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| Egypt names prime minister Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 12:06 PM PDT  By Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt named an interim prime minister on Tuesday and rich Gulf states poured in $8 billion in aid, as the biggest Arab nation sought ways out of a crisis a day after troops killed dozens of Islamists. Interim head of state Adli Mansour announced a faster-than-expected timetable to hold elections in about six months. Scorned by the ousted Muslim Brotherhood, he is under mounting pressure to plot a path back to democracy less than a week after the army overthrew the first freely elected president. ... Full Story | Top |
| Quest for answers starts in deadly Canada rail crash Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 10:25 AM PDT  By Richard Valdmanis and Julie Gordon LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - Investigators seeking the cause of the deadly train crash in the tiny Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, were focusing Tuesday on the train's brakes, the railway company's own regulations and whether Canada needs tougher train-transport standards. Officials from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said more than a dozen investigators were examining every angle of the accident, in which a runaway train hauling 72 cars of crude oil plowed into the lakeside town and exploded. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pilots union says probe of Asiana crash revealed too much, too fast Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 11:18 AM PDT  By Alwyn Scott NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's largest pilot union rebuked the federal agency handling the investigation of Saturday's passenger jet crash in San Francisco, saying it had released too much information too quickly, which could lead to wrong conclusions and compromise safety. Releasing data from the flight's black boxes without full investigative information for context "encourages wild speculation" about the cause of the crash, the Air Line Pilots Association International said in a statement late on Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Snowden has not yet accepted asylum in Venezuela: WikiLeaks Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 12:02 PM PDT  By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Tuesday after a Russian lawmaker posted a statement to that effect on Twitter and then deleted it. WikiLeaks, on its own Twitter feed, said that states involved in deciding an asylum destination for Snowden, who fled the United States last month, "will make the announcement if and when the appropriate time comes". ... Full Story | Top |
| British lawmakers recall Murdoch over phone-hacking evidence Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 09:17 AM PDT  By Michael Holden and Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers said on Tuesday they would recall media mogul Rupert Murdoch to clarify evidence he gave to them last year after he was secretly recorded belittling a police inquiry into alleged crimes committed by journalists on his papers. In a meeting with staff on his mass-selling Sun tabloid, Murdoch said he regretted helping a police inquiry into phone-hacking which has grown into a far wider investigation into alleged illegal reporting practices. He suggested the industry had relied on such tactics for decades. ... Full Story | Top |
| Leaked Gitmo 'baseball cards' had little value: WikiLeaks trial witness Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 10:32 AM PDT  By Ian Simpson FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - Secret data on Guantanamo Bay detainees dubbed "baseball cards" that a soldier leaked to WikiLeaks had little value for U.S. enemies, the prison's former top prosecutor testified at a court-martial on Tuesday. Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, is accused of releasing more than 700,000 classified files to WikiLeaks, an anti-secrecy website, including more than 700 assessment briefs on prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. ... Full Story | Top |
| Expert bolsters Zimmerman account of Trayvon Martin shooting Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 12:05 PM PDT  By Barbara Liston SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - George Zimmerman's account of his fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin is consistent with the forensic evidence in the highly publicized case, an expert on gunshot wounds said on Tuesday. Dr. Vincent DiMaio, a forensic pathologist testifying for the defense at Zimmerman's murder trial, said the trajectory of the bullet that pierced Martin's chest and gun powder on his body supported Zimmerman's claim that Martin was on top of him when he fired him 9mm semiautomatic. ... Full Story | Top |
| Roadside bomb kills 17 civilians in Afghanistan Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 09:23 AM PDT HERAT (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed 17 civilians, including four children, in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, police said, just days after a series of similar blasts killed nine people. The bomb exploded under a trailer packed with villagers travelling to a ceremony in the Obi district of western Herat and was placed by Taliban insurgents, said Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, a police spokesman in the usually stable province. "There were 12 women, four children and one man among the dead. Seven others were wounded, including five children," Ahmadi said. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's Mandela remains in 'critical but stable' condition Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 04:31 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's anti-apartheid hero and former president Nelson Mandela remained in a "critical but stable" condition after being in hospital for more than four weeks to treat a lung infection, the government said on Tuesday. (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Jon Herskovitz) Full Story | Top |
| Obama has not decided post-2014 Afghanistan troop levels: Pentagon Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 10:30 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has not yet decided how many troops to keep in Afghanistan after 2014, but a total pullout is one of the options under consideration, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. Pentagon spokesman George Little, in a news briefing, declined comment on whether Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel supported keeping U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014, saying he would not disclose Hagel's private recommendations to Obama. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by David Brunnstrom) Full Story | Top |
| Snowden has not yet accepted asylum in Venezuela: WikiLeaks Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 11:32 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Tuesday after a Russian lawmaker posted a statement to that effect on Twitter and then deleted it. WikiLeaks, on its own Twitter feed, said that states involved in a decision on an asylum destination for Snowden, who is believed to be holed up at a Moscow airport, "will make the announcement if and when the appropriate time comes". (Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Michael Roddy) Full Story | Top |
| Spain says U.S. tipoff led it to query Bolivian flight Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 12:19 PM PDT  By Raquel Castillo MADRID (Reuters) - Spain acknowledged on Tuesday that a U.S. request had led it to delay approving an overflight by Bolivia's president, but said it had given the go-ahead after receiving an assurance from Bolivia that U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden was not on the plane. Bolivia has accused Spain, France, Portugal and Italy of closing their skies to President Evo Morales' plane last week after being told it was carrying the former U.S. spy agency contractor from Moscow to Bolivia, and demanded to know who gave them that information. ... Full Story | Top |
| Quebec tragedy could disrupt oil rail transport for a while: Canada's TSB Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 10:45 AM PDT LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - Shipments of crude oil along the rail route disrupted by the Quebec train derailment could be out of service for "a while", an official with Canada's Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday. Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway's line that carries oil from Montreal through Maine destined for Irving Oil's St. John, New Brunswick refinery has been shut since a crude train derailed in Lac-Megantic early Saturday. About 50 people are either confirmed dead, or are still missing, likely turning the accident into North America's worst rail disaster since 1989. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senior senator questions White House secrecy on Syria Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 09:15 AM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday said the White House was harming U.S. national security interests by being too secretive about its plans to arm Syrian rebels. Responding to a Reuters story, Senator Bob Corker said President Barack Obama's administration has fully briefed only members of the Senate and House of Representatives Intelligence committees on details of its plans to aid to rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt temporary leadership names interim prime minister Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 07:49 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's interim president on Tuesday named liberal economist and former finance minister Hazem el-Beblawi as prime minister in a transitional government, as the authorities sought to steer the country to new parliamentary and presidential elections. Acting head of state Adli Mansour also appointed former U.N. nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei as deputy to the president, responsible for foreign affairs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian tweet on Snowden asylum decision deleted Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 08:47 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - A tweet in which a senior Russian lawmaker said former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden had accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum was deleted from his Twitter feed shortly after it was posted on Tuesday. The lawmaker, Alexei Pushkov, later tweeted that he had seen the news on state-run Russian television channel Rossiya-24, but a representative of Rossiya-24 said it had been referring to Pushkov's initial tweet. Pushkov, the pro-Kremlin chairman of the international affairs committee in the lower parliament house, could not immediately be reached for comment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spanish corruption row seen shaking but not felling PM Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 08:38 AM PDT  By Sonya Dowsett and Julien Toyer MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy may take a pounding from fresh corruption allegations against his People's Party but the government is strong enough to ride the storm, analysts and sources say. A Spanish newspaper said on Tuesday it had handed over handwritten documents to the High Court which it said were ledger entries showing payments from an illicit slush fund run by the PP to party leaders, including Rajoy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebel blockade in Aleppo leaves thousands hungry: activists Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 08:04 AM PDT  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels have intensified their blockade of government-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo, where residents now face severe food shortages, opposition activists said on Tuesday. Many activists condemn the tactic, aimed at weakening the supply routes of President Bashar al-Assad's forces, arguing that it indiscriminately punishes more than 2 million people living in the western part of the city still held by the army. Aleppo has been in a stalemate since nearly a year ago, when rebels launched an offensive and seized half of the city. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. debt collector hit with record penalty for abusive calls Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 12:19 PM PDT By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Expert Global Solutions, the world's largest debt collection agency, has agreed to pay a $3.2 million civil penalty and stop harassing and abusing debtors by engaging in practices such as calling them multiple times a day, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday. The financial penalty levied on the company is the biggest ever obtained by the FTC against a third-party debt collector, the commission said. On its website, Expert Global Solutions says it is a holding company for a leading accounts receivable management company. ... Full Story | Top |
| Over 50 hurt as car bomb hits Hezbollah Beirut stronghold Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 05:39 AM PDT  By Laila Bassam and Mariam Karouny BEIRUT (Reuters) - A massive car bomb ripped through a Beirut stronghold of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group that has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war, wounding 53 people on Tuesday. None of those hurt were seriously wounded, Health Minister Hassan Khalil told Reuters, and there were no fatalities. Sectarian tensions in Lebanon have been high following the intervention of the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah in support of Assad's forces fighting a two-year revolt led by Syria's Sunni Muslim majority. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-minister found guilty over Cyprus munitions blast Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 06:23 AM PDT  By Michele Kambas NICOSIA (Reuters) - A former Cypriot defense minister was found guilty of manslaughter on Tuesday over a deadly munitions blast two years ago that killed 13 people and crippled the economy in the island's worst peacetime disaster. A court ruled that Costas Papacostas, who served in the former communist government, bore direct responsibility for a sequence of failures to safeguard a cargo of confiscated Iranian munitions that exploded in the early hours of July 11, 2011. Papacostas and three senior fire service officials found guilty of negligence will be sentenced on July 24. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian lawmaker says Snowden accepts Venezuela asylum offer Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 07:42 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - A senior Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday that former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who is wanted in the United States on espionage charges, has accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum. "Snowden has given his agreement to (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro's offer of political asylum," Alexei Pushkov, the pro-Kremlin chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia's lower parliament house, said on Twitter. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Writing by Steve Gutterman) Full Story | Top |
| Former Bulger associate recalls burying victims in home Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 11:55 AM PDT  By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger choked to death a fellow gangster's 26-year-old stepdaughter, and had her buried in the basement of a South Boston house already full of dead bodies, gang member Kevin Weeks testified on Tuesday. "It was a girl, she wasn't involved with us, she wasn't a criminal," Weeks, 57, told a jury at Bulger's trial on charges including committing or ordering 19 murders while running Boston's "Winter Hill" gang in the 1970s and 1980s. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Confident Assad sees Syria tide turning Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 07:02 AM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - The road to Bashar al-Assad's palace on the edge of Damascus has four checkpoints manned by Republican Guards and plain-clothed police which guests must pass before they reach the main gate. Inside the People's Palace, in the hills overlooking the Syrian capital, visitors who have seen the Syrian president in the last month say security is surprisingly light for a man who has lost control of half his country to a rebel uprising. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi's final tax fraud appeal hearing set for July 30 Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 06:51 AM PDT  By Roberto Landucci ROME (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi's final appeal against a prison sentence for tax fraud will be heard in court on July 30, defense lawyers said on Tuesday, calling the timetable too hasty. The former Italian prime minister was sentenced last year to four years' jail with a five year ban on holding public office, for complicity in tax fraud at his Mediaset television empire. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iranian authorities foil suspected suicide attack: agency Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 05:27 AM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian security forces on Tuesday killed a man suspected of wanting to carry out a suicide bombing on a police headquarters in the city of Chabahar in southeastern Iran, the semi-official Mehr news agency said. Chabahar is located in Sistan-Baluchistan, an impoverished region bordering Pakistan whose mainly Sunni Muslim population says it suffers discrimination from Iran's Shi'ite authorities. The Sunni Muslim rebel group Jundollah carried out a series of attacks in the region from 2005, but has been far less active since its leader was arrested and executed in 2010. ... Full Story | Top |
| Groups gather in Turkish protest park after night of clashes Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 04:13 AM PDT  By Ece Toksabay ISTANBUL (Reuters) - An Istanbul park at the center of protests against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government reopened on Tuesday after a night of clashes between police and protesters, but the mood among the small groups of visitors was calm. On Monday night, police fired teargas and water cannon at protesters as they tried to prevent them gathering in Gezi Park, which had been sealed off by police for three weeks after police expelled the residents of a protest camp there. ... Full Story | Top |
| Thousands expected to pay final tribute to fallen Arizona firemen Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 03:04 AM PDT  By Tim Gaynor PHOENIX (Reuters) - Thousands of mourners, including firefighters from around the country and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, were expected to converge in central Arizona on Tuesday to pay final tribute to 19 young firemen killed last week in the line of duty. The fallen members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, an elite firefighting squad from Prescott, Arizona, were overrun by flames on the afternoon of June 30 as they battled a lightning-sparked blaze with hand tools outside the tiny town of Yarnell. The tragedy marked the greatest loss of life from a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Journalist shot dead in Russia's Dagestan province Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 05:33 AM PDT MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - A journalist who wrote about alleged human rights abuses was shot dead in Russia's violence-plagued North Caucasus province of Dagestan on Tuesday, law enforcement authorities and colleagues said. Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev, who had received death threats and survived an apparent assassination attempt in January, was killed by gunshots fired into his car by an unknown attacker near his home on the outskirts of Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala. ... Full Story | Top |
| Portugal needs unity, quick return to growth, says new economic czar Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 05:10 AM PDT  LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal needs political stability to complete its aid program but must also focus on bouncing back quickly from recession, the minister appointed to coordinate economic policy said on Tuesday. Paulo Portas, who heads junior coalition party CDS-PP, resigned as foreign minister last week, sparking a political crisis that threatened both the government and the 78-billion-euro bailout that Portugal is due to exit next year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Asiana plane was far below target speed before San Francisco crash Monday, Jul 08, 2013 08:08 PM PDT  By Alistair Barr and Hyunjoo Jin SAN FRANCISCO/SEOUL (Reuters) - The role of the pilots in Saturday's crash of an Asiana Airlines plane in San Francisco came under increasing scrutiny on Monday as U.S. investigators began to interview them and released new details about the jet's dangerously slow air speed before it slammed into the ground. ... Full Story | Top |
| Three Ohio women freed from abduction ordeal release video Tuesday, Jul 09, 2013 07:47 AM PDT  By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Three young women who spent a decade imprisoned in a Cleveland home spoke publicly for the first time since they were freed, with the longest-held captive saying in a video released on Tuesday: "I will not let the situation define who I am." The Ohio women - Amanda Berry, 27; Gina DeJesus, 23; and Michelle Knight, 32 - thanked those who gave them emotional and financial support since they emerged from the dungeon-like home of former school bus driver Ariel Castro on May 6. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bin Laden's life on the run revealed by Pakistani inquiry Monday, Jul 08, 2013 10:41 PM PDT  By Maria Golovnina ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden lived in plain sight for almost a decade and was once even pulled over for speeding but not apprehended, thanks to the incompetence of Pakistan's intelligence and security services, an official report into his killing said on Monday. The report, leaked to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera which circulated it late on Monday, offers fascinating details about life on the run for the world's most wanted man, who, it says, wore a cowboy hat to avoid being spotted from above. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bangladesh garment sales soar despite deadly incidents Monday, Jul 08, 2013 11:23 PM PDT  DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh's exports rose 16.3 percent in June to $2.7 billion on the year, boosted by stronger clothing sales, an export body said on Tuesday, as the low-cost country retains its allure for cost-crunching global retailers despite deadly incidents. Duty-free access to Western markets and low wages have helped make Bangladesh the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China, with 60 percent of clothes going to Europe and 23 percent to the United States. Garment exports totaled $21. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. soldier in WikiLeaks case had free access to secret files Monday, Jul 08, 2013 06:21 PM PDT  By Ian Simpson FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The soldier accused of the largest release of classified material in U.S. history had wide-open access to secret files that could easily be downloaded, witnesses told a court-martial on Monday at the start of defense testimony. Private First Class Bradley Manning, accused of releasing more than 700,000 classified files to WikiLeaks, had nothing to stop him from installing software for the high-speed download of secret State Department cables, the witnesses said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: How a train ran away and devastated a Canadian town Monday, Jul 08, 2013 06:45 PM PDT  By P.J. Huffstutter and Richard Valdmanis CHICAGO/LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - The short length of track, nestled in a dark pine and birch forest in Quebec, is a regular overnight stop for freight trains hauling crude oil and other raw materials across North America. Normally, before retiring for the night, the train operator sets the hand brakes and leaves one locomotive running to power the air brakes that help hold the train in place on the gently sloping track. The next morning, the operator or a relief engineer starts up the train and continues on their way. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria invites U.N. chemical arms chief, but access is in doubt Monday, Jul 08, 2013 01:35 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday invited chief U.N. chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom to Damascus to discuss allegations of banned arms use in Syria's civil war but suggested it would not compromise on access. Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters that U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane was also invited to Syria for talks about the U.N. chemical investigation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Quebec disaster death toll jumps to 13, some 37 still missing Monday, Jul 08, 2013 03:57 PM PDT By Richard Valdmanis and P.J. Huffstutter LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The death toll in Quebec's oil train disaster jumped to 13 people on Monday and police said about 37 more people were missing, a sign the derailment and explosion could be the worst accident in Canada since the Swissair crash of 1998. Police said they estimated a total of around 50 people were either dead or missing after the gigantic blast destroyed dozens of buildings in the center of Lac-Megantic early on Saturday. Previously they had said five people were dead and 40 were missing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bolivia demands answers from Europe in plane spat over Snowden Monday, Jul 08, 2013 02:23 PM PDT  By Daniel Ramos LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia demanded on Monday that France, Portugal, Spain and Italy reveal who told them that former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden was on board President Evo Morales' flight from Moscow last week. Bolivia said it was an act of "state terrorism" by the United States and its European allies that the four countries banned Morales' plane from their airspace on suspicions it was carrying the U.S. fugitive to Bolivia in defiance of Washington. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimmerman's friends describe 911 call Monday, Jul 08, 2013 03:17 PM PDT By Barbara Liston SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - The dispute over who screamed for help the night George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin dominated Zimmerman's trial on Monday, with five friends saying the voice belonged to the neighborhood watch coordinator and the victim's father insisting it was his son's dying plea. The testimony of Zimmerman's friends, at Florida's Seminole County Court, lent support to his claim he killed the unarmed black teenager in self-defense. ... Full Story | Top |
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