| | |
| Fugitive Ukraine leader wanted for murder, Russia sounds alarm Monday, Feb 24, 2014 12:49 PM PST By Natalia Zinets and Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's fugitive president was indicted for "mass murder" on Monday over the shooting of demonstrators as new leaders in Kiev sought urgent Western aid to make up for a loss of funding from Russia, which is angry at the overthrow of its ally. Moscow said it would not deal with those who led an "armed mutiny" against Viktor Yanukovich, who was elected in 2010, and said it now feared for the lives of its citizens, notably in the Russian-speaking east and Crimea on the Black Sea. Russia's top general agreed with NATO to maintain contact on a crisis that has raised fears of civil war and which U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said called for an "inclusive political process" that "preserves Ukraine's ... territorial integrity". While Russia, its strategy for maintaining influence in its former Soviet neighbor in shreds, made clear its $15-billion package of loans and cheap gas deals was in jeopardy, the European Union and United States offered urgent financial assistance for a new government that may be formed on Tuesday. Full Story | Top |
| Explosion, gunfire ring out near Bangkok protest site Monday, Feb 24, 2014 08:22 PM PST  By Pairat Temphairojana BANGKOK (Reuters) - An explosion and gunfire rang out near a sprawling anti-government protest site in the Thai capital early on Tuesday after the protesters' leader warned that government supporters were planning to bring armed militants to Bangkok. Weeks of unrest, in which protesters have barricaded several main Bangkok intersections, have been interrupted by occasional bombs and gunfire, with one blast killing a woman and a young brother and sister in a shopping district on Sunday. There was another explosion and gunfire near one protest site on the edge of Bangkok's Lumpini Park in the early hours of Tuesday, national security chief Paradorn Pattanathabutr told Reuters. "Last night, we don't know where and who it came from, but there was an explosion and the sound of gunfire from 1 a.m.," Paradorn said. Full Story | Top |
| Quest for more lethal U.S. warship could raise cost Monday, Feb 24, 2014 07:14 PM PST  By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's decision to stop building the current class of coastal warships after 32 vessels and focus on ships with more firepower and protection will result in higher costs, U.S. defense officials said on Monday. Clark said Hagel's approach would help the Navy achieve its goals for the mine-hunting and anti-submarine warfare missions, while bridging to a new more lethal and survivable ship. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela death toll rises to 13 as protests flare Monday, Feb 24, 2014 01:10 PM PST By Brian Ellsworth and Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS (Reuters) - Anti-government demonstrators put up barricades and set fire to trash in Caracas on Monday despite calls from within the opposition to rein in protests that have led to 13 deaths in Venezuela's worst unrest for a decade. Traffic in the capital slowed to a crawl and many people stayed home as protesters burned trash and piled debris along main avenues a day after opposition leader Henrique Capriles called on them to keep demonstrations peaceful. "We know we're bothering people but we have to wake up Venezuela!" student Pablo Herrera, 23, said next to a barricade in the affluent Los Palos Grandes district of Caracas. Authorities in the convulsed border state of Tachira confirmed another death: a man who fell from his second-storey apartment after being hit by a bullet from a nearby protest. Full Story | Top |
| Italy PM Renzi wins confidence vote, pledging tax cuts, reform Monday, Feb 24, 2014 04:24 PM PST  By James Mackenzie and Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won his first confidence vote in parliament, pledging to cut labour taxes, free up funds for investment in schools and pass wide institutional reforms to tackle Italy's economic malaise. Facing parliament for the first time, the 39-year-old Renzi who is Italy's youngest premier, sketched out an ambitious program of change in an hour-long speech delivered in his trademark quickfire style interspersed with occasional jeers from the opposition benches. "If we lose this challenge, the fault will be mine alone," he told the Senate. Backed by his own center-left Democratic Party (PD), the small center-right NCD party, centrists and other minor groups, Renzi won the backing of the upper house by 169 votes to 139 in a vote taken in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Full Story | Top |
| Budget cuts to slash U.S. Army to smallest since before World War Two Monday, Feb 24, 2014 04:01 PM PST  ) By David Alexander and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Monday it would shrink the U.S. Army to pre-World War Two levels, eliminate the popular A-10 aircraft and reduce military benefits in order to meet 2015 spending caps, setting up an election-year fight with the Congress over national defense priorities. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, previewing the Pentagon's ideas on how to adapt to government belt-tightening, said the defense budget due out next week would be the first to look beyond 13 years of conflict, shifting away from long-term ground wars like Iraq and Afghanistan. He cautioned, however, that the country needed to be clear-eyed about the risks posed by lower budget levels, which would challenge the Pentagon to field a smaller yet well-trained force that could cope with any adversary, but might not be able to respond simultaneously to multiple conflicts. "Budget reductions inevitably reduce the military's margin of error in dealing with these risks, as other powers are continuing to modernize their weapons portfolios." The cuts come as the Pentagon is attempting to absorb nearly a trillion dollars in reductions to projected spending over a decade. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt government resigns, paving way for Sisi to seek presidency Monday, Feb 24, 2014 03:25 PM PST By Asma Alsharif and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's government resigned on Monday, paving the way for army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for president of a strategic U.S. ally gripped by political strife. After the July overthrow of elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and subsequent crackdown on Islamists and liberals with hundreds killed and thousands jailed, critics say Cairo's military-backed authorities are turning the clock back to the era of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, when the political elite ruled with an iron fist in alliance with top businessmen. The outgoing government "made every effort to get Egypt out of the narrow tunnel in terms of security, economic pressures and political confusion," Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a live nationwide speech. Beblawi, who was tasked by interim President Adly Mansour with running the government's affairs until the election, did not give a clear reason for the decision. Full Story | Top |
| Harsh weather tests optimism over U.S. economy Monday, Feb 24, 2014 03:19 PM PST  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unusually cold weather will take a bite out of U.S. economic growth this quarter, but a rebound seems likely on the horizon and expectations for stronger growth this year have not changed. Economists estimate that freezing temperatures and the ice and snow storms that have blanketed much of the nation will shave as much as half a percentage point from gross domestic product in the first quarter. "The slowdown is testing everyone's optimism about the economy, but so far it's just a soft patch. The economy will regain strength," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester Pennsylvania. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Iraq signs deal to buy arms, ammunition from Iran - documents Monday, Feb 24, 2014 01:47 PM PST  By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran has signed a deal to sell Iraq arms and ammunition worth $195 million, according to documents seen by Reuters - a move that would break a U.N. embargo on weapons sales by Tehran. The agreement was reached at the end of November, the documents showed, just weeks after Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki returned from lobbying the Obama administration in Washington for extra weapons to fight al Qaeda-linked militants. Some in Washington are nervous about providing sensitive U.S. military equipment to a country they worry is becoming too close to Iran. Several Iraqi lawmakers said Maliki had made the deal because he was fed up with delays in U.S. arms deliveries. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry ups ante in struggle to crack South China Sea rules Monday, Feb 24, 2014 01:02 PM PST  By Greg Torode and Manuel Mogato HONG KONG/MANILA (Reuters) - Pressure is mounting on China and Southeast Asia to agree a code of conduct to keep the peace in the disputed South China Sea, but Beijing is warning of a long road ahead. Only last week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to work out rules to ease tensions after a fresh Chinese campaign of assertiveness in the region. ASEAN officials told Reuters that a working group of officials from China and the 10-member association would resume negotiations in Singapore on March 18 after agreeing to accelerate talks last year that have made little headway so far. Full Story | Top |
| Russia police detain hundreds protesting against jailing of activists Monday, Feb 24, 2014 11:10 AM PST  By Thomas Grove and Ian Bateson MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian riot police detained hundreds of Kremlin opponents on Monday, moving swiftly to curb protests over the jailing of activists convicted of attacking police at a rally against President Vladimir Putin. With the turmoil in Ukraine adding to tension between the Kremlin and its opponents, Putin foes including Alexei Navalny and members of protest band Pussy Riot were hauled away twice by police, first outside a courthouse and later near the Kremlin. The prison sentences and the detention of activists protesting them drew criticism from Europe, adding to strains between Russia and the West at a time when they are deeply at odds over the future of Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Air raids in central Syria kill 26: activists Monday, Feb 24, 2014 09:48 AM PST  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Air raids on rebel-held towns across Syria killed 26 people on Monday, activists said, two days after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an end to indiscriminate shelling and aerial attacks. Syria's almost three-year-old conflict has raged on despite peace talks that began in Geneva last month and the passage of the U.N. resolution, a rare moment of unity between the West and Russia, President Bashar al-Assad's strongest backer. Two women and 10 children were among the dead in government air raids on the town of al-Neshabieh, in the eastern outskirts of Damascus, near a railway marking the frontline between Islamist fighters and Assad's forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants, and in the province of Homs to the north. Full Story | Top |
| New Italy PM Renzi wins Senate confidence vote Monday, Feb 24, 2014 03:51 PM PST ROME (Reuters) - New Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won his first confidence vote in parliament after pledging to cut labour taxes and pass broad institutional reforms to bring life back into a moribund economy. In a vote which concluded in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Senate supported the confidence motion needed to confirm his new government in office by 169 votes in favour to 139 against. Renzi must now win a confidence vote on Tuesday in the lower house, where his center-left Democratic Party has a strong majority. (Reporting by Naomi O'Leary and James Mackenzie) Full Story | Top |
| Supreme Court declines challenges to gun laws Monday, Feb 24, 2014 07:00 AM PST By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday declined to wade into the politically volatile issue of gun control by leaving intact three court rulings rejecting challenges to federal and state laws. The court's decision not to hear the cases represented a loss for gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, which was behind two of the challenges. The first case involved a challenge by the NRA to a Texas law that prevents 18-20 year olds from carrying handguns in public. Full Story | Top |
| Services growth slows in February: Markit Monday, Feb 24, 2014 06:59 AM PST  Growth in the services sector as well as the pace of hiring slowed in February, an industry report showed on Monday, the latest data to suggest an unusually cold winter is dragging on economic activity. Financial data firm Markit said its "flash" or preliminary services sector purchasing managers index slipped to 52.7 in February from 56.7 in January. "The unusually severe winter weather undoubtedly looks to have taken its toll on the economy in the first quarter," said Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist. A range of U.S. economic data have recently suggested that the cold weather that's dumped snow across the country has hit economic activity, from a slump in home building and sales to factory output. Full Story | Top |
| Pope revolutionizes Vatican by opening finances to scrutiny Monday, Feb 24, 2014 09:17 AM PST  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Monday revolutionized the Vatican's scandal-plagued finances, inviting outside experts into a world often seen as murky and secretive and saying the church must use its wealth to help the poor. Francis, elected nearly a year ago with a mandate for reform, used a document known as a Motu Proprio - Latin for "by his own initiative" - to implement immediate changes including appointing an auditor-general. A new Secretariat for the Economy will report directly to the pope and will be headed by Australian Cardinal George Pell, 72, currently the Archbishop of Sydney and a key proponent of financial transparency in a committee that advised the pope. The auditor-general will have wide oversight powers "to conduct audits of any agency of the Holy See and Vatican City State at any time," a statement said. Full Story | Top |
| Thai PM rules out resigning as bombs, gunfire punctuate unrest Monday, Feb 24, 2014 09:01 AM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the target of anti-government protests in Bangkok, has been staying outside the city and on Monday ruled out resigning despite a series of deadly attacks heaping pressure on her administration. Yingluck, who attended a trade show in Saraburi province, 100 km (60 miles) north of Bangkok, called for dialogue to resolve a crisis that has dragged on for months, with key intersections in the capital blocked by protest camps. They are aimed at unseating Yingluck and erasing the influence of her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who is seen by many as the power behind the government. She was last seen in public in Bangkok nearly a week ago, last Tuesday, when both anti-government protesters and farmers angry about not being paid under a rice subsidy scheme were trailing her and some of her ministers. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: GE to spend another $10 billion on energy research by 2020 Monday, Feb 24, 2014 03:12 AM PST  General Electric Co plans to intensify research focusing on complex energy projects such as waterless fracking and gas turbine efficiency by earmarking an additional $10 billion through 2020 for its "ecoimagination" budget. The new spending is set to be announced by Chief Executive Jeff Immelt on Monday. The research budget shows how reliant GE has become on the energy industry, its fastest growth area, as it works to become a dominant supplier of equipment and services to oil, natural gas and alternative power companies at a time when the United States undergoes an unprecedented energy boom. The "ecoimagination" project, which was formed in 2005 to broadly focus on sustainability and other environmental issues and has cost nearly $15 billion, had been set to expire next year. Full Story | Top |
| Victims of BBC sex offender Savile were laughed at: report Monday, Feb 24, 2014 04:27 AM PST  By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Victims of Jimmy Savile, the former BBC TV presenter who after his death was unmasked as one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, said they were ignored or laughed at when they tried to report that he had abused them, a report said on Monday. Last year, police said Savile, one of the country's best-known celebrities in the 1970s and 1980s, had sexually abused hundreds of victims, mainly youngsters, at hospitals and at BBC premises over six decades until his death aged 84 in 2011. A report by the charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), found many of those Savile had targeted said the authorities had dismissed their claims at the time of the abuse while others stayed silent because they feared they would not be believed. "Half a century on, the world finally discovered just how dreadful his crimes were - something these men and women had known all that time but felt powerless to do anything about." Detectives say Savile, a one-time professional wrestler who became famous as a pioneering DJ in the 1960s, used his fame as a TV presenter and dedicated charity fundraiser to gain access to children. Full Story | Top |
| China denounces appointment of U.S. special coordinator on Tibet Monday, Feb 24, 2014 01:23 AM PST  China will never recognize the United States' appointment of a special coordinator for Tibetan issues, China's foreign ministry said on Monday, saying it opposes any foreign intervention in its internal affairs. President Barack Obama held low-key talks with the Dalai Lama on Friday, prompting condemnation and warnings from the Chinese government that the meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader would damage ties. Washington urged the Chinese government on Friday to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives without pre-conditions as a means to reduce tensions. Full Story | Top |
| India says drops anti-piracy charges against Italian marines Monday, Feb 24, 2014 02:31 AM PST  India has dropped a plan to prosecute two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen under a tough anti-piracy law, a government lawyer said on Monday, offering a chance to end a diplomatic row between the two countries. Italy had strongly opposed India invoking the law, arguing that it would amount to treating the men as "terrorists" and last week it recalled its ambassador to New Delhi in protest against the delay in the two-year-old case. Indian attorney general Ghoolam Vahanvati told the Supreme Court on Monday that the prosecution did not intend to proceed against Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone under the anti-piracy section of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts. The men can still be tried under India's criminal laws, but the punishment there in case of a conviction is ordinarily less stringent than under the piracy law. Full Story | Top |
| Brazil, Europe plan undersea cable to skirt U.S. spying Monday, Feb 24, 2014 06:49 AM PST  By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brazil and the European Union agreed on Monday to lay an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza to reduce Brazil's reliance on the United States after Washington spied on Brasilia. At a summit in Brussels, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said the $185 million cable project was central to "guarantee the neutrality" of the Internet, signaling her desire to shield Brazil's Internet traffic from U.S. surveillance. We don't want businesses to be spied upon," Rousseff told a joint news conference with the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council. Full Story | Top |
| Justices question Obama climate change regulations Monday, Feb 24, 2014 12:05 PM PST  By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court appeared closely divided on Monday as it weighed whether the administration of President Barack Obama exceeded its authority when crafting the nation's first greenhouse gas emissions regulations. Justice Anthony Kennedy could hold the swing vote on the nine-member high court, with conservative justices skeptical of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approach and liberal justices generally supportive. It is possible the court could opt for a compromise in which the EPA loses the case but retains most of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the specific program at issue in the case. Absent congressional action, Obama has been using his regulatory authority to address climate change. Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian PM says government resigning Monday, Feb 24, 2014 02:50 AM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said on Monday the government is to resign. "Today the cabinet took a decision to offer its resignation to the president of the republic," Beblawi said in a televised statement. He gave no clear reason for the decision. Beblawi was appointed after the army toppled president Mohamed Mursi last July following mass protests against his rule. (Writing by Tom Perry) Full Story | Top |
| G20 growth pledge easier in the making than the execution Sunday, Feb 23, 2014 08:36 PM PST  By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Group of 20's proposal to lift economic activity by 2 percent over the next five years has so many holes in it, there's no wonder it was the first official target that all members felt happy to agree on. The International Monetary Fund has said it will be watching for progress on the plans, but it has no power to compel or punish. How will we be able to judge if these targets are being met?" said Michael Blythe, chief economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Indeed, the Germans were reluctant to sign up to any hard target at the G20, but accepted the growth goal because it was not binding. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment