CA-NEWS Summary

U.N. launches record appeal for victims of Syrian war

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United Nations warned on Friday half of all Syrians would need humanitarian aid by the end of 2013 and launched what it said was the biggest emergency appeal in history to cope with the civil war crisis. "Syria as a civilization is unraveling," said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, announcing the call for some $5 billion before the end of the year.

First U.S. drone strike under new Pakistan prime minister kills seven

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike killed seven people and wounded three in northwest Pakistan late on Friday, security officials said, in the first such attack since the swearing-in of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister this week. In his inaugural address to parliament, Sharif called for an immediate end to U.S. drone strikes on militants, which many view as a breach of Pakistan's sovereignty.

Injuries reported after gunfire at college near Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gunshots were fired at Santa Monica College west of Los Angeles on Friday, leaving an unspecified number of people injured, and a suspect was taken into custody, police said. Santa Monica police spokesman Richard Lewis said no further information was immediately available on the shooting, which took place as President Barack Obama was attending a fundraiser across town.

Nigerian Islamists retreat, apparently to fight another day

KIRENOWA, Nigeria (Reuters) - All that remains of the Islamist fighters who once bedded down in this sandy enclave are charred clothes, burned out trucks and surgical equipment left beneath a thorny tree. Hausari Camp - 300 square meters of baking wilderness near Nigeria's border with Chad - was until last month a base for militants from Boko Haram, whose four-year-old insurgency has left thousands dead and destabilized Africa's top oil producer.

Putin orders crackdown on Islamists, police detain 300 people

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police rounded up 300 people at a Muslim prayer room in Moscow on Friday after President Vladimir Putin ordered a crackdown on radical Islamists ahead of next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi. Putin has put security forces on high alert to safeguard the Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which lies near to mainly Muslim southern provinces where Russia is battling an Islamist insurgency that has targeted Moscow.

Presidential hopefuls clash on Iranian nuclear policy

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's hardline nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, a strong contender in next week's presidential election, came under fire from rival candidates in a televised debate on Friday over the lack of progress in intermittent talks with world powers. The June 14 vote will be the Islamic Republic's first since the 2009 re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that led to months of unrest by backers of the losing reformist side who said his victory was rigged. Security forces crushed the protests and two reformist leaders have been under house arrest since 2011.

Stop now, Prime Minister Erdogan tells Turkish protesters

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan demanded on Friday an immediate end to a week of anti-government unrest, saying the protests which erupted over the redevelopment of an Istanbul park had been founded on a "campaign of lies". Defending the wide use of tear gas in a police crackdown, Erdogan said similar action had been taken during protests in European countries such as Greece, as well as in the United States.

International court sidelined so far despite Syrian horrors

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court could have its hand full if it ever investigates Syria's civil war - the alleged killing of hundreds of civilians by government shelling of Homs last year may well constitute a war crime or crime against humanity. So too might allegations, reported by Human Rights Watch, of detainees being subjected to sexual assault in prison, of children being shot in their homes and on the streets, and of schools being used as detention centers.

Iraq bomber hits Iranian pilgrims, at least nine dead

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed his car into a bus carrying Iranian Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in Iraq on Friday, killing at least nine people in an attack likely carried out by Sunni Muslim insurgents trying to ignite sectarian conflict. Al Qaeda's local wing and other Sunni insurgents have been on the offensive since the start of the year in an attempt - spurred in part by the mainly Sunni rebellion in neighboring Syria - to provoke the kind of Shi'ite-Sunni bloodshed that killed thousands in Iraq in 2006-2007.

Iran not U.N. nuclear watchdog's only headache, report shows

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran may be the U.N. nuclear watchdog's biggest headache but it is not the only country stalling inspectors' requests for atomic-related information, a new IAEA report suggests. Tasked with preventing the spread of nuclear bombs in the world, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency inspects reactors and related sites globally to ensure that sensitive fissile material is not diverted for military purposes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-193647377.html

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