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| Support for Najib falls ahead of electio: poll Friday, May 03, 2013 09:08 PM PDT  KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Support for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak fell among all the country's main racial groups in an opinion poll, signaling the tough fight he faces in an election in the Southeast Asian country on Sunday. The survey, conducted between April 28 and May 2 among 1,600 voters, showed 42 percent of respondents believed the opposition Peoples' Pact of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim should be given a chance to govern. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel's Netanyahu, Palestine's Abbas head to China Friday, May 03, 2013 09:06 PM PDT  By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - China will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas next week for separate bilateral talks as it tries to shore up its role in a region where its diplomatic influence is limited. Netanyahu's visit -- the first trip by a top Israeli leader to China since former prime minister Ehud Olmert visited in 2007 -- will be focused on trade, though experts have also said he is likely to discuss Iran's nuclear program with China. China, Iran's top oil customer and a permanent member of the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Connecticut town mulls fate of Sandy Hook school months after massacre Friday, May 03, 2013 08:50 PM PDT  By Richard Weizel (Reuters) - After a gut-wrenching and tearful meeting, officials expressed doubt that the Connecticut elementary school where 20 children and six adults were shot to death last December could ever be reopened. The 28-member Sandy Hook School Building Task Force has been charged with considering whether to demolish the entire school and build a new one on the same site or nearby, or demolish only the parts where the massacre unfolded, including several classrooms. But after meeting with more than a dozen teachers from the school in a closed session, no decision was reached. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel has conducted airstrike in Syria: U.S. official Friday, May 03, 2013 08:04 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel has conducted an airstrike in Syria, apparently targeting a building, a U.S. official said on Friday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to elaborate. CNN quoted two unnamed U.S. officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike "in the Thursday-Friday time frame" and that Israel's warplanes did not enter Syrian airspace. CNN said the officials did not believe Israel had targeted a chemical weapons facility. CBS News cited U.S. sources as saying Israel targeted a warehouse. There was no official confirmation. Syrian U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian U.N. envoy unaware of any attack on Syria by Israel Friday, May 03, 2013 08:04 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria's envoy to the United Nations said on Friday he was not aware of any attack by Israel against his country, after CNN reported that two U.S. officials believed Israel had conducted an airstrike on Syria. "I'm not aware of any attack right now," Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, told Reuters. (Reporting by Lou Charbonneau; Editing by Peter Cooney) Full Story | Top |
| Struggle to find grave site stymies Boston bombing suspect's burial Friday, May 03, 2013 08:00 PM PDT  By Ross Kerber BOSTON (Reuters) - A Massachusetts funeral home owner said he is struggling to find a graveyard willing to accept the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, killed in a shootout with police four days after an attack that left three dead and 264 injured. Peter Stefan, owner of the funeral home in Worcester, Massachusetts, said he would turn to government officials for help if he cannot find a resting place for Tsarnaev soon. "Everyone deserves a burial. It doesn't matter who it is," Stefan said in a telephone interview with Reuters on Friday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Same-sex provision should not derail U.S. immigration move: Obama Friday, May 03, 2013 07:57 PM PDT  By Steve Holland and Mark Felsenthal SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signaled on Friday that a proposal to add a same-sex partnership measure to an immigration overhaul should not be allowed to derail the entire legislative effort. Obama has used the prospect of new immigration laws as a major selling point for stronger U.S. relations with Latin America on a three-day tour of Mexico and Costa Rica that ends on Saturday. But a proposal by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has cast uncertainty into the delicate process of reaching a compromise on immigration. ... Full Story | Top |
| Investigators believe Boston bombs likely made at Tsarnaev's home Friday, May 03, 2013 07:42 PM PDT  By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Mark Hosenball BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators believe Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, likely made the bombs they are suspected of setting off at last month's Boston Marathon in Tamerlan's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, law enforcement officials said on Friday. FBI agents have been questioning Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell, and other witnesses for days to try to piece together exactly how and where the devices were made and what people knew about the brothers' beliefs and plans. ... Full Story | Top |
| Miami Dolphins stadium renovation bill rejected Friday, May 03, 2013 06:01 PM PDT By Kevin Gray MIAMI (Reuters) - A proposal by the Miami Dolphins to use taxpayer money to help finance an upgrade of the NFL team's stadium failed on Friday to win broad support among Florida state lawmakers, dealing a potential blow to Miami's bid to host the 2016 Super Bowl. The Dolphins, owned by real estate tycoon Stephen Ross, lobbied the state legislature for months to back a bill to increase hotel taxes in Miami-Dade County to finance nearly half of a proposed $350 million renovation of the Sun Life Stadium, which is privately owned. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama says does not foresee sending U.S. troops to Syria Friday, May 03, 2013 05:28 PM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal and Steve Holland SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he does not foresee a scenario in which he would send U.S. ground troops to Syria and outlined a deliberate approach to determining whether the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in a 2-year civil war. Obama insisted that the United States has not ruled out any options in dealing with Syria as the United States investigates whether the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama says U.S. watching 'crackdowns' on Venezuela opposition Friday, May 03, 2013 05:27 PM PDT  (Reuters) - The United States is watching "crackdowns on the opposition" in Venezuela, President Barack Obama said in a television interview aired on Friday when asked if he considered newly elected Nicolas Maduro to be the country's legitimate president. Maduro, elected in April by a narrow margin, earlier this year accused the United States of seeking to kill opposition leader Henrique Capriles to stir chaos and spark a coup. Maduro's mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, was one of the world's most vocal critics of the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| Florida restores early voting days, moves back primary Friday, May 03, 2013 05:26 PM PDT  By Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Still smarting from jokes about Florida's inability to run statewide elections, Florida lawmakers approved a package of revisions on Friday to give voters more time and locations to cast their ballots. "We all took a lot of flak for elections last year," said Senator Jack Latvala, a Republican who chairs the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee. "We were the butt of jokes on late night TV. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry phones China over dissident's nephew, can't reach minister Friday, May 03, 2013 05:19 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tried calling Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss the imprisoned nephew of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng but Wang was not available, the State Department said on Friday. Wang was said to be in Singapore on Friday for meetings with senior officials there. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters Kerry had tried to call Wang Thursday and would follow up. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chinese dissident urges U.S. to ensure family's fair treatment Friday, May 03, 2013 05:17 PM PDT  By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng called on the United States on Friday to ensure his family in China would be treated fairly, saying his imprisoned nephew was not receiving proper medical care from Chinese authorities, whom he accused of "hooligan tactics." Chen, who made international headlines last year when he escaped house arrest and spent 20 hours on the run before finding refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said his nephew was suffering from appendicitis and being treated only by a fellow inmate who had received some medical training. ... Full Story | Top |
| NRA official to gun owners: 'Our freedom is under attack' Friday, May 03, 2013 05:15 PM PDT  By Corrie MacLaggan HOUSTON (Reuters) - It is time to stop demonizing all law-abiding gun owners because of violent acts committed by a few criminals, National Rifle Association leaders and political allies said on Friday at its first convention since the Connecticut school massacre. "Our freedom is under attack like never before," Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said during a leadership forum. "When a deranged criminal murders innocent children, they blame us." The NRA is the nation's leading advocate for gun ownership. ... Full Story | Top |
| American journalist held in Syria believed to be in detention center Friday, May 03, 2013 04:49 PM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The family and employer of James Foley, a U.S. journalist missing in Syria since November, say they now believe he is being held by the Syrian government in a detention center near the capital, Damascus. That conclusion follows a five-month investigation by Foley's family and his employer, GlobalPost, and was announced on Friday in an article posted on the news organization's website. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate Friday, May 03, 2013 04:45 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It's been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth and President Barack Obama cited the cost this week as one of many reasons to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which burns through some $900,000 per prisoner annually. The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, which was set up 11 years ago to house foreign terrorism suspects. With 166 inmates currently in custody, that amounts to an annual cost of $903,614 per prisoner. ... Full Story | Top |
| PepsiCo drops rapper Lil Wayne over controversial lyric Friday, May 03, 2013 04:41 PM PDT  (Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc severed ties with rapper Lil Wayne on Friday over a graphic reference to slain U.S. civil rights figure Emmett Till in a song. Lil Wayne, 30, had been the face of the PepsiCo drink Mountain Dew's "Deweezy" campaign, a play on the rapper's "Weezy" nickname. "We do not plan any additional work with Lil Wayne moving forward," a Mountain Dew representative said in a statement. "His offensive reference to a revered civil rights icon does not reflect the values of our brand." The Deweezy campaign website was taken down. ... Full Story | Top |
| Author Samantha Power being considered for U.S. diplomatic post Friday, May 03, 2013 04:41 PM PDT By Arshad Mohammed and Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, former White House aide and Harvard professor, is under consideration to be the U.S. State Department's top human rights official, sources familiar with the matter said. If chosen, Power, an outspoken defender of human rights who wrote a study of the U.S. government's failure to prevent genocide in the 20th century, could become a strong voice in the administration for a more muscular U.S. role in protecting rights in such places as Syria, China and Sudan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Amazon Indians occupy controversial dam to demand a say Friday, May 03, 2013 04:30 PM PDT  BRASILIA (Reuters) - Amazon Indians on Friday refused to end their occupation of a building site that has partially paralyzed work on the world's third largest hydroelectric dam for two days. Some 200 people from various indigenous groups occupied one of three construction sites of the controversial Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River on Thursday, halting work by 3,000 of the 22,000 workers on the project. ... Full Story | Top |
| California governor grudgingly lists ways to ease prison crowding Friday, May 03, 2013 04:20 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown, under court order to produce a plan to ease overcrowding in state prisons, pointed to plans to reopen two closed facilities and move some inmates to camps, but otherwise defiantly rapped a three-judge panel for the "intrusiveness" of the case. Brown's filing stopped short of laying out precisely how the most populous U.S. state would realistically reduce the prison population to a level demanded by the court in a move that could put him on a collision course with the judges. ... Full Story | Top |
| NRA official: 'Our freedom is under attack' Friday, May 03, 2013 04:15 PM PDT By Corrie MacLaggan HOUSTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and national media are demonizing law-abiding gun owners in the wake of recent violent acts, National Rifle Association leaders and political allies said on Friday at its first convention since the Connecticut school massacre. "Our freedom is under attack like never before," Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said during a leadership forum. "When a deranged criminal murders innocent children, they blame us." The NRA is the nation's leading advocate for gun ownership. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least three killed in violent Guinea election protest Friday, May 03, 2013 04:08 PM PDT  CONAKRY (Reuters) - At least three people died on Friday on the second day of violent street protests that have swept the Guinean capital over the organization of delayed legislative elections, witnesses and officials said. Guinea's opposition parties have accused President Alpha Conde, who took office in 2010 following Guinea's first democratic transfer of power since 1958, of trying to rig the polls in the world's largest bauxite exporter. ... Full Story | Top |
| States urge SEC to halt forced investor arbitrations Friday, May 03, 2013 02:51 PM PDT  By Suzanne Barlyn (Reuters) - State securities regulators on Friday urged the SEC to prohibit Wall Street brokerages from requiring customers to settle legal disputes through arbitration, which prevents customers from going to court, joining a chorus of groups opposing such clauses. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), in a letter to the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, urged the agency to insure that investors have "meaningful remedies and a choice of forums" in which to resolve disputes with brokerages. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to tighten border checks on foreign students Friday, May 03, 2013 02:33 PM PDT  By Deborah Charles WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Department of Homeland Security, criticized for failing to check the student status of a Kazakh man charged in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, has tightened procedures for admitting foreigners with student visas, a U.S. official said on Friday. The Department's Customs and Border Protection issued a memo ordering agents "effective immediately" to check all students against the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System database of international students and schools, according to an official who had seen the memo. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela's Maduro says Colombia's Uribe plotting to kill him Friday, May 03, 2013 02:30 PM PDT  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday said Colombian ex-president Alvaro Uribe was plotting to kill him, adding to a deluge of accusations by the former bus driver in recent months. "Uribe is behind a plot to kill me," Maduro said in a televised speech. "Uribe is a killer. I have enough evidence of who is conspiring, and there are sectors of the Venezuelan right that are involved." He did not provide details. ... Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street sees Fed buying $1.25 trillion of assets in stimulus: Reuters poll Friday, May 03, 2013 02:29 PM PDT  By Chris Reese NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street is looking for the Federal Reserve to buy a total of $1.25 trillion of assets under its latest debt purchase program intended to stimulate the economy, according to a Reuters poll conducted on Friday. The median of forecasts from economists at 15 U.S. primary dealers - the large financial institutions that deal directly with the Fed - was for the central bank to buy $1.25 trillion of assets, which was up from a median of $1 trillion in a similar poll conducted on March 8. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan's Kiir to visit Sudan for oil flow in May Friday, May 03, 2013 02:27 PM PDT  By Hereward Holland JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir will visit Sudan this month to witness with his counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir the first shipment of oil from the south after a 15-month shutdown, an official said on Friday. In March, the African neighbors agreed to resume oil exports from landlocked South Sudan through Sudan and defuse tension that has plagued them since South Sudan seceded in 2011. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. judge rules Cuban spy can stay in Cuba if U.S. citizenship renounced Friday, May 03, 2013 02:13 PM PDT  By Tom Brown MIAMI (Reuters) - A Cuban spy on probation after 13 years behind bars in the United States can remain in Cuba, where he returned on a court-approved visit last month, if he renounces his U.S. citizenship, a federal judge in Miami ruled on Friday. Rene Gonzalez, 56, one of what Cuba calls its "Five Heroes," returned to the communist island temporarily on April 22 to attend a memorial service for his deceased father. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard granted Gonzalez's request for the visit on condition that he return to Florida by next Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Job market resilience eases growth concerns Friday, May 03, 2013 02:02 PM PDT  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment rose at a faster pace than expected in April and hiring was much stronger than previously thought in the prior two months, a sign of resilience that should help the economy absorb the blow from belt-tightening in Washington. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 165,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, the lowest level since December 2008, the Labor Department said on Friday. The job counts for February and March were revised up by a net 114,000. "This bolsters the case that the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Houston airport shooter wrote in note of 'monster within' Friday, May 03, 2013 01:59 PM PDT  By Amanda Orr HOUSTON (Reuters) - A man who caused a panic when he fired a Glock semi-automatic pistol in the air at a busy Houston airport terminal and then killed himself, left a suicide note that spoke of "the monster within me," police said on Friday. Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland said the dead man, identified as Carnell Moore, was intent only on killing himself. The incident could have been much worse if he had turned the gun on passengers Thursday afternoon at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. ... Full Story | Top |
| Peru probes ex-President Garcia's finances in corruption inquiry Friday, May 03, 2013 01:50 PM PDT  LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's attorney general is opening the financial records of two-time former president and likely 2016 presidential candidate Alan Garcia as part of a preliminary corruption inquiry, the government said on Friday. The government suspects Garcia may have used illegally acquired funds to buy a house in an upscale Lima neighborhood, a spokeswoman in the attorney general's office told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sudan police use teargas to end land protest Friday, May 03, 2013 01:44 PM PDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese police used teargas and batons to break up a protest by around 400 people in Khartoum on Friday demanding the government grant them land to build homes, witnesses said. Protesters blocked several roads in the east of the capital and hurled stones at police, witnesses said. They shouted slogans complaining the government had not honored a promise to allocate land for houses. The police were not immediately available for comment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Column: Obama versus Congress on Guantanamo Friday, May 03, 2013 01:35 PM PDT By Nicholas Wapshott (Reuters) - Barely a week after Margaret Thatcher's funeral in London, her ghost is stalking the corridors of power. At his press conference on Tuesday in Washington, President Barack Obama was asked about Guantánamo Bay prisoners refusing to eat. In doing so, the veteran CBS reporter Bill Plante, who asked the question, exposed a running sore in the Obama administration. He also invited direct comparison between Obama and Lady Thatcher - who faced a similar dilemma in 1981. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cuba says will consider U.N. and Red Cross visits Friday, May 03, 2013 01:10 PM PDT  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Cuba said on Friday it would consider letting in U.N. human rights investigators to examine allegations of torture and repression and allowing Red Cross officials access its prisons after a gap of nearly 25 years. Dissidents say security forces round up opponents of the Communist country for short-term detention and some are mistreated. Cuban officials deny allegations of arbitrary detention or torture. The call for access by Western countries was among 293 recommendations presented to Cuba at the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian billionaire Sawiris returns home to warm welcome Friday, May 03, 2013 01:07 PM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris returned home on Friday, ending a self-imposed exile that began after the election of President Mohamed Mursi last year, and was warmly welcomed by a government grappling with an economic crisis. Sawiris, one of Egypt's most prominent Coptic Christians and a critic of Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood, was greeted at Cairo airport by an envoy of the Islamist president who presented him with flowers. Economists said his return was a boost to business sentiment which has been battered by political instability. ... Full Story | Top |
| Philadelphia abortion trial ends fourth day without verdicts Friday, May 03, 2013 12:59 PM PDT By Dave Warner PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The jury in the murder trial of a Philadelphia doctor accused of killing babies and a patient during late-term abortions at a clinic serving low-income women ended its fourth day of deliberations on Friday without reaching verdicts. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-shuttered Women's Medical Society Clinic, could face the death penalty if convicted by the jury in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia. The case focuses on whether the infants were born alive and then killed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lawmakers struggle over guest workers in immigration bill Friday, May 03, 2013 12:41 PM PDT  By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the Senate gets ready to debate the details of a broad U.S. immigration bill, a group of House of Representatives lawmakers is still struggling to write its own legislation, hung up in part over guest worker programs sought by businesses. Programs allowing employers in high-tech, agriculture, construction and other industries to hire foreign workers were also a stumbling block for senators who introduced a separate immigration bill last month. ... Full Story | Top |
| After flight delays, will cancer move Congress to act? Friday, May 03, 2013 12:34 PM PDT  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Congress sifts through a growing number of requests for targeted relief from automatic spending cuts in coming weeks, advocates seeking funding shifts likely will need to tell a compelling story with potential life-or-death consequences. Requests without such a strong selling point may find it impossible to gain enough bipartisan support as lawmakers vow not to repeat a swift and controversial action last week to save airline travelers from flight delays caused by automatic "sequestration" spending cuts. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Navy moves ahead on new presidential helicopter program Friday, May 03, 2013 11:36 AM PDT  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy posted the final rules for a long-delayed, multibillion dollar competition for a new fleet of presidential helicopters, saying it planned to award a contract about a year from now despite looming U.S. defense budget cuts. "We're moving forward as we planned all along," said Kelly Burdick, spokeswoman for the Navy office that is overseeing the competition, one of the few for new military helicopters in coming years. ... Full Story | Top |
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