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| Objectors in Detroit bankruptcy ask to appeal directly to circuit court Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 07:49 PM PST  Organizations that objected to Detroit's bankruptcy separately asked the U.S. judge overseeing the case late on Wednesday to allow an appeal of the case to go directly to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Groups led by Detroit's largest union - Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees - and the city's two pension funds filed requests with the bankruptcy court to bypass the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and go directly to the appeals court. Full Story | Top |
| China says told Biden airspace decision in line with international law Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 07:36 PM PST China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that China told visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Beijing's decision to set up an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea accorded with international law. "During the talks the Chinese side repeated its principled position, stressing that the Chinese move accorded with international law and practice and that the U.S. side ought to take an objective and fair attitude and respect it," ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a brief statement. Full Story | Top |
| Biden says China's airspace zone has caused apprehension Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 07:09 PM PST  U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday that China's announcement of an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea had caused apprehension in the region, and that he was firm about the U.S. stance on the move during talks in Beijing. Biden had around five hours of discussions with President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, with both leaders laying out their perspective on an issue that has rattled countries in East Asia. "China's recent and sudden announcement of the establishment of a new air defense identification zone has, to state the obvious, caused significant apprehension in the region," Biden told a gathering of U.S. executives in Beijing. Full Story | Top |
| Obama says he's not allowed iPhone for 'security reasons' Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 06:21 PM PST  The troubled mobile phone maker BlackBerry still has at least one very loyal customer: U.S. President Barack Obama. At a meeting with youth on Wednesday to promote his landmark healthcare law, Obama said he is not allowed to have Apple's smart phone, the iPhone, for "security reasons," though he still uses Apple's tablet computer, the iPad. Apple was one of several tech companies that may have allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) direct access to servers containing customer data, according to revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Obama fought to keep his BlackBerry after coming to the White House in 2009, though he said only 10 people have his personal email address. Full Story | Top |
| Toronto Mayor Ford may have tried to buy crack video -police documents Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 06:03 PM PST  By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may have offered cash and a car to buy a video allegedly showing him using crack cocaine, according to notes from police wiretaps. Ford admitted early last month he had smoked crack cocaine, saying it was probably "in one of my drunken stupors," but he said he is not an addict and does not need help. The existence of an alleged video was initially reported in May by the Toronto Star newspaper and media website Gawker. Ford said at the time that he could not comment on a video he had not seen "or does not exist." But according to police notes of a recorded phone conversation involving two suspected gang members, Ford was aware of the video's existence in March, and offered to buy it. Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon focused on weapons, data fusion as F-35 nears combat use Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 05:16 PM PST  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet is making good progress as it nears initial combat use by the U.S. Marine Corps in July 2015, but the company must still finalize the software needed to deliver weapons and fuse data from its many sensors, the Pentagon's F-35 program chief told Reuters on Wednesday. "Getting to 2015 there's a whole lot of things that have to be put in place, not the least of which is the software on the program," Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, the Air Force three-star general who took over the helm of the $392 billion F-35 program around one year ago, said in an interview. Officials have also launched an "earnest effort" to ensure that planes already built for the Air Force and Marine Corps are modified to adjust for issues found in flight testing so they are ready for initial combat use, Bogdan said. The Air Force has said it plans to start using its conventional takeoff F-35 jets from mid-2016. Full Story | Top |
| Streetcar not desired in Cincinnati as council suspends project Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 05:11 PM PST By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Cincinnati City Council members voted on Wednesday to suspend construction on a $133 million streetcar project aimed at connecting urban communities so it can assess the feasibility of the project. The streetcar project, a 3.6-mile (5.8-km) loop with 18 stops connecting urban communities, is estimated to cost $133 million. About $45 million of the cost was to be paid for by the Federal Transportation Administration, with the city picking up the $88 million balance. Proponents of streetcar project argued suspending construction will put federal funds in jeopardy and open the city up to lawsuits from contractors. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says may seek dismantling part of Arak reactor in final Iran deal Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 05:01 PM PST A top U.S. diplomat suggested on Wednesday the United States may press Iran to agree to dismantle part of its Arak nuclear reactor in a comprehensive agreement to rein in Tehran's atomic program. Under an interim deal agreed between Iran and six world powers last month, Iran is to shelve fuel production for six months at Arak, an unfinished heavy-water research reactor which Western countries say Tehran could use to produce plutonium for atomic bombs. Iran says the reactor is for medical isotopes. A comprehensive agreement "includes a lot of dismantling of their infrastructure," Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for political affairs, said on PBS Newshour, speaking about a final deal with Iran. Full Story | Top |
| Special Report: Thailand secretly supplies Myanmar refugees to trafficking rings Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:50 PM PST  By Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall RANONG, Thailand (Reuters) - One afternoon in October, in the watery no-man's land between Thailand and Myanmar, Muhammad Ismail vanished. Thai immigration officials said he was being deported to Myanmar. In fact, they sold Ismail, 23, and hundreds of other Rohingya Muslims to human traffickers, who then spirited them into brutal jungle camps. As thousands of Rohingya flee Myanmar to escape religious persecution, a Reuters investigation in three countries has uncovered a clandestine policy to remove Rohingya refugees from Thailand's immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers waiting at sea. Full Story | Top |
| Prize-winning Dominican author in war of words over migrant court ruling Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:43 PM PST By Ezra Fieser SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz said a letter from Dominican authors and intellectuals questioning his loyalty to his country of birth was "a ham-fisted attempt to silence" his criticism of a controversial court ruling on birthright citizenship. Diaz and three other authors have come under attack in the Dominican Republic after they published a letter in the New York Times that criticized a September decision by the country's constitutional court that stripped Dominican citizenship from children of illegal immigrants, most of whom are descendants of Haitians. The letter drew a response from eight Dominican cultural figures, who, in an open letter published by media outlets in the country, suggested Diaz was adding to a "disinformation campaign aimed at curtailing our sovereignty." They went on to criticize Diaz's literary style, saying he had "little capacity for reflection and a disrespectful and mediocre use of the written word." Diaz, who in early December returned from a trip to the Caribbean country, told Reuters in emails that "sectors of the society in favor of this ruling seem convinced that dissension is not a healthy part of a democratic society." The dustup comes amid continued international pressure for the Dominican government to walk back the court ruling, which will remove Dominican citizenship from tens of thousands of people born in the country dating back to 1929. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico finds stolen radioactive material amid dirty bomb fear Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:39 PM PST  By Fredrik Dahl and Ana Isabel Martinez VIENNA/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican police have found dangerous radioactive medical material stolen by thieves that the United Nations said could provide an ingredient for a "dirty bomb," the country's national nuclear safety commission CNSNS said on Wednesday. The truck was found on Wednesday close to where it was stolen outside Mexico City. The thieves removed the radioactive material from a protective case, exposing them to dangerous levels of radiation then dumped it less than a mile away. "Both the container and the radioactive source have been located," said Mardonio Jimenez Rojas, an official at the commission, told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Thailand's anti-trafficking effort loses steam Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:27 PM PST By Andrew R.C. Marshall and Jason Szep BANGKOK (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department is gathering information for its next Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report, due to be published in June. It ranks countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking. Thailand faces an automatic downgrade to Tier 3, the lowest rank, unless it makes "significant efforts" to improve its record, the State Department says. In an interview with Reuters, Police Maj-Gen Chatchawal Suksomjit of the Royal Thai Police defended Thailand's record for investigating and prosecuting traffickers and the Thai officials who help them. Full Story | Top |
| Chemical experts eye port to load Syria toxins onto U.S. ship Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:17 PM PST  The United Nations and the global chemical weapons watchdog are awaiting approval from a country to use its port to load Syria's most deadly chemicals onto a U.S. ship for destruction offshore, the head of the mission said on Wednesday. Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Syria mission, briefed the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday but did not identify which country she had been in talks with. The OPCW said on Saturday the United States had started modifying a U.S. naval vessel to be able to destroy Syria's 500 tons of chemicals, including actual nerve agents - neutralizing them offshore with other chemicals in a process known as hydrolysis. Italy, Norway and Denmark have offered to transport Syria's chemicals from the northern Syrian port of Latakia with military escorts. Full Story | Top |
| Ex-aide says Madoff workers duped investor's account postmortem Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:13 PM PST  By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - To hear his former aide tell it, even a client's death posed no problem for Bernard Madoff as he perpetrated his massive Ponzi scheme. Testifying in a trial in New York on Wednesday, the former aide, Frank DiPascali, said an estate lawyer wrote Madoff's firm a letter in 1995 seeking the account balances for the late Jacques Amsellem, who had been a Madoff client since the 1970s. Madoff typically decided how much money each account should earn in a given year, and Amsellem's account showed too high a balance at the time of his death, DiPascali said. So two of his employees, Joann Crupi and Annette Bongiorno, wrote up false statements for a new account with losses to counterbalance the unintended gains. Full Story | Top |
| Cyber experts uncover 2 million stolen passwords to global Web accounts Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:11 PM PST  Security experts have uncovered a trove of some 2 million stolen passwords to websites including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo from Internet users across the globe. Researchers with Trustwave's SpiderLabs said they discovered the credentials while investigating a server in the Netherlands that cyber criminals use to control a massive network of compromised computers known as the "Pony botnet." The company told Reuters on Wednesday that it has reported its findings to the largest of more than 90,000 websites and Internet service providers whose customers' credentials it had found on the server. The data includes more than 326,000 Facebook Inc accounts, some 60,000 Google Inc accounts, more than 59,000 Yahoo Inc accounts and nearly 22,000 Twitter Inc accounts, according to SpiderLabs. Full Story | Top |
| ECB under policy pressure from its own forecasts update Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:05 PM PST  By Paul Carrel FRANKFURT (Reuters) - New economic projections from the European Central Bank on Thursday are likely to point to euro zone inflation remaining below target into 2015, raising pressure on the bank to take fresh policy action next year. The ECB is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its final policy meeting of this year, after surprising markets last month with a cut in its main rate to a record low of 0.25 percent. With governments slow to respond to the euro zone crisis, the ECB has played a major role in bringing the bloc back from the brink of break-up but now faces resistance to further policy action from its German-led hawkish minority. November's cut followed a fall in euro zone inflation to 0.7 percent in October - far below the ECB's target of just under 2 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Britons face rise in state pension age to 68 by mid-2030s Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:04 PM PST  By Susan Fenton LONDON (Reuters) - - Britain is likely to raise the state pension age to 68 in the mid-2030s, a decade earlier than previously expected, to offset the impact of improving life expectancy, the government said, as it seeks to cut its pension bill. The change, announced ahead of the government's Autumn Statement on its economic plans later on Thursday, would affect Britons who are now below the age of 50. Bringing forward the increase in the retirement age to 68 would help make the pension system more affordable and make it fairer so people across generations spend, on average, up to one third of their adult lives in retirement, the government said. "The principle announced today will save around 400 billion pounds ($657 billion), or total savings of over 500 billion pounds once we include the previously announced increases to the state pension age (to 66 and 67)," the government said. Full Story | Top |
| Dementia epidemic looms with 135 million sufferers seen by 2050 Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 04:04 PM PST By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Many governments are woefully unprepared for an epidemic of dementia currently affecting 44 million people worldwide and set to more than treble to 135 million people by 2050, health experts and campaigners said on Thursday. Fresh estimates from the advocacy group Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) showed a 17 percent increase in the number of people with the incurable mind-robbing condition compared with 2010, and warned that by 2050 more than 70 percent of dementia sufferers will be living in poorer countries. "It's a global epidemic and it is only getting worse," said ADI's executive director Marc Wortmann. It's vital that the World Health Organization makes dementia a priority, so the world is ready to face this condition." Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, is a fatal brain disease that has no cure and few effective treatments. Full Story | Top |
| Delaying security deal a risk to Afghan forces: U.S. military chief Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:37 PM PST  By Phil Stewart and Missy Ryan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military could wait months for a political decision on whether troops stay or leave Afghanistan, but delaying a security pact would damage the confidence of Afghan forces and undermine NATO's plans, the top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday. The comments by General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, came amid an impasse over the security pact, which would allow American troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond the end of 2014. President Barack Obama's administration has said the pact needs to be signed this year, despite resistance from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has suggested the deal might not be concluded before presidential elections in April 2014. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico says thieves removed stolen radioactive material from case Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:35 PM PST Mexican police have found a container that held radioactive material and which was stolen by thieves as it was being transported near Mexico City, the country's national nuclear safety commission CNSNS said on Wednesday. The area around the stolen truck has been cordoned off. The plan was to return the radioactive material to a sealed case as soon as possible, the official added, but did not specify its precise whereabouts. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico lawmakers preparing to debate energy reform: top senator Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:30 PM PST  By Miguel Gutierrez and Adriana Barrera MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican lawmakers will send a landmark energy bill to Senate committees on Thursday to pave the way for debate on a cornerstone of President Enrique Pena Nieto's economic reform drive, a top ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday. The bill, which would open Mexico's state-dominated energy sector to private investment in a bid to raise flagging oil output, will need approval of the Senate and lower house of Congress. Supporters say it is needed to raise slowing growth in Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy. David Penchyna, leader of the Senate's energy committee and a member of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said the bill would be submitted to Senate committees on Thursday, but that the committees would not vote on it until Friday at the earliest. Full Story | Top |
| German minister snubs Ukraine leaders on Kiev visit Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:29 PM PST By Richard Balmforth and Thomas Grove KIEV (Reuters) - Germany's foreign minister met Ukrainian opposition leaders at their protest camp in Kiev on Wednesday, in a snub to President Viktor Yanukovich, who triggered mass street demonstrations by spurning a pact with the EU and seeking closer ties with Moscow. As pro-EU demonstrators packed the main square, the crisis took a further toll on Ukraine's fragile economy, with the central bank forced to support the currency and the cost of insuring the country's debt against default rising further. Tension was high in the capital as protesters confronted ranks of black-helmeted riot police in front of the main presidential offices and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov accused the opposition of trying to provoke violence. Ukrainian officials went to Moscow in search of aid to avoid a financial meltdown, while Yanukovich is in China, also seeking economic assistance. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. spy agency gathers data on cellphone locations globally: report Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:27 PM PST  The National Security Agency gathers nearly 5 billion records a day on the location of mobile telephones worldwide, including those of some Americans, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing sources including documents obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The records feed a database that stores information about the locations of "at least hundreds of millions of devices," the newspaper said, according to the top-secret documents and interviews with intelligence officials. The report said the NSA does not target Americans' location data intentionally, but acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellular telephones "incidentally." One manager told the newspaper the NSA obtained "vast volumes" of location data by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. Full Story | Top |
| Newtown massacre recordings reveal calm, anguish and gunshots Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:24 PM PST  By Edith Honan DANBURY, Connecticut (Reuters) - A teacher calmly explains she has been shot in the foot. Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, on Wednesday released audio recordings of emergency 911 phone calls from the Connecticut school shooting that killed 20 children and six educators almost a year ago, revealing raw emotion in the voice of the callers. The audio files may be the final pieces of evidence released about the tragedy that rocked the United States on December 14, 2012, when gunman Adam Lanza, 20, shot dead his mother at home and then went to Sandy Hook Elementary school, where he massacred 26 people before killing himself. In the final seconds, she grows more insistent, pleading with the 911 operator for help. Full Story | Top |
| Senior Obama adviser criticizes human rights abuses in China, Russia Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:20 PM PST  President Barack Obama's national security adviser, in a sweeping review of global human rights practices, singled out China and Russia for criticism on Wednesday over how they treat their citizens. The adviser, Susan Rice, specifically cited the detention in China of Xu Zhiyong, a legal scholar and rights defender, and Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient who was jailed in 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges for organizing a petition urging the overthrow of one-party rule. This is short-sighted," Rice said in remarks to the "Human Rights First Annual Summit." "When courts imprison political dissidents who merely urge respect for China's own laws, no one in China, including Americans doing business there, can feel secure," she said. Full Story | Top |
| RBS, S&P sued by European investors for $250 million crisis losses Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:14 PM PST  Royal Bank of Scotland and rating agency Standard & Poor's have been sued by a group of European institutional investors for damages of up to $250 million suffered on complex financial products in the lead up to the global financial crisis. The claim is the first group action of its kind to be launched in Europe against an investment bank and rating agency for their conducts prior to the crisis, litigation funder Bentham IMF Ltd said in a statement on Thursday. The group of 16 European institutional investors filed the claim in Amsterdam on Wednesday for damages of up to $250 million suffered on investments in CPDOs - or constant proportion debt obligations - that were rated AAA by S&P. The case also follows the landmark judgment issued by Australia's Federal Court in November 2012, which found S&P had deceived 12 local government councils that bought the CPDOs. Full Story | Top |
| Tunisia negotiators set deadline for crisis talks Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:08 PM PST  The powerful Tunisian labor union seeking to broker an agreement between ruling Islamists and secular opponents said on Wednesday the two sides had 10 days to name a prime minister to lead a caretaker administration meant to end the crisis. The Islamist-led government has agreed to step down in a few weeks as a way to ease political turmoil that threatened to destroy the country's transition to democracy nearly three years after its "Arab Spring" uprising. Under a deal brokered by the UGTT union movement, Islamist party Ennahda will step down once the two sides agree on the name of a premier, finish their new constitution and set a date for elections next year. But weeks of talks have stalled over the name of the candidate, although sources say the two sides are close to deciding between attorney Chaouki Tabib and former Finance Minister Jalloul Ayed. Full Story | Top |
| Biden calls for trust with China amid airspace dispute Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:06 PM PST By Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, visiting China as a dispute over a new Chinese air defense zone rattles nerves around the region, said on Wednesday that relations between Washington and Beijing had to be based on trust. Beijing's decision to declare an air defense identification zone in an area that includes disputed islands has triggered protests from the United States, Japan and South Korea, and dominated Biden's talks in Tokyo on Tuesday. The United States has made clear it will stand by treaty obligations that require it to defend the Japanese-controlled islands, but it is also reluctant to get dragged into any military clash between rivals Japan and China. Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street groups contest CFTC cross-border guidelines Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:03 PM PST  By Emily Stephenson and Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three Wall Street trade groups sued the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Wednesday in hopes of beating back tough overseas trading guidelines they fear could hurt markets and cut profits. The groups accused the CFTC in their lawsuit of avoiding a rigorous rulemaking process, tacking changes on to the guidelines without seeking public input, and failing to study economic impacts of the regulation and its costs to industry. They also said the lawsuit aims to stop the CFTC from what they described as an "unceasing effort" to seize authority over the global swaps market by publishing hasty, unpredictable advisory documents instead of issuing formal rules. "This action, which has been taken so far outside the bounds of normal regulatory course ... needs to be addressed through the court system," Judd Gregg, chief executive of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Bank of America settles municipal bond rigging lawsuit Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 03:02 PM PST  Bank of America Corp has agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit in which investors accused it of rigging bids for municipal securities, court papers filed on Wednesday show. The settlement is part of litigation that began in March 2008, and that alleged Bank of America and other banks conspired to artificially fix prices and manipulate markets for so-called municipal derivatives. Plaintiffs including the City of Baltimore, and the Central Bucks School District and Bucks County Water & Sewer Authority in Pennsylvania said this activity violated antitrust law, and caused them to receive lower interest rates than they would have in a competitive marketplace. In a filing in the U.S. district court in Manhattan, lawyers for the municipal entities called the settlement "significant and of substantial benefit to the class." They added that Bank of America faced less liability than other defendants because it cooperated sooner, including by reporting misconduct to the U.S. Department of Justice. Full Story | Top |
| After health law woes, Obama returns focus on middle class, poor Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:59 PM PST  By Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seeking to recover from the bungled rollout of his healthcare reforms, President Barack Obama went back to basics on Wednesday with a renewed focus on government policies that benefit the struggling poor and middle classes. With his job approval ratings sinking, Obama sought to promote some of the ideals he has championed throughout his presidency. "We have to relentlessly push a growth agenda," Obama told a supportive crowd at a community center in one of the capital's poorest neighborhoods. "A relentlessly growing deficit of opportunity is a bigger threat to our future than our rapidly shrinking fiscal deficit." He challenged Republicans in Congress to do more than say 'no' to initiatives including raising the minimum wage or expanding health coverage: offer alternatives and set aside a preoccupation with cutting government spending. Full Story | Top |
| Ex-paramedic in Texas fertilizer blast sentenced in unrelated case Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:58 PM PST  A former paramedic who responded to a deadly explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant was sentenced on Wednesday to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal pipe bomb charges unrelated to the blast, prosecutors said. Bryce Reed, 31, pleaded guilty in October in U.S. District Court in Waco, Texas to conspiracy to make an unregistered destructive device and attempting to obstruct justice. Reed admitted conspiring with others from December 2012 to April 26 to make a pipe bomb and then trying to conceal it from investigators or destroy it after the April 17 plant explosion in West, Texas that killed 14 people, prosecutors said. Reed became one of the faces of the rescue effort in the aftermath of the blast. Full Story | Top |
| A drop in the bucket? Christie's appraises Detroit's art Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:33 PM PST  By Joseph Lichterman DETROIT (Reuters) - The auction house Christie's put a price tag on one of Detroit's highest-profile city assets, its share of the Detroit Institute of Arts collection, stating that nearly 3,000 works controlled by the city are worth between $452 million and $866 million. The finding by Christie's, hired to place a value on art treasures that could become a contested element of the Detroit bankruptcy, puts a range of value on 2,781 works owned or partially owned by the city. The holdings represent only about 5 percent of the DIA's full collection, but with the finding Tuesday that Detroit is bankrupt under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy code, it is possible the city may seek to monetize some of the artwork. Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr retained Christie's in August to appraise city-owned works as part of Detroit's bankruptcy case. Full Story | Top |
| Iran's ability to enrich uranium troubles U.S. lawmakers Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:30 PM PST  By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives said on Wednesday they are concerned about Iran's ability to continue enriching uranium under the interim agreement on Tehran's disputed nuclear program, an issue they are likely to press as global powers attempt to reach a final agreement. The concerns showed that House lawmakers could be willing to push for a new sanctions package next year that would define what Congress would be willing to accept in a final deal with Iran. The six-month interim deal made by the United States, five other world powers and Iran in Geneva last month gives International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors greater access to Iran's nuclear facilities and requires the Islamic Republic to halt its enrichment of higher grade uranium. But it allows Iran to continue enriching uranium up to 5 percent purity for generating nuclear power. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico finds stolen truck that carried radioactive material: official Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:19 PM PST Mexican police have found a truck they suspect was stolen by common thieves and carried a dangerous radioactive medical material the United Nations said could provide an ingredient for a "dirty bomb," a government official said on Wednesday. The truck was found close to where it was stolen outside Mexico City, said the official, who asked not to be identified in line with policy. The truck was stolen on Monday while it was taking cobalt-60 from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste-storage center, Mexican officials and a U.N. agency said earlier. Full Story | Top |
| Mass grave with 21 bodies found near Mali military base Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:13 PM PST By Adama Diarra DIAGO, Mali (Reuters) - Malian authorities have found a mass grave believed to contain bodies of soldiers missing since last year, a find the nation's prosecutor said should lead to murder being added to charges against a former junta leader. General Amadou Sanogo, who led a March 2012 coup that plunged Mali into chaos, was arrested and charged with complicity in kidnapping last week, a sign Mali's new leaders are stamping their authority on the military. Mali's chief prosecutor Daniel Tessougue told Reuters all signs pointed to the bodies found being those of 21 soldiers who disappeared after a failed April 2012 "counter-coup" by soldiers loyal to ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure, but the formal identification process would have to be finalized. "We will add murder to the charges (against Sanogo). Full Story | Top |
| Growing wealth gap in U.S. cities hurting economic mobility: study Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:09 PM PST  By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. cities are increasingly divided between the rich and the poor, hampering residents' ability to move up the economic ladder, according to a study released on Wednesday. Not only is a widening geographic gulf between the haves and have-nots hurting economic mobility, it signals potentially dimmer prospects for some urban areas in a nation where cities have long been seen as beacons for jobs and opportunity, the study said. Researchers at New York University and University of California, Berkeley analyzed 96 metropolitan areas across the United States to see how a lack of economic integration within cities affects people's economic fortunes. The study, commissioned by the nonprofit group The Pew Charitable Trusts, found American cities overall are now less economically mixed than in earlier decades, with increasingly deeper pockets of rich residents isolated from poor ones. Full Story | Top |
| Banned satirist says Egypt's leaders do not accept criticism Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:04 PM PST  By Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's most popular television satirist, Bassem Youssef, who was pulled off the airwaves last month after mocking the army chief, said on Wednesday the move showed the military-backed rulers were intolerant of opposing views. Youssef rose to fame after the 2011 uprising that overthrew autocratic president Hosni Mubarak. He had criticized Islamist President Mohamed Mursi who took office after Mubarak and was ousted by the army in July after mass protests against his rule. "People protested on June 30 (the first day of the protests against Mursi) to put an end to dictatorship and fascism and to welcome freedom of opinion and the first thing to be done was a fight against an opinion," Youssef said in a television interview. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. seeks to better understand Syria Islamists Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 02:00 PM PST  The United States sees value in getting to know Islamist militias in Syria, in order to better understand their intentions in the civil war there and their possible links with al Qaeda, the top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not say directly whether the United States is holding face-to-face talks with Islamist rebel groups. "So I think that finding that out, however we do so, is worth the effort." The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the United States and other countries have held direct discussions with certain Islamist groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil conflict. Also on Wednesday, a commander of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah who fought in Syria was shot dead outside his home in Lebanon. Full Story | Top |
| Live Nation to provide free concert tickets under legal settlement Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 01:58 PM PST By David Jones NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Concert promoter Live Nation Worldwide Inc. must provide free tickets and discount vouchers to hundreds of thousands of customers to settle claims that it overcharged for shows at a New Jersey arts center, a judge has ruled. The settlement stems from a 2009 lawsuit alleging that concertgoers at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey, were overcharged for tickets by the use of deceptive practices. A federal judge in Trenton, New Jersey, approved the preliminary legal settlement on Monday. Live Nation produces some 22,000 shows a year and owns Ticketmaster, a major sales and distribution company. Full Story | Top |
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