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| U.S. Army won't bar contractors linked to Afghan insurgents: watchdog Monday, Jul 29, 2013 09:03 PM PDT By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has refused to bar 43 individuals or companies from getting U.S. contracts in Afghanistan despite information that they support the Taliban or other enemies of U.S. forces, a government watchdog said on Tuesday. John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said he was concerned by the Army's refusal to follow his office's recommendations to prevent alleged supporters of the Taliban, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda from getting or keeping U.S. government contracts. "I am deeply troubled that the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Murdoch's wife hires new lawyer in divorce case: New York Times Monday, Jul 29, 2013 08:47 PM PDT  (Reuters) - The wife of News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, Wendi Murdoch, has switched lawyers in a move signaling that their divorce proceedings could take an acrimonious turn, the New York Times reported on Monday. Murdoch, 82, filed for divorce in June. He married the former Wendi Deng, 44, in 1999 in his third and her second marriage. They have two young daughters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israeli-Palestinian talks begin amid deep divisions Monday, Jul 29, 2013 08:25 PM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held their first peace talks in nearly three years on Monday in a U.S.-brokered effort that Secretary of State John Kerry hopes will end their conflict despite deep divisions. Top aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began the talks over an iftar dinner - the evening meal with which Muslims break their daily fast during Ramadan - hosted by Kerry at the State Department. ... Full Story | Top |
| China rules out Sino-Japanese summit: state media Monday, Jul 29, 2013 07:27 PM PDT  SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has ruled out the possibility of a proposed summit meeting with Japan, the official China Daily reported on Tuesday, after Tokyo proposed the meeting in a bid to defuse a territorial row. The report, quoting a statement by an unidentified Chinese official made on Monday, comes during a visit by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki. Saiki's visit is the latest in a series of efforts by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to improve relations soured by the bitter row over uninhabited islands claimed by both countries. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hackers attack New Zealand government party websites to protest spy law Monday, Jul 29, 2013 07:04 PM PDT WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Hackers disabled several websites of New Zealand's ruling party on Tuesday, protesting a planned law to widen the surveillance powers of the country's spy agency but the action was criticized by Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom as counter-productive. The government has proposed a controversial bill that would allow the General Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to engage in domestic operations. Currently, it spies on foreign targets via electronic listening posts but is barred from spying on New Zealand citizens or residents. ... Full Story | Top |
| China rules out Sino-Japanese summit: China Daily Monday, Jul 29, 2013 06:03 PM PDT  SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has ruled out the possibility of a proposed summit meeting with Japan, the official China Daily reported on Tuesday, after Tokyo proposed the meeting in a bid to defuse a territorial row. The report, quoting a statement by an unidentified Chinese official made on Monday, comes during a visit by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki. Saiki's visit is the latest in a series of efforts by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to improve relations soured by the bitter row over uninhabited islands claimed by both countries. ... Full Story | Top |
| Abbas wants 'not a single Israeli' in future Palestinian state Monday, Jul 29, 2013 05:54 PM PDT  By Noah Browning CAIRO (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid out his vision on Monday for the final status of Israeli-Palestinian relations ahead of peace talks due to resume in Washington for the first time in nearly three years. Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or border forces could remain in a future Palestinian state and that Palestinians deem illegal all Jewish settlement building within the land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. The forceful statements appeared to challenge mediator U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill eight Tunisian troops as political tensions grow Monday, Jul 29, 2013 05:01 PM PDT  By Tarek Amara and Erika Solomon TUNIS (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least eight Tunisian soldiers on Monday, staging the biggest attack on the security forces in decades as political tensions rose between supporters and opponents of the Islamist-led government. President Moncef Marzouki called the ambush on Mount Chaambi, near the Algerian border, a "terrorist attack" and announced three days of mourning. Tunisian troops have been trying to track down Islamist militants in the remote region since December. ... Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda group kidnaps Italian priest in Syria: activists Monday, Jul 29, 2013 04:41 PM PDT By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked fighters in a rebel-held eastern Syrian city on Monday abducted a prominent Italian Jesuit priest who championed the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said. Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant kidnapped father Paolo Dall'Oglio while he was walking in Raqqa, which fell to militant Islamist brigades in March, the sources in Raqqa province told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill eight Tunisian troops as political tensions rise Monday, Jul 29, 2013 04:40 PM PDT By Tarek Amara and Erika Solomon TUNIS (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least eight Tunisian soldiers on Monday, staging the biggest attack on the security forces in decades as political tensions rose between supporters and opponents of the Islamist-led government. President Moncef Marzouki called the ambush on Mount Chaambi, near the Algerian border, a "terrorist attack" and announced three days of mourning. Tunisian troops have been trying to track down Islamist militants in the remote region since December. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi faces verdict that could endanger Italian government Monday, Jul 29, 2013 04:32 PM PDT  By Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Italy's supreme court convenes on Tuesday to rule whether Silvio Berlusconi should be jailed and banned from public office for tax fraud, a verdict that could endanger Italy's shaky coalition government. A ruling against the former prime minister would be his first definitive conviction and signal the end of an era in which he has dominated Italian politics for two decades through his media power and political skill. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain mourns train crash victims in official Mass Monday, Jul 29, 2013 04:29 PM PDT  By Silvio Castellanos SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (Reuters) - Mourners packed a memorial service on Monday for the 79 people who died in the country's worst rail disaster in decades, as investigators prepared to analyze information from the train's data recording device, or "black box." The driver of the train, 52-year-old Francisco Garzon, has been charged with 79 counts of negligent homicide and released pending trial after a judge determined he was not a flight risk. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bombs kill 15 in Nigeria's Kano: police source Monday, Jul 29, 2013 04:08 PM PDT KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Multiple bomb blasts in Nigeria's biggest northern city of Kano killed 15 people on Monday, a senior policeman said, in an area previously targeted by militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Several witnesses said they saw dead bodies after hearing multiple blasts at around 9:30 p.m. (1630 EDT) in the Sabon Gari district, a predominantly Christian area dominated by ethnic Igbos from the southeast. "In all bomb attacks 15 were killed," the policeman in Kano told Reuters, asking not to be named. ... Full Story | Top |
| Timeline: Middle East peace talks resume Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:55 PM PDT (Reuters) - Middle East peace talks, due to resume in Washington this week, have a long and mostly disappointing history. But while more than two decades of summits and negotiations have failed to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some talks have come close and have left a template for future agreements. Following is a timeline of major summits and conferences aimed at Israeli-Palestinian peace. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mali election challenges loom as rivals stake claims Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:42 PM PDT  By David Lewis and Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO (Reuters) - Former Malian prime minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's campaign team said on Monday its results put Keita in a strong lead and in reach of outright victory in Mali's election, but rivals said they were sure a run-off vote would have to be held. The statements came ahead of official tallies from Sunday's vote and are the first signs of tension after a robust turnout and the lack of violence showed how eager Malians were to turn the page on more than a year of turmoil, war and an army coup. The first official figures were not due until Tuesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen launch major attack on Pakistani prison holding militants Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:37 PM PDT By Saud Mehsud DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Grenade-wielding Taliban fighters battled Pakistani security forces during a sophisticated midnight attack on a major prison holding hundreds of Taliban and other militants, police said on Monday. Fighting continued into the early hours of Tuesday, and security forces said they had imposed a curfew on the city, Dera Ismail Khan, 200 miles west of Lahore. The Pakistani Taliban sent 100 fighters and seven suicide bombers on a mission to free some of their top leaders, said Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran nominee seen as olive branch to United States Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:30 PM PDT  By Marcus George and Paul Taylor DUBAI/PARIS (Reuters) - If Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani wanted to signal his determination to rebuild relations with the United States and strike a "grand bargain," he could hardly do better than pick Mohammad Javad Zarif as his foreign minister. Iranian news agencies reported on Monday that Zarif, a former ambassador to the United Nations and Tehran's leading connoisseur of the U.S. political elite, is set to be in the cabinet Rouhani will announce after taking office on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Two Swiss trains collide, 35 injured, driver feared dead Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:27 PM PDT GRANGES-PRES-MARNAND, Switzerland (Reuters) - Two trains collided head-on in Switzerland on Monday evening, injuring about 35 people, five seriously, police said. The driver of one of the trains was still unaccounted for and thought to be inside the wreckage, at Granges-près-Marnand in the canton of Vaud, police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said. "These are regional trains. The speeds are a little lower and even if one deeply regrets the likely loss of life of one person as well as five serious injuries, the situation could have been much more catastrophic," Sauterel said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Quebec orders MMA Railway, World Fuel to pay for crash cleanup Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:27 PM PDT  By Louise Egan OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Quebec government has ordered the rail and fuel companies involved in a devastating train crash that killed 47 people in the town of Lac Megantic to pay for cleaning up the crude oil that spilled in the town and surrounding lakes and rivers. Quebec Environment Minister Yves-Francois Blanchet invoked powers under a provincial law on Monday to force the companies to take financial responsibility for fixing environmental damage. "The citizens of Quebec are not the ones that will have to pay for this," Blanchet said in a televised news conference. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisia says eight soldiers killed near Algeria border Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:24 PM PDT  TUNIS (Reuters) - Eight Tunisian soldiers were killed by militants near the Algerian border on Monday, the president's office said, in what appeared to be one of the biggest attacks on the country's security forces in decades. The incident occurred in the remote area of Mount Chaambi, where Tunisian troops have been trying to track down Islamist militants since December last year. (Reporting by Erika Solomon; editing by Mike Collett-White) Full Story | Top |
| Kerry seeks 'reasonable compromises' in Israeli-Palestinian talks Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:15 PM PDT By Arshad Mohammed and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Monday for Israel and the Palestinians to make "reasonable compromises" for peace as he prepared to preside over their first direct negotiations in nearly three years. "It is no secret this is a difficult process. If it were easy, it would have happened a long time ago," Kerry said with his newly named envoy for Israeli-Palestinian peace, former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, at his side. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House condemns Egyptian violence, killing of protesters Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:06 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Monday condemned violence in Egypt that led to the killing of scores of demonstrators at the weekend but said it had taken no steps to suspend U.S. military assistance to the Arab world's most populous nation. "The United States strongly condemns the violence and bloodshed in Cairo and Alexandria over the weekend that claimed the lives of scores of Egyptian demonstrators," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a briefing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt sides defiant as EU envoy seeks compromise Monday, Jul 29, 2013 02:03 PM PDT By Maggie Fick and Matt Robinson CAIRO (Reuters) - Europe's top diplomat pressed Egypt's rulers on Monday to step back from a growing confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi, two days after 80 of his supporters were gunned down in Cairo. Raising the prospect of more bloodshed, the Brotherhood said it would march again on Monday evening towards a military intelligence headquarters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisia announces three days of mourning for slain soldiers: TV Monday, Jul 29, 2013 01:39 PM PDT  TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's president announced three days of mourning for 8 soldiers killed in an ambush attack by militants, state television said. Tunisian television cut regular programming and broadcast Quranic verses and patriotic songs, and announced that President Moncef Marzouki would address the nation shortly. (Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) Full Story | Top |
| Former U.S. President Carter has no plans to visit North Korea: aide Monday, Jul 29, 2013 01:29 PM PDT  WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - A representative for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter denied reports on Monday that he was planning to visit North Korea soon to try to win the release of an American citizen being held in the reclusive nation. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that Carter, 88, would be visiting soon to urge the release of Kenneth Bae, who was sentenced in May for committing crimes against North Korea. Deanna Congileo, a spokeswoman at the Carter Center in Atlanta, said that is not the case. ... Full Story | Top |
| Assad's forces kill 12 rebels taking flour from mill: activist Monday, Jul 29, 2013 01:19 PM PDT AMMAN (Reuters) - At least 12 rebel fighters were killed on Monday as they were taking flour from a mill on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, opposition activists said, in their latest setback at the hands of forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. The rebels had only just captured the mill on the Damascus Airport road following a battle that lasted several hours, in the hope that they could relieve a food shortage caused by a siege of the area by loyalist forces for the last two months. ... Full Story | Top |
| Islamist party office attacked as Libya violence persists Monday, Jul 29, 2013 01:08 PM PDT  By Ghaith Shennib and Feras Bosalum TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Assailants attacked an Islamist party office in Tripoli on Monday and a soldier was killed in fighting in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, officials said, in an escalation of violence following the assassination of a political activist last week. A government source confirmed Social Affairs Minister Kamila Khamis al-Mazini had publicly announced her resignation, several days after Prime Minister Ali Zeidan promised to reshuffle his cabinet to help cope with the "urgent" situation in Libya. ... Full Story | Top |
| Servant was well-treated, say lawyers for Saudi princess in U.S. trafficking case Monday, Jul 29, 2013 12:55 PM PDT  By Dana Feldman SANTA ANA (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Saudi princess accused of holding a Kenyan servant a virtual prisoner in her California home portrayed the servant on Monday as so well-treated that she had access to amenities like a spa and pool and went shopping at local malls. The 42-year-old princess is charged with bringing the woman to the United States in May, confiscating her passport and paying her $220 a month to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, while essentially holding her captive in a situation Orange County's top prosecutor likened to slavery. ... Full Story | Top |
| Newborn, pregnant women among 31 migrants drowned off Libya: UNHCR Monday, Jul 29, 2013 12:47 PM PDT ROME (Reuters) - A newborn baby and four pregnant women are among 31 migrants feared drowned off the coast of Libya after their boat suffered a puncture and sank while trying to reach southern Europe's shores, the U.N. refugee agency said on Monday. Twenty-two migrants rescued from the sea and taken to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa told the UNHCR agency that 53 people were travelling on their inflatable boat when it ran into difficulties on Friday, the third day of their journey. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill seven Tunisian soldiers near Algeria border: radio station Monday, Jul 29, 2013 12:29 PM PDT TUNIS (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead seven Tunisian soldiers near the Algerian border on Monday, according to Tunisia's Mosaique radio station. There was no word on the attack from the army, and the identity of the assailants was unclear. A similar ambush near the border on police in April was blamed on hardline Islamist militants. (Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) Full Story | Top |
| Aggressive Chinese territorial claims bring risks: U.S. general Monday, Jul 29, 2013 12:13 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aggressive moves by China to assert territorial claims run the risk of "miscalculations" but are also helping Washington strengthen ties with other countries in the region, the general who oversees U.S. air forces in the Pacific said Monday. "Being fairly aggressive runs the risk of creating the potential for miscalculation," Air Force General Herbert Carlisle told defense reporters in Washington. "That's something we think about every day. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria says army retakes Homs district from rebels Monday, Jul 29, 2013 12:04 PM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops drove insurgents from a central district of Homs on Monday, tightening their siege on remaining rebel bastions in the city, which links Damascus to the Mediterranean heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect. The military's gains in Khalidiya district follow a counter-offensive by Assad's forces, which have pushed back rebels around the Syrian capital and retaken several towns and villages near the border with Lebanon in the last few weeks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel convicts seven Arab citizens in Jewish gunman's killing Monday, Jul 29, 2013 12:03 PM PDT By Rami Amichai HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - An Israeli court convicted seven Arab citizens on Monday in connection with the mob killing in 2005 of a Jewish gunman after he went on a lethal shooting rampage on a bus in their town. While none of the men was found guilty of directly causing the death of Eden Nathan-Zaada, a 19-year-old army deserter and far-right West Bank settler, some members of Israel's Arab minority deplored the verdict as a sign of discrimination. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pope says gays should not be marginalized Monday, Jul 29, 2013 11:41 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis has said gay people should not be marginalized but integrated into society, in some of the most conciliatory remarks by a pontiff on the issue of homosexuality. In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil on Sunday night, he also said he could not judge gay priests, an emotive topic that divides Catholic opinion. But the 76-year-old Argentine did reaffirm Church teaching that homosexual acts are a sin. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian prime minister aims for December election Monday, Jul 29, 2013 11:30 AM PDT  TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's Prime Minister on Monday proposed holding fresh elections in December, and said that the Islamist-led transitional government would go on with its work despite mounting efforts to dissolve it. Ali Larayedh accused the secular opposition, which has launched widespread protests against the ruling Islamist Ennahda party, of being "coupists". "The government will continue performing its duties and it will not abandon them, not because it is keen to hold power, and we will maintain our responsibilities until the final moment," he said in televised speech. ... Full Story | Top |
| FBI arrests 150 in three days in sex-trafficking sweep Monday, Jul 29, 2013 11:08 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI arrested 150 people across the United States on charges of holding children against their will for prostitution, a three-day weekend sweep that officials on Monday called the largest-ever operation against child sex-trafficking. The suspects, whom the FBI referred to as "pimps," were arrested in 76 U.S. cities and are expected to face state and federal charges related to sex crimes and human trafficking, FBI and U.S. Justice Department officials said at a news conference. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italian bus plunges off viaduct, 38 people killed Monday, Jul 29, 2013 10:58 AM PDT  By Roberto Mignucci MONTEFORTE IRPINO, Italy (Reuters) - Thirty-eight people were killed and at least 18 injured when a bus plunged 25 meters (80 ft) off a viaduct in Italy, in the second major transport disaster in southern Europe in less than a week. Initial reports suggested that the coach was travelling at high speeds and hit four or five cars before crashing over the roadside barriers on a stretch of road near Monteforte Irpino, east of Naples, on Sunday night. There were around 50 people on board, many of them children. ... Full Story | Top |
| Islamist party office attacked as Libya violence surges Monday, Jul 29, 2013 10:53 AM PDT  By Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Assailants attacked an Islamist party office in Tripoli and a soldier was killed in fighting in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, officials said, in a wave of unrest since the killing of a political activist last week. A car later exploded in central Benghazi but the blast was minor and no-one was hurt, a security official said. The death of prominent Muslim Brotherhood critic Abdelsalam al-Mosmary, shot after leaving a Benghazi mosque on Friday, has triggered violent demonstrations and attacks on the movement's offices in Benghazi and Tripoli. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel convicts six Arab citizens in Jewish gunman's killing Monday, Jul 29, 2013 10:47 AM PDT By Rami Amichai HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - An Israeli court convicted six Arab citizens on Monday in connection with the mob killing in 2005 of a Jewish gunman after he went on a lethal shooting rampage on a bus in their town. While none of the men was found guilty of directly causing the death of Eden Nathan-Zaada, a 19-year-old army deserter and far-right West Bank settler, some members of Israel's Arab minority deplored the verdict as a sign of discrimination. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House condemns Egyptian military crackdown Monday, Jul 29, 2013 10:22 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House condemned the Egyptian military's bloody weekend crackdown on demonstrators on Monday but took no immediate steps to suspend U.S. military assistance to Egypt. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the crackdown, in which 80 people were gunned down in Cairo, sets back the process of democratization in Egypt and does not square with the interim government's pledge to swiftly return to civilian rule. ... Full Story | Top |
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