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| CA-NEWS Summary Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:26 PM PDT Three men charged with undermining Boston bombing probe BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Wednesday charged three men with interfering with the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing, accusing two students from Kazakhstan of hiding a laptop computer and backpack belonging to one of the suspected bombers. The third man, a U.S. citizen named Robel Phillipos, was charged with making false statements to investigators. ... Full Story | Top |
| Three men charged with undermining Boston bombing probe Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:26 PM PDT  By Scott Malone, Tim McLaughlin and Mark Hosenball BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Wednesday charged three men with interfering with the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing, accusing two students from Kazakhstan of hiding a laptop computer and backpack belonging to one of the suspected bombers. The third man, a U.S. citizen named Robel Phillipos, was charged with making false statements to investigators. The three were described as friends of surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuelans hold rival May Day marches as vote dispute drags on Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:17 PM PDT By Diego Ore and Girish Gupta CARACAS (Reuters) - Opposition and government supporters flooded Venezuelan streets in rival May Day marches on Wednesday as a continuing dispute over the results of last month's presidential vote kept political tensions high in the OPEC nation. On Tuesday, opposition deputies were beaten in a fracas in Congress resulting from their refusal to recognize the presidency of Nicolas Maduro, who narrowly won the April 14 election triggered by the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pope condemns Bangladesh working conditions as "slave labor" Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:14 PM PDT By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned the conditions of workers who died in the Bangladesh factory collapse as "slave labor," saying unjust salaries and the unbridled quest for profits were "against God". His words were his toughest yet on workers' rights since his election on March 13, and another indication that the former archbishop of Buenos Aires was intent on making social justice a major plank of his pontificate. "Living on 38 euros ($50) a month - that was the pay of these people who died. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU considers trade action after Bangladesh factory collapse Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:11 PM PDT  By Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - The European Union is considering trade action against Bangladesh, which has preferential access to EU markets for its garments, to pressure Dhaka to improve safety standards after a building collapse killed more than 400 factory workers. Duty-free access offered by Western countries and low wages have helped turn Bangladesh's garment exports into a $19 billion a year industry, with 60 percent of clothes going to Europe. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkey investigates use of chemical weapons in Syria Wednesday, May 01, 2013 11:16 AM PDT  By Ece Toksabay REYHANLI, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey is testing blood samples taken from Syrian casualties brought over the border from fighting in recent days to determine whether they were victims of a chemical weapons attack, local government and health officials said on Wednesday. The samples were sent to Turkey's forensic medicine institute after several Syrians with breathing difficulties were brought to a Turkish hospital on Monday in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province along the Syrian border. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cracks in Mexican political pact threaten president's reforms Wednesday, May 01, 2013 11:08 AM PDT  By Dave Graham MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The fanfare accompanying Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's first months in office is increasingly being drowned out by discord in Congress that could undo his plans to raise more tax revenue and open up state oil giant Pemex to outside investment. A pact that Pena Nieto painstakingly built with opposition leaders to strengthen his hand in Congress risks falling apart over accusations his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has been using dirty tricks to buy votes in the first major round of state elections since July's presidential ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria pledges justice as pressure over killings grows Wednesday, May 01, 2013 10:58 AM PDT By Ibrahim Mshelizza BAGA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan promised on Wednesday to punish any soldier found guilty of misconduct during a deadly raid on a suspected Islamist hideout after a rights group said satellite pictures had raised concerns of a cover-up. Scores of houses were destroyed in the fishing village on the shores of Lake Chad raided by troops from Nigeria, Niger and Chad searching for Islamist militants, and there were 22 fresh graves, a Reuters reporter who visited said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Resource deals audit overshadows Liberia anti-graft push Wednesday, May 01, 2013 10:41 AM PDT  By Richard Valdmanis DAKAR (Reuters) - Almost all the $8 billion worth of resource contracts signed by Liberia since 2009 have violated its laws, according to a draft audit report commissioned by the government, casting doubt on anti-graft and good governance efforts under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said the billions of dollars in foreign investment she has drawn since becoming Africa's first freely-elected female president in 2006 should help ordinary Liberians to climb out of poverty. ... Full Story | Top |
| Armed protests in Libya threatening safety in capital Wednesday, May 01, 2013 10:24 AM PDT  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Armed protests targeting Libya's ministries and media in the capital this week have alarmed international observers who say deteriorating security conditions are becoming a matter of serious concern. Reporters without Borders said there was cause for "grave concern about recent violent attacks on Libyan journalists, whose safety conditions are deteriorating drastically" and called on the government to act. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy's Letta wins French backing for focus on growth Wednesday, May 01, 2013 10:17 AM PDT  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new prime minister Enrico Letta won French backing on Wednesday for calls to spur economic growth alongside budget rigor, but problems lay closer to home with coalition partners demanding tax cuts that would blow a hole in the budget. Letta, who took his message to Berlin on Tuesday, met French President Francois Hollande and said he was "100 percent satisfied" with the meeting and Hollande's response to his calls for Europe to start focusing on growth as well as consolidation. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. hedge fund faces uphill battle for change at Tim Hortons Wednesday, May 01, 2013 10:06 AM PDT  By Euan Rocha and Jessica Toonkel TORONTO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Highfields Capital, a U.S. hedge fund agitating for change at coffee shop chain Tim Hortons Inc, faces a difficult task in trying to persuade long-term institutional investors of the merits of its plan to shake up the Canadian company. The Boston-based activist investor now owns around a 4 percent stake in Tim Hortons and wants the chain, which is ubiquitous in Canada, to boost its returns via debt-funded share buybacks, while scaling back its U.S. expansion plans. ... Full Story | Top |
| No freedom of speech in Cuba despite easier foreign travel: activist Wednesday, May 01, 2013 10:05 AM PDT  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The Castro government's easing of foreign travel restrictions on Cubans has not led to greater freedoms on the island, a leading dissident said on Wednesday. Elizardo Sanchez said 19 opposition activists had been allowed to leave since a new exit policy was introduced on January 14. Dozens more would go in the next few weeks, he said. But the Communist government, in power since 1959, was keeping strict control on dissident voices at home, he said. ... Full Story | Top |
| What could U.N. sleuths unearth at Iran's Parchin base? Wednesday, May 01, 2013 10:01 AM PDT  By Fredrik Dahl SEIBERSDORF, Austria (Reuters) - The self-styled "Sherlock Holmeses" of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, now seeking access to a major Iranian base, say they have the capability to find tiny traces of atomic material at a site even if a country were to try to cover it up. In talks later this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency will once again press Tehran to allow its inspectors to visit Iran's sprawling Parchin military complex. That would enable them to bring back swab samples for thorough checks at the IAEA's high-tech laboratory near Vienna. ... Full Story | Top |
| Leaked video undermines Turkmen leader's superhero image Wednesday, May 01, 2013 09:40 AM PDT  ASHGABAT (Reuters) - Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov wields almost absolute power in his secretive Central Asian state, but even he could not prevent footage being leaked that shows him falling head-first off a speeding horse. State media on Monday showed Berdymukhamedov, wearing a traditional white "telpek" sheepskin hat and crimson caftan, riding his horse to a victory - and an $11-million prize - that took his strongman personality cult to a new dimension. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy investigates racist slurs against first black minister Wednesday, May 01, 2013 09:22 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government ordered an investigation on Wednesday into slurs on right-wing websites against the country's first black minister, a case that has put Italy's racial problems back in the spotlight. Cecile Kyenge, an eye doctor and Congo-born Italian citizen, was named integration minister in the new government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta last Saturday. She is one of seven women in the government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Thousands rally against European austerity on May Day Wednesday, May 01, 2013 09:18 AM PDT By Clare Kane MADRID (Reuters) - Workers hit by lower living standards and record high unemployment staged May Day protests across Europe on Wednesday, hoping to persuade their governments of the case for easing austerity measures and boosting growth. In the debt-laden euro zone countries of Spain, Greece, Italy and France tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand jobs and an end to years of belt-tightening. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish police, May Day protesters clash in Istanbul Wednesday, May 01, 2013 08:59 AM PDT By Murad Sezer ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish riot police in Istanbul fired water cannons and teargas on Wednesday to disperse tens of thousands of May Day protesters, some of whom threw stones at security forces as they tried to breach barricades to reach the city's main square. The city's governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu, said 22 police officers and three civilians were wounded in the clashes. Roughly half of Istanbul's 40,000-strong police force was drafted in to the center of the city to block access to Taksim Square, earlier placed off limits by authorities to a march organized by trade unions. ... Full Story | Top |
| On May Day, Cuba remembers 'best friend' Chavez Wednesday, May 01, 2013 08:59 AM PDT By Jeff Franks HAVANA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Cubans filed through Havana's Revolution Square on Wednesday in a May Day parade that paid tribute to Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader who was the Caribbean island's top ally and benefactor before his death from cancer in March. A sea of workers, many wearing red shirts like those favored by Chavez and carrying signs with his image, paraded past a giant statue of 19th century Cuban independence hero Jose Marti in the vast square where Cuba holds its biggest political rallies. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. presses China to stop growing trade secret theft Wednesday, May 01, 2013 08:35 AM PDT  By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Trade Representative's office criticized China on Wednesday for failing to stop the growing theft of American trade secrets that are the lifeblood of U.S. economic might, in the latest sign of Washington's frustration with the problem. "Not only are repeated thefts occurring inside China, but also outside of China for the benefit of Chinese entities," USTR said in its annual report on countries with the worst records of protecting U.S. intellectual property rights. ... Full Story | Top |
| For poor Bulgarians, anywhere else is a better bet Wednesday, May 01, 2013 07:58 AM PDT  By Tsvetelia Tsolova VRATSA, Bulgaria (Reuters) - The factories of Vratsa that once fed Bulgaria's chemical and metallurgical industries and provided jobs are abandoned now. Crumbling buildings and pitted roads add to the city's gloomy air. For people like Alexander Angelov, 27, work is hard to find and his thoughts are turning to trying his luck abroad, as many Bulgarians have before him. The northwestern city, in the poorest part of the European Union's poorest country, is a microcosm of the challenges facing whoever wins a national election on May 12. ... Full Story | Top |
| Europe trade action against Bangladesh would have big impact Wednesday, May 01, 2013 07:41 AM PDT By Ethan Bilby BRUSSELS (Reuters) - If Bangladesh were to lose its preferential trading status with Europe over conditions in its garment factories, it could face hundreds of millions of dollars in duties and limits on access to its largest trading partner. EU officials said on Wednesday they hoped the threat of action would be enough to make Bangladesh change its laws to secure a market which formed over a quarter of the south Asian state's $40.5 billion annual exports in 2011. Any action would likely take more than a year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Youth voice hope for change in static Palestinian politics Wednesday, May 01, 2013 07:28 AM PDT  By Noah Browning RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Far from the children who beg for change from idling cars and the teenagers who hurl rocks at armed Israeli troops, a different spectacle of Palestinian youth is playing out in the ballroom of a luxury Ramallah hotel. Young contestants are gathered for a taping of "The President", a game show that aims to select a "new leader" for the Palestinians based on their views on the pressing political issues of the day. The panel of judges is made up of top officials and businessmen. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb kills two teenagers near mall in Russia's Dagestan Wednesday, May 01, 2013 07:23 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - A bomb left in a bag exploded near a shopping mall in the capital of Russia's turbulent Dagestan Republic on Wednesday, killing two teenagers, the internal ministry said. Mainly Muslim Dagestan, in recent years the home of the parents of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, has been affected by an Islamist insurgency for over a decade since a war in adjacent Chechnya, where Russian federal security forces forced Islamist separatists from power. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy's Letta faces early squeeze over anti-austerity drive Wednesday, May 01, 2013 06:52 AM PDT  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new prime minister, Enrico Letta, is preaching an end to austerity while pledging to meet European Union debt targets and his fledgling coalition is already at odds over how to pay for cuts to an unpopular housing tax. Letta, who took his message to Berlin on Tuesday, is due to meet French President Francois Hollande later on Wednesday where he can expect a favorable hearing for his calls for Europe to start focusing on economic growth as well as budget rigor. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia's Putin restores Stalin-era labor award Wednesday, May 01, 2013 06:43 AM PDT  By Alexei Anishchuk ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin likes to deny that he is taking Russia back to the USSR, but on Wednesday he dusted off another communist relic by restoring a labor medal introduced under Josef Stalin. A week after telling the nation there was nothing in Russia that smacked of the late Soviet dictator, Putin pinned the Hero of Labour award on five recipients in St Petersburg, the cradle of the 1917 revolution that swept communists to power. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sunni unrest revives fears of sectarian war in Iraq Wednesday, May 01, 2013 06:26 AM PDT  By Kamal Naama and Suadad al-Salhy RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Wearing military fatigues with his cleric's turban, Sheikh Ali Muhaibes brought Friday prayers in Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland to a climax with chilling words for the Shi'ite-led government. "If you want jihad, we're ready. If you want confrontation, we're ready. And if you want us to go to Baghdad, we're coming," he roared to the crowd in the western province of Anbar. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Rebel gains in southern Syria sharpen Jordan's dilemma Wednesday, May 01, 2013 06:07 AM PDT  By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - The growing power of Islamist fighters in southern Syria is causing alarm in neighboring Jordan, which backs rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad but fears those linked to al Qaeda. Similar concerns among Syria's other neighbors, including Turkey and Israel, are complicating an already disjointed world response to the bloody turmoil at the heart of the Middle East. Jordan has allowed limited U.S. military training of rebels on its territory. ... Full Story | Top |
| Myanmar forces restore order after latest anti-Muslim violence Wednesday, May 01, 2013 05:17 AM PDT  By Jared Ferrie KYAW BOI LAY, Myanmar (Reuters) - Hundreds of police and troops restored order in central Myanmar on Wednesday after a fresh outbreak of sectarian violence in which one man was killed after Buddhist mobs trashed property owned by Muslims following a minor street incident. In all, 10 people were injured in Oakkan and nearby villages, just 60 miles north of the commercial capital Yangon, and one died of a head wound, the deputy police commissioner of Yangon, Thet Lwin, told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least 15 killed in Iraq bomb blasts Wednesday, May 01, 2013 05:10 AM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 15 people were killed in a series of bomb blasts across Iraq on Wednesday, police and medics said, following a sharp increase in violence that has prompted warnings of a full-blown sectarian conflict. Violence in Iraq has increased as the civil war in neighboring Syria puts a strain on fragile relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Tensions are at their highest in Iraq since U.S. troops pulled out more than a year ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somali militants threaten to avenge Puntland killings Wednesday, May 01, 2013 04:01 AM PDT MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked Somali militants who have dug into parts of the northern Puntland province pledged vengeance after authorities in the autonomous region executed 13 suspected Islamist rebels. Puntland long avoided being caught up in successive Islamist insurgencies that have shattered Somalia but has slowly been infiltrated by al Shabaab rebels squeezed out of former south-central urban redoubts in the Horn of Africa state. Puntland officials say many of the insurgents have taken up positions in the mountains west of the port city of Bosasso. ... Full Story | Top |
| China says U.S. should watch Japanese nationalism Wednesday, May 01, 2013 03:57 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States should be just as concerned as other countries about a rise in Japanese nationalism, China's ambassador to Washington said, hinting that the United States should not offer Japan encouragement in its dispute with China over a group of islets. China and Japan are involved in an increasingly bitter stand-off over the uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China, which lie atop of possibly large energy reserves. Beijing last month protested a voyage by 10 boats carrying Japanese activists into waters near the islands. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tsarnaev homeland Chechnya: rebuilt from war, ruled by fear Wednesday, May 01, 2013 03:37 AM PDT  By Maria Golovnina GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - When it was last in the international spotlight, Chechnya was in ruins, its capital Grozny reduced to dust by the deadliest artillery and air onslaught in Europe since World War Two. Today, when the naming of two Chechens as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings has put it back on the world's front pages, Chechnya appears almost miraculously reborn. The streets have been rebuilt. Walls riddled with bullet holes are long gone. New high rise buildings soar into the sky. Spotless playgrounds are packed with children. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's top paper warns against "underground" extravagance Wednesday, May 01, 2013 02:59 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top newspaper warned on Wednesday that some government officials were avoiding new President Xi Jinping's graft-busting instructions to be frugal by taking banquets and other lavish displays underground, including hiding liquor in water bottles. Since becoming Communist Party boss in November, and president in March, Xi has made battling pervasive corruption a top theme of his administration, warning the problem is so severe it could threaten the party's survival. ... Full Story | Top |
| Roadside bomb kills three British soldiers, nine Afghans Wednesday, May 01, 2013 01:56 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Three British soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, Britain's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday, in the deadliest single attack on the British military there in more than a year. Nine Afghans were also killed in Tuesday's explosion that hit the soldiers' vehicle while it was on a routine patrol in Nahr-e Saraj district in the southern province of Helmand. ... Full Story | Top |
| Earthquake measuring 5.7 strikes northern India: USGS Wednesday, May 01, 2013 01:45 AM PDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - A shallow earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 struck in northern India on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was only 10 km (six miles) deep and struck at 6:57 GMT (2.57 a.m. ET), 17 km (10 miles) northeast of Bhadarwah in India, said the USGS. Powerful, shallow quakes are capable of causing extensive damage. (This story corrects the day and location of quake) (Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Paul Tait) Full Story | Top |
| Merkel's conservatives plunge in poll amid tax scandal Wednesday, May 01, 2013 01:13 AM PDT  By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel's conservatives plunged three points to 39 percent in a leading opinion poll on Wednesday as a tax evasion scandal embroiled a powerful ally of the German chancellor and the conservative party. The weekly Forsa opinion poll for Stern magazine and RTL television found the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), falling an unusually steep three points to their lowest level this year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Time running out for Malaysia's veteran reformer Anwar Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:43 AM PDT  By Siva Sithraputhran KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - On Sunday, Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim has his best - and seemingly last - chance to complete an extraordinary political comeback from beaten-down prisoner to leader of his country. The 65-year-old former deputy prime minister and finance minister told Reuters in an interview he will step down if his three-party alliance fails to wrest power for the first time from the ruling National Front coalition in Sunday's election. ... Full Story | Top |
| Caution may be the undoing of Najib, Malaysia's hesitant reformer Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:41 AM PDT  By Stuart Grudgings KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Like his father four decades ago, Prime Minister Najib Razak has been handed the perilous task of ushering Malaysia into a new political era at a time of dramatic social change. Abdul Razak, Malaysia's second prime minister, responded to traumatic race riots in 1969 by setting up a system of race-based policies favoring majority ethnic Malays that has defined the country's politics ever since. ... Full Story | Top |
| Earthquake measuring 5.7 strikes northwest Pakistan: USGS Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:35 AM PDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - A shallow earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 struck northwest Pakistan on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was only 10 kms (six miles) deep and struck at 6:57 GMT (2.57 a.m. ET) about 140 km (85 miles) northeast of Sialkot in Pakistan, said the USGS. Powerful, shallow quakes are capable of causing extensive damage. Pakistan bore the brunt of a powerful quake centered in Iran last month, killing at least 35 people in Pakistan and destroying hundreds of houses. (Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Paul Tait) Full Story | Top |
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