Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Pope Benedict XVI to visit Cuba March 26-28
Sun,1 Jan 2012 07:45 PM PST
Reuters -  HAVANA (Reuters) - Pope Benedict XVI will visit Cuba on March 26-28 and perform two open-air masses on the communist island as part of his upcoming trip to Mexico and Cuba, Roman Catholic Church officials said on Sunday. The 84-year-old pontiff was to fly from Mexico and arrive in the eastern city of Santiago, where he will be met by President Raul Castro, and then go on to Havana on March 27. ...
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China dissident-lawyer Gao jailed in far west: brother
Sun,1 Jan 2012 07:30 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have jailed the prominent dissident-lawyer Gao Zhisheng in the remote far west, his brother said Monday, the first confirmation of Gao's whereabouts in nearly two years in a case that has fanned criticism about secretive detentions. Gao has been imprisoned in the Shaya County Prison in Xinjiang region on charges of "inciting subversion of state power," his brother, Gao Zhiyi, told Reuters by telephone from his home in Shaanxi province, citing a court notice. ...
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Colombian police kill leader of powerful drug gang
Sun,1 Jan 2012 07:10 PM PST
Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian police killed the leader of a powerful drug cartel that supplied tons of cocaine to Mexican gangs, the government said on Sunday. Police killed Juan de Dios Usuga, the head of the Urabenos criminal gang in the northwestern department of Choco, near the border with Panama. Usuga had a bounty on his head of $2.5 million and was wanted by the United States for drug trafficking. "The police put down in Choco alias Usuga, head of the Urabenos and captured various of his accomplices. ... Full Story | Top |
Fiji to lift emergency laws: military ruler
Sun,1 Jan 2012 04:27 PM PST
Reuters - SUVA (Reuters) - Fiji's military ruler Commodore Frank Bainimarama has announced that emergency laws in place since a 2009 political crisis will be lifted this week, government officials said on Monday. In a New Year speech, Bainimarama also said consultations would start in February on a new constitution to replace one annulled in 2009, at the height of a political crisis over his rule. Government officials in Suva confirmed the content of the speech to Reuters by telephone. ... Full Story | Top |
Syria bloodshed defies Arab monitor mission
Sun,1 Jan 2012 03:43 PM PST
Reuters -  AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian security forces killed eight more protesters and an Arab League organization urged Arab monitors to leave Syria, saying unrelenting bloodshed made a mockery of their mission. President Bashar al-Assad's forces, keen to prevent huge protest rallies under the monitors' eyes, have killed at least 286 people since December 23, the day before the mission's leader arrived in Syria, according to activists who tally casualties. Some of Sunday's eight deaths occurred when security forces fired on protesters in the Damascus suburb of Daria, they said. ...
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Egypt's army hastens end of parliamentary election
Sun,1 Jan 2012 02:23 PM PST
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army rulers issued a decree on Sunday to hasten the conclusion of parliamentary elections after deadly clashes in Cairo last month raised pressure for a quicker handover to civilian control. Final run-offs to the assembly's upper house will end on February 22 instead of March 12 as previously planned, the ruling military council said in a statement, and the house will hold its first sitting on February 28. Fifty-nine people were killed in confrontations in late November and December between security forces and protesters demanding the military leave power sooner. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt denies trying to stifle human rights movement
Sun,1 Jan 2012 02:23 PM PST
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's government on Sunday denied accusations from human rights groups that it was trying to smother some of the ruling military council's most vocal opponents when it raided the offices of 17 non-governmental organisations last week. Angered by the swoops, Washington called on Egyptian authorities to halt "harassment" of staff of the groups involved, which included the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute. The U.S. government also hinted it could review the $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Cairo if the raids continued. ... Full Story | Top |
Libya's al-Sedr oil port resumes operations: official
Sun,1 Jan 2012 02:16 PM PST
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's al-Sedr oil port has resumed operations and will see the first oil shipment sail on Tuesday or earlier, an official from Waha Oil Co said, months after the terminal stopped running during a civil war that ended Muammar Gaddafi's rule. "The port was damaged by the Gaddafi regime and the facilities are now operational," the official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters on Sunday night. Waha Oil, which manages the port, is owned by Libya's National Oil Corporation in a joint venture with U.S. firms ConocoPhillips, Marathon and Amerada Hess. ... Full Story | Top |
Boat capsizes off Lamu in Kenya, at least 7 dead
Sun,1 Jan 2012 01:49 PM PST
Reuters - NAIROBI (Reuters) - At least seven people died and many more were feared missing after a boat carrying dozens of passengers hit another vessel and capsized off the Kenyan island of Lamu on Sunday evening, the Kenya Red Cross said. Nelly Muluka-Oluoch, a Kenya Red Cross spokeswoman, said 20 survivors had been found so far and the boat may have been carrying up to 80 passengers. She said rescue teams were searching for more survivors into the night. The boat was taking people from Lamu Island to the nearby mainland when it hit the other vessel. ... Full Story | Top |
Tunisian president says liberties to be protected
Sun,1 Jan 2012 12:31 PM PST
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's new constitution is likely to contain provisions on women's rights and individual liberties, and the country will need a constitutional council to uphold it, new president Moncef Marzouki said in an interview published on Sunday. Marzouki, a political prisoner under ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, was elected president as part of a power-sharing deal with the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, the winner of Tunisia's first democratic election, held last October. ... Full Story | Top |
Rio to cut Quebec smelter output after lockout
Sun,1 Jan 2012 12:20 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Rio Tinto Alcan will shut down about a third of the production at its 438,000-tonne Alma aluminum smelter in the Canadian province of Quebec after locking out hundreds of unionized workers in a contract dispute, it said on Sunday. Earlier the unit of the Anglo-Australian mining giant said it locked out about 800 workers at the smelter in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, located 480 km (about 300 miles) northeast of Montreal. ... Full Story | Top |
Funeral of Bahrain youth turns into street protest
Sun,1 Jan 2012 11:13 AM PST
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahraini police fired tear gas and sound grenades after hundreds of Shi'ite youths demonstrated on Sunday over the death of a 15-year-old protester a day earlier in the Sunni-ruled Gulf island kingdom, residents and activists said. Confrontations between security forces and protesters take place almost daily in areas populated by majority Shi'ites, who led anti-government protests that were crushed last year. "After the funeral, many of the mourners started protesting and the police began using tear gas and sound bombs. ...
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Workers at Tripoli's decaying port go on strike
Sun,1 Jan 2012 10:21 AM PST
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Port workers in Libya's capital Tripoli went on strike on Sunday to demand better working conditions and government investment to fix major damage caused by war and decades of negligence. The port, Libya's largest non-oil harbor, was damaged during the civil war that ended Muammar Gaddafi's rule. In May, NATO sank eight Libyan warships there and intercepted a fuel tanker it believed was destined for Gaddafi's military forces. The port's decay predates the conflict, and it was held up as an example of poor management by the Gaddafi government. ... Full Story | Top |
Iceland's president says he will step down in May
Sun,1 Jan 2012 09:39 AM PST
Reuters -  REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who twice called a referendum to bring down a debt settlement deal with the Netherlands and Britain, said on Sunday he would step down this year after 16 years in office. Grimsson said in his yearly televised New Year address that he would not run for re-election in May. One of the president's few formal powers is to refuse to sign a bill passed in parliament, which must then be put to a referendum. Grimsson is the only Icelandic president to have used the power. ...
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Gunmen attack bars in northeast Kenya, 5 dead
Sun,1 Jan 2012 08:25 AM PST
Reuters - GARISSA, Kenya (Reuters) - Gunmen sprayed bullets at New Year revellers in two bars in northeastern Kenya on Sunday, killing five people, a witness and police said, the latest in a wave of attacks near the border with Somalia. Kenyan security forces suspect al Shabaab Islamist rebels, who are fighting the Western-backed government in Somalia, are also behind a string of deadly strikes in the border region. A worker at one of the bars in the town of Garissa said gunmen approached in a vehicle, opened fire and then drove away. "The guys fired from the vehicle. ... Full Story | Top |
Libya militia says holds Gaddafi supporters over plot
Sun,1 Jan 2012 07:09 AM PST
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A Libyan militia chief said on Sunday his fighters had captured nine supporters of overthrown leader Muammar Gaddafi who had been plotting to blow up Tripoli's power grid on New Year's eve. "We captured explosives with them that they bought from the black market and now we're interrogating them," the commander of Tripoli's Revolutionist Council Abdullah Naker told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
North Korea calls for "human shields" to protect new leader
Sun,1 Jan 2012 06:17 AM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea called on its people to rally behind new leader Kim Jong-un and protect him as "human shields" while working to solve the "burning issue" of food shortages by upholding the policies of his late father, Kim Jong-il. The North's three main state newspapers said in a policy-setting editorial traditionally published on New Year's Day that Kim Jong-un has legitimacy to carry on the revolutionary battle initiated by his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and developed by his father, the iron-fisted ruler who died two weeks ago. ...
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Iraqi civilian deaths in December lowest level in 2011
Sun,1 Jan 2012 05:23 AM PST
Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The number of civilians killed in violence across Iraq dropped to a year low in December, government figures showed on Sunday, despite bombings that rocked the capital after the pullout of U.S. forces. Tension rose after the December 18 withdrawal of U.S. troops when Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought the arrest of the Sunni vice president on charges he ran death squads and also asked parliament to fire the Sunni deputy prime minister. ... Full Story | Top |
Nine die, 50 hurt in botched Congo jail break
Sun,1 Jan 2012 04:46 AM PST
Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - Nine inmates were killed in a botched prison break in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after one of them pulled the pin on a grenade but didn't throw it, a police official said. The incident follows a rash of prison violence and escapes in the central African country, including the escape of nearly 1,000 detainees from a high security jail in September. "The civilian (prisoner) did not know how to use a grenade, he pulled the pin out but didn't throw it," the provincial chief of police, General Gaston Luzembo, told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran successfully tests domestically made nuclear fuel rods: TV
Sun,1 Jan 2012 04:21 AM PST
Reuters - TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has successfully produced and tested fuel rods for use in its nuclear power plants, state television reported on Sunday, in a snub to international demands that it halt sensitive nuclear work. The rods, which contain natural uranium, were made in Iran and have been inserted into the core of Tehran's research nuclear reactor, the television reported. Nuclear fuel rods contain small pellets of fuel, usually low-enriched uranium, patterned to give out heat produced by nuclear reaction without melting down. ... Full Story | Top |
EU sees January decision on wider Iran sanctions
Sun,1 Jan 2012 03:42 AM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union expects to reach a decision by the end of January on expanding sanctions against Iran, an EU spokesman said on Sunday. U.S. President Barack Obama signed new sanctions against Tehran into law on Saturday, shortly after Iran signaled it was ready for fresh talks with the West on its nuclear program and said it had delayed long-range missile tests in the Gulf. "We expect a decision (on EU sanctions) to be ready at the latest by the next foreign affairs council on 30 January," EU foreign policy spokesman Michael Mann said in an email to Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
Feeling marginalized, some Iraq Sunnis eye autonomy
Sun,1 Jan 2012 03:30 AM PST
Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Amjad Abdul-Salam is one of a growing number of Iraqis who say a separate state for his fellow Sunni Muslims is the only way to stop the country sliding back into sectarian chaos. Tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims are rising after the United States pulled out the last of its troops on December 18, leaving the country run by a fragile unity government. Hours after the exit, Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sparked the worst political crisis in a year by announcing an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president on charges he led death squads. ... Full Story | Top |
Bashir urges Darfur rebels seek peace after leader killed
Sun,1 Jan 2012 02:17 AM PST
Reuters - KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday urged fighters from one of the most powerful rebel groups in Darfur to lay down their weapons and seek peace with the government after their leader was killed. The Western region of Darfur is the scene of an almost decade-long insurgency of non-Arab tribes against the government, which they accuse of political and economic marginalization. The Sudanese army said last week it had killed Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), as he tried to cross into South Sudan. JEM has confirmed his death. ... Full Story | Top |
Japan cult member surrenders more than 16 years after attacks
Sun,1 Jan 2012 02:12 AM PST
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - A former member of a Japanese doomsday cult that staged deadly gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995 turned himself in to authorities after more than 16 years on the run, the Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday. Makoto Hirata, 46, who has been on a police wanted list since May 1995, showed up at a police station in Tokyo only minutes before the New Year, Kyodo said. He was one of three former Aum Shinri Kyo cult members still at large after a series of crimes by the group. ... Full Story | Top |
Holocaust garb causes outrage in Israel faith row
Sun,1 Jan 2012 02:09 AM PST
Reuters -  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators caused outrage on Sunday by dressing children as Holocaust victims to protest against what they see as persecution of devout Jews seeking gender separation in Israel. A boy wearing a cloth cap and the sidecurls of an Orthodox Jew was the centerpiece of the Jerusalem protest late on Saturday. His hands were raised in surrender and a yellow Star of David inscribed with "Jude," Jew, in German, was sewn on his jacket. ...
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Iran dismisses U.S. sanctions on its Central Bank: report
Sun,1 Jan 2012 01:09 AM PST
Reuters - TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran dismissed on Sunday Washington's move to impose new sanctions on financial institutions dealing with the Islamic state's central bank over the country's disputed nuclear program, the Students news agency reported. President Barack Obama signed the bill, approved by Congress last week, which aims to reduce Tehran's oil revenues but gives the U.S. president powers to waive penalties as required. The head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Mohammad Nahavandian, rejected the move as "unjustifiable," saying such sanctions would have reciprocal consequences. ... Full Story | Top |
Strong earthquake jolts Japan, no tsunami warning
Sat,31 Dec 2011 10:42 PM PST
Reuters -  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 jolted eastern and northeastern Japan on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damages and no tsunami warning was issued. The earthquake measured 4 in central Tokyo, Fukushima and their surrounding areas on the Japanese intensity scale, which measures ground motion, according to Japan Meteorological Agency, which uses a different measuring system than the U.S. Geological Survey. ...
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Russian protesters arrested in Moscow rally
Sat,31 Dec 2011 07:29 PM PST
Reuters -  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police detained about 60 protesters during an anti-government demonstration on Saturday in Moscow, hours after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered a conciliatory message to the opposition in a televised New Year's Eve address. Reuters witnesses said they saw police surround and detain protesters who were shouting slogans such as "Putin Must Go!" and "Free the Political Prisoners!." Police said about 200 people took part in the rally, with 60 detained. ...
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Mexico says arrests weapons chief for drug cartel
Sat,31 Dec 2011 05:47 PM PST
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Saturday said that it had arrested a leading weapons smuggler for one of the largest drug cartels. Ramiro Rendon Rivera, a key distributor of firearms for the Sinaloa Cartel lead by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, was arrested on Friday, the army said in a statement. Mexican President Felipe Calderon's campaign to curb violent drug cartels has left more than 46,000 people dead since he took office in 2006. Mexican authorities have in the last several months apprehended several lieutenants of Guzman, the country's most-wanted man. (Reporting by Patrick Rucker) Full Story | Top |
Gunmen attack bars in northeast Kenya, at least 2 dead
Sat,31 Dec 2011 03:54 PM PST
Reuters - GARISSA, Kenya (Reuters) - Gunmen sprayed bullets at New Year revelers in two bars in northeastern Kenya on Sunday, killing at least two people, a witness and police said, the latest in a wave of attacks near the border with Somalia. A worker at one of the pubs in Garissa town said gunmen approached in a vehicle, fired at the bars and then drove away. "The guys fired from the vehicle. They first shot the guard, (and then) shot more bullets at those who tried to leave and those who were at the entrance," said the witness who declined to be named. ... Full Story | Top |
Syrian opposition signs plan for post-Assad future
Sat,31 Dec 2011 02:09 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two leading Syrian opposition parties have agreed a road map to democracy should mass protests nearly in their 10th month succeed in toppling President Bashar al-Assad, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets across Syria Friday, aiming to demonstrate the strength of their movement to Arab League monitors checking whether Assad is implementing a pledge to halt his armed crackdown on the unrest. ...
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U.S. steps up sanctions as Iran floats nuclear talks
Sat,31 Dec 2011 01:48 PM PST
Reuters - HONOLULU/TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signed new sanctions against Iran into law on Saturday, shortly after Iran signaled it was ready for fresh talks with the West on its nuclear programme and said it had delayed long-range missile tests in the Gulf. Tensions between Iran and the West have grown since EU leaders said they wanted to set tougher sanctions against Tehran by the end of next month in a bid to force it to curb a research programme that they suspect is developing nuclear weapons. In the absence of a fresh mandate from the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
Sarkozy vows reforms in austere New Year's speech
Sat,31 Dec 2011 12:43 PM PST
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged in a grave New Year's message to find ways to pull the economy out of stagnation in the four months left before a presidential election and vowed no further public spending cuts. Sarkozy told the nation that the worst economic crisis since World War Two would continue to hurt households in 2012 and urged people to be stoical. He said he was intent on agreeing reforms at a January 18 meeting with unions that could bolster employment and economic competitiveness. ...
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Youth protesters, police clash across Bahrain
Sat,31 Dec 2011 11:23 AM PST
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Shi'ite youths chanting slogans against Bahrain's royal family clashed with riot police across the Gulf island kingdom Saturday, trying to block highways in a second day of protests, residents said. "Death to Al-Khalifa, Death to Al-Saud," protesters shouted, also targeting the Saudi ruling family, as they were chased backed into mostly Shi'ite Muslim villages by police who fired teargas, the residents said. "The protests are not as big as the demonstrations on Friday. Police are focusing on trying to force protesters back into villages," one resident told Reuters. ...
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Bashir urges Darfur rebels to seek peace after leader killed
Sat,31 Dec 2011 11:00 AM PST
Reuters -  KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday urged fighters of one of the most powerful rebel groups in Darfur to lay down its weapons and seek peace with the government after its leader was killed. The Western region of Darfur is the scene of an almost-decade long insurgency of non-Arab tribes against the government, which they accuse of political and economic marginalisation. The Sudanese army said last week it had killed Ibrahim Khalil, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), as he tried to cross into South Sudan. ...
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Libyan rebel chief warns Egypt over pro-Gaddafi TV
Sat,31 Dec 2011 09:28 AM PST
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A powerful Libyan militia leader warned Egypt Saturday he would use force to close its embassy and shut the border if the military rulers failed to cut off a Gaddafi-era state television station that has broadcast footage of his old speeches. Abdullah Naker, the commander of Tripoli's Revolutionist Council, said Egypt's Nilesat satellite broadcaster had allowed Muammar Gaddafi's official Al Jamahiriya station to broadcast last week. ... Full Story | Top |
Iceland names new finance minister in government shuffle
Sat,31 Dec 2011 09:23 AM PST
Reuters - REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland named a new finance minister Saturday in a cabinet reshuffle aimed at strengthening the center-left coalition by decreasing internal dissent. Oddny Hardardottir, the new minister, is expected to maintain policies aimed at gradually cutting the budget deficit. The 54-year-old is seen as a loyalist to Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, a Social Democrat whose government has been hurt by the anti-EU sentiments of some ministers. Iceland is currently in talks to enter the European Union, a stance supported by the prime minister. ... Full Story | Top |
Islamist fighters halt Yemen peace march: witnesses
Sat,31 Dec 2011 08:46 AM PST
Reuters - ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Islamist militants fired into the air on Saturday to halt a peace march by thousands of Yemenis who were demanding an end to fighting that has forced them to flee their homes in the south, witnesses said. Marchers told Reuters they were stopped on a 50 km (31 mile) walk from the port city of Aden to Zinjibar, capital of southern Abyan province where the army has been battling fighters suspected of having links with al Qaeda. ... Full Story | Top |
Iraq celebrates U.S. withdrawal
Sat,31 Dec 2011 06:49 AM PST
Reuters -  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki declared a new dawn on Saturday as Iraq celebrated the departure of American troops at a ceremony held amid tight security and without Maliki's key political rivals. Iraq was engulfed in its worst political crisis in a year after the last U.S. troops left on December 18 when Maliki sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, threatening a frail coalition government of Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds. Saturday marked the end of the 2008 security pact agreed by then-President George W. Bush and was the last day for U.S. ...
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Opposition groups sign deal on post-Assad Syria
Sat,31 Dec 2011 06:00 AM PST
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two leading Syrian opposition parties have agreed a road map to democracy if mass protests succeed in toppling President Bashar al-Assad, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters. The leading opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council (SNC), signed the deal with the National Coordination Committee, a group whose majority is inside Syria and which had disagreed with the SNC's calls for foreign intervention. ... Full Story | Top |
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