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| Luxembourg PM says will propose to hold early election Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 12:13 PM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday he will propose to hold an early election. The euro zone country hold a snap poll after the junior coalition partner in Juncker's government said he should take political responsibility for failing to curb abuse of power by the secret service Luxembourg's parliament on Wednesday reviewed a report it commissioned on the security agency's illegal bugging of politicians, purchase of cars for private use and allegations it took payments and favours in exchange for access to local officials. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt orders arrest of Brotherhood leaders Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 12:10 PM PDT  By Maggie Fick and Alexander Dziadosz CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the arrest on Wednesday of the leaders of ousted President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, charging them with inciting violence in a clash that saw troops shoot dozens of his supporters dead. A week after the army toppled Egypt's first democratically elected leader, bloodshed has opened deep fissures in the Arab world's most populous country, with bitterness at levels unseen in its modern history. ... Full Story | Top |
| Suspected Colombian drug kingpin pleads not guilty in U.S. court Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 12:00 PM PDT  By Bernard Vaughan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alleged Colombian drug kingpin Daniel Barrera made his first appearance in a U.S. court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. Prosecutors accuse Barrera, 44, of manufacturing upwards of 400 tons of cocaine annually in Colombia and trafficking it worldwide. He conspired with others to distribute cocaine "knowing and intending" that some would be imported into the United States, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna Dabbs said at the hearing in Manhattan federal court. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House voices confidence in the U.S. ambassador to Egypt Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:59 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday voiced confidence in the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, who has come under fire for criticism she made of planned rallies against the Muslim Brotherhood before the military takeover in Egypt a week ago. Patterson's remarks were covered extensively by local media and were denounced by Egyptian opposition leaders who accused her of interference in Egypt's internal affairs. At his daily news briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Patterson is "absolutely" seen as an effective advocate for U.S. policy in Egypt. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea says could resume nuclear talks if U.S. ends hostility Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:56 AM PDT  By Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea said on Wednesday that it would not give up its nuclear deterrent until the United States ends its "hostile policy" towards Pyongyang, but that it was ready to revive international talks on its nuclear program frozen since 2008. The United States and its allies believe North Korea violated a 2005 aid-for-denuclearization deal by conducting a nuclear test the following year and pursuing uranium enrichment that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to its plutonium-based atomic program. ... Full Story | Top |
| Isolated, hot, angry: fasting Mursi backers keep Cairo vigil Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:56 AM PDT  By Alexander Dziadosz CAIRO (Reuters) - Two incongruous additions to a vigil held by thousands of supporters of Egypt's deposed President Mohamed Mursi suggest the protesters don't intend to move soon - at least not without a fight. The first is a glittering strand of confetti over the road by the entrance to mark Wednesday's start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting which protesters intend to spend camping out by a mosque in northeastern Cairo. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: U.S. still plans to send F-16s to Egypt in coming weeks Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:52 AM PDT  By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will go through with the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt in the coming weeks, U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday as Washington deliberated whether to call the ouster of Egypt's elected leader a military coup. A decision to call last week's overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi a coup would, by law, require the Obama administration to halt aid to the Egyptian army. Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid behind Israel, receiving $1.5 billion a year. The jets were part of that aid package, a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Workers at Brazil port end protest; to resume strike Thursday Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:32 AM PDT SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Dock workers at Brazil's key shipping port of Santos, the largest in South America, stopped a strike over port reform early on Wednesday but plan to walk off the job again on Thursday in support of a broader union protest. Port authorities said Wednesday's strike prevented the loading of some 13 container ships for a few hours, but mechanized bulk cargo shipments, such as soybeans and corn, were not affected. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. calls on Lebanon's Hezbollah to stop involvement in Syria Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:29 AM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council called on Lebanese Hezbollah militants on Wednesday to end any involvement in the conflict in neighboring Syria, while Lebanon's U.N. envoy pledged that his country would keep its borders open to Syrians fleeing the violence. Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces combat rebels, according to Israeli and Western estimates. Israel is now boosting its forces on the Syrian border, where it believes Hezbollah is preparing for the day when it could fight Israel. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria opposition denies Russian chemical attack allegation Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The opposition Syrian National Coalition on Wednesday denied a Russian charge that rebel fighters fired a projectile laden with the nerve agent sarin at a suburb of Aleppo in March, saying U.N. inspectors should be allowed to investigate the attack. Separately, Western diplomats said Russia blocked a draft U.N. Security Council resolution this week calling for a stalled U.N. chemical weapons investigation team to be allowed to visit Syria and to be permitted to conduct an "objective" inquiry. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mandela 'responding to treatment': South African president Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:26 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is responding to treatment but remains in a critical but stable condition after more than a month in hospital, the office of President Jacob Zuma said on Wednesday. "We are encouraged that Madiba is responding to treatment and urge the public to continue providing support and showering him with love, which gives him and the family strength," Zuma himself said after visiting Mandela, often referred to affectionately by his clan name Madiba, in a Pretoria hospital. ... Full Story | Top |
| Luxembourg spying scandal breaks Juncker government Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:22 AM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Luxembourg will hold new elections after the junior coalition partner in Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker's government said he should take political responsibility for failing to curb abuse of power by the secret service. Luxembourg's parliament on Wednesday reviewed a report it commissioned on the security agency's illegal bugging of politicians, purchase of cars for private use and allegations it took payments and favors in exchange for access to local officials. ... Full Story | Top |
| Colombia demands answers on U.S. spying as Latin America seethes Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:17 AM PDT By Helen Murphy BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia called for answers from Washington on Wednesday after revelations the United States had spied on the Andean nation, its closest military ally in Latin America, as anger mounted in the region over U.S. intelligence gathering. Colombia's foreign ministry said it "registered with concern" reports of an "unauthorized data collection program" in a brief statement overnight, and asked that the U.S. government give an account of its actions through its Bogota embassy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Railway boss says sabotage not suspected in Quebec inferno Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 11:02 AM PDT  LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - There is no suspicion that the train disaster that destroyed the heart of the town of Lac-Megantic and left dozens killed or missing was caused by sabotage, the head of the railway, Ed Burkhardt, said on Wednesday. It was plain someone had tampered with the locomotive of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train before the explosion, and it had now emerged that it was the fire department that was putting out an earlier fire, Burkhardt, the chairman of the railway, told reporters. "Were they negligent in their tampering? I think not," he said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Washington vilified on both sides of Egypt's divide Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 10:44 AM PDT  By Maggie Fick and Tom Finn CAIRO (Reuters) - Pictures of Barack Obama have popped up all over Cairo. Some have his faced crossed out in paint. Heavy black beards are daubed onto others. No matter which side you talk to in Egypt, where people have been polarized by a violent political crisis, the U.S. president is cast as the villain. Islamists who support Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's first freely elected president, who was overthrown by the military a week ago, are angry at the United States because they believe it allowed, and even plotted, what they call a military coup. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House says it will take time to rule if Mursi removal was coup Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 10:18 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday it will take time to determine whether the Egyptian military's removal of President Mohamed Mursi constituted a coup, and called on the military to exercise restraint. "We are evaluating how the authorities are responding to and handling the current situation," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters when asked whether the U.S. administration was any closer to making a decision about how to describe Mursi's removal. (Reporting by Laura MacInnis and Roberta Rampton; Editing by David Brunnstrom) Full Story | Top |
| Luxembourg government coalition partner calls for new elections Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 10:17 AM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The junior coalition partner in the Luxembourg government led by Jean-Claude Juncker has called for new elections, after a parliamentary committee said Juncker failed to curb abuse of power by the secret service. "We ask the government to intervene with the head of state to clear the way for new elections," Alex Bodry, the president of the Socalist coalition partner, told the Luxembourg parliament on Wednesday. (Reporting by Michele Sinner and Robert-Jan Bartunek, editing by Martin Santa) Full Story | Top |
| Obama pushes House Republicans on immigration Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 10:07 AM PDT  By Thomas Ferraro and Rachelle Younglai WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama jumped into the immigration debate on Wednesday, releasing a report touting economic benefits from reforms and meeting with Hispanic lawmakers, as House of Representatives Republicans gathered to try to craft their response. The release of the White House report signaled a new outspokenness by Obama, who made immigration a top legislative priority but stayed on the sidelines of the debate that raged in the Senate in May and June. The report said passing reforms would grow the economy by 3. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hungary promises teachers 34 percent pay hike, with more to come Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 09:59 AM PDT BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will raise the pay of 150,000 teachers from September by an average 34 percent and give further hikes every year until 2017, a government minister said on Wednesday. The measure could help Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party to cement its comfortable opinion poll lead in the run-up to a national election expected next April or May. Zoltan Balog, minister for human resources, told a news conference that teachers' pay would rise again in September 2014 by an average 10 percent, with further rises each year to 2017. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia says Syrian opposition blocking peace conference Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 09:57 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Syrian opposition leader is undermining chances for proposed peace talks by saying that foes of President Bashar al-Assad will only attend if they make military headway first, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. Ahmad Jarba, the new president of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, told Reuters on Sunday it would not go to the conference that Russia and the United States are trying to convene in Geneva unless its battlefield fortunes improve. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebel sheikh calls for war on Assad's Alawite heartland Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 09:50 AM PDT  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - An influential Islamist cleric turned rebel commander urged Syrian insurgents on Wednesday to focus their war on President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite heartland to create a "balance of terror" and help turn the tide of the conflict. After seizing large tracts of Syria's north and east and parts of the center, the rebels - short of heavy weaponry - have struggled to weaken Assad's grip over most major cities and his western Alawite communal stronghold along the Mediterranean coast that so far has been largely unscathed by the civil war. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi ruling shakes Italy government Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 09:47 AM PDT  By Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi's party boycotted a summit of Italy's fragile coalition government and blocked parliamentary activity on Wednesday in protest against a supreme court decision to fast track a ruling that could ban him from public office. Legislative activity in both chambers of parliament was suspended for a day because of the protest by Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party, one of the two main partners in Enrico Letta's left-right coalition government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy investigating deportation of Kazakh oligarch's wife Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 09:44 AM PDT By Steve Scherer and Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has ordered an investigation into the deportation in May of the wife and daughter of fugitive Kazakh oligarch and dissident Mukhtar Ablyazov as questions about its legality multiply. The mysterious operation in which Ablyazov's wife Alma Shalabayeva and their six-year-old daughter were seized and whisked off to Kazakhstan on a non-commercial flight two days later has put pressure on Interior Minister Angelino Alfano. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistan president's close aide killed in suicide attack Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 09:31 AM PDT  By Syed Raza Hassan ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - One of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's most trusted aides was killed in a suspected suicide bombing in the volatile port city of Karachi on Wednesday as he stopped his armored vehicle to buy some fruit, police said. Pakistan has suffered a spate of bombings since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was sworn in last month, underscoring the challenges facing the nuclear-armed nation in taming a Taliban-linked insurgency. ... Full Story | Top |
| Former South African leader named head of U.N. Women Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 09:17 AM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations named former South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to head the gender equality body U.N. Women on Wednesday, after former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet stepped down to pursue another presidential bid. Mlambo-Ngcuka, 57, was deputy president of South Africa under Thabo Mbeki between 2005 and 2008. Bachelet stepped down in March from U.N. Women, a body for gender equality and the empowerment of women created in 2010. ... Full Story | Top |
| Libyan government takes back ministry from armed group Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 09:11 AM PDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The Libyan government has taken back control of its interior ministry from an armed group that had besieged the building for a week, an official said on Wednesday. The group had ordered staff to leave the ministry on July 2 and its men had remained there for days. They had closed off the compound's main entry with mounds of sand. One of them had said they would stay until authorities broke up an armed force, known as the Supreme Security Committee (SSC) which says it is backed by the interior ministry. ... Full Story | Top |
| Merkel defends NSA cooperation before minister flies to U.S. Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:56 AM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended Germany's cooperation with U.S. intelligence, dismissing comparisons of its techniques to those used in communist East Germany in an attempt to ease tensions a day before talks on the thorny issue in Washington. Just two months before an election, the German weekly Der Spiegel caused a furor with a weekend report that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) worked closely with German spies. The opposition has pressed Merkel on how much she knew about intrusive U.S. surveillance tactics, casting doubt on her apparent surprise. ... Full Story | Top |
| German campaign plans would cost jobs, growth: institute Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:54 AM PDT By Michelle Martin BERLIN (Reuters) - A pro-free market German economic institute criticized nearly all of the major parties in Germany on Wednesday for election pledges it said were likely to cost jobs and weaken growth in Europe's largest economy. If the main opposition Social Democrats (SPD) were to win the federal election in September, growth would be 0.7 percent lower in five years' time than if the status quo were preserved and 300,000 jobs would be lost, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria forces disperse rival youth factions in oil city Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:52 AM PDT PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian security forces fired tear gas on Wednesday to prevent hundreds of youths loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan and to his bitter rival, Rivers state governor Rotimi Amaechi, clashing in the main oil hub of Port Harcourt. A Reuters witness saw around 2,000 youths from the two factions arrive in some 30 commercial buses at the Rivers state parliament in Port Harcourt, the main hub of Africa's biggest energy industry in the swampy Niger Delta and historically a flashpoint for political violence. ... Full Story | Top |
| Police boost number of Quebec disaster missing and dead to 60 Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:34 AM PDT  By Julie Gordon and Richard Valdmanis LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - The number of people dead or missing after an oil-tanker train exploded in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic has risen to 60 from 50, police said on Wednesday, as 200 investigators sifted through the charred wreckage of what they said is a crime scene. The runaway train derailed and blew up in the middle of the town of 6,000 near the Maine border early on Saturday morning, flattening dozens of buildings in Lac-Megantic's historic downtown and leaving it looking like a war zone. ... Full Story | Top |
| Former South African leader to be named head of UN Women -diplomats Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:33 AM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Former South African deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has been tapped to head gender equality body U.N. Women, diplomats said on Wednesday, replacing former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, who stepped down to pursue another presidential bid in Chile. Mlambo-Ngcuka, 57, was deputy president under Thabo Mbeki between 2005 and 2008. Bachelet stepped down in March after leading U.N. Women, a body for gender equality and the empowerment of women, since it was created in 2010 by the U.N. General Assembly. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tribune to separate broadcasting, publishing businesses Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:32 AM PDT  By Jennifer Saba (Reuters) - Tribune Co will separate its publishing business from its more-profitable broadcast division, it said on Wednesday, following the path taken by Time Warner Inc and News Corp. Media companies have been shedding their print assets to allow a greater focus on their faster-growing broadcast businesses. Tribune plans a tax-free spinoff of its eight newspapers, which include the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. The new company, Tribune Publishing Co, will have its own board and senior management team. ... Full Story | Top |
| Faith healing: Going cold turkey in Myanmar behind locked doors Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:19 AM PDT  By Andrew R.C. Marshall NAUNG CHEIN, Myanmar (Reuters) - A year ago, Wun Naung Lay left his village in northern Myanmar to look for work and found heroin instead. Today, the skeletal 25-year-old is locked up and going cold turkey beneath a filthy blanket in a bamboo cell. Wun Naung Lay is one of more than 600 young men who have undergone primitive drug rehabilitation at the Youth for Christ Centre, a collection of tin-roofed shacks on a riverbank in Kachin State. Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of opium after Afghanistan and use of its derivative, heroin, is widespread. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. rights body poses tough questions to Vatican over child abuse Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:16 AM PDT By Robert Evans GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights panel has posed a list of tough questions to the Vatican about child abuse by Catholic priests, a potential embarrassment for Pope Francis a few months into his papacy. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) asked for "detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers or nuns" since the Holy See last reported to it some 15 years ago, and set November 1 as a deadline for a reply. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian protest leader Navalny briefly detained Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:13 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police briefly detained anti-graft blogger Alexei Navalny on Wednesday after the prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin submitted documents to register as a candidate for the Moscow mayor election in September. Navalny, 37, who is accused of embezzling funds from a state firm and faces six years imprisonment in a trial due to end next week, had been greeting several hundred supporters after leaving the election committee when he was dragged into a police van. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kurdish rebels promote hawk as peace process falters Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:04 AM PDT  By Daren Butler ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdish rebels have named a veteran senior militant as co-head of their political wing, replacing a relative moderate and clouding the future of a peace process with the Turkish state that has been disrupted by renewed violence. The umbrella political group of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) publicly reaffirmed on Wednesday a commitment to ending the conflict, which has killed 40,000 people in 29 years. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkey curbs power of architect group involved in protests Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 08:02 AM PDT  By Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party moved on Wednesday to curb the power of an architects' group involved in weeks of fierce anti-government protests, prompting opposition charges that he is waging a vendetta against protesters. Under a government-sponsored bill, the Chamber of Turkish Architects and Engineers (TMMOB), which represents some 400,000 professionals, will lose its ability to grant final approval to urban planning projects, a source of revenue for the group. ... Full Story | Top |
| British police pass royal hoax call file to Australian officers Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 07:55 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Wednesday they had asked Australian colleagues to consider criminal action against a Sydney radio station and its DJs who made a hoax call to a London hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate. Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse who answered the prank call from presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian at Australian radio station 2Day FM, killed herself days after their ruse was reported across the world last December. ... Full Story | Top |
| Accused Boston Marathon bomber to make first court appearance Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 07:43 AM PDT  By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is due in court on Wednesday to face charges in the worst mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, a crime that could bring the death penalty. The 19-year-old ethnic Chechen was charged late last month with killing three people by setting off homemade pressure-cooker bombs, assembled by him and his older brother Tamerlan, in a crowd of thousands of race spectators on April 15, and later shooting dead a university police officer. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ramadan in Damascus more festive this year but prices soar Wednesday, Jul 10, 2013 07:38 AM PDT  (The name of the reporter has been withheld for security reasons) DAMASCUS (Reuters) - As Ramadan began, the mood in Damascus was more festive than a year ago, reflecting perhaps a greater sense of security as government troops make gains against the rebel insurgency. Many Damascenes have returned from abroad to spend the Muslim holy month with loved ones. Food shops were abuzz with shoppers and butchers and bakers ran low on supplies. But many shoppers expressed frustration at food shortages and inflated prices. The Syrian pound has crashed to one sixth of its value two years ago. ... Full Story | Top |
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