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| Boys in Canada believed killed by snake that escaped cage: police Monday, Aug 05, 2013 07:55 PM PDT By Victoria Cavaliere (Reuters) - Two young brothers found dead in an apartment over a reptile store in New Brunswick, Canada, were believed to have been strangled by a snake that escaped its enclosure and slithered into the building's ventilation system, police said on Monday. The boys, ages 5 and 7, were sleeping over at a friend's apartment above Reptile Ocean in the city of Campbellton. Their bodies were discovered on Monday morning, said Constable Jullie Rogers-Marsh of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. ... 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 |
| 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 |
| One Sudanese soldier killed in clash with South Sudan Monday, Aug 05, 2013 04:07 PM PDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - One Sudanese soldier was killed on Monday in a clash with troops from South Sudan after a patrol from the south crossed the border, a Sudanese military spokesman said. The spokesman, al-Sawarmi Khalid, said in a statement the clash took place after a South Sudanese patrol crossed the border and opened fire. The clash took place at Sudan's main oilfield in the border area of Heglig, north of Sudan and which although is under the authority of Sudan is also disputed with South Sudan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels capture military airport near Turkey Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:54 PM PDT  AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels captured a main military airport near the border with Turkey on Tuesday, consolidating their hold on a key supply route north of the city of Aleppo, opposition activists said. The reported capture of the Minnig Military Airport, situated on the road between Aleppo and the Turkish city of Gaziantep, after an eight-month siege, marks an important symbolic victory for the opposition, following a string of defeats to President Bashar al-Assad's forces in central Syria, the sources said. "The airport has been fully liberated. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chilean judge closes Pinochet embezzlement case, family not charged Monday, Aug 05, 2013 03:08 PM PDT  SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A Chilean court decided on Monday not to charge any of late dictator Augusto Pinochet's family members in a long-running investigation into the origin of the general's fortune and his suspected embezzlement of public funds. The judge did charge six former members of the military who had collaborated with Pinochet in the so-called Riggs case. Pinochet was charged in 2005 with tax evasion in connection with millions of dollars he held in foreign bank accounts, which came to light after a 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 |
| Spanish pedophile pardoned in Morocco arrested in Spain Monday, Aug 05, 2013 02:41 PM PDT By Raquel Castillo MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested a convicted pedophile who was pardoned by Morocco's King Mohamed VI last week, a source at Spain's Interior Ministry said on Monday. Daniel Galvan Vina, who was serving a 30-year sentence in Morocco and was among 48 jailed Spaniards pardoned at the request of Spain's King Juan Carlos, was arrested in the south-eastern city of Murcia. A court source said Galvan would appear at one of Spain's top courts, the Audencia Nacional, early on Tuesday. ... 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Iraqi forces kill 11 militants in security crackdown Monday, Aug 05, 2013 01:28 PM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces killed 11 suspected militants and arrested dozens in a large military-led operation north of Baghdad on Monday in response to a deadly attack on a checkpoint last month, military sources said. The security sweep in Sulaman Pek, a town 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, turned fatal when some militants opened fire on officers inspecting homes, the sources said, adding that a number of the militants had been wearing suicide vests. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sierra Leone deports former Taylor associate days before trial Monday, Aug 05, 2013 01:14 PM PDT By Tommy Trenchard FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone deported an associate of former Liberian president Charles Taylor last week, sparing him a trial for crimes committed during the 1991-2002 civil war due to begin on Monday, to the dismay of human rights campaigners. Ibrahim Bah has been named by United Nations experts as an intermediary for Taylor's arms deliveries to Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who became notorious for using child soldiers and hacking off the limbs of civilians. Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison last year by the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gibraltar accuses Spain of 'saber-rattling' in diplomatic row Monday, Aug 05, 2013 12:44 PM PDT  By Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - Gibraltar's top politician accused Spain on Monday of "saber-rattling" and behaving like North Korea by saying it could impose border fees and airspace controls on the British territory whose sovereignty it disputes. British Prime Minister David Cameron was "seriously concerned" about the situation and has demanded an explanation from Madrid about the proposals, his spokesman said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Audit of Syria refugees finds organized crime and child soldiers Monday, Aug 05, 2013 11:27 AM PDT  By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - Many Syrians who have escaped their country are now desperate to escape from U.N.-run refugee camps, where women are not safe and teenage boys are recruited as soldiers to fight in the conflict, according to an internal U.N. report. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR is trying to cope with a massive humanitarian crisis, as 1.9 million Syrians have sought refuge abroad, mainly in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somalia's Puntland breaks off relations with central government Monday, Aug 05, 2013 11:24 AM PDT MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region said on Monday it had cut all ties with the central government in a likely setback to efforts to pacify the Horn of Africa Country as it emerges from two decades of conflict. Puntland accused the Mogadishu government of refusing to share power and foreign aid with the regions in line with the country's federal structure, as well as taking its eye off the fight against al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants. ... 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 |
| S.Leone deports former Taylor associate ahead of court hearing Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:40 AM PDT By Tommy Trenchard FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone deported an associate of former Liberian president Charles Taylor a week before he was due to stand trial for crimes committed during the West African nation's 1991-2002 civil war, prompting an outcry from rights campaigners. Ibrahim Bah has been named by United Nations' experts as an intermediary for Taylor's arms deliveries to Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, notorious for using child soldiers and hacking off the limbs of civilians. Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison last year by the U.N. ... 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 |
| Iran's Rouhani pulls off cabinet balancing act Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:37 AM PDT  By Yeganeh Torbati and Jon Hemming DUBAI (Reuters) - By choosing ministers known more for their experience than their political views, President Hassan Rouhani has proposed a cabinet that achieves a rare feat in Iranian politics - it satisfies both reformist and conservative factions. Rouhani's presidency has raised hopes in diplomatic circles that the moderate cleric with links to all of Iran's often-feuding factions can be someone the West can talk to and at least defuse tensions over the nuclear dispute. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptians no longer face jail for insulting president Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:29 AM PDT By Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - A decree issued by Egypt's interim head of state on Monday means people no longer face jail for insulting the president, after a surge in such cases under deposed leader Mohamed Mursi including that of a popular comedian dubbed "Egypt's Jon Stewart." The legal change by interim President Adli Mansour was welcomed by activists who had voiced concern over the high number of investigations during the one-year rule of ousted Islamist Mursi, who was toppled on July 3. ... Full Story | Top |
| Zimbabwe stock market plunges after Mugabe victory Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:24 AM PDT  By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's stock market plunged on Monday, the first trading day since President Robert Mugabe was re-elected, reflecting investor concerns he might target foreign-owned businesses or stop using the U.S. dollar. The bourse's Industrial Index fell 11 percent, a dubious market reaction to the landslide win by Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party whose economic policy centres on the "indigenisation" of foreign firms - forcing them to cede majority control to local blacks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisia's Ennahda chief offers poll to end political crisis Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:19 AM PDT By Tarek Amara and Erika Solomon TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's ruling Islamist party is willing to go to referendum over whether to preserve transitional governance institutions, the party chief said on Monday, but he stood firm against secular opposition efforts to oust the government. Rachid Ghannouchi said his Ennahda party was open to dialogue to modify Tunisia's political transition. But he refused to consider removing the prime minister or dissolve a temporary Constituent Assembly, now weeks away from finishing a draft constitution and electoral law. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spanish paedophile pardoned in Morocco arrested in Spain Monday, Aug 05, 2013 10:03 AM PDT MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested a convicted paedophile who was pardoned by Morocco's King Mohamed VI last week, a source at Spain's Interior Ministry said on Monday. Daniel Galvan Vina, who was serving a 30-year sentence in Morocco and was among 48 jailed Spaniards pardoned at the request of Spain's King Juan Carlos, was arrested in the south-eastern region of Murcia. He will be taken to Madrid where one of Spain's top courts will handle the judicial proceedings, according to the source. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cafes shut, sports fields empty as war returns to Iraq Monday, Aug 05, 2013 09:52 AM PDT  By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - In an evening in late June, Yasir al-Nuaimi draped an Iraqi flag over his shoulder and headed out to watch a soccer match being shown on television at a cafe in western Baghdad. The 20-year-old told his mother to pray for his team to win. Later that night a bomb hidden inside a grocery bag tore through the cafe where he and other football fans had gathered to watch the Iraqi national youth team play against Egypt. One minute the men were cheering for their team and the next screaming in terror and pain, witnesses said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Colombia's Santos urges rebels to get on the 'peace train' Monday, Aug 05, 2013 09:47 AM PDT  By Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the time for peace with Marxist FARC rebels is now or never but the instant he determines negotiations are going nowhere or strengthening the rebels, he would abandon the talks and seek resolution to the conflict on the battlefield. Santos told local media on Monday that talks to bring an end to five decades of conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are going well but should speed up. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kremlin doctor signals Putin is in good health Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:59 AM PDT  By Alexei Anishchuk MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is in good health and a back injury that was reported last year is not a cause for concern, according to the Kremlin's top doctor. In an interview which appeared intended to bolster Putin's image as his 61st birthday approaches in October, Sergei Mironov told Itogi magazine that the president stayed fit by playing sport and preferred using folk remedies to taking pills. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt army, government to offer compromise to Muslim Brotherhood Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:51 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army and government will offer to free some Muslim Brotherhood members from jail, unfreeze the group's assets and give it three ministerial posts in a bid to end the country's political crisis, a senior military source said on Monday. "The initiative will be made so that we can end the crisis and have the Brotherhood end their sit-ins," the military source told Reuters. A political source familiar with the proposal confirmed the details. (Reporting by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Michael Georgy and Michael Roddy) 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 |
| Residents flee as fire rages at Marathon, near Athens Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:40 AM PDT  ATHENS (Reuters) - A wildfire fanned by strong winds raged near Athens on Monday, damaging homes and sending residents fleeing, fire brigade officials said. Reuters witnesses said the blaze had damaged at least three homes at a hamlet by the town of Marathon - the site of the historic 490 BC battle between Athenians and Persians about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of the Greek capital. "The flames have reached homes, but we don't know yet how many are threatened," said a fire brigade official, speaking on condition of anonymity. ... Full Story | Top |
| Johannesburg apologizes to Mandela for billing blunder Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:35 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The City of Johannesburg apologized to Nelson Mandela and his family on Monday for mistakenly posting a non-payment notice on the former South African president's house warning him his electricity was about to be cut off. The city, which has faced a barrage of complaints from residents for bungled bills, said the notice demanding payment of 6,468.48 rand ($660) was supposed to have been delivered to a different house. "The city wants to convey an apology to the Mandela family for any inconvenience caused by this unfortunate incident," it said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ivory Coast frees 14 Gbagbo allies pending criminal trials Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:25 AM PDT ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Judicial authorities in Ivory Coast have ordered the release from prison of 14 top allies of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, including his son, pending criminal trials this year, the state prosecutor said on Monday. More than 100 suspected supporters of the former president were arrested in the wake of a brief 2011 war that erupted after Gbagbo refused to accept his defeat at the hands of Alassane Ouattara in a presidential run-off in late 2010. ... Full Story | Top |
| Botswana faults Zimbabwe election, calls for audit Monday, Aug 05, 2013 08:10 AM PDT  GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana called on Monday for an independent audit of Zimbabwe's disputed vote last week, saying the elections could not be considered acceptably free and fair in the regional southern African community. The statement from the government in Gaborone contrasted sharply with the unqualified endorsement given by South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, of the July 31 polls which re-elected veteran Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, 89. Mugabe's main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, is challenging the result as a fraud. ... Full Story | Top |
| Envoys press Egypt's Brotherhood to 'swallow reality': spokesman Monday, Aug 05, 2013 07:54 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - International envoys trying to end Egypt's political crisis are urging the Muslim Brotherhood to "swallow the reality" that Mohamed Mursi's time as president is over but the group is refusing, the Brotherhood's spokesman said on Monday. Gehad El-Haddad also confirmed that the envoys had visited jailed deputy Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater in prison in the early hours of Monday, but he had cut the meeting short, saying they should be talking to Mursi. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain and France extend closures of Yemen embassies Monday, Aug 05, 2013 07:15 AM PDT  SANAA (Reuters) - Britain and France extended the closure of their embassies in Yemen on Monday after a U.S. warning of a possible militant attack in the region, and the Arab state said it was stepping up security at ports and airports. The U.S. State Department said at the weekend that 19 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East and Africa would remain closed until Saturday "out of an abundance of caution". It said several would have been closed anyway for most of the week due to the Eid Muslim celebrations. It had initially closed 21 U.S. diplomatic posts for the day on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fire in Norwegian road tunnel sends 55 to hospital Monday, Aug 05, 2013 06:39 AM PDT  OSLO (Reuters) - More than 50 people were sent to hospital after a truck caught fire in a tunnel in western Norway on Monday, police said. The 11.4-km (7-mile) Gudvanga tunnel, Norway's second longest, carries traffic close to the Naeroey fjord, considered one of its most beautiful and a draw for tourists from around the world during the summer season. "Fifty-five people have been taken to hospital for checks. That's every single person that's been evacuated," police spokesman Joern Lasse Refsnes said. The cause of the fire was as yet unknown, he added. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkey tests undersea rail tunnel linking Asia with Europe Monday, Aug 05, 2013 06:19 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey has successfully completed a trial run of a rail tunnel under the Bosphorus connecting Istanbul's European and Asian sides, the first of several planned mega projects in the country's largest city to see the light of day. The 13.6 km (8.5 mile) tunnel, including a 1.4 km immersed tube tunnel - the deepest of its kind in the world at 56 metres - passes under Turkey's Bosphorus Strait, the busy shipping channel linking the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb wounds train passengers as Pakistan goes on high alert Monday, Aug 05, 2013 05:44 AM PDT By Syed Raza Hassan ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police scoured hills surrounding the capital Islamabad and sent additional units to protect key installations on Monday amid tightened security ahead of a major Muslim holiday and after a bomb wounded 14 people on a train. Police and soldiers go on alert every year in the closing days of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which this year coincides with a global security alert issued by the United States which closed more than a dozen embassies in the Middle East and Africa following an al Qaeda threat. ... Full Story | Top |
| Clashes between Nigerian army, Boko Haram kill 35 Monday, Aug 05, 2013 05:19 AM PDT MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - At least 35 people have been killed in two separate gun battles between Nigerian security forces and Islamist sect Boko Haram in northeast Borno state, the army said on Monday. Boko Haram, which wants to impose sharia law in Nigeria's north, and other spin-off Islamist groups have become the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil exporter. In mid-May, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency and launched an offensive against the group in its stronghold in the northeast. ... Full Story | Top |
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