CA-NEWS Summary

Syria "likely" to have used chemical weapons, says UK

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday it was "very likely" the Syrian government had used chemical weapons, and Turkey announced it was stepping up testing of people fleeing the Syrian civil war for traces. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed gratitude to Russia for its willingness to try to arrange a "Geneva two" conference to negotiate an end to the conflict, in a sign of a thawing of the long diplomatic chill between Washington and Moscow, Syria's strongest ally.

Bangladesh factory fire kills 8; collapse toll tops 900

DHAKA (Reuters) - Eight people were killed when a fire swept through a clothing factory in Bangladesh, police and an industry association official said on Thursday, as the death toll from the collapse of another factory building two weeks ago climbed above 900. The fire, in an industrial district of Dhaka, comes amid global attention on safety standards in Bangladesh's booming garment industry following the catastrophic collapse of Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the city, in the world's deadliest industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984.

Accused Cleveland kidnapper ordered held on $8 million bond

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A former school bus driver accused of kidnapping three young women and raping them during a decade of captivity in his house was on Thursday ordered held on $8 million bond in a Cleveland court, his head bowed and his face turned away from spectators. It was the first time the dark-haired, balding Ariel Castro, 52, had been seen in public since his arrest on Monday following the escape of three women and a child from his house in a low-income neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.

Yemen kidnappers free Finnish couple, Austrian: security source

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni kidnappers have released a Finnish couple and an Austrian man missing since being taken hostage in the capital Sanaa in December 2012, a senior Yemeni security source said on Thursday. The source told Reuters the trio, who Yemeni officials have said were studying Arabic in Yemen, had been freed on Wednesday night after mediation by authorities in neighboring Oman, who, he added, had paid a sum of money for their release.

Cameron says Britain can change EU, dismisses skeptics

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron took on euro-skeptic critics in his own party on Thursday, saying he was able to negotiate a better deal with Brussels and it was wrong to say Britain should leave the European Union. He described as pessimists those who argue Britain should leave the bloc and say there is no prospect of reforming the EU.

Syria war could push Lebanon, Jordan into slump

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The economic devastation of Syria's war could drive the economies of neighboring Lebanon and Jordan into reverse, Syria's former deputy prime minister said on Thursday. Pointing to the sharp slowdown in Lebanon's economic growth since the start of Syria's conflict in 2011, from 7 percent to barely 2 percent, Abdallah al-Dardari said there was a direct link to the ever-deepening economic collapse in Syria.

Russian police kill eight suspected Islamist militants in North Caucasus

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police officers killed eight suspected Islamist militants in the volatile North Causcasus region where insurgents are fighting to establish an Islamic state, Russia's anti-terrorism agency said on Thursday. Four were shot dead in a rural region of predominantly Muslim Dagestan, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said.

Bangladesh sentences Islamist to death for 1971 war crimes

DHAKA (Reuters) - A Bangladesh tribunal convicted and sentenced an Islamist party leader to death on Thursday for atrocities in the country's war of independence, bringing a wave of violent protest from his supporters nationwide. Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, 61, assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty of genocide and torture of unarmed civilians during the 1971 war to break away from Pakistan, lawyers and tribunal officials said.

Nigerian ambush kills 46 police, blamed on local cult

ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian gunmen killed 46 police officers in an ambush in the central state of Nassarawa this week, police said on Thursday, but the governor there believed a lesser-known local cult was behind the killings and not Boko Haram Islamists. Boko Haram has waged a three-year insurgency in Nigeria, although it and other Islamist groups tend to operate further north than Nassarawa. It is suspected of launching a deadly assault on the northeastern town of Bama, also on Tuesday.

Insight: Anger at Bangladesh factory disaster turns spotlight on MP

SAVAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Bangladeshi lawmaker Towhid Jung Murad was guest of honor at the August 2010 inauguration of a five-storey building in his constituency named Rana Plaza. Three years later he was back, this time helping pull survivors from the rubble. Now, two weeks after the block collapsed killing more than 900 people, Murad is facing a furious backlash from grieving families, some of whom say they want him hanged for his role as a political patron of the block's owner.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-015437853.html

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