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MANAGUA (Reuters) - The United States on Friday criticized a proposal by Nicaragua's ruling party to remove presidential term limits, which could allow Washington's former Cold War adversary Daniel Ortega to stay in power indefinitely.
North Korea’s confirmation broke nearly four weeks of silence by the country’s authorities about the detained American, Merrill Newman, 85, of Palo Alto, Calif.
The wife of an 85-year-old Korean War veteran, who was detained in North Korea last month, has appealed to Pyongyang for his release, calling the matter "a dreadful misunderstanding." Merrill Newman was on an airplane with a tour group set to leave the country in late October when North Korean officials took him off the flight. The U.S. State Department says Pyongyang has acknowledged that it is holding the American. Newman's wife Lee said Friday that the family has had no...
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Car crash, 'prank' call at LAX send passengers fleeing terminals
CNN (CNN) -- Panic ensued at LAX when a woman lost control of her car near one terminal while a crank caller reported a gunman in another Friday night, authorities said. The two incidents occurred at terminals 5 and 4, respectively, at the Los Angeles ... LA airport partly evacuated after car crash, report of armed manReuters Erroneous gun reports cause scare at LAXUSA TODAY LAX terminals evacuated after erroneous reports of gunfireNECN all 114 news articles » |
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will call for a security pact with the United States to be delayed until after an April election when he gives a closing speech to a grand assembly that will decide on the deal, his spokesman said on Saturday.
MP leading review of modern slavery says scale of problem becoming clear after three women allegedly found in captivity
The case of three women allegedly held as slaves for 30 years in south London is the "tip of a rather large iceberg", an MP in charge of reviewing evidence of slavery in Britain has warned.
Frank Field, chairman of the evidence review for the modern slavery bill, said criminal gangs were making "huge sums of money" from people being imported into the UK to work "almost for nothing".
Field said many victims who escape have no way of communicating because they speak little or no English and often come from countries where they are "deeply suspicious" of the police.
"We've had this example of domestic slavery but people are being imported to work, almost for nothing, in industry," he told BBC Breakfast.
"We've got begging gangs being developed, with people being imported. And of course we've got the whole question of how children are being imported to work. It's a whole range of issues we've got to wake up to."
Field, who is vice-chairman of the Human Trafficking Foundation, said it appeared the scale of the problem was being revealed as authorities became more successful with prosecutions.
"If you think where other countries have started to be serious about this, the numbers have risen sharply," he said.
"I would have thought it's safe to act on the assumption that the examples we've had in the last few months are the tip of a rather large iceberg."
The modern slavery bill, which is due to be published in the coming weeks, is expected to increase the penalty to life imprisonment and create an anti-slavery commissioner.
Field said he hoped the commissioner would become a "focal point" for the campaign to tackle the issue.
"It's so shocking to just be talking to people who have been through this," the Labour MP for Birkenhead said.
"It's incredibly brave that people have been able to talk about it. They themselves say the one thing they want from the bill above all others is a champion, a spokesman."
Detectives are examining whether the three women who were held in a south London house under what detectives described as extreme emotional control for 30 years were part of a cult which used beatings and brainwashing to bind them to their captors.
Police said a man and woman, both 67, bailed on Thursday had been arrested on suspicion of immigration offences as well as in connection with the investigation into slavery and domestic servitude.
The couple, who are not British citizens but have been in the country for "many years", had previously been arrested in the 1970s, according to Scotland Yard.
Police say the three women were not trafficked, and they are not looking for any more suspects or victims.
The alleged victims – a 30-year-old British woman, a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 69-year-old Malaysian woman – are receiving specialist care after they were rescued from a residential address last month.
The youngest woman may have been born in the house and allegedly had no contact with the outside world.
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Talks among the top diplomats of six world powers and Tehran are under way in Switzerland concerning Iran's controversial nuclear program. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva Saturday after an overnight flight from Washington to join the discussions that may be on the verge of a breakthrough to defuse the decade-old standoff. He immediately went into a series of talks with other top diplomats.Foreign diplomats from the group known as the P5+1 - the United States,...
GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva on Saturday to join talks on Iran's contested nuclear program with Tehran and six world powers appearing on the verge of a breakthrough to defuse the decade-old standoff.
As major powers meet in Geneva for talks, UK foreign secretary says 'narrow but important' differences between sides remain
William Hague has warned that difficult issues remain in the way of securing a deal on Iran's nuclear programme as he joined foreign ministers from major world powers for talks in Geneva.
The British foreign secretary said that he and his counterparts from the US, France, Germany, Russia and China had come together to try overcome the last sticking points, not because there was already a deal to sign.
The negotiations remain stuck on "the same areas of difficulty" that stymied a breakthrough agreement at the last round of negotiations a fortnight ago.
"The foreign ministers have come to support these negotiations and to be able to confer together easily and quickly if we need to make fresh decisions of any kind," Hague said. "They remain difficult negotiations. I think it's important to stress that. We're not here because things are necessarily finished. We're here because they're difficult."
Those areas of difficulty are known to include disputes between western states and Iran over how far a written agreement should endorse Iran's right to enrich uranium, and how far a stopgap deal should go to shut down construction work on a heavy water reactor Iran is building in Arak.
"They are narrow gaps but they are important gaps, and its very important that any agreement here is thorough, that it is detailed, that it is comprehensive, and that its a deal in which the whole world can have confidence that it will work," Hague added.
"The same areas of difficulty remain," Hague said. "That means there are many areas of agreement. There is a huge amount of agreement and it remains the case that there has been a huge amount of progress being made in recent weeks."
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, and his French and German counterparts, Laurent Fabius and Guido Westerwelle, arrived earlier on Saturday. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, flew in on Friday and his Chinese opposite number, Wang Yi, is expected later on Saturday. Iran is represented by its foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and the talks are chaired by the EU foreign policy high representative, Catherine Ashton.
The same ministers took part in the Geneva talks two weeks ago but fell short of a deal despite three days of intense and complex negotiations.
After arriving at dawn, Kerry held meetings with Ashton, Fabius and Lavrov, in an effort to maintain a common front among the six nations mandated by the UN security council to handle the negotiations.
At the previous round which ended on 10 November, differences among the western states, with France insisting on a tougher line than its allies, complicated the talks.
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Egypt Expels Turkish Ambassadorby By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Egypt downgraded diplomatic relations with Turkey and ordered its ambassador expelled from Cairo, a sharp escalation in tensions between the two countries that have mounted since Mohammed Morsi’s ouster.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has asked Turkey's ambassador to leave and accused Ankara of backing unnamed organizations bent on spreading instability - a likely reference to the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi.
Egypt says it has ordered the Turkish ambassador to be expelled, following comments by Turkey's prime minister. Saturday's decision comes after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his criticism of Egypt's new leaders earlier in the week. Ties between the two countries have been strained since Egypt ousted its Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, from office several months ago. Turkey and Egypt recalled their ambassadors in August following Turkey's sharp...
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For Gore Vidal, a Final Plot Twist by By TIM TEEMAN
The author and master contrarian left his entire estate to Harvard, forsaking loved ones and setting off a legal battle.
