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| CA-NEWS Summary Friday, May 03, 2013 09:08 PM PDT Obama says does not foresee sending U.S. troops to Syria 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. Israel has conducted airstrike in Syria: U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Liberia denies resource deals violated laws Friday, May 03, 2013 11:42 AM PDT  MONROVIA (Reuters) - The Liberian government denied on Friday it had violated its own laws in awarding resource contracts and pledged to implement the recommendations of an independent audit into the deals. According to a draft of the audit obtained by Reuters, almost $8 billion worth of contracts signed by Liberia since 2009 have violated its laws, casting doubt on President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's anti-graft and good governance efforts. "We did not violate any laws ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen in standoff with Libyan army at Tripoli protest Friday, May 03, 2013 11:34 AM PDT By Jessica Donati and Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The Libyan army was deployed to Tripoli's main square on Friday to guard a pro-government rally and became involved in an uneasy standoff with anti-government gunmen. The pro-government protesters were rallying against groups of gunmen who have taken control of two ministries in the capital. "We are here to support the government and ask the prime minister to deploy the police and the army. We don't want the militias here any more," one protester said at the rally that had been organized through social networks. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. names veteran diplomat Dobbins as new envoy to Afghanistan/Pakistan Friday, May 03, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has appointed veteran U.S. diplomat James Dobbins as Washington's new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said on Friday. Dobbins, head of international security and defense at the RAND National Defense Research Institute and a former senior U.S. diplomat, will replace Marc Grossman as special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Grossman had replaced the late Richard Holbrooke in the post. Holbrooke died suddenly in December 2010. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somalia's security forces hamstrung by corruption, infiltrators Friday, May 03, 2013 11:26 AM PDT  By Richard Lough and Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's security forces need rebuilding to cement gains made by foreign troops against Islamist militants, but how to pay and arm recruits, tackle corruption and prevent rebels infiltrating their ranks remain hurdles for the cash-strapped government. Proving the dire state of the Somali forces, when Islamist gunmen attacked a court in Mogadishu in April, police said they couldn't tell who was friend or foe, while members of the force say a $100-a-month salary is not enough to inspire loyalty. ... Full Story | Top |
| Anti-EU party shakes British PM's Conservatives in local vote Friday, May 03, 2013 11:25 AM PDT  By Andrew Osborn and Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - The anti-European Union UK Independence Party made sweeping gains in local elections, siphoning support from British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in a vote that exposed a threat to his re-election chances in 2015. UKIP, in results released on Friday, secured almost one in every four votes cast on Thursday in council elections in mostly English rural areas that have traditionally been Conservative strongholds, rattling all Britain's three main parties as voters switched to the populist group. ... Full Story | Top |
| Popularity of Colombia's Santos edges up slightly Friday, May 03, 2013 11:02 AM PDT  BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos' popularity recovered 3 percentage points, as people feel more upbeat about the outcome of peace talks with Marxist rebels and applaud a program to give homes to the poor, a leading pollster said on Friday. Santos' popularity had been sliding since his government began negotiating a peace deal in November with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in a bid to end a five-decade war that has killed tens of thousands of people. ... Full Story | Top |
| Afghan interpreters begin legal bid for right to live in Britain Friday, May 03, 2013 10:54 AM PDT  By Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Three men who worked as interpreters for British forces in Afghanistan began a legal challenge on Friday to win the right to live in Britain, arguing they are at risk of Taliban reprisals as the soldiers they helped prepare to return home. They are challenging the British government's decision to refuse them the support offered to interpreters in Iraq, who were offered the right to indefinite leave to enter or settle in Britain or instead a compensation package. ... Full Story | Top |
| Government support dips as Spaniards tire of crisis, corruption Friday, May 03, 2013 10:54 AM PDT  MADRID (Reuters) - Public support for Spain's ruling center-right party has slipped following a high-level corruption scandal and ongoing recession, and Spaniards remain pessimistic about the political and economic outlook, a poll showed on Friday. Half of Spaniards consider the political situation to be "very bad" and ranked corruption as Spain's number two problem behind unemployment, according to a survey by the state-owned Sociological Investigations Centre (CIS), carried out in April. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hamas rebuffs Arabs for softening Israeli-Palestinian peace plan Friday, May 03, 2013 10:21 AM PDT  By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Islamist Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip on Friday rejected a revised Middle East peace initiative put forward by the Arab League, saying outsiders could not decide the fate of the Palestinians. In meetings this week in Washington, Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan, acknowledging that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any eventual peace deal. The United States and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank praised the move. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sudan's rebel wars reach placid heartland Friday, May 03, 2013 09:41 AM PDT  By Ulf Laessing UM RAWABA, Sudan (Reuters) - The line of army pickup trucks rumbled into the dusty streets of Um Rawaba, a once placid city in the heart of Sudan that days ago became a new front in the war of attrition between government and rebels. Six days earlier, hundreds of insurgents had stormed in, spraying bullets and killing up to 13 civilians and soldiers, before pulling out as government planes started flying overhead. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy's first black minister defiant in face of racist slurs Friday, May 03, 2013 08:53 AM PDT  By Catherine Hornby ROME (Reuters) - Italy's first black minister has responded to a barrage of sexist and racial insults by saying she is proud to be black, not colored, and that Italy is not really a racist country. Cecile Kyenge, an eye doctor and Italian citizen originally from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was named integration minister by Prime Minister Enrico Letta last Saturday, one of seven women in the new government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: At Texas fertilizer plant, a history of theft, tampering Friday, May 03, 2013 08:23 AM PDT By Selam Gebrekidan and Joshua Schneyer NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded two weeks ago, killing 14 people and injuring about 200, was a repeat target of theft by intruders who tampered with tanks and caused the release of toxic chemicals, police records reviewed by Reuters show. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. military plane crashes in southern Kyrgyzstan Friday, May 03, 2013 08:22 AM PDT By Olga Dzyubenko BISHKEK (Reuters) - A U.S. military refueling plane on its way to Afghanistan exploded in mid air and crashed in Kyrgyzstan on Friday when its cargo of fuel ignited, the Central Asian country's Emergencies Ministry said. The aircraft took off from the U.S. military transit center at Kyrgyzstan's international Manas airport, which U.S. forces maintain for operations in Afghanistan, with around 70 metric tons of fuel on board, a local ministry official said. The plane, used for inflight refueling, disappeared from radar screens at 3:10 p.m. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb outside Sunni mosque kills six in Iraqi capital Friday, May 03, 2013 08:02 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed a Sunni cleric and five worshippers when they left a mosque in Bagdhad after Friday prayers, police and medics said, as regional sectarian violence threatens to return Iraq to all-out conflict. Iraq has become increasingly volatile as the civil war in neighboring Syria strains volatile relations between Sunnis and Shi'ites. April saw the most killings since 2008, but was below the height of sectarian bloodletting in 2006-07. A further 31 people were wounded in the blast outside the mosque in al-Rashidiya district of Baghdad, medics said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hungary court allows far-right rally before Jewish congress Friday, May 03, 2013 07:12 AM PDT  By Gergely Szakacs BUDAPEST (Reuters) - A Hungarian court has given the go ahead for a far-right protest on Saturday before an international conference of Jewish leaders in Budapest, saying a police ruling that banned it was belated and unlawful. But Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had ordered the police ban, said the court ruling was "unacceptable" and has asked the president of the Supreme Court to intervene and the interior minister to stop the rally. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenyan leader, charged by ICC, invited to Somalia meeting in London Friday, May 03, 2013 06:48 AM PDT  By Edmund Blair NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, is expected to visit London at Britain's invitation next week for a conference on Somalia. It will be his first trip to a Western capital since his election in March. Britain and other countries said before his victory that, if he won, they would only have "essential contacts" with him because of the court case. ... Full Story | Top |
| Four officials suspended in South Africa's widening Gupta scandal Friday, May 03, 2013 06:43 AM PDT By Jon Herskovitz PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa suspended four top security officials on Friday, including two brigadier-generals, in a widening scandal over a plane chartered by a family with close ties to President Jacob Zuma using an air force base without proper permission. The affair - dubbed "Guptagate" after the influential Indian-born Gupta family - has transfixed South Africa since the private flight landed at Pretoria's Waterkloof Air Force base on Tuesday with nearly 200 guests for a lavish family wedding. ... Full Story | Top |
| Madagascar president Rajoelina to run in July vote, breaks promise not to Friday, May 03, 2013 06:15 AM PDT  By Alain Iloniana ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's president Andry Rajoelina will run in July's election, an official list of presidential candidates showed on Friday, reneging on an agreement he would not do so. Rajoelina, who seized power in a coup in 2009, had said in January he would not put his name forward, bowing to pressure from regional powers to stand aside to prevent unrest in this year's vote on the Indian Ocean island. The man he ousted, Marc Ravalomanana, now in self-imposed exile in South Africa, had made the same pledge. ... Full Story | Top |
| Muslims in Myanmar barricade village as attacks spread Friday, May 03, 2013 05:49 AM PDT  By Jared Ferrie WIN KITE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Three Muslim men peered over a bamboo fence built recently to fortify their village in central Myanmar. They gazed across dry rice paddies towards a nearby Buddhist community, looking for rising dust, a sign of an approaching mob. It was a false alarm. But a day earlier, on Wednesday, about 100 Buddhists armed with sticks had gathered outside the fence, threatening to burn the village and kill them, said the villagers of Win Kite, about a two-hour drive from Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. Police foiled that attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea could reach U.S. with nuclear arms: Pentagon Friday, May 03, 2013 05:31 AM PDT  By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea's continuing development of nuclear technology and long-range ballistic missiles will move it closer to its stated goal of being able to hit the United States with an atomic weapon, a new Pentagon report to Congress said on Thursday. The report, the first version of an annual Pentagon assessment required by law, said Pyongyang's Taepodong-2 missile, with continued development, might ultimately be able to reach parts of the United States carrying a nuclear payload if configured as an intercontinental ballistic missile. ... Full Story | Top |
| Libyan army stationed on Tripoli streets ahead of pro-government rally Friday, May 03, 2013 05:18 AM PDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan soldiers have been stationed at Tripoli's main square to protect a rally in support of the government that was planned for Friday afternoon, a source at the prime minister's office said. "They are expecting to have some demonstrations and I would expect it's because they want to protect the demonstrators," the source told Reuters. A defense ministry source said the order came from the prime minister's office. Reuters witnesses saw the soldiers on the square as well as on the main road to the airport. ... Full Story | Top |
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