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| L.A.'s Venice Beach community mourns after deadly car rampage Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:14 PM PDT  By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The seaside community of Venice Beach on Monday mourned an Italian woman who was killed there on her honeymoon and 11 other people who were injured when a man plowed a car through a crowd of weekend revelers at the boardwalk. Police said they arrested Nathan Campbell, 38, a transient with no strong ties to Southern California, late Saturday and booked him on suspicion of murder. He could face formal charges as early as Tuesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Video from Asiana crash rescue effort shows girl overlooked: report Monday, Aug 05, 2013 07:45 PM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A video obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper shows that the supervisor directing the firefighting effort at an airport crash site was not told that a teenage girl was on the ground until after she was mistakenly run over and killed by a fire truck, the paper said on Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan $80 billion public fund may shift funds to stocks from bonds: sources Monday, Aug 05, 2013 07:36 PM PDT  By Chikafumi Hodo TOKYO (Reuters) - The pension fund for Japan's civil servants is considering changing its ultraconservative investment strategy to allow more of its $80 billion to go into stocks and less into domestic government bonds, people familiar with the matter said. The move by the Federation of National Public Service Personnel Mutual Aid Associations, which covers 1.24 million active and retired public servants, follows a shift towards riskier investments by Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, the world's biggest pension fund with $1.2 trillion in assets. ... Full Story | Top |
| NZ worries about China dairy bans as Fonterra hit by more recalls Monday, Aug 05, 2013 07:10 PM PDT  By Naomi Tajitsu WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Dairy giant Fonterra was hit by fresh infant formula recalls in China and Hong Kong on Tuesday, while New Zealand's government fretted that the widening contamination scare would prompt China to extend a ban on whey protein powder to other dairy products. Government officials rapped Fonterra, the world's biggest dairy exporter, for dragging its feet in identifying whey protein products containing a bacteria which can potentially cause botulism. ... Full Story | Top |
| Shrunken workforce gives Fed added policy headroom Monday, Aug 05, 2013 06:18 PM PDT  By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - So many workers have left the job market in recent years that the decline in the official unemployment rate to 7.4 percent last month may understate the extent of weakness in employment prospects. This gives Federal Reserve officials considerable room to keep interest rates near zero, potentially well beyond current expectations of rate increases beginning in 2015. ... Full Story | Top |
| Utah beauty queen among teens accused of throwing homemade bombs Monday, Aug 05, 2013 05:46 PM PDT By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - An 18-year-old Utah hometown beauty pageant winner was among four people arrested on suspicion of throwing homemade bombs at houses in a Salt Lake City suburb over the weekend, authorities said on Monday. Beauty queen Kendra Gill, crowned Miss Riverton in June, and three other 18-year-olds were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of detonating incendiary devices during a bomb-throwing spree that began on Friday night, Unified Fire Authority Captain Clint Mecham said. "This wasn't just like kids blowing up a mailbox," he said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Florida governor plans to resume voter purge effort Monday, Aug 05, 2013 05:44 PM PDT  MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott is planning a new effort to purge non-U.S. citizens from the state's voter rolls, a move that last year prompted a series of legal challenges and claims from critics his administration was trying to intimidate minority voters. Voter protection groups identified a number of errors in the state's attempt to identify people who are not American citizens on Florida's voter lists months ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November 2012. The search also sparked several lawsuits, including one by the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama returns to Arizona to tout broad U.S. housing recovery Monday, Aug 05, 2013 05:05 PM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With vacant, half-built residential developments that gathered dust after the Great Recession, the U.S. Southwest once symbolized the 2008-2012 housing bust that wiped out $7 trillion in homeowner equity and wrecked the finances of many Americans. But as housing stages a recovery around the United States, including the hard-hit Sun Belt, President Barack Obama goes back to the region on Tuesday to claim some of the credit while urging further action to keep the housing winning streak alive. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama to back mortgage finance reform to speed housing recovery Monday, Aug 05, 2013 05:03 PM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal and Margaret Chadbourn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will propose overhauling the U.S. mortgage finance system in a speech on Tuesday, weighing in on a tangled and polarizing problem that was central to the devastating financial crisis in 2007-2009 and that continues to slow the economic recovery, the White House said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Penn State officials plead not guilty to Sandusky cover-up charges Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:51 PM PDT  By Daniel Kelley PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - The trio of former Penn State administrators accused of covering up Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in court papers filed on Monday. The university's former president, Graham Spanier, 65; former athletic director, Tim Curley, 59; and former senior vice president, Gary Schultz, 63, waived their right to appear at a formal arraignment in September on charges including endangering the welfare of children, obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Florida executes mass murderer said by lawyers to be mentally ill Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:49 PM PDT  By David Adams MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man who has spent 35 years on death row for killing eight people was executed on Monday despite a last-minute appeal by lawyers claiming he was insane. John Errol Ferguson, 65, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1978 for a pair of killing sprees, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. EDT from lethal injection, said Misty Cash, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections. Hours before his execution, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Ferguson a stay of execution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda intercept is just one piece of threat intelligence: U.S. sources Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:41 PM PDT  By Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Intercepted communication between al Qaeda leaders was one component of a broader pool of intelligence that prompted a threat alert closing numerous U.S. embassies in the Middle East and Africa, U.S. sources said on Monday. The New York Times reported that the closure of the embassies was the result of intercepted electronic communications between Ayman al-Zawahri, who replaced Osama bin Laden as head of al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of Yemen-based affiliate al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Steward trampled by horse during League Cup tie Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:29 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - A steward was taken to hospital with a shoulder injury on Monday after being trampled by a police horse following a pitch invasion at the end of a League Cup tie between Preston and Blackpool. The BBC reported that after Preston beat Blackpool 1-0, the steward was trying to clear fans off the playing area at Deepdale when he was knocked down by a police horse and he was clipped again while lying on the ground by another horse. ... Full Story | Top |
| San Diego Mayor enters therapy amid sexual harassment allegations Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:29 PM PDT  By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - San Diego's mayor, facing mounting pressure to resign over sexual harassment allegations from nearly a dozen women, entered an intensive therapy program on Monday, a spokeswoman said. As Mayor Bob Filner, a Democrat, prepared over the weekend to begin his treatment, a tenth woman came forward to accuse him of inappropriate behavior, saying the 70-year-old mayor had asked her out during a political event in June. "He took me by the hand and said, 'You are so beautiful I cannot take my eyes off of you," Renee Estill-Sombright told a Fox News station. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Carolina governor signs law for tougher abortion clinic rules Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:25 PM PDT By Karen Brooks (Reuters) - North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed into law on Monday new requirements for clinics performing abortions that supporters say will protect women's safety and opponents say will restrict access to the procedure. The new law places sweeping new restrictions on abortion clinics, including a requirement doctors be present when abortions are performed. It also bans publicly funded health insurance programs from paying for most abortions, and authorizes state health officials to design rules for increased safety standards for abortion clinics. ... Full Story | Top |
| Judge blocks one restriction on Wisconsin abortion doctors Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:23 PM PDT (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday blocked a portion of a Wisconsin law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital near their practice. U.S. District Judge William Conley last month temporarily stopped the measure, days after Republican Governor Scott Walker signed it into law, and his latest ruling extends that indefinitely while a lawsuit proceeds against the provision. ... Full Story | Top |
| Soccer-Steward trampled by horse during League Cup tie Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:19 PM PDT LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A steward was taken to hospital with a shoulder injury on Monday after being trampled by a police horse following a pitch invasion at the end of a League Cup tie between Preston and Blackpool. The BBC reported that after Preston beat Blackpool 1-0, the steward was trying to clear fans off the playing area at Deepdale when he was knocked down by a police horse and he was clipped again while lying on the ground by another horse. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to review DEA unit that hides use of intel in crime cases Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:16 PM PDT  By John Shiffman and David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department is reviewing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit that passes tips culled from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a large telephone database to field agents, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. Reuters reported Monday that agents who use such tips are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively conceal the DEA unit's involvement from defense lawyers, prosecutors and even judges, a policy many lawyers said could violate a defendant's right to a fair trial. ... Full Story | Top |
| Detroit launches two-month review of city assets Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:10 PM PDT  By Joseph Lichterman and Deepa Seetharaman DETROIT (Reuters) - Detroit will begin to assess the value of its assets, including parking meters, real estate, and a portion of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) collection, in what the city called a "necessary part" of its restructuring efforts. The city said on Monday it has hired famed auction house Christie's to appraise the city-owned portion of the DIA's 60,000-piece collection as well as advise Detroit officials on how to realize value for the art without selling it. ... Full Story | Top |
| Anorexic girls also have autistic traits, study finds Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:10 PM PDT By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists studying girls with the eating disorder anorexia have found they show a mild echo of the characteristics of autism - a finding which could point to new ways of helping anorexics overcome their illness. A study by the leading autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen at Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre found that compared to typical girls, those with anorexia have an above-average number of autistic traits. ... Full Story | Top |
| Local renewable projects miss out on financial support - MPs Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:07 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - The government should provide more financial support to businesses, local authorities and schools to help them install renewable energy such as solar arrays and wind turbines, a parliamentary committee said on Tuesday. The government currently supports small-scale renewable projects through its Feed-In Tariff (FiT) scheme. Large projects over 50 megawatts such as offshore wind are supported through so-called contracts-for-difference (CfD). ... Full Story | Top |
| One Sudanese soldier killed in clash with South Sudan Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:07 PM PDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - One Sudanese soldier was killed on Monday in a clash with troops from South Sudan after a patrol from the south crossed the border, a Sudanese military spokesman said. The spokesman, al-Sawarmi Khalid, said in a statement the clash took place after a South Sudanese patrol crossed the border and opened fire. The clash took place at Sudan's main oilfield in the border area of Heglig, north of Sudan and which although is under the authority of Sudan is also disputed with South Sudan. ... Full Story | Top |
| J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Alan Horn: who Are Hollywood's biggest political donors? Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:05 PM PDT By Ira Teinowitz LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The next big national elections may not be for another year, but Hollywood types aren't sitting on their wallets until then - Jeffrey Katzenberg, J.J. Abrams, Alan Horn, Tom Rothman and James L. Brooks are among those already donating big bucks to political organizations and candidates of their choice. The Top 20 showbiz donors have already shelled out an estimated $1.45 million collectively this year, according to an analysis provided to TheWrap from the Center for Responsive Politics. ... Full Story | Top |
| Output in emerging market economies contract in July: HSBC Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:03 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Business activity across emerging economies contracted for the first time in over four years in July, driven mainly by a drop in manufacturing while services activity stagnated, a survey showed on Tuesday. It highlighted the growing divergence between activity in the developed world and emerging economies and cast doubt on prospects for a sustained global economic recovery from the financial crisis. The composite HSBC Emerging Markets index for services and manufacturing fell to 49.4 in July from 50.6 in June and below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels capture military airport near Turkey Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:54 PM PDT  AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels captured a main military airport near the border with Turkey on Tuesday, consolidating their hold on a key supply route north of the city of Aleppo, opposition activists said. The reported capture of the Minnig Military Airport, situated on the road between Aleppo and the Turkish city of Gaziantep, after an eight-month siege, marks an important symbolic victory for the opposition, following a string of defeats to President Bashar al-Assad's forces in central Syria, the sources said. "The airport has been fully liberated. ... Full Story | Top |
| BP says found new fraud in Gulf spill payouts Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:50 PM PDT  By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - BP Plc said Monday it has discovered new evidence of fraud and conflicts of interest in the program that is paying billions of dollars to businesses and residents who claimed they were harmed by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The oil company made the disclosure in a filing with the U.S. District Court in New Orleans as part of a renewed effort to suspend payouts until a court-appointed monitor, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, finishes investigating the payout program. ... Full Story | Top |
| Whistleblower in A-Rod doping case took story to Miami weekly Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:49 PM PDT By David Adams MIAMI, Aug 5 (Reuters) - It began with an email from a disgruntled employee at a Miami-based anti-aging clinic named Biogenesis. The email, sent to a reporter at a weekly Miami newspaper, hinted at new information about baseball players using drugs. In late January, after almost four months of investigation by staffer Tim Elfrink, the Miami New Times reported that some 20 players, including New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, had purchased from the clinic substances that are banned by baseball, including human growth hormone (HGH). ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: ATK close to deal with gun accessory maker Bushnell - sources Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:37 PM PDT By Olivia Oran and Greg Roumeliotis (Reuters) - Alliant Techsystems Inc , the world's largest ammunition maker, is in advanced talks to buy Bushnell Outdoor Products Inc in a deal that could value the gun accessory maker at around $1 billion, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. A deal for Bushnell, owned by buyout firm MidOcean Partners, comes amid pressure on private equity firms to review investments in gun-related companies following the fatal shootings last December of 26 people at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. ... Full Story | Top |
| Republicans threaten boycott of debates over Clinton programs Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:23 PM PDT  By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republicans are threatening to boycott 2016 presidential debates sponsored by networks CNN and NBC unless the networks cancel plans for special programs on Democrat Hillary Clinton, a possible 2016 White House contender. In letters Monday to executives for NBC Entertainment and CNN Worldwide, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the programs amounted to political ads for Clinton, whose long public life has included serving as first lady, U.S. senator from New York and, most recently, secretary of state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chilean judge closes Pinochet embezzlement case, family not charged Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:08 PM PDT  SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A Chilean court decided on Monday not to charge any of late dictator Augusto Pinochet's family members in a long-running investigation into the origin of the general's fortune and his suspected embezzlement of public funds. The judge did charge six former members of the military who had collaborated with Pinochet in the so-called Riggs case. Pinochet was charged in 2005 with tax evasion in connection with millions of dollars he held in foreign bank accounts, which came to light after a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| FERC seeks $29 million from BP over natural gas trading Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:07 PM PDT  By Scott DiSavino (Reuters) - U.S. federal energy regulators on Monday ordered BP Plc to respond to allegations of natural gas market manipulation in Texas, threatening the energy company with fines near $29 million. The move likely sets up another major legal battle for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as it steps up policing of power and natural gas markets. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels push into Assad's Alawite mountain stronghold Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:03 PM PDT By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebel fighters armed with anti-tank missiles pushed toward President Bashar al-Assad's hometown of Qardaha on Monday, the second day of a surprise offensive in the heartland of his minority Alawite sect, opposition activists said. Forces comprising 10 mainly Islamist brigades, including two al Qaeda-linked groups, advanced south to the outskirts of the Alawite village of Aramo, 20 km (12 miles) from Qardaha, taking advantage of rugged terrain, the activists said. ... Full Story | Top |
| SEC judge rules Stanford executives are liable for fraud Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:02 PM PDT  By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a victory for federal regulators, an administrative judge has found three former executives who worked for Allen Stanford's now-defunct brokerage liable for fraud and said they should banned from the industry. The ruling comes more than a year after Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison for bilking investors through a Ponzi scheme with fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by Stanford International Bank, his bank in Antigua. ... Full Story | Top |
| New U.S. envoy to U.N. grilled on first day - by refugee students Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:56 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power faced some tough questions during her first day on the job on Monday, but they did not come from other U.N. Security Council envoys - instead she was grilled by refugee students in New York City. At the International Rescue Committee's Refugee Youth Summer Academy in downtown Manhattan, students asked Power questions ranging from how did she meet President Barack Obama to would she send troops to Afghanistan and her thoughts on communism. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spanish pedophile pardoned in Morocco arrested in Spain Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:41 PM PDT By Raquel Castillo MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested a convicted pedophile who was pardoned by Morocco's King Mohamed VI last week, a source at Spain's Interior Ministry said on Monday. Daniel Galvan Vina, who was serving a 30-year sentence in Morocco and was among 48 jailed Spaniards pardoned at the request of Spain's King Juan Carlos, was arrested in the south-eastern city of Murcia. A court source said Galvan would appear at one of Spain's top courts, the Audencia Nacional, early on Tuesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Detroit retirees win seat at table in bankruptcy filing Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:36 PM PDT By Nick Carey and Joseph Lichterman DETROIT (Reuters) - In a high-stakes hearing on Friday in Detroit's bankruptcy filing, a judge approved a city plan to form a creditors' committee of retired workers, but gave unions and pension funds that opposed the plan a measure of satisfaction by declaring an independent trustee - and not the city - will select committee members. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. military helicopter crashes in Okinawa Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:30 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. military helicopter crashed on Japan's southern island of Okinawa on Monday, U.S. Forces in Japan said, an incident that could stoke anger over the concentration of U.S. military bases on the island. The U.S. Air Force said in a statement that three of the four crew members involved in the crash were in stable condition. It said the remaining crew member had not been accounted for. There were no casualties among local residents, a Japanese official said. Video footage showed smoke rising from a fire on a remote mountainside. ... Full Story | Top |
| Teen soccer player pleads guilty in death of Utah referee Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:27 PM PDT By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - A 17-year-old soccer player in Utah, whose punch out of anger over a penalty call ultimately killed a referee, pleaded guilty to homicide on Monday and was sentenced to three years in a juvenile detention facility, prosecutors said. The teen, a goalie whose name has been withheld because of his age, became upset and punched the referee in the face after he penalized the teen for shoving an opposing player during a game in suburban Salt Lake City this past April. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's Brotherhood rejects appeal to 'swallow reality' Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:16 PM PDT  By Yasmine Saleh and Angus MacSwan CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood on Monday rejected pleas from international envoys to "swallow the reality" that Mohamed Mursi will not return as Egypt's president. The envoys from the United States and the European Union, trying to resolve a political crisis brought on by the army's overthrow of the Islamist Mursi a month ago, visited jailed Brotherhood deputy leader Khairat El-Shater in the early hours of Monday. But he cut the meeting short, saying they should be talking to Mursi, Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Audit hammers bankrupt California city's financial management Monday, Aug 05, 2013 01:56 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Many of Stockton, California's fiscal problems can be traced to poor decision-making, weak accounting and fiscal mismanagement, state controller John Chiang said on Monday. If left unaddressed, the problems will continue to "invite wasteful spending," Chiang's office said in a report released on Monday. An audit by his office found that Stockton officials should have been aware of how the cost of retiree healthcare and labor contracts would place a long-term strain on the city's finances. ... Full Story | Top |
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