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| Egypt arrests dozens under anti-terror law, one killed in Cairo Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 04:55 PM PST  By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt stepped up pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood a day after declaring it a terrorist group, using the new classification to detain dozens of its supporters on Thursday, while one person died in street clashes ignited by political tension. A bomb blast in a Cairo suburb wounded five people - the second attack this week after a suicide bomber killed 16 people north of the capital on Tuesday. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, said Egypt would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy and "expressed concern" about the terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and recent detentions and arrests in Egypt, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Full Story | Top |
| Attack on reporter restores passion to Ukraine demonstrations Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:31 PM PST  By Jack Stubbs KIEV (Reuters) - Protesters demanded Ukraine's interior minister resign on Thursday after an opposition journalist known for documenting the extravagance of the country's political elite was chased down in her car and savagely beaten in a midnight attack. Clutching pictures of Tetyana Chornovil's badly bruised face, hundreds marched on the Interior Ministry in the capital, Kiev. The attack on the 34-year-old restored passion to protests that have been losing steam more than a month after the government spurned a pact on closer ties with the European Union, turning instead to former Soviet master Moscow. Pro-EU demonstrators have been occupying central Kiev, but their numbers have been falling since Russia offered Ukraine a $15 billion bailout this month. Full Story | Top |
| China media slams Japan PM for paying homage to "devils" Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 08:28 PM PST  Chinese newspapers blasted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, describing his visit to Yasukuni Shrine as "paying homage to devils" and warning that China has the ability to crush "provocative militarism". Abe visited Yasukuni on Thursday, a shrine where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal after World War Two are honored along with those who died in battle. The move has infuriated China and South Korea, both of which were occupied by Japanese forces until the end of the war, and prompted concern from the United States about deteriorating ties between the North Asian neighbors. "On one hand, Abe is paying homage to war criminals, and on the other hand, he talks about improving relations with China, South Korea and other countries," the newspaper said. Full Story | Top |
| Discounts, promotions spur sales in U.S. holiday season Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:08 PM PST  Sales during the 2013 U.S. holiday season grew from a year earlier as deep discounting and increased promotions encouraged consumers to buy more. Holiday sales between November 1 and December 24 rose 2.3 percent, compared with 0.7 percent a year earlier, according to data published in the MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse report. "It was actually a Merry Christmas for retailers," Sarah Quinlan, senior vice president at MasterCard Advisors, told Reuters, adding that jewelry was the best-performing category. SpendingPulse tracks customer spending on apparel, electronics, jewelry, luxury and home furniture & furnishings categories during the holiday season. Full Story | Top |
| Thai government seeks military help to protect poll Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 11:39 PM PST  By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat BANGKOK (Reuters) - The Thai government said on Friday it will ask the military to help protect candidates and voters in a February election after clashes between police and anti-government protesters in which two people were killed and scores wounded. The call for help from the powerful but heavily politicized military demonstrates Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's determination to ensure the election goes ahead. The vote is almost certain to return her Puea Thai Party to power. Her government on Thursday rebuffed a request by the Election Commission to delay the February 2 vote until there was "mutual consent" from all sides - an increasingly unlikely outcome after Thursday's deadly clashes at an election registration venue. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. expedites delivery of missiles, drones to Iraq amid violence Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:12 PM PST  The United States has delivered dozens of Hellfire air-to-ground missiles to Iraq in recent weeks and plans shipments of Scan Eagle drones next year amid a surge in violence, U.S. officials said on Thursday, a day after at least 34 people died in Christmas day bomb attacks in Baghdad. Al Qaeda-linked militants have stepped up attacks on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government and anyone seen to be supporting it. The United Nations estimates that more than 8,000 people have been killed in attacks in Iraq this year. A U.S. official said that about 75 Hellfire missiles were delivered to Iraq last week, earlier than originally envisioned, and a shipment of 10 unmanned Scan Eagles surveillance drones is due next year. Full Story | Top |
| Small jet makers see big chance as China prepares to open skies Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:07 PM PST  By Fang Yan and Matthew Miller BEIJING (Reuters) - Ferraris and Rolls-Royces have become common sights in China's cities as a new class of super-rich indulge a growing appetite for luxury, but tight regulation has meant the private jet, the ultimate status symbol of the global elite, remains rare. Recent rules changes, however, indicate that China is preparing to open its skies to private aircraft, in a move that may herald the greatest expansion of business and private aviation in the last 30 years. Last month, China's aviation regulator simplified flight approval procedures for private aircraft and lowered the threshold for obtaining a private pilot license. More importantly, the implementation of little-noticed guidelines issued by China's State Council and the Central Military Commission in 2010 will gradually lift the ceiling for low-flying aircraft by 2020. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan rebels seize oil wells, mediators urge talks Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 12:52 PM PST  By Carl Odera and Aaron Maasho JUBA (Reuters) - Rebels in South Sudan have seized some oil wells and captured half of the capital of the main oil-producing region, the government and army said on Thursday as African leaders held talks to avert civil war. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn met South Sudan's President Salva Kiir in the capital Juba in an attempt to end nearly two weeks of fighting in the world's newest state. "South Sudan is a young nation that should be spared unnecessary distractions in its development agenda. It was not clear whether the delegation also met the rebel leader, former vice president Riek Machar, who was sacked by Kiir in July. Full Story | Top |
| Dozens of bodies recovered after violence in Central African Republic Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 06:01 PM PST  By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Red Cross workers have recovered 44 bodies from the streets of Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, they said on Thursday after inter-religious fighting in the last two days. Six Chadian peacekeepers have also been killed in the former French colony, while judicial authorities said they had uncovered a mass grave with 30 bodies, many of them showing signs of torture, near a military base used by Seleka rebels. The rebels seized power in March, unleashing a wave of looting and killing on the mostly Christian population. The mostly Muslim Seleka and Christian self-defense militias have carried out tit-for-tat attacks on each other and on the local population. Full Story | Top |
| Protesting Turkish prosecutor piles pressure on PM Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 11:56 AM PST  By Ece Toksabay and Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish prosecutor accused police on Thursday of obstructing his pursuit of a high-level graft case, adding to public scrutiny of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government as it hunkered down defiantly. Three ministers had resigned after their sons were among dozens of people detained on December 17 as part of the probe into corrupt procurement practices, which has exposed Turkey's deep institutional divisions and left the pugnacious premier facing arguably the biggest crisis of his 11 years in power. The new interior minister, Efkan Ala, will be in charge of Turkey's domestic security and is considered especially close to Erdogan, who called the secretive investigation a foreign-orchestrated plot without legal merit and responded by sacking or reassigning some 70 of the police officers involved. In allegations disseminated to Turkish media in writing, prosecutor Muammer Akkas said he had also been removed from the case, which he described as compromised by police who had refused to comply with his orders to arrest more suspects. Full Story | Top |
| Turks and Caicos police end search for survivors of capsized boat Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 01:39 PM PST Police do not expect to find any more casualties from the Christmas Day accident that involved a boat carrying more than 50 immigrants from Haiti, government spokesman Neil Smith said in a tweet. Meanwhile, health officials in the small eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia said flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed six people. Full Story | Top |
| Japan's Abe visits shrine for war dead, China, South Korea angered Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:23 AM PST By Antoni Slodkowski and Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a shrine on Thursday that is seen by critics as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression, infuriating China and South Korea and prompting concern from the United States about deteriorating ties between the North Asian neighbors. China and South Korea have repeatedly expressed anger in the past over Japanese politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal after World War Two are honored along with those who died in battle. The two countries have been especially touchy about visits to the shrine by serving Japanese prime ministers, and Abe is the first leader in office to pay homage at Yasukuni in the past seven years. Business ties between China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest economies, have improved after a downturn sparked by a flare-up last year in a row over tiny East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. Full Story | Top |
| Dozens of bodies recovered after violence in Central African Republic Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:57 PM PST By Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Red Cross workers have recovered 44 bodies from the streets of Central African Republic's capital Bangui, they said on Thursday after inter-religious fighting in the last two days. Six Chadian peacekeepers have also been killed in the former French colony, while judicial authorities said they had uncovered a mass grave with 30 bodies, many of them showing signs of torture, near a military base used by Seleka rebels. Georgios Georgantas, head of an International Committee of the Red Cross delegation, said the 44 bodies were probably only a fraction of those killed in Bangui in the last two days given that his team had been unable to go into parts of the city. "We have information about more bodies in certain parts of town which we have been unable to access because the fighting was so intense." A representative of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres at Bangui's main hospital said it had seen more than 50 people since Wednesday night with gunshot or machete wounds from the fighting which raged for hours across Bangui. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests dozens under anti-terror law, bomb hits Cairo Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:41 PM PST By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt increased pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, detaining dozens of its supporters on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government, security officials said. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi in July, said Egypt would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism. The government declared Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group on Wednesday in response to the suicide attack that targeted a police station a day earlier in the city of Mansoura. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. jobless claims fall, holiday retail sales rise Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:00 AM PST  By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in nearly a month, a hopeful sign for the labor market, while holiday retail sales rose in November and December. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 338,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. While the holiday season has made recent claims data so volatile it has been difficult to interpret, Thursday's report showed claims continue in a range that supports expectations for faster economic growth next year. "With labor markets on the mend and consumer confidence on the rise, we look for broader economic improvement to continue pushing claims (lower)," said Gennadiy Goldberg, an analyst at TD Securities in New York. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. experts urge U.S., Yemen to explain erroneous drone strikes Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 09:54 AM PST United Nations human rights experts told the United States and Yemen on Thursday to say whether they were complicit in drone attacks that mistakenly killed civilians in wedding processions this month. The independent experts questioned the legitimacy of drone attacks under international law and said the governments should reveal what targeting procedures were used. Local security officials said on December 12 that 15 people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al Qaeda convoy. The officials did not identify the plane in the strike in central al-Bayda province, but tribal and local media sources said that it was a drone. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests dozens under new anti-terror law Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 08:44 AM PST  By Tom Perry and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt increased pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday, detaining at least 38 of its supporters on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization the day after it was declared one by the government, security officials said. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who led the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July, said the country would be "steadfast" in the face of terrorism, after a small bomb went off in Cairo, wounding five people. The government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group on Wednesday in response to a suicide attack a day earlier that killed 16 people in the Nile Delta, accusing the group of carrying out the bombing. The Brotherhood, which claims up to 1 million members, condemned the attack. Full Story | Top |
| Thai government rejects call to delay election after clashes erupt Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 05:53 AM PST  By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Martin Petty BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's government rejected a call from the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday to postpone a February vote after clashes between police and anti-government protesters in which a policeman was killed and nearly 100 people were hurt. The EC urged the government to delay the February 2 election until there was "mutual consent" from all sides. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's ruling Puea Thai party would likely win an election. The protesters are demanding that Yingluck steps down and political reforms be introduced before any vote, to try to neutralize the power of the billionaire Shinawatra family. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. hopes for South Sudan reinforcements within 48 hours Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 10:33 AM PST  By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Thursday said it hopes to begin receiving within the next 48 hours critical reinforcements of military hardware and personnel for its overstretched peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which is on the verge of civil war. Hilde Johnson, head of the U.N. mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, told reporters that some 50,000 civilians were seeking protection at U.N. bases across Africa's youngest country, which gained independence from Khartoum in 2011. "We are working around the clock to get assets in that can assist us in the current crisis as quickly as ever possible, and we have had conversations with other (U.N.) missions today," she told reporters by video link from Juba. U.N. officials have said that the South Sudan peacekeeping mission needs transport helicopters and planes, as well as troops. Full Story | Top |
| Inside Germany's campaign to free Khodorkovsky Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 07:29 AM PST  By Michelle Martin and Lidia Kelly BERLIN/MOSCOW (Reuters) - One spring day in 2011 five people gathered around a small table at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin and hatched the beginnings of a plan to get former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky out of prison. Seated in a corridor of the five-star hotel's lobby, former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and his advisor Alexander Rahr put their heads together with Khodorkovsky's lawyers and Alexandra Hildebrandt, head of a Berlin Wall museum. They decided Genscher, who was trusted by the Germans, supported by Chancellor Angela Merkel and well known to the Russians, in part due to the role he played in negotiations on German reunification, would launch a behind-the-scenes diplomatic offensive. It was the start of a concerted German effort that reached from Genscher to the top of the Chancellery, to apply pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to free Khodorkovsky, who had been jailed in 2003 on fraud and tax evasion charges but who was considered by many in the West to be a political prisoner. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says Arafat died of natural causes Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 05:38 AM PST By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning, but a Palestinian official called the finding "politicized" and said an investigation would continue. Samples were taken from Arafat's body last year by Swiss, French and Russian forensics experts after an al Jazeera documentary said his clothes showed high amounts of deadly polonium 210. The Swiss said last month their tests were consistent with polonium poisoning but not absolute proof of the cause of death. "Yasser Arafat died not from the effects of radiation but of natural causes," Vladimir Uiba, head of Russia's state forensics body, the Federal Medico-Biological Agency, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. Full Story | Top |
| Truce in besieged Damascus suburb may bring food to starving residents Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:36 AM PST  By Stephen Kalin BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and rebel fighters in a besieged Damascus suburb have agreed to a 48-hour truce that could result in food being allowed in for residents threatened with starvation, activists said on Thursday. Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels occupied Mouadamiya last year and the government has been trying to win it back since with a siege that has choked off food, medicine and fuel. If the truce holds until Friday, the army has said it will allow food in. If the truce holds and the government provides access to food, the activist said, a broader agreement could be implemented which might include the rebels giving up heavy weapons. Full Story | Top |
| If U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, much civilian aid may go too Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:51 AM PST  By Missy Ryan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For years, U.S. officials have pointed to the improvements in the everyday lives of Afghans made possible by billions of dollars in aid from the United States and elsewhere. In Afghanistan, people now live 20 years longer on average than under Taliban rule, they say; The specter of an abrupt departure of all U.S. and NATO soldiers from Afghanistan at the end of next year now imperils these gains, they warn, and endangers progress on the massive development challenges that remain. Unless the Obama administration can persuade Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a security pact that would permit a modest U.S. force to remain beyond 2014, the United States is almost certain to drastically scale back aid to Afghanistan. Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Struggle for resources at root of Central Africa religious violence Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 03:47 AM PST  By Bate Felix and Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - Mariam watched in horror as militiamen burst through the gate of her home in Central African Republic's capital Bangui and demanded her husband say whether he was Muslim. "Then they hacked and clubbed our neighbors, a husband and wife, to death." The two-day frenzy of violence in Bangui this month fed fears that Central African Republic was about to descend into religious warfare on a scale comparable to Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Full Story | Top |
| Bangladesh troops sent out to try to stem election violence Thursday, Dec 26, 2013 02:52 AM PST  Tens of thousands of troops fanned out across Bangladesh on Thursday in a bid to stem political violence ahead of next month's elections, which the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has boycotted. Violence has gripped the country as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling Awami League press ahead with the January 5 vote. BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia has called on Bangladeshis to march to the capital on Sunday to protest against the elections, declaring "democracy is dead". With the BNP's boycott, more than half the 300 parliament seats will go uncontested, making it unlikely the vote will do anything to restore stability in one of the world's poorest countries. Full Story | Top |
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