| | |
| Algerian President Bouteflika has health crisis: TV Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 12:38 PM PDT  ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has a "health crisis" and has been told by his doctor to rest, a private Algerian television station reported on Saturday in a news flash. Bouteflika's health is a central factor in the stability of an oil-exporting country of 37 million emerging from a long conflict between government forces and Islamist insurgents. Ennahar TV provided no detailed information on the president's condition. Bouteflika, 75, was elected in 1999. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy's Letta sets moderate course with new government Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 12:25 PM PDT By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - There is much about Italy's new center-left prime minister Enrico Letta, who named his cabinet on Saturday, that is likely to please financial markets and Rome's international partners. He is young, moderate and pro-European, and despite his low public profile he has been a member of the European political elite for many years. Letta speaks fluent English and has a sound grasp of economics. ... Full Story | Top |
| Stalemate over, Italy's Letta names new government Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 11:47 AM PDT  By James Mackenzie and Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Italian center-left politician Enrico Letta named a coalition government on Saturday, making one of Silvio Berlusconi's closest allies deputy prime minister and ending two months of damaging political stalemate. Letta has said his priorities would be the economy, unemployment and restoring faith in Italy's discredited political institutions as well as trying to turn Europe away from austerity to focus more on growth and investment. ... Full Story | Top |
| CA-NEWS Summary Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 11:24 AM PDT Four arrested as Bangladesh building toll rises to 352 DHAKA (Reuters) - Two factory bosses and two engineers were detained in Bangladesh on Saturday, three days after the collapse of a building where low-cost garments were made for Western brands killed at least 352 people. More were being pulled alive from the rubble at the building, where police said as many as 900 people were still missing in Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident. ... Full Story | Top |
| Four die in NATO plane crash in Afghanistan Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 11:21 AM PDT KABUL (Reuters) - Four members of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed on Saturday when their plane crashed in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said in a statement. ISAF said there was no insurgent activity in the area when the plane went down over the volatile province of Zabul. The province's police chief Rogh Lewanai told Reuters that bad weather caused the plane to crash, in the district of Shahjoi. Zabul, wedged between Kandahar and Ghazni, has seen much violence over recent weeks, including a suicide bomb attack in early April which killed a young U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt president invites judges to discuss judicial reform crisis Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 11:03 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has invited senior figures from the judiciary to discuss a crisis triggered by proposed reforms that would push out thousands of judges, state media said on Saturday. Islamist lawmakers have put forward a bill that would force out more than 3,000 judges by lowering the retirement age, causing a revolt among the judiciary and widening political divisions in the country more than two years after a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak. ... Full Story | Top |
| Comoros protests against anti-government plot, mercenary involvement Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 10:47 AM PDT  MORONI (Reuters) - Politicians and civil society groups on the coup-prone Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros on Saturday protested against an attempt to destabilize the government and warned that people linked to an infamous mercenary were at the heart of the plot. Comoros authorities said there was a conspiracy to undermine the country's rulers and last week arrested around 10 people for alleged involvement in the attempt to destabilize the government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sudan rebels attack city, push closer to capital Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 10:39 AM PDT By Khalid Abdelaziz and Ulf Laessing KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Rebels from Sudan's Darfur region launched a dawn attack on the city of Um Rawaba on Saturday, taking their fight closer to the capital Khartoum, witnesses said. The attack marks the biggest push by a rebel alliance that is seeking to topple President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Fighting had hitherto been limited mainly to remote regions of Darfur and South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, which border South Sudan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Former Madagascar president Ratsiraka to contest July election Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 10:13 AM PDT  By Alain Iloniaina ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's former president Didier Ratsiraka will contest national elections in July in a bid to become the Indian Ocean island state's leader for the third time, his supporters said on Saturday. Madagascar has been in crisis since Andry Rajoelina, now president, led an uprising that ousted former President Marc Ravalomanana from office in 2009, triggering turmoil that scared off investors and devastated the vital tourism sector. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hague judges issue sharp rebuke to Kenyatta prosecutors Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 09:59 AM PDT  By Thomas Escritt AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Judges hearing the case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at the International Criminal Court have sharply rebuked prosecutors for failing to disclose evidence that could be used in his defense, but stopped short of restarting the trial. While the reprimand will have no impact on the trial itself, it is a fresh blow to prosecutors who accuse Kenya's newly-elected president of orchestrating bloody post-election clashes five years ago in which 1,200 people died. ... Full Story | Top |
| Luxembourg's Juncker reshuffles government Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 09:53 AM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker on Saturday reshuffled his government following the resignation of his justice minister earlier this month. Juncker will take responsibility for religion in addition to his duties as prime minister, two sources in his Christian Social Party (CSV) told Reuters. Finance Minister Luc Frieden stays in office, but also gets responsibility for communications. Francois Biltgen resigned to stand for office as a judge in the Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc's highest court, which is based in Luxembourg. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea says detained American tourist to face trial Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 09:50 AM PDT  By Jane Chung SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday that a Korean-American tourist, jailed by the reclusive state since late last year, will face trial for "committing crimes" against the North. The move comes amid a diplomatic standoff between North Korea and the United States, and as Pyongyang has threatened to attack U.S. military bases in the Pacific and the South. A number of U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ten dead, dozens hurt during Mexican prison riot Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 09:31 AM PDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Ten people were killed and dozens wounded in a prison riot early Saturday in the central state of San Luis Potosi, local officials said. State police said they had re-established control in an cell block of La Pila prison in the state capital of San Luis Potosi after a fight broke out between prisoners, according to a posting on the security ministry's official social media page. Authorities were investigating the cause of the riot and it was unclear if inmates belonged to rival drug gangs, whose battles have sparked violence across Mexico. ... Full Story | Top |
| Four arrested as Bangladesh building toll rises to 352 Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 09:30 AM PDT  By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - Two factory bosses and two engineers were detained in Bangladesh on Saturday, three days after the collapse of a building where low-cost garments were made for Western brands killed at least 352 people. More were being pulled alive from the rubble at the building, where police said as many as 900 people were still missing in Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident. The owner of the eight-storey building that fell like a pack of cards around more than 3,000 mainly young women workers was still on the run. ... Full Story | Top |
| President says Libya harbors Chadian mercenaries Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 09:25 AM PDT  N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's President Idriss Deby on Saturday that Chadian mercenaries had set up a training camp in neighboring Libya from where they could seek to destabilize his country, an accusation Libyan authorities denied. Deby said during a radio interview that the mercenaries were free to roam around the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, hundreds of kilometers (miles) north of the Chadian border. "I do not want the new Libya to serve as the source of any plot to destabilize Chad," Deby said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Militants kill five Iraqi soldiers, Sunni protesters form "army" Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 09:21 AM PDT  By Kamal Naama RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Militants shot dead five Iraqi soldiers in the Sunni Muslim stronghold province of Anbar on Saturday and protesters said they were forming an "army" after four days of unrest that raised fears of a return to widespread sectarian civil conflict. More than 170 people have been killed since Tuesday when security forces stormed a Sunni protest camp in the town of Hawija, triggering clashes that spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern areas. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigerian senator says 228 killed in gunfight with Islamists Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 08:40 AM PDT  MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A gunbattle between security forces and Islamist insurgents in Nigeria a week ago killed 228 people, a local senator said on Saturday, putting the death toll six times higher than the government's estimate. A large number of civilian deaths will fuel accusations that the military acted heavy-handedly and failed to protect bystanders and might also increase pressure on the government to seek a negotiated settlement with the radical group Boko Haram. ... Full Story | Top |
| French Socialists soften tone on Merkel Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 08:17 AM PDT By Sybille de La Hamaide PARIS (Reuters) - France's ruling Socialist party will remove strongly worded criticism of German Chancellor Angela Merkel from a draft text on Europe that revealed the level of hostility Berlin's focus on austerity, its coordinator for Europe said on Sunday. Cooperation between France and Germany has long provided the main motor for decision-making in the European Union. But a debt crisis has strained those ties in the past year as ideologically opposed leaders have disagreed on points of economic policy. ... Full Story | Top |
| German SPD leader woos Greens for anti-Merkel alliance Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 07:54 AM PDT  By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) took the stage at a Greens party congress on Saturday with an unashamed pitch for them to throw in their lot with the SPD to defeat Chancellor Angela Merkel in September. It was the first time an SPD leader had addressed a Greens congress. Sigmar Gabriel, whose party would need a coalition with the rising pro-environment party to have any chance of leading the next government, delivered a passionate plea to the Greens to stop flirting with Merkel's conservatives. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine says too early to consider pardoning Tymoshenko Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 07:15 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine's presidential pardon commission said on Saturday it was too soon to consider pardoning Yulia Tymoshenko, the president's main political rival whose continuing detention is a major obstacle to improved ties with the West. The commission said that as some criminal charges against Tymoshenko were still being investigated and the courts had not yet ruled, the "issue of her pardon is premature. ... Full Story | Top |
| Palestinians' Abbas says to start talks on unity government Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 06:53 AM PDT  By Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he would begin talks with rival factions including Islamist Hamas to form a unity government, a crucial step towards healing years of damaging internal divisions. But, underscoring the chasm between Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Abbas had not consulted his group about his move and the Islamists had only heard about it in media reports. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fresh Slovenian protests amid bailout fears Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 06:37 AM PDT  By Marja Novak LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Around 2,500 anti-corruption protesters gathered in the center of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana on Saturday, the first such demonstrations since the center-left government of Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek took power on March 20. Similar protests helped bring down the previous conservative government of Janez Jansa, which lost a majority in parliament in January over a corruption scandal, although those involved crowds of up to 20,000 people. ... Full Story | Top |
| Yemen military intelligence official assassinated Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 06:35 AM PDT ADEN (Reuters) - Two suspected Islamist militants shot dead a provincial military intelligence chief in Yemen on Saturday, a security official said, the latest in a series of assassinations in the impoverished state's lawless south and east. The gunmen opened fire from a motorbike, killing Colonel Ahmed Abdulrazzaq, intelligence head in Yemen's Hadramawt Province, outside his home in Mukalla on the Arabian Sea. Stability in Yemen is seen as important beyond the country's own borders because of its location next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and international shipping routes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Erdogan hails Kurd rebel pullout as end of "dark era" for Turkey Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 06:20 AM PDT  By Ayla Jean Yackley ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday hailed the planned withdrawal of Kurdish rebel fighters from Turkey as the end of a "dark era" but warned against potential sabotage of a historic peace process. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which seeks autonomy for Turkey's Kurdish southeast, on Thursday ordered its fighters in Turkey to begin withdrawing to its main base in the mountains of northern Iraq under a carefully choreographed peace plan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iceland's center-right set to return, five years after crash Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 06:04 AM PDT  By Balazs Koranyi REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Icelanders fed up with years of belt-tightening looked set on Saturday to oust the ruling Social Democrats, wooed with pledges of tax cuts and debt relief from the center-right, which presided over a spectacular financial collapse five years ago. Leaden skies and driving sleet were a fair reflection of the mood of voters who have seen promises of a quick recovery fade, while mortgage debts rise, prices soar and crippling capital controls keep investment at a record low. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb damages police station in Libya's Benghazi, no injuries Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 05:30 AM PDT  BENGHAZI (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside a police station in the restive eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Saturday causing extensive damage to the building but no injuries. A spate of bombings and assassinations in Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been attributed to Islamic militants. "Around six o'clock this morning, an explosive device placed under one of the windows of the building exploded, causing severe damage," said station commander Colonel Matar Mohammer. He said he had no information on who carried out the attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Bangladesh still works for retailers, despite disasters Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 05:22 AM PDT  By Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Jessica Wohl (Reuters) - The factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed over 300 people this week is a stark reminder of the risks in the global retail industry's search for cheap production. But there have been few signs that safety issues and other questionable labor conditions are sending shockwaves through the major Western retailers, their shareholders or the people who buy the clothes in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iranian scientist freed by U.S. returns home: local media Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 04:54 AM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian scientist held for more than a year in California on charges of violating U.S. sanctions arrived in Iran on Saturday, Iranian media reported, after being freed in what the Omani foreign ministry said was a humanitarian gesture. Mojtaba Atarodi, 55, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Iran's Sharif University of Technology, had been detained on suspicion of buying high-tech U.S. laboratory equipment, previous Iranian media reports said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Taliban vow suicide and "insider" attacks in new spring offensive Saturday, Apr 27, 2013 02:26 AM PDT  KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban in Afghanistan vowed on Saturday to start a new campaign of mass suicide attacks on foreign military bases and diplomatic areas, as well as damaging "insider attacks", as part of a new spring offensive this year. The offensive was announced via emails from Taliban spokesmen. The Islamist group has made similar announcements in recent years, which have sometimes been followed by spikes in violence after Afghanistan's harsh winter months. ... Full Story | Top |
| "Evidence" of Syria chemical weapons use not up to U.N. standard Friday, Apr 26, 2013 04:55 PM PDT By Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Assertions of chemical weapon use in Syria by Western and Israeli officials citing photos, sporadic shelling and traces of toxins do not meet the standard of proof needed for a U.N. team of experts waiting to gather their own field evidence. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: What is the chemical weapon sarin? Friday, Apr 26, 2013 04:55 PM PDT (Reuters) - Charges that Syria has used the chemical weapon sarin have raised questions about the nerve agent, how it kills and what level of evidence it will take to prove it was used on the Syrian people. WHAT IS SARIN? Sarin is a man-made nerve gas that was originally developed as a pesticide in Germany in 1938. It is chemically similar to a class of pesticides known as organophosphates. Sarin, also known as GB, is part of a class of chemical weapons called G-series nerve agents that were developed during World War Two and were named for the German scientists who synthesized them. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama talks tough, shows no rush to act on Syria chemical arms evidence Friday, Apr 26, 2013 03:59 PM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned Syria on Friday that its use of chemical weapons would be a "game changer" for the United States but made clear he was in no rush to intervene in the Syrian civil war on the basis of evidence he said was still preliminary. Speaking a day after the disclosure of U.S. intelligence that Syria had likely used chemical weapons against its own people, Obama mixed talked tough while calling for patience as he sought to fend off pressure for a swift response against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Islamist says Egypt should press on with judge reforms Friday, Apr 26, 2013 03:56 PM PDT  By Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist-dominated parliament must move quickly to adopt judicial reforms that have sparked a revolt by judges, the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm argued on Friday. The proposed reforms, which would get rid of more than 3,000 judges by lowering the retirement age, have widened the rift between President Mohamed Mursi's government and a judiciary seen by its critics as a last bastion of the old regime that was toppled in the 2011 revolution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iceland government heads for defeat as center right revives Friday, Apr 26, 2013 03:13 PM PDT  By Balazs Koranyi REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Icelanders fed up with austerity are set to oust the ruling Social Democrats in elections on Saturday after being wooed with promises of tax cuts and debt relief from the center right that presided over the nation's financial meltdown five years ago. With promises of a quick recovery fading, voters are angered by mounting mortgage debt, rapid inflation and crippling capital controls that keep investment at a record low. ... Full Story | Top |
| Boston bombing suspect in prison, brother's body unclaimed Friday, Apr 26, 2013 02:10 PM PDT  By Scott Malone and Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - The surviving suspect in last week's Boston Marathon bombing was moved to a prison medical center outside Boston on Friday, while the body of his older brother who died in a shootout with police remained unclaimed, officials said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old ethnic Chechen charged with the bombing that killed three people and wounded 264, was moved from the hospital where he was kept under guard since he was arrested, badly wounded, a week ago, the U.S. Marshals Service said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Congress passes plan to ease flight delays Friday, Apr 26, 2013 01:43 PM PDT By Richard Cowan and Doug Palmer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Friday approved a plan to ease nationwide air-traffic delays caused by federal spending cuts, seeking to calm irritated travelers but sparking a backlash from groups still being hit by budget cuts. The Senate unanimously voted for the plan late Thursday and the House of Representatives approved it Friday by a 361-41 vote. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama intends to sign the bill. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italian government could be settled on Saturday: sources Friday, Apr 26, 2013 01:32 PM PDT  By Paolo Biondi ROME (Reuters) - Italian prime minister-designate Enrico Letta could announce a new government on Saturday and spell out its programme early next week, political sources said on Friday, while outgoing premier Mario Monti said he did not expect to be a minister. Letta, deputy leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, has been in discussions to iron out remaining differences with Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party following an initial round of talks on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama: Syrian government use of chemical weapons a "game changer" Friday, Apr 26, 2013 01:08 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday that the deployment of chemical weapons by the Syrian government was a "game changer" while noting that intelligence assessments proving that such weapons had been used were still preliminary. "Horrific as it is when mortars are being fired on civilians and people are being indiscriminately killed, to use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law," Obama told reporters at the White House. "That is going to be a game changer. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkey says chemical arms use would escalate Syria crisis Friday, Apr 26, 2013 01:08 PM PDT By Jonathon Burch ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday that any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would "take the crisis to another level", but remained cautious about any foreign military intervention in the conflict on its border. The White House said on Thursday Assad's government had probably used chemical arms on a small scale, but that President Barack Obama needed proof before he would act. "We have been hearing allegations of the use of chemical weapons for quite some time now and these new findings take things to another level. ... Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment