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| Obama to meet Dalai Lama on Friday as U.S. urges talks with China Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 07:41 PM PST  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House on Friday in a show of concern about China's human rights practices. Obama's midmorning session with the Dalai Lama may well draw a reprimand from China, which views him as a violent separatist because he seeks more autonomy for Tibet. In what appeared to be a small concession to the Chinese, Obama will see the Dalai Lama in the White House Map Room, a historically important room but of less significance than the Oval Office, the president's inner sanctum. Full Story | Top |
| China urges Obama to cancel meeting with Dalai Lama Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 07:39 PM PST  China urged the United States on Friday to scrap plans for U.S. President Barack Obama to meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama later in the day, warning that the planned meeting would "seriously damage" ties between the countries. The White House National Security Council said Obama would meet the Dalai Lama at the White House on Friday in a show of concern about China's human rights practices. Obama's planned meeting with the Dalai Lama is a "gross interference" in China's internal affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement on the ministry's website. Full Story | Top |
| California senate leader: Carbon tax would return revenue to poor, transit Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 06:54 PM PST By Rory Carroll SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A carbon tax proposal outlined on Thursday by California Senate leader Darrell Steinberg would raise an estimated $3.6 billion in its first year, revenue he said would go into the pocketbooks of the state's poorest residents as well as public transportation. The tax, which would apply to fuels like gasoline, would start at 15 cents a gallon in 2015 and rise to 24 cents a gallon in 2020, Steinberg said in a speech at the Sacramento Press Club. Poverty in the state is growing and money raised by the tax would be returned to low- and moderate-income working people via a federal tax credit, Steinberg said. The tax would halt plans to bring fuels under the state's cap and trade program next year, a policy that since the beginning of 2013 has regulated the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from large stationary sources, such as power plants and cement factories. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela protesters, troops clash, death toll at six Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 06:52 PM PST  By Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - Security forces and protesters fought around Venezuela on Thursday in streets blocked by burning barricades and a supporter of socialist President Nicolas Maduro was shot dead, the sixth fatality from more than a week of violence. Maduro said a "fascist bullet" killed Alexis Martinez, a brother of a ruling Socialist Party legislator, in the central city of Barquisimeto. The protesters, mostly students, want Maduro to resign, and blame his government for violent crime, high inflation, shortages of goods and alleged repression of opponents. The most sustained clashes on Thursday were in the western Andean states of Tachira and Merida, which have been especially volatile since hardline opposition leaders called supporters onto the streets in early February. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. proposes new safety rules for farm pesticide use Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 05:55 PM PST Farm workers, children and other people working or living near farm fields would have more protection from hazardous pesticides under changes proposed on Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Today marks an important milestone for the farm workers who plant, tend, and harvest the food that we put on our tables each day," Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator, said in a statement. EPA is proposing revisions to the agency's 22-year-old "Worker Protection Standard" that EPA officials say will help protect approximately 2 million U.S. farm workers and their families from exposure to pesticides used to protect crops from weeds, insects, and disease. The EPA said pesticides are beneficial tools in agriculture when used in proper concentrations and with proper protections. Full Story | Top |
| EU seeks peace as Ukraine death toll hits 75 Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 05:54 PM PST  By Richard Balmforth and Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - European Union ministers sought to broker a political settlement in Ukraine after gun battles between police and anti-government protesters brought the death toll to 75 in two days of the worst violence in the country since Soviet times. Three hours of fierce fighting in Kiev's Independence Square, which was recaptured by the protesters, left the bodies of over 20 civilians strewn on the ground, a short distance from where President Viktor Yanukovich was meeting the EU delegation. The ministers, from Germany, France and Poland, embarked on "a night of difficult negotiations" with Yanukovich and the opposition, said EU officials, who hoped a plan for an interim government and early elections could bring peace. "Talks of Polish, German, French foreign ministers at Yanukovich's office still going on. Full Story | Top |
| Elevated radiation found in air near New Mexico waste site Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 05:28 PM PST Testing of surface air near an underground nuclear waste site in New Mexico's desert showed elevated levels of radiation but did not pose a threat to humans or the environment, a U.S. Department of Energy official said on Thursday. Trace amounts of man-made radioactive elements such as plutonium were found at an air-monitoring site half a mile from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and are tied to a radiation leak in the underground salt formation where waste from defense research and nuclear weapons production is stored, said Joe Franco, manager of an Energy Department field office that oversees the plant. Energy officials said over the weekend that there was no apparent surface air contamination from the accidental release of radiation that caused an air-monitoring alarm below ground to go off about 11:30 p.m. local time on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. Security Council to vote on Syria aid resolution Saturday Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 05:24 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council will vote on Saturday on a resolution to boost humanitarian aid access in Syria, where the United Nations says 9.3 million people need help, although it is unclear if Russia and China will support or veto the draft. Australian U.N. Ambassador Gary Quinlan, who co-authored the text with envoys from Jordan and Luxembourg, told reporters the vote would be held at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) on Saturday. Russia, supported by China, has shielded its ally Syria on the U.N. Security Council during the three-year-long civil war. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. report says planned cuts to Afghan forces threaten stability Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 04:47 PM PST  Taliban insurgents will increasingly threaten Afghan stability after international forces withdraw in December, and Kabul will need more troops than currently envisioned to provide basic security, according to a new independent strategy review. The assessment, conducted by the Center for Naval Analyses and obtained by Reuters on Thursday, warned that plans to shrink the size of the Afghan National Security Force to 228,500 from the current 382,000 would put the U.S. policy of preventing the country from becoming a safe haven for extremists "at risk." "We recommend that the international community establish a new plan to fund and sustain the ANSF at an end strength of about 373,400, with a proportionally sized assistance mission (including advisers), through at least 2018," said the report by the center, part of a nonprofit research and analysis group. The 378-page CNA report, requested in a law passed by Congress, will pressure the legislature to consider additional support for Afghan forces for several more years, even as the Pentagon is facing huge cuts to its own budget. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chief wants 3,000 more troops for Central African Republic Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 04:30 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday appealed to the international community to send an additional 3,000 troops and police to Central African Republic to combat worsening sectarian violence until a likely U.N. peacekeeping force is established. He told the U.N. Security Council he would shortly report to the 15-member body with a recommendation for a U.N. peacekeeping force with a robust mandate to protect civilians and promote stability in the landlocked former French colony. The people of the Central African Republic do not have months to wait," he said. "The international community must act decisively now." Ban proposed that an international force of African, French and European troops be increased by a third within weeks to 12,000 soldiers and police. Full Story | Top |
| Biden tells Yanukovich that U.S. prepared to sanction officials over violence Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 04:25 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in a phone call on Thursday that the United States is prepared to sanction officials responsible for violence against civilian protesters in Kiev, the White House said. "He called upon President Yanukovich to immediately pull back all security forces - police, snipers, military and paramilitary units, and irregular forces," the White House said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Anti-Putin protesters face verdict after 'show trial' in Russia Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 04:05 PM PST  By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court is expected to jail eight anti-Kremlin protesters on Friday, sending a message that President Vladimir Putin will brook no challenge to his rule as Ukraine burns and casting a shadow over the final days of the Sochi Olympics. The mother of one of the defendants said the violence in Kiev, where an estimated 67 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters since Tuesday, increased the chance of a harsh verdict in the trial. The eight defendants are charged with assaulting police during clashes at an anti-Putin rally on May 6, 2012, the day before he was sworn in for a third Kremlin term after weathering the biggest opposition unrest of his rule. Putin tacked back before the Olympics, a major prestige project, engineering the release of two women from Pussy Riot and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was widely seen as a political prisoner after more than 10 years in jail. Full Story | Top |
| Consortium resumes work on Panama Canal expansion Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 03:52 PM PST  By Lomi Kriel and Sonya Dowsett PANAMA CITY/MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish-led consortium resumed expansion work on the Panama Canal on Thursday, raising hopes the two sides will finally draw a line under an acrimonious stand-off over massive cost overruns. As workers returned to the construction site after a stoppage lasting more than two weeks, a source close to the consortium led by Spanish builder Sacyr and Italy's Salini Impregilo said it had resolved internal disagreements over the key issue of financing. "The restarting of the works is being done in a way that will enable it to reach full pace in the shortest time possible," the consortium said in a statement. A source close to negotiations between the consortium and the Panama Canal Authority confirmed that work had resumed. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico billionaire Carlos Slim tightens grip on America Movil Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 03:49 PM PST  Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who already controls America Movil, tightened his grip slightly on Latin America's biggest phone company, according to a U.S. regulatory filing on Thursday that shows two companies controlled by Slim bought more shares. The purchases, made in November and December last year, come on top of a massive buyback effort by America Movil, whose share price has been under pressure since Mexico's government last year passed a reform plan that seeks to curb the company's dominance. Slim's real estate company Inmobiliaria Carso and his bank Grupo Financiero Inbursa spent $212.5 million and $34.7 million purchasing 187.11 million and 30.98 million shares respectively in America Movil, a document sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed. Slim, his three sons, three daughters and their controlled companies and foundations now own about 47.6 percent of America Movil's outstanding shares, up from 47.3 percent when the group made their last filing in November, according to a Reuters calculation. Full Story | Top |
| Haiti court says human rights charges can be brought against Duvalier Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 03:37 PM PST  By Amelie Baron PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A Haitian appellate court on Thursday ruled that deposed dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier could be charged with crimes against humanity under international law and that he may also be held responsible for abuses committed by the army and paramilitary under his rule. The appellate court reversed a ruling by a judge in 2012 who said Duvalier could not be charged with crimes against humanity filed by alleged victims of forced disappearances and torture during his rule because the statute of limitations had run out. "Right has triumphed," said human rights lawyer Pierre Esperance. Haiti is not isolated and international right applies in the country. Full Story | Top |
| Obama budget proposal to drop Social Security cuts Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 03:30 PM PST  By Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday dropped a measure to trim cost-of-living increases in Social Security from an upcoming budget proposal in an election-year move that may insulate fellow Democrats facing heat from senior voters. The White House said Obama's budget proposal for the 2015 fiscal year, to be released on March 4, will not include a plan he made last year that represented an effort to gain some Republican support and break through congressional gridlock. Dropping the offer this year is a sign Democrats are girding for November congressional elections and in no mood to risk supporting proposals that could cost them votes from seniors on Election Day on November 4. Obama had offered to make a controversial change in how the government calculates inflation for Social Security and other federal benefits in a way that could lead to cuts in benefits for some Americans. Full Story | Top |
| Obama's Syria 'red line' has echoes in his warning to Ukraine Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 03:25 PM PST By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's stern warning this week to Ukrainian officials was the closest thing to a "red line" moment he has had since his threat in 2012 to act against the Syrian government if it used chemical weapons. But Obama's admonition on Wednesday to not "step over the line" in cracking down on mass protests rocking the Ukraine raised questions on whether he would be any more effective at matching words with deeds than he has been in Syria's three-year-old civil war. His decision to lay down another rhetorical "line" in a geopolitical crisis left many foreign policy experts puzzled, especially given the limited options he has at his disposal for dealing with the Ukraine's spiraling conflict. "Hasn't he learned his redline lesson?" tweeted Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Full Story | Top |
| Opposition leaders, Yanukovich met to negotiate:Polish official Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 03:13 PM PST WARSAW (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leaders and president Viktor Yanokovich met at the negotiations table with mediation of foreign ministers from France, Germany and Poland, a Polish foreign ministry spokesman said. "Talks of Polish, German, French foreign ministers at Yanukovich's office still going on. The opposition leaders, the parliament's speaker, many MPs attend," spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski, who is in Kiev with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, wrote in a Twitter post. (Reporting by Pawel Bernat) Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela protests rumble as demonstrators, troops face off Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 02:52 PM PST By Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan security forces and demonstrators faced off in streets blocked by burning barricades in several provincial cities on Thursday as protests escalated against President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government. The protesters, mostly students, want Maduro to resign, and blame his government for violent crime, high inflation, product shortages and alleged repression of opponents. Thursday's most serious unrest was in the western Andean states of Tachira and Merida, which have been especially volatile since hardline opposition leaders called supporters onto the streets in early February demanding Maduro's departure. In the city of San Cristobal, which some residents are describing as a "war zone", many businesses remained shut as students and police faced off again. Full Story | Top |
| Five killed at blast in Syrian refugee camp near Turkey: monitor Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 02:30 PM PST ISTANBUL/BEIRUT (Reuters) - An explosion believed to have been caused by a car bomb tore through a Syrian refugee camp at a border post on the frontier with Turkey on Thursday, killing five people, a monitoring group said. Turkey is sheltering more than 600,000 refugees from Syria's almost three-year-long civil war and has kept its border open throughout the conflict. Ambulances ferried the injured from the refugee camp to the southern Turkish city of Kilis, where a state hospital official said at least 40 people were being treated. A Turkish border official said the blast near Turkey's Oncupinar border post, which sits opposite the Syrian Bab al-Salameh gate, could be felt several kilometers (miles) away, but that the border gate remained open. Full Story | Top |
| Anyone home? Ukraine isn't taking the Pentagon's calls Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 02:23 PM PST By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has been unable to get anyone on the phone at Ukraine's defense ministry over the past several days as violence flared and Kiev named a new head of the armed forces general staff, the Pentagon said on Thursday. "We haven't been able to connect with anybody from the Defense Ministry there in Ukraine," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a Pentagon news briefing. "Here in the Pentagon, we've been trying to (connect with them) pretty diligently this whole week." Kirby said he was also unaware of any successful military-to-military contacts between United States and Ukraine, and acknowledged it is usually not so difficult for Hagel to get a foreign counterpart on the phone. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Vice President Biden speaks with Yanukovich by phone : White House Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 02:23 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Thursday, the White House said, the latest in a series of calls between the two men since violent protests erupted in Kiev. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| Ukrainians in Canada send money, shed tears for Kiev Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 02:22 PM PST  By Andrea Hopkins and Rod Nickel TORONTO/WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The small gilded chapel at the Ukrainian Canadian Care Center, a retirement residence in suburban Toronto, is usually shuttered and dark midweek. But on Thursday, dozens of elderly immigrants and their caregivers gathered to pray for protesters and family back in Kiev. At a mid-morning service, a priest from Toronto's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, Jaroslaw Buciora, told people the best thing they could do is pray for those back home. He and many others in the Ukrainian-Canadian community, which is estimated to number 1.2 million, are doing more than that, however - everything from sewing ribbons to sending cash in support of the Kiev demonstrators. Full Story | Top |
| Poor turnout in Libyan vote for constitution-drafting body Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 01:28 PM PST  By Ulf Laessing and Ghaith Shennib TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyans trickled to the polls on Thursday to elect an assembly to draft a constitution, with the paltry turnout reflecting deep political disillusion with the chaos pervading Libya since Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule ended in 2011. Less than 498,000 people cast ballots, the election commission said, out of one million who had registered to vote - a number far lower than the three million who did so before the 2012 parliamentary election. Live footage from Libyan television cameras in major polling stations across the North African country showed mostly empty rooms. Explosions rocked five polling stations at dawn in the eastern town of Derna, an Islamist stronghold, but no one was hurt. Full Story | Top |
| UN chief wants 3,000 more troops for Central African Republic Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 01:18 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday appealed to the international community to urgently send another 3,000 troops and police to Central African Republic in an effort to stop violence between Christians and Muslims that threatens to spiral into genocide. The people of the Central African Republic do not have months to wait," he said. "The international community must act decisively now." "The security requirements far exceed the capabilities of the number of international troops now deployed," Ban said. "I call for the rapid reinforcement of the African Union and French troops now on the ground with additional deployments of at least 3,000 more troops and police." The additional troops, which Ban said needed to be deployed within weeks equipped with air mobility, would increase the international force to 12,000. Full Story | Top |
| Shop shelves empty as Kiev violence gets worse Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 01:11 PM PST By Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Kiev residents emptied bank machines of cash and stockpiled groceries on Thursday, with many staying off the streets of the Ukrainian capital after the worst day of violence since the country emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many shops, banks and restaurants in normally bustling central Kiev did not even open their doors as a fresh wave of clashes between riot police and protesters demanding that the government step down swept Independence Square, bringing the death toll to 67 since Tuesday. So far the conflict has not spilled out much further than the main square, known as the Maidan, with life in the rest of the capital continuing as usual, but this week locals said central areas were peculiarly quiet. "Almost everyone who's not at the Maidan is staying home. Full Story | Top |
| Death toll from Islamist attack in northeast Nigeria doubles to 98 Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 12:50 PM PST By Ibrahim Mshelizza BAMA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen from Nigeria's Islamist Boko Haram sect killed 98 people in the northeastern town of Bama on Wednesday, residents there said after burying their folk, more than double the figure given by police a day earlier. Gunmen stormed the town in the early hours of Wednesday, 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. "We recovered 98 bodies that have already been buried since the attack," Akura Satomi, a pro-government civilian militia leader responsible for security in the town, told Reuters. The insurgents, fighting for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria and posing the main threat to Africa's top oil producer, seem to have adopted a tactic of maximum civilian casualties. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. billionaire to pour $100 million into climate change fight Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 12:10 PM PST By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A California hedge fund investor has pledged $100 million in contributions to pro-environmentalist congressional campaigns, bolstering the battle against climate change. Billionaire Tom Steyer on Wednesday night hosted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and six other Democratic lawmakers for a fundraiser at his San Francisco home and is planning an ad campaign for candidates who support tough action on climate change. Steyer, founder of the hedge fund Farallon Capital, plans to spend $50 million of his own money and raise another $50 million from other donors for the November midterm elections. Steyer hosted Reid and some of Congress' most active climate change advocates: Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Tom Udall of New Mexico, and Representative Gary Peters of Michigan, according to a source who attended the dinner and who spoke on condition of anonymity. Full Story | Top |
| Italy's Renzi says on track to form government Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 12:06 PM PST  By Roberto Landucci ROME (Reuters) - Italy's center-left leader and impending prime minister said on Thursday he expected to have his new cabinet in place by the weekend, dismissing speculation that wrangling with his likely coalition partners was holding up an agreement. "In a matter of hours, we'll have everything wrapped up," Matteo Renzi told reporters as he left the Rome headquarters of his center-left Democratic Party. Renzi has said he wants to name a cabinet by Saturday and go before parliament on Monday for a confidence vote. The protracted talks underline the challenges facing Renzi, who admits he has taken a major risk by engineering the removal of former Prime Minister Enrico Letta. Full Story | Top |
| Russia's Putin speaks with Merkel, Cameron over Ukraine violence Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 11:57 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron by telephone on Thursday and they all expressed "utmost concern" over the deadly violence in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. "Vladimir Putin stressed the critical importance of an immediate end to bloodshed, the need to take urgent measures to stabilize the situation and suppress extremist and terrorist attacks," the Kremlin said in a statement on its website. (Reporting by Thomas Grove; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Full Story | Top |
| Fabius: German, French, Polish ministers returning to talks with Yanukovich Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 11:46 AM PST KIEV (Reuters) - France's foreign minister said on Thursday there was no final decision yet on the roadmap to end Ukraine's crisis but added that he and the foreign ministers of Germany and Poland were returning to talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. "We shall go back to meet with the president right now," Laurent Fabius told reporters. Diplomatic sources said earlier that the roadmap would include forming a temporary government in Ukraine. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold in Kiev; Writing by Michelle Martin in Berlin; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine talks make progress, differences remain: Polish minister Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 11:42 AM PST WARSAW (Reuters) - European Union envoys trying to broker a solution to the bloodshed in Ukraine have made progress but differences persist, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Thursday. "After talks with the opposition, on the way back to the (Ukrainian) President to help negotiations," Sikorski, a member of the EU delegation, wrote in a Twitter post. "Progress made but important differences remain." (Reporting by Christian Lowe; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Full Story | Top |
| EU hits Ukraine with sanctions, threatens more Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 11:28 AM PST By Adrian Croft and Barbara Lewis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Thursday to impose sanctions on those responsible for deadly violence in Ukraine and warned it would ratchet up the pressure if the situation there got worse. As Ukraine suffered its bloodiest day since Soviet times, EU foreign ministers meeting in emergency session in Brussels agreed measures against Kiev including visa bans, asset freezes and restrictions on the export of anti-riot equipment. The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland did not come to the Brussels meeting, as planned, after deciding to stay in Kiev to continue contacts with the government and opposition. Full Story | Top |
| Killer avalanches hit U.S. West as fresh snow raises backcountry allure Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 11:15 AM PST By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Fresh powder in the U.S. West has lured thousands of skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers to the high country at a time the risk of avalanches has been heightened by weather patterns that are making the snowpack less stable, winter recreation experts said. Avalanches have killed 15 skiers and snowmobilers in Western states in less than two months - well over the nine deaths recorded in the same period last year - most recently when a massive slide raced 1,400 feet down an Idaho mountainside and killed a snowmobiler at the weekend. Government specialists say the uptick in killer avalanches stems in part from unusually dense and wet snows that have lately blanketed the mountain West after an extended dry spell weakened a base layer of snow laid early in the season. Federal avalanche centers in states such as Idaho, Montana and Colorado have in recent days stepped up warnings to winter recreationists, whose numbers in the snowy backcountry have grown in the last decade alongside advances that have made treks possible to steep winter terrain that was once nearly inaccessible. Full Story | Top |
| Iran's most sensitive uranium stockpile falls after nuclear deal Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 11:13 AM PST By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - The size of Iran's most contested uranium stockpile has declined significantly for the first time in four years following a landmark nuclear deal with world powers in November, the U.N. atomic watchdog reported on Thursday. As a result, Iran's holding of uranium gas enriched to a fissile purity of 20 percent - a relatively short technical step away from the level required for nuclear weapons - is now well below the amount needed for a bomb, if processed more. That stockpile is closely watched: Israel, Iran's arch-enemy and believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power, warned in 2012 that there would be a "red line" for possible military action against Iranian nuclear sites if its Tehran amassed enough such refined uranium for a single bomb. Iran agreed under a November 24 deal with six big powers to shelve its 20 percent enrichment, begun in 2010. Full Story | Top |
| Big Antarctic glacier to keep raising seas, even without warming Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 11:04 AM PST  By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - A thawing Antarctic glacier that is the biggest contributor to rising sea levels is likely to continue shrinking for decades, even without an extra spur from global warming, a study showed on Thursday. Scientists said the Pine Island Glacier, which carries more water to the sea than the Rhine River, also thinned 8,000 years ago at rates comparable to the present, in a melt that lasted for decades, perhaps for centuries. "Our findings reveal that Pine Island Glacier has experienced rapid thinning at least once in the past, and that, once set in motion, rapid ice sheet changes in this region can persist for centuries," they wrote in the U.S. journal Science. A creeping rise in sea levels is a threat to low-lying coasts from Bangladesh to Florida, and to cities from London to Shanghai. Full Story | Top |
| EU envoys to continue Kiev talks through the night: Polish official Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 10:47 AM PST WARSAW (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from France, Germany and Poland will continue talks with Ukrainian officials and opposition leaders through the night, a Polish foreign ministry spokesman said. The three ministers "are extending their stay in Kiev to tomorrow. We face a night of difficult negotiations," spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski, who is in Kiev with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, wrote in a Twitter post. (Reporting by Pawel Bernat; Writing by Christian Lowe) Full Story | Top |
| Union calls on Frankfurt airport security staff to strike Friday Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 10:46 AM PST  German trade union Verdi has called on security workers at Frankfurt airport to go on strike on Friday in a bid to push for higher pay, a move likely to cause widespread disruption at Europe's third largest hub. The airport employs around 5,000 people in areas such as security controls, freight checks and airport security and services, Verdi said in a statement on Thursday. "We believe this could cause significant disruption," Verdi negotiator Mathias Venema said. Germany's largest airline Deutsche Lufthansa said on Thursday it would cancel 15 domestic and pan-European flights on Friday morning due to the planned strike. Full Story | Top |
| EU envoys in Kiev find 'willingness for early elections': Polish PM Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 10:36 AM PST WARSAW (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers who met Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Thursday found a willingness to call early elections to resolve the violent stand-off with the opposition, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a news conference. "The three ministers are in Kiev discussing a certain document, which gives a chance to bring an end to violence and achieve an agreement. A willingness for early elections, already this year, parliamentary as well as presidential, was agreed," Tusk said, describing the meeting with Yanukovich. ... Full Story | Top |
| Three suspected former Auschwitz guards arrested in Germany Thursday, Feb 20, 2014 10:35 AM PST Three suspected former guards of the Auschwitz death camp run by the Nazis during World War Two have been arrested in southwestern Germany, the public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart said on Thursday. It said the three accused, aged 88, 92 and 94 years old, are believed to have been involved in the murder of prisoners at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland. They were arrested after police searched six homes in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg using information released to several German states last autumn by the Central Office of the Judicial Authorities for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes. Some 1.5 million people perished at Auschwitz, mostly Jews but also Roma, Poles and others, between 1940 and 1945. Full Story | Top |
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