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Saudi Arabia condemns Russian comments on human rights
Sat,14 Jul 2012 05:21 PM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Saturday condemned comments by Russia's human rights envoy on the situation in the kingdom as "hostile" and an unjustified interference in the kingdom's internal affairs, the Saudi state news agency (SPA) reported. The rare public exchange appeared to reflect tensions over the 16-month-old uprising in Syria where Russia has resisted introduction of Western- and Arab-backed sanction against President Bashar al-Assad. ... Full Story | Top |
Sudans commit to talks as AU advances plan on Mali
Sat,14 Jul 2012 04:20 PM PDT
Reuters - ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - African leaders brought together the presidents of feuding neighbors Sudan and South Sudan on Saturday and fleshed out a plan for military intervention in northern Mali where they said al Qaeda-linked rebels threatened the continent's security. After attending a summit of the African Union's Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa, Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his southern counterpart Salva Kiir afterwards met for face to face talks at a hotel in the Ethiopian capital. ... Full Story | Top |
Florida election officials to get access to citizen database
Sat,14 Jul 2012 04:17 PM PDT
Reuters - TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Florida election officials will have access to a federal database to help purge its voter rolls of non-citizens under an agreement reached between state and federal officials and welcomed on Saturday by Florida's Republican governor. The Department of Homeland Security will allow state officials to access the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. Florida and federal officials have been battling over access to the database for several weeks. Florida filed a lawsuit against the Homeland Security Department to gain access to the database. ... Full Story | Top |
Leaders of Sudans meet in boost to oil, border talks
Sat,14 Jul 2012 04:06 PM PDT
Reuters -  ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan on Saturday held their first talks since their countries came close to war in April, raising hopes for a negotiated settlement of oil and border disputes before an August 2 U.N. Security Council deadline. The face to face encounter between Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his southern counterpart Salva Kiir at the Sheraton hotel in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa followed an African Union session in which both men committed to peaceful negotiations over conflict. ...
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U.N. says Syria killings targeted opposition
Sat,14 Jul 2012 03:28 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - United Nations observers found blood, burned homes and signs of artillery fire in the Syrian village of Tremseh on Saturday but were unable to confirm activists' reports that about 220 people were massacred in an attack that prompted international outrage. The United States has branded Syria's leaders murderers after the assault by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops, but there was no break in the deadlock among world powers over how to bring about an end to the bloodshed. ...
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Mary Kennedy, wife of RFK Jr., reburied in Cape Cod cemetery
Sat,14 Jul 2012 02:55 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - The body of Mary Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., who hanged herself in May, was exhumed from a Massachusetts grave site earlier this month and moved to another section of the graveyard, a cemetery official said on Saturday. Frank Maki, superintendent of St. Francis Xavier Cemetery on Cape Cod, said the Kennedy family was making plans to buy up to 50 burial plots in the area where she is now buried for future generations of the New England political family. A Kennedy spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment. ... Full Story | Top |
Clinton backs Egypt army return to security role
Sat,14 Jul 2012 02:40 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of people chanted anti-U.S. and anti-Islamist slogans outside Hillary Clinton's hotel on Saturday as the U.S. secretary of state urged Egypt's military and Muslim Brotherhood to complete a transition to full democratic rule. Clinton met Egypt's newly-elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Saturday and was to see military chief Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi on Sunday, two of the central players in the power struggle playing out in the country. ...
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Factbox: Spain announces fresh round of austerity
Sat,14 Jul 2012 02:11 PM PDT
Reuters - MADRID (Reuters) - Recession-plagued Spain unveiled new austerity measures on Wednesday designed to slash 65 billion euros ($79.7 billion) from the public deficit by 2014 as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy yielded to EU pressure to try to avoid a full state bailout. Spain must cut its public deficit of 8.9 percent of gross domestic product to 6.3 percent in 2012, 4.5 percent in 2013 and 2.8 percent in 2014. Following are the details of new measures to meet this goal. TAX CHANGES - A Value Added Tax on goods and services raised to 21 percent from 18 percent. - A tax hike on tobacco. ... Full Story | Top |
Spain reforms to raise $69 billion
Sat,14 Jul 2012 02:11 PM PDT
Reuters - MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish government's most recent reforms will slash 56.4 billion euros ($69 billion) from the public deficit in the next two and a half years, an official document showed on Saturday, leaving a gap to be filled by taxes on energy. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy pledged 65 billion euros of savings from tax hikes and spending cuts on Wednesday in a painful package aimed at convincing the EU and investors his government is serious about reform. The 8. ... Full Story | Top |
U.N. observers say Tremseh attack targeted army defectors, activists
Sat,14 Jul 2012 02:08 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - An attack in the Syrian village of Tremseh appeared to target the homes of army defectors and activists, and assailants used weapons including artillery and mortars, a statement by the spokesman for the U.N. observers in Syria said on Saturday. The observers entered the village on Saturday after activists said about 220 people had been killed there by President Bashar al-Assad's troops. The observers saw damaged houses and a burned school and planned to return to the village on Sunday, the statement said, adding the number of casualties was unclear. Full Story | Top |
States could avoid liability for banks under new ESM: Regling
Sat,14 Jul 2012 01:55 PM PDT
Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - Governments will not be liable for emergency loans given direct to banks if plans for pan-European banking supervision are implemented, the head of the euro zone's bailout fund, Klaus Regling, was reported on Saturday as saying. "If the European Central Bank does end up acting as Europe's unified banking supervisor, it would be possible for us to give loans directly to banks and not to hand them over via the government as we do at the moment," Regling was quoted as saying in an advance copy of an article to be published in Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
German court must decide on rescue fund by Sept: Juncker
Sat,14 Jul 2012 01:55 PM PDT
Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker does not expect Germany's top court to block the new version of the euro zone's ESM bailout fund and believes judges are aware of the need for a verdict before a new round of crisis meetings in September. The Constitutional Court agreed on Tuesday to examine complaints lodged against the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and financial markets have been unsettled by the prospect of it taking up to three months before it comes to a decision. ... Full Story | Top |
Former Sarkozy aide denies influence peddling
Sat,14 Jul 2012 01:34 PM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - Senior Credit Agricole executive Xavier Musca said on Saturday he would take steps to fight back legally against accusations of influence-peddling during his time as a top official under former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The launch of a preliminary investigation into Musca on Friday followed a series of graft allegations in France that prompted President Francois Hollande to pledge in a Bastille Day interview to clean up and modernize politics. ... Full Story | Top |
Obama rallies supporters in rainy battleground Virginia
Sat,14 Jul 2012 01:32 PM PDT
Reuters -  GLEN ALLEN, Virginia (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, soaked to the skin as he rallied supporters during a downpour in the election battleground state of Virginia on Saturday, kept up his attack on Republican Mitt Romney as the rhetoric hardened on both sides. Standing before about 900 people at the Walkerton Tavern & Garden who stood cheering and chanting despite the drenching rain, Obama attacked Romney's record as head of a private equity firm and contrasted his middle class childhood with Romney's wealth. "I don't want a pioneer in outsourcing. I want some insourcing. ...
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Sudanese presidents hold first talks since April clashes
Sat,14 Jul 2012 01:27 PM PDT
Reuters - ADDIS ADABA (Reuters) - The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan held a face to face meeting at a hotel in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Adaba on Saturday, their first such meeting since the two countries came close to war in April over a border dispute and oil revenues. The encounter between Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his southern counterpart Salva Kiir at the Sheraton hotel followed an African Union session in which both leaders committed to negotiating out their countries' differences peacefully. A member of the South Sudanese delegation said the two presidents had met at the hotel. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. Presbyterian Church at crossroads over gay marriage
Sat,14 Jul 2012 01:18 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Midwestern minister Greg Smith is considering an act of ecclesiastical disobedience. Deeply sympathetic to gay rights since his son, Matty, came out as gay a decade ago, the lifelong Presbyterian told his son he will officiate at his wedding, defying church policy. "I believe that we're doing more harm than good prolonging the inevitable," said Smith, who at 64 is retired but still ministers in Des Moines, Iowa. "On this issue, there is no mechanism for pastors to express conscientious objection without either defying church authority or demitting from one's pastoral call. ... Full Story | Top |
Foreigner held in Cyprus, media see plot on Israelis
Sat,14 Jul 2012 12:18 PM PDT
Reuters - NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriot police are questioning a 24-year-old foreigner arrested last week who may have been plotting an attack on Israeli tourists visiting the Mediterranean island, media reported on Saturday. The man, thought to be a Swedish passport holder of Lebanese extraction, was arrested on July 7 and was being detained following remand hearings held behind closed doors, Sigma TV reported. He has not been charged with any offence. ... Full Story | Top |
Most Greeks want new govt to renegotiate bailout: poll
Sat,14 Jul 2012 12:13 PM PDT
Reuters - ATHENS (Reuters) - Most Greeks want the government to renegotiate the terms of its EU/IMF bailout regardless of the impact this stance would have on the country's future in the euro zone, a poll showed on Saturday. Greece is dependent on the funds from Brussels and the IMF for day to day state spending but in exchange for a second, 130 billion-euro bailout it is implementing spending cuts that have pushed it into its worst recession since World War Two and put one in five out of work. An MRB poll for Sunday's Realnews showed that 73. ... Full Story | Top |
Angolan police arrest 12 at anti-government rally
Sat,14 Jul 2012 12:08 PM PDT
Reuters - LISBON (Reuters) - Angolan police on Saturday arrested 10 youth protesters and two journalists at an anti-government demonstration in the capital Luanda, Portuguese state news agency Lusa reported, as tensions rise ahead of August's presidential election. A youth movement has staged several demonstrations since March last year calling for long-serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to resign after 32 years at the helm of Africa's second-largest oil producer after Nigeria. ... Full Story | Top |
Chavez re-election team expands social media reach via Twitter
Sat,14 Jul 2012 11:30 AM PDT
Reuters -  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's verbose Hugo Chavez is reaching out to voters with tweets sent as text messages to even the most basic mobile phones as the socialist president fights a vigorous opposition campaign in the Twitter-mad country ahead of an October 7 election. Chavez has had three cancer operations in the last year and his delicate health means he has not been able to travel anywhere near as much as his younger rival, Henrique Capriles. ...
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G4S security boss sorry for Games guards fiasco
Sat,14 Jul 2012 11:25 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - The head of private security firm G4S said on Saturday his firm only realised just over a week ago it would not be able to supply enough venue guards for this month's London Olympics, as he publicly apologised for the embarrassing failure. The day after G4S said it would incur a loss of up to 50 million pounds ($77.7 million), its chief executive Nick Buckles hit the airwaves and TV studios to express remorse for the problem which has forced the British government to put 3,500 extra troops on standby to fill the gap. ...
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Boeing sweetens Brazil fighter jet offer: report
Sat,14 Jul 2012 11:23 AM PDT
Reuters - SAO PAULO (Reuters) - U.S. aerospace company Boeing Co has offered to transfer more technology to Brazil if the government upgraded its Air Force fighter fleet with the firm's F-18 Super Hornet jet, a local paper reported on Saturday. Boeing vice president of the F/A-18 program, Mike Gibbons, said his company would offer Brazilian "companies the opportunity to construct components for the new Super Hornets and other future projects of Boeing," according to O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper. ... Full Story | Top |
France's Hollande vows to fight job cuts, graft
Sat,14 Jul 2012 11:03 AM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande marked Bastille day celebrations on Saturday with a pledge to fight industrial layoffs and clean up French politics, after watching troops parade down the Champs Elysees as jets streamed the national colors overhead. The Socialist leader's first National Day since winning office in May was overshadowed by outcry at mass job cuts announced by carmaker Peugeot and a scandal over his private life threatening to undermine his image as "Mr. Normal". ...
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At annual meeting, U.S. governors come out swinging over Medicaid
Sat,14 Jul 2012 10:51 AM PDT
Reuters -  WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - The Supreme Court decision allowing U.S. states to opt out of expanding Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, is pitting governor against governor, with Democrats accusing Republicans of being more concerned with election-year politics than solving healthcare problems. ...
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Turkish police and Kurds clash, bomb wounds 12
Sat,14 Jul 2012 10:29 AM PDT
Reuters - DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Riot police fired water cannon and teargas as they clashed with stone-throwing Kurdish protesters in south-east Turkey on Saturday, and militants elsewhere in the region detonated a bomb that wounded 12 police officers. Kurdish members of parliament were caught up in the rioting as police and demonstrators battled on the streets of the main south-eastern city of Diyarbakir, where the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) had sought to hold a rally. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: New law on BP spill fines raises stakes for Gulf states
Sat,14 Jul 2012 09:42 AM PDT
Reuters -  HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. Gulf Coast states have a higher stake in the amount of money the U.S. government can wring out of BP Plc for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill due to a new law that would divert billions of dollars in potential BP fines to them. The RESTORE Act, signed by President Barack Obama on July 6, directs that 80 percent of Clean Water Act penalties paid by BP be placed in a new trust fund for restoration efforts in the five coastal states damaged by the worst U.S. offshore oil spill: Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Texas. ...
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Anti-graft activist kidnapped for 2 days in South Sudan
Sat,14 Jul 2012 09:21 AM PDT
Reuters - JUBA (Reuters) - A South Sudanese anti-corruption activist said he had been kidnapped and beaten for two days by unknown assailants angry at his campaign to expose officials suspected of stealing $4 billion of government funds. Deng Athuai Mawiir, chairman of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliance, said he had been abducted outside his hotel in the capital Juba on July 4. His ordeal underscores the challenges facing South Sudan, which became the world's youngest nation when it seceded from Sudan last year after two decades of civil war. ... Full Story | Top |
Cyprus police question suspect in security probe
Sat,14 Jul 2012 09:14 AM PDT
Reuters - NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriot police are questioning a 24-year-old man arrested last week who may have been plotting an attack on Israeli tourists visiting the Mediterranean island, media reported on Saturday. The man, thought to be a Swedish passport holder of Lebanese extraction, was arrested on July 7 and was being detained following remand hearings held behind closed doors, Sigma TV reported. He has not been charged with any offence. ... Full Story | Top |
German state buys Swiss data to track tax frauds-reports
Sat,14 Jul 2012 08:36 AM PDT
Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - Authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought a CD from Switzerland containing wealthy Germans' bank details as part of a drive to identify tax evaders and are considering buying another two, media reports said on Saturday. ... Full Story | Top |
France's Hollande: Peugeot must renegotiate layoff plan
Sat,14 Jul 2012 08:18 AM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday Peugeot must renegotiate a plan to lay off 8,000 workers to lessen its social impact and accused the carmaker of lying over its intentions and making serious strategic errors. In a television interview, Hollande said a government rescue plan for the ailing car sector due to be announced on July 25 would include public incentives to encourage consumers to purchase French-made, environmentally friendly cars. ...
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Clinton to urge Egypt leaders to complete transition
Sat,14 Jul 2012 07:33 AM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will urge Egypt's civilian and military leaders to work together to complete a full transition to democratic rule, senior U.S. officials said on Saturday. Clinton arrived in Cairo to meet Egypt's newly-elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Saturday and military chief Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi on Sunday, two of the central players in the power struggle playing out in the country. "She is going to say, you have to stick with it. You have to keep going," a senior U.S. ...
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Syria says army assault on Tremseh targeted "terrorists"
Sat,14 Jul 2012 07:11 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria said on Saturday that an attack in the village of Tremseh, widely condemned as a massacre by President Bashar al-Assad's troops, was a successful military operation that killed many "terrorists" but no civilians. The attack in Tremseh, in which about 220 people were reported killed, has prompted international outrage. The United States has branded Syria's leaders murderers after the attack. "Armed forces units on Thursday morning carried out a 'special operation' in Tremseh ... ... Full Story | Top |
French aid worker released in Yemen, ICRC says
Sat,14 Jul 2012 06:44 AM PDT
Reuters - GENEVA (Reuters) - A French aid worker kidnapped in northern Yemen nearly three months ago by armed men has been released and is in good health, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Saturday. Benjamin Malbrancke was abducted on April 21 near the town of Hodeida. Referring to an al Qaeda-linked cell, ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told Reuters in Geneva: "He was handed over to ICRC representatives by Ansar al-Sharia on Friday. We don't know who the abductors were." Ansar al-Sharia swears allegiance to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
North Mali 'terrorist' haven threatens Africa: leaders
Sat,14 Jul 2012 06:32 AM PDT
Reuters -  ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Africa faces a serious threat from al Qaeda and its allies trying to set up a sanctuary in northern Mali, African leaders said on Saturday as they pondered political and military strategies aimed at reuniting the divided West African state. The leaders meeting at the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa are seeking to resolve messy aftermaths of military coups this year in Mali and Guinea-Bissau which have put blots on the continent's democratic credentials after advances in stability and governance in recent years. ...
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UN observer patrol heads to Syria massacre site
Sat,14 Jul 2012 06:30 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.N. observers were on their way to the central Syrian village of Tremseh on Saturday, two days after activists said some 220 people had been killed there by helicopter gunships and militiamen, prompting international outrage. The United States has branded Syria's leaders murderers after the attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops, but there was no break in the deadlock among world powers over how to bring about an end to the bloodshed. "We have sent a large integrated patrol today to seek verification of the facts," U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran issues new oil blockade warning
Sat,14 Jul 2012 06:22 AM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran could prevent even "a single drop of oil" passing through the Strait of Hormuz if its security is threatened, a naval chief said on Saturday, as tensions simmer over Tehran's nuclear program. Tehran will increase its military presence in international waters, said Ali Fadavi, naval commander in Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). "If they (the U.S.) do not obey international laws and the IRGC's warnings, it will have very bad consequences for them," Fadavi said, according to Iran's Fars News Agency. ... Full Story | Top |
Saudi development fund to lend Tunisia $220 million
Sat,14 Jul 2012 05:25 AM PDT
Reuters -  TUNIS (Reuters) - The Saudi Fund for Development will extend a total of about $220 million to Tunisia in low-interest loans, Tunisia's Investment and International Cooperation Ministry said, as the North African country seeks to recover from last year's revolution. It said there would be three loans, one to develop a power station at Sousse, one to invest in the transport of gas and one to be spent on vocational and other training. ...
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France's Hollande: still time to avoid Syrian civil war
Sat,14 Jul 2012 05:15 AM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday there was still time to find a political solution to avoid a civil war in Syria, but urged Russia to stop blocking efforts for a resolution at the United Nations Security Council. "I told (Russian President) Vladimir Putin that the worst thing that could happen is a civil war in Syria so let's work together to find a political solution to avoid civil war. There is still time," Hollande said during an interview marking France's national day. (Reporting By John Irish and Daniel Flynn) Full Story | Top |
Russian forces say kill 8 militants in Caucasus
Sat,14 Jul 2012 05:06 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian special forces have killed eight militants, including two regional commanders of insurgent groups, in the country's turbulent North Caucasus region, officials said on Saturday. More than a decade after federal forces drove separatists from power in a war in Chechnya, Russia is still struggling to contain an Islamic insurgency across the mainly Muslim Caucasus region. Islamist insurgents claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport that killed 37 people in January 2011 and twin bombings that killed 40 people in the Moscow metro in 2010. ... Full Story | Top |
France considering raising CSG social charge: Hollande
Sat,14 Jul 2012 05:02 AM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday his government was considering raising the CSG social welfare charge as part of measures to cut the country's deficit. France, which announced 7.2 billion euros in new taxes last week to plug a budget shortfall for this year, needs a further 33 billion euros in 2013 to meet its European deficit targets or risk unnerving financial markets. "A rise in the CSG is one of the things under study, among other measures," Hollande said in an interview to celebrate France's national day. (Reporting By John Irish and Daniel Flynn) Full Story | Top |
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