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| Australian motorcycle gang challenges criminal law in court Monday, Dec 03, 2012 07:55 PM PST CANBERRA (Reuters) - A motorcycle gang in Australia, where such groups have been targeted over violence and drug trafficking, has challenged the constitutionality of a law that would make it easier to declare them a criminal gang. Leaders of the Finks, whose motto is "Attitude with Violence", have asked Australia's highest court to overturn laws they say are draconian and threaten civil freedoms. Under the laws, police in tropical Queensland state have sought to have the Finks declared a criminal gang. Similar laws have been used elsewhere in Australia. ... Full Story | Top |
| Judge fears gay conversion therapy ban's unintended consequences Monday, Dec 03, 2012 07:44 PM PST SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday expressed concerns over the unintended consequences of a landmark California law that bars a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality in minors as a Christian group argued the law should be halted. California's Democratic governor, Jerry Brown, in September signed into law a ban against so-called conversion therapy for children and teenagers, making the nation's most populous state the first in the country to do so. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan candidates hit streets in first national vote since Fukushima disaster Monday, Dec 03, 2012 07:39 PM PST  FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Candidates hit the streets on Tuesday at the official start of a campaign for a parliamentary election that is expected to return the opposition Liberal Democrats to power but risks furthering the policy stalemate plaguing the world's third-biggest economy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Parties contesting Japan's December 16 election Monday, Dec 03, 2012 06:57 PM PST (Reuters) - Japan holds an election for parliament's lower house on December 16, with opinion polls suggesting that the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will return to power after three years in opposition. Below are some key facts about Japan's political parties. (For a graphic charting voter preferences among major parties, click on: http://link.reuters.com/xyc34t) DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF JAPAN (DPJ) Established: 1998 Website: http://www.dpj.or. ... Full Story | Top |
| Four with Illinois ties nominated for U.S. Attorney in Chicago Monday, Dec 03, 2012 06:51 PM PST  CHICAGO (Reuters) - Four prosecutors with Illinois ties were recommended on Monday to President Barack Obama for U.S. attorney in Chicago succeeding Patrick Fitzgerald, who left this summer after a tenure that included sending two of the state's governors to federal prison. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois will be expected to carry on the fight against Chicago's political corruption after Fitzgerald was brought in from New York more than a decade ago to get tough on local politicians. Chicago's two U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. court voids drug rep's conviction, cites free speech Monday, Dec 03, 2012 06:34 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court on Monday threw out the conviction of a sales representative for promoting off-label use of a prescription drug, a ruling that could make it harder for the government to police how drugs are marketed and sold. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York found that the sales representative's free speech rights under the First Amendment had been violated. ... Full Story | Top |
| Indian navy ready to deploy to South China Sea as tensions climb Monday, Dec 03, 2012 06:16 PM PST HANOI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has declared itself ready to deploy naval vessels to the South China Sea to protect its oil-exploration interests there, a potential new escalation of tensions in a disputed area where fears of armed conflict have been growing steadily. India's naval chief made the statement on Monday just as Vietnam's state oil and gas company, Petrovietnam, accused Chinese boats of sabotaging an exploration operation by cutting a seismic cable being towed behind a Vietnamese vessel. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. intensifies criticism of Israel on settlement plan Monday, Dec 03, 2012 06:11 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday ratcheted up criticism of Israel over plans to expand Jewish settlement building on occupied land, urging it to reconsider despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to back down. The Obama administration's tougher-than-usual words for close ally Israel came after five European governments summoned Israeli ambassadors in their capitals to express concern over the new settlement projects. But Washington stopped short of threatening any concrete measures against the Jewish state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel arrests settlers suspected of West Bank attacks Monday, Dec 03, 2012 06:11 PM PST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police arrested three Jewish settlers on Monday whom they suspect of arson and other attacks on Palestinian property in the occupied West Bank. At a time of heightened diplomatic tension over claims to the land, the men were found carrying fuel and spikes shortly after a car was torched in a Palestinian village near Hebron. A police spokesman said they had appeared to be about to conduct a second attack in another village nearby when they were detained. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel says will stick with settlement plan despite condemnation Monday, Dec 03, 2012 06:11 PM PST  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel rejected concerted criticism from the United States and Europe on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations' de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood. Washington urged Israel to reconsider its plan to erect 3,000 more homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying the move hindered peace efforts with the Palestinians. Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their capitals to give similar messages. ... Full Story | Top |
| SEC charges China affiliates of top accounting firms Monday, Dec 03, 2012 06:03 PM PST  WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Monday charged the Chinese arms of five top accounting firms with securities violations over their refusal to produce certain audit papers for U.S.-listed Chinese companies. The Securities and Exchange Commission began proceedings against the Chinese affiliates of Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BDO and Ernst & Young. The agency on Monday also moved to pursue a case they had put on hold against Deloitte. It was the SEC's widest enforcement effort yet to procure documents in connection with probes of possible accounting fraud of U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Defense CEOs say budget deal must address taxes Monday, Dec 03, 2012 05:41 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Weapons industry executives on Monday urged the White House and Congress to end what one CEO called "political theater" and act to avoid looming automatic budget reductions that will cut projected military spending by another 10 percent this year. Executives from four companies told a news conference that piling an additional $500 billion in spending reductions on top of the $487 billion in cuts already being implemented by the Pentagon would harm their industry and national security. Both sets of cuts would be phased in over a decade. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. military court removes judge in Fort Hood massacre case Monday, Dec 03, 2012 05:36 PM PST  SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - The top U.S. military appellate court on Monday ruled that the judge presiding over the case of an Army major charged with a 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Texas is not impartial and ordered him removed. The court also set aside the order by the judge, Colonel Gregory Gross, that accused gunman Major Nidal Hasan be forcibly shaved. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blind China dissident urges Xi follow Myanmar path to reform Monday, Dec 03, 2012 05:36 PM PST BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has urged Communist Party chief and president-in-waiting Xi Jinping to follow Myanmar's model of reform or risk a violent political transition. Chen also accused the government of breaking a promise to investigate what he says is the persecution of his family, according to a recorded message posted on YouTube by Texas-based Christian advocacy group ChinaAid, which backs him. The self-taught legal advocate's escape from house arrest in April and subsequent refuge in the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt judicial council to oversee referendum Monday, Dec 03, 2012 05:15 PM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Supreme Judicial Council has cleared the way for a referendum on a new constitution which President Mohamed Mursi hopes will end a political crisis that has split the country. Some judges had called for their colleagues to shun the December 15 plebiscite, which must be supervised by the judiciary like all elections in Egypt. But the council's decision suggests enough officials can be mobilized to oversee the vote. ... Full Story | Top |
| Global slowdown, austerity to constrain UK economy - BCC Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:50 PM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's economic growth in the next two years will be weaker than previously thought, held back by a global slowdown and domestic austerity measures, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said on Tuesday. The BCC revised down its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts for 2013 and 2014 to 1.0 and 1.8 percent respectively from 1.2 and 2.2 percent, also citing weak household consumption. ... Full Story | Top |
| House, White House aim for $32-$35 billion in farm bill cuts Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:36 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As time runs out to pass a new U.S. Farm Bill in 2012, the White House and Republicans in the House of Representatives hold surprisingly similar goals about how much to cut spending - roughly from $32 billion to $35 billion. But getting to a final agreement is proving difficult. Each side agrees to significant cuts to farm subsidies and soil conservation, but they have diametrically different views on food stamps, which the White House refuses to cut. A final figure for cuts may emerge as part of an agreement on government-wide retrenchment to rein in the federal ... Full Story | Top |
| UK to overhaul infrastructure contracts, seek savings Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:28 PM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne will overhaul the way the government handles infrastructure procurement on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, and announce large savings on existing contracts. Osborne, under pressure to boost Britain's flagging economy when he updates his economic forecasts on Wednesday, will demand that the taxpayer has a board seat and a share in the profits of companies taking on public-private infrastructure contracts. He will also consider introducing competitions where investors can bid for stakes in projects already underway. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Chicago mayor's nephew indicted for manslaughter Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:20 PM PST CHICAGO (Reuters) - Eight years after he allegedly threw a punch that led to the death of a suburban Chicago man, Richard J. "R.J." Vanecko, nephew of former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and grandson of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, was indicted on Monday on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. A grand jury found that Vanecko "recklessly performed acts which were likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another," according to the indictment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama urges Russia to work with U.S. to extend arms pact Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:11 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Russia on Tuesday to work with the United States to "update" a decades-old agreement on dismantling nuclear and chemicals weapons that is set to expire in mid-2013. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in October that Moscow intended to end the 1992 agreement, the latest sign that the much-vaunted "reset" in relations between the Cold War-era foes may be running out of steam. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House dismisses Republican "fiscal cliff" proposal Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:10 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House dismissed a "fiscal cliff" proposal from congressional Republicans on Monday that included tax reforms and spending cuts, saying it did not meet President Barack Obama's pledge to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. "The Republican letter released today does not meet the test of balance. In fact, it actually promises to lower rates for the wealthy and sticks the middle class with the bill," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| South African women rights at risk as Zuma woos tribal chiefs Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:05 PM PST AMAHLUBI, South Africa, Dec 4 (TrustLaw) - Pregnant and bereaved, Thandiwe Zondi considered killing herself and her five daughters when she was evicted from her marital home. Under customary Zulu law, only males can inherit land. But Zondi had borne no sons when her husband, a chief, died of natural causes, so his successor moved into her house and turfed the family out. She appealed to a traditional court of tribal leaders - but they sided with the new chief. ... Full Story | Top |
| Trafficked maids to order: The darker side of richer India Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:03 PM PST NEW DELHI, Dec 4 (TrustLaw) - Inside the crumbling housing estates of Shivaji Enclave, amid the boys playing cricket and housewives chatting from their balconies, winding staircases lead to places where lies a darker side to India's economic boom. Three months ago, police rescued Theresa Kerketa from one of these tiny two-roomed flats. For four years, she was kept here by a placement agency for domestic maids, in between stints as a virtual slave to Delhi's middle-class homes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Child servants a blot on Haiti's abolitionist past Monday, Dec 03, 2012 04:02 PM PST PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 4 (TrustLaw) - Dayana Denois was always the last to go to bed and the first to wake up. By dawn, she had washed the dishes and clothes, cleaned and swept the floor and emptied the chamber pots. "I didn't know what resting meant. Even when I was sick, I'd never get a break," Denois said, recalling the years she spent living with her aunt in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. "She didn't care if I was tired or not. She kept telling me to do things. She beat me with electric cables, shouted at me, punched and slapped me on the face," the 12-year-old said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Congo back in charge of Goma, U.N. fingers Rwanda again Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:47 PM PST  GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Congo's government re-established control over the eastern city of Goma on Monday after rebels withdrew, and U.N. experts made new allegations that Rwandan soldiers took part in the insurgents' capture of the city. The M23 rebel movement pulled its fighters out of the North Kivu provincial capital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Saturday after seizing it from fleeing U.N.-backed government forces and holding it for 11 days. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian opposition celebrity warns against revolution Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:47 PM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - Socialite-turned-Kremlin-critic Ksenia Sobchak told Russian dissidents in London on Monday that growing repression at home would prompt more and more people to fight for change but warned that a full-blown revolution could destroy her country. Once an apolitical tabloid celebrity and a Playboy cover girl, Sobchak has emerged as an unlikely but fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin in the past year, taking on a man who was once a close political ally and friend of her late father. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cargo ships stack up as L.A. port strike in seventh day Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:41 PM PST  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Freighters with no place to unload cargo lined up at anchorages off Los Angeles and Long Beach for a seventh day on Monday as shippers and striking clerks resumed talks to end a labor dispute that has idled most of America's biggest container port complex. With mounting economic losses estimated at several billion dollars, the strike marks the largest cargo traffic disruption at the twin Southern California harbor facilities since a 10-day lockout of longshoremen at several West Coast ports in 2002. ... Full Story | Top |
| Riot erupts in Belfast over removal of British flag Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:36 PM PST  BELFAST (Reuters) - At least five police officers were wounded during a riot at Belfast city hall in Northern Ireland on Monday after Irish nationalist councilors voted to remove the British flag from the building on all but 17 days of the year. Hundreds of protesters, many carrying British flags, clashed with police after nationalist councilors from Sinn Fein and the SDLP voted to take down the flag which has flown above the city hall every day since the building was opened in 1906. An attempt to storm the building was repelled by police. ... Full Story | Top |
| Republicans reject tax hike, push cuts in "fiscal cliff" offer Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:28 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans proposed steep spending cuts on Monday but gave no ground on President Barack Obama's call to raise taxes on the wealthiest in their first formal proposal to avert a "fiscal cliff" that could push the U.S. economy into recession. After days of stalemate, the Republican offer shows deep differences with President Barack Obama as the two sides work to head off across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases due to take effect in January. The White House dismissed the proposal and said it contained no new ideas. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian spokesman flees country, diplomat says Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:19 PM PST CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, who was the most public face of Bashar al-Assad's government as it battled a 20-month-old uprising, has fled the country, a diplomat in the region said on Monday. Jihad al-Makdissi, who is in his 40s, previously worked at the Syrian embassy in London and returned to Damascus a year ago to serve as spokesman for the ministry, defending the government's crackdown on the revolt against Assad's rule. He had little influence in a system largely run by the security apparatus and the military. ... Full Story | Top |
| NATO to agree to send Patriots to Turkey: diplomats Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:18 PM PST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO foreign ministers will agree on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to beef up Turkey's air defenses and calm Turkey's fears that it could come under missile attack, possibly with chemical weapons, from Syria, diplomats said. Turkey last month asked NATO for Patriots, which can be used to intercept missiles and planes, after weeks of talks with allies about how to shore up security on its 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria, which is immersed in civil war. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fight against al Shabaab instructive model for future: U.S. general Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:09 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The African Union war against al Shabaab in Somalia this past year has left the Islamist group "largely in a survival mode" and is instructive for confronting the region's extremist groups in the future, the head of U.S. Africa Command said on Monday. General Carter Ham, who is responsible for U.S. military ties with Africa, told a forum at George Washington University he was concerned about growing cooperation among Islamist extremist factions across the region. But he also said Washington favored "African solutions for African problems. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chiefs coach Crennel says he tried to talk player out of suicide Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:03 PM PST  KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Kansas City Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel said on Monday he tried to talk linebacker Jovan Belcher out of shooting himself outside the team's practice facility before the player committed suicide on Saturday. Belcher shot himself in the head in a parking lot in the presence of team personnel that included Crennel and General Manager Scott Pioli, police said. A few minutes earlier, he shot his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, to death in the couple's home, according to police. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama warns Syria's Assad against use of chemical weapons Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:03 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama issued a warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday not to use chemical weapons against Syrian opposition forces, saying there would be consequences if he were to do so. "I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The world is watching," Obama said in a speech to a gathering of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons proliferation experts. ... Full Story | Top |
| Merkel to launch campaign with upbeat party congress Monday, Dec 03, 2012 03:02 PM PST  HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - Angela Merkel kicks off her re-election drive on Tuesday at a congress of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), where the chancellor will be feted like a star for defending German interests in the euro zone crisis. At the peak of her popularity, with approval ratings close to 70 percent, Merkel appears to have a good shot at winning a third term next year despite a precipitous slide in support for her current coalition partner, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). ... Full Story | Top |
| Chavez will travel to Brazil for summit: ambassador Monday, Dec 03, 2012 02:57 PM PST  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez will travel to Brazil for a regional summit at the end of this week despite cancer-related medical treatment in Cuba, Brazil's ambassador said on Monday. If confirmed, the 58-year-old Chavez's presence at the Mercosur trade bloc meeting would indicate his latest health scare is not as bad as some are speculating. Venezuelan officials would not immediately confirm the ambassador's statement. Chavez was in Cuba on Monday and it was unknown if he would return home first if he should decide to go on to Brazil. ... Full Story | Top |
| Missouri Republican Congresswoman Emerson quits Monday, Dec 03, 2012 02:54 PM PST KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Fresh off easily winning re-election, Republican U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri announced on Monday she is resigning the seat she has held for 16 years to take a new job. Emerson, who represents southeast Missouri, said that in February she will become chief executive of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Her resignation is not expected to result in any change in the political balance in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans have a majority. Her seat is safely Republican. ... Full Story | Top |
| Auto sales race to five-year high for November Monday, Dec 03, 2012 02:38 PM PST  (Reuters) - Auto sales in November raced to a five-year high for that month on a rebound from storm-ravaged October and the need to replace aging vehicles, leaving industry executives optimistic about 2013. Sales in November rose 15 percent to 1.14 million vehicles, the highest level for that month since 2007, before a recession caused a dramatic decline in demand and led to the bankruptcy filings of General Motors Co and Chrysler. "Vehicle sales are one of the encouraging spots of our economy," said Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager with Hodges Capital Management in Dallas. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fourteen Eritrean footballers disappear in Uganda Monday, Dec 03, 2012 02:28 PM PST KAMPALA (Reuters) - At least 14 members of the Eritrea soccer squad have disappeared in Uganda while playing in a regional tournament and may eventually claim asylum, Ugandan officials said on Monday. Eritrea is one of the world's most secretive states ruled by a reclusive president. This year United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay accused the Asmara government of meting out summary executions, torture and detaining thousands of political prisoners. ... Full Story | Top |
| Defense sector CEOs say budget deal must include tax hikes Monday, Dec 03, 2012 02:12 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. weapons industry executives on Monday urged the White House and Congress to end what one CEO called "political theater" and act to avoid looming automatic budget reductions that will cut projected military spending by another 10 percent this year. Executives from four companies told a news conference that piling an additional $500 billion in spending reductions on top of the $487 billion in cuts already being implemented by the Pentagon would harm their industry and national security. ... Full Story | Top |
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