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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 | Top |
Israel frees Palestinian prisoners, pushes settlement plan Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:30 PM PST | 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 | Top |
Australia cyclone heads inland after battering iron ore ports Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:26 PM PST | Top |
Congo's army repels attacks in Kinshasa, dozens killed Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:18 PM PST | Top |
Uganda says region ready to take on, defeat South Sudan rebel leader Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:01 PM PST | 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 | Top |
El Salvador volcano spews more ash, gases Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:22 PM PST | 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 | Top |
Fighting erupts as Iraq police break up Sunni protest camp Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:26 AM PST | 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 | 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 | 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 | Top |
Americans rank Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton as most admired: poll Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:39 AM PST | 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 | 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 | 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 | Top |
Blast at Egyptian army building wounds four soldiers Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:40 AM PST | Top |
Egypt likely to call presidential poll first: sources Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:40 AM PST | Top |
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