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| Malaysia changes last words from missing plane, hunt goes on Monday, Mar 31, 2014 06:55 PM PDT  By Stuart Grudgings and Michael Martina KUALA LUMPUR/PERTH (Reuters) - The last words from the cockpit of the missing Malaysian airliner were a standard "Good night Malaysian three seven zero", Malaysian authorities said, changing their account of the critical last communication from a more casual "All right, good night." The correction almost four weeks after Flight MH370 vanished was made as Malaysian authorities face heavy criticism, particularly from China, for mismanaging the search and holding back information. Malaysia says the plane was likely diverted deliberately, probably by a skilled aviator, leading to speculation of involvement by one or more of the pilots. Minutes later its communications were cut off and it turned back across Malaysia and headed toward the Indian Ocean. Malaysia's ambassador to China told Chinese families in Beijing as early as March 12, four days after the flight went missing, that the last words had been "All right, good night". Full Story | Top |
| Russian prime minister angers Ukraine by visiting Crimea Monday, Mar 31, 2014 05:07 PM PDT  By Darya Korsunskaya SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (Reuters) - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev flaunted Russia's grip on Crimea by flying to the region and holding a government meeting there on Monday, angering Ukraine and defying Western demands to hand the peninsula back to Kiev. But in a gesture that could ease tension in the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War, Russia pulled some troops back from near Ukraine's eastern frontier - a move the United States said would be a positive sign if it is confirmed as a withdrawal. President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he had ordered a partial drawdown in the region, Merkel's spokesman said. Full Story | Top |
| Lawmakers probing why GM employees approved switches Monday, Mar 31, 2014 04:26 PM PDT  By Ben Klayman, Paul Lienert and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional probe is focusing on why General Motors Co employees repeatedly approved substandard ignition switches linked to at least 13 fatalities, as the automaker on Monday announced another major recall, this time related to power steering issues. On the eve of a high-profile hearing before a House of Representatives panel, GM said it is recalling more than 1.5 million additional vehicles globally. The Detroit-based automaker says it is taking an aggressive stance on safety issues, after coming under intense criticism for waiting more than a decade to recall millions of cars with potentially faulty ignition switches. On Monday, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released details of some of the more than 200,000 pages of documents they have received from GM and a federal regulator. Full Story | Top |
| Special Report: The bishop who stood up to China Monday, Mar 31, 2014 06:01 PM PDT  By Sui-Lee Wee SHANGHAI (Reuters) - It was shaping as a win in the Communist Party's quest to contain a longtime nemesis, the Roman Catholic Church. In July 2012, a priest named Thaddeus Ma Daqin was to be ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai. The Communist body that has governed the church for six decades had angered the Holy See by appointing bishops without Vatican approval. Known as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, it was now about to install Ma, one of its own officials, as deputy in China's largest Catholic diocese. Full Story | Top |
| Emergency crews face toxic challenge in Washington state mudslide Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:59 PM PDT  By Eric M. Johnson OSO, Washington (Reuters) - Recovery teams struggling through thick mud up to their armpits and heavy downpours at the site of a devastating landslide in Washington state are facing yet another challenge - an unseen and potentially dangerous stew of toxic contaminants. The official death toll rose to 24 on Monday - up from 21 a day earlier, nine days after a rain-soaked hillside collapsed above the north fork of the Stillaguamish River, northeast of Seattle. We're worried about contamination," local fire Lieutenant Richard Burke, a spokesman for the operation, told reporters visiting the disaster site. Search crews, with the help of dogs, have been regularly finding and retrieving more remains, at least four to six times a day on the eastern half of the massive debris pile, recovery team supervisor Steve Harris told a news conference. Full Story | Top |
| Senate advances bill to renew jobless benefits Monday, Mar 31, 2014 04:19 PM PDT  The Democratic-led U.S. Senate agreed by a voice vote on Monday to begin debate on a bipartisan bill to renew expired jobless benefits for 2.2 million Americans. The action cleared a second Republican procedural roadblock in as many weeks and moved the bill toward anticipated Senate passage later this week. But the White House-backed measure is expected to die when it reaches the Republican-led House of Representatives. House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, has called the bill "unworkable," citing concerns by state administrators. Full Story | Top |
| Congress approves bill to avert Medicare pay cut for doctors Monday, Mar 31, 2014 04:06 PM PDT The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval on Monday to legislation to avert a pay cut for doctors who participate in the Medicare insurance program for the elderly and disabled. By a vote of 64-35, the Democratic-led Senate sent the measure, approved last week by the Republican-led House of Representatives, to President Barack Obama to sign into law. The bill would give doctors a one-year reprieve from a 24 percent cut set to kick in this week under the Medicare payment formula, known as the Sustainable Growth Rate, or SGR. The payments affect doctors treating patients under Medicare, which pays for healthcare for nearly 51 million people in the United States who are 65 and older or disabled. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: NSA infiltrated RSA security more deeply than thought - study Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:01 AM PDT  By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Security industry pioneer RSA adopted not just one but two encryption tools developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, greatly increasing the spy agency's ability to eavesdrop on some Internet communications, according to a team of academic researchers. Reuters reported in December that the NSA had paid RSA $10 million to make a now-discredited cryptography system the default in software used by a wide range of Internet and computer security programs. The system, called Dual Elliptic Curve, was a random number generator, but it had a deliberate flaw - or "back door" - that allowed the NSA to crack the encryption. A group of professors from Johns Hopkins, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois and elsewhere now say they have discovered that a second NSA tool exacerbated the RSA software's vulnerability. Full Story | Top |
| Yellen takes case for Fed's easy money policies to the public Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:44 PM PDT  By Jonathan Spicer CHICAGO (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Monday took a page from a politician's playbook to defend the U.S. central bank's easy-money policies, citing the struggles of three Americans in a speech and touring a college workshop to shake hands with students and teachers. It was her first public address since becoming Fed chair two months ago, and the tour of a manufacturing laboratory at Daley College on Chicago's southwest side was her first high-profile effort to lend an empathetic ear to the concerns of Americans five years into a frustratingly slow U.S. recovery from recession. At the lab, Yellen leaned in to watch as Masson Covington, a 29-year-old student, demonstrated how to precision-cut an aluminum bowling pin with a computer-numerical-controlled lathe. But behind the polite questions about course studies and job prospects, the trip around Chicago may have been as much about protecting the central bank's cherished independence from political interference. Full Story | Top |
| JPMorgan fails to end lawsuit over London Whale losses Monday, Mar 31, 2014 03:04 PM PDT  By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co must face a lawsuit from shareholders accusing it of securities fraud by misleading them about its ability to manage risk, which surfaced when it lost $6.2 billion in the "London Whale" scandal. U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan said shareholders could pursue claims that JPMorgan, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon and former Chief Financial Officer Douglas Braunstein knowingly hid the increased risks that the bank's Chief Investment Office had been taking in early 2012. In separate decisions also issued on Monday, the judge also dismissed a lawsuit brought against JPMorgan directors, and a lawsuit by employees over their losses from investing in the bank's stock in their retirement accounts. The $6.2 billion loss was linked to trades by Bruno Iksil, a French national who had worked in a bank office in London. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry meets with Lavrov on Ukraine, urges troop pullback Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:46 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton and Alexei Anishchuk PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks on Sunday about ways to defuse the crisis over Ukraine, with Kerry telling Moscow that progress depended on a Russian troop pullback from Ukraine's borders. "Both sides made suggestions of ways to de-escalate the security and political situation in and around Ukraine," Kerry told a news conference late on Sunday after meeting with Lavrov for four hours in Paris. "Any real progress in Ukraine must include a pullback of the very large Russian force that is currently massing along Ukraine's borders," Kerry said. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry returns to Middle East to push flailing peace talks Monday, Mar 31, 2014 03:27 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton and Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry rushed back to the Middle East on Monday to try to salvage stalled peace talks, possibly by releasing an Israeli spy jailed in the United States to push Israel to free Palestinian prisoners. Requesting anonymity, a U.S. official said the release of Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence in the United States for spying for Israel, was "on the table" as a possible element in a Middle East peace deal as an incentive to Israel. Kerry, who flew to Israel from Paris, held two-hour talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. ambassador to India resigns after diplomatic row Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:59 PM PDT  By Frank Jack Daniel and David Brunnstrom NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to India has resigned following a row over the arrest of a junior Indian diplomat in New York that pushed relations between the world's biggest democracies to their lowest ebb in more than a decade. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf denied on Monday that Nancy Powell's resignation was related to ongoing tensions after the December arrest and subsequent strip search of the Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade. The United States sees India as a natural ally on a range of issues and a potential counterbalance to China in Asia. In 2010, President Barack Obama declared that the U.S.-Indian relationship would be "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century." Trade in goods was $63.7 billion last year, and U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden last year called for that to grow to half a trillion dollars in five years. Full Story | Top |
| Russian prime minister angers Ukraine by visiting Crimea Monday, Mar 31, 2014 01:24 PM PDT  By Darya Korsunskaya SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (Reuters) - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev flaunted Russia's grip on Crimea by flying to the region and holding a government meeting there on Monday, angering Ukraine and defying Western demands to hand the peninsula back to Kiev. But in a gesture that could ease tension in the worst East-West stand-off since the Cold War, Russia pulled some troops back from near Ukraine's eastern frontier - a move which the United States said would be a positive sign if it is confirmed as a withdrawal. President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he had ordered a partial drawdown in the region, Merkel's spokesman said. Full Story | Top |
| GM CEO to testify company to expand replacement switch output Monday, Mar 31, 2014 11:36 AM PDT  General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra will testify on Tuesday that the No. 1 U.S. automaker is sorry for the pain caused by the defective ignition switches linked to at least 13 deaths and has asked its supplier to boost production of replacement parts to speed the recall. In testimony posted Monday on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee website, Barra said she does not yet have answers to why GM took more than 10 years to catch the faulty switch. Full Story | Top |
| France's Hollande names new PM, pledges tax cuts after poll rout Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:19 PM PDT  By Mark John and Emmanuel Jarry PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande named centrist Interior Minister Manuel Valls as his new prime minister on Monday, replacing Jean-Marc Ayrault who quit after ruling Socialists were trounced in local French elections. Hollande vowed to pursue cuts in labor charges for business but also promised tax cuts to boost consumer spending, insisting that EU partners take his reform efforts into account in judging whether France had respected commitments to Brussels. ... Full Story | Top |
| Australia PM vows to continue hunt for missing Malaysia plane Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:58 PM PDT By Michael Martina PERTH (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Monday the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had no time limit, despite the failure of an international operation to find any sign of the plane in three weeks of fruitless searching. A total of 20 aircraft and ships were again scouring a massive area in the Indian Ocean some 2,000 km (1,200 miles) west of Perth, where investigators believe the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people came down. Some families have strongly criticized Malaysia's handling of the search and investigation, including the decision last week to say that, based on satellite evidence, the plane had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean on March 8. Abbott rejected suggestions his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, had been too hasty to break that news, given that no confirmed wreckage from the plane has been found and its last sighting on radar was northwest of Malaysia heading towards India. Full Story | Top |
| Erdogan targets enemies after poll triumph Monday, Mar 31, 2014 07:34 AM PDT  By Humeyra Pamuk and Nick Tattersall ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan looked a step closer to a presidential bid and to gaining the upper hand in a bitter power struggle on Monday, casting strong local election results as a mandate to hunt down enemies within the state "in their lair." His AK Party swept the electoral map in Sunday's polls, retaining control of the two biggest cities Istanbul and Ankara and increasing its share of the national vote as his pugnacious leadership style, beloved by a loyal, conservative voter base, trumped a stream of corruption allegations and security leaks. "We will enter their lair," he said, before a huge firework display lit up Ankara's midnight sky. The election campaign has been dominated by a power struggle between Erdogan and U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of using a network of followers in the police and judiciary to fabricate graft smears in an effort to topple him. Full Story | Top |
| North, South Korea trade artillery rounds into the sea: Seoul Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:58 PM PDT By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired more than 100 artillery rounds into South Korean waters as part of a drill on Monday, prompting the South to fire back, officials in Seoul said, but the exercise appeared to be more saber-rattling from Pyongyang rather than the start of a military standoff. The North had flagged its intentions to conduct the exercise in response to U.N. condemnation of last week's missile launches by Pyongyang and against what it says are threatening military drills in the South by U.S. forces. ... Full Story | Top |
| Euro zone inflation drops to lowest since 2009 Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:38 AM PDT  By Robin Emmott and Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone inflation hit its lowest level since November 2009 in March, a shock drop that raises expectations the European Central Bank will take radical action to stop the threat of deflation in the currency bloc. Annual consumer inflation in the 18 countries sharing the euro was 0.5 percent in March, with the pace of price rises cooling from February's 0.7 percent reading, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Monday. The euro zone is far from the deflation that Japan suffered from the early 1990s, when falling prices weakened demand, leading to wage cuts and even lower prices, but the bloc's low inflation rate is a clear sign of economic fragility. Inflation has now been in the ECB's "danger zone" of below 1 percent for six consecutive months, and the flash reading increases the chances the ECB will cut interest rates when its Governing Council meets on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Thai PM defends negligence charges as economy falters Monday, Mar 31, 2014 04:35 AM PDT  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Monday defended herself against negligence charges linked to a ruinous government rice pledging scheme that could lead to her removal from office, the latest development in a political crisis that has gripped the country for months. The charges were brought against her by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) which, should it forward the case to the Senate for possible impeachment, would mean Yingluck being suspended from official duties. Yingluck asked for more time to call on 10 witnesses and to submit further documents to support her defense, NACC member Prasart Pongsivapai told reporters following the meeting. The commission will act with justice toward the prime minister and in a straight-forward manner." Yingluck has come under pressure over the past five months from protesters who have occupied state offices and parts of Bangkok in a bid to remove her and rid the country of the influence of her brother, ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Full Story | Top |
| Former Pakistani president Musharraf denies treason Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:31 AM PDT  By Syed Raza Hassan ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf pleaded not guilty to five counts of treason on Monday in the latest chapter of a long-running drama between the increasingly assertive judiciary and its former military ruler. Musharraf faces the death penalty if convicted of charges over his suspension of the constitution and imposition of emergency rule in 2007, when he was trying to extend his tenure. The case marks the first time a former military officer of Musharraf's rank has appeared in court before a judge in a country where the military has rarely been challenged by either the government or the judiciary. "I would like to ask where is the justice for me in the Islamic republic of Pakistan ... I have only given to this country and not taken anything," Musharraf said. Full Story | Top |
| Italy PM Renzi says will quit if Senate reform blocked Monday, Mar 31, 2014 03:32 AM PDT  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new prime minister threatened on Monday to resign if a plan to reduce the powers of the upper house of parliament, a central part of his ambitious constitutional reform agenda, is blocked. In the latest step of Matteo Renzi's reform drive, the cabinet is due to approve a draft bill on Monday to transform the Senate into a non-elected chamber stripped of the power to approve budgets or hold votes of no-confidence in a government. Renzi, who became Italy's third prime minister in a year in February, has said that without a change in the system, the country risks being stuck with a rotating series of short-lived governments incapable of passing meaningful economic reforms. Renzi, head of the center-left Democratic Party, made a similar threat to quit over Senate reform on March 12 while pushing through a package of tax cuts aimed at reviving Italy's sluggish economy, the third largest in the euro zone. Full Story | Top |
| Swiss, UK watchdogs step up scrutiny on forex traders Monday, Mar 31, 2014 05:39 AM PDT  By Caroline Copley and Patrick Graham ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) - Swiss and British regulators stepped up their scrutiny of alleged manipulation of foreign exchange markets on Monday, as watchdogs take a closer look at whether banks have a tight enough grip on the behavior of their traders. Switzerland's competition commission WEKO said it opened an investigation into several Swiss, British and U.S. banks over potential collusion to manipulate currency rates. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), meanwhile, said it will assess if banks have cut the risk of traders manipulating benchmark rates in the coming year, to see if lessons have been learned from the scandal over benchmark rate rigging. WEKO said it is investigating UBS, Credit Suisse, Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB), Julius Baer, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. Full Story | Top |
| Emergency crews face toxic challenge in Washington state mudslide Monday, Mar 31, 2014 03:29 PM PDT By Eric M. Johnson DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - Recovery teams struggling through thick mud up to their armpits and heavy downpours at the site of a devastating landslide in Washington state are facing yet another challenge - an unseen and potentially more dangerous stew of toxic contaminants. Sewage, propane, household solvents and other chemicals lie beneath the surface of the gray mud and rubble that engulfed hundreds of acres of a rural community after the mudslide that left dozens of people dead or missing northeast of Seattle on the morning of March 22, authorities said. "We're worried about dysentery, we're worried about tetanus, we're worried about contamination," local fire Lieutenant Richard Burke, a spokesman for the operation, told reporters visiting the disaster site on Sunday. Full Story | Top |
| Ten ways the Ukraine crisis may change the world Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:17 AM PDT  By Paul Taylor BRUSSELS (Reuters) - As Moscow and the West dig in for a prolonged stand-off over Russia's annexation of Crimea, risking spillover to other former Soviet republics and beyond, here are 10 ways in which the Ukraine crisis could change attitudes and policy around the world. 1) Russia diminished: Russia's role in international affairs is diminished, at least temporarily. Moscow has been de facto excluded from the Group of Eight industrialized powers. Its bids to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Energy Agency are frozen. Full Story | Top |
| Philippine ship dodges China blockade to reach South China Sea outpost Monday, Mar 31, 2014 01:37 AM 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 |
| Israeli court convicts ex-PM Olmert in bribery case Monday, Mar 31, 2014 03:15 AM PDT  By Rami Amichay TEL AVIV (Reuters) - An Israeli court convicted former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Monday of accepting a six-figure sum in bribes linked to a real-estate deal, probably ending any prospects of a political comeback. Olmert, a centrist credited internationally with working towards a peace settlement with the Palestinians, had denied wrongdoing in the Holyland apartment complex deal, which took place while he was in his previous post of Jerusalem mayor. After what was the first bribery conviction of a former head of government in Israel, Olmert, 68, could face up to 10 years in prison. A former president, Moshe Katsav, has been serving a seven-year prison term for rape since 2011. Full Story | Top |
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