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| Cairo security forces fire tear gas after scuffles Monday, Jul 15, 2013 12:56 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police fired tear gas in central Cairo on Monday after scuffles broke out between supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi and locals in and around Ramses Street, eyewitnesses said. It was the first violent confrontation involving pro-Mursi protesters for a week. One witness said the police fired tear gas at the Mursi supporters after they cut off access to Ramses Street, one of Cairo's main thoroughfares, and the October 6th Bridge across the Nile, angering drivers and passers-by and leading to scuffles. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. lawmakers' doubts ease on arming Syrian rebels: official Monday, Jul 15, 2013 12:51 PM PDT  By Susan Cornwell and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has made progress in overcoming lawmakers' objections to its plans to arm Syrian rebels, but some details remain unresolved, a U.S. official said on Monday. Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee who questioned the wisdom of arming the insurgents have tentatively agreed the administration can go ahead with its plans, but asked for updates as the covert effort proceeds, a senior administration official told Reuters. There was no immediate comment from the committee. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia's Putin wants Snowden to go, but asylum not ruled out Monday, Jul 15, 2013 12:46 PM PDT  By Alexei Anishchuk GOGLAND ISLAND, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he wanted Edward Snowden to leave after three weeks holed up at a Moscow airport, but also signaled that the former U.S. spy agency contractor was moving towards meeting Russia's asylum conditions. Snowden flew to Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport from Hong Kong on June 23 in the hope of travelling on to a country that would offer him protection from the United States after he divulged details of U.S. government intelligence programs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Loblaw bid for Shoppers would expand Weston family empire Monday, Jul 15, 2013 12:37 PM PDT  By Andrea Hopkins TORONTO (Reuters) - The bid by Canada's largest grocer for its largest pharmacy chain is just the latest move by the Weston family, Canada's second-richest clan, to expand a food and clothing empire that began 131 years ago with a Toronto bread factory. The C$12.4 billion friendly bid from the Weston family's Loblaw Companies Ltd for Shoppers Drug Mart Corp would add another jewel to a crown that already includes Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason in Britain, upscale retailers like Holt Renfrew in Canada and Brown Thomas in Ireland, and bakeries and groceries across North ... Full Story | Top |
| France confirms body found in Mali is French hostage Monday, Jul 15, 2013 12:24 PM PDT PARIS (Reuters) - France confirmed on Monday that a body found in northern Mali was that of the French geologist Philippe Verdon, taken hostage in November 2011. Al Qaeda's North African arm, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said in March that it had beheaded Verdon in response to France's military intervention in Mali. "The remains will be transferred to our country as soon as possible and autopsies will allow us to know the cause of death," President Francois Hollande said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spanish prime minister rejects calls to step down over scandal Monday, Jul 15, 2013 12:23 PM PDT  By Emma Pinedo and Andrés González MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Monday rejected calls to resign over a ruling party financing scandal and said he would not allow the matter to hold back his reform plans. The political pressure mounted on Rajoy as the former treasurer of his center-right People's Party gave new testimony before a judge looking into the affair, saying he had made 90,000 euros in cash payments to Rajoy and party secretary-general Maria Dolores Cospedal in 2009 and 2010. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chill Cairo welcome for U.S. envoy as Mursi supporters gather Monday, Jul 15, 2013 12:16 PM PDT  By Maggie Fick and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - The first senior U.S. official to visit Egypt since the army toppled its elected president was snubbed by both Islamists and their opponents on Monday, while huge crowds of supporters of the ousted leader demonstrated in the streets. After meeting the interim head of state and the prime minister, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns insisted he was not in town "to lecture anyone". But many on either side of Egypt's divide suspect Washington of plotting against them. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. can avoid cutting aid to Egypt in several ways Monday, Jul 15, 2013 11:53 AM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has made clear it is in no hurry to cut off U.S. aid to Egypt now, or perhaps at all, despite the military's role in toppling Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, and it has several options to avoid doing so. These range from putting off a decision on whether Mursi's ouster constituted a military coup, which would trigger a cut-off under U.S. law, to finding that a military coup took place but winning authority from Congress to keep the money flowing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry to visit Jordan, Israel-Palestinian peace on agenda Monday, Jul 15, 2013 11:29 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will brief Arab officials in Jordan on Wednesday about his push to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the State Department said but declined comment on whether a resumption may be at hand. Kerry will leave Washington on Monday night to fly to Amman to see officials from Jordan as well as from the Arab League, which in 2002 put forward a peace proposal that offered full Arab recognition of Israel if it gave up land seized in a 1967 war and accepted a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigerian activists demand arrest of Sudan's Bashir in court Monday, Jul 15, 2013 11:17 AM PDT  LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian activists filed a suit with the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday demanding that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir be arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court, which is seeking him on an international arrest warrant. Bashir arrived in Nigeria on Sunday for an African Union summit on HIV/AIDS, angering human rights groups who said he should not have been made welcome. Bashir has been charged by ICC prosecutors with masterminding genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, which has left some 200,000 people dead. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria says offensive has destroyed most Islamist bases Monday, Jul 15, 2013 11:08 AM PDT  ABUJA (Reuters) - The Nigerian military said on Monday that a two month old offensive in the northeast had "substantially achieved" the aim of destroying Islamist bases, as well as killing or capturing a number of fighters and freeing victims of abductions. In a statement, defense spokesman Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade also said 23 women and 35 children being held on charges of aiding Islamist militant group Boko Haram had been released as a gesture of peace to its more moderate sympathizers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rwanda complains to U.N. about new Congo brigade Monday, Jul 15, 2013 10:48 AM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Rwanda is accusing the United Nations' new intervention brigade in eastern Congo of discussing collaboration with Hutu rebels linked to the Rwandan genocide of 1994, thereby jeopardizing regional peace efforts. In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo in her role as this month's president of the U.N. Security Council that was released on Monday, Rwandan U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy PM Letta calls for end to racist insults against minister Monday, Jul 15, 2013 10:41 AM PDT  By Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta demanded the opposition Northern League party take action after "shameful" racist comments by its members about Italy's first black minister. Senior League figure Roberto Calderoli, vice president of the Senate, told a political rally at the weekend that Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge had "the features of an orangutan", prompting widespread calls his resignation. Letta said the comments had damaged Italy's standing abroad and called on the League to "close this disgraceful page once and for all". ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria coalition plans council to hasten rebel restructuring Monday, Jul 15, 2013 10:39 AM PDT  By John Irish PARIS (Reuters) - Syria's opposition coalition wants to create a 10-person executive council to reorganize disparate rebel factions into a structured army with adequate financing and weapons, one of its senior members said on Monday. Islamist militant groups that have come to the fore in Syria reject the authority of the Western- and Gulf Arab-backed Syrian National Coalition, whose leaders live mostly abroad. Last week foreign Islamist fighters killed a commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which is aligned with the coalition. ... Full Story | Top |
| Myanmar President pledges prisoner release, peace Monday, Jul 15, 2013 10:37 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - The president of Myanmar promised to release all political prisoners by the end of this year on Monday and said he thought a nationwide ceasefire was possible in the coming weeks for the first time in six decades. "By the end of the year there will be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar," President Thein Sein told an audience at the Chatham House think tank in London. A special committee was reviewing every political prisoner's case, he added. ... Full Story | Top |
| Indian relatives search for missing a month after 'Himalayan tsunami' Monday, Jul 15, 2013 10:28 AM PDT  By Nita Bhalla DEHRADUN, India (Reuters) - The pilgrims came seeking salvation and a place in heaven, but now their faces stare from banners and tatty flyers tacked to gates and walls of Indian villages and hill-towns. Some are children, smiling as they pose between parents; others are elderly couples standing side-by-side looking into the camera. Many posters show groups from the same family and some offer rewards of up to 200,000 rupees ($3,340). All carry the names of those pictured and a telephone number. All have one word in common: "Missing". ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian families put lives on hold at vigil for ousted leader Monday, Jul 15, 2013 10:24 AM PDT  By Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Murad Mohamed Mahmoud, an Egyptian civil servant, was saving up to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Instead, he is using the money to allow his family to join a three week old vigil in Cairo for supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi. Mahmoud, his 39 relatives and hundreds of other families from across the country have put their lives on hold to join the sit-in at the Rabaa Adawiya mosque. They say they will stay until Mursi is reinstalled. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. in daily contact with Syria opposition on its needs: White House Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:50 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. administration is in daily contact with the Syrian opposition on how the United States can support its needs, the White House said on Monday. "We are in regular consultation with Congress on matters related to Syria assistance," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. President Barack Obama believes that "our updated assistance to Syria is essential to helping buttress the opposition," he said. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| United States says will not take sides in Egypt crisis Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:48 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - The United States will not take sides in Egypt's upheaval, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said on Monday, in an attempt to address concerns on both sides of the political divide. Burns, in Cairo on a visit to meet Egypt's interim leaders, the military and members of the business community, stressed in a briefing at the U.S. embassy that it was up to Egyptians, and not the United States, to steer the country to civilian rule. The military ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on July 3 after millions of people took to the street to demand his resignation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel begins sending Eritreans home despite rights concerns Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:38 AM PDT  By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has launched a forced repatriation of Eritrean migrants that amounts to a grave violation of their human rights because of the risk of persecution in their reclusive homeland, an advocacy group said on Monday. Israeli authorities have been trying to curb an influx of Africans that has ignited resentment in the poorer neighborhoods in which they dwell and compounded the fears of many Israelis about eventually being outnumbered in the Jewish state. ... Full Story | Top |
| China discriminates against disabled children: U.S. rights group Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:24 AM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China has failed to provide equal access to education for children with disabilities, leaving nearly 40 percent of its disabled population illiterate, a U.S.-based human rights watchdog said on Tuesday. Interviews with more than 60 disabled children and their parents show that schools in China deny such students admission, pressure them to leave and provide no appropriate classroom accommodation to help overcome their disabilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report. ... Full Story | Top |
| Congo army, M23 rebels clash for a second day near Goma Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:22 AM PDT  By Kenny Katombe MUJA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Fierce fighting raged for a second day on Monday between Democratic Republic of Congo's army and M23 rebels near the eastern city of Goma, underlining the challenge facing a U.N. Intervention Brigade tasked with bringing peace. At Muja, a village some 11 km (7 miles) from Goma, government forces used heavy weapons to try to drive back M23 fighters after clashes erupted on Sunday afternoon, ending several weeks of relative calm. ... Full Story | Top |
| Opera head sacked under Mursi is Egypt's culture minister Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:19 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - The former head of the Cairo opera, who was sacked by ousted President Mohamed Mursi's Islamist government, has been named Egypt's new culture minister by the country's new military-backed interim government. Ines Abdel Dayem was fired as head of the Cairo Opera House by Mursi's culture minister in May. Her sacking, along with an Islamist parliamentarian's call for a ban on ballet, prompted performers and cultural figures to stage a sit-in at the culture ministry lasting several weeks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Snowden affair is chance for truce in cyber war: U.N. Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:16 AM PDT  By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - Edward Snowden's revelations about U.S. Internet surveillance have created a chance for countries to call a halt to a cyber war, a senior U.N. official said on Monday. "It gives us an opportunity, and I keep saying let's build bridges," said Hamadoun Touré, head of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is working with Interpol and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime to work out how to police cyberspace. The accusations by Snowden, a former U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. calls for Egypt military to avoid political arrests Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:09 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - The United States has called on the Egyptian military to avoid politically motivated arrests, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said on Monday in Cairo. Burns is the first senior U.S. official to visit Egypt since the army removed President Mohammed Mursi on July 3. (Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Michael Roddy) Full Story | Top |
| Burns: U.S. will not impose its model on Egypt Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:04 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - The United States will not try to impose its model on Egypt nor will it support specific parties or personalities, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said on Monday. Burns, making the first high-level visit to Egypt by a U.S. official since the army ousted President Mohamed Mursi, said he did not think the country was in danger of repeating the tragedy of Syria, where more than 100,000 people have been killed in civil war. (Reporting By Mike Collett-White; Editing by Michael Roddy) Full Story | Top |
| Masked gunmen wound man near Vienna airport Monday, Jul 15, 2013 09:01 AM PDT VIENNA (Reuters) - A man was shot and wounded near Vienna airport on Monday after his car was forced off the road by two masked men who fled the scene in a car, police said. The man, a builder, was shot in the thigh with a handgun but managed to drive to the airport to raise the alarm, Lower Austrian police said in a statement. The victim had been driving to Vienna from Slovakia. Earlier, the Austria Press Agency had reported that two people had been shot in the incident. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Full Story | Top |
| Italy's interior minister faces political storm over Kazakh expulsion Monday, Jul 15, 2013 08:50 AM PDT  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italy's main opposition parties called on Monday for the resignation of the deputy head of Italy's fragile ruling coalition over the expulsion of the wife and daughter of dissident Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov. Both the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the smaller Left Ecology Freedom party filed a motion of no confidence in Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, who also serves as deputy premier, rejecting the government's claim that the deportation took place without the knowledge of ministers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria rebels want al Qaeda suspect to face trial Monday, Jul 15, 2013 08:33 AM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's main rebel group said on Monday that it wanted an Islamic court to investigate the killing of one of its top commanders at the hands of foreign Islamist fighters last week. The call is the first official reaction by the Western-backed Supreme Military Council to the killing of Kamal Hamami, also known as Abu Bassir al-Ladkani, which has set liberal rebels and Islamists at each other's throats. ... Full Story | Top |
| Teenager killed by shark off France's Reunion Island Monday, Jul 15, 2013 08:15 AM PDT SAINT-DENIS DE LA REUNION, France (Reuters) - A shark killed a 15-year old girl on Monday as she swam with mask and flippers a few meters (yards) from the shore of the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion. It was the second deadly shark attack this year off the French island, which is just east of Madagascar, and brings to five the total of shark-related deaths there since 2011. The teenager was snorkeling in Saint Paul Bay, in the northwest of the island, an unsupervised area where bathing is forbidden due to high shark numbers, officials said. A friend swimming with her was unharmed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt prosecutor orders arrest of Brotherhood figures Monday, Jul 15, 2013 08:05 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the arrest of seven senior Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist figures on Monday over violence between Brotherhood supporters and opponents in the days before and after Mohamed Mursi was deposed as president. The list includes leading Brotherhood figures Essam El-Erian and Mohamed El-Beltagi, both of whom were attending a demonstration on Monday, according to the Brotherhood. They were also included in a similar list last week of people charged with inciting violence, but have not been arrested. ... Full Story | Top |
| Boeing forced to play waiting game in Dreamliner fire probe Monday, Jul 15, 2013 07:52 AM PDT  By Rhys Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Planemaker Boeing, desperate to reassure customers that its flagship Dreamliner plane is safe, may have to wait several days for the first signs of what caused a fire at London's Heathrow airport on Friday. Britain's Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) is leading the probe into the blaze on the Ethiopian Airlines jet and has already allayed fears about a return of problems with overheating batteries that grounded the Dreamliner for months earlier this year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bahraini MP's house attacked with petrol bombs: state agency Monday, Jul 15, 2013 07:42 AM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Assailants attacked the home of a Bahraini member of parliament with petrol bombs on Monday, the state news agency BNA said, the latest in a series of assaults on public officials and security personnel in the kingdom. No one was hurt in the dawn attack on the home of Abbas Isa al-Madi, chairman of parliament's Services Committee. Pictures published by BNA showed fire damage to the main gate and a garage door. The Sunni Muslim-ruled island, home of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: France looks for a mellower Merkel post-election Monday, Jul 15, 2013 07:34 AM PDT  By Mark John PARIS (Reuters) - With quiet satisfaction, France's Socialist government has watched Angela Merkel strike an ever softer stance on Europe in recent months as she prepares for Germany's election. What's more, Paris believes the poll might just nudge the conservative chancellor yet further from the hardline fiscal austerity policies she has embodied for much of the euro zone's debt crisis. With two months to go before the September 22 election, Francois Hollande's government rates Merkel's chances of securing a third term at "85, even 90 percent", a senior aide told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Army embrace starts to worry some Egyptians Monday, Jul 15, 2013 07:25 AM PDT  By Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - After the party, regrets. At least for some Egyptians. Liberals danced in Tahrir Square when the army heeded their protests and pushed President Mohamed Mursi from power. Two weeks on, however, and some have nagging worries that a military takeover carries no small risk for a country that until Mursi's election a year ago was run by generals for six decades. Rights activist Gamal Eid makes no apology for the way Mursi was toppled by a democratic "majority" on the street. But he added: "I'm not happy when the military is controlling Egypt. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain's Rajoy rules out stepping down in political scandal Monday, Jul 15, 2013 06:56 AM PDT  MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Monday he ruled out stepping down after opposition leaders called for him to leave office due to a growing scandal over alleged illegal financing of the ruling People's Party. "I will defend political stability and I will fulfill the mandate given to me by Spanish voters," Rajoy said at a news conference. He said the scandal would not derail his political reform program. (Reporting by Andres Gonzalez; Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Clare Kane) Full Story | Top |
| Assad's forces advance into rebel-held district of Damascus Monday, Jul 15, 2013 06:01 AM PDT  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops backed by tanks and artillery moved into a rebel-held district of Damascus on Monday, stepping up efforts to drive opposition fighters from the capital and build on battlefield gains elsewhere in the country, a rebel commander said. Opposition sources said troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad advanced into the neighborhood of Qaboun after subjecting the Sunni Muslim district to heavy shelling. Two adjacent rebel-held neighborhoods have been under sustained fire in recent weeks to cut off the movement of rebel fighters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia should drop 'foreign agent' tag for NGOs: rights official Monday, Jul 15, 2013 05:49 AM PDT  By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - A top European human rights official urged Russia on Monday to stop labeling non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as foreign agents under a law he said could have a "chilling effect" on their work. Nils Muiznieks, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, Europe's main rights watchdog of which Russia is a member, said the law should be suspended until changes are made to bring it into line with international standards. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Egypt minister says no need for IMF aid now Monday, Jul 15, 2013 05:08 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Aid from Arab states will carry Egypt through its transition period, and it does not need to restart negotiations with the IMF now, the man named planning minister in the interim government said on Monday. Ashraf al-Arabi, a U.S.-educated economist who served in the same post under deposed President Mohamed Mursi until May, joins a government led by liberal economist Hazem el-Beblawi. Beblawi has named economists to several senior posts so far. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt puts police general in charge of supply ministry Monday, Jul 15, 2013 05:00 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - A general in the police force was on Monday put in charge of Egypt's supply ministry, which manages its system of distributing state subsidized food and fuel. Mohamed Abu Shadi, who announced he had accepted the post, was formerly the senior interior ministry official responsible for investigating supply crimes. Egypt is the world's biggest importer of wheat and also buys diesel to distribute to the population at subsidized prices. Abu Shadi told reporters there were no crises in Egypt's strategic supplies. He did not elaborate. ... Full Story | Top |
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