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| Egyptians flood streets to force Mursi out Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:46 PM PDT  By Shaimaa Fayed and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians flooded into the streets on the first anniversary of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's inauguration on Sunday to demand that he resign in the biggest challenge so far to rule by his Muslim Brotherhood. Waving national flags and chanting "Get out!", a crowd of more than 200,000 massed on Cairo's central Tahrir Square. It was the largest demonstration since the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mursi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama urges Africa to follow spirit of Nelson Mandela Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:44 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Sunday the United States would help propel Africa along a path of prosperity and peace, and urged the continent to follow the example of Nelson Mandela. In South Africa on the second leg of a three-nation Africa trip, the U.S. leader and his family visited the bleak former prison of Robben Island to pay tribute to ex-inmate and former president Mandela, now critically ill in hospital. ... Full Story | Top |
| Supreme Court justice denies bid to stop California gay marriages Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:35 PM PDT  By Casey Sullivan (Reuters) - A U.S. Supreme Court justice on Sunday rejected a long-shot bid to halt same-sex marriages in California, days after the high court let stand a trial judge's order declaring the ban unconstitutional. Justice Anthony Kennedy denied the application verbally, spokeswoman Kathy Arberg told Reuters. Supporters of the gay marriage ban known as Proposition 8, which California voters approved in 2008, asked the high court on Saturday to overrule a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order that lifted an injunction barring same-sex unions. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to discuss EU spying charges through diplomatic channels Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:32 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government will respond through diplomatic channels to demands from the European Union that Washington explain a report in a German magazine that Washington is spying on its European allies. "We will also discuss these issues bilaterally with EU member states," a spokesperson from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said on Sunday. "While we are not going to comment publicly on specific alleged intelligence activities, as a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Bear market in gold pummels Einhorn's Greenlight fund Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:27 PM PDT  By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors in David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital Management's offshore gold fund were down 11.8 percent in June, bringing their year-to-date losses in the fund to 20 percent, two sources close to the matter said on Sunday. Einhorn, one of the most widely followed hedge fund managers and known for warning about Lehman Brothers' precarious finances before it collapsed, has also seen his flagship $8 billion Greenlight Capital fund under recent pressure though it is still up for the year. In June, Greenlight's flagship portfolio was down 1. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb kills 12 soccer players, fans in Iraq Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:24 PM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb planted near a yard where people were playing soccer in Iraq killed 12 people on Sunday, police and medics said. A further 24 people were wounded in the blast in the town of Nahrawan, south of the capital Baghdad. The violence is part of a trend of increasing militant attacks since the start of the year, which claimed more than 1,000 lives in May alone, making it the deadliest month since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006-7. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blast in Pakistani city of Quetta kills at least 28 Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:00 PM PDT By Gul Yousufzai QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 28 people were killed and dozens wounded in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked a largely Shi'ite Muslim neighborhood, police said. The blast appeared to be the latest in an escalating campaign of gun and bomb attacks by militants on ethnic Hazaras in Quetta because they belong to Pakistan's Shi'ite minority. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kurdish protesters clash with Turkish security forces Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:24 AM PDT  By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Police fired teargas and water cannon on Sunday to disperse thousands of protesters in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, during demonstrations across the country to pressure the government to carry out reforms. Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, the BDP, had called for marches in at least three major cities, to launch a summer of protests against what it sees as a lack of commitment by Ankara to a peace process with Kurdish militants. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen free 175 prisoners in Nigeria jailbreak Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:23 AM PDT ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead two civilians and then used explosives to free 175 inmates from a prison in Nigeria's southern town of Akure overnight, a prison official said on Sunday. Islamist sect Boko Haram and al Qaeda-linked group Ansaru have been behind several prison raids in recent years. It was not clear whether they were behind this jail break at Olokuta prison in Ondo state or whether they had members held there. ... Full Story | Top |
| One dead, 30 wounded in clash south of Cairo Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:15 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - One person was killed and more than two dozen injured in fighting on Sunday between supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi in the Nile city of Beni Suef, south of Cairo, security sources said. It was the first death reported on a day when hundreds of thousands of opposition protesters took to the streets demanding that Mursi quit, on the first anniversary of his inauguration. (Reporting by Shadia Nasralla Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Paul Taylor) Full Story | Top |
| The Fed and China churn already choppy waters Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:11 AM PDT  By Alan Wheatley, Global Economics Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - Data this week will add spice to speculation as to when the U.S. Federal Reserve will start scaling back its stimulus while reinforcing the realization that China is serious about shifting to a less frantic growth rate. Fed policy makers have sent mixed messages since Chairman Ben Bernanke's June 19 announcement that the central bank was on course to end its bond buying, now running at $85 billion a month, by mid-2014. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama says Zimbabwe has opportunity, needs free and fair poll Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:07 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday Zimbabwe's economic recovery gave the southern African country an opportunity to advance but only if upcoming elections were "free and fair." Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, at 89 Africa's oldest leader, is seeking to extend his three-decade rule in elections scheduled for July 31. The opposition wants to delay the poll to allow reforms designed to prevent a repeat of the bloodshed that marred the 2008 election. "Zimbabweans have a new constitution. The economy is beginning to recover. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ecuador's Correa says Snowden's fate in hands of Russia Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:03 AM PDT  By Alexandra Valencia PORTOVIEJO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Sunday the fate of former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden is in the hands of the authorities in Russia, where he is holed up in hope of obtaining asylum in the South American nation. Correa said his government cannot begin considering asylum for Snowden, wanted by Washington for leaking confidential information about a surveillance program, until he reaches Ecuador or an Ecuadorean embassy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt Brotherhood says Cairo HQ under attack Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:02 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood said its Cairo headquarters came under attack on Sunday from scores of anti-government protesters firing shotguns and throwing petrol bombs and rocks. The attack came amid mass protests across Egypt calling for Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to resign. Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said he was in contact by telephone with staff at the compound, who told him its fortified perimeter had not been penetrated. Several provincial offices of the movement have been attacked in recent days. ... Full Story | Top |
| Democrat predicts House will pass Senate immigration bill Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:56 AM PDT  By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled House of Representatives will bow to political pressure and pass the immigration bill approved by the Democratic-led Senate by the end of the year, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer predicted on Sunday. Schumer, a member of the bipartisan Senate group that crafted the immigration measure, said House Republicans who are now vowing they will not pass the Senate measure will ultimately be convinced by political concerns about the party's future. "I believe that by the end of this year, the House will pass the Senate bill. ... Full Story | Top |
| In Egypt, many complain - but don't protest Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:41 AM PDT  By Asma Alsharif CAIRO (Reuters) - Politics is all very well, reckons Zeeka, but it doesn't sell tomatoes and it doesn't pay the rent. "It's nothing to do with me," said the 23-year-old vegetable seller, in an eerily quiet downtown Cairo. "I'm the tomato guy." He was one of millions of Egyptians on Sunday who were not joining in mass protests against President Mohamed Mursi and who cursed factional rivalry for making it harder to make a living. "I won't go out on any protest," he said as demonstrations got under way in central Cairo. "If we vote for one guy he won't feed us. ... Full Story | Top |
| Wikileaks founder says Snowden info will keep getting published Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:39 AM PDT  By Deborah Charles WASHINGTON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Sunday that Edward Snowden made sure that the information he took about U.S. surveillance programs will continue to be published regardless of what happens to the former U.S. spy agency contractor. Assange criticized the United States for revoking Snowden's passport and said it would not stop the classified information taken by the 30-year-old former contractor from getting out. "Look, there is no stopping the publishing process at this stage," Assange said in an interview with ABC's "This Week" television show. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cuba's non-farm co-ops debut this week amid move toward markets Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:23 AM PDT  By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - One hundred state-run produce markets and 26 other establishments were scheduled to become private cooperatives on Monday as Communist-run Cuba continues to shed secondary economic activity in favor of individual initiative and markets. The cooperatives will be the first outside of agriculture since all businesses were nationalized in 1968. ... Full Story | Top |
| France's Hollande said to back away from reshuffle Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:09 AM PDT  By Elizabeth Pineau PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande is unlikely to reshuffle his government before the summer break and will instead urge ministers to sharpen their focus on unemployment and other issues sapping their popularity, sources told Reuters. Hollande, who had hinted in May that changes to his top team were in the works, has since backed away from the idea of a ministerial shake-up, an Elysee source said. A reshuffle "is not currently envisaged and we don't think it's what voters expect", said the source, who asked not to be identified. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says oil market can cope with more Iran export cuts Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:04 AM PDT  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - The top U.S. energy official said he believed the oil market could cope with any further reduction of Iran's oil exports from the tightening of sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz also said on Sunday he expected a "fair amount of action" by his department in 2013 in evaluating applications by U.S. firms to export natural gas. Companies hoping to ship gas abroad have been frustrated by lengthy delays and rule changes as they await Department of Energy approval of their applications. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi Kurdish President set to rule for two more years Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 09:45 AM PDT  ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The president of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani is set to stay in office for another two years, after lawmakers voted on Sunday to extend his tenure amid scuffles in parliament and an outcry from opposition parties. Barzani's presidency had been due to end this summer, when his second term of four years ends, but in recent months members of his party said legal ambiguities might allow him to remain longer or run again. The region's presidential law places a limit of two four-year terms on the position. "We are against the extension. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hungary to raise teachers' wages in September: minister Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 09:36 AM PDT  BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will raise teachers' wages from September, a government minister said on Sunday, in a move that could help the ruling Fidesz party cement its robust opinion poll lead ahead of a national election expected next April or May. The announcement comes just nine days after the European Union took Hungary off the list of member states which must take measures to cut their budget deficits, removing the threat of cuts in development funds from Brussels. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil to raise taxes to offset any future subsidies: minister Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 09:31 AM PDT  SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil will raise taxes or cut public spending to compensate for any future subsidies it offers to support struggling sectors, Finance Minister Guido Mantega told a local newspaper in an interview published on Sunday. "If we cut taxes further, like we did on diesel sales, all the foregone revenues will be compensated by spending cuts or other taxes," Mantega told O Globo. After missing its main budget target last year, Brazil has struggled to improve its finances and regain investors' confidence. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU confronts U.S. over reports it spies on European allies Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 09:28 AM PDT  By Ben Deighton and Annika Breidthardt BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union has demanded that the United States explain a report in a German magazine that Washington is spying on the group, using unusually strong language to confront its closest trading partner over its alleged surveillance activities. A spokeswoman for the European Commission said on Sunday the EU contacted U.S. authorities in Washington and Brussels about a report in Der Spiegel magazine that the U.S. secret service had tapped EU offices in Washington, Brussels and at the United Nations. ... Full Story | Top |
| Assad's forces battle to tighten control of central Syria Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 09:02 AM PDT  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad's forces pounded Sunni Muslim rebels in the city of Homs with artillery and from the air on Sunday, the second day of an offensive to expand loyalist control over Syria's strategic centre, activists said. They said rebels defending the old centre of Homs and five adjacent Sunni districts had largely repelled a ground attack on Saturday by Assad's forces but reported fresh clashes and deaths within the city on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Energy Department pledges action in handling gas export applications Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:39 AM PDT  VIENNA (Reuters) - Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said on Sunday he expected to have a "fair amount of action" during 2013 in evaluating applications by companies to export natural gas from the United States. "I'm planning to go through them as rapidly as I can ... I certainly expect to have a fair amount of action this year," Moniz, who took office last month, said in an interview in the Austrian capital. U.S. companies hoping to export natural gas are frustrated by lengthy delays and rule changes as they await Department of Energy approval of their applications. But some U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry plans return to Middle East after visit yields no deal Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:37 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton TEL AVIV (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ended a shuttle diplomacy mission on Sunday without an agreement on resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but said gaps had been narrowed and he would return to the region soon. "I'm pleased to tell you that we have made real progress on this trip. And I believe that with a little more work, the start of final status negotiations could be within reach," he told a news conference before his departure from Tel Aviv's airport. ... Full Story | Top |
| German Social Democrats mull ruling out coalition with Merkel: media Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:16 AM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's opposition Social Democrats are considering formally ruling out a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats after September's election, according to media reports on Sunday. Welt am Sonntag newspaper said party leaders hoped this could give supporters and election campaigners a motivational boost, much needed at a time when the Social Democrats trail Merkel by more than 15 percentage points. Der Spiegel reported that party leader Sigmar Gabriel hinted at this in a parliamentary group meeting last week. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Chad leader Habre arrested ahead of trial in Senegal Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:09 AM PDT  DAKAR (Reuters) - Hissene Habre, Chad's former leader, was arrested on Sunday in Senegal, where he has been living in freely in exile for 22 years despite accusations of political killing and torture during his time in power, a court spokesman said. Habre, who led Chad between 1982 and 1990, will be tried in a special court set up this year by Senegalese authorities in agreement with the African Union. The case against Habre follows years of procrastinating by Senegal under former president Abdoulaye Wade. It will be first time the former leader of an African state has been tried by another. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mired in recession, Croatia joins troubled EU Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:07 AM PDT  By Zoran Radosavljevic ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union at midnight on Sunday, passing a milestone in its recovery from war but anxious over the troubled state of its economy and the bloc it is joining. Croatia joins the bloc just over two decades after declaring independence from federal Yugoslavia, a step that triggered four years of war in which some 20,000 people died. Facing a fifth year of recession and record unemployment of 21 percent, few Croatians are in the mood to party. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obamas tour Mandela's island jail before Africa speech Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:47 AM PDT  By Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and his family visited South Africa's bleak former prison of Robben Island on Sunday to pay tribute to ex-inmate Nelson Mandela, now critically ill in hospital. Obama was expected to later cite the legacy of Mandela, who was imprisoned on the windswept island for most of the 27 years he spent in jail before becoming the country's first black president, in a speech at the University of Cape Town. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cousteau grandson pays tribute by trying to beat undersea record Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:37 AM PDT  By Jane Sutton MIAMI (Reuters) - Third-generation oceanographer Fabien Cousteau will attempt to spend a record 31 days living and working underwater in a bus-sized laboratory submerged in the warm, turquoise Atlantic off the Florida Keys. If he succeeds he will beat the 30-day underwater living record set 50 years ago in the Red Sea by his scuba-pioneering grandfather, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. "We're doing something unprecedented," said the 45-year-old who grew up on the decks of his grandfather's ships, Calypso and Alcyone. "It's the risk of discovery, it's the curiosity, it's the adventure. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis - The buyers are back, Canada housing market defies doomsayers Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:36 AM PDT  By Andrea Hopkins TORONTO (Reuters) - Daniel DiManno sold his Toronto house for less than he had hoped and wanted to see if prices would cool before he bought a new one. But Canadian mortgage rates are rising again and that's spurring DiManno and others to jump back into the market, cutting short an already brief housing downturn. "I saw that they are going to increase rates, so I called my bank last Friday and locked in 2.5 percent for 120 days," said the 31-year-old accountant, starting the clock on a four-month search for a new home before borrowing gets more expensive. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gay marriage opponents ask Supreme Court to reimpose California ban Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:23 AM PDT  By Steve Gorman and Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Opponents of gay marriage filed a long-shot petition on Saturday with the Supreme Court asking the justices to immediately halt same-sex weddings taking place in California since Friday, when an appeals court lifted a 5-year-old ban on gay matrimony. Marriage ceremonies of gay and lesbian couples went ahead after a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco removed its stay of a trial judge's order declaring the gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, unconstitutional. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kazakhstan trade trip poses human rights test for UK's Cameron Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:02 AM PDT  By Andrew Osborn ATYRAU, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron flew into Kazakhstan on Sunday to help inaugurate the world's costliest oil project and seal new business deals, but faced immediate pressure to denounce the country's poor human rights record. Cameron's visit, the first by a serving British prime minister, is seen by the Central Asian government as a coup it hopes will cement its status as a rising economic power and confer a degree of legitimacy from the West it has long sought. ... Full Story | Top |
| Arrested Vatican monsignor felt he could act with impunity: judge Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 06:21 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A senior Catholic cleric arrested in a plot to smuggle tens of millions of dollars into Italy controlled vast amounts of money and felt he could act with impunity because of his connections to the Vatican bank, according to a judge's investigative document. In the latest blow to the Vatican's image, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, was arrested on Friday along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial broker. ... Full Story | Top |
| Thai PM sacks commerce minister after rice fiasco Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 05:44 AM PDT  BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's commerce minister was sacked on Sunday after coming under fire over a rice intervention scheme that resulted in huge losses to the budget and saw the country lose its place as the world's top rice exporter. In another move, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra added the post of defense minister to her duties, giving her more say in the affairs of the country's powerful military, with which she has enjoyed an uneasy relationship since coming to power in 2011. Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted by the military in 2006 when he was prime minister. ... Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia urges Myanmar to stem anti-Muslim violence Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 05:36 AM PDT  By Manuel Mogato (Reuters) - Malaysia urged Myanmar on Sunday to take stronger action to prevent persecution of Muslims and bring the perpetrators to justice, the latest sign that the inter communal violence is straining ties in Southeast Asia. Thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to escape the violence and worsening living conditions, many of them making their way by boat or overland to Muslim-majority Malaysia. ... Full Story | Top |
| Seven Saudis jailed for urging protests on Facebook: HRW Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 05:13 AM PDT (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has sentenced seven activists from its restive Eastern Province to prison terms ranging from five to 10 years for posting messages on Facebook calling for anti-government protests, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Sunday. The New York-based rights group urged EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and other European officials who were meeting with Gulf counterparts, including Saudi Arabia, in Manama on Sunday to condemn the convictions. ... Full Story | Top |
| China agrees South China Sea talks amid new row with Manila Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 05:11 AM PDT  By Stuart Grudgings and Manuel Mogato BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) - China agreed to hold formal talks with Southeast Asian nations on a plan to ease maritime tensions on Sunday as the Philippines accused it of causing "increasing militarization" of the South China Sea, one of Asia's naval flashpoints. The rebuke by Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario at a regional summit in Brunei came a day after China's state media warned of an inevitable "counterstrike" against the Philippines if it continued to provoke Beijing. ... Full Story | Top |
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