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| Russia grants Snowden a year's asylum, summit in doubt Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:18 AM PDT  By Timothy Heritage and Alissa de Carbonnel MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia granted American fugitive Edward Snowden a year's asylum on Thursday, allowing the former U.S. spy agency contractor to slip quietly out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after more than five weeks in limbo but angering the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry says hopes Pakistan drone strikes to end soon Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:34 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton and Maria Golovnina ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Pakistanis on Thursday that Washington planned to end drone strikes in their country soon - a message aimed at removing a major source of anti-American resentment in the strategically important country. After meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Kerry said they had agreed to re-establish a "full partnership", hoping to end years of acrimony over the drone strikes and other grievances including the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy's top court upholds Berlusconi prison sentence Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 12:12 PM PDT  By Roberto Landucci and Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Italy's supreme court on Thursday upheld a jail sentence against Silvio Berlusconi for tax fraud in a devastating blow to the former prime minister that could throw the country's fragile coalition government into crisis. The former cruise ship crooner is Italy's most colorful and scandal-prone figure but it was his first definitive conviction in up to 30 court cases on charges ranging from fraud and corruption to having sex with an under aged prostitute. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cleveland kidnapper gets life in prison after emotional hearing Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:20 AM PDT  By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ariel Castro, the Cleveland bus driver who abducted, imprisoned and tortured three women, was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years with no parole on Thursday, after one of his victims confronted him, saying he had put her through 11 years of hell. Castro, 53, was alternately defiant and apologetic while showing no remorse in a rambling final statement to the court. Although he said he was sorry for his actions, he insisted "I am not a monster." "If you asked my daughter she would say, my dad is the best dad in the world," Castro said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Icahn sues Dell in latest attempt to foil buyout Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 10:29 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn filed a lawsuit on Thursday to try to block Dell Inc from setting a new record date ahead of a crucial shareholders' vote, raising the stakes in a battle to derail a $24.4 billion buyout of the world's No. 3 PC maker. Icahn, who has urged fellow shareholders to reject Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell's and Silver Lake's offer to buy and take the company private, included a list of demands in his lawsuit, such as that the CEO and his affiliates be prevented from voting any shares bought after February 5. Dell was not immediately available for ... Full Story | Top |
| Tsvangirai denounces Zimbabwe vote as "huge farce" Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:07 AM PDT  By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed Zimbabwe's election as a farce on Thursday after his rival President Robert Mugabe's party claimed a landslide victory that would secure another five years in power for Africa's oldest head of state. Speaking at the headquarters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a dejected Tsvangirai said Wednesday's vote should be considered invalid because of polling day irregularities and vote-rigging by 89-year-old Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. "This has been a huge farce," he told reporters. ... Full Story | Top |
| House Republicans to push $40 billion cut to food stamp program Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:18 AM PDT  By Charles Abbott WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Republicans plan to propose a $40 billion cut to the nation's food stamp program, the head of the House Agriculture Committee said on Thursday, doubling the number of cuts previously sought by conservatives. Committee Chairman Frank Lucas said legislation on the food assistance program, known as SNAP, would be the second part of any talks on the U.S. farm bill with the Senate. ... Full Story | Top |
| Jurors ask questions in fraud trial of ex-Goldman Vice President Tourre Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:08 AM PDT  By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jurors considering the fate of Fabrice Tourre sought clarity Thursday on two of the lesser charges facing the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc vice president. On the second day of deliberations in a civil fraud trial brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, jurors passed three notes to the federal judge in Manhattan presiding over the case. Two notes concerned what jurors need to find to hold Tourre liable on two counts that require at least a showing of negligence for there to be liability. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factory, jobless data point to firming economy Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:06 AM PDT  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Factory activity jumped to a two-year high in July and first-time applications for jobless benefits hit a 5-1/2-year low last week, bolstering views economic growth would accelerate in the second half of the year. The burst of strength in the economy as the third quarter started keeps on track expectations that the Federal Reserve will start reducing its monetary stimulus later this year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's rulers tell pro-Mursi protesters to quit camps Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 10:12 AM PDT  By Asma Alsharif and Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed government on Thursday warned supporters of deposed president Mohamed Mursi to abandon their Cairo protest camps, promising them a safe exit if they gave up without a fight. The appeal, made by Interior Ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif on state television, followed the government's declaration on Wednesday it was ready to take action to end two weeks of sit-in protests by thousands of Mursi supporters at two sites. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry says Obama has timeline to end U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:24 AM PDT  ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has a timeline for ending the U.S. program of drone strikes, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday, following talks with the new government of Pakistan. "I think the program will end as we have eliminated most of the threat and continue to eliminate it," Kerry said in an interview with Pakistan Television. "The president has a very real timeline and we hope it's going to be very, very soon," Kerry added, when asked whether the U.S. had a timeline for ending drone strikes. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; editing by Mike Collett-White) Full Story | Top |
| Explosion in Syrian city of Homs kills 40: monitoring group Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 08:14 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Forty people were killed and at least 120 people were wounded in an explosion at a weapons cache in the central Syrian city of Homs on Thursday, a group opposed to President Bashar al-Assad said. The explosion occurred in the south-eastern district of Wadi al-Dhahab, which the army has taken over, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The group has a network of sources in the opposition and state security forces. The Observatory said the casualties were soldiers and civilians and that some of the wounded were in a critical condition. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senate Republicans block $54 billion transport spending bill Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:59 AM PDT  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the Senate blocked passage of a $54 billion bill to fund transportation and housing projects on Thursday, setting up a major clash over spending levels in September that risks a government shutdown. The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 54-43 to end debate on the measure, failing to achieve the 60 votes needed to advance to a simple up-or-down majority vote, as Republicans complained it spent too much. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria's Assad anticipates rebel defeat in defiant speech Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 11:33 AM PDT  By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday he was confident of victory against rebels and made a symbolic visit to a town once overrun by insurgents but now mostly retaken by his army. The visit to the battered town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, and a defiant speech illustrate the confidence of a president who is taking the upper hand in a conflict two years after many Syrians believed he was about to be toppled. ... Full Story | Top |
| ECB holds rates, confirms no move for 'extended period' Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 07:35 AM PDT  By Eva Taylor and Sakari Suoninen FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank left interest rates at a record low 0.5 percent on Thursday and affirmed that they will remain there for some while to come and could yet fall further. ECB President Mario Draghi hinted that policy would not be tightened until well into next year at the earliest, although the central bank will give no time horizon for when rates might move. "Our monetary policy stance ... provides support to a gradual recovery in economic activity in the remaining part of the year and in 2014," Draghi told a news conference. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain's Rajoy says he was wrong to trust treasurer in party funding scandal Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 09:13 AM PDT  By Andrés González MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy apologized on Thursday for mishandling a major corruption scandal, but denied he or his center-right People's Party accepted illegal payments and rejected opposition calls to step down. It was the first time Rajoy had admitted any error since it emerged in January that the ruling party's former treasurer Luis Barcenas - in jail pending trial on charges of bribery and tax evasion - hid up to 48 million euros in Swiss bank accounts. "I was wrong. I'm sorry but that is how it was. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S., Pakistan agree to start new chapter in long-strained relations Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:18 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton and Maria Golovnina ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States and Pakistan agreed on Thursday to re-establish a "full partnership", hoping to end years of acrimony over U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani soil, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and other grievances. "We are here to speak honestly with each other, openly about any gaps that may exist that we want to try to bridge," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said during an unannounced visit to Islamabad. "Our people deserve that we talk directly." Besides the killing of bin Laden in a Pakistani town by U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Drugmakers fear short-term 'turmoil' as China probes widen Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:30 AM PDT  By Ben Hirschler and Elena Berton LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Chinese authorities visited a regional office of French drugmaker Sanofi this week in the latest sign of a widening investigation into Western drugmakers. Eli Lilly said it had also been visited by officials in the same city of Shenyang as part of a "routine" probe which had started earlier this year, while the CEO of AstraZeneca, which has a sales executive in detention in Shanghai, warned of short-term "turmoil" in the sector. ... Full Story | Top |
| Assad says sure he will defeat Syrian rebels Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:00 AM PDT  By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday he was confident of victory against rebels in a 28-month-old civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and sent nearly two million fleeing abroad. Insurgents have seized large swathes of territory, but Assad's forces have staged a counter-offensive in recent weeks, pushing them back from around the capital Damascus and retaking several towns near the border with Lebanon. ... Full Story | Top |
| China condemns U.S. Senate over sea dispute resolution Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:36 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday it had lodged a formal complaint with the United States after the U.S. Senate passed a resolution expressing concern about Chinese actions in the disputed East and South China Seas. The U.S. resolution, passed on Monday, listed several examples of worrying Chinese behavior, including China's issuing of an official map defining the contested South China Sea as within its national border and of Chinese surveillance ships entering waters disputed with Japan in the East China Sea. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. House passes Iran sanctions bill to slash oil exports Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 01:54 AM PDT  By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives easily passed a bill on Wednesday to tighten sanctions on Iran, showing a strong message to Tehran over its disputed nuclear program days before President-elect Hassan Rouhani is sworn in. The vote also highlighted a growing divide between Congress and the Obama administration on Iran policy ahead of international talks on the nuclear program in coming months. Iran insists the nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hopes ride on Iran's Rouhani, but huge task ahead Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:30 AM PDT  By Jon Hemming DUBAI (Reuters) - A wave of optimism has swept Iran since Hassan Rouhani was elected president last month, but as he takes office on Sunday the moderate cleric has a monumental task to resolve the nuclear dispute, ease stringent sanctions and revive a failing economy. If that were not enough, he has to do this while trying to satisfy the demands of his reformist allies while outflanking the conservatives he defeated, but who still dominate parliament and are deeply embedded within the state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Assad says sure he will defeat Syrian rebels Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 01:56 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday he was confident of victory against rebels in a devastating 28-month-old civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and sent nearly two million fleeing abroad. Insurgents have seized large swathes of territory, but Assad's forces have staged a counter-offensive in recent weeks, pushing them back from around the capital Damascus and retaking several towns near the border with Lebanon. ... Full Story | Top |
| Government requests for Twitter users' data on the rise Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 07:16 PM PDT  By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter is under increasing pressure from governments around the world to release user's private information, with requests rising 40 percent in the first six months of the year, the microblogging company said Wednesday in its semi-annual transparency report. The United States made three-quarters of the 1,157 data requests during the six-month period, according to the San Francisco-based company's report. (Report: https://transparency.twitter.com/) Governments usually want the emails or IP addresses tied to a Twitter account. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon warns of tough trade-offs in face of looming cuts Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 05:47 PM PDT  By David Alexander and Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday pledged $40 billion in new Pentagon spending reductions over the next decade, but warned that additional cuts required by law posed stark choices that could bend or break the president's defense strategy. Hagel, unveiling his four-month Strategic Choices and Management Review, said the Pentagon would cut $40 billion in overhead from its agencies and headquarters units over the next decade. ... Full Story | Top |
| As Egypt turns up heat, Brothers struggle for strategy Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:14 AM PDT  By Michael Georgy and Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - Behind sandbags at the Muslim Brotherhood's protest camp in Cairo, an activist urges supporters to embrace martyrdom. It is not a call to arms, but a message that they shouldn't fear death as they demonstrate against the military's overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. "Martyrs don't die. Martyrs go to paradise," he said through a megaphone as people held aloft symbolic coffins to commemorate more than 100 Mursi supporters already shot dead in the street. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's rulers want to break up Brotherhood vigils Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:12 PM PDT By Asma Alsharif and Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt faced the prospect of fresh bloodshed on Thursday after the country's army-backed rulers signaled they would move soon to disperse thousands of supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. With no sign of a negotiated end to weeks of violent confrontation, Egypt's interim government said two Cairo vigils by Mursi supporters posed a threat to national security, citing "terrorism" and traffic disruption. It ordered the Interior Ministry to take steps to "address these dangers and put an end to them," but gave no time frame. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Snowden leak upstages U.S. move to declassify documents Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:10 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle and Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New revelations from former security contractor Edward Snowden that U.S. intelligence agencies have access to a vast online tracking tool came to light on Wednesday, as lawmakers put the secret surveillance programs under greater scrutiny. The Guardian, citing documents from Snowden, published National Security Agency training materials for the XKeyscore program, which the British newspaper described as the NSA's widest-reaching system that covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the Internet. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fed stays on track with bond buying, for now Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 01:50 PM PDT  By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said the economy continues to recover but is still in need of support, offering no indication that it is planning to reduce its bond-buying stimulus at its next meeting in September. Wrapping up a two-day gathering, the central bank said it would keep buying $85 billion in mortgage and Treasury securities per month in an effort to strengthen an economy that it said was still challenged by federal budget-tightening. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mugabe beats Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe election: ZANU-PF source Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:45 PM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A senior source in Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's party claimed a resounding victory in Wednesday's parliamentary and presidential election against Prime Minster Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "We've taken this election. We've buried the MDC. We never had any doubt that we were going to win," the source, who could not be named, told Reuters by phone on Thursday. Releasing results early in Zimbabwe is illegal, and police have said they will arrest anybody who makes premature claims about the result. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dying out? China's young shun family firms Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 05:37 PM PDT  By Lavinia Mo HONG KONG (Reuters) - Dai Yintao, 21, is the only son of the millionaire owner of Chinese real estate, pharmaceutical and mining companies. He has no interest in taking over his father's business, opting instead to work on a building site in Guiyang in Guizhou province, arriving each day in a Porsche. "I work here because I don't want to take money from my father," Dai says. "Freedom means everything. ... Full Story | Top |
| Apple CEO met China Mobile head, discussed cooperation Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 07:23 PM PDT  By Paul Carsten and Lee Chyen Yee BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday met with the head of China Mobile Ltd, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers and the only Chinese carrier that doesn't offer iPhones and iPads. The meeting with China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua in Beijing was to discuss matters of cooperation, the Chinese firm told Reuters in an emailed statement. It gave no further details. The talks could pave the way for a long-awaited deal for China Mobile to distribute Apple products on its vast network, benefiting both companies. ... Full Story | Top |
| Congress finally votes to cut student loan interest rates Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:27 PM PDT  By Elvina Nawaguna WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. college students will likely pay a reduced interest rate of 3.86 percent on their student loans for the new school year, after lawmakers on Wednesday finally passed a compromise bill that would reverse a recent rate hike. The House of Representatives voted 392-31 in support of a bipartisan deal to lower interest rates on millions of new federal student loans. The Senate passed the bill on July 24 and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law. ... Full Story | Top |
| NSA chief defends surveillance programs at hacking conference Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 02:21 PM PDT  By Joseph Menn LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander jousted with a few hecklers as he defended the U.S. spy agency's surveillance programs at the Black Hat security conference on Wednesday, but largely kept the crowd of cybersecurity experts and hackers on his side. "Read the Constitution!" one heckler shouted at the 61-year-old four-star general as he responded to polite but tough questions selected in advance by conference organizers. "I have. So should you," Alexander shot back, triggering sustained applause. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iraq war logs in Manning case 'hit us in the face': U.S. officer Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 02:45 PM PDT  By Tom Ramstack FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The U.S. Army was overwhelmed when WikiLeaks published more than 700,000 secret diplomatic and war documents handed over by soldier Bradley Manning, a retired officer testified in the sentencing phase of the convicted private's court-martial. "The ones that hit us in the face were the Iraq logs," retired Brigadier General Robert Carr said in a Fort Meade, Maryland court on Wednesday, a day after a military judge found Manning guilty of 19 charges over the leaks in 2010, the biggest breach of classified data in U.S. history. ... Full Story | Top |
| Apple CEO met China Mobile head, discussed cooperation Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:30 PM PDT  By Paul Carsten and Lee Chyen Yee BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday met with the head of China Mobile Ltd, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers and the only Chinese carrier that doesn't offer iPhones and iPads. The meeting with China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua in Beijing was to discuss matters of cooperation, the Chinese firm told Reuters in an emailed statement. It gave no further details. The talks could pave the way for a long-awaited deal for China Mobile to distribute Apple products on its vast network, benefiting both companies. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon warns of tough trade-offs in face of looming cuts Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:43 PM PDT By David Alexander and Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday pledged $40 billion in new Pentagon spending reductions over the next decade, but warned that additional cuts required by law posed stark choices that could bend or break the president's defense strategy. Hagel, unveiling the results of his four-month Strategic Choices and Management Review, said the Pentagon would cut $40 billion in overhead from its agencies and headquarters units over the next decade. He also said it would propose compensation reforms to try to save about $50 billion. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dying out? China's young shun family firms Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:29 PM PDT  By Lavinia Mo HONG KONG (Reuters) - Dai Yintao, 21, is the only son of the millionaire owner of Chinese real estate, pharmaceutical and mining companies. He has no interest in taking over his father's business, opting instead to work on a building site in Guiyang in Guizhou province, arriving each day in a Porsche. "I work here because I don't want to take money from my father," Dai says. "Freedom means everything. ... Full Story | Top |
| Boeing wins $2 billion deal for 13 more P-8 surveillance planes: Pentagon Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 02:59 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co won a contract valued at $2.04 billion to build 13 more P-8A multi-mission maritime surveillance planes for the U.S. Navy, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday. The contract, which runs through April 2016, includes work on the 13 aircraft and 13 mission equipment sets, the Defense Department said in its daily digest of major weapons contracts. It also includes long-long funding to get work started on 16 additional planes that will be funded in coming years. ... Full Story | Top |
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