CA-NEWS Summary

Obama urges Palestinians to return to peace talks

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - President Barack Obama voiced opposition on Thursday to Israeli settlement building but pressed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to drop his demand for a freeze before Middle East peace talks can resume. After an effusive welcome in Israel, Obama traveled to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where disillusioned Palestinians held out little hope that their moment in the spotlight of a U.S. presidential visit would speed their quest for statehood.

Iran will destroy Israeli cities if attacked: Khamenei

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's clerical supreme leader said on Thursday the Islamic Republic would destroy the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa if it came under attack from the Jewish state. "At times the officials of the Zionist regime (Israel) threaten to launch a military invasion but they themselves know that if they make the slightest mistake the Islamic Republic will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in an address to mark the Iranian new year.

Kurd rebel leader orders fighters to halt hostilities

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan ordered his fighters on Thursday to cease fire and withdraw from Turkish soil as a step to ending a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, riven the country and battered its economy. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, gathered in the regional center of Diyarbakir, cheered and waved banners bearing Ocalan's mustachioed image when a letter from the rebel leader, held since 1999 on a prison island in the Marmara Sea, was read out by a pro-Kurdish politician.

ECB gives Cyprus bailout ultimatum, banks face cutoff

NICOSIA/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank gave Cyprus until Monday to raise billions of euros to clinch an international bailout or face losing emergency funds for its banks and inevitable collapse. The ultimatum came as the island's leaders struggled over a "Plan B" to try to raise 5.8 billion euros demanded by the EU under a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) rescue, after angry lawmakers threw out a tax on deposits as "bank robbery".

U.N. to launch probe of alleged Syria chemical arms attack

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday announced that the United Nations will launch an investigation as requested by the Syrian government into allegations that chemical weapons were used in Syria. "I have decided to conduct a United Nations investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria," Ban told reporters. He said the investigation will focus on "the specific incident brought to my attention by the Syrian government."

Timbuktu suicide attack reopens front for French in Mali

BAMAKO (Reuters) - A suicide car-bomber killed a Malian soldier and wounded six others in a raid on the airport in Timbuktu overnight, just a day after Paris said a French-led campaign had nearly driven Islamists out of all of northern Mali. France said 10 Islamist fighters were killed in the raid on the ancient desert trading town, the first suicide attack there since French and Malian troops chased al Qaeda-linked militants from Timbuktu nearly two months ago. It comes weeks ahead of the planned start of France's withdrawal from Mali.

Egypt's Brotherhood vows to defend HQ against protesters

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said it would defend its headquarters against protesters if necessary, raising the possibility of a confrontation at a demonstration planned in Cairo on Friday. Anti-Brotherhood protesters clashed with riot police firing tear gas outside the building earlier this week, the latest burst of street unrest in a country still struggling to restore law and order since its 2011 uprising.

Scotland independence referendum set for September 18, 2014

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scotland will hold its independence referendum on September 18, 2014, First Minister Alex Salmond said on Thursday, starting the countdown to a vote he hopes will take his nation of 5 million out of the United Kingdom. Salmond's pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) won a majority in the Scottish parliament in May 2011 elections, giving the charismatic politician what he has called a "once-in-a-generation" chance to break ties with London.

South Sudan presses ahead with alternative pipelines study

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - South Sudan said on Thursday it is pressing ahead with studies into new oil pipelines to Kenya and Djibouti following a deal to restore exports through onetime civil war foe Sudan. Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said South Sudan has hired Germany's ILF Consulting Engineers to assess the feasibility of pipelines to Lamu in Kenya and through Ethiopia to Djibouti.

Blast kills 17 at Pakistani camp for displaced people

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least seventeen people were killed by a car bomb as they waited for food at a camp in northwest Pakistan for those displaced by fighting between government forces and Islamist militants, police said. The bomb exploded on Thursday in the Jalozai camp in Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, an area bordering Afghanistan and a stronghold for insurgents bent on toppling Pakistan's U.S.-backed government.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-005449941.html

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