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| CA-NEWS Summary Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 12:29 PM PDT U.S. to send missile defenses to Guam over North Korea threat SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it from North Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called a "real and clear danger" from Pyongyang. Hours later, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea had moved what appeared to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. observers failing mandate to track Hezbollah arms: Israel Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 12:39 PM PDT  By Dan Williams TEL AVIV (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have failed to report on Hezbollah guerrilla armaments as required, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday, arguing that Israel could not rely on foreign intervention for its security. The remarks underscored the conservative strategies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as instability rocks Israel's neighbors and world powers urge it to roll back its West Bank occupation to make way for Palestinian state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy "wise man" caught deriding Berlusconi in radio stunt Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 12:29 PM PDT ROME (Reuters) - One of the "wise men" charged with finding a way out of Italy's political crisis apologized on Thursday after he made offensive remarks about centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi during a prank phone call organized by a radio show. Valerio Onida, one of the 10 experts in institutional and economic affairs set up by President Giorgio Napolitano, said Berlusconi was looking for protection from his legal problems and it would be better for Italians if he quit politics. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italian mayor challenges Bersani, wants pact or vote Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 12:29 PM PDT  By Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - Florence mayor Matteo Renzi launched a clear challenge to Italian center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani on Thursday, saying he must either agree a coalition with former premier Silvio Berlusconi or demand a new election. Bersani won a majority in the lower house but not the Senate in February's elections, leaving the center-left unable to govern alone. Last week he failed to forge a viable majority in parliament when his overtures to the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement were rebuffed. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. agents seize Bissau "drug kingpin" at sea Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 12:26 PM PDT By Richard Valdmanis and Alvaro Andrade DAKAR/PRAIA (Reuters) - Undercover U.S. agents have arrested the former navy chief of Guinea Bissau, wanted by Washington as a kingpin of the international drugs trade, in a sting operation off the coast of West Africa, two sources familiar with the operation said. Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto was detained by anti-narcotics officers along with four other people on a boat in international waters on Tuesday, the sources told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. aid agency suspends Gaza distribution over riot at HQ Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 12:13 PM PDT GAZA (Reuters) - The main U.N. humanitarian agency for Palestinians said on Thursday it was suspending operations in the Gaza Strip after demonstrators angered by aid cutbacks stormed its headquarters. Some 800,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of Gaza's population, depend on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the shuttering could exacerbate hardship caused by Israeli and Egyptian controls on the isolated enclave's borders. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU worried about Egypt's civil society proposals Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 11:56 AM PDT  By Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - The European Union's envoy to Cairo urged Egypt's Islamist-led authorities on Thursday not to rush through legislation on civil society and NGOs that could curb an embryonic democracy. Civil society was heavily restricted under Hosni Mubarak's rule, and many of those who overthrew him in 2011 are demanding guarantees of greater freedom for civic and political activity to help Egypt complete the transition to popular democracy that the Arab Spring seemed to promise. ... Full Story | Top |
| Palestinian funerals draw thousands in tense West Bank Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 11:53 AM PDT  By Noah Browning ANABTA, West Bank (Reuters) - Thousands of mourners turned out on Thursday for the funerals of three Palestinians, including two teenagers killed by Israeli army gunfire in some of the worst violence in the occupied West Bank in years. The upsurge in unrest was triggered on Tuesday by the death of Maysara Abu Hamdeya, a 64-year-old prisoner serving a life term in an Israeli jail and suffering from cancer. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lebanon's Salam emerges as likely new premier Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese politician Tammam Salam, a former minister from a prominent Sunni Muslim political dynasty, emerged as a potential new prime minister on Thursday when he was endorsed by the country's pro-Western March 14 coalition. Lebanon faces a parliamentary election in June but was plunged into uncertainty two weeks ago by the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, after a dispute over the electoral law and an extension to the term of a top security official. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish paper eyes legal fight over German neo-Nazi trial access Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 10:56 AM PDT By Alexandra Hudson BERLIN (Reuters) - A Turkish newspaper said on Thursday it would complain to Germany's highest court over media access to a trial of suspected neo-Nazis blamed for the murder of eight Turks, in a row that has embarrassed the German government. With one of Germany's most anticipated trials in years set to start on April 17, a Munich court allocated 50 guaranteed seats to media on a first-come-first-served basis, without including a single Turkish journalist. The court said reporters could queue for another 50-60 places each day. ... Full Story | Top |
| French Senate starts gay marriage debate amid protests Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 10:33 AM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - The French Senate took its first look on Thursday at President Francois Hollande's gay marriage bill, which has passed in the lower house but divided society as opponents clamored for a referendum. The bill, which gives homosexual couples the right to marry and adopt children, was designed to be Hollande's first historic social reform, on par with former Socialist President Francois Mitterrand's abolition of the death penalty in 1981. But it has divided French society, pitting Catholics and conservatives against social reformers, left-wingers and gay people. ... Full Story | Top |
| Macabre manslaughter case stokes debate on UK welfare reform Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 10:08 AM PDT  By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - By wading into the shocking case of a jobless man who killed six children in a botched revenge plot, Britain's finance minister upped the stakes in an impassioned row over whether the welfare system was affordable at a time of deep spending cuts. Thursday's surprise comments by George Osborne came just days after the government started to overhaul a welfare system that costs 200 billion pounds ($300 billion) a year and is deemed by Osborne and his Conservative party as too expensive. ... Full Story | Top |
| ECB "ready to act" to help languishing economy Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 10:03 AM PDT  By Sakari Suoninen and Eva Kuehnen FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Mario Draghi opened the door on Thursday to an interest rate cut as soon as next month, saying his bank stands "ready to act" to boost the recession-hit euro zone economy. Speaking at news conference after the ECB held rates at a record low 0.75 percent, the highest level among the world's major central banks, Draghi said discussion at the monthly meeting had been extensive and the consensus was to hold fire. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt seizes ship carrying arms, questions crew: navy Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 09:35 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian navy forces seized a ship carrying heavy weapons as it entered Egyptian territorial waters in the Red Sea late on Wednesday, a military spokesman said on Thursday. The Togolese-flagged ship, called COMR, was found 12 nautical miles north of Ras Muhammad in the Sinai Peninsula, general staff spokesman Ahmed Mohamed Ali said on his Facebook page. "Inside they found a number of weapons and quantities of ammunition of various types," Ali said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine releases Tajik ex-PM, will not extradite him: officials Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 09:34 AM PDT KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has released Tajikistan's former prime minister from detention and will not extradite him to his home country, where he has been accused of plotting an assassination and a coup, officials said on Thursday. Ukrainian authorities held Abdulmalik Abdullojonov when he flew into Kiev on February 5, saying he was wanted in Tajikistan for "very serious crimes". The United Nations last month urged Ukraine not to send Abdullojonov back home, on the grounds that the United States had already granted him refugee status. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria's humanitarian crisis worsening rapidly: Red Cross Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 09:32 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - The humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening rapidly with some areas a landscape of "devastation and destruction", the Red Cross said on Thursday after a month which activists said was the bloodiest yet in the conflict. About 70,000 people have been killed and millions displaced during the two-year-old uprising, the United Nations says. Civilians have been cut off from water, electricity and life-saving medical supplies, especially in rebel-held areas targeted by air strikes and ballistic missiles. ... Full Story | Top |
| China readies to fight new bird flu; Japan, Hong Kong on guard Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 09:17 AM PDT By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - The death toll from a new strain of bird flu rose to five in China on Thursday as Beijing said it was mobilizing resources nationwide to combat the virus, Japan and Hong Kong stepped up vigilance and Vietnam banned imports of Chinese poultry. The H7N9 bird flu strain does not appear to be transmitted from human to human but authorities in Hong Kong raised a preliminary alert and said they were taking precautions at the airport. ... Full Story | Top |
| Police question suspected French Islamists sent from Pakistan Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 08:46 AM PDT PARIS (Reuters) - Two Frenchmen held in Pakistan for months on suspicion of training as Islamist militants have been taken in for questioning by French police on their return home, French judicial and diplomatic sources said on Thursday. The men, in their thirties and from Orleans near Paris, were arrested along with two other Frenchmen in southwestern Pakistan in May last year, a judicial source told Reuters. After ten months of questioning, Pakistan released three this week and sent them to Paris, French and Pakistani diplomatic sources said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Central African Republic leader accepts regional transition road map Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 08:29 AM PDT  By Ange Aboa BANGUI (Reuters) - The rebel leader who seized power in Central African Republic and proclaimed himself president accepted on Thursday a call by regional leaders to speed up a transition to democracy, but could stay in office, his information minister said. Michel Djotodia led thousands of rebel fighters of the Seleka coalition into the riverside capital of the mineral-rich country on March 24, toppling President Francois Bozize. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Likely candidates in Brazil's 2014 presidential election Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 08:27 AM PDT By Brian Winter SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is a clear favorite to win re-election next year, but a weak economy means she could face a stiff challenge from a range of candidates, including a popular environmentalist and the scion of a local political dynasty. Here is a quick breakdown of the main likely candidates, with 18 months still to go until the vote: DILMA ROUSSEFF AGE: 65 CURRENT JOB: President VOTER SUPPORT IN MARCH POLL: 58 percent PROS: Enormously popular, thanks to Brazil's record-low unemployment and rising wages; perceived as tough on corruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt seizes ship carrying arms, holds crew: sources Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 08:23 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian navy forces seized a ship carrying heavy weapons as it entered Egyptian territorial waters in the Red Sea late on Wednesday, three security sources told Reuters on Thursday. The ship, with a crew of at least seven, spent a week in international waters before entering Egyptian waters, the sources said. They gave no details of the origin, nationality or destination of the vessel. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran's Jalili vows stronger defense of nuclear policy Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 07:57 AM PDT  By Yeganeh Torbati and Justyna Pawlak ALMATY (Reuters) - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili sounded a defiant note ahead of a new round of talks with world powers in Kazakhstan, saying on Thursday they had to recognize Iran's right to enrich uranium to see any breakthrough. The six powers - United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - will meet Iranian negotiators on Friday and Saturday in the Kazakh city of Almaty, hoping Tehran agrees to scale back its most sensitive atomic work that they suspect is aimed at achieving a nuclear weapons capability. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Syrian government guerrilla fighters being sent to Iran for training Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 07:52 AM PDT  HOMS PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - The Syrian government is sending members of its irregular militias for guerrilla combat training at a secret base in Iran, in a move to bolster its armed forces drained by two years of fighting and defections, fighters and activists said. The discreet program has been described as an open secret in some areas loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush a revolt against his family's four-decade hold on power. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Brazil's Rousseff not a slam dunk for re-election Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 07:49 AM PDT  By Brian Winter SAO PAULO (Reuters) - She's one of the world's most popular presidents with an approval rating that is the envy of her peers in richer countries struggling with debt crises and political deadlock - 79 percent and rising. She presides over a country with record-low unemployment, a can-do optimism that invites comparisons to the post-war years in the United States, and a chance to showcase its progress when it hosts the soccer World Cup next year. And yet, it's entirely possible that Dilma Rousseff could fail to win re-election as president of Brazil in October 2014. ... Full Story | Top |
| Scenarios for Italy crisis, uncertainty could drag on Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 07:38 AM PDT By Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Italy's political crisis, already a month old, could drag on for at least several more weeks and is now inextricably tied up with the vote for a successor to President Giorgio Napolitano, the man in charge of finding a solution. An election on Feb 24-25 pushed Italy into limbo with a huge protest vote for the populist 5-Star Movement splitting parliament three ways, wrecking the established bipolar system and leaving no group with enough support to rule alone. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine pro-government deputies set up rival parliament Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 07:18 AM PDT  By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - Lawmakers loyal to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich caused political uproar on Thursday when they stormed out of parliament where the opposition was blocking proceedings and set up a rival assembly in a nearby building. The deputies from the ruling Party of the Regions, which with communist allies holds a majority, moved into their new premises and began voting on laws in a move denounced by one opposition leader as a Soviet-style coup d'etat. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's Mandela improving, visited by Zuma Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 07:13 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela, 94, received a visit in hospital from current leader Jacob Zuma on Thursday, who said the anti-apartheid hero was making "continuous improvement" under treatment for pneumonia. "Madiba is stable and we are thankful that he is responding well to treatment and that he is much better," Zuma said, referring to Mandela by his clan name. Mandela has spent just over a week in hospital. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to send missile defenses to Guam over North Korea threat Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 07:12 AM PDT  By Jack Kim and Phil Stewart SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it from North Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called a "real and clear danger" from Pyongyang. Hours later, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea had moved what appeared to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast. It was not clear if the North planned to fire the rocket or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nightclub dancer "Ruby" stands up for Berlusconi outside court Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 06:41 AM PDT  By Manuela D'Alessandro MILAN (Reuters) - The nightclub dancer at the center of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's sex trial staged a dramatic protest outside the court on Thursday, alleging that she had been unfairly pressured as part of a campaign against Berlusconi. Karima El Mahroug's emotional and at times contradictory statement in defense of Berlusconi follows a protest by parliamentarians from his party outside the court last month as the media magnate tries to have the trial moved away from Milan. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea actions cut chance of nuclear talks: Russia Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 05:37 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday that North Korea's disregard for U.N. restrictions was unacceptable and that its decision to pursue a nuclear program radically limited the chances of resuming stalled six-party nuclear talks. Pyongyang formally rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution on March 9 that demanded an end to its nuclear arms program, signaling it would defy international sanctions and pursue its goal of becoming a full-fledged nuclear weapons power. "We have taken notice of the March decision ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Kurdish party denies Ocalan asked PKK rebels to leave unarmed Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 05:36 AM PDT  By Daren Butler ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party denied on Thursday media reports that jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan had told his fighters to leave the country without their weapons under a peace plan. A weapons-free withdrawal by Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), as sought by the government, would be seen as a significant step towards ending a conflict which has dragged on for three decades and killed more than 40,000 people. ... Full Story | Top |
| NATO helicopter kills four Afghan police Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 04:56 AM PDT GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Gunfire from a helicopter operated by NATO forces killed four Afghan police officers in the eastern province of Ghazni, a district police chief said on Thursday. Civilian casualties are a source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and his international allies, and the mistaken killing of members of the Afghan security forces is likely to compound Afghan government anger. The four Afghan Local Police (ALP) officers were in a village in Deyak district when the helicopter fired on them on Wednesday, said district police chief Faiz Mohammad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen attack Tripoli police station, release detainees Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 04:43 AM PDT  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Masked gunmen attacked a police station in the Libyan capital on Thursday, tying the hands of four officers on duty and releasing three detainees, security sources said. About 10 armed men forced their way into the police station in southwest Tripoli's Abu Salim neighborhood at dawn and freed three of five men in custody there, one security official said. "These were criminals. They attacked the police station firing at it with rifles," said a second security source, adding that security forces were searching for the culprits. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt expects IMF loan agreement in two weeks Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 03:10 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's planning minister said on Thursday the government expects to reach a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $4.8 billion loan within two weeks, the state news agency MENA reported. Ashraf al-Araby also said that Cairo had not requested an increase in the amount of the loan, needed to avert a deepening economic crisis. An IMF delegation resumed long-delayed negotiations with Egypt on Wednesday and government officials have said the team is expected to stay until April 15. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. sends F/A-18 warplanes to Philippine military drills Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 02:52 AM PDT  MANILA (Reuters) - Washington is this week deploying a dozen F/A-18 fighters to the Philippines, the first time it has sent so many of the aircraft there, to take part in annual military drills with a close security ally amid rising tension in the Asia-Pacific region. The presence of the warplanes is not connected to tensions on the Korean peninsula, a Philippine army spokesman said. "These exercises were planned more than a year ago, well ahead of what is now happening in the region," Major Emmanuel Garcia said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mozambique police raid opposition headquarters Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 02:49 AM PDT  MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambican police raided the headquarters of the opposition Renamo party, arresting up to 15 people and firing teargas, the opposition and local media said on Thursday, fuelling tension before next year's election. Renamo's head of security, Osufo Madate, said a bullet grazed the stomach of one party member during Wednesday's raid, which he blamed on the ruling Frelimo party. "We have had enough," Madate told Reuters. "We cannot stand by with our arms crossed while Frelimo attacks our people. We will retaliate. ... Full Story | Top |
| Desmond Tutu wins $1.7 million Templeton Prize Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 02:45 AM PDT  By Maria Golovnina LONDON (Reuters) - South African anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu has won the 2013 Templeton Prize worth $1.7 million for helping inspire people around the world by promoting forgiveness and justice, organizers said on Thursday. A leading human rights activist of the late 20th century, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town played a pivotal role in the downfall of apartheid and subsequently worked to heal wounds in South Africa's traumatized society. Tutu, 81, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for standing up against white-minority rule. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. official puts onus on Iran in upcoming nuclear talks Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 02:45 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Progress in this week's nuclear talks between Iran and six major powers depends on how Tehran responds to a proposal offered by the six in February, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. "How far we get ... depends on what the Iranians come back with in terms of a response on the substance to our proposal," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "There has been a very positive line out of Tehran on the talks so far. We hope that that positive talk will now be matched with some concrete responses and actions on the Iranian side," the official added. ... Full Story | Top |
| India's Rahul Gandhi bemuses with "beehive" speech to business leaders Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 01:43 AM PDT  By Ross Colvin and Satarupa Bhattacharjya NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and a contender for prime minister in 2014, on Thursday offered a broad vision of 21st century India in his first major speech to business leaders that critics called vague and rambling. Addressing a gathering of Indian business tycoons in New Delhi, Gandhi did not touch on any of the issues bedeviling Asia's third-largest economy such as high inflation, decelerating investment, a ballooning current account deficit and red tape that ties up infrastructure projects for years. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Koreans in North's factory zone stay despite risk, need jobs Thursday, Apr 04, 2013 01:32 AM PDT By Ju-min Park PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - Hundreds of South Koreans rejected the chance to leave factories in North Korea on Thursday that have become the center of a bitter standoff between the two countries, running the risk of becoming hostages to keep their plants going. For those whose commute to work already involved a trip across the world's most heavily fortified border and into one of its most repressive states, this week's tensions were another reminder of their precarious livelihoods. ... Full Story | Top |
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