World Fwire News - Page 6

Two Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli airstrike

Two Palestinians were killed and one was moderately injured on Sunday as the Israeli fighter jets launched air raids targeting central Gaza Strip.

Major powers supply weapons in Syria: UN report

Geneva, June 18 (IANS) A UN inquiry commission report has revealed influential states are supplying Syrian government and opposition forces the weapons to carry out war crimes and violate human rights, Xinhua reported. Presenting the latest report of UN Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry on Syria, its chairman Paolo Sergio Pinheiro said, "Influential states had turned away from the work required for a political solution, some continued to deliver arms, artillery and aircraft to the Syrian government, or supported armed groups with weapons and financial aid." Pinheiro blamed these activities as fuelling a proxy war inside Syria

South Africa gets new government, sworn in on Monday

Even as the new Indian government took their oath at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, South Africa's new cabinet was also sworn in on Monday, amid criticism for being bloated.

US condemns terror attack on China

"This is a despicable and outrageous act of violence against innocent civilians, and the United States resolutely opposes all forms of terrorism," Xinhua quoted White House spokesman Jay Carney as saying in a statement.

Iraq: 22 policemen killed in series of attacks by gunmen

At least 22 people, including policemen, were killed and 24 wounded in a string of attacks carried out across Iraq on Thursday, police and medical sources said.

Twin blasts in Nigeria: 46 killed

Twin blasts hit a market, killing 46 people and injuring several others, in the central city of Jos on Tuesday afternoon.

Sixteen bodies found in gang-ravaged Mexican state of Tamaulipas

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities said on Monday they had found 16 bodies in the northern state of Tamaulipas, where a battle between drug gangs has sparked a wave of bloody shootouts and massacres. The bodies of four men and three women who have not yet been identified were found late Sunday in a light truck in the port city of Tampico, according to a government task force set up last month to respond to the spike in violence across the state.

Bus catches fire in Columbia, 16 children dead

At least 16 children were burnt to death when their bus caught fire, said authorities, adding that the toll was expected to rise.

Alcohol poisoning lands 30 people in hospital at Avicii's gig

Swedish DJ Avicii's concert turned disastrous when almost 30 revelers had to be hospitalised due to alcohol poisoning and drug use.

Are our kids too fat? Increasing child obesity worries WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed deep concern over the worldwide increase in childhood obesity.

No Obama-Putin meeting at D-Day anniversary

US President Barack Obama has no plans to meet one-on-one with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in June when both attend the D-Day anniversary in France, the White House said Thursday.

U.S. plans to send team to Nigeria in response to schoolgirls' kidnapping

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has offered to send an American team of experts to Nigeria to support the government's response to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by an Islamist militant group, the State Department said on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he had spoken to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan by phone and offered to send a "coordination cell" that would include U.S.

Search is on for successor to Syria peace mediator Brahimi

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The search has started for a replacement for Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who diplomatic sources say is planning to resign in the near future, largely out of frustration at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's plans to hold an election in June. There are several possible candidates to replace the veteran Algerian diplomat, the sources said, among them former Tunisian Foreign Minister Kamel Morjane

Former Prime Minister Brown to urge Scots to stick with UK

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will warn Scots on Tuesday of a pensions "time bomb" in their ageing population as he joins a fight to dissuade them from voting to leave the United Kingdom. Brown, a Scot, is making his first speech in support of the cross-party Better Together campaign, warning Scots of a possible deficit in pension funds if they opt out of the 307-year old union in a Sept.

Deadly gun attack in eastern Ukraine shakes fragile Geneva accord

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.

Bangalore-bound Malaysian plane lands safely after landing gear scare

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysia Airlines ( MASM.KL ) passenger plane with 166 people on board landed safely at Kuala Lumpur 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!!" (Reporting by Stuart Grudgings, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Venezuelan protesters hold Easter rally, plan to burn Maduro effigies

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.

Schoolchild on sinking S.Korean ferry sends text message to father

JINDO South Korea (Reuters) - People are still alive in a capsized South Korean ferry, the father of one of the schoolchildren trapped inside the upturned ship told Reuters on Thursday as families headed out to the disaster scene. "(The child) told me in the text message, 'I am alive, there are students alive, please save us quickly'," the father said

Anxious China emerges as diplomatic player in Afghanistan

KABUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - China is quietly preparing for a more robust role in the future of Afghanistan, concerned that the withdrawal of NATO troops will leave a hotbed of militancy on its doorstep. The two countries are connected by a narrow mountainous corridor that is almost impassable, which meant Beijing could focus on mining and mineral deals in Afghanistan as Western forces battled Taliban insurgents. But officials say that China is emerging as a key strategic player.

U.S. accuses Russia after Putin warning on gas supplies to Europe

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that Russian gas supplies to Europe could be disrupted if Moscow cuts the flow to Ukraine over unpaid bills, drawing a U.S. accusation that it is using energy "as a tool of coercion".

After rampage, portrait of Fort Hood shooter starts to emerge

REUTERS - When Ivan Lopez's mother died last year, the U.S. soldier suspected of killing three people at the Fort Hood base in Texas told friends the Army gave him just one day to attend her funeral in Puerto Rico.

Magnitude 8.0 earthquake strikes off Chile - USGS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck off the coast of Chile on Tuesday, near the mining area of Iquique, the U.S. Geological Survey said

Massive 8.0 quake off Chile sparks tsunami alert for Pacific coast of South, Central America

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck off the coast of Chile on Tuesday, sparking a tsunami warning for all of South and Central America's Pacific coast, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

UK coroner records open verdict on death of Russian oligarch Berezovsky

WINDSOR, England (Reuters) - A British coroner said on Thursday he could not be sure if exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky killed himself at his former wife's British home or was the victim of foul play.

Ukraine prepares to withdraw troops from Crimea

In an earlier development in the day, pro-Russian forces seized two naval bases, including Ukraine navy's headquarters - in Crimea.

Malaysia under scrutiny as mystery over MH370 drags on

The Malaysian government has pleaded for patience and understanding, arguing it has no choice but to hold back information that has not been painstakingly verified.

MH 370, Amelia Earhart, the Bermuda Triangle - is a pattern emerging?

All involve disappearances over an ocean. For the other, there has been no trace at all of those that disappeared.

Police search co-pilot's home in missing Malaysia plane probe

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Police investigating the disappearance of a Malaysian passenger jet more than a week ago have searched the home of the co-pilot, a senior official said, after the prime minister said the aircraft had been deliberately flown way off course. Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday that the investigation would refocus on the crew and passengers of Flight MH370, after confirming that someone aboard appeared to have shut off the plane's communication systems before turning it away from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing

At Ukrainian cliff-top base, shots fired as cements control

BELBEK AIR BASE, Ukraine (Reuters) - Perched on a cliff high above the Black Sea, Ukraine's Belbek military air base and its MiG-29 fighter jets fell into the hands of forces loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin late last week. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian air force and the men who until recently used to fly its war planes, tried and failed to get it back