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| NBA bans Los Angeles Clippers owner for life over racist comments Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 07:11 PM PDT  By Scott Malone and Larry Fine NEW YORK (Reuters) - The NBA banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling from professional basketball for life on Tuesday and fined him $2.5 million in an unprecedented rebuke for racist comments that drew outrage from players, fans, commercial sponsors and even President Barack Obama. Sterling, 80, the longest-tenured owner of any of the 30 National Basketball Association teams, will be barred from any role in the operations of his franchise or from serving as one of the league's governors, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told a news conference in New York. Silver also urged the other owners to vote to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, a first-time use of such a sanction that would require approval of three-quarters of the current owners. Asked whether Sterling could end up as essentially an absentee owner if the league fails to force a sale of the team, Silver replied, "I fully expect to get the support I need from the other NBA owners to remove him." The controversy, which quickly grew into a national discussion of race relations transcending basketball, began over the weekend when the celebrity website TMZ.com released an audio recording with a voice said to be Sterling's, criticizing a woman friend for associating with "black people." In it, he asks her not to invite former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin "Magic" Johnson to Clippers games. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine separatists seize second provincial capital, fire on police Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 01:50 PM PDT  By Vasily Fedosenko LUHANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Hundreds of pro-Moscow separatists stormed government buildings in one of Ukraine's provincial capitals on Tuesday and fired on police holed up in a regional headquarters, a major escalation of their revolt despite new Western sanctions on Russia. Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by threatening to reconsider Western participation in energy deals in Russia, the world's biggest oil producer, where most major U.S. and European oil companies have extensive projects. Demonstrators smashed their way into the provincial government headquarters in Luhansk, Ukraine's easternmost province, which abuts the Russian border, and raised separatist flags over the building, while police did nothing to interfere. "The regional leadership does not control its police force," said Stanislav Rechynsky, an aide to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, referring to events in Luhansk. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry to resume Mideast peace talks after a pause Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 09:09 PM PDT  By David Rohde NEW YORK (Reuters) - To both critics and supporters, it was "classic" John Kerry. A day before the formal end of Kerry's quixotic, nine-month effort to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, the Secretary of State was surreptitiously taped making a comment that provoked a political firestorm in Washington. In a closed meeting with foreign policy experts, Kerry said that if there is no two-state solution soon, Israel risked becoming "an apartheid state." Kerry was apparently referring to an argument made by liberal Israelis and European critics that if two states are not created and current demographic trends continue, Palestinians will outnumber Israelis. "A unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens," Kerry said on Friday, according to the Daily Beast. Full Story | Top |
| Patton Boggs' latest case versus Chevron over pollution award tossed Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 04:40 PM PDT  By Casey Sullivan NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Patton Boggs accusing Chevron Corp of "bad faith" litigation tactics while the Washington law firm tried to enforce a multibillion-dollar pollution judgment. In granting Chevron's motion to dismiss the case, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday agreed with a 2013 recommendation by U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis that Patton Boggs did not have legal standing to sue. The lawsuit was the most recent of three that Patton Boggs had filed against Chevron in connection with its efforts to enforce an $18 billion judgment obtained in Ecuador in 2011. Plaintiffs lawyers led by Steven Donziger had claimed Chevron polluted Ecuador's rainforest. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. consumer confidence rebounds to pre-crisis levels in first quarter: Nielsen Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 07:12 PM PDT  By Susan Fenton LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer sentiment rose sharply in the first quarter as optimism about the economic outlook improved, according to a global survey which also showed rising confidence in debt-laden euro zone countries. Globally, consumer confidence returned to pre-financial crisis levels in the first three months of this year, at its highest since the first quarter of 2007, the survey by global information and insights company Nielsen showed on Wednesday. Improving job prospects are bolstering consumer sentiment. Consumer confidence was highest in the Asia Pacific and Indonesia was the most upbeat market globally for a fifth straight quarter, followed by India. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. tornadoes kill 34, threaten more damage in South Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 02:23 PM PDT  By Emily Le Coz TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - At least 34 people across six states were killed in tornadoes unleashed by a ferocious storm system that razed neighborhoods and threatened more destruction in heavily populated parts of the U.S. South on Tuesday. In Arkansas and Mississippi, the hardest hit states, there have been 27 confirmed storm-related deaths and more than 200 people injured over the last three days as tornadoes reduced homes to splinters, snapped trees like twigs and sent trucks flying through the air like toys. Deaths were also reported in Oklahoma and Iowa on Sunday, and Alabama and Tennessee on Monday. There was nothing left," Melba Reed said as she described the aftermath of a tornado in Louisville, Mississippi, a town of about 7,000 in the central part of the state. Full Story | Top |
| Chemical watchdog to investigate Syria chlorine gas claims Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 08:34 AM PDT  By Thomas Escritt and Mariam Karouny AMSTERDAM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The global chemical weapons watchdog overseeing the destruction of Syria's toxic stockpile will send a fact-finding mission to Syria to investigate allegations by rebels and activists of chlorine gas attacks, the organization said on Tuesday. The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said President Bashar al-Assad's government had agreed to accept the mission and had promised to provide security in areas under its control. "The mission will carry out its work in the most challenging circumstances," the OPCW said, referring to the three-year-old conflict between Assad's forces and rebels. Accusations by rebels and Syrian activist of at least three separate chlorine gas attacks by Assad's forces in the last month have exposed the limits of a deal which Assad agreed last year for the destruction of his chemical arsenal. Full Story | Top |
| Israel, Palestinians at U.N. accuse each other of sabotaging peace Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 02:34 PM PDT  By Mirjam Donath UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian envoys on Tuesday took advantage of a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East to publicly blame each other for the latest breakdown in the fragile peace negotiations as the deadline for a deal expired. Robert Serry, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the 15-nation Security Council that Israeli and Palestinian leaders should "convince each other anew they are partners for peace." Both Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor and Palestinian U.N. observer Riyad Mansour expressed a commitment to peace. Full Story | Top |
| MIT undergrads to get $100 in bitcoin in digital money trial Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 02:07 PM PDT  By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) - Every undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next fall will be offered $100 in bitcoins in an experiment that students say will turn the prestigious university into one of the first places on the planet with widespread access to digital currency. Bitcoin is not backed by any government or central bank, a digital currency whose value can swing dramatically based on demand. Users can transfer bitcoins to each other online and store the currency in digital "wallets." Jeremy Rubin, a sophomore, and Dan Elitzer, an MBA candidate, raised half a million dollars from alumni and other sources to fund the experiment after coming up with the idea last month. The extra money will go toward infrastructure and education and the offer may eventually be extended to other students beyond undergrads. Full Story | Top |
| Six hurt, suspect dead in Georgia FedEx facility shooting Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 04:42 PM PDT By Tami Chappell KENNESAW, Georgia (Reuters) - A FedEx Corp package handler armed with a shotgun opened fire at a shipping facility in suburban Atlanta early on Tuesday, injuring six people before killing himself, apparently with his own weapon, police and hospital officials said. Three people were in critical condition, two of them with life-threatening injuries, after being shot by the 19-year-old gunman just before 6 a.m. EDT at a FedEx warehouse near the airport in Kennesaw, Georgia, about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, police and hospital officials said. The shooter, identified as Geddy L. Kramer of Acworth, Georgia, drove up to the security guard shack at the warehouse and shot the guard before entering the warehouse where he shot the other five people, according to police. FedEx employee Liza Aiken told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she was correcting addresses on packages when she saw a colleague dressed in black and armed with a knife, gun and a cartridge belt strapped across this chest. Full Story | Top |
| Apple, Samsung make final pitches to U.S. jury in patent trial Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 03:10 PM PDT  By Dan Levine SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Apple has vastly exaggerated the importance of its patented iPhone features, a Samsung attorney said on Tuesday as the two companies delivered closing arguments to jurors after a month-long trial over mobile technology. Apple, however, argued that the South Korean company could not have competed in the smartphone market without unfairly copying its flagship product. The two tech leaders also sparred over how Google's work on the software used in Samsung phones affects Apple's patent claims. Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd have been litigating around the world for three years. Full Story | Top |
| Nigerian pleads guilty to U.S. charges of aiding al Qaeda group Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 01:26 PM PDT By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Nigerian citizen pleaded guilty on Tuesday to U.S. charges of providing material support to an al Qaeda affiliate, and participating in its media and recruitment campaigns. Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi, 33, appearing before a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, pleaded guilty to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors said that, from January 2010 to August 2011, Babafemi traveled from Nigeria to Yemen twice to meet with leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP. The U.S. government said Babafemi worked on AQAP's media operations, including the publication of its magazine, called "Inspire." The group's leadership, including Anwar al-Awlaki, paid Babafemi almost $9,000 to recruit English-speaking people from Nigeria, prosecutors said. Full Story | Top |
| NBA bans Los Angeles Clippers owner for life over racist comments Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 04:11 PM PDT By Scott Malone and Larry Fine NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Basketball Association banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the game for life on Tuesday and fined him $2.5 million for racist comments that drew outrage from players, fans, commercial sponsors and even President Barack Obama. Sterling, the longest-tenured owner of any of the 30 NBA teams, will be barred from any role in the operations of his team or be able to serve as one of the league's governors, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told a news conference in New York. Silver also urged the other owners to vote to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, a move that would require approval of three-quarters of the current owners. Asked whether Sterling could end up as essentially an absentee owner if the league fails to force a sale of the team, Silver replied, "I fully expect to get the support I need from the other NBA owners to remove him." The controversy began over the weekend when the celebrity website TMZ.com released an audio recording with a voice said to be Sterling's criticizing a woman friend for associating with "black people." The recording included Sterling asking his friend not to invite former Los Angeles Laker star player Earvin "Magic" Johnson to games. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. consumer confidence near six-year high, home prices rise Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 08:04 AM PDT  By Rodrigo Campos and Ryan Vlastelica NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence dipped in April but remained near a six-year high, while home prices rose in February, suggesting the economy continued to regain momentum after a winter lull. The Conference Board said its index of consumer attitudes dipped to 82.3, the second-highest reading since January 2008, from an upwardly revised 83.9 in March. "While sentiment regarding current conditions may have slipped a bit, consumers do not foresee the economy, or the labor market, losing the momentum that has been building up over the past several months," Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said in a statement. The rise, however, failed to offset other recent data pointing to a loss of momentum in housing. Full Story | Top |
| Fire at Russian munitions depot kills 7, halts Transsiberian railway Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 12:41 PM PDT Explosions caused by a fire at a munitions depot in Eastern Siberia killed at least seven people and closed a section of the Transsiberian railway on Tuesday, local authorities said. More than 1,000 residents were evacuated, the local Emergencies Ministry said. Six trains were halted on the route, the local government said. Up to a third of the freight carried on the Transsiberian railway is Russian coal being exported to the Asia-Pacific region. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. offers $5 million for Chinese businessman accused of Iran dealings Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 02:50 PM PDT  The United States offered a reward of up to $5 million on Tuesday for a Chinese businessman accused of supplying missile parts to Iran, and targeted companies from China and Dubai for allegedly helping Iran evade weapons and oil sanctions. In a signal Washington will keep pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, the U.S. Treasury Department said it was sanctioning eight of Chinese businessman Li Fangwei's Chinese companies for allegedly procuring missile parts for Iran. The U.S. State Department said it was offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Li, who is also known as Karl Lee. Li has been the target of U.S. sanctions in the past for his alleged role as a principle supplier to Iran's ballistic missile program. Full Story | Top |
| Israeli forces demolish West Bank mosque as peace talks deadline passes Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 05:45 AM PDT  By Ali Sawafta KHIRBET AL-TAWEEL, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli forces demolished several structures, including a mosque, in a Palestinian village on Tuesday, the day a deadline for a deal in now-frozen peace talks expired. A Reuters correspondent saw several hundred soldiers deployed in Khirbet al-Taweel, in the occupied West Bank, around daybreak. Israel has also drawn Palestinian anger by continuing to expand settlements on land they seek for a state. The Israeli army said in a statement that eight structures, including a "mosque in use", were demolished because they had been built illegally inside a dangerous live-fire military training zone. Full Story | Top |
| European Union moves to end smartphone patent wars Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 11:11 AM PDT  By John O'Donnell BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's antitrust enforcer has told two top smartphone makers to stop filing aggressive patent lawsuits against rivals such as Apple, aiming to end a patent war and open the market to freer competition. The European Commission reprimanded Motorola Mobility on Tuesday for taking such action against Apple, hoping the ruling will halt a rising tide of legal disputes among rivals vying for profit in the global smartphone market. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey's Erdogan calls on U.S. to extradite rival Gulen Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 09:07 AM PDT  By Gulsen Solaker ANKARA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he would ask the United States to extradite an Islamic cleric he accuses of plotting to topple him and undermine Turkey with concocted graft accusations and secret wire taps. Such a move against Fethullah Gulen, whose followers say they number in the millions, would be possible only if Turkey first issued an arrest warrant and produced evidence of a crime, according to one legal expert. Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, when secularist authorities raised accusations of Islamist activity. Asked by a reporter at parliament if a process would begin for Gulen's extradition, Erdogan said: "Yes, it will begin." In an interview with PBS talk show host Charlie Rose broadcast late on Monday, Erdogan said Gulen may also pose a threat to U.S. security by his activities. Full Story | Top |
| Special Report - Golden Loophole: How an alleged Turkish crime ring helped Iran Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 02:12 AM PDT  Turkish police believe that until recently, the area around the market also sat at the center of an audacious, multi-billion-dollar scheme involving bribery and suspect food shipments to Iran. But a recently leaked police report - which contains allegations of payments to top Turkish government officials including cash stuffed into shoeboxes - has added fuel to a growing corruption scandal that has shaken the highest levels of Turkey's political establishment. A review by Reuters of the report's 299 pages, as well as interviews with currency and precious metals dealers, offer colorful new details of how what police call a "crime organization" allegedly helped Iran exploit a loophole in the West's sanctions regime that for a time allowed the Islamic Republic to purchase gold with oil and gas revenues. While the gold trade was then legal, the police report alleges the purported crime network bribed officials in part so it could maintain control of the lucrative business. Full Story | Top |
| Obama reassures allies, but doubts over 'pivot' to Asia persist Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 04:23 AM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick and Mark Felsenthal MANILA (Reuters) - From the elaborate details of a Japanese state visit to the more mundane question of how much face-time to give each of his Asian hosts, President Barack Obama's aides spent months meticulously scripting his four-country tour of the region. But as the week-long trip wrapped up on Tuesday it was clear that, while Obama scored points with skeptical allies simply by showing up, not everything followed the White House plan. The U.S. president's clear aim was to demonstrate that his long-promised strategic shift towards Asia and the Pacific, widely seen as aimed at countering China's rising influence, was real. "The key is what happens next," said Michael Kugelman, an Asia expert at the Wilson Center think-tank in Washington. Full Story | Top |
| At least 51 killed in Syrian government-held areas Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 06:29 AM PDT  Car bombs and mortar attacks killed at least 51 people in Syrian government-held areas of Damascus and the central city of Homs on Tuesday, a day after President Bashar al-Assad declared he would seek re-election in June. Government forces have pushed back the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels seeking to topple Assad from many of their strongholds around Damascus, but residents say the insurgents have stepped up rocket and mortar attacks against the heart of the capital in recent weeks. Forces loyal to Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, are also in control of most of Homs. In Homs, at least 37 people including children were killed by twin car bombs near a busy roundabout in the Alawite neighborhood of Zahraa. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. home prices rise in February: S&P/Case-Shiller Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 06:05 AM PDT  The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 0.8 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis. "Despite continued price gains, most other housing statistics are weak," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, who cited new and existing home sales data. "The recovery in housing starts, now less than one million units at annual rates, is faltering. Full Story | Top |
| North Korea conducts firing drills near disputed border with South Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 04:24 AM PDT  By Ju-min Park and James Pearson SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea conducted live fire drills on Tuesday in two areas near a disputed sea border with South Korea that have been the scene of deadly clashes and where they fired hundreds of artillery rounds only weeks ago. North Korea conducted similar drills in late March, firing more than 500 artillery rounds near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed maritime border that has been the de facto sea border since the 1950-53 Korean war. More than 100 rounds landed south of the border during that drill, prompting South Korea to fire hundreds of rounds back into the North's waters. Full Story | Top |
| Car bombs kill at least 37 in Syria's Homs: monitoring group Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 06:14 AM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two car bombs killed at least 37 people including women and children near a busy roundabout in the central Syrian city of Homs on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, raising an earlier estimate of the death toll. A local security source said as many as 42 people may have died in the explosions. (Reporting by Mariam Karouny) Full Story | Top |
| Obama says U.S. commitment to defend Philippines 'ironclad' Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 02:53 AM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal and Matt Spetalnick MANILA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday a new military pact between the United States and the Philippines is testimony to America's "ironclad" commitment to defend the southeast Asian nation. The U.S. president's comments came against the backdrop of tensions between the Philippines and an increasingly powerful China over remote uninhabited islands in the South China Sea. "Our commitment to defend the Philippines is ironclad and the United States will keep that commitment because allies never stand alone," Obama said. Full Story | Top |
| China labor activist held over online "disturbance" Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 12:19 AM PDT  By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have placed a labor activist under criminal detention, formally accusing him of causing a disturbance after they said he distributed information online about a factory strike, his manager and father said on Tuesday. The move is the latest sign that authorities in China have been shaken by recent labor unrest such as a 2-week strike by workers at Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings, a $5.6 billion manufacturer of footwear for Nike Inc, Adidas AG and other international brands. In what activists say was one of China's biggest labor protests since market reforms began in the late 1970s, Yue Yuen workers went on strike in the southern city of Dongguan on April 14, to protest against what they said were chronically low company contributions to social insurance and housing provident fund accounts. Yue Yuen said on Friday that more than 80 percent of its 40,000-strong workforce had returned to work. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says EU should be 'ashamed' over sanctions Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 04:15 AM PDT  Russia suggested on Tuesday the European Union should be ashamed of itself for "doing Washington's bidding" by punishing Moscow with sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine. The Foreign Ministry said the EU sanctions imposed on 15 Russian and pro-Moscow Ukrainian officials would not ease tension in Ukraine, where the government is struggling to rein in pro-Russian separatists in southeastern regions who it says are backed by Moscow. "Instead of forcing the Kiev clique to sit at the table with southeastern Ukraine to negotiate the future structure of the country, our partners are doing Washington's bidding with new unfriendly gestures aimed at Russia," the Foreign Ministry said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. sanctions Putin allies as Ukraine violence goes on Tuesday, Apr 29, 2014 03:55 AM PDT  By Maria Tsvetkova and Thomas Grove DONETSK/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - The United States imposed new sanctions on allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, prompting Moscow to denounce "Cold War" tactics amid more violence in eastern Ukraine. The move to ban visas and freeze assets of the likes of Putin's friend Igor Sechin, head of oil giant Rosneft, also drew fire from President Barack Obama's domestic critics, who called it a "slap on the wrist." EU states added 15 more Russians and Ukrainians to their blacklist and will reveal them on Tuesday. The new round of U.S. sanctions, following those imposed last month when Russia annexed Crimea, barely registered in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow rebels were holding a group of German and other OSCE military observers for a fourth day. Full Story | Top |
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