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| Ukraine standoff intensifies; Russia says sanctions will 'boomerang' Friday, Mar 07, 2014 06:18 PM PST  By Steve Gutterman and Andrew Osborn MOSCOW/SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russia said any U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine will boomerang back on the United States and that Crimea has the right to self-determination as armed men tried to seize another Ukrainian military base on the peninsula. In a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against "hasty and reckless steps" that could harm Russian-American relations, the foreign ministry said on Friday. It was the second tense, high-level exchange between the former Cold War foes in 24 hours over the pro-Russian takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin said after an hour-long call with U.S. President Barack Obama that their positions on the former Soviet republic were still far apart. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia Airlines loses contact with plane carrying 239 people Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:34 PM PST  By Stuart Grudgings KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing lost contact with air traffic controllers early on Saturday, the airline said in a statement, the plane likely missing in Vietnamese airspace. Flight MH370, operating a Boeing B777-200 aircraft left Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. (11.21 a.m. ET Friday) and had been expected to land in the Chinese capital at 6.30 a.m. (5.30 p.m. ET) the same day. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370," Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement. "Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search-and-rescue teams to locate the aircraft," it said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. job growth offers upbeat sign for weather-beaten economy Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:39 PM PST By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth accelerated sharply in February despite the icy weather that gripped much of the nation, easing fears of an abrupt economic slowdown and keeping the Federal Reserve on track to continue reducing its monetary stimulus. Employers added 175,000 jobs to their payrolls last month after creating 129,000 new positions in January, the Labor Department said on Friday. The unemployment rate, however, rose to 6.7 percent from a five-year low of 6.6 percent as Americans flooded into the labor market to search for work. "It reinforces the case for the economy being stronger than it's looked for the last couple of months," said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services in Boston. Full Story | Top |
| Boeing reports wing cracks on 787 Dreamliners in production Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:36 PM PST  By Alwyn Scott and Tim Hepher NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co said on Friday that "hairline cracks" had been discovered in the wings of about 40 787 Dreamliners that are in production, marking another setback for the company's newest jet. The cracks have not been found on planes that are in use by airlines and therefore pose no safety risk, Boeing said, adding the problem also will not alter Boeing's plans to deliver 110 787s this year. However, Boeing said the cracks, which also occurred on the larger 787-9 model currently undergoing flight tests, could delay by a few weeks the date when airlines can take delivery of their new planes. The disclosure raised questions about repair costs and a possible minor increase in the weight of the plane, but did not seem to spell major trouble for Boeing, industry experts said. Full Story | Top |
| China says no room for compromise with Japan on history, territory Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:35 PM PST  BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday that there was no room for compromise with Japan on questions of history and territory. China's ties with Japan have long been poisoned by what China sees as Japan's failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China before and during World War Two. China's anger over the past is never far from the surface, and relations have deteriorated sharply over the past 18 months because of a dispute over a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Ben Blanchard) Full Story | Top |
| Three killed in Cairo clashes, 48 wounded across Egypt Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:19 PM PST  Three protesters were killed and dozens wounded as Muslim Brotherhood supporters and police clashed across Egypt on Friday, the health ministry and security sources said. Security sources said two were killed in street battles with the police in the Cairo district of Alf Maskin and a third in the capital's Abbaseya. The Interior Ministry said it had arrested 47 people it said were Brotherhood members during the violence, which broke out after Friday prayers. Police cars were burned by protesters in at least two Cairo districts. Full Story | Top |
| Suspected Russian spyware Turla targets Europe, United States Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:45 AM PST  By Peter Apps and Jim Finkle LONDON/BOSTON (Reuters) - A sophisticated piece of spyware has been quietly infecting hundreds of government computers across Europe and the United States in one of the most complex cyber espionage programs uncovered to date. Several security researchers and Western intelligence officers say they believe the malware, widely known as Turla, is the work of the Russian government and linked to the same software used to launch a massive breach on the U.S. military uncovered in 2008. Full Story | Top |
| Iran, world powers hold 'substantive and useful' nuclear talks Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:40 AM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran and six world powers held "substantive and useful" expert-level talks over Tehran's nuclear program this week, they said on Friday, ahead of a new round of political negotiations later this month. Seeking to build on an interim agreement reached late last year in Geneva, Iran and the major powers aim to hammer out a final settlement of the decade-old dispute over the Islamic Republic's atomic activities by late July. But they also acknowledge that there are still big differences over the future scope of Iran's nuclear program and that success is far from guaranteed. "The talks are very serious and substantive and useful," the head of the Iranian delegation at the expert-level talks, senior Foreign Ministry official Hamid Baidinejad, told Iran's Fars news agency ahead of Friday's session. Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu says Israel would give up 'some settlements' for peace Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:56 AM PST  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would give up "some settlements" in occupied Palestinian land to help secure a peace agreement but would limit as much as he could the number of enclaves removed. The settlements are a key issue in peace talks renewed under Washington's tutelage in July after a three-year impasse. Little progress has been reported though U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said he hopes to publish a framework for a deal soon. The settlements built in territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War are deemed illegal in international law and condemned by most governments. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Pimco's Gross declares El-Erian is 'trying to undermine me' Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:47 AM PST  Bill Gross, the co-founder and co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co, has accused departing CEO Mohamed El-Erian of seeking to "undermine" him by talking to The Wall Street Journal about deepening tensions between the two executives who have been jointly running the world's largest bond house. Gross told Reuters that he had "evidence" that El-Erian "wrote" a February 24 article in the Journal, which described the worsening relationship between the two men as Pimco's performance deteriorated last year, including a showdown in which they squared off against each other in front of more than a dozen colleagues at the firm's Newport Beach, California headquarters. Gross, who oversaw more than $1.91 trillion in assets as of the end of last year and who is known on Wall Street as the 'Bond King', said in a phone call to Reuters last Friday: "I'm so sick of Mohamed trying to undermine me." When asked if Reuters could see the evidence about El-Erian and the allegation he was involved in the article, Gross said: "You're on his side. Full Story | Top |
| Boeing reports wing cracks on 787 Dreamliners in production Friday, Mar 07, 2014 03:54 PM PST  By Alwyn Scott and Tim Hepher NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co said on Friday that "hairline cracks" had been discovered in the wings of about 40 787 Dreamliners that are in production, marking another setback for the company's newest jet. The cracks have not been found on planes that are in use by airlines and therefore posed no safety risk, Boeing said, adding the problem also will not alter Boeing's plans to deliver 110 787s this year. However, Boeing said the cracks, which also occurred on the larger 787-9 model currently undergoing flight tests, could delay by a few weeks the date when airlines can take delivery of their new planes. The disclosure raised questions about repair costs and a possible minor increase in the weight of the plane, but did not seem to spell major trouble for Boeing, industry experts said. Full Story | Top |
| MasterCard, Visa form group to push for better card security Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:41 AM PST  Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc said they had launched a cross-industry group to improve security for card transactions and press U.S. retailers and banks to meet a 2015 deadline to adopt technology that would make it safer to pay with plastic. The move follows several data breaches at U.S. retailers, including one at Target Corp late last year involving the theft of about 40 million credit and debit card records. The new group - which includes banks, credit unions, retailers and industry trade associations - will initially focus on the adoption of 'EMV' chip technology, MasterCard and Visa said in a statement on Friday. However, the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade association, said it had not joined the group because there were no plans to immediately implement the PIN option, making for a "half-baked solution." "They're not serious about reducing fraud, unless they put a pin on," said Mallory Duncan, the NRF's general counsel. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine standoff intensifies, Russia says sanctions will 'boomerang' Friday, Mar 07, 2014 02:01 PM PST By Steve Gutterman and Andrew Osborn MOSCOW/SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russia said any U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine will boomerang back on the United States and that Crimea has the right to self-determination as armed men tried to seize another Ukrainian military base on the peninsula. In a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against "hasty and reckless steps" that could harm Russian-American relations, the foreign ministry said on Friday. It was the second tense, high-level exchange between the former Cold War foes in 24 hours over the pro-Russian takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin said after an hour-long call with U.S. President Barack Obama that their positions on the former Soviet republic were still far apart. Full Story | Top |
| In Ukraine, nationalists gain influence - and scrutiny Friday, Mar 07, 2014 09:06 AM PST  By Sabina Zawadzki, Mark Hosenball and Stephen Grey KIEV/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When protest leaders in Ukraine helped oust a president widely seen as corrupt, they became heroes of the barricades. Russia's president Vladimir Putin claims Ukraine has fallen into the hands of far-right fascist groups, and some Western experts have also raised concerns about the influence of extremists. Two of the groups under most scrutiny are Svoboda, whose members hold five senior roles in Ukraine's new government including the post of deputy prime minister, and Pravyi Sector (Right Sector), whose leader Dmytro Yarosh is now the country's Deputy Secretary of National Security. On Tuesday the group called for supporters to patrol Wikipedia. Full Story | Top |
| 'Everything is fine', Pistorius told guard after shooting girlfriend Friday, Mar 07, 2014 06:03 AM PST  By Mike Hutchings PRETORIA (Reuters) - Around 10 minutes after shooting dead his model girlfriend through a locked toilet door, South African track star Oscar Pistorius told a housing estate security guard "everything is fine", his murder trial heard on Friday. Testifying on the fifth day of the trial at the Pretoria High Court, Pieter Baba, who was on guard duty the night Pistorius killed 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, said he received a call from the athlete at 3:21 a.m., around five minutes after Steenkamp was shot. Pistorius was too upset to say anything on the call, Baba said, speaking in Afrikaans through an interpreter. However, when Baba - concerned that something was wrong - called him back a few minutes later, Pistorius told him: "Security, everything is fine." Baba delivered the quote in English. Full Story | Top |
| Sri Lanka says suspected wartime mass grave is an old cemetery Friday, Mar 07, 2014 10:49 AM PST  By Shihar Aneez COLOMBO (Reuters) - Officials investigating a suspected mass grave in Sri Lanka's former northern war zone called off the digging on Friday because the 83 skeletons unearthed there seem to have been buried in an old cemetery. The Sri Lankan army has been accused of killing tens of thousands of civilians in the final weeks of its 26-year war against northern Tamil separatists in 2009 and Colombo has been under pressure to investigate reports of mass graves there. Police at first suggested the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists could be responsible for the burial site near a Hindu temple in the northwestern town of Mannar. But Senerath Dissanayake, director general of the state-run Archeological Department, said it is not a mass grave as the bodies had been "buried systematically". Full Story | Top |
| Congo warlord's conviction brings relief to international court Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:26 AM PST  By Thomas Escritt THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Congolese warlord Germain Katanga was convicted on Friday of being an accessory to war crimes including murder and pillage - only the second conviction in the 12-year history of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The judgment, albeit by a split verdict after a six-year trial, brings some relief to prosecutors who have faced growing criticism, notably for at least five cases that collapsed either pre-trial or pre-verdict because of a lack of evidence. Two of the three judges found that Katanga had made a significant contribution to a February 2003 attack on the village of Bogoro, in a diamond-rich region of northeast Congo, by procuring guns to speed the massacre by ethnic Lendu and Ngiti fighters of some 200 ethnic Hema civilians. "Absent that supply of weapons ... commanders would not have been able to carry out the attack with such efficiency." Katanga was, however, acquitted of charges of rape and using child soldiers, and can appeal against his conviction. Full Story | Top |
| Turkish president rejects Facebook, YouTube ban over wiretaps Friday, Mar 07, 2014 09:56 AM PST  By Daren Butler and Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's president on Friday ruled out any ban on Facebook and YouTube after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the sites could be shut to stop his foes anonymously posting audio recordings purportedly exposing corruption in his inner circle. In the latest recording, released on YouTube late on Thursday, Erdogan is purportedly heard berating a newspaper owner over the telephone about an article and suggesting the journalists be sacked, in comments that will further stoke concerns over media freedom and Erdogan's authoritarian style of leadership. Erdogan, who rejects any accusations of corruption, blames U.S.-based Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, a former ally, for the wiretaps which he says have been "fabricated". Gulen, who denies any involvement, has many followers in Turkey, especially in the police and judiciary. Full Story | Top |
| Two dead in Venezuela violence as protests drag on Friday, Mar 07, 2014 05:57 AM PST  Demonstrators have for weeks staged rallies and set up barricades to demand the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro, leading to clashes with security forces and government supporters. Motorcycle drivers clearing a barricade in the middle-class neighborhood of Los Ruices were attacked by residents from nearby buildings who threw rocks and later shot at them, National Guard Gen. Manuel Quevedo told Reuters. The motorcyclist who was killed, Jose Cantillo, who was in his early twenties, was shot in the neck, Quevedo said. "Make no mistake, the National Guard and the armed forces are going to continue patrolling the streets to restore order," he said in an interview at the scene of the events. Full Story | Top |
| Thais defer decision on emergency after two hurt in shooting Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:28 AM PST  The protests aimed at bringing down Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra have been going on for four months and are taking a toll on the economy, with consumer confidence at a 12-year low. The political uncertainty is unnerving consumers and the violence is scaring tourists away from Bangkok. Surapong Techruvichit, president of the Thai Hotels Association, said the occupancy rate had plunged to 20 to 25 percent in Bangkok in January-February from 70 to 80 percent in the same months last year. The end of the 60-day emergency, imposed in Bangkok on January 22 in a bid to contain the unrest, would be a good start for getting business back on its feet, he said. Full Story | Top |
| Violent splinter group mars peace deal with Pakistan Taliban Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:09 AM PST  By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's cities are unsafe from Islamist militant attacks due to their porous security, the country's defense minister said after suicide bombers and gunmen killed 11 people in an assault on a court in the capital earlier this week. Carried out by a splinter group of the Paksitani Taliban, the attack will complicate the government's efforts to open peace talks as it destroyed trust on all sides, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cold War past shapes complex Merkel-Putin relationship Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:40 AM PST  By Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - After one of her first encounters with Vladimir Putin in 2002, Angela Merkel joked to aides that she had passed the "KGB test" by staring straight into his eyes without averting her gaze. Unlike presidents in Washington - George W. Bush claimed to have gotten a glimpse of Putin's soul and Barack Obama promised to "reset" relations with Russia - the German chancellor has never harbored any illusions about the former Soviet agent, nor hopes that she might change him. It is this hard-nosed realism, born of Merkel's own experience growing up in a Soviet garrison town in East Germany and reinforced over a turbulent 14-year relationship with Putin, that has earned her respect in the Kremlin and thrust her into the potentially risky role of chief mediator in the Ukraine crisis. Full Story | Top |
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