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| Exclusive: China seizes $14.5 billion assets from family, associates of ex-security chief - sources Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:10 PM PDT  By Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) from family members and associates of retired domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is at the center of China's biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, two sources said. The sheer size of the asset seizures and the scale of the investigations into the people around Zhou - both unreported until now - make the corruption probe unprecedented in modern China and would appear to show that President Xi Jinping is tackling graft at the highest levels. But it may also be driven partly by political payback after Zhou angered leaders such as Xi by opposing the ouster of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai, who was jailed for life in September for corruption and abuse of power. He is the most senior Chinese politician to be ensnared in a corruption investigation since the Communist Party swept to power in 1949. Full Story | Top |
| Philippine ship dodges China blockade to reach South China Sea outpost Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:04 PM PDT  By Erik de Castro and Roli Ng SECOND THOMAS SHOAL, South China Sea (Reuters) - The Philippine government vessel made a dash for shallow waters around the disputed reef in the South China Sea, evading two Chinese coastguard ships trying to block its path to deliver food, water and fresh troops to a military outpost on the shoal. It's also a reminder of how assertive China has become in pressing its claims to disputed territory far from its mainland. "If we didn't change direction, if we didn't change course, then we would have collided with them," Ferdinand Gato, captain of the Philippine vessel, a civilian craft, told Reuters after his boat had anchored on the Second Thomas Shoal under a hot sun. China, which claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, says the shoal is part of its territory. Full Story | Top |
| Number of missing in U.S. mudslide drops to 30 as death toll rises Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 07:46 PM PDT  By Jonathan Kaminsky and Bryan Cohen DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - The number of people missing from a landslide that sent a wall of mud cascading over dozens of homes in Washington state dropped to 30 from 90 on Saturday, but the death toll continues to climb as another body was found in the muddy heap of debris. But with the grim news also came word that the number of missing fell dramatically as officials were able to account for dozens of people as "safe and well." Rescue and recovery workers pushed through wind and rain on Saturday continuing to comb through debris left after the rain-soaked hillside gave way without warning and destroyed dozens of homes on the outskirts of the rural Washington town of Oso, northeast of Seattle. It's hard to grasp," said volunteer Bob Michajla, 66, who has been helping to search part of the debris field that covers a square-mile (2.6 square-km). Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Mt. Gox faced questions on handling client cash long before crisis Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 07:07 PM PDT  By Sophie Knight and Nathan Layne TOKYO (Reuters) - Two years before Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy, a half dozen employees at the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange challenged CEO Mark Karpeles over whether client money was being used to cover costs, according to three people who participated in the discussion. The question of how Mt. Gox handled other people's money - the issue raised by staff in the showdown with Karpeles in early 2012 - remains crucial to unraveling a multi-million dollar mystery under examination by authorities in Japan. The still-unresolved issue has thrown a spotlight on how Mt. Gox functioned as a hybrid between an online brokerage and an exchange. Essentially, the more than 1 million traders who used Mt. Gox at its peak had entrusted a 3-year-old firm to hold their money safely until they decided to cash out. Full Story | Top |
| Iran plans to replace U.N. ambassador in New York Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 06:59 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has selected a new ambassador to represent Tehran at the United Nations, Hamid Abutalebi, a veteran diplomat who has held key European postings in the past, Iranian sources said. Abutalebi, who has served as Iran's ambassador to Italy, Belgium and Australia, was chosen to replace Iran's outgoing ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, sources said. A spokesman for Iran's U.N. mission declined to comment. Abutalebi began working for the Islamic Republic's foreign ministry in the early 1980s, not long after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Full Story | Top |
| Number of missing in Washington state mudslide drops to 30 from 90 Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 06:44 PM PDT (Reuters) - The tally of those missing in a Washington state mudslide has dropped to 30 from 90, while the official death toll went up by one to 18, officials said Saturday. Another body located in the muddy pile has not yet been identified and is not part of the official death toll, but brings the presumed death toll to 28. Full Story | Top |
| Security firm Trustwave says Target data breach claims baseless Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 06:18 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Trustwave Holdings Inc, a credit-card security firm that has been sued along with Target Corp over a sweeping data breach, said on Saturday it did not process cardholder data for the retailer or handle Target's data security as a lawsuit alleges. In a letter to customers and business partners, Trustwave Chief Executive Robert McCullen said the company's connection to Target was not what had been portrayed in a suit filed last Monday by two banks seeking at least $5 million in damages. "Contrary to the misstated allegations in the plaintiffs' complaints, Target did not outsource its data security or IT obligations to Trustwave. Full Story | Top |
| French set to punish Hollande in mayoral runoffs Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 06:03 PM PDT  By Michel Rose PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande's Socialists braced for losses in hundreds of towns and villages in mayoral elections on Sunday, with far-right National Front candidates seen winning a handful of cities for the first time since 1995. The runoff round of voting comes at the end of a week that saw French unemployment surge to a new record, making a reverse of first round losses unlikely and a cabinet reshuffle by Hollande possible as soon as Monday. Some 80 percent of the French want him to dismiss Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll, and ambitious and tough-talking Interior Minister Manuel Valls comes top of their favorites for the job. "I can't see how (Ayrault) could stay, unless we save about thirty towns, something nobody really believes," a Socialist Party source said. Full Story | Top |
| If Modi wins election, neighbours can expect a more muscular India Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 06:01 PM PDT  By Sanjeev Miglani NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will get tougher on territorial disputes with China and in its old rivalry with Pakistan if opposition leader Narendra Modi becomes the prime minister in May after a general election, two of his aides said. On the campaign trail, he has warned Beijing to shed its "mindset of expansionism" and in the past he has railed against Pakistan, an Islamic state, for attacks by Muslim militants in India. "I swear in the name of the soil that I will protect this country," Modi said at a rally in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh last month, a region claimed by China. India, China and Pakistan are all nuclear powers. Full Story | Top |
| Political newcomer Kiska trounces PM Fico in Slovak presidential election Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 05:57 PM PDT  By Jiri Skacel and Jan Lopatka BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Philanthropist and former businessman Andrej Kiska trounced Prime Minister Robert Fico in Slovakia's presidential election on Saturday as voters feared Fico and his center-left party would amass too much power. Results from over 99 percent of voting districts showed the politically unaffiliated Kiska leading the center-left prime minister by 59.4 percent to 40.6 percent. Kiska, 51, rode a wave of anti-Fico sentiment among right-wing voters as well as distrust in mainstream political parties because of graft scandals and persistently high unemployment. Full Story | Top |
| Slovak PM Fico concedes defeat in presidential election Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 05:57 PM PDT BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak centre-left Prime Minister Robert Fico conceded defeat to independent Andrej Kiska in the central European country's presidential election on Saturday. "I would like to congratulate (Kiska), although not all the votes have been counted yet," Fico, who keeps his post as prime minister, told reporters. Results from 72 percent of voting stations showed Kiska leading by 59.2 to 40.8 percent. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jiri Skacel; Editing by David Gregorio) Full Story | Top |
| U.S. releases immigrant, says unrelated to daughter's plea to pope Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 05:40 PM PDT  Mario Vargas-Lopez was free on bond from a detention center in Louisiana three days after his 10-year-old daughter, Jersey Vargas, delivered her message to the pope. He was reunited with his family in Los Angeles on Friday. Jersey Vargas was part of a coalition from Southern California that traveled to Vatican City on Wednesday to deliver letters to the pope from children of undocumented parents, according to "The Tidings," published online by Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez. The girl was able to speak briefly with the pope and told him, "My father is suffering," according to the publication. Full Story | Top |
| Search for Malaysian jet grows, but poor weather again forecast Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 05:38 PM PDT  By Michael Martina and Niluksi Koswanage PERTH/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Ten ships and as many aircraft will search a swathe of the Indian Ocean west of Perth on Sunday, trying again to find some trace of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 after more than three weeks of fruitless and frustrating hunting. An Australian navy ship fitted with a sophisticated U.S. black box locater and an unmanned underwater drone is due to leave later on Sunday. Malaysia says the plane, which disappeared less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was likely diverted deliberately. WEATHER THREATENS EXPANDED SEARCH The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said aircraft from China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the United States would be searching on Sunday. Full Story | Top |
| China's Xi turns to panda diplomacy to seek EU trade deal Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 05:26 PM PDT  By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping will use two pandas to break the ice and soften European opposition to a free-trade deal with China during a visit to Belgium which starts on Sunday. As the first Chinese leader to visit the European Union's headquarters since Brussels established ties with Beijing four decades ago, Xi will also seek to send a message that China is a less confrontational partner, ready to resolve trade disputes. "Our common interests far outweigh our differences," said China's ambassador to the EU, Yang Yanyi. "We need to explore ways to deepen our partnership." Xi will say hello to China's two ursine envoys Xing Hui and Hao Hao, loaned to Belgium last month, at a wildlife park near Brussels - part of a Chinese tradition of using pandas to foster better relations around the world. Full Story | Top |
| Erdogan seeks Turkish voters' support in fierce power struggle Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 05:01 PM PDT  By Ralph Boulton and Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL/ANKARA, March 30 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan turns to the ballot box that has favoured him over a decade on Sunday in his battle to ward off graft allegations and stem a stream of damaging security leaks he blames on "traitors" embedded in the Turkish state. The municipal elections have become a crisis referendum on the rule of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party and he has been crisscrossing the nation of 77 million during weeks of hectic campaigning to rally his conservative core voters. "They are all traitors," Erdogan said of his opponents at a rally in Istanbul, Turkey's commercial capital, on Saturday. Full Story | Top |
| Political newcomer Kiska takes wide lead in Slovak presidential election Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 03:42 PM PDT  By Jiri Skacel and Jan Lopatka BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Philanthropist and former businessman Andrej Kiska took a wide lead over Prime Minister Robert Fico in Slovakia's presidential election, partial results of the second election round showed on Saturday. Data from 45 percent of voting districts showed the politically unaffiliated Kiska leading over the center-left prime minister by 59.4 percent to 40.6 percent of the vote. Kiska, 51, has been riding the wave of anti-Fico sentiment among right-wing voters as well as distrust in mainstream political parties because of graft scandals and persistently high unemployment. Kiska made millions of dollars in consumer credit companies which he sold a decade ago, setting up a charity to help families with ill children. Full Story | Top |
| Political newcomer Kiska leads Slovak presidential election Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 03:28 PM PDT  BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Philanthropist and former businessman Andrej Kiska has taken an early lead over Prime Minister Robert Fico in Slovakia's presidential election, partial results of the second and final round of voting showed on Saturday. Kiska, who is politically unaffiliated, had 58.8 percent of the vote versus 41.2 percent for the center-left prime minister, according to results from 20 percent of the country's voting districts. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Paul Simao) Full Story | Top |
| GM recall process will be under congressional microscope Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:58 PM PDT  By Ben Klayman and Richard Cowan DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra faces Congress next week she will have to explain how the top brass at the biggest U.S. automaker can say they knew nothing for more than a decade about a faulty ignition switch linked to crashes and at least 12 deaths. For lawmakers trying to find who to blame for the lack of responsiveness by GM and its regulator to the tragedies, and in particular the multi-year delay in recalling potentially dangerous vehicles off the roads, it may turn out to be a frustrating couple of days. GM built a system to deliberately keep senior executives out of the recall process. Instead, two small groups of employees in the vast GM bureaucracy were tasked with making recall decisions, a system GM says was meant to bring objective decisions. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico finds 370 abandoned immigrant children Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:56 PM PDT In one week, 370 immigrant children, most of them from Central America, were found abandoned in Mexico, after traffickers promised to take them to the United States but left them to their own devices after being paid thousands of dollars, authorities said. Almost half of them, 163 children under the age of 18, were found traveling alone, Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) said in a statement. The children told federal migration agents that their 'guides' abandoned them after accepting $3,000 to $5,000 in payments, INM said. The children and young people, who came from three of the poorest countries in Central America, were found between March 17 and 24, in 14 different states in Mexico. Full Story | Top |
| New help puts EU Central African Republic mission back on track Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:53 PM PDT  By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The commander of a planned European Union peacekeeping force for Central African Republic has decided he now has enough soldiers and equipment to launch the delayed mission after governments came forward with new offers of help, the EU said on Saturday. But the mission has been held up by the failure of European governments to provide soldiers and equipment. At a meeting in Brussels late on Friday, EU governments and some countries from outside the bloc offered new support for the mission in the areas of strategic airlift and help with deploying the force, the EU said. "On the basis of this significant progress ... the commander of the operation (French Major-General Philippe Ponties) has recommended the launch of the operation," a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said. Full Story | Top |
| Greek conservatives retake lead before key vote, poll shows Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:49 PM PDT  By Angeliki Koutantou and Harry Papachristou ATHENS (Reuters) - The main party in Greece's ruling coalition, conservative New Democracy, has nudged ahead of the leftist opposition for the first time in six months, an opinion poll showed on Saturday, ahead of a key parliamentary vote on more tough reforms. The poll will be welcome news for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' fragile government, whose cohesion has been tested by the controversial reforms demanded by international lenders as a condition to keep debt-laden Greece afloat. The poll, conducted on March 24-27 by Alco for weekly newspaper Proto Thema, showed Samaras' New Democracy winning 21.7 percent of the vote if elections were held today, against 21.2 percent for the main opposition, anti-bailout Syriza party. In Alco's previous poll on March 11-13, Syriza led New Democracy by 21.2 to 20 percent, a lead similar to that in all other polls tracked by Reuters in recent months. Full Story | Top |
| Germany, China say renminbi hub in Frankfurt will boost trade Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:45 PM PDT  By Matthias Inverardi DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - A decision by Germany and China to make Frankfurt a European hub for financial transactions in the Chinese currency will give new momentum to trade between the two economic powers, Chinese President Xi Jinping and a German minister said on Saturday. In a speech to politicians and business leaders in the city of Duesseldorf, Xi said setting up the hub for the renminbi in Germany "represents an important step on the road of the internationalisation of our currency," according to a translation. Full Story | Top |
| N.Y. lawmakers, Governor Cuomo, strike budget deal before Monday vote Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:43 PM PDT  (Reuters) - New York state legislators and Governor Andrew Cuomo reached a deal on the state's 2014-15 fiscal year budget after several weeks of negotiating behind closed doors, according to state officials on Saturday. The $137.9 billion budget keeps growth in all spending levels below 2 percent and provides funding for statewide pre-kindergarten programs. It also cuts business taxes and introduces property tax relief for homeowners, Cuomo said on Saturday. The agreement came after budget bills were printed late on Friday, allowing state lawmakers to vote on the plan on Monday, the last day of the state's financial year. Full Story | Top |
| Washington community grieves growing toll in U.S. mudslide Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:30 PM PDT  By Jonathan Kaminsky DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - The grim task of combing through debris from a landslide that sent a wall of mud cascading over dozens of homes on the outskirts of a rural Washington town came to a standstill briefly on Saturday for a moment of silence. It's hard to grasp," said volunteer Bob Michajla, 66, who has been helping to search part of the debris field that covers a square-mile (2.6 square-km). "These are all friends and neighbors and family. Everybody knows everybody in this valley." One more body was found on Friday in the muck and rubble left after the rain-soaked hillside above the north fork of the Stillaguamish River gave way without warning on the outskirts of Oso, northeast of Seattle, a Snohomish County official said. Full Story | Top |
| Crimea switches to Moscow time amid incorporation frenzy Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:15 PM PDT  By Gabriela Baczynska SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (Reuters) - The hands of a clock on the main railway station in Simferopol jumped from 10 P.M. to midnight on Saturday as Crimea switched to Moscow time, symbolicly finalizing the region's incorporation into Russia. Several hundred people gathered on the railway square for the ceremonial change of time, waving Russian national flags and chanting "Crimea! Russia!" after Moscow formally annexed the Black Sea region from Ukraine on March 21. "I greet you with our return home," Crimea's new pro-Moscow Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov told the crowd. Full Story | Top |
| Taliban attack election commission HQ in Kabul ahead of vote Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 01:56 PM PDT  By Mirwais Harooni and Jessica Donati KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents attacked the Independent Election Commission headquarters in Kabul on Saturday, staff and police said, in the their third big assault on the capital this week aimed at derailing the April 5 presidential election. Afghan security forces battled the militants for about five hours, while frightened IEC staff and eight international United Nations employees took refuge in safe rooms inside the compound, a security source and staff said. Four suicide bombers were involved in the attack and all were killed in gunbattles, according to an Afghan army general on the scene in the eastern part of the capital. An investigation team is in the area," said commander Qadam Shah Shaheem, adding that three security force members had been injured in the operation. Full Story | Top |
| Russia sees no need for Ukraine incursion, Tatars seek autonomy Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 12:43 PM PDT  By Katya Golubkova and Gabriela Baczynska MOSCOW/BAKHCHISARAY, Crimea (Reuters) - Russia said on Saturday it had no intention of invading eastern Ukraine following its annexation of Crimea, while the Black Sea peninsula's Muslim Tatars demanded autonomy. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet on Sunday in Paris, the State Department said, as both sides moved to ease tensions in the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War. In a pivotal political development, Ukraine's presidential election effectively became a two-horse race when boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko pulled out and threw his weight behind confectionary oligarch Petro Poroshenko. Speaking on Russian television, Lavrov reinforced a message from President Vladimir Putin that Russia would settle - at least for now - for control over Crimea despite massing thousands of troops near Ukraine's eastern border. Full Story | Top |
| Fuel cache blows up in Egypt, killing 10 Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 11:56 AM PDT Ten people were killed on Saturday in Egypt when an explosion ripped through a house where a man had been hoarding state-subsidized fuel to sell in the black market. A further 37 people were wounded by the explosion in the village of Shotora in the southern province of Sohag, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Fuels including gasoline and diesel are sold at a fraction of their real price in Egypt thanks to long-standing government subsidies that soak up a fifth of the state budget and have given rise to black markets and smuggling. Full Story | Top |
| Senegal shuts land border with Guinea to prevent Ebola spreading Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 11:54 AM PDT By Daniel Flynn and Saliou Samb DAKAR/CONAKRY (Reuters) - Senegal closed its land border with Guinea on Saturday to try to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, which Guinean authorities say is suspected of killing 70 people in what would be the deadliest outbreak in seven years. The discovery of 11 people suspected to have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia in recent days has stirred concern that one of the most lethal infectious diseases known to man could spread in a poor corner of West Africa, where health systems are ill-equipped to cope. Senegal's Interior Ministry said it had closed the land border with Guinea in the southern region of Kolda and the southeastern region of Kedougou. Full Story | Top |
| Cuba approves law aimed at attracting foreign investment Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 11:31 AM PDT  By Daniel Trotta HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's National Assembly passed a new foreign investment law on Saturday that aims to bring badly needed capital to the communist economy by offering steep tax cuts and promising a climate of investment security. Analysts and Cuban-based diplomats have expressed skepticism over the law, uncertain whether the one-party state has undergone a genuine change of heart and truly wants to attract foreign investors on international terms. Areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, sugar, nickel mining, building renovation and real estate development are considered ripe for investment. Cuba needs to attract $2 billion to $2.5 billion in foreign direct investment per year to reach its economic growth target of 7 percent, minister for foreign trade and investment Rodrigo Malmierca said on Cuban state television on Friday night. Full Story | Top |
| Car bomb kills three soldiers in attack on Lebanese army checkpoint Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 11:00 AM PDT A suicide bomber killed himself and three soldiers when he detonated a car bomb at a Lebanese army checkpoint in the border town of Arsal on Saturday, Lebanese security sources said. Arsal is home to thousands of Syrian refugees but also Syrian rebels and their Lebanese allies who have fled a Syrian army advance on the Syrian side of the border. Lebanese Sunni militants accuse the Lebanese army of conspiring with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which has sent fighters into Syria to support Assad fight a Sunni-led revolt. Full Story | Top |
| Dollar reserve role secure but set to shrink: BIS Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:58 AM PDT  By Patrick Graham BERLIN (Reuters) - The dollar's share of central bank reserves may fall by as much as 10-15 percentage points in coming years without threatening its role as the world's main reserve currency, a senior official from the Bank of International Settlements said on Saturday. Peter Zoellner, head of the banking department at the central banks' central bank, also told one of the year's biggest gatherings of foreign exchange dealers that the role of China's renminbi would continue to grow. He expected trading and central bank reserves held in the yuan to continue to expand "at a sustained pace" but saw no prospect that the Chinese currency could replace the dollar as the reserve of choice over the next couple of decades. "It could happen that the percentage will go slightly down with the reserve currency from between 65 and 70 maybe to between 50 and 60 percent," he told the ACI Financial Markets Association congress in Berlin. Full Story | Top |
| Crimean Tatars' want autonomy after Russia's seizure of peninsula Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:55 AM PDT By Gabriela Baczynska BAKHCHISARAY, Crimea (Reuters) - The Crimean Tatars' assembly voted on Saturday in favor of seeking "ethnic and territorial autonomy" for the indigenous minority on the Black Sea peninsula annexed from Kiev by Moscow. The 300,000-strong Muslim minority make up less than 15 percent of Crimea's population of 2 million and has so far been overwhelmingly opposed to Russia's annexation of the peninsula. Crimean Tatars' assembly leader Refat Chubarov told more than 200 delegates: "In the life of every nation there comes a time when it must make decisions that will determine its future." "I ask you to approve ... the start of political and legal procedures aimed at creating ethnic and territorial autonomy of the Crimean Tatars of their historic territory of Crimea." The assembly subsequently voted in favor of his proposal, made in the Crimean Tatars historic capital of Bakhchisaray. Full Story | Top |
| Russia sees no need for Ukraine incursion, Lavrov to meet Kerry Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:42 AM PDT  By Katya Golubkova MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Saturday it had "no intention" of invading eastern Ukraine, responding to Western warnings over a military buildup on the border following Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula. The comments by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were followed by news that he would meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris on Sunday, as both sides moved to ease tensions in the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War. Speaking on Russian television, Lavrov reinforced a message from President Vladimir Putin that Russia would settle - at least for now - for control over Crimea despite massing thousands of troops near Ukraine's eastern border. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt court sentences two Mursi supporters to death Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:27 AM PDT An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced two supporters of former President Mohamed Mursi to death for committing murder during violence that broke out in Alexandria last year after the army deposed the Islamist head of state. The two men - Mahmoud Ramadan and Abdullah el-Ahmedi - were standing trial on charges that included throwing youths from the roof of a building in the Mediterranean city. The judge ruled that their files be referred to the mufti, the country's highest religious authority to whom death sentences are always sent for review. In a separate case on Monday, an Egyptian court in the southern province of Minya sentenced 529 supporters of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood to death, drawing strong criticism from Western governments and human rights groups. Full Story | Top |
| Hezbollah leader defends Syria intervention Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:27 AM PDT Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday called for domestic support for his militants after a year of growing sectarian violence in Lebanon following the Shi'ite militant group's intervention in the Syrian war. "Some in Lebanon say the resistance (Hezbollah) has nothing to do with Syria," Nasrallah told supporters via a television link from a secret location in South Lebanon. He justified sending his forces to a foreign war by saying that Sunni rebel groups would "eliminate everyone in Lebanon" if they won in Syria. "The problem in Lebanon is not that Hezbollah went to Syria, but that we were late in doing so," he said. Full Story | Top |
| GM expands ignition switch recall to 2.6 million cars Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:22 AM PDT  By Paul Lienert DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co expanded its global recall of cars with defective ignition switches to 2.6 million on Friday, adding 971,000 later-model vehicles due to concerns over faulty replacement parts. About 95,000 faulty switches were sold to dealers and parts wholesalers, of which about 5,000 remain on shelves. Full Story | Top |
| U.S., Russian foreign ministers to meet in Paris on Sunday to discuss Ukraine Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:14 AM PDT SHANNON, Ireland (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Paris on Sunday to discuss ways to resolve the Ukraine crisis, state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The meeting follows Russian President Vladimir Putin's call to U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday to discuss a U.S. diplomatic proposal for Ukraine. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, Editing by Angus MacSwan) Full Story | Top |
| Obama ends four-nation trip in diplomatic limbo over Ukraine Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:08 AM PDT  By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama ended a four-nation foreign trip on Saturday in the same situation as he began it - facing great uncertainty about a diplomatic way out of the Ukraine crisis. His diplomatic consultations in The Hague, Brussels and Rome over the past week all resulted in a strong show of unity between the United States and Europe that Russia must face consequences should it move against southern or eastern Ukraine. But it remains an open question whether the European allies would be able to stomach the kind of crippling sanctions required to significantly undermine Russia's economy since some of their own economies would be jolted as well. A late-night phone call on Friday between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the possibility that Moscow might be willing to negotiate a diplomatic outcome. Full Story | Top |
| China unveils anti-graft rules for urbanization drive -state media Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:06 AM PDT  China has unveiled plans to tackle corruption and abuse of power in the real estate sector, state media said, as it tries to smooth the way for the mass migration of millions of Chinese into cities from the countryside. The anti-graft plans are part of an urbanization program designed to underpin a restructuring of China's economy, the world's second largest, away from exports towards one based mainly on domestic consumer demand. Corruption is rife in China, particularly within the state administration where many officials and their dependants have grown rich by abusing their authority, often in the areas of real estate and land ownership. The rules will strengthen penalties for fraud and illegal use of public housing and specify the responsible governments and departments as well as the conditions for abuse of power, neglect of duty, bribery and fraud, Xinhua said. Full Story | Top |
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