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Tentative "fiscal cliff" deal emerges in Senate
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 11:16 AM PST
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate leaders were hammering out a last-minute deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" on Monday, but it was still unclear if rank-and-file lawmakers would back the agreement, particularly those in the Republican-led House of Representatives. A deal to avert the fiscal crisis was said to be in the works in the Senate that would raise tax rates on household income above $450,000, said a source familiar with the talks. The agreement would permanently extend the lower tax rates for those below the $450,000 cut off. ... Full Story | Top |
Central African Republic rebels say divided over peace talks offer
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 10:27 AM PST
DAKAR (Reuters) - Central African Republic's Seleka rebels are divided over whether to start peace talks with President Francois Bozize or carry on an assault to overthrow him, one of the insurgent group's spokesmen said on Monday. The rebels have advanced to within 75 km (45 miles) of the mineral-rich country's capital Bangui and their leaders are now considering a proposal from Bozize to hold negotiations and form a unity government. ... Full Story | Top |
State Department made "grievous mistake" over Benghazi: Senate report
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 10:23 AM PST
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department made a "grievous mistake" in keeping the U.S. mission in Benghazi open despite inadequate security and increasingly alarming threat assessments in the weeks before a deadly attack by militants, a Senate committee said on Monday. A report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee on the September 11 attacks on the U.S. mission and a nearby CIA annex, in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans died, faulted intelligence agencies for not focusing tightly enough on Libyan extremists. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt's leader sees currency stabilizing "within days"
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 10:12 AM PST
 CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's pound fell to a record low on Monday as the president signaled his government would allow it to depreciate slowly for several more days to stop a drain on foreign reserves that has driven the economy into crisis since the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Hit by a new bout of political turmoil in the last month, the pound had weakened to a record low on Sunday at a new dollar auction brought in by the central bank. It fell further at a second auction on Monday, last trading at 6.37 to the dollar on the interbank market. ... Full Story | Top |
Pakistan releases more Afghan Taliban members: official
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 10:03 AM PST
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has freed four Afghan Taliban prisoners, including a former justice minister, a Pakistani government official said on Monday, in the newest sign Islamabad is serious about backing peace efforts in Afghanistan. Regional power Pakistan is seen as critical to the success of U.S. and Afghan efforts to bring stability to the country, a task gaining urgency as the end of the U.S. combat mission in 2014 draws closer. Afghanistan has been pressing the strategic U.S. ally to free Taliban members who could help promote reconciliation. ... Full Story | Top |
In Indian student's gang rape, murder, two worlds collide
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 09:32 AM PST
 NEW DELHI (Reuters) - One of hundreds of attacks reported in New Delhi each year, the gang rape and murder of a medical student caught Indian authorities and political parties flat-footed, slow to see that the assault on a private bus had come to symbolize an epidemic of crime against women. ... Full Story | Top |
Assad's forces battle to retake Damascus suburb
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 09:31 AM PST
 AMMAN (Reuters) - Elite Syrian government troops backed by tanks battled on Monday to recapture a strategic Damascus suburb from rebels who have advanced within striking distance of the center of Syria's capital. Five people, including a child, died from army rocket fire that hit the Daraya suburb during the fighting, opposition activists said. Daraya is part of a semi-circle of Sunni Muslim suburbs south of the capital that have been at the forefront of the 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. "This is the biggest attack on Daraya in two months. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Venezuela's Maduro channels Chavez, lacks his charisma
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 09:12 AM PST
 CARACAS (Reuters) - He uses Hugo Chavez's bombastic language, brandishes the constitution and showers opponents with vitriol at every turn. But Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro is struggling to replicate the extraordinary charisma of his boss, who is battling to recover from cancer surgery in Cuba. Named as heir apparent by Chavez just before the president returned to Havana for his fourth surgery in December, the 50-year-old former bus driver has become the face of the socialist government in South America's top oil exporter. ... Full Story | Top |
2012 one of "bloodiest years" for journalists: media body
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 08:44 AM PST
 BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A heavy death toll in war zones such as Syria and Somalia made 2012 one of the bloodiest years for journalists, with 121 killed, an international journalists' group said on Monday. The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said the figure was up from 107 journalists and other media workers killed in targeted attacks, bomb blasts and cross-fire incidents in 2011. ... Full Story | Top |
Russian activists detained at protest for free assembly
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 08:41 AM PST
 MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police detained a prominent opposition figure and several other people holding unauthorized protests in Moscow and St Petersburg on Monday to defend the right to assembly. Police grabbed Eduard Limonov, a leader of the Other Russia opposition movement, as he spoke to journalists shortly after arriving with a few dozen activists in Moscow's Triumph Square. Under a brisk snowfall, demonstrators chanted "Russia without Putin!" and slogans calling for the right to free assembly, as Muscovites shopped for the New Year holiday in the capital's main street nearby. ... Full Story | Top |
Sudan closes think-tank after protest: director
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 08:21 AM PST
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan shut down a leading pro-democracy think-tank on Monday, a day after the organization helped stage a protest against government crackdowns on campaigners, its director said. The Al-Khatim Adlan Center for Enlightenment and Human Development (KACE) was one of a number of bodies that tried to deliver a petition to the country's human rights commission on Sunday. Police armed with batons blocked their way and, on Monday, a government official told the organization its operating license had been withdrawn, director Bakr Afif told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
Afghan Taliban freed in Pakistan close to Mullah Omar: official
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 07:58 AM PST
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan Taliban figures freed from detention in Pakistan were close to the movement's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and could help the Kabul government with peace efforts, a senior Afghan official said on Monday. "Their release will certainly have a positive impact on the mindsets of other senior Taliban, especially on field commanders who took orders from them for years," the official who is close to reconciliation efforts, told Reuters. (Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Alison Williams) Full Story | Top |
U.N. expert condemns move to oust Sri Lanka's chief justice
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 07:37 AM PST
 GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations expert on Monday criticized Sri Lanka's move to impeach its chief justice, saying it was part of a pattern of attacks on lawyers and a bid to stop judges carrying out their work independently of politicians. Parliament could vote next month to impeach Shirani Bandaranayake, the first woman to head Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, after she was found guilty by a parliamentary panel of financial irregularities and a failure to declare assets. The case risks a destabilizing clash between President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government and the judiciary. ... Full Story | Top |
Desperate for weapons, Syrian rebels make their own, fix tanks
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 07:35 AM PST
ALEPPO PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - At a converted warehouse in the midst of a block of residential homes in a northern Syrian town, men are hard at work at giant lathes, shavings of metal gathering around them. Sacks of potassium nitrate and sugar lie nearby. In a neat row against the wall is the finished product, homemade mortars. Syrian rebels say they have been forced to make them because their calls for heavy weapons and ammunition to fight President Bashar al-Assad have gone unanswered. "No one's giving us any support. ... Full Story | Top |
Japan releases Chinese caught illegally fishing
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 07:22 AM PST
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese fishermen detained for illegal fishing in Japan's waters were released Monday after promising to pay a 4.28 million yen ($49,700) fine, China's state news agency Xinhua said, citing the consulate general in Japan's southwestern city of Fukuoka. Xinhua said the detention of the three fishermen for unauthorized coral fishing within Japanese waters was "peacefully resolved" within 48 hours. The detention comes as tensions simmer between China and Japan over ownership of disputed islands near Taiwan, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. ... Full Story | Top |
Bombs kill 16 across Iraq as sectarian strife grows
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 06:49 AM PST
 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Explosions killed at least 16 people and wounded 76 across Iraq on Monday, police said, underlining sectarian and ethnic divisions that threaten to further destabilize the country a year after U.S. troops left. Tensions between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise this year. Militants strike almost daily and have staged at least one big attack a month. The latest violence followed more than a week of protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by thousands of people from the minority Sunni community. ... Full Story | Top |
Kosovo struggles to shake Wild West image among investors
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 06:07 AM PST
 ASTRAZUB, Kosovo (Reuters) - When Briton Christopher Gilbert and London-educated Etrur Albani teamed up to dig marble in Albani's native Kosovo, they knew they were taking a gamble. For two years, Albani and Gilbert, who was better known in Britain as an entertainment industry entrepreneur, knocked on literally hundreds of doors in search of intrepid investors. They eventually turned up 12, convincing them that the risk associated with investing in this young Balkan nation was overblown and that the image of crime and corruption did not match the reality. ... Full Story | Top |
Portugal president signs 2013 budget into law: TSF
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 04:50 AM PST
 LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's president has signed into law a 2013 budget that includes the biggest tax hikes in living memory but will ask the constitutional court to check its legality, private radio station TSF reported on Monday. The president's move at least allows the budget to take effect as of January 1. However, far-left political parties have said they would challenge the tax plans in the courts and political analysts have said the increases in the tax burden could be unconstitutional. ... Full Story | Top |
Turkey accuses EU of bigotry, says its reforms are ignored
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 04:26 AM PST
 ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey accused the European Union of bias and bigoted attitudes towards the EU candidate country on Monday and blamed it for undermining the Turkish public's trust in the bloc. Turkey criticized the European Commission's latest report on its progress towards EU membership as it presented for the first time its own report highlighting its reforms over the last year. ... Full Story | Top |
Israeli Supreme Court shortens whistleblower's prison term
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 04:17 AM PST
 JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Supreme Court on Monday shortened by a year the 4-1/2-year prison term of a soldier who gave a journalist classified military documents, some relating to operations against Palestinian militants. Ruling on Anat Kamm's appeal against the length of her sentence, the court said it was disproportionate to the penalty of four months of community service imposed on Uri Blau, a reporter for Haaretz, an Israeli left-wing daily. ... Full Story | Top |
Chinese dissidents in rare visit to Nobel laureate's wife
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 04:12 AM PST
 BEIJING (Reuters) - A small group of Chinese dissidents forced their way past security guards last week to visit the detained wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and deliver a message of support, one of the dissidents said on Monday. Liu, a veteran dissident involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests crushed by the Chinese army, won the prize in 2010. He was jailed the year before and is serving an 11-year sentence. His wife Liu Xia is under house arrest. She is rarely allowed out and is almost never allowed to receive visitors. ... Full Story | Top |
Assad's forces push to retake Damascus suburb
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 03:51 AM PST
 AMMAN (Reuters) - Heavy fighting raged on the outskirts of Damascus on Monday as elite troops backed by tanks tried to recapture a strategic suburb from rebels in one of the largest military operations in that district in months, opposition activists said. Five people, including one child, died from army rocket fire that hit Daraya, the activists said. Daraya is one of a series of interconnected Sunni Muslim suburbs that ring Syria's capital and have been at the forefront of the 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. "This is the biggest attack on Daraya in two months. ... Full Story | Top |
Al Qaeda in Yemen offers bounty for U.S. ambassador
Monday, Dec 31, 2012 02:50 AM PST
 DUBAI (Reuters) - The Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda has offered a bounty for anyone who kills the U.S. ambassador to Yemen or an American soldier in the impoverished Arab state, a group that monitors Islamist websites said. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said it was offering three kilograms of gold for the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa, Gerald Feierstein, the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said, citing an audio released by militants. AQAP will also pay 5 million rials ($23,350) to whoever kills any American soldier in Yemen, it said. ... Full Story | Top |
Japan PM Abe wants to replace landmark war apology: paper
Sunday, Dec 30, 2012 11:53 PM PST
 TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to replace a landmark 1995 apology for suffering caused in Asia during World War Two with an unspecified "forward-looking statement", a newspaper reported on Monday. Abe, a hawkish conservative who is known to want to recast Japan's position on its wartime militarism in less apologetic tones, led his party to a landslide victory in a December 16 election. He outlined his intention to restate Japan's position in an interview with the conservative Sankei newspaper, but he did not give details. ... Full Story | Top |
South Korea to restart one of two troubled reactors this week
Sunday, Dec 30, 2012 08:14 PM PST
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will restart one of two nuclear reactors this week after being shut for nearly two months to replace parts which were found to have forged documents, easing power supply concerns as winter bites, the nuclear regulator and operator said. The State-run Nuclear Safety & Security Commission said in a statement on Monday that it had approved the restart of a 1,000-megawatt (MW) reactor in Yeonggwang county, 300 km (186 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul. ... Full Story | Top |
China academics warn of "violent revolution" if no political reform
Sunday, Dec 30, 2012 08:14 PM PST
BEIJING (Reuters) - A prominent group of Chinese academics has warned in a bold open letter that the country risks "violent revolution" if the government does not respond to public pressure and allow long-stalled political reforms. The 73 scholars, including well-known current and retired legal experts at top universities and lawyers, said political reform had not matched the quick pace of economic expansion. ... Full Story | Top |
South Korea parliament expected to approve budget on Monday
Sunday, Dec 30, 2012 07:58 PM PST
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's parliament was expected to pass next year's government budget on Monday after slightly expanding welfare spending programs in line with President-elect Park Geun-hye's campaign pledges. Media cited officials at the ruling and main opposition parties as saying they now aimed to put their agreed version up for vote later in the day after winding up debate on minor issues at sub-committee meetings. The value of the 2013 budget bill is expected to rise to about 342.7 trillion won ($320.11 billion) from 342. ... Full Story | Top |
Chavez suffers new post-surgery complications
Sunday, Dec 30, 2012 07:03 PM PST
 CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is suffering more complications linked to a respiratory infection that hit him after his fourth cancer operation in Cuba, his vice president said in a somber broadcast on Sunday. Vice President Nicolas Maduro flew to Cuba to visit Chavez in the hospital as supporters' fears grew for the ailing 58-year-old socialist leader, who has not been seen in public nor heard from in three weeks. Chavez had already suffered unexpected bleeding caused by the six-hour operation on December 11 for an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area. ... Full Story | Top |
Chinese fishing boat detained in Japan: Xinhua
Sunday, Dec 30, 2012 05:32 PM PST
 BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan's coastguard detained a Chinese fishing boat within Japanese waters on Sunday evening, China's Xinhua news agency said, citing the Chinese consulate general in Fukuoka, a city in southwestern Japan. The captain of the boat, registered in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian, and two crew members have been brought to the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima for questioning, Xinhua said. It said the captain had admitted he was in Japanese waters. ... Full Story | Top |
Fiscal deal stalls as clock ticks to deadline
Sunday, Dec 30, 2012 03:04 PM PST
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Efforts to prevent the economy from tumbling over a "fiscal cliff" stalled on Sunday as Democrats and Republicans remained at loggerheads over a deal that would prevent taxes for all Americans from rising on New Year's Day. One hour before they had hoped to present a plan, Democratic and Republican Senate leaders said they were still unable to reach a compromise that would stop the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that could push the U.S. economy back into recession. ... Full Story | Top |
