Political news

• Struggling Forest sack manager Montanier

  14-01-2017 23:59
  (Reuters) - Nottingham Forest have sacked their French manager Philippe Montanier after just seven months in charge, the struggling English Championship club said on Saturday. "Nottingham Forest can confirm that the club have parted company with head coach Philippe Montanier," the Midlands outfit said on their website (www.nottinghamforest.co.uk). The 52-year-old Montanier, who has also been in charge at Stade Rennes, Real Sociedad, Valenciennes and Boulogne, is the seventh permanent manager to
  
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• Police take three for questioning after anti-terror raids in Brussels

  14-01-2017 23:54
  Belgian police detained three people for questioning after carrying out house searches in Brussels that were related to an anti-terrorism investigation, prosecutors said on Saturday. The house searches were carried out in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, which gained international attention when locals with links to Syria took part in the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. "The searches were carried out as part of an investigation by Brussels prosecutors," a spokeswoman fo
  
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• On sensitive U.S. stopover, Taiwan leader connects to Twitter

  14-01-2017 23:24
  By Jane Lanhee Lee SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, carving a careful diplomatic path on her stopovers in the United States, visited the headquarters of micro-messaging service Twitter Inc and opened her official account on Saturday. A source with knowledge of the president's travel through San Francisco told Reuters she met with the "head of Twitter" but declined to confirm if that person was CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey. The source, who spoke on the condition of anony
  
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• Ricardo Lagos, ex-Chile president, runs to lead country again

  14-01-2017 23:22
  Ricardo Lagos, a leading opponent of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who later went on to serve as president from 2000 to 2006, on Saturday accepted his party's nomination to run in the 2017 presidential election. The 78-year-old, who will represent the center-left Party for Democracy (PPD), vowed to improve communication between politicians and the public, invest in infrastructure, push forward with pension and education reform and tackle low productivity. Lagos is well-known in Chile
  
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• In Switzerland, You Can Be Denied Citizenship for Being Too Annoying

  14-01-2017 23:14
  
  Nancy Holten, 42, was born in the Netherlands. At the age of 8, however, she moved with her family to Switzerland, which Holten has called home for the past 34 years. Holten currently resides, with her three daughters, in the small village of Gipf-Oberfrick, in the far north of the country, within the canton of Aargau. She speaks fluent Swiss-German. Her daughters are Swiss citizens. She has been a member of the parents’ committee of their school.
  
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• Senior British politicians ‘targeted by Kremlin’ for smear campaigns

  14-01-2017 23:00
  
  Former minister Chris Bryant claims Russian agents compile ‘blackmail’ dossiers on all high-profile ministersA former Foreign Office minister has claimed that senior British politicians are being targeted by the Kremlin for potentially compromising details about their private lives that might be used to discredit them.The Labour MP, Chris Bryant, a former minister for Europe and ex-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Russia, said he had been a victim of such tactics himsel
  
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• Chelsea's Conte says Costa is injured amid media speculation

  14-01-2017 22:43
  Chelsea manager Antonio Conte confirmed top scorer Diego Costa missed Saturday's 3-0 win over Leicester City through injury but declined to say if he expected his top scorer to be available for their next Premier League match against Hull City. The Italian chose his words carefully in an interview after the game, denying that he knew about a bid for the striker from China or a row between the pair in training last week, both of which were reported in multiple British media outlets. Conte repeate
  
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• Iraqi forces advance at Mosul University, take areas along Tigris - officials

  14-01-2017 22:06
  By Isabel Coles and John Davison MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi special forces drove back Islamic State militants in the Mosul University campus on Saturday, while elite police units took over large areas along the east bank of the Tigris river, military officials said. The head of Iraq's Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) said security forces were close to seizing the entire east bank of the Tigris, which bisects Mosul north to south.
  
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• At Paris meeting, major powers to warn Trump over Middle East peace

  14-01-2017 22:01
  By John Irish and Lesley Wroughton PARIS (Reuters) - Major powers will send a message to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday that a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians is the only way forward, and warn that his plan to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem could derail peace efforts. Some 70 countries, including key European and Arab states as well as the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, are due in Paris for a meeting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neta
  
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• Trump attacks civil rights leader who questioned his election win

  14-01-2017 21:59
  By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump began a long holiday weekend that honors slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by attacking another rights activist and politician who had said he doesn't see Trump as a "legitimate president". Democratic Representative John Lewis, of Georgia, said on a segment of "Meet the Press" released by NBC on Friday he thought hacking by Russians had helped Trump, a Republican, get elected in November. Lewis said he do
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn Wage Cap Policy 'Backed By Majority Of Brits', New Poll Finds

  14-01-2017 21:47
  
  Jeremy Corbyn’s policy to cap excessive wages, announced and then retracted this week, is backed by a majority of the public, a poll for The Independent has found.
  The Labour Party leader said on Tuesday that a wage cap would be a fair way to tackle the level of inequality in the country.
  And despite initial pessimism from Westminster, and Corbyn’s own backtrack, the policy now appears to carry a degree of enthusiasm.
  The Indy’s poll found 57 percent of the publ
  
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• Scores of migrants feared dead, 13 bodies found in Mediterranean

  14-01-2017 21:09
  At least eight migrants died when their boat overturned off the coast of Libya on Saturday but the death toll may be much higher, the Italian coastguard said. Four people have been rescued but the survivors reported that more than a hundred were on board when the boat capsized around 30 miles (50 km) off Libya, a coastguard spokesman said. In the previous 24 hours, coastguard and naval ships as well as privately owned fishing and merchant vessels had saved around 750 migrants from rubber and woo
  
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• Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal enjoy big wins

  14-01-2017 21:02
  By Ian Chadband LONDON (Reuters) - Chelsea made light of striker Diego Costa's absence to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points on Saturday with a 3-0 win at champions Leicester City. After a Harry Kane-inspired Tottenham Hotspur and a ruthless Arsenal side kept up the pressure at the top with 4-0 victories, Chelsea found an unlikely hero in wing back Marcos Alonso, who scored their first two goals at the King Power Stadium. All the pre-match ballyhoo had been about
  
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• Venezuela's Maduro oversees military drill to guard 'socialist fatherland'

  14-01-2017 20:47
  By Alexandra Ulmer CARACAS (Reuters) - His finger on a rifle trigger and wearing an olive green hat, President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday oversaw military exercises in crisis-wrought Venezuela, which he says is under threat of imperialist" invasion due to its oil wealth. State television broadcast footage of soldiers camouflaged as bushes shouting "socialist fatherland!" while commanders brandished Russian-made military equipment. "We're ready to defend our land, inch by inch, neighborhood by ne
  
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• Women knit pink 'pussyhats' for rally after Trump inauguration

  14-01-2017 20:45
  (Editors Note: Attention to language that may be offensive to some readers in paragraph 3) By Rollo Ross LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The National Mall in Washington could become a sea of bright pink the day after Donald Trump is inaugurated as U.S. president if the vision of a pair of Los Angeles women is realized. For two months, Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman have called on people around the world to make 1.17 million pink "pussyhats" for those attending the Women's March, a rally on Jan. 21 organiz
  
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• Washington protesters vow to fight for civil rights under Trump

  14-01-2017 20:45
  By Lacey Johnson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. civil rights activists vowed on Saturday to defend hard-fought gains in voting rights and criminal justice during the presidency of Donald Trump, kicking off a week of protests ahead of the Republican's inauguration. About 2,000 mostly black protesters ignored steady rain to march and rally near Washington's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, as speakers urged them to fight for minority rights and President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, which
  
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• Three-goal Chelsea make light of Costa loss

  14-01-2017 20:44
  LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - - Two goals from Marcos Alonso and another from Pedro helped Chelsea overcome the absence of Diego Costa to beat Premier League champions Leicester City 3-0 away and move seven points clear at the top on Saturday. Any sense they would miss their top scorer - officially injured but reported by British media to have had a row with manager Antonio Conte - lasted the six minutes it took Alonso to score with a right-foot shot after Eden Hazard's lay-off. ...
  
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• Riots in Tunisia on revolt's anniversary, protests greet president

  14-01-2017 20:14
  Local residents said protests that erupted in the southern town of Ben Guerdane had spread over the weekend to several other areas such as Sidi Bouzid, Meknassi and Gafsa, where Essebsi visited to mark the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Six years after that revolt, Tunisia is hailed as a model of democratic transition, but rural central and southern regions remain flashpoints for rioting in marginalised towns where many young Tunisians see little economic opportunity
  
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• Trump blasts black congressman who said he is not a 'legitimate' president

  14-01-2017 20:02
  By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump began a long holiday weekend that honors slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by blasting another African-American activist and politician who said he doesn't see Trump as a "legitimate president". Democratic Representative John Lewis, of Georgia, had said on a segment of "Meet the Press" released by NBC on Friday he thought hacking by Russians had helped Trump, a Republican, get elected in November. Lewis s
  
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• Jennifer Holliday backs out of Trump inauguration gig

  14-01-2017 19:07
  
  Broadway star Jennifer Holliday has backed out as a performer at next week's presidential inaugural, saying she did not realize that her participation would be interpreted as a statement of support for President-elect Donald Trump.
  
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• Barton makes hero's return with winner for Burnley

  14-01-2017 18:27
  Joey Barton marked his return to Burnley by scoring a 78th-minute winner from a free kick as the Clarets maintained their tremendous home form at Turf Moor with a 1-0 win over Southampton on Saturday. The midfielder, who had left Burnley after helping them win promotion to the top-flight and endured a torrid time at Scottish club Rangers, struck his kick low and, after a deflection, keeper Fraser Forster was left no chance. Dusan Tadic had come closest to putting the visitors ahead in the first
  
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• Hull roar back to beat Bournemouth 3-1

  14-01-2017 18:26
  Jan 14 (Reuters) - Hull City secured their first Premier League win since November as Abel Hernandez scored twice in a rousing 3-1 home victory over Bournemouth on Saturday that lifted the Tigers off the foot of the table. Hull moved up to 18th, level on 16 points with Crystal Palace above them, after fighting back from a dismal start when Junior Stanislas thumped Bournemouth ahead from the penalty spot after three minutes. ...
  
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• Giroud and Sanchez on target as Arsenal demolish Swansea

  14-01-2017 18:24
  Jan 14 (Reuters) - Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez were both on target as Arsenal ran out 4-0 winners over beleaguered Swansea City in the Premier League on Saturday, sending their hosts to the bottom of the table. Giroud, making a rare league start, put Arsenal ahead in the 37th minute when he stabbed home from close range after Mesut Ozil's header deflected into his path. Second-half own goals from Jack Cork and Kyle Naughton, both coming via deflections from shots by Alex Iwobi, put the gam
  
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• Bahrainis protest over fears for three convicts on death row

  14-01-2017 18:18
  Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Bahraini capital Manama on Saturday over reports on social media that the authorities may be preparing to execute three Shi'ite men convicted of a deadly 2014 bomb attack. Executions are rare in Bahrain, a Western allied kingdom tucked between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The authorities have been cracking down on dissent mainly by the Shi'ite majority complaining of discrimination by the island's Sunni rulers.
  
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• Carroll scores a screamer as Hammers add to Palace woe

  14-01-2017 18:14
  Sam Allardyce's underwhelming start as Crystal Palace manager continued at his old club West Ham United as Andy Carroll scored a sensational goal in the Hammers' 3-0 win at the London Stadium on Saturday. West Ham had endured a miserable week with Dimitri Payet having refused to play for the club, but Carroll's wondrous 79th-minute effort, a mid-air volley from Michail Antonio's cross, brought the smiles back to the Hammers' faithful.
  
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• May must set out Brexit plan by mid-Feb to allow scrutiny - MPs

  14-01-2017 18:09
  By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - The British government must publish a detailed plan for Brexit by mid-February, setting out its position on future membership of the European Union's single market and customs union, a committee of lawmakers said in a report published on Saturday. The Exiting the EU committee, made up of lawmakers from several parties including Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives and opposition Labour, also said the government should seek a transitional deal with the
  
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• House Dems press FBI on Russia, possible link to Trump camp

  14-01-2017 18:05
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats still seething over FBI Director James Comey's handling of the election-year inquiry of Hillary Clinton confronted the law enforcement officer over his refusal to say whether the FBI is investigating possible links between President-elect Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.
  
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• Trump unleashes Twitter attack against civil rights legend

  14-01-2017 17:49
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump tore into civil rights legend John Lewis for questioning the legitimacy of the Republican billionaire's White House victory, intensifying a feud with the black congressman days before the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and as the first African-American president prepares to leave office.
  
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• Syrian HNC opposition group says it supports Astana peace talks

  14-01-2017 17:24
  The Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee said on Saturday it supported efforts towards planned peace talks in Kazakhstan, and viewed the meeting as a preliminary step for resuming the next round of political negotiations in Geneva. The Syrian government and rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began a nationwide ceasefire on Dec. 30 brokered by Moscow and Ankara. The agreement aims to pave the way for new peace talks, which Russia hopes to convene in the Kazakh capit
  
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• Austria's far-right Freedom Party calls for ban on 'fascistic Islam'

  14-01-2017 17:23
  The head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) on Saturday called for a law banning "fascistic Islam" and Muslim symbols, comparable to an existing law banning Nazi symbols, saying Islam could wipe out European society. Austria needs "a law which prohibits fascistic Islam", Heinz Christian Strache told several thousand supporters at the party's new year meeting in Salzburg. "Let us put an end to this policy of Islamisation... otherwise we Austrians, we Europeans will come to an abrupt end,"
  
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• 'One China' principle is non-negotiable - Beijing

  14-01-2017 17:05
  China's foreign ministry said on Saturday that its "One China" principle was the non-negotiable political basis for China-U.S. relations, and urged "relevant parties" in the United States to recognise the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue. The comments, posted on the foreign ministry's website, were a direct response to remarks by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in which he said the "One China" policy was negotiable. Since 1979, the United States has
  
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• Iraqi minister trying to improve relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia - report

  14-01-2017 16:58
  Iraq's foreign minister said he had carried messages between Iran and Saudi Arabia in a continuing attempt to curb a feud involving its two neighbours, Iran's state broadcaster IRIB reported on Saturday. Relations between the two regional rivals worsened after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the 2015 Muslim haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Iran blamed the disaster on organizers' incompetence, and boycotted last year's haj.
  
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• A young ex-president, Obama poised for a busy retirement

  14-01-2017 16:39
  
  For Barack Obama, there's a presidential library to build, hundreds of millions of dollars to raise, causes to champion and a book to write. And don't forget that long-promised vacation with his wife. ...
  
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• Turkey and Russia to invite U.S. to Syria talks - Turkish minister

  14-01-2017 16:35
  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey and Russia have decided to invite the United States to Syria peace talks due to be held this month in the Kazakh capital Astana, Turkey's foreign minister said on Saturday. Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated that Turkey remained opposed to the inclusion of the Syrian Kurdish militant group YPG in the peace talks. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
  
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• Berlin mayor seeks dismissal of official with Stasi past

  14-01-2017 16:35
  
  BERLIN (AP) — Berlin's mayor on Saturday sought the dismissal of an official who has faced increasing pressure over his former ties with communist East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, an affair that has marred the new city government's start.
  
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• Today's News: Jan. 14, 2017

  14-01-2017 16:30
  —We’re tracking the news stories of the day below. All updates are in Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5).
  
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• France's Fillon tries to win over critics at party meeting

  14-01-2017 16:21
  French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon tried to win over party critics at a meeting on Saturday at a time when polls show him losing some momentum due to what some say is too radical an economic reform programme. Surveys suggest Fillon will win the April/May election by a comfortable margin, but recent polls have shown his share of the vote in the first round falling. Some senior members of his Republicans party, most often allies of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, have acc
  
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• Saudi Arabia's religious authority says cinemas, song concerts harmful

  14-01-2017 16:19
  Saudi Arabia's top religious authority has called cinemas and singing concerts harmful and corrupting, in a move that could complicate government efforts to introduce cultural reforms to the conservative kingdom. The comments by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, published on his website, said cinemas and round-the-clock entertainment could open the door to "atheistic or rotten" foreign films and encourage the mixing of the sexes. Cinemas and public concerts are already banned in the con
  
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• Special hat-trick for new dad Kane as Spurs win again

  14-01-2017 16:18
  Tottenham Hotspur strengthened their push for the Premier League title with a 4-0 stroll over West Bromwich Albion on a special Saturday for their hat-trick hero Harry Kane. Kane, who became a father for the first time last Sunday, celebrated with a treble -- and it could have been more -- as Spurs coasted to a surprisingly easy win, their seventh straight victory in all competitions, to move into second in the table. Kane's crisply-finished goal after 12 minutes was the prelude to total Spurs d
  
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• Gunmen kidnap five students, two staff from Nigerian school - police

  14-01-2017 16:10
  Gunmen kidnapped five students and two staff, including a Turkish national, from an international school in Nigeria's southern state of Ogun, police said on Saturday. The kidnappers, who abducted the six Nigerians and Turkish staff member late on Friday, have not made contact with police or school authorities and no arrest has been made, Ogun police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi said. In September, Ogun state police rescued two kidnapped Chinese nationals who were working for a quarry company.
  
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• Unilever commits to 100 percent recyclable plastic

  14-01-2017 16:08
  Consumer goods maker Unilever said on Saturday all of its plastic packaging would be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. The maker of Dove soap, Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Knorr soups said it would also help create a plastics protocol, to encourage similiar moves across its industry. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), an environmental group working with Unilever, says only 14 percent of the world's plastic packaging is recycled, while 40 percent ends up in landfill and a t
  
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• Syrian opposition group HNC says supports efforts for Astana peace talks

  14-01-2017 16:02
  BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee said on Saturday it supported efforts towards planned peace talks in Kazakhstan, and viewed the meeting as a preliminary step for resuming the next round of political negotiations in Geneva. A nationwide ceasefire began in Syria on Dec. 30 to pave the way for new peace talks, which Russia hopes to convene in the Kazakh capital Astana later this month with Turkish and Iranian support. (Reporting by Ellen Francis; Editing by An
  
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• Five migrants die in Mediterranean, 750 rescued

  14-01-2017 15:58
  Rescuers saved around 750 migrants from rubber and wooden boats in the central Mediterranean but recovered five dead bodies during the operations, the Italian coastguard said on Saturday. Last year a record 181,000 boat migrants, mostly from Africa, reached Italy, according to government figures. 2016 was also the deadliest year on record for migrants in the Mediterranean, with almost 5,000 deaths, according to the International Organization for Migration.
  
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• Amid primary care struggle, field hospital opens near Mosul fighting

  14-01-2017 15:57
  By Girish Gupta NEAR MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Civilians and soldiers wounded as Iraqi forces attempt to retake Mosul from Islamic State are receiving treatment in a high-tech field hospital about 20 km from the frontlines. Treating shrapnel, bullet and bomb wounds, the facility - complete with emergency rooms, intensive care units and a fully-stocked pharmacy - was set up by U.S. relief organisation Samaritan's Purse after Christmas in a patch of desert about half an hour's drive from clashes in
  
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• Biker Sunderland is Britain's first Dakar winner

  14-01-2017 15:55
  (Reuters) - Motorcycle rider Sam Sunderland became the first Briton to win the Dakar Rally in any category on Saturday while French veteran Stephane Peterhansel won the car crown for his 13th career title. Dubai-based Sunderland, on a KTM, beat Austrian team mate Matthias Walkner by 32 minutes after the final 64km competitive stage in Rio Cuarto, Argentina, before the 700km ride to the official finish and podium in Buenos Aires. Sunderland had pulled out with mechanical problems in his two previ
  
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• Military's shift away from oil clashes with Trump's promises

  14-01-2017 15:51
  
  At a sprawling desert base, a Marine recharged his radio's batteries simply by walking, while nearby fellow troops examined a rocket artillery system and a drone — both powered by the sun. Navy and Marine ...
  
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• Merkel urges United States to stick to international cooperation

  14-01-2017 15:41
  PERL-NENNIG, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday urged the United States to stick to multilateral cooperation, saying a trend towards protectionism was a risk to prosperity. The United States is Germany's most important trading partner and the protectionist rhetoric of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has unnerved exporters in Europe's biggest economy. Germany holds the presidency of the G20 leading economies this year, a platform Merkel wants to use to safeguard mul
  
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• China and Vietnam to 'manage' differences over South China Sea - communique

  14-01-2017 15:38
  China and Vietnam pledged on Saturday to manage their differences and safeguard peace in the South China Sea, in a joint communique issued during a visit to China by Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong. After "candid" discussions, the two countries agreed to "manage well their maritime difference, avoid actions that complicate the situation and escalate tensions, and safeguard the peace and stability of the South China Sea", said the communique published in full by China's state ne
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn Launches Attack On Theresa May Over GP Opening Hours Demand

  14-01-2017 15:33
  
  Jeremy Corbyn has led a furious backlash against Theresa May’s demand that GPs adopt a seven-day service to help alleviate the NHS crisis.
  “This is another example of a prime minister in denial. A Prime Minister who would much rather listen to spin doctors than real doctors,” the Labour Party leader told a conference in central London.
  Corbyn’s eviscerating attack on May came after the Prime Minister announced she would continue to push for a seven-day GP service amid th
  
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• Lawmakers urge British PM May to clarify Brexit intentions

  14-01-2017 15:21
  
  LONDON (AP) — A committee of British lawmakers is urging Prime Minister Theresa May to clarify her intentions on Brexit — particularly whether she intends to keep Britain in the European Union's large single market.
  
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