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| CA-NEWS Summary Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 12:35 PM PDT North Korea warns foreigners to leave South amid new threats of war SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea intensified threats of an imminent conflict against the United States and the South on Tuesday, warning foreigners to evacuate South Korea to avoid being dragged into "thermonuclear war". The North's latest message belied an atmosphere free of anxiety in the South Korean capital, where the city center was bustling with traffic and offices operated normally. ... Full Story | Top |
| Days before Venezuela vote, Maduro vows wage hikes Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 12:34 PM PDT  By Mario Naranjo CARACAS (Reuters) - Acting President Nicolas Maduro promised on Tuesday to hike Venezuela's minimum wage by about 40 percent if he is elected in a weekend vote to replace late socialist leader Hugo Chavez. His opponent Henrique Capriles has vowed a similar salary rise as both men adopt some Chavez-style populism on the campaign trail ahead of Sunday's vote. Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver named by Chavez as his heir, is leading opinion polls. But Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, is predicting a late surge to tip it for him. ... Full Story | Top |
| Armenian opposition cries foul as president is re-installed Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 12:31 PM PDT  By Hasmik Mkrtchyan YEREVAN (Reuters) - Thousands of Armenians protested in Yerevan on Tuesday against the inauguration of President Serzh Sarksyan for a second term, saying that his re-election had been fixed. Across town, Sarksyan said in his inauguration speech that developing the economy, ensuring the rule of law and deepening democracy were his top priorities, along with the peaceful resolution of a long-standing territorial dispute with Azerbaijan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Colombians march in polarizing bid to make peace with FARC Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 12:27 PM PDT  By Helen Murphy BOGOTA (Reuters) - Waving balloons and dressed in white, tens of thousands of Colombians marched in Bogota and across the nation on Tuesday in a polarizing gathering for peace that critics slam as a show of support for Marxist FARC rebels. Throngs of people chanting "We want peace" advanced toward the capital's main square, Plaza Bolivar, a few blocks from where former presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was assassinated on April 9, 65 years ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy's Bersani meets Berlusconi to seek end to impasse Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 11:54 AM PDT  By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Italian center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani met his center-right rival Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday to discuss the election for the next president of the Republic, offering hope of a breakthrough in the deadlock left by elections in February. "It was a good meeting but we're at the beginning," Enrico Letta, deputy leader of Bersani's Democratic Party (PD), told reporters in parliament. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sudan's army says kills 15 rebels, retakes part of South Darfur Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 11:50 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudanese forces retook a southern part of the country's Darfur region after clashing with insurgents, killing 15, a military spokesman said on Tuesday, while rebels claimed victory in fighting in northern Darfur. Spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khalid Saad said the army had repulsed an attack by rebels loyal to veteran fighter Minni Minawi on the Dubu area in South Darfur state, and the state news agency SUNA said government forces had reasserted control over the area. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: North Korea tests Obama's "strategic patience" Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 11:46 AM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick and Anna Yukhananov WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea's next act of defiance could be a critical test of whether President Barack Obama's "strategic patience," his long-standing policy toward the nuclear renegade state, is beginning to run out. With North Korea considered likely to cap its barrage of bellicose threats with a military provocation in coming days, the United States has drawn up new security plans with ally South Korea and increased pressure on China to do more to rein in Pyongyang, U.S. officials said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Quake hits near Iran's nuclear city Bushehr, 32 dead Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 11:11 AM PDT  By Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck close to Iran's only nuclear power station on Tuesday, killing 32 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two small villages, Iranian media reported. The 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built it. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian opposition group accuses rebel unit of torture Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 11:09 AM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Tuesday accused a rebel battalion of torturing civilians and extorting money from them in Syria's northern city of Aleppo. Torture, kidnapping and summary killings have become a daily aspect of Syria's uprising-turned-civil war. ... Full Story | Top |
| Libyan parliament criminalizes torture and kidnapping Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 11:07 AM PDT  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's national assembly approved a law criminalizing torture and abductions on Tuesday as the government seeks to stamp its authority on a country awash with weapons where militias often have more power on the ground than state security forces. Since the end of the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's new rulers have struggled to control a myriad of former rebel groups who refuse to lay down their arms and often take the law into their own hands and detain people. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy's 5-Star is growing threat to F-35 purchase Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 10:58 AM PDT By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Italy's 5-Star Movement, led by comic Beppe Grillo, wants to scrap the country's planned purchase of 90 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets and use the savings to help boost the struggling economy, a lawmaker told Reuters on Tuesday. Italy has been unable to seat a government since the February national election that left no single force with a working majority in parliament, but 5-Star wants to form parliamentary committees so laws can be made without one. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy center-right says president must be able to unite country Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 10:58 AM PDT ROME (Reuters) - Italy's next head of state must be able to unite the country and be acceptable to all political parties, a top official from Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition said on Tuesday. "The president must represent national unity and therefore cannot be, or even appear to be, hostile to a significant part of the Italian people," Angelino Alfano, the national secretary of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bersani-Berlusconi meeting was "good"-centre-left official Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 10:58 AM PDT ROME (Reuters) - A meeting between center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani and his center-right rival Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday to discuss how to break Italy's political deadlock went well but much more progress is needed, a center-left official said. "It was a good meeting but it is just the beginning," Enrico Letta, deputy leader of Bersani's Democratic Party told reporters on his way to a news conference. Bersani won a lower house majority in February elections but fell short of the Senate majority which would have allowed him to govern. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. warns of risk of Mali war spillover in Western Sahara Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 10:26 AM PDT By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The conflict in Mali threatens to spill over into the disputed territory of Western Sahara, with the possibility of infiltration by foreign militant groups, the U.N. chief warned in a report. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called for "sustained" independent human rights monitoring for Western Sahara, something Morocco opposes but human rights groups and the Polisario Front independence movement have long advocated. ... Full Story | Top |
| France's lower house passes labor bill amid protests Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 10:16 AM PDT  By Nicholas Vinocur and Emile Picy PARIS (Reuters) - France's lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday to pass a draft law overhauling the labor system despite widespread union protests against the bill, opening the way for a debate in the Senate later this month. The vote came as Socialist President Francois Hollande spent the last week fending off accusations of a cover-up after his former budget minister admitted lying about a secret foreign bank account at a time when the government is already struggling to reverse a rise in unemployment and meet its economic targets. ... Full Story | Top |
| Quake caused no reactor damage, Iran tells IAEA Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 10:01 AM PDT VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has told the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency that an earthquake that struck close to the country's only nuclear plant on Tuesday did not damage the facility, the IAEA said. The Vienna-based U.N. body said the quake - which Iranian media said killed 30 people as it devastated small villages - hit about 91 km (56 miles) from the Bushehr nuclear power plant. "Iran has informed (the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre) of the event, reporting that there has been no damage to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and no radioactive release from the installation," the U. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan ambush kills five U.N. peacekeepers, seven civilians Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 09:59 AM PDT By Andrew Green JUBA (Reuters) - Five U.N. peacekeepers and seven civilians working for the U.N. mission in South Sudan were killed in an ambush by unidentified attackers in the restive eastern state of Jonglei on Tuesday, the United Nations said. "At least nine additional peacekeepers and civilians were injured in the attack and some remain unaccounted for," the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement. India's foreign ministry said the peacekeepers killed were Indian. ... Full Story | Top |
| Global cost of Somali piracy down as higher security deters attacks Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 09:55 AM PDT  By Peter Apps LONDON, April 9 - The cost of Somali piracy to the global economy has declined by 12.5 percent since 2011 as attacks fell sharply, a survey showed on Tuesday, but the cost of armed guards to protect ships soared. The annual report by the Oceans Beyond Piracy advocacy group estimated the cost of piracy at $5.7-6.1 billion in 2012. For much of the last decade, young Somalis in sometimes tiny boats have wreaked havoc among Indian Ocean shipping, seizing vessels and sailing them to pirate havens where they remain until millions are paid in ransoms. ... Full Story | Top |
| Scores killed in Pakistan army clash with militants Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 09:40 AM PDT PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Twenty-three Pakistani soldiers and 110 militants have been killed in fierce fighting in a strategic area of northwest Pakistan, a military official said on Tuesday. The army, backed by fighter planes and helicopter gunships, launched an operation against the Taliban and its allies in the remote Tirah Valley four days ago and fighting was still raging on Tuesday. "In four days of fighting, 110 militants and 23 Pakistan army soldiers have been killed and dozens of militants injured," a senior military official told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian vote watchdog among thousands of NGOs facing fines, closure Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 09:07 AM PDT By Alissa de Carbonnel MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian's main independent election watchdog and thousands of other non-governmental groups face fines or closure, the justice ministry said on Tuesday, in what activists call a campaign to silence criticism of President Vladimir Putin by rights groups. He has dismissed criticism of a recent wave of inspections of non-governmental organizations that have caused concern in the West. Putin has described the checks as "routine measures... to bring the activities of organizations in line with the law". ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia says G8 nations reject "bellicose" North Korea Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 08:59 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday the G8 was in agreement in rejecting North Korea's recent provocative behavior and urged all sides to pursue diplomacy to calm the increasingly tense situation in northeast Asia. Speaking before a regularly scheduled meeting of Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers later this week in London, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Russia shared its partners' concerns about North Korea. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry promises steps to help Palestinian economy Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 08:56 AM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he had agreed to work with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to boost economic growth in the occupied West Bank as he seeks ways to revive Middle East peace talks. Speaking after a three-day visit to the region, during which he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Kerry told reporters he would provide full details of the economic plans next week. "We agreed among us ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Man shoots dead 13 relatives and neighbors in Serb village Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 08:55 AM PDT  By Fedja Grulovic VELIKA IVANCA, Serbia (Reuters) - A veteran of the 1990s Balkan wars shot dead 13 people, including his mother, son and a two-year-old child in a dawn rampage through a small village in central Serbia on Tuesday, authorities said. The man, identified by police as Ljubisa Bogdanovic, also shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. Both were in critical condition in hospital, police said. "Most of the victims were shot in the head as they slept," police chief Milorad Veljovic told reporters at the scene in Velika Ivanca, about 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Belgrade. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi al Qaeda wing merges with Syrian counterpart Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 08:28 AM PDT By Sami Aboudi DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq's al Qaeda wing has united with a kindred Syrian group in the frontline of a struggle to oust President Bashar al-Assad, sharpening a dilemma for nations that back the revolt, but fear rising Islamist militancy. The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said his group had trained and funded fighters from Syria's al-Nusra Front - which is blacklisted by the United States - since the early days of the two-year-old uprising. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. may cut food aid to Syrian refugees due to cash shortage Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 08:22 AM PDT By Dominic Evans and Tom Miles BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Tuesday it will halt food aid to 400,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon next month unless it receives urgent new funding. The cash shortage is part of a wider financial shortfall that the organization says is threatening its efforts to help nearly 1.3 million Syrian refugees and almost 4 million more people displaced inside Syria by the two-year conflict. ... Full Story | Top |
| Deal with Serbia still possible before EU ruling: Kosovo Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:52 AM PDT  By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo on Tuesday raised the prospect of another push for a deal with Serbia to tackle the ethnic partition of the former Serbian province, with Belgrade's hopes of starting European Union accession talks hanging in the balance. Serbia on Monday rejected the principles of an accord that emerged from six months of EU-mediated negotiations, saying they fell short of the broad autonomy it seeks for a small Serb pocket of majority-Albanian Kosovo. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian firm says nuclear plant unaffected by Iran quake: RIA Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:49 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake in Iran was felt at the Bushehr nuclear power plant but did not affect its operations, an official with the Russian company that built the plant was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA on Tuesday. "The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor, personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm," RIA quoted an official at Atomstroyexport as saying. (Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Gabriela Baczynska) Full Story | Top |
| NATO chief to visit South Korea, Japan Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:46 AM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will travel to South Korea this week, the alliance said on Tuesday, at a time when North Korea has intensified threats of an imminent conflict against the United States and the South. A NATO official said Rasmussen's April 11-13 visit to South Korea, which will be followed by a trip to Japan, was long scheduled and not linked to the situation in North Korea. (Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Justyna Pawlak and Jon Hemming) Full Story | Top |
| Kenya swears in president, West faces balancing act Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:45 AM PDT  By Duncan Miriri and Edmund Blair NAIROBI (Reuters) - Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in as Kenyan president on Tuesday, presenting Western states with the challenge of how to deal with a leader indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Cheered by tens of thousands of people at the ceremony, Uganda's president praised Kenyans for rejecting what he called the court's bid to sway the vote by "blackmail", a reflection of the distrust or resentment of the court felt by many Africans. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan ambush kills 5 U.N. peacekeepers, 7 civilians Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:43 AM PDT JUBA (Reuters) - Five U.N. peacekeepers and seven civilians working for the U.N. mission in South Sudan were killed in an ambush by unidentified attackers in the restive eastern state of Jonglei on Tuesday, the United Nations said. "At least nine additional peacekeepers and civilians were injured in the attack and some remain unaccounted for," the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement. India's foreign ministry said the peacekeepers killed were Indian. The nationalities of the civilians killed were not immediately available. The soldiers were escorting a U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| France starts troop pullout from Mali after anti-Islamist offensive Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:42 AM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - France has started withdrawing its troops from Mali after an operation to help local forces push back an offensive by Islamist rebels, an army spokesman said on Tuesday. Paris aims to complete the withdrawal of 3,000 soldiers this year and will keep a permanent 1,000-strong combat force in the former colony to support a U.N. peacekeeping mission of African forces. ... Full Story | Top |
| "Iron Lady" Thatcher mourned, but opponents celebrate Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:38 AM PDT  By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) - Admirers of Margaret Thatcher on Tuesday mourned the "Iron Lady" who as Britain's longest serving prime minister in over a century pitched free-market capitalism as the only medicine for her country's crippled economy and the crumbling Soviet bloc. World leaders past and present, from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to U.S. President Barack Obama, led tributes to the grocer's daughter who sought to arrest Britain's decline and helped Ronald Reagan broker an end to the Cold War. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iraq inspects Iranian jet en route to Syria, second this week Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:33 AM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq inspected a Syrian-bound Iranian plane on Tuesday, but found only civilian goods onboard during the second such search this week which came after Washington urged Baghdad to stop weapons reaching Tehran's ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Iran's support for Assad is politically delicate for Iraq, which balances its own close ties to Tehran against its relations with Washington and Sunni Muslim Arab Gulf neighbors who are opposed to the Syrian leader. "Another Iranian plane was searched this morning. It was coming from Tehran on its way to Damascus. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria's Jihadists face test of government in eastern city Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 07:33 AM PDT  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - A month after they pulled down a statue of President Bashar al-Assad's once feared father, people in a city in eastern Syria are living under a Jihadist regime that could be a taste of what is in store for the country if Assad himself is overthrown. Hardline Islamist brigades patrol streets abandoned by police. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran announces uranium mining after nuclear talks fail Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 06:45 AM PDT  By Yeganeh Torbati and Fredrik Dahl DUBAI/VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday operations had begun at two uranium mines and a milling plant and that Western opposition would not slow its nuclear work, days after talks with world powers made no breakthrough. Marking its annual National Nuclear Technology Day, Iran also said it would continue to need higher-grade enriched uranium - the part of its atomic activity that most worries the West - to fuel additional research reactors it plans to build. ... Full Story | Top |
| Afghanistan helicopter crash kills two Americans Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 06:33 AM PDT KABUL (Reuters) - A helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan killed two American members of the NATO-led force on Tuesday, spokesmen said. There were no reports of enemy activity in the area, said Captain Dan Einert, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. U.S. military spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins said both the dead were from the United States. The helicopter went down in Pachir Agam district of Nangarhar province, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor's office. No other details were immediately available. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea warns foreigners to leave South amid new threats of war Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 06:07 AM PDT By Christine Kim and Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea intensified threats of an imminent conflict against the United States and the South on Tuesday, warning foreigners to evacuate South Korea to avoid being dragged into "thermonuclear war". The North's latest message belied an atmosphere free of anxiety in the South Korean capital, where the city center was bustling with traffic and offices operated normally. Pyongyang has shown no sign of preparing its 1. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Ukraine president flexes but will resist EU over jailed rival Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 05:56 AM PDT  By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - Despite winning rare praise from the West for freeing an opponent from jail, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich is likely to resist extra pressure and the lure of trade deals to release his fiercest rival, ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Though he has pardoned former interior minister Yuri Lutsenko, a Tymoshenko ally, that will not be enough to satisfy European Union demands for democratic reform and clinch association and free-trade agreements with the 27-member bloc in November, at a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: A look at Al Qaeda in Iraq Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 05:54 AM PDT (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's wing, Islamic State of Iraq, has formally declared its links with the militant al-Nusra Front, at the forefront of Syria's rebellion, saying the two would now operate under one name, according to a U.S.-based monitoring group. Al Qaeda in Iraq, or Islamic State of Iraq as the group is also known, is one of several Sunni Islamist insurgent groups still active since the withdrawal of the last American troops more than a year ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenyatta says Kenya will meet international obligations Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013 05:42 AM PDT NAIROBI (Reuters) - President Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces international charges of crimes against humanity, said on Tuesday that Kenya under his leadership would work to uphold its international obligations, speaking after taking his oath of office. In remarks likely to reassure Western powers that have urged Kenyatta to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, he said: "I assure you again that under my leadership, Kenya will strive to uphold our international obligations, so long as these are founded on the well-established principles of mutual respect and reciprocity. ... Full Story | Top |
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