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Friday, April 27, 2012 8:30 PM PDT

Today's Politics - Bloomberg News Headlines - Yahoo! News: China official declines comment on escaped activist FBI assisting in search for California woman last seen in Panama Thousands march on capital centre in Malaysia election protest Bill Clinton teams up with Obama for re-election fundraisers Detroit Tigers' Young apologizes after hate crime arrest Police say found bunker of man accused of killing family U.S. Secret Service limits alcohol, hotel guests on trips abroad Bissau president and ex-premier freed by soldiers Obama campaign questions Romney on bin Laden death Former U.S. presidential hopeful Edwards' defense says aide lied Al Qaeda now incapable of 9/11-scale attack: U.S. officials Peru rebels kill 3 security forces, injure 2 on army search Romney keeps focus on economy despite Obama attacks MPs to probe how big banks are run Strauss-Kahn suspects "political enemies" in sex scandal: paper Blind China activist makes mystery "escape" Oil report seen supporting Iran sanctions Palin, McCain differ again in race for Indiana Senate seat Inventories, weak business spending curb first-quarter growth Somali convicted in U.S. court on piracy charges Fire guts Miami offices of Cuba travel firm Canada offers more transparency on takeover rules U.S. House panel may send scandal investigators to Colombia Iran says to resume talks with nuclear watchdog in May Geithner: U.S. can withstand any Europe stresses U.S. adds muscle to financial fraud investigations Republicans insert healthcare into student loan fight Comic campaigns for Italian default, lira: seriously TransCanada profit falls; eyes new oil pipeline Campaign treasurer for NYC comptroller indicted Obama administration pulls rule on child farm labor Nobel winner Pamuk opens novel museum in Istanbul Conductor Masur in hospital after falling off stage Mali junta rejects West African troop deployment Bombs wound 27 in Ukrainian city Broadcasters to post political ad buys online Clashes in Bahrain as police block protest march Czech centre-right government survives confidence vote China's Wen: Auschwitz visit "unforgettable, dark" Elite Afghan soldier kills U.S. special forces mentor China official declines comment on escaped activist Fri,27 Apr 2012 07:50 PM PDT Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese diplomat declined to comment on Saturday on unconfirmed reports that blind activist Chen Guangcheng had fled into the U.S. embassy in Beijing. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said the question did not come within the scope of the news briefing, which was about high level talks next week in Beijing between the United States and China. "So I have no information to give you," he said when asked about Chen, a blind rural campaigner whom supporters have said escaped house arrest and is probably inside the U.S. embassy. ... Full Story Top FBI assisting in search for California woman last seen in Panama Fri,27 Apr 2012 07:14 PM PDT Reuters - IRVINE, California (Reuters) - The FBI is assisting Panamanian authorities in the search for a Southern California woman who went missing from the Central American country in November, a spokesman for the agency said on Friday. Special Agent Darrell Foxworth declined to elaborate on the FBI's role in the investigation or discuss evidence in disappearance of Yvonne Baldelli. "It wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss specific details concerning the investigation at this time," Foxworth said. ... Full Story Top Thousands march on capital centre in Malaysia election protest Fri,27 Apr 2012 07:10 PM PDT Reuters - KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters calling for fair elections converged on Kuala Lumpur's centre on Saturday for a major demonstration that will test the Malaysian government's reformist credentials and may affect the timing of national polls. Police have shut down much of the city centre and closed off the historic Merdeka (Independence) Square with barriers and barbed wire, enforcing a court order that the protesters should not enter the symbolically important site. ... Full Story Top Bill Clinton teams up with Obama for re-election fundraisers Fri,27 Apr 2012 06:05 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton will join President Barack Obama on Sunday to raise money for the Democrat's re-election campaign, the first time the two U.S. political heavyweights have campaigned together in 2012. Obama and Clinton have had a sometimes strained relationship since the former Illinois senator beat the former president's wife Hillary Clinton, now secretary of State, for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. ... Full Story Top Detroit Tigers' Young apologizes after hate crime arrest Fri,27 Apr 2012 05:54 PM PDT Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young apologized on Friday for an incident that led to a hate crime charge against him for allegedly yelling anti-Semitic remarks during a scuffle with tourists in New York. Police say Young, 26, scuffled with four tourists from Illinois outside a hotel near Times Square early on Friday after the group gave money to a panhandler wearing a yarmulke. The baseball player is accused of yelling anti-Semitic remarks during the incident, but it was unclear at whom the remarks were directed, police said. ... Full Story Top Police say found bunker of man accused of killing family Fri,27 Apr 2012 05:28 PM PDT Reuters - SEATTLE (Reuters) - Authorities have found a bunker in mountains near Seattle that they believe belongs to a missing survivalist suspected of murdering his wife and daughter and setting fire to the family home in northwest Washington state, police said on Friday. Police have been searching for Peter Keller, 41, since Sunday when firefighters responded to a blaze at the family home in North Bend, Washington, and found the bodies of his wife of 21 years and 18-year-old daughter. "Bunker found at Rattlesnake Ridge of suspect Keller. ... Full Story Top U.S. Secret Service limits alcohol, hotel guests on trips abroad Fri,27 Apr 2012 05:16 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Heavy drinking and bringing foreign nationals back to hotel rooms on trips abroad is now banned by the U.S. Secret Service in the wake of a growing scandal over allegations that agents consorted with prostitutes in Colombia this month. The new rules of conduct issued on Friday also ban visits to "non-reputable establishments," presumably including strip clubs, and say staff must obey U.S. laws even while abroad. A copy was provided to Reuters by the Secret Service, and a spokesman said they were effective immediately. ... Full Story Top Bissau president and ex-premier freed by soldiers Fri,27 Apr 2012 04:59 PM PDT Reuters - BISSAU (Reuters) - Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau released two leading politicians they had arrested in an April 12 coup and said on Friday they would accept the planned deployment to the country of over 600 soldiers from West African regional bloc ECOWAS. Carlos Gomes Junior, the ex-premier and presidential election front-runner, and interim President Raimundo Pereira were freed on Friday afternoon after a visit by ECOWAS military chiefs and later flew to Abidjan, Ivory Coast. ... Full Story Top Obama campaign questions Romney on bin Laden death Fri,27 Apr 2012 04:38 PM PDT Reuters - FORT STEWART, Georgia (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's campaign sought to make the death of Osama bin Laden a central part of the U.S. presidential election on Friday with a video that questioned whether Republican rival Mitt Romney would have made the same call to approve the mission that killed the al Qaeda leader. Obama, a Democrat, was praised by leaders from both parties for approving the risky May 2011 mission that killed bin Laden, but he has tread carefully with the issue in campaign events. His re-election campaign embraced the issue fully on Friday. ... Full Story Top Former U.S. presidential hopeful Edwards' defense says aide lied Fri,27 Apr 2012 04:37 PM PDT Reuters - GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Former U.S. Senator and presidential contender John Edwards' defense sharpened its attack on the government's lead witness on Friday, saying his ego and greed motivated him to take his former boss down in a federal campaign finance case. Edwards, 58, is accused of directing ex-campaign aide Andrew Young to solicit nearly $1 million in illegal political contributions to conceal Edward's pregnant mistress during his failed 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. ... Full Story Top Al Qaeda now incapable of 9/11-scale attack: U.S. officials Fri,27 Apr 2012 04:12 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's core organization is likely incapable of carrying out another mass-casualty attack on the scale of September 11, 2001, U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials said on Friday. U.S. government experts also believe that the likelihood of an attack using chemical, biological, atomic or radiological weapons over the next year was not high, said Robert Cardillo, deputy director of U.S. National Intelligence. Cardillo and other U.S. ... Full Story Top Peru rebels kill 3 security forces, injure 2 on army search Fri,27 Apr 2012 04:07 PM PDT Reuters - LIMA (Reuters) - Shining Path rebels on Friday killed three members of Peru's security forces and wounded two others while they were searching for police who disappeared in an earlier ambush, the armed forces said. It was the latest setback to the government's push to retake a lawless bundle of jungle valleys in southeastern Peru where a remnant band of Maoist rebels runs cocaine trafficking in the world's most densely planted region of coca plantations. "Two patrol groups of the armed forces clashed with narco-terrorists," the high command of the armed forces said in a statement. ... Full Story Top Romney keeps focus on economy despite Obama attacks Fri,27 Apr 2012 04:06 PM PDT Reuters - WESTERVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - White House candidate Mitt Romney on Friday kept his focus on attacking President Barack Obama's handling of the economy, in the face of Democrats' attempts to paint the Republican hopeful as weak on national security. Speaking in the Rust Belt swing state of Ohio, Romney accused Obama of wanting to transform America's economy into a more tightly regulated European model. The former business executive promised he would restore the principles of free-market economic freedom. ... Full Story Top MPs to probe how big banks are run Fri,27 Apr 2012 04:06 PM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - MPs will probe how to improve the way big banks are run and set top pay after past attempts to strengthen corporate governance have had mixed results in constraining bonuses or controlling excessive risk taking. Andrew Tyrie, Conservative chairman of the Parliament's treasury select committee, said there had been progress in improving the running of banks but there was "still work to do" when it came to the boards of the country's systemically important lenders. ... Full Story Top Strauss-Kahn suspects "political enemies" in sex scandal: paper Fri,27 Apr 2012 04:02 PM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - The Guardian newspaper said on its website on Friday that former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn believes his French presidential bid was scuppered last year by "political enemies" who made sure his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public. It is the first time Strauss-Kahn has spoken publicly about the events surrounding a sexual encounter with a maid in a Sofitel hotel in New York last May, which put an end to his political ambitions. ... Full Story Top Blind China activist makes mystery "escape" Fri,27 Apr 2012 03:31 PM PDT Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, one of the China's most prominent human rights advocates, has escaped from home imprisonment, activists said on Friday, but uncertainty over his whereabouts and fears about his health have worried supporters. Chen, a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against forced abortions, had been restricted to his village home in Linyi in eastern Shandong province since September 2010 when he was released from jail. ... Full Story Top Oil report seen supporting Iran sanctions Fri,27 Apr 2012 03:18 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global oil inventories grew over the last two months despite the loss of further supplies from Iran, according to a U.S. report that gave leeway for the Obama administration to press ahead with sanctions on the OPEC nation. The Energy Information Administration report, required every 60 days by the Iran sanctions law President Barack Obama signed in December, gave a mostly positive assessment of global oil supplies, which typically build at this time of year. ... Full Story Top Palin, McCain differ again in race for Indiana Senate seat Fri,27 Apr 2012 03:15 PM PDT Reuters - INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - They disagreed as Republican running mates during the 2008 presidential campaign, and on Friday John McCain and Sarah Palin endorsed rival candidates in the tight Indiana primary to determine if U.S. Senator Richard Lugar gets a shot at a seventh term. "I join common sense conservatives in endorsing Richard Mourdock to be the next senator from Indiana," former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Palin said in a statement released by Tea Party favorite Mourdock's campaign. ... Full Story Top Inventories, weak business spending curb first-quarter growth Fri,27 Apr 2012 03:14 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth cooled in the first quarter as businesses cut back on investment and restocked shelves at a slower pace, but the biggest rise in consumer spending in more than a year cushioned the blow. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, moderating from the fourth quarter's 3 percent rate. Economists had expected somewhat firmer growth, but were taken by surprise by another big drop in defense spending. Still, growth was stronger than the 1. ... Full Story Top Somali convicted in U.S. court on piracy charges Fri,27 Apr 2012 03:07 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Somali man was convicted on Friday in a U.S. court for serving as a ransom negotiator for Somali pirates and his role in the death of four Americans later killed by pirates, the U.S. Justice Department said. Mohammad Saaili Shibin, 50, was brought to the United States in April to face federal charges over the pirating of an American yacht in February off the coast of Somalia and taking hostage two American couples aboard who were later killed. ... Full Story Top Fire guts Miami offices of Cuba travel firm Fri,27 Apr 2012 02:59 PM PDT Reuters - MIAMI (Reuters) - State and local officials were investigating a suspicious fire on Friday that gutted the Miami offices of a travel agency specializing in flights to Cuba. Fire rescue officials responded to a fire at Airline Brokers before dawn. The ground floor suite of offices was destroyed and an acrid smell hung in the air as police cordoned off the street outside. Investigators searched through the ashes assisted by dogs that are trained to detect accelerant. "There is an investigation currently underway," said Deborah Cox, a spokeswoman for the state Fire Marshals Office. ... Full Story Top Canada offers more transparency on takeover rules Fri,27 Apr 2012 02:41 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - The Canadian government promised on Friday to make its reviews of foreign takeovers more transparent, allowing it to explain when it has concerns about a proposed investment and perhaps even saying why. A government statement said Canada will change the way it reviews foreign investments, a nod to those who have complained about opaque rules that allow the government to block takeovers that it does not think will provide a "net benefit" to Canada. ... Full Story Top U.S. House panel may send scandal investigators to Colombia Fri,27 Apr 2012 02:40 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressional committee is considering sending investigators to Colombia in the coming weeks to gather information in an expanded probe of alleged Secret Service misconduct with prostitutes, the chairman said on Friday. Representative Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said his staff will move to a "full-scale" investigation after it receives answers to 50 questions the panel posed to Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan about this month's incident. ... Full Story Top Iran says to resume talks with nuclear watchdog in May Fri,27 Apr 2012 02:18 PM PDT Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will resume talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog in Vienna on May 13-14, state media quoted the Iranian ambassador to the body as saying on Friday. Western diplomats said last week Iran had expressed readiness to restart discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) two months after their last meeting ended in failure. But they added that Tehran still appeared to be stonewalling over the body's most pressing demand to let its inspectors visit a key military site. ... Full Story Top Geithner: U.S. can withstand any Europe stresses Fri,27 Apr 2012 02:17 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday that if Europe mismanages its crisis it could slow U.S. growth but said the U.S. financial system could handle any resulting pressures. "The U.S. financial system is in a very strong position to withstand the foreseeable pressures we might face from Europe," he said in an interview on American Public Media's Marketplace program. Geithner said that, on balance, Europe was making headway in efforts to deal with its sovereign debt crisis. ... Full Story Top U.S. adds muscle to financial fraud investigations Fri,27 Apr 2012 02:12 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Obama administration task force probing misconduct that fueled the financial crisis is increasing its ranks, adding five financial analysts and 10 new federal prosecutors spread across the country, according to a senior Justice Department official. The increased staffing reflects a new push by the administration to aggressively pursue cases against firms and individuals who contributed to the 2007-2009 financial crisis, especially ahead of the November election. The U.S. Justice Department has so far brought few cases against high-profile targets since the crash. ... Full Story Top Republicans insert healthcare into student loan fight Fri,27 Apr 2012 02:00 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives defied a veto threat by President Barack Obama on Friday and voted to take money from his healthcare overhaul to extend low-interest rates for federal student loans. On a mostly party-line vote of 215-195, the House sent the measure to the Senate where Obama's Democrats are certain to reject it. Like Obama, they want to renew the low rate, but favor covering the one-year, $6 billion cost by ending a tax break for the rich. ... Full Story Top Comic campaigns for Italian default, lira: seriously Fri,27 Apr 2012 01:34 PM PDT Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - An Italian comic who is campaigning for local elections riding a wave of discontent among voters says the solution to the economic crisis is default on the country's enormous debt and a return to the lira. Beppe Grillo isn't joking when he says Italy needs to get out of the euro zone fast and rejuvenate a political system dominated by parties he says are dead. "We need to try get out of the euro zone with as little damage as possible. ... Full Story Top TransCanada profit falls; eyes new oil pipeline Fri,27 Apr 2012 01:33 PM PDT Reuters - CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp reported a 14 percent drop in quarterly profit on Friday as the natural gas-transport segment of the country's biggest pipeline company was hurt by the depressed state of North America's gas industry. Chief Executive Russ Girling said the company is looking at several regulatory and operational measures to deal with pressures on its Canadian gas mainline after an unusually warm winter slashed demand for the fuel, cutting volume on the system to less than half its roughly 6 billion cubic foot a day capacity. ... Full Story Top Campaign treasurer for NYC comptroller indicted Fri,27 Apr 2012 01:28 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - The 25-year-old campaign treasurer for New York City Comptroller John Liu has been indicted for making a false statement to federal officials, according to a court filing, further weakening Liu's bid to become mayor in 2013. In February, Liu's campaign treasurer, Jia Hou, was arrested and charged with fraud for violating contribution limits. Prosecutors said she had used 'straw donors' to funnel large, illegal contributions to Liu's mayoral campaign. ... Full Story Top Obama administration pulls rule on child farm labor Fri,27 Apr 2012 01:19 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Obama administration proposal to restrict child labor on farms has been withdrawn after criticism from agricultural groups. The rules, which were supported by child labor advocates, would have banned children younger than 16 from using most power-driven farm equipment, including tractors, if they had not taken a training course. The proposal also would have prevented those younger than 18 from working in feed lots, grain bins and stockyards. The Labor Department said it had received thousands of comments about the rule and its effect on small family-owned farms. ... Full Story Top Nobel winner Pamuk opens novel museum in Istanbul Fri,27 Apr 2012 01:17 PM PDT Reuters - ISTANBUL (Reuters Life!) - Nobel prize-winning Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk realizes a long-nurtured dream on Saturday with the opening of an actual "Museum of Innocence" - a collection of relics of a half-century of ordinary life - as depicted in his 2008 novel of the same name. Pamuk set out "not to do a spectacular or monumental museum but something in the backstreets, something that represents the daily life of the city," he told a news conference after a press preview. ... Full Story Top Conductor Masur in hospital after falling off stage Fri,27 Apr 2012 12:56 PM PDT Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - Celebrated German conductor and former East German dissident Kurt Masur was recovering in hospital on Friday after falling off stage at a Paris concert hall while conducting Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony, France's National Orchestra (ONF) said. Masur, 84, who has been music director of the ONF since 2002, fell some 1.5 meters (yards) into the front row of the audience after losing his balance during the performance of the concert at Paris' Theatre des Champs-Elysees. A spokeswoman for the orchestra would not say whether the fall was linked to any pre-existing illness. ... Full Story Top Mali junta rejects West African troop deployment Fri,27 Apr 2012 12:24 PM PDT Reuters - DAKAR (Reuters) - Mali's junta said on Friday it would resist any deployment of West African soldiers in the country and treat foreign forces sent there under a regional plan as "the enemy". The comments came a day after regional bloc ECOWAS said it would send troops to Mali and Guinea-Bissau to tackle the aftermath of coups that, in the case of Mali, has left more than half the country in rebel hands. "We will not accept any ECOWAS soldiers on our territory. This is non-negotiable. ... Full Story Top Bombs wound 27 in Ukrainian city Fri,27 Apr 2012 12:19 PM PDT Reuters - DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Four bombs exploded in a city in eastern Ukraine on Friday, wounding 27 people, including nine children, in what authorities described as an "act of terrorism". President Viktor Yanukovich said the blasts in Dnipropetrovsk, six weeks before Ukraine plays host to the European soccer championship, represented "a challenge ... to the whole country." Bomb attacks are a rare occurrence in the former Soviet republic and the blasts one after the other traumatized people in the city, one of Ukraine's main industrial centers with a population of around 1.3 million. ... Full Story Top Broadcasters to post political ad buys online Fri,27 Apr 2012 12:18 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Political advertising contracts with broadcasters are moving from filing cabinets in television studio basements to the Internet for all to view. The Federal Communications Commission adopted a rule on Friday that will force broadcasters to reveal online who is paying for campaign ads and just how much they are shelling out. The data, to come initially from the four biggest TV broadcasters in the top 50 media markets, is expected to provide insight on campaign spending wars ahead of the November congressional and presidential elections. ... Full Story Top Clashes in Bahrain as police block protest march Fri,27 Apr 2012 12:00 PM PDT Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Protesters trying to march to the heart of Bahrain's capital clashed with riot police on Friday, witnesses said, hours after a massive show of force by the mainstream Shi'ite Muslim opposition. They said dozens of youths threw stones at police who used teargas and stun grenades to block the planned march to the Pearl roundabout, the centre of an uprising last year which the government suppressed with the help of troops from neighbors, including Saudi Arabia. There were no immediate reports of casualties. ... Full Story Top Czech centre-right government survives confidence vote Fri,27 Apr 2012 11:56 AM PDT Reuters - PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech centre-right cabinet won a parliamentary vote of confidence on Friday, gaining a new lease on life after the break-up of a junior ruling party brought the austerity-driven administration to the brink of collapse. The result was expected after a faction from the split coalition partner declared allegiance to the cabinet, but Prime Minister Petr Necas still faces a tough task to push ahead with his fiscal and health reforms in an evenly split parliament. Analysts say an early election before regular polls in 2014 is still possible. ... Full Story Top China's Wen: Auschwitz visit "unforgettable, dark" Fri,27 Apr 2012 11:51 AM PDT Reuters - OSWIECIM, Poland (Reuters) - China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said on Friday a visit to the Auschwitz death camp where Nazis gassed to death 1.5 million people had left an indelible impression, and reinforced the importance of learning the lessons of history. "This is an unforgettable, dark page in the history of humankind and cannot be forgotten," Wen said after touring the former death camp in southern Poland that is now a museum containing gas chambers and crematoria, as well as personal items like shoes and even hair of those who perished there. ... Full Story Top Elite Afghan soldier kills U.S. special forces mentor Fri,27 Apr 2012 11:48 AM PDT Reuters - KANDAHAR (Reuters) - An elite Afghan soldier shot dead an American mentor and his translator at a U.S. base, Afghan officials said on Friday, in the first rogue shooting blamed on the country's new and closely vetted special forces. The soldier opened fire at an American military base on Wednesday in Shah Wali Kot district, in volatile Kandahar province, said General Abdul Hamid, the commander of Afghan army forces in the Taliban's southern heartland. ... Full Story Top

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