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| Fidel Castro votes, chats in Cuban election Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 05:35 PM PST  HAVANA (Reuters) - Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro voted in Cuba's general election on Sunday and chatted with well wishers and Cuban reporters in Havana for more than an hour, in his first extended public appearance since 2010. Castro had voted from his home in three previous elections since taking ill in 2006 and ceding power to his brother Raul two years later. A stooped, snow white bearded Castro, 86, was seen on state-run television as he cast his ballot in the late afternoon, wearing a blue plaid shirt and light blue jacket. ... Full Story | Top |
| Amid domestic change, Cubans march to the polls Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 02:54 PM PST  HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans went to the polls on Sunday to elect a Communist Party-selected slate of 612 deputies to the National Assembly at a time of change in how they live and work, but not in how they vote. Veteran leader Fidel Castro, 86, made a rare appearance on Sunday to cast his ballot. He voted from home in local elections last year and in 2008 when the current assembly was elected, according to the National Information Agency. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Secretary of State Kerry speaks to Netanyahu, Abbas about peace Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 02:22 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry stressed his commitment to promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace on Sunday in telephone calls to the leaders of both sides, the State Department said. In separate conversations, Kerry, who took over as the top U.S. diplomat from Hillary Clinton on Friday, spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran hedges on nuclear talks with six powers or U.S. Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 02:02 PM PST  MUNICH (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was open to a U.S. offer of direct talks on its nuclear program and that six world powers had suggested a new round of nuclear negotiations this month, but without committing itself to either proposal. Diplomatic efforts to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West suspects is intended to give Iran the capability to build a nuclear bomb, have been all but deadlocked for years, while Iran has continued to announce advances in the program. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: China and Japan seek to dial down tensions, but risks remain Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 01:48 PM PST  TOKYO/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Two Japanese F-15s scramble as a Chinese plane nears the disputed islands: one in the lead, the other providing cover. They issue radio warnings to leave the area, but are ignored. Visual wing-tipping signals go unheeded. The Japanese pilots consider their last option: firing warning shots - a step Beijing could consider an act of war. That's how the risky game being played near a chain of rocky, uninhabited isles at the heart of a row between Beijing and Tokyo could quickly escalate to the danger point, a former Japanese air force pilot said. "China would be ... Full Story | Top |
| Sri Lanka bars human rights panel from visiting country Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 01:07 PM PST COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka said on Sunday it would not allow into the country an international human rights panel due to visit after the government's controversial sacking of the chief justice. A four-member delegation of the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute was scheduled to be in Colombo on February 1-10 to assess the country's rule of law after the removal of Shirani Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka's first woman head of the Supreme Court on January 13. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ahmadinejad accuses Iran speaker's family of corruption Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 12:32 PM PST  DUBAI (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the parliament speaker's family of corruption on Sunday, turning a long-standing rivalry between two of Iran's most powerful figures into a face-to-face feud, months before an election. Addressing parliament to defend one of his ministers against impeachment, Ahmadinejad went on the attack, playing astonished lawmakers a recorded conversation with the brother of the speaker that he said implicated the whole family in corruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian opposition chief under fire for talks with Assad allies Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 12:26 PM PST  MUNICH (Reuters) - Syria's opposition leader flew back to his Cairo headquarters from Germany on Sunday to explain to skeptical allies his decision to talk with President Bashar al-Assad's main backers Russia and Iran. The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, and U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, portrayed Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib's new willingness to talk with the Assad regime as a major step towards resolving the two-year-old war. ... Full Story | Top |
| French planes pound Islamist camps in north Mali desert Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 12:11 PM PST  PARIS/BAMAKO (Reuters) - French warplanes pounded Islamist rebel camps in the far north of Mali on Sunday, military sources said, a day after French President Francois Hollande was hailed as a savior during a visit to the West African country. Thierry Burkhard, spokesman for the French army in Paris, said the overnight raids targeted logistics bases and training camps used by the al Qaeda-linked rebels near the town of Tessalit, close to the Algerian border. "These were important air strikes," Burkhard told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Istanbul police say U.S. tourist was murdered: report Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 11:51 AM PST ISTANBUL (Reuters) - An American tourist whose body was found in the ruins of Istanbul's old city wall was murdered by a blow to the head, the city's police chief was quoted as saying on Sunday. The husband of Sarai Sierra, 33, from New York, identified her body late on Saturday at an Istanbul morgue, state broadcaster TRT reported. She had been travelling alone when she was reported missing on January 21. "It's certain she was killed by a blow to the head," police chief Huseyin Capkin was quoted as saying by CNN Turk television. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistani girl shot by Taliban has successful skull surgery Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 10:59 AM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - A Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education has undergone successful surgery at a British hospital to reconstruct her skull and help restore lost hearing. A team of doctors carried out a five-hour operation on Saturday on 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in October and brought to Britain for treatment. The procedures carried out were cranial reconstruction, aimed at mending parts of her skull with a titanium plate, and a cochlear implant designed to restore hearing on her left side, which was damaged in the attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bolshoi ballet chief says he knows who is behind acid attack on him Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 10:59 AM PST  MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director was quoted on Sunday as saying he knew who was behind an attack on him in which a masked assailant splashed acid over his face threatening his eyesight. Sergei Filin, who has undergone several operations on his eyes and face since the January 17 attack, did not give any names but made clear he linked the case to his job. "I not only have a suspicion about who did this, but I'm absolutely certain I know who did this. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. didn't need rough interrogation to get bin Laden: Panetta Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 10:56 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leon Panetta, who as CIA director oversaw the U.S. operation that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said the job could have been done without resorting to controversial interrogation methods that some have said constitute torture. The outgoing defense secretary, in remarks aired Sunday on the NBC program "Meet the Press," said there had been many pieces to the "puzzle" solved to find bin Laden, who was held responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon. ... Full Story | Top |
| Man stripped and beaten blames Egyptian police Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 10:55 AM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - A man who was beaten and dragged naked across the ground during a demonstration on Friday told the public prosecution that Egyptian riot police were responsible for the incident, reversing an earlier statement in which he blamed demonstrators. A video of Hamada Saber, 48, being beaten with truncheons by helmeted police has infuriated the opposition, which accuses President Mohamed Mursi of ordering a harsh crackdown on protests two years after the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. ... Full Story | Top |
| Biden raises possibility of direct U.S.-Iran talks Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 10:40 AM PST  MUNICH (Reuters) - The United States is ready for direct talks with Iran if it is serious about negotiations, Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday, backing bilateral contact many see as crucial to easing a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program. Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Biden said Iran - which says it is enriching uranium for peaceful energy only - now faced "the most robust sanctions in history" meant to ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi offers big tax cuts in "last great battle" Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 10:23 AM PST  ROME (Reuters) - Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his "last great electoral and political battle" on Sunday with a sweeping promise to cut taxes and the cost of government if his center right wins elections this month. In a passionate and much anticipated speech to supporters in Milan, the city where he built his fortune, he said only his center right could lift Italy out of the dark fog of recession and re-establish trust between government and citizens. His political opponents were quick to deride him. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian dies of wounds as toll from protests rises to 57 Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 09:16 AM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian man shot during protests in Cairo died of his wounds on Sunday, medics said, increasing to 57 the death toll in the bloodiest week of President Mohamed Mursi's seven months in power. The man, 26, had been shot on Friday near the presidential palace, where youths and police had clashed during violent protests fuelled by anger at the Mursi administration. Hundreds more people have been wounded in violence that has flared on and off in Egypt since January 24 - the eve of the second anniversary of the uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power. ... Full Story | Top |
| Paraguay politician who helped oust dictator dies in crash Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 08:47 AM PST ASUNCION (Reuters) - Paraguayan presidential candidate Lino Oviedo, who helped the lead the 1989 coup that overthrew dictator Alfredo Stroessner, died in a helicopter crash over the weekend. A retired general known as a dynamic public speaker, the 69-year-old Oviedo was running in the April presidential election in the landlocked, grains-exporting South American country. Police rescuers found his body on Sunday in the wreckage of a helicopter crash in northern Paraguay where he was traveling for a campaign event. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan accuses Sudan of bombing; Khartoum denies Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 07:50 AM PST JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan on Sunday accused Sudan of bombing its side of their volatile border, killing one soldier and wounding four others in what it said was the third attack on its northeastern Renk County since November. Sudan's army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid denied the accusations, as it has each time South Sudan has alleged an attack. Reuters reporters have witnessed several air strikes against South Sudan since it seceded from Sudan in 2011. The African neighbors have been at loggerheads over oil, territory and other disputes and came close to war in April. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Deadly Pemex blast tests Mexico's new president Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 07:40 AM PST  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A deadly blast at Mexican state oil firm Pemex's headquarters is the first key test of new President Pena Nieto's promise that his party has broken with a past of shady cover-ups, and if handled properly, could help him overhaul the lumbering giant. The disaster on Thursday struck two months into Pena Nieto's presidency, just as Congress was preparing to discuss his plans to open up the state-run energy industry to more private investment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Secular party threatens to quit Islamist-led Tunisian government Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 07:14 AM PST TUNIS (Reuters) - The Tunisian president's secular party threatened on Sunday to withdraw from the Islamist-led government unless it drops two Islamist ministers. The moderate Islamist Ennahda party won 42 percent of seats in the country's first post-Arab Spring elections in October 2011 but formed a government in coalition with two secular parties, President Moncef Marzouki's Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kuwaiti gets five years for insulting ruler Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 06:58 AM PST KUWAIT (Reuters) - A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to five years in prison on Sunday for insulting the emir on Twitter, a rights lawyer and news websites said, in the latest prosecution for criticism of authorities via social media in the Gulf Arab state. The court gave Kuwaiti Mohammad Eid al-Ajmi the maximum sentence for the comments, news websites al-Rai and alaan.cc reported. In recent months Kuwait has penalized several Twitter users for criticizing the emir, who is described as "immune and inviolable" in the constitution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran says talks with Syria opposition could help stop bloodshed Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 06:54 AM PST BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday his talks with the Syrian opposition leader in Munich one day earlier could contribute to finding a solution to the war in Syria. Salehi said Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib's comments to him, in their talks late on Saturday, that he would be willing to talk with representatives of the Syrian government if prisoners were released represented "a good step forward". ... Full Story | Top |
| Assad says Syria can confront threats after Israel strike Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 06:54 AM PST BEIRUT (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad accused Israel on Sunday of trying to destabilize Syria by attacking a military research base outside Damascus last week, and said Syria was able to confront "current threats ...and aggression", state media said. Assad made the remarks in a meeting with Saeed Jalili, Iran's national security council secretary, in the Syrian capital. It was his first reported response to the attack. State news agency SANA quoted Jalili as reaffirming Tehran's "full support for the Syrian people ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Barak says reported Syria strike shows Israel is serious Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 06:54 AM PST MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday an attack on a Syrian arms complex showed Israel was serious about preventing the flow of heavy weapons into Lebanon, appearing to acknowledge for the first time that Israel carried out the strike. Israel has maintained official silence over Wednesday's raid, which Syria said targeted a military research center north-west of Damascus. "I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago," Barak told a security conference in Munich on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain's opposition Socialists tell Rajoy to resign Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 06:38 AM PST  MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's opposition Socialist Party called for the resignation of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy over a corruption scandal on Sunday as a poll showed the lowest support on record for his centre-right People's Party (PP). Media reports over the past two weeks alleged at least a dozen senior PP officials, including Rajoy, received payments from a slush fund operated by its former treasurer. Rajoy denies wrongdoing, but the scandal has provoked fury among Spaniards already disenchanted by deep recession and high unemployment, as support for the two biggest parties slumps. ... Full Story | Top |
| UK PM Cameron urged to delay gay marriage vote Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 06:30 AM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - Members of British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party urged him on Sunday to delay a parliamentary vote this week on gay marriage, warning the issue could weaken the party and harm his chances of re-election. Cameron has pledged his personal support for a gay marriage bill but many in his party and among his legislators oppose it on moral grounds and say the government has no mandate to push it through parliament. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somali PM says government working hard to improve after rape criticism Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 06:14 AM PST MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's prime minister on Sunday said the authorities will do more to protect rape victims after foreign donors and human rights groups criticised the arrests of a woman allegedly gang-raped by soldiers and a journalist who interviewed her. The trial of an unidentified 27-year-old woman, her husband, and the freelance journalist has sparked international concerns over sexual violence and press freedom in the country. ... Full Story | Top |
| Angola suspends Pentecostal church for 60 days after stampede Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 05:24 AM PST (Reuters) - Angola's government has suspended a Pentecostal church from conducting any activities for 60 days after a New Year's Eve stampede during an overcrowded religious vigil killed 16 people, the presidency said in a statement. The incident took place at the Cidadela Desportiva stadium in the capital Luanda, where the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) organized a Pentecostal Christian vigil. The death toll included three small children. Another 120 people were injured. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU proposes Iran nuclear talks, hopes for Iranian confirmation Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 03:58 AM PST MUNICH (Reuters) - World powers have proposed holding a new round of talks with Iran over Tehran's nuclear work in the week of February 25 in Kazakhstan, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Sunday. However, Ashton's team, which coordinates diplomatic contacts with Iran on its nuclear program on behalf of the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain, is still hoping for confirmation of the date and venue from Iran's negotiating team, the spokesman said. (Reporting by Adrian Croft) Full Story | Top |
| Attackers kill 33 at police HQ in disputed Iraqi city Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 03:54 AM PST  KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - At least 33 people were killed in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives outside a police headquarters and gunmen disguised as officers tried to storm the compound. The blast was the third major attack in weeks in or near the multiethnic city of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, at the heart of a dispute between Iraq's central government and the autonomous Kurdistan region. Police said the bomber triggered the huge blast near a side entrance to the police building, demolishing part of a government office nearby. ... Full Story | Top |
| Opposition, rebels take key posts in new Central African Republic government Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 03:27 AM PST BANGUI (Reuters) - Opposition parties and a rebel coalition took key ministerial posts, including finance and mining, in a new government announced on Sunday as part of a peace deal in the Central African Republic. President Francois Bozize agreed in mid-January to the formation of a national unity government as part of the deal to end an insurgency which swept to within striking distance of Bangui, capital of the mineral-rich former French colony. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistan army battles legacy of mistrust in Taliban heartland Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 02:06 AM PST  CHAGMALAI, Pakistan (Reuters) - In a Pakistan army base high in the mountains on the Afghan frontier, a general explains a strategy for fighting the Taliban he calls simply "WHAM". The name has a distinctly bellicose ring. But the soldiers are learning to fight a new kind of war in a region U.S. President Barack Obama has called the most dangerous on Earth. "WHAM - winning hearts and minds," explains the straight-talking General Nazir Butt, in charge of converting the army's gains on the battlefield into durable security. ... Full Story | Top |
| Magistrates and Alitalia open probe into Rome plane accident Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 01:52 AM PST ROME (Reuters) - Flights operated in Italy by Romania's Carpatair airlines were suspended on Sunday after a passenger plane went off the runway upon landing in strong winds at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport, injuring 16 people on board. The ATR-72 plane ended up on the grass, on its belly with its landing gear collapsed, in the incident late on Saturday. Two of the 16 people hurt were seriously injured, including one crew member. Carpatair operates some domestic flights in Italy on behalf of the country's flagship carrier Alitalia. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least 33 killed in suicide attack in Iraq's Kirkuk: police Saturday, Feb 02, 2013 11:39 PM PST KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - At 33 people were killed when a suicide bomber driving a car and two gunmen attacked a police headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday, police sources said. Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city of Arabs, Kurds and Turkman, is at the center of a dispute over oil and land rights between Baghdad's central government and the autonomous Kurdistan enclave in the north. (writing by Patrick Markey) Full Story | Top |
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