Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

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• Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan
• Somali rebels say France attacks to rescue secret agent
• Delhi rape accused lived on margins of India's boom
• Malian army drives back Islamist rebels with French help
• Syria rebels seize base as envoy holds talks
• FBI takes probe into Universal payments to Manila - sources
• Central African Republic signs peace deal with rebels
• Bolivia says re-admitted to U.N. drug convention on its own terms
• Venezuela's Maduro to visit Chavez again in Cuba
• Spain seizes valves bound for Iran's nuclear program: ministry
• Chinese painter portrays Tibet self-immolators
• Police official says 30 die in Nepal bus accident
• Mali official says Islamists driven from Konna
• Somalia: French forces attack militant base
• Syria talks end in Geneva without solution
• AP Interview: UN chief says Mali getting more help
• UN urged to refer Syria to war crimes court
• Venezuela's VP in Havana to see Chavez, family
• Haiti plans subdued memorial 3 years after quake
• Syrian rebels seize key air base, activists say
• Afghanistan: The challenge of 'good' vs 'bad' militias
• As French forces hit rebels in Mali, Paris wants to avoid Europe's Afghanistan
• For Saudi Arabia's foreign domestic workers, employers' word is virtually law
• Chinese reporters say censorship leaves them 'dancing in handcuffs'
• Fate of Syria's Assad complicates international peace efforts
• Tanzania withdraws bid to sell 'legal ivory;' Kenyan poachers kill 12 elephants anyway
• Eric Schwarz and Citizen Schools give inner-city kids a leg up

Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan Posted: 11 Jan 2013 05:27 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground in talks at the White House on U.S. ...

Somali rebels say France attacks to rescue secret agent Posted: 12 Jan 2013 01:01 AM PST MOGADISHU (Reuters) - French military helicopters attacked a base belonging to al Shabaab insurgents in southern Somalia to rescue a French secret agent held hostage since 2009, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday. French officials were not immediately available to comment on reports of the raid, in which a Somali government official said at least two people were killed. France carried out air strikes against al Qaeda linked rebels in Mali in west Africa on Friday. The official for al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab said one of the French commandos had been killed by anti-aircraft fire from the rebels. ...

Delhi rape accused lived on margins of India's boom Posted: 12 Jan 2013 12:14 AM PST BADAUN, India/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - In a village in India's Uttar Pradesh state, a woman sits hunched on the ground in a green shawl, visibly weak and shivering in the January cold. She says she has not eaten for days, and neither have her five young children. She has never heard of Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, having never ventured further from her village than a nearby market town, and ekes out a living working in potato fields on other people's land. Her eldest son left home when he was 11. He never returned, and the woman thought he was dead. ...

Malian army drives back Islamist rebels with French help Posted: 11 Jan 2013 06:16 PM PST PARIS/BAMAKO (Reuters) - Malian government troops drove back Islamist rebels from a strategic central town after France intervened on Friday with air strikes to halt advances by the militants controlling the country's desert north. Western governments, particularly former colonial power France, had voiced alarm after the al Qaeda-linked rebel alliance captured the town of Konna on Thursday, a gateway towards the capital, Bamako, 600 km (375 miles) south. President Francois Hollande said France would not stand by to watch the rebels push southward. ...

Syria rebels seize base as envoy holds talks Posted: 11 Jan 2013 12:35 PM PST BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Rebels seized control of one of Syria's largest helicopter bases on Friday, opposition sources said, in their first capture of a military airfield used by President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Fighting raged across the country as international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi sought a political solution to Syria's civil war, meeting senior U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva. But the two world powers are still deadlocked over Assad's fate in any transition. ...

FBI takes probe into Universal payments to Manila - sources Posted: 12 Jan 2013 12:43 AM PST MANILA (Reuters) - The FBI has sent agents to Manila in a widening of its investigation into millions of dollars of payments made by Japan's Universal Entertainment Corp to a politically connected consultant in relation to its casino project in the Philippines, sources with knowledge of the matter said. Agents from the Las Vegas office of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation have been in Manila over the past week working with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the local agency tasked with looking into the payments as a potential bribery case, the sources said. ...

Central African Republic signs peace deal with rebels Posted: 11 Jan 2013 03:05 PM PST LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Central African Republic's government and rebels agreed on Friday to the formation of a national unity government under a ceasefire deal to end an insurgency that swept to within striking distance of the capital. The agreement, signed in Gabon's coastal capital Libreville after three days of talks mediated by regional neighbors, averted the biggest threat to President Francois Bozize's decade in charge of the mineral-rich former French colony. Aid groups had warned that a rebel attack on the capital Bangui could trigger a humanitarian crisis. "God is great. ...

Bolivia says re-admitted to U.N. drug convention on its own terms Posted: 11 Jan 2013 07:30 PM PST LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia on Friday said it had been re-admitted to the U.N. anti-narcotics convention after persuading member states to recognize the right of its indigenous people to chew raw coca leaf, which is used in making cocaine. President Evo Morales had faced opposition from Washington in his campaign against the classification of coca as an illicit drug. "The coca leaf has accompanied indigenous peoples for 6,000 years," said Dionisio Nunez, Bolivia's deputy minister of coca and integrated development. "Coca leaf was never used to hurt people. It was used as medicine. ...

Venezuela's Maduro to visit Chavez again in Cuba Posted: 11 Jan 2013 02:23 PM PST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro will fly to Cuba on Friday to visit cancer-stricken Hugo Chavez, a month after the socialist leader underwent his fourth operation in 18 months. The 58-year-old president has neither been seen nor heard from since the surgery, and he has suffered multiple post-operative complications including a severe lung infection. He missed his own inauguration on Thursday, but the Supreme Court said he could be sworn in later - in theory meaning he could remain in office for weeks or months from a Havana hospital. ...

Spain seizes valves bound for Iran's nuclear program: ministry Posted: 11 Jan 2013 02:11 PM PST MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police arrested two men and seized the contents of a truck bound for Iran loaded with materials destined for use in the Islamic state's nuclear program, the Interior Ministry said on Friday. The truck, intercepted on a motorway in northern Spain early on Wednesday, was carrying highly corrosion-resistant valves, the ministry said in a statement. Police were examining computer databases and documents at Fluval Spain, the company where the two arrested men worked, a ministry spokesman said. ...

Chinese painter portrays Tibet self-immolators Posted: 11 Jan 2013 11:49 PM PST BEIJING (AP) — Beijing-based artist Liu Yi is working on a series of black-and-white portraits he knows will never be shown in a Chinese gallery. His varied subjects — men and women, young and old, smiling and pensive — have one thing in common: They are Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest repressive Chinese rule.

Police official says 30 die in Nepal bus accident Posted: 11 Jan 2013 09:36 PM PST KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A police official says a bus veered off a mountain road in west Nepal leaving at least 30 people dead and several more injured.

Mali official says Islamists driven from Konna Posted: 12 Jan 2013 01:00 AM PST BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A Mali army official says that Islamist militants have been driven out of the Konna, a city the extremists captured this week.

Somalia: French forces attack militant base Posted: 12 Jan 2013 12:23 AM PST MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — French commandoes on Saturday attacked a base of Islamist militants in Somalia in a hostage rescue attempt, a Somali intelligence official said. Residents of the town said they heard explosions and gunfire.

Syria talks end in Geneva without solution Posted: 11 Jan 2013 05:46 PM PST GENEVA (AP) — International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday that Russia seems as determined as the United States to end Syria's civil war, but that he doesn't expect a political solution to emerge anytime soon.

AP Interview: UN chief says Mali getting more help Posted: 11 Jan 2013 05:26 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that France, Senegal and Nigeria have responded to an appeal from Mali's president for help to counter an offensive by al-Qaida-linked militants who control the northern half of the country and are heading south.

UN urged to refer Syria to war crimes court Posted: 11 Jan 2013 05:43 PM PST BERLIN (AP) — More than 50 countries have backed a call for the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, a move that would open the way for war crimes prosecutions.

Venezuela's VP in Havana to see Chavez, family Posted: 11 Jan 2013 06:46 PM PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's vice president flew to Cuba on Friday to visit the ailing Hugo Chavez and his family, while the leaders of Argentina and Peru also traveled to Havana saying they hoped to ask about the Venezuelan president's condition.

Haiti plans subdued memorial 3 years after quake Posted: 11 Jan 2013 06:48 PM PST PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Haitian government plans a low-key ceremony Saturday for the third anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the country and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Syrian rebels seize key air base, activists say Posted: 11 Jan 2013 01:47 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels and Islamic militants overran a major military air base in the north Friday and, buoyed by the victory, intensified their offensive on two other bases in their most aggressive campaign yet to erode the air supremacy on which the regime of President Bashar Assad has increasingly relied the past year.

Afghanistan: The challenge of 'good' vs 'bad' militias Posted: 11 Jan 2013 02:10 PM PST As two Afghan farmers tell it, they are part of the "good" militia in their northern province: unofficial armed men who protect schools, families, and farms, and have chased Taliban insurgents away.

As French forces hit rebels in Mali, Paris wants to avoid Europe's Afghanistan Posted: 11 Jan 2013 01:28 PM PST French forces today landed in Mali to provide support to government forces even as fighting continued around Konna between Islamist rebels linked to Al-Qaeda, and the Malian Army.The fighting takes place amid concerns that Al Qaeda-linked militants are poised to push south to the strategic, government-controlled cities of Sévaré and Mopti, where many residents have reportedly started to panic. ...

For Saudi Arabia's foreign domestic workers, employers' word is virtually law Posted: 11 Jan 2013 08:55 AM PST Saudi Arabia's execution Wednesday of a Sri Lankan maid, charged at age 17 with killing a baby left in her care, highlights the often abysmal conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of foreigners who come to the kingdom to serve as drivers, maids, and gardeners.

Chinese reporters say censorship leaves them 'dancing in handcuffs' Posted: 11 Jan 2013 06:19 AM PST As the proverbial smoke clears from the battlefield where journalists from the feisty Southern Weekend newspaper fought government censors this week, the reporters' victory seems to have yielded only meager gains.

Fate of Syria's Assad complicates international peace efforts Posted: 11 Jan 2013 06:01 AM PST • A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Tanzania withdraws bid to sell 'legal ivory;' Kenyan poachers kill 12 elephants anyway Posted: 11 Jan 2013 05:33 AM PST International restrictions on elephant ivory poaching gained a bit of clout after a key African nation abandoned efforts to sell a hefty trove of "legal ivory."

Eric Schwarz and Citizen Schools give inner-city kids a leg up Posted: 11 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST It isn't rocket science – though giving kids an opportunity to build and launch their own model rockets is often part of the program.

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