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| Obama meets Mandela family, police disperse protesters Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 10:02 AM PDT  By Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama met the family of South Africa's ailing anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela on Saturday, offering words of comfort and praising the critically ill retired statesman as one of history's greatest figures. The faltering health of Mandela, 94, a figure admired globally as a symbol of struggle against injustice and racism, is dominating Obama's two-day visit to South Africa. But Obama also faced protests by South Africans against U.S. foreign policy, especially American drone strikes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Biden asked Ecuador not to give Snowden asylum: Correa Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 11:43 AM PDT  QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Rafael Correa on Saturday said the United States asked him not to grant asylum for former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden in a "cordial" telephone conversation he held with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. Correa said he vowed to respect Washington's opinion in evaluating the request. The Andean nation says it cannot begin processing Snowden's request unless he reaches Ecuador or one of its embassies. Snowden, who is wanted by the United States for leaking details about U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Thousands march in Istanbul in solidarity with Kurds Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 11:55 AM PDT  By Ece Toksabay ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters marched to Istanbul's Taksim Square on Saturday chanting slogans against the government and police after security forces killed a Kurdish demonstrator in southeastern Turkey. The protest had been planned as part of larger unrelated anti-government demonstrations that have swept through the country since the end of May, but became a voice of solidarity with the Kurds after Friday's killing. "Murderer police, get out of Kurdistan!" some protesters chanted. "This is only the beginning, the struggle continues. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian army, backed by jets, launches assault on Homs Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 09:14 AM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces launched a major offensive on Saturday against rebels in Homs, a centre of the two-year-old uprising, in their latest drive to secure an axis connecting Damascus to the Mediterranean. Activists said jets and mortars had pounded rebel-held areas of the city that have been under siege by Assad's troops for a year, and soldiers fought battles with rebel fighters in several districts. "Government forces are trying to storm (Homs) from all fronts," said an activist using the name Abu Mohammad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama tells Egyptians to talk, not fight Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 10:44 AM PDT  By Maggie Fick and Alexander Dziadosz CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama called on Egypt's government and opposition on Saturday to engage each other in constructive dialogue and prevent violence spilling out across the region. Bloodshed on Friday killed at least three people, including an American student, and mass rallies are planned for Sunday aimed at unseating Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. Obama said he was "looking at the situation with concern". Hundreds have been wounded and at least eight killed in street fighting for over a week as political deadlock deepens. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain's Cameron pushes peace in Afghanistan Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 11:18 AM PDT  By Andrew Osborn KABUL (Reuters) - The chance to end 12 years of grinding war in Afghanistan should be seized by those committed to peace, British Prime Minister David Cameron said in Kabul on Saturday. His comments come barely a week after talks between the Afghan state and the Taliban were announced, only to collapse within days due to perceptions that the Taliban were trying to reestablish themselves on the world stage. ... Full Story | Top |
| American student killed in Egypt violence taught English Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 08:45 AM PDT  ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - An American college student stabbed to death during a protest in Egypt was in the country to teach English to children and improve his Arabic, his family said. Andrew Pochter, 21, from Chevy Chase, Maryland, died after being stabbed in the chest on Friday in the coastal city of Alexandria, where anti-government protesters stormed an office of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood. "As we understand it, he was witnessing a protest as a bystander and was stabbed by a protester," said a statement from the family. Egyptian officials said he was carrying a small camera. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama urges House to pass immigration reform by August Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 09:25 AM PDT  By Jeff Mason PRETORIA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Saturday urged the House of Representatives to follow the lead of the Senate and pass a bill by August to reform the U.S. immigration system. Speaking during a press conference in South Africa, Obama said there was more than enough time for lawmakers to finish work on the issue before their summer recess. Immigration reform is one of the president's top domestic issues. The Senate recently passed a bill that would strengthen U.S. border security and provide a way for undocumented immigrants in the United States to obtain citizenship. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israelis and Palestinians downbeat as Kerry extends peace bid Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 10:24 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry extended his Middle East peace mission on Saturday, shuttling between Jerusalem and Amman for more talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on reviving their stalled negotiations. But officials on both the feuding sides played down prospects of the bustle bringing about any imminent diplomatic breakthrough. Cancelling a trip to Abu Dhabi, Kerry flew from Jerusalem to the Jordanian capital for a second meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks: German magazine Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 09:20 AM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, according to secret documents cited in a German magazine on Saturday, the latest in a series of exposures of alleged U.S. spy programs. Der Spiegel cited from a September 2010 "top secret" document of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) which it said fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had taken with him and which the weekly's journalists had seen in part. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's troubled Xinjiang hit by more violence: state media Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 07:06 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - More than a hundred people, riding motorbikes and wielding knifes, attacked a police station in China's ethnically divided western region of Xinjiang, state media said on Saturday, in the latest unrest to hit the region in the past week. The attack in the remote desert city of Hotan, a heavily ethnic Uighur area, comes two days after the region's deadliest unrest in four years that resulted in the deaths of 35 people. China called the incident a "terrorist attack". Xinjiang is home to the mainly Muslim Uighur people who speak a Turkic language. ... Full Story | Top |
| France to seek 14 billion euros in cuts next year: paper Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 08:37 AM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - France will pursue 14 billion euros ($18.2 billion) in spending cuts next year as it attempts to reduce the public deficit to 3 percent of economic output by 2015, Le Monde reported. France's Socialist government aims to tame the deficit by trimming ministerial budgets, cutting state aid to companies and reducing local government funding. With the economy back in a shallow recession, jobless claims at an all-time high and his approval ratings around 30 percent, President Francois Hollande has been reluctant to accelerate the cuts. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian pro-, anti-gay activists clash, police detain dozens Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 07:38 AM PDT  ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Police detained dozens of people when pro- and anti-gay activists clashed in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Saturday, just two weeks after parliament passed a law banning homosexual "propaganda". Critics say the bill - a nationwide version of laws in place in cities including St Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin's hometown, - effectively bans gay rights rallies and could be used to prosecute anyone voicing support for homosexuals. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gay marriages resume in California after five-year hiatus Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 03:50 AM PDT  By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Same-sex couples - some in shorts and jeans, some in their work clothes - rushed to be wed in California on Friday after a court abruptly ended the state's five-year ban on gay marriage in the wake of landmark rulings at the Supreme Court. On a balcony overlooking the grand staircase at San Francisco City Hall, an ornate space that has long been a magnet for weddings, the couple whose case sparked this week's Supreme Court decision exchanged vows. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rebels kill policeman, injure 14 others in Chechnya Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 04:14 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rebels have killed a Russian policeman and injured 14 others in Chechnya, police said on Saturday, a rare clash in the now mostly calm North Caucasus republic which lies near to the venue for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Moscow waged two wars against separatist rebels in mainly Muslim Chechnya in the 1990s but the province has been fairly peaceful in recent years as Islamist insurgents have turned their focus to the nearby regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea to discuss nuclear talks in Moscow - report Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 04:16 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator will meet senior Russian officials in Moscow next week, state media reported, amid signs of a new push to get Pyongyang to re-join protracted talks over ending its atomic program. Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea's First Deputy Foreign Minister, will meet deputy foreign ministers Vladimir Titov and Igor Morgulov on Thursday "as part of efforts to resume the six-party talks", the RIA Novosti news agency reported. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mandela remains 'critical but stable' Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 05:21 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela's condition remains "critical but stable" but the government hopes the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero will be out of hospital soon, President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday. "We hope that very soon he will be out of hospital," Zuma said at a televised press conference with visiting U.S. President Barack Obama. Mandela has been in hospital for three weeks for treatment for a recurring lung infection. (Reporting by Ed Stoddard and Ed Cropley; Editing by Ed Cropley) Full Story | Top |
| South African police, protesters clash ahead of Obama visit Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 06:06 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African riot police clashed with protesters in Soweto on Saturday shortly before a visit to the sprawling Johannesburg township by U.S. President Barack Obama, a Reuters photographer said. Armed police fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd of several hundred protesters, who had gathered outside the Soweto campus of the University of Johannesburg, where Obama was due to address a town hall meeting with students. (Reporting by Dylan Martinez; Writing by Ed Cropley) Full Story | Top |
| Eyewitness describes Trayvon Martin's fatal struggle to Florida jury Friday, Jun 28, 2013 04:16 PM PDT  By Barbara Liston SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - A witness in the murder trial of neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman testified on Friday that he saw Trayvon Martin on top of Zimmerman during a struggle that led to the unarmed black teenager's shooting death in a central Florida gated community last year. But Jonathan Good, a former resident at the townhouse complex, told the jury in Seminole County criminal court that he never saw Martin slam Zimmerman's head into the concrete sidewalk, undermining a key element in Zimmerman's defense. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian army launches offensive in Homs city Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 04:15 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a military offensive on Saturday against rebel-held areas of Homs, the country's third-largest city and a centre of the two-year-old uprising against his rule. Activists said jets and mortars pounded rebel territory and soldiers attacked the district of Khalidiyah, where state television reported they were making "great progress". Video uploaded on the Internet showed heavy explosions and clouds of white smoke after what the activists said were air strikes on the adjacent neighborhood of Jouret al-Shiyyah. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry steps up shuttle talks with Abbas and Netanyahu Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:05 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accelerated his Middle East shuttle diplomacy on Friday in the hope of persuading Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace negotiations. After seeing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan, Kerry flew by helicopter to Jerusalem for evening talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obamas to meet Mandela family, not visit hospital Saturday, Jun 29, 2013 03:50 AM PDT  PRETORIA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will meet on Saturday with relatives of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, but they will not visit the hospital where the former South African president is critically ill, the White House said. Obama is in South Africa on the second stop of a three-nation Africa tour. His visit had triggered intense speculation that the United States' first African-American president might visit 94-year-old Mandela in the Pretoria hospital where he has spent three weeks being treated for a lung infection. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Snowden's options appear to narrow in bid to evade U.S. arrest Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:20 PM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick and Lidia Kelly WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Nearly a month after Edward Snowden exposed top secret U.S. surveillance programs, the former spy agency contractor looks no closer to winning asylum to evade prosecution at home - and his options appear to be narrowing. Stuck in legal limbo in a Moscow airport transit area and facing uncertainty over whether any of the destinations he is said to be contemplating - Ecuador, Venezuela and Cuba - will let him in, Snowden seems to be at the mercy of geopolitical forces beyond his control. ... Full Story | Top |
| China media warns Philippines of 'counterstrike' in South China Sea Friday, Jun 28, 2013 08:29 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's state media warned on Saturday that a "counterstrike" against the Philippines was inevitable if it continues to provoke Beijing in the South China Sea, potentially Asia's biggest military troublespot. The warning comes as ministers from both countries attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Brunei, starting Saturday, which hopes to reach a legally binding code of conduct to manage maritime conduct in disputed areas. At stake are potentially massive offshore oil reserves. The seas also lie on shipping lanes and fishing grounds. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bombs hit Iraq funeral and football stadium, killing 22 Friday, Jun 28, 2013 02:26 PM PDT  RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - A series of bombs near a bakery, at a funeral, inside a senior police officer's car and at a football stadium killed at least 22 people across Iraq on Friday, police and medics said. 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 2006-07. ... Full Story | Top |
| The Snowden affair: Whatever happened to the blame game? Friday, Jun 28, 2013 02:14 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Edward Snowden's revelations about top-secret U.S. surveillance programs and his globe-trotting flight from prosecution have created an international furor, but there is one place the outcry has been muted: Capitol Hill. Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate, who have attacked President Barack Obama's administration over the 2012 Benghazi attacks and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups, have so far largely held their fire over the Snowden case. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish security forces fire on protest in southeast, one dead Friday, Jun 28, 2013 01:20 PM PDT  By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish security forces killed one person and wounded ten on Friday when they fired on a group protesting against the construction of a new gendarmerie outpost in Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey, a Kurdish party lawmaker said. The incident, in Kayacik village in Diyarbakir province, appeared to be the most violent in the region since a ceasefire declaration by Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan in March in the conflict between his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt violence builds, American among dead Friday, Jun 28, 2013 04:17 PM PDT  By Abdelrahman Youssef and Tom Perry ALEXANDRIA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Two people, one an American, were killed when protesters stormed an office of Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria, adding to growing tension ahead of mass rallies aimed at unseating the Islamist president. A third man was killed and 10 injured in an explosion during a protest in Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez Canal. Police on Saturday said the cause was unclear but protesters, believing it was a bomb, attacked an Islamist party office in the city. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry steps up shuttle talks with Abbas and Netanyahu Friday, Jun 28, 2013 02:53 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accelerated his Middle East shuttle diplomacy on Friday in the hope of persuading Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace negotiations. After seeing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan, Kerry flew by helicopter to Jerusalem for evening talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ... Full Story | Top |
| Court lifts ban on gay marriage in California Friday, Jun 28, 2013 04:23 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Same-sex marriages were set to resume in California on Friday, after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a surprise order lifting an injunction preventing the unions. The order came in response to an opinion released Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court that effectively killed a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages in the state. Within moments of the ruling, couples, officials and activists began to converge on San Francisco City Hall, where unions were due to resume immediately. "On my way to S.F. City Hall," tweeted the state's attorney general, Kamala ... Full Story | Top |
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