron Maasho and Carl Odera JUBA (Reuters) - Uganda's president said on Monday the nations of East Africa had agreed to move in to defeat South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar if he rejected a ceasefire offer, threatening to turn an outburst of ethnic fighting into a regional conflict. Hours after President Yoweri Museveni's ultimatum, rebels and the feared "White Army" militia clashed against government troops just outside Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, officials said. "We gave Riek Machar four days to respond (to the ceasefire offer) and if he doesn't we shall have to go for him, all of us," Museveni told reporters in South Sudan's capital, Juba, referring to a December 31 deadline. He did not spell out whether South Sudan's neighbors had actually agreed to send troops to join the conflict that erupted in Juba on December 15. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. concerned about threats to Sochi Olympics, offers help Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:32 PM PST By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is concerned Islamist militants may be preparing attacks aimed at disrupting the Winter Olympic games in Sochi in February and is offering closer cooperation on security with Russia despite strains earlier this year. Two bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd in the past two days - one at the city's central railway station and another on a bus - killed dozens of people and raised anxieties about the safety of the Olympics. One militant group issued explicit direct threats to disrupt the Olympics, a State Department official said. Other officials said that regions near Sochi were among the areas of Russia currently most prone to Islamic militancy and other unrest. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt likely to change roadmap, hold presidential vote first: sources Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:20 PM PST  By Asma Alsharif and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's government is likely to call a presidential election before parliamentary polls, officials said on Monday, rearranging the political timetable in a way that could see army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi elected head of state by April. Parliamentary elections were supposed to happen first under the roadmap unveiled after the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July after mass protests against his rule. But critics have campaigned for a change, saying the country needs an elected leader to direct government at a time of economic and political crisis and to forge a political alliance before a potentially divisive parliamentary election. Were that Sisi, who is widely tipped to win the vote, it would restore the army's sway over a post controlled by military men until Mursi was propelled to office last year by the Muslim Brotherhood. Full Story | Top |
| El Salvador volcano spews more ash, gases Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:22 PM PST  By Hugo Sanchez SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - A volcano in eastern El Salvador belched more ash and gases on Monday after a big eruption on Sunday that drove more than 1,600 people into emergency shelters. The Chaparrastique volcano, which is about 140 km (87 miles) east of San Salvador, the capital, spewed ash over a wide area known for its coffee plantations on Sunday. "The Chaparrastique volcano is still producing gases combined with small emissions of ash, which is normal after an eruption," El Salvador's environment ministry said on its Twitter page. In all, 1,635 people are in seven temporary shelters, emergency services said. Full Story | Top |
| Second suicide bomber in Russia's Volgograd kills 14 on bus Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:06 PM PST By Maria Tsvetkova VOLGOGRAD, Russia (Reuters) - A bomb ripped a bus apart in Volgograd on Monday, killing 14 people in the second deadly attack blamed on suicide bombers in the southern Russian city in 24 hours and raising fears of Islamist attacks on the Winter Olympics. President Vladimir Putin, who has staked his prestige on February's Sochi Games and dismissed threats from Chechen and other Islamist militants in the nearby North Caucasus, ordered tighter security nationwide after the morning rush-hour blast. The previous day's similar attack killed at least 17 in the main rail station of a city that serves as a gateway to the southern wedge of Russian territory bounded by the Black and Caspian Seas and the Caucasus mountains. Windows in nearby apartments were blown out by the blast, which Russia's foreign ministry condemned as part of a global terrorist campaign. Full Story | Top |
| Al Jazeera says four journalists held in Egypt after hotel broadcast Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:49 AM PST  Four Al Jazeera journalists have been arrested in Egypt, the station said on Monday, after the Interior Ministry accused the Qatar-based channel of broadcasting illegally from a hotel suite with a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera's offices in Cairo have been closed since July 3 when they were raided by security forces hours after the army ousted the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi from the presidency. Qatar was a strong financial backer of the Brotherhood's rule and its relationship with Cairo has deteriorated in recent months as it vehemently opposes the army's overthrow of Mursi and the crackdown on his movement that has followed. "State security received information that a member of the (Brotherhood) used two suites in a Cairo hotel to hold meetings with other members of the organization and turned the suites into a press center," the ministry said. Full Story | Top |
| Fighting erupts as Iraq police break up Sunni protest camp Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:26 AM PST  By Kamal Namaa RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Fighting erupted when Iraqi police broke up a Sunni Muslim protest camp in the western Anbar province on Monday, leaving at least 13 people dead, police and medical sources said. The camp has been an irritant to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite Muslim-led government since Sunni protesters set it up a year ago to demonstrate against what they see as marginalization of their sect. The operation triggered an immediate political backlash as dozens of Sunni lawmakers offered their resignations. Maliki, who is seeking a third term in April's elections, has repeatedly vowed to remove the camp and accused protesters of stirring strife and sheltering al Qaeda-linked militants. Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria says forces kill 56 Islamists in ground and air assault Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:21 AM PST Nigerian government forces killed at least 56 Islamist Boko Haram fighters in a combined air and ground offensive in the northeast, the military said on Monday. Two government soldiers were been wounded during the battle in Alafa forest on Saturday, an army spokesman in the region, Captain Aliyu Danja, said in a statement. The military often reports significant casualties among Boko Haram, an insurgent group fighting for the past four and a half years to impose Sharia law on Nigeria, while rarely admitting large losses among its own troops or civilians. Nigerian forces have stepped up an offensive against the Islamists in the past two weeks after some setbacks, including a December 2 coordinated strike by the Islamists on the air force base and military barracks in the main northeastern city of Maiduguri. Full Story | Top |
| Congo army clashes with Mukungubila's followers in Lubumbashi Monday, Dec 30, 2013 10:59 AM PST Congo's army clashed on Monday with followers of religious leader Paul Joseph Mukungubila in the eastern mining city of Lubumbashi, an official in the governor's office said, hours after his supporters attacked targets in the capital. Witnesses said the clashes erupted after government troops attacked Mukungubila's church in the center of Lubumbashi, in Congo's copper-rich Katanga province. Gunmen saying they were supporters of Mukungubila had briefly seized control of state television headquarters in Kinshasa earlier on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Congolese army regains control of state TV, airport: government spokesman Monday, Dec 30, 2013 10:59 AM PST KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese government troops have regained control of the state television headquarters, army headquarters and the international airport in the capital Kinshasa after an attack by some 70 gunmen, government spokesman Lambert Mende said. "We have total control of the situation," he told Reuters, adding that 40 of the attackers had been killed by the security forces. (Reporting by Bienvenu Bukumanya; Writing by Daniel Flynn; editing by Patrick Graham) Full Story | Top |
| Four killed in Christian-Muslim clashes in Central African Republic's capital Monday, Dec 30, 2013 10:56 AM PST By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Heavy weapons fire rang out in the north of Central African Republic's capital Bangui on Monday during inter-religious clashes and the Red Cross said at least four people were killed. French and African troops have struggled to contain violence between Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian militias that has already killed 1,000 people this month and displaced hundreds of thousands. "There was heavy weapons fire north of Bangui for a few hours and several neighborhoods were affected," Amy Martin, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bangui told Reuters. Heavy arms fire was reported in Bangui during a two-day surge in violence which began on December 5 but shooting in recent days has been limited to sporadic small arms fire. Full Story | Top |
| British lawmakers to visit Iran to help rebuild ties Monday, Dec 30, 2013 08:54 AM PST  British parliamentarians are to visit Iran next week to try to organize a reciprocal visit by Iranian lawmakers, the latest step aimed at improving relations between the two countries. Britain severed direct diplomatic relations with Iran after activists stormed its embassy in Tehran more than two years ago. However, the election of a relative moderate, President Hassan Rouhani, has paved the way for a thaw in ties which has helped Tehran strike a preliminary agreement about its nuclear program with six world powers, including Britain. Britain appointed a non-resident charge d'affaires to Iran in November, reviving direct ties, a step mirrored by Tehran. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. denies forces involved in possible arrest of Tunisia militant Monday, Dec 30, 2013 08:35 AM PST The U.S. military did not take part in any operation on Monday against the head of Tunisian militant group Ansar al Sharia, a military spokesman said, as Tunisia's state media reported that U.S. and Libyan forces had captured the Islamist leader. "U.S. forces were not involved in any operations regarding Ansar Al Sharia leader Abou Iyadh today in Libya," a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command said. Tunisia's state news agency TAP said that U.S. and Libyan forces captured Saifallah Benahssine, the leader of Tunisia's Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia and a veteran of Afghanistan who is also known as Abu Iyad, in the Libyan city of Misrata on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Myanmar to free most political detainees in year-end amnesty Monday, Dec 30, 2013 08:25 AM PST  Myanmar is expect to release most of its prisoners of conscience on Tuesday and scores more awaiting trial, activists said, after the government announced a year-end amnesty for those held for political reasons. State-run MRTV announced the presidential amnesty in a bulletin late on Monday but did not reveal the number due for release, but an organization that tracks political detainees and assists the government said it expected 230 to be freed and the rest in mid-January. The amnesty follows a promise by reformist President Thein Sein during a visit to Britain in July that there would be no political prisoners held in Myanmar's jails by the end of the year. The EU, United States and other Western countries have increased aid and investment and suspended most sanctions, partly in response to Myanmar freeing hundreds of political prisoners and other liberal reforms unimaginable under the juntas that ruled for 49 unbroken years. Full Story | Top |
| Antarctic blizzard halts icebreaker's bid to rescue stranded ship Monday, Dec 30, 2013 08:15 AM PST By Maggie Lu Yueyang SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Antarctic blizzard has halted an Australian icebreaker's attempt to reach a Russian ship trapped for a week with 74 people onboard, rescuers said on Monday. The Akademik Shokalskiy left New Zealand on November 28 on a private expedition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of an Antarctic journey led by Australian explorer Douglas Mawson. It became trapped in the ice on December 24, 100 nautical miles east of the French Antarctic station Dumont D'Urville. A first rescue attempt by a Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, had to be halted because the ice was so thick. Full Story | Top |
| Shots fired at German ambassador's residence in Athens Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:21 AM PST By Harry Papachristou and Karolina Tagaris ATHENS (Reuters) - Unidentified assailants opened fire on the German ambassador's residence in Athens with a Kalashnikov assault rifle on Monday in an attack seen as an attempt to sour relations between debt-laden Greece and its biggest creditor nation. Police said about 60 shots were fired at the high-security residence on a busy street of a northern suburb. Anti-German sentiment has grown during Greece's prolonged economic crisis and many of those struggling with record unemployment and falling living standards blame Germany's insistence on fiscal rigor for their economic woes. Germany is the biggest single contributing nation to Greece's 240-billion-euro bailouts which have kept the country afloat since 2010 and saved it from bankruptcy. Full Story | Top |
| Switzerland gives Khodorkovsky 3-month Schengen visa Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:12 AM PST  GENEVA (Reuters) - Switzerland granted a three-month visa on Friday to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian former oil tycoon who was released from prison earlier two weeks ago. The visa allows Khodorkovsky to travel within the Schengen area, which includes the majority of the European Union and several countries outside the bloc, including Switzerland. Switzerland's foreign ministry confirmed it was granting a visa in a brief statement, but said it would give no further details, citing data protection reasons. (Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Patrick Graham) Full Story | Top |
| Americans rank Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton as most admired: poll Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:39 AM PST  (Reuters) - Americans named President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the world's most admired living man and woman in 2013, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday. Obama topped the annual list for the sixth consecutive year, a typical ranking for a sitting U.S. president, the polling organization said. Full Story | Top |
| Russia calls for unity in fight against terrorists: Foreign Ministry Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:19 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Monday likened two deadly suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd to attacks by militants in the United States, Syria and other countries and called for international solidarity in the fight against "terrorists". "We will not retreat and will continue our consistent fight against an insidious enemy that can only be defeated together," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bahrain says foils 'terror' attempts, seizes explosives, weapons Monday, Dec 30, 2013 05:50 AM PST Bahraini authorities have foiled an attempt to smuggle explosives and arms, some made in Iran and Syria, into the country by boat, the Gulf Arab state's public security chief said on Monday. Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has been rattled by bouts of unrest since February 2011, when protests led by members of its Shi'ite majority demanded that the Sunni ruling family give up ultimate power to an elected parliament. "According to the investigations, which revealed plans to carry out terrorist acts, security deployment has been intensified," Major-General Tariq al-Hassan said in comments published by the official news agency BNA. He said security forces had also dismantled a car bomb in the al-Houra area east of Manama, seized a weapons and explosive cache and arrested 13 people, including a Saudi Arabian national, trying to flee the country by boat. Full Story | Top |
| Ten bodies arrive at morgue as Iraqi police break up protest: sources Monday, Dec 30, 2013 05:14 AM PST RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Ten bodies arrived at a morgue in the Iraqi city of Ramadi in the western Anbar province after police moved to dismantle a Sunni Muslim protest camp on Monday, hospital and morgue officials said. Clashes broke out when police started to remove the camp, which demonstrators set up a year ago to protest against what they see as the marginalization of their sect by the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. (Reporting by Kamal Namaa; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz) Full Story | Top |
| Afghanistan rejects grim U.S. intelligence forecast as baseless Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:55 AM PST  By Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan on Monday rejected as baseless a U.S. intelligence forecast that the gains the United States and allies have made in the past three years will be significantly rolled back by 2017. The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate also predicted that Afghanistan would fall into chaos if Washington and Kabul failed to sign a pact to keep an international military contingent there beyond 2014. President Hamid Karzai's spokesman dismissed the U.S. forecast, reported by the Washington Post on the weekend, and suggested there was an ulterior motive for it. Relations between Afghanistan and the United States have grown seriously strained recently by Karzai's refusal to sign the security pact that would permit some U.S. forces to stay. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. seeks access to Palestinians in Syria after 15 die of hunger Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:50 AM PST The United Nations appealed on Monday for the Syrian army and rebel fighters to allow urgent aid to reach a Palestinian district of southern Damascus where it said 15 people have died of malnutrition in recent months. U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris Gunness said five Palestinian refugees died in the Yarmouk district over the weekend. Before the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, many of them lived in the Yarmouk neighborhood on the southern edge of the Syrian capital. But the 2011 protests led to a civil war which has driven out most Yarmouk residents, forcing them once again into homelessness. Full Story | Top |
| U.S., Libyan forces capture Tunisian militant leader: media Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:40 AM PST U.S. and Libyan forces captured Saifallah Benahssine, the leader of Tunisia's Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia, in the Libyan city of Misrata on Monday, Tunisia's state news agency TAP said, citing a security source. The U.S. embassy in Libya and Libyan government officials did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the arrest of Benahssine, also known as Abu Iyadh. But the capture of such as high-ranking Tunisian Islamist militant in Libya would indicate close ties among Islamist groups across North Africa. Full Story | Top |
| Bahrain jails five for 15 years for bomb attacks: agency Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:06 AM PST Bahrain, a Western ally which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has been in political turmoil since a 2011 uprising led by majority Shi'ites who demand more say in running the kingdom, which is ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa dynasty. Mohammed al-Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, told Reuters the men told the court their confessions during questioning were obtained under torture. Widespread and excessive force, including confessions under torture, was detailed in a commission led by Cherif Bassiouni, a respected United Nations human rights lawyer, which published its findings and recommended measures to stop them. The Bahrain government says it has taken steps to address security forces brutality by dismissing those responsible and introducing cameras at police stations to monitor abuses. Full Story | Top |
| Former aide to retired Chinese security chief probed for graft Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:54 AM PST  A former aide to retired Chinese security tsar Zhou Yongkang is being investigated for corruption, the government said, the latest move targeting people close to Zhou who is himself subject to a graft probe. The ruling Communist Party's anti-corruption watchdog said on Sunday that Li Chongxi, head of an advisory body to the legislature in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was being investigated for suspected serious breaches of party discipline and the law, the usual euphemism for graft. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) provided no other details and it was not possible to reach Li for comment. President Xi Jinping has launched a sweeping crackdown on corruption since taking power, warning corruption is a threat to the Communist Party's very survival. Full Story | Top |
| Thailand's army moves to allay coup fears Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:40 AM PST By Viparat Jantraprap BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's powerful but politicized army sought to ease fears on Monday it might step in to resolve a festering political crisis, while anti-government protesters entrenched positions around Bangkok as they seek to disrupt a February election. The latest round of an all-too-familiar political conflict in Thailand has dragged on for weeks. It flared last week into deadly clashes between police and protesters outside a stadium where registration for the February 2 poll was under way and at other rally sites around the Thai capital. The demonstrators are determined to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who they accuse of being a puppet of her self-exiled brother and former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra. Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian police arrest Islamists threatening New Year celebrations Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:18 AM PST Tunisian police arrested seven Salafists, or ultra-conservative Islamists, in the western town of Kasserine on Sunday, local radio reported, as authorities feared radical Islamists may be planning attacks during New Year celebrations. Kasserine is the closest town to the remote area of Mount Chambi, stormed earlier this year by the army and police to try and track down more than 30 suspected al Qaeda-linked militants. Tunisian authorities have stepped up checks in the region, fearing militant Islamists may be planning attacks during New Year celebrations. The seven Salafists arrested on Sunday evening were distributing leaflets banning New Year celebrations and threatened bakeries selling cakes for the occasion, according to two local radio reports. Full Story | Top |
| Uganda President threatens South Sudan rebel chief with 'defeat' if no ceasefire Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:06 AM PST Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Monday East African countries would have to defeat South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar if he rejected the Juba government's offer of a ceasefire. "We (regional countries) gave Riek Machar four days to respond and if he doesn't we shall have to go for him, all of us, that is what we agreed in Nairobi," Museveni told reporters in the South Sudanese capital, Juba. Asked what that meant, Museveni said: "to defeat him." (Reporting by Carl Odera; Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria Islamists kill eight in bachelor party attack Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:19 AM PST Suspected fighters from Islamist group Boko Haram opened fire on a bachelor party in northeast Nigeria, killing eight people and wounding several others, witnesses said on Sunday. Boko Haram is fighting to impose strict Sharia or Islamic law in mostly Muslim northern Nigeria, and has become a serious threat to Africa's top oil producer, although its insurgency is far from the oil fields of the southern Niger Delta. Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan ordered an all out offensive against the northeastern rebels in Africa's leading energy exporter. "Three Boko Haram members came on motorcycles at about 11 yesterday night," Abdul Usman told Reuters in the main northeastern city of Maiduguri, where he fled after escaping the attack on Tashan Alade village. Full Story | Top |
| Iran and world powers resume expert level nuclear talks Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:09 AM PST  Iran resumed technical talks with world powers in Geneva on Monday, a vital step in implementing a nuclear deal signed last month which suspends key elements of Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief. The talks between expert teams from Iran and six world powers are meant to translate the political deal into a detailed implementation plan by the end of January, Iran's state news agency, IRNA, quoted an unnamed source as saying. A key sticking point appears to be how much advance information Western governments will get so they can verify that Iran is meeting its end of the deal before they lift any sanctions. The third round of talks between technical experts from the permanent U.N. Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany, are set to last a day and resume in 2014, IRNA reported, a sign of the complexities facing the negotiators in reaching agreement on practical steps. Full Story | Top |
| Blast at Egyptian army building wounds four soldiers Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:40 AM PST  By Yasmine Saleh and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO/ANSHAS (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside an Egyptian army building north of Cairo on Sunday, wounding four soldiers, the army said, in the second bomb attack on security forces in the Nile Delta in less than a week. Its statement referred to "groups of darkness" and did not name the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group it declared a terrorist organization last week. That decision was a response to a suicide bomb attack on Tuesday on a police compound in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, north of the site of Sunday's explosion. The army-backed government has used the new classification to detain hundreds of the movement's supporters and thousands more are already in jail. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt likely to call presidential poll first: sources Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:40 AM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - The Egyptian government will likely call a presidential election ahead of parliamentary polls, two officials said on Monday, rearranging the political roadmap in a way that could see army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi elected head of state by April. The roadmap unveiled after the army deposed President Mohamed Mursi in July timetabled parliamentary elections first. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by John Stonestreet) Full Story | Top |
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