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| Envoys in Egypt visit jailed Brotherhood leader: reports Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 08:50 PM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Western and Arab envoys visited a high-ranking member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in jail on Monday, the state news agency reported, to press an international bid to defuse the crisis ignited by President Mohamed Mursi's downfall. The envoys met deputy Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater just after midnight, having received permission from the prosecutor general to visit him at Tora prison, south of Cairo, the state news agency MENA reported. ... Full Story | Top |
| Former U.S. ambassador to Syria considered for Egypt: sources Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 07:31 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. envoy to Syria Robert Ford is being considered as Washington's next ambassador to Cairo, sources familiar with internal discussions said on Sunday as U.S. and European mediators sought a peaceful resolution to Egypt's crisis. Ford was described as a leading candidate for the post, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. The State Department declined to comment and Ford did not respond to emails. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. extends embassy closings, lawmakers say threat serious Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 05:23 PM PDT  By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States extended embassy closures by a week in the Middle East and Africa as a precaution on Sunday after an al Qaeda threat that U.S. lawmakers said was the most serious in years. The State Department said 19 U.S. embassies and consulates would be closed through Saturday "out of an abundance of caution" and that a number of them would have been closed anyway for most of the week due to the Eid celebration at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The United States initially closed 21 U.S. diplomatic posts for the day on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Two soldiers, militant killed in Tunisia turmoil Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 05:22 PM PDT  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian police shot dead an Islamist militant in Tunis and two soldiers were killed in a blast near the Algerian border on Sunday, as the government grappled with growing security and political crises. There has been a surge in Islamist militant attacks over the past two weeks in the North African country, and on Friday security forces launched heavy air and artillery strikes on militant hideouts in the Mount Chaambi area near the Algerian border. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bombs damage two shrines in Egypt's Sinai Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 04:39 PM PDT ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Two Islamic shrines were damaged by bomb attacks in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, the state news agency said, in a region where Islamist militants have stepped up attacks against the state since the army deposed President Mohamed Mursi. One of the shrines targeted was near the North Sinai town of Bir el-Abd, and the other was in the area of el-Maghara farther south. Both were badly damaged. ... Full Story | Top |
| Thirty killed in heavy fighting in Syrian mountains Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 04:37 PM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the Jabal Akrad mountains overlooking the Mediterranean on Sunday and a monitoring group said at least 30 people were killed. Video footage showed fighters identified as members of an al Qaeda-linked Islamist brigade waving from the roof of an army tower in the village of Barouda, one of several Alawite villages attacked by the rebels on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt mediation gathers pace but Brotherhood leaders face trial Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 03:43 PM PDT  By Angus MacSwan and Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-installed government said on Sunday it would give mediation a chance to resolve the crisis brought on by the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, but warned that time was limited. At the same time, a Cairo court announced that the leader of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and two other top officials will face trial in three weeks' time for crimes including incitement to murder during protests in the days before he was toppled. ... Full Story | Top |
| Moroccan king revokes pardon of Spanish pedophile Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 03:09 PM PDT RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco's king on Sunday revoked his pardon of a Spanish pedophile, after hundreds rioted in front of parliament on Friday to protest the decision. The pedophile, identified by the Spanish Foreign Ministry as Daniel Galvan Vina, has been serving a 30-year sentence for raping and filming at least 11 children aged 4 to 15. A statement from the palace carried by the state news agency on Sunday said the king revoked the pardon, taking into consideration the gravity of the crimes committed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish court to announce verdicts in Ergenekon conspiracy case Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 03:07 PM PDT  By Daren Butler ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court will pass judgment on Monday on nearly 300 defendants accused of plotting to topple the government in a battleground case in the decade-long conflict between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey's secularist establishment. Security forces set up barricades around the courthouse in the Silivri jail complex, west of Istanbul, to tighten security after the defendants' supporters vowed to hold a demonstration against the five-year trial that has exposed deep divisions in Turkish society. ... Full Story | Top |
| Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner barred from entering Egypt Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 03:01 PM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities barred Yemeni Nobel Peace laureate Tawakul Karman - a supporter of deposed president Mohamed Mursi - from entering the country on Sunday and put her on a flight back to Dubai, security sources said. State news agency MENA said Karman, who had previously announced her solidarity with supporters of Mursi, overthrown by the army a month ago, was on a list of people who were not allowed to enter Egypt. A spokesman for Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood said Karman had recently joined demonstrations in Cairo demanding the former leader be reinstated. ... Full Story | Top |
| Whistleblowers pay price even as China vows to fight corruption Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 02:12 PM PDT  By Sui-Lee Wee HUIZHOU, China (Reuters) - Chinese bloggers trying to expose corruption say they are coming under increasing physical and verbal attack over their reports, in what anti-graft activists describe as another blow to efforts to make Chinese officials more accountable. At least six self-styled whistleblowers have been assaulted or harassed in recent months, according to media reports, Internet postings and several of the bloggers who spoke to Reuters. Two unidentified men stabbed blogger Li Jianxin in the face and splashed acid on his back on July 8. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain studies measures to pressure Gibraltar Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 02:01 PM PDT  By Dominique Searle MADRID/GIBRALTAR (Reuters) - Spain is studying retaliatory measures against the British territory of Gibraltar in an escalating dispute over fishing grounds, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said in an interview published on Sunday. "The party is over," Garcia-Margallo told ABC newspaper, referring to years of softer policy on Gibraltar under the previous Socialist government. The minister said Spain was mulling a 50-euro border-crossing fee and tax investigations of thousands of Gibraltarians who own property in Spain. ... Full Story | Top |
| Islamist militants attack Somali capital, plan more before Ramadan ends Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 01:14 PM PDT By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist militants set off several explosions in the Somali capital on Sunday, their spokesman said, demonstrating the rebels' ability to attack the heart of government-controlled areas despite security gains. The guerilla-style attacks were typical of al Shabaab rebels who have waged a six-year campaign to impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law on the country. The militants had fired five mortar shells and hurled several grenades, wounding at least two women, senior police officer Abdiqadir Mohamud said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Czech purge provokes cabinet legitimacy row before confidence vote Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 12:55 PM PDT  By Jan Lopatka PRAGUE (Reuters) - The new Czech cabinet has embarked on a bureaucratic purge, provoking the kind of conflict over democratic legitimacy that is dividing a number of central and eastern European countries two decades after the fall of communism. Since coming to power, the cabinet led by a close ally of President Milos Zeman has cleared out dozens of officials from government departments and state institutions, drawing accusations that it is exceeding its mandate before a parliamentary vote of confidence this week it may well lose. ... Full Story | Top |
| Security tightens around shuttered Yemen embassies after militant warning Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 12:34 PM PDT  By Mohammed Ghobari SANAA (Reuters) - Soldiers blocked roads outside Western embassies in Sanaa on Sunday, after a U.S. warning of a possible major militant attack in the Middle East prompted the closure of many missions in Yemen and U.S. missions in several other Arab states. Security in Yemen, home to one of the most active wings of al Qaeda, is a global concern as the impoverished Arab Peninsula state shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally and the world's top oil exporter. While Washington has not disclosed the origin of the threat, the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi backs government at rally against tax conviction Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 11:46 AM PDT  By Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of Silvio Berlusconi protested in Rome on Sunday against a tax fraud conviction that has rocked Italy's fragile coalition, but the center-right leader said the government must continue. Addressing the 2,000-strong crowd, a subdued Berlusconi again bitterly attacked what he calls leftist judges and insisted he was innocent, but said he would continue to support the shaky coalition of his center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party with the center-left Democratic Party (PD) of Prime Minister Enrico Letta. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian Brotherhood leaders to face trial for inciting murder Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 10:04 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - The leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and his deputy will face trial in three weeks' time for crimes including incitement to murder during protests in the days before the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi, a Cairo court announced on Sunday. The move showed the army-backed interim government was pushing ahead with a crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Mursi belongs, while international envoys try to help resolve the political crisis brought on by his removal by the army on July 3. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian soldier killed, seven wounded in landmine by Algeria border Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 09:57 AM PDT TUNIS (Reuters) - One Tunisian soldier was killed and seven others wounded on Sunday by a landmine near the Algerian border, where security forces have been hunting Islamist militants, an army source said. "The landmine was planted by Islamist extremists. It exploded when their tank rolled over it in a security sweep in Mount Chaambi," he said, referring to a remote border area where militants killed eight troops last Monday in one of the deadliest attack against Tunisian security forces in decades. (Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Full Story | Top |
| Senior U.S. senator says Putin acting like 'schoolyard bully' Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 09:50 AM PDT  By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Democratic senator said on Sunday that the U.S.-Russia relationship had become "poisonous" and urged President Barack Obama to consider moving next month's Group of 20 summit away from the Russian city of St. Petersburg. Charles Schumer, the U.S. Senate's third ranking Democrat and a close Obama ally, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to antagonize the United States by granting American fugitive Edward Snowden asylum for one year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran, U.S. signal will to engage as new president sworn in Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 09:25 AM PDT  By Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran and the United States signaled a fresh will on Sunday to seek to end the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program after Hassan Rouhani was sworn in as president and called for dialogue to reduce "antagonism and aggression". Hopes for a diplomatic resolution increased with Rouhani's win over conservative rivals in June, when voters replaced hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a cleric whose watchword is "moderation" but who is still very much an Islamic Republic insider. ... Full Story | Top |
| Germany's Left urges new alliance to oust Merkel after poll boost Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 08:58 AM PDT  By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's Left party urged the Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday to rethink their ban on a left-wing alliance as an opinion poll showed the three opposition parties could narrowly beat Chancellor Angela Merkel in the September 22 election. Gregor Gysi, the Left's parliamentary leader, said in several high-profile interviews on Sunday that the SPD should stop ostracizing the Left party because of its Communist past. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel puts 91 Jewish settlements on priority spending list Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 08:49 AM PDT By Ori Lewis and Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli government put 91 Jewish settlements on a national priority funding list on Sunday, adding six to a roster of dozens of enclaves already eligible for supplemental state cash. A senior Palestinian official condemned the decision as an obstacle to U.S.-brokered peace talks that resumed just a week ago after a three-year rupture over settlement building on land Palestinians seek for a state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Zimbabwe's MDC struggles for survival after election disaster Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 07:59 AM PDT  By Stella Mapenzauswa HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's MDC party, shocked by its overwhelming election defeat, has a battle on its hands to convince supporters it has any chance of taking power in the years to come. The Movement for Democratic Change's survival may depend on a shakeup of its leadership, which many say was naive in entering a four-year unity government with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF after a decade of acrimony and conflict. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House: U.S. willing to engage with Iran on nuclear concerns Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 07:47 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Sunday it is prepared to work with the new government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to address concerns about Iran's nuclear program if Iran will engage seriously on the issue. "The inauguration of President Rouhani presents an opportunity for Iran to act quickly to resolve the international community's deep concerns over Iran's nuclear program," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Saudi Arabia bars Sudan's Bashir from entering airspace Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 07:29 AM PDT  KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Saudi authorities have prevented Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's plane from entering the kingdom's airspace, his spokesman said on Sunday. Bashir was heading to Iran, said the spokesman, Imad Sayed Ahmed. Iran and Saudi Arabia have an uneasy relationship. "Saudi authorities today barred the airplane of President Bashir which was headed to Iran from crossing into its airspace," he said. Saudi officials were not immediately available for comment. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said Iran was gathering more details about the incident. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kuwait forms new Cabinet, includes six royals Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 07:00 AM PDT  ABU DHABI (Reuters) - A veteran former central bank governor was appointed Kuwait's finance minister on Sunday, state news agency KUNA said, after a parliamentary election in the major crude producer last month. A reshuffled cabinet unveiled by the news agency also included a new oil minister, Mustapha al-Shamali, who was finance minister in the outgoing cabinet. Oil policy in the OPEC member state is set by a Supreme Oil Council, so ministerial changes in that portfoilio are less important than in other countries. The finance ministry will now be headed by Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz al-Sabah. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iranian President Rouhani takes oath of office before parliament Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 05:57 AM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took the oath of office before parliament in Tehran on Sunday and was expected later in the day to name a cabinet he said would be chosen from figures across the political spectrum. "In the presence of the holy Koran and before the nation, I swear to the omnipotent God to safeguard the official religion of the country and the Islamic Republic as well as the country's constitution," he told parliament and foreign dignitaries in a ceremony broadcast live on state television. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel's Netanyahu lampooned for failing to fill top central bank job Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 05:44 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his finance minister, Yair Lapid, were pilloried by Israeli media on Sunday for their failure to fill the job of central bank chief and their lack of a proper vetting process, after two candidates withdrew. In what has become front-page news, headlines called the long-running search to replace highly regarded Stanley Fischer a "circus" and Netanyahu and Lapid "clumsy fools". ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria limits foreign currency use, threatens traders with jail Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 05:18 AM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian traders who price goods in foreign currency will face up to 10 years in jail, the government announced on Sunday in a move aimed at stemming the increasing dollarization of an economy crippled by two years of civil war. A decree issued by President Bashar al-Assad "forbids the use of anything other than the Syrian pound as payment for any type of commercial transaction or cash settlement". Traders who violate the law face up to three years in jail and a fine equivalent to double the value of the payment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain studies retaliatory measures against Gibraltar: report Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 04:44 AM PDT  MADRID/GIBRALTAR (Reuters) - Spain is studying retaliatory measures against the British territory of Gibraltar in an escalating dispute over fishing grounds, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said in an interview published on Sunday. "The party is over," Garcia-Margallo told ABC newspaper, referring to years of softer policy on Gibraltar under the previous Socialist government. The minister said Spain was mulling a 50-euro border-crossing fee and tax investigations of thousands of Gibraltarians who own property in Spain. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Israeli-Palestinian riddle won't answer Middle East's wider woes Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 04:37 AM PDT  By Crispian Balmer JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which once transfixed the Arab world, has lost much of its resonance in a Middle East riven by religious strife, political upheaval and economic woes. News that the two sides had resumed peace talks last week after a three-year halt was largely overshadowed by turmoil in Egypt and the Syrian civil war, which has set Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims against one another. U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Africa and West at odds over disputed Zimbabwe election Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 04:17 AM PDT  By Cris Chinaka HARARE (Reuters) - South Africa's President Jacob Zuma on Sunday congratulated Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe on his re-election, in sharp contrast to Western governments which questioned the credibility of a rushed, disputed vote. African monitors broadly approved the conduct of the election but Mugabe's main rival, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, has said he will challenge the results in court with evidence of massive vote-rigging, irregularities and intimidation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Libya's turmoil revealed in feud for custody of Gaddafi's son Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 02:21 AM PDT  By Marie-Louise Gumuchian ZINTAN, Libya (Reuters) - To his captors, the fate of Libya's most prominent prisoner, the son of ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi, can be sealed only in one place - in the small straggling mountain town where they have kept him locked up for nearly two years. The prize of former rebel fighters who triumphed in catching him as he tried to flee the country, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is being kept in a secret location somewhere among Zintan's sandstone and concrete buildings. ... Full Story | Top |
| Europeans press Ukraine's leader to accept deal on Tymoshenko, in return for trade pact Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 01:24 AM PDT  By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - He might be ready to let her out. But he can't afford to let her back. As deadlines near on the future of Ukraine's ties with Europe, President Viktor Yanukovich is under pressure to put aside personal animosity and let his jailed opponent, Yulia Tymoshenko, go to Germany for medical treatment. Softening Yanukovich's hardline stance on his arch-rival is seen as crucial if Ukraine is to secure the signing of landmark agreements, including a free trade deal, with the European Union at a November summit. ... Full Story | Top |
| Australian PM calls September 7 poll against resurgent conservatives Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 12:58 AM PDT  By James Grubel CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called a September 7 general election on Sunday, barely six weeks after he toppled former leader Julia Gillard in a party-room vote, ending a turbulent three years in power for the minority Labor government. Rudd, who was dumped by his center-left party in June 2010, has generated a spike in public support since he returned but conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott is still favorite to win power. Rudd's Labor government could fall with the loss of just one of the 150 seats in parliament. ... Full Story | Top |
| Uncertain future for Afghan businesswoman as West leaves Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 12:54 AM PDT  By Jessica Donati KABUL (Reuters) - The United States and its allies have put promoting women's rights at the core of their 12-year mission in Afghanistan and Liza Ghausi Nooristani has profited nicely from their intervention. Nooristani is one of the few women in conservative, male-dominated Afghanistan to set up and run a relatively big company. And she has done it in the mountainous eastern war zone. ... Full Story | Top |
| Prominent lawyer wounded in bombing in Afghanistan's east: police Sunday, Aug 04, 2013 12:47 AM PDT  JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A lawyer who prosecuted Taliban militants was seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's east on Sunday, police said, a day after a deadly attack on the Indian consulate in the same city. The attacks underscored a recent trend of assaults by insurgents against foreign targets, as well as institutions perceived to be backed by the West. Another 16 people were wounded in Sunday's attack, some seriously. ... Full Story | Top |
| Yemen's main pipeline attacked, crude flow stops again Saturday, Aug 03, 2013 11:34 PM PDT SANAA (Reuters) - Tribesmen blew up Yemen's main oil export pipeline late on Saturday, halting the flow of crude, the state news agency reported on Sunday. The pipeline started pumping crude oil again last week after repairs that took several days, following a similar attack by tribesmen. Earlier this year, the pipeline was pumping around 125,000 barrels per day. Yemen, which relies on crude exports to bolster foreign currency reserves and finance up to 70 percent of government spending, has seen frequent bombings of the key pipeline in central Maarib province since early 2011. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Mexico bets on reforms to boost wages, but no quick fix Saturday, Aug 03, 2013 10:22 PM PDT  By Alexandra Alper and Pablo Garibian MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexicans hoping their president will make good on a campaign promise to boost wages may be in for a long wait, as the country aims to dodge Brazil's mistakes by betting on economic reforms that will take years to translate into labor gains. President Enrique Pena Nieto came to office in December promising to boost productivity and raise low wages in Latin America's No. 2 economy, which have changed little in over a decade, averaging $21 a day in the formal sector. ... Full Story | Top |
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