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| 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 |
| 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 |
| Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams urges calm after release Sunday, May 04, 2014 04:36 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 destabilize 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Nine badly hurt in U.S. circus 'hair hang' accident Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:30 PM PDT  By Victoria Cavaliere NEW YORK (Reuters) - A mid-air circus apparatus with acrobats suspended from it collapsed on Sunday during a performance in Rhode Island, injuring up to 20 people, nine seriously, and shocking a packed house of spectators. The all-female team with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus crashed up to 40 feet to the floor when the rig tethering them by the hair gave way at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence. 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 |
| 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 |
| Thousands flee Syria rebel infighting Sunday, May 04, 2014 10:21 AM PDT  Fighting between al Qaeda's Syria branch and a splinter group in eastern Syria has forced more than 60,000 people to flee their homes, emptied villages and killed scores of fighters, a monitoring group said. Fighters from the al Qaeda branch, the Nusra Front, also arrested a rebel commander from a more moderate group and several other insurgent leaders in a southern province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Infighting among insurgents has undermined the three-year-old rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad and killed thousands of people since the start of the year. The British-based Observatory said the Nusra Front had taken over control of the town of Abreeha from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a former al Qaeda affiliate formally disowned by the group this year. Full Story | Top |
| Washington gridlock butt of Obama jokes at White House correspondents' dinner Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:58 AM PDT  By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama poked fun at himself and what he called a hard year but aimed his most caustic humor at Washington gridlock when political and media luminaries gathered at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. "In 2008 my slogan was, 'Yes we can.' In 2013, it was control-alt-delete," Obama joked to a Saturday night audience also studded with film and television stars. "At one point, things got so bad the 47 percent called Mitt Romney to apologize," he said, referring to a 2012 presidential campaign gaffe in which the Republican candidate said, in comments that were secretly taped, that 47 percent of Americans have become reliant on government handouts. More than 2,000 guests packed the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where the capital's political and media worlds collide every year in lubricated goodwill punctuated by a long dash of glamour on loan from Hollywood. Full Story | Top |
| Side deals with Moscow thwart drive to wean Europe off Russian gas Sunday, May 04, 2014 03:56 AM PDT  By Henning Gloystein LONDON (Reuters) - While officials in Brussels were calling for Europe to reduce its dependency on Russian natural gas and negotiate with Moscow as a bloc, Austria was quietly bypassing the European Commission to cut its own bilateral deal on building a pipeline. The deal on the South Stream pipeline, which will be built under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and on to central Europe, shows the European Union's difficulty in creating a unified energy policy on Moscow during the Ukraine crisis. Full Story | Top |
| Pro-Russians storm Odessa police station, PM slams local police Sunday, May 04, 2014 01:23 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 |
| 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 |
| South Africa's ANC vows to extend rule, rivals promise election 'shock' Sunday, May 04, 2014 09:24 AM PDT  By Stella Mapenzauswa JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling ANC predicted it would sweep national elections this week on promises to build more houses, create jobs and eradicate inequality, but opponents warned of a shock for a party they said was arrogant after 20 years in power. An Ipsos poll in the Sunday Times newspaper suggested the ANC would win 63.9 percent of the vote, down from 65.9 percent five years ago and short of the two-thirds majority needed in parliament to push through changes to the constitution. Analysts and critics say Nelson Mandela's movement has lost support due to rising anger among its mainly black supporters over the slow delivery of adequate housing, sanitation, quality education and jobs. "The ANC lives, the ANC leads. Full Story | Top |
| Three people killed in blasts targeting buses in Kenyan capital Sunday, May 04, 2014 10:57 AM PDT NAIROBI (Reuters) - At least three people were killed when two buses in the Kenyan capital Nairobi were struck by explosive devices on Sunday, said police, adding that the death toll could rise. "So far three people have been confirmed dead, one was killed at the scene and two died in hospital. The final report will be known later tonight or tomorrow, once we check with all the hospitals," Moses Ombati, the Deputy police commander for Nairobi told Reuters. (Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Jon Boyle) Full Story | Top |
| Italy arrests man over cup final shootings, bemoans soccer violence Sunday, May 04, 2014 09:39 AM PDT By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Police have arrested a man over shootings that marred the Italian Cup Final and left a supporter fighting for his life on Sunday, violence that politicians and commentators said pointed to a broader malaise in the national sport. The shootings took place on the streets before Saturday night's match between Napoli and Fiorentina and set up ugly scenes inside Rome's Olympic Stadium, where supporters threw flares and smoke bombs and delayed the start of the final. Napoli won the match 3-1. Police said on Sunday they had arrested Daniele De Santis, a 48 year-old Roma supporter they said had insulted a group of Napoli fans and, when they responded, shot and wounded three of them with a pistol. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt announces plans to revive flagging tourism sector Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:42 AM PDT  By Mirna Sleiman DUBAI (Reuters) - Egypt's tourism minister on Sunday announced ambitious plans to try to revive the country's tourism sector, in distress after years of political turbulence. Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou said in an interview in Dubai: "The world will see tourism returning to Egypt. We have an ambitious global plan to show the world that it is safe and fun to visit Egypt anytime." Egypt's Islamist insurgency has largely spared tourist sites, but on Friday suicide bombers hit near the tourist resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, killing a soldier and wounding at least eight other people. The tourist sector hopes that Egypt's political climate will become more stable. Full Story | Top |
| UK's Labour call for inquiry into Pfizer's AstraZeneca bid Sunday, May 04, 2014 05:01 AM PDT  By William James LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour party called on Sunday for an inquiry into a potential takeover of British firm AstraZeneca by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, accusing the government of "cheerleading" for a deal. AstraZeneca on Friday rejected a 63 billion pound ($106 billion) bid from Pfizer, but the U.S. firm is expected to pursue its efforts to acquire Britain's second largest pharmaceutical company. "We need a more substantive assessment of whether this takeover is in the national economic interest before the UK government allows itself to be seen to be supporting it," Labour leader Ed Miliband said in a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron. While the government has talked with both AstraZeneca and Pfizer, it has said it has no intention of intervening in the deal and considers it a matter for the companies' boards and shareholders. Full Story | Top |
| Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams expected to be released by police: source Sunday, May 04, 2014 09:15 AM PDT  Northern Ireland police are expected to release Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams later on Sunday and send a file to the province's public prosecutor after four days of questioning, a source familiar with the case told Reuters. Police arrested Adams on Wednesday over the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville and have until 1900 GMT to decide whether to charge, release him, or seek a further extension in custody. His detention has raised tensions among Northern Ireland's power-sharing government and the province's fragile peace. Full Story | Top |
| Yemeni army in heavy fighting; six soldiers die in suicide blast Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:00 AM PDT By Mohammed Mukhashaf ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Yemen said at least 37 al Qaeda militants were killed in the southern province of Shabwa on Sunday as the army intensified an offensive to root out foreign and local Islamist fighters holed up in some of the country's most impenetrable areas. The report by state news agency Saba came shortly after a military source told Reuters a suicide bomber killed six soldiers by their outpost in Shabwa, one of two provinces where the army has been fighting al Qaeda and its allies. The number of attacks against the army and security forces in the south has risen sharply since Yemen's U.S.-backed army launched its anti-al Qaeda offensive last week. Western countries fear further destabilization in Yemen, which also faces separatists in the south and unrest in the north, 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. Full Story | Top |
| Italy arrests man over cup final shootings, bemoans soccer violence Sunday, May 04, 2014 08:48 AM PDT By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Police have arrested a man over shootings that marred the Italian Cup Final and left a supporter fighting for his life on Sunday, violence that politicians and commentators said pointed to a broader malaise in the national sport. The shootings took place on the streets before Saturday night's match between Napoli and Fiorentina and set up ugly scenes inside Rome's Olympic Stadium, where supporters threw flares and smoke bombs and delayed the start of the final. Napoli won the match 3-1. Police said on Sunday they had arrested Daniele De Santis, a 48 year-old Roma supporter they said had insulted a group of Napoli fans and, when they responded, shot and wounded three of them with a pistol. Full Story | Top |
| Drive to solve old crimes rocks fragile Northern Ireland peace Sunday, May 04, 2014 03:59 AM PDT  By Conor Humphries BELFAST (Reuters) - Major cracks are appearing in the deal that brought peace to Northern Ireland, and there appears to be no easy fix. Police investigating an unsolved 1972 murder on Wednesday arrested Irish nationalist leader Gerry Adams, whose Sinn Fein party was for decades the political ally of IRA militants fighting to end British rule in Northern Ireland. Reviled by some as an apologist for bombers, hailed by others as a freedom fighter and peacemaker, Adams led Sinn Fein in the talks that produced the 1998 Good Friday agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian killing in Northern Ireland. "This could destabilize the entire process if this goes further into serious arrests," said Malachi O'Doherty, an Belfast-based author who has written extensively on the violence between mainly Catholic Irish nationalists and Protestant pro-British Loyalists that tore Northern Ireland apart. Full Story | Top |
| Tight finish looms in Panama presidential election Sunday, May 04, 2014 06:30 AM PDT  By Christine Murray and Elida Moreno PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's presidential election on Sunday is expected to be the closest in decades, as the opposition battles to deny outgoing President Ricardo Martinelli a chance to keep an indirect hold over the booming Central American economy. The winner will inherit oversight of a major expansion of the Panama Canal, which briefly stalled earlier this year after a row over costs between the canal and the building consortium. A banking and trading hub, Panama is best known for the canal that links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The 62-year-old Martinelli backs former businessman and housing minister Jose Domingo Arias of the ruling Democratic Change (CD) party. Full Story | Top |
| Israeli settlers launch enclave in Palestinian business hub Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:39 AM PDT  By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The smell of fresh paint wafts through the domed lobby of the latest Israeli arrival in East Jerusalem - a Jewish seminary in a bustling commercial area in the same building as a post office serving thousands of Palestinians every day. Palestinians and Israeli critics worry the placement of the academy in such a central location is asking for trouble in East Jerusalem, which has stayed largely trouble-free in recent years compared to the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, and which Palestinians hope will be the capital of a future state. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem after its capture in a 1967 war has never been recognized, meaning most of the world views Israeli enclaves there as illegal settlements. But even when Israel froze construction temporarily in 2010, it always insisted the moratorium exclude East Jerusalem, which it views as an integral part of the country. Full Story | Top |
| Funds pile into rail car maker Trinity as new safety rules seen Sunday, May 04, 2014 05:11 AM PDT By David Randall NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rail car makers, little-known winners of the North American energy boom, are capturing the attention of fund managers and regulators alike. A string of derailments, some of them deadly, of trains carrying crude oil have prompted U.S. and Canadian authorities to look into stricter safety rules for tank cars carrying crude oil and other volatile materials. While sweeping regulations have yet to be announced in the United States, fund managers look to be already picking a winner among rail car manufacturers. Thirty five funds initiated a position in Dallas-based Trinity Industries Inc in the most recent quarter, increasing the total fund ownership in the company by 20.6 percent, according to data from fund tracker Morningstar. Full Story | Top |
| Bahraini Shi'ite youth risk radicalization as political talks stall Sunday, May 04, 2014 12:29 AM PDT By Rania El Gamal MANAMA (Reuters) - Dozens of black-clad, masked men parade through Bahrain's Shi'ite Muslim villages, some holding petrol bombs and others denouncing al Khalifa, the Sunni Muslim monarchy that has ruled the Gulf Arab island since the 18th century. Scenes like these, broadcast in online videos in recent months, might once have been dismissed as a cry for attention by groups from Bahrain's big Shi'ite community seeking to shore up a flagging cause for democratic reform. Nor do the bombs disturb everyday life in most of Bahrain, where explosions tend to target security forces in the mainly Shi'ite villages, far away from the capital. But we are fighting back and will kill whoever is killing us." The strategically vital kingdom, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has wrestled with low-level but persistent civil unrest since a Shi'ite-led uprising was put down in 2011, becoming a front line in a region-wide tussle for influence between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran across the Gulf. Full Story | Top |
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