- Syrian Activist Presents Plan to End Long Civil War
 iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DAMASCUS, Syria) -- Any plan to end the long conflict in Syria is worth considering at this point, no matter how far-fetched it might seem.
Opposition activist Moaz al-Khatib, who once led the Syrian National Coalition, is proposing that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad be allowed to step down without fear of repercussions.
In a Facebook posting, al-Khatib outlined his plan, which would give the embattled Syrian leader three weeks from now to accept "a peaceful transition of authority."
When that happens, al-Assad would have a month to hand over the reins of power to either Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi or Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa.
Their rule would only be temporary, under al-Khatib's proposal, as Syria would switch from a transitional to permanent government within 100 days.
While al-Khatib's allies and the West would likely go along with the plan, the major stumbling block is al-Assad himself who has said he would fight to the death rather than give in to his enemies.
Nevertheless, al-Khatib contends his idea is "a practical response to the need of a political settlement ensuring a peaceful transition of authority."
What's more, he said the Syrian president could leave the country with 500 people of his choice to whatever nation will accept them.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Kerry Tries Reviving Israeli-Palestinian Talks
 Matty Ster/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv via Getty Images(JERUSALEM) -- The U.S. and Great Britain are making a new push to restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians that have gone nowhere for the past five years.
Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary William Hague, held talks Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Kerry acknowledged the daunting task that lies ahead in getting the two sides to bend after so much intransigence, telling reporters, "I know this region well enough to know that there is skepticism. In some quarters there is cynicism and there are reasons for it. There have been bitter years of disappointment."
Still, the top U.S. envoy is holding out hope that the Israelis and Palestinians will head back to the bargaining table to work out a deal guaranteeing a separate Palestinian state and more security for Israel.
The major obstacle remains the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Abbas wants them stopped before he'll resume talks with Netanyahu while the prime minister says he'll only consider halting construction once peace discussions get underway.
In spite of the long odds, Netanyahu expressed confidence that talks can happen, adding, "Where there is a will, we will find a way."
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Southern Iraqi City Invaded by Snakes, 60 Dead
 iStockphoto(SAYID DKHEEL, Iraq) -- The residents of a southern Iraqi city have to worry about more than a war and deadly militants. The city of Sayid Dkheel is also facing an invasion of snakes, many of them venomous.
The snakes, which include cobras, have shown up with the rising temperatures in search of a cooler refuge. Since then, they've reportedly attacked scores of people, leaving 60 dead.
To make matters worse, according to residents, the central government in Baghdad has ignored their requests for medicine and proper equipment to treat the often fatal snake bites. Without medical supplies, bites that could have been treated prove fatal.
As a result, many people have fled their homes while they wait for assistance or until the snakes leave town.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- London Attack: British Intel Knew of Suspects in Hacking Death
 Dan Kitwood/Getty Images(LONDON) -- The two men who allegedly hacked a British soldier to death were known to intelligence services before the Wednesday incident, a British security official admitted Thursday. Still, the men weren't deemed enough of a threat to arrest or monitor.
British intelligence will likely face questions about whether they should have been able to stop the assault near an army barracks as police have now widened their investigation, raiding a suspect's father's home and combing, inch-by-inch, the area around the attack that raised fears of terrorism's return to London.
The soldier who died in southeast London has been identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. "Drummer" is the equivalent of "private" in the Fusiliers, an infantry regiment in the British Army.
He was a veteran of Afghanistan, having served in Helmand in 2009. Before deploying to Afghanistan, he had served as part of the Queen's Guard, standing duty outside London's royal palaces.
One of the alleged attackers was a British Christian who converted to Islam, according to Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the group Al Muhajiroun, a banned Islamist Organization.
He is Michael Adebolajo, who converted to Islam in 2003 and changed his name to Mujahid, meaning one who wages jihad, Choudary told ABC News.
Choudary said Adebolajo was never a member of Al Muhajiroun but he knew him because he attended the group's rallies from about 2005 to 2011.
After 2011, Choudary said, Adebolajo stopped attending rallies. Choudary said he has no idea what Adebolajo has been doing since, and he said that Adebolajo never suggested any antipathy to British soldiers or any willingness to commit violence.
"He was a very peaceful man," Choudary said. "Never saw any kind of violence streak in him. Very quiet, timid man, in fact."
Adebolajo is under arrest in the hospital, recovering from bullet wounds he suffered when police shot him after he allegedly killed the British soldier.
He apparently had no intention of getting away, asking passersby to call the police and inviting them to interview him on their camera phones. He spoke holding two bloody knives and his hands stained deep red, using rhetoric similar to that expressed in martyrdom videos.
"We swear by almighty Allah, we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone, your people will never be safe," Abedolajo said calmly, according to ITV News, which first obtained the video. "Tell them to bring our troops back so we -- so you -- can all live in peace."
British police and politicians are concerned about blowback attacks, especially in the London district of Woolwich, the scene of Wednesday's attack, which has had a past history of racial tensions. A few hundred members of the anti-immigrant and right-wing party, the English Defense League, poured into Woolwich Wednesday night, wearing masks and throwing rocks at police. And police reported two separate attacks on Muslim centers in southern and eastern England.
In response, an additional 1,200 cops are patrolling London on Thursday, according to Scotland Yard, focusing on mosques and religious centers, as well as outside army barracks.
And British Prime Minister David Cameron took pains to appeal to all Britons, emphasizing that the attack wasn't only on a single soldier.
"This was not just an attack on Britain and the British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country," Cameron told reporters.
Police in Essex, east of London, arrested a 43-year-old who was holding a knife outside of a Muslim prayer center Wednesday night. They charged him with attempted arson as well as suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon, Essex police told ABC News.
And in Gillingham, Kent, which is south of London, another man was arrested Wednesday night outside a mosque on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, Kent police told ABC News.
British Muslim organizations were quick to condemn the attack.
"We must come together, isolate those who believe that extremism and violence are acceptable, and work to ensure that they meet the full force of the law," Fiyaz Mughal, the director of Faith Matters, said in a statement. "We as the Muslim community will work against anyone who promotes such hatred."
Still, at a moment when much of the country was upset by a crime clearly designed to shock, there were signs of bravery.
After the attack, a mother of two named Ingrid Loyau-Kennett approached one of the attackers and engaged him in conversation. Loyau-Kennet can be seen in a photograph calmly talking to the man. He was holding a bloody knife, and she appeared unafraid.
"I just talked to him. He looked like a normal guy. He wasn't high, he wasn't on drugs. A normal guy pissed off with the fact [as he said], 'Muslim women and children are dying in their countries by the hand of white men,'" she told ITV's Daybreak. " He was very, very close to me. He was almost touching me ... I asked him, what's the point. [He said] 'war in London.'"
An ITV presenter asked her why she wasn't scared. "Better me than a child," Loyau-Kennet said. "Because, unfortunately, there were more and more mothers with children stopping around. So it was even more and more important that I talk to him and then ask him what he wanted."
Cameron called Loyau-Kennet a hero.
"When told by the attacker he wanted to start a war in London, she replied, 'You are going to lose. It is only you against many,'" Cameron said. "She spoke for us all."
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Charles and Camilla’s Helicopter Makes Emergency Landing
 Maarten Holl - Pool/Getty Images(LONDON) -- Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had a mid-air scare Thursday when their helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing.
Charles and Camilla were 15 minutes into their flight from London to the Hay Literary Festival in Powys when a “technical fault” aboard the chopper forced the pilot to divert the flight to Denham Aerodrome in Buckinghamshire, according to the Press Association.
“The pilot carried out a controlled emergency landing after diverting to the airport,” a spokesman for the royal couple said.
An investigation has been opened into what caused the mid-air problem aboard the helicopter, which had as many as five people, in addition to Charles and Camilla, aboard.
Once safely on the ground, the prince and the duchess boarded cars to continue on to Hay-on-Wye as scheduled.
Despite arriving three hours late, Charles and Camilla were greeted by a crowd of several hundred people at the festival, an annual gathering of authors, politicians and celebrities.
“They were unflappable despite what they went through. If anyone else had gone through what they did they would have canceled their day,” one attendee told the Press Association.
Prince Charles was later scheduled to attend the Welsh National Opera’s opening night of Lohengrin at the Wales Millennium Center in Cardiff, according to the BBC.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Picnicking US Tourists Stranded on Iceberg
 File photo. iStockphoto/Thinkstock(Fjallsárlón, Iceland) -- American tourists dining on a glacier in eastern Iceland found themselves floating away from shore earlier this week, an Icelandic newspaper reported.
Four people were rescued from Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon. They had set up a table and chairs with plans for dinner when a gust of wind pushed the ice from the land. They were stranded about 30 feet from shore. One of the diners managed to jump to shore before the ice drifted too far and call for help.
The tourists have not been identified, but a photo captured three of the diners sitting in chairs, floating on a piece of ice that appears to be hardly larger than the table at which they were seated.
"When we arrived it was quite comical to see them sitting on chairs and with a table on an iceberg ...Yes, the dinner was over," Páll Sigurður Vignisson told Iceland Review. He did not notice what they had been eating.
However, Vignisson later told Iceland news service RUV, "They could have been in danger. We never know how ice will behave, if it rolls over and when -- we just don't know."
Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon is an isolated glacial lagoon in the realm of Vatnajökull, according to a local tour company. Vatnajökull is Europe's largest glacier.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Putin Responds to Obama's Missile Defense Letter
 Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images(LONDON) -- A top Kremlin aide, Nikolai Patrushev, who is in Washington this week, is carrying a letter from President Vladimir Putin to President Obama, according to the Russian Embassy in D.C.
In a statement on its website, the embassy did not disclose the contents of the letter, but Russian officials said last week it would respond to Obama’s letter from a month ago discussing missile defense, among other things.
This is all in preparation for the Obama-Putin meeting next month on the sidelines of the G8 summit. Both sides have been trying to come to an agreement on American-led plans to install a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. NATO insists it’s meant to counter a threat from Iran. Russia says it degrades their own nuclear deterrent capabilities.
Patrushev is also expected to meet with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- British Mother Confronted Suspects After London Attack
 Hemera/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- Anyone looking for a sign of British bravery in the face of terror should look no further than Ingrid Loyau-Kennett.
A British soldier had been hacked to death on the streets of southeast London Wednesday afternoon. His alleged killers carried butcher knives dripping with blood, stalking the scene.
Loyau-Kennett's bus had just stopped in front of the killing. Some people might have shielded their eyes and fled. Instead, the mother of two and Cub Scout leader got off the bus and walked straight for the man whose hands were stained a deep red.
"I just talked to him. He looked like a normal guy. He wasn't high, he wasn't on drugs. A normal guy pissed off with the fact, [as he said], 'Muslim women and children are dying in their countries by the hand of white men,'" she told Daybreak, a morning news program on the British channel ITV. "He was very, very close to me. He was almost touching me... I asked him, what's the point. [He said] 'war in London.'"
The man was Michael Adebolajo, a Briton who converted to Islam in 2003 and changed his name to Mujahid, according to Anjem Choudary, the former leader of a banned Islamist Organization whose rallies Adebolajo attended.
Loyau-Kennett, 48, talked with him before police arrived, hoping to keep his focus on her and off the other eyewitnesses. Nearby, a school was just about to let out, and she hoped to shield the children.
Loyau-Kennett admitted she wasn't trained for anything like this, but said her former teacher instincts kicked in.
"Were you scared?" ITV presenter Lorraine Kelly asked.
"No," Loyau-Kennett replied. "Better me than a child. Because, unfortunately, there were more and more mothers with children stopping around. So it was even more and more important that I talk to him and then ask him what he wanted."
British Prime Minister David Cameron praised Loyau-Kennett by name as he spoke to reporters outside 10 Downing Street. He hailed her as a hero, and said she represented the nation.
Loyau-Kennett, who was in London to celebrate her son's birthday, kept speaking with Adebolajo until she noticed her bus was about to leave.
"So I asked the guy last time, is there anything more I could do for him?
"He said no, 'I just want to shoot the police.'"
Loyau-Kennett got on her bus, assured that the police could handle him. Minutes later, Adebolajo lay on the ground, bleeding after being shot multiple times by a police officer.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Japanese Octogenarian Becomes Oldest Man to Reach Mount Everest Summit
 iStockphoto/Thinkstock(TOKYO) -- Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura, 80, reached the top of Mount Everest Thursday, becoming the oldest man to scale the world's highest mountain.
Miura and his nine-person team climbed up the southeast ridge, using the same route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norway 60 years ago, when they became the first people to reach the summit.
The Japanese climber, accompanied by his 43-year-old son, two other Japanese climbers, and six Nepali sherpas, set out for the so-called "death zone" -- the last, and most treacherous leg of his Everest trek -- around 2 a.m. local time, making the final 1,140-foot summit, in roughly seven hours.
At Miura's Tokyo office, his family, including his wife and two daughters, huddled around the phone for word of his successful climb, chronicling every step on Facebook.
When the call finally came in, the room, packed with reporters, erupted in applause.
"This is the best feeling in the world," Miura said, from the summit in a phone call to his family. "I never imagined I would become the oldest man to get here, at 80. There's no greater feeling in life, but I've never felt this tired either."
The climb marks the third time Miura has summited Everest, a successful feat in itself, but even more remarkable considering his age and his medical history. He has had four heart surgeries to treat recurring arrhythmia, including one just two months before he set out on his latest journey. In 2009, a skiing accident left him with a broken pelvis and fractured thigh.
Discussing the hurdles of climbing at such an old age, the octogenarian said, it was to challenge his "ultimate limit." "It is to honor the great Mother Nature," he said on a statement posted on his website. "Hoping to raise even an inch of human possibility."
Miura didn't attempt his first climb to the top of Everest until 2003, when he was 70 years old. He made that trek with his son, a former Olympian, and set a world record as the oldest climber to successfully scale the mountain. Five years later, he returned again -- at 75 years old -- to set another record.
Rival climber, Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, has matched him every step of the way, shattering Miura's records. In 2008, he successfully made the climb to Everest's summit one day before Miura, at the age of 76 and 340 days, according to the Guinness World Records site.
Sherchan, now 81, is attempting yet another trip to the summit in hopes of beating the record Miura set Thursday on Everest.
Together, the octogenarians have defied the limits of human possibility. At 8,848 meters (29,030 feet), oxygen concentration at the summit is a third of that at sea level. At such high altitudes, the physical condition of the body ages 70 years -- making the climbers' aerobic capacity 150 years and older, according to Miura's team.
Yuichiro Miura has spent a lifetime defying the odds.
In his younger years, he skied down Mount Everest's South Col, an adventure that was documented in the 1975 Academy Award winning documentary, "The Man Who Skied Down Everest." Not satisfied, Miura summited and skied down all seven summits of the world, by his 50s.
Miura has already discussed his next venture -- skiing down the Himalayan mountain of Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world.
He hopes to take on that challenge five years from now when he is 85 years old.
More than 200 people have died trying to scale Everest, since the first successful attempt in 1953.
A few weeks into the climbing season at Everest this year, several records have already been set. Last weekend, Raha Moharrak became the first Saudi Arabian woman to reach the summit, while 30-year-old Sudarshan Gautam, a Canadian born in Nepal, became the first double amputee to conquer the summit.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Afghan President Promises He Won't Seek Third Term
 SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images(KABUL, Afghanistan) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai won't run in 2014. Actually, he can't. The flamboyant and often inscrutable leader is barred by his constitution from seeking a third term.
Karzai asserted that there is "no circumstance that will allow me to stay as president" when asked whether he'll try to get around term limits while on a visit to India Wednesday.
According to the Afghan president, he's actually ready for retirement after eight grueling years. But even more importantly, Karzai asked rhetorically, "Why would I ruin my legacy by staying on and taking an opportunity away from Afghanistan to become an institutionalized democracy?"
Despite his sometimes puzzling statements about U.S.-Afghan relations, Karzai is a known commodity to the West unlike other potential candidates.
The national elections are set for next April just as U.S. and NATO allies prepare to withdraw most of their military forces from Afghanistan. Washington and Kabul are still trying to hammer out a post-war agreement about what the U.S. role will be in Afghanistan after 2014.
As for how the country will manage without coalition forces to repel foreign and domestic militants, Karzai seemed unperturbed, predicting that Afghanistan is much different from Iraq because there are no sectarian tensions to deal with.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
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