Political News from Yahoo

Istanbul police find body thought to be missing U.S. tourist

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police believe they have found the body of an American tourist reported missing in Istanbul 12 days ago, a police official said on Saturday. Sarai Sierra, 33, from New York City, had been travelling alone and was reported missing on January 21. State-run Anatolian news agency said the body was discovered in the ruins of the old city wall by residents in the low-income Sarayburnu neighborhood and that Sierra's driving licence was found on the body. ...

Gov. Perry: Boy Scouts should keep no-gay policy

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry said emphatically Saturday that the Boy Scouts of America shouldn't soften its strict no-gays membership policy, and dismissed the idea of bending the organization to the whims of "popular culture."


Yemen says intercepted ship carrying weapons was Iranian

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen confirmed on Saturday that a ship intercepted last month off its coast was an Iranian vessel trying to smuggle explosives and surface-to-air missiles to the country, the state news agency Saba reported. Officials in Washington said earlier this week that the seizure of the ship on January 23 had been coordinated with the U.S. Navy and that the intercepted shipment was believed to have been from Iran and destined for insurgents, likely to be Shi'ite Muslim Houthi rebels mainly based in northern Yemen. ...

Video of police abuse stokes anger in Egypt

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Interior Ministry offered a rare expression of regret Saturday after riot police were caught on camera a day earlier beating a protester who had been stripped of his clothes, and then dragging the naked man along the muddy pavement before bundling him into a police van.


Peres asks Netanyahu to form new Israeli government

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli President Shimon Peres on Saturday formally asked incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new governing coalition following the January 22 general election. Netanyahu will initially have 28 days to form a coalition. His rightist Likud-Beitenu party took a battering at the ballot box and won 31 seats, 11 fewer than it had going into the election, but it nevertheless emerged as the largest party. ...


Report: FAA lags on fulfilling airline safety law

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog says federal regulators are struggling to implement a sweeping aviation safety law in the face of industry opposition to many of its provisions.

Serbia coalition rocked by leaks against prime minister

BELGRADE (Reuters) - A close aide to Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic accused Dacic's SNS coalition partners on Saturday of staging a smear campaign after media reports linked Dacic to an alleged drug trafficker. The scandal, drip-fed to media by unnamed 'police sources', fuelled speculation that Dacic's SNS coalition partner, riding high in opinion polls, is looking to leave the government and force an early election. ...


Obama a skeet shooter? See new White House photo

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two days before President Barack Obama's first trip outside Washington to promote his gun-control proposals, the White House tried to settle a brewing mystery when it released a photo to back his claim to be a skeet shooter.


French army to stay in Mali until "sovereignty restored:" Hollande

BAMAKO (Reuters) - France will withdraw its troops from Mali once the Sahel state has restored sovereignty over its national territory and a U.N.-backed African military force can take over from the French soldiers, French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday. "We have not yet finished our mission. But we do not foresee staying indefinitely. Once the sovereignty of Mali is restored, once MISMA (the African force) can replace our own troops, we will withdraw," he told a news conference in Bamako during a one-day visit to Mali. ...

Colombia's FARC to free 3 kidnapped members of security forces

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC rebels on Saturday admitted to holding two police patrolmen and a soldier it seized last week and pledged to free them in an apparent goodwill gesture at the end of a tense week of peace negotiations with the government. The captured soldier had not previously been announced by the Defense Ministry. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the biggest armed group in Latin America, said in a statement it would release the three security officials to the International Committee of the Red Cross and a local peace group. ...

White House offers proof Obama wasn't just shooting from the lip

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seeking to put to rest questions on whether Barack Obama was a straight shooter when he claimed he went skeet shooting "all the time," the White House on Saturday offered proof: a photo of the president blasting away at clay targets. Obama drew skepticism when he made the assertion in a recent interview with the New Republic magazine, an attempt to show sympathy for hunters even as he pushes for tighter gun controls after the Newtown school shooting massacre in December. ...


Eritrean refugees protest in support of renegade soldiers

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia demonstrated on Saturday in support of soldiers who forced state media in the Eritrean capital Asmara to call for all political prisoners to be freed. Dissident Eritrean soldiers with tanks stormed the information ministry on January 21 and obliged the director general of state television to appeal for the prisoners' release. Between 5,000 and 10,000 political prisoners are held in the country of 6 million people, the U.N. human rights chief said last year, accusing Eritrea of torture and summary executions. ...

French parliament backs main clause in gay marriage law

PARIS (Reuters) - The French parliament on Saturday adopted the main clause of a bill that would allow same-sex marriage and grant gay couples the right to adopt children. Deputies voted 249-97 to back the clause eliminating opposite gender as a condition of the right to marriage. The draft law, the first major social reform of Francois Hollande's presidency, has sparked major protests. Several hundred thousand people massed at the Eiffel Tower in Paris last month to protest against the plan. The approval of the key clause prompted fresh protests in several towns on Saturday. ...


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