Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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North Korea says names Kim Jong-un top military commander
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:49 PM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea announced on Saturday it has appointed Kim Jong-un, the anointed successor and youngest son of Kim Jong-il, as supreme commander of its 1.2 million-strong military, two days after official mourning for the late leader ended. The North's state news agency KCNA said the appointment was made at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party on Friday. ...
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Cuba pilgrimage ends with call for reconciliation
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:14 PM PST
Reuters -  HAVANA (Reuters) - Roman Catholic Church leaders called for reconciliation among Cubans and urged further economic reform at an outdoor mass in Cuba on Friday marking the end of a national pilgrimage of a statue of the island's patron saint. About 3,000 people gathered along Havana Bay for the ceremony led by Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega paying tribute to the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, a Catholic icon that has toured the communist-ruled country for the past 16 months in the first such religious display permitted since the 1950s. ...
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China says rebel village was right to complain
Fri,30 Dec 2011 06:01 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - Residents of a south China village who tested the ruling Communist Party's control with more than a week of protests had "legitimate complaints" over a land grab that sparked the rebellion, state news agency Xinhua has said. Ten days of protests over confiscated farmland and the death of a protest organizer in Wukan in booming Guangdong province earlier this month drew widespread attention as a rebuff to the stability-obsessed government. The standoff ended after authorities offered concessions in a rare example of the government backing down to mobilised citizens. ...
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Myanmar sets April by-elections, Suu Kyi set to run
Fri,30 Dec 2011 05:40 PM PST
Reuters -  YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar has set a date of April 1, 2012, for by-elections that could see pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi enter parliament, although the military's grip on the assembly will not be threatened. State television announced the date late Friday. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) refused to take part in elections in November 2010, disagreeing with the electoral process set in place by the former military leaders. ...
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Quake rattles New Zealand's Christchurch: USGS
Fri,30 Dec 2011 05:37 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 struck close to the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The quake was measured only about 14 km (9 miles) northeast of the city. It was another in a series of quakes that have rattled the city since a major earthquake killed almost 200 people there 10 months ago. There were no immediate reports of a tsunami warning. ... Full Story | Top |
Former Mexico soldier sentenced for aiding cartels
Fri,30 Dec 2011 04:16 PM PST
Reuters - MEXICO CITY, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A former soldier in the Mexican army was sentenced to 25 years in prison for aiding drug cartels, the attorney general's office said on Friday. Reymundo Morales of the Mexican infantry was arrested two years ago and found guilty of passing information to drug cartels, the attorney general's office said in a statement. Local media said that Morales and several colleagues in uniform were passing information about security operations to the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, led by Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted man. ... Full Story | Top |
Seventeen dead as Syrians stage mass protests
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:55 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian security forces, undaunted by the presence of Arab League observers, have killed at least 12 protesters as hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, opposition activists said. Five members of the security forces were also killed in a shooting in the city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday. ...
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Pro-Saleh protests in Yemen, seven militants killed
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:38 PM PST
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Supporters of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh took to the streets of Yemen's capital on Friday for the first time since he signed a peace agreement last month as violence broke out on other fronts in the country. Seven Islamist militants connected to al Qaeda were killed in southern Yemen, residents of a city occupied by the militants said. Also in the south, rebel fighters killed a security officer. ...
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MSF ponders Somali presence after attack: official
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:13 PM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Medecins Sans Fontieres is withdrawing non-Somali staff from a hospital in Mogadishu where two of its staff were shot dead but the aid group hopes to maintain its operation in Somalia despite the danger, an official said on Friday, Meinie Nicolai, president of MSF's Belgian branch which runs the hospital in the Somali capital, said Thursday's attack did not appear to be politically driven. "For us to leave Somalia would be a last option," Nicolai told Reuters. "It is not a political action as far as we can read it today," she added. "It's not against the organisation. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt assures U.S. no more raids on democracy groups
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:52 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Egyptian officials have assured the United States they will halt raids on pro-democracy and human rights groups and return property seized in a crackdown that strained ties with Washington, U.S. officials said on Friday. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the U.S. ambassador in Egypt, Anne Patterson, spoke with top Egyptian officials including the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Friday to press U.S. ...
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North Korea's new leaders lash out at South Korea and allies
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:42 PM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea sounded a bellicose note in its first communication with the outside world since the death of leader Kim Jong-il, saying its confrontational stance against South Korea would not change and labeling its opponents "foolish." Since Kim Jong-il died on December 17, the outside world has been watching to see whether his son Kim Jong-un, aged in his 20s, would stick to its hardline "military first" policies that have seen the isolated nation move closer to nuclear weapons capacity. ...
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Nigerian Christmas bomb death toll rises to 37
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:10 PM PST
Reuters - ABUJA (Reuters) - The death toll from a bomb attack on a church just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja on Christmas Day has risen to 37, with 57 people wounded, a source at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Friday. The bombing at St. Theresa's Catholic church in Madalla on Abuja's outskirts during a packed Christmas mass was the deadliest of a series of Christmas attacks on Nigerian churches and other targets by the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram. "As of just now, the latest death toll from the bombing of St. Theresa's church is at 37. ... Full Story | Top |
Conflict minerals crackdown backfiring in Congo: U.N.
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:58 PM PST
Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - A U.S. crackdown on so-called "conflict minerals" in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has backfired by pushing trade deeper into the hands of criminals, including at least one former rebel leader, a U.N. report said on Friday. The finding underscores the difficulty faced by both the United States and Congo governments in choking off funding to eastern Congo's roving armed bands, believed responsible for thousands of rapes and killings of villagers. ... Full Story | Top |
Congo ex-rebels given perks for backing Kabila: U.N.
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:42 PM PST
Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - Former rebels have been promoted to senior posts in Democratic Republic of Congo's military in return for supporting President Joseph Kabila's re-election effort, the United Nations said in a report on Friday. The finding could deepen divisions within the army and add to doubts over the credibility of the November 28 poll, which was marred by violence and described by Kabila's opponents as fraudulent, although endorsed by the Supreme Court. The government has been integrating former rebels into the army, the FARDC, in a bid to curb rebellion. ... Full Story | Top |
Media death toll rose in 2011 versus 2010: IFJ
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:25 PM PST
Reuters -  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - More than 100 journalists or other media staff were killed in 2011, up from last year's toll, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said on Friday, calling on U.N. Secretary General Bank Ki-moon to act to help protect the profession. Violence against the media was worst in Pakistan, Iraq and Mexico, each of which saw 11 deaths. One of those killed in Iraq was a freelance working for Reuters Sabah al-Bazee. In total, 106 were killed in 2011, compared with 94 in 2010. ...
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Iran to fire long-range missiles in drill: agency
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:03 PM PST
Reuters - TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will fire long-range missiles during a naval drill in the Gulf on Saturday, a semi-official news agency reported, a show of force at a time when Iran has threatened to close shipping lanes if the West imposes sanctions on its oil exports. Iran threatened on Tuesday to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if it became the target of an oil export embargo over its nuclear ambitions, a move that could trigger military conflict with countries dependent on Gulf oil. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran blocks former president's website ahead of vote
Fri,30 Dec 2011 09:14 AM PST
Reuters -  TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has blocked the website of influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ahead of parliamentary elections, for carrying pro-reform critical statements, Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency reported on Friday. The clerical establishment has increased pressure on the pro-reform opposition ahead of the March 2 vote, the first nationwide poll since a 2009 disputed presidential vote that triggered prolonged and widespread anti-government protests. In the past days, some leading reformist figures have been sentenced to long-term jail sentences. ...
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EU worried at Egypt raids of human rights groups
Fri,30 Dec 2011 09:09 AM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union said on Friday police raids of pro-democracy and human rights groups' offices in Egypt amounted to an "open demonstration of force" and urged the authorities to support civil society. Egyptian prosecutors and police raided the offices of 17 groups on Thursday, in what the official MENA news agency said was an investigation into foreign funding. The move drew protests from the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
Turkey's PM pledges full probe into deadly raid
Fri,30 Dec 2011 08:43 AM PST
Reuters -  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday promised a full investigation into airstrikes on the Iraqi border that killed 35 villagers whom the military had mistaken for Kurdish militants - an attack that has infuriated minority Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. The strikes sparked clashes on Friday in Turkey's restive mainly Kurdish southeast and in the autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq region. In the border village of Gulyazi, thousands of mourners attended funerals after digging deep graves along a steep cliff. ...
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Car-bombing in Pakistan's Quetta kills at least 8
Fri,30 Dec 2011 08:29 AM PST
Reuters -  QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomber remotely detonated an explosive-laden car outside the home of a Pakistani former minister, killing at least eight people and wounding 30, police officials in the city of Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, said on Friday. The car was parked outside the house of Naseer Mengal, a former minister of petroleum and natural resources, according to police officials. Several militants exchanged fire with private security guards after the blast. Paramilitary forces cordoned off the area and were searching for the assailants. ...
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Rebels kill Yemen officer as pro-Saleh protests begin
Fri,30 Dec 2011 08:24 AM PST
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Rebel fighters killed a Yemeni security officer in the south, state news agency SABA said, as supporters of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh took to the streets of the capital on Friday for the first time since he signed a peace deal last month. The security officer was buried in the city of Sabr, near the flashpoint cities of Aden and Taiz. Clashes between security forces, Islamist militants and southern separatists have become common in the area after nearly a year of mass protests calling for the end of Saleh's 33-year rule eroded government control in the south. ...
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Conflict minerals crackdown backfiring in Congo: U.N.
Fri,30 Dec 2011 08:07 AM PST
Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - A U.S. crackdown on so-called "conflict minerals" in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has backfired by pushing trade deeper into the hands of criminals and smugglers, including at least one former rebel leader, a U.N. report said on Friday. The finding underscores the difficulty faced by both the United States and Congo governments in choking off funding to eastern Congo's roving armed bands, believed responsible for thousands of rapes and killings of villagers. ... Full Story | Top |
Hundreds of thousands take to streets in Syria: activists
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:15 AM PST
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian security forces used tear gas on Friday to disperse protesters as hundreds of thousands massed in cities across the country in some of the largest protests seen in the nine-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Activists said they were aiming to show Arab League monitors the level of popular dissent. The observers arrived in Syria this week to assess whether Damascus had halted violence against protesters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 250,000 people were on the streets of Idlib after Friday prayers. ... Full Story | Top |
Nigeria might talk to Boko Haram via "back channels"
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:13 AM PST
Reuters - ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian security services are considering making contact with moderate members of shadowy Islamist sect Boko Haram via "back channels," even though explicit talks are officially ruled out, the national security adviser said on Friday. ... Full Story | Top |
Ukraine ex-PM Tymoshenko moved to remote prison
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:10 AM PST
Reuters -  KIEV (Reuters) - Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of office, has been moved to prison from a detention centre where she has been held since early August, the state penitentiary service said on Friday. Tymoshenko's transfer to a remote location suggests she is unlikely to go free any time soon despite pressure from the European Union, which called her trial politically motivated. The EU put off the signing of a major trade and political agreement with Ukraine this month over the case. ...
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Factbox: Al Qaeda-inspired groups in Hamas-ruled Gaza
Fri,30 Dec 2011 06:52 AM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed a leader of the Army of Islam faction in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the second such strike on Palestinian militants with al Qaeda ties this week. Here are some facts about the constellation of ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafis, who have challenged Hamas's rule in the isolated enclave. GROUPS * Jaysh al-Islam (the Army of Islam) is closely linked to Gaza's powerful Doghmush clan, which worked with Hamas to capture Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006 but broke with it over the Doghmushes' four-month kidnap of a BBC journalist in 2007. ... Full Story | Top |
ICRC sends aid for casualties in Somalia fighting
Fri,30 Dec 2011 04:25 AM PST
Reuters -  NAIROBI (Reuters) - The International Committee for the Red Cross said on Friday it had sent more than a ton of medical supplies to southern Somalia, where over 100 people have been wounded in areas where Kenyan troops are fighting entrenched Islamist rebels. Yves van Loo of ICRC Somalia said the wounded were mainly civilians caught in fighting in the last 10 days in the frontline regions of Afmadow and Dhobley, where air strikes have also taken place in recent weeks. The ICRC said the fighting made it difficult for the wounded to reach hospitals for treatment. ...
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Pakistan court to probe "memogate"
Fri,30 Dec 2011 04:18 AM PST
Reuters -  ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court is to investigate a scandal surrounding an unsigned memo seeking Washington's help to rein in the powerful Pakistani military, a decision announced on Friday that is bound to heap pressure on the weak civilian government. The "memogate" scandal has highlighted historic tensions between the government and the military, in power for more than half Pakistan's 64 years and whose help Washington needs to battle militants fuelling violence in neighboring Afghanistan. ...
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New Moldovan separatist leader seeks Russian support
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:52 AM PST
Reuters - TIRASPOL, Moldova (Reuters) - Yevgeny Shevchuk, the president of Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region, pledged to seek international recognition for the territory and build close ties with Russia as he was sworn in on Friday after beating a Moscow-backed candidate. Former parliament speaker Shevchuk, 43, won the December 25 run-off against incumbent speaker Anatoly Kaminsky, backed by the Kremlin, the major donor to the unrecognized republic located along Moldova's border with Ukraine. ... Full Story | Top |
Nigeria church bomb death toll rises to 37, wounded 57
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:46 AM PST
Reuters -  ABUJA (Reuters) - The death toll from a bomb attack on a church just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja on Christmas Day has risen to 37, with 57 people wounded, a source at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Friday. The bombing at St. Theresa's Catholic church in Madalla on Abuja's outskirts during a packed Christmas mass, was the deadliest of a series of Christmas attacks on Nigerian churches and other targets by the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram. "As of just now, the latest death toll from the bombing of St. Theresa's church is at 37. ...
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Turkish rights groups want U.N. probe into deadly raid
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:26 AM PST
Reuters - ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish rights groups called on Friday for a U.N.-sponsored investigation after Turkish warplanes killed 35 villagers in an airstrike targeting Kurdish rebels on the Iraqi border that the government has called an operational mistake. The incident, which is under government investigation, has raised tensions with minority Kurds in Turkey, sparking clashes between stone-throwing protesters and police in cities in the restive mainly pro-Kurdish southeast and areas in Istanbul. ... Full Story | Top |
Timeline: Worst nuclear submarine incidents
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:25 AM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Russia said it had doused a raging blaze aboard the Yekaterinburg, a manned nuclear submarine on Friday by partially submerging the vessel at a naval shipyard. Here is a timeline of some of the major accidents and incidents involving nuclear submarines in the 21st century: August 12, 2000 - The Russian Oscar-II class submarine Kursk with 118 crew members sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea after an explosion triggered a raging fire in the vessel. A 2002 report said a torpedo fuel leak caused the massive explosion. ... Full Story | Top |
Russia submarine fire "totally extinguished"
Fri,30 Dec 2011 06:33 AM PST
Reuters -  MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday it had doused a raging blaze aboard a nuclear submarine after nearly a full day and night, by partially submerging the vessel after battling the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats. There was no radiation leak and crew inside the submarine were monitoring the stricken vessel's nuclear reactors which had been shut down, Russian officials said. ...
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Arab mission statements on Syria "reassuring": Russia
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:06 AM PST
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry praised Arab League observers in Syria on Friday who were sent to check whether government forces have halted violence against protesters and said their comments were "reassuring." "Judging by the public statements made by the chief of the mission M. al-Dabi, who in the first of his visits went to the city of Homs...the situation seems to be reassuring," the ministry said in a statement on its website. ... Full Story | Top |
China says its most wanted man admits crimes
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:04 AM PST
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's most wanted man, who was deported from Canada in July after a decades-long legal battle, has admitted to his crimes and will now be handed over to prosecutors, state media reported Friday. Beijing had sought the deportation of Lai Changxing for years, accusing him of running a multi-billion dollar smuggling ring in the southeastern city of Xiamen in the 1990s in one of China's biggest political scandals in decades. Nothing has been heard of him since he was returned to China over the summer. A brief report on state radio's website (www.cnr. ...
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Factbox: Syria's city of Hama, site of new assault
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:00 AM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Arab League monitors head to more cities in Syria on Thursday, including Hama which has a particular resonance to Syrians opposed to President Bashar al Assad's rule. Here are some details about the city, the site of a bloody massacre in 1982: * 1982: -- In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Syria's Muslim Brotherhood sought to destabilize and unseat President Hafez al-Assad and his government through political assassinations and urban guerilla warfare. In February 1982, the Muslim Brotherhood ambushed government forces searching for dissidents in Hama. ... Full Story | Top |
African rhino poaching hits record on Asian demand
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:41 AM PST
Reuters -  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A record number of rhinos were poached this year in South Africa, home to the greatest number of the animals, as rising demand in Asia for their horns led to increased killings of the threatened species. At least 443 rhinos have been killed in South Africa in 2011, up from 333 last year, the national park service and conservationists said. ...
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Ukraine ex-PM Tymoshenko moved to jail-prison service
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:01 AM PST
Reuters -  KIEV (Reuters) - Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of office, has been moved to prison from a detention center where she has been held since early August, the state penitentiary service said on Friday. The move indicated she was unlikely to go free any time soon despite pressure from the European Union, which considered her trial politically motivated and put off the signing of key agreements with Ukraine because of her sentence. ...
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U.S.-trained China official seen behind blind activist's jailing
Thu,29 Dec 2011 10:25 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - The rising Chinese official who critics say engineered the jailing of the blind legal rights activist Chen Guangcheng, has come a long way from Connecticut, where he studied public policy and claims to have worked as an aide to the mayor of New Haven. If Chen embodies the rebellious energies that worry China's ruling Communist Party, the official, Li Qun, with his U.S.-honed technocratic learning and homegrown toughness, appears to embody the qualities that the party hopes will keep it in power. ...
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Bad economy puts Jamaica opposition back in power
Thu,29 Dec 2011 10:23 PM PST
Reuters -  KINGSTON (Reuters) - Jamaica's main opposition party rode a wave of discontent with a bad economy to a big win at the polls on Thursday, in general elections that swept former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller back into office. Despite pre-election surveys predicting a close and hard-fought race, preliminary official results showed Simpson Miller's People's National Party, or PNP, winning roughly two-thirds of the parliamentary seats at stake. ...
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