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| Obama mulls Fed pick, defends Summers on 2009 stimulus Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:52 PM PDT  By Thomas Ferraro and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pushed back on Wednesday against criticism of his former economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, who is seen as a leading candidate to become the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, Democratic lawmakers said. Obama rejected recent complaints, largely from liberals, that Summers had not been aggressive enough in seeking economic-stimulus funds from Congress in 2009, lawmakers said. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Snowden leak upstages U.S. move to declassify documents Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:50 PM PDT  By Alina Selyukh and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New revelations from former security contractor Edward Snowden that U.S. intelligence agencies have access to a vast online tracking tool came to light on Wednesday as lawmakers put the secret surveillance programs under greater scrutiny. The Guardian, citing documents from Snowden, published National Security Agency training materials for the XKeyscore program, which the newspaper described as the NSA's widest-reaching system that covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the Internet. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fed stays on track with bond buying, for now Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:43 PM PDT  By Alister Bull and Pedro da Costa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday the economy continues to recover but is still in need of support, offering no indication that it is planning to reduce its bond-buying stimulus at its next meeting in September. The central bank said after a two-day meeting that it would keep buying $85 billion in mortgage and Treasury securities per month in its effort to strengthen an economy that it said was still challenged by federal budget-tightening. It also pointed to a recent run up in mortgage rates. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. says chemical weapons inspectors to visit three Syrian sites Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:40 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to visit three sites to investigate accusations of chemical weapons use during the country's 2-year-old civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The head of a U.N. chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, and the head of the U.N. Office of Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, visited Damascus last week at the invitation of the Syrian government to discuss access. ... Full Story | Top |
| Illinois legislative leaders sue governor over pay veto Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:35 PM PDT  CHICAGO (Reuters) - The leaders of the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging Governor Pat Quinn's veto of lawmakers' pay during a legislative impasse over pension reform. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, both Democrats, said in a letter to fellow lawmakers that the purpose of the litigation "is to protect the independence of the legislature and preserve the separation of powers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-NCAA athletes score court victory over EA video games Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:32 PM PDT  By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - A divided U.S. federal appeals court rejected Electronic Arts Inc's effort to throw out a lawsuit by former collegiate athletes who accused the company of using their images in video games without permission. By a 2-1 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said EA's use of the athletes' likenesses in its NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball games did not deserve protection as free expression under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. ... Full Story | Top |
| House Republicans leery of 'Obamacare' defunding idea Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:32 PM PDT  By Richard Cowan and Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Tea Party-inspired plan to kill President Barack Obama's healthcare law by forcing a government shutdown unless funds to implement the law are denied has not gained traction among senior Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, lawmakers said on Wednesday. "I think leadership is giving other options that they think are more effective," said Republican Representative Pat Tiberi, a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama to nominate Fed's Raskin as U.S. Treasury deputy Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:30 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will nominate Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin as the U.S. Treasury Department's No. 2 official, two sources familiar with the process said on Wednesday. If confirmed by the Senate, Raskin, 52, would become the highest-ranking woman in the Treasury Department's history. She replaces Neal Wolin, who has been deputy Treasury secretary since 2009 and said he is stepping down in August. The announcement is expected later on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the process. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's rulers signal move against Brotherhood vigils Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:26 PM PDT By Maggie Fick and Asma Alsharif CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed rulers signaled on Wednesday that they could soon act to end weeks of sit-in protests by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi, setting up a potentially bloody showdown with his Muslim Brotherhood. In a televised statement, the cabinet installed by Egypt's army after it overthrew Mursi on July 3 said two Cairo vigils by thousands of his supporters represented a "threat to Egyptian national security", citing "terrorist acts" and traffic disruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| Republican effort to push through deep spending cuts fails Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:24 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives halted consideration of a $44 billion transportation and housing spending bill due to lack of support, signaling that the majority Republicans are unable to push through deep spending cuts to domestic agencies, lawmakers said on Wednesday. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers said the decision points up the need to end automatic spending cuts known as sequestration. "I am extremely disappointed with the decision to pull the bill from the House calendar today," Rogers said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Uruguay Congress debates bill to regulate legal marijuana use Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:23 PM PDT  By Felipe Llambias and Malena Castaldi MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Legislators in Uruguay hotly debated on Wednesday a measure backed by leftist President Jose Mujica that would create a government body to control the cultivation and sale of marijuana and allow people to grow it at home or as part of smoking clubs. The use of marijuana is already legal in the South American nation, but sale and cultivation of it is not. A vote on the bill - expected to be very close - was due later on Wednesday in the lower chamber of Congress. ... Full Story | Top |
| Serbia woos ex-IMF head Strauss-Kahn for advisory role Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:16 PM PDT  By Valerie Hopkins BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia has approached former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn about the possibility of him joining the government in an advisory role, deputy PM Aleksandar Vucic has told Reuters. Serbia is set to begin long-awaited talks in January on joining the European Union. However, investors have been spooked by the state's growing public debt and squabbles over who will be finance minister that have all but buried hopes of a new precautionary loan deal with the International Monetary Fund. ... Full Story | Top |
| O.J. Simpson granted parole in Nevada on some charges but to remain in prison Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:14 PM PDT  (Reuters) - O.J. Simpson was granted parole on Wednesday on several charges related to his role in the robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas hotel, but the former football star will remain in prison at least until 2017 on other charges. A Pro Football Hall of Fame running back who played for the Buffalo Bills team, Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of two counts of murder in the stabbing and slashing deaths in Los Angeles of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. He later lost a wrongful death case that was brought by the victims' families. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. says chemical weapons inspectors to visit three Syria sites Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:12 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has agreed to allow U.N. investigators to visit three sites to investigate accusations of chemical weapons use during the country's two year civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday. "The Mission will travel to Syria as soon as possible to contemporaneously investigate three of the reported incidents, including Khan al-Asal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's press office said in a statement. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Vicki Allen) Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan's Kiir to keep oil minister, change finance portfolio Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:10 PM PDT  By Andrew Green JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau will keep his post in the new government, while new appointments will be made to the key finance and defense portfolios, officials said on Wednesday. Last week, President Salva Kiir sacked the cabinet, Vice President Riek Machar and put his top Sudan negotiator, Pagan Amum, under investigation amid a power struggle. Dau told Reuters he had been appointed again. "We will try to continue with the same programs that we laid in the last two years," he said, without elaborating. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon seeks cuts in overhead, Army, Air Force to trim budgets Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:09 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday pledged to cut the Pentagon's overhead by almost $40 billion over the next decade and chart out ways to cut compensation by $50 billion, regardless of the depth of further cuts in military spending. Hagel told reporters a four-month strategic review of the Pentagon's budget also pointed to possible reductions of up to 70,000 troops from the U.S. Army's active force, and up to 65,000 from the Army reserves, given the drawdown in Afghanistan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Miami gunman called 911 hours before shooting rampage Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:06 PM PDT MIAMI (Reuters) - A man who shot and killed six people in a Miami-area apartment building called 911 hours beforehand and said he believed he was being followed and that someone was performing witchcraft on him, according to a copy of the call released on Wednesday. A SWAT team stormed the man's apartment building in a raid early Saturday, killing the gunman, Pedro Alberto Vargas, after he set his apartment on fire, went on a shooting rampage and took two people hostage. ... Full Story | Top |
| In raging Middle East, Israel wins time with Palestinian peace talks Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:03 PM PDT  By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Pressured by Washington, worried about its international standing and perturbed by Middle East turmoil, Israel had many reasons to return to peace talks with the Palestinians this week after a three year hiatus. On the surface, Israelis saw little reason to jump back into negotiations. The status quo in the occupied Palestinian territories was holding and the question of the so-called peace process had largely fallen off the domestic political agenda. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have realized he could not take the rap for cold shouldering U. ... Full Story | Top |
| Suspected Islamists steal 125 kg of dynamite in north Nigeria Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:58 AM PDT (Updates death toll in Kano bomb) DAMATURU, Nigeria, July 31 - Gunmen suspected to be allied to Islamist sect Boko Haram have stormed a construction site in northeast Nigeria, carting off 125 kg (275 pounds) of dynamite and hundreds of detonators, two security sources said on Wednesday. The militants struck the Bara area of Yobe state at around 2 a.m. on Monday morning, the two security sources in Yobe told Reuters, but no shots were heard. One of the sources said the men arrived on four motorcycles, beating and overpowering the site's private security guards. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexican governmet likely to present energy reform bill next week: lawmaker Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:58 AM PDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government is likely to present a far-reaching energy reform bill to Congress next week, a senior ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday, a key plank of President Enrique Pena Nieto's bid to boost economic growth. "Everything indicates that the (energy reform) initiative of President Pena Nieto will arrive next week," Senator Emilio Gamboa, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) bloc in the upper body of Congress. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi lawyers ask supreme court to acquit him of tax fraud Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:53 AM PDT  By Roberto Landucci and Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi asked the supreme court on Wednesday to throw out a tax fraud conviction against the former prime minister in a case that could decide not only his future but that of Italy's fragile coalition government. The Court of Cassation heard more than three hours of arguments from Berlusconi's two lawyers challenging the verdict of a lower appeals court which sentenced him to jail and a ban from public office for the fraudulent purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset television empire. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain says open to talks with Iran on a 'step-by-step' basis Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:52 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday he was willing to meet his Iranian counterpart to discuss the two countries' frosty relationship, following the election of a new president in Iran. Britain, at odds with Iran over its nuclear program and other issues, shut its embassy in Tehran after what it called "an attack by government-sponsored militias" on the mission in November 2011. Iran's embassy in London was also closed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda militants killed in drone strike in Pakistan Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:42 AM PDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A drone strike in Pakistan this week killed three al Qaeda operatives who ran a training camp in neighboring Afghanistan to prepare militants for attacks including this week's jail break in Pakistan, a Taliban commander said on Wednesday. About 30 militants and more than 200 other inmates escaped from the Dera Ismail Khan jail after a squad of highly trained Taliban fighters armed with grenade launchers and dressed as police overran the facility in the early hours of Tuesday. A day earlier, a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Republicans say Obama comments jeopardize Keystone XL pipeline Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:39 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's recent comments on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, downplaying jobs that would be created, jeopardize the project by adding to its uncertainty, Republican lawmakers said in a letter to the president on Wednesday. "We are concerned that your recent statements have signaled an arbitrary and abrupt shift in how our nation approves cross-border energy projects," Republican Representatives Fred Upton, Ed Whitfield, and Lee Terry said in a letter. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. State Department urges Egypt to respect right peaceful assembly Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:33 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department urged Egypt's interim government on Wednesday to respect the right of peaceful assembly, after Cairo's new leaders said vigils by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi threatened national security and were no longer acceptable. "We have continued to urge the interim government, officials and security forces, to respect the right of peaceful assembly," deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told a news briefing. "That obviously includes sit-ins. ... Full Story | Top |
| Secretary of State Kerry in Pakistan on unannounced visit Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:31 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Pakistan late on Wednesday for a day of talks aimed at easing tensions over U.S. drone strikes while putting pressure on the nuclear armed nation to do more to eliminate militant havens on its territory. In Pakistan on an unannounced visit, Kerry is also likely to discuss ways to revive deadlocked talks with the Taliban and broader efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan as U.S.-led forces prepare to pull out most combat troops by late 2014. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kazakh oligarch Ablyazov arrested in France: sources Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:30 AM PDT By Kirstin Ridley and Matthias Galante LONDON/CANNES, France (Reuters) - Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh businessman accused of embezzling $6 billion from his former bank BTA, has been arrested near Cannes in southern France and is being held by police, sources familiar with the situation said. A police source said Ablyazov was arrested in the village of Mouans-Sartoux, located about 8 km (5 miles) north of Cannes. A court hearing has been scheduled for 10.30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. ET) on Thursday, the source added. No further details were immediately available. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil invests in Sao Paulo bus services that set off protests Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff moved quickly on Wednesday to improve bus services in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, where protests over a fare increase in June triggered an outburst of national discontent that battered her popularity. Rousseff announced that 3 billion reais ($1.31 billion) in federal money will be invested in creating 99 km (61 miles) of new express lanes to speed up bus services in Sao Paulo, the country's financial capital. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. intelligence analysts have access to vast online tracking tool: report Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:22 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence analysts can use a secret National Security Agency program to scour wide-spanning databases tracking online traffic, the Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. In training materials cited by the Guardian the NSA calls the XKeyscore program its "widest-reaching" system that covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the Internet. ... Full Story | Top |
| In Tunisian protest square, barriers reflect deeper divide Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:16 AM PDT  By Erika Solomon and Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - The red Tunisian flags they wave are the same, but the divide between opposition and pro-government protesters in the capital's main square is much wider than the 150-metre gap between barriers put there to separate them. Nearly two years after Tunisians came together to remove the long-standing autocratic president, the country is facing its worst political crisis since that uprising set off a wave of protests across the region. ... Full Story | Top |
| Republican Dave Camp seriously mulling Senate bid: sources Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:08 AM PDT  By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michigan Republican Dave Camp, chairman of the tax-writing U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, is seriously mulling running for a U.S. Senate seat in 2014, sources close to the lawmaker said on Wednesday. Camp is giving "serious and thoughtful consideration" to a run for a Michigan Senate seat that will be open in 2014, an aide close to the lawmaker said on condition of anonymity. His candidacy, while posing a serious challenge for Michigan Democrats, could also divert some of Camp's attention from a bid to revamp the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Arkansas Republican congressman running against Senator Pryor Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:06 AM PDT  By Suzi Parker Little Rock, Arkansas (Reuters) - Arkansas Representative Tom Cotton, a rising star in the Republican party serving his first term in Congress, will run against Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Pryor in what is likely to be one of the most hotly contested 2014 election races, a Republican source said on Wednesday. Cotton, 36, scheduled an event in his hometown of Dardanelle for August 6 to announce his challenge to the moderate Pryor, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the Senate. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimbabwe votes in third Mugabe-Tsvangirai showdown Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:03 AM PDT  By Cris Chinaka HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabweans voted in large numbers on Wednesday in a fiercely contested election pitting veteran President Robert Mugabe against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who has vowed to push Africa's oldest leader into retirement after 33 years in power. With no reliable opinion polls and amid allegations of vote-rigging, it is hard to say whether Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to oust 89-year-old Mugabe, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ohio man accused of killing three women pleads not guilty Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:02 AM PDT  By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A man authorities have compared to an Ohio serial killer pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges he killed three women and left their bodies wrapped in plastic bags near his suburban Cleveland apartment. Michael Madison, 35, appeared in a Cleveland courtroom on 14 charges including aggravated murder, rape and kidnapping. Two of the victims were strangled, authorities said. The cause of death of the third has not yet been determined. ... Full Story | Top |
| SEC amends responsibility rules for broker-dealers Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:00 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday adopted amendments to its financial responsibility rules for broker-dealers, as well as rules designed to increase protection for investors who hold their money in such firms. The SEC amended the rules for net capital, customer protection, books and records and notification as part of a set of technical changes to the responsibility rules. The increased investor protection rules require broker-dealers to file new reports that should result in higher levels of compliance with the SEC's rules, the agency said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-agent recalls 'paranoia' about 'Whitey' Bulger's FBI connections Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:59 AM PDT  By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) - FBI files about mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger were locked into a fireproof safe in the bureau's Boston office to keep them from the prying eyes of corrupt agents who would leak them to criminals, a retired agent testified on Wednesday. "I had (files) placed in a safe, I think it was even fireproof, in my office, and I could then lock the door of my office," ex-agent Fred Davis told the jury. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexican President Pena Nieto has successful thyroid surgery Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:57 AM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto successfully underwent surgery on Wednesday to remove a benign nodule on his thyroid gland, his chief of staff said. "It was a success. The president is already awake," Aurelio Nuno, head of the office of the presidency, told a news conference. The surgery lasted nearly two hours and Pena Nieto will remain in hospital for two days. He will then take another couple of days rest at his home. The thyroid nodule was detected about seven years ago, but Pena Nieto had postponed treatment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish police fire teargas to disperse hundreds in Istanbul Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:52 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police fired teargas in Istanbul on Wednesday to disperse several hundred people protesting against the police crackdown on last month's anti-government demonstrations, local media reported. Police blocked several hundred protesters in a busy street near Istanbul's Taksim Square from marching in support of a teenage boy who is said to be in a coma after being hit in the head by a teargas canister during the unrest. TV footage showed police vehicles firing water cannons and protesters running into side streets. ... Full Story | Top |
| Manning changed data access protocol, U.S. argues at sentencing Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:45 AM PDT  By Tom Ramstack FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - As a military judge considered sentencing for convicted U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, prosecutors argued that his leaks of classified information to the WikiLeaks website changed the way the military allowed intelligence analysts to access data. Manning, 25, on Tuesday escaped a life sentence with no parole at his court-martial when Judge Colonel Denise Lind acquitted him of aiding the enemy, the most serious of 21 criminal counts against him. But he still faces the possibility of 136 years in prison on 19 other charges. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senators question U.S. energy market settlement with JPMorgan Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:44 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Democratic Senators on Wednesday asked U.S. energy regulators for more details on how terms of a settlement were reached on alleged power market manipulation in California and the Midwest by a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. In a letter to Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, both of Massachusetts, questioned whether the settlement announced on Tuesday included "adequate refunds to defrauded ratepayers. ... Full Story | Top |
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