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| North Korea says enters "state of war" against South Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 09:07 AM PDT  By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea, but Seoul and its ally the United States played down the statement as tough talk. Pyongyang also threatened to close a border industrial zone, the last remaining example of inter-Korean cooperation which gives the impoverished North access to $2 billion in trade a year. The United States said it took Pyongyang's threats seriously but cautioned that the North had a history of bellicose rhetoric. Russia, another a permanent U.N. Security Council member, urged all sides to show restraint. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cyprus details heavy losses for major bank customers Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 08:45 AM PDT  By Karolina Tagaris NICOSIA (Reuters) - Major depositors in Cyprus's biggest bank will lose around 60 percent of savings over 100,000 euros, its central bank confirmed on Saturday, sharpening the terms of a bailout that has shaken European banks but saved the island from bankruptcy. Initial signs that big depositors in Bank of Cyprus would take a hit of 30 to 40 percent - the first time the euro zone has made bank customers contribute to a bailout - had already unnerved investors in European lenders this week. ... Full Story | Top |
| NATO strike kills at least one child in Afghanistan Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 09:07 AM PDT  By Mustafa Andalib GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A NATO helicopter killed at least one child and nine suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's east on Saturday, officials and local residents said. Last month Afghan President Hamid Karzai forbade Afghan forces from calling for NATO air support and forbade international forces from using air strikes "in Afghan homes or villages" after Afghan forces called in a strike that killed 10 civilians. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenyatta won Kenya's presidency fairly: Supreme Court Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 11:58 AM PDT  By James Macharia and Edmund Blair NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Supreme Court upheld Uhuru Kenyatta's presidential election victory on Saturday and his defeated rival accepted the ruling, helping douse tensions after tribal violence blighted the election five years ago. The decision cleared the way for Kenya's richest man to take the top job in east Africa's biggest economy, but left Western powers with the headache of dealing with a leader charged with crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy president pledges to stay to deal with crisis Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 11:36 AM PDT  By Giselda Vagnoni ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday ruled out standing down early to make way for new parliamentary elections, after the failure of attempts to form a government this week, saying he would keep trying to find a way out of the deadlock. Napolitano, whose term ends on May 15, spoke after news reports suggested he might resign to get around constitutional provisions which prevent a president dissolving parliament and calling elections during his final months in office. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nelson Mandela "comfortable", treated for pneumonia Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 07:12 AM PDT  By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is comfortable and able to breathe without problems as he continues to respond to treatment in hospital for a recurrence of pneumonia, President Jacob Zuma's office said on Saturday. After the revered 94-year-old statesman and former South African president spent a third night in hospital, the presidency said doctors had drained excess fluid from his lungs to tackle the infection. "This has resulted in him now being able to breathe without difficulty. ... Full Story | Top |
| Monte Paschi says lost billions in deposits after Feb scandal Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 09:47 AM PDT  MILAN (Reuters) - Customers' deposits at Italian bank Monte dei Paschi fell by "a few billion euros" after a scandal erupted in February over loss-making derivatives trades at the lender, the bank said in a document posted on its web site on Saturday. Monte dei Paschi last week reported a higher-than-expected net loss for the whole of 2012 on the back of a rise in provisions for bad loans and 730 million euros in losses on the derivatives trades, which are at the center of a fraud. But it has yet to make clear what impact the scandal itself had on its first quarter results. ... Full Story | Top |
| Palestinians, Israeli Arabs mark "Land Day" with muted protests Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 10:19 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians protested in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Saturday and a few were lightly hurt in clashes with Israeli soldiers on the 37th anniversary of a landmark event for Israel's Arab minority. The Palestinians and Israeli Arabs each commemorated the killing of six Arab citizens of the Jewish state by Israeli security forces during protests in 1976 over government land confiscations in northern Israel, an event known as "Land Day". ... Full Story | Top |
| HIV, hepatitis tests urged for 7,000 Oklahoma dental patients Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 08:24 AM PDT By Steve Olafson OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A Tulsa, Oklahoma, health center on Saturday began drawing blood samples from patients who may have been exposed to viruses at an oral surgery dental clinic that is under investigation. As many as 7,000 of Dr. W. Scott Harrington's patients are being notified by letter that health officials recommend they be tested for hepatitis and HIV. The investigation began when one of Harrington's patients tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis C. ... Full Story | Top |
| Central African Republic leader, facing isolation, says no reprisals Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 11:43 AM PDT  By Ange Aboa BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic's new leader Michel Djotodia, facing international isolation after seizing power, said on Saturday he would not take reprisals against rivals and called on those who fled abroad to return. The United States said on Saturday it did not recognize Djotodia, who toppled President Francois Bozize on March 24 after leading thousands of his Seleka rebels into the mineral-rich nation's capital Bangui, triggering days of looting. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. B-2 bombers sent to Korea on rare mission: diplomacy not destruction Friday, Mar 29, 2013 09:40 PM PDT  By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The stealthy, nuclear-capable U.S. B-2 bomber is a veteran of wars in Iraq and Libya, but it isn't usually a tool of Washington's statecraft. Yet on Thursday, the United States sent a pair of the bat-winged planes on a first-of-its-kind practice run over the skies of South Korea, conducting what U.S. officials say was a diplomatic sortie. The aim, the officials said, was two-fold: to reassure U.S. allies South Korea and Japan in the face of a string of threats from North Korea, and to nudge Pyongyang back to nuclear talks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Muslims vanish as Buddhist attacks approach Myanmar's biggest city Friday, Mar 29, 2013 08:48 PM PDT  By Jason Szep SIT KWIN, Myanmar (Reuters) - The Muslims of Sit Kwin were always a small group who numbered no more than 100 of the village's 2,000 people. But as sectarian violence led by Buddhist mobs spreads across central Myanmar, they and many other Muslims are disappearing. Their homes, shops and mosques destroyed, some end up in refugee camps or hide in the homes of friends or relatives. Dozens have been killed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pope leads traditional Good Friday rite at Rome Colosseum Friday, Mar 29, 2013 07:25 PM PDT  By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - Thousands of people holding candles turned out at Rome's Colosseum to see Pope Francis mark the first Good Friday of his pontificate with a traditional "Way of the Cross" procession around the ancient amphitheatre. Francis, who was elected on March 13, sat under a red canopy on Rome's Palatine Hill as representatives of the faithful from around the world alternated carrying a wooden cross on the day Christians commemorated Jesus's death by crucifixion. ... Full Story | Top |
| House Speaker admonishes fellow Republican for immigrant slur Friday, Mar 29, 2013 03:12 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Friday condemned a reference to migrant workers made by fellow Republican Representative Don Young, calling the comments "offensive and beneath the dignity of the office." Young referred to migrant workers as "wetbacks" in a radio interview aired in his home state of Alaska on Thursday, but issued an apology late in the day after criticism. The term is considered a slur against illegal immigrants who crossed into the United States from Mexico. "My father had a ranch. We used to hire 50-60 wetbacks ... ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. B-2 bombers sent to Korea on rare mission: diplomacy not destruction Friday, Mar 29, 2013 03:42 PM PDT By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The stealthy, nuclear-capable U.S. B-2 bomber is a veteran of wars in Iraq and Libya, but it isn't usually a tool of Washington's statecraft. Yet on Thursday, the United States sent a pair of the bat-winged planes on a first-of-its-kind practice run over the skies of South Korea, conducting what U.S. officials say was a diplomatic sortie. The aim, the officials said, was two-fold: to reassure U.S. allies South Korea and Japan in the face of a string of threats from North Korea, and to nudge Pyongyang back to nuclear talks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Big depositors in Cyprus to lose far more than feared Friday, Mar 29, 2013 01:16 PM PDT  By Michele Kambas NICOSIA (Reuters) - Big depositors in Cyprus's largest bank stand to lose far more than initially feared under a European Union rescue package to save the island from bankruptcy, a source with direct knowledge of the terms said on Friday. Under conditions expected to be announced on Saturday, depositors in Bank of Cyprus will get shares in the bank worth 37.5 percent of their deposits over 100,000 euros, the source told Reuters, while the rest of their deposits may never be paid back. ... Full Story | Top |
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