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| January 04, 2014 |
 Iraq's Fallujah falls to Qaeda-linked militants Fallujah, Iraq (AFP) Jan 04, 2014 - Iraq has lost Fallujah to Al-Qaeda-linked fighters, a senior security official said on Saturday, putting militants who repeatedly battled American forces for the city back in control. Parts of the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, have been held by militants for days, harkening back to the years after the 2003 US-led invasion when both were insurgent strongholds. Fighting e ... more |  |
 US challenges ruling on 'Orwellian' NSA snooping Washington (AFP) Jan 03, 2014 - The US government said Friday it has lodged an appeal against a judge's ruling that the National Security Agency's "almost Orwellian"bulk collection of telephone records is illegal. Separately, spy chief James Clapper revealed that a secret court had renewed the NSA's authority to gather call "metadata," despite the controversy triggered when the program came to light. Last year, leaked ... more |  |
 Key Syria opposition bloc reaffirms peace talks rejection Beirut (AFP) Jan 03, 2014 - A key group within Syria's mainstream opposition National Coalition reaffirmed Friday that it will not attend peace talks slated for later this month in Switzerland. "After meetings with many international delegations in recent weeks... the Syrian National Council confirms it sees no reason to attend the Geneva conference," SNC member Samir Nashar told AFP by telephone. Nashar also forec ... more |  |
 S. Korea dismisses Kim Jong-Un's peace gesture Seoul (AFP) Jan 03, 2014 - South Korea on Friday dismissed North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's conciliatory words in his New Year message as an empty gesture, urging Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear programmes to show it is committed to better relations. In his speech on Wednesday, Kim hailed the execution last month of his once-powerful uncle Jang Song-Thaek and accused the United States and South Korea of manoeuvring fo ... more |  |
 Israel, US carry out missile test during Kerry visit Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 03, 2014 - Israel and the United States carried out a joint missile test Friday, the defence ministry said, as US Secretary of State John Kerry pushed for a Middle East peace deal. The Israel Missile Defence Organisation and US Missile Defence Agency completed a "successful" launch of the Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile system over the Mediterranean, an Israeli defence ministry statement said. The A ... more |  |
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 Four-of-5 world leaders use Twitter; Obama leads the pack Washington (UPI) Jan 2, 2013 - Four out of 5 world leaders use Twitter, an annual ranking of the use of social media among world leaders by the Digital Policy Council found. The numbers are an increase of 8 percent compared with the number of leaders using the service in 2012, the Washington group said in a release Thursday. The survey also ranks the Top 10 tweeting leaders in the world, placing President Obam ... more |  |
Kerry on third day of Mideast shuttle Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 04, 2014 - US Secretary of State John Kerry was Saturday seeking to brush aside bitter recriminations and push forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on a third day of shuttle diplomacy. After five months of mostly sticking to a deal not to air their grievances in public, the mutual distrust between the sides has burst into the open with the top US diplomat's 10th trip back to Israel. And US o ... more |  |
Hacker Jack died from accidental overdose: coroner San Francisco (AFP) Jan 03, 2014 - The sudden death of prominent hacker Barnaby Jack was due to an accidental overdose of heroin, cocaine and other drugs, a coroner's report said Friday. The New Zealand-born Jack, 36, a software wizard famous for remotely hacking ATMs and medical devices, was found dead in his bed by his girlfriend in July. An autopsy found "no visible or palpable evidence of trauma" on the body. There wa ... more |  |
A tale of two leaders in China and Japan Beijing (AFP) Jan 03, 2014 - China's President Xi Jinping and Shinzo Abe of Japan are locked in a spiralling diplomatic standoff but their burgeoning rivalry contrasts with striking personal parallels between the two, analysts say. While they have emerged through very different systems, one a democracy and the other a one-party state, they are both sons of elite politicians, have suffered serious personal or political s ... more |  |
China plans joint military command system: state media Beijing (AFP) Jan 03, 2014 - China's armed forces plan to set up a joint operational command system to "enhance efficiency" in crisis response, state media reported Friday. At present the People's Liberation Army, (PLA) the world's biggest military, which incorporates China's navy and air force, is arranged on a geographical system with land forces at its core and dividing the country into seven regions. Now the mil ... more |  |
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 NATO soldier killed in Afghan multiple suicide attack Jalalabad, Afghanistan (AFP) Jan 04, 2014 - Six Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-NATO base in the east of Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one NATO soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said. One attacker in an explosives-packed vehicle blew himself up at the entrance of the base in Nangarhar province, and five other insurgents were shot as they tried to storm the facility. NATO's Internati ... more |  |
China envoy compares Japanese militarism to Voldemort Beijing (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - China's ambassador to Britain has invoked Lord Voldemort, the villain of JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, in a diplomatic standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the Japanese prime minister's visit to a controversial war shrine. "In the Harry Potter story, the dark wizard Voldemort dies because the seven horcruxes, which contain parts of his soul, have been destroyed," ambassador Liu Xiaomi ... more |  |
Kerry in Israel on new Mideast peace push Jerusalem (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - US Secretary of State John Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday as he pushed a framework for Middle East peace talks, amid growing tension with the Palestinians. The two met in Jerusalem, launching what is expected to be an intense four days of shuttle diplomacy between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Kerry's meeting with Netanyahu was extending into the night, h ... more | |
Iraq forces battle jihadists in western cities Ramadi, Iraq (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - Iraqi forces backed by tribesmen battled jihadists on Thursday after they seized parts of two Sunni-majority cities following days of violence triggered by the demolition of a year-old protest camp. Militants from the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized half of the city of Fallujah, outside Baghdad, and parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi farther west. ... more |  |
Censored China paper insists on right to truth Beijing (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - A Chinese newspaper at the centre of rare protests over government censorship last January when its New Year message was altered insisted on its right to "express the truth" in this year's article Thursday. The row at the Southern Weekly newspaper blew up when an article urging greater protection of people's rights was replaced by one praising the ruling Communist Party. Demonstrators ma ... more |  |
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Beijing's aircraft carrier returns from South China Sea Beijing (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - Beijing's first aircraft carrier has returned from a training mission in the South China Sea, state media said, completing a 37-day deployment carried out amid mounting regional tensions. The newly-commissioned Liaoning returned to its home port of Qingdao after carrying out a series of trials with "aircraft, naval vessels and submarines", China's official news agency Xinhua reported on Wedn ... more |  |
Colleague of China's ex-security chief sacked for graft Beijing (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - A former close colleague of China's ex-chief of internal security Zhou Yongkang has been sacked for "suspected severe violations of disciplines", state media said Thursday, stepping up anti-corruption inquiries another notch. Li Chongxi was dismissed as chairman of the Sichuan province Political Consultative Conference - a debating chamber that is part of the Communist Party-controlled gove ... more |  |
Turkey denies reports of arms shipment to Syria Istanbul (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - Turkey denied on Thursday local media reports that its security forces had seized a truck laden with weapons bound for Syria. "The truck was loaded with aid for the Turkmen community in Syria," Interior Minister Efkan Ala told reporters. Hurriyet newspaper had reported that security forces stopped a truck loaded with arms and ammunition on the Syrian border on Wednesday and arrested th ... more |  |
Nordic vessels ready for delayed Syria chemical shipment Nicosia (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - Danish and Norwegian naval vessels are to head for waters off Syria again Friday in readiness to escort a delayed shipment of key chemical weapons for destruction, a spokesman said. The ships will weigh anchor from the nearby island of Cyprus, where they headed to port on Monday when it became clear that a year-end deadline for the shipment would be missed, Norwegian armed forces spokesman L ... more |  |
Commentary: 2014 Washington (UPI) Jan 2, 2013 - New Year projections for 2014 conveyed, for the most part, pessimism. They seemed like a rerun of 2009's Annus Horribilis. In the January issue of Newsmax, a conservative monthly, these were headlines on subsequent pages: - China's Nuclear Cross Hairs Fixed on U.S. Coastal Cities - Drastic Military Cuts Leave Us Vulnerable - Why the Saudis Loathe the U.S. ... more |  |
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