Italian technician, 2
steel workers kidnapped in Syria
An Italian technician and two employees at a Syrian steel
plant have been kidnapped. The abduction took place near the Syrian town
Latakia, the Italian foreign ministry said. The kidnapped Italian national is
an engineer, and the identity of two other victims has not been revealed, but
the two employees were of different nationalities, the foreign minister said.
Iran loses half of oil revenues over sanctions – minister
Tehran is losing
half of its oil revenues due to international sanctions imposed over the
country’s nuclear program, Economic Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said Monday. “Iran
is facing a 50 percent drop in its oil revenues due to sanctions,” AFP
quoted Hosseini as saying on television. Iranian exports in November were
estimated at 1.3 million barrels per day, down from nearly 2.3 million last
year, according to the International Energy Agency. President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad earlier acknowledged that Iran
had “some problems” in selling oil because of the sanctions.
Russian State Duma may bar Americans from adopting Russian
children
Russia
will completely ban child adoption by US citizens as of January 1, 2013, if an amendment to the
'anti-Magnitsky bill' is approved. It suggests prohibiting the transfer of
Russian children to US citizens for adoption and barring the activity of
Russian-based agencies and organizations providing adoption-related services to
US citizens, Interfax reported. The amendment also suggests unilaterally
terminating the agreement on child adoption between Russia
and the US,
which was signed in Washington on
July 13, 2011. The Duma
committee on constitutional legislation and state building supported the
amendment on Monday as part of the bill "On measures of influence on
persons involved in violations of Russian citizens' rights.”
Egyptian protesters
demand resignation of Prosecutor General
Public prosecutors in Egypt
staged a rally near Egypt's
High Court in Cairo on Monday,
demanding the resignation of newly appointed Prosecutor General Talaat
Abdallah. They threatened to hold a strike if he refused to step down. State
security forces cordoned off the court, which is also the Prosecutor General's
office, and clashes have been reported.
'No clear winner in
Syrian conflict' – Vice President
Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa said that a clear
winner was unlikely to emerge following the country’s 21-month conflict.
“No opposition can end the battle militarily, just as the security forces and
army cannot achieve a decisive conclusion,” Sharaa told Lebanese newspaper
Al-Akhbar in comments published on Monday. Sharaa, the most prominent Sunni
Muslim in Assad's minority Alawite-dominated regime, also said he hoped for a
negotiated solution to the civil war. The solution "must be Syrian,"
but also involve key regional countries and the UN Security Council to form a
“national unity government with broad powers,” he said.
Russia signed over $15 bln in military contracts in 2012 – Putin
Russia
signed more than $15 billion worth of arms and military-technical contracts in
2012, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. Speaking at a meeting of the
Military-Technical Cooperation Commission, he stressed the importance of
restoring Russia's
position in the market of modernizing and overhauling military hardware.
“We will both preserve the portfolio of military-technical orders and enlarge
it,” Interfax quoted him as saying.
EU says tax
collection lagging in Greece
The EU has warned that Greek tax collection is still falling
short of some key targets that need to be met to reduce the country's debt. The
EU's task force on the Greek crisis said in a quarterly report Monday that Athens
is having difficulty dealing with its outstanding tax claims. By early November
2012, it was still about 1 billion euro behind the EU's target of recovering 2
billion euro. Greece
conducted only 88 audits of large taxpayers, well short of a 2012 target of
300, and 467 audits of high-wealth individuals, below the 1,300 target, the
report said. EU Vice President Olli Rehn praised Greece
for tackling its problems “with determination and resolve.”
Israel to evict
settlers from 4 homes in West Bank’s Hebron
The Israeli government warned Monday it will evict two
Jewish settler families from property they seized in the West Bank
city of Hebron. Two settler
families took over four stalls in the town's Arab wholesale market a decade
ago, turning them into homes. The plots are owned by a Jewish family that left
the city before Jordan
occupied it in the late 1940s, and were rented by Palestinian tenants since
then. Israel
promised to clear the homes by April 24, though the settlers could request the
property be transferred to other Jews. Hebron
is home to 180,000 Palestinians.
Gunmen kill
intelligence officer in Yemen
Gunmen shot and killed a senior Yemeni intelligence officer
in an overnight attack in the eastern province
of Hadramawt, a security official
said on Monday. “Two unidentified gunmen on a motorbike intercepted Colonel
Shakir Awad Al Bani, who was heading home also on a motorbike,” AFP quoted
the official as saying. Al-Qaeda militants frequently attack members of the
country's security forces, especially across south and east Yemen.
BP sells 50 percent
stake in North Sea gas field for $288 mln
Oil company BP said Monday it has sold its half stake in a North
Sea gas field to SSE PLC for $288 million. The sale of the 50
percent stake in the Sean gas field, operated by Shell, is part of a broader
program of disposing of noncore assets for BP, the company said. BP's share of
production from Sean is equivalent to 18,000 barrels of oil per day. BP has
recently disposed of some other North Sea assets, but
the company still plans to invest $10 billion in British and Norwegian waters
over the next five years.
Russia to hand over Kaczynski plane debris to Poland after probe - Lavrov
The debris of a plane, which carried a Polish delegation led
by President Lech Kaczynski and crashed near Smolensk
in 2010, will be provided to Warsaw
after an investigation is completed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
said. “There can be no artificial [investigation] deadlines in this case,” he
said following Monday negotiations with his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw
Sikorski. “The investigation is to be completed before the physical
evidence is provided. It's our legislation, and we can't change it,” Interfax
quoted Lavrov as saying. Sikorski said delays in transfer of fragments could
cast a shadow on bilateral relations. The Polish Air Force Tupolev Tu-154
crashed near Smolensk on April 10, 2010, killing all 96 people
aboard.
Belgium says France responsible for Depardieu's tax exile
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders has said that France
was solely to blame for Gerard Depardieu seeking tax exile in the neighboring
country. The top French actor has also threatened to give up his passport
following criticism over his 'unpatriotic' decision to pay tax as a resident of
Belgium.
Reynders said Monday his country must not be made a “scapegoat” for Depardieu's
move. “There
have been no measures taken by Belgium
to attract any French national,” Reynders told SW, “There has been an evolution in the
French tax system which may have had consequences.”
6.1-magnitude
earthquake strikes off central Indonesia
A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of
central Indonesia
Monday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck at 0916 GMT at a depth
of 18 kilometers, more than 160 kilometers south-southeast of Gorontalo in
central Indonesia's
Sulawesi island. Local seismologists ruled out any
threat of a tsunami, AFP said.
Blast hits Lebanese
region near Israel border
A large explosion struck southern Lebanon
near its border with Israel
on early Monday. It was not immediately clear what had caused the blast near
the border town of Tair Harfa, Lebanon's
National News Agency said. A UN peacekeeping force in the area, UNIFIL, reached
the site of the explosion and has begun investigating. No casualties were
reported. Hezbollah has cordoned off the area of the explosion, Lebanese
security officials said.
Iran releases son of ex-president Rafsanjani on bail – reports
The son of influential former president Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani has been released on bail, Iranian media said. Mahdi Hashemi was
reportedly released late Sunday. The younger Hashemi was arrested in late
September, a day after he returned to Iran
from Britain.
He has been charged with corruption and fomenting unrest in the aftermath of Iran's
disputed 2009 presidential election. Earlier, his sister Faezeh was taken into
custody to serve a six-month sentence on charges of authoring anti-government
propaganda.
Explosion hits
compound of Afghan army contractor in Kabul
At least one person was killed and 15 more wounded on Monday
in a blast inside a Kabul compound
owned by a contractor working for the Afghan army, police said. The explosion
struck inside a large compound on Jalalabad road, east of the capital, AFP
reported. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. The explosion was
not at NATO's Camp Phoenix,
which is also on Jalalabad road, a NATO International Security Assistance Force
spokesperson said.
5 killed by car bomb
in northern Iraq
A car bomb has killed five people and wounded 11 others in
northern Iraq,
authorities said. On Monday morning, an explosion rocked al-Mouafaqiyah, a
village inhabited by families of the Shabak ethnic group. Similar attacks over
the last two days have targeted the disputed regions of Iraq.
Attacks on Sunday left at least eight dead and dozens wounded.
Landmine blast kills
10 girls in eastern Afghanistan
Ten young girls were killed when a landmine exploded in
eastern Afghanistan's
Nangarhar province on Monday, officials said. The girls, aged between nine and
11, were collecting firewood, and died when one of them accidentally struck the
mine with an axe, AFP quoted Chaparhar district governor Mohammad Sediq
Dawlatzai as saying. He claimed that an old mine left over from the 1980s
exploded. However, Nangarhar provincial government spokesperson Ahmad Zia
Abdulzai blamed Taliban insurgents, saying that the mine was planted by “the
enemies of Afghanistan.”
At least 9 killed in
bomb attack on Pakistani govt office
A bomb attack Monday at a government office in Pakistan’s
northwest tribal region has reportedly killed at least nine people and wounded
over 40 others. The bombing took place in Jamrud, the main town of the Khyber
tribal region. The attackers placed the bomb in the women’s waiting area of the
office of the assistant political agent for one of the top government officials
in the area. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Chavez allies win 20
of 23 states in Venezuela gubernatorial vote
Allies of President Hugo Chavez won 20 of 23 states in Venezuela's
gubernatorial elections on Sunday. Less than a week ago, the Venezuelan
president was operated on in Cuba
for cancer for the fourth time. Top opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost
to Chavez in October's presidential vote, was reelected the governor of
Miranda, the second most populous state, beating former Vice President Elias
Jaua.
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