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| Putin: military force would be 'last resort' in Ukraine Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 05:02 PM PST  By Vladimir Soldatkin and Alexei Anishchuk MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin delivered a robust defense of Russia's actions in Crimea and said on Tuesday that he would use force in Ukraine only as a last resort, easing market fears that East-West tension over the former Soviet republic could lead to war. Russian forces fired warning shots in a confrontation with Ukrainian servicemen at an air base, and Russian navy ships were reported to have blockaded the strait separating the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula from Russia. At his first news conference since the crisis began, Putin said Russia reserved the right to use all options to protect compatriots who were living in "terror" in Ukraine but that force was not needed for now. His comments, coupled with the end of Russian war games near Ukraine's borders, lifted Russian bonds and stock markets around the world after a panic sell-off on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Obama budget sets up election-year clash with Republicans Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 02:28 PM PST  By Jeff Mason, Mark Felsenthal and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama proposed new tax credits and job-training programs for U.S. workers on Tuesday in a 2015 budget that drew instant condemnation from Republicans, who dismissed the document as an election-year campaign pitch. The proposal has almost no chance of passage in Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives, but it lays out Obama's policy priorities ahead of November congressional elections. "Our budget is about choices, it's about our values," Obama told reporters during a visit to an elementary school. "At a time when our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years, we've got to decide if we're going to keep squeezing the middle class or if we're going to continue to reduce the deficits responsibly while taking steps to grow and strengthen the middle class." While working within the overall cap of $1.014 trillion for discretionary spending that Congress set for 2015, the president proposed $56 billion in additional spending for education, welfare and defense programs, paid for in part by ending a tax break for wealthy retirees. Full Story | Top |
| With 2015 budget, Pentagon looks beyond Afghanistan Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 03:03 PM PST  By David Alexander and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon unveiled a $496 billion base budget on Tuesday that looks beyond Afghanistan to future U.S. security challenges after a dozen years of war, cutting the military to afford more training and new weapons as it adapts to an era of tighter spending. The spending plan released on Tuesday means the Pentagon's base budget for the 2015 fiscal year essentially would remain flat for a third consecutive year as the department responds to directions to cut nearly $1 trillion in spending over a decade. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the budget "supports - and is informed by - our updated defense strategy" as outlined in the Quadrennial Defense Review, an examination of strategy and priorities that was released alongside the budget. Representative Buck McKeon, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, expressed dismay at the shrinking security spending and flatly rejected the strategy review, vowing to make the Pentagon rewrite it. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's Sisi signals he will run for president Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 12:30 PM PST  By Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's armed forces chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi signaled on Tuesday that he will run for president, saying he cannot ignore the "majority" of Egyptians who want him to do so, state news agency MENA reported. Sisi, who ousted Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, in July, said "official procedures" concerning his candidacy were expected in coming days. Sisi has been coy about his intentions for months, but his speech was the clearest pointer yet that he will stand for the top post in an election he is expected to win by a landslide. Most Egyptians regard him as a decisive figure who can end the political turmoil that has gripped Egypt since a popular uprising toppled autocratic president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu warns on Iran, no concessions for Palestinians Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 04:29 PM PST  By Jeffrey Heller and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the United States and other world powers on Tuesday not to allow Iran to retain the ability to enrich uranium, and urged Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state if they wanted peace. Addressing the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC just a day after White House talks, Netanyahu avoided any explicit criticism of President Barack Obama but underscored the main differences with him over U.S.-led nuclear diplomacy with Iran. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. appeals court says BP bound by Gulf spill accord Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 11:20 AM PST  A divided U.S. appeals court has rejected BP Plc's bid to block businesses from recovering money over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, even if they could not trace their economic losses to the disaster. By a 2-1 vote, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans late Monday upheld a December 24 ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, authorizing the payments on so-called business economic loss claims. The decision is a setback for BP's effort to limit payments under a multi-billion dollar settlement over the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and rupture of BP's Macondo oil well. BP had previously asked the full 5th Circuit to review a January 10 decision by another three-judge panel that upheld the settlement itself. Full Story | Top |
| China signals focus on reforms and leaner, cleaner growth Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 07:29 PM PST  By Kevin Yao and Xiaoyi Shao BEIJING (Reuters) - China provided its strongest signal yet that it will shift toward balanced and clean economic growth, promising to reduce the pace of investment to the lowest in a decade and wage a "war on pollution". In a State of the Union style address to China's annual parliament meeting that began on Wednesday, Premier Li Keqiang said Beijing aims to grow the world's second-largest economy by 7.5 percent this year, the same as last year's target. Analysts have said maintaining the target after years of breakneck expansion signals that Beijing will remain focused on reforms and rebalancing the economy. Li said enacting reforms was his first priority even as he keeps an eye on growth. Full Story | Top |
| Chanel turns itself into a giant supermarket for fashion week Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 08:24 PM PST  Most designers try to make consumers dream at their fashion shows, but Karl Lagerfeld sought to bring them back into real life by presenting his latest collection in a spoof Chanel supermarket. "For me the supermarket is the pop art of today," Lagerfeld said on Tuesday after the show, admitting he rarely went to supermarkets himself. Pushing brightly colored trolleys and pretending to exchange gossip, models picked up products with tongue-in-cheek labels such as Coco beer bottles, Chateau Gabrielle white wine and Chanel crémeuh - or creamoo - milk. Others carried metallic baskets adorned with Chanel's iconic handbag chains. Full Story | Top |
| Amid protests, Venezuela to remember late Hugo Chavez Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 02:01 PM PST  By Andrew Cawthorne and Girish Gupta CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela geared up on Tuesday for commemorations of socialist leader Hugo Chavez's death despite continued protests against his successor that have shaken the OPEC member and threatened the legacy of "El Comandante." Even as students maintained barricades in some cities and activists held new rallies, President Nicolas Maduro's government was making lavish plans to honor Chavez on Wednesday's anniversary of his death from cancer. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish PM says rival will 'pay price' as new recordings emerge Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 10:03 AM PST  By Humeyra Pamuk KIRIKKALE, Turkey (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday berated an Islamic cleric he accuses of plotting to wreck his government, as more voice recordings apparently intended to embarrass the Turkish leader were aired on the Internet. Erdogan is locked in a power struggle with U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally he says is behind a stream of "fabricated" voice recordings purportedly revealing corruption in the prime minister's inner circle. Four more recordings have appeared on YouTube in the last two days, part of what Erdogan sees as a campaign to undermine his ruling center-right AK Party before local elections on March 30 and a presidential poll due later this year. Amid the allegations that have rattled financial markets and raised questions over Turkey's political stability, President Abdullah Gul on Tuesday ordered a state audit of the country's capacity to tackle corruption. Full Story | Top |
| Apple's new finance steward Maestri takes over $160 billion cash haul Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 02:12 PM PST  By Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Edwin Chan SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer will retire and hand the reins to Luca Maestri in September, entrusting to the Italian-born executive a cash pile the size of Vietnam's economy and the difficult task of guiding Wall Street's expectations. The 50-year-old born in Rome is taking over with Apple at a crossroads. Managing investors' outsized expectations may become more difficult as Apple - facing slowing revenue growth and more aggressive competition - dives deeper into lower-margin but higher-growth emerging markets like China, where cheaper local players Huawei and Xiaomi dominate. "Maestri will be assuming this role at an interesting time - when Apple is in the midst of launching more services and likely needs to convince investors that it has more consistent revenue streams in a commoditizing smart phone market," Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes wrote on Tuesday. Full Story | Top |
| Putin: military force would be 'last resort' in Ukraine Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 11:55 AM PST By Vladimir Soldatkin and Alexei Anishchuk MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin delivered a robust defense of Russia's actions in Crimea on Tuesday and said he would use force in Ukraine only as a last resort, easing market fears that East-West tension over the former Soviet republic could lead to war. Russian forces fired warning shots in a confrontation with Ukrainian servicemen at an air base, and Russian navy ships were reported to have blockaded the strait separating the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula from Russia. At his first news conference since the crisis began, Putin said Russia reserved the right to use all options to protect compatriots who were living in "terror" in Ukraine, but force was not needed for now. His comments, coupled with the end of Russian war games near Ukraine's borders, lifted Russian bonds and stock markets around the world after a panic sell-off on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Growth, reform in spotlight as China parliament meeting opens Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 12:02 PM PST  By Kevin Yao BEIJING (Reuters) - China will unveil key economic targets and reform priorities for 2014 at the start of an annual parliament meeting on Wednesday, and expectations are that Beijing will stick to gradual changes to avoid an economic shock. Last November, at a plenum meeting, the ruling Communist Party announced the boldest set of economic and social reforms in China in nearly three decades, but implementation is yet to fully take hold. Premier Li Keqiang addresses the National People's Congress at the start of the nine-day session, and investors will be watching his speech for clues on what lies ahead for the world's second-biggest economy. He is likely to provide an economic growth forecast for China in 2014, and analysts have said maintaining last year's target of 7.5 percent, as he is likely to do, will give room for policy-makers to drive reforms. Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu warns on Iran, urges no Palestinian 'excuses' Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 10:06 AM PST By Jeffrey Heller and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the United States and other world powers on Tuesday not to allow Iran to retain the ability to enrich uranium, and urged Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state if they wanted peace. Addressing the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC a day after White House talks, Netanyahu avoided any explicit criticism of President Barack Obama but underscored the main differences with him over U.S.-led nuclear diplomacy with Iran. Full Story | Top |
| Pistorius gets emotional at graphic evidence Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 08:47 AM PST  By Ed Cropley PRETORIA (Reuters) - Oscar Pistorius buried his head in his hands and wiped away tears after a South African court on Tuesday heard grisly details of the killing of his girlfriend, the first sign of emotion from the track star in his two-day murder trial. The Olympian and Paralympian has been largely impassive during the trial for the murder of model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp in his suburban Pretoria home on Valentine's Day last year. Pistorius has pled not guilty, saying he shot Steenkamp through a toilet door after mistaking her for an intruder. He leaned forward in the dock and clasped his head between his hands as lead defense lawyer Barry Roux read out details from the post mortem, including that "some fragments of the bullet" were removed from the 29-year-old's head. Full Story | Top |
| Syrian doctors struggle to care for mentally ill and traumatized Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 07:32 AM PST  (The identity of the correspondent has been withheld for security reasons) DAMASCUS (Reuters) - It was cold and dark in the psychiatrist's office in downtown Damascus. But Syria's civil war means many can no longer reach the capital across frontlines. When pro-democracy protests started three years ago, Syrians had access to government-subsidized health care. Like other Arab countries, Syria had a long tradition of community involvement in the individual's wellbeing. Full Story | Top |
| Syria has relinquished about a third of its chemical weapons: OPCW Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 04:07 AM PST  AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Syria has shipped out about a third of its chemical weapons, including mustard gas, for destruction abroad, the global chemical arms watchdog said on Tuesday. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague said Syria has now handed over six consignments of the toxic agents it declared to the OPCW as part of a Russian-U.S. deal. (Reporting By Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen storm government complex in Iraq's Samarra Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 05:32 AM PST By Ghazwan Hassan TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen in military uniform broke into the city council and court house complex in Samarra in northern Iraq on Tuesday, trapping a number of staff inside, police and witnesses said. At least three policemen were killed, while 25 policemen and eight civilians were wounded, including the deputy head of the city council, Ammar Ahmed, the Samarra hospital's Doctor Omar al-Obeidi said. The gunmen stormed the area after a suicide bomber detonated his vest at the entrance of the compound, which is sealed off with blast walls, Police Lieutenant Dhafir Ahmed said. Gunmen had taken the city council's second floor and its roof. Full Story | Top |
| India hardens stance against U.S. protectionism ahead of visits Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 06:48 AM PST  By Manoj Kumar and Rajesh Kumar Singh NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's trade minister on Tuesday accused the United States of excessive trade protectionism, launching a broadside that coincided with the visit of a top U.S. official to patch up a stormy bilateral friendship. The ruling Congress party government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not want to be seen as bowing to U.S. pressure on trade issues ranging from the quality of Indian drug exports to software piracy. "There are issues which India has raised where we feel there is very high and unacceptable protectionism," Trade Minister Anand Sharma told reporters, adding that Washington made it too hard for Indian nationals to obtain U.S. visas. He also said that India's patent law was compliant with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), while India would not agree to tougher rules to protect intellectual property. Full Story | Top |
| Thailand may extend state of emergency despite scaled-back protest Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 02:21 AM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Pracha Hariraksapitak BANGKOK (Reuters) - A state of emergency in Bangkok could be extended until anti-government protests end completely, Thailand's foreign minister said on Tuesday, adding that he feared more violence even though calm has returned to the capital in the past few days. Protests aimed at overthrowing Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra are in their fifth month but at the weekend the remaining activists closed down several big protest sites and moved to a central Bangkok park. The protests are led by Suthep Thaugsuban, once a senior member of the main opposition Democrat Party, which boycotted a general election last month. The government imposed the 60-day emergency in Bangkok on January 21 in a bid to contain the latest unrest in an eight-year conflict that broadly pits Bangkok's middle class, southern Thais and the royalist establishment against mostly rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Full Story | Top |
| Court bans activities of Islamist Hamas in Egypt Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 08:02 AM PST  By Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Tuesday banned all Hamas activities in Egypt in another sign that the military-backed government aims to squeeze the Palestinian Islamist group that rules the neighboring Gaza Strip. Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which the authorities have declared a terrorist group and which they have repressed systematically since the army ousted one of its leaders, Mohamed Mursi, from the presidency in July. "The court has ordered the banning of Hamas's work and activities in Egypt," the judge, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. During his year in power, Mursi gave red-carpet treatment to Hamas, angering many secular and liberal Egyptians who saw this as part of a creeping Islamist takeover following the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Full Story | Top |
| As China looks on, Putin poses risky dilemma for the West Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 12:39 AM PST  One senior Obama administration official called Vladimir Putin's actions in the Ukraine "outrageous." A second described them as an "outlaw act." A third said his brazen use of military force harked back to a past century. "What we see here are distinctly 19th and 20th century decisions made by President Putin," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to a group of reporters. "But what he needs to understand is that in terms of his economy, he lives in the 21st century world, an interdependent world." James Jeffrey, a retired career U.S. diplomat, said that view of Putin's mindset cripples the United States' response to the Russian leader. "All of us that have been in the last four administrations have drunk the Kool-Aid," Jeffrey said, referring to the belief that they could talk Putin into seeing the western system as beneficial. Full Story | Top |
| Arctic cold sets records in eastern United States Tuesday, Mar 04, 2014 11:55 AM PST By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The eastern and central United States were plunged into a deep freeze on Tuesday, with record low temperatures in the wake of a deadly storm expected to moderate in coming days. The late-winter storm left behind frigid temperatures after pushing freezing rain, sleet and snow from the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Temperatures this week will be "below average east of the Rockies, as it has been for a good part of the winter," said Bob Oravec, a National Weather Service meteorologist in College Park, Maryland. The icy front sent the mercury plunging to minus 1F (minus 18C) at Washington Dulles International Airport, tying a monthly record, the weather service said. Full Story | Top |
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