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| Italian PM Renzi: If Senate reform is blocked, I'll quit Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:27 PM PDT  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi tied his political future on Monday to a reform package aimed at creating more stable government by stripping the upper house of parliament of key functions and concentrating power in the lower chamber. In the latest step of his ambitious reform drive, cabinet signed off on a bill to transform the Senate into a non-elected regional chamber without the power to approve budgets or hold votes of no-confidence in a government. ... 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 |
| U.S. allows partial restart of Exxon pipeline a year after spill Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:17 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. regulator on Monday allowed Exxon Mobil Corp to restart operations on the Texas leg of its Pegasus pipeline, which spilled thousands of barrels of oil into a residential area in Arkansas last year. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) approved Exxon's restart plan for a 210-mile (338-km) stretch of the pipeline from Corsicana to Nederland at 80 percent of the operating pressure in place before the March 29, 2013 incident in the small town of Mayflower, Arkansas. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chief warns against aiding Central African Republic militias Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:17 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Monday against any support or facilitation of violence by armed groups in Central African Republic after Chadian troops were accused of opening fire on civilians and killing at least 10 people at the weekend. The shooting on Saturday was the latest in a string of violent incidents involving Chadian troops, who Central African Republic's anti-balaka Christian militia accuse of siding with Muslims and Seleka rebels and preying upon the local Christians. Ban also urged the quick establishment of a list of individuals to be sanctioned by the United Nations for undermining peace, stability and security in Central African Republic. "The secretary-general is concerned by the latest upsurge in violence in the Central African Republic ... This further deterioration of the security situation in the country has resulted in additional fatalities, a high number of injured, and increased hardship for the population," Ban's statement said. Full Story | Top |
| Two Colorado avalanche mitigation workers injured in blast Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:53 AM PDT By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Two workers helping mitigate the risk of avalanches on a Colorado mountain pass were injured on Monday when a mortar shell used to trigger controlled snow slides to prevent larger ones exploded prematurely, officials said. The accident occurred just after sunrise on Loveland Pass, a high snow slide area where five snowboarders were killed last April in an avalanche, said Tony Devito, a regional director with the Colorado Department of Transportation. "We are taking this situation very seriously and will be looking into how to improve the safety of our crew members during avalanche reduction practices," DeVito said, adding that road crews perform routinely perform avalanche mitigation work throughout the winter in the slide-prone state. Twenty-six people have been killed in avalanches in eight Western states so far this season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, closing in on a 10-year annual average of 28 fatalities. 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 |
| France's centrist 'top cop' named new PM in reshuffle Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:41 AM PDT By Alexandria Sage PARIS (Reuters) - French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, appointed prime minister by President Francois Hollande on Monday, is a centrist with a tough stance on law and order that is popular with the public but controversial in his own Socialist party. The photogenic 51-year-old, naturalized son of a Spanish immigrant, is one the youngest ministers in Hollande's cabinet and an expert in political communication. Full Story | Top |
| Hollande confirms Valls as PM, stands by pro-business pact Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:14 AM PDT French President Francois Hollande said on Monday he had named Interior Minister Manuel Valls to be his new prime minister, replacing Jean-Marc Ayrault, in a government reshuffle triggered by a rout for his Socialists in local elections. Addressing the country in a short televised speech, Hollande said a key objective for the new government would be pursuing the so-called "responsibility pact" to lower employers' costs in order to spur job creation. Full Story | Top |
| Six killed in blast in Kenyan capital: emergency services Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:12 AM PDT  An explosion in an area of Kenya's capital Nairobi that is popular with Somalis killed six people and wounded several others on Monday, the National Disaster Operations Centre said. In the past, such attacks in the Eastleigh area of Nairobi have been blamed on Somalia's al Shabaab Islamist group, which attacked a Nairobi shopping mall in September and killed at least 67 people. "Police are securing the area for emergency response services," the disaster organization said on its official Twitter site. Nairobi's police commander Benson Kibui told Reuters the incident might have involved twin blasts. Full Story | Top |
| 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 |
| White House: No new information to offer on convicted Israeli spy Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:06 AM PDT The White House said on Monday it had no new information to provide on the situation of Jonathan Pollard after sources close to negotiations aimed at salvaging Middle East peace talks said the convicted Israel spy and groups of Palestinian prisoners could be released in a deal under consideration. "He is a person who is convicted of espionage and is serving his sentence, and I don't have any update on his situation," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters when asked whether Pollard's release was something that could be offered as an incentive to Israel. The sources, who spoke as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepared to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the region, said under the proposed arrangement that Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst caught spying for Israel in the 1980s, could be released by mid-April. Full Story | Top |
| White House: Kerry to speak to Lavrov again about Ukraine Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:01 AM PDT The White House said on Monday that Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had agreed to speak again about ways to resolve the crisis in Ukraine but that no date for such a conversation had been set. Kerry and Lavrov spoke by phone about the issue earlier on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. White House spokesman Jay Carney also noted reports of possible drawdowns by Russian troops on the Ukraine border but said the administration had not seen that yet. Full Story | Top |
| Kiev-loyal Orthodox church doubtful of its future in Crimea Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:27 AM PDT By Gabriela Baczynska and Alessandra Prentice SIMFEROPOL, Crimea/KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian Orthodox Christians who are loyal to Kiev feel increasingly unsafe in Crimea after Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula and some have already left, church leaders said on Monday. Since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the advent of an independent Ukraine, the country's Orthodox faithful have been split between the Kiev and Moscow Patriarchates. The estimated 220,000 Crimeans loyal to the Kiev Patriarchate have long felt marginalized because of the region's strong pro-Russian sympathies, but Moscow's takeover of the peninsula has fuelled their feelings of vulnerability. Their misgivings echo those of another minority, the Crimean Tatars, a mostly Muslim Turkic people, about Russia's annexation. 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 |
| Hague Court sets new trial date for Kenyan president Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:22 AM PDT  The International Criminal Court set a new date for the opening of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's trial on Monday, saying the October 7 start would give the Kenyan government more time to provide evidence in the case. Prosecutors allege their witnesses against Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, on trial on similar charges, have been bribed or threatened into withdrawing their testimony. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia changes version of last words from missing flight's cockpit Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:19 AM PDT The last words spoken by one of the pilots of the missing Malaysian Airlines airliner to the control tower were "Good night Malaysian three seven zero", Malaysia's civil aviation authority said, changing the previous account of the last message as a more casual "All right, good night." The correction of the official account of the last words was made as Malaysian authorities face heavy criticism for their handling of the disappearance, particularly from families of the Chinese passengers on board Flight MH370 who have accused Malaysia of mismanaging the search and holding back information. Malaysia's ambassador to China told Chinese families in Beijing as early as March 12, four days after the flight went missing, that the last words had been "All right, good night." "Good night Malaysian three seven zero" would be a more formal, standard sign-off from the cockpit of the Boeing 777, which was just leaving Malaysia-controlled air space on its route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Full Story | Top |
| Former Italian PM Berlusconi acquitted in Unipol takeover case Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:11 AM PDT  An appeals court on Monday acquitted former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi due to the statute of limitations in a case related to a 2005 attempt by insurer Unipol to take over bank Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). In March 2013 Berlusconi was sentenced to one year in jail for allegedly leaking confidential information to a newspaper owned by his brother about an investigation into the takeover attempt. Italian daily Il Giornale published details of a wire-tapped phone conversation about the BNL deal between former centre-left leader Piero Fassino and the former head of Unipol. 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 |
| Lavrov, Kerry speak by phone about steps to resolve Ukraine crisis Monday, Mar 31, 2014 09:56 AM PDT Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke about ways to resolve the crisis in Ukraine by telephone on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "They discussed steps to help resolve the crisis situation in Ukraine," the ministry said, describing the phone call as a follow-up to the U.S. and Russian diplomats' meeting on the Ukraine crisis in Paris on Sunday. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. could free Israeli spy in deal to save peace talks: source close to talks Monday, Mar 31, 2014 09:49 AM PDT  An Israeli spy serving a life sentence in the United States and groups of Palestinian prisoners could be freed under an emerging deal to salvage Middle East peace talks, sources close to the negotiations said on Monday. The sources, who spoke as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepared to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said under the proposed arrangement that Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst caught spying for Israel in the 1980s, could be released by mid-April. In addition, Israel would go ahead with a promised release of a fourth group of Palestinians, among the 104 it pledged to free in a deal that led to the renewal of peace talks last July. Another group of jailed Palestinians would also go free - and the peace talks would be extended beyond an April 29 deadline, the sources said. Full Story | Top |
| World court orders halt to Japan's scientific whaling Monday, Mar 31, 2014 09:27 AM PDT  By Thomas Escritt THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Judges at the highest U.N. court ordered Japan on Monday to halt whaling in the Antarctic, rejecting its long-held argument that the catch was for scientific purposes and not primarily for human consumption. Tokyo said it was disappointed but would abide by the decision, while activists said they hoped it would bring closer a complete end to whaling around the world. The International Court of Justice sided with plaintiff Australia in finding that the scientific output of the whaling programme did not justify the number of whales killed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Putin tells Merkel interests of Ukraine regions must be protected Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:59 AM PDT Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed how Moscow and the West can help "restore stability" in Ukraine during a telephone call on Monday, the Kremlin said. Putin told Merkel that Ukraine must enact constitutional reforms to ensure that the interests of all its regions are respected, and called for measures to end what he called a "blockade" of Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region, his office said. Russia has seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and warned it could send its military into eastern Ukraine to protect Russian-speakers there, but has also engaged in diplomacy that it says is aimed at decreasing tension. Putin and Merkel discussed "opportunities for international support for the restoration of stability" in Ukraine, the Kremlin statement said. Full Story | Top |
| France's Hollande to name centrist Valls as new PM: media Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:41 AM PDT PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande is set to name centrist Interior Minister Manuel Valls as his prime minister later on Monday, BFM-TV and other local media said, replacing Jean-Marc Ayrault a day after ruling Socialists lost local elections. A reshuffle is widely anticipated given the poor showing in elections and the record unpopularity of Hollande, struggling to reverse a rise in unemployment and to spur growth in the euro zone's second-largest economy. No one at Hollande's or Valls' office was immediately available to confirm the reports. ... 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 |
| Guinness record-setting mural gives Damascenes diversion from war Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:25 AM PDT A group of Syrian artists in Damascus has created the world's biggest mural made of recycled materials, a rare work aimed at brightening public space in a city sapped by war and sanctions. The brightly coloured, 720-sq metre work was constructed from aluminum cans, broken mirrors, bicycle wheels and other scrap objects and displayed on a street outside a primary school in the center of the Syrian capital. The mural's lead artist, Syrian artist Moaffak Makhoul, said the idea behind the project was to give ordinary people a chance to experience art and relieve some of the pressures of daily life as the country's three-year-old conflict grinds on. Guinness World Records has declared the work the world's largest mural made of recycled materials. Full Story | Top |
| Erdogan victory puts icy Turkey-EU relations in deep freeze Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:24 AM PDT By Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Sunday's resounding victory by the ruling AK Party in Turkey's local elections, undiminished by what some call an authoritarian turn by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, is likely to put already cool relations between Ankara and Brussels in the chiller. After months of revelations of high-level corruption and the furore caused by the government's blocking of Twitter and YouTube, Turkey finds itself at sharp odds with the European Union, which it has been negotiating to join since 1999. But the EU is very unlikely to nudge Ankara's accession hopes along until Erdogan shows he is prepared to protect civil liberties, justice and the rule of law - and govern like a mainstream European prime minister. "Following the overall worrying developments which have taken place over the past three months, Turkey ... now urgently needs to re-engage fully in reforms in line with European standards," a Commission spokeswoman said. Full Story | Top |
| Libya releases three rebels who boarded tanker at rebel port: official Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:22 AM PDT By Feras Bosalum TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya has released three rebel fighters who had boarded a tanker loading oil at a rebel-held port before it was returned to Tripoli by the U.S. navy, an official said on Monday. The attorney general ordered the release following comments by some lawmakers that this would help solve the blockage of oil ports by the rebels, Sadiq al-Sour, head of the attorney's investigations department, told Reuters. The eastern rebels, who have seized three major ports to press for a greater share of oil revenue and regional autonomy, had demanded the release of the fighters before starting any talks about lifting the blockage. U.S. special forces later stormed the ship and returned it to Libya. Full Story | Top |
| Chile's Bachelet pushes ahead with tax hikes despite investment risk Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:21 AM PDT  President Michelle Bachelet on Monday announced a tax overhaul including higher corporate taxes, saying the changes would help Chile make progress in addressing inequality without hurting growth, despite worries about the impact on an already cooling investment climate. Bachelet, a center-left politician who returned to the helm of the top copper exporter on March 11, has made raising taxes a key part of her election platform. Some critics including former finance minister Felipe Larrain have warned that the tax overhaul could backfire. They say that altering the tax structure may discourage investment, a risky move at a time when the Chilean economy is cooling and investment is already falling. Full Story | Top |
| France's Hollande to address nation after local elections: source Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:11 AM PDT PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande will make a televised statement on Monday at 8:00 pm local time, a source in his office told Reuters, a day after a stinging defeat for the ruling Socialist party in local elections. Sunday's runoff in municipal elections saw 155 towns swing to the center-right UMP party, with the far-right National Front claiming 11, dealing a major blow to the credibility of Hollande, whose popularity is already at record lows. Earlier, a Socialist ally of Hollande said he expected the president to announce a cabinet reshuffle. ... 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 |
| Erdogan gets personal in fight to restore grip Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:00 AM PDT By Ralph Boulton and Orhan Coskun ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - As Tayyip Erdogan's campaign bus swept into Izmir, lair of his political enemies, he looked up and saw a woman making what he took to be a rude gesture at him from a balcony. Turkey's prime minister is a man impassioned and irascible, who feels himself under siege by an enemy largely unseen. "The main reason for Erdogan's anger now is this sense of having been deceived," said a government official, who asked not to be named. "He is taking this very personally." Bolstered by triumph at Sunday's local elections, Erdogan seems set on righting what he sees as a great mistake made in the early days of his rule in 2002 when asked U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen to provide the trained cadres in the police and judiciary he needed to roll back anticlerical military influence in politics. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says battalion withdrawing from near Ukrainian border Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:55 AM PDT Russia is withdrawing a motorized infantry battalion from a region near Ukraine's eastern border, the Russian Defence Ministry was quoted as saying by state news agencies on Monday. The United States says progress on resolving the East-West stand-off over Ukraine depends on Russia pulling back troops massed on the border. The Defence Ministry said it was pulling forces out of the Rostov region near Russia's border with Ukraine after month-long military exercises. Full Story | Top |
| Climate change threatens India's economy, food security: IPCC Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:45 AM PDT By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI, March 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India's high vulnerability and exposure to climate change will slow its economic growth, impact health and development, make poverty reduction more difficult and erode food security, a new report by scientists said on Monday. The latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stresses the risks of global warming and tries to make a stronger case for governments to adopt policy on adaptation and cut greenhouse gas emissions. "This is the most extensive piece of science done on climate adaptation up until now," Aromar Revi, one of the lead authors of the report, told a news conference. "The key issue as far as India is concerned is vulnerability and exposure." The report predicts a rise in global temperatures of between 0.3 and 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5 to 8.6 Fahrenheit) and a rise of up to 82 cm (32 inches) in sea levels by the late 21st century due to melting ice and expansion of water as it warms, threatening coastal cities from Shanghai to San Francisco. Full Story | Top |
| PM Orban's party firmly leads in poll, far-right gains Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:42 AM PDT  BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Public support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling center-right party has increased among all voters before the April 6 election and far-right Jobbik also managed to boost its standing, pollster Szazadveg reported on Monday. Its poll, conducted March 27-30, showed backing for Orban's Fidesz party rising one percentage point to 33 percent of all voters, while Jobbik also gained one point to 14 percent from the previous month. ... Full Story | Top |
| China summons Manila envoy over South China Sea legal case Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:37 AM PDT China summoned the Philippines ambassador on Monday to lodge a strong complaint over Manila's seeking of international arbitration in a festering territorial dispute over the South China Sea. The Philippines filed the case against China on Sunday at an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, subjecting Beijing to international legal scrutiny over the waters for the first time. Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told the Philippines' ambassador that China was "extremely dissatisfied and resolutely opposed" to the case, repeating that China did not accept it and would not participate. 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 |
| Border province punishes Turkey's policy on Syria in polls Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:34 AM PDT  By Dasha Afanasieva ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey's policy of keeping its border with Syria open despite the war there cost the ruling party control of the border province of Hatay in local elections at the weekend. Voters punished the government for a strategy they see as fuelling insecurity and hitting the economy - a striking upset amid a wave of victories for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's party in Sunday's polls. Thousands of people celebrated overnight in the old city center of Antakya, the ancient Antioch, and administrative capital of Hatay, honking car horns and waving the red flags of the main secularist opposition CHP as news of its victory emerged. Some climbed a statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular republic, as music blared from car boots. Full Story | Top |
| Japan allows people to return to Fukushima disaster 'hot zone' Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:19 AM PDT  By Mari Saito TAMURA, Japan (Reuters) - For the first time since Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster more than three years ago, residents of a small district 20 km (12 miles) from the wrecked plant are about to be allowed to return home. The Miyakoji area of Tamura, a northeastern city inland from the Fukushima nuclear station, has been off-limits for most residents since March 2011, when the government ordered evacuations after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered a triple meltdown at the power plant. Tuesday's reopening of Miyakoji will mark a tiny step for Japan as it seeks to recover from the Fukushima disaster and a major milestone for the 357 registered residents of the district - most of whom the city hopes will go back. "Young people won't return," said Kitaro Saito, a man in his early 60s, who opposed lifting the ban and had no intention of going home yet. Full Story | Top |
| Germany welcomes Russian troop reduction on Ukraine border Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:13 AM PDT A reduction in the number of Russian troops deployed on the border with Ukraine is a small sign that the stand-off over Crimea is becoming less tense, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Monday. "I hope we have overcome the worst escalation," Steinmeier told a joint news conference with his French and Polish counterparts. "Only today there was news that the massive build-up of Russian forces on the east Ukraine border had been slightly reduced. That seems to be a small signal that the situation is become less tense." He said Europe had to ensure that no further parts of Ukraine were annexed by Russia and this would involve not just the threat of sanctions but also continuing dialogue. Full Story | Top |
| Greek police ban protests during EU meetings in Athens Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:12 AM PDT Greek police have banned protests in Athens when the Greek capital hosts a meeting of European Union finance ministers on Tuesday and Wednesday, citing security reasons. Demonstrators will be banned from rallying or marching in the center of the capital, including around parliament in Syntagma Square, the focus of often violent protests against austerity measures imposed under the country's bailout plans. Athens has implemented such bans several times in the past, including when German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and German Chancellor Angela Merkel made high-profile visits to the Greek capital. Full Story | Top |
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