AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian rebels said they captured a large special forces base on a main road between the city of Aleppo and the Turkish border on Sunday. No independent verification of the rebels’ statement was immediately available. Video footage showed rebels inside the 18 sq km (7 square mile) facility in Orum al-Sughra among tanks and artillery they had seized. At least 18 troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were taken prisoner, opposition campaigners said. A statement by the Aleppo Media Centre said at least 15 tanks were seized and that officers were among loyalist forces …
Argonauts down Alouettes 27-20, headed to Grey Cup game on home turf
MONTREAL – The Toronto Argonauts are going to the Grey Cup game.
Congo rebels advance to outskirts of Goma
KINSHASA (Reuters) – Rebels in Congo were on the outskirts of the eastern city of Goma on Sunday after pushing back U.N. peacekeepers and government troops, but a spokesman said they did not plan to take the city. In four days of battles, the rebels have advanced closer than at any time in their eight-month uprising to Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu and home to the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo. Colonel Vianney Kazarama, spokesman for the M23 rebels, said rebel fighters had advanced to within 2 km (1 mile) of Goma. …
Obama: Historic Myanmar visit underscores progress
On the eve of his landmark trip to Myanmar, President Barack Obama tried to assure critics that his visit was not a premature reward for a long-isolated nation still easing its way toward democracy. Iran hosts meeting on Syrian conflict
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran, the closest ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, hosted a conference in Tehran on Sunday to seek a resolution to the civil war in Syria. Iranian officials said about 200 Syrian “political characters” had participated but there was no indication that the Syrian National Coalition, a new umbrella opposition group led by Sunni Muslim cleric Mouaz Alkhatib, had attended. Iran has strongly supported Assad and has accused Western and Arab nations of fomenting violence in Syria by arming opposition groups. …
Insight: Sri Lanka's "people's dynasty" - help or harm for growth?
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – From foreign hotel towers sprouting on Colombo's seafront to the new motor bikes and mobile phones buzzing in war-ravaged Jaffna, at first glance, Sri Lanka seems to be living up to its claim as Asia's latest frontier market. But private businesses are not investing enough, threatening the boom that has swept the island since the end of a long ethnic conflict, while President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family are tightening their grip on the economy and institutions with what critics see as an unusually personalized system of government. … Gazans flee border areas, fearing Israeli ground invasion
As Israel pounds Gaza with airstrikes for the fifth straight day, residents are increasingly worried that the rockets’ reign of terror may give way to an even more deadly Israeli ground invasion.
Canadian Press exclusive: Moscow embassy vulnerable to terror attack, espionage
OTTAWA – Canada’s diplomats in Moscow will have to work another three years in an embassy compound that’s vulnerable to terrorist attack and the prying eyes of foreign spies, The Canadian Press has learned.
Analysis: Japan politics could fragment further on road to two-party system
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan ruling party lawmaker Mieko Na kabayashi isn't just worried that her Democratic Party will lose power in next month's election; she fears a comeback by rival conservative Liberal Democrats will spell a return to the prolonged one-party rule that critics blame for many of the country's past policy ills. Three years after the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ended more than half a century of nearly non-stop Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rule, surveys suggest disappointed voters will hand the LDP the most seats in a December 16 poll for parliament's lower house. … As Wen Jiabao departs, China's dam plans to accelerate
BEIJING (Reuters) – The number of new hydropower projects in China could surge as the country's pop ulist premier Wen Jiabao retires and a new leadership team races to meet ambitious 2020 energy goals. Dam building slowed considerably under Wen, who personally intervened to block hydropower projects and avoid the potential for protest from local populations. Projects such as the $59 billion Three Gorges Dam have been the focus of criticism over the social and environmental cost China is paying for development. … Singapore hotels feel the squeeze as corporate budgets tighten
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The best may be over for Singapore's booming hotel market as tightening corporate budgets and bank job cuts leave more luxury rooms empty, crimping profits at firms such as CDL Hos pitality Trusts . Singapore runs neck-and-neck with Hong Kong for the title of the world's busiest hotel market, with both boasting occupancy rates that exceeded 85 percent for 2011, according to the two cities' tourism boards. That's higher than in global tourist hot spots such as New York and London. … With too many kids, Chery Auto lives off Beijing benefits
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chery Automobile Co , once China’s largest home-grown auto maker, is relying on government subsidies to turn a profit while domestic rivals Great Wall Motor Co and Geely Automobile Holdings pull ahead. The divide between winners and losers in the world’s biggest auto market shows the value in focusing on fewer products and brands to get more bang out of the investment buck – a strategy Ford Motor Co used to avert bankruptcy in 2009. “All indigenous brands were neck-and-neck in competition 4 to 5 years ago. …
Low risk, high reward: The secret at the world's most expensive bank
(Reuters) – When reports surfaced in July that Indian newspaper publisher Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd was struggling for survival, several of its creditors were caught off-guard. Not HDFC Bank Ltd . Even as Deccan, which also owned a glitzy cricket team, sought to reassure markets that it held enough assets to stave off a crisis, HDFC Bank was busy getting rid of the loans extended to the group, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. …
Monti says Italy must keep reform agenda after vote
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, drafted in unelected to haul Italy from crisis a year ago, said on Sunday that a new government appointed after next year's election would have to keep up his reform agenda to retain the confidence of investors. Monti, who has kept up a carefully neutral stance about his own role in next year's election, told reporters during a visit to Kuwait that he could not say what would happen after the vote, expected on March 10. "I cannot offer guarantees for the future. … UK's Cameron hires rival's strategist to boost poll hopes
LON DON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron has hired an Australian political strategist to mastermind his party's re-election campaign and draw a line under months of policy reversals that have seen his Conservatives slump in popularity. The party said on Sunday Cameron had appointed Lynton Crosby as an adviser for national polls due in 2015, days after the Conservatives crashed to a bruising defeat in a parliamentary by-election in a bellwether middle England seat. … 
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