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China assisting North Korean missile program: Panetta
Thu,19 Apr 2012 08:17 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has provided some assistance to North Korea's missile program, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, a week after the hermit state's failed rocket launch triggered international condemnation. Under United Nations Security Council resolutions from 2006 and 2009, states, including China, are banned from helping North Korea with its ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities as well as supplying heavy weapons. ...
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High-frequency trader Optiver pays $14 million in oil manipulation case
Thu,19 Apr 2012 07:55 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. regulators claimed their first victory in a four-year old effort to crack down on oil market manipulation on Thursday, announcing a $14 million settlement with high-frequency trading firm Optiver. In a ruling that came just two days after U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a renewed campaign against illegal oil trading schemes, the Amsterdam-based company agreed to disgorge $1 million in profits and pay a $13 million civil penalty over allegations it used a rapid-fire tool nicknamed "The Hammer" to influence U.S. oil prices in 2007. ... Full Story | Top |
IMF on target to boost firepower by $400 billion: Japan Finance Minister
Thu,19 Apr 2012 07:50 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is likely to achieve the touted $400 billion boost to its financial firepower to contain the euro zone debt crisis, Japan's finance minister said on Thursday. Jun Azumi also told reporters after attending the Group of Seven and Group of 20 gatherings that more than a dozen countries had agreed to contribute money to the move. Azumi also met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday on the sidelines of the G20 and IMF meetings. He said they discussed Europe's debt woes but not sanctions on North Korea. ... Full Story | Top |
Japan opposition censures ministers, piles pressure on PM
Thu,19 Apr 2012 07:25 PM PDT
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's opposition-controlled upper house of parliament voted to censure two ministers in Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's cabinet, further complicating his task of gaining support for his sales tax hike plan in a divided parliament. Noda needs opposition backing to pass bills that would double the sales tax to 10 percent in two stages by October 2015 to help fund swelling welfare costs. ... Full Story | Top |
Secret Service agents lawyer: 'trial by mob' wrong
Thu,19 Apr 2012 07:14 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The attorney for some of the Secret Service agents under investigation in a scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia ahead of President Barack Obama's trip, said on Thursday a "trial by mob" was wrong. Lawrence Berger's comments to Reuters in a telephone interview came after the Washington Post identified the two supervisors involved as David Randall Chaney, 48, in the international programs division, who was allowed to retire, and Greg Stokes, assistant special agent in charge of the K9 division, who has been notified that he will be fired. ... Full Story | Top |
Alabama's House approves changes to tough immigration law
Thu,19 Apr 2012 06:59 PM PDT
Reuters - Birmingham, Alabama (Reuters) - Alabama's House of Representatives passed a new version of its controversial immigration law on Thursday, revising parts of a measure that has faced court challenges and sharp criticism since it first passed last year. Alabama's governor and lawmakers had promised changes to the tough immigration law following embarrassing incidents where foreign workers were detained because they were not carrying sufficient identification. ... Full Story | Top |
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan vows to continue tax boycott
Thu,19 Apr 2012 06:58 PM PDT
Reuters - SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California peace activist Cindy Sheehan has agreed to meet with Internal Revenue Service agents seeking to collect back taxes she refuses to pay as a protest of U.S. wars, but she vowed on Thursday to persist in her tax boycott. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in action in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Army in 2004, appeared before a federal judge as the government sought a court order requiring her to answer an IRS collection summons seeking information about assets that could be used to satisfy her tax liability. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, four feared dead
Thu,19 Apr 2012 06:57 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military helicopter went down in poor weather in Afghanistan on Thursday, the military said, in a crash that officials believed may have killed all four people onboard. A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Black Hawk helicopter crashed in the Regional Command-Southwest area, which includes the traditional Taliban stronghold of Helmand province. Poor weather appeared to have been the cause of the crash. Another official said all four people aboard the helicopter were feared dead. ... Full Story | Top |
Oklahoma "personhood" bill fails in Legislature
Thu,19 Apr 2012 06:29 PM PDT
Reuters - OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A proposed 'personhood' law in Oklahoma that would grant embryos full rights as people from the moment of conception failed in the state's Legislature without coming to a vote in the House of Representatives, lawmakers said on Thursday. The bill, which backers hoped would provide a path to roll back the constitutional right to an abortion, had sailed through the Oklahoma Senate in February by a 34-8 vote. Many thought the Republican-dominated House would rubber-stamp the bill. ... Full Story | Top |
California middle school teacher fired over porn film role
Thu,19 Apr 2012 06:21 PM PDT
Reuters - OXNARD, California (Reuters) - A Southern California middle school science teacher who once appeared in a porn film has been fired by her school district over concerns the issue could pose a distraction to students, officials said on Thursday. The five-person Oxnard school board voted unanimously on Wednesday night in favor of the dismissal of Stacie Halas, who had been a teacher at the Richard B. Haydock Intermediate School for almost three years. ... Full Story | Top |
Texas judge weighs 'difficult' Planned Parenthood case
Thu,19 Apr 2012 05:52 PM PDT
Reuters - AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Lawyers for Planned Parenthood told a federal judge on Thursday that the healthcare of 40,000 women would be disrupted as soon as May 1 unless he blocks a new Texas rule that excludes the family planning organization's clinics from a state program. But lawyers for the state said Planned Parenthood's mission was contrary to a Texas Women's Health Program goal of reducing abortions. The program provides cancer screenings, birth control and other health services to more than 100,000 low-income women. U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Famed Fenway Park becomes hot prop of political campaigns
Thu,19 Apr 2012 05:50 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Legendary Boston baseball venue Fenway Park has been a theater of drama and heartbreak for Red Sox fans in its century-long history, but this year it is entering a whole new league. Major League Baseball's old jewel has become the hottest prop of the political season, gracing the campaigns of Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney and local Senator Scott Brown, and hosting one of the nation's top political talk shows. Fenway Park celebrates its 100th birthday on Friday, an occasion that team brass and the city of Boston have been marking all spring. ... Full Story | Top |
Obama to give basketball coach Summitt top honor
Thu,19 Apr 2012 05:26 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he will give the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the top civilian honor, to retiring University of Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt, who amassed the most wins of any men's or women's collegiate basketball coach. Summitt, 59, announced her retirement on Wednesday following the disclosure last year that she suffers from early-onset dementia. ...
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Catholic nuns group "stunned" by Vatican slap
Thu,19 Apr 2012 05:01 PM PDT
Reuters -  CHICAGO (Reuters) - A prominent U.S. Catholic nuns' group said on Thursday it was "stunned" that the Vatican reprimanded it for spending too much time on poverty and social justice concerns and not enough on abortion and gay marriage. In a stinging report on Wednesday, the Vatican said the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had been "silent on the right to life" and had failed to make the "Biblical view of family life and human sexuality" a central plank in its agenda. ...
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Famed Fenway Park becomes hot prop of political campaigns
Thu,19 Apr 2012 04:51 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Legendary Boston baseball venue Fenway Park has been a theater of drama and heartbreak for Red Sox fans in its century-long history, but this year it is entering a whole new league. Major League Baseball's old jewel has become the hottest prop of the political season, gracing the campaigns of Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney and local Senator Scott Brown, and hosting one of the nation's top political talk shows. Fenway Park celebrates its 100th birthday on Friday, an occasion that team brass and the city of Boston have been marking all spring. ...
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Mali's military frees arrested officials
Thu,19 Apr 2012 04:27 PM PDT
Reuters -  BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's military has released all the senior political and army officials it arrested earlier this week, the army leaders behind last month's coup said on Thursday. Separately, neighboring Senegal said Mali's ousted former president, Amadou Toumani Toure, was on a plane heading for the capital Dakar. Senegal revealed this week that Toure been sheltering in its embassy in the Malian capital, Bamako. Toure fled his palace on March 22. ...
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Rehearsal for London torch relay amid words of comfort
Thu,19 Apr 2012 04:21 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - London 2012 organizers, who will stage a dress rehearsal for the Olympic torch relay on Friday, received comforting reassurance from a previous host city over fears of protests. The torches, which will be unlit, will travel by train, road and boat between Leicester and Peterborough in central England. A man who was at the heart of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics reassured Britain on Thursday that potential demonstrations are likely to melt away when national excitement takes off during the relay and the Games. ...
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Dylan, Van Morrison headline Montreux jazz fest
Thu,19 Apr 2012 04:07 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAUX, Switzerland (Reuters) - Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Anita Baker return to the Montreux Jazz Festival for the 46th edition that founder "Funky" Claude Nobs hopes will go on into the early hours with improvised jam sessions. New talents Lana Del Rey and Ed Sheeran, as well as veterans Jane Birkin, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Tony Bennett are also booked at one of Europe's most prestigious music festivals that runs from June 29-July 14 along the shores of Lake Geneva. ...
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Measles cases reached 15-year high in 2011: CDC
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:52 PM PDT
Reuters - ATLANTA (Reuters) - Measles cases in the United States hit a 15-year high in 2011, with 90 percent of the cases traced to other countries with lower immunization rates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. There were 222 cases of measles in the United States last year, more than triple the usual number, the CDC said. There had been only about 60 cases per year between 2001 and 2010. No one has died of the disease in the United States since 2008. ... Full Story | Top |
Missing North Carolina soldier feared in danger
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:45 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - North Carolina police are investigating the disappearance of a 23-year-old Fort Bragg soldier last seen at a bar over the weekend, fearing she is in danger, authorities said on Thursday. Kelli Marie Bordeaux has been missing since leaving the Froggy Bottoms bar in Fayetteville early Saturday morning, Fayetteville police spokesman Gavin MacRoberts said. Her disappearance is being treated as a missing person case. Police sent dive teams to a pond in Fayetteville on Thursday, but turned up no fresh leads. ...
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Nugent says had "solid" meeting with Secret Service
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:43 PM PDT
Reuters - OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Musician and gun-rights advocate Ted Nugent said on Thursday he had a positive meeting with U.S. Secret Service agents investigating his recent criticism of President Barack Obama, and the agency confirmed the issue had been resolved. Nugent, who told NRA supporters in St. Louis last week that he would be "dead or in jail" next year if Obama was reelected, said in a statement that he had "met with two fine, professional Secret Service agents" in Oklahoma. "Good, solid, professional meeting concluding that I have never made any threats of violence towards anyone. ... Full Story | Top |
China assisting North Korean missile program: U.S. Defense Secretary
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:40 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has provided some assistance to North Korea's missile program, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, a week after the hermit state's failed missile launch triggered broad international condemnation. "I'm sure there's been some help coming from China. I don't know, you know, the exact extent of that," Panetta told members of the House Armed Services Committee when asked whether China had been supporting North Korea's missile program through "trade and technology exchanges. ...
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Rove rides again, as a force behind Romney
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:29 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a decade ago he was dubbed "Bush's Brain," for his influence in guiding Republican George W. Bush to the U.S. presidency. This year, Karl Rove could be Mitt Romney's brawn. Perhaps no one, besides Romney himself, will have a greater influence on the course of the Republican presidential campaign this fall than Rove, the brash, often-controversial architect of Bush's two successful bids for the White House. Bush called Rove "Turd Blossom," a term Texans use to describe a flower that grows from a pile of cow dung. ...
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Lawmakers expect Secret Service may oust more agents
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:25 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior lawmakers expect more Secret Service agents could be forced out of their jobs soon over allegations of misconduct with prostitutes in Colombia, joining the three employees who have already left. Representative Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings predicted on Thursday there would be more fallout from the scandal surrounding a night of partying by Secret Service agents and U.S. military personnel last week in the coastal city of Cartegena just before President Barack Obama arrived for the weekend Summit of the Americas. ...
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Unconscious pilot crashes into Gulf of Mexico
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:24 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - The unconscious pilot of a small private plane flew in circles over the Gulf of Mexico for hours on Thursday, shadowed by two U.S. military jets, before running out of fuel and crashing and sinking into the watery depths, authorities said. The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched a plane, a helicopter and a Coast Guard cutter to the crash site, about 120 miles west of Tampa, Florida, but the pilot did not emerge from the downed plane, according Coast Guard spokeswoman Elizabeth Bordelon. ... Full Story | Top |
Florida judge to decide on bond for Trayvon Martin's killer
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:19 PM PDT
Reuters -  ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida judge will decide on Friday whether to release George Zimmerman on bail before his trial for second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. took over the racially charged case on Wednesday after another judge stepped aside due to a potential conflict of interest. He will preside over a previously scheduled pre-trial detention hearing beginning at 9 a.m. (1300 GMT), as he takes up a case that has riveted the United States. ...
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Boko Haram kill seven civilians in north Nigeria: government
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:09 PM PDT
Reuters -  MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen from radical Islamist sect Boko Haram have killed at least seven civilians in the past 24 hours in a spate of attacks in northern Nigeria, police said on Thursday. Boko Haram, which wants to carve an Islamic state out of Africa's most populous nation split evenly between Muslims and Christians, has killed hundreds in almost daily gun and bomb attacks this year. ...
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Illinois governor proposes plan to rein in Medicaid
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:04 PM PDT
Reuters -  CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on Thursday proposed a plan that he said would save the state's Medicaid health program for the poor from collapse by slashing spending and raising revenue via an increase in the cigarette tax. The Democratic governor's $2.7 billion plan calls for saving $1.35 billion a year by reducing eligibility and coverage, eliminating programs, and other efficiencies. It also calls for dropping rates paid to providers to save another $675 million, and increasing the state's cigarette tax by $1 per pack to raise $335.7 million annually. ...
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Obama oil margin plan could increase price swings
Thu,19 Apr 2012 03:03 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's bid to dampen the influence of oil speculators by having regulators set trading margins could backfire, potentially making prices even more volatile and leaving crude dominated only by those with the deepest pockets. Under Obama's request to Congress, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would determine how much speculators need to pay to trade U.S. crude oil futures, in theory increasing the amount when prices move too far, too fast. ...
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Senate Republicans rebuke House on spending bills
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:52 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the Senate opted on Thursday not to challenge federal spending levels set in last summer's debt-limit deal, setting up a September clash with the House of Representatives that heightens chances of a government shutdown. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and nine other Republican senators voted to embrace a series of budget bills that would be in line with a $1.047 trillion discretionary spending level set by last year's Budget Control Act for fiscal 2013 starting on October 1. ... Full Story | Top |
Parsons blames Citi vote on failure to communicate
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:52 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Richard Parsons, who chaired the Citigroup Inc board that lost a shareholder vote this week on executive compensation, said on Thursday that directors had failed to adequately explain to investors the methods they used to determine pay packages. At Citi's annual meeting on Tuesday, only 45 percent of shareholders endorsed the pay plan in an advisory vote required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law. Under Parsons' chairmanship, the Citigroup board paid CEO Vikram Pandit $15 million in 2011. ...
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Obama '08 campaign failed to report last-minute funds
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:51 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign failed to properly report nearly $2 million in last-minute donations to the juggernaut that swept him into the White House, but that was the only violation found in a Federal Election Commission audit of Obama's $778 million campaign. The audit, posted online on Thursday, shows Obama's campaign did not file notifications on time for 1,312 donations totaling $1,972,266, received before the November vote. ...
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Obama, top Senate Democrat split on nuclear nominee
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:49 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will renominate Republican Kristine Svinicki to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, defying opposition from his own party's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the White House said on Thursday. Republicans want Svinicki, whose term as a commissioner expires in June, to stay on the panel and assert that the process has been held up because she, along with three other commission members, accused current NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko, a Democrat, of bullying women. A vacancy could cause delays in commission decisions on safety reforms at U.S. ...
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Space shuttle Discovery makes final flight to museum
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:43 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The space shuttle Discovery made its final voyage on Tuesday: a piggyback jet ride to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia. The United States retired its space shuttles last year after finishing construction of the $100 billion International Space Station, a project of 15 countries, to begin work on a new generation of spaceships that can carry astronauts to destinations beyond the station's 240-mile-high (384-km-high) orbit. ...
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Fuel truck drivers to resume talks to avert strike
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:35 PM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Talks will resume on Monday to try to avert a strike by fuel tanker drivers after an offer was rejected this week, a mediation body said on Thursday. The dispute, which has rattled the Conservative-led government, concerns a wide range of issues from health and safety to pay and pensions, and is complicated by the number of companies involved and because some delivery services are sub-contracted out. The Unite union, which represents the 2,000 drivers who backed a strike last month, will meet employers at ACAS, the independent industrial mediation body, next week. ... Full Story | Top |
Annan's team urges swift deployment of Syria observers
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:26 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan's deputy told the Security Council on Thursday that the swift deployment of more observers to Syria was needed despite continued risks and persistent violence, though some council members have expressed reluctance. A handful of observers have arrived in Syria after the Security Council authorized the deployment of up to 30 on Saturday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is now recommending that the 15-nation council quickly pass a resolution authorizing a further "initial deployment" of up to 300 unarmed monitors. ... Full Story | Top |
Two Guantanamo Uighur prisoners head to El Salvador
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:23 PM PDT
Reuters - MIAMI (Reuters) - Two members of China's Muslim Uighur minority were released from the U.S. Guantanamo detention camp and resettled in El Salvador, becoming the first prisoners to leave the facility in more than 15 months, the Pentagon said on Thursday. The two men, whose names were not released, had been held for more than a decade without charge. A U.S. court in Washington found there was no reason to hold them and ordered them freed in 2008. The Chinese government has demanded that Uighurs held at Guantanamo be returned to China, but the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Bashir says Sudan to teach South "final lesson by force"
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:22 PM PDT
Reuters -  KHARTOUM/JUBA (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir all but declared war against his newly independent neighbor on Thursday, vowing to teach South Sudan a "final lesson by force" after it occupied a disputed oil field. South Sudan accused Bashir of planning "genocide" and said it would fight to protect its people. Mounting violence since Sudan split into two countries last year has raised the prospect of two sovereign African states waging war against each other openly for the first time since Ethiopia fought newly-independent Eritrea in 1998-2000. ...
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U.S. struggles to head off wider Sudan conflict
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:22 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is working to push Sudan and South Sudan back from the brink of war as the two sides ratchet up hostilities that threaten to upend the U.S.-backed peace deal that led to South Sudan's independence last year. The Obama administration's special envoy for Sudan, Princeton Lyman, said on Thursday the situation was a "very serious crisis" that threatened wider conflict between the two foes, which fought a brutal civil war for decades before finally signing a 2005 peace agreement. ... Full Story | Top |
Lawmakers press UK government over China murder scandal
Thu,19 Apr 2012 02:15 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Lawmakers asked the British government on Thursday about rumors that a businessman whose murder sparked political upheaval in China may have been a spy and demanded to know why it took so long for ministers to be told of suspicions about his death. Police in China initially attributed the death of Neil Heywood, 41, in a hotel room in the southwest Chinese city of Chongqing last November to cardiac arrest due to over-consumption of alcohol. ...
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