Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
|
|
Russian protesters arrested in Moscow rally
Sat,31 Dec 2011 07:29 PM PST
Reuters -  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police detained about 60 protesters during an anti-government demonstration on Saturday in Moscow, hours after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered a conciliatory message to the opposition in a televised New Year's Eve address. Reuters witnesses said they saw police surround and detain protesters who were shouting slogans such as "Putin Must Go!" and "Free the Political Prisoners!." Police said about 200 people took part in the rally, with 60 detained. ...
Full Story | Top |
Mexico says arrests weapons chief for drug cartel
Sat,31 Dec 2011 05:47 PM PST
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Saturday said that it had arrested a leading weapons smuggler for one of the largest drug cartels. Ramiro Rendon Rivera, a key distributor of firearms for the Sinaloa Cartel lead by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, was arrested on Friday, the army said in a statement. Mexican President Felipe Calderon's campaign to curb violent drug cartels has left more than 46,000 people dead since he took office in 2006. Mexican authorities have in the last several months apprehended several lieutenants of Guzman, the country's most-wanted man. (Reporting by Patrick Rucker) Full Story | Top |
Caterpillar unit rejects CAW contract extension request
Sat,31 Dec 2011 04:58 PM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc said a Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) labor contract that expires Saturday at midnight will not be extended despite the union's request for two more months of talks and a mediator. Caterpillar's Electro-Motive Canada subsidiary has been negotiating with the CAW for a new labor contract for locomotive production workers at a plant in London, Ontario for several months, but the parties have run into a roadblock over terms. On Friday, union members authorized a strike against Caterpillar's operation if the company imposes unilateral changes. ...
Full Story | Top |
Syrian opposition signs plan for post-Assad future
Sat,31 Dec 2011 04:02 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two leading Syrian opposition parties have agreed a road map to democracy should a popular uprising succeed in toppling President Bashar al-Assad, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters. Hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets across Syria on Friday, aiming to demonstrate the strength of their movement to Arab League monitors checking whether Assad is implementing a pledge to halt a violent crackdown on unrest that has been raging since March. ...
Full Story | Top |
Gunmen attack bars in northeast Kenya, at least 2 dead
Sat,31 Dec 2011 03:54 PM PST
Reuters - GARISSA, Kenya (Reuters) - Gunmen sprayed bullets at New Year revelers in two bars in northeastern Kenya on Sunday, killing at least two people, a witness and police said, the latest in a wave of attacks near the border with Somalia. A worker at one of the pubs in Garissa town said gunmen approached in a vehicle, fired at the bars and then drove away. "The guys fired from the vehicle. They first shot the guard, (and then) shot more bullets at those who tried to leave and those who were at the entrance," said the witness who declined to be named. ... Full Story | Top |
Syrian opposition signs plan for post-Assad future
Sat,31 Dec 2011 02:09 PM PST
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two leading Syrian opposition parties have agreed a road map to democracy should mass protests nearly in their 10th month succeed in toppling President Bashar al-Assad, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets across Syria Friday, aiming to demonstrate the strength of their movement to Arab League monitors checking whether Assad is implementing a pledge to halt his armed crackdown on the unrest. ...
Full Story | Top |
U.S. steps up sanctions as Iran floats nuclear talks
Sat,31 Dec 2011 01:48 PM PST
Reuters - HONOLULU/TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signed new sanctions against Iran into law on Saturday, shortly after Iran signaled it was ready for fresh talks with the West on its nuclear programme and said it had delayed long-range missile tests in the Gulf. Tensions between Iran and the West have grown since EU leaders said they wanted to set tougher sanctions against Tehran by the end of next month in a bid to force it to curb a research programme that they suspect is developing nuclear weapons. In the absence of a fresh mandate from the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
Sarkozy vows reforms in austere New Year's speech
Sat,31 Dec 2011 12:43 PM PST
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged in a grave New Year's message to find ways to pull the economy out of stagnation in the four months left before a presidential election and vowed no further public spending cuts. Sarkozy told the nation that the worst economic crisis since World War Two would continue to hurt households in 2012 and urged people to be stoical. He said he was intent on agreeing reforms at a January 18 meeting with unions that could bolster employment and economic competitiveness. ...
Full Story | Top |
Youth protesters, police clash across Bahrain
Sat,31 Dec 2011 11:23 AM PST
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Shi'ite youths chanting slogans against Bahrain's royal family clashed with riot police across the Gulf island kingdom Saturday, trying to block highways in a second day of protests, residents said. "Death to Al-Khalifa, Death to Al-Saud," protesters shouted, also targeting the Saudi ruling family, as they were chased backed into mostly Shi'ite Muslim villages by police who fired teargas, the residents said. "The protests are not as big as the demonstrations on Friday. Police are focusing on trying to force protesters back into villages," one resident told Reuters. ...
Full Story | Top |
Bashir urges Darfur rebels to seek peace after leader killed
Sat,31 Dec 2011 11:00 AM PST
Reuters -  KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday urged fighters of one of the most powerful rebel groups in Darfur to lay down its weapons and seek peace with the government after its leader was killed. The Western region of Darfur is the scene of an almost-decade long insurgency of non-Arab tribes against the government, which they accuse of political and economic marginalisation. The Sudanese army said last week it had killed Ibrahim Khalil, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), as he tried to cross into South Sudan. ...
Full Story | Top |
Libyan rebel chief warns Egypt over pro-Gaddafi TV
Sat,31 Dec 2011 09:28 AM PST
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A powerful Libyan militia leader warned Egypt Saturday he would use force to close its embassy and shut the border if the military rulers failed to cut off a Gaddafi-era state television station that has broadcast footage of his old speeches. Abdullah Naker, the commander of Tripoli's Revolutionist Council, said Egypt's Nilesat satellite broadcaster had allowed Muammar Gaddafi's official Al Jamahiriya station to broadcast last week. ... Full Story | Top |
Iceland names new finance minister in government shuffle
Sat,31 Dec 2011 09:23 AM PST
Reuters - REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland named a new finance minister Saturday in a cabinet reshuffle aimed at strengthening the center-left coalition by decreasing internal dissent. Oddny Hardardottir, the new minister, is expected to maintain policies aimed at gradually cutting the budget deficit. The 54-year-old is seen as a loyalist to Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, a Social Democrat whose government has been hurt by the anti-EU sentiments of some ministers. Iceland is currently in talks to enter the European Union, a stance supported by the prime minister. ... Full Story | Top |
Islamist fighters halt Yemen peace march: witnesses
Sat,31 Dec 2011 08:46 AM PST
Reuters - ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Islamist militants fired into the air on Saturday to halt a peace march by thousands of Yemenis who were demanding an end to fighting that has forced them to flee their homes in the south, witnesses said. Marchers told Reuters they were stopped on a 50 km (31 mile) walk from the port city of Aden to Zinjibar, capital of southern Abyan province where the army has been battling fighters suspected of having links with al Qaeda. ... Full Story | Top |
Iraq celebrates U.S. withdrawal
Sat,31 Dec 2011 06:49 AM PST
Reuters -  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki declared a new dawn on Saturday as Iraq celebrated the departure of American troops at a ceremony held amid tight security and without Maliki's key political rivals. Iraq was engulfed in its worst political crisis in a year after the last U.S. troops left on December 18 when Maliki sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, threatening a frail coalition government of Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds. Saturday marked the end of the 2008 security pact agreed by then-President George W. Bush and was the last day for U.S. ...
Full Story | Top |
Opposition groups sign deal on post-Assad Syria
Sat,31 Dec 2011 06:00 AM PST
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two leading Syrian opposition parties have agreed a road map to democracy if mass protests succeed in toppling President Bashar al-Assad, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters. The leading opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council (SNC), signed the deal with the National Coordination Committee, a group whose majority is inside Syria and which had disagreed with the SNC's calls for foreign intervention. ... Full Story | Top |
Afghan girl tortured after refusing prostitution
Sat,31 Dec 2011 05:08 AM PST
Reuters -  KABUL (Reuters) - A 15-year-old Afghan girl was brutally tortured, beaten and locked in a toilet by her husband's family for months after she refused to become a prostitute, officials said Saturday. Sahar Gul was in critical condition when she was rescued from a house in northern Baghlan province last week, after her neighbors reported hearing Gul crying and moaning in pain. According to police in Baghlan, her in-laws pulled out her nails and hair, and locked her in a dark basement bathroom for about five months, with barely enough food and water to survive. ...
Full Story | Top |
Ethiopia troops attack rebels in Somali town: residents
Sat,31 Dec 2011 04:38 AM PST
Reuters - MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops captured a rebel-held town in central Somalia on Saturday, Addis Ababa and residents said, in a new front against the al Qaeda-linked militants who are seen as a threat to the region's stability. The al Shabaab rebels said on Saturday they had repelled three Ethiopian assaults north of the town and then carried out a "planned withdrawal" from the settlement. Both Ethiopia and Kenya have sent troops into Somalia to fight Islamist al Shabaab militants, following a wave of cross-border attacks and kidnappings Nairobi blamed on the rebels. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran delays missile test
Sat,31 Dec 2011 04:25 AM PST
Reuters - TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran delayed promised long-range missile tests in the Gulf on Saturday and Tehran signaled it was ready for fresh talks on its disputed nuclear program. Iran's state media initially reported early on Saturday that long-range missiles had been launched during naval exercises, a move that may irk the West concerned over threats by Tehran to close off a vital oil shipping route in the Gulf. But Deputy Navy Commander Mahmoud Mousavi later went on the English language Press TV channel to deny the missiles had in fact been fired. ... Full Story | Top |
Cyclone Thane kills at least 33 in southeast India
Sat,31 Dec 2011 03:39 AM PST
Reuters -  CHENNAI, Dec 31 (AlertNet) - At least 33 people died when Cyclone Thane hit coastal southern India near the former French colony of Pondicherry, officials said Saturday, causing thousands to evacuate and damaging roads, buildings and power lines. Thane hit Tamil Nadu state Friday with winds of up to 135 kmph (83 mph) and tidal surges of up to 1.5 meters (5 feet). About 6,000 coastal villagers were forced to seek safety in relief shelters, the state's Chief Minister J Jayalalitha said. "Most of the deaths in the district were because of house collapses and electrocution," said V. ...
Full Story | Top |
Gunmen kill five Iraq Sunni militia: police
Sat,31 Dec 2011 01:23 AM PST
Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen carrying silenced weapons attacked a checkpoint manned by government-backed Sunni militiamen and killed all five of them in the restive Iraqi province of Diyala, security officials said on Saturday. The attack occurred shortly after 2 a.m. (2300 GMT) in the town of Khan Bani Saad, about 30 km (20 miles) northeast of Baghdad, the head of the local security committee and police said. ... Full Story | Top |
North Korea says names Kim Jong-un top military commander
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:49 PM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea announced on Saturday it has appointed Kim Jong-un, the anointed successor and youngest son of Kim Jong-il, as supreme commander of its 1.2 million-strong military, two days after official mourning for the late leader ended. The North's state news agency KCNA said the appointment was made at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party on Friday. ...
Full Story | Top |
Cuba pilgrimage ends with call for reconciliation
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:14 PM PST
Reuters -  HAVANA (Reuters) - Roman Catholic Church leaders called for reconciliation among Cubans and urged further economic reform at an outdoor mass in Cuba on Friday marking the end of a national pilgrimage of a statue of the island's patron saint. About 3,000 people gathered along Havana Bay for the ceremony led by Havana Cardinal Jaime Ortega paying tribute to the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, a Catholic icon that has toured the communist-ruled country for the past 16 months in the first such religious display permitted since the 1950s. ...
Full Story | Top |
China says rebel village was right to complain
Fri,30 Dec 2011 06:01 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - Residents of a south China village who tested the ruling Communist Party's control with more than a week of protests had "legitimate complaints" over a land grab that sparked the rebellion, state news agency Xinhua has said. Ten days of protests over confiscated farmland and the death of a protest organizer in Wukan in booming Guangdong province earlier this month drew widespread attention as a rebuff to the stability-obsessed government. The standoff ended after authorities offered concessions in a rare example of the government backing down to mobilised citizens. ...
Full Story | Top |
Myanmar sets April by-elections, Suu Kyi set to run
Fri,30 Dec 2011 05:40 PM PST
Reuters -  YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar has set a date of April 1, 2012, for by-elections that could see pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi enter parliament, although the military's grip on the assembly will not be threatened. State television announced the date late Friday. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) refused to take part in elections in November 2010, disagreeing with the electoral process set in place by the former military leaders. ...
Full Story | Top |
Quake rattles New Zealand's Christchurch: USGS
Fri,30 Dec 2011 05:37 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 struck close to the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The quake was measured only about 14 km (9 miles) northeast of the city. It was another in a series of quakes that have rattled the city since a major earthquake killed almost 200 people there 10 months ago. There were no immediate reports of a tsunami warning. ... Full Story | Top |
Former Mexico soldier sentenced for aiding cartels
Fri,30 Dec 2011 04:16 PM PST
Reuters - MEXICO CITY, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A former soldier in the Mexican army was sentenced to 25 years in prison for aiding drug cartels, the attorney general's office said on Friday. Reymundo Morales of the Mexican infantry was arrested two years ago and found guilty of passing information to drug cartels, the attorney general's office said in a statement. Local media said that Morales and several colleagues in uniform were passing information about security operations to the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, led by Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted man. ... Full Story | Top |
Seventeen dead as Syrians stage mass protests
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:55 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian security forces, undaunted by the presence of Arab League observers, have killed at least 12 protesters as hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, opposition activists said. Five members of the security forces were also killed in a shooting in the city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday. ...
Full Story | Top |
Pro-Saleh protests in Yemen, seven militants killed
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:38 PM PST
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Supporters of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh took to the streets of Yemen's capital on Friday for the first time since he signed a peace agreement last month as violence broke out on other fronts in the country. Seven Islamist militants connected to al Qaeda were killed in southern Yemen, residents of a city occupied by the militants said. Also in the south, rebel fighters killed a security officer. ...
Full Story | Top |
MSF ponders Somali presence after attack: official
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:13 PM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Medecins Sans Fontieres is withdrawing non-Somali staff from a hospital in Mogadishu where two of its staff were shot dead but the aid group hopes to maintain its operation in Somalia despite the danger, an official said on Friday, Meinie Nicolai, president of MSF's Belgian branch which runs the hospital in the Somali capital, said Thursday's attack did not appear to be politically driven. "For us to leave Somalia would be a last option," Nicolai told Reuters. "It is not a political action as far as we can read it today," she added. "It's not against the organisation. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt assures U.S. no more raids on democracy groups
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:52 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Egyptian officials have assured the United States they will halt raids on pro-democracy and human rights groups and return property seized in a crackdown that strained ties with Washington, U.S. officials said on Friday. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the U.S. ambassador in Egypt, Anne Patterson, spoke with top Egyptian officials including the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Friday to press U.S. ...
Full Story | Top |
North Korea's new leaders lash out at South Korea and allies
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:42 PM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea sounded a bellicose note in its first communication with the outside world since the death of leader Kim Jong-il, saying its confrontational stance against South Korea would not change and labeling its opponents "foolish." Since Kim Jong-il died on December 17, the outside world has been watching to see whether his son Kim Jong-un, aged in his 20s, would stick to its hardline "military first" policies that have seen the isolated nation move closer to nuclear weapons capacity. ...
Full Story | Top |
Nigerian Christmas bomb death toll rises to 37
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:10 PM PST
Reuters - ABUJA (Reuters) - The death toll from a bomb attack on a church just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja on Christmas Day has risen to 37, with 57 people wounded, a source at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Friday. The bombing at St. Theresa's Catholic church in Madalla on Abuja's outskirts during a packed Christmas mass was the deadliest of a series of Christmas attacks on Nigerian churches and other targets by the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram. "As of just now, the latest death toll from the bombing of St. Theresa's church is at 37. ... Full Story | Top |
Conflict minerals crackdown backfiring in Congo: U.N.
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:58 PM PST
Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - A U.S. crackdown on so-called "conflict minerals" in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has backfired by pushing trade deeper into the hands of criminals, including at least one former rebel leader, a U.N. report said on Friday. The finding underscores the difficulty faced by both the United States and Congo governments in choking off funding to eastern Congo's roving armed bands, believed responsible for thousands of rapes and killings of villagers. ... Full Story | Top |
Congo ex-rebels given perks for backing Kabila: U.N.
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:42 PM PST
Reuters - KINSHASA (Reuters) - Former rebels have been promoted to senior posts in Democratic Republic of Congo's military in return for supporting President Joseph Kabila's re-election effort, the United Nations said in a report on Friday. The finding could deepen divisions within the army and add to doubts over the credibility of the November 28 poll, which was marred by violence and described by Kabila's opponents as fraudulent, although endorsed by the Supreme Court. The government has been integrating former rebels into the army, the FARDC, in a bid to curb rebellion. ... Full Story | Top |
Media death toll rose in 2011 versus 2010: IFJ
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:25 PM PST
Reuters -  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - More than 100 journalists or other media staff were killed in 2011, up from last year's toll, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said on Friday, calling on U.N. Secretary General Bank Ki-moon to act to help protect the profession. Violence against the media was worst in Pakistan, Iraq and Mexico, each of which saw 11 deaths. One of those killed in Iraq was a freelance working for Reuters Sabah al-Bazee. In total, 106 were killed in 2011, compared with 94 in 2010. ...
Full Story | Top |
Iran to fire long-range missiles in drill: agency
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:03 PM PST
Reuters - TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will fire long-range missiles during a naval drill in the Gulf on Saturday, a semi-official news agency reported, a show of force at a time when Iran has threatened to close shipping lanes if the West imposes sanctions on its oil exports. Iran threatened on Tuesday to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if it became the target of an oil export embargo over its nuclear ambitions, a move that could trigger military conflict with countries dependent on Gulf oil. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran blocks former president's website ahead of vote
Fri,30 Dec 2011 09:14 AM PST
Reuters -  TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has blocked the website of influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ahead of parliamentary elections, for carrying pro-reform critical statements, Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency reported on Friday. The clerical establishment has increased pressure on the pro-reform opposition ahead of the March 2 vote, the first nationwide poll since a 2009 disputed presidential vote that triggered prolonged and widespread anti-government protests. In the past days, some leading reformist figures have been sentenced to long-term jail sentences. ...
Full Story | Top |
EU worried at Egypt raids of human rights groups
Fri,30 Dec 2011 09:09 AM PST
Reuters - BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union said on Friday police raids of pro-democracy and human rights groups' offices in Egypt amounted to an "open demonstration of force" and urged the authorities to support civil society. Egyptian prosecutors and police raided the offices of 17 groups on Thursday, in what the official MENA news agency said was an investigation into foreign funding. The move drew protests from the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
Turkey's PM pledges full probe into deadly raid
Fri,30 Dec 2011 08:43 AM PST
Reuters -  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday promised a full investigation into airstrikes on the Iraqi border that killed 35 villagers whom the military had mistaken for Kurdish militants - an attack that has infuriated minority Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. The strikes sparked clashes on Friday in Turkey's restive mainly Kurdish southeast and in the autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq region. In the border village of Gulyazi, thousands of mourners attended funerals after digging deep graves along a steep cliff. ...
Full Story | Top |
Car-bombing in Pakistan's Quetta kills at least 8
Fri,30 Dec 2011 08:29 AM PST
Reuters -  QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomber remotely detonated an explosive-laden car outside the home of a Pakistani former minister, killing at least eight people and wounding 30, police officials in the city of Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, said on Friday. The car was parked outside the house of Naseer Mengal, a former minister of petroleum and natural resources, according to police officials. Several militants exchanged fire with private security guards after the blast. Paramilitary forces cordoned off the area and were searching for the assailants. ...
Full Story | Top |
| |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment