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| CA-NEWS Summary Friday, Apr 05, 2013 12:34 PM PDT Canada posts worst monthly job losses in more than four years OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada posted its worst monthly jobs loss in more than four years in March, another sign the economy is struggling to cope with weak foreign markets and a strong Canadian dollar. Canada shed 54,500 positions in March, more than wiping out the 50,700 jobs that were added in February, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Market operators had expected a modest gain of 8,500 jobs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy pardons U.S. pilot convicted in CIA rendition case Friday, Apr 05, 2013 12:34 PM PDT  ROME (Reuters) - Italy's president on Friday pardoned a U.S. Air Force officer convicted of kidnapping an Egyptian Muslim cleric who was taken away for interrogation on a CIA "rendition" flight. Such covert flights were among the tactics used to wage the "War on Terror" under the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush, after the 9/11 attacks. They have been condemned by human rights groups as a violation of international agreements. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said he had pardoned Colonel Joseph L. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rebels say take army post near Syria's southern border Friday, Apr 05, 2013 12:22 PM PDT By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels said they overran an army garrison that defends the main southern border crossing with Jordan on Friday and vowed to press on to take control of the major transit route. Fighters from the Free Syrian Army said they captured the Um al-Mayathen post on the main Damascus-Jordan highway in heavy fighting overnight that ended a siege that lasted more than a week. Dozens died in the clashes they said. ... Full Story | Top |
| France says Mali elections feasible, urges Tuaregs to disarm Friday, Apr 05, 2013 12:18 PM PDT  By Adama Diarra BAMAKO (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Friday France would stick to plans to reduce its military presence in Mali ahead of elections in July and he called on Tuareg rebels to lay down their arms so the vote could go ahead. Visiting the Malian capital Bamako for talks with the interim government, Fabius said France would proceed with plans to cut its military presence from late April despite attacks by Islamist fighters on northern cities. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain's royal family agrees to open up to scrutiny Friday, Apr 05, 2013 11:53 AM PDT  By Elisabeth O'Leary MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's embattled royal family has agreed to open its affairs to more public scrutiny under a new transparency law intended to restore confidence in a political establishment sapped by corruption and economic crisis. Two days after King Juan Carlos's daughter was charged in an embezzlement case, a palace source told Reuters on Friday that the royal household had accepted, after weeks of talks with the government, that it should be subject to the new freedom-of-information legislation, along with other organs of the state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Putin critic who faces trial says he wants to be president Friday, Apr 05, 2013 11:40 AM PDT  By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian opposition leader said he wanted to become president and would do everything in his power to put Vladimir Putin in jail, in a defiant message days before he goes on trial on theft charges he says are politically motivated. Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption blogger who was a leader of the biggest opposition protests of Putin's 13-year rule last year, is to go on trial on April 17. The 36-year-old says the case is part of a Kremlin campaign to silence dissent. ... Full Story | Top |
| China culls birds as flu deaths mount; airline shares fall Friday, Apr 05, 2013 11:34 AM PDT  By Fayen Wong and Clare Baldwin SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at a poultry market in Shanghai on Friday as the death toll from a new strain of bird flu mounted to six, spreading concern overseas and sparking a sell-off in airline shares in Europe and Hong Kong. The local government in Shanghai said the Huhuai market for live birds had been shut down and 20,536 birds had been culled after authorities detected the H7N9 virus from samples of pigeons in the market. Other live poultry markets in the city will be closed down from Saturday, it said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran, big powers appear miles apart at nuclear talks Friday, Apr 05, 2013 11:16 AM PDT  By Yeganeh Torbati and Justyna Pawlak ALMATY (Reuters) - Iran appeared to side-step responding to proposals by world powers to defuse tensions over its nuclear program at talks in Kazakhstan on Friday, diplomats said, and instead came up with its own plan - a measure of the gulf between the two sides. The six powers - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - had sought a concrete response from Iran to their February offer of modest sanctions relief if Tehran stops its most contentious nuclear work. ... Full Story | Top |
| Colombian FARC leader Catatumbo to join peace talks: source Friday, Apr 05, 2013 11:10 AM PDT BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian FARC leader Pablo Catatumbo will join rebel negotiators already in Havana for peace talks, a security source said, in a bid to rally more support from rank and file guerrillas to end Colombia's five-decade conflict. Catatumbo, who is sought by the United States for drug trafficking, has already left Colombia for Cuba, the source, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. alarmed by North Korea crisis, but aid staff still working Friday, Apr 05, 2013 10:55 AM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is deeply alarmed at the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, though United Nations humanitarian workers remain active across North Korea for the time being, a spokesman said on Friday. "U.N. staff in the DPRK (North Korea) remain engaged in their humanitarian and developmental work throughout the country," said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky. "The secretary-general remains deeply concerned about escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula. ... Full Story | Top |
| No surprise if North Korea conducts new missile test: White House Friday, Apr 05, 2013 10:53 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would not be surprised if North Korea were to conduct a new missile test, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Friday. Asked about indications that North Korea might be preparing to launch a test missile amid rising tensions in the region, Carney said White House officials had seen the reports. "We would not be surprised to see them take such an action," Carney said. "We have seen them launch missiles in the past." (Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; Editing by Will Dunham) Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian Sunnis protest against warming Egypt-Iran ties Friday, Apr 05, 2013 10:40 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Hardline Sunni Islamists tried to break into a senior Iranian diplomat's residence in Cairo on Friday in protest at warming ties with Tehran after a 30-year estrangement, but were repelled by Egyptian police, a Reuters witness said. About 100 members of two purist Salafist groups demonstrated against Egypt's recent steps to improve relations with Iran, which were cut off after the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hezbollah bloc, rivals back Salam for Lebanon premier Friday, Apr 05, 2013 10:35 AM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah, its allies and pro-Western rivals on Friday backed Sunni politician Tammam Salam to be Lebanon's new prime minister, handing him an overwhelming parliamentary endorsement to form a government. Salam was endorsed by more than 80 of 128 members of parliament in the first day of talks held by President Michel Suleiman to nominate a successor to Najib Mikati. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian laws, arrests worry liberals and the West Friday, Apr 05, 2013 10:16 AM PDT  By Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab Spring was supposed to bring freedom to Egypt. Instead, concern is growing inside and outside the country that an illiberal wind is blowing the transition from autocracy off course. Arrest warrants issued by the prosecutor general against activists and a comedian accused of insulting President Mohamed Mursi have hardened opposition fears of a crackdown on dissent by the Muslim Brotherhood-led authorities. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. rights chief calls for closure of Guantanamo prison Friday, Apr 05, 2013 09:44 AM PDT  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief called on the United States on Friday to close down the Guantanamo prison camp, saying the indefinite imprisonment of many detainees without charge or trial violated international law. Navi Pillay said the hunger strike being staged by some inmates at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in southeastern Cuba was a "desperate act" but "scarcely surprising". ... Full Story | Top |
| One adult dead in Canada daycare shooting, police say Friday, Apr 05, 2013 09:28 AM PDT GATINEAU, Quebec (Reuters) - A shooting at a daycare center near Ottawa on Friday left one adult, presumed to be the gunman, dead, but all 53 children at the center - including five babies - were unharmed. Police spokesman Jean-Paul Lemay said one person died at the scene in Gatineau, Quebec, just across the Ottawa River from the Canadian capital. Lemay would not immediately confirm the identity of the dead person but made it clear that the children were safe. "There is no reason to worry for now," he told reporters. "None of the kids have been injured. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea asks embassies to consider moving diplomats out Friday, Apr 05, 2013 09:03 AM PDT By Guy Faulconbridge and Ronald Popeski LONDON/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has asked embassies to consider moving staff out and warned it cannot guarantee the safety of diplomats after April 10, Britain said, amid high tension and a war of words on the Korean peninsula. The requests come on the heels of declarations by the government of the secretive communist state that real conflict is inevitable, because of what it terms "hostile" U.S. troop exercises with South Korea and U.N. sanctions imposed over North Korea's nuclear weapons testing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fidel Castro advises friend North Korea against war Friday, Apr 05, 2013 09:02 AM PDT  By Jeff Franks HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro warned ally North Korea against war on Friday and described the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula as one of the "gravest risks" for nuclear holocaust since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Saying he spoke as a friend, Castro wrote in Cuban state media that North Korea, led by 30-year-old Kim Jong-un, had shown the world its technical prowess and now it was time to remember its duties to others. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iraq PM softens tone on Turkey, says rapprochement welcome Friday, Apr 05, 2013 08:41 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday he would welcome rapprochement with Turkey, softening months of hostile rhetoric fuelled by Ankara's engagement with Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. Resource-hungry Turkey has antagonized Baghdad by courting Iraqi Kurds, who are at loggerheads with the central government over how to exploit the country's oil reserves and share the revenues. Ankara and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have been negotiating an energy deal ranging from exploration to export since last year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Canada posts worst monthly job losses in more than four years Friday, Apr 05, 2013 08:22 AM PDT  By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada posted its worst monthly jobs loss in more than four years in March, another sign the economy is struggling to cope with weak foreign markets and a strong Canadian dollar. Canada shed 54,500 positions in March, more than wiping out the 50,700 jobs that were added in February, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Market operators had expected a modest gain of 8,500 jobs. It was the biggest monthly jobs loss since February 2009, when the economy shed 69,300 positions. The March unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent from 7.0 percent. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fukushima nuclear cooling system restored after outage Friday, Apr 05, 2013 08:21 AM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - The operator of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said on Friday it lost the ability to cool radioactive fuel rods in one of the plant's crippled reactors for about three hours earlier in the day. It was the second failure of the system to circulate seawater to cool spent fuel rods at the plant in the past three weeks. Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it was alerted by an alarm that the cooling system for the No. 3 reactor had shut down at around 2:27 p.m. (0527 GMT) after a power board failed. Technicians fixed the problem by about 5:20 p.m., the utility ... Full Story | Top |
| Mumbai building crumbles "like pack of cards," killing 39 Friday, Apr 05, 2013 08:06 AM PDT  MUMBAI (Reuters) - At least 39 people were killed and dozens injured after an illegal, half-constructed building collapsed in seconds "like a pack of cards" on the outskirts of India's financial center Mumbai, officials and witnesses said. Rescue workers using cranes and bulldozers searched for survivors in the wreck of steel and concrete on Friday after the seven-storey building crumbled on Thursday night. Residents said laborers paying rent of around $5 a day had lived in it. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimbabwe investigates judge who ordered release of rights lawyer Friday, Apr 05, 2013 07:45 AM PDT  By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean judge who ordered police to free prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa last month is being investigated for misconduct, state media reported on Friday. High Court Judge Charles Hungwe had also granted the country's anti-corruption commission a warrant to search the offices of three ministers from President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party in March. Opponents of ZANU-PF criticized the investigation into Hungwe as an attack on the independence of the judiciary. ... Full Story | Top |
| Political newcomer leads race ahead of Paraguay presidential vote Friday, Apr 05, 2013 07:42 AM PDT  ASUNCION (Reuters) - Political newcomer Horacio Cartes led the latest opinion poll ahead of Paraguay's April 21 presidential election, in which he hopes to bring the business-friendly Colorado Party back to power after four years on the sidelines. Cartes, a 56-year-old millionaire, got 37.6 percent support versus 31.7 percent garnered by 50-year-old lawyer Efrain Alegre of the ruling Liberal Party, according to the survey of 1,846 voters by polling firm First Analysis and Research. ... Full Story | Top |
| French minister visits Mali amid doubts over withdrawal Friday, Apr 05, 2013 07:40 AM PDT  By Adama Diarra BAMAKO (Reuters) - France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius laid out plans to start withdrawing French troops from Mali before elections in July on a visit to the West African nation on Friday, despite a recent spate of attacks by Islamist rebels. France intervened dramatically in January against Islamist rebels controlling Mali's north, saying they were a threat to Western security. Paris plans to halve its troop presence to 2,000 by July and is pressing its former colony to quickly hold elections to complete a democratic transition after a 2012 coup. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pope Francis urges decisive action against sex abuse Friday, Apr 05, 2013 07:30 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis wants the Catholic Church to "act decisively" to root out sexual abuse of children by priests and ensure the perpetrators are punished, the Vatican said on Friday. Francis, in a meeting with the Holy See's doctrinal chief, Archbishop Gerhard Mueller, had declared that combating sexual abuse was important "for the Church and its credibility", a statement said. Francis inherited a Church mired in problems and a major scandal over priestly abuse of children. ... Full Story | Top |
| Palestinians simmer with anger ahead of Kerry visit Friday, Apr 05, 2013 07:30 AM PDT  By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Islamist group Hamas on Friday urged a United Nations agency to resume its operations in the Gaza Strip, accusing the world body of over-reacting by shutting down after its headquarters was stormed by demonstrators. The main U.N. humanitarian agency for Palestinians closed all its offices in Gaza on Thursday after protesters stormed its headquarters to demand it reverse a decision to cut an annual $40 handout to the poorest Gazans. ... Full Story | Top |
| Merkel rival stands by Hollande in rejecting austerity Friday, Apr 05, 2013 07:13 AM PDT  By Mark John PARIS (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's Social Democrat (SPD) rival in this year's election accused the German leader during a visit to France on Friday of dragging Europe's southern economies into a vicious circle of ruin by insisting on fiscal austerity. The accusation by Peer Steinbrueck, made after talks with French President Francois Hollande, echoed France's campaign for a re-balancing of euro zone policy to allow more leniency on budget deficits and promote more growth. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: After Cyprus, is Slovenia next euro zone domino? Friday, Apr 05, 2013 06:52 AM PDT  By Marja Novak LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Successive Slovenian governments have refused to privatize the country's banks, which made disastrous loans to politically connected business interests and now threaten to drag the country center stage in the euro zone debt crisis. A span of unfinished apartment blocks in the Siska complex on the outskirts of Ljubljana is emblematic of the former Yugoslav republic's woes, just as many such ghost neighborhoods in Europe's debt-choked south stand testament to the depth of the broader continent's economic problems. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chavez shrine draws crowds of pilgrims a month after his death Friday, Apr 05, 2013 06:47 AM PDT  By Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS (Reuters) - Visitors tip-toe round a marble sarcophagus holding Hugo Chavez's remains. Supporters sob as his voice booms from speakers. Foreign tourists photograph displays of his life from precocious rural schoolboy to radical president. An army barracks on a Caracas hilltop has been transformed into a shrine and museum for the late president whose death a month ago shook Venezuela. Even after death, Chavez continues to dominate politics, with presidential elections to be held on April 14 cast as a battle to continue or break with "Chavismo" socialism. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S., partners secure 149 pounds of bomb-grade uranium from Czech Republic Friday, Apr 05, 2013 06:44 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies have secured 68 kilograms (149.91 pounds) of highly enriched uranium from the Czech Republic as part of an effort to keep nuclear materials from falling into the hands of extremists, the White House said on Friday. The uranium, enough material for two nuclear weapons, was transported to Russia where it will be blended down into low-enriched uranium for nuclear power reactors, according to a statement from Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S., Japan agree on plan to hand back Okinawa base Friday, Apr 05, 2013 06:41 AM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States and Japan announced on Friday an agreement for the return to Japan of a U.S. air base, taking a step to resolving an issue that has vexed ties when both countries face a belligerent North Korea and a rising China. The U.S. Marines' Futenma air base on Okinawa island will be returned to Japan as early as 2022 if a planned relocation within the island is carried out. By unveiling the deal, which includes time frames for the return of all or part of five other U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| As Koreas face off, risk of accidental war grows Friday, Apr 05, 2013 06:34 AM PDT By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - At the North Korean embassy in London, they are answering the phone but saying little. "As far as we know, we are not giving any statements," a North Korean official told Reuters, declining to give his name and saying all necessary information was already available on the website of the North Korean state news agency KCNA. In fact, the world, well beyond Asia, is perplexed by the mysteries of the nuclear-capable state's bellicosity and many fear mutual ignorance could help turn words into acts of war. ... Full Story | Top |
| Musharraf barred from one Pakistani election constituency Friday, Apr 05, 2013 06:12 AM PDT  By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's election board barred on Friday former President Pervez Musharraf from contesting polls in one constituency and the Supreme Court agreed to look into a treason complaint against him, hurting his efforts to win back influence. The former army chief returned last month after nearly four years of self-imposed exile to contest a May 11 general election despite the possibility of arrest on various charges and death threats from the Pakistani Taliban. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran road crash kills Afghan refugees and fuel smugglers Friday, Apr 05, 2013 05:50 AM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - A truck smuggling fuel smashed into a car carrying illegal refugees on Friday in southeastern Iran, killing 15 Afghan citizens and three Iranians, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Local official Mohammad Sadeq Dadollahpour said the Afghans had been crammed into the car and were killed when the two vehicles caught fire after the crash. The Iranians had been travelling in the truck, Fars reported. Fars said the accident happened near the town of Rigan in the southeastern province of Kerman. ... Full Story | Top |
| "We are broke," U.N. says as Syria refugee funds dry up Friday, Apr 05, 2013 05:02 AM PDT  By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations gave its starkest warning yet on Friday that it would soon run out of cash to cope with the vast influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan and other neighboring countries. "The needs are rising exponentially, and we are broke," Marixie Mercado, spokeswoman for the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF, told a U.N. news conference in Geneva. The number of people fleeing in the world's worst refugee crisis has repeatedly outrun the U.N.'s expectations. The 1. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian court brushes aside lawyer's protest in posthumous trial Friday, Apr 05, 2013 04:47 AM PDT  By Maria Tsvetkova MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian judge said on Friday the posthumous trial of whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky would continue despite a protest from a court-appointed defense lawyer who argued the state had no right to try a dead man without his relatives' consent. Judge Igor Alisov's decision appeared to underscore Russia's determination to press ahead with a trial that has caused an outcry among rights groups and added to Western concerns about human rights and the rule of law under President Vladimir Putin. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea tells embassies to consider evacuating: Xinhua Friday, Apr 05, 2013 04:36 AM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea has told foreign embassies to consider the possibility of evacuating if tensions flare, China's official Xinhua news agency cited diplomatic sources as saying on Friday. The agency did not elaborate in its brief report. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editingby Robert Birsel) Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Africa's rise pays out dividends for democracy Friday, Apr 05, 2013 04:36 AM PDT  By Pascal Fletcher JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Africa is rising not only on the growth charts of economists. The continent that was a byword for poverty, chaos and bloodshed only a few decades ago, providing a media feast of famines and wars, is slowly but steadily notching up gains on the democracy scorecard too. Last month's generally peaceful Kenyan presidential election - and the Supreme Court process that confirmed Uhuru Kenyatta's narrow win - confounded pundits' predictions that East Africa's biggest economy would tumble back into the same inter-tribal violence which bloodied a 2007 vote. ... Full Story | Top |
| Vietnam farmer jailed for military-style defense of land Friday, Apr 05, 2013 04:28 AM PDT  HANOI (Reuters) - A fish farmer who became a cult hero in Vietnam after fighting off an illegal eviction with homemade guns and mines was jailed on Friday for five years for attempted murder in a case that has stirred public anger over state-backed land grabs. Doan Van Vuon, plus two of his brothers and one nephew, were given jail terms of between two and five years for injuring seven police and soldiers in northern Haiphong last January, state media reported. Two of their wives received suspended sentences of 15-18 months for resisting officials. ... Full Story | Top |
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