</head> <body> Hundreds of thousands rally for Erdogan amid protests ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands of supporters at an Istanbul parade ground on Sunday as riot police fired teargas several kilometres away in the city centre to disperse anti-government protesters. Erdogan told a sea of flag-waving supporters that two weeks of protests had been manipulated by "terrorists" and dismissed suggestions that he was behaving like a dictator, a constant refrain from those who have taken to the streets. Putin says West arming Syrian rebels who eat human flesh AMMAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, arriving in Britain ahead of an international summit set to be dominated by disagreement over the U.S. decision to send weapons to Syria's rebels, said the West must not arm fighters who eat human flesh. In Syria, rebels fought back on Sunday against forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah allies near Aleppo, where Assad has announced a campaign to recapture the rebel-held north after seizing a strategic town this month. North Korea wants to hold high-level talks with U.S. SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday offered high-level talks with the United States to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but the White House said that any talks must involve Pyongyang taking action to show it is moving toward scrapping its nuclear weapons. The offer came only days after North Korea abruptly cancelled planned official talks with South Korea, the first planned talks in more two years. The North blamed the South for scuttling discussions that sought to mend estranged ties between the rival Koreas. Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated - chief of staff WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama does not believe the recently disclosed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance of phone records and Internet data has violated Americans' privacy rights, his chief of staff said on Sunday. Denis McDonough, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, also said he did not know the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who said he was the source of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post about the agency's monitoring of phone and Internet data at big companies such as Verizon Communications Inc, Google Inc and Facebook Inc. Merkel's challenger wells up after yet more strife BERLIN (Reuters) - Peer Steinbrueck, the main opposition challenger to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, choked up during an interview on Sunday when he was asked about what motivated him to carry on despite all the pressure and criticism of his campaign. In an extraordinary display of emotion from a man known for his abrasive style, Steinbrueck struggled to find words, and sighed heavily. As his eyes welled up, the audience at the event by his Social Democrat (SPD) party stood up and applauded. Car bombs, shootings kill 30 across Iraq BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Attacks across Iraq targeting mainly Shi'ite Muslims killed at least 30 people on Sunday, police and medics said, intensifying fears of a descent into all-out sectarian war. Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sunni leader Saddam Hussein, a stable power-sharing compromise between Iraq's Sunni, Shi'ite and ethnic Kurdish factions is still elusive and violence is on the rise. Iranians count on president-elect Rohani to bring change DUBAI (Reuters) - Thousands of Iranians celebrated on the streets into Sunday's early hours, counting on moderate president-elect Hassan Rohani to follow through on promises of better relations abroad and more freedom at home after routing hardliners at the polls. A mid-ranking Shi'ite cleric, Rohani is an Islamic Republic insider who has held senior political and military posts since the 1979 revolution and maintained a good rapport throughout with theocratic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's most powerful man who has the last word on all the big issues. Mandela getting better but remains 'serious' JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela continues to recover in hospital from a lung infection but remains in a serious condition, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Sunday. Mandela has been in a Pretoria hospital for a week, the fourth time the 94-year-old former president and anti-Apartheid leader has been admitted to hospital since December. Sudan, South Sudan to take steps to lower oil tension CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan are prepared to take steps, brokered by the African Union, to try to avert an oil crisis between them amid accusations from both sides that the other is supporting insurgencies in their territories. Sudan officially informed South Sudan on Tuesday that it would stop allowing its neighbour to export crude through its territory within two months unless Juba gave up support for insurgents operating across their shared border. Al Qaeda group confirms death of Abou Zeid and another leader NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North African wing (AQIM) on Sunday confirmed the death of two of its senior commanders in Mali earlier this year, veteran jihadist Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and brigade commander Abdallah Al Chinguetti, Mauritania's ANI news agency said. The death of Abou Zeid, who made millions of dollars kidnapping Western hostages over the past decade, had already been announced "with certainty" by France in March after clashes with its troops in northern Mali. </body> </html> </DataContent> </ContentItem> </NewsComponent> </NewsComponent> </NewsItem> </NewsML>

%xhtml; ]> 20130616T190320+0000 reuters.com 20130616 RTROPT_2013-06-16_19-03-20_TRE7AA35C 1 urn:newsml:reuters.com:20130616:RTROPT_2013-06-16_19-03-20_TRE7AA35C:1 2013-06-16 19:03:20 GMT+00:00 20111111T133141+0000 20130616T190320+0000 OLRSUM Online Report summary SUMM Summary TRE7AA35C Bangalore IN India 2013-06-16T190320Z_49909_TRE7AA35C_RTROPTT_0_OUKWD-SUMMARY.XML UK-World Summary Bangalore India16 June 2013 REUTERS (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp OUKWD-SUMMARY OUKWD-SUMMARY:UK-World Summary </head> <body> Hundreds of thousands rally for Erdogan amid protests ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands of supporters at an Istanbul parade ground on Sunday as riot police fired teargas several kilometres away in the city centre to disperse anti-government protesters. Erdogan told a sea of flag-waving supporters that two weeks of protests had been manipulated by "terrorists" and dismissed suggestions that he was behaving like a dictator, a constant refrain from those who have taken to the streets. Putin says West arming Syrian rebels who eat human flesh AMMAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, arriving in Britain ahead of an international summit set to be dominated by disagreement over the U.S. decision to send weapons to Syria's rebels, said the West must not arm fighters who eat human flesh. In Syria, rebels fought back on Sunday against forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah allies near Aleppo, where Assad has announced a campaign to recapture the rebel-held north after seizing a strategic town this month. North Korea wants to hold high-level talks with U.S. SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday offered high-level talks with the United States to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but the White House said that any talks must involve Pyongyang taking action to show it is moving toward scrapping its nuclear weapons. The offer came only days after North Korea abruptly cancelled planned official talks with South Korea, the first planned talks in more two years. The North blamed the South for scuttling discussions that sought to mend estranged ties between the rival Koreas. Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated - chief of staff WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama does not believe the recently disclosed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance of phone records and Internet data has violated Americans' privacy rights, his chief of staff said on Sunday. Denis McDonough, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, also said he did not know the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who said he was the source of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post about the agency's monitoring of phone and Internet data at big companies such as Verizon Communications Inc, Google Inc and Facebook Inc. Merkel's challenger wells up after yet more strife BERLIN (Reuters) - Peer Steinbrueck, the main opposition challenger to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, choked up during an interview on Sunday when he was asked about what motivated him to carry on despite all the pressure and criticism of his campaign. In an extraordinary display of emotion from a man known for his abrasive style, Steinbrueck struggled to find words, and sighed heavily. As his eyes welled up, the audience at the event by his Social Democrat (SPD) party stood up and applauded. Car bombs, shootings kill 30 across Iraq BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Attacks across Iraq targeting mainly Shi'ite Muslims killed at least 30 people on Sunday, police and medics said, intensifying fears of a descent into all-out sectarian war. Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sunni leader Saddam Hussein, a stable power-sharing compromise between Iraq's Sunni, Shi'ite and ethnic Kurdish factions is still elusive and violence is on the rise. Iranians count on president-elect Rohani to bring change DUBAI (Reuters) - Thousands of Iranians celebrated on the streets into Sunday's early hours, counting on moderate president-elect Hassan Rohani to follow through on promises of better relations abroad and more freedom at home after routing hardliners at the polls. A mid-ranking Shi'ite cleric, Rohani is an Islamic Republic insider who has held senior political and military posts since the 1979 revolution and maintained a good rapport throughout with theocratic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's most powerful man who has the last word on all the big issues. Mandela getting better but remains 'serious' JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela continues to recover in hospital from a lung infection but remains in a serious condition, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Sunday. Mandela has been in a Pretoria hospital for a week, the fourth time the 94-year-old former president and anti-Apartheid leader has been admitted to hospital since December. Sudan, South Sudan to take steps to lower oil tension CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan are prepared to take steps, brokered by the African Union, to try to avert an oil crisis between them amid accusations from both sides that the other is supporting insurgencies in their territories. Sudan officially informed South Sudan on Tuesday that it would stop allowing its neighbour to export crude through its territory within two months unless Juba gave up support for insurgents operating across their shared border. Al Qaeda group confirms death of Abou Zeid and another leader NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North African wing (AQIM) on Sunday confirmed the death of two of its senior commanders in Mali earlier this year, veteran jihadist Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and brigade commander Abdallah Al Chinguetti, Mauritania's ANI news agency said. The death of Abou Zeid, who made millions of dollars kidnapping Western hostages over the past decade, had already been announced "with certainty" by France in March after clashes with its troops in northern Mali. </body> </html> </DataContent> </ContentItem> </NewsComponent> </NewsComponent> </NewsItem> </NewsML>