Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes near Mexico's Baja Peninsula
Tue,25 Sep 2012 07:16 PM PDT
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula, on Tuesday and caused panic, but local officials said there were no reports of damage or injuries. The quake's epicenter was located 46 miles north of La Paz, Mexico, and was centered in the Gulf of California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. "It felt pretty strong," said Ivan Calderon, a Baja California Sur state civil protection official, adding there were no reports of damages or injuries. ... Full Story | Top |
China tells Japan islands "sacred Chinese territory" in dispute standoff
Tue,25 Sep 2012 07:12 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - China claimed islands at the core of a row with Japan as its "sacred territory" in talks between the two countries' foreign ministers, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, as neither side showed signs of backing down in a long-festering feud. Xinhua said Yang reiterated China's "solemn position on the issue of Diaoyu Islands, which have been China's sacred territory since ancient times". ...
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Obama at U.N. calls for end to intolerance, warns Iran
Tue,25 Sep 2012 06:27 PM PDT
Reuters -  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged world leaders on Tuesday to put an end to the intolerance and violence that led to the recent killing of the U.S. ambassador in Libya and warned Iran he would do what it takes to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear arms. In a 30-minute address to the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly, Obama called anew for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following an 18-month civil war without saying how to make it happen. He also offered no fresh ideas on solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ...
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Japan opposition picks new leader, possible next PM amid China feud
Tue,25 Sep 2012 06:18 PM PDT
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's main opposition party picks its new leader and possibly the next prime minister on Wednesday, with the successful candidate having to formulate a stance on China as relations fray over disputed islands in East China Sea. Leading contenders in the race for head of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have all struck hawkish tones as the long-simmering row flared up this month after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government bought some of the disputed islets from their private Japanese owner. ... Full Story | Top |
AU official says Mali's interim leaders can manage crisis
Tue,25 Sep 2012 05:53 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mali's interim leaders are capable of commanding a regional effort to combat Islamist militants in the north of the country despite their own internal differences, a senior African Union official said on Tuesday, dismissing suggestions new elections were needed before any military intervention could take place. AU Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra told Reuters he hoped a joint U.N.-African Union envoy to the Sahel would be appointed on Wednesday during a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly to send a "strong symbolic" message of support. ... Full Story | Top |
Spain prepares more austerity, protesters battle police
Tue,25 Sep 2012 05:38 PM PDT
Reuters -  MADRID (Reuters) - Protesters clashed with police in Spain's capital on Tuesday as the government prepared a new round of unpopular austerity measures for the 2013 budget to be announced on Thursday. Thousands gathered in Neptune plaza, a few meters from El Prado museum in central Madrid, where they formed a human chain around parliament, surrounded by barricades, police trucks and more than 1,500 police in riot gear. Police fired rubber bullets and beat protesters with truncheons, first as protesters were trying to tear down barriers and later to clear the square. ...
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Japan, China foreign ministers to meet on U.N. sidelines: media
Tue,25 Sep 2012 05:07 PM PDT
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Jiji and Kyodo news agencies reported on Wednesday. The meeting between Gemba and Yang Jiechi is expected to take place early on Wednesday, the agencies said. Sino-Japanese relations have deteriorated sharply this month after the Japanese government bought a set of East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from their private owner, sparking anti-Japan protests across China. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt's Mursi calls for cooperation between cultures
Tue,25 Sep 2012 04:59 PM PDT
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Egypt's new Islamist president Mohamed Mursi delivered a call on Tuesday for "genuine cooperation" between cultures, but in the wake of violent assaults on U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world he also cautioned that a joke in one culture may not be funny in another. Speaking at a philanthropic meeting convened in New York by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Mursi signaled an embrace of multiculturalism as an alternative to a single culture seeking dominance. "The world cannot become one culture or one civilization. ...
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Canadian Mounties solve 1974 murder of 16-year-old girl
Tue,25 Sep 2012 04:35 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Canadian police said on Tuesday that a convicted kidnapper and attempted rapist who died in prison is responsible for at least one killing in British Columbia, and U.S. authorities linked him to the slayings of four other teenage girls. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said partly based on improved DNA testing, it is certain that Bobby Jack Fowler murdered 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen in 1974. Fowler died of lung cancer in an Oregon prison in 2006. Separately, the Lincoln County, Oregon, district attorney's office linked Fowler to the killings of four teenage girls. ... Full Story | Top |
Ex-Murdoch editor Brooks due in court on hacking plot charges
Tue,25 Sep 2012 04:31 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, a former executive in Rupert Murdoch's media empire and friend of British Prime Minister David Cameron, faces charges in court on Wednesday that she conspired to hide evidence from police investigating a phone hacking scandal. The charges are part of the criminal inquiry into assertions that UK newspapers intercepted messages on the phones of celebrities, politicians and crime victims, and made illegal payments to public officials. ...
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Obama takes world stage to fend off Romney attacks
Tue,25 Sep 2012 04:30 PM PDT
Reuters -  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Taking a detour from the campaign trail to the world stage, President Barack Obama sought on Tuesday to counter attacks on his foreign policy record from Republican rival Mitt Romney on everything from the Iranian nuclear standoff to U.S.-Israeli relations to the Arab Spring. At the podium of the cavernous U.N. General Assembly hall six weeks before the U.S. election, Obama addressed both American voters and world leaders, as he defended his approach to global challenges that have started piling up in the final stretch of a close presidential race. ...
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U.S. bans beef from Canada's XL Foods plant
Tue,25 Sep 2012 03:59 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - The United States has halted imports of beef products from one of Canada's largest beef-processing plants, owned by privately held XL Foods at Brooks, Alberta, due to findings of E. coli bacteria. A spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said on Tuesday that the agency "de-listed" the plant on September 13 at the request of U.S. authorities, meaning that it cannot export any of its products to the United States until corrections are made. "Which is normal, when there are positive findings from a facility," said CFIA spokesman Tim O'Connor. ... Full Story | Top |
Argentina and Iran to discuss 1990s bombings
Tue,25 Sep 2012 03:50 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran and Argentina have agreed to a meeting to discuss two 1990s attacks on Jewish targets in Buenos Aires that were allegedly sponsored by the Islamic Republic, Argentina's president said on Tuesday. Argentine courts have accused Iran of sponsoring a 1994 attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish center that killed 85 people. That assault came two years after a group linked to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital, which killed 29. Tehran has denied links to either attack. ... Full Story | Top |
Greek strike to test coalition government's mettle
Tue,25 Sep 2012 03:11 PM PDT
Reuters - ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek workers on Wednesday hold their first major anti-austerity strike since a coalition government took power in June, grounding flights, disrupting local transport and shutting public service offices. Called by the country's two biggest unions that represent half the work force, the walkout is expected to bring out thousands of Greeks to the streets to protest at a new round of belt-tightening demanded by EU and IMF lenders. ... Full Story | Top |
Syrian rebels bomb security building in Damascus
Tue,25 Sep 2012 03:10 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian insurgents detonated bombs at a building occupied by pro-government militias in Damascus on Tuesday and France called for U.N. protection of rebel-held areas to help end Syria's bloodshed and rights abuses. Activists say that more than 27,000 people have been killed in the 18-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad but jostling for regional advantage by world powers has thwarted effective U.N. Security Council action to defuse the conflict. ...
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Mexican draft labor bill weakened by congressional body
Tue,25 Sep 2012 03:00 PM PDT
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican congressional working group has gutted a planned reform of several measures intended to make trade unions more transparent before a vote on the bill later this week. Put forward by outgoing President Felipe Calderon at the start of the month, the draft labor law aims to make it easier for companies to hire and fire employees and combat abuses by the country's trade unions. ... Full Story | Top |
Argentina lashes out at IMF: "This is not a game"
Tue,25 Sep 2012 02:43 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez lashed out on Tuesday at the International Monetary Fund for criticizing her country's murky economic data, blaming the lender for its role in the global economic crisis and declaring: "This is not a game." IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Monday that Argentina has three months to improve the quality of its economic data, or else it could face punishment. Lagarde said that if no progress was made, "then the red card will be out," drawing from a soccer analogy for penalizing players. ... Full Story | Top |
China slowdown adds urgency to Communist Party soul searching
Tue,25 Sep 2012 02:02 PM PDT
Reuters -  JINGGANGSHAN, China (Reuters) - Chinese university teacher Zhu Haibin wept softly as she and other Communist Party cadres stood in rows before a mass grave of Communist fighters in southern China. Ignoring light drizzle, the group listened to a party instructor tell the story of Zhang Longxiu, a "hero mother" from the early days of China's Communist revolution who was tortured to death by Nationalists while protecting her son. ...
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France's Hollande wants U.N. to protect Syria safe havens
Tue,25 Sep 2012 01:52 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations must immediately provide protection to areas liberated by rebels in Syria, French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday, adding that President Bashar al-Assad's government has no future on the international stage. In his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Hollande also warned Iran that France would not tolerate Tehran continuing to flaunt its international obligations and threatening the stability of the region. "The Syrian regime ... has no future among us," Hollande said. ... Full Story | Top |
Russian lawmakers call for jail for "blasphemous acts"
Tue,25 Sep 2012 01:41 PM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian lawmakers are calling for jail sentences for people guilty of offending religious feelings, in a move that could tighten the bonds between President Vladimir Putin and the resurgent Orthodox Church. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, adopted a declaration on Tuesday saying the killing of spiritual leaders, vandalism against church property and "blasphemous acts of hooliganism" posed a threat to Russia and must be countered. ... Full Story | Top |
New EU Iran sanctions to target finance, trade: France
Tue,25 Sep 2012 01:38 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Tuesday the next round of European Union sanctions over Iran's nuclear program would focus on the financial industry and trade. French President Francois Hollande earlier in the day told the U.N. General Assembly that the EU was ready to impose a new set of sanctions to increase pressure on Iran and force it back to the negotiating table. "(The sanctions will be) on the financial and trade side," Fabius said on the sidelines of the meeting. ... Full Story | Top |
Canadian contracts H1N1 variant after contact with pigs
Tue,25 Sep 2012 01:30 PM PDT
Reuters - OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian man has been infected with an H1N1 variant influenza virus after having had close contact with pigs, a senior health official for the province of Ontario said on Tuesday. "I would like to reassure Ontarians that this variant influenza virus rarely spreads from animals to humans. Subsequent human-to-human transmission is also rare," Arlene King, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, said in a statement. An influenza virus that normally circulates in animals is referred to as a variant virus when it infects humans. In such cases it is labeled H1N1v. ... Full Story | Top |
Dispute escalates between China and Japan
Tue,25 Sep 2012 01:14 PM PDT
Reuters -  TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - China sent its first aircraft carrier into formal service on Tuesday amid a tense maritime dispute with Japan in a show of force that could worry its neighbors. China's Ministry of Defence said the newly named Liaoning aircraft carrier would "raise the overall operational strength of the Chinese navy" and help Beijing to "effectively protect national sovereignty, security and development interests". ...
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Egypt sentences Islamists to jail over Suez murder
Tue,25 Sep 2012 01:13 PM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Three Egyptians accused of killing a man while he was walking with his fiancée were sentenced to 15 years in jail on Tuesday for forming an Islamist vigilante group to enforce their hard-line ideas, the state news agency MENA reported. In a separate case, Egypt's public prosecutor referred three Muslims to a criminal court after they were accused of insulting Christianity and desecrating a copy of the Bible. Ahmed Hassan Eid was stabbed as he walked with his fiancée in the port city of Suez, known as a bastion of hard-line Islamism. He died later of his wounds. ... Full Story | Top |
Italian PM Mario Monti says he won't run for election
Tue,25 Sep 2012 01:06 PM PDT
Reuters -  ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Tuesday he would not run in elections due in spring, in an interview in which he said Italy no longer risked igniting a debt crisis in the euro zone. "I will not run for the elections," Monti said in an interview on news channel CNN during a trip to the United States. "I think it's important that the whole political game resumes in Italy, hopefully with a higher degree of responsibility and maturity. ...
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Niger arrests five suspected Boko Haram militants
Tue,25 Sep 2012 12:59 PM PDT
Reuters - NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger has arrested five people near the Nigerian border suspected of belonging to the militant Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, Niger security officials said on Tuesday. The group has been blamed for more than 1,000 deaths in Nigeria since 2010. Observers say they suspect it is using Niger as a transit route to link up with other militant groups like Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, now controlling northern Mali. "State Security Police arrested the five suspected Boko Haram members who entered Niger on Sunday through the Zinder region. ... Full Story | Top |
BBC apologizes to Queen Elizabeth over radical cleric leak
Tue,25 Sep 2012 12:51 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's BBC apologized to Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday after a senior journalist reported her private views about one of the country's best known terrorism suspects, an embarrassing disclosure for a monarch who avoids public political statements. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner broadcast details of a private conversation with the queen during which she supposedly told him she had complained to the last government about radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri. ...
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South Africa's Malema to face corruption hearing
Tue,25 Sep 2012 12:42 PM PDT
Reuters -  POLOKWANE, South Africa (Reuters) - ANC rebel Julius Malema, South African President Jacob Zuma's most prominent critic and an advocate of mining nationalization, appears in court on Wednesday on corruption charges that his supporters say are politically motivated. Police said they would close roads for the hearing on Wednesday around the courthouse in Polokwane, the provincial capital of Malema's native Limpopo, 350 km (220 miles) north of Johannesburg, for one of the biggest trials since the end of apartheid in 1994. ...
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Iran unveils long-range drone: state TV
Tue,25 Sep 2012 12:35 PM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Revolutionary Guards unveiled a home-built long-range drone capable of reaching most of the Middle East, including the Islamic state's arch-foe Israel, state television reported on Tuesday. The reconnaissance drone named Shahed 129 has a range of 2,000 km (1,240 miles) and is capable of carrying bombs and missiles, state television said. It gave no further details. Israel has threatened action against Iran's nuclear sites, raising speculation about a possible military strike ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Israel has criticized U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Germany outlines new law allowing circumcision
Tue,25 Sep 2012 12:18 PM PDT
Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Justice Ministry has outlined a planned new law that will allow the circumcision of infant boys and end months of legal uncertainty after a local court banned the practice. The ruling in June by a district court in Cologne outraged Muslims and Jews and sparked an emotional debate in the country, leaving an embarrassed government to promise legislation by the autumn protecting the right to circumcise. Although the ban applied only to the Cologne region, doctors across the country refused to carry out operations because of what they saw as a risk of legal action. ... Full Story | Top |
Israel quiet on Ahmadinejad as Yom Kippur descends
Tue,25 Sep 2012 12:03 PM PDT
Reuters -  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli leaders made no comment on Tuesday over the latest outburst from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, maintaining near-total silence as the country closed down for the holiest Jewish day of the year, Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement runs from Tuesday afternoon through to dusk on Wednesday, meaning there was no comment either on U.S. President Barack Obama's address to the United Nations. Speaking in New York, Ahmadinejad said on Monday Israel had no roots in the Middle East and would be "eliminated". ...
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Central African rebels hit Cameroon border post, three killed
Tue,25 Sep 2012 11:59 AM PDT
Reuters - YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Three people were killed when Central African Republic rebels attacked a Cameroon border post on Sunday in an attempt to free comrades held in the neighboring country, the Cameroon state broadcaster said on Tuesday. CRTV said the rebels opened fire after a police officer tried to stop them from entering Cameroon, killing him and a boy who was manning the frontier gate in Garoua-Boulai, some 600 km (372 miles) east of the capital Yaounde. ... Full Story | Top |
Arab nations should intervene in Syria: Qatari leader
Tue,25 Sep 2012 11:45 AM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Arab nations should intervene in Syria given the U.N. Security Council's failure to stop the civil war in the country, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said on Tuesday. "The Security Council failed to reach an effective position. In view of this, I think that it is better for the Arab countries themselves to interfere out of their national, humanitarian, political and military duties and do what is necessary to stop the bloodshed in Syria," Sheik Hamad, speaking through an interpreter, said in a U.N. General Assembly speech. ... Full Story | Top |
Strauss-Kahn lawyers to seek French sex probe halt
Tue,25 Sep 2012 11:20 AM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - Lawyers for former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will ask a court on Wednesday to close a sexual misconduct investigation that has plagued their client, once the runaway favorite to become president of France, a judicial source said. The hearing is due to take place behind closed doors in the northern city of Lille, where investigators have spent months trying to verify allegations that Strauss-Kahn took part in sex parties with prostitutes and did so in ways that broke the law. ...
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Swiss family involved in nuclear smuggling ring avoids jail
Tue,25 Sep 2012 11:17 AM PDT
Reuters - ZURICH (Reuters) - Three Swiss engineers guilty of involvement in a Pakistani nuclear smuggling ring avoided a prison sentence on Tuesday after agreeing a plea bargain with the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office. Friedrich Tinner and his two sons, Marco and Urs, pleaded guilty at the federal criminal court in Bellinzona of supplying centrifuge parts and participating in the smuggling ring of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of Pakistan's nuclear programme, who in 2004 was found by Pakistan to have sold nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya. ... Full Story | Top |
Russian lawmakers call for law on offences to faith
Tue,25 Sep 2012 11:07 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian lawmakers are calling for jail sentences of up to three years for anyone guilty of offending religious feelings, in a move that could further tighten the bonds between President Vladimir Putin and the resurgent Orthodox Church. The State Duma lower house of parliament adopted a declaration on Tuesday saying the killing of spiritual leaders, vandalism against church property and "blasphemous acts of hooliganism" posed a threat to Russia and must be countered. ... Full Story | Top |
World Muslim group demands laws against "Islamophobia"
Tue,25 Sep 2012 10:49 AM PDT
Reuters - GENEVA (Reuters) - The world's largest Islamic body called on Tuesday for expressions of "Islamophobia" to be curbed by law, just as some countries restrict anti-Semitic speech or Holocaust denial. Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the 56 countries that form the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), condemned a video made in the United States that defamed Islam and the Prophet Mohammad, igniting Muslim protests around the world this month. ... Full Story | Top |
Factbox: Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles
Tue,25 Sep 2012 10:41 AM PDT
Reuters - CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan state governor Henrique Capriles is running against President Hugo Chavez in the October 7 election. Here are some facts about him: Capriles, 40, is governor of Venezuela's second-most populous state, Miranda, which includes parts of Caracas. The state ranges from the capital's largest shantytown, Petare, to fishing villages and beaches on the Caribbean coast. ... Full Story | Top |
Chavez's rival gains ground in Venezuela election push
Tue,25 Sep 2012 10:41 AM PDT
Reuters -  LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (Reuters) - The crowds are bigger, his speeches slicker, and Venezuela's young opposition leader Henrique Capriles is on a roll in a final, frenzied push to end President Hugo Chavez's socialist rule. With just 12 days left before the OPEC nation's presidential election, the 40-year-old state governor is whipping up crowds like never before, creeping up in the polls and becoming increasingly aggressive in his attacks on Chavez's policies. ...
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