CA-NEWS Summary

North Korea pressures South by halting entry to industrial zone

PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea closed access to a joint factory zone with South Korea on Wednesday, officials said, putting at risk $2 billion a year in trade that is vital for an impoverished state with a huge army, nuclear ambitions and a hungry population. The move marked an escalation in North Korea's months-long standoff with South Korea and its ally Washington. On Tuesday, Pyongyang said it would restart a mothballed nuclear reactor, drawing criticism from the international community, including China, its major benefactor and diplomatic friend.

Hostilities flare along Israeli-Gaza border

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel pressed Hamas on Wednesday to rein in rocket-firing militants in the Gaza Strip after the most serious outbreak of cross-border hostilities since the ceasefire that ended an eight-day war in November. The flare-up, sparked by anger in Gaza over Tuesday's death from cancer of a Palestinian prisoner held by Israel, included the first Israeli air strike in the Hamas-run enclave since the truce.

Insurgent attack in Afghan west kills 44 people

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A complex insurgent attack in western Afghanistan on Wednesday killed 34 civilians and 10 members of the Afghan security forces, local officials said, one of the biggest assaults in the country in recent months. Nine militants strapped with explosives stormed the governor's compound in Farah province, bordering Iran, where a trial was being held into Taliban fighters, governor spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhwandai said.

Analysis: Mali insurgency endangers French pull-out plan

PARIS (Reuters) - France wants to cut its forces in Mali sharply by the year-end and is urging its ex-colony to hold elections in July, but an Islamist insurgency is threatening that timetable. Many people in northern Mali who lived under the rebels' brutal form of Islamic law last year are apprehensive about French plans to leave just 1,000 of the current 4,000 troops in the country by December, with U.N. peacekeepers filling the gap.

Pope stresses "fundamental" importance of women in Church

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis emphasized the "fundamental" importance of women in the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, saying they were the first witnesses of Christ and have a special role in spreading the faith. The pontiff's decision a week ago to include women in a traditional foot-washing ritual drew ire from traditionalists, who see the custom as a re-enactment of Jesus washing the feet of his apostles and said it should therefore be limited to men.

Rebels should hold elections sooner in Central African Republic: AU

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Rebels who seized power in Central African Republic should consider holding elections in one year not three to speed up the return to democratic rule, a senior official from the African Union said on Wednesday. African leaders including South African President Jacob Zuma are meeting in Chad's capital N'Djamena to hash out a regional response to the coup.

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader set to make fresh peace process call

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Pro-Kurdish politicians traveled on Wednesday to a Turkish island where jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan was expected to pronounce on efforts to end a decades-old insurgency that has killed 40,000 people. A government official said a co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and two BDP lawmakers were visiting Ocalan in his jail on Imrali island, south of Istanbul.

Syrian jet flies into Lebanon, fires missile

ARSAL, Lebanon (Reuters) - A Syrian jet flew 20 km (12 miles) into Lebanon and fired a missile into a field on the outskirts of the border town of Arsal on Wednesday but caused no casualties, witnesses said. Lebanon has maintained a policy of "dissociation" from Syria's two-year-old conflict. But many Lebanese officials feel their country is increasingly at risk of being dragged into the civil war, which the United Nations says has killed 70,000 people.

South African doctors say Mandela "much better"

SOWETO, South Africa (Reuters) - Former South African president and anti-apartheid titan Nelson Mandela is making "steady improvement" under treatment for pneumonia and is much better now than when he was hospitalized a week ago, the government said on Wednesday. The three-sentence statement from President Jacob Zuma's office was the most upbeat since the 94-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate was admitted to hospital with a recurrence of a lung infection.

Serbia faces tough decisions on Kosovo to save EU bid

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia said on Wednesday it faced tough decisions in the days ahead as the Balkan country weighs how far to give ground on its former Kosovo province in return for coveted talks on membership of the European Union. The warning followed marathon but inconclusive talks in Brussels between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo, their eighth encounter in almost as many months as the EU pushes to end the ethnic partition of Kosovo and set Serbia on the path to membership of the bloc.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-000458404.html

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