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| Operator of crippled Japan nuclear plant says tank leaked contaminated water Monday, Aug 19, 2013 09:13 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said on Tuesday it believes about 300 tons of highly contaminated water has leaked from a storage tank designed to hold overflows from the site. Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has classified the leak as a level 1 incident, the second lowest, on an international scale for radiological releases, a spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistan's Musharraf indicted in Bhutto murder case Monday, Aug 19, 2013 09:03 PM PDT  RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - A court in Pakistan has formally indicted former military dictator Pervez Musharraf over his failure to prevent the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in 2007, the public prosecutor in the closely watched case said on Tuesday. "He should be tried," the prosecutor, Mohammad Azhar, told reporters after a brief hearing in the city of Rawalpindi during which the three charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and facilitation of murder were read out to Musharraf. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico left-leaning party proposes limited energy reform Monday, Aug 19, 2013 06:59 PM PDT  By David Alire Garcia MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's largest left-of-center political party has proposed a plan that would revamp state-oil monopoly Pemex, but without amending the constitution to permit more private investment in the oil, gas and electricity sectors, as the government has suggested. The proposal of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, seeks to modernize Pemex by providing it with budget and management autonomy, and create a new fund to administer the nation's energy riches. ... Full Story | Top |
| Colombia's ELN guerrillas say will release Canadian hostage in days Monday, Aug 19, 2013 06:30 PM PDT BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's ELN guerrillas said on Monday they would release in the coming days a Canadian geologist they had kidnapped in January, a step the government has set as a pre-condition before it considers inviting the rebel group to peace talks. Jernoc Wobert was seized by the ELN or National Liberation Army in Bolivar province in the north of the country along with two Peruvian and three Colombian miners all contracted by the Toronto-based gold mining company, Braeval Mining Corp. The five colleagues were later freed but Wobert was retained. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian authorities arrest Muslim Brotherhood leader Monday, Aug 19, 2013 06:08 PM PDT  By Tom Perry and Crispian Balmer CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities escalated their crackdown on deposed President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood by arresting the Islamist organization's top leader, state media reported on Tuesday. Mohamed Badie, 70, was detained at a residential apartment in Nasr City in northeast Cairo "after information came to the security apparatus locating his place of hiding," the state news agency reported. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt arrests Muslim Brotherhood leader Badie: state media Monday, Aug 19, 2013 05:44 PM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces have arrested the top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, state media reported on Tuesday, pressing a crackdown on his group. Mohamed Badie, 70, was detained at an apartment in Nasr City in northeast Cairo, the state news agency reported. "That was after information came to the security apparatus locating his place of hiding," it said. The Facebook page of the Interior Ministry was showing a picture of Badie, with dark rings under his eyes, sitting in a car between two men in black body armor, with a caption confirming his arrest. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guardian says Britain forced it to destroy Snowden material Monday, Aug 19, 2013 05:06 PM PDT  By Mark Hosenball and Pedro Fonseca WASHINGTON/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The Guardian, a major outlet for revelations based on leaks from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, says the British government threatened legal action against the newspaper unless it either destroyed the classified documents or handed them back to British authorities. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S., Russian officials to meet in The Hague on Syria Monday, Aug 19, 2013 04:24 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading diplomat from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. ambassador to Syria will meet with a Russia delegation in The Hague next week to discuss plans for a peace conference to end the civil war in Syria, a spokeswoman for the State Department said on Monday. "We have long agreed with Russia that a conference in Geneva is the best vehicle for moving towards a political solution," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a daily briefing for reporters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt security forces kill journalist after curfew starts Monday, Aug 19, 2013 04:23 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces killed the bureau chief of a provincial office of state newspaper Al-Ahram on Monday after opening fire on a car they thought had tried to escape from a checkpoint enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew, the army said in a statement. Tamer Abdel Raouf, head of Al-Ahram's bureau in Egypt's Buhayra province, was shot dead while a journalist from another state newspaper, Al Gomhuriya, was injured. Journalists are exempt from the curfew. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain forced Guardian to destroy copy of Snowden material Monday, Aug 19, 2013 04:19 PM PDT By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The editor of the Guardian, a major outlet for revelations based on leaks from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, says the British government threatened legal action against the newspaper unless it either destroyed the classified documents or handed them back to British authorities. In an article posted on the British newspaper's website on Monday, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said that a month ago, after the newspaper had published several stories based on Snowden's material, a British official advised him: "You've had your fun. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. questions Egypt prisoner deaths, Mubarak may be freed Monday, Aug 19, 2013 04:13 PM PDT  By Crispian Balmer CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court ruling has raised the prospect of freedom for deposed military strongman Hosni Mubarak, while the United States questioned Egypt's account of the deaths of dozens of Islamist detainees and called the incident "suspicious." Six weeks after the armed forces toppled President Mohamed Mursi and about a week after hundreds died when security forces broke up protests by his Muslim Brotherhood, the United States said on Monday it was still reviewing whether to freeze any of the $1.55 billion it gives Egypt in mainly military annual aid. ... Full Story | Top |
| Use of UK terror law to detain reporter's partner 'a disgrace' Monday, Aug 19, 2013 03:33 PM PDT  By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - British authorities came under pressure on Monday to explain why anti-terrorism powers were used to detain the partner of a reporter who wrote articles about U.S. and British surveillance programmes based on leaks from Edward Snowden. Brazilian David Miranda, the partner of American journalist Glenn Greenwald, was held for nine hours on Sunday at London's Heathrow Airport where he was in transit from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. He was released without charge. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N.'s Ban 'deeply disturbed' by Muslim Brotherhood deaths in Egypt Monday, Aug 19, 2013 03:28 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he was "deeply disturbed" by the deaths in custody of 37 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and condemned an ambush by Islamist militants that killed 25 Egyptian policemen. The Muslim Brotherhood supporters died on Sunday while being transferred to a prison. Government officials said they were suffocated by tear gas during an attempted escape, but the Brotherhood said the men were murdered and demanded an inquiry. ... Full Story | Top |
| Assad's forces push back rebels in Syria's Alawite mountains Monday, Aug 19, 2013 03:03 PM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian army and militia troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have pushed back a rebel offensive in the mountain heartlands of his Alawite sect, officials and activists said on Monday, after days of heavy fighting and aerial bombardment. The assault by Islamist rebels on the northern edges of the Alawite mountains overlooking the Mediterranean drove hundreds of Alawite villagers out to the coast and marked a major challenge to Assad's reassertion of power over central Syria. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. did not seek detention of Snowden journalist's partner -White House Monday, Aug 19, 2013 02:50 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials did not ask the British government to question the partner of the journalist who first reported secrets leaked by fugitive U.S. intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden, the White House said on Monday. British authorities did, however, give their U.S. counterparts a "heads up" before detaining the partner of American journalist Glenn Greenwald, Brazilian David Miranda, the White House said. "This was a decision that they made on their own, and not at the request of the United States," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a briefing. ... Full Story | Top |
| In Indian Kashmir, angry youth flirt with armed militancy Monday, Aug 19, 2013 02:34 PM PDT  By Frank Jack Daniel SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Ishfaq first threw a rock at an Indian policeman six years ago. Now he's thinking about arming himself with a gun. The 21-year-old is the human face of a trend that is worrying security sources, politicians and a rights group spoken to by Reuters - the revival of violent anti-Indian sentiment among the Kashmir Valley population just as New Delhi fears a renewed onslaught from Pakistan-based militants. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico opposition party, PRD, proposes limited energy reform Monday, Aug 19, 2013 02:28 PM PDT  By David Alire Garcia MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's largest left-of-center political party proposed a plan on Monday that would revamp state-oil monopoly Pemex, but without amending the constitution to permit more private investment in the oil, gas and electricity sectors, as the government has proposed. The proposal of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, would provide Pemex with budget and management autonomy, and create a new fund to administer the nation's energy riches. The proposal would also gradually lower the company's tax burden by 9 percent to 62. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt security forces kill journalist after curfew starts, sources say Monday, Aug 19, 2013 02:23 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces killed the bureau chief of a provincial office of state newspaper Al-Ahram on Monday after opening fire on a car they thought had tried to escape from a checkpoint enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew, security sources said. In what appeared to be an accidental shooting because journalists are exempt from the curfew, Tamer Abdel Raouf, head of Al-Ahram's bureau in Egypt's Buhayra province, was shot dead while a journalist from another state newspaper, Al Gomhuriya, was injured, according to the sources. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. panel to hear accounts of North Korean human rights abuses Monday, Aug 19, 2013 02:20 PM PDT  By Michelle Kim and Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - A U.N. panel will start hearing harrowing testimony from North Korean defectors on Tuesday in a move that will likely mobilize public opinion on abuses in the one-party state that comes at or near the bottom of most measures of freedom. There are an estimated 150,000-200,000 people in North Korean prison camps, according to independent estimates, and defectors say many inmates are malnourished or worked to death. ... Full Story | Top |
| Use of UK terror law to detain reporter's partner 'a disgrace': lawyer Monday, Aug 19, 2013 02:05 PM PDT  By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - British authorities came under pressure on Monday to explain why anti-terrorism powers were used to detain the partner of a reporter who wrote articles about U.S. and British surveillance programs based on leaks from Edward Snowden. Brazilian David Miranda, the partner of American journalist Glenn Greenwald, was held for nine hours on Sunday at London's Heathrow Airport where he was in transit from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. He was released without charge. ... Full Story | Top |
| Despite Bo's trial in China, no redress for victims of his crackdown Monday, Aug 19, 2013 02:03 PM PDT  By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - The curtain may be about to fall on China's disgraced leader Bo Xilai, but victims of the harsh brand of justice he handed out in a high-profile crime crackdown are not making any headway in their campaign for redress. Lawyers estimate there are thousands of cases demanding restitution in the foggy southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, which Bo ruled as Communist Party boss until he was dramatically sacked early last year amid lurid allegations of graft and murder. ... Full Story | Top |
| Canada Conservatives to set pre-election course in October Monday, Aug 19, 2013 01:51 PM PDT  WHITEHORSE, Yukon (Reuters) - Canada's Conservative government will most likely set out its plans for the second half of its term in October, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday as he fights to regain support lost to new Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. Harper told reporters he will seek to delay the return of Parliament from its summer break, likely until October, and start the new session with a speech to Parliament that will set out the government's new agenda. Parliament had been scheduled to resume sitting on September 16 "The No. ... Full Story | Top |
| Forty journalists, support staff killed in first half 2013: report Monday, Aug 19, 2013 01:50 PM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Forty journalists and back-up staff were killed on the job in the first half of this year and the circumstances of another 27 media deaths have yet to be clarified, a media safety group reported on Monday. Killings often occurred because of the victims' work in uncovering crime or corruption, while the highest single country total was eight - in Syria where journalists have been targeted by both government and rebel forces in the civil war there. ... Full Story | Top |
| Canada asks for new WTO review of U.S. meat labeling rules Monday, Aug 19, 2013 01:48 PM PDT (Reuters) - Canada has asked the World Trade Organization to take another look at the United States' rules for labeling meat with its country of origin, seeking to defend its livestock farmers who have lost sales to U.S. packers. Canada is requesting that the WTO form a compliance panel to review U.S. country of origin labeling rules, known as COOL, Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Ed Fast said on Monday. The move signals a new round in a dispute that could become a North American trade war. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S., China to expand military exchanges amid rows over cyber security, territory Monday, Aug 19, 2013 01:48 PM PDT  By Paul Eckert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and China agreed on Monday to expand military exchanges and exercises as part of efforts to build more stable ties, despite tensions over cyber security and East Asian territorial disputes. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan spelled out plans this year for senior American officers to visit China, counter-piracy drills in waters near Somalia and a humanitarian rescue exercise near Hawaii. ... Full Story | Top |
| Snowden journalist to publish UK secrets after Britain detains partner Monday, Aug 19, 2013 01:32 PM PDT  By Pedro Fonseca RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The journalist who first published secrets leaked by fugitive former U.S. intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden vowed on Monday to publish more documents and said Britain will "regret" detaining his partner for nine hours. British authorities used anti-terrorism laws on Sunday to detain David Miranda, partner of U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald, as he passed through London's Heathrow airport. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says Zimbabwe vote flawed, won't lift sanctions Monday, Aug 19, 2013 12:58 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States believes Zimbabwe's recent election was flawed and it doesn't plan to loosen sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government until there are signs of change in the country, the State Department said on Monday, despite an endorsement of the vote by Southern African leaders. Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is set to be sworn in as president as early as this week, extending his 33-year rule of the country after winning the July 31 election. ... Full Story | Top |
| British police detain protesters at anti-fracking demo Monday, Aug 19, 2013 12:41 PM PDT  By Sarah Young BALCOMBE, England (Reuters) - British police dispersed hundreds of protesters who blocked access to an oil exploration site in rural England on Monday in an intensification of an almost month-long standoff over the nascent shale gas extraction industry in Britain. A total of 36 people were detained, both in the village of Balcome and in London, in the first of two days of "direct action" against the drilling process known as fracking, which protesters fear may trigger small earthquakes and pollute water supplies. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. troubled by 'suspicious deaths' of Egyptian prisoners Monday, Aug 19, 2013 12:23 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department voiced deep concern on Monday about the deaths of Muslim Brotherhood prisoners while in custody in Egypt, terming them "suspicious," and made clear that it does not believe the Islamist group should be banned. "We are ... deeply troubled by the suspicious deaths of Muslim Brotherhood prisoners in a purported prison escape attempt near Cairo," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, referring to 37 supporters of ousted President Mohamed Mursi who died in disputed circumstances on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Supporters of barred Madagascar candidate threaten protests Monday, Aug 19, 2013 12:20 PM PDT  By Alain Iloniaina ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Supporters of the wife of Madagascar's deposed leader said they would take to the streets to protest against an "illegal" court ruling barring her from running in elections, threatening to bring more turmoil to the island nation. The electoral court on Saturday also banned incumbent President Andry Rajoelina from standing in the August poll - a ruling widely welcomed by Western and regional powers who say the country needs a fresh start with new candidates. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigerian army says Boko Haram leader may be dead Monday, Aug 19, 2013 12:18 PM PDT By Ibrahim Mshelizza MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - The leader of militant Islamist sect Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, may have died of gunshot wounds some weeks after a clash with soldiers, the Nigerian military said on Monday. Past reports of Shekau's death have proved false and there was no independent confirmation of the army account. In a statement, the army said that Shekau, blamed for a campaign of deadly attacks on security targets and churches across Africa's biggest oil-producing country, was hit during a gunbattle near one of his camps in the northeast on June 30. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistan PM calls for peace with India amid rising Kashmir tension Monday, Aug 19, 2013 11:44 AM PDT  By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for better relations with India in a conciliatory gesture on national television on Monday after weeks of increased military activity along the two nations' disputed border. Nawaz Sharif's words may do little to placate Indian politicians furious over the August 6 deaths of five Indian soldiers on their side of the heavily militarized Line of Control, which runs through the territory of Kashmir. "I have made better relations with India my priority. ... Full Story | Top |
| Family of Cuban dissident says files Spanish lawsuit over his death Monday, Aug 19, 2013 11:32 AM PDT  MADRID (Reuters) - The family of a prominent Cuban dissident killed in a car crash on the island last year said on Monday they had filed a lawsuit in Spain against two Cuban army officials they allege were linked to his death. Some of Oswaldo Paya's relatives have alleged that Cuban government agents ran the car off the road, though Spaniard Angel Carromero, who was driving the car, was convicted by a Cuban court last year of reckless driving in the accident. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian Kurd exodus to Iraq raises prospect of cross-border action Monday, Aug 19, 2013 11:17 AM PDT  By Suadad al-Salhy and Murad Talaat BAGHDAD/PESHKHABOUR, Iraq (Reuters) - A sudden mass influx of 30,000 Kurdish refugees from Syria into Iraq increases the likelihood that Iraq's Kurdish region will act to protect its kin across the border, an adviser to Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said on Monday. The United Nations said nearly 30,000 refugees had crossed in the past few days, making it one of the biggest single outward migrations of a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and driven millions from their homes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian lawyers call for investigation into deaths of 37 Islamists Monday, Aug 19, 2013 11:05 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian lawyers called on Monday for an international investigation into the deaths in police custody of 37 supporters of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. A coroner's report said the men died from suffocation after police used teargas to stop a mass escape on Sunday while a group of more than 600 suspects were being transported to the Abu Zabal prison on the outskirts of Cairo. Photos provided by the lawyers representing the detainees show dead bodies with charred faces and limbs and others covered in bruises which the lawyers said were signs of torture. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mubarak one step nearer to freedom after Egypt court ruling Monday, Aug 19, 2013 10:20 AM PDT By Lin Noueihed and Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian former president Hosni Mubarak, who was arrested after his overthrow in 2011, can no longer be held on a corruption charge, a court ruled on Monday, a decision his lawyer said removed one of the last obstacles to his release. Mubarak was the first leader toppled in a wave of Arab uprisings to face trial. In scenes that captivated Arabs, the man who ruled Egypt for 30 years appeared in a courtroom cage on charges ranging from corruption to complicity in the murder of protesters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Merkel cancels campaign rallies after hostage taking Monday, Aug 19, 2013 09:52 AM PDT  MUNICH (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel cancelled two election rallies in the southern German state of Bavaria on Monday after a 24-year-old man took three people hostage in Ingolstadt, one of the cities where she had been due to speak. Merkel had been due to appear in Ingolstadt and Regensburg as part of a campaign tour that will see her pass through over 50 German towns and cities ahead of a September 22 election. Bavaria is holding a regional election one week before the federal vote. The hostage-taking was ended shortly before 6 p.m. ... Full Story | Top |
| German SPD ties itself in knots over tax pledge Monday, Aug 19, 2013 09:40 AM PDT  By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's opposition Social Democrats (SPD) scrambled on Monday to contain a damaging debate over their tax hike plans as new opinion polls showed the party falling further behind Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives before next month's election. Over the weekend the party's two top leaders, chairman Sigmar Gabriel and chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck, appeared to row back on the SPD's campaign demand to raise taxes on the wealthy, saying the hikes could later be reversed if a planned crackdown on tax evaders proved successful. ... Full Story | Top |
| More than 20 rescued after coal ship runs aground off South Africa Monday, Aug 19, 2013 09:38 AM PDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - More than 20 crew members were rescued by helicopter from a cargo ship carrying coal that ran aground in rough seas off of South Africa's Richards Bay port, maritime authorities said on Monday. Tugboats were trying to pull the 230 meter-long ship named SMART off a sandbank, National Sea Rescue said in a statement, adding that "the structural integrity of the ship was compromised". The single-hull, 151,279 metric ton ship is registered to Alpha Marine Corp and flies a Panamanian flag. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU foreign ministers to discuss how to press Egypt over bloodshed Monday, Aug 19, 2013 09:19 AM PDT  By Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss how to force Egypt's army-backed rulers into finding a peaceful compromise with supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi. Options likely to be discussed include cutbacks in Europe's 5 billion euro ($6.7 billion) package of grants and loans promised last year, as well as a possible arms embargo against Egypt, said EU envoy Bernardino Leon. ... Full Story | Top |
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