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| South Africa, world mourn 'giant for justice' Mandela Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 07:12 PM PST  By Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died peacefully at home at the age of 95 on Thursday after months fighting a lung infection, leaving his nation and the world in mourning for a man revered as a moral giant. President Jacob Zuma's announcement late on Thursday of the death of a man who was a symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation reverberated through South Africa and around the world. Mandela's passing, while long expected, left Africa's biggest economy still distant from being the "Rainbow Nation" ideal of social peace and shared prosperity that he had proclaimed on his triumphant release from prison in 1990. "He's in a better place, but I really hope South Africa realises what he wanted us to be ... we are not even half-way to what he wanted us to be," local resident Jack Van der Merwe said in the Johannesburg suburb of Melville. Full Story | Top |
| Nelson Mandela, from apartheid fighter to president and unifier Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 01:52 PM PST  Nelson Mandela guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to multi-racial democracy, as an icon of peace and reconciliation who came to embody the struggle for justice around the world. Imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against white minority rule, Mandela emerged determined to use his prestige and charisma to bring down apartheid while avoiding a civil war. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come," Mandela said in his acceptance speech on becoming South Africa's first black president in 1994. "We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation." In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who freed him from prison three years earlier and negotiated the end of apartheid. Full Story | Top |
| Suicide bomber, gunmen kill 52 at Yemeni defense ministry Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 01:42 PM PST By Mohammed Ghobari SANAA (Reuters) - A suicide bomber and gunmen wearing army uniforms attacked Yemen's defense ministry on Thursday, killing 52 people including foreign medical staff, government sources said, in the country's worst militant assault in 18 months. The U.S. military raised its alert status in the region after the coordinated strikes on its ally, which is also home to what Washington has called the most active arm of al Qaeda. The attack wounded 167 people, said the Yemeni government's security committee. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but a Yemeni expert on Islamist militant affairs said it bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda-linked militants who have repeatedly attacked government officials and installations over the past two years. Full Story | Top |
| Bargain-hunting dents U.S. retailers' November sales Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 02:15 PM PST  By Phil Wahba NEW YORK (Reuters) - Several major U.S. retailers posted disappointing sales for November after shoppers remained cautious about spending, the latest sign that the holiday season is shaping up to be the toughest in years. The need to keep discounting, which stems from sagging consumer confidence and shoppers trained to wait for bargains, will persist through the remainder of the season, said Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough. Costco Wholesale Corp said sales at stores open at least a year rose 2 percent, below the 3.3 percent increase analysts were looking for, according to Thomson Reuters. Dollar General Corp, which does not report monthly sales, said its same-store sales last quarter rose 4.4 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Russia launches criminal inquiry into U.S. child exchanges Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 01:54 PM PST  By Alexei Anishchuk and Megan Twohey MOSCOW (Reuters) - Authorities in Moscow said Thursday they are investigating whether Russian children adopted by American families were illegally trafficked in the United States. The probe comes in response to a Reuters series that showed how U.S. parents have used Internet bulletin boards to offload children they regret adopting. The news agency in September reported the existence of an underground U.S. market where distressed parents are soliciting new families for children they adopted but no longer want. In a practice known as "private re-homing," people seeking to unload children, and adults seeking to take them, connect through online forums on Yahoo and Facebook, privately arranging custody transfers that can bypass government oversight and sometimes violate the law. Full Story | Top |
| Aide of reportedly disgraced Kim Jong Un's uncle seeks asylum in Sth Korea- media Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 07:32 PM PST  A close associate of the reportedly disgraced uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seeking asylum in South Korea, local media said on Friday. Jang Song Thaek's aide, who managed Jang's funds, requested asylum about two months ago and is currently in China under the protection of South Korean officials, South Korea's cable news network YTN said, citing a source familiar with the matter. A spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, Kim Eui-do, said the defection report could not be confirmed. South Korea's National Intelligence Service said this week that Jang, the de-facto No.2 in North Korea, was removed from his positions, possibly in late November. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine protesters vow to stay on streets despite police threat Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 03:05 PM PST  By Matt Robinson KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian pro-Europe demonstrators vowed to stay on the streets and continue their blockade of government buildings, despite a police threat to crack down "harshly" to enforce a court order that they disperse. Kiev's November 21 decision to abandon a trade and integration deal with the EU and pursue closer economic ties with Moscow brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators into the streets over the weekend. Protesters have since blockaded the main government headquarters and occupied Kiev's city hall. The government ratcheted up its rhetoric on Thursday, with Prime Minister Mykola Azarov branding opponents "Nazis and criminals." Kiev's police chief, Valery Mazan, threatened to "act decisively, harshly" if the protesters defy the court order to end their blockade and occupation of government buildings. Full Story | Top |
| France vows immediate action in Central African Republic after battle Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 02:56 PM PST By Emmanuel Braun and Paul-Marin Ngoupana BANGUI (Reuters) - France said it would act immediately in Central African Republic after securing U.N. backing to halt sectarian violence that rocked the capital on Thursday and risked escalating into widespread civilian massacres. A Reuters witness and an aid worker said at least 105 people were killed in fierce fighting in Bangui between mainly Muslim former rebels now in charge of the country and a mix of local Christian militia and fighters loyal to ousted president Francois Bozize. Many were civilians. Mindful of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when hundreds of thousands were killed as the world looked on, the United States and other Western powers have urged swift international action to prevent the anarchy in Central African Republic leading to atrocities against the civilian population. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. assures Israel that core Iran sanctions still in place Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 04:46 AM PST  By David Brunnstrom JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that core sanctions against Iran would remain in place despite its interim nuclear deal with world powers. The November 24 accord in Geneva was denounced as a "historic mistake" by Netanyahu, increasing strains in an alliance already marked by his past disputes with U.S. President Barack Obama over strategy on Iran and the Palestinians. Visiting Israel as the talks with Tehran gathered pace, Kerry met an irate Netanyahu. Israel argues an easing of some sanctions on Iran before it abandons nuclear projects with bomb-making potential risks snowballing as foreign business partners rush into the breach. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says China air defense zone unacceptable, shouldn't be implemented Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 04:19 PM PST  By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that China's new air defense zone over the East China Sea was "unacceptable" and urged Beijing not to implement it, but stopped short of calling for it to rescind its declaration. Keeping up U.S. criticism, White House spokesman Jay Carney assailed China for a "dangerous and provocative" move that increased the risk of stumbling into a crisis, and said that was not consistent with the behavior of a major power. "We, the United States, do not recognize and we do not accept it, and will not change the way the United States conducts military operations in the region," Carney told reporters. Full Story | Top |
| Insight - Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 01:25 PM PST By Antoni Slodkowski NAHA, Japan (Reuters) - Storage tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant like one that spilled almost 80,000 gallons of radioactive water this year were built in part by workers illegally hired in one of the poorest corners of Japan, say labor regulators and some of those involved in the work. "Even if we didn't agree with how things were being done, we had to keep quiet and work fast," said Yoshitatsu Uechi, 48, a mechanic and former bus driver, who was one of a crew of 17 workers recruited in Okinawa and sent to Fukushima in June 2012 - among the thousands of workers from across Japan who have put together the emergency water tanks and stabilized the plant after three reactor meltdowns that were triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Okinawa crew was recruited by Token Kogyo, an unregistered broker, and passed on to work at the Fukushima plant under the direction of Tec, a larger contractor which reported to construction firm Taisei Corp, records show. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa, world mourn 'giant for justice' Mandela Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 03:16 PM PST By Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died aged 95 at his Johannesburg home on Thursday after a prolonged lung infection, plunging his nation and the world into mourning for a man hailed by global leaders as a moral giant. Although Mandela had been frail and ailing for nearly a year, Zuma's announcement late on Thursday of the death of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate shook South Africa. U.S. President Barack Obama said the world had lost "one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth". Ordinary South Africans were in shock. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says China air defense zone unacceptable, shouldn't be implemented Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 01:29 PM PST  By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that China's new air defense zone over the East China Sea was "unacceptable" and urged Beijing not to implement it, but stopped short of calling for it to rescind its declaration. Keeping up U.S. criticism, White House spokesman Jay Carney assailed China for a "dangerous and provocative" move that increased the risk of stumbling into a crisis, and said that was not consistent with the behavior of a major power. "We, the United States, do not recognize and we do not accept it, and will not change the way the United States conducts military operations in the region," Carney told reporters. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine police give protesters deadline, PM brands them 'Nazis' Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 11:14 AM PST  By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian police on Thursday warned pro-Europe protesters they faced a "harsh" crackdown if they did not end their occupation of public offices in Kiev, while President Viktor Yanukovich's prime minister denounced them as "Nazis and criminals". The authorities issued the tough warnings as foreign ministers held a European security conference in a city seething with unrest over the Ukrainian government's U-turn away from Europe back towards Russia. Germany's visiting foreign minister used the occasion to warn Ukraine against violently cracking down on protesters. Full Story | Top |
| Third-quarter GDP revised higher as inventories bulge Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 10:38 AM PST  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew faster than initially estimated in the third quarter but weak demand and a pile-up in business inventories buoyed the case for the Federal Reserve to keep up its bond-buying stimulus for now. Gross domestic product grew at a 3.6 percent annual rate instead of the 2.8 percent pace reported a month ago, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. Businesses accumulated $116.5 billion worth of inventories during the quarter, the most since the first quarter of 1998. Against this backdrop, economists said the Fed would likely remain cautious about trimming its asset purchases, even though recent signs on the labor market, including data on Thursday that showed a big drop in new claims for jobless benefits, suggest the economy is strengthening. Full Story | Top |
| UK's Osborne says vindicated by growth rebound, vows to stay on course Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 09:55 AM PST  By David Milliken and William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Finance minister George Osborne celebrated a sharp turnaround in Britain's economy as vindication of his austerity push on Thursday, but said he would not relax his grip on public spending in the years ahead. Obsorne used a big jump in forecasts for growth in 2013 and 2014 to taunt the opposition Labour party ahead of a general election in 17 months' time. But a sudden pickup in growth has made Britain one of the fastest-growing advanced economies - the euro zone is set to grow at less than half the rate of Britain next year, according to European Central Bank projections released on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Sweden key partner for U.S. spying on Russia: TV Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 08:02 AM PST  Sweden has been a key partner for the United States in spying on Russia, Swedish television reported on Thursday, citing leaked documents from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Swedish television said it had obtained the documents from Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who brought NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks about mass surveillance by the agency to world attention. Greenwald tweeted on Thursday that the close relationship between the United States and Sweden could not be "overstated" and that this was the first of many revelations to come. Earlier this year, Snowden leaked details of a global spying program by the NSA, stirring international criticism. Full Story | Top |
| Japan approves $182 billion economic package, doubts remain Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 02:22 AM PST  By Stanley White TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet approved a $182 billion package on Thursday to pull the economy out of deflation, but doubts remain about the impact. The package has raised concerns that Japan's government has not broken away from the stop-gap measures and piecemeal policymaking that some say has hampered long-term growth. "Market participants want the government to focus even more energy on economic policy," said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. "Some of these items, like reconstruction from the earthquake, were already scheduled and don't really constitute an economic strategy." The measures approved on Thursday will add 1 percentage point to gross domestic product and create around 250,000 jobs, according to the Cabinet Office. Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda linked group says it attacked Iraqi mall, police HQ-SITE Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 09:32 AM PST  A group linked to al Qaeda said it was behind suicide attacks on an Iraqi police intelligence headquarters and shopping mall in the northern city of Kirkuk, the SITE monitoring group said on Thursday, citing a communique. Gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the two sites in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, late on Wednesday. Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed the six-man suicide raid, according to a statement circulated on jihadi forums and social media, SITE said. Sunni Muslim insurgents linked to al Qaeda have regularly used such attacks on targets linked to Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and security services since the start of 2013. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill U.S. teacher in Libya's Benghazi Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 05:42 AM PST Gunmen shot dead an American chemistry teacher working at an international school in the Libyan city of Benghazi, medical and security sources said on Thursday. He was so sweet with everyone," said Adel al Mansouri, director at the school in Benghazi. Libyan special forces have been battling militants from Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi. Security sources said three soldiers were also killed in separate attacks on Thursday in Benghazi. Full Story | Top |
| Third-quarter growth revised up to 3.6 percent Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 06:53 AM PST  Gross domestic product grew at a 3.6 percent annual rate instead of the 2.8 percent pace reported earlier, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. The contribution from inventories had previously been estimated at 0.8 percentage point. A gauge of domestic demand rose at just a 1.8 percent rate. The strong inventory accumulation in the face of a slowdown in domestic demand means businesses will need to draw down on stocks, which will weigh on GDP growth this quarter. Full Story | Top |
| Indonesia, Australia agree "hotline" to resolve diplomatic spat Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 02:09 AM PST  Indonesia and Australia announced on Thursday that they would set up a hotline as part of efforts to repair relations following media reports last month that Canberra had spied on top Indonesian officials. Indonesia has already suspended military and police cooperation over preventing asylum seekers from setting sail to Australia and there were concerns the diplomatic row could hit trade relations. "We have agreed to establish a special communications channel or a hotline to ensure we can resolve the issues, the implementation and so that we can avoid any unintended consequences," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on the subject of military and intelligence cooperation. Speaking to reporters in the Indonesian capital after talks with her counterpart Marty Natalegawa, Bishop added, "We are pleased that our cooperation will continue in economic, financial areas, education and trade and investment." But Natalegawa told reporters it was only the start. Full Story | Top |
| Anarchy at door, West starts to rebuild Libyan army Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 11:20 PM PST  By Patrick Markey TRIPOLI (Reuters) - On a dusty parade ground outside Tripoli, young recruits march and bark out slogans for the new Libyan army that Western powers hope can turn the tide on militias threatening to engulf the North African country in anarchy. Their boots are new and their fatigues pressed, but Libya's army recruits will need more than drills to take on the hardened militiamen, Islamist fighters and political rivalries testing their OPEC nation's stability. Two years after NATO missiles helped rebels drive out Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is under siege from former rebel fighters who now flex their military muscle to make demands on the state, seize oilfields and squabble over post-war spoils. With Libya's army still in the making, Western powers are keen to halt chaos in the key European oil supplier and stop illicit arms spilling across North Africa. Full Story | Top |
| JPMorgan warns 465,000 card users on data loss after cyber attack Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 11:18 AM PST  By David Henry and Jim Finkle NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co is warning some 465,000 holders of prepaid cash cards issued by the bank that their personal information may have been accessed by hackers who attacked its network in July. The cards were issued for corporations to pay employees and for government agencies to issue tax refunds, unemployment compensation and other benefits. JPMorgan said on Wednesday it had detected that the web servers used by its site www.ucard.chase.com had been breached in the middle of September. Bank spokesman Michael Fusco said that since the breach was discovered, the bank has been trying to find out exactly which accounts were involved and what information may have been compromised. Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Two factors key to lawsuits over New York train crash Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 10:03 PM PST By Andrew Longstreth NEW YORK (Reuters) - For lawyers preparing to sue over Sunday's deadly New York commuter rail accident, their success in court may depend largely on two factors: whether human error caused the derailment and if state or federal law governs railroad safety in the case. A Cook County, Illinois, jury in 2009, awarded more than $29.5 million to a Chicago woman injured in a 2005 commuter train derailment. The investigation into the Metro-North derailment in the Bronx, which killed four and critically injured 11, has centered on the actions of the train's engineer, William Rockefeller. A lawyer for Rockefeller was not immediately available for comment, and the National Transportation Safety Board has said it has not reached a conclusion into the accident's cause and would continue its work for weeks, if not months. Full Story | Top |
| Microsoft moves to assure international business customers on spying Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 09:01 PM PST  By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp pledged late Wednesday to fight in court against any attempt by U.S. intelligence agencies to seize its foreign customers' data under American surveillance laws, one of a series of steps aimed at reassuring nervous users abroad. The maker of the world's most popular computer operating system said it had never turned over any such data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and did not believe that authorities are entitled to the information if it is stored abroad. "We are committing contractually to not turning it over without litigating that issue," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said in an interview with Reuters. Smith also said that Microsoft would dramatically increase the amount of encryption it uses for internal traffic, following similar moves by Google Inc and Yahoo Inc in the wake of reports that the National Security Agency had tapped into their facilities overseas without oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Full Story | Top |
| NSA gathers data on cellphone locations globally: report Wednesday, Dec 04, 2013 09:18 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 |
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