Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Gunmen free American teenager in southern Philippines
Sat,10 Dec 2011 08:15 PM PST
Reuters - MANILA (Reuters) - Gunmen freed late on Saturday an American teenager after holding him for nearly five months on a troubled southern island in the Philippines, security officials said. Kevin Eric Lunsmann, 14, who was abducted with his Philippine-born mother and a cousin while on holidays in July, was found by soldiers walking in a village outside Lamitan town on Basilan island, army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Randolph Cabangbang told reporters. "He is safe and is now with our troops in Lamitan," Cabangbang said, but did not mention if ransom was paid. ... Full Story | Top |
U.N. climate talks reach modest deal
Sat,10 Dec 2011 08:13 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Negotiators at U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, reached a deal that for the first time would bring all major emitters into international efforts to limit global warming, but which environmentalists said did not go far enough. Following is reaction from key players and observers. UNITED STATES CLIMATE ENVOY TODD STERN "In the end, it ended up quite well. The (Durban platform) is the piece that was the matching piece with the Kyoto Protocol. We got the kind of symmetry that we had been focused on since the beginning of the Obama administration. ... Full Story | Top |
Strong earthquake rattles Mexico, two dead
Sat,10 Dec 2011 08:06 PM PST
Reuters -  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake shook Mexico on Saturday, killing at least two people, knocking out lights in parts of the capital and sending people rushing into the streets. There were no immediate reports of severe damage or injuries in Mexico City but emergency services said one person was killed when a house collapsed in Iguala, a small city between the capital and the tourist resort of Acapulco. Another person was killed when a rock fell on a small van on the Mexico City-Acapulco highway. ...
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Peru's Humala picks ex-army officer to lead Cabinet
Sat,10 Dec 2011 06:19 PM PST
Reuters -  LIMA (Reuters) - President Ollanta Humala replaced his prime minister on Saturday with a former army officer who was his instructor in the military in a surprise shake-up that could signal a more authoritarian governing style in Peru. Oscar Valdes, who had been Humala's interior minister, will replace Salomon Lerner, a businessman who was the most powerful centrist in the government and helped Humala shed his left-wing image to win election in June. ...
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Argentine leader vows to fine-tune model in 2nd term
Sat,10 Dec 2011 04:37 PM PST
Reuters -  BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Cristina Fernandez began a second term as Argentine president on Saturday, vowing to make the economy more competitive by fine-tuning the offbeat, high-growth policies that please voters but spook investors. The center-left leader won a landslide re-election in October to four more years in office on the back of sizzling economic growth and a wave of sympathy following the death last year of her husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner. ...
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London protest against Kabila vote turns violent
Sat,10 Dec 2011 04:26 PM PST
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - British police said they arrested 143 people in central London Saturday after a demonstration against the re-election of President Joseph Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo turned violent. Most of the arrests came at around 2100 GMT after a group broke away from the main protest in Trafalgar Square and began to damage property including cars and shops, London's Metropolitan police said. Members of the public were also threatened. ... Full Story | Top |
West warns Syria against storming rebel city
Sat,10 Dec 2011 03:55 PM PST
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - France called on world powers to "save the Syrian people" on Saturday as it joined the United States and Britain in raising an alarm that President Bashar al-Assad's forces may be about to storm the rebel stronghold of Homs. In Damascus, the government denied any crackdown, while accusing its opponents of taking up arms and warning the rebels' supporters in the West that Syria could count on Russia, China and others to oppose any foreign intervention in its affairs. ... Full Story | Top |
Draft U.N. climate accord emerges, debate turns ugly
Sat,10 Dec 2011 03:11 PM PST
Reuters -  DURBAN (Reuters) - The chairwoman of U.N. climate talks urged delegates to approve a compromise deal on fighting global warming in the interests of the planet, but an accord remained elusive on Sunday and rich and poor states traded barbs over the limited scope of the package. South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the four separate texts represented a good outcome after two weeks of sometimes angry debates in the port city of Durban. "I think we all realize they are not perfect. ...
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Factbox: Argentine president's likely second-term policies
Sat,10 Dec 2011 03:04 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez began a second four-year term on Saturday with a strong mandate to intensify the unorthodox economic policies that critics say have left the country ill-prepared for a global slowdown. Controversial measures such as curbs on beef and wheat exports and the sudden takeover of private pensions go down well with Fernandez's leftist supporters but are generally unpopular with investors, big business and farmers. ... Full Story | Top |
Argentine leader vows to fine-tune model in second term
Sat,10 Dec 2011 03:04 PM PST
Reuters -  BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Cristina Fernandez began a second term as Argentine president Saturday, vowing to fine-tune her offbeat, high-growth policies that please voters but spook investors. Fernandez won a landslide re-election in October on the back of sizzling economic growth and a wave of sympathy following the death last year of her husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner. ...
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Libya leaders send U.N. new appeal to unfreeze funds
Sat,10 Dec 2011 02:12 PM PST
Reuters -  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Senior figures in Libya's new leadership have written a letter to the United Nations asking it to release funds still frozen three months after the country's civil war ended, the central bank chief said on Saturday. When a rebellion broke out in February against the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, the U.N. Security Council froze Libyan assets estimated at $150 billion, but the bulk of that sum remains beyond the reach of the new Libyan rulers. ...
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Gunfire in Congo after Kabila wins disputed poll
Sat,10 Dec 2011 01:45 PM PST
Reuters -  KINSHASA (Reuters) - Gunfire erupted in parts of Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, with reports of police firing live ammunition and crowds ransacking shops, a day after election authorities declared President Joseph Kabila re-elected. The U.S.-based Carter Center observer mission said the results issued by Congo's election commission "lack credibility" and pointed to uncounted ballots in opposition strongholds and "impossibly high" turnout in places where Kabila is favored. ...
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Cuba stops dissident Rights Day protest, 200 held
Sat,10 Dec 2011 12:29 PM PST
Reuters - HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban dissidents said on Saturday that about 200 people were temporarily detained by the Communist-run island's security services in the days leading up to an international human rights celebration. Government supporters danced salsa and chanted political slogans in a Havana square to mark the 63rd anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. Opposition members who had planned to celebrate Human Rights Day in the same place, and protest against abuses in Cuba, were blocked from going to the square, dissidents said. ... Full Story | Top |
New Yemen cabinet meets; Nobel winner says Saleh wants war
Sat,10 Dec 2011 12:21 PM PST
Reuters -  SANAA/OSLO (Reuters) - Fighting overshadowed the first meeting on Saturday of Yemen's new unity government, which is trying to avert civil war after a deal brokered by the country's Gulf neighbors for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. A Yemeni activist, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, said the conscience of the world should be haunted by its failure to help Yemen's democratic uprising, and warned that Saleh would choose war rather than fulfill his pledge to quit. ...
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Thousands of Russians protest against Putin
Sat,10 Dec 2011 12:13 PM PST
Reuters -  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people in Moscow and thousands more in cities across Russia demanded an end to Vladimir Putin's rule and a rerun of a parliamentary election on Saturday in the biggest opposition protests since he rose to power 12 years ago. Potesters waved banners such as "The rats should go!" and "Swindlers and thieves - give us our elections back!" in cities from the Pacific port of Vladivostok in the east to Kaliningrad in the west, nearly 7,400 km (4,600 miles) away. ...
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Zimbabwe's octogenarian Mugabe says wrong to step down
Sat,10 Dec 2011 10:42 AM PST
Reuters -  BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's 87-year-old president Robert Mugabe on Saturday brushed aside calls to step down, telling supporters who endorsed him as candidate in the next presidential election that he would not quit as long as the West maintained sanctions on his party. Mugabe's allies are pressing for elections next year, instead of 2013 when they are due and when Mugabe would be 89, fearing that he may not cope with the pressure of campaigning. ...
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Air strike hits empty Somalia Red Crescent centre
Sat,10 Dec 2011 07:32 AM PST
Reuters - MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A warplane bombed a rebel-held town in southern Somalia Saturday, hitting an empty feeding center run by the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS) and killing one civilian, residents said. They could not identify who carried out the attack in the town of Baardheere. Kenya, which is eight weeks into a ground and air offensive to crush the al Shabaab rebel group, said on Saturday it had launched an air strike earlier this week on a compound nearby. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Protests add to investor Russia concern
Sat,10 Dec 2011 07:30 AM PST
Reuters - LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rising discontent with the 12-year rule of Russia's Vladimir Putin and the likelihood of more turmoil before presidential elections next March are adding an extra layer of concern for foreign investors. Unexpected public fury over last weekend's parliamentary election have led to protests, which could gather steam in coming weeks to pose challenges to Putin as he sets his sights on returning to the Kremlin. ... Full Story | Top |
Plane crashes into Philippines slum, 13 dead
Sat,10 Dec 2011 05:48 AM PST
Reuters -  MANILA (Reuters) - A light aircraft crashed into a crowded slum near Manila's international airport on Saturday, killing 13 people, including three children. Three people were unaccounted for and about 10 others were injured after the twin-engine, four-seater plane crashed shortly after take-off, police inspector Enrique Sy told reporters. All three on board were killed. "So far, we have recovered 13 badly burned bodies in the crash site, including one near the wreckage," he said, adding it was impossible to identify the victims. ...
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Pro-government Bahrain marchers target opposition group offices
Sat,10 Dec 2011 05:21 AM PST
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Dozens of pro-government demonstrators marched to the offices of a Bahraini opposition party on Saturday and daubed the building with graffiti against majority Shi'ites and Iran, residents said. They said "Down with Iran" and "Shi'ites get out" were among the slogans written on the offices of Waad, a secular party aligned with the largest Shi'ite opposition group Wefaq which was at the forefront of protests against the Sunni-led government this year. U.S. ...
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Gingrich fuels more Mideast conflict: Palestinians
Sat,10 Dec 2011 04:58 AM PST
Reuters -  RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian leaders said on Saturday U.S. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had invited more conflict in the Middle East by calling the Palestinians an "invented" people who want to destroy Israel. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, described his comments in an interview as "despicable." Hanan Ashrawi, another top official, said Gingrich's "very racist comments" showed he was "incapable of holding public office. ...
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Liberia focus on reconciliation, youth jobs
Sat,10 Dec 2011 04:35 AM PST
Reuters - OSLO (Reuters) - President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said the main challenges for Liberia in a "difficult" period after a controversial election were reconciliation and finding work for former child soldiers. Johnson-Sirleaf, in Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace prize, also said that Liberia, unlike many other African nations, was not considering a special mining tax and the focus of her second term would shift to agriculture from mineral resources. ... Full Story | Top |
Hospital fire kills at least 84 in eastern India
Sat,10 Dec 2011 03:48 AM PST
Reuters -  KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - A fire tore through a seven-story private hospital in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata before dawn Friday, killing at least 84 people, most of them intensive care patients who were asleep and suffocated in the fumes. Thick smoke engulfed the crowded hospital and fire-fighters smashed windows to evacuate people down ladders and with sheets from upper floors. Other patients were wheeled out on trolleys. Rescue workers and locals criticised a lack of safety equipment and said staff fled the scene leaving windows and doors locked. ...
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Brussels police arrest 200 over Congo vote violence
Sat,10 Dec 2011 03:16 AM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brussels police arrested about 200 people Friday night after violent demonstrations in the Belgian capital against the re-election of President Joseph Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Protesters in the former colonial power, home to many Congolese expatriates, threw Molotov cocktails at police cars, a police spokesman said. Shop windows and bus shelters were also smashed near the Congolese quarter. The main challenger in Congo's election declared himself president Friday and poured scorn on provisional official results handing victory to incumbent Kabila. ... Full Story | Top |
Palestinian dies after protest clash with Israel troops
Sat,10 Dec 2011 01:54 AM PST
Reuters - JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian demonstrator injured by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank died of his wounds on Saturday, a hospital spokeswoman and protest organizers said. Mustafa Tamimi, 28, sustained a head injury during a Friday protest held in the village of Nabi Saleh against an Israeli barrier built across the West Bank. Organizers said he was hit by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli soldiers. ... Full Story | Top |
Russian protests start in far east, police on alert
Sat,10 Dec 2011 01:40 AM PST
Reuters -  VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - A day of nationwide demonstrations against Vladimir Putin and alleged election fraud began in Russia's far east on Saturday, in a test of the opposition's ability to put pressure on the man who has dominated the country for more than a decade. Witnesses said about 1,000 people protested in Vladivostok on the Pacific coast and RIA news agency said about 20 were detained in Khabarovsk, a city with almost 580,000 people about 30 km (19 miles) from the border with China. ...
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Protests across Russia to test Putin and opponents
Sat,10 Dec 2011 01:29 AM PST
Reuters -  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's opponents hope to bring large numbers of people out onto the streets across Russia on Saturday for rallies that will test their ability to channel outrage over allegations of election fraud into a powerful protest movement. Demonstrations in dozens of cities, from Kaliningrad in the west to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast nearly 7,400 km (4,600 miles) away, will also gauge Putin's tolerance for pressure from the streets. ...
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Pakistani Taliban confirm peace talks with Islamabad
Sat,10 Dec 2011 12:37 AM PST
Reuters - PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The deputy commander of the Pakistan Taliban, who have been waging a four-year war against the government in Islamabad, confirmed the two sides were in peace talks, a move that could further fray the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. "Our talks are going in the right direction," Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, the commander of the Pakistani Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency and the No. 2 commander overall, told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
Argentine leader starts new term with rocky road ahead
Fri,9 Dec 2011 10:03 PM PST
Reuters -  BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Cristina Fernandez begins a second term as Argentine president on Saturday as signs of strain in a long economic boom force her to tweak the offbeat, high-growth policies that pleased voters but spook investors. Fernandez won a landslide re-election on the back of sizzling economic growth and a wave of sympathy following the death of her husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner. She has vowed to "deepen the model" he started in 2003. "Our model is a model of growth ... ...
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Congo's Kabila re-elected, opposition claims victory
Fri,9 Dec 2011 07:55 PM PST
Reuters -  KINSHASA (Reuters) - The main challenger in Democratic Republic of Congo's election declared himself president on Friday and poured scorn on provisional official results handing victory to incumbent Joseph Kabila. Clashes broke out between tire-burning protesters and security forces in the mostly pro-opposition capital, Kinshasa, and fears mounted a post-election dispute would reignite conflict in the war-scarred central African state. ...
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Cuba government supporters block march by dissident women
Fri,9 Dec 2011 06:34 PM PST
Reuters - HAVANA (Reuters) - Dozens of slogan-chanting Cuban government supporters faced off with dissident women on Friday and prevented them from marching in the street on the eve of international Human Rights Day. About 200 backers of Cuba's communist government crowded a street in central Havana where 20 women of the Ladies in White dissident group had assembled in a house . They carried signs of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and yelled pro-government and anti-U.S. slogans. ... Full Story | Top |
France pushes Syria meeting at divided U.N. council
Fri,9 Dec 2011 04:05 PM PST
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council agreed on Friday to France's request for a briefing on Syria's rights crackdown from the U.N. human rights chief, overcoming resistance from Russia, China and Brazil, Western envoys said. Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the Security Council this month, said Navi Pillay's closed-door briefing would probably take place on Monday. He dismissed suggestions from Western envoys that Russia had opposed the briefing, although he acknowledged Moscow and others had reservations. ... Full Story | Top |
Turkey warns Syria not to provoke regional crisis
Fri,9 Dec 2011 04:05 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Turkey warned Syria on Friday it would act to protect itself if a Syrian government crackdown on protesters threatened regional security and unleashed a tide of refugees on its borders. At least 24 Syrians were shot dead as protesters took the streets following Friday prayers and ahead of a general strike called for Sunday, according to a network of anti-government activists reporting events to a website based in Britain. Other activist sources put the toll as high as 37 dead. ...
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France pushes Syria meeting at divided U.N. council
Fri,9 Dec 2011 03:57 PM PST
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council agreed on Friday to France's request for a briefing on Syria's rights crackdown from the U.N. human rights chief, overcoming resistance from Russia, China and Brazil, Western envoys said. Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the Security Council this month, said Navi Pillay's closed-door briefing would probably take place on Monday. He dismissed suggestions from Western envoys that Russia had opposed the briefing, although he acknowledged Moscow and others had reservations. ... Full Story | Top |
New deal tabled at climate talks after rebellion
Fri,9 Dec 2011 03:40 PM PST
Reuters -  DURBAN (Reuters) - Developing states most at risk from global warming rebelled against a proposed deal at U.N. climate talks on Friday, forcing host South Africa to draw up new draft documents in a bid to prevent the talks collapsing. South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane suspended the talks in Durban after a coalition of island nations, developing states and the European Union complained the current draft lacked ambition, sources said. ...
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Canadian man indicted in Iraq suicide bombing
Fri,9 Dec 2011 03:28 PM PST
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Canadian citizen was indicted on Friday for aiding in a 2009 suicide-bomb attack that prosecutors say killed five U.S. soldiers near an American military base in Iraq. Faruq Khalil Muhammed 'Isa, 38, who is an Iraqi national, was arrested and detained in Canada in January 2011, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn said. According to a federal grand jury indictment returned on Friday, Isa helped arrange for four unnamed co-conspirators to travel from Tunisia to Iraq in March 2009 to carry out a suicide-bomb attack near the fence of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Congo's Kabila re-elected, opposition claims victory
Fri,9 Dec 2011 01:32 PM PST
Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - The main challenger in Democratic Republic of Congo's election declared himself president on Friday and poured scorn on provisional official results handing victory to the incumbent, Joseph Kabila. Clashes broke out between tire-burning protesters and security forces in the mostly pro-opposition capital Kinshasa and fears mounted that a post-election dispute would reignite conflict in the war-scarred central African state. ...
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Anarchists claim Italian letter bomb: sources
Fri,9 Dec 2011 10:49 AM PST
Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - An Italian anarchist group claimed responsibility for a letter bomb that injured the chief of a state tax collection agency in Rome Friday, police sources said, days after a device linked to the same group and addressed to a top banker was intercepted in Germany. The bomb exploded at the headquarters of Equitalia, which collects overdue taxes and fines, police said. The agency's director-general, Marco Cuccagna, had lost part of one finger and injured an eye, but his life was not in danger. ... Full Story | Top |
Assad must answer for Syria abuses: Austria
Fri,9 Dec 2011 10:42 AM PST
Reuters - VIENNA (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down immediately and be held accountable for any human rights abuses committed during a crackdown on opposition protesters, Austria's Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said on Friday. As a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Austria had a duty to help highlight the "atrocities of the regime" and to ensure they are judged at an international level, he said in a statement after meeting Syria's main opposition leader. "There can be no impunity. ... Full Story | Top |
Israeli raids kill 4 Gazans; rockets fired at Israel
Fri,9 Dec 2011 10:27 AM PST
Reuters -  GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Violence has flared up between Israel and Gaza, with the Israeli air force killing four Palestinians and Palestinian militants firing rockets far across the border. The fighting erupted on Thursday when an air strike on a car killed two militants, one of them from Gaza's governing Islamist group Hamas, whom Israel accused of planning to send gunmen to attack it through the neighboring Sinai region of Egypt. Palestinian militants responded to Thursday's air strike with a barrage of rockets, some of which landed near Beersheba, a city 35 km (30 miles) from Gaza. ...
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