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| Russia gives Snowden asylum, Obama-Putin summit in doubt Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 08:46 PM PDT  By Timothy Heritage and Steve Holland MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia rejected U.S. pleas and granted American fugitive Edward Snowden a year's asylum on Thursday, letting the former spy agency contractor slip out of a Moscow airport after more than five weeks in limbo while angering the United States and putting in doubt a planned summit between the two nations' presidents. The United States wanted Russia to send Snowden home to face criminal charges including espionage for disclosing in June secret American internet and telephone surveillance programs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Australia boasts tourist boom, thanks to rugby Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 08:41 PM PDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia boasted the largest ever rise in visitor arrivals in June as fans of the British and Irish Lions invaded the country to watch a one-in-12 year rugby test series. In a boost to the economy that might make up for Australia losing the series, arrivals from the UK surged 68 percent in June to a record 81,400. That helped lift overall June visitor arrivals by a thumping 7.6 percent on seasonally adjusted basis to 564,100, according to data from Australian Bureau of Statistics released on Friday. That was also the highest on record and up 10 percent from June last year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan's deputy PM Aso says he won't resign over Nazi comments Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 08:17 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said on Friday he has no intention of resigning over comments he made, but were later retracted, that were interpreted as praise for Germany's Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler's rise to power. The comments by Aso, who is also finance minister and a former premier, drew criticism from a U.S.-based Jewish rights group as well as in media in South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan's World War Two militarism run deep. ... Full Story | Top |
| Federal judge dismisses states' challenge to Dodd-Frank law Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 08:10 PM PDT By Casey Sullivan (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of several sections of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, which had been brought by a group that included a small bank and 11 state attorneys general. Judge Ellen Huvelle of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the lawsuit brought last year by State National Bank of Big Springs, Texas, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the 60 Plus Association and 11 state attorneys general. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama to nominate Deborah Lee James as Air Force secretary Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 08:09 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama intends to nominate defense industry executive and former congressional aide Deborah Lee James as secretary of the U.S. Air Force, the White House said on Thursday. James heads the technology and engineering sector at Science Applications International Corp and has been an executive with the company since 2004, the White House said. She was assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs from 1993 to 1998. ... Full Story | Top |
| Accused Fort Hood gunman appears to renounce U.S. allegiance ahead of trial Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 08:08 PM PDT  By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) - Accused Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan released several pages of documents to Fox News on Thursday, days before his court-martial is slated to begin, in which says he wishes to renounce his U.S. citizenship and military oath. Hasan, an American-born Muslim and U.S. Army major, is charged with opening fire on the Army post in Texas in November 2009, killing 13 soldiers and wounding 32 people. He is acting as his own attorney in his court-martial, scheduled to begin at the base on August 6. If convicted he could face execution or life in prison without ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to close some embassies Sunday for security reasons Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 07:56 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. embassies that would normally be open this Sunday - including those in Abu Dhabi, Baghdad and Cairo - will be closed that day because of unspecified security concerns, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday. CBS News reported that the embassy closings were tied to U.S. intelligence about an al Qaeda plot against U.S. diplomatic posts in the Middle East and other Muslim countries. CBS said the intelligence did not mention a specific location. "The Department of State has instructed certain U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon downplays prospects of cancelling F-35, bomber Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 07:13 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Thursday downplayed concerns it could cancel the F-35 fighter and a new stealth bomber, after leaked documents from a budget review suggested the programs might be eliminated as one way to deal with deep budget cuts. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday that finding $500 billion in budget cuts required by law over the next decade, on top of $487 billion in cuts already being implemented, required tough trade-offs between the size of the military and high-end weapons programs. ... Full Story | Top |
| France to cut military staff by 12 percent in six-year budget Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 07:05 PM PDT  By Patrick Vignal and Alexandria Sage PARIS (Reuters) - France will cut nearly 34,000 military personnel under a proposed six-year defence budget to be unveiled on Friday, as government belt-tightening and a desire for more nimble forces alters the makeup of Europe's second-largest army. Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will present the 190 billion euro ($251 billion) budget in a cabinet meeting. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian union gives government one week to step down Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:57 PM PDT  TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's powerful union federation said on Friday that the embattled Islamist-led government had one week to reach a deal for creating a new technocrat government, otherwise it will be "forced to consider" other options. The 600,000-strong Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) has been trying to mediate between the ruling Ennahda party and the secular opposition, which is demanding the government's ouster as well as the dissolution of a transitional Constituent Assembly that is only weeks away from completing the country's new draft constitution. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Senate confirms White, Stein, Piwowar to serve on SEC Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:55 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed President Barack Obama's choices of Mary Jo White, Kara Stein and Michael Piwowar as members of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Senate unanimously approved the nominees. White has been serving as chair of the SEC since April and with Thursday's Senate vote, she will be able to continue as a commissioner until mid-2019. Stein is an aide to Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a senior member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. She replaces SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Senate confirms Obama's head of Joint Chiefs of Staff Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:52 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Army General Martin Dempsey to a second term as President Barack Obama's chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The action came a week after Republican Senator John McCain dropped his hold on the nomination when Dempsey, at McCain's request, spelled out possible U.S. military options in Syria. Dempsey wrote that U.S. forces could undertake a range of missions to help Syrian rebels, from training to establishing no-fly zones and conducting limited attacks on military targets. ... Full Story | Top |
| Texas withdraws subpoena for tweets on new abortion law Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:50 PM PDT By Marice Richter DALLAS (Reuters) - The Texas Department of Public Safety said on Thursday it had withdrawn a subpoena for information from Twitter regarding two tweets about conservative Texas lawmakers, including Governor Rick Perry, and the passage of restrictive abortion regulations. The department had sought information, documents and records related to the Twitter accounts of Denise Romano of Austin and Michael Mayer of New York in an investigation into their tweets between July 17 and 19, the day before and after Perry signed the abortion bill into law. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senate confirms Furman as Obama chief economic adviser Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:49 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jason Furman, who helped create the $800 billion economic stimulus package that dominated much of President Barack Obama's first year in office, won Senate confirmation on Thursday as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Furman will replace Alan Krueger, who took leave as a professor from Princeton University to hold the Cabinet-level post. The council advises the president on domestic and international economic policy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama nominates Senate aide for FCC Republican commissioner Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:32 PM PDT By Jeff Mason and Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to nominate Senate aide Michael O'Rielly to fill the second Republican seat on the Federal Communications Commission, the White House said on Thursday, bringing the agency closer to operating at full capacity. The Senate has yet to confirm Democrat Tom Wheeler as the FCC's chairman and Senate Republicans have indicated they wanted to wait for O'Rielly's nomination to pair the two for a confirmation vote after the chamber returns from an August recess in September. ... Full Story | Top |
| Detroit slashes pay for some police, firefighter unions Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:31 PM PDT  By Joseph Lichterman DETROIT (Reuters) - About 1,200 Detroit police lieutenants and sergeants and about 400 Detroit firefighters will see a 10 percent pay cut in their paychecks on September 16, a spokesman for Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr said on Thursday. The city informed the Detroit Police Lieutenants and Sergeants Association (LSA) and the Detroit Firefighters Association of the pay cut along with a reduction in benefits on Wednesday. The Detroit Police Lieutenants and Sergeants Association's contract was slated to be terminated on July 6, but the city extended the contract for 30 days. ... Full Story | Top |
| Florida clinic in baseball scandal subject of U.S. probe: lawyer Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:14 PM PDT  By David Adams MIAMI (Reuters) - The Florida anti-aging clinic at the center of a doping scandal involving Major League Baseball players, including New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, is under federal investigation for selling controlled substances to high school students and other athletes, according to the lawyer for a whistleblower in the case. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Icahn sues Dell in latest attempt to foil buyout Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:11 PM PDT  By Poornima Gupta (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn sued Dell Inc and its board on Thursday, his latest attempt to derail a $24.4 billion buyout bid by the computer maker's founder and CEO Michael Dell. Icahn asked a court to block rule changes Michael Dell has proposed ahead of a shareholder vote set for Friday. Icahn and his affiliates also want the court to stop Dell from changing the record date by which shareholders must have purchased their shares in order to vote. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. shutdown battle begins as Republicans kill spending measure Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:10 PM PDT  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A battle in Congress expected this fall over the budget and a potential government shutdown broke out early on Thursday as Republicans in the Senate effectively killed a $54 billion spending bill for transportation and housing projects. All but one Republican voted against the measure, denying it the 60 votes it needed to advance past a procedural hurdle. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama open to making changes to surveillance, lawmakers say Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:07 PM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday told lawmakers he is open to changing controversial surveillance programs in order to restore public confidence and provide assurance the government is not violating citizens' privacy, participants at the meeting said. "We understand the American people really do need to know what's going on now and what's going on in the past and get the right kind of assurances that their privacy has not been breached," said Senator Saxby Chambliss, who attended the meeting. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian army, militants clash near Algerian border: sources Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 06:02 PM PDT TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian troops exchanged fire with militants near the Algerian border on Thursday, security sources said, three days after gunmen killed eight soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks in decades on the country's security forces. Soldiers had been doing security sweeps since Monday in Mount Chaambi, a remote area where the army has been trying to track down Islamist militants since last December. A resident in the nearby town of Kasserine told Reuters by telephone he could hear heavy gunfire on the mountain. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon officials press Congress for more time on budget cuts Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 05:47 PM PDT  By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A day after the Pentagon outlined the stark choices it confronts due to looming budget cuts in coming years, top defense officials pressed Congress to give them the time and flexibility to make the reductions without undermining security. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned lawmakers on Thursday that the Pentagon could not hit its budget targets under the law in the next few years without "drastic measures that are not strategically or managerially sound," like grounding aircraft or putting employees on unpaid leave as was done this year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Judge tosses out Goldman ruling, points to arbitrator Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 05:32 PM PDT By Suzanne Barlyn (Reuters) - A federal judge late on Thursday tossed out a securities arbitration ruling against an investor who sought to recoup $1.4 million from Goldman Sachs Group Inc , citing an arbitrator's failure to fully disclose his involvement in an unrelated criminal proceeding, according to a court opinion. Judge J. Curtis Joyner of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama taps former Fed economist as policy advisor Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 05:14 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has chosen a former Federal Reserve economist for a senior economic policy post, the White House said in a statement on Thursday. Obama said he plans to name Karen Dynan to be assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy. The job requires Senate confirmation. Dynan left the Federal Reserve in 2009 after 17 years with the central bank, where she principally worked as a researcher and senior adviser. Since 2009, Dynan has been a co-director of the Brookings Institution's Economic Studies team which examines national economic policy issues. ... Full Story | Top |
| Texas is running out of execution drug pentobarbital Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 05:03 PM PDT By Jim Forsyth SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas, the state with the highest execution rate in the country, is running out of a sedative used in its three-drug cocktail for lethal injections for the second time in 13 months, a state official said on Thursday. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark confirmed that the state's supply of pentobarbital, which has been used in the execution of condemned killers in the state since July 2012, will reach its expiration date in September. ... Full Story | Top |
| Principal Financial targets big banks in Libor lawsuit Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:54 PM PDT (Reuters) - Principal Financial Group Inc , a large asset management and insurance company, on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit accusing nearly 30 defendants, more than half of which are banks, of rigging global benchmark interest rates. The lawsuit claims that the defendants conspired to depress the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), a rate at the heart of hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial products, from August 2007 to May 2010. Principal said this caused it to earn less money from Libor-linked investments than if the price-fixing did not occur. ... Full Story | Top |
| Retiree healthcare gap to burden U.S. states, cities: economists Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:54 PM PDT  By Hilary Russ (Reuters) - U.S. state and local governments have about $1 trillion of unfunded retiree healthcare liabilities, a shortfall that is expected to pressure budgets in the near future even more than pension costs, two Federal Reserve Board of Governors senior economists said on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
| SEC wins as ex-Goldman executive Tourre found liable for fraud Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:30 PM PDT  By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A jury found former Goldman Sachs Group Inc vice president Fabrice Tourre liable for fraud for his role in a failed mortgage deal that cost investors $1 billion, in a big victory for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Tourre was found liable on six of seven counts by a Manhattan federal jury in the SEC's highest-profile trial to spill out of its investigations into causes of the 2008 financial crisis. "We are gratified by the jury's verdict," said Andrew Ceresney, co-director of the regulator's enforcement division. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama to nominate Deborah Lee James secretary of Air Force Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:29 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama intends to nominate business executive Deborah Lee James as secretary of the U.S. Air Force, the White House said on Thursday. James is president of the Technology and Engineering Sector at Science Applications International Corporation and has been an executive with the company since 2004, the White House said. She was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs from 1993 to 1998. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi conviction leaves Italian government hanging Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:25 PM PDT  By Roberto Landucci ROME (Reuters) - A ruling by Italy's supreme court upholding a tax fraud conviction against former premier and center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi has left the fate of the country's fragile ruling coalition resting in the balance. Just three months after center-left Prime Minister Enrico Letta took office at the head of an uneasy coalition with Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (PDL), Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, is again mired in uncertainty. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama praises Yemeni leader, makes no mention of Guantanamo Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:19 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama praised Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi for his work combating terrorism but made no mention of efforts to repatriate detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison in public remarks at the White House on Thursday. Hadi met Obama in the Oval Office a day after he tried to persuade U.S. senators to send home dozens of Yemeni detainees held at the controversial U.S. facility in Cuba. ... Full Story | Top |
| Long Island woman says cooking searches stirred suspicion Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:17 PM PDT By Edith Honan NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Long Island writer struggling to find a better way to cook lentils was visited by law enforcement agents after she and her husband ran Google searches on pressure cookers and backpacks, she wrote in a blog post. Those items were a deadly combination on April 15 at the Boston Marathon, when two brothers planted pressure cookers filled with explosives hidden in backpacks near the finish line, setting off blasts that killed three people and injured nearly 300 - in some cases, severing limbs. For Michele Catalano, who wrote about her experience on the Medium. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House: Obama to nominate CFTC, FCC commissioners Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:17 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to nominate J. Christopher Giancarlo as a commissioner for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Michael P. O'Rielly as a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission, the White House said on Thursday. (Reporting by Jeff Mason) Full Story | Top |
| NIESR raises UK growth forecasts as consumers spend more Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 04:04 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - More spending by Britain's consumers suggests the economy will grow faster than previously thought this year and in 2014, a leading macroeconomic think tank said on Friday. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) revised up its economic growth forecasts for both 2013 and 2014 by 0.3 percentage points to 1.2 percent this year and 1.8 percent next year. After posting meagre growth of just 0.2 percent in 2012, Britain's economy expanded by 0.3 percent in the first three months of this year from the previous three months, and by 0. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. official challenges claim that Obamacare hurts workers Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:55 PM PDT  By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. healthcare official on Thursday challenged claims by Republican lawmakers that the country's healthcare reform law is causing workers to lose hours or benefits, saying she is aware of only isolated cutbacks. At a stormy House of Representatives committee hearing, Marilyn Tavenner, who heads the Medicare and Medicaid programs, said she has found only anecdotal evidence of employers reducing work hours or benefits because of worries about President Barack Obama's landmark reforms, which take effect on January 1. "I am out there. I am listening. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bank of America expects civil charges over mortgage bonds Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:49 PM PDT  (Reuters) - The Justice Department intends to file civil charges against Bank of America Corp linked to a sale of one or two mortgage bonds, the bank said on Thursday in a regulatory filing. The Securities and Exchange Commission may also file civil charges for one of those bonds, the bank said. Both cases relate to mortgages that were too big to be guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, but were packaged into "jumbo" mortgage bonds. The filing did not specify what the cases were about. A Bank of America spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian army clashes with militants: residents Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:48 PM PDT TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian troops exchanged fire with militants near the Algerian border on Thursday night, a resident said, three days after gunmen killed eight soldiers in one of the deadliest attacks in decades on the country's security forces. Soldiers had been doing security sweeps since Monday in Mount Chaambi, a remote area where the army has been trying to track down Islamist militants since December last year. A resident in the nearby town of Kasserine told Reuters by telephone he could hear heavy intermediate gunfire on the mountain. A Tunisian security source confirmed the attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico president to present energy reform next week Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:48 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Thursday his sweeping energy reform, which is expected to include constitutional changes to lure private investment and boost output, will be presented to Congress next week. The energy reform is a key plank of a wider economic overhaul designed to boost growth in Latin America's No. 2 economy to 6 percent a year, create jobs and lower energy costs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gay California Catholic teacher's firing sparks online petition Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:47 PM PDT By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Catholic teacher's claim that he was fired after marrying his gay partner soon after same-sex marriage was made legal in California has prompted a Web-based push to see him reinstated. The petition drive in support of English instructor Ken Bencomo on the website of social advocacy group Change.org has gathered over 9,000 signatures from his former students and people as far away as Spain since it was launched earlier this week. The high school teacher and his partner were among a wave of same-sex couples who married after a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama speaks with Palestinians' Abbas, Israel's Netanyahu Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 03:46 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama spoke separately by phone on Thursday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, as the United States seeks to keep up the momentum for peace negotiations. The calls came days after Israeli and Palestinian negotiators broke a three-year lull in talks and met in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. ... Full Story | Top |
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