| | |
| Thai police step aside, move to defuse anti-government protests Monday, Dec 02, 2013 08:22 PM PST  By Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai police said on Tuesday they would not stand in the way of protesters battling to seize the prime minister's office and city police headquarters, focal points of demonstrations aimed at toppling the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. A Reuters witness said police were clearing barbed-wire barricades from outside the police headquarters. Television pictures showed protesters and police officers mingling outside the building and Government House, where Yingluck's office is. The protests have brought clouds of teargas, rubber bullets and intermittent gunfire to parts of Bangkok, the latest turmoil in the struggle between the Bangkok-based establishment and forces loyal to Yingluck and her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Full Story | Top |
| Biden urges Japan, China to lower tensions over air defense zone Monday, Dec 02, 2013 07:02 PM PST  By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged Japan and China to lower tensions that have spiked since Beijing announced an air defense zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea, while repeating that Washington was "deeply concerned" by the move. Biden will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday before flying to China the next day as part of an Asian trip in which he will seek a delicate balance between calming tensions over the zone while backing key ally Japan. "This latest incident underscores the need for agreement between China and Japan to establish crisis management and confidence building measures to lower tensions." Influential Chinese tabloid the Global Times, published by the Communist Party's official People's Daily, said Biden should not cozy up to Abe or offer effusive support to Japan. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine protesters urge general strike as markets hit currency Monday, Dec 02, 2013 09:57 AM PST By Natalia Zinets and Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian protesters blockaded the main government building on Monday, seeking to force President Viktor Yanukovich from office with a general strike after hundreds of thousands demonstrated against his decision to abandon an EU integration pact. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov accused the opposition of planning to seize the parliament, while Yanukovich appealed for calm, saying protests should be peaceful and law-abiding. "Any bad peace is better than a good war," Yanukovich said in his first comment on the mass unrest over the weekend. "Everyone must observe the laws of our state." In a sign that he felt the security situation was under control, though, Yanukovich announced he would stick to a plan to travel on Tuesday to China, from which he is seeking loans and investment to avert a debt crisis. Full Story | Top |
| Retooled Obamacare website traffic surges but problems remain Monday, Dec 02, 2013 03:48 PM PST A surge of visitors clogged the U.S. government's revamped healthcare insurance shopping website on Monday, signaling that President Barack Obama's administration has a way to go in fixing the portal that showcases his signature domestic policy. By 5:30 p.m. EST, the website had logged 750,000 visitors, the White House said, nearly the 800,000 daily users the refurbished site is supposed to be able to handle. That was significant progress for a website that has become the face of one of the biggest crises of Obama's administration, one that has undermined the Democratic president's promotion of an activist government and threatened to become a drag on Democrats in next year's elections, when control of Congress will be at stake. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was passed in 2010. Full Story | Top |
| Colombian president 'optimistic' about peace, to meet Obama Tuesday Monday, Dec 02, 2013 02:48 PM PST  By David Adams MIAMI (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, bound for Washington on an official visit, said on Monday he remains cautiously optimistic about peace talks with Marxist FARC rebels taking place in Cuba. "I think the conditions are there" for a successful conclusion to the talks, Santos told an audience of academics, students and diplomats at the University of Miami. "Things are moving hopefully in the correct direction." But he quoted a Colombian proverb as a cautionary note, saying, "The bread can very well burn right at the door of the oven." Santos, a Harvard-educated journalist, spoke eloquently in English about his hopes for peace and economic growth in Colombia during a 30-minute speech at the invitation of University of Miami President Donna Shalala, who awarded him the school's President's Medal for service to society. Santos, on his second official visit to the United States since taking office in 2010, hailed both the year-old peace talks as well as economic progress at home. Full Story | Top |
| Twitter stock gets mixed reviews from IPO underwriters Monday, Dec 02, 2013 02:31 PM PST  By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc shares slipped on Monday after some of the five lead underwriters of its initial public offering said the social media firm may not achieve Facebook-like scale and its stock may not rise much higher. In their first research reports since the November IPO, only Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs recommended buying the stock. Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan issued the equivalent of "hold" ratings. Twitter shares dipped 1.3 percent to $41 on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. sends new submarine-hunting jets to Japan amid East Asia tension Monday, Dec 02, 2013 01:43 PM PST  By Tim Kelly and Phil Stewart TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy's first two advanced P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft have arrived in Japan, U.S. military officials said on Monday, helping to upgrade America's ability to hunt submarines and other vessels in seas close to China as tension in the region mounts. The initial deployment - another four of the aircraft are due to arrive in the coming days - was planned before China last month established an air defense identification zone covering islands controlled by Japan and claimed by Beijing. The Pentagon says it is routinely flying operations in the region, including in China's newly declared air defense zone, without informing Beijing ahead of time. Full Story | Top |
| NATO says Karzai failure to sign pact would end Afghan mission Monday, Dec 02, 2013 12:28 PM PST  By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO would have to pull all its troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 if Afghan President Hamid Karzai does not sign a security pact with the United States, alliance chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday. An assembly of Afghan elders, the Loya Jirga, last month endorsed the security pact intended to shape the U.S. military presence in the country beyond 2014. But Karzai said he might not sign it until after elections in April. The NATO-led force currently has around 80,000 troops in Afghanistan, the majority American. Full Story | Top |
| Factory activity gauge rises to two and a half year high Monday, Dec 02, 2013 09:54 AM PST  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gauge of U.S. factory activity hit a 2-1/2-year high in November and construction spending increased solidly in October, brightening the economic outlook as the year winds down. "The economy is moving forward at a moderate to strong pace," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York. "This is additional evidence that the economic outlook is positive enough and expected to continue long enough and that the Fed might actually taper in December." The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity rose to 57.3 last month, the highest reading since April 2011, from 56.4 in October. The signs of strength in the two surveys are at odds with so-called hard data such as durable goods orders, industrial production and factory payrolls which have all pointed to some slowing in manufacturing activity. Full Story | Top |
| Somali prime minister voted out by lawmakers Monday, Dec 02, 2013 09:23 AM PST  By Abdrahman Hussein and Ismail Taxta MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's parliament on Monday sacked Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, citing his government's poor performance over the past year. The prime minister, a political newcomer appointed in October last year, fell out with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud over the composition of a new cabinet, prompting Monday's no-confidence vote. "(Shirdon) and his cabinet ministers had failed," Somali legislator Ibrahim Suleiman told Reuters. "This toppled government had low capacity." It could be months before a new cabinet is appointed and then approved by the parliament, which could jeopardize the modest security gains and the limited progress made on building a federal state. Full Story | Top |
| Thai PM calls for talks, protest leader defiant Monday, Dec 02, 2013 06:54 AM PST By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Aubrey Belford BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Monday she would "open every door" to find a peaceful solution to a political crisis gripping Bangkok as police used rubber bullets against protesters seeking to topple her government. The violence is the latest twist in a conflict pitting Bangkok's middle class and royalist elite against the mostly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile. Yingluck told a news conference that police would not use force but the national security chief said rubber bullets were being used as protesters threatened to advance on Yingluck's office, the focal point of the demonstrations since the weekend. A Ramathibodi Hospital official later said two protesters had been wounded by gunfire but it was not known who shot them. Full Story | Top |
| Syria death toll hits nearly 126,000: monitoring group Monday, Dec 02, 2013 05:17 AM PST  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - The death toll in Syria's civil war has risen to at least 125,835, more than a third of them civilians, but the real figure is probably much higher, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday. The pro-opposition monitoring group also appealed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and "all people in the international community who have a conscience" to increase their efforts to end the 2-1/2 year war. The conflict began as peaceful protests against four decades of rule by President Bashar al-Assad's family, but under a fierce security force crackdown, turned into an armed insurgency whose sectarian dimensions have echoed across the Middle East. The Observatory, based in Britain but with a network of activists across Syria, put the number of children killed in the conflict so far at 6,627. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. justices decline to hear another Obamacare challenge Monday, Dec 02, 2013 07:03 AM PST  By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a broad new legal challenge to President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law. The court rejected a petition filed by Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia, which had raised various objections to the law, including to the key provision that requires individuals to obtain health insurance. Full Story | Top |
| Hong Kong confirms first human case of bird flu Monday, Dec 02, 2013 08:26 AM PST HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong confirmed its first case of deadly H7N9 bird flu on Monday in a further sign that the virus is continuing to spread beyond mainland China's borders. The case coincides with the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed nearly 300 people in Hong Kong and had a significant impact on the city's travel and retail industry. ... Full Story | Top |
| Afghan president denies suggesting elections be delayed Monday, Dec 02, 2013 08:54 AM PST  By Jessica Donati and Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai denied on Monday that he had suggested delaying the elections scheduled for April next year to avoid the heavy snow that could cut off access to some parts of the country, as asserted by the poll's organizers. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) chairman had told Parliament that Karzai suggested pushing back the elections to address concerns about snow blocking voters. "The president will never interfere in the affairs of the election commission nor he would allow others to do so," Aimal Faizi said. His assertion the deal should wait until after the elections has been taken by some as evidence of his reluctance to step out of the limelight. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: In Egypt, ideas of a radical Islamist make comeback Monday, Dec 02, 2013 06:59 AM PST  By Tom Perry and Abdelrahman Youssef ALEXANDRIA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Young Egyptian Islamists seeking a way to confront the military-led state are turning to the ideas of a radical ideologue who waged the same struggle half a century ago and later became a source of inspiration for al Qaeda. The revolutionary ideas of Sayyid Qutb, a Muslim Brotherhood leader executed in 1966, are spreading among Islamists who see themselves in an all-out struggle with generals who deposed President Mohamed Mursi in July. Their radical conclusions underline the risks facing a nation more divided than ever in its modern history: after Mursi's downfall, the state killed hundreds of Islamists, and attacks on the security forces have become commonplace. Qutb's writing, much of it produced while a prisoner in President Gamal Abdel Nasser's jails, has supplied ideological fuel for militancy in Egypt and beyond for decades. Full Story | Top |
| Biden on delicate mission to defuse tensions in East Asia Monday, Dec 02, 2013 01:06 AM PST  By Kiyoshi Takenaka and David Brunnstrom TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will seek a delicate balance between calming military tensions with China and backing ally Japan against Beijing on a trip to Asia this week that is being overshadowed by a territorial row in the East China Sea. Japan reiterated on Monday that Tokyo and Washington had both rejected Beijing's move to set up an air defense zone that includes islands at the heart of a bitter Sino-Japanese feud - despite the fact that three U.S. airlines, acting on government advice, are notifying China of plans to transit the zone. Full Story | Top |
| Letta prepares to tackle Italy's voting law stalemate Monday, Dec 02, 2013 05:26 AM PST  By James Mackenzie and Valentina Consiglio ROME (Reuters) - With Silvio Berlusconi now out of parliament, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta is under pressure to overhaul a voting law blamed for dragging Italy into political and economic stalemate after the last election. Letta was appointed to lead an unwieldy government of left and right forces after a vote in February this year yielded no clear winner. When he named the 47-year-old center-left politician, President Giorgio Napolitano gave him the task of overhauling a dysfunctional political and justice system that has stifled Italy's economic growth for years. Letta's administration was supposed to repair the system to prevent chronic political instability. Full Story | Top |
| Dutch killer of anti-Nazi resistance fighters dies in jail at 92 Monday, Dec 02, 2013 07:44 AM PST A 92-year-old Dutch former member of a Nazi death squad who lived unpunished in Germany for decades until his conviction in 2010 died on Sunday of natural causes in a German prison, justice officials said on Monday. Heinrich Boere, once high on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted crime suspects, was convicted in 2010 in one of Germany's last Nazi trials of killing three Dutch civilians in 1944 as an Waffen SS squad member targeting anti-Nazi resistance fighters. Boere, who was unrepentant during his six-month trial in Aachen and said he was only following orders, had lived a quiet life in Germany after World War Two even though he was a wanted man in the Netherlands. But he escaped in 1947 and fled to Germany before being sentenced to death in absentia in the Netherlands in 1949. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment