News Archive - 5 December 2015

>Republican Governor Pete Ricketts said in a statement on Friday that "Nebraska voters will determine the future of capital punishment in our state at the ballot box."To give deference to the vote of the people, my administration will wait to carry out capital punishment sentences or make additional efforts...

>The New York Times, in its first front-page editorial in nearly a century, on Saturday called for outlawing the kinds of rifles used in the California shooting massacre this week that left 14 people dead.The newspaper's editorial comes three days after Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married...

>WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday that federal investigators would find out what motivated a married couple in California to shoot and kill 14 people, and he asked Americans to stand united after the attacks."We are strong. And we are resilient. And we will not be...

>SAN FRANCISCO Facebook, Google and Twitter are stepping up efforts to combat online propaganda and recruiting by Islamic militants, but the Internet companies are doing it quietly to avoid the perception that they are helping the authorities police the Web.On Friday, Facebook Inc said it took down a profile...

>PARIS Global climate change talks in Paris moved into a new, tougher phase on Saturday as negotiators agreed on a draft accord, albeit one that still leaves hundreds of points of dispute for ministers to resolve next week.While a largely procedural step in the four-year quest for a binding...

>BAGHDAD/ISTANBUL Iraq's Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador on Saturday to demand that Turkey immediately withdraw hundreds of troops deployed in recent days to northern Iraq, near the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul.The ministry said in a statement the Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory without the knowledge of...

>By James DaveyLONDON A man wielding a knife slashed a man in an east London metro station on Saturday, reportedly screaming "this is for Syria", before police used a stun gun to detain him in what they described as a terrorist incident.A pool of blood near the ticket barriers...

>Russia and Ukraine are at loggerheads over a $3 billion Ukrainian Eurobond held by Russia and maturing on Dec. 20.Russia has offered to restructure the debt in equal installments over the next three years if the West provides guarantees. But Ukraine has included it among the sovereign and sovereign-guaranteed...

>ATHENS The Greek parliament approved a 2016 budget featuring sharp cuts in spending and some tax increases to satisfy the country's international lenders at a time of growing austerity fatigue.The leftist-led government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is under pressure to deliver tangible benefits to its poorest citizens after...

>"I think revised (GDP) data will probably be zero and the economy will grow positive thereafter," Amari told a talk show on public broadcaster NHK."Japan is on a steady recovering trend." A Reuters poll analysts expect Japan's third-quarter economic growth data, which will be announced on Tuesday, to...

>FRANKFURT Hints by Mario Draghi ahead of last Thursday's ECB rate meeting that the euro zone may need another big injection of money backfired, stiffening the resolve of more conservative central bankers who criticized him for raising expectations too high, sources familiar with the discussions said.The European Central Bank...

>It was the latest in a series of arrest raids across the country since two suicide bomb blasts claimed by Islamic State killed 44 people in a crowded commercial and residential area of Beirut last month.The raid took place in the town of Deir Ammar, northeast of the city...

>Forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi backed by mainly Gulf Arab states have been locked in eight months of civil war with the Iran-allied Houthis who rule the capital Sanaa.Previous U.N.-led efforts to solve the crisis through dialogue have failed as battles rage across the country...

>"This text marks the will of all to reach an agreement. We are not at the end of the route. Major political issues are yet to be resolved," Laurence Tubiana, French climate envoy, told the meeting.The senior government officials signed off on the draft text, running to 42 pages,...