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Stockton, California files bankruptcy petition
Thu,28 Jun 2012 07:25 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Stockton, California, became the largest city to file for bankruptcy in U.S. history on Thursday, after years of fiscal mismanagement and a housing market crash left it unable to pay its workers, pensioners and bondholders. The filing, announced by the city of 300,000 people, followed three months of confidential talks between the city and its creditors aimed at averting bankruptcy. "We are now a Chapter 9 debtor," said Marc Levinson, a lawyer representing Stockton, noting he filed the city's voluntary petition in U.S. ...
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Texas company bilked Medicare out of millions: Attorney
Thu,28 Jun 2012 07:19 PM PDT
Reuters - MCALLEN, Texas (Reuters) - Federal agents on Thursday arrested four employees of a now-defunct Texas medical equipment supplier who are accused of bilking Medicare and Medicaid out of millions of dollars via fake claims, including some made on behalf of dead people, according to court documents. The owner and three employees of RGV DME, a onetime medical supplier near the U.S.-Mexican border in Pharr, Texas, each face allegations of 22 counts of health care and wire fraud, conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
France's Strauss-Kahn and wife have separated: source
Thu,28 Jun 2012 07:10 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is facing a probe into his alleged involvement with a prostitution ring in France, and his wife have separated, a source said. Anne Sinclair, a wealthy heiress who recently relaunched her media career as a news editor at the Huffington Post's French edition, and Strauss-Kahn separated about a month ago and they are living in separate residences in Paris, said the source, who is close to Strauss-Kahn. ...
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Two former Chicago politicians charged with corruption
Thu,28 Jun 2012 06:32 PM PDT
Reuters - CHICAGO (Reuters) - Prosecutors on Thursday charged two former Chicago area politicians with accepting kickbacks in return for making sure a public hospital bought bandages from a favored company, the latest corruption case in a city known for its unscrupulous politicians. Former Chicago city councilman, or alderman, Ambrosio Medrano, 58, who had been convicted of bribery in the 1990s and served two years in prison, and former Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno, 59, were charged along with three local businessmen. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Why Roberts saved Obama's healthcare law
Thu,28 Jun 2012 06:14 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the end, it all came down to Chief Justice John Roberts, the sphinx in the center chair, who in a stunning decision wove together competing rationales to uphold President Barack Obama's healthcare plan. Roberts' action instantly upended the conventional wisdom that he would vote with his four fellow conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court and undercut the agenda of a Democratic president, who as a senator in 2005 had opposed Roberts' appointment to the bench. ... Full Story | Top |
North Carolina governor vetoes death row bias rollback
Thu,28 Jun 2012 06:00 PM PDT
Reuters - RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue on Thursday vetoed legislation passed by the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to roll back a landmark law allowing death row inmates to use evidence of racial bias to challenge their sentences. The state's Racial Justice Act, passed in 2009, directs judges to cut a death sentence to life in prison if race is found to be a factor in jury composition or sentencing. Perdue, a Democrat, said it was a long overdue step to make sure racism did not infect the way the death penalty was carried out. ... Full Story | Top |
Mercosur won't slap sanctions on Paraguay, eyes China
Thu,28 Jun 2012 05:41 PM PDT
Reuters - MENDOZA, Argentina (Reuters) - The Mercosur trade bloc, which includes regional heavyweights Brazil and Argentina, will not impose economic sanctions on Paraguay despite concerns over the ousting of the country's president, officials said on Thursday. Paraguay's Senate removed Fernando Lugo from office last Friday in an impeachment trial that lasted a matter of hours, prompting criticism in the region and beyond. Mercosur responded by banning Paraguay from attending a summit in Argentina this week. ... Full Story | Top |
Mexico offers reward for airport killer police
Thu,28 Jun 2012 05:07 PM PDT
Reuters -  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican federal police on Thursday offered a reward of 5 million pesos ($370,000) to help capture two officers accused of drug trafficking and shooting dead three other policemen inside the capital's international airport. The wanted officers had gone into the airport bathroom to receive cocaine from a Colombian traveler before the three policemen tried to arrest them on Monday, said Luis Cardenas, division head of the federal police. The officers opened fire and fled the airport along with another policeman who is also on the run, Cardenas said, calling them "traitors. ...
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Russia proposes changes to Annan's Syria proposal: envoys
Thu,28 Jun 2012 05:05 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia proposed changes on Thursday to international mediator Kofi Annan's plan for a national unity government in Syria, despite initially supporting it, but the United States, Britain and France rejected the amendments, Western diplomats said. The suggested changes are related to Moscow's refusal to support the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said on condition of anonymity. Russia and the other permanent U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
South Carolina governor faces state House ethics probe
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:31 PM PDT
Reuters - CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - South Carolina's Republican governor, Nikki Haley, faced an ethics investigation on Thursday by state lawmakers who accused her of illegally lobbying on behalf of her employers while a member of the legislature. The Republican-led House of Representatives' Ethics Committee held the hearing in response to allegations stemming from Haley's prior work as a business development consultant for an engineering firm and a fundraiser for a hospital foundation. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: After healthcare victory in court, new challenges for Obama
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:25 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Democrats celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday that saved President Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare overhaul, the mood inside the White House was a subdued satisfaction. There were hugs and handshakes after Obama learned of the ruling from White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler, but also a realization: Thursday's victory in court could energize Republicans who oppose the law and leave Obama with a tougher fight for a second four-year term in the White House. ...
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Obama hears health law overturned; moments later, thumbs-up
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:21 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama was standing outside the Oval Office when he saw the news on television just after 10 a.m. Two networks, CNN and Fox News, were reporting the Supreme Court had struck down the centerpiece of his landmark healthcare law. He looked quizzically at the TV screen. Moments later, his face brightened. White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler walked in and flashed him two thumbs-up. The court had in fact upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The TV networks had reported it wrong. ...
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Blast hits Damascus, Turkey sends troops to border
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:14 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT/ISKENDERUN, Turkey (Reuters) - Rebel forces attacked Syria's main court in central Damascus on Thursday, state television said, while Turkey deployed troops and anti-aircraft rocket launchers to the Syrian border, building pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. A loud explosion echoed through the streets and a column of black smoke rose over Damascus, an Assad stronghold that until the last few days had seemed largely beyond the reach of rebels. State television described it as a "terrorist" blast. Dozens of wrecked and burning cars were strewn over a car park used by lawyers and ...
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Egypt's new president to take oath before court
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:09 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist President-elect Mohamed Mursi will give a speech to crowds in Tahrir Square on Friday but his party appears to have lost in a power struggle with the ruling military council over where he will take his oath of office. Details about the historic swearing-in ceremony were announced in a late statement from the presidency on Thursday which stated that Mursi will take the oath of office in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court on Saturday at 11 a.m. Cairo time (0900 GMT). ...
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France's Strauss-Kahn, wife have separated: media
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:08 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife have separated, as his legal battles run on over a New York sex assault case and his alleged involvement with a prostitution ring, weekly magazine Closer reported on Thursday. Anne Sinclair, a wealthy heiress who recently relaunched her media career as a news editor at the Huffington Post's French edition, threw Strauss-Kahn out of their home in central Paris a month ago and the two are living separately, the magazine said. The magazine did not cite any sources for the story that appeared in its online edition. ...
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Syrian tanks amass near Turkish border: FSA general
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:07 PM PDT
Reuters - ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) - A general in the rebel Free Syria Army said on Friday that Syrian government forces had amassed around 170 tanks north of the city Aleppo, near the Turkish border, but there was no independent confirmation of the report. General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council, an association of senior officers who defected from President Bashar al-Assads forces, said the tanks had assembled at the Infantry School near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, 30 kms (19 miles) from the Turkish border. "The tanks are now at the Infantry School. ... Full Story | Top |
Court upholds ban on corporate political contributions
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:06 PM PDT
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court has ruled that two Hillary Clinton supporters cannot use a controversial U.S. Supreme Court campaign-finance decision to battle accusations they illegally funneled donations to Clinton's campaign coffers. In a decision on Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit found that a district court judge erred when he relied on the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision to dismiss one count of federal election law violations against William Danielczyk Jr. and Eugene Biagi. ...
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Iraq's commitment to U.S. mission questioned in Congress
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:05 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq questions the continued presence of large numbers of Americans on its soil, U.S. lawmakers were warned on Thursday, even as the State Department plans to shrink the size of its mission by almost a third over the next 16 months. Government experts told Congress that Iraq makes life difficult for the embassy in ways large and small, signaling ambivalence toward relations with Washington at a time when critics fear that the country is moving closer to Iran. "The State Department and (Department of Defense) plan for a very large civilian-led presence in Iraq. ... Full Story | Top |
Supreme Court ruling casts tax shadow over U.S. healthcare law
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:51 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans seized on a momentous U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Thursday to accuse President Barack Obama of hiding a tax increase in his healthcare law, an argument likely to intensify a congressional tax policy war already underway. The court ruled the 2010 law was valid because Congress has the power to impose taxes. The Obama administration played down the tax factor, but Republican opponents pounced on the decision, seeking to elicit political points from a legal issue. ... Full Story | Top |
Romney to campaign as only hope against "Obamacare"
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:44 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The battle over President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law shifted from the Supreme Court to the campaign trail on Thursday, as Republican challenger Mitt Romney asked voters to throw Obama out of office to get rid of the unpopular law. The high court's 5-4 decision to uphold the law was a setback for Romney and his fellow Republicans, who had hoped that Obama's central policy achievement would be struck down as unconstitutional. But the overhaul remains unpopular, and Romney cast the November 6 presidential election as the best chance for voters to overturn it. ...
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United Technologies sent military copter tech to China
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:39 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - United Technologies Corp on Thursday admitted selling China software that helped Beijing develop its first modern military attack helicopter, one of hundreds of export control violations over nearly two decades. At a federal court hearing in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United Technologies and its two subsidiaries, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Hamilton Sundstrand Corp, agreed to pay more than $75 million to the U.S. government to settle criminal and administrative charges related to the violations. ... Full Story | Top |
Ex-Marxist guerrilla to run for El Salvador presidency
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:37 PM PDT
Reuters - SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador's ruling leftist party on Thursday tapped Vice President Salvador Sanchez, a former Marxist guerrilla commander, as its candidate for the 2014 presidential race. Sanchez, 68, a teacher by profession, was one of the leaders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrillas during 12 years of civil war that ended in 1992. El Salvador's ruling political party of the same name formally nominated him as its candidate on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
WikiLeaks' Assange defiant over UK police request
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:37 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said it was almost certain he would not leave his embassy refuge on Friday to enter a British police station as part of his extradition process to be questioned in Sweden about sex-crime allegations. Assange has been holed-up in Ecuador's embassy in London since he made a surprise application for political asylum last week. On Thursday, British police summoned Assange to a London police station, demanding he leave the embassy. ...
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Analysis: Republicans vow to take Holder to court
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:33 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Perhaps as significant as the contempt citation Congress issued to Attorney General Eric Holder is the likelihood Republicans will also go to court to enforce a congressional demand for documents - a tactic pursued only twice before in U.S. history. The Republican-led House of Representatives voted on Thursday to find Holder, the country's top law enforcement officer, in contempt of Congress for withholding documents in a botched gun-running sting operation on the U.S.-Mexico border. ...
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Factbox: Tax provisions in Obama's 2010 health care law
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:31 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul law, upheld by the Supreme Court on Thursday, contains a slew of new tax provisions. Some have been put into effect in the two years since Obama signed the law, including a tanning salon tax and tax credits for small businesses. Other provisions will be phased in over time. Here is a look at major tax provisions in Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. IN EFFECT * Small business tax credits. ... Full Story | Top |
Chaos, confusion mark cable TV reports on Supreme Court ruling
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:21 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sometimes, breaking news requires a little fixing. The antique traditions of the U.S. Supreme Court collided with the now-now-now news media on Thursday, resulting in chaos and chagrin as two U.S. cable television networks wrongly reported that the heart of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law had been overturned by the nation's highest court. The erroneous initial reports came as journalists and amateur legal analysts everywhere rushed to extract a clear headline from 193 pages of complicated legal opinion from the Supreme Court. ... Full Story | Top |
Sex scandal widens at Air Force base in Texas
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:14 PM PDT
Reuters - SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - In a widening sex scandal at an Air Force facility in Texas, a drill sergeant will face a court martial next month on charges he had inappropriate relationships with a female recruit, joining five other instructors accused of similar crimes. The six military instructors - the latest two of whom were charged on Tuesday - have been referred to court martial for having sexual relations or engaging in inappropriate relationships with trainees at Lackland Air Force Base, according to Air Force officials. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. denies congressman Issa request to observe trade talks
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:13 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. trade officials on Thursday told a Republican lawmaker at the center of a legal fight with the Obama administration he cannot sit in on trade talks next week in San Diego between the United States and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Mac Campbell, assistant U.S. trade representative for congressional affairs, told Representative Darrell Issa in a letter that his request to observe the negotiations was denied, but he and two members of his staff would receive credentials to attend the event as "stakeholders. ... Full Story | Top |
House finds Attorney General Holder in contempt
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:11 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder was found in contempt of Congress on Thursday as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives sanctioned the nation's top law enforcement official for withholding some documents related to a failed gun-running probe. The mostly partisan vote of 255-67 marked the first time a sitting attorney general and presidential Cabinet member was cited for contempt by the full House. No Senate vote is necessary in this House contempt citation. ...
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Analysis: Sudan rulers dig in as foes look for Arab Spring
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:06 PM PDT
Reuters - KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Outside the University of Khartoum, riot police in blue fatigues perch on pickup trucks, keeping watch as young women in bright headscarves and men in button-down shirts walk by carrying textbooks to class in Sudan's intense summer heat. Less than a week earlier, the campus - just a few hundred meters (yards) from the national security headquarters - was a battleground. Police fired teargas and used batons to break up hundreds of protesters, who threw rocks back at them. No one expects the shaky truce to last. ... Full Story | Top |
Italy fans say German Euro defeat shows who's boss
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:54 PM PDT
Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - Italian fans gloated about their 2-1 win against Germany in the Euro 2012 semi-final on Thursday, saying they hoped it would help Prime Minister Mario Monti who is locked in a standoff with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the euro zone's future. "This shows Germany who's in charge," said Andrea Arces, 20, a student from southern Italy who joined thousands of Italian fans celebrating and waving flags in Rome's Piazza del Popolo. "Italy is a strong country and this is how we fight back. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. Coast Guard empty-handed in stowaway search
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:49 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's been anything but smooth sailing for the U.S. Coast Guard this month. For the second time in June, the Coast Guard has fruitlessly pursued a time-consuming, high-profile search, drawing away resources from an agency that protects the country's maritime interests. The agency responds to 64 search and rescue cases and saves an average of 12 lives a day, according to its website. In the latest instance, the Coast Guard called off a search for what it believed were stowaways on a trans-Atlantic cargo ship after no one was found, officials said. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. grants Iran sanctions exceptions to China
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:47 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States gave China a six-month reprieve from Iran financial sanctions on Thursday, avoiding a diplomatic spat with a country whose support it needs to try to quell violence in Syria and rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions. With Thursday's decision to grant exceptions to China, which buys up to a fifth of Iran's oil exports, and Singapore, which buys Iranian fuel oil, the Obama administration has now spared all 20 of Iran's major oil buyers from its unilateral sanctions. ... Full Story | Top |
Syria's Assad says duty to "annihilate terrorists"
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:35 PM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al Assad said in a rare interview broadcast on Thursday that his government had a duty to "annihilate terrorists" to protect its people and ruled out any solution to the crisis imposed from outside the country. His one-hour interview coincided with a sharp escalation of violence inside Syria and a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of a planned meeting in Geneva that will try to end the bloodshed. Diplomats said the talks - involving U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
Top court upholds healthcare law in Obama triumph
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:35 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama's healthcare law on Thursday in an election-year triumph for him and fellow Democrats who championed the most sweeping overhaul since the 1960s of the unwieldy U.S. healthcare system. In a 5-4 ruling based on the power of Congress to impose taxes, the nation's highest court preserved the law's "individual mandate" requiring that most Americans obtain health insurance by 2014 or pay a tax. The justices also preserved, with some changes, a provision of the law expanding the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor. ...
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Ruling casts doubt on expanding healthcare for the poor
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:35 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While the Supreme Court upheld a U.S. healthcare overhaul on Thursday, its decision cast doubt on whether the plan to extend health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people will reach some of the poorest Americans. In its ruling, the court allows states to opt out of an expansion of Medicaid benefits for low-income earners with household incomes of up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line, or about $30,000. The current Medicaid threshold varies geographically but in 33 states is under the definition of poverty of $22,000 per household. ... Full Story | Top |
Holder warns of "unnecessary court conflict" after House vote
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:24 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder denounced a House of Representative vote on Thursday to hold him in contempt of Congress as politically motivated, and warned that it will produce "unnecessary court conflict." (Reporting By Fred Barbash and Alistair Bell; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
Hospitals win in health ruling, mixed view for HMOs
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:21 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hospitals and insurers providing Medicaid plans for the poor emerged as the main corporate winners from the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Barack Obama's healthcare law, while investors in large insurers were left deflated. The ruling paves the way for hospitals to see a massive influx of insured customers from the law which is expected to broaden coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans. ... Full Story | Top |
Sick Americans relieved at high court health ruling
Thu,28 Jun 2012 01:52 PM PDT
Reuters - CHICAGO (Reuters) - Americans who were relying on a U.S. healthcare overhaul to provide them with health insurance heaved a collective sigh of relief after the Supreme Court upheld the law, which aims to extend coverage to more than 30 million people. Gail Richardson, 59, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, has been uninsured since 2010 and has two autoimmune disorders. She earns $11,000 a year as a freelance writer, not enough to cover living expenses and the current monthly premiums for private insurance. "It's not like I need affordable insurance. I need free insurance," she said. ... Full Story | Top |
Clinton in Russia to face off on Annan Syria plan
Thu,28 Jun 2012 01:10 PM PDT
Reuters - SAINT PETERSBURG (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to raise pressure on Russia on Thursday ahead of a crucial meeting on the Syria crisis, saying all countries involved must back international mediator Kofi Annan's detailed plan for a political transition. Clinton arrived in St Petersburg for a meeting on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, with their countries deeply divided over Syria and increasingly at odds over everything from anti-missile defense to human rights. Clinton and Lavrov are due to attend a meeting of the five permanent members of the ... Full Story | Top |
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