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| China rights scenario deteriorating, says United States Friday, Aug 02, 2013 08:40 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States got few answers to questions about detained activists during its annual rights dialogue with China, and believes the situation in the country continues to deteriorate, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. Uzra Zeya, Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, said she raised specific cases during the talks, including that of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, as well as his wife Liu Xia, now under extra-judicial house arrest. ... Full Story | Top |
| Moroccan police break up protest against royal pardon of Spanish pedophile Friday, Aug 02, 2013 07:25 PM PDT By Aziz El Yaakoubi Rabat (Reuters) - Riot police broke up a protest by hundreds of Moroccan demonstrators late on Friday against a royal pardon for a Spanish pedophile serving a 30-year sentence for raping and filming children as young as 4. In running clashes with the demonstrators, baton-wielding police prevented them from gathering in front of the Moroccan parliament in the centre of the capital Rabat, injuring several people including journalists. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian forces dismantle explosive in third bomb scare of day Friday, Aug 02, 2013 04:37 PM PDT  TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian security forces dismantled a bomb found near the home of a military colonel on Friday, witnesses said, the third bomb scare to be reported in the same day. Security forces have declined to officially comment on the incident, but some said privately that Islamist militants appear to be launching an intensified campaign against Tunisian security forces. "I think the terrorists are trying to send a message to the army and security forces," a policeman near the site of the dismantled bomb said. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. declares new push to defuse Egyptian crisis Friday, Aug 02, 2013 04:04 PM PDT By Tom Perry and Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it would work with other nations to resolve Egypt's crisis peacefully, injecting new energy into a push to end a bloody standoff since the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. A day after saying the army had restored democracy by removing Mursi, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Egyptian authorities to give demonstrators the space to protest in peace - a warning against dispersing pro-Mursi sit-ins. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico rules out foul play in Pemex HQ blast, cites gas buildup Friday, Aug 02, 2013 03:21 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A massive explosion that killed nearly 40 people in late January at state oil company Pemex's Mexico City headquarters was caused by a gas buildup, Mexico's attorney general's office said on Friday, ruling out foul play. A six-month investigation confirmed a preliminary conclusion that the January 31 explosion that collapsed several floors of the headquarters' B2 building, which contained archived documents, was caused by faulty building design that provided poor ventilation in the basement area. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. issues global travel alert, cites al Qaeda threat Friday, Aug 02, 2013 03:18 PM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed and Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States issued a worldwide travel alert on Friday warning Americans that al Qaeda may be planning attacks in August, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. The State Department travel alert was based on the same intelligence that prompted it to close 21 U.S. embassies and consulates on Sunday, August 4, chiefly those in the Muslim world, a U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "The Department of State alerts U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain's Conservatives hire Obama campaign chief in election role Friday, Aug 02, 2013 03:11 PM PDT  By Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's governing Conservative Party has hired U.S. President Barack Obama's former campaign manager as part of its election team ahead of polls due in less than two years, the party said. Jim Messina, a lifelong Democrat, is the latest appointment by Prime Minister David Cameron in a bid to win the party's first overall majority in over 20 years, against a weak economic backdrop and poor poll ratings. ... Full Story | Top |
| Manning's leaks endangered informants: trial witness Friday, Aug 02, 2013 03:02 PM PDT  By Tom Hals FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - A State Department official contended in court on Friday that convicted soldier Bradley Manning's leaks of classified diplomatic cables led to foreign informants being moved over fears for their safety. The official, Michael Kozak, was called by U.S. military prosecutors to testify in the sentencing phase of Manning's court-martial over the purported damage done by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks' publication in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of documents and video it received from the Iraq-based soldier. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tents, garages, shops: Syria refugees hide in Lebanon shadows Friday, Aug 02, 2013 02:40 PM PDT  By Stephen Kalin TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - Atop a mountain lined with olive and cypress trees overlooking the Lebanese city of Tripoli, a disused shopping center houses nearly 1,000 refugees who have fled Syria's civil war. In the space of a few months the once-empty four-storey complex has become one of more than 360 informal settlements of refugees surging into Lebanon, a country overwhelmed by a sudden influx from its larger neighbor's civil war. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cuban death toll from methanol sold as rum climbs to 11 Friday, Aug 02, 2013 02:20 PM PDT  HAVANA (Reuters) - Eleven Cubans have died this week and more than 60 are in hospital after consuming toxic industrial methanol sold as rum, state media reported on Friday. The toll was up from seven dead and more than 40 hospitalized, as first reported by the Public Health Ministry on Wednesday in Cuba's worst mass poisoning incident in at least a decade. The poisoning cases emerged starting on Monday in the La Lisa municipality of Havana after poisonous wood alcohol was stolen from a warehouse and then passed off as rum, according to authorities. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain to close embassy in Yemen for two days due to security concerns Friday, Aug 02, 2013 02:02 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Friday that it will close its embassy in Yemen on August 4 and 5 due to "increased security concerns", after the United States announced a number of its embassies would also shut on Sunday. "We are particularly concerned about the security situation in the final days of Ramadan and into Eid," the Foreign Office said in a statement, referring to the Muslim holy month which ends on Wednesday evening. The Foreign Office did not say there were any specific threats but said that it constantly reviewed the security of staff and its embassies. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi lays out price of preserving Italian government Friday, Aug 02, 2013 01:49 PM PDT  By Roberto Landucci ROME (Reuters) - Italy's center right must push through justice reform or withdraw from the coalition government, Silvio Berlusconi told his People of Freedom (PDL) party on Friday after his conviction for tax fraud was upheld by the supreme court. Just three months after center-left Prime Minister Enrico Letta took office at the head of an uneasy alliance with Berlusconi's PDL, the euro zone's third largest economy faces deep uncertainty that may further hinder efforts at reform. ... Full Story | Top |
| History shows Snowden may face tough exile in Russia Friday, Aug 02, 2013 01:26 PM PDT  By Alissa de Carbonnel MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden seems assured of a warm welcome in Russia and may even achieve celebrity status in his new home, but history suggests he will no longer be master of his fate and a Moscow exile will bring some difficult challenges. The former U.S. spy agency contractor finally left Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday after spending nearly six weeks confined to its transit zone while a diplomatic battle over his future raged between Russia and the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spanish train wreck driver got warnings before crash Friday, Aug 02, 2013 01:23 PM PDT  MADRID (Reuters) - The driver of the Spanish train that derailed last week, killing dozens of passengers, had received three warning signals after taking a phone call minutes before the fatal accident, an examination of the black box showed on Friday. Ticket inspector Antonio Martin, on the same train, had rung driver Francisco Garzon to discuss what platform the train would use at a station further down the line, the driver told an investigating judge in an earlier hearing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cubans welcome new U.S. visa policy, government largely silent Friday, Aug 02, 2013 12:59 PM PDT  By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans are cheering a U.S. visa policy that gives them five years to travel to the United States, while Cuba's government and state-run media have largely remained silent about the new travel measure. They still are allowed to remain in the United States for only six months, but the change in U.S. policy, which took effect on Thursday, allows them to make multiple U.S. visits over the five years instead of repeatedly applying and paying the $160 fee for the privilege. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimbabwe's MDC considers protests against Mugabe landslide Friday, Aug 02, 2013 12:41 PM PDT  By Ed Cropley HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change said on Friday it could take to the streets to challenge President Robert Mugabe's victory in elections it rejects as a farce and which face skepticism from the West. No results of the presidential vote on July 31 have been announced. But Mugabe's ZANU-PF has already claimed a resounding win and interim tallies of the parliamentary count suggest a massive victory for the 89-year-old, Africa's oldest president, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian forces launch air strikes on Islamist militants Friday, Aug 02, 2013 12:34 PM PDT  By Tarek Amara and Erika Solomon TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian forces launched air and ground strikes on Islamist militants near the Algerian border on Friday after fierce overnight clashes in the area, which coincided with increased instability and political turmoil in the North African country. Aircraft bombed caves in the Mount Chaambi area, where the military has been trying to track down Islamist militants since December, witnesses said on Friday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel to host next round of talks with Palestinians: Livni Friday, Aug 02, 2013 12:30 PM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The next Israeli-Palestinian peace talks session will be held in Israel in the second week of August and a first group of Palestinian prisoners will be freed by then, Israel's chief negotiator said on Friday. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni told Israel's Channel 10 television that the parties had agreed on alternating venues for talks in initial meetings with the first to be held in Israel. "We and the Palestinians both determined that the first meetings would be held once in Israel and once in the Palestinian Authority ... we want to do it directly (and close to home). ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. sees hope in Iranian president-elect, but still cautious Friday, Aug 02, 2013 12:20 PM PDT  By Warren Strobel and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is signaling its hopes for an easing of nuclear tensions after Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani takes office, but holding off on substantive moves until the moderate cleric shows a willingness to negotiate seriously. Rouhani, a former nuclear negotiator and veteran of Iran's 1979 revolution who will be inaugurated on Sunday, has pledged domestic reforms and more international engagement, in an apparent break from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran's Rouhani misquoted in remarks on Israel: state TV Friday, Aug 02, 2013 12:14 PM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - Two days before his inauguration as Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani said on Friday that Israeli occupation of Palestinian land had inflicted a "wound" on the Muslim world, according to a segment of his remarks broadcast on Iran's state-run Press TV. An earlier report by Iran's student news agency ISNA had quoted Rouhani as saying: "The Zionist regime is a wound that has sat on the body of the Muslim world for years and needs to be removed." ISNA later retracted the report, saying some domestic news agencies "including ISNA, had presented Mr. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi says Italy needs justice reform or elections Friday, Aug 02, 2013 11:58 AM PDT  ROME (Reuters) - Italy's center right must push for reform of the justice system or seek new elections, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told lawmakers from his People of Freedom Party, according to a source at the meeting on Friday. "If there is no reform of the justice system, we are ready for new elections," he told the meeting, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. On Thursday a court upheld a conviction for tax fraud against Berlusconi, threatening both his position as center-right leader and the stability of Italy's fragile coalition government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil enacts tough anti-bribery law required by OECD Friday, Aug 02, 2013 11:41 AM PDT BRASILIA (Reuters) - Bribing a public official in Brazil could become a very onerous mistake for local and foreign businesses under a law enacted on Friday that for the first time makes companies liable for bribes paid by their employees. Companies found guilty of bribery will face fines of up to 20 percent of their gross annual revenue for the previous year or a maximum of 60 million reais ($26.22 million). They could also be suspended from operating, have assets confiscated and even face possible dissolution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia's Putin says sentences in fraud case involving top critic Navalny were 'strange' Friday, Aug 02, 2013 11:31 AM PDT  By Alexei Anishchuk LAKE SELIGER, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he was surprised by the five-year jail term a court handed down to Alexei Navalny, his top critic, when another man convicted in the same embezzlement case received only a suspended prison sentence. In his first comments on the case since the July 18 verdict, Putin did not make clear if he was suggesting the jail sentence on Navalny was too harsh or the suspended one too lenient. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S., Arab nations working to bring Egypt parties together: Kerry Friday, Aug 02, 2013 11:08 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton LONDON (Reuters) - The United States and other nations are working to bring Egypt's interim government and the Muslim Brotherhood together to find a peaceful resolution to the current crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday. "Egypt needs to get back to a new normal, it needs to restore stability, to be able to attract business and put people to work," Kerry said before a meeting with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed in London. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chief names former Bulgarian foreign minister as Iraq envoy Friday, Aug 02, 2013 11:04 AM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday appointed former Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov as his special envoy to Iraq, where security has deteriorated as Sunni Islamist groups step up an insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government. More than 1,000 Iraqis - mainly civilians - were killed in sectarian violence in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008, the United Nations said on Thursday. Ban said on Monday that he was alarmed by the increased violence in Iraq that was "aimed at ripping apart the country's social fabric. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kikwete says wants to mend Tanzania's 'shaken' Rwanda relations Friday, Aug 02, 2013 10:54 AM PDT  By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said on Friday relations with Rwanda had soured because of his efforts to bring peace to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. In his monthly address to the nation, Kikwete said Tanzania nevertheless wanted to continue its historically positive relations with Rwanda while working to bring peace to Congo. Tanzania leads a newly deployed U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Greek civil aviation workers call strike against layoffs Friday, Aug 02, 2013 10:28 AM PDT ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek civil aviation workers plan to disrupt flights for three days next week in protest at government plans to fire 300 airport staff, their union said on Friday. Greek labor unions have gone on strike repeatedly since early 2010, when the country was plunged into a debt crisis and sought a bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to avert bankruptcy. The latest action, at the height of the tourist season, is against Athens's plans to shrink its spendthrift civil service, widely blamed for the crisis, by firing thousands of workers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Czech president told to cut smoking, drinking due to health Friday, Aug 02, 2013 10:27 AM PDT  PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech President Milos Zeman, known for his love of alcohol and smoking, was told on Friday to drastically cut down on both after being diagnosed with diabetes, the health minister said. Martin Holcat, speaking on Czech Radio, said that on the advice of doctors, the president, 68, would have to cut down from his usual 40-to-50 cigarettes a day to about 20. He also was told to sharply cut back his consumption of alcohol, his taste for which he has never kept secret in a country with the highest intake of beer per capita in the world. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hezbollah leader slams Israel in rare public speech Friday, Aug 02, 2013 10:23 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah emerged from hiding on Friday to deliver his first major speech in years, addressing a rally in his southern Beirut stronghold in support of the Palestinian conflict against Israel. "Israel poses a danger on all people of this region...including Lebanon, and removing it is a Lebanese national interest," Nasrallah told hundreds of supporters in his half-hour speech. The charismatic Shi'ite cleric has lived mainly in the shadows, fearing assassination, since Hezbollah fought an inconclusive month-long war with Israel in 2006. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimbabwe economic recovery hangs in balance after Mugabe victory Friday, Aug 02, 2013 10:13 AM PDT  By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - A disputed election victory by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF this week threatens a fragile economic recovery as the party warned it would speed up a drive to seize majority stakes in foreign firms. But the win also offers Mugabe's party an opportunity to mend ties with foreign donors that have suspended support over policy differences with the veteran leader, who appears to have secured a five-year extension to this 33 year rule. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-PM Keita to face Cisse in Mali election run-off Friday, Aug 02, 2013 10:11 AM PDT  By David Lewis and Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's postwar election produced no clear winner and former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita will face ex-Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse in a run-off due on August 11, the government said on Friday. Provisional results gave Keita 39 percent of votes cast in the July 28 poll, well ahead of Cisse's 19 percent. But the third and fourth placed candidates may now rally behind Cisse, with whom they have been in coalition. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's Sisi sees need for political solution: ElBaradei Friday, Aug 02, 2013 09:39 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi understands that there must be a political solution to Egypt's crisis, Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei said in an interview published on Friday, adding that the general was not thinking of running for president. "He understands that there has to be a political solution. But of course he has a responsibility to protect the country in terms of security. And the army is on the edge," ElBaradei told the Washington Post. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia asks for arrest of real estate businessman Polonsky Friday, Aug 02, 2013 09:30 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian law enforcement officials on Friday sought the arrest of real estate businessman Sergei Polonsky, believed to be in Israel, to face trial over fraud charges. The country's interior ministry asked a court to put Polonsky under arrest in absentia and requested that a procedure to extradite him should begin, a statement posted on the ministry's website said on Friday. According to an interior ministry press release in June, Polonsky was charged in absentia with fraud relating to a property firm he founded which is accused of stealing more than 5. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian police fire tear gas at Brotherhood protesters Friday, Aug 02, 2013 09:25 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police fired tear gas on Friday to disperse supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who the Interior Ministry said had blocked traffic near a television production complex outside the capital, Cairo. A ministry statement gave no details on the size of the protest or whether anyone had been hurt or detained. Egypt was braced on Friday for a possible crackdown on two Cairo sit-ins by Muslim Brotherhood supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi. (Reporting by Tom Perry and Maggie Fick; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Angus MacSwan) Full Story | Top |
| EU says taking precautions after U.S. says will close embassies Friday, Aug 02, 2013 09:15 AM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is taking "all necessary precautions" after the United States said it would close some embassies on Sunday because of security concerns, a spokesman said. "We are aware of the move by the U.S. and we are in contact with our U.S. counterparts," European Commission spokesman Alexandre Polack said. "Delegations of the EU in the affected region are liaising with U.S. embassies." The EU had no immediate comment on an announcement by the U.S. government that it was issuing a worldwide travel alert, warning U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Can Italy's Berlusconi pull off one last escape? Friday, Aug 02, 2013 08:28 AM PDT  By Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Can Silvio Berlusconi pull off one last escape or is Italy's most controversial man finally finished after being convicted of tax fraud? Perhaps the biggest shock for Berlusconi's intensely loyal supporters when the supreme court on Thursday rejected his appeal against a four-year jail sentence - commuted to one year - was that he had failed to evade his pursuers as usual. ... Full Story | Top |
| Five wounded in bomb blast at Benghazi police station Friday, Aug 02, 2013 08:05 AM PDT  BENGHAZI (Reuters) - Five people were wounded in a bomb blast at a police station in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Friday, a security official said. A bag containing explosives was thrown from a car in the central Sidi Hussein quarter, hitting a building that belongs to a police force tasked with guarding electricity installations, Benghazi security spokesman Mohammed al-Hijazy said. Hijazy said this was not the first time the building had been targeted and that it was largely destroyed in the blast. Benghazi is where the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi began in February 2011. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blast disables Iraqi domestic gas pipeline Friday, Aug 02, 2013 07:36 AM PDT KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - An explosion and fire disabled a pipeline carrying gas from Iraq's northern oilfields to power stations early on Friday, the oil ministry said. It was not clear what caused the blast, which took place around 60 km (40 miles) west of Kirkuk, but it is another indication that Iraqi energy installations are becoming more vulnerable to technical glitches and insurgent attacks. "A blast and fire halted gas flow through a domestic pipeline transporting gas to power stations in Baiji, Mosul and Taji near Baghdad at 3:30 am local time," said oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt to block access to Brotherhood camp Friday, Aug 02, 2013 07:34 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - The Egyptian police will block access to a Muslim Brotherhood protest camp in Cairo, state TV reported on Friday, adding that the Interior Ministry was against the idea of breaking up the sit-in by force. "The idea of storming the camp by force is one rejected by the Interior Ministry, but a blockade will be imposed in all the streets leading to Rabaa," state TV's security affairs correspondent reported from outside the Interior Ministry. He was referring to Rabaa al-Adawiya, the location of the biggest of two sit-in protests by the Brotherhood in Cairo. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia gives Snowden asylum, Obama-Putin summit in doubt Friday, Aug 02, 2013 07:06 AM 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 |
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