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| Rolling Stone photo of accused Boston bomber draws outrage Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:39 PM PDT  By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston officials reacted with outrage Wednesday to an upcoming cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine featuring an image of accused marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that was described by Mayor Thomas Menino as "a disgrace." While the magazine defended its decision, drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp refused to sell it. "It's a total disgrace, that cover of Rolling Stone," Menino told reporters at the opening of a rail station. "It should have been about survivors or first responders. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama's U.N. nominee calls inaction on Syria 'disgrace' Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:38 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Samantha Power, President Barack Obama's nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, promised to push for action on Syria and fight what she termed "unacceptable bias" against Israel at the world body during her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. "We see the failure of the U.N. Security Council to respond to the slaughter in Syria - a disgrace that history will judge harshly," Power, best known as a human rights advocate, said in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon wants more regular testing after failed missile test Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:35 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. defense officials affirmed their commitment to a $1 billion expansion of a Boeing Co ground-based missile defense system despite a test failure this month, but called for more regular testing to get a grip on nagging quality control issues. James Miller, undersecretary of defense for policy, and Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Admiral James Syring, on Wednesday underscored the importance of the missile defense program, citing the escalating threat posed by advances in missile development by North Korea and Iran. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italian TV drops beauty contest that launched Loren to stardom Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:34 PM PDT  By Catherine Hornby ROME (Reuters) - It may have set Sophia Loren on the road to Hollywood stardom, but the Italian state broadcaster thinks the Miss Italia beauty contest is showing its age, and is dropping its coverage after 25 years. Predictably in a country where skimpily clad women are a common sight on mainstream television channels, especially those owned by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset empire, the decision sparked a vigorous debate. ... Full Story | Top |
| Housing starts fall to 10-month low, weather blamed Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:30 PM PDT  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. housing starts and permits for future home construction unexpectedly fell in June, but the decline in activity was likely to be short-lived against the backdrop of bullish sentiment among home builders. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday housing starts dropped 9.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836,000 units. That was the lowest level since August last year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil's Rousseff rules out 'fiscal populism' as demands rise Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:28 PM PDT  By Alonso Soto BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed on Wednesday that her government will not spend beyond its means, rejecting the temptation of increasing outlays to improve public services in the wake of an outburst of national discontent last month. In one of the most delicate moments of her presidency, Rousseff said her Workers Party government remained committed to the fiscal responsibility needed to curb high inflation and keep public finances in order. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian central banker declares homes in U.S., Mexico Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:27 PM PDT By Maya Dyakina MOSCOW (Reuters) - A senior Russian central bank official has declared ownership of six apartments in Mexico and a home in the United States, possibly leaving him open to criticism as President Vladimir Putin campaigns to curtail holdings of foreign assets. Senior central bank officials disclosed their personal wealth on Wednesday, many of them for the first time. First Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov, who supervises $500 billion in foreign reserves, appeared to be the only board member to declare property abroad, according to documents posted on the bank's web site. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. prosecutor warns Wall Street about repeat violations Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:22 PM PDT  By Svea Herbst-Bayliss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said investment firms that repeatedly violate the law should be concerned that they will eventually be held accountable. "People should be afraid that bad actions they have committed in the past" will catch up with them, Bharara said at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha Conference. But Bharara refused to bite when asked several times by the CNBC host, Jim Cramer, about the insider trading investigation into hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors and its founder, Steven A. Cohen. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chicago toughens ban on assault weapons amid violence Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:20 PM PDT By Renita Young CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Chicago city council voted unanimously on Wednesday to toughen its existing ban on assault weapons by adding more types of guns to the banned list and imposing stiffer fines for violations of the law. The nation's third-largest city is facing a wave of gang-related gun violence. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago police have struggled to reverse the trend that has persisted even after they put more police on patrol in some neighborhoods. ... Full Story | Top |
| Protests mount ahead of Greek parliament vote on layoffs Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:18 PM PDT  By Angeliki Koutantou and Renee Maltezou ATHENS (Reuters) - Thousands of Greek workers chanting anti-austerity slogans flocked outside parliament on Wednesday, hours before lawmakers inside vote on a divisive reform bill that would cut thousands of public sector jobs. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government is expected to scrape through the vote, despite a much-slimmer majority of only five seats in parliament after losing an ally over the decision to yank the state broadcaster off air and fire its 2,600 staff. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistan Taliban fighter asks Malala to come home Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:05 PM PDT  PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Taliban commander has written to Pakistani girl activist Malala Yousafzai, saying he regretted her shooting last year by militants and urging her to come home. Yousafzai, now 16, was shot at close range by Taliban gunmen in October as she left school in Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan. She was flown to Britain for treatment and has not returned since due to persistent Taliban threats against her. On July 12, she addressed the world in an electrifying speech at the United Nations in which she said the pen was mightier than the sword. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU's Ashton floats plan to break Hezbollah deadlock Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:02 PM PDT  By Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union could blacklist Hezbollah's military wing while stressing it is open to talking to the militant Lebanese movement's political faction, under a proposal by the EU's foreign policy chief, EU diplomats said on Wednesday. European governments have been deadlocked over the issue since May when Britain asked for the Shi'ite Muslim group's military wing to be put on the EU terror list, citing evidence it was behind a deadly bus bombing in Bulgaria last year. ... Full Story | Top |
| French general says EU Mali mission should be extended Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 12:01 PM PDT By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The French commander of a European Union mission to train Mali's army, routed by rebels last year, said on Wednesday he believed the mission should be expanded and go on for at least a year longer than planned. The EU trainers, dispatched to Mali in the wake of a French-led military intervention in January that drove al Qaeda-allied Islamist insurgents out of the main northern towns, face a big challenge in turning Mali's rag-tag army into a capable force. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mali peace broker pulls out of presidential election race Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:59 AM PDT  BAMAKO (Reuters) - The architect of a peace deal between Mali's government and northern separatist rebels pulled out of this month's presidential election on Wednesday after failing to have the July 28 vote postponed. Former minister Tiebile Drame has complained of French pressure to hold a vote that he says cannot be free and fair so soon after a war to liberate northern Mali from a mix of Tuareg separatists and al Qaeda-linked rebels. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex HSBC employee hopes for widening of Europe tax probe Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:51 AM PDT  By Christian Plumb PARIS (Reuters) - A former IT analyst from banking group HSBC who provided prosecutors with data on thousands of accounts said in an interview he hoped a Franco-Spanish tax avoidance probe would widen to other countries. Pursued since 2009 by Switzerland on charges of stealing data from his former employer, Herve Falciani told Reuters he hoped French authorities will team up with prosecutors in countries ranging from Greece to Germany. "The investigations were blocked in various countries due to a lack of knowledge about the objective and the scale of the problem," he said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: U.S. seeks new approach in financial crisis criminal probes Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:46 AM PDT By Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors are considering a new strategy for criminally charging Wall Street bankers who packaged and sold bad mortgage loans at the height of the housing bubble, according to a federal official familiar with the investigation. The official said federal authorities are finding new evidence they say indicates intent to commit fraud in some of the civil lawsuits that plaintiffs' lawyers have filed against large banks over the packaging and sale of mortgage bonds backed by subprime home loans. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ohio man pleads not guilty to 977 charges in kidnap of 3 women Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:38 AM PDT  By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A former Cleveland school bus driver accused of kidnapping and holding three women captive for years pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to hundreds of criminal charges, but his lawyers said they may seek an agreement to avert a trial. A grand jury on Friday added 648 charges to a previous indictment against Ariel Castro, who is accused of abducting the first of the women in 2002 and holding them captive until they escaped from his house on May 6 along with a 6-year-old girl he fathered with one of the women. ... Full Story | Top |
| Washington IRS office played role in scrutiny case: Republicans Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:38 AM PDT  By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A high-level Internal Revenue Service office in Washington played a role in delaying reviews of some conservative groups' applications for tax-exempt status, according to excerpts of interviews released by Republicans on Wednesday. The selected excerpts came from mid-level IRS officials in Washington, including one who expressed frustration that the IRS chief counsel's office above him interfered with his review of the applications from Tea Party-type groups. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. FDA grants emergency approval for test to detect MERS Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:35 AM PDT (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for a diagnostic test to detect the presence of the Middle East coronavirus at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The emergency approval, issued last month and posted in the Federal Register on Tuesday, followed a determination by the Health and Human Services secretary that the virus called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which has killed at least 40 people, poses a potential public health threat. ... Full Story | Top |
| Queen Elizabeth hopes baby comes soon as she's off on holiday Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:35 AM PDT  By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth joined the band of increasingly impatient royal baby watchers hoping Prince William and his wife Kate's first child arrives soon, saying she is due to go on holiday. With the future heir to the British throne due any day, the queen, on a series of engagements in the Lake District in northern England, was asked if she would like her third great-grandchild to be a girl or a boy. "I don't think I mind. I would very much like it to arrive. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. appeals court tosses injunction limiting indefinite detention Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:30 AM PDT By Bernard Vaughan NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted a lower court order that would have prevented the U.S. military from indefinitely detaining people believed to have helped al Qaeda or the Taliban. The 3-0 decision by a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York was a setback for journalists, activists and others who had argued that the law put them in danger of indefinite detention. It was a victory for the Obama administration, which said the practice is needed to fight terrorism. The 2nd U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Arabs back Kerry push to renew Israel-Palestinian talks Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed AMMAN (Reuters) - The Arab League endorsed the drive to relaunch Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who said gaps between the sides had been greatly narrowed. The encouraging rhetoric after Kerry met an Arab League delegation and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan on Wednesday suggested that Kerry, on his sixth such peace mission to the Middle East in as many months, might have found a path to ending an almost three-year deadlock. ... Full Story | Top |
| Coronavirus is not global emergency: WHO committee Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:27 AM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) is not a "public health emergency of international concern", the emergency committee of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. Its 15 international experts issued a unanimous decision after hearing reports from authorities in Saudi Arabia and other countries affected by the deadly SARS-like virus that has infected 82 people and killed 45 of them since April 2012. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. suggests Egyptian military averted civil war Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:26 AM PDT  By Noah Browning and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt avoided a possible civil war this month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday, making it hard for Washington to conclude that the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was a military coup. The armed forces deposed the elected leader on July 3 after huge street protests against his rule, clearing the way for the installment this week of a new interim cabinet charged with restoring civilian government and reviving the troubled economy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Panama calls in U.N. to inspect North Korean arms ship Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:21 AM PDT  By Lomi Kriel PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama said on Wednesday it had called in the United Nations Security Council to investigate a North Korean ship caught smuggling arms from Cuba, piling more pressure on Pyongyang for a possible breach of U.N. sanctions. Panamanian Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino said his government had asked the United Nations to advise on the case and that Panama aimed to hand over the ship, the Chong Chon Gang, and its contents to U.N. representatives. "It's going to be transferred to the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ethiopia's long-distance great Gebrselassie to run in 2015 vote Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:17 AM PDT  By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - As his feet hit the pedals at lightning speed, Haile Gebrselassie barely breaks a sweat on an exercise bike at his gym in the Ethiopian capital's upscale Bole district. He then proceeds to work on his chest muscles, hours after jogging down the forested hills in the northern suburbs of Addis Ababa. The 40-year-old still maintains the tough regimen that brought him track glory and international recognition for two decades, after clinching the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters races at the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bank of Canada lays out conditions for steady rates Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:17 AM PDT  By Randall Palmer and Louise Egan OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada said on Wednesday it will hold its benchmark interest rate steady at 1 percent while the economy remains fragile and inflation stays low, but that it sees rates rising if the economy performs in line with expectations. The policy announcement, the first under new Governor Stephen Poloz, delivered roughly the same message as those of his predecessor, Mark Carney, over the past year: The next move is a rate hike, not a cut, although it won't be any time soon. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fighting in South Sudan cuts off 100,000 people from aid Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:15 AM PDT  By Andrew Green JUBA (Reuters) - Fighting between government forces, rebels and rival tribes has cut off 100,000 people from urgently needed food and medical aid in South Sudan's east, U.N. and aid officials said on Wednesday. South Sudan's army is facing a rebellion from local politician David Yau Yau in the vast Jonglei state, and new clashes have broken out between the rival Lou Nuer and Murle tribes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chinese position forced suspension of tech trade talks: U.S. Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:12 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. trade official on Wednesday said talks aimed at cutting tariffs on a new generation of technology products have been suspended because of China's demand to exclude more than 100 products from the tariff cuts. China is one of 20 World Trade Organization members, along with the United States and the 28-nation European Union, that have been negotiating for months to expand the 1996 Information Technology Agreement to include products ranging from flat-screen televisions to the latest semiconductors. ... Full Story | Top |
| Queen hopes baby comes soon as she's off on holiday Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:12 AM PDT  By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - The Queen joined the band of increasingly impatient royal baby watchers hoping Prince William and his wife Kate's first child arrives soon, saying she is due to go on holiday. With the future heir to the British throne due any day, the queen, on a series of engagements in the Lake District in northern England, was asked if she would like her third great-grandchild to be a girl or a boy. "I don't think I mind. I would very much like it to arrive. ... Full Story | Top |
| France urges Myanmar leader to investigate anti-Muslim violence Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 11:03 AM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande pressed Myanmar's president on Wednesday to investigate violence against the country's Muslim minority in depth, and said a pledge to release political prisoners must be followed by action. Hollande met briefly with Thein Sein in Paris two days after the former military leader visited his British counterpart in London as part of a tour aimed at securing Western aid to help Myanmar emerge from decades of dictatorship. ... Full Story | Top |
| Watchdogs warn of U.S. healthcare insurance exchange delays Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:58 AM PDT By Patrick Temple-West and Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. government watchdogs warned on Wednesday of possible delays in the scheduled October 1 start of new state healthcare exchanges, raising further doubts about the implementation of President Barack Obama's signature legislation. One watchdog warned the Internal Revenue Service would have difficulty completing testing of systems required to implement the law, while another from the Government Accountability Office said he also foresaw difficulties in meeting an October 1 deadline. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bernanke tells Congress Fed flexible on bond buying Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:47 AM PDT  By Alister Bull and Pedro da Costa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the U.S. central bank still expects to start scaling back its massive bond purchase program later this year, but he left open the option of changing that plan if the economic outlook shifted. While sticking closely to a timeline to wind down the bond buying that he first outlined last month, Bernanke went out of his way to stress that nothing was set in stone. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimmerman juror calls for change in self-defense laws Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:44 AM PDT  By Daniel Trotta NEW YORK (Reuters) - A juror in the George Zimmerman trial on Wednesday called for changes in the self-defense law that she said gave her no option but to find Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. With her identity kept secret, the juror, designated B-37, gave an interview to CNN on Monday that stirred further debate in the case, which captivated the U.S. public and triggered lengthy discussions about race, guns and self-defense laws. ... Full Story | Top |
| Railway lays off staff after Quebec train disaster Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:41 AM PDT  LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - The railway at the center of North America's deadliest train accident in more than 20 years has laid off a number of people in Maine and Quebec, the company confirmed on Wednesday. The staffing cutbacks at the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) come 11 days after a runaway train hauling 72 tanker cars of crude oil derailed and exploded in the center of Lac-Megantic, killing some 50 people and leveling the heart of the small town. ... Full Story | Top |
| 'Whitey' Bulger trial turns to drugs and IRA arms shipments Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:40 AM PDT  By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) - The suspicious death of a fisherman who helped the Boston mob smuggle guns to the Irish Republican Army in the 1980s was the focus on Wednesday of prosecutors trying mobster James "Whitey" Bulger on charges that he committed or ordered 19 murders. Jurors in the Bulger trial, which has riveted Boston for weeks, got a detailed description of how Bulger's "Winter Hill" gang used fishing boats and freighters in the 1980s to smuggle drugs into the United States and ship guns to the IRA for its guerrilla campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. lawmakers say little political support for phone surveillance Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:36 AM PDT  By David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. spy agencies went too far when they built a massive database of all daily telephone call records and may have jeopardized political support for the very law they relied on to create it, members of Congress said on Wednesday. Lawmakers said at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee that they doubted the legal provision had the votes to win renewal before it is set to expire in June 2015. The warning was the latest evidence of a backlash against U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Libyan minority groups say will boycott constitution vote Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:29 AM PDT By Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Three Libyan ethnic minorities announced on Wednesday they would boycott an election of a committee to draft a new constitution, the first blow to a democratic process supposed to decide what political system the country will adopt. Members of the Amazigh, Tibu and Tuareg communities denounced a law passed on Tuesday under which 60 people will be elected by popular vote to draft a charter, saying that such a constitutional committee would not be "fully representative". ... Full Story | Top |
| Pirelli head found guilty of receiving stolen data Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:22 AM PDT  MILAN (Reuters) - The chairman of tyre maker Pirelli, Marco Tronchetti Provera, was handed a 20-month suspended jail sentence on Wednesday for receiving stolen information when he was head of Telecom Italia. Provera, one of Italy's most prominent businessmen, was also ordered by a Milan court to pay 900,000 euros ($1.2 million) to Telecom Italia, which he led from 2001 to 2006. Provera was found guilty of receiving phone data in 2004 stolen from a security agency in Brazil. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's Brotherhood says EU has no offer for crisis Wednesday, Jul 17, 2013 10:19 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - A senior figure in ousted President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood met the European Union's foreign affairs chief in Cairo on Wednesday and said Brussels had offered no proposal that could resolve Egypt's political crisis. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held a 45-minute meeting with Amr Darrag and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, as well as Mursi's prime minister, Hisham Kandil. Asked whether he was disappointed that the EU was not supporting the Brotherhood, Darrag said: "We are not expecting support from anybody. We are relying only on ourselves. ... Full Story | Top |
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