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| China calls for calm and restraint in Ukraine crisis Friday, Mar 07, 2014 08:04 PM PST China called for calm and restraint in the Ukraine crisis on Saturday, saying that the issue should be resolved through talks and political means. Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged all parties to keep in mind the fundamental interests of all ethnic communities in Ukraine and interests of regional peace and stability. China has said it will not interfere in what it considers an internal affair and that it respects the Ukrainian people's decisions. The conflict resulted from the overthrow last month of President Viktor Yanukovich after protests in Kiev that led to violence. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia Airlines says last contact with missing plane over South China Sea Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:49 PM PST KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A missing Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, the airline said on Saturday. Malaysian and Vietnamese authorities were working jointly on search operations in the area and the airline could not yet confirm the plane had crashed, Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement read to a news conference. Flight MH 370 operating a Boeing B777-200 aircraft departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. ... Full Story | Top |
| No signal picked up from missing Malaysia Airlines plane: Vietnam official Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:49 PM PST No signal had been picked up from a Malaysia Airlines Boeing B777-200 aircraft flight carrying 239 passengers and crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, a Vietnamese rescue official said on Saturday. "We have been seeking but no signal from the plane yet," Pham Hien, director of a Vietnam maritime search and rescue coordination center in Vung Tau, told Reuters by telephone. Full Story | Top |
| China says no room for compromise with Japan on history, territory Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:35 PM PST  BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday that there was no room for compromise with Japan on questions of history and territory. China's ties with Japan have long been poisoned by what China sees as Japan's failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China before and during World War Two. China's anger over the past is never far from the surface, and relations have deteriorated sharply over the past 18 months because of a dispute over a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Ben Blanchard) Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia Airlines loses contact with plane carrying 239 people Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:34 PM PST  By Stuart Grudgings KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing lost contact with air traffic controllers early on Saturday, the airline said in a statement, the plane likely missing in Vietnamese airspace. Flight MH370, operating a Boeing B777-200 aircraft left Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. (11.21 a.m. ET Friday) and had been expected to land in the Chinese capital at 6.30 a.m. (5.30 p.m. ET) the same day. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370," Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement. "Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search-and-rescue teams to locate the aircraft," it said. Full Story | Top |
| China says will not permit chaos or war on Korean peninsula Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:22 PM PST  BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday that China will not permit chaos or war on the Korean peninsula, and that peace can only come through denuclearization. China is North Korea's most important diplomatic and economic supporter, though Beijing's patience with Pyongyang has been severely tested following three nuclear tests and numerous bouts of saber rattling, including missile launches. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Ben Blanchard) Full Story | Top |
| Putin's body language studied for clues to decision-making: Pentagon Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:08 PM PST By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It turns out all those years Russian leader Vladimir Putin was cavorting bare-chested outdoors, demonstrating his judo skills and darting whales, a Pentagon researcher may have been studying him for clues to his behavior. The Office of Net Assessments, a sort of internal think tank for the U.S. secretary of defense, has spent $300,000 annually since 2009 for research to study the body language and movement patterns of key global leaders, one of them being Putin, who has served as Russia's president and prime minister. Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said Putin had been studied in 2008, along with Russia's then-President Dmitry Medvedev, and again in 2012. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine standoff intensifies; Russia says sanctions will 'boomerang' Friday, Mar 07, 2014 06:18 PM PST  By Steve Gutterman and Andrew Osborn MOSCOW/SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russia said any U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine will boomerang back on the United States and that Crimea has the right to self-determination as armed men tried to seize another Ukrainian military base on the peninsula. In a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against "hasty and reckless steps" that could harm Russian-American relations, the foreign ministry said on Friday. It was the second tense, high-level exchange between the former Cold War foes in 24 hours over the pro-Russian takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin said after an hour-long call with U.S. President Barack Obama that their positions on the former Soviet republic were still far apart. Full Story | Top |
| China helping locate missing Malaysia Airlines plane: TV Friday, Mar 07, 2014 05:46 PM PST BEIJING (Reuters) - China is helping locate a Malaysia Airlines aircraft which has gone missing on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, Chinese state television said on one of its official microblogs. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard) Full Story | Top |
| China not received reports of crashed plane in Chinese waters: TV Friday, Mar 07, 2014 05:44 PM PST By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China has not at present received reports of any crashed plane in Chinese waters, state television said on one of its official microblogs, after a Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was reported missing. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard) Full Story | Top |
| California bill would ban orca shows, captive breeding Friday, Mar 07, 2014 05:27 PM PST By Dana Feldman SANTA MONICA, California (Reuters) - A California lawmaker introduced a bill on Friday to ban live performances and captive breeding of killer whales in the state, a measure that would force the SeaWorld San Diego marine theme park to end is popular "Shamu" shows. The measure was introduced by state Assemblyman Richard Bloom, who told a news conference his interest in the issue was sparked by last year's documentary "Blackfish," dealing with the treatment of killer whales at SeaWorld parks. The film, which SeaWorld has criticized as a misleading, inaccurate piece of animal rights propaganda, explores circumstances leading to the 2010 death of a top SeaWorld trainer, Dawn Brancheau, who was pulled underwater and drowned by an orca she had worked and performed with in Florida. Full Story | Top |
| Radar contact lost with Malaysian flight in Vietnam airspace: Xinhua Friday, Mar 07, 2014 05:22 PM PST BEIJING (Reuters) - Radar contact with a Malaysian Airlines aircraft that has gone missing on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was lost in airspace controlled by Vietnam in the early hours of Saturday morning, China's Xinhua news agency said. The aircraft did not enter airspace controlled by China and did not make contact with Chinese controllers, Xinhua added, in a report on one of its official microblogs. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard) Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia's Anwar convicted of sodomy, political future in doubt Friday, Mar 07, 2014 04:10 PM PST  By Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - A Malaysian court convicted opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy and sentenced him to five years in prison on Friday, shattering his plan to take control of the country's richest state and stoking political tension in the Southeast Asian nation following a divisive national election last year. The former deputy prime minister, who was previously jailed for six years on sodomy and corruption charges, will not be jailed immediately as his lawyers won a stay of the sentence pending an appeal. But the ruling bars Anwar from running for a seat in the state assembly of Selangor this month, a move that would likely have paved the way for him to become chief minister of Malaysia's most populous state - a potent platform from which to attack the government ahead of the next national election. This has been choreographed," he added, saying the government had underestimated "the wrath of the people." A government spokesman said that Malaysia had an "independent judiciary." "This is a case between two individuals and is a matter for the courts, not the government," the spokesman said. Full Story | Top |
| Obama phoned Merkel on Friday to discuss Ukraine situation: White House Friday, Mar 07, 2014 03:28 PM PST FLORIDA CITY, Florida (Reuters) - President Barack Obama telephoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday from his vacation resort in Key Largo, Florida, to discuss the situation in Ukraine, the White House said. No other details were immediately available. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| Tension escalates over hunting of pregnant bison outside Yellowstone Friday, Mar 07, 2014 03:19 PM PST By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Angered by the killing of pregnant bison outside Yellowstone National Park, a Native American tribal member tried to deliver a bloody bison heart to Montana's governor this week, the latest skirmish over the management of the iconic animal. James St. Goddard, a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana and former member of the tribe's governing council, said he found the heart where hunters from another tribe discarded it after gutting a bison killed when many females are well along in their pregnancies. Are we all ignorant of our own Indian culture?" said St. Goddard, who was prevented by authorities from presenting the bison heart to Montana Governor Steve Bullock at his office in Helena. St. Goddard's protest, which was not sanctioned by the Blackfeet Nation, highlighted controversy over practices - which have divided some tribal members - in which bison that stray out of Yellowstone have been killed in extended tribal hunting seasons. Full Story | Top |
| Costa Rica opposition group says to scrap 2021 carbon neutrality target Friday, Mar 07, 2014 02:57 PM PST By Marcelo Teixeira SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Costa Rica's leading opposition group, PAC, expected to win a four-year presidential term next month, will drop the country's commitment to carbon neutrality by 2021, an official said. The leftist group's candidate, Luis Guillermo Solis, should be elected president in an April 6 runoff vote after ruling party candidate Johnny Araya announced on Wednesday that he was abandoning the campaign. "We don't think it would be possible to reach carbon neutrality by 2021, because the most important tasks to reduce emissions in the country are yet to be done," Patricia Madrigal, the Citizens' Action Party environmental adviser, told Reuters this week. She said changes in the transport and energy sectors, to increase fuel efficiency and renewables production, are necessary because the nation lacks the means to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in key sectors by the target date. Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon says 20,000 Russian troops may be in Crimea Friday, Mar 07, 2014 02:04 PM PST The Pentagon on Friday estimated as many as 20,000 Russian troops may be in Crimea but acknowledged its information was imperfect, as U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel praised the restraint of Ukrainian forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin denies that the forces with no national insignia that are surrounding Ukrainian troops in their bases are under Moscow's command. Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby, asked about the number of Russian forces in Crimea, cited estimates of up to around 20,000 of them. Ukraine's border guards have put the figure far higher. Full Story | Top |
| Great Lakes ice cover among worst in 40 years: U.S. agency Friday, Mar 07, 2014 02:02 PM PST By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - The Great Lakes saw some of their worst ice cover in nearly four decades because of a frigid winter with months of below-freezing temperatures in large sections of the northern United States, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration said. "We had lots of ice on the lakes early this year and then with the polar vortex at the end of December, we saw the ice continue to grow," said George Leshkevich, a physical scientist with NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Four of the Great Lakes are more than 90 percent under ice, according to Leshkevich, something that has not happened since 1994. The 40-year average ice coverage for all the lakes is about 51 percent, the NOAA said. Full Story | Top |
| White House plays down speedy role for U.S. natural gas in Ukraine Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:38 PM PST By Roberta Rampton ON BOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House on Friday appeared to play down the possibility of changing U.S. policy on exporting natural gas to address the situation in Ukraine. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Air Force One that policy changes would not have an immediate effect and noted that natural gas stocks in Europe were above normal levels because of a mild winter. "There is no indication currently that there's much risk of a natural gas shortage in the region," he said. Europe and Ukraine are key export markets for natural gas from Russia, which has historically shut down pipelines as a pressure tactic. Full Story | Top |
| Tensions ease after Crimean military post standoff: local PM Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:29 PM PST  Armed men thought to be Russians drove a truck into a Ukrainian missile-defense post in the Crimea region on Friday but a standoff was resolved without a shot being fired, witness said. Crimea's pro-Russia premier, Sergei Aksyonov, was asked about the incident during a political chat show shown live on Ukrainian television and said all was calm at the military post. Referring to the armed men as "self-defense units, he indicated the standoff was over, adding: "Now the self-defense units are surrounded by journalists. There are no attempts to attack." A Ukrainian military official told Reuters at the post that the armed group inside had not seized any weapons. Full Story | Top |
| Three killed in Cairo clashes, 48 wounded across Egypt Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:19 PM PST  Three protesters were killed and dozens wounded as Muslim Brotherhood supporters and police clashed across Egypt on Friday, the health ministry and security sources said. Security sources said two were killed in street battles with the police in the Cairo district of Alf Maskin and a third in the capital's Abbaseya. The Interior Ministry said it had arrested 47 people it said were Brotherhood members during the violence, which broke out after Friday prayers. Police cars were burned by protesters in at least two Cairo districts. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. special forces sent to train Iraqi special forces in Jordan Friday, Mar 07, 2014 12:46 PM PST  By Missy Ryan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States recently sent a small number of special forces soldiers to Jordan to train with counterparts from Iraq and Jordan, a new step in the Obama administration's effort to help Baghdad stamp out a resurgent al Qaeda threat, a U.S. defense official said on Friday. The U.S. contingent was dispatched to take part in a training exchange with counterterrorism forces from Iraq and Jordan, allowing the administration to provide a modest new measure of support to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Full Story | Top |
| Latin American foreign ministers to discuss Venezuela unrest Friday, Mar 07, 2014 12:33 PM PST  Latin American foreign ministers will meet next week to discuss the unrest in Venezuela that has left at least 20 dead and convulsed the South American OPEC nation, diplomatic sources said on Friday. The officials will gather on Tuesday at a meeting of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) group of Latin American nations in Chile, where the leaders are congregating for the inauguration of President Michelle Bachelet. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said late on Thursday that the bloc's presidents would meet. Diplomatic sources said, however, that foreign ministers would meet instead. Full Story | Top |
| Kremlin hopes Ukraine crisis will not start new Cold War Friday, Mar 07, 2014 12:23 PM PST  By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin's spokesman lashed out at the West on Friday and defended Russia's actions in Ukraine, but said he hoped "extremely deep disagreements" would not lead to a new Cold War. The remarks, broadcast on a main state channel while Putin presided over the opening of the Paralympic Games, seemed to be part of an effort to avoid a historic break with the West while giving no ground in the dispute over Ukraine. Dmitry Peskov said "extremely deep disagreements of a conceptual nature between Russia and the European Union and the United States have already been registered". But he added: "There still remains hope ... that some points of agreement can be found as a result of dialogue - which our partners, thank God, have not yet rejected." Asked whether East and West were entering a new Cold War, Peskov replied: "I believe that it has not started and I would like to believe it will not start." Peskov said calls for talks between Russia and Ukraine with the West as a mediator "make us smile". Full Story | Top |
| Turkey's former army chief freed from prison Friday, Mar 07, 2014 12:18 PM PST  By Daren Butler and Ece Toksabay ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Former army chief Ilker Basbug was released from a life sentence following a court decision on Friday, adding to uncertainty over the fate of court cases trying coup plots against Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The decision to release the former general came after Thursday's constitutional court ruling that Basbug's incarceration for his alleged role in the 'Ergenekon' conspiracy to overthrow the government violated his rights, as the court trying him had failed to publish a detailed verdict on the case. Basbug was released from Silivri prison near Istanbul where he had been held for 26 months in connection with the Ergenekon case, a trial which helped tame Turkey's once all-powerful military. Speaking in Silivri outside Istanbul in front of scores of supporters waving red Turkish flags, cheering and chanting, an emotional Basbug recalled his anger and shock that the head of the Turkish armed forces was being remanded in custody as the leader of a terrorist group. Full Story | Top |
| New England has environmental concerns over Canada oil sands Friday, Mar 07, 2014 12:16 PM PST By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) - A decision by Canadian regulators to let pipeline company Enbridge pump oil sands into Quebec has environmental activists and politicians worried the oil could eventually spill into the neighboring New England region of the United States. Canada's National Energy Board on Thursday approved a plan by the country's No.1 pipeline company Enbridge to reverse and expand its Line 9 from southern Ontario to Quebec on condition that it undertake additional work on consultation and safety. The project would feed refineries around Montreal and Quebec City, but would also place oil sands at the northern terminus of the Portland-Montreal pipeline, which runs through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Full Story | Top |
| Russians take over Ukrainian military post, no shots fired: witnesses Friday, Mar 07, 2014 12:15 PM PST  Armed men thought to be Russians drove a truck into a Ukrainian missile defence post in the Crimea region on Friday and took control without a shot being fired, a Reuters reporter on the scene said. A Ukrainian military official, Vladislav Seleznyov, said by telephone that the armed men took over the base without any shooting and that no one was hurt. Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu says Israel would give up 'some settlements' for peace Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:56 AM PST  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would give up "some settlements" in occupied Palestinian land to help secure a peace agreement but would limit as much as he could the number of enclaves removed. The settlements are a key issue in peace talks renewed under Washington's tutelage in July after a three-year impasse. Little progress has been reported though U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said he hopes to publish a framework for a deal soon. The settlements built in territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War are deemed illegal in international law and condemned by most governments. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. cautions against hasty actions in Crimea amid calls for secession Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:49 AM PST By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations voiced concern on Friday about plans by regional authorities in Crimea to hold a referendum on whether to secede from Ukraine and join Russia and warned against decisions being taken "in the heat of the moment." The east-west confrontation sparked by the overthrow last month of President Viktor Yanukovich after violent protests in Kiev escalated on Thursday when Crimea's parliament, dominated by ethnic Russians, voted to join Russia and called for a March 16 plebiscite on the issue. "The recent announcement by the authorities in Crimea that they intend to hold a referendum is a worrying and serious development," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters. Full Story | Top |
| Suspected Russian spyware Turla targets Europe, United States Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:45 AM PST  By Peter Apps and Jim Finkle LONDON/BOSTON (Reuters) - A sophisticated piece of spyware has been quietly infecting hundreds of government computers across Europe and the United States in one of the most complex cyber espionage programs uncovered to date. Several security researchers and Western intelligence officers say they believe the malware, widely known as Turla, is the work of the Russian government and linked to the same software used to launch a massive breach on the U.S. military uncovered in 2008. Full Story | Top |
| Iran, world powers hold 'substantive and useful' nuclear talks Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:40 AM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran and six world powers held "substantive and useful" expert-level talks over Tehran's nuclear program this week, they said on Friday, ahead of a new round of political negotiations later this month. Seeking to build on an interim agreement reached late last year in Geneva, Iran and the major powers aim to hammer out a final settlement of the decade-old dispute over the Islamic Republic's atomic activities by late July. But they also acknowledge that there are still big differences over the future scope of Iran's nuclear program and that success is far from guaranteed. "The talks are very serious and substantive and useful," the head of the Iranian delegation at the expert-level talks, senior Foreign Ministry official Hamid Baidinejad, told Iran's Fars news agency ahead of Friday's session. Full Story | Top |
| Yemen names new oil and interior ministers: state news agency Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:35 AM PST Yemen appointed new oil and interior ministers on Friday, state news agency Saba reported, after a series of lethal attacks on security targets and oil facilities. Saba said Khaled Mahfouz Bahah had taken the energy portfolio and Abdou Hussein al-Tarb the Interior Ministry. A new head of the Political Security Agency, the domestic intelligence service, was also named. Impoverished Yemen, a U.S. ally, has seen political turmoil and violence since veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in 2012 following months of mass protests against his rule. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. State Department says June deadline on Syria chemical weapons at risk Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:29 AM PST  The U.S. State Department said on Friday that Syria is at risk of missing a June 30 deadline for disposing of chemical weapons but that the deadline can still be met. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that after "weeks of inaction" and missed intermediate deadlines, less than one-third of Syria's chemical weapon material had been moved out of the country as part of an agreement with the United States and Russia. Sources at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Syria also will miss another interim deadline next week. Full Story | Top |
| Sri Lanka says suspected wartime mass grave is an old cemetery Friday, Mar 07, 2014 10:49 AM PST  By Shihar Aneez COLOMBO (Reuters) - Officials investigating a suspected mass grave in Sri Lanka's former northern war zone called off the digging on Friday because the 83 skeletons unearthed there seem to have been buried in an old cemetery. The Sri Lankan army has been accused of killing tens of thousands of civilians in the final weeks of its 26-year war against northern Tamil separatists in 2009 and Colombo has been under pressure to investigate reports of mass graves there. Police at first suggested the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists could be responsible for the burial site near a Hindu temple in the northwestern town of Mannar. But Senerath Dissanayake, director general of the state-run Archeological Department, said it is not a mass grave as the bodies had been "buried systematically". Full Story | Top |
| Sarkozy's phone tapped by investigators: Le Monde Friday, Mar 07, 2014 10:45 AM PST  Nicolas Sarkozy's phone was tapped during a judicial probe into financing for his 2007 election campaign, Le Monde newspaper reported, potentially presenting a new hurdle for the former French president who is widely expected to run for office again. The newspaper said the phone tapping episode had given rise to suspicions Sarkozy had been secretly advised by a high court judge in exchange for help getting the judge a role in Monaco. The alleged phone tapping was denounced by Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog, as "monstrous". Herzog also said there had been "no influence peddling" in the context of contacts with the judge, named by Le Monde as Gilbert Azibert. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says U.S. sanctions would 'boomerang' Friday, Mar 07, 2014 10:43 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday any U.S. sanctions imposed against Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine would boomerang back on the United States and urged Washington not to damage bilateral ties. In a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "warned against hasty and reckless steps capable of causing harm to Russian-American relations, particularly ... sanctions, which would inevitably hit the United States like a boomerang", the Foreign Ministry said. (Writing by Steve Gutterman; editing by Andrew Roche) Full Story | Top |
| South Africa, Rwanda expel diplomats in row over Rwandan exiles Friday, Mar 07, 2014 10:25 AM PST  By Pascal Fletcher and Helen Nyambura-Mwaura JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa expelled three Rwandan diplomats it linked to a raid on an exiled Rwandan general's Johannesburg home, and Rwanda has retaliated by ordering out six South African envoys, officials said on Friday. The row strained ties between two African states involved in efforts to bring peace to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where South Africa has troops in a U.N. brigade that fought last year against rebels whom U.N. experts said received support from Rwanda. Kigali denied backing the Congolese rebels. Late on Monday, armed men broke into the Johannesburg home of former Rwandan army chief General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, an exiled critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. says almost all Muslims have fled Central African capital Friday, Mar 07, 2014 10:18 AM PST By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Fewer than 1,000 remain of more than 100,000 Muslims who once lived in the capital of the Central African Republic, after a campaign of violence by Christian militias, the U.N. aid chief said on Friday. With 650,000 people displaced by the religious conflict, Valerie Amos said the United Nations had received much less than a fifth of the $551 million it asked for in December to provide food, medical care and shelter. "The demography of CAR is changing, from a situation where you had 130,000 to 145,000 Muslims in Bangui, to where you had around 10,000 in December," Amos told a news conference. France has deployed 2,000 troops to support a 6,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission in the country of 4.5 million people but they have failed to halt the violence. Full Story | Top |
| Gaza Palestinians protest Egypt's Hamas ban Friday, Mar 07, 2014 10:15 AM PST  By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian protesters raised banners and placards on Friday in the Gaza Strip condemning neighboring Egypt's ban on activities of the Hamas Islamist group. Senior Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya said Tuesday's decision by a Cairo court to ban Hamas' work and activity in the country was an attempt to "criminalize resistance" to Israel and would not deter it from its fight against the Jewish state. "The rifle Hamas is holding to protect our people and our land will never drop," Hayya said as hundreds protested outside a former Egyptian representative office in Gaza City. Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities in Cairo have declared a terrorist group and which they have repressed since the army ousted one of its leaders, Mohamed Mursi, from the presidency in July. Full Story | Top |
| Turkish president rejects Facebook, YouTube ban over wiretaps Friday, Mar 07, 2014 09:56 AM PST  By Daren Butler and Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's president on Friday ruled out any ban on Facebook and YouTube after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the sites could be shut to stop his foes anonymously posting audio recordings purportedly exposing corruption in his inner circle. In the latest recording, released on YouTube late on Thursday, Erdogan is purportedly heard berating a newspaper owner over the telephone about an article and suggesting the journalists be sacked, in comments that will further stoke concerns over media freedom and Erdogan's authoritarian style of leadership. Erdogan, who rejects any accusations of corruption, blames U.S.-based Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, a former ally, for the wiretaps which he says have been "fabricated". Gulen, who denies any involvement, has many followers in Turkey, especially in the police and judiciary. Full Story | Top |
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