‘Turkey will retaliate if border with Syria
violated again’ – Turkish FM
Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned on Saturday that Turkey would retaliate
“without hesitation” if the country’s border with Syria is violated again,
Reuters reports. Turkish forces have repeatedly launched retaliatory mortar
attacks in response to sporadic shelling originating from Syrian territory over
the last several weeks. Turkey has recently moved to reinforce its border with
Syria by deploying fighters and tanks.
16 killed in suicide bombing
targeting Pakistani peace committee
A
suicide bomber targeting the office of a local peace committee killed at least
16 people after his explosive-laden vehicle detonated in northwest Pakistan.
The death toll may rise, officials say, as 30 people were wounded and several
were in critical condition. The blast tore through the main market of Darra
Adam Khel near the Khyber tribal region. Thirty five shops and eight vehicles
were also destroyed in the attack.
Blasts targeting security forces
kill 8 in Afghanistan
At least
eight people were killed in separate attacks in Southern Afghanistan on
Saturday. Six people, including four Afghan intelligence officers, were killed
in a suicide attack in Kandahar province. Two Afghan police officers died and
three others were wounded when their vehicle ran over a roadside mine in
neighboring Zabul province. A second explosion targeted officers rushing to the
scene of the attack.
Fugitive son of deposed Kyrgyz
president arrested in London, faces extradition to US
Maxim
Bakiyev was arrested in London and faces extradition to the US, the office of
the President of the Kyrgyz Republic announced on Friday. Bakiyev, whose father
was forced to step down during the 2010 coup, is wanted in the United States on
charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and obstruction of justice.
Turkish PM criticizes UN Security
Council for “inaction” over Syria
Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused the UN Security Council of having an
attitude which gives Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “the green light” to
engage in mass killings. He further said the UN system was “unjust” for
allowing two nations – Russia and China – to block intervention. His comments
were delivered to a group of dignitaries, including Arab League Secretary
General Nabil Elaraby, at a conference in Istanbul on Saturday.
S. African police use tear gas to
disperse hundreds of protesting platinum miners
Police
fired teargas and rubber bullets in an effort to disperse around 1,000 striking
miners protesting near an Amplats (Anglo American Platinum) mineshaft in
Rustenburg, South Africa, on Friday night. The incident followed an earlier
demonstration this week, in which two people were killed and 40 arrested as
workers went on strike to demand a pay rise. Amplats, the world's largest
platinum producer, recently sacked 12,000 employees, saying they failed to
attend disciplinary hearings. Since August, over 75,000 miners across South
Africa announced a general strike on demands including better working
conditions.
Egypt’s chief prosecutor defies
sacking, returns to work
Egyptian
Prosecutor General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud returned to work in defiance of a
presidential decision to remove him from his post. He entered his office in
Cairo on Saturday, with the courthouse flanked by security guards and hundreds
of judges and lawyers. Mahmoud claimed President Mohamed Morsi does not have
the power to fire him. Morsi sacked the Prosecutor General and appointed him
ambassador to the Vatican. The move was an apparent bid to appease public anger
over the acquittals of ex-regime officials accused of orchestrating violence
against protesters last year. “I will not leave this office unless I am
assassinated,” Mahmoud said.
Al-Qaeda head calls for holy war
over US anti-Muslim video
Ayman
al-Zawahiri, head of Al-Qaeda, has called for holy war against the US over an
infamous anti-Muslim video. He condemned the video as showing that the US was
waging a "crusader Zionist war" against Muslims. He also encouraged
the "free and distinguished zealots for Islam" who attacked the US
embassy in Benghazi last month and killed its ambassador to “continue their
opposition.” Al-Zawahiri condemned the White House for allowing the release of
the video under the justification of freedom of speech, and said that “this
freedom did not prevent them from torturing Muslim prisoners" in
Guantanamo Bay.
Iran considers halting uranium
enrichment
Tehran
may stop its enrichment of high-grade uranium if it is given nuclear fuel for
research and medical reactors in exchange, Iranian officials said. Iranian
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast said during a Eurasian media
summit in Kazakhstan on Friday that, "If a guarantee is provided to supply
the 20 percent [enriched] fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, our officials
are ready to enter talks.” German newspaper Der Spiegel earlier quoted Iran’s
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying that, "If our right to
enrichment is recognized, we are prepared to offer an exchange.”
14 killed in car bombing of
Pakistani elders
A car
bomb targeting the office of pro-government elders killed at least 14 people in
northwest Pakistan. The death toll may rise, say officials, because 25 people
were wounded and several were in critical condition. The blast went off at a
market in the town of Darra Adam Khel near the Khyber tribal region destroying
35 shops and eight vehicles. Northern Pakistan, near the Afghan border, has
been hard-hit by insurgent attacks led by militant groups.
Afghans to testify on Kandahar
massacre
A
preliminary court hearing on a US soldier's March 11 shooting rampage in two
villages in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, which killed 16 civilians, is set
to begin next month in Washington. The hearing will include video testimonies
of Afghan soldier and civilian witnesses. US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales,
a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, is charged
with 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder. Bales
was allegedly drunk and on steroids when he committed the killings, which
further eroded the strained US-Afghan relationship.
Only dialogue can solve Syrian
crisis – UN envoy
Dialogue,
not military force, is the key to solving Syrian crisis, the UN-Arab League
peace envoy to Syria said. Lakhdar Brahim made the remark while speaking to the
King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Jeddah. The two
politicians “reached an understanding” on Syria, he said. Brahim also said that
his consultations with both the Syrian opposition and the Syrian government are
complete, and that a political process is the solution to the crisis. Brahim is
expected to hold the next stage of negotiations in Turkey.
UN envoy to Syria heads to Turkey
United
Nations Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is going to Turkey on Saturday for a
discussion of the Syrian civil war, including the latest tensions between
Ankara and Damascus over the interception of a civilian plane. Turkey is trying
to reinforce its border with Syria with tanks and war planes. Ankara has also
given a green light for military action against Damascus "if needed,"
after shelling from south of the border killed five civilians inside Turkey
last week. It would be the envoy’s second trip to Turkey. In September he
visited a refugee camp in Hatay province, near the Syrian border.
Two Cuban refugees drown off
Mexican coast
Two
people have died and eleven are still missing after a raft boat carrying refugees
from Cuba into Mexico capsized. The 23 refugees heading to Mexico wanted to
eventually join their relatives in the United States. The dinghy apparently
went under after hitting the coral reefs some 150 meters off Mujeres Island,
near the Cancun coastline. Ten people have managed to swim to safety. There
were no children among the party.
Russian policy on Syria 'morally
bankrupt' - Nuland
Washington
has accused Moscow of following a "morally bankrupt" policy in Syria.
"No responsible country ought to be aiding and abetting the war machine of
the Assad regime, and particularly those with responsibilities for global peace
and security – as UN Security Council members have," State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. The latest statement comes two days
after Turkey intercepted a Syrian civilian airliner headed from Moscow to
Damascus over suspicions it was carrying military equipment. "We have no
doubt that this was serious military equipment," Nuland said. At the same
time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the plane was legally
carrying Russian radar parts for Syria. "We have no secrets," Lavrov
told journalists in Moscow. "There were, of course, no weapons on board
and there could not have been."
Obama’s campaign office fired
upon
US
President Barack Obama’s field campaign office in Colorado has come under
gunfire. No one was injured in the incident. The shooting happened at about 3
pm local time in Denver. Police say they have a description of a "possible
vehicle of interest." Detectives are in the process of reviewing any
available video footage.
FBI reports heist of pre-release
$100 bills
A
“large amount” of brand new $100 bills that were not supposed to go into
circulation until 2013 has been stolen from the US government. The heist was
discovered by the FBI when a courier service transporting the cash arrived at
the Federal Reserve Building in New Jersey with a significant amount missing.
The newly designed bills have sophisticated unique characteristics, like a
disappearing Liberty Bell in an orange inkwell and a bright blue security
ribbon. The FBI believes the money was nicked from a plane that arrived in
Philadelphia from Dallas on Thursday.
Polish PM wins confidence vote
Polish
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, battling the political opposition, has won a
parliamentary vote of confidence after assuring $95 billion in investments to
stimulate growth in the European Union’s biggest eastern economy. The
parliamentarians in Warsaw voted 233 to 219 in the 460-seat lower house to
approve the motion, which was submitted by Tusk himself. The PM now wants to
invest in energy and other infrastructure projects. The country's central bank
predicts a 2.1 per cent decline in Poland's economy next year.
Soyuz takes two Galileo
satellites into orbit
A
Soyuz-ST-B rocket carrying two satellites from the European Space Agency has
taken off from the Guiana space center in South America on Friday. It was the
third Soyuz rocket launch outside post-Soviet territory. The rocket, equipped
with the Fregat-MT rocket booster, made liftoff at 22:15 Moscow time. The satellites,
designed for the European global navigation system Galileo, were successfully
taken to orbit and are expected to take their positions in the next few hours.
UN wants Mali intervention plan
ready in 45 days
The UN
Security Council wants to see a military action plan from regional African
organizations on intervention in Mali. The council gave a 45-day deadline to
develop concrete measures to aid the government's reclamation of the north of
the country from Islamist extremists. The Security Council warned that unless
such measures are taken, the wider Sahel region, which comprises of some of the
world's poorest countries, could be destabilized. Mali has been in turmoil
since March, when the military ousted the president, leaving a power vacuum
that enabled Tuareg rebels and ultraconservative Islamists to seize two-thirds
of the country.
At least five killed in Damascus
building blast – reports
At
least five people have been killed and 25 injured in a blast in the Yarmouk
district of the Syrian capital, according to Iran's Press TV. The explosion
occurred in a multi-story residential building, forcing it to collapse,
witnesses said. The Yarmouk district is home to the largest Palestinian refugee
community in Syria.
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