Civilian deaths in Afghanistan at highest level in a decade
A string of bigger and more complex suicide attacks by insurgents in Afghanistan have pushed civilian deaths to their highest level in a decade a United Nations report says. Georgette Gagnon, director of human rights for the UN's Kabul mission, said: "To the Afghan people, the credibility and value of a negotiation process and progress toward peace will be measured by reduced civilian casualties and real improvements in security' Photo: Mark Jones/AFP/Getty Images tag --> By Ben Farmer, Kabul 7:30AM GMT 04 Feb 2012 Comments The number of civilians killed in the conflict rose eight per cent last year to reach 3,021 – with more than three-quarters caused by attacks from the...
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More than 220 dead as big freeze grips Europe
Temperatures have plunged to new lows in Europe where a week-long cold snap has now claimed more than 220 lives as forecasters warned that the big freeze would tighten its grip over the weekend. A total of 223 people have died from the cold weather in the last seven days according to an AFP tally, with Ukraine suffering the heaviest toll. People have been found dead on the streets in some countries, while thousands have been trapped in mountain villages in Serbia. In Italy, Venice's canals started freezing over and even Rome was dusted in snow. The lowest temperatures recorded in Europe were in the southwest of the Czech Republic, where the mercury dropped as low as minus 38.1 degrees...
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Deadly clashes as anger with Egypt military boils over
AFP - A second day of clashes with Egyptian police left five more people dead as anger against the ruling military boiled over amid fury at the recent deaths of 74 people in football-related violence. Marchers took to the streets across the country to demand that the generals cede power immediately after a night of violence in several cities. Two protesters died in Cairo of tear gas inhalation after being rushed to hospital unconscious from outside the interior ministry, where clashes raged into Friday night. Another two protesters died in violence in the northeast canal city of Suez, according to a security source. Meanwhile the official Mena news agency reported that a soldier injured...
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UN council meeting Saturday to consider Syria
ANITA SNOW Associated Press= UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council will meet Saturday morning to take up a much-negotiated resolution on Syria, said a diplomat for a Western nation that sits on the council. The diplomat spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by the press. The confirmation came after the U.N. announced the meeting to news correspondents, then sent out another email asking reporters to "please disregard until further notice" the earlier announcement. The exact hour of the meeting was unclear. The move toward a vote came after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey...
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Freezing Europe hit by Russian gas shortage
Freezing weather sweeping across Europe has led to a shortage of vital Russian gas supplies to several countries, officials say. An EU energy spokeswoman said eight countries had seen a reduction in gas due to increased demand in Russia. She said the situation was not an emergency but was being monitored. The cold snap is being blamed for scores of deaths in eastern Europe where temperatures have plunged to below -35C....
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Vote rigging fears ahead of Russian poll
Thousands are set to protest in Moscow against fraud in Russia's recent parliamentary election. With a month to go before a presidential poll in which Vladimir Putin tries to return to his old job, Daniel Sandford asks why so many...
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Filipino troops still searching for terrorist
JIM GOMEZ Associated Press= MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A day after proclaiming the death of a top regional terrorist suspect in a U.S.-backed airstrike, the Philippine military acknowledged Friday that his remains still have not been found. Troops were searching the jungle camp that was hit Thursday for the body of Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, said regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang. Military officials said at least 15 people were killed in the dawn strike on a militant camp on remote southern Jolo Island, including two other high-level leaders. A national military spokesman, Col. Marcelo Burgos, initially reported that Marwan was among them....
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Syria: over 200 dead after 'massacre' in Homs
Observers claim deaths came after shelling by security forces on eve of UN vote on removal of Bashar al-Assad Houses apparently damaged during a military crackdown on protesters near Homs. This picture has been provided by unverified sources and distributed by Reuters More than 200 people were reported to have been killed yesterday in the Syrian city of Homs as security forces continued their efforts to take back opposition-held areas on the eve of a vote by the UN security council on a much-disputed resolution on the country....
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Obama urges Congress to 'keep recovery going'
US President Barack Obama challenged Congress to keep the economic recovery going as new data showed unemployment down to its lowest rate in three years. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3%, beating analyst forecasts, and was down from 8.5% in...
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Greece Talks Enter ‘Final Phase’ on Second Bailout to Secure Place in Euro
Greece may conclude a seven-month effort to wrap up its second bailout in the coming days with the country’s stability hanging in the balance. A plan that’s been in the works since July may emerge from parallel talks among caretaker Prime Minister Lucas Papademos’s coalition members; international monitors and Greek officials; and Greece’s government and its creditors, as well as tussles involving European central bankers and political leaders. “We are in the final phase of this very critical process to shape a new financing program for Greece and to complete the loan agreement which will lighten the burden of public debt and ensure funding for years to come,” Papademos said in a statement...
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Hubble snaps stunning barred spiral galaxy image
The Hubble space telescope has captured an image of a "barred spiral" galaxy that could help us better understand our own Milky Way. Most of the...
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Cold weather death toll passes 100 in Ukraine
More than 100 people have now died as a result of freezing weather in Ukraine since last Friday, the government has announced in Kiev. Most of the 101 who died were homeless people and 64 of them were...
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Tibetan PM in-exile demands UN intervention in Chinese hardliner policies
Dharamshala, Feb 3 (ANI): Tibetan Prime Minister in-exile Lobsang Sangay has expressed concern over rising Chinese military repression against Tibetans and urged the United Nations to send a fact-finding delegation to China to investigate its...
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U.S. scrambles to avoid Israeli attack on Iran which 'could come in months'
The West is trying desperately to talk Israel out of an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities amidst fears that a strike could come in the next few months. The United States is leading the persuasion initiative, even though Washington has largely concluded that outside argument will have little effect on Israeli decision-making. Iran's regime says it wants to extinguish the Jewish state, and the West accuses it of assembling the material and know-how to build a nuclear bomb. Israel fears that Iran is fast approaching a point at which a limited military strike no longer would be enough to head off an Iranian bomb. Iran: The country's nuclear programme is the target for western sanctions and...
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Panetta surprises with Afghanistan comments
WASHINGTON • President Barack Obama's administration scrambled Thursday to tamp down the fallout out from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's surprise announcement that the United States would end its combat role in Afghanistan a year earlier than expected — a revelation that heightened confusion over U.S. strategy and stoked Afghan distrust of American intentions. The U.S. decision also could...
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Germany's Merkel holds talks with China's president
AFP - German Chancellor Angela Merkel met China's president on Friday as she seeks to lift Beijing's confidence in Europe where the sovereign debt crisis threatens to tip the region into recession. China, the world's second-biggest economy, has watched with increasing concern as...
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Arabs, West seek to avert Russian veto of U.N. Syria
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Arab and Western drafters of a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at stopping Syria's bloody upheaval revised their text on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to avoid a Russian veto, though the new draft includes language Moscow has rejected. Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Hula near Homs, in this handout picture received January 31, 2012. Morocco circulated the slightly amended draft to the 15-nation council after Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told a closed-door session of the 15-nation body Moscow would veto the draft if it were put to a vote on Friday with a phrase saying the council "fully supports" an Arab League plan...
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U.N. Tentatively Backs a Plan for Syria
UNITED NATIONS -- Security Council ambassadors reached a wobbly consensus on Thursday backing an Arab League plan for political change in Syria, after they dropped a specific reference to President Bashar al-Assad's ceding of power. The resolution's passage is far from assured, and it still...
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Police kill two in Egypt clashes
Egyptian police have shot and killed two protesters in Suez, a health official said, the first to die in clashes that erupted around the country after a riot at a soccer stadium killed 74, as sports violence spiralled into a new political crisis for Egypt. Protesters blame police for failing to control the riot after the football game in Port Said. In Cairo, thousands demonstrated on Thursday in front of the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police. Demonstrators threw rocks, and police responded with clouds of tear gas. Hundreds were treated by medics. In Suez, witnesses said about 3,000 people demonstrated in front of police headquarters after news spread that one of the victims in the...
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Khmer Rouge chief jailer gets life in prison
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The Khmer Rouge tribunal's Supreme Court has ordered the regime's chief jailer to serve life imprisonment, a surprise ruling that stiffens a 19-year sentence imposed by a lower court. Kaing Guek Eav — also known as Duch — was commander of the notorious S-21 prison where thousands of Cambodians were tortured before execution" In 2010, the tribunal's lower court convicted him of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison but had 11 years shaved off. The sentence was appealed by prosecutors who called it too lenient and by Duch who argued it was too harsh. Friday's ruling marks the end of the tribunal's first war...
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Obama says his policies are extension of his faith
JULIE PACE Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) — Blending politics and religion, President Barack Obama said his Christian faith is a driving force behind his economic policies, from Wall Street reform to his calls for the wealthy to pay higher taxes. Obama's remarks Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast were his most explicit account of how his personal religious beliefs factor into his decision-making on the nation's pressing problems. The comments came amid election-year criticism from Catholic groups and some Republicans that the president is waging a war on religion following his decision to require church-affiliated institutions to cover free birth control for employees. Speaking to...
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A look at major terror attacks in Southeast Asia
The Associated Press= A look at major attacks in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia attributed to the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group and their allies from the regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah. — April 1995: Abu Sayyaf militants raid the mostly Christian town of Ipil in southern Philippines, killing more than 50 people after robbing banks and stores and burning the town center. — April 2000: Abu Sayyaf gunmen seize 21 people, including Western tourists, from a Malaysian resort and take them to their Philippine stronghold on Jolo Island; most are released in exchange for millions of dollars in ransom reportedly paid by Libya. — May 2001: Americans and other tourists are...
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Pakistan PM to be charged over corruption case
After many hours of debate and exchanges with the Prime Minister's legal team, the court ordered Mr Gilani to appear on 13 February, when the charges will be formally presented. If convicted, he faces up to six months in prison and could be forced from his position. "After the preliminary hearing, we are satisfied ... there is enough [of a case to proceed]," the seven members of the court announced. When Mr Gilani was...
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EU official: Greece needs extra $20 billion
BRUSSELS - Greece's international debt inspectors have discovered that the debt-ridden country still needs an extra euro15 billion ($20 billion) in help - on top of a promised euro130 billion bailout and a euro100 billion debt relief from private investors, a European official said Thursday. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has asked the rest of the 17-country eurozone to help foot the bill for the missing euro15 billion, the official said, indicating that a limit has been reached of what can be achieved by Athens implementing further spending cuts and private investors taking losses on their Greek bonds. The gap could be filled either through more help from...
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Death toll from Europe's deep freeze rises to 112
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Officials reported 20 more deaths from the cold in Ukraine and nine more in Poland, bringing the overall toll from a week of frigid weather in Eastern Europe to 112. Emergency crews were working overtime across the region as temperatures sank to minus 32.5 C (minus 26.5 F). Polish government spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak says the victims are primarily homeless people under the influence of alcohol who seek shelter in unheated buildings. Officials on Thursday appealed for the public to quickly help anyone in need. In Ukraine, nearly 950 people have been hospitalized with hypothermia and frostbite and officials have set up over 2,000 heated tents for the homeless....
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World digest
Russia renews its support for Syria Russia remained firm Wednesday in its pledge to veto any U.N. Security Council resolution that could open the door for international military intervention in Syria, as fighting raged anew in the troubled Middle East nation. With diplomats attempting to craft a compromise, Moscow also continues to oppose any U.N. move that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down or would slap new economic penalties or an arms embargo on Damascus. Inspection called 'good trip' • A senior U.N. nuclear inspector spoke of a "good trip" to Tehran and the agency said his team will return to Iran's capital in late February, indicating progress on...
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Deadly Egyptian riots go beyond football
February 2, 2012 -- Updated 0346 GMT (1146 HKT) Fans storm on to the pitch during riots that erupted after the football match between Al-Masry and Al-Ahly. Editor's note: James Montague is the author of When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone, a book about football and politics in the Middle East. (CNN) -- The deaths of 73 football fans shortly after a match between Cairo 's Al Ahly and Al Masry in Port Said, Egypt, has shocked the world. More than 1,000 more have been injured in scenes that will...
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Egypt soccer violence kills 74, fans turn on army
* Anger over security forces' failure to prevent unrest * Most victims killed in crush, say witnesses * Parliament to meet to discuss the violence * Remnants of Mubarak regime want more bloodshed-Brotherhood (Updates) By Yusri Mohamed PORT SAID, Egypt, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Seventy-four people were killed when supporters clashed at an Egyptian soccer match, prompting fans and politicians on Thursday to turn on the ruling army for failing to prevent the deadliest incident since Hosni Mubarak was ousted. At least 1,000 people were injured in the violence on Wednesday when soccer fans staged a pitch invasion in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, even though local team al-Masry beat visitors from...
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American Airlines aims to cut 13,000 jobs
DALLAS — The parent of American Airlines wants to eliminate about 13,000 jobs — 15 percent of its workforce — as the nation's third-biggest airline remakes itself under bankruptcy protection. The company proposes to end its traditional pension plans, a move strongly opposed by the airline's unions and the U.S. pension-insurance agency, and to stop paying for retiree health benefits. AMR Corp. said Wednesday that it must cut labor costs by 20 percent. It will soon begin negotiations with its three major unions, but the president of the flight attendants' union quickly rejected the company's ideas as unacceptably harsh. CEO Thomas W. Horton said Wednesday that the...
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Robert Fisk: What kind of Syria can survive this bitter battle for existence?
True, the Syrian regime has never confronted opposition on such a scale. If the fatalities do not yet come close to the 10,000 or 20,000 dead of the 1982 Hama uprising, the widespread nature of today's rebellion, the defections from the Syrian army, the loss of all but one Arab ally – little Lebanon, of course – and the slow growth of a civil war make this the most dangerous moment in Syria's post-independence history. How can Bashar al-Assad hang on? Well, there's Russia and the Putin-Medvedev determination not to be caught out by the West at the UN, as they were when they failed to...
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Facebook to go public, raise $5B
Facebook is going public eight years after its computer-hacking chief executive Mark Zuckerberg started the service at Harvard University. That means anyone with the right amount of cash will be able to own part of a Silicon Valley icon that quickly transformed from dorm-room start-up to cultural touchstone. If its initial public offering of stock makes...
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4 Britons admit London Stock Exchange bomb plot
LONDON (AP) — Four British men fueled by the words of a U.S.-born Muslim cleric pleaded guilty Wednesday to involvement in an al-Qaeda-inspired plot to spread terror and cause economic damage by bombing the London Stock Exchange at Christmastime. The nine men, from several parts of the country, were brought together through radical Islamist groups and nurtured plans to attack the stock exchange and other high-profile targets. Unbeknownst to them, British authorities learned of the plot and put them under surveillance. The men were arrested in raids in December 2010, and all initially denied all the charges against them. But on Wednesday, as their trial was due to start, four of the...
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Pakistan dismisses Nato report on Afghan Taliban links
Pakistan's foreign minister says her country has no hidden agenda in Afghanistan, in response to a leaked secret Nato report on Islamabad's links to the Afghan Taliban. Speaking...
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US Senators introduce resolution on deteriorating situation in Tibet
Voicing serious concern over the deteriorating situation in Tibet, six top American Senators have introduced a resolution in the US Congress asking China to suspend implementation of religious control regulations and immediately start a dialogue with the Dalai Lama....
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Got an extra million? A candidate could be in need
WASHINGTON-Brother, can you spare $1 million? The significant "super" political action committees in this year's presidential campaign on Tuesday revealed the names of their wealthy donors, a detailed accounting that underscored how millionaires and billionaires are influencing the presidential election behind the scenes. The group supporting Mitt Romney, who swept Florida's primary on Tuesday, identified bankers, investors and prominent businessmen who together contributed more than $30 million last year. The group's three most generous donors gave $1 million each, or 400 times the amount they could legally give directly to Romney. All were hedge fund managers. The...
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US, allies urge UN action to end violence in Syria
UNITED NATIONS-Vowing to avoid "another Libya," the U.S. and its allies challenged Russia on Tuesday to overcome its opposition to a U.N. draft resolution demanding that Syrian President Bashar Assad yield power and end the violence that has killed thousands. "It is time for the international community to put aside our own differences and send a clear message of support to the people of Syria," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the U.N. Security Council in backing an Arab League plan for the country. Russia, one of Assad's strongest allies, has signaled it would veto any U.N. action against Damascus, fearing it could open the door to eventual international military involvement,...
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Old foes give aid for poverty in Bosnia
KOCINOVAC, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- They were bitter enemies on opposite sides of the front line during the horrors of the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Now, one side is bailing out the other in an act of once-unimaginable generosity. In 2010, soldiers older than 35 years were forced to retire, as Bosnia tried to rejuvenate its army. But the pension checks never came, and hundreds of them fell into poverty. Now, former enemies edging closer together in...
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UK Supreme Court to hear Assange appeal
London: Britain's Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations. Britain's highest court has said seven justices will hear the arguments because of the "great public importance of the issue raised" by the case. Even as Assange's long-running battle against extradition reaches to a climax today, legal experts say that the WikiLeaks...
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Al Qaeda weakened, Iran a threat, U.S. intelligence officials say
Reporting from Washington— Al Qaeda's ability to conduct terrorist operations against the United States has diminished in the last year, but U.S. intelligence agencies said Tuesday that they now believe Iranian leaders are willing to launch attacks against American targets. The top U.S. intelligence official, James R. Clapper, told a Senate hearing that a purported Iranian plot to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington in the fall convinced U.S. officials that leaders in Tehran are increasingly likely to support bombings on U.S. soil, especially if they feel that their hold on power is threatened. "Some Iranian officials, probably including supreme leader Ali Khamenei, have changed...
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Romney takes better than 3-1 lead in GOP delegates
BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney's victory in the Florida Republican presidential primary gives him more than three times as many convention delegates as his closet rival, Newt Gingrich. Romney won all 50 delegates in Florida, giving him a total of 87, including endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the convention. Gingrich has 26 delegates, Rick Santorum has 14 and Ron Paul has four. The race for delegates is still in the early stages. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the nomination. Next up: Nevada, which has 28 delegates at stake in it caucuses on Saturday. Nevada Republicans award delegates...
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Judge in the dock to defend himself over Franco investigation
Baltasar Garzón, famed for his human rights work, removed his black judge's gowns as he took to the witness box to deny deliberately overstepping legal boundaries while trying to open an inquiry into the execution or disappearance of more than 100,000 civilians at the...
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Cold Weather Kills Dozens In Eastern Europe
At least 60 people have died due to freezing conditions caused by a cold snap in eastern and central Europe. The drop in temperatures, forcing some countries to deploy the army and set up emergency shelters, is set to continue to Friday, forecasters say. At least 30 people - mostly homeless - have died in...
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IAEA approves Japan nuclear 'stress tests'
The UN's nuclear watchdog has given its seal of approval to Japan's reactor safety checks, but said power companies should step up plans for managing disasters in the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns. A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in the country at the government's invitation as officials look for ways to convince a deeply sceptical population that the country's nuclear plants are safe to restart. The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) asked the IAEA to assess the stringency of the so-called stress tests to which all reactors were subjected before being given the green light to resume operations. "The conclusion of the team is...
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Japan cabinet OKs bill to cap nuke reactor life
SHARE AND DISCUSSTweetJapan's cabinet approved bills on Tuesday aimed at bolstering nuclear safety regulations following last year's Fukushima disaster. TOKYO: Japan's cabinet approved bills on Tuesday aimed at bolstering nuclear safety regulations following last year's Fukushima disaster, including one that would put a 40-year cap on the operational life of nuclear reactors. The approval came as a team of International Atomic Energy Agency experts generally endorsed "stress test" results at two idled reactors at a plant in western Japan, bolstering the Tokyo government's efforts to restart the facility, though the IAEA team said some safety...
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Inclusive Cameron tones down EU rhetoric
David Cameron says a new treaty paving the way for closer fiscal co-operation among EU members will not place obligations on the UK. BBC political correspondent Iain Watson examines his manoeuvrings in Brussels, which have upset some euro-sceptic backbenchers. There was a determination that at this summit, the prime minister could not be portrayed as being isolated. Instead he would be in the...
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AU extends mandate of top executive official
AFP - The African Union on Tuesday extended the mandate of its top official Jean Ping after an election, in which he was challenged by South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, deadlocked. "We have decided to prolong the mandate of the current commission until the next summit in Lilongwe Malawi" in June, bloc chairman, Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi, said at the end of a two-day summit in Addis Ababa. Intense campaigns had preceded the vote for commission chief which dominated the AU summit in the Ethiopia capital, where leaders gathered to discuss broadening trade within Africa and tackling conflict...
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In Brief: Mozambique storms’ death toll rises to 40
Photo: NASATropical Cyclone Funso exiting the Mozambique Channel on January 27 2012JOHANNESBURG, 30 January 2012 (IRIN) - About 40 people have died and more than 100,000 are affected by twin storms that struck Mozambique 18-26 January, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Tropical Cyclone...
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Putin urges for diversification of Russia’s economy in campaign article
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is running for the Russian presidency, says Russia must diversify its economy away from oil and gas to high-tech products to...
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Karzai 'to hold peace talks with Taliban in Saudi Arabia'
The Taliban, which was ousted from power after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, has previously refused to talk...
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China's Wen: govt debt risk "controllable", sets reforms
* Premier Wen says nation's govt debt at controllable level * Vows economic management won't cause risks to financial system * Comments from speech to financial work conference (Adds quotes, details, context) BEIJING, Jan 30 (Reuters) - China's Premier Wen Jiabao said the nation's government debt is at an "overall safe and controllable" level, that funding for key projects would be ensured and that applying the brakes to the economy would be done in a way to avoid systemic risks. Wen's comments, reported in the official People's Daily on Monday, were made in a speech dating back to early January at the government's flagship financial work conference. Wen pledged to contain and defuse local...
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