Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Pilot error may have caused Iran drone crash
Fri,16 Dec 2011 05:33 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is investigating a combination of pilot error and mechanical failure as possible causes for the crash of a classified U.S. drone in Iran and does not believe Iran brought down the plane, according to two U.S. government officials. The unmanned RQ-170 Sentinel drone, which had been on a sensitive CIA surveillance mission over Iran, crashed and was apparently reassembled by Iran before being put on display in Tehran, said one of the officials, who was speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the investigation. ... Full Story | Top |
Three dead and 257 wounded in Egyptian clashes
Fri,16 Dec 2011 03:59 PM PST
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Three people were killed as troops fought daylong battles with protesters, showing the tensions seething in Egypt nine months after Hosni Mubarak's fall, even in the midst of polls meant to herald a promised transfer to civilian rule. The Health Ministry said 257 people had also been wounded in the clashes in Cairo on Friday, where anger at the actions of the security forces turned the city centre into a smoke-filled battleground shortly after two days of mostly peaceful voting. ...
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U.N. sanctions lifted on Libya's central bank
Fri,16 Dec 2011 03:47 PM PST
Reuters -  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council lifted sanctions on Libya's central bank and a subsidiary on Friday, clearing the way for tens of billions of dollars they hold overseas to be unfrozen to ease an acute cash crisis. The Central Bank of Libya and the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB), an offshore institution wholly owned by the central bank, were taken off the council's sanctions list drawn up earlier this year amid civil war in the Arab state. ...
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Suspected WikiLeaks source appears in court
Fri,16 Dec 2011 03:34 PM PST
Reuters -  FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - An American Army intelligence analyst suspected of being behind the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history made his first court appearance on Friday, sitting stone-faced as military prosecutors launched their case against him. Private First Class Bradley Manning, 23, faces charges including aiding the enemy, which could send him to prison for life. He is suspected of being the source of documents that eventually were released on the Internet by WikiLeaks -- data dumps that Washington said jeopardized national security. ...
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Iraqi pleads guilty to trying to kill US troops
Fri,16 Dec 2011 03:17 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Iraqi living in Kentucky pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he tried to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq, aided al Qaeda operatives there and taught how to make roadside bombs, the Justice Department said. Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, pleaded guilty to a 23-count indictment in a federal court in Kentucky - a case that drew harsh criticism from Republicans in the U.S. Congress who argued that such terrorism suspects should be tried in military courts at the American military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. lifts sanctions on post-Gaddafi Libya
Fri,16 Dec 2011 03:15 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday lifted most of the economic sanctions it had in place against Libya before the fall of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi. "After careful consultation with the new Libyan government, the United States rolled back most U.S. sanctions on the government of Libya to keep our commitment to the Libyan people," the White House said in a statement. Gaddafi's 42-year rule collapsed when his forces fled Tripoli in August and the last of the fighting in Libya ended in October when he was captured and killed by rebels. The U.S. ...
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Congo's top court declares Kabila election winner
Fri,16 Dec 2011 02:45 PM PST
Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's Supreme Court confirmed the incumbent Joseph Kabila on Friday as the winner of a disputed November 28 presidential election, rejecting opposition demands for the vote to be annulled over fraud allegations. The court's president, Jerome Kitoko, said Kabila had won 48.95 percent of the vote. "In consequence, Joseph Kabila is proclaimed president-elect of the republic with a simple majority," he said at the Justice Ministry. The court said the opposition had failed to provide proof of their allegations. ... Full Story | Top |
Mexico telecom regulator signs contracts to friends
Fri,16 Dec 2011 02:02 PM PST
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The president of Mexico's phone and television regulator approved two contracts worth roughly $200,000 for businesses run by two friends, including one who works as a lobbyist for telecom companies. The contracts were for public relations and legal work for Mexico's telecom regulator Cofetel and were signed by the agency's head, Mony de Swaan. There is no evidence that de Swaan received a financial benefit from the contracts and he denies any wrongdoing. ... Full Story | Top |
Egyptian soldiers battle protesters, three dead
Fri,16 Dec 2011 01:57 PM PST
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and 257 wounded in Cairo on Friday as troops fought demonstrators in the worst violence since Egypt began its first free election in six decades. In a pattern that has recurred during nine months of army rule since President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in February, the confrontation swiftly grew as more people took to the streets. The Health Ministry said three people had been killed and 257 wounded in the unrest in the city centre. A third died from gunshot wounds, a worker at a makeshift field hospital said. ...
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Analysis: Russia's Syria shift a bid to guard image, interests
Fri,16 Dec 2011 01:50 PM PST
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's offer of a new U.N. Security Council resolution on the violence in Syria is a pragmatic step by a country increasingly isolated in its support for a widely discredited leader. The shift allows Russia to look less recalcitrant without giving ground on its opposition to sanctions or foreign military interference, which it has vociferously opposed since the NATO operation in Libya. ... Full Story | Top |
Syrians protest against Assad after Russia U.N. move
Fri,16 Dec 2011 01:21 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces killed 13 people on Friday during widespread protests against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said, a day after Syria's big power ally Russia sharpened its criticism of Damascus in a draft United Nations resolution. Most of the deaths were in the city of Homs, they said, a hotbed of resistance to a crackdown on nine months of protests which has killed 5,000 people according to the United Nations and provoked Western and Arab League sanctions on Damascus. ...
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China sends campaigning rights lawyer back to jail
Fri,16 Dec 2011 12:03 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - China has sent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng back to jail, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday, ending his probation in what was the first official account of his whereabouts in the last year. Gao, however, appears never to have escaped secretive confinement in the first place. A combative rights advocate who tackled many causes anathema to the ruling Communist Party, Gao was sentenced to three years' jail in 2006 for "inciting subversion of state power", a charge often used to punish critics of one-party rule. ...
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Bahraini police fire tear gas at protesters: witnesses
Fri,16 Dec 2011 04:53 PM PST
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahraini police fired tear gas and clashed with Shi'ite Muslim protesters on Friday, a day after a man was run over and killed as he fled security forces chasing protesters near Manama, the opposition and a rights group said on Friday. Tensions have been high in Bahrain since security forces crushed weeks of pro-democracy street protests by the Gulf kingdom's majority Shi'ite Muslims in March. ...
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U.S. withdrawal in Iraq rolls into final act
Fri,16 Dec 2011 01:20 PM PST
Reuters -  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - American soldiers signed over their last military base to Iraqi officials on Friday with the U.S. troop pullout drawing to an swift end nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. The few thousand remaining U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Iraq before December 31, closing a U.S. military venture that cost the lives of nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis caught up in sectarian strife. Iraqi and U.S. ...
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U.S. hands over last detainee to Iraq
Fri,16 Dec 2011 11:00 AM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday handed over its last detainee in Iraq to Iraqi authorities, a White House official told Reuters, after months of failed efforts by Washington to convince Baghdad to allow his extradition for trial. White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said Iraq had given assurances that Ali Mussa Daqduq, suspected of orchestrating a 2007 kidnapping that resulted in the killing of five U.S. military personnel, would be tried for his crimes. U.S. officials would continue to discuss the case with Baghdad, Vietor said. ... Full Story | Top |
WTO approves Russia's membership after marathon
Fri,16 Dec 2011 10:46 AM PST
Reuters -  GENEVA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia won admission to the World Trade Organisation on Friday after 18 years of negotiations, finally gaining full integration into the global economy two decades after the Soviet Union collapsed. Russia's $1.9 trillion economy was the largest outside the WTO, and accession will help reduce the dependence on energy exports that left it badly exposed to the oil price collapse of 2008. ...
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Kabul police station attack ends, no casualties
Fri,16 Dec 2011 10:16 AM PST
Reuters -  KABUL (Reuters) - An attack on a police station in the west of Kabul on Friday ended without casualties, police and the Interior Ministry said. An attacker threw a hand grenade at the station, ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on his official Twitter account, and soon afterwards police said they had regained control. "There were gunfights in Police District Five. There were no casualties. Now everything is under control and we are investigating the case," said Mohammad Zahir, head of the criminal investigation department for Kabul police. ...
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Oil town clashes kill 10 on Kazakh independence day
Fri,16 Dec 2011 09:53 AM PST
Reuters -  ASTANA (Reuters) - Ten people were killed when sacked oil workers clashed with riot police in Kazakhstan on Friday, a rare violent protest in the tightly controlled Central Asian state that has overshadowed celebrations to mark 20 years of independence. Several people were also wounded after protesters stormed a stage in the oil city of Zhanaozen and set fire to the city administration building and the local headquarters of London-listed oil firm KazMunaiGas Exploration Production. "Ten people were killed as a result of mass disorder. ...
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Monti wins vote on Italian austerity package
Fri,16 Dec 2011 09:02 AM PST
Reuters -  ROME (Reuters) - Italy's government easily won a confidence vote on its tough austerity package on Friday, the first step in parliamentary approval for sweeping measures aimed at saving the euro zone's third-largest economy from financial disaster. The Chamber of Deputies approved the 33-billion euro ($43 billion) package, which affects everything from pensions to home ownership taxes, by 495 votes to 88. The plan, contested by Italy's unions and the opposition Northern League, has been in effect since Monti's government approved it on December 4. ...
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NATO urged to probe civilians killed in Libya war
Fri,16 Dec 2011 08:48 AM PST
Reuters -  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A New York-based rights group is urging NATO to investigate civilian deaths the alliance may have caused during its eight-month military operation in Libya that helped bring about the ouster and death of Muammar Gaddafi. Libya's new interim government, which has been in control of the oil-producing OPEC member since former leader Gaddafi was forced to flee Tripoli in August, estimates that more than 40,000 Libyans were killed during the country's civil war, Libyan U.N. envoy Ibrahim Dabbashi told Reuters. ...
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France rejects Russia's Syria resolution
Fri,16 Dec 2011 08:19 AM PST
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - Russia's draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria is unacceptable to France, but Moscow's recognition that the body must react to the bloodshed is a positive step, France's Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Russia unexpectedly presented a new, beefed-up draft resolution on the violence in Syria to the security council on Thursday. Western envoys said the text was too weak even though it expanded and toughened previous Russian drafts. Both Russia and China vetoed a West European draft resolution in October that contained a threat of sanctions. ... Full Story | Top |
Newspaper founder killed in Russia's Dagestan
Fri,16 Dec 2011 07:26 AM PST
Reuters -  MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - The founder of a newspaper that investigated government corruption has been shot dead in Russia's North Caucasus region, in what an international watchdog called "a lethal blow to press freedom." A gunman shot Gadzhimurat Kamalov as he was leaving the offices of the newspaper Chernovik in the capital of Dagestan province shortly before midnight on Thursday, the regional Interior Ministry said. Police said Kamalov was shot eight times and pronounced dead on the way to hospital. ...
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Dutch church sexually abused thousands: commission
Fri,16 Dec 2011 07:07 AM PST
Reuters - AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of children have been victims of sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands since 1945, an independent commission said on Friday, criticizing what it called the church's cover-up and culture of silence. Church leaders said the findings filled them with shame and sorrow and offered a "heartfelt apology," saying not only the perpetrators were to blame, but church authorities too. ... Full Story | Top |
Turkey warns France over Armenian "genocide" law
Fri,16 Dec 2011 06:50 AM PST
Reuters -  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey warned France on Friday their political and economic relations would suffer grave consequences if the French parliament passed a draft law making it illegal to deny the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was genocide. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a vocal critic of Turkey's long-standing, but slow-moving bid to join the European Union, told Turkey in October that unless it recognized the killings as genocide, France would consider making denial a crime. ...
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Iraq oil security tested as U.S. forces withdraw
Fri,16 Dec 2011 06:32 AM PST
Reuters -  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bombing of southern Iraqi crude pipelines despite a nationwide alert against a possible surge in insurgent attacks has heightened fears for the future security of Iraq's vital oil sector as American troops withdraw. The oil hub city of Basra, which handles the bulk of the OPEC member's oil exports, has generally seen fewer attacks this year than other cities in the country. ...
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Russia seizes Iran-bound radioactive material
Fri,16 Dec 2011 06:24 AM PST
Reuters -  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's customs service said Friday it had seized radioactive sodium-22, an isotope that is used in medical equipment but has no weapons use, from the luggage of a passenger planning to fly from Moscow to Tehran. The service said in a statement that the material could be obtained only "as a result of a nuclear reactor's operations" but did not say when it had been discovered at Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport. ...
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India says Russia-built nuclear plant to start soon
Fri,16 Dec 2011 05:55 AM PST
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - India plans to start up a Russian-built nuclear power plant within weeks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday, expressing confidence that the government can ease safety concerns that have prompted protests by local residents. After talks in Moscow with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, whose country is eager to build more nuclear power plants abroad, Singh said the first two reactors at the Kudankulam plant were close to being activated. ... Full Story | Top |
Japan says stricken nuclear power plant in cold shutdown
Fri,16 Dec 2011 04:59 AM PST
Reuters -  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan declared its tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant to be in cold shutdown on Friday, taking a major step to resolving the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years but some critics questioned whether the plant was really under control. The Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was wrecked on March 11 by a huge earthquake and a towering tsunami which knocked out its cooling systems, triggering meltdowns, radiation leaks and mass evacuations. ...
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Q+A: The report of Sri Lanka's civil war inquiry
Fri,16 Dec 2011 04:55 AM PST
Reuters - COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka on Friday made public a report by the presidentially-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), providing a set of recommendations and findings on the end of the island nation's three-decade civil war. The nearly 400-page report is Sri Lanka's answer to a U.N.-appointed panel's finding of "credible allegations" that both the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists may have committed war crimes in the war's final months. The war ended in May 2009. Following are some questions and answers about the report. ... Full Story | Top |
Chinese village activist's death suspicious: daughter
Fri,16 Dec 2011 04:44 AM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - The daughter of a Chinese villager whose death in custody has ignited days of protests has dismissed as groundless official explanations that he died of heart failure, as residents gathered in their thousands to mourn him. Xue Jinbo died in southern Guangdong province as police moved to try to quell a long-standing dispute over land seizures in Wukan village on the east coast of the booming region. Since then, villagers have staged fresh protests. ... Full Story | Top |
China sends campaigning rights lawyer back to jail
Fri,16 Dec 2011 04:19 AM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China has sent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng back to jail, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday, ending his probation in what was the first official account of his whereabouts in the last year. Gao, however, appears never to have escaped secretive confinement in the first place. A combative rights advocate who tackled many causes anathema to the ruling Communist Party, Gao was sentenced to three years' jail in 2006 for "inciting subversion of state power," a charge often used to punish critics of one-party rule. ... Full Story | Top |
Sri Lanka war probe says military didn't target civilians
Fri,16 Dec 2011 03:59 AM PST
Reuters - COLOMBO (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan panel probing the end of the island's 25-year war found the military did not deliberately target civilians, but said a "considerable" number were killed in the crossfire and urged the prosecution of soldiers found guilty of misconduct. The sweeping findings of the presidentially-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which touch on everything from the war's conduct to recommendations on political reconciliation, were published after submission of its 388-page report to parliament Friday. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Turkey and allies want Syria's Assad out, just not yet
Fri,16 Dec 2011 03:46 AM PST
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Turkey, with strong backing from its Arab and Western allies, very much wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down -- but not just yet. Under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his post-Islamist ruling party Turkey has become the main organizing hub for Syria's opposition -- the 260-member liberal Syrian National Council, and the Free Syrian Army, comprising mainly Sunni army defectors. ... Full Story | Top |
Fugitive ex-PM Thaksin reissued Thai passport
Fri,16 Dec 2011 03:39 AM PST
Reuters - BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has reissued a passport to exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the foreign ministry said on Friday, the latest move by the government led by his sister in support of the country's most famous fugitive. Thaksin, who lives in Dubai and is on the run from a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power, was no longer considered a danger to Thailand and a passport was sent six weeks ago to the Thai embassy in the United Arab Emirates, Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said. ... Full Story | Top |
China sends campaigning rights lawyer back to jail
Fri,16 Dec 2011 02:35 AM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China has sent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng back to jail, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday, ending his probation in what was the first official account of his whereabouts in the last year. Gao, however, appears never to have escaped confinement in the first place. A combative rights advocate who tackled many causes anathema to the ruling Communist Party, Gao was sentenced to three years' jail in 2006 for "inciting subversion of state power," a charge often used to punish critics of one-party rule. ... Full Story | Top |
Storm lashes France, cargo ship runs aground
Fri,16 Dec 2011 01:31 AM PST
Reuters -  RENNES, France (Reuters) - Storm winds and torrential rain lashed France on Friday, cutting off electricity supplies to hundreds of thousands of homes and sending a cargo ship aground off the northwestern Brittany coast, where it sprang a fuel leak. There were no reports of injuries as dozens of people were evacuated from flood-prone zones on the western Atlantic coast and 400,000 households were deprived of power, French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said. ...
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Putin's approval falls to year's low: Russian poll
Fri,16 Dec 2011 01:09 AM PST
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's approval rating has dropped to its lowest level of the year in the first opinion poll published since his ruling party suffered an election setback and he faced the biggest protests of his 12-year rule. A poll conducted on December 10-11 and released Friday showed 51 percent of Russians approved of how he has done his job, down from 61 percent in a November 28-29 survey and 68 percent in January, state pollster VTsIOM said. ... Full Story | Top |
Newspaper founder killed in Russia's Dagestan
Thu,15 Dec 2011 10:00 PM PST
Reuters - MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - The founder of a newspaper that investigated government corruption was shot dead in Russia's North Caucasus region, in what an international watchdog called "a lethal blow to press freedom." A gunman shot Gadzhimurat Kamalov as he was leaving the offices of the newspaper Chernovik in the capital of Dagestan province shortly before midnight on Thursday, the regional Interior Ministry said. Police said Kamalov was shot eight times and was pronounced dead on the way to hospital. ... Full Story | Top |
Army says coup memo attempt to hurt Pakistan: reports
Thu,15 Dec 2011 09:12 PM PST
Reuters - ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's army chief has said a memo accusing the military of plotting a coup, which could damage the unpopular president and led to the resignation of Islamabad's ambassador to Washington, was an attempt to hurt national security, newspapers said. General Ashfaq Kayani, arguably the most powerful man in Pakistan, made the remarks in a statement filed to the Supreme Court, which is examining a petition demanding an investigation into who was behind the memo. The petition was filed by President Asif Ali Zardari's main political opponent, Nawaz Sharif. ... Full Story | Top |
NATO urged to probe civilians killed in Libya war
Thu,15 Dec 2011 09:10 PM PST
Reuters - By Lou Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A New York-based rights group is urging NATO to investigate civilian deaths it may have caused during its eight-month military operation in Libya that helped bring about the ouster and death of Muammar Gaddafi. Libya's new interim government, which has been in control of the oil-producing OPEC member since former leader Gaddafi was forced to flee Tripoli in August, estimates that more than 40,000 Libyans were killed during the country's civil war, Libyan U.N. envoy Ibrahim Dabbashi told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
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