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| Malaysia air force chief denies saying lost plane tracked to west Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 07:17 PM PDT  By Stuart Grudgings KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's air force chief has denied saying military radar tracked a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner over the Strait of Malacca, adding to the mystery surrounding the fate of flight MH370, which vanished on Saturday with 239 people aboard. A massive air and sea search now in its fifth day has failed to find any trace of the Boeing 777, and the last 24 hours have seen conflicting statements and reports over what may have happened after it lost contact with air traffic controllers. Malaysia's Berita Harian newspaper on Tuesday quoted Air Force chief Rodzali Daud as saying the plane was last detected by military radar at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca at 2.40 a.m. on Saturday, hundreds of kilometers off course. Full Story | Top |
| Special Report: How China's official bank card is used to smuggle money Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 05:29 PM PDT  By James Pomfret MACAU (Reuters) - Growing numbers of Chinese are using the country's state-backed bankcards to illegally spirit billions of dollars abroad, a Reuters examination has found. This underground money is flowing across the border into the gambling hub of Macau, a former Portuguese colony that like Hong Kong is an autonomous region of China. And the conduit for the cash is the Chinese government-supported payment card network, China UnionPay. ... Full Story | Top |
| CIA accused of spying on U.S. Senate intelligence committee Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:16 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle, Doina Chiacu and Mark Hosenball (Reuters) - A bitter dispute between the CIA and the U.S. Senate committee that oversees it burst into the open on Tuesday when the committee chairwoman accused the agency of spying on Congress and possibly breaking the law. Veteran Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said the CIA had searched computers used by committee staffers examining CIA documents when researching the agency's counter-terrorism operations and its use of harsh interrogation methods such as simulated drowning or "waterboarding. ... Full Story | Top |
| Libyan parliament sacks PM after tanker escapes rebel-held port Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:47 PM PDT  By Ulf Laessing and Feras Bosalum TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's parliament voted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan out of office on Tuesday after rebels humiliated the government by loading crude on a tanker that fled from naval forces, officials said, in a sign of the worsening chaos in the OPEC member state. Libyan gunboats later chased the tanker along Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast and opened fire, damaging it, a military spokesman said. Western powers fear the vast North African state could even break apart with the government struggling to rein in armed militias and tribesmen who helped oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but want to grab power and oil revenues. Zeidan, who came to power in 2012 after Libya's first free parliamentary vote following four decades of quirky one-man rule by Gaddafi, had been facing opposition from Islamists and the public blaming him for Libya's anarchic transition since 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Bachelet takes power in Chile, vows to fight inequality Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:00 PM PDT  By Alexandra Ulmer and Anthony Esposito VALPARAISO/SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Michelle Bachelet took over the presidency of Chile in a ceremony loaded with symbolism on Tuesday, promising to stick to her tax-and-spend campaign pledges to fight social inequality despite a sharp economic slowdown. Bachelet accepted the presidential sash from Senate head Isabel Allende, the daughter of late socialist President Salvador Allende, whose overthrow in 1973 ushered in the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. ... Full Story | Top |
| Front companies, embassies mask North Korean weapons trade: U.N. Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:55 PM PDT  By James Pearson SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has developed sophisticated ways to circumvent United Nations sanctions, including the suspected use of its embassies to facilitate an illegal trade in weapons, a United Nations report issued on Tuesday said. It said North Korea was also making use of more complicated financial countermeasures and techniques "pioneered by drug-trafficking organizations" that made tracking the isolated state's purchase of prohibited goods more difficult. The report, compiled by a panel of eight U.N. experts, is part of an annual accounting of North Korea's compliance with layers of U.N. sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang's banned nuclear weapons and missile programs. "From the incidents analyzed in the period under review, the panel has found that (North Korea) makes increasing use of multiple and tiered circumvention techniques," a summary of the 127-page report said. Full Story | Top |
| Men's Wearhouse stitches up deal to buy Jos. A. Bank Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:12 PM PDT  By Siddharth Cavale, Olivia Oran and Aditi Shrivastava (Reuters) - Men's Wearhouse Inc said it would acquire rival Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc for about $1.8 billion, ending a five-month saga that started with Jos. A. Bank offering to buy its larger menswear rival. The companies, operating in a mature market, have bid and counterbid for each other since October when Jos. A. Bank offered to buy Men's Wearhouse for about $2.3 billion. The increased offer price of $65 per share announced on Tuesday is a premium of 5.1 percent to Jos. A. Bank's Monday closing price. ... Full Story | Top |
| Death of Turkish boy hurt in protests rekindles unrest across country Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:24 PM PDT  By Daren Butler and Parisa Hafezi ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Protesters clashed with police in cities across Turkey on Tuesday after the death of a 15-year-old boy who was hit in the head by a tear-gas canister during anti-government demonstrations last summer. Police unleashed water cannon and tear gas on thousands of demonstrators, another pre-election headache for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as he battles a corruption scandal that has become one of the biggest challenges of his decade in power. Istanbul and Ankara have both seen protests in recent weeks against what demonstrators regard as Erdogan's authoritarian reaction to the graft affair, which has included new laws tightening Internet controls and handing government greater influence over the appointment of judges and prosecutors. Berkin Elvan, then 14, got caught up in street battles in Istanbul between police and protesters on June 16 while going to buy bread for his family. Full Story | Top |
| Italian parliament inches towards approving electoral reform Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:43 PM PDT  By Roberto Landucci ROME (Reuters) - Italian lawmakers edged closer on Tuesday to approving a new electoral law seen as a test of new Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's ability to enact broad structural reforms needed to end government instability in Italy. Overhauling the complicated voting system blamed for leaving Italy with a deadlocked parliament has been a top priority for Renzi since he became leader of the main center-left Democratic Party (PD) last year. The new law, designed after an agreement between Renzi and center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi, is intended to produce a clear winner able to govern without the kind of unwieldy cross-party coalition left by last year's inconclusive election. Renzi had been pushing hard to get the bill through the Chamber of Deputies lower house before he unveils a package of tax and job measures on Wednesday. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine appeals to West as Crimea turns to Russia Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 01:42 PM PDT By Andrew Osborn and Alastair Macdonald SEVASTOPOL/KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's government appealed for Western help on Tuesday to stop Moscow annexing Crimea but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalize rule from Moscow within days. With their own troops in Crimea effectively prisoners in their bases, the new authorities in Kiev painted a sorry picture of the military bequeathed them by the pro-Moscow president overthrown two weeks ago. They announced the raising of a new National Guard to be drawn from volunteers among veterans. The prime minister, heading for talks at the White House and United Nations, told parliament in Kiev he wanted the United States and Britain, as guarantors of a 1994 treaty that saw Ukraine give up its Soviet nuclear weapons, to intervene both diplomatically and militarily to fend off Russian "aggression". Full Story | Top |
| Front companies, embassies mask North Korean weapons trade: U.N. Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:45 PM PDT By James Pearson SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has developed sophisticated ways to circumvent United Nations sanctions, including the suspected use of its embassies to facilitate an illegal trade in weapons, a United Nations report issued on Tuesday said. It said North Korea was also making use of more complicated financial countermeasures and techniques "pioneered by drug-trafficking organizations" that made tracking the isolated state's purchase of prohibited goods more difficult. The report, compiled by a panel of eight U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia military source says missing jet veered to west Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:40 PM PDT  By Niluksi Koswanage and Eveline Danubrata KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's military believes a jetliner missing for almost four days turned and flew hundreds of kilometers to the west after it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country's east coast, a senior officer told Reuters on Tuesday. In one of the most baffling mysteries in recent aviation history, a massive search operation for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER has so far found no trace of the aircraft or the 239 passengers and crew. Malaysian authorities have said previously that Flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off early Saturday from Kuala Lumpur bound for the Chinese capital, Beijing. But a senior military officer who has been briefed on investigations told Reuters the aircraft had made a detour to the west after communications with civilian authorities ended. Full Story | Top |
| Rouhani has not increased freedoms in Iran, U.N. chief says Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 12:09 PM PDT  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has failed to fulfil campaign promises to allow greater freedom of expression and there has been a sharp rise in executions since his election, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday. Rouhani, who won a landslide in June, led Iran to an initial nuclear deal with world powers. In a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Ban highlighted the prevalent use of capital punishment in Iran and called for the release of activists, lawyers and journalists as well as political prisoners that he said were in custody for exercising their rights to free speech and assembly. "The new administration has not made any significant improvement in the promotion and protection of freedom of expression and opinion, despite pledges made by the president during his campaign and after his swearing in," Ban said. Full Story | Top |
| Pistorius argued with cop who touched his gun, friend says Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 09:29 AM PDT  By Lynette Ndabambi PRETORIA (Reuters) - South African track star Oscar Pistorius had a row with a policeman who picked up his gun after pulling over his friend for speeding, saying "You can't just touch another man's gun," the friend told his murder trial on Tuesday. Pistorius, a double amputee, is accused of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year. His friend, Darren Fresco, told the court in Pretoria that he had been driving south of Johannesburg in September 2012 when Pistorius, nicknamed "Bladerunner" for his carbon fiber prosthetics, and his then girlfriend Samantha Taylor were flagged down. "Another officer went over to the passenger seat where Oscar Pistorius was sitting and he picked up a gun. Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda hijacks spirit of Syria revolt three years on Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:54 AM PDT  By Samia Nakhoul KILLIS, ON THE TURKISH-SYRIAN BORDER (Reuters) - Syrian refugees in this border outpost were delighted to hear their home town of Azaz had been liberated - not from Bashar al-Assad's troops but from al Qaeda fighters who subjected them to a regime that included torture and public beheadings. For Syrians who three years ago rose up against 43 years of Assad family rule, living under the hard-line Sunni jihadists who said they had come to save them from the president's atrocities was even worse than Assad himself. While neither Assad nor the rebels have the upper hand, there is a growing sense among his foreign opponents that the battle for Syria has become a twin-track operation, with defeating the jihadists as important as ousting Assad. Many of those who initially succeeded in liberating large parts of northern Syria from government control soon found themselves under the yoke of foreign jihadists. Full Story | Top |
| Indian Maoists kill 16 in attack on police Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:57 AM PDT  By Jatindra Dash BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Maoist rebels ambushed police and killed 16 involved in a mine clearing operation in a remote part of eastern India region on Tuesday, police said, as the insurgents demonstrated their strength ahead of a general election next month. The head of anti-Maoist operations in the state police force told Reuters one civilian was among the dead. The rebels have operated for decades across a wide swath of central and eastern India, and grew in strength during recent times in areas where poor, tribal villagers came into conflict with mining companies seeking resources for industrialization. Full Story | Top |
| Swedish journalist shot dead in central Kabul Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:43 AM PDT  By Katharine Houreld KABUL (Reuters) - A gunman shot dead a Swedish journalist outside a restaurant in a brazen attack in one Kabul's most heavily guarded districts on Tuesday, police and embassy sources said, underscoring growing insecurity threatening next month's elections. The Swedish Embassy identified the victim as Nils Horner, 51, who worked for Swedish Radio and had dual British-Swedish nationality. "Nils was one of our absolute best and most experienced correspondents and what has happened to him today is terrible," said Swedish Radio's director-general, Cilla Benkö, who described this as one of the worst days in the corporation's history. "We are now trying to get as many details as we can." Horner had been waiting outside a Lebanese restaurant with his driver and translator when two men in Western clothes approached and one shot him at point-blank range in the back of the head, said Zubir, a guard at the restaurant who uses only one name. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: India to slash Iran oil imports to meet nuclear deal parameters - sources Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:42 AM PDT  By Nidhi Verma NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has to cut its Iranian oil imports by nearly two-thirds from the first quarter after the United States asked it to hold the shipments at end-2013 levels, in keeping with the nuclear deal easing sanctions on Tehran, Indian government sources said. India, with the increases already made in the January-March loading plans from Iran, has to cut its purchases of the crude to about 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) to drop its intake average to 195,000 bpd for the six months to July 20. Under the November 24 agreement between Iran and six world powers, the OPEC member was to hold oil exports at "current volumes" of about 1 million bpd, and a message delivered by a top U.S. energy policy official to Indian ministries in February was the first clear sign of low tolerance for any increases. Since the interim deal was signed, purchases of Iranian oil by its top four buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - have been creeping up and together they have taken 1.25 million barrels per day (bpd) in January against a daily average of about 935,900 bpd for all of 2013. Full Story | Top |
| Thailand to lift state of emergency as business suffers Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:20 AM PDT  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is expected to lift a state of emergency in Bangkok, almost two months after it was imposed to quell anti-government protests, because of pressure from businesses and in light of improving security, a top official said on Tuesday. Protesters trying to bring down Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and end what they see as the pervasive influence of her brother, ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have been on the streets for four months. Twenty-three people have been killed, most in shootings and grenade blasts, since late November and the bloodshed is scaring tourists away from Bangkok. National Security Council chief Paradorn Pattanathabutr said there was a "very high chance" the emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas would be lifted soon. Full Story | Top |
| Front companies, embassies mask North Korean weapons trade - U.N Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:34 AM PDT  By James Pearson SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has developed sophisticated ways to circumvent U.N. sanctions, including the suspected use of its embassies to facilitate an illegal trade in weapons, a United Nations report issued on Tuesday said. It said North Korea was also making use of more complicated financial countermeasures and techniques "pioneered by drug-trafficking organizations" that made tracking the isolated state's purchase of prohibited goods more difficult. The report, compiled by a panel of eight U.N. experts, is part of an annual accounting of North Korea's compliance with layers of U.N. sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang's banned nuclear weapons and missile programs. "From the incidents analyzed in the period under review, the panel has found that (North Korea) makes increasing use of multiple and tiered circumvention techniques," a summary of the 127-page report said. Full Story | Top |
| Seeking wider influence, Tea Party group goes professional Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:04 AM PDT  By Nick Carey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In early 2009, amateur conservative Tea Party activists took to the streets to protest newly-elected U.S. President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package and health reform, a ragtag army that helped win the U.S. House for Republicans in 2010, then waged internecine war with the party establishment. There was nothing ragtag at a Feb 27 five-year celebration at the Hyatt Capitol Hill organized by Tea Party Patriots, a national umbrella group affiliated with many others in the amorphous, politically conservative movement. Instead of huddling in the cold outside at a rally, movement heroes including U.S. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul from Kentucky showed up at the Hyatt in downtown Washington, the Capitol Building visible up the street. Cruz told cheering fans the Tea Party was "the best thing to happen for decades." Five years in, the Tea Party movement is at a crossroads. Full Story | Top |
| Chilean is first foreign fatality in Venezuela unrest Monday, Mar 10, 2014 09:37 PM PDT  By Andrew Cawthorne and Diego Ore CARACAS (Reuters) - A Chilean woman was shot dead while clearing a barricade put up by anti-government protesters, the first foreign fatality during a month of civil unrest in Venezuela, authorities said on Monday. The deaths of Gisela Rubilar, 47, who was studying in the western Venezuelan city of Merida, and of a protester shot in the border state of Tachira, brought to at least 22 the number of fatalities in five weeks of unrest. "She was ambushed by extreme right-wing groups ... She was vilely murdered with a shot in the eye," Alexis Ramirez, the governor of Merida state, told reporters, blaming the killing of Rubilar on unidentified demonstrators in the Andean city. Students and militant opponents of President Nicolas Maduro have been maintaining street barricades in various cities since last month, demanding the president's resignation and solutions to problems of rampant crime and economic shortages. Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Christie aides' lawyers offer N.J. traffic scandal arguments Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 01:08 PM PDT  By Daniel Kelley TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) - Former top aides to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have not cooperated with a state probe into a traffic scandal that threatens the Republican governor's political future out of fear they will incriminate themselves, their attorneys argued in court on Tuesday. Bridget Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Stepian, his former campaign manager, have refused to turn over records and documents sought by state lawmakers looking into the September incident, when Christie aides apparently helped orchestrate traffic jams at the busy George Washington Bridge. Full Story | Top |
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