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| Ukraine sets European course after ouster of Yanukovich Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 08:27 PM PST  By Natalia Zinets and Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's interim leadership pledged to put the country back on course for European integration now that Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich has been ousted from the presidency, while the United States warned Russia against sending in its forces. As rival neighbors east and west of the former Soviet republic said a power vacuum in Kiev must not lead to the country breaking apart, acting President Oleksander Turchinov said late on Sunday that Ukraine's new leaders wanted relations with Russia on a "new, equal and good-neighborly footing that recognizes and takes into account Ukraine's European choice". European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will travel to Ukraine on Monday, where she is expected to discuss measures to shore up the ailing economy. Full Story | Top |
| Seized phone key to Mexico kingpin 'Shorty' Guzman's capture Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 07:00 PM PST  Guzman, who long ran the feared Sinaloa Cartel and was Mexico's most wanted criminal, was caught on Saturday in his native northwestern state of Sinaloa with help from U.S. agents. The phone that helped lead to Guzman's downfall belonged to the son of his deputy, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who could now be in line to take over from his boss. The break came when Zambada's son, Serafin Zambada-Ortiz, was arrested in November trying to cross the border from Mexico into the United States, where he faced sealed drug charges. "I don't know where you're getting your information but Serafin Zambada had no connection to Guzman's arrest, period." U.S. prosecutors said on Sunday they plan to seek the extradition of Guzman to face trial in the United States. Full Story | Top |
| Meeting between Venezuela government, opposition may help ease protests Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 07:54 PM PST  By Brian Ellsworth CARACAS (Reuters) - A meeting between a top Venezuelan opposition leader and President Nicolas Maduro on Monday may help ease nearly two weeks of violent anti-government protests that have killed at least eight people. State governor Henrique Capriles will meet Maduro at a routine gathering of governors and mayors and will likely get a chance to present the opposition's grievances. "Dialogue is not about listening to what the government wants to say, it's about making sure the demonstrators' voices are heard," Capriles, a two-time opposition presidential candidate, wrote on Sunday in his weekly column. Five people have died from gunshot wounds in the unrest that began on February 12 with the death of a student protestor and was later fueled by the arrest of hard-line opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. Full Story | Top |
| Big consumer companies cut costs, Wall Street wants bolder steps Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 05:15 PM PST  By Lisa Baertlein and Martinne Geller BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) - Investors are growing impatient with the makers of global brands like Cadbury chocolate, Campbell Soup and Tide laundry detergent, as these stalwart consumer products companies try to boost profits through cost cuts and brand makeovers while smaller rivals take risks and grab market share. Organic and soy milk seller WhiteWave Foods Co, privately owned yogurt maker Chobani Greek and Keurig coffee brewer seller Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc have shaken up their categories and chalked up enviable growth while big companies such as ConAgra Foods Inc, Danone S.A. and General Mills Inc struggle. Full Story | Top |
| Young brother and sister killed in Thai bomb blast Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 08:25 PM PST  The six-year-old sister of a boy killed in a bomb blast in the Thai capital died on Monday, doctors said, taking the death toll to three from the latest incident in a conflict that has burst into episodic violence and shows no sign of ending. Supporters of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra earlier promised to get tough with the protesters who took to the streets last November in their bid to oust her. The protests pit the mainly middle-class anti-government demonstrators from Bangkok and the south against supporters of Yingluck from the populous rural north and northeast. "The violent incidents are terrorist acts for political gains without regard for human life." Leaders of the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) vowed on Sunday to "deal with" anti-government leader Suthep Thaugsuban, setting the scene for possible confrontation. Full Story | Top |
| Italy's new PM Renzi faces first parliamentary test Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 02:08 PM PST  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi faces his first test before a fractious national parliament when he goes before the Senate on Monday to put flesh on his ambitious reform plans and seek to win a confidence vote in his newly installed government. Backed by his own center-left Democratic Party (PD), the small center-right NCD party, centrists and other miscellaneous groups, he should have enough support in the 320-seat upper house. But there will be close attention to the size of his majority after some leftwingers in his own party threatened to vote against the government. If he falls significantly below the 173 secured by his predecessor Enrico Letta in December, his authority could be weakened from the start. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: China, eyeing Japan, seeks WW2 focus for Xi during Germany visit Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 12:57 PM PST  By Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) - China wants to make World War Two a key part of a trip by President Xi Jinping to Germany next month, much to Berlin's discomfort, diplomatic sources said, as Beijing tries to use German atonement for its wartime past to embarrass Japan. China has increasingly contrasted Germany and its public contrition for the Nazi regime to Japan, where repeated official apologies for wartime suffering are sometimes undercut by contradictory comments by conservative politicians. Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebel, friend of al Qaeda leader, killed by rival Islamists Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 12:04 PM PST By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian rebel commander who fought alongside al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and was close to its current chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed by a suicide attack on Sunday, intensifying infighting between rival Islamist fighters. The Observatory for Human Rights in Syria said Abu Khaled al-Soury, also known as Abu Omair al-Shamy, a commander of the Salafi group Ahrar al-Sham was killed along with six comrades by al Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). It said al-Soury had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Sheikh Abu Khaled was an important jihadi figure, he fought the Americans in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Full Story | Top |
| American-Israeli prisoner killed in jail battle with police Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 09:50 AM PST  Israeli police shot dead an American-Israeli prisoner on Sunday after he wounded three guards with a pistol at a jail near Tel Aviv, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Samuel Sheinbein, serving a 24-year sentence for a 1997 Maryland murder, had shot the three security officers, leaving one critically injured. Israeli security forces "returned fire and shot and killed the suspect", Rosenfeld said. Israeli media said Sheinbein, in his early 30s, had barricaded himself inside a bathroom in his cell. Full Story | Top |
| Seventeen dead in bombings and shootings in Iraq Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 09:43 AM PST  By Ghazwan Hassan and Kareem Raheem TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - At least 17 people were killed and dozens wounded in bombings and shootings in northern Iraq and Baghdad on Sunday, police and medical sources said. In Baghdad, a bomb exploded in a second-hand market for bicycles and motorcycles in the Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing five people and wounding 22, police and medical sources said. Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint and killed one policeman near the mainly Sunni town of Tarmiya, north of Baghdad, police sources said. Full Story | Top |
| Pakistan jets pound militant hideouts, killing 38 Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 09:32 AM PST  By Jibran Ahmed PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani fighter jets attacked suspected militant hideouts in tribal areas on the Afghan border on Sunday, killing at least 38 insurgents, officials said, in the third air strike in recent days. The raids came after peace negotiations with Taliban insurgents broke down last week and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif authorized the army on February 20 to attack militants in the volatile region on the Afghan border. "Fighter jets pounded training facilities of the terrorists in Tirah valley early on Sunday," said one military official. "There are confirmed reports that 38 terrorists including some important commanders were killed," said another security official, adding that at least six hideouts were destroyed. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine sets European course after ouster of Yanukovich Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 02:06 PM PST By Natalia Zinets and Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's interim leadership pledged to put the country back on course for European integration now Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich had been ousted from the presidency, while the United States warned Russia against sending in its forces. As rival neighbors east and west of the former Soviet republic said a power vacuum in Kiev must not lead to the country breaking apart, acting president Oleksander Turchinov said late on Sunday that Ukraine's new leaders wanted relations with Russia on a "new, equal and good-neighborly footing that recognizes and takes into account Ukraine's European choice". European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will travel to Ukraine on Monday, where she is expected to discuss measures to shore up the ailing economy. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to seek extradition of Mexican drug kingpin Guzman Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 12:12 PM PST By Mark Hosenball and John Shiffman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors plan to seek the extradition of Mexico's most wanted man, drug cartel kingpin Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, to face trial in the United States after he was captured in Mexico. Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn, said on Sunday his office would request Guzman's extradition to face a variety of charges. Guzman, caught on Saturday in Mexico with help from U.S. security forces, had long run Mexico's infamous Sinaloa Cartel. Full Story | Top |
| Clock ticks on Ergen, Falcone fight for LightSquared Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 08:27 AM PST  By Nick Brown NEW YORK (Reuters) - With its money running out and a crucial court battle unresolved, the fight over bankrupt wireless venture LightSquared is going down to the wire. The bankruptcy case has become a tug of war between LightSquared's biggest shareholder, Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, and its largest creditor, Dish Network Corp Chairman Charles Ergen. Last year, LightSquared filed a lawsuit accusing Ergen of amassing its debt illegally so that Dish could take control of the company and its valuable spectrum. Earlier this month, LightSquared offered to drop the lawsuit if Ergen agreed to be repaid with a secured note rather than cash, a proposal to which Ergen has objected. Full Story | Top |
| Afghan Taliban kill 21 soldiers, suspend prisoner swap attempt Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 06:47 AM PST By Mohammed Anwar ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban killed 21 soldiers in an assault on Sunday in a remote mountainous region, the Afghan government said, and six soldiers were missing after the militants' most deadly assault on the security forces in months. Also on Sunday, in a possible blow to U.S. efforts to foster peace talks to end the Afghan conflict, the Taliban said they had suspended efforts to arrange a possible exchange of Taliban and U.S. prisoners due to the "complexity" of the situation. In response to the killings in Kunar, a mountainous region bordering Pakistan that has long been a stronghold of the Taliban, al Qaeda, and other militants, President Hamid Karzai put off a trip to Sri Lanka. Full Story | Top |
| Blood, sandals on street as bomb kills two, wounds 22 in Thai capital Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 02:21 PM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Paul Barker BANGKOK (Reuters) - A bomb killed two people and wounded at least 22 in a busy shopping district of the Thai capital on Sunday, hours after supporters of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra promised to get tough with demonstrators paralyzing parts of the city. Another child is undergoing an operation and a third child is still in the emergency room with us," a nurse at Ramathibodi Hospital in central Bangkok, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. "The violent incidents are terrorist acts for political gains without regard for human life." The crisis pits mostly middle-class anti-government protesters from Bangkok and the south against supporters of Yingluck from the rural north and northeast of the country. Leaders of the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) had vowed to "deal with" anti-government leader Suthep Thaugsuban, setting the scene for possible confrontation between pro- and anti-government groups. Full Story | Top |
| France risks long stay after misjudging Central African Republic Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 08:02 AM PST  By John Irish and Daniel Flynn PARIS/DAKAR (Reuters) - When France sent troops to halt violence between Christians and Muslims in Central African Republic, commanders named the mission Sangaris after a local butterfly to reflect its short life. Buoyed by a swift victory in last year's war against Islamists in Mali, France's military predicted six months would be enough to quell sectarian conflict in Central African Republic, which began in March when Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the majority Christian country. Now, with the country sliding into what the top U.N. human rights official termed 'ethnic-religious cleansing', as Muslims flee northward to escape vicious reprisals by Christian militia, France faces a long fight with scant support from Western allies to stop the nation of 4.5 million people splitting in two. France's parliament is due to vote on extending Sangaris on Tuesday, but officials say Paris has already accepted its troops will stay at least until elections due by February next year, at the request of Interim President Catherine Samba Panza. Full Story | Top |
| The threat of Israel boycotts more bark than bite Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 07:23 AM PST  By Crispian Balmer JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Though voices are getting louder inside and outside Israel about the threat of economic boycotts for its continued occupation of Palestinian territories, there seems little prospect of it facing measures with real bite. With a number of European firms already withdrawing some funds, Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid has warned that every household in Israel will feel the pinch if ongoing peace talks with the Palestinians collapse. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has also warned that Israel risks a financial hit if it is blamed for the failure, but investors and diplomats say they are unconvinced. It is true that some foreign firms have started to shun Israeli business concerns operating in East Jerusalem and the West Bank - land seized in the 1967 war - and the European Union is increasingly angered by relentless Jewish settlement expansion. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. condemns attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 07:24 AM PST  By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday condemned last week's attacks in Nigeria by the Islamist group Boko Haram and underscored a commitment to help Nigerian authorities crack down on the militants the United States deems a terrorist organization. "Unspeakable violence and acts of terror like the ones committed by Boko Haram last week in northern Nigeria are horrific, wrong and have no place in our world," Kerry said in a statement. Boko Haram gunmen killed about 100 people in the northeastern Nigeria town of Bama on Wednesday, storming the town, firing on a school, shooting or burning to death dozens of people and trashing the palace of a traditional ruler of one of West Africa's oldest Islamic kingdoms. Last Sunday, Boko Haram gunmen killed more than 100 people in the village of Igze, spraying homes with bullets, detonating explosions and burning down dozens of houses. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. now bugging German ministers in place of Merkel: report Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 05:02 AM PST  The National Security Agency (NSA) has stepped up its surveillance of senior German government officials since being ordered by Barack Obama to halt its spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday. Revelations last year about mass U.S. surveillance in Germany, in particular of Merkel's mobile phone, shocked Germans and sparked the most serious dispute between the transatlantic allies in a decade. Bild am Sonntag said its information stemmed from a high-ranking NSA employee in Germany and that those being spied on included Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a close confidant of Merkel. Full Story | Top |
| Car bomb kills 14 in Syrian town on Turkish border: activists Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 05:33 AM PST By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - At least 14 people were killed and 70 wounded in a car bombing on Sunday near a field hospital in a Syrian town on the border with Turkey that serves as a main supply line for rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, activists said. The attack shattered relative calm in a region of far northern Syria that has been a safe haven for thousands of refugees fleeing the three-year civil war. The target was a hospital owned by Ghassan Abboud, a pro-opposition businessman who owns Orient Television. Orient Television, based in Dubai and broadcasting into Syria, has been vehement in its criticism of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al Qaeda splinter group that has seized several strategic areas along the border and choked supply lines to more moderate rebel groups in the interior. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico captures No.1 drug kingpin 'Shorty' Guzman Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 03:52 AM PST By Michael O'Boyle MAZATLAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's most wanted man, drug cartel kingpin Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, was captured on Saturday with help from U.S. agencies in a major victory for the government in a long, grisly war. Guzman, known as "El Chapo" (Shorty) in Spanish, has long run Mexico's infamous Sinaloa Cartel and over the past decade he emerged as one of the world's most powerful organized crime bosses, even making it onto Forbes' list of billionaires. He was caught in his native northwestern state of Sinaloa in an early morning operation without a shot being fired, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said. It is a political triumph for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in late 2012. Full Story | Top |
| G20 aspires to faster economic growth, roadmap sketchy Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 02:08 AM PST  The final communiqué from the two-day meeting of Group 20 finance ministers and central bankers in Sydney said they would take concrete action to increase investment and employment, among other reforms. The group accounts for around 85 percent of the global economy. "We will develop ambitious but realistic policies with the aim to lift our collective GDP by more than 2 percent above the trajectory implied by current policies over the coming 5 years," the G20 statement said. Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, who hosted the meeting, sold the plan as a new day for cooperation in the G20. Full Story | Top |
| Telecom firms mine for gold in big data despite privacy concerns Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 02:03 AM PST  Big carriers like Telefonica, Verizon, Orange and Singapore's Starhub warn that they are only just starting to test the waters and pledge to market only anonymous crowd information to protect customers. They are also promoting their big data products as being helpful well beyond the realms of advertising - for credit card companies wanting to detect fraud, for ambulance operators plotting routes to avoid traffic, and for public health officials responding to outbreaks of flu. But while some carriers have decided to press on with developing their data business since former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's disclosures, others have started pitching themselves as their customers' best allies in seeking to hide from any prying eyes. Verizon's Precision Marketing Insights product, which offers businesses statistics about mobile users in a given area, was in commercial trials with sports teams and billboard owners when the Snowden allegations hit. Full Story | Top |
| Taliban attack kills 19 Afghan soldiers in eastern Afghanistan Saturday, Feb 22, 2014 10:52 PM PST The Afghan Taliban attacked an army outpost in eastern Kunar province early on Sunday, the Afghan government said, killing 19 soldiers in what appeared to be the most deadly assault on security forces in months. Defence Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi, in a posting on his Twitter feed, said 19 soldiers were killed, and two wounded, in Kunar's Ghaziabad district. Abdul Ghani Musamem, spokesman for the provincial governor, said seven soldiers were captured by the Taliban in the attack in a remote, mountainous area near the border with Pakistan. He said Afghan forces had launched an operation to try to free the captured soldiers. Full Story | Top |
| Taliban attack kills 19 Afghan soldiers, more missing: official Saturday, Feb 22, 2014 09:03 PM PST The Taliban attacked an Afghan army base in the country's eastern Kunar province early on Sunday, killing 19 soldiers and kidnapping seven, the spokesman for the provincial governor said. The spokesman, Abdul Ghani Musamem, said the attack occurred in the early hours of Sunday in Ghaziabad district, a remote, mountainous area of Kunar near the border with Pakistan. Musamem said Afghan forces had launched an operation to try to free the soldiers captured by the Taliban. The Afghan Defence Ministry confirmed in a statement there was a Taliban attack on army checkpoints in that area but declined to give any immediate figures on casualties. Full Story | Top |
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