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| Former Congressman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota dies at age 79 Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:51 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 |
| China hunting family members of Xinjiang bombers Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:19 PM PDT  Police in China's restive far western region of Xinjiang are looking for the family members of one of the men who died in an apparent suicide bombing at a train station last week, a state-run newspaper said on Monday. The Chinese government has blamed religious extremists for carrying out a bomb and knife attack at a train station in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, on Wednesday evening that killed one bystander and wounded 79. In an embarrassing security lapse, the attack happened just as President Xi Jinping was wrapping up his first visit to Xinjiang since becoming president last year. The newspaper identified one of the attackers as Sedirdin Sawut, a 39-year-old man from Xayar county in Xinjiang's Aksu region. Full Story | Top |
| Plane crash at California air show kills pilot Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:18 PM PDT SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - An airplane crashed during an air show at Travis Air Force Base in California on Sunday, killing its 77-year-old pilot and forcing a shutdown of the show, a spokesman for the base said. The vintage PT-17 biplane piloted by civilian Eddie Andreini went down shortly after 2 p.m., the base posted on its website. Base spokesman Airman Bryan Swink said that the pilot was performing an aerobatic maneuver when the aircraft went down. He did not say whether anyone else was on the plane. ... Full Story | Top |
| Panama leader's deputy-turned-rival wins presidency Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:04 PM PDT  By Christine Murray and Elida Moreno PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's vice-president, running as an opposition candidate, won the presidential election on Sunday after a campaign in which he took credit for outgoing leader Ricardo Martinelli's successful economic policies while promising a cleaner government. Juan Carlos Varela of the center-right Panamenista Party (PP) helped Martinelli get elected as president in 2009 but later fell out with him. Varela had 39 percent support with about 80 percent of votes counted, enough for a comfortable victory over his two main rivals, Jose Domingo Arias or the ruling Democratic Change party (CD) and left-leaning former Panama City mayor Juan Carlos Navarro of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). There will be an honest, humane government of national unity, a government of social peace," Varela told Reuters at a Panama City hotel after the election tribunal declared him the winner. Full Story | Top |
| Pro-Russians storm Odessa police station, PM slams local police Sunday, May 04, 2014 07:57 PM PDT  By Oleksander Miliukov ODESSA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian militants stormed a Ukrainian police station in Odessa on Sunday and freed nearly 70 fellow activists as the country's leaders lamented a police force they said was widely undermined by graft or collaboration with separatists. Militants chanted "We will not forgive!" and "Russia!" as they smashed windows and broke down the gate at the compound two days after over 40 pro-Russian activists died in a blaze at a building they had occupied after clashes with pro-Kiev groups. Odessa police said 67 activists were allowed to walk free. Some officers were offered the black and orange St. George's ribbon, a Russian military insignia that has become a symbol of the revolt, and were cheered by the crowd of several hundred. Full Story | Top |
| Chinese state media unveil premier's wife for first time Sunday, May 04, 2014 07:38 PM PDT China's state media have published for the first time the photograph and resume of Premier Li Keqiang's wife, a professor of English who has translated several books on American literature. State news agency Xinhua said on Sunday that Li was married to Cheng Hong, who is aged 56 or 57. The couple, who left on Sunday for an official tour of Africa, have one daughter and met at the elite Peking University, Xinhua said. The wife of former Premier Wen Jiabao never traveled with him, though the wives of former premiers Li Peng and Zhu Rongji accompanied them on trips, the Beijing News reported on Monday, citing a former foreign ministry official. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Specter of SARS weighs on CDC as MERS virus lands in U.S. Sunday, May 04, 2014 07:04 PM PDT By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - When the SARS outbreak arrived in Toronto on Feb. 23, 2003, carried by a woman traveling from Hong Kong, the disease quickly spread to hospital workers and patients in area hospitals, ultimately infecting 257 individuals and killing 33 people. It's a memory that hangs fresh in the mind of Dr Michael Bell, deputy director of the division of healthcare quality promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Atlanta-based federal agency last week sent a team of infectious disease experts to Community Hospital in Munster, Indiana, to attend to the first confirmed U.S. case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS. "In a worst-case scenario, this could spread rapidly." MERS is caused by a coronavirus, a family of viruses that includes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, which emerged in China in 2002-2003 and killed some 800 people. Full Story | Top |
| Olympic relay medals in jeopardy after Tyson Gay's ban Sunday, May 04, 2014 06:58 PM PDT  The International Olympics Committee (IOC) will have the final say on whether Tyson Gay's 4x100 meters relay team mates will be stripped of their London Games medals in the wake of the sprinter's doping ban, the IAAF told Reuters. Gay received a one-year suspension on Friday after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid in 2013. All his results from July 2012 onwards have been annulled and he has already returned his relay silver medal to the U.S. Olympic Committee. Still to be determined is whether his team mates - Trell Kimmons, Justin Gatlin and Ryan Bailey - will also lose the Olympic silver medals they won in London in 2012. Full Story | Top |
| Australia central bank seen on hold even as tough budget looms Sunday, May 04, 2014 06:34 PM PDT  By Ian Chua SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's central bank is almost certain to maintain a neutral policy bias this week with a batch of data likely to point to an economy that is picking up speed, uncomfortable reading for a government preparing voters for a tough federal budget. All 25 economists polled by Reuters expect the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to hold its cash rate steady at a record low 2.5 percent and reiterate its vow to keep interest rates unchanged in the months ahead. "While recent economic indicators have been mixed and inflation was weaker than expected, we believe that the RBA's policy stance is firmly neutral and expect the central bank to leave monetary policy unchanged," Nomura analyst Martin Whetton said. "Moreover, we think the statement will continue to suggest that the RBA is not considering any changes to its policy stance and will very likely reiterate that 'the most prudent course is likely to be a period of stability in interest rates'." The RBA will get another chance to hammer that message home on Friday when it releases its quarterly statement on monetary policy. Full Story | Top |
| Australia services index slips to 48.6 in April: AIG Sunday, May 04, 2014 06:34 PM PDT Australia's services sector contracted for a second month in April, with firms still fretting about the potential of tax increases and big spending cuts at the upcoming government budget, a private survey on Monday showed. The Australian Industry Group's performance of services index (PSI) fell 0.3 point to 48.6 in April, following a 6.2- point drop in March. Full Story | Top |
| Australia job ads rise for fourth month in April Sunday, May 04, 2014 06:34 PM PDT Australian job advertisements in newspapers and on the Internet rose for a fourth straight month in April, a further sign that demand for labor is recovering from a long fallow period. A survey by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group showed total job advertisements rose a seasonally adjusted 2.2 percent in April, from March when they had risen 1.4 percent. "Labor demand has strengthened this year, with each of the main job ads/vacancies measures improving gradually, or at least stabilizing over this period," said ANZ chief economist for Australia Ivan Colhoun. The ANZ job ads survey's correlation with employment has weakened over the last couple of years, in part due to firms using other methods of reaching job seekers such as social media. Full Story | Top |
| Australia inflation gauge climbs 0.4 percent in April: TDMI Sunday, May 04, 2014 06:34 PM PDT A private gauge of Australian inflation jumped in April as the cost of postal services, tobacco, communication and travel all rose, a potential sign of returning price pressures following a softer patch in the first quarter. The TD Securities-Melbourne Institute's monthly measure of consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in April, from March when it increased by 0.2 percent. That saw the annual pace tick up to 2.8 percent, and nearer the top of the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) long-term target band of 2 to 3 percent. Markets are pricing in almost no chance of a further easing and some prospect of a hike late in the year, in part because domestically-driven inflation pressure have proved more stubborn than hoped. Full Story | Top |
| Maiteeq installed as Libya's new premier but dismissed by speaker Sunday, May 04, 2014 05:30 PM PDT  By Feras Bosalum and Ulf Laessing TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Businessman Ahmed Maiteeq was sworn in as Libya's new prime minister on Sunday after chaotic voting in parliament, but hours later the deputy speaker declared the election invalid as a power struggle erupted in the assembly. The divisions in the assembly showcase growing turmoil in the North African country awash with arms and militias from the 2011 ouster of Muammar Gaddafi, where government and parliament are unable to assert authority. Officials gave contradicting versions of the parliamentary election outcome, with First Deputy Speaker Ezzedin al-Awami initially saying Maiteeq had failed to obtain the necessary quorum even through he had emerged as front-runner in prior votes. But a power struggle over who controls the assembly broke out when Saleh Makhzoum, second deputy speaker, rejected Awami's assertion and said Maiteeq had won the necessary support. Full Story | Top |
| Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams urges calm after release Sunday, May 04, 2014 04:41 PM PDT  By Conor Humphries BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Ireland police released Gerry Adams from custody on Sunday and the Sinn Fein leader sought to calm fears that his four-day detention could destabilise the British province by pledging his support to the peace process. Police arrested Adams on Wednesday over the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, a killing he repeated that he was "innocent of any part" in. His detention had raised tensions among Northern Ireland's power-sharing government and its fragile peace. After Sinn Fein pointed the finger at "dark forces" in the police service and their Protestant partners in government accused it of a "thuggish attempt" at blackmail, a calm Adams toned down the rhetoric and said he supported the police. Full Story | Top |
| Panama president's deputy-turned-rival takes early election lead Sunday, May 04, 2014 04:37 PM PDT  By Christine Murray and Elida Moreno PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's vice-president, running as an opposition candidate, took an early lead in Sunday's presidential election after a campaign in which he took credit for outgoing President Ricardo Martinelli's policies but vowed cleaner government. Juan Carlos Varela of the center-right Panamenista Party (PP) helped Martinelli get elected in 2009 but later fell out with him and has vowed to cut the cost of living and reduce poverty. Varela had 38.87 percent support with votes counted from around 25.7 percent of polling booths, Panama's election authority said. Ruling party contender Jose Domingo Arias had 31.86 percent, while left-leaning former Panama City mayor Juan Carlos Navarro of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) had 27.97 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Plane crash prompts shutdown of California air show Sunday, May 04, 2014 04:31 PM PDT An airplane crashed during an air show at Travis Air Force Base in California on Sunday, forcing a shutdown of the show, a spokesman for the base said. The small civilian plane went down during the performance of an "acrobatic aerial maneuver" shortly after 2 p.m., spokesman Brian Swink said in a statement. Travis Air Force Base is 47 miles northeast of San Francisco in Fairfield, California. Full Story | Top |
| 'Bank of Mum and Dad' supports first-time British homebuyers - poll Sunday, May 04, 2014 04:22 PM PDT  Almost two-thirds of first-time British homebuyers are turning to their parents for financial help, a survey said on Monday, underscoring concerns about the booming housing market. With house prices rising at about 10 percent a year and lending criteria tightening since the 2008 financial crisis, banks are demanding buyers pay more of the purchase price up front to qualify to borrow the rest, prompting many to ask their parents for money. A survey of 20- to 45 year-olds by mortgage lender Halifax showed 63 percent who had bought a property had received help from their parents. "For many buyers, parental support is now the fundamental first step onto the property ladder," said Craig McKinlay, Mortgages Director at Halifax. Full Story | Top |
| China unleashes yuan bears, but can it cage them again? Sunday, May 04, 2014 03:43 PM PDT  By Pete Sweeney and Lu Jianxin SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Beijing's attack on yuan speculators has proven extraordinarily successful, so much so that traders no longer see it as a short-term intervention but a deeper market shift that has now gained a self-reinforcing momentum. And for the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the risk is it has unleashed bearish forces it may not be able to rein in, souring enthusiasm for the yuan and complicating the push to increase the international adoption of the currency. "The market had expected the yuan's weakness to last no more than a few weeks, but the PBOC has now sent clear signals that it is the central bank, not the market, that will decide when the yuan's weakness will end," said a trader at a European bank in Shanghai. "With the PBOC giving no signal that it intends to do so, corporates have become alarmed, and many are now building dollar positions to hedge." Since the central bank started aggressively pushing the currency lower in February, to shake the market out the view the yuan was a one-way bet, it has fallen more than 3 percent and more than unwound its gains of 2013. Full Story | Top |
| Birthday victory out of reach for McIlroy Sunday, May 04, 2014 03:40 PM PDT By Andrew Both CHARLOTTE North Carolina (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy did not secure the 25th birthday present he really wanted when the Northern Irishman battled to finish equal eighth at the Wells Fargo Championship on Sunday. McIlroy surged into contention with a 65 on Saturday, and he knew he needed something similar in the final round to have a chance of winning. But McIlroy, who shot a closing 62 to win at Quail Hollow four years ago, could not produce a similarly rousing encore. "I struggled to get the ball to the hole on the greens," McIlroy told reporters after a frustrating day on the putting surfaces, which he found to be slower than expected. Full Story | Top |
| Nobel-winning economist Gary Becker dies at 83: university Sunday, May 04, 2014 03:30 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Gary Becker, whose work applying the principles of economics to a wide range of human behavior won the Nobel Prize in 1992, has died at age 83, the University of Chicago said on Sunday. Becker, a student of free-market economist Milton Friedman, died on Saturday after a long illness, the university said on its website. "Gary was a transformational thinker of truly remarkable impact on the world and an extraordinary individual," University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer said in a statement. Becker got his doctorate in economics at the University of Chicago in 1955 and published the book "The Economics of Discrimination" two years later. Full Story | Top |
| China's half-year report card on economic reform: slow, safe and steady Sunday, May 04, 2014 03:22 PM PDT  Six months into China's grand economic makeover, Beijing is playing it safe, choosing gradual progress on many fronts over game-changing, riskier reforms such as removing all controls over bank interest rates. The caution is still there, the difference is today China is crossing that river in many spots at once and the water is probably deeper. Economists say there is no substitute for fundamental changes if China is to succeed in its transformation from bureaucratically-run, pollution-spewing industrial powerhouse to a more balanced, market-driven economy. However, reforms such as freeing up bank interest rates or dismantling state monopolies will cause much short-term pain, and provide gains only in the long-term. Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: China's reform tally since November policy meeting Sunday, May 04, 2014 03:22 PM PDT (Reuters) - China's leadership unveiled some of the most comprehensive economic and social reforms in nearly 30 years in November 2013. Implementation since then has been slow but steady. China has eschewed riskier, game-changing reform but the incremental steps promise to reach enough critical mass to sustain momentum and help the world's second-largest economy shift down fairly smoothly after decades of red-hot investment-fuelled growth. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's 'ordinary' billionaire behind grand Nicaragua canal plan Sunday, May 04, 2014 03:06 PM PDT  By Matthew Miller BEIJING (Reuters) - Wang Jing, the enigmatic businessman behind Nicaragua's $50 billion Interoceanic Grand Canal, shrugs off scepticism about how a little-known entrepreneur can be driving a huge transcontinental project, insisting he's not an agent of the Beijing government. "You believe there are people from the Chinese government in the background providing support. Why, in the end, is only Wang Jing out front?" High-ranking Chinese officials including President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and former leaders Jiang Zemin and Wen Jiabao have all visited the state-connected wireless communication technologies company Wang took control of four years ago. Wang, whose entrepreneurism went mostly unnoticed in China and elsewhere before last year's Nicaragua announcement and a subsequent $3 billion Black Sea port development plan, has not helped matters by refusing to talk in detail about himself or broad swathes of his career. Full Story | Top |
| Maiteeq installed as Libya's new PM but dismissed by speaker Sunday, May 04, 2014 02:55 PM PDT By Feras Bosalum and Ulf Laessing TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Businessman Ahmed Maiteeq was sworn in as Libya's new prime minister on Sunday after chaotic voting but parliament's deputy speaker hours later declared the election invalid as a power struggle erupted in the assembly. The divisions in the assembly showcase growing turmoil in the North African country where government and parliament are unable to assert authority in a country awash with arms and militias from the 2011 ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. Officials gave contradicting versions of the parliamentary election outcome, with First Deputy Speaker Ezzedin al-Awami initially saying Maiteeq had failed to obtain the necessary quorum even through he emerged as front runner in prior votes. But a power struggle over who controls the assembly broke out when second deputy speaker Saleh Makhzoum rejected Awami's claims and said Maiteeq had won the necessary support. Full Story | Top |
| Portugal decides on 'clean exit' from bailout Sunday, May 04, 2014 02:18 PM PDT  By Sergio Goncalves LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal said on Sunday it would exit its three-year 78-billion-euro bailout this month without a precautionary credit line, as the country returns to growth after years of painful austerity and unpopular reforms. The cabinet decision was announced by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho in a televised address to the nation and means the country will no longer have to answer to foreign creditors after the bailout ends on May 17. "The government has decided to exit the assistance program without turning to any kind of precautionary program," Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said, flanked by his entire government which met Sunday to make the decision. "This is the right decision," he said, adding that Portugal's European partners would back whatever decision the government took. Full Story | Top |
| Business looks to Modi to defuse India's jobs time bomb Sunday, May 04, 2014 02:08 PM PDT  By Manoj Kumar and Douglas Busvine GURGAON, India (Reuters) - When Narendra Modi talks about creating jobs in labor-intensive manufacturing, textile entrepreneur Sudhir Dhingra hopes the Indian opposition leader means business. Early on, Dhingra survived a change of fashion that saddled him with a pile of unsold stock. Learning his lessons - to keep close tabs on the market and control costs - he built Orient Craft into $250 million business making 200,000 garments daily. That success has come despite, and not thanks to, India's politicians, who Dhingra says are obsessed by the size of investments but have given "no serious thought" to how jobs are actually created. Full Story | Top |
| Afghan boy relives terror of 'bomb-like' landslide Sunday, May 04, 2014 01:37 PM PDT  By Mirwais Harooni AAB BAREEK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Six-year-old Abdul Maqsood stood outside his neighbor's simple mud-brick home, staring aghast at the damage caused by a landslide which had slammed into his village in remote northeast Afghanistan. Maqsood had no idea that the entire side of the bare mountain above him, drenched by a week of heavy rain, had fractured and was about to cave in. The second, even bigger landslide happened so quickly that Maqsood had no time to run. He was swamped by a wall of mud that swallowed up his home and some 300 others around him, taking hundreds, possibly thousands of lives in Afghanistan's worst natural disaster in a decade. Full Story | Top |
| New 'Thebans' conveys Oedipus's sinking feeling -in good way Sunday, May 04, 2014 01:33 PM PDT By Michael Roddy LONDON (Reuters) - It takes a while for Oedipus, in Sophocles's play based on the tragic Greek myth about the King of Thebes, to catch on that he's the very person the Oracles are talking about who has offended the gods by killing his father and marrying his mother. When he gets that inkling, in a new opera version "Thebans" with music by British composer Julian Anderson and a libretto by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness that had its premiere on Saturday, baritone Roland Wood expresses his new-found doubt in words sung to an eerie melody that gives listeners the sinking feeling that Oedipus is experiencing. It's a neat trick and Anderson has a few more up his sleeve in this version of Sophocles's three Oedipus plays combined into one opera in a production by French-Lebanese director Pierre Audi at the English National Opera (ENO). He will not listen to anyone's advice, including the blind seer Tiresias, sung with a gloomy voice of authority by English bass Matthew Best, or his own wife Jocasta, the English mezzo soprano Susan Bickley, who is, of course, also Oedipus's mother. Full Story | Top |
| Teen who survived flight in wheel well back in California: report Sunday, May 04, 2014 01:29 PM PDT (Reuters) - A 15-year-old Somali boy who survived a nearly six-hour flight stowed in the wheel well of a Hawaii-bound jet has been returned to California and placed in the custody of social services, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The teen was transferred back to Santa Clara, California, without his father, who has not been allowed to see his son since the teen stowed away to Hawaii on April 20, the newspaper said on Saturday. In a statement after his son ran away, father Abdilahi Yusuf Abdi said the boy had been "struggling adjusting to life" in America. The Department of Family and Children's Services in Santa Clara County did not immediately respond on Sunday to Reuters' request for comment about the teen's custody status. Full Story | Top |
| Libyan deputy speaker declares election of prime minister invalid Sunday, May 04, 2014 01:16 PM PDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's deputy parliamentary speaker declared the election of Ahmed Maiteeq as new prime minister invalid, according to a letter published on a government website on Sunday. Maiteeq had failed to obtain the necessary quorum during a parliamentary vote earlier on Sunday, First Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Ezzedin al-Awami said in a letter to the government. The government of former premier Abdullah al-Thinni, who resigned three weeks ago, would stay in office until a successor is elected legally, he wrote. ... Full Story | Top |
| Republicans risk getting 'burned' on Benghazi issue: Senator Sunday, May 04, 2014 01:10 PM PDT  Any attempt by Republicans to embarrass the Obama administration over the deadly September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, could backfire in the mid-term congressional elections, a Republican U.S. senator warned on Sunday. Some Republicans view the attack, in which militants killed four Americans at the U.S. mission in Benghazi including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, as a political liability that could hurt President Barack Obama's Democrats in November. Although the issue may resonate with some voters, pushing it too hard is politically risky for Republicans, said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is running for re-election this year. "If we're playing politics with Benghazi, we'll get burned," Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation." When asked if the issue has become more about politics than substance, Graham said: "Anyone who believes this is just about politics, go tell that to the family members ... Anyone who plays politics with Benghazi will get burned." The Benghazi issue resurfaced last week after a conservative watchdog group released emails that it said showed Obama administration officials were concerned with protecting the president's image in the days after the attack. Full Story | Top |
| George H.W. Bush honored for courage with 1990 tax hikes Sunday, May 04, 2014 01:07 PM PDT  By Elizabeth Barber BOSTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush showed courage in breaking his "read my lips: no new taxes" campaign pledge to broker a 1990 budget compromise that may have cost him re-election two years later, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation said on Sunday. "America's gain was President Bush's loss," Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former president John F. Kennedy and a member of the award committee, said during a ceremony at the library in Boston. Granddaughter Lauren Bush Lauren, niece of former president George W. Bush, accepted the award on her grandfather's behalf. "But in our constitutional system of governance, Congress also gets a say - and more than that, he felt he owed the American people action and results." The foundation also honored Paul W. Bridges, a former Georgia mayor, as co-recipient of the award for putting his mayoral career on the line to oppose a 2011 immigration bill aimed at pushing undocumented immigrants out of his state. Full Story | Top |
| Three killed in bus blasts on second day of violence in Kenya Sunday, May 04, 2014 01:02 PM PDT  At least three people were killed when two buses driving on a busy highway in the Kenyan capital Nairobi were struck by explosive devices on Sunday, the day after attacks in Mombasa. 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. "So far three people have been confirmed dead, one was killed at the scene and two died in hospital," Moses Ombati, the deputy police commander for Nairobi told Reuters. Somali Islamist militants have been carrying out such attacks in retaliation for Kenya's intervention in neighboring Somalia in October 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Five killed as boulder crushes house in Sierra Leone capital Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:55 PM PDT Five people, including two children, were killed on Sunday when a boulder dislodged by heavy rains crushed a house in a poor area of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, witnesses said. Among the dead were a 10-year-old girl and a 17-year-old citizen of neighboring Guinea, who was visiting Freetown on holiday. "We had to make do with our bare hands and the shovels and pick axes we could lay hands on," youth organizer Yusufu Bendu told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| India's Modi rails against illegal immigrants after Muslim killings Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:48 PM PDT  By Sujoy Dhar and Frank Jack Daniel KOLKATA/NARAYANGURI, India (Reuters) - Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial front-runner in India's mammoth general election, on Sunday reiterated his strong stance against illegal immigrants, just days after a wave of sectarian killings in the north-eastern state of Assam. India is in the home stretch of a five-week election, which has heightened ethnic and religious tensions in many parts of the country and in which Modi's opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks set to emerge as the biggest group. India deployed troops in Assam on Saturday after more than 30 Muslims were gunned down in three days of what police said were attacks by Bodo tribal militants, who resent the presence of settlers they claim are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Full Story | Top |
| Relatives bury victims of Indian national park ethnic massacre Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:48 PM PDT By Frank Jack Daniel NARAYANGURI, India (Reuters) - Survivors of a massacre of Muslim villagers on the fringes of an Indian national park have buried 18 bodies after a spasm of ethnic violence in the northeastern state of Assam that has cast a shadow over the world's biggest ever election. India is in the home stretch of the five-week election, which has heightened ethnic and religious tensions in some parts of the country and in which the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks set to emerge as the biggest group. At least 21 people were gunned down in the village of Narayanguri, a popular picnic spot close to one of the entrances to the Manas national park. Full Story | Top |
| ECB the focus in light week for data Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:43 PM PDT  By Jonathan Cable LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone policymakers get their main monthly chance this week to adjust their rhetoric about further monetary stimulus, although with inflation creeping a bit higher there, talk is more likely than action. While several major central banks meet to decide policy in the week and the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve will testify in front of lawmakers, the European Central Bank's meeting and press conference will be the main focus. ECB President Mario Draghi and the Governing Council meet with a tiny bit of pressure taken off by a modest rise in very low inflation and by business surveys showing a more broad-based, but still fragile recovery. "To some extent, the bounceback in inflation has helped take some of the sting out of the tail at the meeting, with the (ECB) Governing Council under less pressure to act quickly," said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec. Full Story | Top |
| Murray ponders hiring McEnroe as coach Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:36 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Wimbledon champion Andy Murray would consider hiring seven-times grand slam winner John McEnroe as his coach, saying the controversial American would have plenty to offer his game. World number eight Murray, playing this week at the Madrid Masters, has been without a coach since he split from Ivan Lendl in March after a successful two-year spell during which he won two grand slam titles and gold at the 2012 Olympics. "When you are very competitive as a player, you are likely to be the same as a coach and that's also a benefit. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. pushes Congo on term limits, pledges aid Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:34 PM PDT  By Phil Stewart KINSHASA (Reuters) - The United States urged Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday to stick to its constitution that sets terms limits for the president, as speculation grows that Joseph Kabila may seek a third term. Highlighting an issue that exists in several African countries where leaders have sought to extend their rule beyond constitutional limits, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged $30 million in aid aimed in part at ensuring "credible" elections in 2016. Kerry stressed that the legacy of Kabila, who in 2006 won Congo's first democratic elections since independence but was heavily criticized over fraud-tarnished polls five years later, must go beyond security gains. "I believe it is clear to him that the United States of America feels very strongly - as do other people - that the constitutional process needs to be respected and adhered to." "We're a country with term limits. Full Story | Top |
| Syria neighbors alarmed by refugee flow, want more aid access Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:02 PM PDT By Suleiman Al-Khalidi ZAATARI, Jordan (Reuters) - The four main host countries for Syrian refugees said at a meeting on Sunday that only the wider distribution of aid inside Syria could curb an exodus that is putting huge strains on neighboring states. After talks at the Zaatari camp in Jordan with the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, ministers from Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon urged the implementation of a U.N. resolution passed in February that demanded rapid unhindered access for aid. "A crucial aspect of ending this crisis is to improve access for humanitarian aid inside Syria," High Commissioner Antonio Guterres told reporters. Full Story | Top |
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