Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Hundreds detained in Tibet after self-immolations: report
Wed,30 May 2012 07:12 PM PDT
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of Tibetans in Lhasa have been detained by Chinese security officers after two self-immolation protests against Chinese rule over Tibet, a U.S.-broadcaster said, stoking concerns of spreading unrest among Tibetans in China. On Sunday, two Tibetan men set themselves on fire in Lhasa, state news agency Xinhua said, the first time in four years of a major Tibetan protest against Chinese rule. One of the men died. ... Full Story | Top |
Ecuador plaintiffs file lawsuit in Canada against Chevron
Wed,30 May 2012 07:10 PM PDT
Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Ecuadorean plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Canada as a first move outside their country to try and enforce an $18 billion court judgment against oil company Chevron for polluting the Amazon, their lawyers said on Wednesday. The 2011 judgment against Chevron is one of the biggest rulings ever for environmental damage and is being tracked closely by the global oil industry. Issued by an Ecuadorean court in the jungle region at the heart of the dispute, the ruling was upheld by an appeals court in January - but Chevron has appealed to Ecuador's Supreme Court. Since U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Colombian rebels free French reporter after month in captivity
Wed,30 May 2012 06:13 PM PDT
Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC guerrillas freed French reporter Romeo Langlois on Wednesday, a month after taking him hostage in a firefight that showed the leftist group is still a menace despite a decade of military blows. Langlois, the rebels' highest-profile captive since French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, was taken hostage in the southern Caqueta region on April 28 after he was caught in crossfire between a Colombian military unit he was embedded with and heavily armed FARC rebels. ... Full Story | Top |
Repsol's likely departure a blow to Cuba's oil hopes
Wed,30 May 2012 05:39 PM PDT
Reuters - HAVANA (Reuters) - Spanish oil firm Repsol's likely decision to leave Cuba after its 12-year-long quest for offshore oil produced just two dry holes is a devastating and perhaps irrecoverable blow to the communist island's oil hopes, experts said on Wednesday. Its legacy of failure sends a discouraging signal about Cuba to the oil industry and its departure, which is not yet official but looks almost certain, will leave the Caribbean country without the company that has led efforts to explore its waters. ... Full Story | Top |
Obama speaks with European leaders on EU crisis, Syria
Wed,30 May 2012 04:25 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama discussed developments in Europe as well as in Syria on Wednesday in a video conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, the White House said. "(The) leaders agreed to continue to consult closely as they prepare to meet at the G-20 Summit in Mexico next month," the White House said in a statement, which did not specify what conclusions were reached about Europe's economic crisis. ...
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Canada seeks alleged killer after body parts mailed out
Wed,30 May 2012 04:07 PM PDT
Reuters - OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian police on Wednesday named a man with a bizarre Internet trail as an alleged kitten-killer and bisexual porn star as their suspect in a gruesome case involving a dismembered torso, mailed-out body parts, and what one senior officer said was the worst crime scene his force has ever seen. Montreal police released a photograph of Luka Rocco Magnotta, who also uses the pseudonyms Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, and asked people across Canada to help locate him. ... Full Story | Top |
Ahmadinejad sees no breakthrough at Moscow talks
Wed,30 May 2012 03:13 PM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday he did not expect talks next month with six world powers in Moscow on Iran's nuclear program to yield any major breakthroughs, but hoped to improve confidence between the two sides. The six powers - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - failed to persuade Tehran on May 23 to halt its most sensitive nuclear work, but they will meet again in Moscow on June 18-19 to try to end a stand-off that has raised fears of a new war that could threaten global oil supplies. "We are not fools. ... Full Story | Top |
French court lifts gagging order on Strauss-Kahn
Wed,30 May 2012 03:01 PM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - A French appeals court on Wednesday lifted a gagging order that prevented former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn from speaking to the media during a judicial investigation into his links with a suspected prostitution ring. Strauss-Kahn is under investigation in France to establish whether he knew he was dealing with prostitutes and pimps when he attended sex parties in northern France, Paris and Washington in 2010 and 2011 allegedly organized by business acquaintances. He denies knowing that the women at the parties were prostitutes or that there was any violence. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. military trainers trickle back into Pakistan
Wed,30 May 2012 02:56 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has sent a handful of military trainers back into Pakistan in a sign the two nations may be able to achieve some low-level cooperation against militants despite a string of confrontations that have left Washington's relations with Islamabad in crisis. Fewer than 10 U.S. special operations soldiers have been sent to a training site near the border city of Peshawar, where they will instruct trainers from Pakistan's Frontier Corps in counter-insurgency warfare, a U.S. official said. ... Full Story | Top |
Colombian rebels free French reporter held for a month
Wed,30 May 2012 02:34 PM PDT
Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC guerrillas freed French reporter Romeo Langlois on Wednesday, a month after taking him hostage in a firefight that showed the leftist group is still a menace despite a decade of military blows. Langlois, the rebels' highest-profile captive since French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, was taken hostage in the southern Caqueta region on April 28 after he was caught in crossfire between a Colombian military unit he was embedded with and heavily armed FARC rebels. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. hints at bypassing U.N. on Syria
Wed,30 May 2012 02:24 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - If the U.N. Security Council does not take swift action to pressure Syria to end its 14-month assault on the opposition, member nations may have no choice but to consider acting outside the United Nations, the U.S. envoy to the world body said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters after international mediator Kofi Annan's deputy, Jean-Marie Guehenno, gave the 15-nation council a bleak assessment of the impact of Annan's efforts to halt the violence in Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said there were three ways the Syrian conflict could end. ... Full Story | Top |
New Pakistani reason for jailing bin Laden case doctor
Wed,30 May 2012 02:12 PM PDT
Reuters - PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - In another twist to a case that is straining Islamabad's ties with Washington, a Pakistani court says the doctor who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden was imprisoned for aiding militants and not for his links to the CIA. It is the third different explanation for the 33-year jail sentence handed to Dr. Shakil Afridi. Last week after his conviction by a court in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said the decision was based on treason charges for aiding the CIA in its hunt for the al Qaeda chief. ... Full Story | Top |
New French government to review drone plans
Wed,30 May 2012 02:02 PM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - France will go back to the drawing board in its plans to build military drones, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday, putting into doubt a joint Franco-British project to develop the next-generation drone. Speaking to reporters, the new minister appeared to be distancing the new government from a decision by former President Nicolas Sarkozy to push Dassault Aviation and Britain's BAE Systems' to build their own drone as part of a defense accord between the two countries. ... Full Story | Top |
African Union to take Mali to U.N. Security Council: source
Wed,30 May 2012 01:48 PM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - The African Union plans to refer the situation in Mali to the United Nations Security Council so that it can create a framework for tackling the worsening crisis there, a diplomatic source close to the AU president said on Wednesday. Mali, once regarded as a fine example of African democracy, collapsed into chaos after soldiers toppled the president in March, leaving a power vacuum in the north that enabled rebels to take control of nearly two-thirds of the country. ... Full Story | Top |
EU throws Spain two potential lifelines
Wed,30 May 2012 01:37 PM PDT
Reuters -  BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) - The European Commission threw Spain, the latest frontline in Europe's debt war, two potential lifelines on Wednesday, offering more time to reduce its budget deficit and direct aid from a euro zone rescue fund to recapitalize distressed banks. Spanish government borrowing costs lurched higher and the Madrid stock market hit a nine-year low with investors rattled by the parlous state of its banking sector fleeing to the relative haven of German bonds. ...
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CP Rail strike won't end until Friday at earliest
Wed,30 May 2012 01:31 PM PDT
Reuters - OTTAWA/VANCOUVER (Reuters) - A strike at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd, Canada's second biggest railway, won't end until Friday at the earliest after the Liberal opposition in Parliament said it would follow rules that would delay passage of back-to-work legislation. The House of Commons passed the Conservative government's bill in the early hours of Wednesday, as the nationwide work stoppage by members of the Teamsters union idled CP freight shipments for an eighth day. ... Full Story | Top |
Yemeni Nobel laureate says drone strikes ineffective
Wed,30 May 2012 01:04 PM PDT
Reuters -  DOHA (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize-winning Yemeni opposition activist Tawakul Karman said on Wednesday U.S. drone strikes were ineffective because they were hitting mainly civilians in south Yemen rather than their intended target, al Qaeda-linked militants. The United States and its Gulf Arab allies have watched with mounting alarm as Islamist insurgents, emboldened by political upheaval in Yemen, have launched a series of audacious attacks and seized swathes of territory including some major towns. ...
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Somali rebels say repel Kenyan attack on Afmadow
Wed,30 May 2012 12:42 PM PDT
Reuters - MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Kenya's military said it captured the Somali rebel redoubt of Afmadow on Wednesday, but the al Shabaab militant group said it had repulsed a Kenyan attack and still controlled the strategic town in southern Somalia. A spokesman for Somali government forces fighting alongside the Kenyans said they had advanced to the outskirts of Afmadow but had not captured the town, as Kenya's military spokesman, Major Emmanuel Chirchir, had stated earlier. ... Full Story | Top |
More killings and ultimatum deepen Syria conflict
Wed,30 May 2012 12:38 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels on Wednesday gave President Bashar al-Assad a 48-hour deadline to comply with an international peace plan otherwise they would renew their battle to overthrow him. The ultimatum was issued after U.N. observers reported the discovery of 13 bodies bound and shot in eastern Syria, adding to the world outcry over the massacre last week of 108 men, women and children. The latest developments emphasized how the peace plan drafted by U.N. ...
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U.N. group urges release of American in Nicaragua
Wed,30 May 2012 12:18 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - A United Nations group has called for the immediate release of a U.S. citizen serving a 22-year prison sentence in Nicaragua for drug trafficking and money laundering, concluding that he was wrongly convicted, his supporters said on Wednesday. Jason Puracal, 34, was detained by Nicaraguan authorities in November 2010 and found guilty by a trial judge nine months later along with 10 co-defendants, all of them Nicaraguan nationals. ...
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Image shows buildings gone at Iran site: diplomats
Wed,30 May 2012 11:01 AM PDT
Reuters - VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear inspectors displayed new satellite imagery on Wednesday indicating that some small buildings had been dismantled and other possible clean-up work undertaken at an Iranian military site they want to visit. One image from May 25 showed signs that "ground-scraping activities" had taken place at the Parchin facility, as well as the presence of a bulldozer, according to diplomats who attended a closed-door briefing by U.N. nuclear agency officials. ... Full Story | Top |
Syria rebels give Assad 48-hour deadline to end violence
Wed,30 May 2012 10:49 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels on Wednesday gave President Bashar al-Assad a 48-hour deadline to abide by an international peace plan to end violence or face consequences, a rebel spokesman said. "The joint leadership of the Free Army inside Syria announces that it is giving the regime a final 48 hour deadline to implement the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council," Colonel Qassim Saadeddine said in a statement posted on YouTube. "It ends on Friday at 1200 (0900 GMT) then we are free from any commitment and we will defend and protect the civilians, their villages and their cities. ... Full Story | Top |
Vatican crisis highlights pope failure to reform Curia
Wed,30 May 2012 10:42 AM PDT
Reuters -  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict in 2005, epithets like "God's Rottweiler" and "Panzerkardinal" suggested he would bring some German efficiency to the opaque Vatican bureaucracy, the Curia. Instead, as the "Vatileaks" scandal has revealed, the head of the Roman Catholic Church can't even keep his own private mail secret. His hand-picked deputy, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, faces a "monsignors' mutiny" by prelates in the halls of power. ...
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French jobless claims hit highest this century
Wed,30 May 2012 10:24 AM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - France had more jobseekers in April than any time this century as numbers rose for the twelfth month running, and the labor ministry said it was braced for more layoffs in the months ahead. In a stark illustration of the economic challenges facing new Socialist president Francois Hollande, registered jobless in mainland France rose by 4,500 to 2.89 million, up 0.1 percent from March and the highest since September 1999. Wednesday's readout from the ministry was the first since Hollande named an interim government in mid-May. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Syria massacre pushes Moscow toward decision point
Wed,30 May 2012 10:18 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin resumed the Russian presidency declaring a moral right to promote Kremlin power on the world stage. A massacre in Syria could now press him towards abandoning his closest Middle Eastern ally, but any backdown would have to be carefully engineered to protect Russian interests and save face. International envoy Kofi Annan said the massacre of 108 people, half of them children, in the town of Houla showed Syria at a 'tipping point'. He urged President Bashar al-Assad to halt the killing that the West blames squarely on his troops. ... Full Story | Top |
Former Liberian leader Taylor jailed for 50 years
Wed,30 May 2012 10:11 AM PDT
Reuters -  THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was jailed for 50 years on Wednesday for helping Sierra Leonean rebels commit what a court in The Hague called some of the worst war crimes in history. Taylor, 64, was the first head of state convicted by an international court since the trials of Nazis after World War Two and the sentence set a precedent for the emerging system of international justice. ...
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Italian journalist defends Vatican leaks
Wed,30 May 2012 09:30 AM PDT
Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - An Italian journalist behind a leaks scandal shaking the Roman Catholic Church denies Vatican accusations he is a criminal and says he was only doing his duty to uncover the truth. Gianluigi Nuzzi's book, alleging corruption and conspiracies among cardinals in a Vatican struggle for power, has led to a hunt for informants in the Holy See and the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI's butler, one of the people closest to him. "My job is to find and publish news, it is my ethical duty. ... Full Story | Top |
Twenty seven killed as Yemen army repels militant ambush
Wed,30 May 2012 09:25 AM PDT
Reuters - ADEN (Reuters) - At least 20 militants and seven soldiers were killed in Yemen on Wednesday when government troops fought off an ambush by Islamist militants on the edge of a southern town controlled by an al Qaeda-linked group, an army official said. Islamist fighters attacked a position recaptured earlier this week by Yemeni forces to the west of Jaar, a town which the army is closing in on as part of a U.S.-backed drive to stabilize the country. ... Full Story | Top |
Putin spokesman says Russia not shifting on Syria
Wed,30 May 2012 09:02 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is not considering changing its stance on Syria and any attempts to apply pressure on Moscow are "hardly appropriate", President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said on Wednesday. "It would make sense to expect a continuation of the Russian Federation's consistent and well-argued line" on Syria during Putin's visit to Germany and France on Friday, Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
UK court backs Assange extradition to Sweden
Wed,30 May 2012 08:54 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, leaving the Australian with few legal options after an 18-month legal battle. Judges at Britain's highest court rejected by a majority of 5-2 Assange's argument that a European arrest warrant for his extradition was invalid. However, the court gave his lawyers two weeks to contest their ruling, and any extradition has been put on hold until Assange decides whether to challenge the judges' decision. ...
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British PM's former aide held over suspected perjury
Wed,30 May 2012 08:51 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron's former spokesman was detained by police on Wednesday on suspicion of perjury, after denying in a Scottish court in 2010 any knowledge of phone hacking by reporters at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World. The detention of Andy Coulson, a former editor of the tabloid weekly, damages Cameron because it calls into question his judgment in employing a man so closely linked to the paper which was already under suspicion of obtaining stories by dubious means. ...
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Italy quakes to cost insurers up to 700 million euros
Wed,30 May 2012 08:49 AM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Insurers could have to pay out as much as 700 million euros ($880 million) as a result of earthquakes that hit northern Italy this month, risk-modeling agency Eqecat said on Wednesday. The quake on May 20 and two severe aftershocks nine days later will cost the insurance industry between 300 million euros and 700 million euros, Eqecat said. Eqecat's initial estimate, calculated before the aftershocks on Tuesday, was for an insured loss of between 100 million and 200 million euros. ... Full Story | Top |
Bin Laden case doctor jailed for militant link
Wed,30 May 2012 08:44 AM PDT
Reuters -  PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani doctor who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden was imprisoned for aiding militants and not for his links to the CIA, as Pakistani officials had said, according to a court document. A court in the Khyber tribal region near the Afghan border jailed Shakil Afridi for 33 years last week. Pakistani officials said the decision was based on treason charges for aiding the CIA in its hunt for the al Qaeda chief. ...
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Euro zone expansion stalls as crisis rages
Wed,30 May 2012 08:29 AM PDT
Reuters - FRANKFURT (Reuters) - None of the eight countries on the waiting list to join the euro currently meet the requirements to do so, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday - assuming, that is, that they still want to. Before the debt crisis took off, European Union members not yet part of the common currency were queuing up to join. But as the crisis has spread, rocking even core euro zone economies like Spain and Italy, those still on track to adopt the currency have begun to have second thoughts. ... Full Story | Top |
Quiet Guatemalan prosecutor takes on dictator, drug gangs
Wed,30 May 2012 08:26 AM PDT
Reuters -  GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - For nearly 30 years, Efrain Rios Montt evaded trial for massacres carried out during his military rule in Guatemala's civil war - until a diminutive, soft-spoken woman entered his life. Since Claudia Paz y Paz became Guatemala's attorney general 18 months ago, the former dictator's retirement has been disrupted by efforts to make him answer for the most brutal part of the bloodiest armed conflict in modern Latin America. ...
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Italy asks oil refiners to share quake aid burden
Wed,30 May 2012 08:09 AM PDT
Reuters - MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's Industry Minister Corrado Passera has asked oil refiners and distributors to consider cutting car fuel prices net of taxes and duties to share the burden of efforts aimed at funding aid for the country's earthquake-stricken areas. The Italian government decided on Wednesday to raise duties on petrol to finance aid to the Emilia-Romagna region, hit by earthquakes this month. ... Full Story | Top |
Italians count human, economic cost of earthquake
Wed,30 May 2012 08:07 AM PDT
Reuters - MIRANDOLA, Italy (Reuters) - Italy raised tax on petrol to help pay for the damage from an earthquake that struck northern Italy as shaken survivors woke up on Wednesday to a landscape of collapsed warehouses and ruined factories. Overnight 14,000 people slept in tents, shelters or cars outside their wrecked homes and more than 60 aftershocks jolted the area around the city of Modena in the Emilia Romagna region. Some who were not assigned a shelter by civil protection units had to travel as far as Verona, 100 km (60 miles) away to buy tents. ... Full Story | Top |
As governor, Romney picked winners and losers of his own
Wed,30 May 2012 07:50 AM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It would be a triumphant moment for any governor: A cutting-edge company announces plans to build a new plant that will create hundreds of high-paying jobs and bolster one of the state's most prominent industries. For Mitt Romney, the June 2006 announcement by drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb served as a signature accomplishment as his four-year stint as Massachusetts governor drew to a close and a U.S. presidential bid beckoned. ...
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Men jailed for bribes after deadly Saudi floods
Wed,30 May 2012 07:36 AM PDT
Reuters - JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Two men have been jailed in one of the first convictions in a Saudi Arabian corruption crackdown started after deadly floods hit Jeddah in 2009 and 2011, local media reported on Wednesday. The deluges killed more than 100 people, stirring accusations that corrupt officials had allowed the construction of residential neighborhoods in flood-prone areas, ultimately prompting a government investigation. "The ... defendants are convicted of the crime of bribery ... ... Full Story | Top |
EU says alarmed by rise in death sentences in Iran
Wed,30 May 2012 07:22 AM PDT
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union criticized Iran on Wednesday for an "alarming" increase in the use of the death penalty this year, calling on Tehran to introduce a moratorium on executions. "According to the latest data, compiled from a number of sources, the rate of executions in Iran during the first 5 months of 2012 confirmed the country as one of the world's leading users of the death penalty," a spokesman for the EU's foreign policy chief said. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is "deeply concerned by the alarming increase", the spokesman said. ... Full Story | Top |
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