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| 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 |
| 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 |
| Another earthquake rattles southern California following 5.1 quake Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 03:46 PM PDT Residents of southern California were rattled by a 4.1 magnitude earthquake Saturday afternoon, the largest of more than 100 aftershocks following Friday's 5.1 rumbler that caused light scattered damage around the Los Angeles area. Saturday's quake rippled through an area near Rowland Heights, California, about 2:32 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor was considered relatively shallow with a depth of 5.6 miles, the USGS said. Aftershocks are expected following earthquakes, according to the USGS. 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 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 |
| Exclusive: GM crash victims' families who settled may revisit deals Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 05:47 AM PDT  By Jessica Dye, Julia Edwards and Paul Lienert (Reuters) - Two families who settled with General Motors Co over fatal crashes linked to faulty ignition switches are considering trying to overturn the agreements, after the company disclosed it had known about the issue for years. A second family also told Reuters it is preparing to try to break the deal and then sue GM. Neither family has yet done so, however, and trying to win such actions will be difficult. To undo a settlement, plaintiffs would have to convince a judge that they were intentionally misled or defrauded by the other party, according to legal experts and plaintiffs' lawyers. 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 |
| 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 |
| Thai protesters rally against PM ahead of Senate vote Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 02:16 AM PDT  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Thai anti-government protesters rallied across Bangkok on Saturday in their latest bid to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a day before a crucial vote to elect a new Senate. Waving flags and blowing whistles, protesters marched from Lumpini Park in the business district of Bangkok, where protesters retreated to earlier this month, toward the city's old quarter after a brief hiatus in anti-government rallies. "We expected the crowd to be around 50,000-strong but the number of protesters doesn't look like it will exceed 30,000." A grenade exploded as protesters passed the Foreign Ministry offices, but no one was hurt, police said. Thailand has been in crisis since former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother, was ousted in a 2006 coup. 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 |
| Chinese ships search new area for Malaysian plane Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 01:28 AM PDT  By Jane Wardell and Matt Siegel SYDNEY/PERTH (Reuters) - Chinese ships trawled a new area in the Indian Ocean for a missing Malaysian passenger jet on Saturday, as the search for Flight MH370 entered its fourth week amid a series of false dawns over sightings of debris. Australian authorities coordinating the operation moved the search 1,100 km (685 miles) north on Friday after new analysis of radar and satellite data concluded the Malaysia Airlines plane travelled faster and for a shorter distance after vanishing from civilian radar screens on March 8. A Chinese military aircraft spotted three suspicious objects on Saturday in the new search area some 1,850 km (1,150 miles) west of Perth, colored white, red and orange respectively, the official Xinhua news agency said. That sighting follows reports of "multiple objects of various colors" by international flight crews on Friday, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). Full Story | Top |
| Turkey begins espionage investigation after Syria leak Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 06:22 AM PDT  By Humeyra Pamuk ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has started an espionage investigation after a discussion between top officials on potential military action in Syria was leaked on YouTube, heralding a possible government crackdown on its political opponents after elections on Sunday. The recording of the meeting between Turkey's intelligence chief, foreign minister and deputy head of the military was by far the most serious breach in weeks of highly sensitive leaks, a scandal which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has cast as a plot to sabotage the state and topple him. Erdogan and his aides have blamed the Hizmet movement of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally whose followers have influence in the police and judiciary, of running a "dirty campaign" of espionage to implicate him in corruption ahead of crucial nationwide municipal elections on Sunday. "Tomorrow we will teach those liars and slanderers a lesson," Erdogan told a jubilant crowd of supporters in Istanbul's working class Kartal district on Saturday, vowing his ruling AK Party would triumph at the polls. 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 |
| Ukraine's Klitschko pulls out of election, backs 'Chocolate King' Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 06:41 AM PDT  By Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's presidential election effectively became a two-horse race on Saturday after boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko pulled out and threw his weight behind confectionary oligarch Petro Poroshenko. Klitschko's withdrawal sets up a May 25 contest between the man known as the 'Chocolate King' and former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Several opinions polls already had him in the lead even before he said he would run to succeed ousted president Viktor Yanukovich. Speaking on Saturday, Poroshenko said the political forces that brought down Yanukovich must stick together to tackle the huge economic and security challenges facing Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Loyalty to embattled Erdogan lies deep in Turkey's pious heartlands Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 04:56 AM PDT  By Alexandra Hudson KONYA, Turkey (Reuters) - If Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is fighting the toughest battle of his political career as corruption allegations swirl and elections approach, Turkey's conservative Anatolian heartlands appear to have his back. Here, far from dividing his pious core supporters, the graft scandal and bitter power struggle with a U.S.-based cleric have served only to stir more devotion to a man they see as Turkey's greatest modern leader, delivering hospitals and schools and breaking the grip of secular elites over the past decade. One senior official called the crisis "one of the biggest in Turkish history" and the government has responded by blocking Twitter and YouTube, drawing public anger and international condemnation. But in Konya, a conservative city that gave Erdogan's AK Party 70 percent of the vote in a 2011 general election, many see the scandal as the prime minister does: part of a "dirty plot" to unseat him by ruthless and immoral political enemies. Full Story | Top |
| Taiwan protest over China trade pact won't deter any Ma-Xi meeting Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 04:26 AM PDT  By Michael Gold TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said on Saturday student protests over a controversial trade pact with mainland China will not affect the potential for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Taiwan's parliament building has been occupied by hundreds of protesters for almost two weeks over the government's decision to agree to a deal that would open 80 of China's service sectors to Taiwan, and 64 Taiwanese sectors to China. Taiwan and China have been ruled separately since the Communists defeated the Nationalists and took power on the mainland in 1949, though relations have warmed considerably since the China-friendly Ma won the presidency in 2008 and secured re-election in 2012. 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 |
| Exclusive: Russia threatened countries ahead of U.N. vote on Ukraine: envoys Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 03:28 AM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia threatened several Eastern European and Central Asian states with retaliation if they voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution this week declaring invalid Crimea's referendum on seceding from Ukraine, U.N. diplomats said. The disclosures about Russian threats came after Moscow accused Western countries of using "shameless pressure, up to the point of political blackmail and economic threats," in an attempt to coerce the United Nations' 193 member states to join it in supporting the non-binding resolution on the Ukraine crisis. 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 |
| Ukraine's Klitschko pulls out of election, backs 'Chocolate King' Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 04:13 AM PDT  By Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko pulled out of the race for Ukrainian president on Saturday, throwing his weight instead behind billionaire confectionary oligarch Petro Poroshenko. Klitschko's withdrawal sets up a May 25 contest between the man known as the 'Chocolate King' and Ukraine's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Poroshenko, 48, confirmed his candidacy late on Friday. Several opinions polls already had him in the lead even before he said he would run to succeed ousted president Viktor Yanukovich. Full Story | Top |
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