Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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China reach in focus at U.S.- Philippine security talks
Sat,28 Apr 2012 08:11 PM PDT
Reuters - MANILA (Reuters) - China is likely to be high on the agenda at top level U.S.-Philippine security talks on Monday as Washington refocuses its foreign policy on Asia and Manila realizes its limits in trying to solve territorial disputes with Beijing alone. China has maritime spats with several countries in the South China Sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas and crossed by important shipping lanes, and its neighbors fear its growing naval reach in staking claims. ... Full Story | Top |
European firms keen but cautious over Myanmar: Ashton
Sat,28 Apr 2012 07:53 PM PDT
Reuters -  YANGON (Reuters) - European firms seeking to invest in Myanmar are unlikely to rush into business deals until more concrete reforms are put in place, despite a suspension of economic sanctions by the EU, its foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Saturday. The European Union and other powers have moved in recent weeks to ease sanctions on Myanmar, as the once pariah nation embarks on landmark reforms and seeks engagement with the world. ...
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Escaped China activist in U.S. protection-rights group
Sat,28 Apr 2012 05:15 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is under U.S. protection in Beijing after an audacious escape from 19 months under house arrest, a U.S.-based group said on Saturday, in a drama that threatens to ignite new tensions between the two governments. The United States has not confirmed publicly reports that Chen, who slipped away from under the noses of guards and eyes and ears of surveillance equipment around his village home in eastern Shandong province, fled into the U.S. embassy. ...
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Sudan arrests foreigners in disputed border region
Sat,28 Apr 2012 03:06 PM PDT
Reuters -  KHARTOUM/JUBA (Reuters) - Sudan said it had arrested a Briton, a Norwegian and a South African on Saturday, accusing them of illegally entering a disputed oil-producing border area to spy for its enemy South Sudan. South Sudanese officials denied the allegations and said the men were working with the United Nations and aid groups clearing mines and had got lost in the remote territory close to the boundary between the two countries. ...
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Escaped China activist in U.S. protection-rights group
Sat,28 Apr 2012 02:39 PM PDT
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is under U.S. protection in Beijing after an audacious escape from 19 months under house arrest, a U.S.-based group said on Saturday, in a drama that threatens to ignite new tensions between the two governments. The United States has not confirmed publicly reports that Chen, who slipped away from under the noses of guards and eyes and ears of surveillance equipment around his village home in Shandong province, fled into the U.S. embassy. ...
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Chen's flight triggers U.S.-China asylum memories
Sat,28 Apr 2012 02:35 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - The secret flight by blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng from smothering home detention to what appears to be U.S. protection conjures images of the last Chinese dissident to seek shelter with the U.S. mission in China - astrophysicist Fang Lizhi. China and the United States have kept silent on Chen's whereabouts, but a U.S.-based rights group has told Reuters he is under U.S. protection and high-level talks regarding his status are under way. If Chen is holed up with the United States - possibly at its Beijing embassy - it could open a wound in U.S. ...
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Saudi Arabia: bin Laden family let in on humanitarian grounds
Sat,28 Apr 2012 02:19 PM PDT
Reuters - JEDDAH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has allowed the family of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden into the kingdom on humanitarian grounds, state media reported on Saturday, almost a year after U.S. special forces killed the world's most wanted man in Pakistan. Pakistan deported the family this week, ending months of speculation about the fate of his wives and children who were detained by Pakistani security forces after the May 2 raid. A Saudi official was quoted by the state Saudi Press Agency (SPA) as saying the family arrived in the kingdom on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
Mali junta rejects West African transition plan
Sat,28 Apr 2012 02:10 PM PDT
Reuters - BAMAKO (Reuters) - A military junta that seized power in Mali last month rejected a regional plan to extend the rule of an interim civilian government on Saturday, casting a shadow over delicately-balanced negotiations to resolve the country's crisis. The junta had already agreed to hand over power for 40 days to a civilian government led by caretaker president Dioncounda Traore, and then allow the country to hold elections by the end of May. But the West African regional bloc ECOWAS on Thursday said the interim government should have up to 12 months to hold the elections. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt Salafis back ex-Brotherhood man for president
Sat,28 Apr 2012 01:44 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Influential Egyptian hardline Islamist movement, the Salafi Call, said on Saturday it will back moderate former Muslim Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh for president, hurting the Brotherhood's chances of winning next month's vote. "The Salafi Call has decided by majority vote to back Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh in the presidential elections," senior Salafi Call member Yasser Borhamy said. "The Nour Party, the political wing of the Salafi Call, has also voted to back Abol Fotouh. ...
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Saudi recalls Cairo envoy in blow to Egypt ties
Sat,28 Apr 2012 01:14 PM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it had recalled its ambassador in Cairo for security reasons after protests in Egypt against the kingdom's arrest of an Egyptian lawyer, marking a diplomatic rupture between the long-time allies. The withdrawal of the Saudi envoy appeared a sharp message to Egypt's rulers of the need to maintain good ties with a Gulf state that last week agreed to send $2.7 billion to support Cairo's battered finances. ... Full Story | Top |
France's Hollande says his ideas winning in Europe
Sat,28 Apr 2012 01:13 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - France's Socialist presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande welcomed Germany's call for growth measures on Saturday as a sign Europe was accepting his warnings of the risk of austerity. Hollande, on course to win next weekend's presidential runoff against President Nicolas Sarkozy, insisted German Chancellor Angela Merkel would eventually accept his proposal to renegotiate a German-inspired budget discipline pact. ...
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Sarkozy tells Strauss-Kahn to take complaint to court
Sat,28 Apr 2012 01:03 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy challenged former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Saturday to take legal action over his allegation that "political enemies" scuppered his presidential bid last year by ensuring his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public. Strauss-Kahn, who was the runaway favorite for the Socialist party's presidential nomination before his arrest last May on sexual abuse charges, told London's Guardian newspaper he was convinced his political downfall was choreographed by his political enemies. ...
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European firms keen but cautious over Myanmar: Ashton
Sat,28 Apr 2012 01:02 PM PDT
Reuters - YANGON (Reuters) - European firms seeking to invest in Myanmar are unlikely to rush into business deals until more concrete reforms are put in place, despite a suspension of economic sanctions by the EU, its foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Saturday. The European Union and other powers have moved in recent weeks to ease sanctions on Myanmar, as the once pariah nation embarks on landmark reforms and seeks engagement with the world. ... Full Story | Top |
Israel ex-spy warns against "messianic" war on Iran
Sat,28 Apr 2012 11:58 AM PDT
Reuters -  A former Israeli spymaster has branded the country's leaders unfit to tackle the Iranian nuclear program because of what he called the "messianic feelings" behind their threats to launch a pre-emptive war on Iran. Other veterans have come out against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently, but the criticism from former domestic intelligence chief Yuval Diskin was especially strong. ...
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China offers South Sudan $8 billion in development funds
Sat,28 Apr 2012 11:33 AM PDT
Reuters - JUBA (Reuters) - China has offered South Sudan $8 billion in development funds for road, hydropower, infrastructure and agriculture projects, South Sudan's information minister told Reuters on Saturday. The loan came after South Sudan President Salva Kiir visited Beijing to secure support from China, which has major oil interests in both South Sudan and its northern neighbor Sudan. ... Full Story | Top |
U.N. mission says 4 people taken to Khartoum
Sat,28 Apr 2012 11:31 AM PDT
Reuters - JUBA (Reuters) - The United Nations mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said on Saturday four people, including one U.N. staff member, had been taken to Khartoum. Sudan said it had arrested a Norwegian, a Briton and a South African for illegally entering a disputed border area earlier on Saturday and accused them of helping the South Sudan army, a claim the South denied. "Four people, including one U.N. staff member, were taken to Khartoum," Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the mission, said. Guerrero declined to give any further details. ... Full Story | Top |
Greek technocrat PM to return to academia after election
Sat,28 Apr 2012 11:29 AM PDT
Reuters - ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's technocrat prime minister Lucas Papademos plans to resume his academic career after a snap election on May 6, a senior government official said, having secured a second bailout for the country. A former vice president of the European Central Bank, Papademos took over as leader of an emergency coalition in November to help Greece secure the 130 billion euros ($170 billion) bailout and a landmark debt swap to avoid default. He is a professor of economics at the University of Athens and a visiting professor at Harvard. ... Full Story | Top |
Russia, China agree on Syria, North Korea: Chinese minister
Sat,28 Apr 2012 11:20 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - China and Russia agree entirely with each other's positions on the crisis in Syria and on North Korea's nuclear program, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said on Saturday in Moscow. "The sides hold 100 percent coinciding positions on the issues of North Korea and Syria," Cheng, who was accompanying Vice Premier Li Keqiang on a visit to Russia, told reporters through an interpreter. Russia and China have protected Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by blocking two U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
South Sudan army denies arrested foreigners aiding its forces
Sat,28 Apr 2012 10:36 AM PDT
Reuters - JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's army said that three foreigners arrested by Sudan near a disputed border area were not helping its forces, contrary to accusations by Khartoum. "That is rubbish and just a lie," the spokesman for South Sudan's army (SPLA), Philip Aguer, said. Aguer said SPLA sources in Bentiu, the capital of South Sudan's Unity State, told him that a U.N. truck had got lost in the disputed border area and were "caught by the Sudanese Armed Forces". "The humanitarian truck ... should have been allowed free passage," Aguer said. ... Full Story | Top |
Freed Moroccan editor says stop jailing journalists
Sat,28 Apr 2012 10:00 AM PDT
Reuters -  RABAT (Reuters) - A Moroccan editor who rights activists say was unjustly prosecuted for criticizing the authorities walked free after completing his one-year jail sentence on Saturday and demanded an end to the practice of sending journalists to prison. Rights group Amnesty International has described Rachid Nini as a "prisoner of conscience" and said he was punished for highlighting corruption and abuses by the kingdom's authorities, especially the security services. ...
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Bomb defused in Northern Ireland would have caused devastation
Sat,28 Apr 2012 09:41 AM PDT
Reuters - BELFAST (Reuters) - Two bombs planted by militant Irish nationalists, including one packed with enough explosives to have killed anyone within a 50-metre (yard) radius, were defused in Northern Ireland on Saturday, police said. The 600-pound (270-kg) bomb, roughly the same size as one used to kill 29 people in the town of Omagh in the single deadliest attack of Northern Ireland's three decades of violence in 1998, was left in an abandoned vehicle in the town of Newry. ... Full Story | Top |
Lebanon impounds ship carrying Libyan weapons
Sat,28 Apr 2012 09:34 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese authorities seized a large consignment of Libyan weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy caliber ammunition from a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean, the army said on Saturday. It did not say where the vessel was heading but the ship's owner told Reuters it was due to unload in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli. ... Full Story | Top |
Sudan army: arrested foreigners have military backgrounds
Sat,28 Apr 2012 09:30 AM PDT
Reuters - KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Three foreigners arrested by Sudan's army on Saturday had military backgrounds and were helping the South Sudanese army, an army spokesman said. Sudan said it arrested a Briton, a Norwegian and a South African on Saturday for illegally entering the disputed Heglig border area, the scene of recent fighting between Sudan and South Sudan, with a soldier from South Sudan. The three had been travelling in two cars that contained military equipment, he said. (Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Louise Ireland) Full Story | Top |
Arrested foreigners arrive in Khartoum: Reuters witness
Sat,28 Apr 2012 09:30 AM PDT
Reuters - KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Three foreigners whom Sudanese authorities arrested for illegally entering an oil-producing border area arrived at the military airport in Khartoum on Saturday, a Reuters witness said. Sudan said it had arrested a Briton, a South African and a Norwegian in part of the disputed Heglig area, scene of recent fighting between Sudan and South Sudan. Sudan said they had been seen entering with a soldier from South Sudan. The witness said two Western men and two African men arrived on a civilian plane at the airport. ... Full Story | Top |
Gunmen hit Syrian army from sea, Moscow slams rebels
Sat,28 Apr 2012 09:22 AM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Gunmen in inflatable dinghies killed several security officials in an attack on a military unit on Syria's Mediterranean coast, state media said on Saturday, the first seaborne assault reported during the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. The night raid, along with the killings of at least 15 people in violence in two areas near the capital, underlined the threadbare state of a U.N.-brokered ceasefire deal that has Western leaders talking of tougher steps to stop the bloodshed. ...
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UK PM pressed to investigate ally over Murdoch bid
Sat,28 Apr 2012 08:54 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron faced growing pressure on Saturday to launch a probe into the conduct of a minister criticized over his handling of a Rupert Murdoch television takeover bid, after a judge conducting a parallel inquiry refused to intervene. Cameron, enduring the worst crisis of his two years in power as the economy stagnates, has given his full backing to culture minister Jeremy Hunt, who was responsible for vetting media baron Murdoch's bid to take control of Britain's biggest satellite TV firm BSkyB. ...
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Russia condemns "barbaric" attacks in Syria
Sat,28 Apr 2012 08:50 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Saturday condemned what it called "barbaric" attacks in Syria, stepping up criticism of rebels a day after an explosion authorities blamed on a suicide bomber killed at least nine people in the capital Damascus. Russia has protected Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by blocking two U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning a crackdown in which the United Nations says 9,000 people have been killed since March 2011. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt aims to "heal rift" after Saudi pulls envoy
Sat,28 Apr 2012 08:25 AM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - The head of Egypt's ruling military council contacted the Saudi government on Saturday over its "surprise decision" to withdraw its envoy to Cairo, the Egyptian state news agency reported. Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi was working to "heal the rift" that had resulted from the decision. "The Field Marshal conducted contacts with the Saudi authorities to work to contain the situation," the state agency MENA said. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Catherine Evans) Full Story | Top |
ElBaradei gets behind new Egypt party
Sat,28 Apr 2012 07:35 AM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Mohamed ElBaradei and other prominent Egyptians on Saturday launched a party which he said would one day govern the country, offering a new choice to voters seeking alternatives to Islamist parties that now dominate parliament. Though ElBaradei pulled out of the race for Egyptian presidency in January, his role in the new Dustour Party shows the Nobel Peace Prize winner and political liberal still aims to play a leading role in the future of the country of 80 million. ...
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Canada's finance minister frets on housing, debt
Sat,28 Apr 2012 07:30 AM PDT
Reuters -  TORONTO (Reuters) - High housing prices and household debt are Canada's biggest economic concerns, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in weekend interviews that also warned of a crash in Toronto's booming condo market and hinted at a crimped role for the government's mortgage insurer. Speaking to the Globe and Mail and the National Post, Flaherty said he had spoken to bank CEOs about their "race to the bottom" on mortgage interest rates, which he described as irresponsible. ...
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Greek Socialists vow focus on reforms, no tax hikes
Sat,28 Apr 2012 06:27 AM PDT
Reuters - ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos promised on Saturday that he would not slap new taxes on long-suffering Greeks and focus instead on reforms like opening up closed professions if he wins national elections next month. Venizelos, Greece's finance minister until he took the helm of the Socialist PASOK party last month, has been trailing conservative rival Antonis Samaras in opinion polls as voters punish his party for backing unpopular austerity measures. ... Full Story | Top |
Suicides have Greeks on edge before election
Sat,28 Apr 2012 06:19 AM PDT
Reuters -  ATHENS (Reuters) - On Monday, a 38-year-old geology lecturer hanged himself from a lamp post in Athens and on the same day a 35-year-old priest jumped to his death off his balcony in northern Greece. On Wednesday, a 23-year-old student shot himself in the head. In a country that has had one of the lowest suicide rates in the world, a surge in the number of suicides in the wake of an economic crisis has shocked and gripped the Mediterranean nation - and its media - before a May 6 election. ...
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Ukraine president promises swift blast investigation
Sat,28 Apr 2012 06:11 AM PDT
Reuters -  DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Saturday promised a swift investigation into Friday's bomb blasts in the city of Dnipropetrovsk that injured 30 people just weeks ahead of the European soccer championship which Ukraine co-hosts. Four bombs planted in trash bins in various downtown locations exploded at short intervals in the city of 1.3 million on Friday afternoon, in what prosecutors said was an "act of terrorism". ...
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Malaysian police, protesters clash, raising poll doubts
Sat,28 Apr 2012 05:23 AM PDT
Reuters -  KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian police fired tear gas and water cannon in clashes with thousands of protesters demanding electoral reforms on Saturday, raising the risk of a political backlash that could delay national polls which had been expected as early as June. Riot police reacted after some protesters among the crowd of at least 25,000 tried to break through barriers, in defiance of a court order banning them from entering the city's historic Merdeka (Independence) Square. They fired dozens of tear gas rounds and chased protesters through nearby streets. ...
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Seven militants killed in Yemen clashes
Sat,28 Apr 2012 04:56 AM PDT
Reuters - ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - At least seven militants linked to al Qaeda were killed in clashes in Yemen's restive south, a regional tribal spokesman said on Saturday, as the impoverished Arab state fights to tame a stubborn insurgency. Yemen has launched an offensive against Islamist insurgents in the territory who took advantage of the chaos surrounding more than a year of mass protests and fighting that unseated Ali Abdullah Saleh from the presidency. ... Full Story | Top |
U.N. nuclear watchdog to resume Iran talks in mid-May
Sat,28 Apr 2012 02:49 AM PDT
Reuters - VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear watchdog confirmed on Saturday it will resume talks with Iran in mid-May, more than two months after the last meeting over concerns about the Islamic state's atomic activities ended in failure. Gill Tudor, spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the meeting would take place on May 14-15 at the Iranian diplomatic mission in Vienna. "The purpose is to continue the negotiations started early this year," Tudor said in an email. ... Full Story | Top |
Syrian military unit comes under sea attack: SANA
Sat,28 Apr 2012 02:43 AM PDT
Reuters - AMMAN (Reuters) - Gunmen in inflatable dinghies have attacked a Syrian military unit on the Mediterranean coast, leading to a fire-fight in which several people from both sides were killed, the SANA official news agency said on Saturday. "The fighting ... resulted in the death and wounding of a number of military personnel while the number of those killed from the terrorist group was not known because they attacked the military unit at night," SANA said. SANA did not mention the identity of the attackers. ... Full Story | Top |
Escaped China activist in U.S. protection: rights group
Sat,28 Apr 2012 01:52 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is under U.S. protection in Beijing after an audacious escape from 19 months under house arrest, a U.S.-based group said on Saturday, in a drama that threatens to ignite new tensions between the two governments. The United States has not given any public confirmation of reports that Chen, who slipped away from under the noses of guards and bristling surveillance equipment around his village home in Shandong province, fled into the U.S. embassy. ... Full Story | Top |
Trial of Ukraine's Tymoshenko adjourned until May 21
Sat,28 Apr 2012 01:38 AM PDT
Reuters - KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - A court in Ukraine on Saturday adjourned the tax evasion trial of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko until May 21 due to the ill health of the opposition leader who is already in prison on an abuse-of-office conviction condemned by the West. Judge Kostyantyn Sadovsky told the court in the city of Kharkiv it would be impossible to conduct hearings in the absence of Tymoshenko, who says she is suffering from chronic back pain. ... Full Story | Top |
Escaped China activist in U.S. protection: rights group
Sat,28 Apr 2012 01:19 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is under U.S. protection in Beijing after an audacious escape from 19 months under house arrest, a U.S.-based group said on Saturday, in a drama that threatens to ignite new tensions between the two governments. The United States has not given any public confirmation of reports that Chen, who slipped away from under the noses of guards and bristling surveillance equipment around his village home in Shandong province, fled into the U.S. embassy. ... Full Story | Top |
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