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| Google, Oracle, Red Hat experts to help fix Obamacare website Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 12:06 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Experts from top technology and Internet companies including Google Inc, Oracle Corp and Red Hat Inc have joined the Obama administration's effort to fix its troubled HealthCare.gov website, a U.S. official said on Thursday. Individuals from Oracle and Red Hat have expertise in site reliability, stability and scalability, according to a blog post by Julie Bataille, spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which is overseeing the effort. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senate Republicans block Obama nominee for housing post Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 11:19 AM PDT  By Margaret Chadbourn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked President Barack Obama's nominee to oversee mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, likely derailing his chances of securing the position. The defeat on a procedural vote for the nominee, Democratic Representative Mel Watt of North Carolina, came despite an aggressive White House push to round up support. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid switched his vote from yea to nay at the last minute to reserve the right to bring back Watt's nomination to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Only two Republicans - Senator Richard Burr, who is from Watt's home state, and Senator Rob Portman of Ohio - voted yea. Full Story | Top |
| Murdoch editors Brooks, Coulson had affair, British hacking trial told Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 12:24 PM PDT By Kate Holton and Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, former editors of Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid, had a six-year affair at the time their reporters hacked phone messages of politicians and royalty, a London court heard on Thursday. Revealing their close ties, prosecutor Andrew Edis said the intimacy of their relationship indicated both knew as much as the other about the criminal activities of senior journalists on the paper. Brooks and Coulson are on trial accused of conspiring to hack into phones of high-profile public figures or those close to them and also making illegal payments to public officials, charges they deny. What effect did it have?" Edis told the court. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to allow expanded electronic device use on flights Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  Airline passengers will soon be able to use electronic devices throughout their entire flight after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ended a long-standing ban on Thursday. Mobile phone calls remain barred under Federal Communications Commission rules. Delta Air Lines and JetBlue quickly filed plans with the FAA to show that their aircraft can tolerate radio signals from electronic devices, a condition required by the regulator. The change is likely to boost the use of gadgets such as Amazon Inc's Kindle readers or Apple Inc's iPad. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: EU, IMF coordinate on Ukraine as Russia threat looms Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 11:31 AM PDT  By Luke Baker and Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is in advanced discussions with the International Monetary Fund on providing standby financing to Ukraine should the country come under economic pressure from Russia later this year, senior EU officials have told Reuters. Ukraine is expected to sign a free trade and association agreement with the European Union at a summit in Lithuania on November 28-29, as long as it meets remaining conditions, including releasing former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison. Ex-Soviet Ukraine's shift closer to the EU and away from Russia's sphere of influence has irritated Moscow, which has threatened to interrupt gas supplies to its neighbor and has demanded Kiev repay outstanding loans. For Moscow it cuts to the heart of a sense of diminished power in its backyard, with Ukraine seen by many in Russia as culturally and historically Russian. Full Story | Top |
| Syria meets deadline to destroy chemical production facilities Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 10:31 AM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria has destroyed or rendered inoperable all of its declared chemical weapons production and mixing facilities, meeting a major deadline in an ambitious disarmament program, the international chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which won the Nobel Peace prize this month, said its teams had inspected 21 out of 23 chemical weapons sites across the country. Syria "has completed the functional destruction of critical equipment for all of its declared chemical weapons production facilities and mixing/filling plants, rendering them inoperable," it said, meeting a November 1 deadline for the work. The next target date is November 15, by when the OPCW and Syria must agree to a detailed plan of destruction, including how and where to destroy more than 1,000 metric tons of toxic agents and munitions. Full Story | Top |
| Pimco's Gross urges 'privileged 1 percent' to pay more tax Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 10:59 AM PDT  By Sam Forgione and Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill Gross, manager of the world's largest bond fund, urged fellow members of the "privileged 1 percent," earning the highest incomes, to support higher U.S. taxes on carried interest and capital gains to help the economy. Gross, co-founder and co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said in his latest investment outlook letter on Thursday that the super wealthy "should be paddling right alongside and willing to support higher taxes on carried interest, and certainly capital gains readjusted to existing marginal income tax rates." Carried interest refers to a large portion of the investment gains realized by private equity managers and executives at some venture capital firms, real estate and hedge funds. Gross, who oversees roughly $2 trillion in assets, noted that billionaires Warren Buffett and Stanley Druckenmiller, founder of Duquesne Capital Management and one of the best performing hedge fund managers of the past three decades, have advocated similar proposals. Full Story | Top |
| Iran and big powers end expert talks without comment Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 11:37 AM PDT Iran and six world powers ended an expert-level meeting over Tehran's disputed nuclear activities on Thursday, but there was no immediate word on whether they had come any closer to an elusive breakthrough deal. The two-day meeting was meant to prepare for the next round of political negotiations on November 7-8, building on a diplomatic opening created by the election of Hassan Rouhani as new Iranian president. Rouhani, a pragmatist and a former chief nuclear negotiator for Iran, took office in August promising to try to resolve the dispute after years of confrontation and secure an easing of sanctions that have damaged Iran's oil-dependent economy. Western diplomats had said the talks at the U.N. complex in Vienna could help define the contours of any preliminary agreement on scaling back Iran's uranium enrichment in return for an easing of sanctions. Full Story | Top |
| No shutdown in U.S. Midwest as business activity index surges Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 07:47 AM PDT  By Alister Bull and Pedro da Costa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Business activity in the U.S. Midwest surged past expectations in October as new orders hit their highest level since 2004, countering recent evidence of soft economic growth. Weekly unemployment claims also fell, in welcome news for the nation's battered labor market after the impact of a government shutdown on furloughed federal workers diminished. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago business barometer jumped to 65.9 from 55.7, the strongest reading since March 2011 and well above the most optimistic forecast in a Reuters poll. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Troika put return Greek visit on ice due to budget hole Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 11:35 AM PDT  By Martin Santa and Jan Strupczewski BRUSSELS (Reuters) - International inspectors are set to put on hold a trip to Athens because they have been unable to bridge differences with Greece over how to close a 2 billion euro ($2.7 billion) hole in its 2014 budget, euro zone officials said. A team of officials from the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank - known as the Troika - visits Athens regularly to check progress on its bailout commitments and decide whether to release the next tranche of loans. "There are growing differences between Athens and the Troika," one euro zone official said, adding that the planned trip was, for now, on ice. "The Greeks are saying: 'We are doing enough', and the Troika says they need new steps to close the budget," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Obama administration says shares views with lawmakers on tax reform Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 07:14 AM PDT  The Obama administration on Thursday called on Congress to engage it on tax reform, saying plans currently considered by lawmakers "share much in common" with the White House's approach to the issue. "There is no reason why we cannot start with the substantial policy areas that we agree on and come together to find common ground," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told an investment summit. Lew's comments came a day after U.S. lawmakers launched a new round of budget talks with pledges to work toward easing automatic government spending cuts. Many analysts doubt that a substantial agreement on tax reform will be reached before mid-term congressional elections in November 2014, although lawmakers crafting reform plans such as Democratic Senator Max Baucus And Republican Representative Dave Camp continue to push for a deal. Full Story | Top |
| Bavarian conservatives get boost from EU on foreign-driver road toll plan Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 07:48 AM PDT  Bavarian conservatives have received an unexpected boost from Brussels for a controversial plan to impose a motorway toll on foreign drivers, giving impetus to their push for the idea in German talks to form a coalition government. The idea faces strong opposition from the other parties in the talks, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). In effect, German drivers would end up paying the same amount as previously, while the extra income from foreign drivers would be spent on infrastructure projects. The main problem is linking the road toll system and the tax system, as that could be seen as discriminatory. Full Story | Top |
| Niger says 92 migrants found dead in Sahara after failed crossing Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 08:36 AM PDT By Abdoulaye Massalatchi NIAMEY (Reuters) - Rescuers have found the bodies of 92 migrants, most of them women and children, strewn across the Sahara desert in northern Niger after their vehicles broke down and they died of thirst, authorities said on Thursday. Rescue worker Almoustapha Alhacen said the bodies - 52 children, 33 women and seven men from Niger - were found on the route from the northern mining town of Arlit to the Algerian border. Northern Niger lies on a major corridor for illegal migration and people-trafficking from sub-Saharan African into north Africa and across the Mediterranean into Europe. Rescuers said the doomed convoy of women and children was puzzling. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Russian banks strengthen ties with blacklisted Syrian lenders Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 06:55 AM PDT  By Thomas Grove MOSCOW (Reuters) - Intent on supplying his government with arms, oil and food, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has turned to Russian banks to access world markets, and the lenders could open more doors to him, despite a risk of isolation from the U.S. banking system. U.S. sanctions aimed at forcing Assad to end the violence in Syria's two-and-a-half-year civil war forbid its own banks from dealing with Syria's central bank and the Commercial Bank of Syria. U.S. senators asked Treasury Secretary Jack Lew last month to put Russian banks that deal with them on a list prohibiting U.S. banks from doing business with them, in an attempt to pressure them into ending their relationships with Assad. While Assad has used second-tier Russian banks to pay for air defense systems and fighter jets, the Commercial Bank of Syria has also opened accounts in the small Moscow-based lender Tempbank and is in talks with the bank to expand ties. Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian Islamists call for daily protests before Mursi trial Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 06:34 AM PDT  Supporters of Egypt's ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi called on Thursday for daily protests in the four days before his trial on November 4, raising the danger of more violence in a crisis that has already cost hundreds of lives. Mursi, who was ousted by the army on July 3 after mass demonstrations against his rule, is due to appear in court on Monday along with 14 other senior Muslim Brotherhood figures on charges of inciting violence. The trial could further inflame tensions between the Brotherhood and the army-backed interim government as it struggles to restore stability in the most populous Arab state. "The Alliance calls on all proud, free Egyptians to gather in the squares in protest against these trials... starting on Friday," the Brotherhood and its allies said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Congo army says hunting rebels deep into mountain bases Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 05:56 AM PDT By Kenny Katombe GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Congo's army said on Thursday it was hunting rebels deep into forests and mountains along the border with Rwanda and Uganda, the last insurgent hideouts after they were driven from towns they held during a 20-month rebellion. Ugandan mediators said talks had restarted on Wednesday in Kampala between the government and M23 rebels, but Kinshasa's U.N.-backed army appears on the verge of defeating the most serious uprising to plague the mineral-rich east since the end of the last major war a decade ago. Clashes were reported in the hills above Bunagana, the last rebel-controlled town to fall this week, and around Runyoni, a hill that was the birthplace of the rebellion last year. This defeat led to the U.N. force and mandate being bolstered, an overhaul of Congo's army command and pressure on rebel support, changing the tide of the fighting. Full Story | Top |
| China state media calls for stern action after Tiananmen attack Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 07:02 AM PDT By Michael Martina TURPAN, China (Reuters) - Chinese state media demanded severe punishment on Thursday to put down what China has said is a holy war aimed at Beijing by Islamist militants from the restive Xinjiang region. Security has been strengthened in both Beijing and in Xinjiang in the far west after an SUV ploughed through bystanders in the capital's iconic Tiananmen Square on Monday and burst into flames. The exiled leader of Xinjiang's Muslim Uighur minority called for an independent probe into the crash, in which the three occupants of the vehicle and two bystanders were killed and dozens were injured. U.S.-based Rebiya Kadeer said she did not believe any kind of organized extremist Islamic movement was operating in Xinjiang, a view shared by rights groups and some experts. Full Story | Top |
| Murdoch staff turned to hacking in 'dog-eat-dog' world, court hears Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 05:29 AM PDT By Kate Holton and Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Reporters on Rupert Murdoch's News of the World repeatedly hacked the phones of senior politicians and even rival journalists in a desperate bid to get ahead on salacious front-page stories, a London court heard on Thursday. Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, two of Britain's most high profile former newspaper editors, are on trial with six others accused of conspiring to intercept voicemail messages and make illegal payments to find exclusives when they ran the now defunct Sunday tabloid and its daily sister tabloid, the Sun. "In the dog-eat-dog world of journalism, in this frenzy to get this huge story, and to try and get something better or at least as good as what everyone else has got, that is what you do if you're Ian Edmondson," said prosecutor Andrew Edis. "You hack the competition." Edmondson, one of those on trial, ran the news gathering desk at the tabloid when Coulson, later Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief, was the editor. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela seeks to tame 'Wild West' motorcycle chaos Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 06:10 AM PDT By Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - Choking traffic, causing pileups and even ambushing drivers, Venezuela's hordes of motorcyclists are an increasingly high-profile problem for the new government of President Nicolas Maduro. Some also see them as shock troops of the late Hugo Chavez, who pushed through radical socialist policies during his 14 years in power before dying from cancer in March. Most of these "motorizados" - a term that can be applied to almost anyone who works on a bike - in Caracas say they are just trying to scrape a living as taxis and couriers in a congested city that desperately needs them, and are being blamed unfairly for the crimes of a few rogues. He faces a huge test to crack down on the lawlessness often associated with the motorizados while still retaining their many working-class votes. Full Story | Top |
| Mexican tax plan weakened further, nears final approval Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 09:49 AM PDT  By Miguel Gutierrez, Michael O'Boyle and Dave Graham MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Senate on Thursday made new cuts to a tax reform plan that President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed to increase the nation's anemic tax take before sending the bill back to the lower house of Congress for final approval. The bill, which includes higher taxes for the rich as well as levies on junk food and on stock market gains, is a cornerstone of a wider reform agenda that Pena Nieto is pushing to lift lackluster growth in Latin America's No. 2 economy. After conservative opponents walked out of the Senate, refusing to support the legislation, ruling party leaders struck a deal with leftist lawmakers on changes to income tax rates that would lower the bill's projected tax take. It would then fall to Pena Nieto to sign it into law. Full Story | Top |
| Libya rescues 84 emigrants off Tripoli coast Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 01:13 AM PDT Libya's navy has rescued 84 African emigrants from a boat that was foundering off its coast, state news agency Lana said, after hundreds drowned this month trying to reach Europe. They were brought to the port of Zawiya for processing by the country's department for illegal emigrants. Hundreds of people have died this month trying to reach Lampedusa, an island south of Sicily, by boat from North Africa. Many have come via Libya, which is facing a breakdown of civilian rule two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Full Story | Top |
| Japan lawmaker breaks taboo with nuclear fears letter for emperor Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 04:13 AM PDT  A Japanese lawmaker handed Emperor Akihito a letter on Thursday expressing fear about the health impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, breaking a taboo by trying to involve the emperor in politics. Taro Yamamoto, who is also an anti-nuclear activist, gave Akihito the letter during a garden party, setting off a storm of protest on the Internet from critics shocked at his action. "I wanted to directly tell the emperor of the current situation," Yamamoto told reporters, referring to the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo, which has been leaking radioactivity since it was battered by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Israeli troops kill Palestinian during West Bank raid: medics Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 01:27 AM PDT Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during a clash in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian witnesses and medical officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the soldiers had been on an overnight raid in a village near the city of Jenin, when about 50 Palestinians started hurling rocks at them. Ahmed Imad Yusef, 21, was shot in the chest during the confrontation, medical workers said. The military spokeswoman said reports of a Palestinian casualty were being investigated. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. jobless claims declined by 10,000 last week Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 05:31 AM PDT  WASHINGTON, Oct 31 - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits declined largely as expected last week as the impact of a California computer glitch worked its way out of the report. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined by 10,0000 to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. A Labor Department analyst said California, which had been dealing with a backlog, reported no carryover in claims last week from previous weeks. Technical problems as California converted to a new computer system have distorted the claims data since September, which had made it hard to get a clear read of labor market conditions. Full Story | Top |
| BOJ raises GDP forecast, holds line on inflation Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 12:26 AM PDT  The central bank did revise up its economic growth forecast for the 2014 fiscal year beginning next April to 1.5 percent, judging the world's third-largest economy could keep growing above its potential despite a sales tax increase next year. As widely expected, the BOJ had earlier kept intact its intense monetary stimulus launched in April, under which it aims to double base money via asset purchases to meet its target of lifting inflation to 2 percent in roughly two years. In its semi-annual outlook report, the BOJ kept its forecasts for core consumer inflation in fiscal 2014 and 2015 at 1.3 percent and 1.9 percent respectively, excluding the increase in the sales tax, a sign it is on track to meet its goal. Even though it did not formally forecast inflation reaching 2 percent, economists worry the BOJ is expecting too much from government stimulus designed to offset the impact of the rise in the 5 percent sales tax rate to 8 percent next April. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Putin targets Dagestan insurgents as Olympics loom Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 11:22 PM PDT  By Alissa de Carbonnel MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ahead of the Sochi Olympics in February, Russia is taking saliva samples from religiously conservative Muslim women, according to locals in the North Caucasus, gathering DNA so authorities can identify the body parts if any become suicide bombers. The move coincides with a drive by President Vladimir Putin to crack down on an Islamist insurgency in Dagestan, a province in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains east of the Winter Games sites in Sochi. Under Putin, authorities seem to have given up trying to deal with the conflict through dialogue with adherents of the strict Salafist strand of Islam that is the militants' religion. On October 21, a suicide bombing that killed six people in Volgograd, a major city north of Sochi, was blamed on a woman from Dagestan. Full Story | Top |
| Facebook smashes analyst targets but executive comments spook Street Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 06:23 PM PDT  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc posted strong growth in its mobile advertising business on Wednesday but rattled investors after saying that it did not plan to boost the frequency of ads shown to users. In July, Facebook said it was showing one ad per 20 stories in the newsfeed, but Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman told analysts Wednesday that the current ratio, although slightly higher than 5 percent, would not increase much more going forward. Ebersman's comments, combined with remarks suggesting that young teenage users in the U.S. were beginning to use Facebook less frequently, soured the mood abruptly on an afternoon when the company topped Wall Street's targets with a whopping 60 percent increase in revenue, driven by its accelerating mobile business. But Greenfield said he believed investors were over-reacting, noting that increasing advertising prices, rather than the volume of ads, is more important for growth in Facebook's topline. Full Story | Top |
| Fed maintains strong stimulus as U.S. growth stumbles Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:37 PM PDT  By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve extended its support for a soft U.S. economy on Wednesday, sounding a bit less optimistic about growth as it announced plans to keep buying $85 billion in bonds per month. In announcing the decision, the Fed nodded to weaker economic signals that have been due in part to a fiscal fight in Washington that shuttered much of the government for 16 days earlier this month. The central bank noted that the recovery in the housing market had lost some steam and suggested some frustration at how slowly the labor market was healing. However, it also dropped a phrase expressing concern about a run-up in borrowing costs, suggesting greater comfort with the current level of interest rates. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. spy agency's defense: Europeans did it too Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:53 PM PDT  By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The political uproar over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on close European allies has produced an unusual defense from the National Security Agency: NSA says it was the Europeans themselves who did the spying, and then handed data to the Americans. It is rare for intelligence officials to speak in any public detail about liaison arrangements with foreign spy agencies because such relationships are so sensitive. But that is what NSA Director General Keith Alexander did at a public congressional hearing on Tuesday when, attempting to counter international complaints about the agency's alleged excesses, he said its sources for foreign telecommunications information included "data provided to NSA by foreign partners." Alexander's disclosure marked yet another milestone in NSA's emergence from the shadows to defend its electronic surveillance mission in the wake of damaging revelations by former agency contractor Edward Snowden. "It is true that in general we stay close-mouthed about intelligence liaison relationships and we only speak in the most general terms about sharing things with our friends and allies," said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA analyst. Full Story | Top |
| White House faces tough sell in Congress on delay of Iran sanctions Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:10 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Obama administration officials have been pushing U.S. lawmakers hard to hold off on new sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, but some key lawmakers said on Wednesday they had not yet been convinced to support a delay. Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which is considering the sanctions package, said lawmakers were skeptical because they felt they had to push the White House to back strict sanctions on Tehran. "I think ... because Congress had to push the administration into the sanctions regime in the first place, there is a degree of skepticism. Corker had a breakfast meeting on Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. F-35 fighter drops first guided bomb against ground target Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:16 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet dropped a 500-pound bomb this week, hitting a tank at Edwards Air Force Base in California and marking the first time the new warplane has fired a laser-guided weapon, the Pentagon said Wednesday. An F-35 B-model jet released the Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II bomb from its internal weapons bay while flying at around 25,000 feet, successfully smashing into a tank parked on the ground, the Pentagon's F-35 program office said in a statement. It took 35 seconds to hit the target. "This guided weapons delivery test of a GBU-12 marks the first time the F-35 truly became a weapon system," said Marine Corps Major Richard Rusnok, the pilot who flew the plane during the weapons test Tuesday. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. spy agency denies that it eavesdropped on Vatican Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 03:34 PM PDT  WASHINGTON/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The National Security Agency, responsible for U.S. electronic eavesdropping, said on Wednesday that it does not target the Vatican and called an Italian media report that it had done so "not true." Panorama magazine said on Wednesday that the NSA had eavesdropped on Vatican phone calls, possibly including when former Pope Benedict's successor was under discussion. "The National Security Agency does not target the Vatican. Assertions that NSA has targeted the Vatican, published in Italy's Panorama magazine, are not true," NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. joins lawsuit against firm that vetted Snowden Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 01:01 PM PDT  By Aruna Viswanatha and David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it had joined a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower against United States Investigations Services, the private firm that vetted Edward Snowden before he leaked documents about U.S. spying efforts. While the lawsuit is not about the firm's review of Snowden, it alleges that USIS failed to perform quality control reviews in connection with its background investigations. The firm also vetted Aaron Alexis, the technology contractor who killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard last month. Such background checks include investigative fieldwork on each application. Full Story | Top |
| Israel pushes plans for 3,500 settler homes after prisoners freed Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:05 PM PDT  By Mohammed Abu Ganeyeh BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered officials on Wednesday to press ahead with plans to build 3,500 more homes for Jewish settlers, hours after Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of U.S.-brokered peace efforts. Netanyahu's step was seen as a way to placate hardliners who criticized him as the inmates, convicted of killing Israelis, basked in a heroes' welcome from hundreds of relatives and well-wishers in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel's Interior Ministry announced earlier in the day that the 1,500 units would be built in Ramat Shlomo, a settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank that Israel considers part of Jerusalem. Those plans were first announced in 2010, clouding a visit to Israel at the time by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who condemned the project, which was subsequently shelved. Full Story | Top |
| Uighur leader questions China's account of Tiananmen attack Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:12 PM PDT  By Paul Eckert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The exiled leader of China's Uighur ethnic minority community called on Wednesday for an international investigation into an incident in which a car ploughed into pedestrians in Beijing, after Chinese authorities arrested five suspected Uighurs over the attack. The SUV vehicle burst into flames after being driven into a crowd on Tiananmen Square on Monday. Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress, called the attack tragic but was equivocal on whether Uighurs - a Muslim people from China's far western region of Xinjiang - had carried it out. Kadeer, who lives in the Washington area, warned against accepting at face value China's account of the incident. Full Story | Top |
| JP Morgan puts London FX chief on leave, Citi reported to do same Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:05 PM PDT  JP Morgan has put its chief currency dealer in London, Richard Usher, on leave, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, and Bloomberg reported Citigroup Inc had done the same with its chief dealer. This mirrors developments at Standard Chartered, which has also put one of its senior forex traders on leave, according to a source familiar with the matter. Matt Gardiner joined StanChart from Swiss bank UBS only last month. JP Morgan is one of several banks cooperating with the Financial Conduct Authority in Britain and other regulators around the world looking into allegations of currency manipulation in the $5.3 trillion-a-day global market. Full Story | Top |
| Facebook smashes analyst targets but executive comments spook Street Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:53 PM PDT  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc posted strong growth in its mobile advertising business on Wednesday but rattled investors after saying that it did not plan to boost the frequency of ads shown to users. In July, Facebook said it was showing one ad per 20 stories in the newsfeed, but Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman told analysts Wednesday that the current ratio, although slightly higher than 5 percent, would not increase much more going forward. Ebersman's comments, combined with remarks suggesting that young teenage users in the U.S. were beginning to use Facebook less frequently, soured the mood abruptly on an afternoon when the company topped Wall Street's targets with a whopping 60 percent increase in revenue, driven by its accelerating mobile business. But Greenfield said he believed investors were over-reacting, noting that increasing advertising prices, rather than the volume of ads, is more important for growth in Facebook's topline. Full Story | Top |
| Fed maintains strong stimulus as U.S. growth stumbles Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 02:16 PM PDT  By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve extended its support for a soft U.S. economy on Wednesday, sounding a bit less optimistic about growth as it announced plans to keep buying $85 billion in bonds per month. In announcing the decision, the Fed nodded to weaker economic signals that have been due in part to a fiscal fight in Washington that shuttered much of the government for 16 days earlier this month. The central bank noted that the recovery in the housing market had lost some steam and suggested some frustration at how slowly the labor market was healing. However, it also dropped a phrase expressing concern about a run-up in borrowing costs, suggesting greater comfort with the current level of interest rates. Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi PM Maliki struggles to convince U.S. lawmakers to back more aid Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 02:38 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers had tough criticism for Iraq's government after meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday, saying they were open to meeting his request for military assistance only if Baghdad made significant changes. Maliki is on his first visit to Washington in two years, urgently seeking U.S. Apache attack helicopters and other military supplies to fight militant groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq as sectarian violence spills over the border from Syria. But U.S. officials, particularly members of Congress who take a harder line on many foreign policy issues than the Obama administration, have watched in dismay as Maliki has ignored Washington's calls to give Iraq's Sunni and Kurdish minorities a greater role in his Shi'ite-led government, and moved closer to Iran since U.S. troops left Iraq two years ago. Full Story | Top |
| Israel pushes plans for 3,500 settler homes after prisoners freed Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 03:36 PM PDT By Mohammed Abu Ganeyeh BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered officials on Wednesday to press ahead with plans to build 3,500 more homes for Jewish settlers, hours after Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of U.S.-brokered peace efforts. Netanyahu's step was seen as a way to placate hardliners who criticized him as the inmates, convicted of killing Israelis, basked in a heroes' welcome from hundreds of relatives and well-wishers in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel's Interior Ministry announced earlier in the day that the 1,500 units would be built in Ramat Shlomo, a settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank that Israel considers part of Jerusalem. Those plans were first announced in 2010, clouding a visit to Israel at the time by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who condemned the project, which was subsequently shelved. Full Story | Top |
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