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| China jails prominent rights activist for four years Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 06:47 PM PST  By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court sentenced one of China's most prominent rights advocates to four years in prison on Sunday after he campaigned for the rights of children from rural areas to be educated in cities and for officials to disclose their assets. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court found Xu Zhiyong guilty of "gathering a crowd to disturb public order", the court said on its official microblog. Xu was tried on Wednesday. Xu's jailing will send a stark warning to activists that the Chinese Communist Party will crush any challenge to its rule, especially from those who seek to organize campaigns. Full Story | Top |
| Chile port workers end strike after three weeks Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 06:01 PM PST  Chilean port workers negotiated a settlement with management on Saturday and ended a more than three-week-old strike that had slowed copper, fruit and other shipments from the world's top copper producer. Other ports joined the strike in solidarity and in protest over what they say is police brutality against striking workers. Full Story | Top |
| Three dead, including gunman, in Maryland mall shooting Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 05:38 PM PST  By Bill Trott COLUMBIA, Maryland (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire with a shotgun in a skate shop at a crowded shopping mall near Baltimore on Saturday, killing two store employees and wounding another person before apparently killing himself, police said. Howard County police said they did not know the motive for the shooting at the large mall in Columbia, Maryland, about 20 miles west of Baltimore. Police identified the victims as Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, Maryland, and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Ellicott City, Maryland. Both were employees of Zumiez, a skate shop where the shooting took place. Full Story | Top |
| China reports second case of new bird flu strain Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 05:26 PM PST Chinese authorities have confirmed the second human case of the new H10N8 strain of bird flu, contracted by a woman who is in critical condition in hospital in the east of the country, state news agency Xinhua has reported. The 55-year-old woman was admitted to hospital in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province, on January 15, complaining of a sore throat and dizziness, Xinhua said late on Saturday. In December, China confirmed its first death from the H10N8 strain, also in Nanchang. China is in the middle of its traditional flu season and has long had a problem with bird flu. Full Story | Top |
| Tunisia premier lacks consensus on new caretaker cabinet Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 04:32 PM PST  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's new Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa on Sunday was forced to delay naming a caretaker government to lead until elections after failing to reach a consensus over the key post of interior minister. Jomaa had planned to present his cabinet before the president on Saturday, but just after midnight the premier told at a press briefing there was no consensus over the cabinet list and he could not name the government. "It is not a question of a person, but rather I am looking for a real consensus in the government. It was a setback for Tunisia after its assembly finished the country's new constitution last week, progress widely praised as a model in contrast to upheaval in Libya, Egypt and Yemen who also ousted leaders in 2011 uprisings. Full Story | Top |
| Syrian civil war foes meet for first time, focus on aid Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 03:50 PM PST  By Mariam Karouny and Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria's civil war foes held their first face-to-face meetings on Saturday, launching talks aimed at ending nearly three years of conflict which has killed 130,000 people and destabilized the wider Middle East. Government and opposition delegates faced each other across a negotiating table at the United Nations headquarters for a total of three hours in the presence of mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who described the meetings as "a good beginning". While political differences which Brahimi says must form the core of their talks appear insurmountable for now, the two sides focused on Saturday on a possible humanitarian deal aimed at building confidence in the negotiating process. Brahimi said he hoped that authorities in Syria would approve access on Sunday for an aid convoy to reach the rebel-held centre of Homs, allowing it to be delivered on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Anti-World Cup protest draws over 2,000 in Sao Paulo Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 03:46 PM PST The year's first major protest against the World Cup drew more than 2,000 demonstrators into the streets of Brazil's largest city on Saturday, as frustration over the cost of the tournament lingers in the host country. But the demonstration in Sao Paulo fell far short of the more than 20,000 people who confirmed attendance on Facebook, highlighting the diminished energy of recent protests compared to the public unrest during the Confederations Cup tournament held here last June. Politicians and investors are watching closely this year to see if another wave of protests could sully the image of the World Cup or weigh on the popularity of President Dilma Rousseff ahead of elections in October. As the largely peaceful Sao Paulo demonstration wrapped up around sunset, local television registered isolated acts of vandalism, including broken bank windows, a smashed police car and a Volkswagen beetle engulfed in flames. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine opposition seek more after offer of top government posts Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 03:35 PM PST By Richard Balmforth and Jack Stubbs KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich offered the opposition several top government posts on Saturday, hoping to coax his opponents into ending protests that threaten to bring the country to a standstill. But opposition leaders, whose power base is among thousands of protesters massing in Kiev's city centre, continued to press for further concessions, including early elections and the repeal of an anti-protest law. After meeting opposition leaders, Yanukovich offered former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk the post of prime minister to replace Mykola Azarov, whose government would be expected to resign, the presidential website said. Full Story | Top |
| Thirty-two presumed dead in massive Quebec seniors' home fire Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 03:34 PM PST  By Matthieu Belanger L'ISLE-VERTE, Quebec (Reuters) - Thirty-two people were presumed to have died in a fire that swept through a wooden retirement residence in the eastern Canadian province of Quebec on Thursday, police said on Saturday. The disaster looks set to be the second worst to hit a Canadian seniors' home after a 1969 blaze in Quebec that killed 54 people. Police, pressed about reports a cigarette had started the fire, said they still had no idea what caused Thursday's blaze in the Residence du Havre in L'Isle-Verte, a town of 1,500 people on the St Lawrence River northeast of Quebec City. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt diplomats kidnapped in Libya over militia chief's arrest Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 03:28 PM PST  By Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Five Egyptian diplomats kidnapped in Tripoli in retaliation for Egypt's arrest of a Libyan militia chief pleaded on Saturday for their government to free him to secure their release. Gunman snatched four diplomatic staff from their homes in the Libyan capital on Saturday, including the cultural attaché, and kidnapped another on Friday, forcing Cairo to evacuate its embassy and its Benghazi consulate. The kidnappings of so many diplomats underlined Libya's persistent chaos two years after Muammar Gaddafi's fall, with heavily-armed former rebels and Islamist militants who fought in the uprising still challenging state authority. Calling themselves Libyan revolutionaries, the kidnappers contacted Al-Arabiya television channel to demand the release in 24 hours of Libyan militia chief Shaban Hadia, and put one of the Egyptian diplomats on the line. Full Story | Top |
| Police identify two killed in Maryland mall shooting Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 02:34 PM PST (Reuters) - Police identified the two Zumiez skate shop employees killed at a mall shooting near Baltimore on Saturday as Brianna Benlolo, 21, and Tyler Johnson, 25. Benlolo was from College Park, Maryland, and Johnson was from Ellicott City, Maryland, the Howard County Police Department said on its Twitter page. Full Story | Top |
| French President Hollande announces separation from Trierweiler Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 02:33 PM PST  By Emmanuel Jarry and Leila Abboud PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande announced his separation from first lady Valerie Trierweiler on Saturday following a media storm over allegations he is having an affair with an actress. "I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler," he told Agence France Presse news agency. Hollande sought to put an end to turbulence that began two weeks ago when celebrity magazine Closer published a report that he was having an affair with film actress and Socialist Party supporter Julie Gayet. Questions over Hollande's personal life - and whether Trierweiler was still first lady - have diverted public attention from a shift the president made this month towards more business-friendly policies aimed at reviving the euro zone's second-biggest economy in the face of high unemployment. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. retailer Michaels warns of possible payment card breach Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 02:24 PM PST By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) - Michaels Companies Inc, the biggest U.S. arts and crafts retailer, said it is investigating a possible security breach on its payment card network and advised customers to check their financial statements for fraudulent activity. If confirmed, it would mark the second known data breach since 2011 at Michaels, which is preparing to sell shares in an initial public offering. "We are concerned there may have been a data security attack on Michaels that may have affected our customers' payment card information," Michaels Chief Executive Chuck Rubin said in a statement on Saturday. Full Story | Top |
| Obama to outline new plans for jobless next week Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 02:12 PM PST  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will announce a new plan next week to help Americans who continue to struggle to find jobs even as the economy recovers from recession, his senior adviser, Dan Pfeiffer, said on Saturday. Obama's efforts to help the long-term unemployed are part of an economic strategy he will lay out in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday and expound upon during a four-state tour, Pfeiffer said in a mass email from the White House. Obama has vowed to address the gap between rich and poor in America, and has said he will do what he can - even without help from a deeply divided Congress that, so far, has shown little willingness to spend money on new programs. A White House official said Obama will announce in his Tuesday speech new executive actions on retirement security and job training to help middle-class workers "expand economic opportunity" - a key theme of the speech. Full Story | Top |
| Death toll from Congo arms depot blast rises to over 20 Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 12:31 PM PST The number of people known to have been killed by an explosion at an arms depot in Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to more than 20, the U.N. mission in the country said on Saturday. The blast occurred on Friday when a lightning strike sparked a fire at the depot near the diamond mining hub of Mbuji-Mayi, Congo's third largest city. "I have instructed our office in Mbuji-Mayi to stand by and support local authorities in dealing with the situation," said Martin Kobler, head of MONUSCO. Full Story | Top |
| Car bombs and mortar attacks kill at least 17 in Iraq Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 12:25 PM PST  At least 17 people were killed in violence across Iraq on Saturday, including by car bombs and a mortar attack on a Shi'ite Muslim village, police and medical sources said. The deadliest attack took place in a village near the Iraqi city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, where three mortar bombs killed six people, police said. A woman and a child were among the victims, five of whom belonged to the same family, the police said, adding that the assailants might have been aiming at a nearby police station. Violence in Iraq climbed back to its highest level in five years in 2013, when nearly 9,000 people were killed, most of them civilians, according to the United Nations. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt says evacuates Libya embassy, Benghazi consulate after kidnappings Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 12:01 PM PST TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Egypt evacuated its embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli and the consulate in Benghazi as a precautionary measure after five of its diplomatic staff were kidnapped, a foreign ministry spokesman told Al-Arabiya news channel on Saturday. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Ulf Laessing, editing by Patrick Markey) Full Story | Top |
| Twenty-nine dead in clashes on anniversary of Egypt uprising Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 11:47 AM PST By Sameh Bardisi and Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Twenty-nine people were killed during anti-government marches on Saturday while thousands rallied in support of the army-led authorities, underlining Egypt's volatile political fissures three years after the fall of autocrat President Hosni Mubarak. Security forces lobbed teargas and some fired automatic weapons in the air to try to prevent demonstrators opposed to the government reaching Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled the former air force commander. As police tried to calm Cairo's politically-charged streets, a car bomb exploded near a police camp in the Egyptian city of Suez, security sources said. But the growing violence has not dented the popularity of General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose ouster of Islamist Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's first freely-elected president, plunged the country into turmoil. Full Story | Top |
| Madagascar's president takes over; grenade blast kills child Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 11:46 AM PST  By Alain Iloniaina ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's new president Hery Rajaonarimampianina, who won the first elections since a coup in 2009, took office on Saturday but his inauguration was marred by an explosion that killed one person and wounded dozens after the ceremony. The government said initial investigations showed the blast was caused by a grenade that was thrown near Mahamasina stadium where a musical show was taking place in the evening, hours after the inauguration there. His inauguration may not have pleased everyone. That's perhaps one of the reasons why this happened," said Arsene Rakotondrazaka, minister of internal security, who was at the scene. Full Story | Top |
| Death toll from protest clashes in Egypt rises to 29: health ministry Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 11:24 AM PST Cairo (Reuters) - The death toll from clashes during protests in Egypt on Saturday climbed to 29, state television quoted a health ministry official as saying. The fighting erupted on the third anniversary of the popular uprising which toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Security forces fought opponents of the army-backed government which replaced Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. (Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Andrew Roche) Full Story | Top |
| Strifetorn Central African Republic names new PM Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 11:02 AM PST  Central African Republic's new interim President Catherine Samba-Panza has named Andre Nzapayeke, a former official of the African Development Bank, as prime minister, state radio said on Saturday. Samba-Panza, who took office two days ago, is seeking to build an interim government to restore order to the former French colony after months of sectarian violence that has left thousands dead or homeless. That triggered revenge attacks by Christian militia known as "anti-balaka", or anti-machete, and fighting has escalated in recent days despite the presence of about 1,600 French troops and 5,000 African Union peacekeepers. On Saturday, local Red Cross president Pastor Antoine Mbao Bogo said his staff had recovered four bodies in Bangui. Full Story | Top |
| Obama to pitch ideas in speech for spurring upward mobility in U.S. Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 10:56 AM PST  By Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will urge the U.S. Congress on Tuesday to do more to help poor and middle-class Americans move up the economic ladder. Both Obama and congressional Republicans view that issue as a high priority, a rare point of agreement between the two sides. But the Democratic president and Republicans disagree on the remedies, setting up a debate that Obama will discuss in his State of the Union address to Congress. In the speech, scheduled for 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday (0200 GMT on Wednesday), Obama will push an agenda for increasing economic upward mobility and propose aid to the long-term unemployed, an increase in the minimum wage and an expansion of early-childhood education. Full Story | Top |
| Thai government wants end to protests but promises no crackdown Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 10:46 AM PST  Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has called an election for February 2 in the hope of cementing her hold on power in the face of more than two months of protests trying to shove her from office. He also heads the government's crisis committee, the Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO). He said CAPO would talk with protest leaders to ask them to stop occupying government offices. The ruling was sought by the Election Commission, which argues that the country is too unstable at the moment to hold a vote and that it would anyway result in too few legitimately elected MPs to form a parliamentary quorum. Full Story | Top |
| India, Japan seek early agreement on nuclear cooperation Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 10:19 AM PST  India and Japan's talks on nuclear cooperation have gained momentum over the past few months and the two hope for an agreement on civilian nuclear energy soon, leaders of the countries said after meeting on Saturday. "Our negotiations towards an agreement for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy have gained momentum in the last few months," India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said in a statement after meeting his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe. Full Story | Top |
| Emerging market policymakers move to allay currency concerns Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 09:52 AM PST  By Ben Hirschler and Carolyn Cohn DAVOS/LONDON (Reuters) - Top emerging market policymakers moved to allay concerns about their economies on Friday after investors sold off their currencies, raising fears of a broad market rout. But the prospect of an economic slowdown in China added to concerns on Friday that emerging markets, particularly those with large current account deficits, may struggle to support their currencies this year. Argentina said on Friday it would relax currency controls it had long defended as essential, in a policy reversal forced by high inflation and a tumble in the peso. Turkey's lira hit a record low despite an estimated $3 billion of intervention by its central bank the previous day. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan government, rebels say each other violating ceasefire Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 09:46 AM PST By Carl Odera JUBA (Reuters) - The government and rebels in South Sudan traded accusations on Saturday of breaking a ceasefire deal supposed to calm violence that has driven half a million people from their homes. "The rebel forces are still continuing to attack our forces," Information Minister Michael Makeui Lueth said on arrival from Ethiopia where President Salva Kiir's government signed a deal on Thursday with the rebels led by former vice president Riek Machar. The deal came into effect on Friday night after a 24-hour window under an agreement brokered by regional grouping of nations IGAD. "If nothing is done by the IGAD, then definitely our forces will not fold their hands," Lueth said. Full Story | Top |
| Police say about five wounded by bomb near scene of Madagascar presidential inauguration Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 09:37 AM PST ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - About five people were injured on Saturday by an "explosive device" near the stadium where Madagascar's new president was inaugurated earlier on Saturday, police said. "We see only that there are several wounded, possibly five. We even see a severed leg there," Germain Ratsirombahina, commissioner at a police station in the capital told Reuters by phone. (Reporting by Alain Iloniaina; Writing by Duncan Miriri) Full Story | Top |
| Outrage in Italy at pig's head sent to Rome synagogue Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 09:27 AM PST Offences against Jewish targets in Rome including a pig's head sent to the city's main synagogue caused outrage in Italy on Saturday in the run-up to International Holocaust Remembrance Day next week. "This is a vile and cowardly act which offends the Jewish community and all Romans on the eve of the memorial day," Nicola Zingaretti, president of Lazio, the region in which the city of Rome is located. The pig's head was sent in a parcel to Rome's Grand Synagogue on Friday and similar packages were also addressed to the Israeli embassy in Rome and to a museum holding an exhibition on the Nazi Holocaust. Holocaust remembrance day is January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945 by Soviet troops. Full Story | Top |
| British police say volunteers going to Syria war will face arrest Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 09:18 AM PST  Britons travelling to Syria to help the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad could be arrested on their return, a senior police chief warned on Saturday, saying they may pose a security risk to the UK. Peter Fahy, head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said there was "huge concern" about Britons, including a rising number of youngsters, fighting in Syria and becoming radicalised by hardline Islamists. British police have already arrested 16 people on suspicion of terrorism offences in Syria this year, some as young as 17, compared to 24 arrests in all of 2013. Most of the Britons involved in attacks in the UK, including the four suicide bombers who committed the 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people, as well as their co-conspirators, were reported to have received training in camps in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Full Story | Top |
| Hungary's leftist opposition faces tough election campaign Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 09:13 AM PST  By Marton Dunai BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's leftist opposition alliance launched its election campaign on Saturday but faces an uphill struggle to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party on April 6. The Socialists - the main force in the alliance - endorsed their leader Attila Mesterhazy to head the opposition grouping in the battle against center-right Fidesz. "We have an offer (to voters) that we talked through with our allies as well," Mesterhazy told a 10,000-strong crowd at his party's congress in Budapest. We need a responsible economic policy, a fair social policy and a strong democracy." The Socialists' allies include former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's Democratic Coalition, the Egyutt (Together) 2014 formation of another ex-premier, Gordon Bajnai, and former lawmaker Gabor Fodor's new liberal party. Full Story | Top |
| Central African Republic names new prime minister Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 08:59 AM PST Central African Republic's new interim President Catherine Samba-Panza has named Andre Nzapayeke, a former official of the African Development Bank, as prime minister, state radio said on Saturday. Samba-Panza, who took office two days ago, is seeking to build an interim government to restore order to the former French colony after months of sectarian violence that has left thousands dead or homeless. That triggered revenge attacks by Christian militia known as anti-balaka, or anti-machete, and fighting has escalated in recent days despite the presence of about 1,600 French troops and 5,000 African Union peacekeepers. Full Story | Top |
| German anti-euro party regroups with attack on EU federalism Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 08:32 AM PST  By Sarah Marsh ASCHAFFENBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's new eurosceptic party launched its campaign for the European parliament elections on Saturday with an attack on European Union federalism and defense of national sovereignty, in an attempt to regroup after months of perilous infighting. About 300 delegates in the Alternative for Germany (AfD) gathered at a party congress in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg to elect its candidates for the European vote in May, where fringe parties are expected to do well. "We can only win if we stick together," AfD leader Bernd Lucke said in his opening speech, comparing his party's plight to that of David against Goliath. The established parties such as Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives were too "cowardly" to address Europe's conflicts and problems, said the economics professor, who was elected lead candidate for the AfD's European campaign. Full Story | Top |
| Madagascar's new president takes over power from ex-coup leader Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 08:07 AM PST  Madagascar's new president Hery Rajaonarimampianina, who won the first elections since a coup in 2009, took office on Saturday, pledging to create an investment-friendly climate in the Indian Ocean island. The World Bank said on Friday the next step of forming a government was crucial and resumption of normal lending hinged on the appointment of a new prime minister. We need to put in place a climate for investment that respects the rule of law," Rajaonarimampianina said as he took office. The former finance minister won the presidential election on December 20, the first in the country since the 2009 coup that plunged Madagascar into a political crisis that has sharply slowed economic growth and deepened poverty. Full Story | Top |
| Twelve dead in fresh violence in China's Xinjiang Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 07:41 AM PST Chinese police shot dead six people during a "terrorist" attack in the restive western region of Xinjiang and six more died when explosives they were carrying detonated, state media said, as officials accused a prominent academic of aiding militants. Police came under attack on Friday by a group throwing explosive devices in Xinhe county, official news agency Xinhua said on Saturday, citing local authorities, the latest violence to jolt the region with a large Muslim population. Xinjiang has been the theatre of numerous incidents of unrest in recent years, which the government often blames on the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), though experts and rights groups cast doubt on its existence as a cohesive group. Around 100 people, including several policemen, have been killed in violence in Xinjiang since last April, according to state media reports. Full Story | Top |
| Man charged with murder in South Carolina State University shooting Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 07:22 AM PST  By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - A man accused of shooting a fellow student to death after an argument outside a dormitory at South Carolina State University was arrested on a murder charge on Saturday, state police said. Justin Bernard Singleton, 19, was taken into custody for the Friday shooting death of 20-year-old Brandon Robinson, a member of the school's football team, the State Law Enforcement Division said in a statement. Police on Friday said they were searching for four suspects believed to be involved in the shooting, which occurred at about 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) on the campus of the college in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Singleton is a sophomore at South Carolina State University, an official at the school said on Saturday. Full Story | Top |
| European banks have 84 billion euro capital shortfall, OECD estimates: report Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 07:15 AM PST  FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) - European banks have a combined capital shortfall of about 84 billion euros ($115 billion), German weekly WirtschaftsWoche reported, citing a new study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). French bank Credit Agricole has the deepest capital shortfall at 31.5 billion euros, while Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have gaps of 19 billion and 7.7 billion respectively, the magazine reported in a pre-release of its Monday publication. It was not clear whether the OECD had looked at the listed entity Credit Agricole S.A., which is less well-capitalized than its parent, Credit Agricole Group, an unlisted network of cooperative retail banks, which the Bank of France will regulate in terms of solvency ratios. Full Story | Top |
| Yemeni official says diplomat's body found, but Iranian report denies it Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 07:06 AM PST An Iranian embassy official kidnapped in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in July was found beheaded in central Yemen on Saturday, a provincial official said. But Iran's Student News Agency (ISNA) quoted an Iranian embassy official as denying that the headless body belonged to the missing employee, kidnapped by armed men while he was travelling through the diplomatic quarter of Sanaa in July. Full Story | Top |
| Militants tell Russians to rebel against Kremlin or face attacks Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 06:45 AM PST  A militant group that claimed responsibility for last month's suicide bombings in Volgograd which killed at least 34 people told Russians on Saturday to rebel against President Vladimir Putin or face further attacks. The warning, which came two weeks before the Winter Olympics in Russia's southern city of Sochi, does not mention the Games. But the group - which identified itself as Vilayat Dagestan from the northern Caucasus region where Moscow has battled an insurgency for over a decade - last week warned Putin to expect a "present" at the event. Putin has staked much personal and political prestige on the Games in Sochi, on the western edge of the Caucasus mountains. Full Story | Top |
| Libya says Egyptian diplomats snatched after militia chief's arrest Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 06:36 AM PST By Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Four Egyptian embassy staff were kidnapped in Tripoli on Saturday, a day after the abduction of another Egyptian diplomat, in what Libya's government called a reaction to Egypt's arrest of a Libyan militia commander. No group claimed responsibility for any of the abductions, but they came soon after a powerful Islamist-leaning militia group reported its commander had been arrested in Egypt and warned of a response unless he was freed. Two years after Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow, Libya remains in flux, with the government struggling to rein in heavily-armed former rebels, militias and Islamist militants who fought in the uprising but often challenge central authority. Libya's Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani said the government had made contacts to free the diplomats, who he said had been taken in reaction to Cairo's arrest of militia commander Shaban Hadia. Full Story | Top |
| Seven protesters dead in clashes on anniversary of Egypt uprising Saturday, Jan 25, 2014 06:33 AM PST  By Sameh Bardisi and Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Seven people were killed during anti-government marches on Saturday while thousands rallied in support of the army-led authorities, underlining Egypt's volatile political fissures three years after the fall of autocrat president Hosni Mubarak. Security forces lobbed teargas and fired in the air to try to prevent demonstrators opposed to the government from reaching Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled the former air force commander. Instead of commemorating Mubarak's overthrow, a large number of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir to pledge their support for the army chief who ousted the country's first freely-elected president last year. The chanting for General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi underscored the prevailing desire for a decisive military man they count on to end the political turmoil that has gripped Egypt since the 2011 Arab Spring revolution and crippled the economy. Full Story | Top |
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