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Vatican asks Beijing for positive signs to help dialogue| Reuters

VATICAN CITY The Vatican said on Tuesday it hoped China's communist government would give Catholics there "positive signs" that would help them have faith in a push by Pope Francis to heal a decades-old rift with Beijing.Chinese Catholics are divided between those who are loyal to the pope and those who are members of a government-controlled official church.The Vatican has been seeking a compromise with Beijing on the appointment of bishops but some see that as selling out those who have remained loyal to the pope.The Chinese government says bishops must be appointed by the local Chinese Catholic community and refuses to accept the authority of the pope, whom it sees as the head of aforeign state that has no right to meddle in Beijing's affairs. A statement said the Vatican was "certain that all Catholics in China are waiting with trepidation for positive signals that would help them have trust in dialogue between civil authorities and the Holy See and hope for a future of unity and harmony."The two sides have been at loggerheads since the expulsion of foreign missionaries from China after the Communists tookpower in 1949 Prospects for a deal were set back earlier this month after Lei Shiyin, a government-backed bishop excommunicated by the Vatican, participated in the ordination of new bishops

Argentina, Britain agree to identify bodies of soldiers on Falklands| Reuters

BUENOS AIRES Argentina and Britain agreed on a framework to identify the bodies of dozens of unknown Argentine soldiers buried on the disputed Falkland Islands, Argentina's Foreign Ministry said in on Tuesday.

Guinea soldier wanted for stadium massacre arrested in Senegal| Reuters

By Saliou Samb | CONAKRY CONAKRY Senegal authorities have arrested a Guinean soldier linked to a 2009 massacre in Conakry where at least 150 people were killed and dozens of women raped, a Senegalese security source said on Tuesday.The source said Lieutenant Aboubacar "Toumba" Diakite, who witnesses say played a key role in the massacre at a Conakry stadium, was arrested in Dakar on Monday.The Sept. 28, 2009, incident in Guinea's capital is seen as one of the worst acts of repression in West Africa's recent history and Human Rights Watch called the arrest a breakthrough in the bid to bring justice.In that incident, security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protestors who had gathered at the stadium to put pressure on then junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara not to stand at an election the following year.

EU agrees new gun rules after militant attacks| Reuters

BRUSSELS The European Union agreed stricter gun rules on Tuesday but balked at a proposal for a complete ban on the most lethal semi-automatic weapons such as the Kalashnikov.The measure is part of an overall tightening of EU rules that govern the purchase and sale of such weapons since two Islamist gunmen shot dead 12 people in the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015.

Nepal’s ex-king Gyanendra: national unity under attack | Reuters

By Gopal Sharma | KATHMANDU KATHMANDU Nepal's national unity is under attack and its people must act to save it, former King Gyanendra said on Wednesday, in some of his most critical political comments since being toppled by a parliamentary vote eight years ago.A specially elected Constituent Assembly dominated by Maoist former rebels ended Nepal's 239-year-old monarchy in 2008 and turned the impoverished country of 28 million people into a republic.Political parties are still haggling over creating federal states under a new constitution prepared last year, with the Madhesi ethnic minority demanding an autonomous state in the southern plains bordering India. This is opposed by some upper caste Brahmins living in the hills of the mainly Hindu nation.More than 50 people died during protests in the Madhes, also known as the Tarai, last year while demanding a greater say for the Madhesi community in the government. "Social goodwill among Nepali people is being erased and relentless efforts are being made to break the feeling of unity between Tarai (plains), hills and Himal (mountains)," Gyanendra said in a statement.

Aleppo evacuation resumes after day-long hold-up | Reuters

By Ellen Francis | BEIRUT BEIRUT Buses carrying Syrian civilians and fighters began leaving the last rebel-held enclave of Aleppo on Wednesday after being stalled for a day, aid officials and pro-government media reports said.Obstacles hindering evacuations from east Aleppo and from two villages besieged by rebels had been overcome and the operation would be completed within hours, according to a news service run by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government.The eventual departure of the thousands left in the insurgent zone will hand full control of the city to President Bashar al-Assad, the biggest prize of Syria's nearly six-year-old civil war.

Rahul Gandhi accuses Narendra Modi of taking cash payments | Reuters

By Rupam Jain | NEW DELHI NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party denied allegations by Congress politician Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday that Modi had accepted $6 million in suspicious cash payments in the months before winning a 2014 general election.Gandhi, heir apparent to the leadership of the Congress party that has governed India for most of its seven decades of independence, levelled the allegations at a rally in Modi's home state of Gujarat.He has threatened for weeks to cause an "earthquake" by exposing what he called Modi's personal corruption.

Clinton lawyer blasts FBI after email search warrant release | Reuters

By Nate Raymond | NEW YORK NEW YORK The FBI acted inappropriately when it announced the revival of its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email setup days before the Nov.

Flawed diamond regulations fuelling child labour in Congo mines - campaigners | Reuters

By Kieran Guilbert DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The failure of European jewellery firms to scrutinise their supply chains and a flawed diamond certification scheme are fuelling child labour and sexual abuse in artisanal mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a campaign group said on Thursday.Thousands of children work illegally in diamond mines in Congo's diamond-rich Kasai region - mainly to pay for food and school fees - and girls who live around the mines are prey to rape, forced marriage and prostitution, according to Swedwatch.Yet few jewellery firms have policies to assess the risk of child labour and abuses in their diamond supply chains, and many do not provide public information about efforts to operate responsibly, Swedwatch said in a report.Swedwatch also said the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), an initiative seeking to end trade in "blood diamonds" used to finance conflict, was obscuring rights abuses.The KPCS classifies less than 0.1 percent of the world's diamonds as untradeable for ethical reasons. Yet this figure only includes diamonds used by rebel groups to finance conflict, and does not account for diamond extraction involving rights violations across Africa, Swedwatch said."The KPCS is outdated and does not cover most human rights abuses linked to diamond extraction today," Therese Sjöström, a researcher at Swedwatch, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Stockholm.Andrey Polyakov, head of the World Diamond Council (WDC), said the success of the KPCS was based on its focus on conflict.

U.S. plays down absence from Moscow talks on Syria, says not 'sidelined' | Reuters

By Yeganeh Torbati and David Alexander | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States on Tuesday sought to downplay its absence from talks on the Syrian conflict among Russia, Iran and Turkey in Moscow, saying it was not a "snub" and did not reflect a decline of U.S. influence in the Middle East.However, President Barack Obama's decision to offer only limited support to moderate rebels has left Washington with little leverage to influence the situation in Syria, especially after Moscow began launching air strikes against rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad