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| Air strikes in Yemen kill 35 al Qaeda militants in two days Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 12:15 PM PDT By Mohamed Mukhashaf ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Air strikes in southern Yemen killed about 25 suspected al Qaeda members on Sunday, local tribal sources said, in the second operation of its kind within two days. On Saturday an air strike killed 10 al Qaeda militants and three civilians in central Yemen, a country that neighbors top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the group's most lethal wings. The defense ministry did not specify the nature of the air strikes, but in both cases local sources said unmanned drone aircraft had been seen above the target areas beforehand. Full Story | Top |
| Boston Marathon looks to emerge from shadow of 2013 bombing Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 12:13 PM PDT  By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Runners from the world's elite racers to first-timers will step to the Boston Marathon starting line on Monday for the first time the race has been held since last year's deadly bombing attack. Some 36,000 people, the second-largest field in the race's 118-year history, will set out from Hopkinton, a town west of Boston, for the 26.2-mile race that finishes on Boston's Boylston Street, where two homemade pressure-cooker bombs last year killed three people and injured 264. The fans, hundreds of thousands of whom are expected to line the course, will also be rooting for top U.S. entrants including Ryan Hall of California and Desiree Linden of Michigan. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on Sunday told CBS's "Face the Nation" that added security measures, including a higher than usual police presence, would assure a "very safe" atmosphere at the race. Full Story | Top |
| Marijuana fans pack 4/20 events in Colorado, Washington state Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 12:10 PM PDT By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Thousands of marijuana enthusiasts gathered in Colorado and Washington state over the weekend for an annual celebration of cannabis culture with rallies, concerts and trade shows in the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana. Voters in the two Western states in 2012 approved the legalization of possession and use of weed by adults on private property, although public consumption is still illegal. In January the first retail pot shops opened in Colorado, and stores in Washington are set to follow suit later this year. On Saturday, police issued 32 citations, 22 for public consumption of marijuana and 10 for other offenses at the gathering, said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Full Story | Top |
| Former army chief, leftist are only candidates in Egypt presidential poll Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 11:56 AM PDT  By Maggie Fick and Mahmoud Mourad CAIRO (Reuters) - The former army general who toppled Egypt's first freely elected president will face a leftist politician in next month's presidential election, as they were the only candidates to enter before nominations closed, the committee organizing the vote said. The committee had received paperwork from former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and former parliamentarian and presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, it said at a news conference on Sunday, several hours after the deadline had passed. The elections will be held in a barren political climate after the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak raised hopes of a robust democracy in the biggest Arab nation. Neither candidate has outlined a strategy for tackling poverty, energy shortages and unemployment that afflict many of Egypt's 85 million people. Full Story | Top |
| Technical problems delay reopening of Libya's Zueitina oil port: minister Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 11:31 AM PDT By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Technical problems have delayed the reopening of Libya's eastern Zueitina oil export terminal after the government reached a deal with rebels to end an eight-month blockade of the port, a minister said on Sunday. Under the plan, the Hariga and Zueitina ports were due to open immediately while the larger Ras Lanuf and Es Sider terminals would resume oil exports within a month. But justice minister Salah al-Merghani said Hariga port located in Tobruk in the far east would be the only one to start operations due to technical problems at Zueitina. He declined to give a date for the resumption of oil exports from the 70,000 barrels-per-day port or for the Ras Lanuf and Es Sider ports. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuelan protesters hold Easter rally, plan to burn Maduro effigies Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 11:29 AM PDT  By Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters rallied on Sunday to demand the "resurrection" of Venezuelan democracy while effigies of both President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leaders were paraded for burning in a local Easter Day tradition. Though millions of Venezuelans have headed for Caribbean beaches and family gatherings over the Easter period, student demonstrators have sought to keep a nearly three-month protest movement going with religious-themed demonstrations. After a barefoot rally and a "Via Crucis" march in the style of Jesus' tortured walk towards crucifixion, the students gathered on Sunday in a Caracas square for a demonstration denominated "Resurrection of Democracy." Easter marks the day Christians believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead after being crucified. "We're staying in the street until we get our country back, until we get democracy back," student leader Djamil Jassir, 22, told Reuters in a square where protesters displayed dozens of used gas cannisters and bullets as symbols of repression. Full Story | Top |
| Brazil´s president also responsible for refinery deal: ex CEO Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 11:21 AM PDT  Brazil´s President Dilma Rousseff must assume her share of responsibility for the controversial purchase of a refinery in Texas by Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the former chief executive of the state-run oil company said in an interview published on Sunday. Rousseff chaired the board of Petrobras in 2006 when it approved the purchase of Pasadena Refining System Inc, near Houston. Its high cost and losses later incurred at the refinery have put Petrobras at the center of a growing political scandal that began with bribery accusations and was fanned by the arrest of a former director in connection with a money-laundering case. The fall-out could complicate a re-election bid in October by Rousseff, who has said she was not informed of two clauses in the refinery contract that made it an onerous deal for Petrobras. Full Story | Top |
| Kuwaiti newspapers suspended over 'plot' tape stories Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 10:38 AM PDT A judge has suspended two Kuwaiti newspapers for two weeks after they published stories about a recording that discusses an alleged plot to overthrow the Gulf state's ruling system, their editors and the state news agency said on Sunday. Kuwait, a major oil producer and U.S. ally, has imposed a news blackout on a sensitive investigation into the tape, saying earlier this month that media coverage about it was damaging to the country. The Information Ministry said the newspapers had published "articles and views on the case which could affect relevant investigations by the Public Prosecution, and could even undermine the national interest," the KUNA news agency reported. Al Watan editor-in-chief Sheikh Khalifa Ali al-Khalifa al-Sabah told Reuters that his publication would contest the decision and continue to update its website. 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 |
| Saudi Arabia announces jump in new cases of deadly MERS virus Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 09:23 AM PDT By Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia confirmed 20 new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)on Saturday and Sunday, adding up to 49 infections in six days, a sudden increase of a disease that kills about a third of the people infected and has no cure. MERS, a SARS-like novel coronavirus that emerged in Saudi Arabia two years ago, has infected 244 people in the kingdom, of whom 76 have died, the Health Ministry said on its website. He said he did not know why there had been a surge of cases in Jeddah but said it might be part of a seasonal pattern since there was also a big rise in infections last April and May. Another cluster of cases has been detected in the United Arab Emirates and a Malaysian who was recently in the Gulf has been confirmed as infected, his country said. MERS has no vaccine or anti-viral treatment, but international and Saudi health authorities say the disease, which originated in camels, does not transmit easily between people and may simply die out. Full Story | Top |
| Mystery gunfight in east Ukraine sparks blame, counter-blame Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 09:10 AM PDT By Aleksandar Vasovic SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian authorities in eastern Ukraine presented identity documents, maps and a business card to support their view that Ukrainian far-right nationalists had carried out a deadly attack early on Sunday. The nationalists and authorities in Kiev said it was a staged display to conceal the hand of Russian secret services in the gunfight, in which at least three people were killed. The truth, as in so much of the standoff over Ukraine between Moscow and Kiev, was hard to establish. The local pro-separatist mayor of the nearby town of Slaviansk announced a curfew and urged Moscow to send in peacekeepers, complicating efforts to defuse the standoff between Ukraine's pro-Western leaders and Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Abdullah widens lead in Afghan presidential vote Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:48 AM PDT  By Jeremy Laurence KABUL (Reuters) - Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah's lead in the Afghan presidential race has widened, the latest official tally of votes released on Sunday showed, although half of the votes have yet to be counted. Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission said initial results based on almost 50 percent of the vote out of the total 34 provinces showed Abdullah in the lead with 44.4 percent, followed by ex-world bank official Ashraf Ghani with 33.2 percent of the votes it said were not fraudulent. "The lead we were expecting, it didn't come as a surprise, but perhaps we were expecting a bigger lead," Abdullah told Reuters in an interview at his home in Kabul. Final results are due on May 14, and a run-off, if needed, will take place in late May. A run-off is seen as a risky proposition in Afghanistan, given security concerns, the prospect of a low turnout and the cost - the bill for the first round was put at more than $100 million. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey Twitter accounts appear blocked after Erdogan court action Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:45 AM PDT  By Seda Sezer ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two anonymous Twitter accounts used to release secretly recorded conversations implicating family and associates of Turkey's prime minister and senior government officials in a corruption scandal appeared on Sunday to have been blocked. Twitter last week agreed to comply with a Turkish government request to close some accounts that officials said had breached national security or privacy regulations. Twitter said in a tweet on its policy feed: "Reminder: Our Country Withheld Content Policy means we act after due process, e.g., a court order". "We don't withhold content at the mere request of a gov't official and we may appeal a court order when it threatens freedom of expression," it tweeted. Full Story | Top |
| Syria's Assad pays Easter visit to recaptured Christian town Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:27 AM PDT  By Firas Makdesi MAALOULA, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday visited an ancient Christian town recaptured from rebels last week, state media said, as he seeks to persuade minorities that the government is their best protection against hardline Islamists. Assad's Easter visit to Maaloula - a rare appearance outside central Damascus - also highlighted growing government confidence in recent gains against insurgents around the capital and along the Lebanese border. Islamist fighters, including some from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, had taken over part of Maaloula in December and held several nuns captive until releasing them in March in a prisoner-exchange deal. Full Story | Top |
| Chinese admiral to snub Japan at regional meeting: Xinhua Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:24 AM PDT  The commander of the Chinese navy will refuse to meet Japanese military officials one-on-one at a regional naval symposium in China this week, a navy spokesman was quoted as saying on Sunday, citing what he called hurtful actions by Japanese leaders. The decision to snub Japanese officials attending the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in Qingdao on Tuesday and Wednesday comes during a chill in relations between the world's no.2 and no.3 economies, amid a row over a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea. In addition to the territorial quarrel, China's ties with Japan have long been poisoned by what Beijing sees as Tokyo's failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China before and during World War Two. On Sunday the head of Japan's National Public Safety Commission visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which critics including the Chinese government see as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression. Full Story | Top |
| Echo of 1984 Betamax landmark in U.S. high court Aereo TV fight Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 08:03 AM PDT By Lawrence Hurley and Liana B. Baker WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - When the U.S. Supreme Court hears a one-hour oral argument in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, it will not be the first time the court's nine justices will have the final say over the fate of a new TV viewing technology. Thirty years ago, the big media companies went to the high court to block Sony Corp's Betamax video recorder. This time, their lawyers are lined up against Aereo Inc, a two-year-old service that streams TV channels online. Whether or not Aereo, which charges users a fee to watch broadcast TV channels online, benefits from that precedent depends in part on how much the nine justices, all appointed to the court since then, see similarities in the two cases. Full Story | Top |
| Families of Iran prisoners stage protest outside parliament Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:53 AM PDT Families of Iranian prisoners charged with political offences demonstrated outside parliament in Tehran on Sunday to protest at what they said was violent treatment of their relatives at the Evin prison, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported. Family members holding pictures of the prisoners said more than 20 of their relatives were hurt in clashes with security guards on April 17, according to Kaleme, a website linked to opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi. It is unusual for families to gather outside parliament to complain about alleged abuses of their relatives, although such protests have been held outside Evin itself in the past. The prisoners are among hundreds rounded up during mass demonstrations by reformists protesting against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in presidential elections in 2009, in the worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Full Story | Top |
| Bankrupt British loans official resigns, embarrassing PM Cameron Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:51 AM PDT By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - The head of a British government agency that hands out billions of pounds of loans to local authorities has resigned after failing to reveal he was bankrupt, Prime Minister David Cameron's office said on Sunday. Cameron appointed Tony Caplin, a former senior official in his ruling Conservative party, to head the Public Works Loans Board (PWLB) last year. The PWLB is in charge of distributing infrastructure loans to local authorities across Britain and controls a loans portfolio of up to 60 billion pounds ($100.85 billion). Full Story | Top |
| Ghana company says U.S. plane seen in Tehran broke no laws Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:49 AM PDT By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) - A U.S.-flagged plane which landed at an airport in the Iranian capital Tehran last week was carrying business executives from Ghana and did not flout international laws, according to the mining firm which leased it. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the plane, owned by the Bank of Utah, was parked at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport on Tuesday. Its presence caused a stir as the United States and Iran have been at loggerheads for decades and the Islamic Republic is subject to economic sanctions, which would generally prohibit U.S.-registered aircraft from flying to the country. It was later reported that the aircraft was leased to Ghana-based mining firm Engineers and Planners (E&P), founded by the Ibrahim Mahama - a multi-millionaire and brother of Ghana's President John Mahama. Full Story | Top |
| New air strikes kill 25 al Qaeda militants in Yemen Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:32 AM PDT  By Mohamed Mukhashaf ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Air strikes in southern Yemen killed about 25 suspected al Qaeda members on Sunday, local tribal sources said, in the second operation of its kind within two days. On Saturday an air strike killed 10 al Qaeda militants and three civilians in central Yemen, a country that neighbors top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the group's most lethal wings. Full Story | Top |
| Embassy construction fuels protests amid Senegal property boom Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:22 AM PDT By Alec Saelens Protests over the construction of a new Turkish embassy in the Senegalese capital Dakar have highlighted anger in the West African nation over a property boom that is swallowing the coastline and squeezing ordinary people's budgets. Riot police teargased protesters and arrested 23 people at a demonstration last week alongside a breeze-block wall constructed to house the embassy compound on a picturesque stretch of Dakar's coast, where luxury villas, hotels and shopping centres have sprung up in recent years. Built on a peninsula reaching into the Atlantic Ocean, the city of three million is growing at breakneck speed, fuelled by migrants from rural Senegal and neighbouring countries. Hemmed in by water on three sides, Dakar's population is on track to hit five million by 2025, experts say. Full Story | Top |
| Pipeline delay gives boost to Obama's political base Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 07:03 AM PDT  By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The latest delay to a final decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will reinforce a White House strategy to energize President Barack Obama's liberal-leaning base before fall elections in which Democrats risk losing control of the U.S. Senate. Environmentalists, worried about the project's effect on climate change, have put enormous pressure on the president to reject the pipeline from Canada's oil sands, staging demonstrations outside the White House and protests in states where he travels. A decision to approve it now could have prompted that vocal group, which was instrumental in electing Obama in 2008 and 2012, to sit out the November 4 congressional elections. The State Department's announcement on Friday that it would give government agencies more time to study the project was seen by strategists from both parties as a move to prevent that and boost Obama in the eyes of his supporters. Full Story | Top |
| Search ends for missing on Everest, some Sherpas call for shutdown Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 06:44 AM PDT  By Gopal Sharma KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Rescuers have given up searching for three sherpa guides missing two days after the deadliest ever accident on Nepal's Mount Everest killed at least 13 and shocked the mountaineering world. It not possible to find the three missing persons, dead or alive," said Lakpa Sherpa, of the Himalayan Rescue Operation, speaking from base camp, the starting point for Everest expeditions. The helicopters used in the search and to ferry bodies from the mountain have been called back to Kathmandu, an army spokesman said. Rescuers brought six bodies from the base camp to Kathmandu at the weekend and have kept them at a sherpa Buddhist monastery in accordance with tradition. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine forces accuse Russia of staging shooting Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 06:20 AM PDT Ukraine's police and intelligence service accused Russia of staging a fatal shooting incident on Sunday in which pro-Moscow separatists were killed in the east of the country. "Armed lawbreakers and saboteurs who are terrorizing the local population around Slaviansk ... have turned to cynical provocation," the SBU security service said in a statement, describing the incident as a "staged attack". No group was present "other than the saboteurs and crime figures, supported and armed by officers of Russia's GRU" military intelligence, the SBU added. The Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector, blamed by separatists for the shooting, denied involvement and also accused Russian special forces. Full Story | Top |
| Church of England still invested in payday lender Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 06:11 AM PDT  The Archbishop of Canterbury said the Church of England still held an indirect investment in short-term loan company Wonga, even though he branded its activities "morally wrong" nine months ago. Archbishop Justin Welby, leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans, said last year he had been embarrassed to learn that the church's pension fund had invested a relatively small sum in a U.S. venture capital firm that led Wonga's 2009 fundraising. Shortly before that investment came to light, Welby had pledged to drive such lenders out of business by backing rival credit unions as he made a scathing attack on so-called "payday" lenders such as Wonga, which charge high interest rates on loans that are typically repaid when borrowers receive their next paychecks. But on Sunday in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Welby said he had been unable to force the church's investment arm, the Church Commissioners, to exit the investment. Full Story | Top |
| Militants kill 11 Algerian soldiers in ambush Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 06:09 AM PDT By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS (Reuters) - Islamic militants killed at least 11 Algerian soldiers in an ambush on a patrol in mountains east of the capital Algiers, a security source said on Sunday, in one of the deadliest attacks on the military in years. The troops were searching for militants in the Tizi Ouzou region, 120 km (75 miles) east of Algiers, when they were attacked by fighters from al Qaeda's north African branch, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the source told Reuters. Another 11 soldiers were wounded, the source said. The attack came just days after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 77, was re-elected for a fourth term following a campaign that portrayed the aging leader as key to continued security for the North African OPEC state. Full Story | Top |
| Motor racing-Hamilton wins Chinese GP in Mercedes one-two Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 05:53 AM PDT By Abhishek Takle SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton raced to a hat-trick of wins in Sunday's Formula One Chinese Grand Prix, cruising unchallenged to the flag ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg as a dominant Mercedes claimed a third straight one-two finish. The win was the 25th of Hamilton's career and drew him level with British legend Jim Clark and his current Mercedes boss, triple world champion Niki Lauda, in the all-time winner's list. It is also the first time that Hamilton – who moved ahead of Clark to become the top British qualifier on Saturday - has managed to win three races in a row. This team is on a roll, that's for sure." Fernando Alonso, winner of last year's race in China, finished third to give Ferrari their first podium of the season and the first under new boss Marco Mattiacci, who looked on from the pitwall. Full Story | Top |
| Motor racing-Hamilton amazed by chequered flag blunder Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 05:49 AM PDT  By Abhishek Takle SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton nearly backed off while still a lap away from his third win in a row on Sunday after the chequered flag was waved early in a blunder that led to a post-race revision of the results. Such places matter for small teams like Caterham, who have never scored a point and whose final position at the end of the season will be decided on placings and a possible countback as far as 17th and 18th. Full Story | Top |
| Musical shares stage with gay rights debate at South Carolina college Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 05:04 AM PDT By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Students at a South Carolina public university are snapping up tickets to the musical "Fun Home" after state lawmakers approved a proposed cut in school funding over the critically acclaimed lesbian memoir on which the musical is based. Outraged over the proposed budget cut for the College of Charleston, which was triggered by a freshman reading assignment, the cast of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated show volunteered to put on two performances of selected songs from the musical at the college without pay. Little more than a day after the box office for both Monday performances opened, 900 of the 1,500 available tickets had been sold for $10 or $15 apiece, a spokeswoman for the liberal arts college with 11,000 undergraduate students said on Friday. "The legislature's punishment of the college for teaching 'Fun Home' just feels ridiculous," said Alison Bechdel, whose 2006 memoir recalls growing up a lesbian with a closeted gay father in rural Pennsylvania. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill two Egyptian policemen near Cairo, court jails Islamists Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 05:01 AM PDT  Gunmen killed an Egyptian intelligence officer and a policeman on a road outside Cairo in a late-night firefight, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. The armed men fled the scene after shooting dead Captain Ashraf Badeer el-Qazaz of the intelligence service and a police conscript, the ministry said in a statement. The two men were on security patrol late on Saturday on a desert road linking Cairo to the canal city of Suez when they tried to stop a vehicle, which then opened fire on them. Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on members of the security forces and killed hundreds of them since the army toppled Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, last July. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill 2 Egyptian policemen near Cairo, court jails Islamists Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 04:46 AM PDT Gunmen killed an Egyptian intelligence officer and a policeman on a road outside Cairo in a late-night firefight, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. The armed men fled the scene after shooting dead Captain Ashraf Badeer el-Qazaz of the intelligence service and a police conscript, the ministry said in a statement. The two men were on security patrol late on Saturday on a desert road linking Cairo to the canal city of Suez when they tried to stop a vehicle, which then opened fire on them. Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on members of the security forces and killed hundreds of them since the army toppled Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, last July. Full Story | Top |
| Boston Marathon looks to shake shadow of deadly 2013 bombing Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 04:00 AM PDT By Scott Malone BOSTON, April 20 (Reuters) - Runners, from the world's elite racers to first-timers, will step to the Boston Marathon starting line on Monday for the first running of the world-renowned race since last year's deadly bombing attack. Some 36,000 people, the second-largest field in the race's 118-year history, will set out from Hopkinton, a town west of Boston, for the 26.2-mile race that finishes on Boston's Boylston Street, where two homemade pressure-cooker bombs last year killed three people and injured 264. The fans, hundreds of thousands of whom are expected to line the course, will also be rooting for top U.S. entrants including Ryan Hall of California and Desiree Linden of Michigan. While the memory of the attacks has hung heavy over Boston through the week of events leading up to the race, Linden said it wouldn't affect her thinking come race day. Full Story | Top |
| Lottery winners top up Scottish independence coffers with 3 million pound donation Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:52 AM PDT A Scottish couple who won the lottery have donated at least 3 million pounds ($5 million) of their winnings to the campaign for an independent Scotland, making them Britain's biggest political donors, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Colin Weir, a former cameraman, and his wife Chris, a former nurse, are from a seaside resort near the Scottish city of Glasgow and won 161,653,000 pounds ($271.72 million) in the Euromillions draw in 2011. The Sunday Times, which is in the process of compiling its annual list of Britain's richest people, said its analysis had shown that the couple had given at least 3 million pounds to those campaigning for an independent Scotland ahead of a referendum on September 18. Opinion polls suggest Scotland will vote to reject independence but that the contest is tightening a little and supporters of a breakaway have made some ground in recent months. Full Story | Top |
| Prosecutors extend Korea ferry captain's detention as death toll mounts Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:36 AM PDT  By Ju-min Park and Jungmin Jang JINDO/MOKPO, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors investigating last week's ferry disaster said on Sunday they wanted to extend the detention of the captain and two other crew as they try to determine the cause of an accident that likely claimed more than 300 lives. The Sewol ferry was on a routine 400-km (300-mile) voyage from Incheon to the southern holiday island of Jeju in calm weather on Wednesday carrying 476 passengers and crew, among them 339 children and teachers on a high school outing. It took more than two hours for it to capsize completely but passengers were ordered to stay put in their cabins. Full Story | Top |
| On Easter, Pope calls for end to war, condemns waste exacerbating hunger Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:35 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in his Easter address before a huge crowd, on Sunday denounced the "immense wastefulness" in the world while many go hungry and called for an end to conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Africa. "We ask you, Lord Jesus, to put an end to all war and every conflict, whether great or small, ancient or recent," he said in his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message. Francis, marking the second Easter season of his pontificate, celebrated a Mass to an overflowing crowd of at least 150,000 in St. Peter's Square and beyond. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine nationalists deny role in east Ukraine clash, blame Russia Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:31 AM PDT KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's Right Sector nationalists denied playing any role in a gunfight in Slaviansk, eastern Ukraine, early on Sunday in which at least two people were killed. They blamed Russian special forces for being behind the attack. "It is a blasphemous provocation from Russia: blasphemous because it took place on a holy night for Christians, on Easter night. This was clearly carried out by Russian special forces," Artem Skoropadsky, a spokesman for Right Sector, told Reuters. (Reporting by Natalya Zinets; Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Christian Lowe) Full Story | Top |
| Palestinians, Israeli police clash at Jerusalem holy site Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:30 AM PDT Israeli police arrested 16 Palestinians at one of Jerusalem's most revered and politically sensitive holy sites on Sunday as they dispersed protesters opposed to any Jewish attempts to pray there. A police spokesman said officers used stun grenades to disperse dozens of rioters, who threw rocks and firecrackers at them at the site revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's walled Old City. Five Palestinians were also slightly hurt, a Muslim clergyman said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the plaza near the al Aqsa mosque had remained open to visitors during the clash, which was confined to a small area. Full Story | Top |
| Air strike kills Qaeda militants in Yemen, second in two days: defense ministry Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:12 AM PDT By Mohamed Mukhashaf ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - A number of al Qaeda militants were killed when an air strike hit their training camps in a remote mountainous region of southern Yemen on Sunday, the defense ministry said, the second attack of its kind in two days. On Saturday an air strike killed 10 al Qaeda militants and three civilians in central Yemen, a country that neighbors top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and is home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the group's most lethal wings. Full Story | Top |
| Soccer-Pulis relief as Palace secure safety before title-chasers arrive Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 03:04 AM PDT  By Sam Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis said he was relieved to have secured their Premier league status before facing nightmare fixtures against title-chasing Manchester City and Liverpool. Palace won 1-0 at West Ham United on Saturday thanks to a second-half Mile Jedinak penalty that moved them up to 11th in the table on 43 points, 13 clear of the relegation zone with three games remaining. Palace host third-placed Manchester City on Sundaybefore leaders Liverpool visit Selhurst Park on May 5, with Pulis delighted that neither fixture can affect their top-flight status. Full Story | Top |
| Soccer-Chelsea's title hopes hit by Sunderland defeat Sunday, Apr 20, 2014 02:42 AM PDT  By Josh Reich LONDON (Reuters) - Chelsea's title ambitions suffered a major blow with a shock 2-1 home defeat by bottom side Sunderland on Saturday, handing the initiative to Premier League leaders Liverpool who visit lowly Norwich City on Sunday. It was manager Jose Mourinho's first league defeat at Stamford Bridge in 78 matches, with the winner coming from a cooly converted penalty by former Chelsea player Fabio Borini, who is on loan at Sunderland from the Merseyside club. The Italian forward tucked home the spot kick in the 82nd minute after Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta brought down Jozy Altidore. Full Story | Top |
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