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| Syria opposition lays preconditions for peace talks Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 12:13 PM PST  By Yasmine Saleh and Ayman Samir CAIRO (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition set terms on Sunday for attending peace talks to end the Syrian civil war, in a move that throws the proposed conference into further confusion after the international envoy said there should be no preconditions. The long-delayed talks - known as Geneva 2 - are meant to bring Syria's warring sides to the negotiating table, but have been repeatedly delayed because of disputes between world powers, divisions among the opposition and irreconcilable positions of Assad and the rebels. Syrian National Coalition President Ahmad Jarba said the opposition would not attend unless there was a clear timeframe for President Bashar al-Assad to leave power. He also said they could not accept the presence of Iran. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Won for the money: North Korea experiments with exchange rates Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 01:02 PM PST  By James Pearson SEOUL (Reuters) - In a dimly-lit Pyongyang toyshop packed with Mickey Mouse picture frames and plastic handguns, a basketball sells for 46,000 Korean People's Won - close to $500 at North Korea's centrally planned exchange rate. Luckily, for young North Koreans looking to shoot hoops with Dennis Rodman, the new friend of leader Kim Jong Un, the Chinese-made ball actually costs a little less than $6 based on black market rates. Once reserved for official exchange only in zones aimed at attracting foreign investment, and in illegal underground market deals elsewhere, black market rates are being used more frequently and openly in North Korean cities. Publicly advertised prices at rates close to the market rate - around 8,000 won to the dollar versus the official rate of 96 - could signal Pyongyang is trying to marketise its centrally planned economy and allow a burgeoning "grey market" to thrive. Full Story | Top |
| Suspected L.A. airport gunman planned 'suicide' mission: congressman Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 07:47 PM PST  The suspect in a deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport wrote that he intended to die after killing at least one security officer, the head of a key congressional security committee said on Sunday, as authorities stepped up patrols at the airport and considered changes to aviation security rules. Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, also discussed weaknesses in airport security in the "suicide" note before Friday's attack, Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told CNN. "The other thing he wanted to talk about was how easy it is to bring a gun into an airport and do something just like he did," McCaul said of the note. An officer with the Transportation Security Administration died in the shooting, the first employee from the agency killed in the line of duty since it was created after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Full Story | Top |
| India throws rings of protection around divisive candidate Modi Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 01:10 PM PST  By Sanjeev Miglani NEW DELHI (Reuters) - - Indian security forces are preparing for one of their most challenging assignments in decades, protecting prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in a country with a grim history of political assassinations. A series of small bombs killed six people at a rally the Hindu nationalist leader held in the city of Patna on October 20. Authorities said the home-grown Indian Mujahideen (IM) group was responsible. While Modi was not in the immediate vicinity of the explosions, the message was clear. Full Story | Top |
| In political messaging wars, White House deploys a Twitter army Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 03:41 PM PST  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Besieged by unflattering stories about the launch of President Barack Obama's healthcare program, the White House saw a news report that it wanted to swiftly knock down. It was from NBC, which said that Obama had overpromised when he said Americans who liked their insurance could keep it, and that the president knew that many people would see their coverage change. White House officials quickly began firing off a barrage of tweets on Twitter, which has become one of the administration's most potent and relied-upon weapons in trying to shape public opinion and media reports. "NBC 'scoop' cites normal turnover in the indiv insurance market," Earnest tweeted to his 9,500 followers on Twitter. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry sees signs Egypt moving back towards democracy Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 02:14 PM PST  By Lesley Wroughton and Shaimaa Fayed CAIRO (Reuters) - A day before Egypt's deposed Islamist president goes on trial, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday expressed guarded optimism about a return to democracy in the country during a tour partly aimed at easing tensions with major Arab powers. On his first visit to Egypt since the army removed president Mohamed Mursi in July, Kerry called for fair, transparent trials for all citizens. However, he described Cairo as a vital partner to the United States and the region, as he tried to repair relations hurt by a partial freeze in U.S. aid. Kerry said the relationship between the United States and Egypt should not be defined by aid but by a partnership, and promised to launch talks on a U.S.-Egypt strategic dialogue. Full Story | Top |
| China reform checklist: How to tell that this time it's for real? Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 03:08 PM PST  By Tomasz Janowski TOKYO (Reuters) - The message from Beijing could not be clearer: China needs to shift to a more balanced economy that is socially and environmentally sustainable. That was the conclusion of a key Communist Party meeting a decade ago, yet what followed was more of the same: rapid investment-led expansion, which turned China into the world's no.2 economy, but left it laden with debt, environmental damage and excess capacity. Fast forward to 2013 and China's new leadership is again promising more harmonious development and the question is how to tell whether, this time, it is for real. One encouraging sign suggesting that President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and their team mean business is their greater tolerance for slower economic growth while they carry out reforms. Full Story | Top |
| South Korea plans to buy four Global Hawk aircraft from 2017 Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 04:27 PM PST South Korea intends to buy four Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, made by Northrop Grumman Corp, for about 900 billion won ($848 million), an official at the country's defense acquisition agency confirmed on Monday. Lee Young-geol, the administrator of South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), said in a parliamentary audit late on Friday that South Korea "has plans to sign a contract next year to adopt Global Hawks in 2017". The purchase would be conducted through the U.S. Foreign Military Sale (FMS) program, and was likely to be signed in the first half of 2014, said the official who was not authorized to speak about the deal before its terms were fixed. Full Story | Top |
| Obama, Democrats seek to make Virginia governor's race a Tea Party referendum Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 12:54 PM PST  By Steve Holland ARLINGTON, Virginia (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats attempted on Sunday to tap into voter anger about a 16-day U.S. government shutdown and turn Virginia's upcoming governor's election into a referendum on Tea Party conservatives. With Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe leading polls over Republican Ken Cuccinelli before Tuesday's vote, Obama and Democratic speakers at a rally in the Washington suburb of Arlington pressed party activists to focus on turning out the vote. Northern Virginia's Washington suburbs, where many government employees and contractors live, was hit particularly hard by the government shutdown last month that resulted from a stalemate over the U.S. budget and debt ceiling that Americans for the most part blamed on Republicans. Full Story | Top |
| Snowden says calls for reform prove intel leaks were justified Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 04:36 AM PST  Fugitive U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said calls for more oversight of government intelligence agencies showed he was justified in revealing the methods and targets of the U.S. secret service. Snowden's leaks about the National Security Agency (NSA), from its alleged mass scanning of emails to the tapping of world leaders' phones, have infuriated U.S. allies and placed Washington on the defensive. In "A Manifesto for the Truth" published in German news magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday, Snowden said current debates about mass surveillance in many countries showed his revelations were helping to bring about change. "Instead of causing damage, the usefulness of the new public knowledge for society is now clear because reforms to politics, supervision and laws are being suggested," the 30-year-old ex-CIA employee and NSA contractor wrote. Full Story | Top |
| Suspected L.A. airport gunman planned 'suicide' mission: congressman Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 12:41 PM PST  The suspected gunman in last week's deadly attack at Los Angeles International Airport wrote a note saying he intended to die after killing at least one security officer, the chairman of a key U.S. security committee said on Sunday. Twenty-three-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia also discussed weaknesses in airport security in the "suicide" note before Friday's attack, Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security told CNN. Ciancia is accused of shooting dead a Transportation Security Administration officer, the first employee from the agency to die in the line of duty since it was created after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Airport police shot and wounded the gunman, ending the rampage. Full Story | Top |
| In China's Xinjiang, poverty, exclusion are greater threat than Islam Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 01:16 PM PST  By Michael Martina URUMQI, China (Reuters) - In the dirty backstreets of the Uighur old quarter of Xinjiang's capital Urumqi in China's far west, Abuduwahapu frowns when asked what he thinks is the root cause of the region's festering problem with violence and unrest. So they don't really understand each other," he said, referring to the Muslim religion the Turkic-speaking Uighur people follow, in contrast to the official atheism of the ruling Communist Party. But for the teenage bread delivery boy, it's not Islam that's driving people to commit acts of violence, such as last week's deadly car crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square - blamed by the government on Uighur Islamist extremists who want independence. Mostly, those who support it are unsatisfied because they are poor," said Abuduwahapu, who came to Urumqi two years ago from the heavily Uighur old Silk Road city of Kashgar in Xinjiang's southwest, near the Pakistani and Afghan border. Full Story | Top |
| Syrian army and allies push into southern Damascus: activists Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 09:08 AM PST  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian army and Shi'ite Muslim fighters attacked Sunni rebel areas in southern Damascus on Sunday in an offensive aimed at breaking resistance to President Bashar al-Assad around the capital, activists said. Militia from Iran and Iraq and the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, who overran two southern suburbs last month, are looking to build up their advances by capturing opposition districts closer to the center of Damascus, the sources said. Fighters from the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant, which is heavily comprised of foreign jihadists, have joined Islamist rebel brigades and Free Syrian Army units in close quarters fighting around the district of Hajar al-Aswad. It is one of a series of Sunni districts on the edge of Damascus at the forefront of the uprising against Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated Syria since the 1960s. Full Story | Top |
| Khamenei tells Iran's hardliners not to undermine nuclear talks Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 04:55 AM PST  By Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader gave strong backing on Sunday to his president's push for nuclear negotiations, warning hardliners not to accuse Hassan Rouhani of compromising with the old enemy America. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments will help shield Rouhani, who has sought to thaw relations with the West since his surprise election in June, from accusations of being soft on the United States, often characterized in the Islamic Republic as the "Great Satan". Iran will resume negotiations with six world powers, including the United States, in Geneva on Thursday, talks aimed at ending a standoff over its nuclear work that Tehran denies is weapons-related. Rouhani hopes a deal there will mean an end to sanctions that have cut the OPEC country's oil exports and hurt the wider economy, but any concession that looks like Iran is compromising on what it sees as its sovereign right to peaceful nuclear technology will be strongly resisted by conservatives. Full Story | Top |
| Swiss Finance Minister wants banks to boost leverage ratios: paper Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 12:16 PM PST  Swiss banks should be subject to higher leverage ratio requirements, Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was quoted as saying on Sunday. Under Basel III, banks will be subject to a leverage ratio requiring them to hold capital equivalent to at least 3 percent of their total non risk-weighted assets. Authorities have been grappling since the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers five years ago with the question of how banks regarded as systemically important, or too-big-to-fail, can be recapitalized without causing panic or needing taxpayer cash. But they must be organized so that the state does not end up being liable." After Switzerland's biggest bank UBS had to be bailed out by the government in 2008, Swiss regulators have implemented tough new capital requirements for banks that go beyond the Basel III rules, which were laid out by a committee of banking supervisors from nearly 30 countries. Full Story | Top |
| Toronto mayor urges police to release video, apologizes for 'mistakes' Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 03:18 PM PST  By Jeffrey Hodgson TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Sunday urged his police chief to release a video that media reports say show him smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and issued a broad apology for mistakes in his past, including public drunkenness. But Ford, who previously said he does not use crack, said he could not discuss the content of the video until he had seen it. "Whatever this video shows ... Toronto residents deserve to see it, and people need to judge for themselves what they see on this video," Ford said on his weekly radio show. Full Story | Top |
| UK response to Snowden data 'imperils press freedom': rights groups Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 11:49 AM PST  The British government's response to leaks of intelligence information by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has eroded human rights and press freedoms, rights groups said on Sunday. In an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron published in Britain's Guardian newspaper, 70 different press advocacy and rights groups from 40 countries said they were alarmed at the way his government had reacted, saying it had invoked national security legislation to try to suppress information of public interest. "We believe that the United Kingdom government's response ... is eroding fundamental human rights in the country. Full Story | Top |
| Republican Ayotte seeks 'time out' on Obamacare as anxieties grow Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 11:56 AM PST  By Lisa Lambert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte wants to press "pause" on rolling out the U.S. healthcare reform law as anxiety grows about troubles with the federal website for buying insurance and possibly low numbers of people signing up for coverage. "I'm calling on the president now to say, 'Let's have a time-out on this.' Mr. President, you call a time-out on this," said Ayotte in an appearance on CNN on Sunday. "Convene a group of bipartisan leaders to address healthcare concerns in this country because this is not working." Ayotte said the pause would not be a replay of an October standoff over fiscal issues, when an impasse between Democrats and Republicans resulted in a partial shutdown of the federal government as Republicans sought to defund the healthcare law, known as Obamacare. "The administration, in the way this is being rolled out, is a mess." On Wednesday Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will face angry Republicans such as Ayotte when she testifies before the Senate Finance Committee about the online federal insurance exchange. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. manufacturers refashion themselves as 'lifestyle brands' Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 11:25 AM PST  By James B. Kelleher CHICAGO (Reuters) - Call it concealed-carry chic: With all 50 U.S. states now permitting people to pack pistols in public, it was only a matter of time before some company came to market with an apparel line targeting the gun-toting crowd. Remington Arms Co, which has been making firearms for nearly 200 years, has just unveiled a collection of clothing and accessories, including the "Smoothbore Field Coat" ($1,295) and the "Double Derringer Leather Vest" ($300). In drawing a bead on the apparel market, Remington becomes the latest U.S. manufacturer to try reinventing itself as a "lifestyle brand" as a way to bolster its bottom line. Next up is Winnebago Industries Inc, the U.S. maker of motorhomes and trailers. Full Story | Top |
| Angry Pakistan to assess U.S. ties after killing of militant disrupts talks Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 04:14 AM PST  By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan is to review its relationship with the United States, the prime minister's office said on Sunday, following the killing of the Pakistani Taliban leader in a U.S. drone strike. Mehsud, who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was killed on Friday in the northwestern Pakistani militant stronghold of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border. The Pakistani Taliban have killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and members of the security forces in their bid to impose Islamist rule, but the new government has been calling for peace talks. The government denounced Mehsud's killing as a U.S. bid to derail the talks and summoned the U.S. ambassador on Saturday to complain. Full Story | Top |
| Mursi to go on trial as Egypt struggles for democracy Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 08:41 AM PST  By Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, goes on trial on Monday under a security crackdown that has devastated his Muslim Brotherhood movement and raised concerns that the army-backed government is reimposing a police state. Mursi, who was ousted by the army on July 3 after mass protests against his rule, is due to appear in court at the same Cairo police academy where autocrat Hosni Mubarak also faces trial following his own overthrow in 2011. However, the generals are back in charge, to the dismay of Western allies who hoped Egypt's experiment with democracy would be smooth. Mursi, who has been held in secret location since his removal after only a year in office, is due to appear along with 14 other senior Muslim Brotherhood figures on charges of inciting violence. Full Story | Top |
| Congo's M23 rebels declare ceasefire but shelling continues Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 08:31 AM PST  By Kenny Katombe RUNYONI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Congo's M23 rebels declared a ceasefire on Sunday after a string of defeats by government forces, but clashes with the Congolese army continued in the steep, forested hills to where the rebels have withdrawn. The army has in recent weeks driven rebels from towns they had occupied across eastern Congo, making mediators optimistic for a deal to end the conflict, the most serious since a major Congolese war ended a decade ago. Uganda, which has led attempts to end the rebellion, has called for both sides to stop fighting. A spokesman for Congo's government called the rebel statement "a step in the right direction" but said it was waiting to see if the ceasefire was implemented on the ground. Full Story | Top |
| Kosovo vote, key to Serb integration, marred by violence, boycott Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 09:55 AM PST  By Aleksandar Vasovic MITROVICA, Kosovo (Reuters) - An election in Kosovo designed to help end years of de facto ethnic partition was marred by violence and intimidation by Serb hardliners on Sunday, undermining a fragile EU-brokered pact between the Balkan country and former master Serbia. Two hours before polls closed in the ethnically-divided town of Mitrovica, a volatile Serb pocket of northern Kosovo, masked men burst into three schools housing polling stations on the Serb side, lobbing tear gas and smashing ballot boxes. Participation of the north Kosovo Serbs in the Kosovo-wide council and mayoral elections is central to an agreement reached in April to integrate the 40,000-50,000 Serbs living there with the rest of Kosovo, which is majority Albanian and declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia had called on Serbs in northern Kosovo to take part for the first time, with the EU holding out the prospect of membership talks - slated to begin in January - as a reward for Belgrade's support for the process. Full Story | Top |
| France says its journalists "coldly assassinated" in Mali Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 10:21 AM PST  By John Irish and Adama Diarra PARIS/BAMAKO (Reuters) - France said on Sunday two French journalists found dead in the northern Mali region of Kidal had been "coldly assassinated" by militants and vowed to step up security measures in the area. Radio journalists Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont were abducted after interviewing a member of the MNLA Tuareg separatist group in northern Mali. Their bodies were found on Saturday by a French patrol 12 km (8 miles) outside Kidal, the birthplace of a Tuareg uprising last year that plunged Mali into chaos, leading to a coup in the capital Bamako and the occupation of the northern half of the country by militants linked to al Qaeda. Adama Kamissoko, the governor of Kidal region, said French and Malian security officials were jointly investigating the attack, but French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius put the blame firmly on militants operating in the region. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: U.S. farm kids lavish shampoos and drugs on their prize cattle Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 05:48 AM PST  By Lisa Baertlein and P.J. Huffstutter DALLAS (Reuters) - For more than a century, ranchers and their kids have paraded cattle around the dusty show ring at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, in a rite of passage that is part farm economics, part rural theater. MUSCLE-BUILDING STAPLE Many of the fresh-faced kids who compete at cattle shows have seen beta-agonists on their family farms or feedlots. Full Story | Top |
| Three killed in Yemen sectarian clashes as truce fails to take hold Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 03:39 AM PST  By Mohammed Ghobari SANAA (Reuters) - At least three people were killed in fighting between rival Muslim clans in northern Yemen on Sunday, a local official said, bringing the death toll from five days of clashes to 58 as the government tried to broker a ceasefire. The battles between Shi'ite Muslim Houthi fighters and rivals from a Sunni Salafi group erupted last Wednesday in the mountainous Saada province, which has long been outside the control of the central Yemeni government. Yemen's stability is a priority for the United States and its Gulf Arab allies because of its strategic position next to oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes, and because is home to one of al Qaeda's most active wings. The sectarian fighting in the north has cast a shadow over national reconciliation efforts launched this year after long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to step down following a popular uprising in 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Tensions with allies rise, but U.S. sees improved China ties Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 03:15 AM PST  By Paul Eckert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With ties between Washington and many close allies strained because of eavesdropping revelations and differences over U.S. policies in the Middle East, the Obama administration can take some comfort from an improvement in ties with China. A year after China's President Xi Jinping took over the helm of the country's ruling Communist Party, senior U.S. officials say they see increased cooperation on a range of issues from climate change to North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions. On the economic front, Washington is focused on China's November 9-12 Communist Party conclave where Xi's blueprint for making the world's second-largest economy more open is expected to be unveiled. Both could help dent the $300 billion annual U.S. trade deficit with China. Full Story | Top |
| Militants test Tunisia's new democracy Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 02:00 AM PST  By Patrick Markey TUNIS (Reuters) - When protesters stormed the U.S. embassy in Tunis last year, they hoisted a black jihadist flag that exposed the militant Islamist undercurrent in one of the Muslim world's most secular societies. An attack on a tourist resort last week by a suicide bomber, and recent gun battles with Tunisian police, revealed how deeply that fervor, fostered worldwide by al Qaeda, has taken root in the country where the Arab Spring began. Militants, few in number, have little chance of forging the Islamic state they want in Tunisia or igniting wider war. But with the country still stumbling toward democracy and Libya's chaos on its doorstep, violent Islamists have room to flourish. Full Story | Top |
| China Xinjiang military boss booted off ruling council after attack Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 02:08 AM PST  China's ruling Communist Party announced on Sunday the removal of the military chief of restive Xinjiang from the region's governing council, following a car crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square blamed on Islamist militants from Xinjiang. The official Xinjiang Daily said in a brief front page report that Peng Yong had been sacked as a member of Xinjiang's Communist Party Standing Committee, and would be replaced by Liu Lei, an army veteran with more than a decade's experience in the region. The incident was especially embarrassing for the stability-obsessed party given the billions of dollars it spends every year on domestic security, not only in Xinjiang but across the country, and that the crash happened in the heart of Beijing. Full Story | Top |
| Two death sentences in absentia for war crimes in Bangladesh Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 04:28 AM PST By Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - A Bangladesh war crimes court convicted and sentenced to death in absentia on Sunday two men accused of committing atrocities during the country's war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. Britain-based Muslim leader Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan, a U.S. citizen, were found guilty of the torture and murder of 18 intellectuals during the war, lawyers and tribunal officials said. They said the 18 included nine Dhaka University teachers, six journalists and three doctors. "Justice will be denied if they are not given death sentences for their heinous crimes," judge Obaidul Hassan told the crowded tribunal. Full Story | Top |
| Palestinians lose more than most in Syrian exodus Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 04:45 AM PST  By Alexander Dziadosz AIN AL-HELWEH, Lebanon (Reuters) - Palestinians Mahmoud and Ahmed fled Syria last month for Egypt, where they paid smugglers to bring them to Europe. Now at the Lebanese camp of Ain al-Helweh, they face as Palestinians restrictions on their lives far more severe than any other refugees from Syria. A people all too familiar with refugee life, Palestinians have lost out more than most in the exodus from Syria. "There was no way to turn back." "They pulled knives on us and took our money and mobile phones and stripped the gold off the women." The war has forced some 50,000 Palestinians to flee Syria, a country where they had enjoyed some of the most favorable treatment in all of the Arab world. Full Story | Top |
| Magnitude 5.0 quake jolts eastern Japan, no tsunami warning Saturday, Nov 02, 2013 10:46 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5 jolted eastern Japan including the capital, Tokyo, on Sunday, the NHK public broadcaster and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, and no tsunami warning was issued. (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Robert Birsel) Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Tensions with allies rise, but U.S. sees improved China ties Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 03:09 AM PST  By Paul Eckert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With ties between Washington and many close allies strained because of eavesdropping revelations and differences over U.S. policies in the Middle East, the Obama administration can take some comfort from an improvement in ties with China. A year after China's President Xi Jinping took over the helm of the country's ruling Communist Party, senior U.S. officials say they see increased cooperation on a range of issues from climate change to North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions. On the economic front, Washington is focused on China's November 9-12 Communist Party conclave where Xi's blueprint for making the world's second-largest economy more open is expected to be unveiled. Both could help dent the $300 billion annual U.S. trade deficit with China. Full Story | Top |
| Tajik leader to extend two-decade rule despite economic woes Saturday, Nov 02, 2013 11:39 PM PDT  The adoring welcome for Imomali Rakhmon at the carefully choreographed event underscores his tight grip over a state he has ruled for more than two decades and which he looks set to dominate for a further seven years after an election on November 6. No opposition candidates have been allowed to run against the former state farm boss, but he faces daunting economic and social problems in his next term as well as possible security woes when NATO troops quit neighboring Afghanistan in 2014. Will he finally launch a tough attack on regional crime and corruption, which is flourishing in Tajikistan?" Nearly half of the former Soviet republic's eight million people live below the poverty line, World Bank figures show, and remittances from around one million Tajiks working in Russia account for some 40 percent of gross domestic product. As long as Russia gives us jobs, let Rakhmon rule," said a 60-year-old taxi driver who gave his name only as Akhmadjon in the capital Dushanbe. Full Story | Top |
| Mursi goes on trial as Egypt struggles for democracy Sunday, Nov 03, 2013 01:10 AM PDT  By Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, goes on trial on Monday under a security crackdown that has devastated his Muslim Brotherhood movement and raised concerns that the army-backed government is reimposing a police state. A popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 raised hopes that Egyptians would break the military establishment's longstanding grip on power. But the world's most populous Arab nation has faltered in its political transition, and the generals are back in charge, to the dismay of Cairo's Western allies who were hoping Egypt's experiment with democracy would be smooth. Mursi, who was ousted by the army on July 3 after mass protests against his rule, is due to appear in court along with 14 other senior Muslim Brotherhood figures on charges of inciting violence. Full Story | Top |
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