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| Israel boosts security for Sharon funeral near Gaza border Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 06:02 PM PST Israel beefed up security for former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's funeral near the Gaza border on Monday and warned the enclave's Palestinian rulers not to allow rocket fire during the ceremony, which U.S. Vice President Joe Biden planned to attend. Sharon died at the age of 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma caused by a stroke. A memorial service will be held on Monday in parliament in Jerusalem, before an afternoon funeral at the Sharon family farm about 10 km (6 miles) from Gaza. An Israeli security source said Israel had "passed the message" to Gaza authorities to prevent any rocket fire during the funeral. Full Story | Top |
| UK to make debt pledge ahead of Scotland referendum: source Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:58 PM PST  (Reuters) - The British government will announce on Monday that it will take responsibility for all British government debt should Scotland vote to leave the United Kingdom this year, a person familiar with the situation said on Sunday. The UK government would seek a bilateral arrangement with the Scottish government about its share of the UK debt in the event of a vote for independence in September's referendum, the person said. The person declined to be named ahead of publication of the notice by the Treasury on Monday. Scotland will vote in September on whether to keep the 306-year union intact. Full Story | Top |
| Aid agencies head to Tonga amid reports of extensive damage Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:23 PM PST  Relief agencies were sending aid to Tonga on Monday amid reports of extensive damage to low-lying islands in the South Pacific archipelago after they were battered by a strong cyclone at the weekend. Early reports from emergency workers suggested that category five Cyclone Ian and its associated hurricane-force winds had caused significant damage to islands in the north. Tonga's director of emergencies, Leveni Aho, said there was no communication with 80 percent of the worst-hit Ha'apai island group, including Lifuka, which bore the brunt of the storm. "The picture comes to hand now, it was really bad," Aho told Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) Radio. Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda Syria unit executes dozens of rivals in Raqqa: activists Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:17 PM PST  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - The al Qaeda-linked Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday. One of the activists, who spoke from the province on condition of anonymity, said up to 100 fighters from the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, and the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, captured by ISIL in the town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey, the nearby area of Qantari and the provincial capital city of Raqqa, were shot dead. "About 70 bodies, most shot in the head, were collected and sent to the Raqqa National hospital," the activist said. The fact that Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham are ideologically similar to the ISIL did not matter," he added. Full Story | Top |
| Restaurants reopen with bottled water after West Virginia spill Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:07 PM PST  By Ann Moore CHARLESTON, West Virginia (Reuters) - Restaurants and shops began reopening on Sunday in parts of West Virginia where the water supply was poisoned by a chemical spill, although up to 300,000 people spent a fourth day unable to use tap water for anything besides flushing toilets. State government officials, the utility company West Virginia American Water and the National Guard continued to test the water supply after as much as 7,500 gallons (28,000 liters) of an industrial chemical leaked into the Elk River on Thursday. It could still be several days before people in nine counties and Charleston, the state capital and largest city, can once again use the water from their faucets for drinking, cooking and bathing. Full Story | Top |
| Thai protesters move to shut down Bangkok to force out PM Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 04:29 PM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand braced for a "shutdown" of its capital on Monday by protesters who want to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and install an unelected government, as fears grew that the southeast Asian country could be heading for civil war. Protesters led by former opposition politician Suthep Thaugsuban started blocking major intersections late on Sunday, aiming to create traffic chaos in a city of an estimated 12 million people where roads are clogged at the best of times. The upheaval is the latest chapter in an eight-year conflict pitting Bangkok's middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poorer, rural supporters of Yingluck and her self-exiled brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was ousted by the military in 2006 and sentenced to jail in absentia for abuse of power in 2008, but he still looms large over Thai politics and is the dominant force behind his sister's administration from his home in Dubai. Full Story | Top |
| Israelis pay last respects to warrior-statesman Sharon Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 04:26 PM PST  By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Thousands of Israelis bade farewell on Sunday to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the maverick warrior-statesman who helped reshape the Middle East, as his body lay in state outside parliament in Jerusalem. Sharon died at the age of 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma caused by a stroke he suffered at the pinnacle of his political power. He will be buried on Monday in a military funeral on his farm in southern Israel. Arik Sharon faded away eight years ago, and now we truly say goodbye to him," Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, using Sharon's nickname, wrote in a tribute on Sunday. Full Story | Top |
| Iran nuclear deal to take effect on January 20 Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 03:58 PM PST  By Parisa Hafezi and Justyna Pawlak ANKARA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A deal between Iran and six major powers intended to pave the way to a solution to a long standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions will come into force on January 20, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the European Union said on Sunday. Shortly after the interim accord takes effect, an Iranian official added, Tehran and world powers will start negotiating a final settlement of their differences about activity the West suspects is aimed at obtaining a nuclear weapons capability. Iran says its atomic energy program is aimed purely at electricity generation and other civilian purposes, although past Iranian attempts to hide sensitive nuclear activity from U.N. non-proliferation inspectors raised concerns. The November 24 agreement appeared to halt a slide towards another, wider Middle East war over Iran's nuclear aspirations, but diplomats warn it will not be easy to carry out because of long-standing mutual mistrust. Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda Syria unit executes dozens of rival Islamists: activists Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 03:40 PM PST The al Qaeda-linked Islamist state of Iraq and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday. One of the activists, who spoke from the province on condition of anonymity, said up to 100 fighters from the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, and the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, captured by ISIL in the town of Tel Abiad on the border with Turkey, the nearby area of Qantari and the provincial capital city of Raqqa, were shot dead. Full Story | Top |
| Obama hails Iran deal, argues against new sanctions Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 03:04 PM PST  By Arshad Mohammed and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama hailed an agreement struck on Sunday to curb Iran's nuclear program over six months and argued that imposing additional U.S. sanctions could scupper the deal. "Now is the time to give diplomacy a chance to succeed," Obama said in a written statement after the European Union said that Iran and six major powers had reached an accord to implement a November 24 nuclear agreement with Iran. That agreement is designed to curtail Iran's nuclear activities for a six-month period beginning on January 20 in exchange for sanctions relief from the six major powers: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Obama also urged the U.S. Congress not to impose additional sanctions on Iran, saying that doing so risked undermining the November 24 agreement, known as the Joint Plan of Action (JPA), which aims to give the two sides six months to reach a comprehensive deal to address all questions about whether Iran seeks nuclear arms. Full Story | Top |
| Biden to meet Israel's Netanyahu during visit for Sharon funeral Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 02:24 PM PST By Matt Spetalnick SHANNON, Ireland (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden will hold talks with Israeli leaders during a visit to the Jewish state as head of a U.S. delegation to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's funeral on Monday, Biden's office said. Biden's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be a chance for the vice president to try to further Middle East peace efforts and ease Israeli concerns about nuclear talks with Iran, according to leading U.S. lawmakers flying with him to Tel Aviv on Sunday. Sharon died at age 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma caused by a stroke he suffered at the pinnacle of his power. He was one of Israel's finest military strategists and top political figures, spearheading military invasion, Jewish settlement-building on land the Palestinians want for a state, and making the decision to withdraw from one of those territories, the Gaza Strip. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Iran to get first $550 million of blocked $4.2 billion on February 1 Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 02:08 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran would receive the first $550 million installment of a total of $4.2 billion in previously blocked overseas funds on or about February 1, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday. Under a November 24 nuclear agreement, six major powers agreed to give Iran access to $4.2 billion in revenues blocked overseas if it carries out the deal, which offers sanctions relief in exchange for steps to curb the Iranian nuclear program. Some payments are contingent on Iran diluting its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium to no more than 5 percent enriched uranium. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptians set to vote on army-backed post-Mursi constitution Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 02:02 PM PST  By Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians vote this week for the first time since Mohamed Mursi's downfall in a constitutional referendum that will likely give a final push to a presidential bid by the man who deposed him, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Approval of the rewritten constitution appears a foregone conclusion: Mursi's now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is urging a boycott rather than a 'no' vote, while many Egyptians who backed his overthrow are expected to vote 'yes' in a show of support for the army-backed order that has replaced Islamist rule. Analysts say it hopes that the turnout and the 'yes' vote will outstrip ballots won by the Muslim Brotherhood to give the new order an electoral seal of legitimacy. "Egypt is on the threshold of a decisive stage in its history, the results of which are awaited by the world," Sisi said on Saturday in public remarks that included the clearest indication to date that he will stand for election. Full Story | Top |
| Court sentences leader of 2004 Saudi attack to death Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 01:04 PM PST A Saudi court on Sunday sentenced the leader of a militant cell involved in a suicide attack on the offices of a foreign company in the Red Sea city of Yanbu nearly 10 years ago in which five Westerners were killed, Saudi media reported. The May, 2004 attack was part of a campaign launched by al Qaeda in 2003 intended to destabilize the U.S.-allied kingdom. Gunmen killed two Americans, two Britons and an Australian at the firm's offices in the Saudi oil and petrochemical hub. "Suspect number one was convicted of participating with the terrorist cell that carried out the suicide operation at one of the companies in Yanbu," SPA said, without elaborating on his position in the cell. Full Story | Top |
| Friends of Syria group urges opposition to attend Geneva talks Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 12:13 PM PST  By John Irish and Warren Strobel PARIS (Reuters) - The "Friends of Syria", an alliance of mainly Western and Gulf Arab countries who oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, urged opposition groups on Sunday to attend this month's peace talks, saying there was no other route to a political solution. With 10 days to go until the first direct talks between the opposition and President Bashar al-Assad's government - set for January 22 in Switzerland and dubbed "Geneva 2" - Western backers have struggled to unify rebel groups. The main political opposition body in exile, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), has been plagued by internal bickering. In a final statement, the 11 core Friends of Syria nations urged the SNC to attend the talks on the shores of Lake Geneva. Full Story | Top |
| Three more Greek far-right party MPs ordered held awaiting trial Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 12:07 PM PST Three more far-right Golden Dawn lawmakers have been ordered detained pending trial in Greece on charges of belonging to a criminal group, as part of a crackdown on the party following the killing of an anti-fascist rapper by one of its supporters last year. The stabbing of Pavlos Fissas in September, to which a Golden Dawn sympathizer has confessed, provoked protests across the country, a shakeup of the police and a broad investigation into the party. Party leader Nikos Mihaloliakos and dozens more senior party officials were arrested last September, riveting a country which has not witnessed a mass round-up of elected politicians since a military coup nearly five decades ago. Golden Dawn members have been charged on evidence linking the party with a string of attacks, including Fissas's stabbing and the killing of an immigrant last year. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. details Iran sanctions relief under nuclear deal Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:53 AM PST Iran will get some sanctions relief at the start of the implementation of the November 24 nuclear deal but will not get all of it until the six-month implementation period ends, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday. The official was one of several who briefed reporters about an agreement to implement the November nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers under which Tehran will receive limited sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear activities. Assuming the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, confirms Iran is carrying out the deal, the major powers would immediately suspend sanctions on Iran's petrochemical exports, on imports for its auto manufacturing sector and on its trade in gold and other precious metals. According to U.S. estimates, the overall sanctions relief provided to Iran under the deal is worth about $7 billion. Full Story | Top |
| France's Hollande has tight window to step up reform pace Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:40 AM PST  By Mark John and Jean-Baptiste Vey PARIS (Reuters) - The coming weeks will tell whether Francois Hollande can pick up the pieces of his accident-prone presidency and start to pull the euro zone's second-largest economy out of decline. Photos in a celebrity magazine published on Friday purporting to show a nocturnal visit by Hollande to a mistress risk stealing the show on Tuesday when he faces media for up to two hours in the traditional start-of-year news conference. The saga took a new turn on Sunday when it emerged his official partner, 48-year-old ex-journalist Valerie Trierweiler, had been hospitalized hours after the magazine hit newsstands. Yet with polls showing most French are blase about his private life, the real question is whether he will use the media event to show he is ready to tackle the double burden on the French economy: rising taxes and public spending. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine pro-Europe protesters hold first big rally of 2014 Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:38 AM PST  By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets KIEV (Reuters) - At least 50,000 opponents of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich rallied in a central Kiev square on Sunday, reviving an anti-government protest movement after a Christmas and New Year lull. The mass rally in Independence Square was a continuation of street protests that erupted in November after Yanukovich decided to abandon a free trade agreement with the European Union in favor of closer cooperation with Russia. The demonstration came a day after baton-wielding riot police tried to disperse protesters outside a Kiev courthouse, sparking clashes in which at least 10 people were injured. We will fight, ... protest peacefully," Vitaly Klitschko, an opposition leader and former world heavyweight boxing champion, told a crowd waving the blue-and-yellow national flags of Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry "confident" that opposition groups will attend Syria talks Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:37 AM PST U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he was confident that Syrian opposition groups would attend peace talks in Switzerland later this month. "Personally, I'm confident that the Syrian opposition will come to Geneva," Kerry told a news conference in Paris with his Qatari counterpart. The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, which groups various Syrian opposition groups working from abroad, is due to decide on January 17 whether it will attend the talks, scheduled for January 22. Full Story | Top |
| Italy to host Syrian weapons transfer despite local opposition Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:26 AM PST By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Italy will honor a pledge to host the transfer of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal despite growing domestic opposition and this week will name the commercial port where the handover will take place, a government source said on Sunday. Italy agreed last month to allow the use of a port on its territory for the transit of the toxins used in making sarin, VX gas and other lethal agents, prompting vocal opposition from some areas touted by the media as possible destinations. Later in the day, Ahmet Uzumcu, director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, will provide lawmakers with details about the procedure in separate testimony, according to parliamentary websites. The OPCW is overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal, and ships from Denmark, Russia, Norway and China are providing maritime security to the operation. Full Story | Top |
| Friends of Syria group urges National Coalition to attend peace talks Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:26 AM PST The Friends of Syria, an alliance of mainly Western and Gulf Arab countries who support the Syrian opposition, on Sunday called on them to attend peace talks in Switzerland later this month. "We urge the National Coalition to respond positively to the invitation to set up the Syrian opposition delegation sent by the U.N. Secretary General," the group said in a joint statement. Full Story | Top |
| Group linked to al Qaeda regains ground in northeast Syria Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:17 AM PST By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - A group linked to al Qaeda recaptured much of its stronghold in the northeast Syrian city of Raqqa on Sunday, activists said, dealing a blow to rival rebel groups backed by Gulf Arab and Western states. Fighting between the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and rival Islamists and more moderate rebels have killed hundreds of people over the last 10 days and shaken the hardline militant group led by foreign jihadists. In Raqqa, the only provincial capital under rebel control, activists said ISIL fighters battled remnants of rival Islamist units including the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, in several neighborhoods. ISIL's growth has alarmed Western nations, who are pushing the opposition to attend peace talks in Switzerland in 10 days' time, and has helped President Bashar al-Assad to portray himself as the only secular alternative to Islamist extremism. Full Story | Top |
| French first lady in hospital after reports of Hollande affair Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 11:07 AM PST  By Geert De Clercq and Elizabeth Pineau PARIS (Reuters) - French first lady Valerie Trierweiler has been admitted to hospital following reports of an affair between President Francois Hollande and an actress, but will be discharged on Monday, sources said on Sunday. Daily newspaper Le Parisien said on its website earlier that Trierweiler, 48, had been taken to hospital after being shaken by a celebrity magazine's reports of a liaison between her partner Hollande and French actress Julie Gayet. She will leave tomorrow," her spokesman Patrice Biancone told Reuters. Asked about the future of Trierweiler's relationship with the president, Biancone said: "She needs rest. Full Story | Top |
| Bomb attacks kill at least 18 in Iraq Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 10:39 AM PST Bombs killed at least 18 people in Iraq on Sunday, police and medics said, as the Shi'ite-led government sought to evict al Qaeda-linked militants from Falluja without a fight. No group claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Sunni Islamist insurgents have stepped up a violent campaign in the past year, engulfing Iraq in its worst bloodshed for five years. Sunday's deadliest blast was caused by a car bomb that killed nine people outside a bus terminal in the Allawi district of Baghdad, near the site of a suicide bombing four days ago at an airfield where 23 army recruits were slain. Another car bomb in Baghdad killed five people, while two bombs planted near a supermarket in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, about 175 km (110 miles) north of the capital, killed at least four people and wounded 28, police said. Full Story | Top |
| Iraq's Maliki says army won't attack Falluja, militants must go Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 09:51 AM PST By Suadad al-Salhy and Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday ruled out a military assault on Falluja, saying he wanted to spare the city more carnage and give Sunni Muslim tribesmen time to expel al Qaeda-linked fighters. "We want to end the presence of those militants without any bloodshed because the people of Falluja have suffered a lot," he told Reuters in an interview in Baghdad, referring to the devastating assaults by U.S. forces to evict insurgents in 2004. Fighters of the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and their tribal allies took over Falluja and parts of the nearby city of Ramadi nearly two weeks ago at a time of Sunni anger with the Shi'ite-led government, stirred by a bloody raid to arrest a Sunni politician in Ramadi. Maliki said he had reassured fearful residents of Falluja that the army would not attack, but told them that they must take the city back from the militants who overran it on January 1. Full Story | Top |
| EU says nuclear deal with Iran to come into force on January 20 Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 09:14 AM PST  Six world powers and Iran have agreed to start implementing an interim nuclear deal on January 20, the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement on Sunday. Ashton represents the six nations - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - in diplomatic contacts with Iran related to the nuclear standoff. She said the sides would now ask the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to verify the deal's implementation. Under the November 24 agreement, Iran has promised to curb its most sensitive nuclear activities in return for some relief from Western economic sanctions. Full Story | Top |
| Iran says nuclear deal takes effect on January 20: agency Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 08:53 AM PST  ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran's interim nuclear deal with major powers will come into force on January 20, a spokeswoman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. "Capitals have confirmed the result of the talks in Geneva ... the Geneva deal will be implemented from January 20," the spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, told reporters in Tehran, the semi-official Mehr news agency said. (Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by William Maclean and Kevin Liffey) Full Story | Top |
| Italy's Renzi ratchets up pressure on PM Letta over reforms Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 08:39 AM PST  By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Italy's center-left leader Matteo Renzi said the next two weeks will be "decisive" for Prime Minister Enrico Letta's government, which has so far struggled to make incisive reforms. The government is supported by a broad left-right coalition. But since the 39-year-old Renzi was elected last month to lead the Democratic Party (PD) - Letta's own party - he has frequently criticized the government's choices and called for it to accelerate institutional and economic reforms. Italy, one of the world's biggest government debtors, has narrowly avoided being dragged into the euro zone debt crisis. Full Story | Top |
| Italy rescues more than 400 migrants in 24 hours Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 08:38 AM PST The Italian navy rescued more than 400 migrants from two boats south of Sicily on Saturday and Sunday as the immigration crisis that killed hundreds in shipwrecks last year continued. On Saturday afternoon, 236 men, women and children, mostly from Africa, were rescued and were being taken to a port near Syracuse in Sicily, the navy said in a statement. Italy is a major gateway into Europe for many migrants seeking a better life, and sea arrivals to the country from Northern Africa more than tripled in 2013, fuelled by Syria's civil war and strife in the Horn of Africa. More than 200, mostly Syrians, probably died in another shipwreck a week later. Full Story | Top |
| Iraq's Maliki threatens to cut funds if Kurds pipe oil to Turkey Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 08:30 AM PST  By Suadad al-Salhy and Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki threatened on Sunday to cut Kurdistan's share of the federal budget if the autonomous region exports oil to Turkey via a new pipeline without central government consent. The Kurdistan Regional Government said last week that crude had begun to flow to Turkey and exports were expected to start at the end of this month and then rise in February and March. "This is a constitutional violation which we will never allow, not for the (Kurdistan) region nor for the Turkish government," Maliki told Reuters in an interview. He reiterated Baghdad's insistence that only the central government has the authority to manage Iraq's energy resources. Full Story | Top |
| Yemen tribes kill six soldiers, tell Norway DNO to end oil work Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 07:51 AM PST Yemeni gunmen killed at least six soldiers in stepped up attacks on army installations in the southeastern Hadramout province, a local official and residents said on Sunday, after tribesmen warned Norway's DNO to stop operations in the area. Growing lawlessness in the poor Arabian Peninsula state is an international concern because of Yemen's strategic position next to oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes. A local government official in al-Shihr said tribesmen tried to overrun an army camp on the outskirts of the Arabian Sea city on Sunday, killing four soldiers. The attack came hours after armed tribesmen attacked troops assigned to guard oil wells near a facility operated by DNO. Full Story | Top |
| Palestinian police, refugee camp residents clash over U.N. strike Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 07:46 AM PST  By Ali Sawafta JALAZOUN, West Bank (Reuters) - At least 50 people were hurt on Sunday in a clash between Palestinian police and residents of a refugee camp protesting against a strike in a U.N. aid agency that has paralyzed services, police and an ambulance service said. The demonstration, in Jalazoun camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was the most violent in a series of protests over the past week stemming from a more than month-old strike for higher pay by local employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). UNRWA, which employs more than 5,000 Palestinians in 19 camps for some 730,000 West Bank refugees, has been forced to shut schools, clinics and suspend trash collection at the camps since the strike began. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan rebel leader wants detainees freed before ceasefire deal: envoys Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 07:38 AM PST  By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar's demand for the release of detainees remains a stumbling block to a ceasefire deal aimed at halting violence in the world's youngest state, a U.S. envoy said on Sunday. More than three weeks of fighting, often along ethnic faultlines, has pitted President Salva Kiir's SPLA government forces against rebels loyal to former vice president Machar and has brought the oil-exporting nation close to civil war. Although both sides have held talks in recent days in Addis Ababa in a bid to agree a ceasefire, there has been little progress after Kiir refused a rebel demand to release 11 detainees arrested in December over an alleged coup plot. On Saturday, three African envoys of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional grouping of east African nations that initiated the talks, met Machar in an effort to agree the terms of truce, but he turned them down. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. watchdog eyes increased Iran presence to verify nuclear deal Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 07:01 AM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. atomic watchdog is considering increasing its presence in Iran to better handle an extra workload in verifying Tehran is carrying out a deal with world powers to curb its nuclear program, diplomats said. Facing an expanded role as a result of the November 24 accord, the International Atomic Energy Agency is likely to need more inspectors in Iran and is also examining whether to set up a small, temporary office there, they said. While IAEA inspectors frequently travel to Iran to make sure there is no diversion of nuclear material for military purposes, they do not now have any such operational base. Iran would need to approve such a move. Full Story | Top |
| Syria donor meeting aims to raise over $1.5 billion, U.N. aid chief says Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 06:17 AM PST  United Nations aid chief Valerie Amos said on Sunday the world body hoped a humanitarian donor conference for Syria hosted in Kuwait this week would raise more than last year's $1.5 billion. Speaking to Reuters during a visit to Syria ahead of the Wednesday meeting, Amos said the United Nations was looking for a total of $6.5 billion this year to help those suffering from the nearly three-year conflict. Syria's war has killed over 100,000 people and forced more than 2 million to flee abroad, according to the UN. Amos, who met with government officials and visited displaced Syrians, said the situation was getting worse. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine's anti-government protesters stage first mass rally of 2014 Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:50 AM PST  At least 50,000 opponents of Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich rallied in a central Kiev square on Sunday, reviving the protest movement after a Christmas and New Year lull. The mass rally in Independence Square was a continuation of street protests that erupted in November following Yanukovich's decision to abandon a free trade agreement with Europe in favor of closer cooperation with Russia. We will fight... protest peacefully," Vitaly Klitschko, an opposition leader and former heavyweight boxing champion, told the crowd which waved the blue-and-yellow national flags of Ukraine. Another opposition leader, Arseny Yatsenyuk, called on the West to impose sanctions against senior state officials, including Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko, who, he said, had violated Ukraine's constitution by authorizing the use of force against the protesters. Full Story | Top |
| Campaigners ask ICC to investigate alleged UK war crimes in Iraq Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:25 AM PST  By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Human rights lawyers and campaigners have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate allegations of torture by British troops in Iraq, a move which the UK government dismissed as unnecessary on Sunday. A Berlin-based human rights group and a British law firm have submitted what they describe as 250 pages of analysis to the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor requesting action on alleged abuses between 2003 and 2008. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) said in a press release posted on the ECCHR website that there had been "systemic abuse" of Iraqi detainees during the British presence in Iraq which met the threshold of war crimes. An ICC spokeswoman declined immediate comment on the submission. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen assassinate Libyan deputy industry minister Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 05:18 AM PST By Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Gunmen killed Libya's deputy industry minister as he drove home from shopping in the coastal city of Sirte late on Saturday in an attack security officials blamed on hardline Islamist militants. Libya is still plagued by widespread violence and targeted killings more than two years after the civil war ousted Muammar Gaddafi, with militants, militia gunmen and former rebels often resorting to force to impose demands on the fragile government. The theory is, the bomb failed, so they shot him instead." The official blamed Islamist militants who have been trying to extend their influence in Sirte, which has been more stable recently than the coastal capital of Tripoli, about 460 km (290 miles) to the west, or the eastern city of Benghazi. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan's central government, weakened by political infighting and with only nascent armed forces, is struggling to wrest control back from areas where militias are still dominant. Full Story | Top |
| Demoralized Cairo slum longs for army chief as president Sunday, Jan 12, 2014 04:33 AM PST  By Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - When an uprising ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egyptians in the impoverished Cairo neighborhood of Imbaba rejoiced. The revolt raised hopes that a democratic government would emerge after thirty years of dictatorship, fix the potholed, garbage-strewn streets and provide better education and health care. Jubilation has given way to political apathy in many parts of Egypt in the turbulent years since the Arab Spring swept the country. The mood in the sprawling slum of Imbaba - home to more than one million people - is especially telling because it was an Islamist militant stronghold opposed to former air force commander Mubarak in the 1990s that now seems happy at the prospect of having a military man in power again. Full Story | Top |
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