The High-Stakes Battle for Sri Lanka’s Presidency

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s plans to return to power as Sri Lanka’s president for a third successive term has run into trouble. With less than a month to go before the vote, Rajapaksa is ahead of his rivals but joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena is closing in and could unseat him in a free and fair election.

China, Kazakhstan to sign $10 bln in deals including oil, infrastructure-Xinhua

Dec 14 (Reuters) - China is expected to sign 30 cooperative agreements worth $10 billion with Kazakhstan as Premier Li Keqiang begins his first official visit to the country, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

Xinhua did not give details, but quoted Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping as highlighting a joint-venture logistics base and urging interconnectivity with highways, railways, ports, air routes, oil and gas pipelines.

"The Sino-Kazakh cooperation is developing rapidly. The volume of trade between the two countries is increasing annually by 20 percent," Xinhua quoted Li as saying in an article.

Kazakhstan has become China's second largest trade partner in the Commonwealth of the Independent States, while China is the second largest trade partner and the largest export market of Kazakhstan, Li was quoted as saying.

Li will also visit Serbia and Thailand, but some of the most touchy topics he could encounter are off the agenda, including the fate of Muslims from western China who have fled to Southeast Asia.

Li's trip, from Dec. 14 to 20, also takes in summits with Eastern European, Central Asian and Southeast Asian leaders. (Reporting by Kevin Yao)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/14/china-kazakhstan-idUSL3N0TY05320141214

Ruble Drops to Critical New Low, Plunge Felt Across Central Asia

The Russian ruble crossed a psychological barrier in Kyrgyzstan on December 12, becoming worth less than the som for the first time. Across Central Asia, the ruble’s slide is pushing local currencies to new lows. But they can’t seem to fall fast enough to keep a competitive advantage.

Suicide bomber attacks French school in Afghanistan

| ‏People attempt to help an injured man outside the Lycée Esteqlal in Kabul following a suicide bomb attack

A teenage suicide bomber detonated explosives killing several and wounding 15 others during an event at a French-run high school in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Thursday, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.

India bans Islamic State, hunts for sympathizers

3:58am EST  reuters

Pakistan and the Taliban: To talk or fight?

Announcing a new commission to oversee Taliban talks surprised many - not least those who were named as commissioners. Asad Hashim Last updated: 01 Feb 2014 17:58

Afghanistan. Daniel Markey, senior fellow for South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, says that there is "a firm hope" in Washington that this latest offer of talks is "a tactic by PM Sharif to unify Pakistan when it is shown that talks are either not productive or when they fail, to use that unity [to gather public support for a military operation]". The greater concern for Washington, Markey argues, is the insularity with which Nawaz Sharif has been making policy.

Car bombs kill 15 students, 10 Houthi rebels in Yemen

Blasts hit school bus carrying primary schoolers near Shia gathering, killing 25, including at least 15 students

December 16, 2014 11:33AM ET

Two car bombs exploded south of the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa on Tuesday, hitting a school bus traveling near a Shia gathering and killing 25 people including at least 15 primary school students, a Shia group said.

String of deadly attacks in Afghanistan as NATO deadline looms

Latest update : 2014-12-13   france 24

The Afghan Taliban killed a Supreme Court official, a dozen mine clearers and several national and foreign soldiers but also suffered heavy losses from intensifying violence ahead of the withdrawal of most international troops in the next two weeks.

Pakistan school siege ends, all militants killed, police say

Latest update : 2014-12-16  france 24

A bloody assault launched by the Pakistani Taliban on a school in Peshawar has now ended and all the attackers have been killed, police and the army said Tuesday. The army said at least 141 people were killed in the attack, most of them children.

New Delhi bans Uber after rape allegations

Latest update : 2014-12-09

Transportation authorities in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Monday banned Uber after a female passenger was allegedly raped by one of the online taxi service’s drivers, according to media reports.

"(The) Transport Department has banned all activities relating to providing any transport service by the www.Uber.com with immediate effect," news agency AFP reported, quoting from a government statement.

The ban came days after a 25-year-old woman said she was raped by a driver hired through the popular mobile app. Police said a medical examination had backed up her allegation. The driver of the taxi was arrested on Sunday.

Friday's alleged sexual attack has dealt a major blow to the reputation of the San Francisco-based company, which operates in dozens of countries.

The company claims to put passengers' safety first and has said it was cooperating with the police investigations into the incident.

Earlier Monday, the company sent a text message in Hindi to its drivers telling them to stand together “in these difficult times” and promising that, “Uber is not going anywhere,” according to the leadingNDTV station.

But within hours, Delhi authorities had “blacklisted” the company for “misleading customers”, a transportation official told local reporters.

Peshawar school massacre challenges Pakistan's squabbling leaders

Analysis: Pakistani Taliban attack highlights security challenges facing politicians locked in ceaseless power struggles

December 16, 2014 9:35AM ET

by Omar Waraich

The massacre of more than 100 children at an army-run school in Peshawar has highlighted the continued vulnerability of Pakistan’s civilians to ruthless acts by the local Taliban in retaliation to military operations against the extremist group. An attack that may well rank as the most distressing, even by the morbid standards of a country scarred by repeated extremist atrocities over the past decade, has exposed not only security weaknesses, but also a Pakistani political leadership distracted by partisan infighting.   

Responsibility for the attack was immediately claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, also known by the acronym TTP — an umbrella organization of local extremist groups inspired by, but separate from, its Afghan allies of the same name.

The TTP’s base is in the Pashtun heartland of northwestern Pakistan, where it has at various points controlled large swathes of territory that abuts the Afghanistan border. The Afghan Taliban has been nurtured over the years by Pakistan’s security services — the group’s leadership is said to be based in the Pakistani city of Quetta — and it has always avoided challenging authorities in Islamabad. The TTP, however, while backing the Afghan Taliban’s fight against the U.S.-led NATO forces, has waged its own war against the Pakistani state.

Although the Pakistani military has at various points over the past decade negotiated cease-fires with the group, it has also been engaged in a long-term counterinsurgency campaign to contain the extremists. The TTP said Friday’s attack was a response to the Pakistan army’s offensive in North Waziristan, a tribal area along the Afghan border notorious for its heavy concentration of radical fighters from all parts of the world, and a leading contender for the most dangerous place on the planet.

Oil spill in Bangladesh threatens wildlife

Authorities in Bangladesh were urgently assessing environmental damage in one of the world’s largest mangrove forests on Friday after an oil tanker sank, threatening wildlife in the UNESCO World Heritage site, officials and local media said.

Family of reporter held in Tehran speaks to FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2014-12-15

FRANCE 24 on Monday spoke to the family of Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post journalist held in Tehran since July. Rezaian's mother, Mary, and his brother Ali Rezaian said they are petitioning Iran's leadership for his release.

Rezaian, the Tehran correspondent for US newspaper the Washington Post, was detained on July 22 along with his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, a correspondent for the United Arab Emirates-based newspaper the National.

Rezaian, 38, has dual US-Iranian nationality and has worked for the Post in Tehran since 2012.

The family has been working with Change.org to petition Iran’s President Hassan Rohani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for Rezaian's release. They have also set up a website with informationon his case.

Mary Rezaian says her son’s health has been deteriorating during his time in detention.

The Washington Post reported on December 7 that Rezaian had been charged after a lengthy court appearance but said the charges levied against him remained unclear.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that he was "disappointed" by the reports that Rezaian had been charged and denied bail more than four months after his arrest, most of it spent in solitary confinement.

  Suicide bomber attacks high school in         Afghanistan

French-run Esteqlal High School, one of Afghanistan's oldest and most prestigious schools, targeted in attack

December 11, 2014 9:04AM ET Updated 3:00PM ET

A Taliban suicide bomber attacked a French-run high school in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least seven people and wounding several others, according to local news reports. 

Acting Interior Minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said the attack took place at the Esteqlal High School, one of Afghanistan's oldest and most prestigious schools. He said the attacker was about 16 years old. At least seven people were wounded in the attack, senior Kabul police official General Farid Afzail told AFP.

The attack, which occurred as the French Cultural Center hosted a musical performance inside the school’s auditorium, also injured 15 others. 

Taliban launches spate of deadly attacks in Afghanistan

Among those killed in the last 24 hours are 12 mine-clearing workers, two US soldiers and a Supreme Court official

December 13, 2014 8:44AM ET

Taliban fighters shot dead at least 12 workers clearing land mines Saturday in southern Afghanistan, authorities said, part of a series of attacks over the last 24 hours that saw seven Afghan and two U.S. soldiers killed, as well as a Supreme Court official.

The attack targeting the mine-clearing project struck southern Helmand province between its Nadali and Washir districts, police spokesman Farid Ahmad Obaid said. Taliban fighters killed at least 12 workers there and wounded another 12 before Afghan soldiers engaged in a gun battle with the assailants, he added.

Obaid identified the company leading the project as Star Link. A company employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the number of dead could be higher.

Mohammad Din, a Star Link manager, said separately that 81 workers were at the site when the gunmen launched their attack.

Kabul police chief quits amid rising militant violence

Kabul police chief Zahir Zahir (right, on the phone) was the target of an attack earlier this month which killed his deputy

Continue reading the main story

Taliban Conflict

·         Five worries for Ghani

·         The Karzai years

·         Where are Pakistan's militants?

·         Before and after Taliban

Kabul's police chief has resigned, following a surge in attacks by Afghan militants on foreigners in the city over the past two weeks.

India Christians protest over church fire

The fire destroyed much of the building, including its prayer hall, altar and all statues

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

·         Three convicted over India nun rape

·         Arrests over India church attacks

·         India's remote faith battleground

Hundreds of Christians have protested in the Indian capital after a Catholic church was burnt badly in a fire.

Pakistan gunmen kill four polio workers in Quetta

The polio team were attacked before joining their security detail

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

·         The parents refusing to vaccinate their children against polio

·         Pakistan's tragic battle with polio

·         Polio hits record high in Pakistan

Four polio vaccination workers have been shot dead and three injured in the south-west Pakistani city of Quetta.

Indian media: Bhopal disaster victims 'denied justice'

Relatives and survivors held a candle-lit vigil on the eve of the anniversary

Thirty years on the day after the 1984 Bhopal disaster, several Indian papers voice anger at the treatment of the victims of the chemical leak that killed at least 3,000 people.

The Indian Express marks the anniversary by publishing the pictures and brief profiles of families affected by the disaster, adding that "many who lost their loved ones are yet to come to grips with it".

1 December 2014 Last updated at 12:52 ET

India Maoist rebels kill 14 policemen in Chhattisgarh

India takes step toward resolving border dispute with Bangladesh

NEW DELHI Mon Dec 1, 2014 8:29pm IST

Female personnel of Border Security Force (BSF) patrol along the fencing of the India-Bangladesh international border at Dhanpur village in Tripura August 11, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/JAYANTA DEY/FILES

Pakistan's Imran Khan plans 'shutdowns'

Opposition politician threatens to shut down cities and whole country in phases to protest against government. Asad HashimLast updated: 30 Nov 2014 17:31

Iranian jets strike Islamic State targets in Iraq, U.S. official says

Iranian aircraft conducted strikes against Islamic State positions in eastern Iraq last weekend, expanding Tehran’s role as a close ally of Iraq’s Shiite-led government.

Iran hackers targeted airlines, energy firms: report

(Reuters) - Iranian hackers have infiltrated some of the world's top energy, transport and infrastructure companies over the past two years in a campaign that could allow them to eventually cause physical damage, according to U.S. cyber security firm Cylance.

Aerospace firms, airports and airlines, universities, energy firms, hospitals, and telecommunications operators based in the United States, Israel, China, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, France, England have been hit by the campaign, the research firm said, without naming individual companies.

Pakistani jets, ground forces kill 24 militants

 Dec. 2, 2014 5:38 AM EST


ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan army's jets and ground forces killed 24 militants as part of ongoing operations in the country's troubled tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, the military and a government official said Tuesday.

Seventeen local and foreign "terrorists" were killed in airstrikes on Tuesday in the North Waziristan tribal region, where the military has been carrying out a major operation since June, a military statement said.

Arrests made over India bus assault as sisters lauded for bashing culprits

Video posted online shows the two young women fending off three men on crowded bus in Haryana state

December 1, 2014 2:32PM ET

Police in India's northern Haryana state have arrested three men in connection with an alleged incident of sexual harassment on a crowded bus that gained widespread attention after a video clip of two sisters fighting their tormentors went viral.

The three men were arrested late Sunday night on suspicion of molesting the women in Rohtak district while they were on their way home.

Pakistan struggles to cope with growing internal refugee crisis

Violence has displaced more than half a million people from Khyber to Peshawar, where funding and aid are scarce

December 1, 2014 12:30PM ET

Aid workers register new displaced people and verify the registrations of existing ones in Peshawar, Pakistan, Nov. 27, 2014. More than 1 million people have been forced out of their homes by operations in North Waziristan and Khyber since June

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Mir Jalal, a farmer from a small village in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal area, never imagined he would have to flee his village amid bombs, mortar shells and gunfights — at least not again.

Jalal, 40, left his home in the village of Isoray, about 30 kilometers west of Peshawar, on foot on Nov. 7, walking for five hours with his family of eight to escape a military operation that has emptied much of the Khyber tribal area of its inhabitants.

“There were jets and helicopters and [armored vehicles] in my area,” he told Al Jazeera at the Jalozai refugee camp, about 30 kilometers southeast of Peshawar, where some of the displaced have sought refuge. “They were hitting everything at that time.

“We walked for five hours to get out. My whole family was with me. We had only the clothes on our backs. Helicopters came, and jets started flying overhead. It all started suddenly. So we decided we had to leave.”

The female faces of Hyderabad tech companies

Although men still dominate the field in India, women are catching up

December 1, 2014 5:00AM ET

Microsoft is one of many companies that have moved to Hyderabad,

 India, in recent years. Perhaps a third of the businesses' new 

employees are female.

HYDERABAD, India — It’s still dark outside when Ramya Vemuri rises at 4:30 a.m. to get her two sons ready for school. Academic competition is fierce in India, so over milk and upma each morning, her younger child prepares assignments while the older one studies for his entrance exam for the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology. Around 8:30 she drives to the office. The commute, roughly 30 miles one way, can take two hours if traffic is bad — and in Hyderabad, the fourth most populous city in India, traffic is almost always bad. Once she gets home from work in the evening, “it’s like being a housewife again for a few hours,” Vemuri says. At night, she often takes calls from U.S.-based clients or answers emails.

Kabul police chief resigns after spate of attacks

Afghanistan's capital has seen eight deadly suicide attacks in the last 16 days

November 30, 2014 10:21AM ET

Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammed Zahir resigned on Sunday, following three Taliban attacks in 10 days on foreign guest houses and in the capital. The most recent attack came on Saturday, when Taliban suicide attackers killed the South African leader of a foreign aid group, his son and daughter and an Afghan worker in an assault on the agency's Kabul offices.

Kabul's police spokesman declined to comment to Reuters on the reason for the chief's resignation.

‘Progress made' as Iran nuclear talks deadline extended

Latest update : 2014-11-24

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian President Hassan Rohani said that progress had been made in the latest round of Iran nuclear talks, which were extended after diplomats in Vienna failed to reach a comprehensive deal by Monday’s deadline.

Speaking to reporters, Kerry said that “substantial progress” had been made towards reaching a final deal during the most recent round of talks but that negotiations would remain tough in the coming months.

“If we can [get a deal] sooner, we want to do it sooner,” Kerry said. “These talks are not going to get easier just because we extend them. They’re tough. They’ve been tough. And they’re going to stay tough.”

Kerry said that although some obstacles remained, now was not the time to walk away from negotiations with Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rohani echoed Kerry’s comments, according to Iranian state television.

“During the talks in Vienna many gaps were narrowed, and our positions with the other side got closer,” he was quoted as saying.

Twelve-year dispute

Earlier in the day, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond announced that diplomats had failed to reach an agreement in the latest round of negotiations by a Monday deadline, adding that talks had been extended until June 30, 2015. Others set the deadline for July 1, 2015.

Iran and six powers – the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany – have been engaged in intense talks, the second round this year, to resolve a 12-year dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The group reached an interim deal, called the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), in Geneva a year ago, under which Tehran halted higher level uranium enrichment in exchange for a limited easing of sanctions, including access to some frozen oil revenues abroad.

The six world powers want Iran to scale back its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions. Tehran says it is not seeking nuclear weapons, but wants to produce atomic energy.

The Vienna talks, which are due to resume next month, aimed for a deal that could transform the Middle East, opening the door to ending economic sanctions on Iran and to start bringing a nation of 76 million people in from the cold after decades of hostility with the West.

Iran’s regional foes Israel and Saudi Arabia have been closely monitoring the talks, with the regional Sunni power and nuclear-armed Israel nervous about the security implications of the talks. Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has nuclear weapons, but is widely presumed to possess them.

Key sticking points

The main sticking points in the talks have been the scope of Iran's enrichment programme, the pace of lifting sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy and the duration of any deal.

So far, Western officials said Tehran has refused to budge on its demands to continue to operate most of its enrichment centrifuges currently in operation. Tehran blames the West for the deadlock, accusing it of making excessive demands on the Islamic Republic.

It became increasingly clear during a week of intensive negotiations between the top US and Iranian diplomats that what officials close to the talks had been predicting privately for weeks is proving to be correct: a final deal remains too far off to hammer out by the parties' self-imposed deadline.

Several Western officials have questioned the value of extending the talks again, saying there is little reason to expect the Iranians will show the flexibility needed to end the impasse in the weeks and months ahead. They have also questioned the Iranian leadership's desire to compromise.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

Date created : 2014-11-24

http://www.france24.com/en/20141124-iran-nuclear-talks-deadline-extended-kerry-rohani-progress/