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| Russian prime minister angers Ukraine by visiting Crimea Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:09 AM PDT  By Darya Korsunskaya SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (Reuters) - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev flaunted Russia's grip on Crimea by flying to the region and holding a government meeting there on Monday, angering Ukraine and defying Western demands to hand the peninsula back to Kiev. But in a gesture that could ease tension in the worst East-West stand-off since the Cold War, Russia pulled some troops back from near Ukraine's eastern border. President Vladimir Putin told Germany's Angela Merkel that he had ordered a partial drawdown in the region, the German chancellor's spokesman said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Yellen strongly defends easy Fed policies, cites U.S. labor slack Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:32 AM PDT  By Jonathan Spicer CHICAGO (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gave a strong defense of the central bank's easy-money policies on Monday, saying its "extraordinary" commitment to boosting the economy, especially the still struggling labor market, will be needed for some time to come. In her first public speech since becoming Fed chair two months ago, Yellen cited the struggles of three American workers in backing the policies of low interest rates and continued bond-buying. Full Story | Top |
| GM CEO to testify company to expand replacement switch output Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:36 AM PDT  General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra will testify on Tuesday that the No. 1 U.S. automaker is sorry for the pain caused by the defective ignition switches linked to at least 13 deaths and has asked its supplier to boost production of replacement parts to speed the recall. In testimony posted Monday on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee website, Barra said she does not yet have answers to why GM took more than 10 years to catch the faulty switch. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: NSA infiltrated RSA security more deeply than thought - study Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:01 AM PDT  By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Security industry pioneer RSA adopted not just one but two encryption tools developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, greatly increasing the spy agency's ability to eavesdrop on some Internet communications, according to a team of academic researchers. Reuters reported in December that the NSA had paid RSA $10 million to make a now-discredited cryptography system the default in software used by a wide range of Internet and computer security programs. The system, called Dual Elliptic Curve, was a random number generator, but it had a deliberate flaw - or "back door" - that allowed the NSA to crack the encryption. A group of professors from Johns Hopkins, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois and elsewhere now say they have discovered that a second NSA tool exacerbated the RSA software's vulnerability. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. ambassador to India resigns after diplomatic row Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:23 AM PDT  By Frank Jack Daniel NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to India has resigned and will return to the United States after less than two years, the embassy said in a statement on Monday, following a diplomatic row that strained relations between the world's biggest democracies. The statement did not give a reason why Ambassador Nancy Powell had resigned, saying only that she was retiring from the foreign service after 37 years, "as planned for some time". Last month, she ended a decade-long boycott and brought Washington's policy in line with other major powers by meeting Narendra Modi, the opposition candidate who is favorite to become India's next prime minister after elections that end in May. But her tenure was marred by a row over the arrest and subsequent strip search of an Indian diplomat in New York. The United States revoked Modi's travel visa following allegations he did not do enough to prevent some 2,000 deaths during a spasm of Hindu-Muslim violence in 2002 in the state that he governs. Full Story | Top |
| France's Hollande names new PM, pledges tax cuts after poll rout Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:19 PM PDT  By Mark John and Emmanuel Jarry PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande named centrist Interior Minister Manuel Valls as his new prime minister on Monday, replacing Jean-Marc Ayrault who quit after ruling Socialists were trounced in local French elections. Hollande vowed to pursue cuts in labor charges for business but also promised tax cuts to boost consumer spending, insisting that EU partners take his reform efforts into account in judging whether France had respected commitments to Brussels. ... Full Story | Top |
| Australia PM vows to continue hunt for missing Malaysia plane Monday, Mar 31, 2014 04:17 AM PDT By Michael Martina PERTH (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Monday the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had no time limit, despite the failure of an international operation to find any sign of the plane in three weeks of fruitless searching. A total of 20 aircraft and ships were again scouring a massive area in the Indian Ocean some 2,000 km (1,200 miles) west of Perth, where investigators believe the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people came down. Some families have strongly criticized Malaysia's handling of the search and investigation, including the decision last week to say that, based on satellite evidence, the plane had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean on March 8. Abbott rejected suggestions his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, had been too hasty to break that news, given that no confirmed wreckage from the plane has been found and its last sighting on radar was northwest of Malaysia heading towards India. Full Story | Top |
| GM engineer OK'd sub-standard ignition switch: documents Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:01 PM PDT  WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - A General Motors engineer signed off on a design change for troubled ignition switches even though those changes did not meet company standards, according to documents provided to a U.S. House of Representatives panel. The disclosure appeared to conflict with information provided by GM engineer Ray DeGiorgio during 2013 legal proceedings surrounding the company's defective ignition switches that are linked to 13 deaths. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry meets with Lavrov on Ukraine, urges troop pullback Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:46 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton and Alexei Anishchuk PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks on Sunday about ways to defuse the crisis over Ukraine, with Kerry telling Moscow that progress depended on a Russian troop pullback from Ukraine's borders. "Both sides made suggestions of ways to de-escalate the security and political situation in and around Ukraine," Kerry told a news conference late on Sunday after meeting with Lavrov for four hours in Paris. "Any real progress in Ukraine must include a pullback of the very large Russian force that is currently massing along Ukraine's borders," Kerry said. Full Story | Top |
| Erdogan targets enemies after poll triumph Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:34 AM PDT  By Humeyra Pamuk and Nick Tattersall ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan looked a step closer to a presidential bid and to gaining the upper hand in a bitter power struggle on Monday, casting strong local election results as a mandate to hunt down enemies within the state "in their lair." His AK Party swept the electoral map in Sunday's polls, retaining control of the two biggest cities Istanbul and Ankara and increasing its share of the national vote as his pugnacious leadership style, beloved by a loyal, conservative voter base, trumped a stream of corruption allegations and security leaks. "We will enter their lair," he said, before a huge firework display lit up Ankara's midnight sky. The election campaign has been dominated by a power struggle between Erdogan and U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of using a network of followers in the police and judiciary to fabricate graft smears in an effort to topple him. Full Story | Top |
| North, South Korea trade artillery rounds into the sea: Seoul Monday, Mar 31, 2014 06:51 AM PDT By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired more than 100 artillery rounds into South Korean waters as part of a drill on Monday, prompting the South to fire back, officials in Seoul said, but the exercise appeared to be more saber-rattling from Pyongyang rather than the start of a military standoff. The North had flagged its intentions to conduct the exercise in response to U.N. condemnation of last week's missile launches by Pyongyang and against what it says are threatening military drills in the South by U.S. forces. North Korea also accused the South of "gangster-like" behavior at the weekend by "abducting" one of its fishing boats and threatened to retaliate. More than 100 North Korean shells out of 500 or so fired landed in South Korean waters, prompting marines from the South to fire back with more than 300 rounds into the North's waters, defense officials in Seoul said. Full Story | Top |
| Euro zone inflation drops to lowest since 2009 Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:38 AM PDT  By Robin Emmott and Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone inflation hit its lowest level since November 2009 in March, a shock drop that raises expectations the European Central Bank will take radical action to stop the threat of deflation in the currency bloc. Annual consumer inflation in the 18 countries sharing the euro was 0.5 percent in March, with the pace of price rises cooling from February's 0.7 percent reading, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Monday. The euro zone is far from the deflation that Japan suffered from the early 1990s, when falling prices weakened demand, leading to wage cuts and even lower prices, but the bloc's low inflation rate is a clear sign of economic fragility. Inflation has now been in the ECB's "danger zone" of below 1 percent for six consecutive months, and the flash reading increases the chances the ECB will cut interest rates when its Governing Council meets on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Thai PM defends negligence charges as economy falters Monday, Mar 31, 2014 04:35 AM PDT  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Monday defended herself against negligence charges linked to a ruinous government rice pledging scheme that could lead to her removal from office, the latest development in a political crisis that has gripped the country for months. The charges were brought against her by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) which, should it forward the case to the Senate for possible impeachment, would mean Yingluck being suspended from official duties. Yingluck asked for more time to call on 10 witnesses and to submit further documents to support her defense, NACC member Prasart Pongsivapai told reporters following the meeting. The commission will act with justice toward the prime minister and in a straight-forward manner." Yingluck has come under pressure over the past five months from protesters who have occupied state offices and parts of Bangkok in a bid to remove her and rid the country of the influence of her brother, ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Full Story | Top |
| Former Pakistani president Musharraf denies treason Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:31 AM PDT  By Syed Raza Hassan ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf pleaded not guilty to five counts of treason on Monday in the latest chapter of a long-running drama between the increasingly assertive judiciary and its former military ruler. Musharraf faces the death penalty if convicted of charges over his suspension of the constitution and imposition of emergency rule in 2007, when he was trying to extend his tenure. The case marks the first time a former military officer of Musharraf's rank has appeared in court before a judge in a country where the military has rarely been challenged by either the government or the judiciary. "I would like to ask where is the justice for me in the Islamic republic of Pakistan ... I have only given to this country and not taken anything," Musharraf said. Full Story | Top |
| Italy PM Renzi says will quit if Senate reform blocked Monday, Mar 31, 2014 03:32 AM PDT  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new prime minister threatened on Monday to resign if a plan to reduce the powers of the upper house of parliament, a central part of his ambitious constitutional reform agenda, is blocked. In the latest step of Matteo Renzi's reform drive, the cabinet is due to approve a draft bill on Monday to transform the Senate into a non-elected chamber stripped of the power to approve budgets or hold votes of no-confidence in a government. Renzi, who became Italy's third prime minister in a year in February, has said that without a change in the system, the country risks being stuck with a rotating series of short-lived governments incapable of passing meaningful economic reforms. Renzi, head of the center-left Democratic Party, made a similar threat to quit over Senate reform on March 12 while pushing through a package of tax cuts aimed at reviving Italy's sluggish economy, the third largest in the euro zone. Full Story | Top |
| Swiss, UK watchdogs step up scrutiny on forex traders Monday, Mar 31, 2014 05:39 AM PDT  By Caroline Copley and Patrick Graham ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) - Swiss and British regulators stepped up their scrutiny of alleged manipulation of foreign exchange markets on Monday, as watchdogs take a closer look at whether banks have a tight enough grip on the behavior of their traders. Switzerland's competition commission WEKO said it opened an investigation into several Swiss, British and U.S. banks over potential collusion to manipulate currency rates. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), meanwhile, said it will assess if banks have cut the risk of traders manipulating benchmark rates in the coming year, to see if lessons have been learned from the scandal over benchmark rate rigging. WEKO said it is investigating UBS, Credit Suisse, Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB), Julius Baer, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. Full Story | Top |
| Delphi told panel GM approved ignition switches below specifications Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 03:08 PM PDT  By Richard Cowan, Eric Beech and Paul Lienert WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co approved ignition switches for cars that have been linked to 13 deaths, even though the parts did not appear to meet the company's specifications, officials of Delphi Automotive told U.S. congressional investigators. In a memo released on Sunday by the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, documents provided by GM and a federal regulator provided "unsettling" information, according to Republican Representative Tim Murphy, who leads a subcommittee of the panel. The memo was released ahead of Tuesday's testimony from GM Chief Executive Mary Barra, who will appear at the committee's first public hearing on the recalls. She is likely to be asked why it took GM so long to identify and address the ignition switch problem. Full Story | Top |
| Emergency crews face toxic challenge in Washington state mudslide Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:07 AM PDT By Jonathan Kaminsky OSO, Washington (Reuters) - Recovery teams struggling through thick mud up to their armpits and heavy downpours at the site of the devastating landslide in Washington state are facing yet another challenge - an unseen and potentially dangerous stew of toxic contaminants. The official death toll stood at 21 on Monday, with 30 people still listed as unaccounted for nine days after a rain-soaked hillside collapsed above the north fork of the Stillaguamish River. "We're worried about dysentery, we're worried about tetanus, we're worried about contamination," local fire Lieutenant Richard Burke, a spokesman for the operation, told reporters visiting the disaster site on Sunday. Jason Biermann, program manager for the Snohomish County Emergency Management Department, said late on Sunday that the official loss of life so far included 15 victims whose remains have been identified by medical examiners and six more still awaiting positive identification. Full Story | Top |
| Ten ways the Ukraine crisis may change the world Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:17 AM PDT  By Paul Taylor BRUSSELS (Reuters) - As Moscow and the West dig in for a prolonged stand-off over Russia's annexation of Crimea, risking spillover to other former Soviet republics and beyond, here are 10 ways in which the Ukraine crisis could change attitudes and policy around the world. 1) Russia diminished: Russia's role in international affairs is diminished, at least temporarily. Moscow has been de facto excluded from the Group of Eight industrialized powers. Its bids to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Energy Agency are frozen. Full Story | Top |
| Philippine ship dodges China blockade to reach South China Sea outpost Monday, Mar 31, 2014 01:37 AM PDT  By Erik de Castro and Roli Ng SECOND THOMAS SHOAL, South China Sea (Reuters) -The Philippine government vessel made a dash for shallow waters around the disputed reef in the South China Sea, evading two Chinese coastguard ships trying to block its path to deliver food, water and fresh troops to a military outpost on the shoal. It's also a reminder of how assertive China has become in pressing its claims to disputed territory far from its mainland. "If we didn't change direction, if we didn't change course, then we would have collided with them," Ferdinand Gato, captain of the Philippine vessel, a civilian craft, told Reuters after his boat had anchored on the Second Thomas Shoal under a hot sun. China, which claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, says the shoal is part of its territory. Full Story | Top |
| Israeli court convicts ex-PM Olmert in bribery case Monday, Mar 31, 2014 03:15 AM PDT  By Rami Amichay TEL AVIV (Reuters) - An Israeli court convicted former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Monday of accepting a six-figure sum in bribes linked to a real-estate deal, probably ending any prospects of a political comeback. Olmert, a centrist credited internationally with working towards a peace settlement with the Palestinians, had denied wrongdoing in the Holyland apartment complex deal, which took place while he was in his previous post of Jerusalem mayor. After what was the first bribery conviction of a former head of government in Israel, Olmert, 68, could face up to 10 years in prison. A former president, Moshe Katsav, has been serving a seven-year prison term for rape since 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Thailand's 'red shirts' gear up for a fight Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 02:50 PM PDT  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Aubrey Belford KHON KAEN/BANGKOK (Reuters) - The clock is ticking for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who faces impeachment within weeks, but her supporters are hatching plans to thwart any move to dismiss her, with some leaders assembling what amount to militias. Yingluck has until later on Monday to defend herself before the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) against charges of dereliction of duty over a ruinously expensive rice-buying scheme. If the commission recommends Yingluck's impeachment, and the Senate then seeks to remove her, it could be a tipping point for the pro-government "red shirts", who have mostly stayed out of the fray since anti-government protests first flared in November. "We'll act when our democratically elected prime minister is kicked out by the elite," Suporn Attawong, a red shirt leader known by followers as "Rambo Isarn", told Reuters in Bangkok. Full Story | Top |
| French reshuffle may loom after Hollande's Socialists routed in local elections Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 06:07 PM PDT  By Mark John PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande will take soundings on a possible cabinet reshuffle on Monday after the drubbing of his Socialists in local elections handed the far-right National Front victory in a record number of towns. Provisional results from Sunday's voting showed the protectionist, anti-EU party of Marine Le Pen set to take control of 11 towns across the country, easily surpassing a past record in the 1990s when it ruled in four towns. At least another 140 towns swung from the left to mainstream opposition conservatives as voters punished Hollande for his failure to turn around the euro zone's second largest economy and above all to tackle an unemployment rate stuck at more than 10 percent. While Hollande himself, who surveys show is the least popular leader in France's 56-year-old Fifth Republic, will remain in power, the question is whether he will replace Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, whose government has been accused of amateurishness and of being paralyzed by policy splits. Full Story | Top |
| Washington mudslide victims remembered at tearful church services Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 03:17 PM PDT  By Jonathan Kaminsky and Bryan Cohen DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - Local churches offered prayers on Sunday for dozens of people dead and missing from last week's devastating mudslide in Washington state and words of solace for grieving families and friends, many of whom are still waiting for news of loved ones who vanished. The official death toll from the March 22 catastrophe northeast of Seattle stood at 18, based on the number of victims whose bodies have been recovered and positively identified by medical examiners. But Snohomish County authorities have acknowledged finding 10 more sets of remains that have yet to be identified, putting the overall presumed body count at 28. Full Story | Top |
| Long search looms for Malaysia jet, families renew protests Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 03:58 PM PDT  By Matt Siegel and Rujun Shen HMAS STIRLING NAVAL BASE, Australia/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - T he search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 could take years, U.S. Navy officials suggested on Sunday, as search and rescue officials raced to locate the plane's black box recorder days before its batteries are set to die. Ten ships and as many aircraft are searching a massive area in the Indian Ocean west of Perth, trying to find some trace of the aircraft, which went missing more than three weeks ago and is presumed to have crashed. U.S. Navy Captain Mark Matthews, who is in charge of the U.S. Towed Pinger Locator (TPL), told journalists at Stirling Naval Base near Perth that the lack of information about where the plane went down seriously hampers the ability to find it. "Right now the search area is basically the size of the Indian Ocean, which would take an untenable amount of time to search," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry, Lavrov hold talks on de-escalating Ukraine crisis Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 04:22 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton and Alexei Anishchuk PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, discussed ways to defuse the Ukraine crisis during talks in Paris on Sunday in which Kerry made clear Washington still considered Russian actions in Crimea "illegal and illegitimate." Kerry said after his four-hour meeting with the Russian foreign minister that while they differed on events leading to the crisis, both sides recognized the importance of finding a diplomatic solution that meets the needs of the Ukrainian people. "Both sides made suggestions of ways to de-escalate the security and political situation in and around Ukraine," Kerry told a news conference, adding he raised "strong concerns" with Lavrov about the presence of Russian troops on the Ukraine border, which he said created a climate of fear and intimidation. The two were seeking to hammer out the framework of a deal to reduce tensions over Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey's Erdogan declares victory in polls despite graft crisis Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 03:34 PM PDT  Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in local polls that had become a referendum on his rule and said he would "enter the lair" of enemies who have accused him of corruption and leaked state secrets. Erdogan spoke from a balcony at his AK Party headquarters to thousands of cheering supporters as early results showed it winning some 44-46 percent of the vote, and the opposition CHP trailing with 23-28 percent. Erdogan accuses a U.S.-based Islamic cleric, a former ally, of mounting a smear campaign using a network of followers in the police force to concoct a corruption case against him. Full Story | Top |
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