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| Canada competition bureau approves Telus bid for Public Mobile Friday, Nov 29, 2013 11:19 AM PST  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Competition Bureau said on Friday it would allow Canadian telecom company Telus Corp to buy all of struggling startup Public Mobile. Industry Minister James Moore had approved the sale last month, saying it would not hurt consumers. The Conservative government is eager to boost competition in the wireless sector. "The Bureau will continue to closely monitor the evolution of competition in Canada's wireless telecommunications industry and take action where appropriate," Commissioner of Competition John Pecman said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Benin says frees Nigerian ex-militant after Jonathan intervenes Friday, Nov 29, 2013 11:12 AM PST Benin freed a former militant leader from Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region on Friday after a personal intervention by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, a government spokesman said. Mujahid Dobubo-Asari had been arrested in the West African nation's capital Cotonou on Tuesday. Like Jonathan, Asari is from the Ijaw ethnic group. He is best known for staging attacks on oil infrastructure in the swampy creeks of OPEC member Nigeria that drove up oil prices to record highs in 2004. Full Story | Top |
| Obama to look to Sasha to choose where they live after White House Friday, Nov 29, 2013 11:09 AM PST  President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will take a cue from daughter Sasha on where to live after his second term ends in 2017, and that means that they might end up staying in Washington, ABC News reported on Friday. The president's older daughter, Malia, now 15, will likely be in college but Sasha, now 12, will still be in high school when Obama leaves office. "So we've got to - you know we got to make sure that she's doing well ... until she goes off to college," Obama said according to ABC News excerpts of an interview set to air at 10 p.m. on Friday (0300 GMT on Saturday). But their daughters, who both attend the private Sidwell Friends School, frequently have friends over to the White House, hosting sleepovers and pajama parties on the third floor, their parents said in the ABC interview. Full Story | Top |
| Store evacuation, fights mar U.S. holiday shopping rush Friday, Nov 29, 2013 11:09 AM PST  A police officer was injured while breaking up a fight outside a California Walmart, a shopper was shot in the leg over a TV in Las Vegas and a Walmart north of New York City was evacuated as the post-Thanksgiving shopping rush sparked incidents of violence across the nation, according to police and media reports. In White Plains, just north of New York City, an outlet of Wal-Mart Stores Inc was evacuated on Friday, with employees and shoppers saying they had been warned of a possible bomb threat. Police in Romeoville, Illinois, shot a suspected shoplifter in the shoulder late Thursday night after the car he was driving dragged an officer through the parking lot of a Kohl's department store, Romeoville Police Chief Mark Turvey said in a video posted by the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Full Story | Top |
| Canada mortgage insurer sees less risk, despite bubble fears Friday, Nov 29, 2013 10:45 AM PST  Canada's housing agency said on Friday it has set aside less money to cover bad mortgages as the economy improves, even though concerns about a housing bubble persist. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) said provisions for claims dropped by C$19 million to C$895 million during the third quarter and were down C$101 million for the first nine months of the year as expectations for bad loans fell. "We have seen improvement in the economic indicators that underlie all of that, so for example, unemployment has improved and home price inflation, which obviously influences the severity of claims, has improved as well," Brian Naish, CMHC's chief financial officer, said on a conference call. Setting aside less money for bad mortgages helped CMHC boost profit by 20 percent in the quarter to C$452 million, and total insurance in force dipped slightly to C$559.8 billion. Full Story | Top |
| Libya's coastguard picks up almost 300 African migrants Friday, Nov 29, 2013 10:28 AM PST Libya stopped three boats off its coast packed with almost 300 African migrants apparently trying to reach Europe, the state news agency Lana said on Friday. The migrants were taken to detention centers for processing by Libya's department for illegal migrants. Hundreds of people have died in the past two months in the stream of refugees trying to enter the European Union by boat from North Africa through Lampedusa, an Italian island south of Sicily. Many come via Libya, which is struggling with growing anarchy two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Full Story | Top |
| Obama says 'nowhere to go but up' after HealthCare.gov debacle Friday, Nov 29, 2013 10:12 AM PST  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's popularity has taken a beating over the botched October 1 launch of Obamacare, but in a television interview set to air on Friday, Obama said he believes Americans eventually will appreciate his signature healthcare reform. Reflecting on his poll numbers in an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, Obama said: "I've gone up and down pretty much consistently throughout. "But the good thing about when you're down is that usually you got nowhere to go but up," Obama added, according to excerpts released by ABC. The interview was taped last week as the Obama administration scrambled to meet a self-imposed November 30 deadline to overhaul HealthCare.gov, the website used in 36 states to shop for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. Full Story | Top |
| Saatchi says he still adores ex-wife Nigella Lawson Friday, Nov 29, 2013 10:05 AM PST  By Alexander Winning LONDON (Reuters) - Millionaire art dealer Charles Saatchi told a court on Friday he still "absolutely adores" his ex-wife, TV chef Nigella Lawson, despite their very public divorce in July. The celebrity pair ended their 10-year marriage and Saatchi accepted a police caution after newspapers splashed pictures of him with his hands round her neck at a London restaurant in June. Saatchi's comments came during the trial of the pair's two personal assistants, Italian sisters Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, who are accused of fraud by using credit cards lent to them by the couple to spend more than 685,000 pounds ($1.1 million) on themselves over four years. I adore Nigella now, I absolutely adore Nigella and I'm broken-hearted to have lost her." Isleworth Crown Court in West London has been told by the prosecution that in the four months to June 2012 alone, Francesca Grillo, 35, spent an average of 48,000 pounds per month and 41-year-old Elisabetta 28,000 pounds. Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria says kills more than 50 Islamist insurgents in airstrike Friday, Nov 29, 2013 09:38 AM PST Nigeria's military said on Friday that it may have killed more than 50 Islamist insurgents in an airstrike on one of their main bases in the northeast of the country. The latest strikes on Thursday targeted Boko Haram sect hideouts in the Gwoza hills, near the border with Cameroon. In May, the military stepped up an offensive against the Islamist group, which is fighting to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims. "We had intelligence that Boko Haram were still hiding somewhere around the Bita bush. Full Story | Top |
| EU carbon down 9.4 percent in November as supply curbs seen distant Friday, Nov 29, 2013 09:35 AM PST EU carbon fell 9.4 percent in November as lawmakers advanced a plan to cut supply but were unable to move fast enough to block an influx of government permits depressing the market. The December 2013 EU Allowance ended on Friday at 4.36 euros on ICE, down 7 cents on Thursday's settlement and 51 cents down month-on-month. "It's a case of the auctions and EIB (European Investment Bank) sales coming and coming. Germany's sale of 4 million spot permits on Friday morning was almost three times subscribed, a sale typical of the near-daily government auctions that feed permits into the market at a rate of around 80 million a month. Full Story | Top |
| Men tried to behead soldier on London street, court hears Friday, Nov 29, 2013 09:26 AM PST  By Michael Holden and Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Two men tried to behead a British soldier in broad daylight on a London street, hacking at his body "like a butcher attacking a joint of meat" in what one said was "eye for an eye" revenge for Britain's wars against Muslims, a court was told on Friday. Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, dragged the lifeless body of Fusilier Lee Rigby, a veteran of the Afghan War, into the middle of the street so that horrified members of the public could see what they had done, prosecutor Richard Whittam said at the start of the men's trial. They deny committing what Whittam called a "cowardly and callous murder" by knocking Rigby down with a car as he crossed a street in Woolwich, southeast London, on the afternoon of May 22 before setting upon his unconscious body with a meat cleaver and knives. Full Story | Top |
| Hezbollah arms suspect gets life in Nigeria, two others freed Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:59 AM PST A Nigerian court handed a life sentence for illegal arms trafficking and possession on Friday to a Lebanese man suspected of having links with Hezbollah, but it freed another two Lebanese suspects in the case. Judge Adeniyi Ademola struck out all terrorism charges against the men on lack of evidence, noting that being a member of Hezbollah was not enough to be so accused. "Hezbollah is not an international terrorist organization in Nigeria. Secret service agents arrested Mustapha Fawaz, Abdullah Tahini, Talal Ahmad Roda and Hussain Nurudeen Kossdi between May 16 and May 28. Full Story | Top |
| China scrambles jets to new defense zone, eyes U.S., Japan flights Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:58 AM PST By Ben Blanchard and Roberta Rampton BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China scrambled jets on Friday in response to two U.S. spy planes and 10 Japanese aircraft, including F-15 fighters, entering its new air defense zone over the East China Sea, state news agency Xinhua said, raising the stakes in a standoff with the United States, Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea flew military aircraft through the zone, which includes the skies over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute between Japan and China, the two countries said on Thursday, while Washington sent two unarmed B-52 bombers into the airspace earlier this week in a sign of support for its ally Japan. Full Story | Top |
| Spain's anti-protest bill criticized as anti-democratic Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:56 AM PST  By Elisabeth O'Leary and Andrés González MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's conservative government agreed on Friday to toughen penalties for unauthorized street protests up to a possible 600,000 euro ($816,000) fine, a crackdown that belies the peaceful record of the anti-austerity protests of recent years. But Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose People's Party (PP)has an absolute majority in parliament, has said the Citizens' Security Law guarantees freedom and will have the support of a majority of Spaniards. Street protests and strikes have became increasingly frequent in recent years following huge cuts to education and health spending aimed at shrinking Spain's public deficit to adhere to European Union demands. But in contrast to Greece and elsewhere, where many similar protests have turned violent, Spain's have remained largely peaceful, despite unemployment of 26 percent, rising poverty, and changes in labor laws that make firing easier. Full Story | Top |
| Government takes aim at green levies, denies seeking energy price freeze Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:40 AM PST  By William James and Sarah Young LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Friday to cut energy bills by reducing green levies but denied a BBC report that he had asked the country's biggest gas and energy companies to hold prices steady until the 2015 election. In an unusually sharp reprimand for the publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation, a spokesman for Cameron's office said the report which cited unidentified industry sources was utterly misleading. Details of a review of green levies, which include obligatory insulation for poor families and help with their bills, will be unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne in his December 5 Autumn Statement, a government spokesman said. "I want to help households and families by getting sustainably low energy prices," Cameron told reporters on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Lithuania on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| Quake did not damage nuclear plant, Iran tells IAEA Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:26 AM PST Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency an earthquake near the city of Bushehr did not damage the country's sole nuclear power plant and it continues to operate normally, the IAEA said on Friday. At least seven people were killed in Thursday's earthquake that hit a region near the Bushehr nuclear power plant, state news agency IRNA reported. The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 5.6, struck about 40 miles northeast of Bushehr on the Gulf coast, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. "Iran informed the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) yesterday that no damage had been found at Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant," the U.N. agency said. Full Story | Top |
| Governments seek to raise the EU cap on food-based biofuels Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:25 AM PST By Charlie Dunmore BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments are trying to raise a planned limit on the use of transport fuels made from food crops, despite warnings that the fuels can harm the environment and push up food prices. Last year in response to such warnings, the European Commission, the EU executive, proposed capping the bloc's use of crop-based biofuels at 5 percent of total transport fuel demand. That was a U-turn from three years before, when the European Union had set a legally binding target to source 10 percent of its transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020, mostly crop-based biofuels. On Friday, EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels drew up a draft compromise that would raise the proposed cap to 7 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Dozens of firms interested in destroying Syrian chemicals: OPCW sources Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:17 AM PST By Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - More than two dozen companies have expressed interest in destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, sources at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), told Reuters on Friday. The global chemical weapons watchdog is seeking commercial firms to destroy toxins from Syria's poison gas arsenal, and is trying to find a Mediterranean port where the deadliest can be processed offshore after Albania abruptly backed out of its offer to have it done on its territory. Last week the OPCW asked companies to indicate whether they could destroy nearly 800 metric tons (about 882 tons) of chemicals and 7.7 million liters of effluent, or liquid waste, and set a deadline of November 29 for expressions of interest. The sources did not reveal which companies had expressed an interest, but Timo Piekkari, chief executive at Finland's state-owned Ekokem, said his firm had done so. Full Story | Top |
| German policeman held for death of man he met on cannibal website Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:12 AM PST  A German policeman has been arrested after the chopped-up body of a man he met on a fetishist website for cannibalism was found buried in his garden, police in the eastern city of Dresden said on Friday. "The victim had been fantasizing about being killed and eaten by someone else since his youth," Dresden police chief Dieter Kroll told a news conference. The investigation recalled the case of Armin Meiwes, dubbed the "Cannibal of Rothenburg", who killed and ate a man who had advertised on the Internet for someone to kill him "and leave no trace". Full Story | Top |
| Canada's economy gathers speed, no rate move expected Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:09 AM PST  By Louise Egan OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's economy grew at the fastest pace in two years in the third quarter but the pickup failed to quell doubts about the economy's underlying strength, and analysts still expect interest rates to stay at the current low level well into 2015. Real gross domestic product grew by 2.7 percent, annualized, in the July-September period, driven mainly by consumer spending, business inventory accumulation and signs of a rebound in business investment. The performance beat the median forecast of 2.5 percent growth in a Reuters poll and was well above the Bank of Canada's 1.8 percent estimate last month. The news could be the first sign the economy is pulling out of a slow spell to lift chronically weak inflation, which has been flagged by the Bank of Canada as the reason interest rates are now on hold for the foreseeable future. Full Story | Top |
| Iran sees nuclear deal implementation starting by early January Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:07 AM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - The implementation of a landmark deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program in return for some sanctions relief is expected to start by early January, its envoy to the U.N. atomic agency said on Friday. Israel, believed to be the region's only nuclear-armed state, has denounced the deal as an "historic mistake" since it does not dismantle its arch foe's uranium enrichment program. The Jewish state sees Iran as a threat to its existence. Israel's ambassador to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency told an IAEA board meeting that "the increasing concerns regarding Iran's activities related to nuclear weapons should be thoroughly investigated and clarified". Full Story | Top |
| Canada September budget gap jumps on Alberta flood aid Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:03 AM PST  The cost of helping Alberta recover from floods in July helped boost the federal budget deficit in September to C$3.84 billion ($3.62 billion) from C$2.23 billion a year earlier, the Finance Department said on Friday. The government recorded a C$2.8 billion liability for the Alberta disaster assistance, and a C$0.7 billion gain on the sale of 30 million shares of General Motors Co stock which it had acquired as part of a bailout in the recession. Full Story | Top |
| Journal withdraws controversial French Monsanto GM study Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:59 AM PST  Reed Elsevier's Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT)journal, which published the study by the French researcher Gilles-Eric Seralini in September 2012, said the retraction was because the study's small sample size meant no definitive conclusions could be reached. "Ultimately, the results presented - while not incorrect - are inconclusive, and therefore do not reach the threshold of publication for Food and Chemical Toxicology." At the time of its original publication, hundreds of scientists across the world questioned Seralini's research, which said rats fed Monsanto's GM corn had suffered tumors and multiple organ failure. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a statement in November 2012 saying the study by Seralini, who was based at France's University of Caen, had serious defects in design and methodology and did not meet acceptable scientific standards. In its retraction statement, the FCT said that, in light of these concerns, it too had asked to view the raw data. Full Story | Top |
| Lawmakers push Britain closer to European Union referendum Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:58 AM PST Britain took a step towards holding a public vote on whether it should remain in the European Union when members of parliament backed an effort to enshrine the referendum promise in law. Prime Minister David Cameron is backing the draft legislation as a way to help bridge damaging divides over Europe in his Conservative party. It is also designed to counter the threat of euro-sceptic voters defecting to the anti-EU UK Independence Party at the next general election in 2015. Full Story | Top |
| UK takes aim at green levies, denies seeking energy price freeze Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:42 AM PST By William James and Sarah Young LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Friday to cut energy bills by reducing green levies but denied a BBC report that he had asked the country's biggest gas and energy companies to hold prices steady until the 2015 election. In an unusually sharp reprimand for the publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation, a spokesman for Cameron's office said the report which cited unidentified industry sources was utterly misleading. Details of a review of green levies, which include obligatory insulation for poor families and help with their bills, will be unveiled by finance minister George Osborne in his December 5 Autumn Statement, a government spokesman said. "I want to help households and families by getting sustainably low energy prices," Cameron told reporters on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Lithuania on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi accused of bribing witnesses in prostitution trial Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:41 AM PST  By Emilio Parodi MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian court accused former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday of bribing witnesses to give false testimony in a trial linked to the case in which he has been convicted for paying for sex with a minor. The accusation, two days after Berlusconi was stripped of his seat in parliament for tax fraud, came in a written judgment in the trial of three associates of the billionaire media tycoon who are charged with procuring prostitutes for parties at his home near Milan. The court said the evidence against Berlusconi and the others implicated had been sent to prosecutors who are expected to open a new investigation into the case, the court documents showed. His lawyers, Niccolo Ghedini and Piero Longo, who were also accused of inducing false testimony in the case, issued a statement saying the accusations were "totally disconnected from reality and from the facts". Full Story | Top |
| Angola says Dos Santos is fine, denies cancer treatment report Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:29 AM PST  Angola on Friday denied a report by Portuguese state TV that President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was undergoing cancer treatment, saying the long-serving 71-year-old was in good health. The RTP report on Thursday said Dos Santos had checked in to the oncology unit of a clinic in Barcelona. "He is in good health and will return within days." In power since 1979, Dos Santos is Africa's second longest-serving leader. He flew to Barcelona from Luanda on November 9 on a private visit. Full Story | Top |
| "Security" swimming pool lands South Africa's Zuma in hot water Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:28 AM PST  By Ed Cropley JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's top anti-corruption watchdog says President Jacob Zuma should repay some of a $21 million publicly funded "security upgrade" to his private home that included a swimming pool and cattle enclosure, a newspaper said on Friday. The Mail and Guardian weekly said a provisional report by the Public Protector entitled 'Opulence on a Grand Scale' found Zuma had derived "substantial" personal gain from the improvements to his private compound at Nkandla in the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal province. The leaked findings of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's investigation will reinforce a perception of runaway corruption under Zuma and could hurt him and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in an election due in six months. The ANC threw its weight behind Zuma, saying it believed he had done nothing wrong. Full Story | Top |
| Angola defends barring Islamic groups, denies persecution Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:28 AM PST  By Shrikesh Laxmidas LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola said on Friday it had refused registration to a number of Islamic religious groups and closed illegal mosques because they did not comply with national laws, but it denied any persecution of Muslims. The outcry followed an announcement by the Ministry of Justice earlier this month listing 194 "religious confessions" whose requests for registration it rejected, among them the Islamic Community of Angola (COIA). A COIA leader, David Ja, told Reuters the authorities had closed dozens of mosques and even demolished some across Angola's 18 provinces, in what he called a targeted crackdown in the predominantly Catholic former Portuguese colony. In a briefing to diplomats on Friday, Foreign Minister Georges Chikoti said there had been "misunderstandings" about the government action. Full Story | Top |
| Jeers and cheers in Kiev's streets as Yanukovich spurns EU deal Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:28 AM PST  By Thomas Grove KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich's decision to walk away from a deal that would have aligned his former Soviet republic more closely with the European Union sparked both anger and applause on the streets of Kiev on Friday. A sea of blue and gold, the colors of both the EU and Ukrainian flags, swept through the capital as people joined rival protests - one to celebrate closer ties with Russia, another to lament what they saw as a lost chance. "Europe was the way out of the mess we're in, the way out of the corruption that has overwhelmed our country," said Andrey Dobrolet, 41, a lawyer. Independence Square, theatre of the Orange Revolution of 2004-5 that thwarted Yanukovich's first presidential bid, again became a focus for protests - though in small numbers - when Kiev said on Sunday that it was turning its back on the EU deal and boosting trade ties with its former Soviet master, Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Stores open early on Thanksgiving but shoppers in no rush Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:13 AM PST Jill McCormack didn't mind waiting in the cold for five hours on Thursday. She was frozen, but first in line when the Macy's Inc flagship store in New York opened for the first time ever on Thanksgiving Day. At 8 p.m., the 30-year-old teacher from Ireland raced into the store, arms linked with her sister-in-law, as shoppers cheered and employees stared. "Anything that's on sale that we can fit in our suitcases we're going to buy," said McCormack, who came to New York with empty luggage to fill with new purchases. Full Story | Top |
| Russian prosecutors seek nine years for acid attack dancer Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:01 AM PST  By Maria Tsvetkova MOSCOW (Reuters) - State prosecutors demanded a nine-year jail sentence on Friday for a dancer accused of ordering an acid attack that nearly blinded the Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director and exposed bitter rivalries at one of Russia's great cultural institutions. Pavel Dmitrichenko, a former soloist at the Bolshoi, showed no emotion as he sat still in a courtroom cage listening to the prosecution summary in a trial that lasted one month. The prosecution also asked for 10 years in prison for Yuri Zarutsky, who is accused of throwing the acid in artistic director Sergei Filin's face last January, and six years for Andrei Lipatov, accused of driving him to and from the scene. "Dmitrichenko's motive was a conflict between Filin and Dmitrichenko," prosecutor Yulia Shumovskaya told the Moscow court, saying the dispute was caused by the dancer's disappointment at not being given good roles by Filin. Full Story | Top |
| With new air zone, China tests U.S. dominance in East Asia Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:59 AM PST By Greg Torode and Linda Sieg HONG KONG/TOKYO (Reuters) - China's new air defense zone, stretching far into East Asia's international skies, is an historic challenge to the United States, which has dominated the region for decades. For years, Chinese naval officers have told their U.S. counterparts they are uncomfortable with America's presence in the western Pacific - and Beijing is now confronting strategic assumptions that have governed the region since World War Two. China's recent maritime muscle-flexing in disputes over the Paracel islands and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and over Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea has stirred concern and extensive backroom diplomacy in Washington. But it took the events of the last week to spark an immediate and symbolic response from the United States - the unannounced appearance in the zone of two unarmed B-52 bombers from the fortified island of Guam, the closest U.S. territory to the Chinese coast. Full Story | Top |
| Anti-government protesters break into Thai army compound Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:55 AM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Pracha Hariraksapitak BANGKOK (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters briefly forced their way into the compound of Thailand's army headquarters on Friday in a dramatic escalation of city-wide demonstrations seeking to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Protesters burst into the army base Bangkok's historic quarter, waving flags and blowing whistles. In another district, about 1,000 people massed outside Yingluck's ruling party headquarters, shouting "get out". The invasion of army headquarters deepened a conflict broadly pitting the urban middle class against the mostly rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 coup and who remains central to Thailand's eight years of on-off turmoil. Full Story | Top |
| Swiss regulator urges banks to come clean on U.S. tax offences Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:55 AM PST By Katharina Bart ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss banks should come clean to U.S. officials conducting a tax probe before an end-of-year deadline and face up to resultant penalties, or risk more costly prosecution later, Switzerland's financial regulator warned on Friday. Both the United States and Switzerland are eager to draw a line under probes into undeclared money wealthy Americans have stowed in tax havens. But a government-brokered program, open to a host of second-tier Swiss banks, lapses next month. "Further sanctions by U.S. authorities must be feared" for any banks which choose to shirk the U.S. program, wrote Patrick Raaflaub, head of regulator FINMA, in an article published by Neue Zuercher Zeitung on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| In 'Teflon Thailand,' protests test a weak economy Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:47 AM PST By Martin Petty BANGKOK (Reuters) - As anti-government protests roil Bangkok, the president of Thailand's largest petrochemical company is already seeing scattered disruptions to business. "We have taken into account the possibility of prolonged political problems and we think it could hurt our businesses next year," said Bowon Vongsinudom, president of PTT Global Chemical Pcl after days of protests including the occupation of the Finance Ministry since Monday. While Thailand's economy, Southeast Asia's second largest, typically shows remarkable resilience to political turbulence, there are factors this time around that suggest the unrest could exacerbate already softening business conditions. Consumer spending has slumped this year and exports, worth 60 percent of Thailand's $366 billion economy, are flagging amid weak global demand. Full Story | Top |
| Suicide bomber wounds MP and bodyguards in Afghan capital Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:45 AM PST By Mirwais Harooni KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber wounded a prominent anti-Taliban Afghan legislator and his bodyguards in an attack in Kabul on Friday, intelligence officials said. The bomber detonated his device inside the house of Hameedullah Tokhi, a member of parliament for Zabul province, and wounded Tokhi and four of his bodyguards, the officials said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, which came as President Hamid Karzai deliberates over an agreement allowing NATO forces to stay in the country beyond 2014. Full Story | Top |
| Liberals to lead Luxembourg as coalition talks succeed Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:39 AM PST Luxembourg City's mayor Xavier Bettel will become the country's next prime minister, following the end of coalition talks on Friday that usher in a Liberal government for the first time in decades. The agreement between Bettel's Democratic Party, the Socialists and the Greens brings an end to the 19 years in office of Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Union's longest-serving head of government. "After 175 hours, we're done with the coalition talks," Bettel said on his Twitter account. The coalition agreement will be presented to the respective party congresses next week, after which the ministers will be announced and the new government can be sworn in. Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi police find 18 men shot in head and seven decapitated Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:29 AM PST By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Police discovered the bodies of 18 men who had been abducted and shot in the head near Baghdad on Friday, and the decapitated corpses of seven men killed in a separate attack in northern Iraq. The 18 bodies were found together in an orchard in Meshahda, a predominantly Sunni Muslim area around 30 km (20 miles) north of Baghdad. A senior police source blamed al Qaeda. Such killings are on the rise in Iraq, alongside a growing insurgent campaign of bomb and gun attacks on security forces and civilians. Full Story | Top |
| London leads 11 percent jump in bankers earning 1 million euros Friday, Nov 29, 2013 05:57 AM PST  By Steve Slater LONDON (Reuters) - More than 3,500 bankers in Europe earned 1 million euros ($1.4 million) or more last year after a big jump across the continent and in Britain, which had 12 times as many high earners as any other country. The scale of bankers' bonuses remains a hot topic among politicians and the public. The latest data from the European Banking Authority (EBA) shows that 3,529 bankers in the EU earned at least 1 million euros in 2012, up 11 percent in 2011. Britain accounted for 2,714 of those top earners, up 11 percent on the year before, partly reflecting London's dominant position as Europe's financial center and home to major operations for banks from the United States, Switzerland and other countries outside the EU. Full Story | Top |
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