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Moody's cuts Greek domestic rating ceiling on euro exit risk
Fri,1 Jun 2012 07:35 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rating agency Moody's Investors Service said it had lowered its ratings ceiling on Greek domestic debt issuers due to the rising risk of the country exiting the euro zone, but added it did not consider that the most likely scenario for the country. Moody's said it lowered its assessment of the highest rating that can be assigned to a domestic debt issuer in Greece to Caa2, below the highest existing rating by the firm on any Greek security, which is B1 for certain covered bonds. ... Full Story | Top |
Clinton tours Arctic as big powers vie for resources
Fri,1 Jun 2012 07:25 PM PDT
Reuters -  TROMSO, Norway (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boards a research ship on Saturday to tour the Arctic, where big powers are vying for vast deposits of oil, gas and minerals that are becoming available as the polar ice recedes. The top U.S. diplomat took the unusual step of visiting Tromso, a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle, to dramatize U.S. interests in a once inaccessible region whose resources are up for grabs as the sea ice melts with climate change. ...
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More U.S. warships in Asia-Pacific under new strategy: Panetta
Fri,1 Jun 2012 06:27 PM PDT
Reuters -  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United States will keep six aircraft carriers in the Asia-Pacific and move a majority of its other warships to the region in the coming years, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Saturday as he offered details of a new U.S. military strategy for the first time. Speaking to an annual security forum in Singapore, Panetta also sought to dispel the notion that the shift in U.S. focus to the Asia-Pacific was part of an American effort to contain China's emergence as a global power. "I reject that view entirely. ...
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U.S. publishes satellite images of Syria
Fri,1 Jun 2012 06:25 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. government website on Friday published what it said was photographic evidence of mass graves and attacks on civilian areas by Syrian government forces. The website, operated by a bureau of the State Department, published a series of overhead photos, said to be taken earlier this week by commercial satellite, showing what it said were mass graves dug following a massacre near the town of Houla. They also showed apparent artillery impact craters near civilian areas of a town called Atarib. Included on the web page, which can be viewed at http://www.humanrights. ...
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Home sweet home: Obama to sleep under own roof in Chicago
Fri,1 Jun 2012 06:24 PM PDT
Reuters -  CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, sneaking a break from the glamour of the White House, told supporters on Friday he was looking forward to spending a night in his own home and savoring life's simple pleasures. "I am sleeping in my own bed tonight," Obama said at an enthusiastic fund-raising event in Chicago, his adopted home town. "I'm going to go into my pantry. I might cook something for myself, potter around in the back yard a little bit. ...
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Job growth trips again, opens door to more Fed moves
Fri,1 Jun 2012 06:13 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth braked sharply for a third straight month in May and the unemployment rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, raising chances of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve to support the sputtering recovery. Employers added a paltry 69,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the least since May of last year, and 49,000 fewer jobs were created in the previous two months than had been thought, the Labor Department said on Friday. ...
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Cyber-attacks "bought us time" on Iran: U.S. sources
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:51 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States under former President George W. Bush began building a complex cyber-weapon to try to prevent Tehran from completing suspected nuclear weapons work without resorting to risky military strikes against Iranian facilities, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the program said. Barack Obama accelerated the efforts after succeeding Bush in 2009, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the effort. ... Full Story | Top |
Cyber-attacks "bought us time" on Iran: U.S. sources
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:50 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States under former President George W. Bush began building a complex cyber-weapon to try to prevent Tehran from completing suspected nuclear weapons work without resorting to risky military strikes against Iranian facilities, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the program said. Barack Obama accelerated the efforts after succeeding Bush in 2009, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the effort. ... Full Story | Top |
Economy, jobs market faces "serious headwinds": White House
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:31 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top White House economist said on Friday the May jobless figures show the economy is growing but not fast enough and that it still faces "serious headwinds" from the euro-zone crisis and gas price spikes. "Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight," Alan Krueger said in a statement after the Labor Department reported that employers added only 69,000 jobs last month and the unemployment ticked up to 8.2 percent. ... Full Story | Top |
Obama administration says jobless rate rise unacceptable
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:31 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration called on Congress to do more to help the economy create jobs, with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis saying May's rise in the unemployment rate was unacceptable. "Congress has to take some action because while we see the unemployment rate where it is, it's not acceptable," Solis told the CNBC network on Friday. Earlier, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point in May to 8.2 percent. The department also said employers added just 69,000 people to payrolls during the month, the weakest increase in a year. ... Full Story | Top |
Obama says could end Washington gridlock in second term
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:31 PM PDT
Reuters - MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama told his supporters on Friday he could break Washington's gridlock in a second term, and pushed Congress to enact his "to-do list" prescriptions to heal the economy in spite of it being an election year. At a political fundraiser in Minneapolis, Obama said that if he won re-election in November, Republicans in Congress who now oppose his every move would be more inclined to work with him. "I believe if we are successful in this election - when we're successful in this election - that the fever may break," Obama told the campaign event. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S., Norway pledge $150 million for maternal health
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:16 PM PDT
Reuters - OSLO (Reuters) - The United States and Norway each pledged on Friday to give in the range of $75 million to help protect mothers during labor, delivery and the first 24 hours after birth. The money would go into the "Saving Mothers, Giving Life," initiative, a partnership financed with public and private funds that seeks to reduce the death of mothers immediately before, during and soon after they give birth. Recalling the 1980 birth of her daughter, Chelsea, U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Bosnia leader slams Serbia's Nikolic on Srebrenica
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:07 PM PDT
Reuters - SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The Muslim chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency criticized Serbia's new rightist president, Tomislav Nikolic, on Friday for playing down the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims, Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two. Both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have ruled that the Srebrenica massacre amounted to genocide. But in an interview with Montenegrin state television posted on its website, Nikolic said: "There was no genocide in Srebrenica. ... Full Story | Top |
John Edwards, fresh off court victory, begins public penance
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:06 PM PDT
Reuters -  WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - Former presidential candidate John Edwards began his public rehabilitation on the steps of a federal courthouse shortly after the end of his trial on campaign finance charges. For a man widely scorned for cheating on his wife as she battled cancer and then lying about his child with videographer Rielle Hunter, it will not be an easy road back. It's also uncertain where that road will take Edwards. One thing is clear, observers said: It's far too soon for the former senator to consider a return to politics. ...
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Utah school district restricts access to book about lesbian family
Fri,1 Jun 2012 05:02 PM PDT
Reuters - SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Students in a Utah school district will need permission from their parents to read a book about a lesbian couple raising a family following the decision by a special committee to keep it behind library counters instead of on bookshelves. The book "In Our Mothers' House," by Patricia Polacco, became the subject of controversy in January when the mother of a student who brought the book home complained to the school. ... Full Story | Top |
Arab League requests U.N. action against Syria
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:57 PM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - The head of the Arab League has asked the U.N. Security Council to boost the size of a U.N. mission in Syria and give it expanded powers to protect people following a surge in violence there, according to a letter leaked to media outlets on Friday. Images of the bloodied bodies of children and others massacred in the city of Houla in attacks blamed on President Bashar al-Assad's forces have shocked the world and highlighted the failure of a 6-week-old U.N.-backed ceasefire plan to stop the violence in the 14-month uprising against Assad's rule. ... Full Story | Top |
In Wisconsin recall, Democrat Barrett fails to excite
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:55 PM PDT
Reuters -  MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - George Posker and Neal Muller, union workers at a small manufacturing plant near Madison, want to see Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker recalled from office in a special vote next week because of his assault on labor unions. But sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck bearing a "Recall Walker" bumper sticker, both expressed doubts about Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the man seeking to drive Walker from office. "I want him to win, but I'm convinced he'll lose if he doesn't step up his game," Muller, 51, said. ...
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Louisiana House approves bill banning abortions after 20 weeks
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:50 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The Louisiana state House of Representatives on Friday unanimously approved a bill that would prohibit abortion beyond 20 weeks after fertilization unless the mother's life is in danger. Georgia a month ago became the seventh state to ban most or all abortions after 20 weeks. Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and North Carolina also have such restrictions. Under the Louisiana measure, doctors who violate the 20-week provision could face up to two years in prison. ... Full Story | Top |
GM to close Oshawa assembly line in 2013
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:48 PM PDT
Reuters - TORONTO (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Friday that it expects to shut down an assembly line employing about 2,000 workers at its Oshawa, Ontario plant by June 1, 2013. The consolidated line, one of two assembly lines at the Oshawa plant, was originally slated to cease production in 2008, but production was extended due to market demand for the Chevrolet Impala and Chevrolet Equinox crossover, GM said. The company, which first announced plans to close the line in November 2005, will shift Impala production to its flex assembly line in 2013. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. regulator said slow to see mortgage servicing risk
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:41 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chief regulator of U.S. national banks did not pay enough attention to how lenders process home foreclosures and underestimated the risks it posed until problems broke into the open in late 2010, the Treasury Department's inspector general said in a report released on Friday. Banks' failure in recent years to follow the laws and rules that govern how a delinquent borrower can be removed from their home has led to multi-billion-dollar settlements with federal regulators and states. ... Full Story | Top |
Army drops one charge against soldier accused in Afghan massacre
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:29 PM PDT
Reuters -  SEATTLE (Reuters) - The U.S. Army on Friday dropped one of the murder charges against the soldier originally accused of killing 17 Afghan villagers in March, reducing the number of murder counts to 16 due to the double-counting of one of the dead, officials said. The amended complaint now also accuses Staff Sergeant Robert Bales of wrongfully possessing and using steroids and unlawfully consuming alcohol while deployed. The March 11 mass shooting in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan further eroded U.S.-Afghan relations, already frayed by a decade of war. ...
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Annan frustrated over Syria, Russia gives no ground
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:29 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - International envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday he was "frustrated and impatient" a week after a massacre in Syria of 108 people shocked the world, but Russia said his peace plan was still the best hope for Syria. Speaking after separate talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, President Vladimir Putin urged countries to continue to back Annan's peace initiative as the best way to avoid full civil war. "Mr. Annan is a very experienced and respectable person and we must do everything for his mission to succeed. ...
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Obama's atrocities board keeps low profile on Syria crisis
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:25 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When President Barack Obama used the Holocaust Memorial Museum as a backdrop to unveil a new advisory panel as an early warning system for human rights crises around the world, the announcement seemed well-timed for the unfolding conflict in Syria. But six weeks later and just days after a massacre of civilians in Syria, there is little sign that Obama's Atrocities Prevention Board is making a mark on U.S. efforts to craft a response amid international outrage over the mounting carnage. ... Full Story | Top |
Florida judge revokes bond for Trayvon Martin killer
Fri,1 Jun 2012 04:22 PM PDT
Reuters -  SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida judge on Friday revoked bail for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, and ordered him to surrender within 48 hours. The bail revocation came after prosecutors accused Zimmerman of withholding one of his two valid passports and said his wife did not tell the court about money donated for his legal defense. Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. ...
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Louisiana's bold bid to privatize schools
Fri,1 Jun 2012 03:06 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Louisiana is embarking on the nation's boldest experiment in privatizing public education, with the state preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children. Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kids will get vouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. job growth trips again, opens door to more Fed moves
Fri,1 Jun 2012 02:36 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth braked sharply for a third straight month in May and the unemployment rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, raising chances of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve to support the sputtering recovery. Employers added a paltry 69,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the least since May of last year, and 49,000 fewer jobs were created in the previous two months than had been thought, the Labor Department said on Friday. ...
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Mexico police scour highways after PepsiCo truck torched
Fri,1 Jun 2012 02:25 PM PDT
Reuters -  MORELIA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican police on Friday hunted assailants who set ablaze a delivery truck for PepsiCo's local snack food subsidiary in what appeared to be the latest attack against the firm by a drug cartel. A series of attacks on trucks and warehouses belonging to PepsiCo's Sabritas brand started last weekend and are thought to be the first to directly target a global company during Mexico's bloody war on drug traffickers. ...
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U.S. told to decide Iranian group's fate in four months
Fri,1 Jun 2012 02:14 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday ordered Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to decide within four months whether to remove an Iranian dissident group from a U.S. terrorism list. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously ruled for the group, Mujahadin-e Khalq, or MEK, which has sought to force the State Department to take it off the list or decide within a specified time period on its request to be removed. The appeals court ordered Clinton to either grant or deny the group's petition in four months. ...
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Key U.S. lawmaker doubts Russia will help ease out Assad
Fri,1 Jun 2012 02:14 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee expressed doubt on Friday that Russia could be convinced to help ease Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad out of power. Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said she hoped the Obama administration would be able to use diplomacy to "get Russia to do the right thing" - at least by stopping arms sales to Assad's government, which is using deadly force against an uprising in Syria. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. nuns push back against Vatican crackdown
Fri,1 Jun 2012 02:07 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - The largest organization of U.S. Catholic nuns on Friday rejected a Vatican assessment that they had fallen under the sway of radical feminism and needed to hand control of their group over to a trio of bishops. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, whose members represent about 80 percent of nuns in the United States, issued a sharp statement calling the Vatican's rebuke unsubstantiated and "the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency. ... Full Story | Top |
Edwards' lover Rielle Hunter writes tell-all memoir
Fri,1 Jun 2012 01:58 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Rielle Hunter, the woman whose affair with John Edwards wrecked both his U.S. presidential ambitions and his good name, will publish a tell-all memoir later this month. One day after the former U.S. Senator was acquitted on one charge of illegally using almost $1 million in campaign contributions to cover up the affair and the child he fathered, publishers BenBella Books told People magazine that the memoir will hit shelves on June 26. ...
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Exclusive: China arrests security official on suspicion of spying for U.S.
Fri,1 Jun 2012 01:47 PM PDT
Reuters - HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Chinese state security official has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the United States, sources said, a case both countries have kept quiet for several months as they strive to prevent a fresh crisis in relations. The official, an aide to a vice minister in China's security ministry, was arrested and detained early this year on allegations that he had passed information to the United States for several years on China's overseas espionage activities, said three sources, who all have direct knowledge of the matter. The aide had been recruited by the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Clinton declines comment on China espionage case
Fri,1 Jun 2012 01:47 PM PDT
Reuters - OSLO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to comment on Friday on the arrest of a Chinese state security official suspected of spying for the United States, saying only that the two countries continued to cooperate on many issues. The official, an aide to a vice minister in China's security ministry, was detained early this year and accused of passing information to the United States for several years on China's overseas espionage activities, three sources earlier told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
Obama says could end Washington gridlock in second term
Fri,1 Jun 2012 01:31 PM PDT
Reuters -  MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama told his supporters on Friday he could break Washington's gridlock in a second term, and pushed Congress to enact his "to-do list" prescriptions to heal the economy in spite of it being an election year. At a political fundraiser in Minneapolis, Obama said that if he won re-election in November, Republicans in Congress who now oppose his every move would be more inclined to work with him. "I believe if we are successful in this election - when we're successful in this election - that the fever may break," Obama told the campaign event. ...
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Justice Department tells Florida to end voter purge
Fri,1 Jun 2012 01:18 PM PDT
Reuters - MIAMI (Reuters) - The Justice Department has asked Florida, a key electoral battleground state where a small number of ballots can swing a presidential race, to end a controversial voter purge effort. In a two-page letter on Thursday, T. Christian Herren Jr., chief of the Justice Department's Voting Section, said the effort appeared to violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protects minorities. ... Full Story | Top |
Israeli soldier, Gaza gunmen killed in clash
Fri,1 Jun 2012 01:01 PM PDT
Reuters - GAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian gunman broke into Israel on Friday and killed a soldier before being shot dead himself in a rare cross-border attack that Israel blamed on the Islamist group Hamas. Israel hit back, with a missile-strike killing one militant and wounding two others in the southern Gaza Strip. Militants also fired rockets out of the Palestinian enclave, but they did not cause any damage, the Israeli army said. Sources in Gaza said the gunman killed in the cross-border attack was affiliated with the Islamic Jihad. ... Full Story | Top |
Bleak jobs report spells trouble for Obama re-election
Fri,1 Jun 2012 12:42 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A grim U.S. jobs report put President Barack Obama on the defensive over the weak economy on Friday with Republican opponent Mitt Romney quickly seizing on what he called "devastating news" on the top issue for American voters. The U.S. jobless rate ticked up to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April and only 69,000 jobs were added during the month, presaging a possible summer economic dip. The jobs report was a reminder of the political challenges Obama faces as he seeks to convince Americans to give him a second term on November 6. ...
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Bleak jobs report spells trouble for Obama re-election
Fri,1 Jun 2012 12:39 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A grim jobs report put President Barack Obama on the defensive over the weak economy on Friday with Republican opponent Mitt Romney quickly seizing on what he called "devastating news" on the top issue for American voters. The jobless rate ticked up to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April and only 69,000 jobs were added during the month, presaging a possible summer economic dip. The jobs report provided a reminder of the political challenges Obama faces as he seeks to convince Americans to give him a second term on November 6. ...
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U.N. General Assembly to meet on Syria massacre: envoys
Fri,1 Jun 2012 12:31 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly is planning to meet next week to discuss the escalating crisis in Syria and the recent massacre in the town of Houla, reflecting the growing international outrage over the killings, envoys said on Friday. International mediator Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and, most likely, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay are expected to address the assembly on Thursday, U.N. diplomats told Reuters. Annan is also scheduled to speak to the 15-nation U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
Embattled U.S. Postal Service gets help from rural America
Fri,1 Jun 2012 12:10 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. Postal Service limps along, bleeding billions of dollars every financial quarter, congressional leaders are looking to a group of outspoken rural lawmakers for help with a dramatic restructuring of the agency. Rural Americans say they regard their local post offices as the centers of their communities. With UPS and FedEx service limited or more expensive in some areas, many rely on the Postal Service to deliver medicines, while families need it to pay bills and small businesses and craftsmen use it to ship goods to customers. ...
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