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| U.N. says chemical weapons inspectors to visit three Syrian sites Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:40 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to visit three sites to investigate accusations of chemical weapons use during the country's 2-year-old civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The head of a U.N. chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, and the head of the U.N. Office of Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, visited Damascus last week at the invitation of the Syrian government to discuss access. ... Full Story | Top |
| Phony rum kills seven in Cuba, dozens hospitalized Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:28 PM PDT HAVANA (Reuters) - Seven Cubans have died and more than 40 have been hospitalized, eight in critical condition, after drinking wood alcohol, or industrial methanol, they thought was rum, the public health ministry said on Wednesday. The poisoning happened in the La Lisa municipality of Havana, beginning on Monday, and all those killed were in their 40s and 50s, according to a list provided by the ministry. Such incidents are rare, though not unheard of in Cuba. "Those affected consumed wood alcohol sold illegally ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's rulers signal move against Brotherhood vigils Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:26 PM PDT By Maggie Fick and Asma Alsharif CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed rulers signaled on Wednesday that they could soon act to end weeks of sit-in protests by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi, setting up a potentially bloody showdown with his Muslim Brotherhood. In a televised statement, the cabinet installed by Egypt's army after it overthrew Mursi on July 3 said two Cairo vigils by thousands of his supporters represented a "threat to Egyptian national security", citing "terrorist acts" and traffic disruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| Uruguay Congress debates bill to regulate legal marijuana use Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:23 PM PDT  By Felipe Llambias and Malena Castaldi MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Legislators in Uruguay hotly debated on Wednesday a measure backed by leftist President Jose Mujica that would create a government body to control the cultivation and sale of marijuana and allow people to grow it at home or as part of smoking clubs. The use of marijuana is already legal in the South American nation, but sale and cultivation of it is not. A vote on the bill - expected to be very close - was due later on Wednesday in the lower chamber of Congress. ... Full Story | Top |
| Serbia woos ex-IMF head Strauss-Kahn for advisory role Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:16 PM PDT  By Valerie Hopkins BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia has approached former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn about the possibility of him joining the government in an advisory role, deputy PM Aleksandar Vucic has told Reuters. Serbia is set to begin long-awaited talks in January on joining the European Union. However, investors have been spooked by the state's growing public debt and squabbles over who will be finance minister that have all but buried hopes of a new precautionary loan deal with the International Monetary Fund. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. says chemical weapons inspectors to visit three Syria sites Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:12 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has agreed to allow U.N. investigators to visit three sites to investigate accusations of chemical weapons use during the country's two year civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday. "The Mission will travel to Syria as soon as possible to contemporaneously investigate three of the reported incidents, including Khan al-Asal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's press office said in a statement. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Vicki Allen) Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan's Kiir to keep oil minister, change finance portfolio Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:10 PM PDT  By Andrew Green JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau will keep his post in the new government, while new appointments will be made to the key finance and defense portfolios, officials said on Wednesday. Last week, President Salva Kiir sacked the cabinet, Vice President Riek Machar and put his top Sudan negotiator, Pagan Amum, under investigation amid a power struggle. Dau told Reuters he had been appointed again. "We will try to continue with the same programs that we laid in the last two years," he said, without elaborating. ... Full Story | Top |
| In raging Middle East, Israel wins time with Palestinian peace talks Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:03 PM PDT  By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Pressured by Washington, worried about its international standing and perturbed by Middle East turmoil, Israel had many reasons to return to peace talks with the Palestinians this week after a three year hiatus. On the surface, Israelis saw little reason to jump back into negotiations. The status quo in the occupied Palestinian territories was holding and the question of the so-called peace process had largely fallen off the domestic political agenda. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have realized he could not take the rap for cold shouldering U. ... Full Story | Top |
| Suspected Islamists steal 125 kg of dynamite in north Nigeria Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:58 AM PDT (Updates death toll in Kano bomb) DAMATURU, Nigeria, July 31 - Gunmen suspected to be allied to Islamist sect Boko Haram have stormed a construction site in northeast Nigeria, carting off 125 kg (275 pounds) of dynamite and hundreds of detonators, two security sources said on Wednesday. The militants struck the Bara area of Yobe state at around 2 a.m. on Monday morning, the two security sources in Yobe told Reuters, but no shots were heard. One of the sources said the men arrived on four motorcycles, beating and overpowering the site's private security guards. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexican governmet likely to present energy reform bill next week: lawmaker Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:58 AM PDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government is likely to present a far-reaching energy reform bill to Congress next week, a senior ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday, a key plank of President Enrique Pena Nieto's bid to boost economic growth. "Everything indicates that the (energy reform) initiative of President Pena Nieto will arrive next week," Senator Emilio Gamboa, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) bloc in the upper body of Congress. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi lawyers ask supreme court to acquit him of tax fraud Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:53 AM PDT  By Roberto Landucci and Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi asked the supreme court on Wednesday to throw out a tax fraud conviction against the former prime minister in a case that could decide not only his future but that of Italy's fragile coalition government. The Court of Cassation heard more than three hours of arguments from Berlusconi's two lawyers challenging the verdict of a lower appeals court which sentenced him to jail and a ban from public office for the fraudulent purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset television empire. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain says open to talks with Iran on a 'step-by-step' basis Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:52 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday he was willing to meet his Iranian counterpart to discuss the two countries' frosty relationship, following the election of a new president in Iran. Britain, at odds with Iran over its nuclear program and other issues, shut its embassy in Tehran after what it called "an attack by government-sponsored militias" on the mission in November 2011. Iran's embassy in London was also closed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda militants killed in drone strike in Pakistan Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:42 AM PDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A drone strike in Pakistan this week killed three al Qaeda operatives who ran a training camp in neighboring Afghanistan to prepare militants for attacks including this week's jail break in Pakistan, a Taliban commander said on Wednesday. About 30 militants and more than 200 other inmates escaped from the Dera Ismail Khan jail after a squad of highly trained Taliban fighters armed with grenade launchers and dressed as police overran the facility in the early hours of Tuesday. A day earlier, a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. State Department urges Egypt to respect right peaceful assembly Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:33 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department urged Egypt's interim government on Wednesday to respect the right of peaceful assembly, after Cairo's new leaders said vigils by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi threatened national security and were no longer acceptable. "We have continued to urge the interim government, officials and security forces, to respect the right of peaceful assembly," deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told a news briefing. "That obviously includes sit-ins. ... Full Story | Top |
| Secretary of State Kerry in Pakistan on unannounced visit Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:31 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Pakistan late on Wednesday for a day of talks aimed at easing tensions over U.S. drone strikes while putting pressure on the nuclear armed nation to do more to eliminate militant havens on its territory. In Pakistan on an unannounced visit, Kerry is also likely to discuss ways to revive deadlocked talks with the Taliban and broader efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan as U.S.-led forces prepare to pull out most combat troops by late 2014. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kazakh oligarch Ablyazov arrested in France: sources Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:30 AM PDT By Kirstin Ridley and Matthias Galante LONDON/CANNES, France (Reuters) - Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh businessman accused of embezzling $6 billion from his former bank BTA, has been arrested near Cannes in southern France and is being held by police, sources familiar with the situation said. A police source said Ablyazov was arrested in the village of Mouans-Sartoux, located about 8 km (5 miles) north of Cannes. A court hearing has been scheduled for 10.30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. ET) on Thursday, the source added. No further details were immediately available. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil invests in Sao Paulo bus services that set off protests Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff moved quickly on Wednesday to improve bus services in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, where protests over a fare increase in June triggered an outburst of national discontent that battered her popularity. Rousseff announced that 3 billion reais ($1.31 billion) in federal money will be invested in creating 99 km (61 miles) of new express lanes to speed up bus services in Sao Paulo, the country's financial capital. ... Full Story | Top |
| In Tunisian protest square, barriers reflect deeper divide Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:16 AM PDT  By Erika Solomon and Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - The red Tunisian flags they wave are the same, but the divide between opposition and pro-government protesters in the capital's main square is much wider than the 150-metre gap between barriers put there to separate them. Nearly two years after Tunisians came together to remove the long-standing autocratic president, the country is facing its worst political crisis since that uprising set off a wave of protests across the region. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimbabwe votes in third Mugabe-Tsvangirai showdown Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:03 AM PDT  By Cris Chinaka HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabweans voted in large numbers on Wednesday in a fiercely contested election pitting veteran President Robert Mugabe against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who has vowed to push Africa's oldest leader into retirement after 33 years in power. With no reliable opinion polls and amid allegations of vote-rigging, it is hard to say whether Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to oust 89-year-old Mugabe, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexican President Pena Nieto has successful thyroid surgery Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:57 AM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto successfully underwent surgery on Wednesday to remove a benign nodule on his thyroid gland, his chief of staff said. "It was a success. The president is already awake," Aurelio Nuno, head of the office of the presidency, told a news conference. The surgery lasted nearly two hours and Pena Nieto will remain in hospital for two days. He will then take another couple of days rest at his home. The thyroid nodule was detected about seven years ago, but Pena Nieto had postponed treatment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish police fire teargas to disperse hundreds in Istanbul Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:52 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police fired teargas in Istanbul on Wednesday to disperse several hundred people protesting against the police crackdown on last month's anti-government demonstrations, local media reported. Police blocked several hundred protesters in a busy street near Istanbul's Taksim Square from marching in support of a teenage boy who is said to be in a coma after being hit in the head by a teargas canister during the unrest. TV footage showed police vehicles firing water cannons and protesters running into side streets. ... Full Story | Top |
| Manning changed data access protocol, U.S. argues at sentencing Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:45 AM PDT  By Tom Ramstack FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - As a military judge considered sentencing for convicted U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, prosecutors argued that his leaks of classified information to the WikiLeaks website changed the way the military allowed intelligence analysts to access data. Manning, 25, on Tuesday escaped a life sentence with no parole at his court-martial when Judge Colonel Denise Lind acquitted him of aiding the enemy, the most serious of 21 criminal counts against him. But he still faces the possibility of 136 years in prison on 19 other charges. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel, Palestinians deeply divided despite renewed peace talks Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:42 AM PDT  By Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Ali Sawafta JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians remain far apart over terms of any peace deal, officials from both sides made clear on Wednesday, a day after talks resumed in Washington for the first time in nearly three years. Israel's lead negotiator, Tzipi Livni, said the parties "need to build confidence" after what she called an encouraging start in Washington, and disputed a Palestinian demand to focus first on agreeing the frontiers of an independent state. "The goal is to end the conflict," Livni said on Israel Radio. ... Full Story | Top |
| State Department urges Egypt to respect rights of peaceful assembly Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:36 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department urged Egypt's interim government on Wednesday to respect the right of peaceful assembly, after Cairo's new leaders said vigils by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi threatened national security and were no longer acceptable. "We have continued to urge the interim government to respect the right of peaceful assembly," deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told a regular daily briefing. "That obviously includes sit-ins." (Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Vicki Allen) Full Story | Top |
| African Union gives Zimbabwe election early thumbs up Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:33 AM PDT  HARARE (Reuters) - Initial reports from Zimbabwe's elections showed a peaceful, orderly and free and fair vote, Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the African Union monitoring team, told reporters on Wednesday. (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Writing by Ed Cropley) Full Story | Top |
| Iran grants Syria $3.6 billion credit to buy oil products Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 09:47 AM PDT  By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria and Iran signed a deal this week to activate a $3.6 billion credit facility to buy oil products to shore up President Bashar al-Assad's war battered economy, officials and bankers said on Wednesday. The deal, which was agreed in May and will allow Iran to acquire equity stakes in investments in Syria, is part of Shi'ite Iran's broader support for Assad in his battle against a two-year insurgency by mainly Sunni rebels. Tehran has already provided military assistance to Assad, training his forces and advising on military strategy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazilian airport workers strike for higher wages; flights unaffected Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 09:41 AM PDT  SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Thousands of Brazilian airport workers went on strike on Wednesday to demand higher wages, although contingency plans kept flights running on time, according to state airport agency Infraero. The workers' union is pressing for a roughly 16 percent salary bump along with improved benefits such as childcare. The demands highlight the gap between the steep wage hikes that organized labor has negotiated in recent years and the meager performance of the Brazilian economy, which grew less than 1 percent last year with inflation near 6 percent. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian opposition plans new government in August Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 09:17 AM PDT  DOHA (Reuters) - Syria's opposition plans to set up an interim government in August to run areas under rebel control, an opposition official said on Wednesday. "There is a plan to form a government in exile 10 days after Eid," said Omar Kouch, a senior leader of the Syrian National Coalition, referring to the Muslim holiday that follows the fasting month of Ramadan, which is expected to end either on August 8 or 9, depending on the sighting of the new moon. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria opposition coalition cleared to run in poll Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:50 AM PDT  ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's electoral commission has approved the merger of three main opposition parties into a bloc that could pose the most credible threat yet to the long-ruling party of President Goodluck Jonathan. Since nearly three decades of military dictatorship ended in 1999, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) has ruled more or less unchallenged, winning every presidential poll. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish militants held in Greece for weapons: minister Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:46 AM PDT ANKARA/ATHENS (Reuters) - Two members of a Turkish militant group have been arrested in Greek waters with a boatload of weapons heading for Turkey, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said in Ankara on Wednesday. One of them, Hasan Biber, is a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) suspected of carrying out an attack on the headquarters of the ruling AK Party earlier this year, Guler told reporters. The United States and Turkey list the DHKP-C as a terrorist organization. It has carried out a series of deadly attacks on police stations since late last year. ... Full Story | Top |
| With banter and blankets, Zimbabweans make their choice Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:41 AM PDT  By Nelson Banya MUTARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Even before the polls opened in Manicaland, a key swing province in eastern Zimbabwe, political banter and blankets were slowly warming hundreds of voters queuing patiently outside a polling station in the bitter pre-dawn cold. An old man mumbled a joke about whether the cock will still crow after the election, a reference to 89-year-old President Robert Mugabe who is facing what he has called the "fight of our lives" with long-time political nemesis Morgan Tsvangirai. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Russian billionaire seeks U.S. government financing for luxury jets Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:15 AM PDT  By Joshua Schneyer and Brian Grow NEW YORK/ATLANTA (Reuters) - Billionaire Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko, a long-time associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, plans to seek U.S. government-backed funding to buy luxury aircraft, Reuters has learned. To smooth the path for financial backing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and allay possible U.S. government concerns about him, Timchenko hired lobbyists from powerhouse Washington law firm Patton Boggs, according to emails and documents viewed by Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's Xi says seeks peace in sea disputes but must be alert Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:14 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Politburo on Wednesday the country wanted to resolve its maritime territorial disputes peacefully and through talks, but would not compromise on sovereignty and had to step up its defensive capabilities. Territorial claims by Japan and China over the uninhabited islets and resource-rich waters in the East China Sea, as well as China's claims over the South China Sea, rank as some of Asia's biggest security risks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian minister resigns, pressure on government grows Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:00 AM PDT By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian Education Minister Salem Labyedh has resigned, the prime minister's spokesman said on Wednesday, as pressure mounted on the Islamist-led government to step down. Protests against the moderate Islamist Ennahda party intensified after last week's killing of a leftist politician, the second to be slain in six months, disrupting a political transition that began when Tunisians toppled an autocratic leader in 2011. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt refers Muslim Brotherhood leaders to court Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 07:44 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have referred the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and two other senior officials in the movement to a court on charges of inciting violence. The move against Mohammed Badie, the Brotherhood's general guide, and the two others is certain to deepen tensions between Islamists and the military, who removed Egypt's Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, from power on July 3. (Reporting by Michael Georgy; Editing by Angus MacSwan) Full Story | Top |
| Russia's Putin to meet new Iranian president in September Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 07:24 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian leader Vladimir Putin will meet Iran's newly elected president for the first time in Kyrgyzstan in September, the Islamic Republic's ambassador to Moscow said on Wednesday. Russian and Iranian media reported last week that the Russian president would go to Iran in August for talks with Hassan Rouhani on Tehran's nuclear program. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senior Kurdish rebel warns Turkey to progress reforms by September Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 07:17 AM PDT  ANKARA (Reuters) - The Turkish government must take concrete steps by September to advance a peace process with Kurdish militants or risk a return to hostilities, the co-head of the rebels' political wing was quoted as saying on Wednesday. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the government opened peace talks last October with the goal of ending a conflict which has killed 40,000 people in three decades and stunted the development of Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's 'Third Square' protests reject army, Islamists Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 07:08 AM PDT  By Tom Finn CAIRO (Reuters) - A few lonely Egyptian activists are trying to stake out middle ground in the nationwide rift between an affronted Muslim Brotherhood and delighted supporters of the army's overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi. Those rival camps have filled the streets with myriad demonstrators since General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted and jailed Mursi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, on July 3. Alarmed by the polarization and alienated by both sides, some Egyptians started up a "Third Square" movement promoting a middle way to avert conflict in the most populous Arab state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Libyan court sentences former Gaddafi minister to death Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 07:05 AM PDT MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) - A former minister in the government of Muammar Gaddafi was sentenced to death on Wednesday for inciting violence against protesters during the uprising that led to the Libyan dictator's overthrow in 2011, his lawyer said on Wednesday. In the first such ruling against a Gaddafi-era official, a court in Misrata found Ahmed Ibrahim guilty of undermining national security and plotting the killing of civilians, the lawyer, Salim Dans, told Reuters. He said Libya's supreme court would have to confirm the ruling for the death penalty to be implemented. ... Full Story | Top |
| No one fired at NSA over Snowden Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 07:03 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The deputy director of the U.S. National Security Agency said on Wednesday that no one had been fired and no one had offered to resign over former security contractor Edward Snowden's ability to take large amounts of classified data from agency computers. John Inglis said, "No," when asked at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing if anyone had been fired over the sweeping NSA surveillance programs exposed by Snowden. "No one has offered to resign. Everyone is working hard to understand what happened," Inglis said. ... Full Story | Top |
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