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| Bolivia says re-admitted to U.N. drug convention on its own terms Friday, Jan 11, 2013 07:30 PM PST  LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia on Friday said it had been re-admitted to the U.N. anti-narcotics convention after persuading member states to recognize the right of its indigenous people to chew raw coca leaf, which is used in making cocaine. President Evo Morales had faced opposition from Washington in his campaign against the classification of coca as an illicit drug. "The coca leaf has accompanied indigenous peoples for 6,000 years," said Dionisio Nunez, Bolivia's deputy minister of coca and integrated development. "Coca leaf was never used to hurt people. It was used as medicine. ... Full Story | Top |
| Malian army drives back Islamist rebels with French help Friday, Jan 11, 2013 06:16 PM PST  PARIS/BAMAKO (Reuters) - Malian government troops drove back Islamist rebels from a strategic central town after France intervened on Friday with air strikes to halt advances by the militants controlling the country's desert north. Western governments, particularly former colonial power France, had voiced alarm after the al Qaeda-linked rebel alliance captured the town of Konna on Thursday, a gateway towards the capital, Bamako, 600 km (375 miles) south. President Francois Hollande said France would not stand by to watch the rebels push southward. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan Friday, Jan 11, 2013 05:27 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground in talks at the White House on U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Canadian PM agrees to pay more heed to native demands Friday, Jan 11, 2013 05:24 PM PST  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed in a meeting with native leaders on Friday to pay more attention to their demands, trying to mollify an aboriginal protest movement that has threatened to blockade roads and railways across the country. Faced with a seemingly intractable situation that has confronted successive governments, Harper agreed to a high-level dialogue with the natives and to have his office take increased responsibility for their issues, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Malian army retakes central town from Islamists Friday, Jan 11, 2013 04:55 PM PST BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's armed forces retook the central town of Konna from Islamist rebels with French military support on Friday, a Malian defense ministry official and residents said. "The Malian army has retaken Konna with the help of our military partners. We are there now," Lieutenant Colonel Diaran Kone told Reuters. A local shopkeeper confirmed that the army had entered the town, which had been seized on Thursday by the al Qaeda-linked insurgents who control Mali's desert north. (Reporting By Bate Felix; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Full Story | Top |
| France says has begun military intervention in Mali Friday, Jan 11, 2013 04:55 PM PST PARIS (Reuters) - France said it launched a military operation in Mali on Friday to help the government there stem a push southwards by Islamist rebels who control much of the north, in a turnaround from its earlier stance against intervention by its forces. President Francois Hollande said a surge by the rebels into new territory this week had heightened the security situation and prompted France, backed by the U.N. Security Council and West African nations, to respond to a plea for help from its former colony. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon weighs Mali options, including intelligence-sharing Friday, Jan 11, 2013 04:55 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is weighing options in Mali, including intelligence-sharing with France and logistics support, following French air strikes on Friday against Islamist rebels, a U.S. official told Reuters. "Discussions are ongoing," the official said on condition of anonymity. Western governments, particularly Mali's former colonial power, France, voiced alarm after the al Qaeda-linked rebel alliance captured the central Malian town of Konna on Thursday, a gateway to the capital, Bamako, 375 miles farther south. ... Full Story | Top |
| Malian army beats back Islamist rebels with French help Friday, Jan 11, 2013 03:59 PM PST  PARIS/BAMAKO (Reuters) - Malian government troops drove back Islamist rebels from a strategic central town after France intervened on Friday with air strikes to halt advances by the militants controlling the country's desert north. Western governments, particularly former colonial power France, had voiced alarm after the al Qaeda-linked rebel alliance captured the town of Konna on Thursday, a gateway towards the capital Bamako 600 km (375 miles) south. President Francois Hollande said France would not stand by to watch the rebels push southward. ... Full Story | Top |
| Northern Irish police fire plastic bullets at rioters Friday, Jan 11, 2013 03:54 PM PST  BELFAST (Reuters) - Police in Northern Ireland fired plastic bullets and water cannon at rioters who wounded four officers with missiles and petrol bombs in the latest outbreak of anger at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall. Hundreds of other protesters brought large areas of Belfast to a standstill, shutting at least a dozen roads and forcing the shut-down of the city's bus service. A major highway in the city was closed after a small bomb was found. ... Full Story | Top |
| Canada natives block Harper's office, threaten unrest Friday, Jan 11, 2013 03:24 PM PST OTTAWA (Reuters) - Aboriginal protesters blocked the main entrance to a building where Canada's prime minister was preparing to meet some native leaders on Friday, highlighting a deep divide within the country's First Nations on how to push Ottawa to heed their demands. The noisy blockade, which lasted about an hour, ended just before Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his aides met with about 20 native chiefs, even as other leaders opted to boycott the session. ... Full Story | Top |
| More than 30,000 flee fighting in Sudan's Darfur: U.N. Friday, Jan 11, 2013 03:18 PM PST KHARTOUM (Reuters) - More than 30,000 people have fled during two weeks of fighting in Sudan's Darfur region, the United Nations said after some of the worst clashes between government troops, rebels and rival tribes reported there for months. Conflict has raged in Darfur, a vast arid region in the west of Sudan, since 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against the Arab government in Khartoum, accusing it of political and economic marginalization. ... Full Story | Top |
| Central African Republic signs peace deal with rebels Friday, Jan 11, 2013 03:05 PM PST  LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Central African Republic's government and rebels agreed on Friday to the formation of a national unity government under a ceasefire deal to end an insurgency that swept to within striking distance of the capital. The agreement, signed in Gabon's coastal capital Libreville after three days of talks mediated by regional neighbors, averted the biggest threat to President Francois Bozize's decade in charge of the mineral-rich former French colony. Aid groups had warned that a rebel attack on the capital Bangui could trigger a humanitarian crisis. "God is great. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela's Maduro to visit Chavez again in Cuba Friday, Jan 11, 2013 02:23 PM PST  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro will fly to Cuba on Friday to visit cancer-stricken Hugo Chavez, a month after the socialist leader underwent his fourth operation in 18 months. The 58-year-old president has neither been seen nor heard from since the surgery, and he has suffered multiple post-operative complications including a severe lung infection. He missed his own inauguration on Thursday, but the Supreme Court said he could be sworn in later - in theory meaning he could remain in office for weeks or months from a Havana hospital. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain seizes valves bound for Iran's nuclear program: ministry Friday, Jan 11, 2013 02:11 PM PST  MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police arrested two men and seized the contents of a truck bound for Iran loaded with materials destined for use in the Islamic state's nuclear program, the Interior Ministry said on Friday. The truck, intercepted on a motorway in northern Spain early on Wednesday, was carrying highly corrosion-resistant valves, the ministry said in a statement. Police were examining computer databases and documents at Fluval Spain, the company where the two arrested men worked, a ministry spokesman said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Anarchist bombs explode near Greek journalists' homes Friday, Jan 11, 2013 01:55 PM PST ATHENS (Reuters) - Makeshift bombs exploded outside the homes of five Greek journalists on Friday, attacks claimed by an anarchist group which said it was protesting at media coverage of the economic crisis. The incendiary devices caused minor damage but no injuries. They were the first coordinated attacks against mainstream journalists since the Greek debt crisis erupted in 2009. In an Internet statement, the anarchist group which goes by the name 'Lovers of Lawlessness' said of the journalists: "While they use a pro-workers rhetoric, they wink mischievously at their political bosses. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somali pirate kingpin "Big Mouth" quits after naval crackdown Friday, Jan 11, 2013 12:43 PM PST MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A Somali pirate kingpin nicknamed "Big Mouth" has renounced a life of hijacking ships that earned him fame and fortune before an international naval crackdown that has curbed attacks on maritime commercial and pleasure craft. A U.N. Monitoring Group report on Somalia in 2010 said that Mohamed Abdi Hassan "Afweyne" commanded bandits in the Arabian Sea and off the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa for almost a decade, raking in millions of dollars in ransom payments. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S., Russia talks on Syria end without breakthrough Friday, Jan 11, 2013 12:35 PM PST GENEVA (Reuters) - International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi and envoys from Russia and the United States - backers of opposing sides in Syria's civil war - failed to make a breakthrough in talks on Friday seeking a political solution to the conflict. "We stressed again that in our view there was no military solution to this conflict," Brahimi said in a joint statement read out after his closed-door talks in Geneva with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria rebels seize base as envoy holds talks Friday, Jan 11, 2013 12:35 PM PST  BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Rebels seized control of one of Syria's largest helicopter bases on Friday, opposition sources said, in their first capture of a military airfield used by President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Fighting raged across the country as international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi sought a political solution to Syria's civil war, meeting senior U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva. But the two world powers are still deadlocked over Assad's fate in any transition. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama to wait for troop recommendations for Afghanistan Friday, Jan 11, 2013 11:48 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he would wait for recommendations from U.S. military commanders in coming weeks before making decisions on whether to accelerate U.S. troop drawdowns in Afghanistan. Obama, standing next to Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a news conference, said what a transition to a more supporting role in Afghanistan in the spring would mean for a reduction in U.S. forces "isn't yet fully determined." (Reporting By White House team; Editing by Doina Chiacu) Full Story | Top |
| Obama: Taliban must renounce terrorism for reconciliation Friday, Jan 11, 2013 11:48 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday it would not be possible for Afghanistan to reconcile with the Taliban unless the Islamist militant group renounces terrorism. Obama made the comment at a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai after they met at the White House. (Reporting By White House team; Editing by Doina Chiacu) Full Story | Top |
| Kinshasa, Kampala back U.N. plan for eastern Congo drones Friday, Jan 11, 2013 11:34 AM PST KINSHASA/KAMPALA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda on Friday backed a proposal from U.N. peacekeepers to deploy unmanned surveillance drones along Congo's eastern border, where rebels have carved out a fiefdom. The United Nations says the nine-month insurgency, which has dragged the mineral-rich region back towards war, has received cross-border support from Rwanda and Uganda, accusations strongly denied by both governments. Herve Ladsous, the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chief dismayed by Saudi beheading of Sri Lanka maid Friday, Jan 11, 2013 11:22 AM PST  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed dismay on Friday at the execution of a Sri Lankan housemaid in Saudi Arabia over the death of an infant in her care. Rizana Nafeek was beheaded in the town of Dawadmy, near the capital Riyadh, on Wednesday morning after being sentenced to death in 2007. She was accused by her Saudi employer of killing his infant daughter while she was bottle-feeding in 2005. ... Full Story | Top |
| Slain Kurdish activist Cansiz leaves stamp on militant PKK Friday, Jan 11, 2013 10:37 AM PST ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Clad in olive green battle fatigues and clutching an assault rifle, Sakine Cansiz looked every inch the rebel as she posed for a photo next to Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan. Drawn to leftist revolutionary circles as a student in the 1970s, Cansiz helped found the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), going from guerrilla fighter to one of its main financiers in Europe over three decades, and becoming an iconic figure for Kurdish women seeking a Kurdish state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kurdish rebel group sees nationalist hand in Paris killings Friday, Jan 11, 2013 10:37 AM PST  ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdish rebels suggested on Friday that clandestine Turkish nationalists may have assassinated three Kurdish activists in Paris, but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the killings appeared to have been the result of an internal feud. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said the execution-style killings of the three women in an institute in central Paris had been premeditated and planned and warned France would be held responsible if it failed to get to the bottom of their deaths. ... Full Story | Top |
| Darfur fighting displaces more than 30,000 people: U.N. Friday, Jan 11, 2013 10:28 AM PST KHARTOUM (Reuters) - More than 30,000 people have fled during two weeks of fighting in Sudan's Darfur, the United Nations said after some of the worst clashes in the region for months. Conflict has raged in Darfur, a vast arid region in the west of Sudan, since 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against the Arab government in Khartoum, accusing it of political and economic marginalization. Fighting and rebels divisions have scuppered years of international mediation and several rounds of peace talks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Shi'ite leader challenges Pakistan army chief over attacks Friday, Jan 11, 2013 10:17 AM PST  QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - In a rare challenge, a Shi'ite Muslim leader publicly criticized Pakistani military chief General Ashfaq Kayani over security in the country on Friday after bombings targeting the minority sect killed 93 people. The criticism of Kayani, arguably the most powerful man in the South Asian state, highlighted Shi'ite frustrations with Pakistan's failure to contain Sunni Muslim militant groups who have vowed to wipe out Shi'ites. ... Full Story | Top |
| Richardson delivered letter for detained American in North Korea Friday, Jan 11, 2013 10:14 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson delivered a letter for an imprisoned American to officials in North Korea during his trip there this week. Richardson was unable meet with Korean-American Kenneth Bae, a 44-year-old tourist who was detained in North Korea late last year, but he said he was able to give a letter from Bae's son to authorities. "I delivered the letter to North Korean officials," Richardson told Reuters on Friday. "They said they would provide that to him." Bae has been charged with unspecified crimes against the state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Foreign fighters seek Islamic state in post-Assad Syria Friday, Jan 11, 2013 10:11 AM PST  ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Huddled around a fire in a bombed-out building in Aleppo, foreign jihadists say they are fighting for a radical Islamic state in Syria - whether local rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad like it or not. Among their fellow revolutionaries and civilians, these foreigners draw both respect for their iron discipline and fear that if Assad falls, they may turn on former allies to complete the struggle for an Islamic caliphate. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israeli forces kill Palestinian along border with Gaza: Hamas Friday, Jan 11, 2013 10:06 AM PST GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian and seriously wounded another in the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel on Friday, the Islamist group Hamas and hospital officials said. The Israeli military said the soldiers opened fire after dozens of Palestinians approached the border fence, an area Israel has long designated as off-limits to Gazans, citing past attempts to attack Israeli patrols along the frontier. "The (Israel Defense Forces) will not tolerate any attempt to damage the security fence and harm Israel's sovereignty," a spokesman said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian investigators say ex-minister blocking probe Friday, Jan 11, 2013 10:02 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators accused former Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on Friday of trying to obstruct their inquiry into a suspected $100 million fraud, the biggest corruption scandal of President Vladimir Putin's third term. Serdyukov was fired by Putin in November after more than five years in office and is now a witness in a case in which a former subordinate, Yevgeniya Vasilyeva, is accused of fraud and embezzlement over deals involving Defence Ministry property. ... Full Story | Top |
| Czech government faces no-confidence vote over prison amnesty Friday, Jan 11, 2013 09:40 AM PST PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech opposition will try to topple the government next week in a no-confidence vote called over an amnesty that freed thousands of prisoners and halted investigation of some financial crimes. The amnesty, announced by President Vaclav Klaus on January 1, before the end of his final term in March, was widely criticized in the country of 10 million people who are exasperated by chronic corruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lack of deal with Iran on nuclear talks alarms Russia Friday, Jan 11, 2013 09:03 AM PST  MOSCOW/VIENNA (Reuters) - Russia voiced alarm on Friday at delays in agreeing new nuclear talks between world powers and Iran and the U.N. atomic watchdog chief said he was not optimistic ahead of his inspectors' separate visit to Tehran next week. The comments underlined the difficult challenges facing world powers in their search for a diplomatic solution to the decade-old standoff over Iran's nuclear programme to avert the threat of a new Middle East war. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sri Lankan parliament votes to impeach chief justice Friday, Jan 11, 2013 08:43 AM PST  COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka faced a possible constitutional crisis on Friday after its parliament voted to impeach the chief justice, disregarding rulings from the Supreme Court that the process was illegal and threatened judicial independence. The move has caused an outcry among opposition lawmakers, religious leaders and lawyers, prompted the United States and United Nations to voice concern for the integrity of justice in the South Asian state, and may alarm foreign investors. ... Full Story | Top |
| Colorful Czechs vie to replace Klaus as president Friday, Jan 11, 2013 08:40 AM PST  PRAGUE (Reuters) - A tattoo-covered artist, an aristocrat, a statistician and tippling chain smoker faced off with other candidates in the Czech Republic's first ever direct election on Friday to replace Euro-sceptic President Vaclav Klaus. Whoever wins the contest will be a more pro-European figure than Klaus, a 71-year old economist who has dominated politics in the former Soviet satellite country for the past two decades and steps down after 10 years in office. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisians set fire to police station, cars in border town protest Friday, Jan 11, 2013 07:51 AM PST TUNIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Tunisian protesters demanding jobs and the reopening of a border crossing with Libya set fire to a police station and cars, and police used teargas and fired shots into the air to disperse them on Friday, a Reuters witness said. Protesters in Ben Guerdane want the Ras Jedir crossing reopened so that trade with Libya, on which most of the population depend, can start again. Tunisian and Libyan authorities opened the crossing briefly on Thursday but shut it because of the security threat. Four days of protests in Ben Guerdane turned violent on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU to speed up preparations for Mali army training mission Friday, Jan 11, 2013 07:29 AM PST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will speed up preparations to send a team to Mali to train the country's army after Islamist rebels seized the strategic northern town of Konna, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Friday. Condemning the rebel attacks, Ashton said the situation underlined the need for "enhanced and accelerated international engagement" to help restore state authority throughout Mali. "The European Union ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Bosnian Serb ex-policeman jailed for 20 years over Srebrenica Friday, Jan 11, 2013 07:06 AM PST SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia's war crimes court jailed a former Serb police officer for 20 years on Friday for his role in the 1995 mass killing of Muslims in Srebrenica, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War Two. Bozidar Kuvelja, 41, was found guilty of crimes against humanity but cleared of genocide. The court has jailed more than 20 former Bosnian Serb soldiers and police officers over the Srebrenica massacres in which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed and dumped in mass graves. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kuwaitis financed Brotherhood members held in UAE: Kuwaiti media Friday, Jan 11, 2013 06:45 AM PST KUWAIT (Reuters) - Islamists held in the United Arab Emirates accused of planning to topple the government were financed by Kuwaiti nationals, Kuwaiti media reported on Friday, lending support to UAE fears of an international plot against its rulers. The UAE, a major oil exporter, has detained more than 60 Islamists in the past year who it says belong to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group founded in Egypt in 1928 and which is banned in the Gulf Arab state, and who it accuses of planning to establish an Islamic state and operating an armed wing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian investigators say ex-defense minister blocking probe Friday, Jan 11, 2013 06:44 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators accused former Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on Friday of trying to obstruct their inquiry into a suspected $100 million fraud, the biggest corruption scandal of President Vladimir Putin's third term. Serdyukov was fired by Putin in November after more than five years in office and is now a witness in a case in which a former subordinate, Yevgeniya Vasilyeva, is accused of fraud and embezzlement over deals involving Defence Ministry property. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italians see instability after election, lose faith in Monti Friday, Jan 11, 2013 06:05 AM PST  ROME (Reuters) - Only one in seven Italians believe a stable government will emerge from elections next month and outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti's popularity has dropped to a new low since his entry into the race, an opinion poll said on Friday. Renewed instability and legislative paralysis after more than a year of technocratic government under Monti could make Italy once again the biggest concern in the euro zone. The poll by the SWG company, six weeks before the February 24-25 election, showed the center-left still far ahead, about 10 points in front of Silvio Berlusconi's ... Full Story | Top |
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