France to stay in Mali until stability restored

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• France to stay in Mali until stability restored
• Japanese airlines ground Dreamliners after emergency landing
• Helicopter crashes near railway station in London
• Car bomb targets Afghan spy agency in Kabul
• Suicide bomber kills 10 in Iraq
• Explosions kill 83 at Syrian university as exams begin
• Workers at South Africa's Amplats down tools: labor leader
• Analysis - France digs in for long, uncertain stay in Mali
• Somali Islamist rebels sentence French hostage to death
• Pakistan turmoil deepens as court orders PM's arrest
• France in 'direct combat' in Mali within hours
• Helicopter crashes in London after hitting crane
• Pakistani villagers protest 18 killed in northeast
• Death toll from Syria university blasts reaches 87
• Suicide bombers strike Afghan spy agency in Kabul
• Bombs in disputed Iraqi city kill 13
• Somali militants say they will kill French hostage
• Pakistani soldier dies in latest attack in Kashmir
• World sea piracy falls to five-year low in 2012
• Emergency landing grounds Boeing 787 jets in Japan
• Pakistan's political crisis: Is democracy endangered?
• As IAEA arrives in Tehran, Iran braces for full force of US sanctions
• How the French got to airstrikes in Mali: A briefing from Bamako
• Memories of its own civil war dampen Lebanon's desire to help Syrian refugees
• Pakistani stock exchange on edge after court orders prime minister's arrest
• 'Red October' malware found snooping on Russian state networks
• Pakistan's court order to arrest the prime minister unsettles nation
• Mali rebel fighters better prepared than first thought: French officials

France to stay in Mali until stability restored Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:15 AM PST BAMAKO/DUBAI (Reuters) - France pledged on Tuesday to keep troops in Mali until stability returned to the West African country, raising the specter of a long campaign against al Qaeda-linked rebels who held their ground despite a fifth day of air strikes. Paris has poured hundreds of soldiers into Mali and carried out 50 bombing raids since Friday in the Islamist-controlled northern half of the country, which Western and regional states fear could become a base for terrorist attacks in Africa and Europe. ...

Japanese airlines ground Dreamliners after emergency landing Posted: 16 Jan 2013 01:11 AM PST TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s on Wednesday after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing, the latest in a series of incidents to heighten safety concerns over a plane many see as the future of commercial aviation. All Nippon Airways Co said instruments aboard a domestic flight indicated a battery error, triggering emergency warnings to the pilots. Shigeru Takano, a senior safety official at the Civil Aviation Bureau, said a second warning light indicated smoke. ...

Helicopter crashes near railway station in London Posted: 16 Jan 2013 01:24 AM PST LONDON (Reuters) - A helicopter crashed into a crane near a railway station in central London during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, bursting into flames and throwing plumes of smoke into the air. Police said it was too early to say if there were any casualties. "It appears a helicopter was in collision with a crane on top of a building," London police said. Sky News said one pilot was on board the helicopter when it hit the crane on a building site near Vauxhall train station, a major commuter station on the south side of London, shortly after 0800 GMT. ...

Car bomb targets Afghan spy agency in Kabul Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:30 AM PST KABUL (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in front of the gates of the Afghan intelligence agency on Wednesday, Reuters witnesses said, near heavily barricaded government buildings and Western embassies. Shopkeepers and passersby were injured in the blast, which took place at noon (0730 GMT), but it was not immediately clear if anyone had been killed. Shattered glass and twisted metal lay scattered in front of the gates of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and gunfire and sirens were heard. ...

Suicide bomber kills 10 in Iraq Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:33 AM PST KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed ten people in Iraq's Kirkuk on Wednesday after he detonated his explosive-packed truck outside a Kurdish party office in the city caught in a dispute between Baghdad and the country's autonomous Kurdistan, officials said. Passersby and police helped carry bloodied wounded out of the rubble and wrecked vehicles after the huge blast tore through a commercial street in Kirkuk near the local headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party or KDP. ...

Explosions kill 83 at Syrian university as exams begin Posted: 15 Jan 2013 09:30 PM PST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two explosions tore through one of Syria's biggest universities on the first day of student exams on Tuesday, killing 83 people and wounding dozens, a monitoring group said. Bloodshed has disrupted civilian life across Syria since a violent government crackdown in early 2011 on peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform turned the unrest into an armed insurgency bent on overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad. ...

Workers at South Africa's Amplats down tools: labor leader Posted: 16 Jan 2013 01:18 AM PST JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Miners at the Rustenburg operations of South Africa's Anglo American Platinum refused to work overnight shifts in protest at company plans to close mines, a labor leader said on Wednesday. "They didn't go underground," Evans Ramogka, an activist at an Amplats mine in Rustenburg, about 120km (70 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, told Reuters. ...

Analysis - France digs in for long, uncertain stay in Mali Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:19 AM PST PARIS (Reuters) - In five days, France's mercy dash to Mali to stop al Qaeda-linked Islamists seizing the capital has bounced it into a promise to keep troops there until its West African former colony is finally back on its feet. Exactly how long that will take is hard to say. But Africa's latest war is likely to entail a long stay for France with an exit strategy that will depend largely on allies who have yet to prove they are ready for the fight. ...

Somali Islamist rebels sentence French hostage to death Posted: 16 Jan 2013 01:16 AM PST MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali militants linked to al Qaeda said on Wednesday they had sentenced a French agent to death after a failed attempt by French armed forces to rescue him at the weekend. Al Shabaab said in a statement the decision to kill Denis Allex, held hostage in Somalia since 2009, was unanimous and followed three years of what it called "exhaustive attempts at negotiations" over his release. "With the rescue attempt ... France has voluntarily signed Allex's death warrant," the militants said in an emailed statement that was also posted on the group's official Twitter handle. ...

Pakistan turmoil deepens as court orders PM's arrest Posted: 15 Jan 2013 09:05 PM PST ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister on Tuesday on corruption allegations, ratcheting up pressure on a government that is also facing street protests led by a cleric who has a history of ties to the army. The combination of the arrest order and the mass protest in the capital, Islamabad, led by Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahirul Qadri, raised fears among politicians that the military was working with the judiciary to force out a civilian leader. ...

France in 'direct combat' in Mali within hours Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:48 AM PST PARIS (AP) — French troops pressed northward in Mali toward territory occupied for months by Islamist militants on Wednesday, military officials said, announcing the start of a land assault that will put soldiers in direct combat "within hours."

Helicopter crashes in London after hitting crane Posted: 16 Jan 2013 01:16 AM PST LONDON (AP) — A helicopter has crashed during rush hour in central London after apparently hitting a construction crane on top of a building, police said.

Pakistani villagers protest 18 killed in northeast Posted: 16 Jan 2013 01:10 AM PST PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Hundreds of villagers from northwest Pakistan are protesting the killing of 18 of their relatives in an overnight raid that they blamed on security forces, displaying the bodies of the victims in the provincial capital.

Death toll from Syria university blasts reaches 87 Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:43 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — The death toll from two massive blasts that ravaged the campus of a Syrian university has reached 87, anti-regime activists said Wednesday.

Suicide bombers strike Afghan spy agency in Kabul Posted: 16 Jan 2013 01:26 AM PST KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Six militants — one driving a car packed with explosives — attacked the gate of the Afghan intelligence service in the capital Kabul on Wednesday, setting off a blast that could be heard throughout downtown and which sent a plume of dark smoke rising into the sky.

Bombs in disputed Iraqi city kill 13 Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:56 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Authorities say the death toll from two car bombs in an ethnically disputed city in northern Iraq has risen to 13.

Somali militants say they will kill French hostage Posted: 16 Jan 2013 01:26 AM PST MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia's al-Qaida-linked militant group said Wednesday that France signed the death warrant of a French intelligence agent when it launched a rescue operation last weekend that failed to bring him home.

Pakistani soldier dies in latest attack in Kashmir Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:46 AM PST NEW DELHI (AP) — Pakistan accused Indian troops on Wednesday of killing one of its soldiers along the disputed Kashmir border, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat attacks that threaten to ratchet up tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

World sea piracy falls to five-year low in 2012 Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:15 AM PST KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — World sea piracy fell to its lowest level in five years in 2012, thanks to a huge reduction in Somali piracy, an international maritime watchdog said Wednesday.

Emergency landing grounds Boeing 787 jets in Japan Posted: 16 Jan 2013 12:22 AM PST TOKYO (AP) — Boeing Co.'s 787 planes were grounded for safety checks Wednesday by two major Japanese airlines after one was forced to make an emergency landing in the latest blow for the new jet.

Pakistan's political crisis: Is democracy endangered? Posted: 15 Jan 2013 02:10 PM PST The Supreme Court's decision to order the arrest of the prime minister on the midst of major protests in Islamabad expressing frustration at the government has unleashed heated debate about whether democracy has just been upended in Pakistan.

As IAEA arrives in Tehran, Iran braces for full force of US sanctions Posted: 15 Jan 2013 01:03 PM PST As Iranian officials prepare for a new round of negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), US sanctions set to hit Tehran in February have Iranians worried that billions of dollars long stuck in bank accounts outside the Islamic Republic could soon become cemented in place.

How the French got to airstrikes in Mali: A briefing from Bamako Posted: 15 Jan 2013 12:39 PM PST French airstrikes in Mali last week have jolted the West's attention. The strikes and more planned deployments by France and other African states, are designed to halt the progress of Islamist rebels in Mali, and deny radicals an Afghan-style haven for jihad against Europe. Journalist Peter Tinti has lived in West Africa for the last three years and arrived in Bamako today. Here's his first briefer from the capital.

Memories of its own civil war dampen Lebanon's desire to help Syrian refugees Posted: 15 Jan 2013 08:38 AM PST References to the "Onion Factory," an abandoned farm once used by Syrian intelligence agents as an interrogation center and prison for Lebanese detainees, still send a shudder through residents of this Sunni town.

Pakistani stock exchange on edge after court orders prime minister's arrest Posted: 15 Jan 2013 07:48 AM PST Pakistan's main stock exchange fell by 525 points on Tuesday afternoon, adding to uncertainty after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in connection with alleged impropriety in contracts for rental power projects.

'Red October' malware found snooping on Russian state networks Posted: 15 Jan 2013 06:50 AM PST When computer security experts recently discovered the hugely sophisticated and obviously state-sponsored cyber-spy worms Stuxnet and Flame, many wondered out loud whether organized criminals might soon get their hands on similar malware tools that can siphon almost any sensitive information from even the best-guarded system.

Pakistan's court order to arrest the prime minister unsettles nation Posted: 15 Jan 2013 06:38 AM PST The news that the Supreme Court had called for the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf ran through Pakistan like an electric current Tuesday afternoon.

Mali rebel fighters better prepared than first thought: French officials Posted: 15 Jan 2013 06:31 AM PST • A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

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