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| Greek editor acquitted in Swiss bank list trial Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:24 PM PDT  ATHENS (Reuters) - A journalist who published the names of more than 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts was acquitted on Thursday of breaking data privacy laws. "The court has ruled that you are innocent," Judge Malia Volika said. The arrest and speedy trial of magazine editor Costas Vaxevanis had aroused international concern and riveted recession-weary Greeks angry at the privileges of the elite. In his defense, Vaxevanis accused politicians of hiding the truth and protecting an "untouchable" wealthy elite. He said the trial was politically motivated, calling it "targeted and vengeful". ... Full Story | Top |
| Greek court challenges pension reform plan Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:53 AM PDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Pension reform demanded by foreign lenders may be unconstitutional, a Greek court ruled on Thursday, in a setback to the government's efforts to push through an austerity package for the near-bankrupt country. The Court of Auditors, which vets Greek laws before they are submitted to parliament, said planned measures such as increasing the retirement age by two years to 67 and cutting pensions by 5 to 10 percent could be against the constitution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Greek "tax cheat" lists yield one suicide, no convictions Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:47 AM PDT  VOLOS, Greece (Reuters) - Leonidas Tzanis, a Greek provincial lawyer and former government minister, went down to his basement garage in the city of Volos last month, tied a TV cable to a metal beam and hanged himself. Friends and family say Tzanis died because he was on a list, one of several hinting at financial crimes which are dominating Greek headlines and filling a vacuum created by the state's failure to act decisively on tax evasion and corruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| Harper to promote Canada business, but no investment rules yet Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:45 AM PDT  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will promote Canada as open for business during a November 3-11 trip to Asia, although he is not likely to unveil long-awaited guidelines for foreign takeovers of Canadian firms, an aide said on Thursday. "I don't think it's a problem at all to go around the world and say we're open for business, because we are," Harper's chief spokesman, Andrew MacDougall, told reporters ahead of the trip, which will take Harper to India, the Philippines and Hong Kong. "Canada overwhelmingly supports foreign investment in Canada ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Sri Lanka pressed at U.N. to prosecute wartime crimes Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:56 AM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Western countries kept up pressure on Sri Lanka on Thursday to prosecute killings of civilians and other crimes committed in its 30-year civil war and to investigate continuing grave violations. Britain and the United States said that accountability must be established for serious breaches in the conflict that ended in 2009 and they voiced concern at the latest attacks on journalists, activists and lawyers. Sri Lanka was in the dock at the United Nations Human Rights Council, a Geneva-based forum that regularly examines the records of all U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| East Coast staggers to recover from monster storm Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:49 AM PDT (Reuters) - Rescuers searched flooded streets and swamped houses for survivors, drivers lined up for hours to get scarce gasoline and millions remained without power on Thursday as New York City and nearby coastal towns struggled to recover from one of the biggest storms ever to hit the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu rival blasts his "obsession" with Iran Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:40 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Kicking off his election campaign, Israeli opposition leader Shaul Mofaz on Thursday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being driven by an obsession to bomb Iran. Mofaz, head of the centrist Kadima party that quit Netanyahu's coalition weeks ago citing differences over how to rein in Iran's nuclear program, unveiled a poster of a flaming mushroom cloud emblazoned with "Netanyahu will mire us in trouble". ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistani couple kill daughter who talked to a boy Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:36 AM PDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani couple killed their teenage daughter by pouring acid on her face and body after they caught her talking to a boy, police and a doctor said on Thursday. The parents of the 16-year-old confessed to police in Kotli, a town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, that they attacked their daughter after she had spoke to the boy outside their house, said Mohammad Jahangir, a local doctor at the hospital where she was brought. "There were third-degree burns on her scalp, face, eyes, nostrils, both arms, chest foot and lower part of legs. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least 23 killed in Riyadh fuel truck blast Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:36 AM PDT  RIYADH (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed when a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday, triggering an explosion that brought down an industrial building and set fire to nearby vehicles. State-owned Ekhbariya television news channel reported on that the death toll had risen to 23 and emergency workers were still searching the collapsed building for more victims or survivors. Health ministry spokesman Saad al-Qahtani said 135 people were injured, mostly men and including some foreigners. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers, several executed Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:22 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Anti-government rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday in attacks on three army checkpoints around Saraqeb, a town on Syria's main north-south highway, a monitoring group said. Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to video footage. Rebels berated them, calling them "Assad's Dogs", before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground. The highway linking the capital Damascus to the contested city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial center, has been the scene of heavy fighting since rebels cut the road last month. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venice hit by worst flooding in two years Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:20 AM PDT  VENICE (Reuters) - Tourists in Venice put plastic bags over their legs and residents wore rubber boots as water rose to knee-high levels in many parts of the lagoon city on Thursday. The median level of the Adriatic Sea swelled to about 1.4 meters (1.5 yards) above normal - the highest in nearly two years - sending water from the lagoon into St. Mark's Square and many narrow alleyways. Wooden catwalks which are usually used to allow pedestrian passage over flooded areas were removed after the water rose above them, rendering them useless. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Africa mine unrest to lead to job losses: Amplats Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:18 AM PDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's platinum industry is in "severe financial distress" and high wage settlements to get wildcat strikers back to work will lead to job cuts, Anglo American Platinum said. The world's top platinum producer said it was losing production averaging 3,694 ounces of platinum per day due to a strike at its South African operations that is in its seventh week. To date 141,640 ounces of the precious metal have been lost. ... Full Story | Top |
| Car explodes outside barracks in Turkey's Iskenderun port Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:15 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A car exploded outside a military barracks in the Turkish port town of Iskenderun on Thursday, injuring four people, in what a local news agency said was a bomb attack. The Dogan news agency said the car, which was packed with explosives, blew up 150 meters from the entrance to the barracks shortly before a military vehicle had been due to pass and that the blast injured at least three passengers in a civilian car. "There was an explosion and we can confirm four people are slightly injured. ... Full Story | Top |
| One-in-four South Africans jobless, mine layoffs loom Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:01 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's unemployment rate rose in the third quarter, with more than one in four out of work and unrest in the mining sector expected to drive that number higher still. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has made job creation a priority, but the rate has been stuck above 20 percent for more than a decade despite periods of strong economic growth, fuelling social unrest. Joblessness increased to 25.5 percent of the labor force, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday, putting 197,000 more workers on the streets during the quarter. The agency said 4. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dissident says reforming Lukashenko's Belarus impossible Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:58 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Belarussian dissident Andrei Sannikov, granted political asylum in Britain, is worried about the safety of his family he left behind but believes the autocratic government of President Alexander Lukashenko could eventually fall, he said on Thursday. A former deputy foreign minister, Sannikov, 58, moved to Britain in August after being released from prison where he said officials tried to push him to kill himself. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenya police make three more arrests in Venezuela diplomat murder Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:51 AM PDT  NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police have arrested three more suspects in connection with the murder of a Venezuelan diplomat in the capital Nairobi in July, a senior officer said on Thursday. Olga Fonseca, Venezuela's acting ambassador and charge d'affaires, was found strangled in her bedroom less than two weeks into her posting, which followed the abrupt departure of the previous ambassador after he was accused by his domestic staff of sexual harassment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Prison officer killed in Northern Ireland motorway shooting Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:44 AM PDT  BELFAST (Reuters) - A prison officer was killed in Northern Ireland on Thursday when he drove into a hail of bullets and crashed off a motorway at high speed, in an attack blamed by police and politicians on militant nationalists. It was the first murder of a prison officer since 1993 and the fifth fatal attack on a member of the security establishment since the 1998 Good Friday peace deal, which largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Dutch finance minister promise cuts, tough line on euro zone Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:29 AM PDT AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The incoming Dutch finance minister said on Thursday he would push ahead with budget cuts at home and take a tough line on the euro zone crisis, ensuring policy continuity. Labor MP Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned of tough times ahead given the new coalition government between his Labor party and Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals has already agreed to nearly 16 billion euros ($21 billion) in budget cuts. "We have agreed to a tight budget and together we are going to implement it. It is a tough package that is going to require sacrifices from everyone in the Netherlands. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel's Netanyahu, France's Hollande eulogize slain Jews Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:17 AM PDT  TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined with French President Francois Hollande on Thursday in remembering victims of an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, with both pledging to fight anti-Semitism in France and around the globe. The ceremony for the seven people shot dead in March in the south of France, including three Jewish children and a rabbi, came on the second and final day of Netanyahu's first official visit to France, home to Europe's largest Jewish population. "Every time a Jew is targeted for being Jewish, Israel is concerned. ... Full Story | Top |
| India Chennai port resumes cargo operations as cyclone eased Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:14 AM PDT  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Chennai port on the country's southeast coast has resumed cargo operations from Thursday after a cyclone in the area eased in severity, a port official said. "Normal activity has resumed since this morning," said the official, who requested anonymity. Cargo operations at Chennai port were halted on Tuesday after a cyclone warning. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Jo Winterbottom) Full Story | Top |
| Ford remains top of Canadian auto sales in October Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:11 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co of Canada remained Canada's top-selling automaker in October with total sales increasing 7 percent largely on the back of a nearly 17 percent jump in passenger car sales, the company said on Thursday. Ford of Canada, a wholly-owned unit of Ford Motor Co, said total vehicle sales increased to 20,565 last month from 19,190 in October 2011. "The auto industry is a key engine driving the Canadian economy and it is showing strong, sustainable growth," said Dianne Craig, president and chief executive of Ford of Canada. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia breaks baby trafficking ring in North Caucasus Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:09 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators have cracked a ring of human traffickers that specialized in selling babies in the country's volatile North Caucasus region, Moscow's Investigative Committee said on Thursday. Police detained a 62-year-old woman in the regional capital of Chechnya when she tried to sell a newborn baby boy for 550,000 roubles ($17,500) to an undercover policeman posing as a potential client. The pensioner had also sold an 18-month-old girl to another undercover policeman earlier this year, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on its website. ... Full Story | Top |
| Khodorkovsky's business partner wins three-year cut in jail term Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:08 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - The business partner of former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky won a three-year shortening of his prison sentence on Thursday, but a lawyer for the fallen oil boss said his bid for a similar cut was still lodged in a separate court. Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev were arrested in 2003 and are serving 13-year jail terms for fraud, tax evasion, theft and money laundering, in a case that has damaged Russia's image abroad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigerian forces making Islamist insurgency worse: Amnesty Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:07 AM PDT  ABUJA (Reuters) - Human rights abuses committed by Nigeria's security forces in their fight against Islamist sect Boko Haram are fuelling the very insurgency they are meant to quell, Amnesty International said on Thursday. Boko Haram says it wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks targeting security forces, politicians and civilians since launching an uprising in 2009. The sect has become the top security threat to Africa's biggest energy producer. ... Full Story | Top |
| Risk of death close for Turkish hunger strike: doctors Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:02 AM PDT  ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Jailed Kurdish militants on hunger strike in Turkey may start to die within the next 10 days, Turkey's main medical association warned on Thursday, saying the prime minister's dismissal of the protest as a "show" risked hardening their resolve. The hunger strike entered its 51st day on Thursday, with some 700 prisoners refusing food in dozens of prisons across Turkey, demanding the government grant greater Kurdish minority rights and better conditions for their jailed leader. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkey using anti-terrorism law to quash debate: U.N. Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:45 AM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Turkey is using a vague counterterrorism law to prosecute many activists, lawyers and journalists, often holding them for long pre-trial periods without access to a lawyer, United Nations human rights experts said on Thursday. The U.N. Human Rights Committee said after reviewing Turkey's record for the first time that the right to due process is sharply curbed under its 1991 Anti-Terrorism Law and that some of its provisions are incompatible with international law. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisia says foiled plot to kidnap local Jews Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:17 AM PDT  TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian police have arrested four people for allegedly plotting to kidnap local Jews for ransom, an official said on Thursday, stoking insecurity in the dwindling Jewish community after last year's "Arab Spring" revolt led to a resurgence of Islamists. There are less than 2,000 Jews in Tunisia, mostly living in the town of Zarzis and the nearby island of Djerba in the south of the country. "The security forces intercepted a plan to kidnap young Jews in Zarzis. Police arrested four young men and seized two weapons," the official, Lofi Hidouri, told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kuwait grants bail to ex-MP accused of insulting emir Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:01 AM PDT  KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaiti authorities freed a prominent opposition politician on bail on Thursday after charging him with insulting the ruling emir, accusations which his lawyer said were fabricated. Musallam al-Barrak, an outspoken former member of parliament, was picked up from his home on Monday night, two weeks after a protest rally where he appealed to the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, to avoid "autocratic rule". Although OPEC member and U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Savile abuse victims in Britain to sue for damages Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:00 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - The people who were sexually abused in their youth by one of the BBC's most celebrated TV stars will sue the state-funded broadcaster and Jimmy Savile's estate, a lawyer representing some of the victims said on Thursday. The abuse claims against the late Savile, described by police as one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, have sullied the reputation of the BBC and thrown the jobs of its current and former boss into doubt. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bulgarians use Facebook to expose slipshod police Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:37 AM PDT SOFIA (Reuters) - Fed up with ineffective law enforcement, thousands of Bulgarians have flocked to a Facebook page showcasing images of police breaking rules or failing to do their duty. The "Photograph a Policeman" group includes pictures of badly parked patrol cars, including one in a disabled spot and another on a pedestrian crossing, and a police motorcyclist pulling a "wheelie" - on the wrong side of the road. In another image, a uniformed policeman holds an open bottle of beer while sitting at the wheel of a patrol car. ... Full Story | Top |
| Greek journalist calls bank list case political revenge Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:23 AM PDT  ATHENS (Reuters) - A journalist on trial for publishing the names of more than 2,000 wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts described the case on Thursday as vengeful and politically motivated. Costas Vaxevanis faces up to two years in jail if convicted of breaking data privacy laws. The case has touched a nerve in near-bankrupt Greece, where rampant tax evasion is undermining a struggle to cut public costs and raise revenue under an EU/IMF bailout deal. ... Full Story | Top |
| Strike hits East African hub port Mombasa Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:18 AM PDT MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - An indefinite strike by more than half of the workers at Kenya's main port of Mombasa on Thursday has paralyzed dockside work at east African region's main trade gateway, union and management officials said. The port, the biggest in the region, handles imports such as fuel for Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia. The union said 3,500 workers, most of whom are loaders, and had worked at the port for between 15 and 20 years on casual and contractual basis, went on strike demanding permanent jobs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Three women killed in stampede at Madrid Halloween party Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:14 AM PDT  MADRID (Reuters) - Three women were crushed to death in a stampede apparently caused by a firework at a Halloween party in Madrid early on Thursday, the city's vice-mayor said. Two other women were in critical condition. Thousands of revelers had packed into the Madrid Arena for the party, which featured electronic music. The stampede was believed to have been caused when someone lit a flare or firecracker in a corridor, creating a panic, vice-mayor Miguel Angel Villanueva told a news conference. The event had not been oversold, he said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fugitive Sunni Iraq VP sentenced to death on second charge Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 06:28 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi court sentenced fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to death for a second time on Thursday on a charge of involvement in a plot to assassinate an interior ministry official, a judicial spokesman said. Hashemi, a Sunni Muslim who fled to Turkey earlier this year when Shi'ite-led Iraqi authorities sought his arrest, was subsequently sentenced to death in absentia on charges of running death squads, which he denies. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels fight unwanted battle with Kurds Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 05:40 AM PDT KASTAL, Syria (Reuters) - After a week of clashes between anti-government rebels and Kurdish militants in Syria's Aleppo province, the two sides are observing a tenuous truce. It is a war within a war which neither side wants. "We want to fight the regime and instead we are fighting a new front that we don't need or have time for," said a fighter of the rebel Free Syria Army, warming himself over a fire on a on a mountain overlooking olive groves and stone villages. "We should be in Aleppo fighting, instead we are camping. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimbabwe prime minister settles out of court with ex-lover Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 05:21 AM PDT  HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has reached an out-of-court settlement with a former lover to end a messy maintenance case that was damaging his reputation ahead of elections expected next year, a lawyer said on Thursday. Locardia Karimatsenga had been demanding $15,000 a month in upkeep from Tsvangirai. Her claim was strengthened in September when a court stopped Tsvangirai from marrying another woman by ruling he was married to Karimatsenga under traditional law. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers in checkpoint attacks Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 05:19 AM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels killed 28 Syrian army soldiers on Thursday in an attack on three checkpoints around the town of Saraqeb, which straddles the country's main north-south highway, an opposition-linked group said. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that opposition activists in Saraqeb, in the northern province of Idlib bordering Turkey, confirmed the attacks had been carried out by several rebel units. ... Full Story | Top |
| China proposes new initiatives for Syria ceasefire Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 05:17 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday it had proposed new initiatives to head off an escalation of violence in Syria, including a phased, region-by-region ceasefire and the establishment of a transitional governing body. China has been strongly criticized by some in the Arab world for failing to take a stronger stance on the violence in Syria and has subsequently been keen to show it is trying to take a more proactive role in resolving the crisis. ... Full Story | Top |
| Deputy PM Clegg warns UK risks sliding to EU exit Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 04:48 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain faces a crisis that could end with the world's sixth largest economy leaving the European Union, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned ahead of a showdown over budget spending with other states in the 27-member bloc. A day after Prime Minister David Cameron was defeated in parliament for not demanding a cut to the EU budget, Clegg said on Thursday that the behavior of the rebel lawmakers could leave Britain isolated in the EU or outside it altogether. ... Full Story | Top |
| UK could slip out of the EU: Deputy PM says Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 04:48 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Britain could face a crisis which pushes it out of the European Union, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Thursday. "You will never achieve (anything) by stamping your foot and saying 'well we want to be part of this club, we want to unilaterally rewrite the rules of the games and we want to pick and choose unilaterally what we sign up to,'" said Clegg, the leader of the pro-European Liberal Democrats. ... Full Story | Top |
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