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| Japan orders military to strike any new North Korea missile launches Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:54 PM PDT  Japan has ordered a destroyer in the Sea of Japan to strike any ballistic missiles that may be launched by North Korea in the coming weeks after Pyongyang fired a Rodong medium-range missile over the sea, a government source said on Saturday. Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera issued the order on Thursday, but did not make it public in order to avoid putting a chill on renewed talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang, the first in more than a year, local media reported earlier. Onodera, the source said, did not deploy Patriot missile batteries that would be the last line of defense against incoming warheads. The firing of the Rodong coincided with a meeting in The Hague between U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of South Korea and Japan and followed a series of short-range rocket launches. Full Story | Top |
| Biggest search yet for Malaysian missing jet Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:40 PM PDT  By Swati Pandey PERTH (Reuters) - Four weeks after the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner, searchers on Saturday launched the most intensive hunt yet in the southern Indian Ocean, trying to find the plane's black box recorders before their batteries run out. Up to 10 military planes, three civilian jets and 11 ships will scour a 217,000-sq-km (88,000-sq-mile) patch of desolate ocean some 1,700 km (1,060 miles) northwest of Perth near where investigators believe the plane went down on March 8 with the loss of all 239 people on board. "If we haven't found anything in six weeks we will continue because there are a lot of things in the aircraft that will float," Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, told reporters. "Eventually I think something will be found that will help us narrow the search area." Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as a cause but say the evidence, including the loss of communications, suggests Flight MH370 was deliberately diverted thousands of kilometers from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Full Story | Top |
| Polls open in landmark Afghanistan election Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:17 PM PDT Voting began on Saturday in Afghanistan's presidential election, which will mark the first democratic transfer of power since the country was tipped into chaos by the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Taliban insurgents launched a spate of attacks in the run-up to the vote, which they brand as a U.S.-backed sham, but there was no word of violence as voting got under way at 7 a.m. (0230 GMT) local time. After 12 years in power, the incumbent Hamid Karzai is ineligible to run again due to the constitution, and there are eight candidates contesting the election. The favorites are former foreign ministers Abdullah Abdullah and Zalmay Rassoul, and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani. Full Story | Top |
| Landmark Afghan election begins under shadow of violence Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:17 PM PDT  By Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - Voting began on Saturday in Afghanistan's presidential election, which will mark the first democratic transfer of power since the country was tipped into chaos by the fall of the hardline Islamist Taliban regime in 2001. Taliban insurgents launched a spate of attacks that killed dozens in the run-up to the vote, which they brand as a U.S.-backed sham, but there was no word of violence as voting got under way. There are eight candidates contesting, with former foreign ministers Abdullah Abdullah and Almay Rassoul, and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani the favorites. Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, is not allowed to run for the presidency again by the constitution. Full Story | Top |
| Hagel backs Japan plan to bolster self-defense Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:10 PM PDT  U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he welcomed the possibility of Japan giving its military a greater role by allowing it to come to the aid of allies under attack. The comment in an interview with Japan's main financial newspaper, the Nikkei, came ahead of a trip to Japan this weekend and represents the clearest U.S. support yet for Tokyo's effort to bolster its military as it faces off against a more assertive China. "We welcome Japan's efforts to play a more proactive role in the alliance, including by re-examining the interpretation of its constitution relating to the right of collective self-defense," Hagel said in a written response to the Nikkei. Hagel visits China, suspicious of Japan's military intentions and where memories of Japan's past militarism run deep, after Tokyo. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine in emergency talks with EU neighbors on gas imports Friday, Apr 04, 2014 07:14 PM PDT By Pavel Polityuk and Henning Gloystein KIEV/LONDON (Reuters) - Ukraine is in emergency talks with European Union neighbors on the possibility of importing natural gas from the West, following a leap in the price it pays for Russian supplies, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Friday. The urgency of securing affordable supplies has grown since Moscow - which annexed Crimea from Ukraine last month - raised its discounted gas tariff for Kiev twice this week, almost doubling it in three days. Yatseniuk told reporters that one possibility was "reverse flows", in which EU countries would send gas back down pipelines normally used in the transit of Russian supplies through Ukraine to the West. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. will not stand in way of Scottish independence: Salmond Friday, Apr 04, 2014 06:26 PM PDT  By Alistair Bell NEW YORK (Reuters) - The leader of Scotland's separatist movement predicted on Friday that the United States would not try to stand in the way of the breakup of Britain, Washington's staunchest ally for decades, if Scots vote for independence at a referendum this year. Instead, the Obama administration could use the reasonably orderly debate in Britain about Scotland's future as an example to other countries facing constitutional crises, said Alex Salmond, the separatist leader who heads the Scottish National Party and who is Scotland's first minister. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry warns U.S. is evaluating role in Middle East peace talks Friday, Apr 04, 2014 05:38 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton RABAT (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Washington was evaluating whether it was worth continuing its role in Middle East peace talks, signaling his patience with the Israelis and Palestinians was running out. There was a limit to U.S. efforts if the parties themselves were unwilling to move forward, Kerry said during a visit to Morocco after a week of setbacks. It is reality check time, and we intend to evaluate precisely what the next steps will be," Kerry said, adding he would return to Washington on Friday to consult with the Obama administration. White House spokesman Josh Earnest acknowledged that President Barack Obama shared Kerry's frustration over "unhelpful" actions by both sides and the two men would discuss the path forward in the eight-month-old talks after the secretary of state's return to Washington. Full Story | Top |
| North Korea tells world 'wait and see' on new nuclear test Friday, Apr 04, 2014 04:22 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea said on Friday that the world would have to "wait and see" when asked for details of "a new form" of nuclear test it threatened to carry out after the United Nations Security Council condemned Pyongyang's recent ballistic missile launch. North Korea fired two medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles into the sea on March 26. Its first firing in four years of mid-range missiles that can hit Japan followed a series of short-range rocket launches over the past two months. North Korea (DPRK) reacted on Sunday with a threat to conduct what it called "a new form of nuclear test. Full Story | Top |
| Mob attacks Ebola treatment centre in Guinea, suspected cases reach Mali Friday, Apr 04, 2014 04:21 PM PDT By Adama Diarra and Misha Hussain BAMAKO/CONAKRY (Reuters) - An angry crowd attacked an Ebola treatment center in Guinea on Friday, accusing its staff of bringing the deadly disease to the town, Medecins Sans Frontieres said, as Mali identified its first suspected cases. More than 90 people have already died in Guinea and Liberia in what medical charity MSF, or Doctors without Borders, has warned could turn into an unprecedented epidemic in an impoverished region with poor health services. The outbreak in Guinea is the first time the disease, epidemics of which occur regularly in Central Africa, has appeared in the country. News of the outbreak has sent shockwaves through communities with little knowledge of the disease or how it is transmitted, and the suspected cases in Mali have added to fears that it is spreading in West Africa. Full Story | Top |
| California's senator Yee indicted on gun, corruption charges Friday, Apr 04, 2014 04:04 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - A prominent Democratic California state senator and gun-control advocate was indicted by a San Francisco grand jury on charges of corruption and conspiracy to traffic in firearms, according to court documents released on Friday. The indictment adds to the troubles facing state Senator Leland Yee, who was arrested last week and criminally charged along with two dozen others in the same case. Yee, 65, is the third California state senator to face criminal charges this year in separate cases that have cost Democrats a cherished two-thirds legislative majority in an election year and prompted them to cancel a major fundraiser planned for this weekend. Senate Democratic leader Darrell Steinberg, who has said that the charges against Yee "sickened" him, on Friday renewed calls for the senator to resign. Full Story | Top |
| Bachelet's quick Chile quake response helps her reform campaign Friday, Apr 04, 2014 03:34 PM PDT  By Alexandra Ulmer SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean President Michelle Bachelet's efficient response to this week's earthquake is a far cry from her handling of a massive quake that hit four years ago, a turnaround that analysts and citizens say has put her and her reform drive in a stronger political position. Emergency services and security forces moved quickly to limit the damage of an 8.2-magnitude quake that hit northern Chile on Tuesday. It was in stark contrast to the center-leftist Bachelet's poor management of the 8.8-magnitude quake that slammed central-south Chile in 2010 and triggered a devastating tsunami. Bachelet, who was imprisoned and tortured during Chile's 1973-1990 military dictatorship, then dithered about sending in the army to restore order. Full Story | Top |
| Geologist raised idea of removing homes from U.S. landslide area Friday, Apr 04, 2014 03:33 PM PDT  By Jonathan Kaminsky DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - A contractor who studied the risks to a rural neighborhood in Washington state wiped out by a mudslide last month made recommendations more than a decade ago that included possible relocation of homes elsewhere. News of the recommendations, made in a report for a Native American tribe with traditional fishing rights in the area, emerged as searchers scoured a pile of mud and debris for victims of the March 22 slide that left dozens dead or missing. About 30 people have been confirmed dead from the slide, which roared over the north fork of the Stillaguamish River and state Highway 530, engulfing about three dozen homes on the outskirts of the rural town of Oso in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Jim Miller, a geological engineer with GeoEngineers, said his company prepared a 2001 report for the Stillaguamish tribe that warned of a "significant risk to human lives and private property" at the slide site. Full Story | Top |
| EU must be ready with Russia sanctions over Ukraine: Britain Friday, Apr 04, 2014 02:42 PM PDT By Justyna Pawlak ATHENS (Reuters) - Britain urged its European Union partners on Friday to press ahead with preparing tough economic sanctions against Russia, saying large numbers of Russian forces remained on Ukraine's eastern border and there had been only a "token" withdrawal. "We haven't seen real de-escalation by Russia and therefore Europe must not relax in preparing a third tier of sanctions and making sure we continue to have a strong and united response," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Athens. He was referring to trade and economic measures the EU has threatened to take against Russia after its annexation of Crimea if it moves into southern and eastern Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Iran oil exports will be in line with sanctions target: U.S. Friday, Apr 04, 2014 02:34 PM PDT By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States on Friday dismissed suggestions that Iran was exporting much more oil than it is allowed to sell under a preliminary nuclear deal with world powers and predicted that aggregate Iranian oil sales would meet targets set for Tehran. The remarks from a senior U.S. official came ahead of a new round of senior-level negotiations between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia in Vienna on April 8-9. It will be the third round of talks this year in the Austrian capital on a long-term deal with Iran. Iran's oil exports have stayed above levels allowed under Western sanctions for a fifth month, the latest sign that the limited sanctions relief agreed upon in November is helping Tehran sell more crude, according to sources who track tanker movements. Full Story | Top |
| Scientists warn unsafe Italian schools risk earthquake disaster Friday, Apr 04, 2014 02:21 PM PDT By Naomi O'Leary L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - Italy risks disaster if its schools are not strengthened against earthquakes, leading geologists said on Friday, in a call for action before the fifth anniversary of a quake in the university town of L'Aquila that killed over 300. Risk to life from earthquakes in Italy has worsened since the disaster on April 6, 2009, the National Council of Geologists warned at an event in the devastated city in the central Abruzzo region, saying buildings had continued to be constructed without respecting anti-earthquake regulations. Standing outside a residence where seven students died, the council's president Gian Vito Graziano warned casualties may have been much higher if the earthquake had not struck at night. It's hard to imagine you are unsafe in your school or university, but unfortunately in Italy this is the case," Graziano said under pouring rain. Full Story | Top |
| Angry mob attacks Ebola treatment centre in Guinea Friday, Apr 04, 2014 02:03 PM PDT CONAKRY (Reuters) - An angry crowd attacked a treatment center in Guinea on Friday where staff from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were working to contain an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, forcing it to shut down, a spokesman for the medical charity said. "We have evacuated all our staff and closed the treatment center," Sam Taylor told Reuters, adding that the attackers in Macenta had accused MSF of bringing the disease to the southeastern town. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chad starts pulling peacekeepers from Central African Republic Friday, Apr 04, 2014 01:31 PM PDT  By Jean-Frederic Perriere BANGUI (Reuters) - Chad began withdrawing its troops from Central African Republic's peacekeeping mission on Friday as a U.N. report accused its soldiers of killing 30 civilians and wounding 300 in an attack on a crowded market last week. Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat denied the allegation, saying the troops had been ambushed by Christian "anti-balaka" militia and had responded. A series of violent incidents involving Chadian troops has stoked fury in the former French colony, culminating in Chad's decision on Thursday to withdraw its troops from the African Union peacekeeping force, known as MISCA. "Chadian officers under MISCA command and around 200 soldiers have left in the direction of Chad," Hassan Sylla, Chad's communications minister, said. Full Story | Top |
| Two drug tunnels, with rail systems, found at U.S.-Mexico border Friday, Apr 04, 2014 01:11 PM PDT By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have uncovered two drug-smuggling tunnels underneath the U.S.-Mexico border, both surfacing in San Diego-area warehouses and equipped with rail systems for moving contraband, officials said on Friday. The discovery led to the arrest of a 73-year-old woman accused of running one of the warehouses connected to a drug smuggling operation, according to a joint news release by four federal agencies. The tunnels were discovered as part of a five-month investigation by the so-called San Diego Tunnel Task Force. Federal law enforcement officials said the first tunnel, which connects a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, with one in an industrial park in the border community of Otay Mesa, is about 600 yards long and is furnished with lighting, a crude rail system and wooden trusses. Full Story | Top |
| Amid spate of violence, Afghans vote to choose new leader Friday, Apr 04, 2014 12:35 PM PDT  The Taliban, hardline Islamists bent on toppling the government, have deployed fighters countrywide to disrupt an election they brand a U.S.-backed sham. A veteran Associated Press photographer was killed and a senior correspondent of the same news agency was wounded on Friday when a policeman opened fire on the two women in eastern Afghanistan as they reported on preparations for the poll. The capital, Kabul, has been sealed off from the rest of the country by rings of roadblocks and checkpoints. Kandahar, cradle of the Taliban insurgency, was in virtual lockdown ahead of the vote. Full Story | Top |
| Poll shows India's Modi holding strong lead before voting begins Friday, Apr 04, 2014 11:51 AM PDT Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi appeared on course to become the next prime minister on Friday, with an opinion poll showing his Hindu nationalist party maintaining a strong lead ahead of a general election that begins next week. Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has benefited from a wave of public anger over corruption scandals and a slowing economy under the ruling Congress Party, which may be facing one of its weakest-ever showings at the polls. The BJP is expected to win 35 percent of votes, a poll published by CNN-IBN and Lokniti at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) showed, 1 percent higher than a similar poll in January. Congress is likely to claim 25 percent of the vote, down from 27 percent in the January poll, according to the last major survey before the election. Full Story | Top |
| Far-right video leak halts Greek government's poll boost Friday, Apr 04, 2014 11:25 AM PDT  By Costas Pitas and Renee Maltezou ATHENS (Reuters) - A scandal in Greece over the prosecution of far-right politicians has helped the leftist opposition halt a rise in support for the government, a poll showed on Friday, despite a week of positive economic data. Takis Baltakos, a top aide to the Greek prime minister, resigned on Wednesday after a leaked video showed him suggesting the government had tried to press judges to jail lawmakers from the far-right Golden Dawn party. The video has embarrassed Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who has just struck a deal with the country's EU/IMF lenders, boosting hopes that Greece could be ready to issue bonds for the first time in four years. In a poll by Metron Analysis, 26.5 percent of voters said they would vote for the anti-bailout Syriza party in May's European elections while 25.1 percent said they would support Samaras's New Democracy. Full Story | Top |
| Thousands of Bahrainis march for democracy ahead of F1 race Friday, Apr 04, 2014 10:58 AM PDT  By Farishta Saeed MANAMA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of mainly Shi'ite protesters marched for democratic reforms in Bahrain on Friday, two days before its annual Formula One motor race turns international attention toward the Sunni-led kingdom. The protest, organized by al-Wefaq Islamic Society, the main opposition group, drew an estimated 20,0000 men and women who marched with national flags and posters in northwestern Bahrain demanding reforms and release of prisoners. The tiny Gulf Arab monarchy, a U.S. ally, has suffered sporadic unrest since an uprising led by its Shi'ite Muslim majority in early 2011 demanding reforms and a bigger share of power in the minority-led government. The turmoil forced the cancellation of that year's race, but the event went ahead despite continuing unrest in 2012 and 2013, with Germany's Sebastian Vettel winning both times. Full Story | Top |
| Mali suspects first Ebola cases as regional death toll tops 90 Friday, Apr 04, 2014 10:55 AM PDT  Mali said it had identified its first possible cases of Ebola since the start of an outbreak in neighboring Guinea, adding to fears that the deadly virus was spreading across West Africa. More than 90 people have already died in Guinea and Liberia in what medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned could turn into an unprecedented epidemic in an impoverished region with poor health services. Foreign mining companies have locked down operations and pulled out some international staff in mineral-rich Guinea. It added that the health of the three suspected victims was showing signs of improving. Full Story | Top |
| Greater tension could do systemic harm to Russian firms-Norilsk Friday, Apr 04, 2014 10:48 AM PDT By Silvia Antonioli LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Any worsening of tension between Moscow and the West that leads to stiffer sanctions would do systemic damage to Russian companies by deterring investors and making borrowing more difficult, a Norilsk Nickel executive said. Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula has marked the biggest East-West crisis since the Cold War and prompted the United States and Europe to impose sanctions. Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel and palladium miner, has not been hit by the political tension so far, but all Russian companies would suffer should the situation escalate, its deputy chief executive officer for government and investor relations said in an interview. "The impact would be felt if the situation further aggravated and there would be some systemic implications for companies, like for example a decrease in the ratings...lack of interest from investors, an exodus of some of the investors from the shareholder base, tightening of the terms of financing," Andrei Bougrov said. Full Story | Top |
| Brazil's senate warns of country's 'vulnerability' to spying Friday, Apr 04, 2014 10:11 AM PDT  By Karla Mendes BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian senate inquiry on U.S. spying in the country found Brazil "unprepared" to deal with eavesdropping by foreign agents and proposes a new law to address its "profound vulnerability," according to a copy of a report obtained by Reuters. The 301-page report, following an inquiry on disclosures last year that the U.S. National Security Agency had spied on the phone calls and emails of Brazilians, including President Dilma Rousseff, says Brazil's government is "unprepared to contend with intelligence activity by other governments or organizations." The Senate report, obtained by Reuters through a source in Brazil's Congress, says Brazil's vulnerabilities lie in the very choices it made in developing telecommunications infrastructure. Most of the undersea cables that carry international calls from Brazil, for instance, are routed through Miami - handling 90 percent of the data sent from Brazil abroad. Full Story | Top |
| Pressure mounts on Austrian far-right EU candidate to quit Friday, Apr 04, 2014 10:04 AM PDT  Pressure mounted on Austria's far-right Freedom Party to fire one of its two top candidates for next month's EU parliament elections after he made racist comments and said the bloc made Nazi Germany's Third Reich look liberal by comparison. Andreas Moelzer has apologised for saying the European Union was in danger of becoming a "conglomerate of negroes" who lacked the work ethic of the Germans and the Austrians. And he has denied being the author of an article complaining that today's Viennese look like "raven-black" Austrian soccer star David Alaba and that one has to visit an old people's home to see what "real Austrians" used to be like. The Freedom Party (FPO) is treading a fine line to position itself as a mainstream party electable by voters fed up with creeping EU centralisation who would not identify themselves as far-right. Full Story | Top |
| NATO opens Kosovo airspace to civilian overflights after 15 years Friday, Apr 04, 2014 09:16 AM PDT NATO said on Friday it had allowed private planes to fly high over Kosovo for the first time in 15 years, letting commercial airlines save time and money by taking more direct routes across the region. There are regular civilian flights to Pristina, Kosovo's capital, but private airliners have been barred from using the so-called "upper" airspace since NATO took over responsibility for policing it at the end of the Kosovo war in 1999. The upper airspace was reopened to commercial overflights on Thursday after Hungary agreed to provide air traffic control for private flights. Airliners travelling between northern Europe and southeastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia will now no longer have to skirt Kosovo but fly straight over it - "a significant step that benefits the entire Western Balkans," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. Full Story | Top |
| India's opposition holds strong lead in last big poll before election Friday, Apr 04, 2014 09:09 AM PDT  India's opposition BJP party, headed by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, is set to win 35 percent of votes in the general election starting Monday, a poll released late on Friday showed. The ruling Congress party is expected to get 25 percent of votes, according to the poll by CNN-IBN and Lokniti at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), the last major poll before the election. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies are expected to win a combined 38 percent, giving them between 234 and 246 seats out of the 543-seat assembly. Congress and its allies are expected to win 28 percent, entitling them to between 111 and 123 seats, according to the poll. Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen kill four soldiers, officer in Yemen checkpoint raid Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:56 AM PDT Gunmen believed to be linked to al Qaeda killed four soldiers and an officer at a checkpoint on Friday in southeastern Yemen, a local official said. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack on the checkpoint outside al-Qatan, one of the largest cities in Hadramout province, the official told Reuters. The Yemeni Interior Ministry said on its website that "terrorist elements" attacked a checkpoint operated by soldiers, causing deaths and injuries, but gave no specific figures. Full Story | Top |
| Britons who pleaded guilty to U.S. terror charges seek secret files Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:55 AM PDT  By Richard Weizel MILFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Two British men who pleaded guilty to raising money for al Qaeda and the Taliban go to a U.S. court on Friday seeking access to secret documents about a witness whose testimony could influence how long they spend in prison. The pair, 39-year-old Babar Ahmad and 34-year-old Syed Talha Ahsan, have argued in papers filed in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Connecticut, that they have a right to more information on the witness, British citizen Saajid Badat. According to U.S. prosecutors, Badat was recruited into al Qaeda as a result of Ahmad's work and went on to play a role in the attempt by "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, another Briton, to blow up a jetliner over the Atlantic Ocean just three months after the September 11, 2001 attacks. "The witness has perhaps the greatest incentive to lie and the greatest need for effective confrontation," the lawyers said in court papers. Full Story | Top |
| Main Turk opposition loses bid for election recount in Ankara Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:38 AM PDT Turkey's main opposition CHP party has lost a bid to force a recount of the results of Sunday's local election in the capital Ankara, a party source said on Friday. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party largely dominated Turkey's electoral map in the nationwide communal polls, keeping control of the main cities including Istanbul and Ankara. The source said the CHP would appeal the decision against a recount taken by the Ankara election board. But a reversal of the Ankara result would have been little more than a consolation prize for the opposition, who failed to dent Erdogan's support nationally in a vote that became a referendum on his rule as he battles allegations of corruption. Full Story | Top |
| Russia sacrifices Gazprom profit for politics in Ukraine: analysts Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:33 AM PDT By Vladimir Soldatkin and Denis Pinchuk MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's top natural gas producer, Gazprom, will eventually lose more than it gains from raising the gas price for Ukraine by 80 percent, analysts said on Friday, predicting Kiev would cut purchases and fail to pay in full. Gazprom on Thursday announced a price rise for Ukraine to $485 per 1,000 cubic metres, the second increase in three days. The $485 price is the highest of any Gazprom customer and compares with around $370 on average for clients in the European Union. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said the increase, two weeks after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea region, was unacceptable and warned he expected Russia to step up pressure by limiting supplies to Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Rebels take northern Syrian town on main highway: activists Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:24 AM PDT Islamist rebels in Syria have retaken a town from President Bashar al-Assad's forces, activists said on Friday, in part of an offensive along a stretch of the main highway linking Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels killed 18 soldiers and disabled two tanks in the fight for the northern town of Babolin. Assad's army, backed by local militia and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, has made steady gains around Damascus and in the Lebanese border areas, but his forces remain stretched and rebels have sought to seize the initiative elsewhere. After capturing Babolin, rebels were battling pro-Assad fighters along a nearby 20-mile (30-km) stretch of highway between the towns of Morek and Maarat al-Nuaman, the Observatory, which is based in Britain, said. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey's Erdogan calls for rate cut, says no early election Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:15 AM PDT  By Nick Tattersall and Gulsen Solaker ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called for an emergency interest rate cut, ruled out early elections and spoke against the lifting of a Twitter ban on Friday, signalling no let-up in his domineering style ahead of an expected run for president. Returning to the public eye after several days of rest following his AK Party's strong showing in local polls on Sunday, Erdogan said markets had rallied on the back of the election results and lower interest rates would encourage investors to pump more money into Turkey. But his efforts to dictate monetary policy unnerved the markets, with the lira weakening on fears that political pressure to keep rates low could compromise the central bank's ability to fight rising inflation and external imbalances. Full Story | Top |
| Austrian Jew to take restitution case to Europe rights court Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:13 AM PDT By Derek Brooks VIENNA (Reuters) - A Jewish critic of Austria's post-war record in returning property plundered by the Nazis plans to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights after receiving a jail sentence last year when his own restitution claim went sour. Stephan Templ, 53, an architectural historian living in Prague, was sentenced to three years in jail for defrauding the Alpine republic after failing to name his aunt in a restitution claim for a hospital building near Vienna's famous Ringstrasse. The state argued that the aunt, Elisabeth Kretschmer, could have relinquished her stake in the building, which was seized from its Jewish owner after Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, and that this share would have reverted to the state. Kretschmer learned in 2011, two years after a state panel returned the building to dozens of relatives including Tempel's mother, that she had missed a deadline to claim a stake in the property, and she then went to Vienna prosecutors. Full Story | Top |
| France's far-right to ban faith-based school lunch options Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:02 AM PDT Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said on Friday it would prevent schools from offering special lunches to Muslim pupils in the 11 towns it won in local elections, saying such arrangements were contrary to France's secular values. France's republic has a strict secular tradition enforceable by law, but faith-related demands have risen in recent years, especially from the country's five-million-strong Muslim minority, the largest in Europe. "We will not accept any religious demands in school menus," Le Pen told RTL radio. "There is no reason for religion to enter the public sphere, that's the law." The anti-immigrant National Front has consistently bemoaned the rising influence of Islam in French public life. Full Story | Top |
| New French government seeks confidence vote to save reform Friday, Apr 04, 2014 08:01 AM PDT  By Alexandria Sage PARIS (Reuters) - France's newly formed government will seek a confidence vote from parliament on Tuesday, a step that would allow it to press ahead with President Francois Hollande's business reforms to spur growth without having to risk a separate vote. New Prime Minister Manuel Valls approved the vote during his first cabinet meeting as his reshuffled team of 16 Socialist ministers strives to present a united front after the Greens party broke away from the coalition over energy policy. "On Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister will present a general policy speech and there will be a vote of confidence," government spokesman Stephane Le Foll told a news briefing after the cabinet's first meeting on Friday. "It's the general policy speech of the prime minister that will outline the stakes and the overall themes." ELECTION DRUBBING Hollande originally intended to tie the vote of confidence to a subsequent vote on the responsibility pact. Full Story | Top |
| Norway wealth fund to ramp up renewable energy investments Friday, Apr 04, 2014 07:37 AM PDT By Camilla Knudsen and Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's $860 billion oil fund should scale up its investments in renewable energy and weigh the risk to future returns posed by climate change, the finance ministry said on Friday, a shift green groups said was insufficient. "The increased scope we give on green investments will help the fund's ability to actively manage investments in this area," Finance Minister Siv Jensen told reporters. "It's peanuts relative to the overall size of the fund." She said the government, a coalition of the center-right Conservatives and the populist Progress Party, had raised expectations by putting investments in renewables on its joint political platform. That suggests the government, which announced the reform of the fund when it took office in October, may struggle to win consensus support for its proposals in parliament, where it has a minority and relies on the support of the Christian Democrats and a second small centrist party, the Liberals. Full Story | Top |
| First candidate says to contest Lebanon's presidential race Friday, Apr 04, 2014 07:29 AM PDT  Lebanese Christian politician Samir Geagea announced on Friday he will run for president in an election due next month, the first candidate to formally enter a race overshadowed by growing violence and months of political paralysis. President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends in late May. Parliament must approve his successor with a two-thirds majority. The vice-chairman of Geagea's Lebanese Forces party, George Adwan, told party members the group's executive body "unanimously nominates party chief Samir Geagea for the Lebanese presidential election." He said Lebanon had fallen into a "state of chaos and lawlessness." Heavily influenced by the war in neighboring Syria, and host to more than a million refugees, Lebanon has struggled to control a deterioration in security and an economic slowdown. In February, Lebanon formed a new government, breaking a 10-month political deadlock during which a caretaker government with limited powers was in charge. Full Story | Top |
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