Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Russia drafts resolution to extend U.N. Syria mission
Tue,10 Jul 2012 07:14 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia circulated among U.N. Security Council members on Tuesday a draft resolution to extend a U.N. mission in Syria for three months so it can shift focus from monitoring a non-existent truce to securing a political solution to the conflict. The deeply divided council must decide the future of the mission, known as UNSMIS, before July 20 when its initial 90-day mandate expires. International envoy Kofi Annan is due to brief the council on Wednesday on his bid to broker peace in Syria. ... Full Story | Top |
American wife of Tetra Pak heir found dead in London
Tue,10 Jul 2012 06:43 PM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - London murder detectives are investigating the death of the American wife of an heir to the Tetra Pak drinks carton fortune and have arrested a man reported to be her husband. Eva Rausing, 48, daughter of U.S. businessman Tom Kemeny, led a gilded life marred by drug addiction and had a host of connections with royal patrons of anti-drug charities to which she and her husband, Hans Kristian Rausing, 49, devoted millions from the fortune his Swedish grandfather made from packaging. ... Full Story | Top |
Bolivia to revoke license from Canadian miner
Tue,10 Jul 2012 04:58 PM PDT
Reuters -  LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia's leftist president said on Tuesday he would revoke a mining concession from Canada's South American Silver Corp and give the state control of the site due to violent protests over the company's plans. It is the second time in less than a month that President Evo Morales has given in to protesters' demands for him to step up a drive to increase state control over natural resources in the poor Andean country. ...
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Wife of Tetra Pak heir found dead in London
Tue,10 Jul 2012 04:15 PM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - The American wife of an heir to the Tetra Pak drinks carton fortune has been found dead in London, police said on Tuesday, and a man who may be Eva Rausing's husband was arrested in connection with her death and on suspicion of drugs possession. Police described the arrested man only as being 49 years old, the same age as Hans Kristian Rausing, the London-based philanthropist son of Swedish packaging billionaire Hans Rausing, one of the world's richest men. ... Full Story | Top |
Captain of wrecked Italian cruise liner says sorry
Tue,10 Jul 2012 04:05 PM PDT
Reuters -  ROME (Reuters) - The captain of the wrecked cruise liner Costa Concordia apologized on Tuesday for the accident in which as many as 32 people died and said he had been distracted when the vast ship struck the rock which holed it. In his first full television interview since the accident on January 13, Francesco Schettino acknowledged his responsibility as captain and said he thought constantly about the victims of the disaster. ...
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Analysis: New Arab Spring triumph eluding Islamists in Libya
Tue,10 Jul 2012 03:49 PM PDT
Reuters -  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Early results from Libya's first election since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi show Islamist parties failing to secure the same grip on power as counterparts in neighboring countries where the Arab Spring also toppled veteran rulers. But while partial tallies from Saturday's national assembly poll point to a lead for Mahmoud Jibril, a moderate who was the wartime rebel prime minister, that does not mean the new Libya will jettison its socially conservative brand of Islam. ...
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Migrants die of thirst off North African coast: U.N
Tue,10 Jul 2012 03:42 PM PDT
Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - Fifty four people trying to reach Italy from Libya died of thirst after a 15-day voyage in which their rubber boat gradually deflated, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday, citing the sole survivor. It said the man, an Eritrean national, was rescued by Tunisian coastguards in a state of advanced dehydration clinging to the remains of the boat after being spotted by fishermen the previous night, the agency said. The man said he left Libya towards the end of June as part of a 55-strong group, half of whom came from Eritrea. ... Full Story | Top |
Annan says Iran must be player in Syria crisis talks
Tue,10 Jul 2012 03:37 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.N. peace envoy Kofi Annan waded into big power politics on Tuesday, insisting regional heavyweight Iran should be involved in efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Syria crisis despite the West's firm rejection of a role for Tehran. The United States and its NATO and Gulf Arab allies are opposed to involving the Islamic Republic, which strongly backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is regarded as their main adversary in the Middle East. Such diplomatic rifts have prevented effective international action to end the 16-month-old conflict in Syria. ...
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Obama expands lead on Romney, voters more optimistic
Tue,10 Jul 2012 02:41 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama expanded his lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney to 6 percentage points in the White House race this month as voters became slightly more optimistic about the economy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday. Four months before the November 6 election, Obama leads Romney among registered voters 49 percent to 43 percent. In June, Obama held a slim 1-point lead over the former Massachusetts governor. ...
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Enbridge handled oil spill like "Keystone Kops": NTSB
Tue,10 Jul 2012 02:10 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Enbridge's massive oil pipeline spill in Michigan in 2010 was caused by a complete breakdown of company safety measures, while its employees performed like "Keystone Kops" trying to contain it, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday. The rupture of Enbridge's pipeline spilled more than 20,000 barrels of heavy crude into Michigan's Kalamazoo River in July, 2010. "This investigation identified a complete breakdown of safety at Enbridge," NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt court overrules president over parliament
Tue,10 Jul 2012 01:53 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist-led parliament reconvened on Tuesday in an open challenge to the generals who dissolved it last month. The supreme court swiftly ruled the newly elected, Islamist president had acted illegally in summoning the assembly, heightening a confrontation between the newly elected head of state and an establishment that once served Hosni Mubarak. The legislature, dominated by President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood and allies, was dismissed by the army in line with a Supreme Constitutional Court ruling last month, days before Mursi's election. ...
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Russian lawmakers ratify WTO entry
Tue,10 Jul 2012 01:34 PM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian lawmakers voted on Tuesday to ratify accession to the World Trade Organization, bringing the world's largest country into the club that sets global trade rules after a tortuous 18-year negotiating marathon. The lower house vote, carried by a majority of 30 votes, seals Russia's entry to the WTO under a deal reached last December that will oblige Moscow to cut import tariffs and open up key sectors of its economy to foreign investment. Russia's $1.9 trillion economy, the world's ninth largest, will officially become the WTO's 156th member 30 days after ratification. ... Full Story | Top |
Caught unawares: The night the Russian floods came
Tue,10 Jul 2012 01:33 PM PDT
Reuters -  KRYMSK, Russia (Reuters) - Aziza Azimova went to bed at the same time as usual on Friday, watched television for a while and then turned out the light, unconcerned about the rain teeming down outside. The lamp had flickered a little and she got up to glance outside. Floods have been a hazard before in town. But no water was pooling in her garden and she went back to bed. Azimova, 54, was totally unprepared for what happened next in Krymsk, a sprawling country town on the edge of the Caucasus mountains of southern Russia. ...
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CEO vows to turn RIM into "lean, mean machine"
Tue,10 Jul 2012 01:22 PM PDT
Reuters -  WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd's new CEO vowed on Tuesday to turn around the embattled company with the new generation of BlackBerry devices coming next year, saying he would transform RIM into a "lean, mean, hunting machine." But Thorsten Heins, presiding over his first annual meeting since taking the helm, offered little to disgruntled shareholders beyond his faith in the power of the BlackBerry 10 line to reverse RIM's fortunes. Its battered stock fell another 5 percent after he spoke. ...
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Canada court tackles election with 26-vote margin
Tue,10 Jul 2012 01:15 PM PDT
Reuters - OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Canada wrestled with how easily an election can be overturned because of clerical errors on Tuesday in a case brought by a Liberal candidate who lost a federal election last year by 26 votes. The court's decision on the race in a Toronto district, between Conservative Ted Opitz and Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj, will not jeopardize the Conservative government's hold on power, because it has a comfortable majority in Parliament. ... Full Story | Top |
WestJet short-haul fares to beat Air Canada
Tue,10 Jul 2012 01:08 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - WestJet Airlines Ltd's planned Canadian short-haul carrier will likely charge about a third less than its main rival Air Canada for last-minute travel, WestJet's chief executive said on Tuesday. In what some analysts have called its boldest move since its launch 16 years ago, WestJet, Canada's second-biggest airline, announced in February that it will start a new regional operation to fly to smaller Canadian cities and towns. Some of them are only served by Air Canada, resulting in high air fares even for short distances. ... Full Story | Top |
Pork producers grumble over Canada in Asia-Pacific talks
Tue,10 Jul 2012 01:03 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pork producers in the United States, Australia and New Zealand urged their governments on Tuesday to push for an end to Canadian pork subsidies as Canada enters into talks on an Asia-Pacific free trade agreement. "Canada needs to end its federal and provincial hog subsidy programs, which are distorting the North American and world pork markets," R.C. Hunt, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said in a statement with industry leaders from the two South Pacific countries. ... Full Story | Top |
Romanian court leaves impeachment on knife edge
Tue,10 Jul 2012 12:38 PM PDT
Reuters - BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's Constitutional Court gave President Traian Basescu a fighting chance of beating a referendum aimed at ousting him, ruling on Tuesday that at least half the electorate must turn out for the vote to be valid. The ruling Social Liberal Union (USL) said it deemed a decree passed last week, stating that there is no turnout threshold, to be still valid, presaging a further constitutional battle and likely condemnation from Europe and the markets. ... Full Story | Top |
Canadian scientists protest against spending cuts
Tue,10 Jul 2012 12:18 PM PDT
Reuters - OTTAWA (Reuters) - Several hundred Canadian scientists and their supporters held an unprecedented protest march on Tuesday to demonstrate against the government's decision to close down major facilities and fire research staff. The protesters, who say the right-of-center Conservative government dislikes science, walked through central Ottawa behind a woman dressed as the Grim Reaper and a coffin designed to mourn the "Death of Evidence". "Evidence is the way that adults navigate reality. To deny evidence is to live in a fairy world ... ... Full Story | Top |
French TV reprimanded for airing Toulouse gunman tape
Tue,10 Jul 2012 12:01 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - A major French TV station was reprimanded on Monday over its decision to broadcast leaked recordings of the last words exchanged between Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah and negotiators, hours before he was killed in a shootout with police. The emergence of the recordings, in which Merah is heard mocking police and saying he loves death more than life, stirred up emotions still raw three months after the 23-year-old Frenchman carried out a string of deadly shootings in the name of al Qaeda. ...
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Analysis: Mexico ruling party seeks new direction after election debacle
Tue,10 Jul 2012 11:40 AM PDT
Reuters -  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's conservative National Action Party made history when it swept to power in 2000, ending 71 years of one-party rule. But it now faces an identity crisis after a punishing presidential election defeat. Josefina Vazquez Mota, the PAN's candidate, came in a distant third with just 25.4 percent of the vote on July 1, and the party will have far fewer seats in Congress. The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled for most of the 20th century and was ousted 12 years ago, was the beneficiary the PAN's collapse and bounced back to power. ...
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Putin rejects calls to delay campaign group law
Tue,10 Jul 2012 11:19 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday dismissed calls to delay legislation that would force rights and campaign groups funded from abroad to register as "foreign agents" and is seen by the opposition as intended to stifle protests. The lower house of parliament gave the draft law initial approval on Friday after Putin's United Russia party said it was needed to ensure openness by foreign-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs). ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt court overrules president's parliament recall
Tue,10 Jul 2012 11:17 AM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court said on Tuesday it had overruled President Mohamed Mursi's decision to recall the Islamist-led parliament that was dissolved by the country's generals last month. "The court ruled to halt the president's decision to recall the parliament," judge Maher el-Beheiry said in court. The constitutional court had on June 14 ruled that the laws under which the parliament was elected were unconstitutional. Egypt's then-ruling military council dissolved the assembly two days after the ruling. ...
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Facing defeat, British government drops Lords reform vote
Tue,10 Jul 2012 11:07 AM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Facing its first major parliamentary defeat, Britain's coalition government on Tuesday at the last minute dropped plans for a controversial vote on reforming parliament's unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords. The government seemed set to lose the vote after scores of lawmakers within Prime Minister David Cameron's ruling Conservative party threatened to rebel over the plan to make the Lords a mostly elected, rather than appointed, chamber. ... Full Story | Top |
Congo says insurgency is Rwandan army "invasion"
Tue,10 Jul 2012 10:59 AM PDT
Reuters - GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Authorities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo accused neighboring Rwanda on Tuesday of "invading" a volatile border area, portraying an advancing insurgency as a Rwandan military operation. Rwanda has consistently denied allegations by Congolese officials and United Nations investigators that it is fomenting and supporting the Tutsi-dominated M23 rebel movement in Congo's mineral-rich North Kivu province, long a tinderbox of regional ethnic and political tensions. "It's not a rebellion, it's an invasion. ... Full Story | Top |
Nigeria's Boko Haram claims attacks that killed 65
Tue,10 Jul 2012 10:53 AM PDT
Reuters - JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility on Tuesday for attacks that killed more than 65 people in volatile central Nigeria last weekend, although security forces have blamed the violence on localized ethnic clashes. Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people this year in an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan as it tries to carve out an Islamic state in Africa's most populous nation. "We praise God in this war for the Prophet Mohammad. We thank Allah for the successful attack in ... ... Full Story | Top |
Factbox: Key facts on Colombia's President Santos
Tue,10 Jul 2012 10:42 AM PDT
Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has seen his popularity decline in recent polls, throwing into doubt his legislative agenda for the remainder of the year. Here are some key facts about Santos: * Born into one of Colombia's most powerful families, Santos is the consummate political insider, a U.S.- and British-trained economist whose great uncle, Eduardo Santos, served as president. His cousin was a vice president. Before moving into politics, Santos was an editor at the country's leading newspaper, El Tiempo, once owned by his family. ... Full Story | Top |
Colombia's Santos hit by reform fiasco, rebel attacks
Tue,10 Jul 2012 10:42 AM PDT
Reuters -  BOGOTA (Reuters) - Two years after Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos took office, a bloody resurgence of left-wing guerrilla attacks and a botched judicial reform have cut into his once-commanding approval ratings, threatening plans for extensive economic reforms. Santos's support in Congress has softened and he may have a weaker hand as he tries to push through key reforms like overhauls of the pension and tax systems. Born into one of Colombia's most powerful families, the U.S. ...
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Ex-Gaddafi spy chief on trial says rights denied
Tue,10 Jul 2012 10:37 AM PDT
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The first former senior official from the Muammar Gaddafi era to be put on trial in Libya said on Tuesday he had been denied the right to meet privately with a lawyer and undergone improper interrogations during 10 months in detention. Libya's transitional government is keen to try Gaddafi's family members and loyalists at home, but human rights activists worry that a weak central government and a lack of rule of law could rob them of the right to a fair trial. ... Full Story | Top |
Yemen detains 2 fugitive Qaeda-linked militants
Tue,10 Jul 2012 10:33 AM PDT
Reuters - ADEN (Reuters) - Two fugitive al Qaeda-linked militants who dug their way out of a Yemeni jail last month were detained by security services on Tuesday, the Defence Ministry said in a text message. The two men were part of a group that escaped from prison in the coastal province of Hodeidah after digging a tunnel from their cell to a nearby graveyard. Yemen is home to a tenacious offshoot of al Qaeda, which has exploited political instability in the impoverished state to gain a foothold there. ... Full Story | Top |
Man surrenders after French school hostage siege
Tue,10 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - A man armed with a fake gun briefly took an adult hostage at a nursery school south of Paris on Tuesday. The intruder, who entered the school in Vitry-sur-Seine on the southern edge of the capital shortly before it opened, was caught trying to escape police after freeing the hostage, a judicial source said. The source said the man appeared to have psychological problems, but had no police record. He was armed with a imitation automatic weapon that could only fire gas cartridges, he said. "At 12:10 p.m. the hostage-taker was taken out (of the building) calmly ... ...
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Bahrain closes Islamist party, cites "violent" cleric
Tue,10 Jul 2012 09:49 AM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahrain court has dissolved a Shi'ite Islamist political party which has played a role in the Gulf Arab state's wave of unrest, on the grounds that it answers to a religious authority who calls for violence. Bahrain, a U.S. ally ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa family, has been in turmoil since protests, led mainly by majority Shi'ites, broke out in February last year. The Islamic Action party, Amal, follows a "hostile clerical authority who blatantly calls for violence and instigates hatred", the Information Affairs Authority said in a statement on Tuesday. ... Full Story | Top |
Iraq's al Qaeda claims June attacks on Shi'ites
Tue,10 Jul 2012 09:43 AM PDT
Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq has claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings and assassinations targeting Shi'ite Muslims that rocked cities and towns across the country in June. June was one of the bloodiest months in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew at the end of last year, with at least 237 people killed and 603 wounded mainly in bomb attacks, according to a tally by Reuters. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) said a statement posted on radical Islamist websites that it was behind more than 73 attacks that mainly targeted Shi'ite pilgrims and security officials. ... Full Story | Top |
UK's Islamic cleric appeals extradition to U.S.
Tue,10 Jul 2012 09:35 AM PDT
Reuters - STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - One of Britain's most notorious Islamist clerics has appealed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights allowing London to extradite him to the United States, slowing down U.S. efforts to prosecute him for terrorism. The appeal filed by lawyers for Abu Hamza al-Masri late on Monday will delay attempts to put the Egyptian-born cleric on trial on charges he supported al Qaeda and aided a fatal kidnapping in Yemen. A panel of five judges could decide within a few weeks on the merit of the appeal, judicial sources said. ... Full Story | Top |
Ethnic feuding risks violence in Kyrgyzstan: U.N
Tue,10 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT
Reuters - BISHKEK (Reuters) - Southern Kyrgyzstan risks a return to ethnic violence if discrimination persists against minority groups in the volatile Central Asian region, where hundreds were killed in June 2010 clashes, the United Nations' human rights chief said on Tuesday. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on the mayor of Osh, the focus of clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks that killed nearly 500 people, to condemn torture and other rights abuses she said were taking place in the city. ... Full Story | Top |
Red Crescent aid worker shot and killed in Syria
Tue,10 Jul 2012 08:43 AM PDT
Reuters - GENEVA (Reuters) - A Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid worker died on Tuesday a day after he was shot in a clearly marked ambulance in the town of Deir al-Zor, the organization said. Khaled Khaffaji was the fifth member of the aid group's staff to be killed in the conflict in Syria, and the second to be killed in less than a month. "We are devastated. The loss of Khaled is completely unacceptable," Abdul Rahman al-Attar, the president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
Factbox: Violence in eastern Congo
Tue,10 Jul 2012 08:42 AM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Authorities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have accused neighboring Rwanda of "invading" a volatile border area, portraying an advancing rebel insurgency as a Rwandan military operation. Rebels in the eastern North Kivu province have made significant advances in the past few days after months of clashes that have killed several hundred fighters and forced more than 200,000 civilians from their homes. ... Full Story | Top |
Vatican condemns "illicit ordination" in China
Tue,10 Jul 2012 08:38 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIJING/ROME (Reuters) - The Vatican on Tuesday condemned the appointment of a Chinese Catholic bishop without its approval, hours after a source said one of Rome's own newly-ordained bishops had been detained in a seminary in China. In a move likely to strain already frayed relations with Beijing, the Vatican said it refused to recognize the ordination on July 6 of Reverend Joseph Yue Fusheng in Harbin, complaining his elevation by Beijing's state-run Church overseer had not been blessed by the pope and was therefore meaningless. ... Full Story | Top |
Congo warlord jailed for 14 years in landmark case
Tue,10 Jul 2012 08:25 AM PDT
Reuters -  THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Delivering its first sentence, the International Criminal Court jailed Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for 14 years on Tuesday for recruiting child soldiers. The Hague-based court was set up a decade ago to punish and discourage the world's worst crimes through a new system of international justice, but its critics say it has moved too slowly and failed to put its most important suspects on trial. ...
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Analysis: France seeks influence on telcos after outage
Tue,10 Jul 2012 08:19 AM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - France Telecom came under fire from government ministers flexing their muscles with a call for an audit of key national infrastructure after the company suffered a massive outage on its mobile network over the weekend. The vocal response of the recently elected Socialist government showed how it is seeking to reassert its influence on France's telecoms sector in a period of brutal competition and looming layoffs brought on by the January arrival of ultra low-cost mobile company Iliad. ... Full Story | Top |
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