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| Amazon's Bezos to buy the Washington Post for $250 million Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:10 PM PDT  By Jennifer Saba (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos will buy the Washington Post newspaper for $250 million in a surprise deal that ends the Graham family's 80 years of ownership and hands one of the country's most influential publications to the businessman whose Internet company has transformed retailing. Bezos, hailed by many as technology visionary, called his acquisition a personal endeavor and reassured employees and readers of the 135-year-old newspaper he will preserve its journalistic tradition, while driving innovation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Three killed in shooting at government building in Pennsylvania Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:46 PM PDT (Reuters) - Three people were killed and three wounded when gunfire erupted on Monday at a public meeting in a government building in rural Pennsylvania, with police arresting the suspected shooter shortly after the rampage, police said. Rockne Newell, 59, was arrested in connection with the shooting in Ross Township in the Pocono Mountains region of Pennsylvania, state police Captain Edward Hoke said at a press conference. Police said Newell may have been shot in the leg during the incident but could not confirm his condition. ... 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 |
| Sony rejects Loeb's proposal to spin off entertainment unit Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:26 PM PDT  By Mari Saito TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp on Tuesday rejected a proposal from activist shareholder Daniel Loeb to spin off part of its entertainment business, arguing it could still squeeze synergies from its marriage of content and hardware while promising greater disclosure. Sony's decision could end a three-month effort by Loeb's Third Point LLC hedge fund to convince the company to sell as much as a fifth of its money-making entertainment arm - movies, TV and music - to free up cash to revive the electronics business. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rodriguez among 13 players suspended by MLB Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:51 PM PDT  By Julian Linden NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez was suspended for a record 211 games on Monday for his involvement in one of American sport's biggest doping scandals. Another 12 players, including three All Stars, were handed 50-game suspensions following a Major League Baseball investigation into a Florida clinic accused of supplying them with performance enhancing drugs. ... 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Rodriguez among 13 players suspended by MLB Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:40 PM PDT  By Julian Linden NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alex Rodriguez, baseball's highest-paid player and one of the sport's greatest hitters, was suspended for a record 211 games on Monday for his involvement in one of American sport's biggest doping scandals. Another 12 players, including three Major League Baseball All-Stars, were handed 50-game suspensions following a long investigation into links between star players and a Florida clinic accused of supplying them with performance enhancing drugs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans Monday, Aug 05, 2013 12:17 PM PDT  By John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges. ... Full Story | Top |
| Two killed, five wounded in shooting in Central California Monday, Aug 05, 2013 01:06 PM PDT By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A gunman fired into a crowd during a fight outside a California taco restaurant early on Monday, killing two people and wounding five others, police said. The shooting erupted during a fight between several people that began inside the Tacos Choice restaurant in Salinas, about 100 miles south of San Francisco, and spilled outside into the parking lot, Salinas Police Commander David Shaw said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dozens dead, stranded after flash floods in Afghanistan, Pakistan Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:22 AM PDT  KABUL (Reuters) - Flash floods caused by unusually heavy rain across Afghanistan and Pakistan killed more than 160 people and stranded villagers in remote areas without shelter, food or power in one of South Asia's worst natural disasters this year, officials said on Monday. Mountainous Afghanistan was the worst hit, with 61 people killed and about 500 traditional mud-brick homes washed away in more than a dozen villages in Sarobi, a rural district less than an hour from the national capital, Kabul, officials said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Amazon founder Bezos to buy the Washington Post Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:36 PM PDT  By Jennifer Saba (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos will buy the Washington Post newspaper for $250 million in a surprise deal that ends the Graham family's 80-year ownership and hands one of the country's most influential publications to the tech entrepreneur. Bezos, hailed by many as a visionary who helped transform Internet retail, called his acquisition a personal endeavor and reassured Post employees and readers he will preserve the paper's journalistic tradition, while driving innovation. ... 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 |
| Drop in jobless rate puts Fed closer to end of QE3: Fed's Fisher Monday, Aug 05, 2013 11:52 AM PDT  By Ann Saphir PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is nearer to dialing back its massive bond-buying program after the unemployment rate dropped last month, a top Fed official said on Monday, the second to make that point in as many trading days. A stalwart opponent of the Fed's current third round of quantitative easing, or QE3, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said he personally would have liked to start trimming the program some time ago. "I am of the opinion that unless we see some disturbing data... ... Full Story | Top |
| Fonterra CEO apologizes, sees China dairy curbs lifted within days Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:54 AM PDT  By Gyles Beckford and Megha Rajagopalan WELLINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - Fonterra, the world's leading exporter of dairy products, apologized on Monday for a milk powder contamination scare in China that risks tainting New Zealand's reputation for food safety. The company said at the weekend it found bacteria that could cause food poisoning in some products. Contaminated whey protein concentrate had been sold to China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Saudi Arabia and used in products including infant milk powder and sports drinks, it said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Merkel party worries good polls won't help on election day Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:45 AM PDT  By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives are worried that strong mid-summer opinion poll numbers may be overstating their strength for a September 22 election after they suffered nasty surprises twice before, their campaign manager said on Monday. Presenting a first batch of "feel-good" posters featuring giant pictures of smiling Germans that will blanket the country, campaign manager Hermann Groehe said he expects the race to tighten in the final seven weeks as it did in 2005 and 2009. ... Full Story | Top |
| Threat of Italy government crisis recedes, for now Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:55 AM PDT  By Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - The threat of an Italian government crisis following former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's tax fraud conviction receded on Monday, but the situation remains volatile and could erupt again after the summer break. The supreme court's decision on Thursday to confirm a four-year jail sentence for Berlusconi, commuted to one year, sparked severe tensions between his center-right party and the center left of Prime Minister Enrico Letta, partners in a shaky government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Former Turkish army head jailed for life over conspiracy Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:41 AM PDT  By Ayla Jean Yackley and Ceyda Caglayan SILIVRI, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish court on Monday jailed a former military chief for life and imprisoned scores of other senior figures, in a coup plot trial that helped bring the once all-powerful military to heel while alienating a secularist old order. Retired military chief of staff General Ilker Basbug was sentenced to life for his role in the "Ergenekon" conspiracy to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Japan nuclear body says radioactive water at Fukushima an 'emergency' Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:38 AM PDT  By Antoni Slodkowski and Mari Saito TOKYO (Reuters) - Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an "emergency" that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country's nuclear watchdog said on Monday. This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) task force, told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: How France's Hollande plans to win his bet on jobs Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:07 AM PDT  By Mark John and Emmanuel Jarry PARIS (Reuters) - Defying all predictions by the IMF, the European Commission and the bulk of private economists, President Francois Hollande is still banking on a turnaround in French unemployment by the end of the year. Not only that, he has upped the stakes by making it the top political priority of his Socialist government. "I will be judged on it," he told the nation in a Bastille Day television interview last month. ... Full Story | Top |
| WikiLeaks case harms U.S. diplomacy, Manning sentencing told Monday, Aug 05, 2013 01:33 PM PDT  By Tom Ramstack FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - U.S. soldier Bradley Manning's leaks of classified government files had a "chilling effect" on foreign relations, impeding U.S. diplomats' ability to gather information, a senior State Department official testified on Monday. The unauthorized releases made foreign diplomats, business leaders and other information sources "reticent to provide their full and frank opinions and share them with us," Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: UK's Cameron aims to erase EU goal of 'ever closer union' Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 10:55 PM PDT  By Paul Taylor LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's long-running political civil war over Europe is as much about symbols as it is about substance. So advisers to Prime Minister David Cameron are looking for one or two symbolic trophies he can claim in a renegotiation of the European Union's treaty before he asks Britons to support continued membership in a referendum promised for 2017. ... Full Story | Top |
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