Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News: | | Ancient souk burns as fighting rages in Syria's Aleppo Sat,29 Sep 2012 10:32 AM PDT Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of shops were burning in the ancient covered market in Aleppo on Saturday as fighting between rebels and state forces in Syria's largest city threatened to destroy a UNESCO world heritage site. The uprising-turned-civil war that is now raging across Syria has killed more than 30,000 people, according to activist groups such as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. But beyond the dramatic human cost, many of Syria's historic treasures have also fallen victim to an 18-month-old conflict that has reduced parts of some cities to ruins. ... Full Story | Top | Anti-Islam filmmaker held at Los Angeles federal jail Sat,29 Sep 2012 10:12 AM PDT Reuters - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The California man behind an anti-Islam film that stoked violent protests across the Muslim world was being held at a federal high-rise jail in downtown Los Angeles on Friday over possible probation violations, a prison official said. Federal officials, citing safety concerns, were tight-lipped about the conditions of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula's confinement, including whether he was being held with the general population or was isolated from other inmates. ... Full Story | Top | Billionaire Georgia opposition leader says vote win hours away Sat,29 Sep 2012 10:11 AM PDT Reuters - TBILISI (Reuters) - The billionaire leader of the opposition in Georgia on Saturday told tens of thousands of his supporters that the current government loyal to President Mikheil Saakashvili had only hours left in power before it was voted out in an election on Monday. Addressing crowds in a central square in the capital Tbilisi after days of protests against prison brutality, Bidzina Ivanishvili was making his final pitch before the vote which his six-party "Georgian Dream" coalition hopes to win. "This regime cannot be the leadership of our country ... This system should collapse ... ... Full Story | Top | Portuguese protest against austerity, await more measures Sat,29 Sep 2012 10:03 AM PDT Reuters - LISBON (Reuters) - Thousands of Portuguese protested on Saturday against austerity, stepping up their opposition to the country's 78-billion-euro bailout ahead of new spending cuts and tax hikes to be announced in the government's 2013 draft budget. The peaceful protest organized by the CGTP union came after the center-right government ignited widespread anger this month with a hike in social security taxes that threatened to end Portugal's so far high social acceptance for austerity. ... Full Story | Top | U.N. chief urges careful handling of Myanmar Rohingyas issue Sat,29 Sep 2012 09:56 AM PDT Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world's largest Islamic body on Saturday to "treat carefully" the issue of the stateless Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar because it could affect the reform process underway in the country, also known as Burma. Over the past year, Myanmar has introduced the most sweeping reforms in the former British colony since a 1962 military coup. A semi-civilian government, stacked with former generals, has allowed elections, eased rules on protests and freed dissidents. ... Full Story | Top | Mexico's lower house gives final approval to labor reform Sat,29 Sep 2012 09:47 AM PDT Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's lower house of Congress gave final approval on Saturday to a bill that would mark the biggest shake-up of the country's labor market in 42 years. The final vote took place just before 4 a.m. following a raucous 14-hour debate that was led from a congressional balcony after leftist lawmakers stormed the chamber's rostrum and snatched the microphone from the speaker leading the session. The bill was approved on a vote of 346-60 with one abstention and now moves to the Mexican Senate, which will have 30 days to approve or reject it. ... Full Story | Top | Somalia's al Shabaab rebels pull out of Kismayu bastion Sat,29 Sep 2012 09:31 AM PDT Reuters - MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab rebels retreated from the southern port of Kismayu overnight, abandoning the last major bastion of their five-year revolt to an offensive by African Union and Somali government troops. The loss of Kismayu a day after it was attacked by Kenyan and Somali soldiers backed by air strikes is a major blow to the al Qaeda-linked rebels, weakening morale and depriving them of revenue from taxing local businesses and shipping. "We moved out our fighters ... ... Full Story | Top | North Ireland police mount major security operation for key parade Sat,29 Sep 2012 09:29 AM PDT Reuters - BELFAST (Reuters) - Police in Northern Ireland mounted their biggest security operation in 20 years on Saturday when 30,000 Protestants marked the centenary of one of the most historic events in a province scarred by decades of sectarian violence. Eight Protestant Unionist organizations, including members of the Orange Order, marched through Belfast to celebrate the signing of the Ulster Covenant by half a million of their ancestors, a pact opposing the introduction of devolved government in Ireland. ... Full Story | Top | Palestinian man dies of wounds after being shot by Israel troops Sat,29 Sep 2012 09:09 AM PDT Reuters - GAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian man died on Saturday after he was shot by Israeli troops while fishing on the beach in the Gaza Strip, said Hamas officials, while an Israeli military spokeswoman said the man was shot when he approached the border fence. Israeli army patrols deem the Gaza border area off limits because militants try to attack them by planting explosive devices or shooting at them. Officials from Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which rules the coastal enclave, said the 22-year-old man was fishing with his brother on Friday when he was shot. ... Full Story | Top | Trial of pope's butler starts with setback for defense Sat,29 Sep 2012 09:07 AM PDT Reuters - VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's butler, accused of using his access to the pope to steal papers that he thought would expose Vatican corruption, suffered a blow on Saturday's first day of his trial when judges refused to admit evidence from the Church's own investigation. Gabriele's arrest in May, after police found confidential documents in his apartment inside the Vatican, not only threw a spotlight on allegations of malpractice but also pointed to a power struggle at the highest levels of the Church. ... Full Story | Top | Guantanamo's last Western detainee returned to Canada Sat,29 Sep 2012 08:53 AM PDT Reuters - WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The youngest prisoner and last Westerner held in the Guantanamo military base, Omar Khadr, was sent to finish his sentence in his native Canada on Saturday, the Canadian government said. Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said that Khadr, who was a 15-year-old fighting in Afghanistan when captured in 2002, had been flown from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a military base in Trenton, Ontario and transferred to the province's Millhaven maximum-security prison. ... Full Story | Top | Obama, Netanyahu seek to get past Iran differences Sat,29 Sep 2012 08:28 AM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a show of unity on Friday on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, seeking to tone down the acrimony between the two leaders that has become an issue in the final stretch of the U.S. presidential race. Obama, widely seen as having snubbed Netanyahu by not meeting face to face with him during his U.S. visit, spoke instead by phone to the Israeli prime minister amid signs of movement toward a truce in their war of words over how to confront Tehran. Netanyahu used his U.N. ... Full Story | Top | Islamists smash Sufi saint's tomb in northern Mali Sat,29 Sep 2012 08:07 AM PDT Reuters - BAMAKO (Reuters) - Heavily armed Islamist fighters in Mali destroyed the tomb of a local Sufi saint near Timbuktu on Saturday, witnesses said, the latest attack on traditional shrines in the rebel-occupied north. The destruction of the tomb of Almirou Mahamane Assidiki in Goundam came just months after a number of other shrines in the UNESCO-listed city of Timbuktu, 90 km (55 miles) to the south, were reduced to rubble, underscoring the threat to the region's ancient heritage from the rebels' extremist ideology. ... Full Story | Top | Germany's Steinbrueck urges SPD unity to oust Merkel Sat,29 Sep 2012 07:36 AM PDT Reuters - MUENSTER, Germany (Reuters) - Peer Steinbrueck, the man chosen to lead Germany's opposition Social Democrats into an election next year as its candidate for chancellor, called for party unity on Saturday, saying it would otherwise be difficult to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel. Steinbrueck, a feisty former finance minister distrusted by Social Democrat (SPD) leftwingers for his centrist economic views, also repeated his opposition to serving under Merkel, a conservative, in a future coalition government. "This federal election can only be won with the mobilization of our supporters ... ... Full Story | Top | Tymoshenko calls on Ukraine to rise up against "mafia-rule" Sat,29 Sep 2012 07:25 AM PDT Reuters - KIEV (Reuters) - Jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko called on Ukrainians on Saturday to "rise up" at a parliamentary election next month and end President Viktor Yanukovich's "criminal rule". In a shaky two-minute video filmed at the hospital where she is being held, the former prime minister said she was enduring "a hell", created by Yanukovich, as she serves a seven-year sentence for abuse of office. ... Full Story | Top | Two killed in suicide bomb attack on Yemeni official Sat,29 Sep 2012 07:02 AM PDT Reuters - ADEN (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed himself and a bystander in south Yemen on Saturday in an attempt to assassinate a government official who had targeted al Qaeda militants, a security source said. The attacker walked up to the parked car of Mohammed Aidarous, head of a "popular committee" of tribal volunteers who helped the army oust militants from the town of Lawdar in Abyan province this year. Aidarous, the local government official in charge of Lawdar, was not in the vehicle, but a bystander was also killed in the blast, the source said. ... Full Story | Top | Guantanamo's last Western detainee, Khadr, returned to Canada Sat,29 Sep 2012 06:55 AM PDT Reuters - WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The youngest prisoner and last Westerner held in the Guantanamo military base, Omar Khadr, was sent to finish his sentence in his native Canada on Saturday, the Canadian government confirmed. Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said that Khadr, who was a 15-year-old fighting in Afghanistan when captured in 2002, had been flown to a military base in Trenton, Ontario and transferred to the province's Millhaven prison. (Reporting by Rod Nickel; Writing by Jeffrey Hodgson in Toronto; Editing by Bill Trott) Full Story | Top | Bahraini teenager killed in Friday's protest Sat,29 Sep 2012 06:27 AM PDT Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahraini riot police killed a teenager when they fired shotgun pellets during clashes with protesters following a demonstration on Friday, the country's opposition said on Saturday, the second young protester to die in six weeks. Thousands rallied on Friday in an officially authorized protest called by the main opposition group al-Wefaq, but as the event ended around 100 demonstrators clashed with police. ... Full Story | Top | Youngest Guantanamo prisoner Khadr returning to Canada: reports Sat,29 Sep 2012 06:17 AM PDT Reuters - TORONTO (Reuters) - The youngest Guantanamo prisoner, Omar Khadr, who was a 15-year-old fighting in Afghanistan when captured in 2002, was sent to finish his sentence in his native Canada on Saturday, Canadian media reported. A military plane carrying Khadr, who pleaded guilty to killing a U.S. soldier and admitted links to al Qaeda, left the U.S. naval base on Saturday morning, the Toronto Star newspaper and Canadian Broadcasting Corp said, citing unnamed sources. Canadian government officials did not immediately return emails seeking comment. ... Full Story | Top | Fire fighter killed in Japan chemical plant explosion Sat,29 Sep 2012 06:13 AM PDT Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - One fire fighter was killed after a chemical tank explosion at Nippon Shokubai Co's Himeji plant in western Japan on Saturday afternoon, a local fire department official said. An acrylic acid storage residue tank exploded around 2:30 p.m. (0530 GMT), and the fire later spread to another acrylic acid tank and a toluene tank at the plant, the official said. In total two explosions occurred at the plant, killing a 28-year-old fire fighter and injuring about 30 people, the official added. Nippon Shokubai is one of the world's biggest makers of acrylic acid, used in baby diapers. ... Full Story | Top | Violence stalks women workers in Afghanistan Sat,29 Sep 2012 03:49 AM PDT Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - Muzhgan Masoomi's attacker stabbed her 14 times with a thick blade used to slaughter animals, tearing wide gashes in her flesh before leaving the government worker for dead on the outskirts of the Afghan capital. With a severe limp and no control over her bladder - caused by the blade scraping her spinal cord - the 22-year-old can no longer work at the Ministry of Public Works, where she was a financial assistant before the assault. ... Full Story | Top | Exclusive: North Korea plans agriculture reforms - source Sat,29 Sep 2012 03:47 AM PDT Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea plans to allow farmers to keep more of their produce in an attempt to boost agricultural output, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing said, in a move that could boost supplies, help cap rising food prices and ease malnutrition. The move to liberalize agriculture under new leader Kim Jong-un, who took office in December 2011 after the death of his father, would reverse a crackdown on private production that started in 2005. It comes amid talk that the youngest Kim to rule the impoverished North is considering reforms to boost the economy. ... Full Story | Top | China leaders stage show of unity after expelling Bo Sat,29 Sep 2012 03:23 AM PDT Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China's leaders put on a show of unity on Saturday after their damning accusations against disgraced politician Bo Xilai, whose expulsion from the Communist Party drew an outcry from leftist supporters in a sign of the rifts his prosecution could inflame. ... Full Story | Top | At least 8 die in fire in Russian oil sludge firm Sat,29 Sep 2012 03:09 AM PDT Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least eight workers died after fire broke out in an oil sludge-processing firm on Saturday in the West Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiisk, the hinterland of Russian crude production, the Emergencies Ministry said. The fire at a sludge storage has been put out, the ministry said in a statement. The Investigation Committee said the cause of fire could be an explosion, while the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency said, citing a law-enforcement source, the plant caught fire after gas exploded. ... Full Story | Top | Turkey warns Syria after mortar strike Sat,29 Sep 2012 02:55 AM PDT Reuters - ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey signaled it would take action if there was a repeat of a mortar strike on its territory from inside Syria. A mortar bomb fired from Syria hit southeastern Turkey on Friday, damaging homes and workplaces in the Akcakale border area, the private Dogan news agency said. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in New York that Ankara had reported the incident to the United Nations and NATO, in comments broadcast by CNN Turk. ... Full Story | Top | EU raids lead recycling firms in cartel investigation Sat,29 Sep 2012 01:53 AM PDT Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said it raided several lead recycling companies in a number of European Union countries on September 26 as part of an investigation into suspected cartel practices. The Commission did not name the countries or the companies, that it said had been buying old batteries and scrap lead for recycling. "The Commission has reasons to believe that the companies concerned may have violated Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which prohibits cartels and restrictive business practices," it said. ... Full Story | Top | Satellite launch stirs passions before Venezuela vote Fri,28 Sep 2012 10:18 PM PDT Reuters - CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez said the launch on Friday of Venezuela's second satellite showed the achievements of his self-styled revolution just days before he seeks re-election, but his rival said it symbolized his neglect of problems closer to home. "We're seeing history ... . Venezuela has been with China at the forefront of history," Chavez said after standing to applaud during a video link-up between the presidential palace, a launch center in China's Gobi Desert and a Caracas street party. ... Full Story | Top | China seals Bo's fate ahead of November 8 leadership congress Fri,28 Sep 2012 09:11 PM PDT Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party accused disgraced politician Bo Xilai of abusing power, taking huge bribes and other crimes on Friday, sealing the fate of a controversial leader whose fall shook a leadership handover due at a congress from November 8. The once high-flying Bo now faces a criminal investigation that stemmed from a murder scandal, and will almost certainly be jailed. With the Communist Party congress about six weeks away, further steps in the case could come before then, helping pave the way for a transition of power, experts said. ... Full Story | Top | At U.N., Muslim world questions Western freedom of speech Fri,28 Sep 2012 08:13 PM PDT Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Muslim leaders were in unison at the United Nations this week arguing that the West was hiding behind its defense of freedom of speech and ignoring cultural sensitivities in the aftermath of anti-Islam slurs that have raised fears of a widening East-West cultural divide. A video made in California depicting the Prophet Mohammad as a fool sparked the storming of U.S. and other Western embassies in many Islamic countries and a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan this month. The crisis deepened when a French magazine published caricatures of the Prophet. ... Full Story | Top | Mexico lower house approves diluted labor reform Fri,28 Sep 2012 06:43 PM PDT Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's lower house of Congress on Friday gave provisional approval to a bill that would mark the biggest shake-up of the country's labor market in four decades. In a show of cooperation between the outgoing and incoming administrations, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto backed the bill, which the PRI had gutted of measures aimed at curbing the power of unions. ... Full Story | Top | U.N. criticizes "shrill war talk" in Iran nuclear dispute Fri,28 Sep 2012 06:25 PM PDT Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. on Friday urged all sides in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program to tone down "shrill war talk," reacting to this week's clashes at the world body between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "It's obvious that harsh tones and rhetoric are not going to be helpful, that is quite clear," said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky when asked about Netanyahu's speech on Thursday to the General Assembly. ... Full Story | Top | Somalia, allies batter al Shabaab, but gains may be fragile Fri,28 Sep 2012 06:00 PM PDT Reuters - MARKA, Somalia (Reuters) - "Paradise lies under the shade of swords," reads the Arabic inscription on an arch leading into the Somali port of Marka, abandoned last month by Islamist al Shabaab militants under pressure from advancing African Union peacekeepers and government troops. The inscription, along with a white column by the beach where al Shabaab held public executions, is one of the reminders of the al Qaeda-allied rebels' four-year occupation of the coastal town, 90 km (55 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu. ... Full Story | Top | China takes islands dispute with Japan to pages of U.S. newspapers Fri,28 Sep 2012 05:45 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - With world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, China has taken its dispute with Japan over the ownership of a chain of islands to the ad pages of major American newspapers. China Daily, an organ of the Communist Party and the country's official English-language daily newspaper, took out full-page-spread advertisements on Friday in the New York Times and the Washington Post. The ad's headline asserts "Diaoyu Islands Belong to China" over a color picture of the string of islands in the East China Sea. ... Full Story | Top | Independent Scotland won't pay up to borrow: Salmond Fri,28 Sep 2012 04:22 PM PDT Reuters - CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scotland will probably be able to borrow at rates "no worse" than London if Scots approve a referendum to secure independence from Britain in two years, Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond said in an interview in Chicago on Friday. "The essence of what people normally do in these circumstances is to look at the balance sheet of the country," said Salmond, who is in Chicago to promote Scotland as a destination for U.S. corporate investment. "Our balance sheet is a bit better than the U.K.'s ... ... Full Story | Top | Senior ally of former Ivory Coast president re-arrested in Ghana Fri,28 Sep 2012 04:17 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - Interpol agents in Ghana have rearrested a senior ally of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo amid a deepening dispute that has led to the closure of the border between the two West African neighbors, his lawyer said late on Friday. Ivorian authorities are seeking the extradition of Justin Kone Katinan, a former budget minister, who was first arrested in Ghana last month during a wave of deadly attacks in Ivory Coast that the government there blamed on pro-Gbagbo exiles. ... Full Story | Top | Obama blocks Chinese wind farms in Oregon over security Fri,28 Sep 2012 04:15 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama blocked on Friday a privately owned Chinese company from building wind turbines close to a Navy military site in Oregon due to national security concerns, and the company said it would challenge the action in court. The rare presidential order to divest interests in the wind farms comes as Obama campaigns for a second term against Republican Mitt Romney, who has accused him of being soft on China. ... Full Story | Top | Nations seeking Assad's exit struggle to produce a plan Fri,28 Sep 2012 04:10 PM PDT Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Western and Arab states demanding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's exit are under pressure to produce a plan to make that happen, but their unwillingness to act outside a deadlocked U.N. Security Council leaves them looking fractured and powerless. Foreign ministers and senior diplomats from the "Friends of Syria" - a group that includes the United States, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - are due to meet in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday. "I just expect ideas to be presented. ... Full Story | Top | U.S., France boost Syria support, less than rebels hoped Fri,28 Sep 2012 04:09 PM PDT Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States and France announced increased support for opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday, but there was no sign that the direct military aid the rebels want to create safe havens for civilians is on the way. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a meeting of foreign ministers in New York that the United States would provide an additional $45 million in non-lethal and humanitarian aid to the Syrian opposition. Of this, $30 million would be for humanitarian assistance and $15 million for non-lethal help, such as radios and training. ... Full Story | Top | Trial of Pope Benedict's former butler to start on Saturday Fri,28 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT Reuters - VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, goes on trial on Saturday in one of the most embarrassing episodes in recent Vatican history. The trial of the 46-year-old man who served the pope his meals and helped him dress is due to start at 9:30 a.m. (4.30 p.m. EDT) in the Vatican's little-used tribunal, a small room with rich paneled wood and a papal emblem on its ceiling. ... Full Story | Top | Libya thwarts planned anti-militia protests Fri,28 Sep 2012 03:51 PM PDT Reuters - TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Authorities in Libya thwarted plans for a huge demonstration against militia in the capital Tripoli on Friday, while in Benghazi, scene of mass anti-militia protests last week, supporters of an ousted Islamist group returned to the streets. Activists had hoped that a planned demonstration in the capital would be as successful as a giant anti-militia protest held in Benghazi last week, but only about 400 protesters turned up on Friday after the country's mufti and mosque preachers warned people not to attend. ... Full Story | Top |
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