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| Chinese oil engineers kidnapped in Sudan freed: Xinhua agency Saturday, May 03, 2014 08:19 PM PDT Two Chinese engineers kidnapped in Sudan have been released, the official Xinhua media service said on Friday, citing a source at the Chinese embassy in Khartoum. The engineers had been held by the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement, an armed group opposed to the Sudanese central government. "The two Chinese engineers were released due to efforts made by the Sudanese government and the Chinese embassy in Khartoum," Xinhua quoted the unnamed source as saying. Chinese media reported that the Darfur group had attacked the Kunar oil field, operated by the Sudanese Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company in the West Kordofan State, on April 18, abducting three engineers, two of them Chinese and one Sudanese. Full Story | Top |
| Three students expelled for harassment at California college: report Saturday, May 03, 2014 08:09 PM PDT (Reuters) - Three students charged in the alleged hate-related harassment of an African-American roommate at San Jose State University have been expelled and the suspension of a fourth student has been extended, a newspaper reported on Saturday. The expelled students were also banned for life from enrolling in any college in the California State University system, according the San Jose Mercury News, citing university documents and sources familiar with the investigation. A spokeswoman for San Jose State, Pat Harris, declined to comment on the report, saying the university does not discuss disciplinary action involving students. According to the paper, students Colin Warren, 18, Joseph Bomgardner, 19, and Logan Beaschler, 18, face misdemeanor hate crime and battery charges for allegedly tormenting a roommate who was 17 at the time. Full Story | Top |
| Ten bodies recovered from collapsed Colombia mine Saturday, May 03, 2014 07:44 PM PDT Rescue workers had pulled 10 bodies from the rubble of a collapsed illegal gold mine in Colombia by Saturday, the government said, three days after it caved in, and six are still believed to be buried under tons of mud and gravel. The mine in Santander de Quilichao in southwestern Cauca province collapsed just before midnight on Wednesday when workers were at the site. "The search continues with dogs and the rescue personnel to find the site where could be more victims," said Captain Victor Claros, commander of the Santander de Quilichao's fire and rescue brigade. A large proportion of Colombia's gold output comes from illegal mines, many under the control of leftist guerrillas who have been fighting the government for five decades. Full Story | Top |
| Napoli win fifth Italian Cup on violent Rome night Saturday, May 03, 2014 06:43 PM PDT By Terry Daley ROME (Reuters) - Napoli beat Fiorentina 3-1 to win their fifth Italian Cup on Saturday in a match that kicked off 45 minutes late after three fans were shot, one critically, in an incident near Rome's Olympic Stadium. A first half brace from Italy international Lorenzo Insigne and a late strike from Dries Mertens helped the southern side, who finished with 10 men, to their second Cup victory in three years. Insigne's goals in the 11th and 17th minutes put Fiorentina on the back foot but Juan Vargas brought his side back into the game just before the half hour with a fantastic volley. Mertens then added Napoli's third in injury time. Full Story | Top |
| U-2 spy plane caused widespread shutdown of U.S. flights: report Saturday, May 03, 2014 04:34 PM PDT A U-2 spy plane caused a computer glitch at a California air traffic control center that led officials to halt takeoffs on Wednesday at several airports in the Southwestern United States and ground planes bound for the region from other parts of the country, NBC reported on Saturday. The computer problem at a Federal Aviation Administration center slowed the journeys of tens of thousands of arriving and departing passengers at Los Angeles International Airport, one of the busiest in the country. Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California, John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, and McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas were among other facilities affected by the order to keep planes grounded. So were flights in other parts of the country that were bound for the wide swath of airspace in the Southwestern United States managed by the FAA's Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center. Full Story | Top |
| Soccer-Napoli win fifth Italian Cup on violent Rome night Saturday, May 03, 2014 04:27 PM PDT * Napoli beat Fiorentina 3-1 at Olympic Stadium * Match overshadowed by shootings, fan clashes * Winners finish with 10 men after Inler sent off (Adds quotes) By Terry Daley ROME, May 3 (Reuters) - Napoli beat Fiorentina 3-1 to win their fifth Italian Cup on Saturday in a match that kicked off 45 minutes late after three fans were shot, one critically, in an incident near Rome's Olympic Stadium. A first half brace from Italy international Lorenzo Insigne and a late strike from Dries Mertens helped the southern side, who finished with 10 men, to their second Cup victory in three years. Insigne's goals in the 11th and 17th minutes put Fiorentina on the back foot but Juan Vargas brought his side back into the game just before the half hour with a fantastic volley. Mertens then added Napoli's third in injury time. Full Story | Top |
| Mickelson shoots 63 to trail Holmes by two in Charlotte Saturday, May 03, 2014 04:12 PM PDT  By Andrew Both CHARLOTTE North Carolina (Reuters) - Phil Mickelson shot his best ever score at Quail Hollow, a nine-under-par 63, to move within two shots of leader J.B. Holmes after the third round of the Wells Fargo Championship on Saturday. Mickelson picked up seven strokes in a stunning six-hole stretch before the turn to negotiate the front nine in 29 and move within striking distance of his 43rd PGA Tour victory. Fellow American J.B. Holmes (66) sank a 20-foot birdie from the fringe at the last to hit the front on 13-under 203, one stroke ahead of countryman Martin Flores (69). "It was a very meaningful round for me," added Mickelson, who attracted a huge gallery on a magnificent spring afternoon. Full Story | Top |
| Former Congressman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota dies at age 79 Saturday, May 03, 2014 04:01 PM PDT (Reuters) - Jim Oberstar, who represented northeastern Minnesota for 36 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and rose to a key position for transportation and infrastructure, died on Saturday at age 79, his family said. Oberstar, a Democrat, was defeated in his 2010 bid for re-election, ending the longest tenure in Minnesota history for a member of Congress. "We are heartbroken to share the news that Jim Oberstar has passed way," the family said. Full Story | Top |
| Three people killed by blasts in Kenya's Mombasa Saturday, May 03, 2014 02:24 PM PDT  By Joseph Akwiri MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - At least three people were killed when attackers threw an explosive device at passengers at a bus station in Mombasa on Saturday, and a luxury hotel in the Kenyan coastal city was damaged in a separate blast, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Kenya has blamed similar attacks on the al Qaeda-linked Somali group al Shabaab, which killed at least 67 people at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September. "What happened is a grenade was thrown at passengers," Mombasa county commissioner Nelson Marwa told journalists. "The attackers were riding on a motor bike, and lobbed the grenade at the crowd of people at the bus terminus." More than 20 people were wounded. Full Story | Top |
| Libyan commander survives assassination attempt in Benghazi: official Saturday, May 03, 2014 02:03 PM PDT A Libyan security official on Saturday survived an assassination attempt by members of an Islamist militia in the volatile eastern city of Benghazi, a security spokesman said. Gunmen opened fire on the car of Abdullah al-Saiti, commander of the city's security operations center, while he was travelling in central Benghazi, said Ibrahim al-Shara, a security spokesman. The security operations center is the top command of government security forces and militias allied to the government in the eastern city. On Friday the government accused Islamist militants of the Ansar al-Sharia group of killing nine special forces soldiers during an attack on the city's security headquarters. Full Story | Top |
| Sinn Fein poised for Irish poll success amid Adams murder probe Saturday, May 03, 2014 02:01 PM PDT  Sinn Fein is in contention to win three of the Irish republic's 11 seats in the European Parliament, a poll showed on Saturday ahead of an election which the party says the arrest of leader Gerry Adams was timed to disrupt. Northern Ireland police extended the detention of Adams by another two days on Friday to give detectives more time to question him about a 1972 murder, raising the stakes in a case that has rocked the British province. Sinn Fein, which shares power in Northern Ireland and has gained popularity south of the border during the country's financial crisis, could win as many European Parliament seats as Prime Minister Enda Kenny's Fine Gael party in the May 23 poll, according to a survey in the Sunday Business Post newspaper. Full Story | Top |
| Italian Cup final delayed after pre-match shootings Saturday, May 03, 2014 01:32 PM PDT  By Terry Daley ROME (Reuters) - The Italian Cup final was delayed after three Napoli fans were shot in clashes near Rome's Olympic stadium before Saturday's match between the southern club and Fiorentina, police said. One of the men was taken to the Villa San Pietro hospital in a critical condition after being hit in the chest while the two others were shot in the arms and also in hospital. The pistol used in the incidents has been found by the police, the AGI and ANSA news agency said. Maurizio Beretta, the Serie A president, said he had made a "heartfelt appeal for responsible behavior" from the supporters. Full Story | Top |
| Soccer-Italian Cup final delayed after pre-match shootings Saturday, May 03, 2014 01:31 PM PDT  By Terry Daley ROME (Reuters) - The Italian Cup final was delayed after three Napoli fans were shot in clashes near Rome's Olympic stadium before Saturday's match between the southern club and Fiorentina, police said. One of the men was taken to the Villa San Pietro hospital in a critical condition after being hit in the chest while the two others were shot in the arms and also in hospital. The pistol used in the incidents has been found by the police, the AGI and ANSA news agency said. Maurizio Beretta, the Serie A president, said he had made a "heartfelt appeal for responsible behavior" from the supporters. Full Story | Top |
| Boy who survived flight in wheel well 'no longer in Hawaii' Saturday, May 03, 2014 01:30 PM PDT  A 15-year-old Somali boy who survived a nearly six-hour trip from California to Hawaii stowed away in the wheel well of an airplane has left protective custody in Hawaii, officials said on Saturday. The teenager was "no longer in Hawaii" according to a brief statement from Hawaii's Department of Human Services. The boy has been in protective custody in Hawaii since he sneaked into the wheel compartment of a Boeing 767 that took off April 20th from San Jose International Airport. His mother, Ubah Mohamed Abdulle, said in a radio interview with the Voice of America that she had fled Somalia and was living in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Full Story | Top |
| GM recalls nearly 52,000 SUVs for inaccurate fuel gauge Saturday, May 03, 2014 01:28 PM PDT  General Motors Co is recalling 51,640 Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia SUVs of the 2014 model year because faulty software may cause the fuel gauge to read inaccurately, U.S. regulators said on Saturday. "An inaccurate fuel gauge may result in the vehicle unexpectedly running out of fuel and stalling, increasing the risk of a crash," the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on its website. GM said in a letter to NHTSA the fuel gauge reading could be off by as much as one-quarter of a tank. Full Story | Top |
| Ukrainian soccer celebrations ended in Odessa deaths Saturday, May 03, 2014 01:21 PM PDT By Elizabeth Piper KIEV (Reuters) - Passions ran high in Odessa before local soccer team Chornomorets was due to play Kharkiv's Metalist. Fans who joined together to sing support for Ukraine's new leaders knew they might attract some trouble in the Russian-speaking city, but no one expected the chain of events that ended in the death of over 40 people. "Everything that happened was like in a horror movie," said Nadiya Yashan, a Chornomorets supporter who accused pro-Russian militants among the away fans of launching a ferocious attack. Over a few hours, running battles moved through the city, along the streets to a camp occupied by pro-Russian supporters, then to a Soviet-era trade union building where dozens of rebels disdainful of rule from Kiev later died in a blaze that engulfed the building. Full Story | Top |
| Berkshire housing executive laments dearth of first-time buyers Saturday, May 03, 2014 12:36 PM PDT By Jonathan Stempel OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - The chief executive of a real estate brokerage business owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said the U.S. housing market is more than halfway through its recovery from its recent depths, held back by a paucity of buyers able to obtain financing for their first homes. Ron Peltier, chief executive of HomeServices of America Inc, said "our industry is probably in the sixth inning of a nine-inning recovery," with very strong activity in coastal markets such as Miami, Boston, New York and Silicon Valley, and in the market for higher-end homes across the country. It's troubling." Peltier spoke in an interview on the sidelines of Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Full Story | Top |
| Dozens killed in Ukraine fighting and fire; OSCE monitors freed Saturday, May 03, 2014 12:26 PM PDT  By Miran Jelenek and Maria Tsvetkova ODESSA/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - At least 42 people were killed in a street battle between supporters and opponents of Russia in southern Ukraine that ended with dozens of pro-Russian protesters incinerated in a burning building, bringing the country closer to war. Pro-Russian rebels in the east freed seven European military observers on Saturday after holding them hostage for eight days, while Kiev pressed on with its biggest military operation so far to reclaim rebel-held territory in the area. The riot in the Black Sea port of Odessa, ending in a deadly blaze in a besieged trade union building, was by far the worst incident in Ukraine since a February uprising that ended with a pro-Russian president fleeing the country. A couple of hundred pro-Russian protesters in the eastern city of Donetsk stormed the governor's business premises and the state security headquarters, ransacking files and smashing windows. Full Story | Top |
| SAC's Steinberg asks for two-year sentence Saturday, May 03, 2014 12:08 PM PDT  By Casey Sullivan and Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michael Steinberg, a portfolio manager at Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors who was found guilty last year on insider trading charges, has asked for a two-year sentence, far shorter than the term recommended by probation officials. In a 65-page sentencing memo, Steinberg's lawyer Barry Berke referred to his "character and broader life accomplishments" in arguing that his sentence should be only two years in prison. A report by the court's probation department recommended that Steinberg be sentenced to a prison term of 4-1/4 to 5-1/4 years for his December conviction on one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and four counts of securities fraud. "Mr. Steinberg is a man of many admirable individual characteristics — but more than that, he is a giver and a doer, someone whose contributions to the happiness, success and well-being of his family, friends, and many others are second to none," Berke wrote to U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico arrests former opposition party governor in embezzlement Saturday, May 03, 2014 12:03 PM PDT A former state governor from Mexico's conservative opposition party has been arrested for embezzlement, the state's attorney general's office and local media said on Saturday. Luis Armando Reynoso Femat, who was governor of the north-central Aguascalientes state from 2004 to 2010 for the National Action Party (PAN), was arrested for allegedly selling state land for around 26 million pesos ($2 million), local media reported. Reynoso Femat was arrested on Friday night, a state attorney general's official said, without explaining the charges. A lawyer for Reynoso Femat on Saturday told local media that he believed the arrest was politically motivated and there is no evidence against his client. Full Story | Top |
| French PM Valls says euro too strong Saturday, May 03, 2014 12:00 PM PDT  French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Saturday the euro was too strong and that President Francois Hollande would take initiatives to boost growth and employment after the May 22-25 European elections. "We need a more appropriate monetary policy, because the level of the euro is too high. We need a major change that makes our monetary policy a tool for growth and job creation, a tool that serves the people," Valls said at a meeting of young European socialists close Paris. Valls told French parliament on Tuesday his government wants talks to address what it considers the excessive strength of the euro once a new European Parliament is in place later this year and called for the EU to boost growth. Full Story | Top |
| Mortar fire kills at least 13 in government-held Syria Saturday, May 03, 2014 11:55 AM PDT By Alexander Dziadosz BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 13 people were killed by mortar fire in government-held areas of Syria on Saturday, including central Damascus, a monitoring group and state media said, just days after President Bashar al-Assad said he would seek another term in office. The attacks occurred as activists said rebel fighters had delayed their planned withdrawal from the Old City district of Homs, once called the "capital of the revolution", although a ceasefire with government forces continued there. Damascus residents say the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim insurgents have stepped up mortar attacks into the government-held capital in recent weeks as government forces have tightened their grip over central parts of the country. Syria's state news agency SANA blamed "terrorists" for the mortar attack in Damascus, saying it killed four people including a 16-year-old girl when it struck a minibus in the al-Dwel'a area of the capital. Full Story | Top |
| Senator urges Hillary Clinton to seek presidency Saturday, May 03, 2014 11:47 AM PDT  Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia on Saturday endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, even though the former secretary of state has not announced whether she will seek the White House in 2016. Kaine, who backed Barack Obama when he beat Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, announced his support on Twitter and at breakfast meeting of the South Carolina Women's Democratic Council in Columbia, South Carolina. "Today I encouraged Hillary Clinton to run for president & pledged my support for her candidacy if she does," Kaine said in a tweet that linked to his remarks on www.readyforhillary.com, website of one of the most prominent pro-Clinton organizations. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. warns of plan to attack hotel in Lagos Saturday, May 03, 2014 11:21 AM PDT  The United States has warned its citizens of a plan to attack one of two Sheraton hotels near Lagos, Nigeria's main commercial hub which attracts many foreign business people and which so far has been spared by the country's violent Islamist militants. In a statement on its website, the State Department said those behind the plot were "groups associated with terrorism", but gave no further details. Nigeria is grappling with an increasingly violent Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands in the past five years. Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is fighting to carve an Islamic state out of religiously mixed Nigeria, is still mostly confined to the northeast, although it has struck across the north and in Nigeria's capital, in the center. Full Story | Top |
| EU calls for independent probe of Odessa deaths Saturday, May 03, 2014 11:12 AM PDT The European Union called on Saturday for an independent investigation into the deaths of at least 42 people in southern Ukraine after a riot ended with dozens of pro-Russian protesters killed in a burning building. The street battle between supporters and opponents of Russia in the Black Sea port of Odessa that ended in the deadly blaze in a besieged trade union building was by far the worst incident in Ukraine since a February uprising that ended with a pro-Russian president fleeing the country. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU was "deeply saddened by the many deaths and injured in yesterday's events in Odessa". "The facts which led to this tragic loss of so many human lives must now be established in an independent investigation and those responsible for these criminal acts brought to justice," she said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Greek conservatives regain lead in polls ahead of EU election Saturday, May 03, 2014 11:02 AM PDT  Greece's co-ruling conservatives have regained a narrow lead over the main, anti-bailout opposition three weeks before a European Parliament election, two polls showed. The election, which coincides with a key local vote, is seen as a test for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' fragile coalition in a country still reeling from the debt crisis and banking on loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Samaras' New Democracy - which leads the coalition with the Socialist PASOK party - and its rival, the leftist Syriza party, have been running neck-and-neck in polls for months, with voters often swinging in favor of one or the other party. But New Democracy has seen a boost in ratings since Athens tapped bond markets in April for the first time in four years and Samaras promised to spend a 527 million euro ($731 million) windfall from Greece's 2013 budget surplus on poor, austerity-hit Greeks. Full Story | Top |
| Afghan landslide rescue focuses on displaced Saturday, May 03, 2014 09:54 AM PDT By Mirwais Harooni and Jeremy Laurence KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan officials gave up hope on Saturday of finding any survivors from a landslide in the remote northeast, with the number killed or missing put at between a few hundred and as many as 2,700. The United Nations said the focus now was on helping more than 4,000 displaced people. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said more than 350 people were killed, but a spokesman for the local governor put the number in excess of 2,100. The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 2,700 were dead or missing. Full Story | Top |
| Papal commission on sex abuse to push for accountability Saturday, May 03, 2014 09:18 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A commission advising Pope Francis on the sexual abuse crisis will recommend that negligent clerics be held accountable regardless of their rank in the Church, Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley said on Saturday. The commission, made up of four men and four women from eight countries including an Irish woman who was a victim of abuse, met for the first time since its formation in March, holding talks with the pope and Vatican officials. "We see ensuring accountability in the Church as especially important," the commission said in a statement. O'Malley, known as a pioneer for a more open and forceful approach to tackling the scandal since he published a database of Boston clergy accused of sexual abuse of minors online in 2011, said a person's rank in the Church should not be cause for special treatment or protection. Full Story | Top |
| Syria cannot delay removing chemical weapons: U.S. Saturday, May 03, 2014 09:11 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he spoke with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday about the need to ensure that the last declared stockpile of Syria's chemical weapons is removed. "I pressed that we must see the last removal of the 8 percent remaining at a site near Damascus," Kerry told reporters, saying the telephone conversation took place during his flight to Democratic Republic of Congo. Syria has been removing 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons under a deal reached last year which averted Western military strikes, after a sarin gas attack on rebel-held suburbs around the Syrian capital in August. "The regime must move immediately to prepare those remaining chemical weapons for removal and we need to meet that removal as fast as possible," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Condoleezza Rice pulls out of Rutgers speech after protests Saturday, May 03, 2014 08:58 AM PDT  By Victoria Cavaliere NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pulled out of delivering the commencement speech at Rutgers University in New Jersey on Saturday, following a months-long protest by students and faculty over her role in the Iraq war. Rice was the face of foreign policy under President George W. Bush, a Republican, serving as national security advisor from 2001 to 2005, and later as secretary of state. She was a leading hawk in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war. In her statement, Rice said her role in the festivities had become a "distraction". Full Story | Top |
| Obama to tour damaged areas of tornado-ravaged Arkansas Saturday, May 03, 2014 08:50 AM PDT  President Barack Obama will travel to central Arkansas on Wednesday to tour communities that were hit by deadly tornadoes earlier this week, Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor said on Saturday. The tornadoes were part of a storm system that blew through the Southern and Midwestern United States earlier this week, killing at least 35 people, including 15 in Arkansas. Obama has already declared a major disaster in Arkansas and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Pryor, who invited Obama to tour the damaged area, said 150 people in Arkansas were injured and more than 260 homes destroyed. Full Story | Top |
| Honduras to extradite drug trafficker wanted by U.S. Saturday, May 03, 2014 08:26 AM PDT  Honduras said it will extradite to the United States a drug trafficker who worked for Mexico's powerful Sinaloa Cartel, making him the first such case since the country changed the law to allow the process two years ago. Carlos Arnoldo Lobo, who the U.S. government says trafficked multi-tonne loads of cocaine from Colombia for Honduran, Guatemalan and Mexican gangs, will be extradited next week, a spokesman for the Honduran justice department said after a decision by the country's Supreme Court late on Friday. The U.S. Treasury Department said Lobo's clients included the Sinaloa Cartel, which has been at the forefront of cocaine trafficking from Mexico into the United States. Full Story | Top |
| Police find four of five rare monkeys stolen from British zoo Saturday, May 03, 2014 08:06 AM PDT British police have recovered four out of five monkeys, some from a critically endangered species, after launching a Europe-wide hunt for the creatures stolen from a zoo in northern England. Thieves took the monkeys - two female and a baby Cotton-top Tamarins and two Emperor Tamarins - from their enclosures after cutting a hole in the perimeter fence of a zoo at Blackpool in northwest England on Tuesday night. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Cotton-top Tamarins as a critically endangered species with a worldwide population estimated at about 6,000. After a widespread public appeal, zoo officials said on Saturday that four of the monkeys were found unharmed at an address in West Yorkshire, about 70 miles (12 miles) from the zoo, on Friday evening. Full Story | Top |
| Yemeni colonel shot dead in Aden, two hurt in bomb attack Saturday, May 03, 2014 07:19 AM PDT Unidentified gunmen shot dead an army colonel in his car in Yemen's southern port city of Aden late on Friday and two soldiers were injured when a car bomb exploded in another major southern port on Saturday, security sources said. The army is conducting a big operation against Islamist militants in the southern provinces of Shabwa and Abyan. Western countries fear further destabilization in Yemen could give more space to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the local branch of the global Islamist militant movement, to plot attacks on international targets. AQAP and its local ally, Ansar al-Sharia, have been waging an insurgency in southern Yemen for more than three years, battling both government forces and local tribal militias. Full Story | Top |
| India deploys army in Assam after 31 Muslims killed Saturday, May 03, 2014 07:18 AM PDT  By Biswajyoti Das BARAMA, India (Reuters) - India deployed troops to the state of Assam on Saturday after 31 Muslims were gunned down in three days of what police said were attacks by tribal militants who resent the presence of immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. The unrest in the tea-growing state comes towards the end of a marathon election across India that has heightened ethnic and religious divisions and which the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks set to win. Full Story | Top |
| Tunisia elections probably to be held in November: election chief Saturday, May 03, 2014 06:58 AM PDT  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's next presidential and parliamentary elections will probably be held in the second half of November, the election agency chief said on Saturday, about polls that will mark the country's final step towards full democracy. Tunisia's often turbulent political transition began after an 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and inspired the "Arab Spring" revolutions across the region. Since then, Tunisia has been led by a caretaker government and has adopted a new constitution. Islamist party Ennahda rose to power in the first election after the uprising, held in October 2011, and Tunisia, one of the Arab world's most secular countries, has struggled with growing divisions over the role of Islam in politics. Full Story | Top |
| 'Top Gear' host Clarkson says gets final warning over racism row Saturday, May 03, 2014 06:27 AM PDT  By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - Television presenter Jeremy Clarkson said he had received a final warning from Britain's publicly-funded broadcaster, the BBC, over using racist language while filming "Top Gear", one of the world's most popular TV programmes. Clarkson, 54, was called before BBC bosses this week after the Mirror newspaper reported he was heard using the word "nigger" as he recited an old version of the rhyme "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe" to choose between cars in filming two years ago. The presenter, known for his humorous but blunt style, apologised in a video on Twitter on Thursday, saying he tried to avoid the racist expression by mumbling over that part of the rhyme in two takes and replacing it with "teacher" in a third. But in a regular column in the Sun newspaper on Saturday, Clarkson admitted he was on his final warning from the BBC after the latest controversy to hit the outspoken but highly profitable presenter. Full Story | Top |
| Chinese municipal legislator investigated for corruption Saturday, May 03, 2014 05:08 AM PDT A legislator in the central Chinese city of Chongqing is under investigation for graft, the ruling Communist Party's top anti-graft body said on Saturday, the latest official to fall in China's fight against corruption. President Xi Jinping has made tackling widespread corruption a central goal of his administration, saying that the problem could threaten Communist Party rule. Tan Xiwei, deputy director of Chongqing's People's Congress Standing Committee, is suspected of "serious violation of discipline and laws", which is Party parlance for engaging in corrupt activities. The party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection made the announcement on its website. Full Story | Top |
| Bond, stock investors making hay; can both be right? Saturday, May 03, 2014 04:37 AM PDT  By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - With U.S. stocks near record highs and Treasury bond yields near multi-month lows, the disconnect between equity and debt investors has rarely been as stark. After a wintry first quarter, stock investors are betting that economic growth is picking up, as evidenced by stronger spending figures and business demand. That's boosted the cyclical stocks which react to rising demand, particularly energy shares. "The data are suggesting this may be the year when we turn the corner," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey. Full Story | Top |
| At least 6 people killed in blast in Somali capital - police Saturday, May 03, 2014 04:32 AM PDT  By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least six people were killed in Mogadishu on Saturday, including a senior city council official, when a remotely controlled bomb planted by al Shabaab insurgents exploded on a busy street in the Somali capital, police said. Somalia's fragile government is struggling to impose any sense of order more than two decades after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre tipped the country into chaos. The city has been hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks in the past few months, claimed by al Qaeda-linked militants al Shabaab, who have waged a sustained guerrilla campaign even after they were pushed out of the city in mid-2011. Police said the bomb that killed the city official was hidden in a pile of rubbish placed along the road. Full Story | Top |
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