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| Ukraine prepares armed response as city seized by pro-Russia forces Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 06:54 PM PDT  By Pavel Polityuk and Thomas Grove KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Armed separatists took control of a city in eastern Ukraine on Saturday and Kiev prepared troops to tackle what it called an "act of aggression by Russia", pushing the conflict between the neighbors into a dangerous new phase. Pro-Russian activists carrying automatic weapons seized government buildings in Slaviansk, a town about 150 km (90 miles) from the Russian border, and set up barricades on the outskirts of the city. Government buildings in several other towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were attacked in what Washington said were moves reminiscent of the events that preceded Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. "We are very concerned by the concerted campaign we see under way in eastern Ukraine today by pro-Russian separatists, apparently with support from Russia, who are inciting violence and sabotage and seeking to undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian state," said Laura Lucas Magnuson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. Full Story | Top |
| Fading signals add urgency to search for missing Malaysian jet Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 07:24 AM PDT  By Swati Pandey PERTH (Reuters) - The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner resumed on Saturday, five weeks after the plane disappeared from radar screens, amid fears that batteries powering signals from the black box recorder on board may have died. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned on Friday that signals picked up during the search in the remote southern Indian Ocean, believed to be "pings" from the black box recorders, were fading. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared soon after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, triggering a multinational search that is now focused on the Indian Ocean. Search officials say they are confident they know the approximate position of the black box recorder, although they have determined that the latest "ping', picked up by searchers on Thursday, was not from the missing aircraft. Full Story | Top |
| Truck in deadly California crash on fire before collision: witness Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 08:39 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - A witness reported that a FedEx tractor-trailer that crashed into a bus in northern California on Thursday killing 10 people was on fire before impact, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Saturday. The driver of a car that had passed the bus just before the crash said flames were coming from beneath the cab of the truck, board member Mark Rosekind told a Saturday evening news conference. The truck clipped the car and then hit the bus, Rosekind said. Among those killed were five teen-aged students en route to a college recruitment event, along with the drivers of the bus and truck. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kidnap 100 Pakistani villagers in northwest, government says Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 12:33 PM PDT By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Gunmen stormed a village gathering in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday and kidnapped around 100 men, Pakistani government officials said. Officials said they suspected that the gunmen are Taliban who attacked because the villagers supported the government. Three local government officials told Reuters that the gunmen had initially taken around 100 villagers from a gathering in the remote region on the border of Orakzai and Khyber tribal areas, both of which border Afghanistan, but had later released around 40 of them. "The government has no writ in those areas between Orakzai and Khyber tribal region but we are hearing from the local people that tribal elders had sent (elders) to the Taliban to release the kidnapped villagers without any condition," one official said. Full Story | Top |
| Nevada ranching family claims victory as government releases cattle Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 07:42 PM PDT  By Jennifer Dobner BUNKERVILLE, Nevada (Reuters) - U.S. officials ended a stand-off with hundreds of armed protesters in the Nevada desert on Saturday, calling off the government's roundup of cattle it said were illegally grazing on federal land and giving about 300 animals back to the rancher who owned them. The dispute less than 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas between rancher Cliven Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had simmered for days. Bundy had stopped paying fees for grazing his cattle on the government land and officials said he had ignored court orders. Anti-government groups, right-wing politicians and gun-rights activists camped around Bundy's ranch to support him in a standoff that tapped into long-simmering anger in Nevada and other Western states, where vast tracts of land are owned and governed by federal agencies. Full Story | Top |
| Strong quake hits near Solomon Islands; tsunami warning cancelled Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 03:27 PM PDT (Reuters) - A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck near the Solomon Islands on Sunday morning, triggering a tsunami warning that was later cancelled, according to U.S. government agencies, and there were no immediate reports of damage. The quake was centered 100 km (60 miles) south of Kira Kira on the island of Makira at a depth of 29 km (18 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. "So far we have received no reports of damage," said Constable Taylor Fugo from Kira Kira police. They all went up the hills and have been watching and waiting for advice." A tsunami warning for the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu was cancelled after only very small tsunami wave activity, just a couple of centimetres, had been measured at two reading stations near the epicentre, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Full Story | Top |
| Iran rejects U.S. ban on pick for U.N. envoy, vows legal action Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 06:46 AM PDT  By Mehrdad Balali DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday rejected a U.S. decision to deny a visa for its newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations, pledging to take up the case directly with the world body in a dispute that has reopened old wounds dating to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The United States, which hosts the United Nations, said Iran's candidate Hamid Abutalebi was unacceptable given his role in a 444-day crisis in which radical Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage. President Barack Obama had come under strong domestic pressure not to allow Abutalebi into the United States to take up his position in New York, raising concerns that the dispute would disrupt delicate negotiations between Tehran and six world powers including Washington over Iran's nuclear program. Full Story | Top |
| Myanmar's first census in three decades extended amid controversy Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 04:04 AM PDT  The women will have to go through 37,579 family census forms, according to officials, using calculators to tally the total numbers because they have no access to computers. The census - the first in three decades - has long been mired in controversy, much of it concerning the counting of Rohingya - Muslims who live in western Rakhine state and often described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Officials say some 100,000 school teachers have fanned out across Myanmar on foot collecting data for the census, expected to count between 48 million and 65 million citizens. On April 10, on what was supposed to be the final day of the census, volunteers went door-to-door in Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital, racing to gather data for a census estimated by rights groups and other groups to cost $74 million. Full Story | Top |
| China protests after Japanese minister visits shrine for war dead Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 04:07 AM PDT  China's foreign ministry lodged a protest with Japan on Saturday after a Japanese minister visited a shrine which is seen by critics as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression. China, as well as South Korea, has repeatedly expressed anger in the past over Japanese politicians' visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal after World War Two are honored along with those who died in battle. China's foreign ministry said the visit by Yoshitaka Shindo, Japan's internal affairs minister, once again showed that Japan's cabinet had the "wrong attitude" when it came to facing up to history. Full Story | Top |
| Investigators focus on cause of deadly California crash Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 12:21 PM PDT By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Investigators were focusing on Saturday on what caused a FedEx tractor-trailer to collide with a bus in a fiery crash in northern California that killed 10 people, five of them teenage students en route to a college recruitment event. It remained unclear whether the FedEx driver was somehow distracted or lost consciousness, or whether a mechanical failure occurred when his truck swerved across the median of Interstate 5 and slammed head-on into the motor coach full of students from the Los Angeles area on Thursday evening. The California Highway Patrol also raised the possibility that a separate collision on the truck's side of the highway might have been a factor. Early highway patrol accounts of the accident said the truck side-swiped a car after crossing the center divider, before hitting the bus. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine prepares armed response as city seized by pro-Russia forces Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 02:54 PM PDT By Pavel Polityuk and Thomas Grove KIEV/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Armed separatists took control of a city in eastern Ukraine on Saturday and Kiev prepared troops to tackle what it called an "act of aggression by Russia", pushing the conflict between the neighbors into a dangerous new phase. Pro-Russian activists carrying automatic weapons seized government buildings in Slaviansk, a town about 150 km (90 miles) from the Russian border, and set up barricades on the outskirts of the city. Government buildings in several other towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were attacked in what Washington said were moves reminiscent of the events that preceded Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. "We are very concerned by the concerted campaign we see under way in eastern Ukraine today by pro-Russian separatists, apparently with support from Russia," said Laura Lucas Magnuson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. agency ends Nevada cattle roundup, releases herd after stand-off Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 04:39 PM PDT  By Jennifer Dobner BUNKERVILLE, Nevada (Reuters) - U.S. officials ended a stand-off with hundreds of armed protesters in the Nevada desert on Saturday, calling off the government's roundup of cattle it said were illegally grazing on federal land and giving about 300 animals back to the rancher who owned them. The dispute less than 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas between rancher Cliven Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had simmered for days. Bundy had stopped paying fees for grazing his cattle on the government land and officials said he had ignored court orders. The bureau had called in a team of armed rangers to Nevada to seize the 1,000 head of cattle on Saturday but backed down in the interests of safety. Full Story | Top |
| France's Le Pen, in Moscow, blames EU for new 'Cold War' Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 05:57 AM PDT  By Alessandra Prentice MOSCOW (Reuters) - Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, blamed the European Union for declaring a new Cold War on Russia that would hurt all concerned, Russian media reported on Saturday as she paid an official visit to Moscow. Europe-Russia relations are at their lowest ebb in decades after President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea prompted the EU to impose sanctions on dozens of prominent Russian officials and lawmakers. However Le Pen, along with other Eurosceptic leaders of the far left and nationalist right, believe the original fault lies with Brussels for offering closer ties with Ukraine, a move Russia opposes. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine says Russia stoking unrest as gunmen seize more buildings Saturday, Apr 12, 2014 06:44 AM PDT  By Gleb Garanich SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine appealed to Russia to halt "provocative actions" in its eastern regions on Saturday as pro-Russian militants seized two more government buildings and called for autonomy from Kiev. At least 20 armed militants wearing mismatched camouflage outfits took over the police and security services headquarters in the eastern city of Slaviansk, about 150 km (90 miles) from the border with Russia, seizing hundreds of handguns. Police said gunmen later took over the local headquarters of Ukraine's SBU security service. Ukraine's acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia, urged Russia to end what he called "provocative actions" by its agents in a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Full Story | Top |
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