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| Ukraine rabbi seeks end to anti-Semitism row - in vain Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 01:22 PM PDT By Aleksandar Vasovic and Alastair Macdonald DONETSK/KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian rabbi whose congregation was the target of an anti-Semitic leaflet that drew global media interest and condemnation from the U.S. government believes it was a hoax and wants to put the matter to rest. But five days after the incident in the restive eastern city of Donetsk, Ukraine's prime minister, anxious to maintain U.S. support against Russia, issued a statement accusing Moscow and told a U.S. TV channel he would find the "bastards" responsible. On Monday evening, as Jews left a synagogue after a Passover service, masked men handed out fliers purported to be from pro-Russian separatists who seized the regional authority building in Donetsk and styled themselves as its government. In an echo of the Holocaust which devastated Ukraine's Jews, it ordered all Jews to register with them or face deportation. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine PM: Putin 'has a dream to restore the Soviet Union' Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 09:10 AM PDT Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk believes Russian President Vladimir Putin "has a dream to restore the Soviet Union" — and Putin realizing that dream would be disastrous for the rest of the world. Full Story | Top |
| Baby Prince George visits Australian zoo Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 01:26 AM PDT  Baby Prince George stepped out in public with his parents on Sunday for the first time in Australia, for an encounter with wildlife at Sydney's Taronga Zoo. George, eight months old and third in line to the throne after grandfather Princes Charles and father William, stole the show as his parents toured the harbourfront zoo overlooking the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Full Story | Top |
| Deadly gun attack in eastern Ukraine shakes fragile Geneva accord Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 09:49 AM PDT  By Aleksandar Vasovic SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - At least three people were killed in a gunfight in the early hours of Sunday near a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists, shaking an already fragile international accord that was designed to avert a wider conflict. The incident triggered a war of words between Moscow and Ukraine's western-backed government with each questioning the other's compliance with the agreement, brokered last week in Geneva, to end a crisis that has made Russia's ties with the West more fraught than at any time since the Cold War. The separatists said armed men from Ukraine's Right Sector nationalist group had attacked them. Failure of the Geneva agreement could bring more bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, but may also prompt the United States to impose tougher sanctions on the Kremlin - with far-reaching consequences for many economies and importers of Russian energy. Full Story | Top |
| Citing Religious Beliefs, Cabbies Won't Drive Cars With Ads for Gay Games Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:44 AM PDT The Gay Games has been a promising vehicle of change for marginalized LGBT athletes—yet 30 years after the sporting event was created, some people in this year's host city of Cleveland are not so welcoming. Some cab drivers who regularly travel the route between the city and the airport are refusing to drive cabs that bear ads for the August event, citing religious reasons, according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. Hopkins International Airport said it had been notified by two of the three taxi companies it works with that some of their drivers were objecting to the airport's dedicated taxicab program, in which cabs have Gay Games ads on their rooftop placards. It's not the first time cabbies have objected to transporting certain passengers, and there has been a recent spate of businesses objecting to serving the LGBT community—an act that is being written into law as a right in some states. Full Story | Top |
| Documents detail another delayed GM recall Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 01:48 PM PDT  DETROIT (AP) — General Motors waited years to recall nearly 335,000 Saturn Ions for power steering failures despite getting thousands of consumer complaints and more than 30,000 warranty repair claims, according to government documents released Saturday. Full Story | Top |
| Iran slams U.S. justice verdict on Manhattan skyscraper Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 01:19 PM PDT Iran on Saturday criticized a U.S. government move to seize a Manhattan skyscraper owned largely by a foundation that promotes its language and Islamic culture, saying this violated the right to religious freedom in the United States. According to a court document filed in New York on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to distribute proceeds from the sale of the Fifth Avenue high-rise to families affected by alleged Iranian-aided attacks, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. The settlement marks the latest turn in a long-running battle over the 36-storey building owned chiefly by Alavi Foundation, a non-profit Persian and Islamic cultural center. Iran's foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said the decision "lacks legal justification and negates America's commitment to protecting its citizens' religious freedom." "Confiscation of the properties of an independent charity organization raises doubt about the credibility of U.S. justice," she was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Full Story | Top |
| Abrupt Lurch in Wyoming Landslide Splits House in Two Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 01:16 PM PDT  Other Homes, Businesses Threatened by Sudden Earth Movement and Debris. Full Story | Top |
| Hundreds paddle out for surf icon Hobie Alter Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 02:44 PM PDT  DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) — Hundreds of surfers and rowers have honored Hobie Alter's request by paddling out in the Pacific in his memory. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine, Russia trade blame for eastern shootout Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 09:42 AM PDT  BYLBASIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and Russia traded blame Sunday for a shootout at a checkpoint manned by pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine that left at least three people dead and others with gunshot wounds. Full Story | Top |
| Delay in ferry evacuation puzzles maritime experts Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 05:26 AM PDT MOKPO, South Korea (AP) — It is a decision that has maritime experts stumped and is at odds with standard procedure: Why were the passengers of the doomed South Korean ferry told to stay in their rooms rather than climb on deck? Full Story | Top |
| Pope Francis, huge crowd joyously celebrate Easter Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 09:41 AM PDT VATICAN CITY (AP) — Marking Christianity's most hopeful day, Pope Francis made an Easter Sunday plea for peace and dialogue in Ukraine and Syria, for an end to terrorist attacks against Christians in Nigeria and for more attention to the hungry and neediest close to home. Full Story | Top |
| APNewsBreak: Africa land grabs endanger elephants Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:47 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Political and military elites are seizing protected areas in one of Africa's last bastions for elephants, putting broad swaths of Zimbabwe at risk of becoming fronts for ivory poaching, according to a nonprofit research group's report that examines government collusion in wildlife trafficking. Full Story | Top |
| Illinois mayor sends cops after man who created parody Twitter account Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 07:06 PM PDT The local story has made national headlines after readers across the country protested the official response to the Twitter parody account. Full Story | Top |
| Italy awards world’s best pizza maker title to Australian chef Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 03:16 PM PDT If you want to try the world's best margherita pizza, you'll have to head down under. Full Story | Top |
| Social Security to resume benefits statement mailings Saturday, Apr 19, 2014 04:10 PM PDT  By Mark Miller CHICAGO (Reuters) - Paper Social Security benefits statements, which used to be mailed out every year and then fell victim to budget cuts, are going to make a partial comeback. Starting this September, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will resume mailings at five-year intervals to workers who have not signed up to view their statements online, an agency spokesman told Reuters. The statements will be sent to workers at ages 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60, he said, adding the agency would continue to promote use of the online statements. The SSA stopped mailing most paper statements in 2011 in response to budget pressures, and saved the SSA $70 million annually - about 50 cents per mailed statement. Full Story | Top |
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