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| Air strikes in Yemen kill 35 al Qaeda militants in two days Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 12:15 PM PDT By Mohamed Mukhashaf ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Air strikes in southern Yemen killed about 25 suspected al Qaeda members on Sunday, local tribal sources said, in the second operation of its kind within two days. On Saturday an air strike killed 10 al Qaeda militants and three civilians in central Yemen, a country that neighbors top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the group's most lethal wings. The defense ministry did not specify the nature of the air strikes, but in both cases local sources said unmanned drone aircraft had been seen above the target areas beforehand. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia Airlines plane returns safely after landing gear scare Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 12:04 PM PDT  A Malaysia Airlines passenger plane with 166 people on board landed safely at Kuala Lumpur airport early on Monday after being forced to abandon a flight to Bangalore because of problems with its landing gear, the airline said. Defence Minister and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in a tweet: 'All landed safely - going there now!!" Malaysia Airlines had said earlier that the Boeing 737-800, carrying 159 passengers and seven crew, had suffered a malfunction of its right-hand landing gear upon takeoff, and would be forced to attempt an emergency landing. The website www.flightradar24.com, which displays live air traffic, showed Flight MH192 repeatedly circling Kuala Lumpur airport before the eventual landing. Last month a Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in unexplained circumstances with 239 people on board, and the search for its presumed wreckage is still continuing in the Indian Ocean. Full Story | Top |
| Australia sees 'regroup' on Malaysian plane search in a few days Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 12:04 PM PDT  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Australia will decide in a few days whether to alter or scale back the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but will consult all countries involved on any changes, Australia's ambassador to the United States said on Sunday. Kim Beazley told CNN the search countries would "regroup and reconsider" if nothing is found in a section of the Indian Ocean floor now being scanned by a U.S. Navy underwater drone. This includes adjustments to the air and sea surface search efforts and the possibility of bringing in private contractors to replace some military assets, he said. You may well also consider bringing in other underwater search equipment," Beazley said on the "State of the Union with Candy Crowley" program. Full Story | Top |
| Former army chief, leftist are only candidates in Egypt presidential poll Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 11:56 AM PDT  By Maggie Fick and Mahmoud Mourad CAIRO (Reuters) - The former army general who toppled Egypt's first freely elected president will face a leftist politician in next month's presidential election, as they were the only candidates to enter before nominations closed, the committee organizing the vote said. The committee had received paperwork from former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and former parliamentarian and presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, it said at a news conference on Sunday, several hours after the deadline had passed. The elections will be held in a barren political climate after the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak raised hopes of a robust democracy in the biggest Arab nation. Neither candidate has outlined a strategy for tackling poverty, energy shortages and unemployment that afflict many of Egypt's 85 million people. Full Story | Top |
| Technical problems delay reopening of Libya's Zueitina oil port: minister Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 11:31 AM PDT By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Technical problems have delayed the reopening of Libya's eastern Zueitina oil export terminal after the government reached a deal with rebels to end an eight-month blockade of the port, a minister said on Sunday. Under the plan, the Hariga and Zueitina ports were due to open immediately while the larger Ras Lanuf and Es Sider terminals would resume oil exports within a month. But justice minister Salah al-Merghani said Hariga port located in Tobruk in the far east would be the only one to start operations due to technical problems at Zueitina. He declined to give a date for the resumption of oil exports from the 70,000 barrels-per-day port or for the Ras Lanuf and Es Sider ports. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuelan protesters hold Easter rally, plan to burn Maduro effigies Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 11:29 AM PDT  By Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters rallied on Sunday to demand the "resurrection" of Venezuelan democracy while effigies of both President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leaders were paraded for burning in a local Easter Day tradition. Though millions of Venezuelans have headed for Caribbean beaches and family gatherings over the Easter period, student demonstrators have sought to keep a nearly three-month protest movement going with religious-themed demonstrations. After a barefoot rally and a "Via Crucis" march in the style of Jesus' tortured walk towards crucifixion, the students gathered on Sunday in a Caracas square for a demonstration denominated "Resurrection of Democracy." Easter marks the day Christians believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead after being crucified. "We're staying in the street until we get our country back, until we get democracy back," student leader Djamil Jassir, 22, told Reuters in a square where protesters displayed dozens of used gas cannisters and bullets as symbols of repression. Full Story | Top |
| Deadly gun attack in eastern Ukraine shakes fragile Geneva accord Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 09:49 AM PDT  By Aleksandar Vasovic SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - At least three people were killed in a gunfight in the early hours of Sunday near a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists, shaking an already fragile international accord that was designed to avert a wider conflict. The incident triggered a war of words between Moscow and Ukraine's western-backed government with each questioning the other's compliance with the agreement, brokered last week in Geneva, to end a crisis that has made Russia's ties with the West more fraught than at any time since the Cold War. The separatists said armed men from Ukraine's Right Sector nationalist group had attacked them. Failure of the Geneva agreement could bring more bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, but may also prompt the United States to impose tougher sanctions on the Kremlin - with far-reaching consequences for many economies and importers of Russian energy. Full Story | Top |
| Mystery gunfight in east Ukraine sparks blame, counter-blame Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 09:10 AM PDT By Aleksandar Vasovic SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian authorities in eastern Ukraine presented identity documents, maps and a business card to support their view that Ukrainian far-right nationalists had carried out a deadly attack early on Sunday. The nationalists and authorities in Kiev said it was a staged display to conceal the hand of Russian secret services in the gunfight, in which at least three people were killed. The truth, as in so much of the standoff over Ukraine between Moscow and Kiev, was hard to establish. The local pro-separatist mayor of the nearby town of Slaviansk announced a curfew and urged Moscow to send in peacekeepers, complicating efforts to defuse the standoff between Ukraine's pro-Western leaders and Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Abdullah widens lead in Afghan presidential vote Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:48 AM PDT  By Jeremy Laurence KABUL (Reuters) - Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah's lead in the Afghan presidential race has widened, the latest official tally of votes released on Sunday showed, although half of the votes have yet to be counted. Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission said initial results based on almost 50 percent of the vote out of the total 34 provinces showed Abdullah in the lead with 44.4 percent, followed by ex-world bank official Ashraf Ghani with 33.2 percent of the votes it said were not fraudulent. "The lead we were expecting, it didn't come as a surprise, but perhaps we were expecting a bigger lead," Abdullah told Reuters in an interview at his home in Kabul. Final results are due on May 14, and a run-off, if needed, will take place in late May. A run-off is seen as a risky proposition in Afghanistan, given security concerns, the prospect of a low turnout and the cost - the bill for the first round was put at more than $100 million. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey Twitter accounts appear blocked after Erdogan court action Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:45 AM PDT  By Seda Sezer ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two anonymous Twitter accounts used to release secretly recorded conversations implicating family and associates of Turkey's prime minister and senior government officials in a corruption scandal appeared on Sunday to have been blocked. Twitter last week agreed to comply with a Turkish government request to close some accounts that officials said had breached national security or privacy regulations. Twitter said in a tweet on its policy feed: "Reminder: Our Country Withheld Content Policy means we act after due process, e.g., a court order". "We don't withhold content at the mere request of a gov't official and we may appeal a court order when it threatens freedom of expression," it tweeted. Full Story | Top |
| Syria's Assad pays Easter visit to recaptured Christian town Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:27 AM PDT  By Firas Makdesi MAALOULA, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday visited an ancient Christian town recaptured from rebels last week, state media said, as he seeks to persuade minorities that the government is their best protection against hardline Islamists. Assad's Easter visit to Maaloula - a rare appearance outside central Damascus - also highlighted growing government confidence in recent gains against insurgents around the capital and along the Lebanese border. Islamist fighters, including some from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, had taken over part of Maaloula in December and held several nuns captive until releasing them in March in a prisoner-exchange deal. Full Story | Top |
| Chinese admiral to snub Japan at regional meeting: Xinhua Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:24 AM PDT  The commander of the Chinese navy will refuse to meet Japanese military officials one-on-one at a regional naval symposium in China this week, a navy spokesman was quoted as saying on Sunday, citing what he called hurtful actions by Japanese leaders. The decision to snub Japanese officials attending the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in Qingdao on Tuesday and Wednesday comes during a chill in relations between the world's no.2 and no.3 economies, amid a row over a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea. In addition to the territorial quarrel, China's ties with Japan have long been poisoned by what Beijing sees as Tokyo's failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China before and during World War Two. On Sunday the head of Japan's National Public Safety Commission visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which critics including the Chinese government see as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression. Full Story | Top |
| Ghana company says U.S. plane seen in Tehran broke no laws Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:49 AM PDT By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) - A U.S.-flagged plane which landed at an airport in the Iranian capital Tehran last week was carrying business executives from Ghana and did not flout international laws, according to the mining firm which leased it. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the plane, owned by the Bank of Utah, was parked at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport on Tuesday. Its presence caused a stir as the United States and Iran have been at loggerheads for decades and the Islamic Republic is subject to economic sanctions, which would generally prohibit U.S.-registered aircraft from flying to the country. It was later reported that the aircraft was leased to Ghana-based mining firm Engineers and Planners (E&P), founded by the Ibrahim Mahama - a multi-millionaire and brother of Ghana's President John Mahama. Full Story | Top |
| New air strikes kill 25 al Qaeda militants in Yemen Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:32 AM PDT  By Mohamed Mukhashaf ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Air strikes in southern Yemen killed about 25 suspected al Qaeda members on Sunday, local tribal sources said, in the second operation of its kind within two days. On Saturday an air strike killed 10 al Qaeda militants and three civilians in central Yemen, a country that neighbors top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the group's most lethal wings. Full Story | Top |
| Search ends for missing on Everest, some Sherpas call for shutdown Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 06:44 AM PDT  By Gopal Sharma KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Rescuers have given up searching for three sherpa guides missing two days after the deadliest ever accident on Nepal's Mount Everest killed at least 13 and shocked the mountaineering world. It not possible to find the three missing persons, dead or alive," said Lakpa Sherpa, of the Himalayan Rescue Operation, speaking from base camp, the starting point for Everest expeditions. The helicopters used in the search and to ferry bodies from the mountain have been called back to Kathmandu, an army spokesman said. Rescuers brought six bodies from the base camp to Kathmandu at the weekend and have kept them at a sherpa Buddhist monastery in accordance with tradition. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine forces accuse Russia of staging shooting Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 06:20 AM PDT Ukraine's police and intelligence service accused Russia of staging a fatal shooting incident on Sunday in which pro-Moscow separatists were killed in the east of the country. "Armed lawbreakers and saboteurs who are terrorizing the local population around Slaviansk ... have turned to cynical provocation," the SBU security service said in a statement, describing the incident as a "staged attack". No group was present "other than the saboteurs and crime figures, supported and armed by officers of Russia's GRU" military intelligence, the SBU added. The Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector, blamed by separatists for the shooting, denied involvement and also accused Russian special forces. Full Story | Top |
| Militants kill 11 Algerian soldiers in ambush Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 06:09 AM PDT By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS (Reuters) - Islamic militants killed at least 11 Algerian soldiers in an ambush on a patrol in mountains east of the capital Algiers, a security source said on Sunday, in one of the deadliest attacks on the military in years. The troops were searching for militants in the Tizi Ouzou region, 120 km (75 miles) east of Algiers, when they were attacked by fighters from al Qaeda's north African branch, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the source told Reuters. Another 11 soldiers were wounded, the source said. The attack came just days after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 77, was re-elected for a fourth term following a campaign that portrayed the aging leader as key to continued security for the North African OPEC state. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill two Egyptian policemen near Cairo, court jails Islamists Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 05:01 AM PDT  Gunmen killed an Egyptian intelligence officer and a policeman on a road outside Cairo in a late-night firefight, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. The armed men fled the scene after shooting dead Captain Ashraf Badeer el-Qazaz of the intelligence service and a police conscript, the ministry said in a statement. The two men were on security patrol late on Saturday on a desert road linking Cairo to the canal city of Suez when they tried to stop a vehicle, which then opened fire on them. Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on members of the security forces and killed hundreds of them since the army toppled Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, last July. Full Story | Top |
| Prosecutors extend Korea ferry captain's detention as death toll mounts Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:36 AM PDT  By Ju-min Park and Jungmin Jang JINDO/MOKPO, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors investigating last week's ferry disaster said on Sunday they wanted to extend the detention of the captain and two other crew as they try to determine the cause of an accident that likely claimed more than 300 lives. The Sewol ferry was on a routine 400-km (300-mile) voyage from Incheon to the southern holiday island of Jeju in calm weather on Wednesday carrying 476 passengers and crew, among them 339 children and teachers on a high school outing. It took more than two hours for it to capsize completely but passengers were ordered to stay put in their cabins. Full Story | Top |
| On Easter, Pope calls for end to war, condemns waste exacerbating hunger Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:35 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in his Easter address before a huge crowd, on Sunday denounced the "immense wastefulness" in the world while many go hungry and called for an end to conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Africa. "We ask you, Lord Jesus, to put an end to all war and every conflict, whether great or small, ancient or recent," he said in his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message. Francis, marking the second Easter season of his pontificate, celebrated a Mass to an overflowing crowd of at least 150,000 in St. Peter's Square and beyond. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine nationalists deny role in east Ukraine clash, blame Russia Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:31 AM PDT KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's Right Sector nationalists denied playing any role in a gunfight in Slaviansk, eastern Ukraine, early on Sunday in which at least two people were killed. They blamed Russian special forces for being behind the attack. "It is a blasphemous provocation from Russia: blasphemous because it took place on a holy night for Christians, on Easter night. This was clearly carried out by Russian special forces," Artem Skoropadsky, a spokesman for Right Sector, told Reuters. (Reporting by Natalya Zinets; Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Christian Lowe) Full Story | Top |
| Palestinians, Israeli police clash at Jerusalem holy site Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:30 AM PDT Israeli police arrested 16 Palestinians at one of Jerusalem's most revered and politically sensitive holy sites on Sunday as they dispersed protesters opposed to any Jewish attempts to pray there. A police spokesman said officers used stun grenades to disperse dozens of rioters, who threw rocks and firecrackers at them at the site revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's walled Old City. Five Palestinians were also slightly hurt, a Muslim clergyman said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the plaza near the al Aqsa mosque had remained open to visitors during the clash, which was confined to a small area. Full Story | Top |
| Air strike kills Qaeda militants in Yemen, second in two days: defense ministry Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:12 AM PDT By Mohamed Mukhashaf ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - A number of al Qaeda militants were killed when an air strike hit their training camps in a remote mountainous region of southern Yemen on Sunday, the defense ministry said, the second attack of its kind in two days. On Saturday an air strike killed 10 al Qaeda militants and three civilians in central Yemen, a country that neighbors top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the group's most lethal wings. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says Ukraine clash shows Kiev not disarming militants Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 02:25 AM PDT A fatal gun battle overnight near the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk shows that the Ukrainian authorities are failing to rein in armed extremists, Russia's foreign ministry said on Sunday. In a statement, the ministry said an unspecified number of innocent civilians were killed in an attack by armed men from "Right Sector," a far-right nationalist group which figured prominently in the overthrow of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February. "Russia is indignant about this provocation by gunmen, which testifies to the lack of will on the part of the Kiev authorities to rein in and disarm nationalists and extremists," the statement said. It said it was a source of surprise that the incident had happened after Russia, the European Union, the United States and Ukraine signed an April 17 accord in Geneva calling on people to desist from using violence or intimidation. Full Story | Top |
| At least two killed in clash in east Ukraine, separatists say five dead Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 02:18 AM PDT By Aleksandar Vasovic SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Gunfire erupted near a makeshift checkpoint manned by pro-Russian separatists near Slaviansk in eastern Ukraine early on Sunday, killing at least two people. Separatists gave a higher casualty figure, saying they had come under attack from Ukrainian nationalist paramilitaries. The incident represented the first fatalities in eastern Ukraine since a four-way agreement was reached last Friday in Geneva to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine where separatists are rebelling against Kiev's pro-western leaders. He said two of the attackers, whom he said were from the far-right nationalist Right Sector group which figured prominently in the overthrow in Kiev of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February, were killed after the separatists brought in extra men. Full Story | Top |
| Joyful homecoming for four French journalists after Syria captivity Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 02:11 AM PDT  By Sunaina Karkarey VILLACOUBLAY AIRBASE, France (Reuters) - Four French journalists held captive in Syria for more than 10 months returned home to France on Sunday, freshly shaved and beaming, where they were met at an airbase by President Francois Hollande, their families and friends. Nicolas Henin, Pierre Torres, Edouard Elias and Didier Francois smiled at a crowd of journalists, some of them colleagues, after descending from a military helicopter at the Villacoublay airbase southwest of Paris. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's ANC set for two-thirds majority: poll Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 01:24 AM PDT  The African National Congress (ANC) is on course to win nearly a two-thirds majority in May 7 elections, a poll showed on Sunday, confounding analysts who had predicted a fall in support for South Africa's ruling party 20 years after the end of apartheid. The poll, published by South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper, said the ANC was likely to win 65.5 percent of the vote, only a shade lower than the 65.9 percent it won at the last national elections in 2009. The survey was conducted on April 4, after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela - South Africa's top anti-corruption watchdog - published a damning report into a $21 million state-funded security upgrade to President Jacob Zuma's private home. Full Story | Top |
| Two bodies seen at east Ukraine checkpoint: Reuters witness Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 12:54 AM PDT SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - A Reuters TV witness said on Sunday he had seen two bodies, one with gunshot wounds to the head and face, at a checkpoint outside the city of Slaviansk in eastern Ukraine where separatists said earlier they had come under armed attack. One of the dead was dressed in combat fatigues and the other in civilian clothes. Police were at the scene carrying out an investigation, he said. (Reporting by Dmitry Madorsky and Aleksandar Vasovic; Writing By Richard Balmforth) Full Story | Top |
| Korean gym is a hothouse of grief for relatives of ferry missing Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 12:53 AM PDT By Ju-min Park JINDO, South Korea (Reuters) - Kim Ha-na no longer sleeps or eats and is haunted by the voice of her 17-year-old brother, calling frantically to tell her the ferry he was aboard with more than 300 classmates and staff from his high school on the outskirts of Seoul was sinking. More than 50 people are now known to have died and 252, mostly children, presumed dead in the upturned hull of the stricken vessel that capsized off the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday. Kim's brother, Dong-hyup, was one of 339 pupils and teachers from Danwon High School on an annual outing to the subtropical island of Jeju, making up most of the 476 passengers and crew. Kang Min-gyu, 52, the Vice Principal of Danwon High School, went missing on Thursday and was later found hanged with his belt from a pine tree outside the gymnasium. Full Story | Top |
| Eight killed in plane crash in northern Mexico Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 11:24 PM PDT A Hawker 800 jet crashed in northern Mexico late on Saturday, killing all eight people on board, the government of the state of Coahuila said. The plane came down in an industrial estate in the municipality of Ramos Arizpe, just north of state capital Saltillo, the Coahuila attorney general's office said in a statement. According to preliminary findings, the jet departed from the Mexican Caribbean island of Cozumel on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and was bound for Ramos Arizpe, the statement said. Separately, authorities in Naucalpan on the northwestern fringe of Mexico City said late on Saturday that a three-way car collision there had killed at least eight people and injured 12 others, some of them seriously. Full Story | Top |
| At Easter, Ukrainian church condemns Russian 'aggression' Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 05:17 PM PDT By Alastair Macdonald KIEV (Reuters) - As Russians and Ukrainians celebrated Easter on Sunday with their nations locked in conflict, the head of Ukraine's Orthodox Church condemned Russian "aggression" and said "evil" would be defeated. "Against our peace-loving nation, which voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons, there has been aggression, there has been injustice," Patriarch Filaret said in his Easter message, as quoted by local media. "A country which guaranteed the integrity and inviolability of our territory has committed aggression. "Lord, help us resurrect Ukraine." It was a strikingly outspoken intervention at a time when many Ukrainians said they were praying for peace with their former Soviet neighbor on a day when Christians celebrate Jesus rising from the dead after his crucifixion. Full Story | Top |
| South Korea recovers first bodies from inside sunken ferry Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 04:05 PM PDT  South Korean divers retrieved three bodies from inside a sunken ferry overnight, officials said on Sunday, the first time they have been able to gain entry to the passenger section of the ship. "At 11:48 p.m. (10.48 ET) the joint rescue team broke a glass window and succeeded in getting inside the vessel," the South Korean government said in a statement. The discovery of the bodies brought to 36 the official death toll from what looks to be South Korea's deadliest maritime accident in 21 years. Full Story | Top |
| Iran says it watered down, converted over 200 kg of enriched uranium Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 03:31 PM PDT  Iran said on Saturday it had completed watering down and converting more than 200 kilograms (440 lb) of enriched uranium under a deal reached in Geneva last November with world powers over its disputed nuclear program. "Based on the agreement with the West, we were supposed to have half of our 200 kilogram stock of uranium diluted and the other half converted to uranium oxide," Iran's atomic chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, told the Arabic-language Al Alam television channel. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday that Iran has acted to cut its most sensitive nuclear stockpile by nearly 75 percent in implementing a landmark pact with world powers, but a planned facility it will need to fulfil the six-month deal has been delayed. Salehi, who heads the country's atomic energy organization, said the fast process of uranium conversion was expected to expedite the release of frozen Iranian assets in the West. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. peace envoy criticizes Israeli Easter security in Jerusalem Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 03:28 PM PDT  By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police refused to let the U.N.'s peace envoy to the Middle East, other diplomats and a crowd of Palestinians pass through a barricade to attend a pre-Easter ritual in the Jerusalem church that Christians revere as the burial site of Jesus, the U.N. official said on Saturday. The incident, following two days of violence at a separate holy site known as a flashpoint for Jews and Muslims, underscored rising tensions in the politically charged city ahead of Pope Francis's Holy Land visit next month. Israel dismissed the U.N. complaint, calling it an attempt to inflate a "micro-incident" and saying police at the barricade keep people back as a crowd-control measure while there was no reported violence among the tens of thousands of Christians who thronged to the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem's old walled city to witness the "Holy Fire" ritual. Robert Serry, the United Nation's peace envoy to the Middle East, said in a statement Israeli security officers had stopped a group of Palestinian worshippers and diplomats in a procession near the church, "claiming they had orders to that effect". Full Story | Top |
| Germany's Steinmeier urges focus on de-escalation with Russia, not sanctions Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 03:27 PM PDT German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he wished as much emphasis would be placed on preventing an escalation of tensions with Russia over Ukraine as there is at the moment in threatening economic sanctions. In an interview to appear in Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday, Steinmeier appeared to be referring to threats from the United States as well as from within Germany about the need for economic sanctions against Russia. "I sometimes wish that the same engagement being used for the debate about sanctions would also exist when it comes to avoiding a further escalation," Steinmeier told the Sunday newspaper, according to excerpts released before publication. "We've already exhaustively discussed the sanctions issue," he added, in comments the newspaper said were addressed at German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, who has called for economic sanctions against Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Sudanese militants kill two, kidnap three at oil field Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 01:38 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Armed militants killed two security staff and kidnapped a Chinese, an Algerian and a Sudanese worker in an attack on an oil field in Sudan's West Kordofan state, army spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khalid Sa'ad said on Saturday. Security forces are still tracing the perpetrators, he added. West Kordofan is the main oil-producing state in Sudan. It has faced several attacks by armed militants attempting to disrupt production. The main rebel group active in the area, the Justice and Equality Movement, denied any involvement in the latest incident. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine rabbi seeks end to anti-Semitism row - in vain Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 01:22 PM PDT By Aleksandar Vasovic and Alastair Macdonald DONETSK/KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian rabbi whose congregation was the target of an anti-Semitic leaflet that drew global media interest and condemnation from the U.S. government believes it was a hoax and wants to put the matter to rest. But five days after the incident in the restive eastern city of Donetsk, Ukraine's prime minister, anxious to maintain U.S. support against Russia, issued a statement accusing Moscow and told a U.S. TV channel he would find the "bastards" responsible. On Monday evening, as Jews left a synagogue after a Passover service, masked men handed out fliers purported to be from pro-Russian separatists who seized the regional authority building in Donetsk and styled themselves as its government. In an echo of the Holocaust which devastated Ukraine's Jews, it ordered all Jews to register with them or face deportation. Full Story | Top |
| Iran slams U.S. justice verdict on Manhattan skyscraper Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 01:19 PM PDT Iran on Saturday criticized a U.S. government move to seize a Manhattan skyscraper owned largely by a foundation that promotes its language and Islamic culture, saying this violated the right to religious freedom in the United States. According to a court document filed in New York on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to distribute proceeds from the sale of the Fifth Avenue high-rise to families affected by alleged Iranian-aided attacks, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. The settlement marks the latest turn in a long-running battle over the 36-storey building owned chiefly by Alavi Foundation, a non-profit Persian and Islamic cultural center. Iran's foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said the decision "lacks legal justification and negates America's commitment to protecting its citizens' religious freedom." "Confiscation of the properties of an independent charity organization raises doubt about the credibility of U.S. justice," she was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Full Story | Top |
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