| Syrian civil war foes meet for first time, focus on aid Posted: 25 Jan 2014 03:50 PM PST  By Mariam Karouny and Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria's civil war foes held their first face-to-face meetings on Saturday, launching talks aimed at ending nearly three years of conflict which has killed 130,000 people and destabilized the wider Middle East. Government and opposition delegates faced each other across a negotiating table at the United Nations headquarters for a total of three hours in the presence of mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who described the meetings as "a good beginning". While political differences which Brahimi says must form the core of their talks appear insurmountable for now, the two sides focused on Saturday on a possible humanitarian deal aimed at building confidence in the negotiating process. Brahimi said he hoped that authorities in Syria would approve access on Sunday for an aid convoy to reach the rebel-held centre of Homs, allowing it to be delivered on Monday.
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| Lebanon militant pledges allegiance to al-Qaida Posted: 25 Jan 2014 01:28 PM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanon-based militant pledged allegiance to an al-Qaida-linked group Saturday, calling on Sunni Muslim soldiers to quit a Lebanese army he claimed is controlled by Christians and Shiites.
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| Car bombs and mortar attacks kill at least 17 in Iraq Posted: 25 Jan 2014 12:25 PM PST  At least 17 people were killed in violence across Iraq on Saturday, including by car bombs and a mortar attack on a Shi'ite Muslim village, police and medical sources said. The deadliest attack took place in a village near the Iraqi city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, where three mortar bombs killed six people, police said. A woman and a child were among the victims, five of whom belonged to the same family, the police said, adding that the assailants might have been aiming at a nearby police station. Violence in Iraq climbed back to its highest level in five years in 2013, when nearly 9,000 people were killed, most of them civilians, according to the United Nations.
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| Iraq violence kills 28 as January toll tops 800 Posted: 25 Jan 2014 11:25 AM PST  Shelling and bombings across Iraq killed 28 people Saturday and militants blew up a key bridge linking the capital to the north, the latest in a surge of violence. The bloodshed, which pushed the death toll for January to more than 800, comes in the run-up to a general election scheduled for April 30, and has stoked fears Iraq is slipping back into all-out conflict. Faced with a weeks-long standoff in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, and Iraq's worst protracted unrest since 2008, authorities have been urged by foreign leaders to pursue political reconciliation in a bid to undercut support for militants. Shelling began late on Friday in the south Fallujah neighbourhood of Nazal and continued into the early hours of Saturday, killing eight people including a young child, and wounding seven, said Doctor Ahmed Shami of the city's main hospital.
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| Jihadist announces creation of ISIL branch in Lebanon Posted: 25 Jan 2014 11:19 AM PST  Jihadist forums on Saturday distributed a recording by a previously unknown figure announcing the creation of a Lebanese franchise for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In the recording, Abu Sayyaf al-Ansari swears allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Iraqi leader of ISIL, which has its roots in Al-Qaeda in Iraq and emerged in Syria last spring. The recording emerged amid spiralling sectarian tensions in Lebanon linked to the war in neighbouring Syria.
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| Bombings kill 15 people across Iraq Posted: 25 Jan 2014 09:08 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of bombings across Iraq killed 15 people Saturday, including a soldier and his entire family, authorities said.
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| UK police to arrest anyone returning from Syria Posted: 25 Jan 2014 05:03 AM PST  Anyone travelling from the UK to Syria faces arrest on their return, a senior police chief warned Saturday, fearing they pose a terror threat to Britain. Manchester's police chief Peter Fahy, who leads the Association of Chief Police Officers' "Prevent" counter-terror strategy, said there was a "huge concern" about people travelling to Syria to fight in its civil war. Sixteen people have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences this month after returning from Syria, compared with 24 in the whole of last year, the BBC reported. Syria "is an incredibly dangerous place and you will be arrested and stopped at the border if you try and come back", Fahy told BBC radio.
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| Afghan-US deal falters as Karzai demands Taliban talks Posted: 25 Jan 2014 02:43 AM PST  President Hamid Karzai on Saturday signalled that a deal to allow US troops to stay in Afghanistan was close to collapse as the NATO combat mission withdraws after a decade of fighting the Taliban. Late last year, Karzai made a surprise decision not to promptly sign the bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the US, despite a "loya jirga" national assembly voting for him to do so. "Afghanistan will absolutely not accept or sign anything under pressure," Karzai told reporters in Kabul on Saturday. The US had earlier pushed for the BSA to be signed by the end of October so that the NATO military coalition could schedule the withdrawal of its troops by the end of this year.
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| Bombings kill 12 people in Iraq Posted: 25 Jan 2014 12:56 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of bombings in and north of Baghdad on Saturday killed 12 people, including a soldier and his entire family, said Iraqi officials. |
| Shelling north of Baghdad kills six Posted: 25 Jan 2014 12:09 AM PST  Baquba (Iraq) (AFP) - Shelling against a Shiite Muslim village in a restive area of central Iraq killed six people on Saturday, including a young boy, the latest in a surge of nationwide violence. The bloodshed, coupled with a protracted standoff between security forces and anti-government forces in Anbar province west of Baghdad, has left nearly 800 people dead so far this month and comes with elections looming in April. The mortar fire struck Jaizan, a Shiite village just north of the confessionally-mixed city of Baquba, killing six people and wounding two others, security and medical officials said. Baquba is the capital of Diyala province, which remains one of Iraq's least stable and is regularly the site of violent attacks.
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| Turkey’s EU Reset? Posted: 24 Jan 2014 10:44 PM PST  A few years ago, Turkey was the rising power of the Middle East, content to turn away from closer ties with Europe towards its Sunni allies. But with chaos in Syria and Egypt, its fortunes have changed drastically.
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| China’s Great Weibo Exodus Posted: 24 Jan 2014 07:34 PM PST  China's version of Twitter has been bleeding users this year, thanks to a government crackdown and the rise of new social technologies.
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