Today's Politics - Bloomberg News Headlines - Yahoo! News: | | U.S. Border Patrol agent shot dead in Arizona, another wounded Tue,2 Oct 2012 07:42 PM PDT Reuters - NACO, Arizona (Reuters) - A U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead and another wounded when they came under fire on Tuesday while responding to a tripped ground sensor in a drug smuggling corridor in Arizona near the border with Mexico, authorities said. Authorities said three agents were on foot about 5 miles north of the border in rocky terrain when gunfire erupted well before daybreak, but provided few additional details on the circumstances of the violence. "As they were walking up the trail, they reported taking gunfire," Cochise County Sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas said. ...
Full Story | Top | Labour leader Miliband plays the class card Tue,2 Oct 2012 07:24 PM PDT Reuters - MANCHESTER (Reuters) - Labour leader Ed Miliband cast himself as a humble man of the people on Tuesday in a confident speech, seeking to win over doubters and portray Prime Minister David Cameron as the product of a snobby education who has hurt the economy. Hoping voters will punish the coalition government for a recession and hand Labour power in an election in 2015, Miliband is grappling with polls which show he is far less popular than his own party and is seen as a worse leader than Cameron. ...
Full Story | Top | Analysis: New York suit against JPMorgan makes a ripple, not a splash Tue,2 Oct 2012 07:22 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York state's lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co alleging fraud in mortgage-backed securities sold by Bear Stearns may be one of the broadest cases to come out of the financial crisis, but its impact is likely to be limited. The biggest beneficiaries may be investors who have taken out private lawsuits against the bank. The civil suit, brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, is the first from a federal-state financial fraud task force. It did not unearth any previously unknown details or attempt to assign criminal liability. ...
Full Story | Top | Los Angeles vote to repeal ban on medical marijuana shops Tue,2 Oct 2012 07:08 PM PDT Reuters - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles City Council voted to rescind a newly enacted ban on storefront medical marijuana shops on Tuesday, allowing the city to avoid a referendum next year that some officials said would likely succeed in reversing the prohibition. The Los Angeles City Council, in a blow to an industry that operates in violation of federal law, voted in July to ban pot dispensaries and replace them with a system that would allow up to three patients to collectively grow marijuana. ... Full Story | Top | U.S. had early indications Libya attack tied to organized militants Tue,2 Oct 2012 06:39 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Within hours of last month's attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, President Barack Obama's administration received about a dozen intelligence reports suggesting militants connected to al Qaeda were involved, three government sources said. Despite these reports, in public statements and private meetings, top U.S. officials spent nearly two weeks highlighting intelligence suggesting that the attacks were spontaneous protests against an anti-Muslim film, while playing down the involvement of organized militant groups. ...
Full Story | Top | Libya yet to work out U.S. cooperation in Benghazi probe Tue,2 Oct 2012 06:38 PM PDT Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya and the United States have yet to agree how a U.S. investigative team will cooperate in a probe into a deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, a senior Libyan official said on Tuesday. FBI agents were sent to Libya after the September 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission and another facility in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans died. So far they have conducted interviews in Tripoli and have yet to go to Benghazi. ...
Full Story | Top | Palins yet to claim Exxon Valdez oil spill compensation money Tue,2 Oct 2012 06:37 PM PDT Reuters - ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is not shy about voicing her opinions to national audiences, headlining big-ticket political events and exposing her family and personal life on reality TV. But so far the former Alaska governor and her husband Todd Palin have not come forward to claim their share of a settlement fund established for victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The pair was among the nearly 1,000 plaintiffs who have not claimed their payouts on a list released last week by managers of the settlement fund. Some on the list are dead. ...
Full Story | Top | Michelle Obama rallies supporters as early voting opens in Ohio Tue,2 Oct 2012 06:27 PM PDT Reuters - CINCINNATI, Ohio (Reuters) - First lady Michelle Obama rallied supporters to back her husband as early voting began on Tuesday in the key electoral swing state of Ohio where the Democrats hope to take advantage of a lead in opinion polls. "Are we going to just sit back and watch everything we worked for and fought for just slip away?" she asked a boisterous crowd of 6,800 in downtown Cincinnati. ...
Full Story | Top | Trudeau scion hopes for Trudeaumania 2.0 in Canada Tue,2 Oct 2012 06:19 PM PDT Reuters - MONTREAL (Reuters) - The charismatic son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party on Tuesday, hoping to recreate the sort of buzz that made his father prime minister in 1968. Justin Trudeau said he was entering the race to lead Canada's oldest political party to serve his country. "I love this country, I want to spend my life serving it. This is why tonight I am offering myself for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada," Trudeau told a packed hall in Montreal for the well-publicized announcement. ...
Full Story | Top | Chavez calls for pre-dawn turnout at Venezuela vote Tue,2 Oct 2012 05:54 PM PDT Reuters - (Note: Election law forbids publication of polls in Venezuela a week before October 7 vote.) YARITAGUA/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his supporters to vote early at Sunday's election, saying the key to him winning another six-year term as leader of South America's biggest oil exporter was organization and logistics. Chavez, 58, is in a close race with 40-year-old state governor Henrique Capriles, and both camps are now focused on their final rallies and getting their supporters to the polls. ...
Full Story | Top | Chinese firm sues Obama for blocking wind farm near drone site Tue,2 Oct 2012 05:42 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A small Chinese firm has sued President Barack Obama for squashing its bid to build wind farms close to a naval training site, but experts say the suit is long shot for a firm that greatly underestimated U.S. suspicions about Chinese intentions. Ralls Corp, which is owned by two Chinese nationals, was installing wind turbines close to the training site in Oregon, which, according to the facility's web site, is used to test unmanned drones - a highly sensitive and prized U.S. technology. The U.S. ...
Full Story | Top | Philippines defies church to push family planning Tue,2 Oct 2012 05:37 PM PDT Reuters - MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Benigno Aquino is squaring off against his country's powerful Catholic church in a bid to give people free access to the means to limit the size of their families. The predominately Catholic country has one of Asia's fastest-growing populations together with significant levels of chronic poverty. While neighbours have accelerated towards prosperity, the Philippines has lagged. Economists say high population growth is a primary factor for that, but the church disagrees. ...
Full Story | Top | Deportees flown to Mexico City in new program to bypass border towns Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:57 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - Immigration officials on Tuesday flew 131 deportees to Mexico City in the maiden flight of a new program to send illegal immigrants to the interior of Mexico, rather than border towns where they are more likely to be exposed to criminals. The two-month project is a collaborative effort between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Mexican Ministry of the Interior, and is geared toward immigrants who come from the interior regions of Mexico. ... Full Story | Top | Pablo Escobar T-shirts a hit in Mexico drug war states Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:54 PM PDT Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Nearly two decades after Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar died in a hail of bullets, his eldest son is conquering new markets in Mexico - with a fashion line in his father's image. Sebastian Marroquin's designer T-shirts, plastered with photos of Escobar, are hot sellers in Mexican states that are on the front lines of the country's deadly drug war. The shirts are emblazoned with images of the Medellin cartel boss, who flooded the world with cocaine before he was shot dead in 1993. ...
Full Story | Top | Women lawmakers call for tough measures to combat sex abuse in military Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:36 PM PDT Reuters - SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Three female Democratic members of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday called for broad changes to end what they say is an epidemic of sexual assault in the military that goes beyond the sex-with-recruits scandal at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The comments by U.S. Representatives Loretta Sanchez, Susan Davis and Jackie Speier came after the California Democrats visited the San Antonio base and spoke with victims of the scandal. ... Full Story | Top | U.S. officials sought more security before Libya attack: lawmakers Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:35 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials in Washington denied repeated requests from Americans in Libya for more security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi before last month's attack that killed four Americans there, two Republican lawmakers said on Tuesday. U.S. Representatives Darrell Issa and Jason Chaffetz wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding details of the requests for more security - which they said were made amid numerous attacks on Westerners in Libya in recent months. ...
Full Story | Top | Man mounts protest on dome of St. Peter's Basilica Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:34 PM PDT Reuters - VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - An Italian man clambered onto a ledge on the huge dome of St Peter's Basilica on Tuesday to stage a precarious protest against Prime Minister Mario Monti and the European Union. Video footage showed the man, identified as Marcello Di Finizio, jumping over railings near the top of the 137-m- (450- ft-) high dome on Tuesday afternoon, shocking visitors taking a tour. He then tied a cord to the railings and abseiled to a ledge over a window in the cupola. ...
Full Story | Top | Analysis: How opponents held back the voter ID tide Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:31 PM PDT Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania judge's decision to block a voter ID law on Tuesday is only the latest in a series of setbacks for new state laws that require voters to show identification before voting. Voter ID laws have also been turned back in Wisconsin and Texas this year and some others may also not go into effect before the U.S. presidential election just five weeks away. The fact that tighter voting laws are faring poorly in court was not expected by some legal experts. That's because in 2008, the U.S. ...
Full Story | Top | New York prisons' use of solitary confinement "unjustified": report Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:20 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - More than 13,500 times last year, New York's state prison system isolated one of its 56,000 inmates from the general prison population and each stay in solitary confinement lasted an average of five months, according to a New York Civil Liberties Union report released on Tuesday. The report calls the state's use of isolation and segregation of inmates "arbitrary and unjustified" and urges the adoption of clear criteria for employing confinement to punish prisoners. ...
Full Story | Top | Detroit police chief suspended after reports of affair with officer Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:19 PM PDT Reuters - DETROIT (Reuters) - Detroit Mayor Dave Bing on Tuesday suspended the city's police chief and ordered a full investigation after media reports that he had been dating a female internal affairs officer in the department. Police Chief Ralph Godbee Junior is the latest Detroit city leader to face accusations of a sexual relationship with a subordinate after former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his immediate predecessor as chief, Warren Evans. ... Full Story | Top | Pennsylvania judge: Voter ID law a no-go for November 6 Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:04 PM PDT Reuters - HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A judge on Tuesday blocked Pennsylvania from requiring voters to show photo identification in November's U.S. election, a decision that could influence turnout in a top electoral prize in the presidential race. In a setback for Republican state officials who championed the controversial law and had hoped it would help them deliver Pennsylvania for their party's presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson delayed its implementation until after Election Day, November 6. ...
Full Story | Top | EU bank watchdog set to stick to capital target Tue,2 Oct 2012 04:03 PM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union's banking watchdog will stick to a target for banks to raise more capital to help shield them from the euro zone debt crisis when it publishes a new report on Wednesday. Banks have hoped that part of this capital buffer would be cut back but with the euro zone crisis still creating volatility in markets, the EBA is unlikely to change tack. EU banks were given until June to replenish their capital to give them a core capital "buffer" equivalent to 9 percent of their risk weighted assets. ... Full Story | Top | Insight: Delays dog U.S. government loans to green energy projects Tue,2 Oct 2012 03:49 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A year after the U.S. government raced to meet a deadline to finish loan agreements with dozens of clean energy companies, less than half the total money promised has been handed over. Technical questions and companies' own failures in hitting contractual milestones are behind some of the holdups. But government officials fearful of taking a risk on firms that could collapse may have also caused some of the delays. ... Full Story | Top | Romney softens immigration stance, seizes upon Biden comment Tue,2 Oct 2012 03:37 PM PDT Reuters - DENVER (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Mitt Romney positioned himself on Tuesday for a high-stakes presidential debate, softening his stance on immigration while his campaign accused the White House of a "stunning admission" that it had failed on the economy. Trailing in many polls, Romney is widely seen as needing to score a win at the televised debate in Denver on Wednesday night when the two men square off over domestic issues like the economy, immigration and healthcare. ...
Full Story | Top | Federal review to keep Mississippi voter ID law on hold for election Tue,2 Oct 2012 03:30 PM PDT Reuters - TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - Mississippi's controversial new law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls will not be in effect for the November general election while federal officials review whether the measure is discriminatory, the state said on Tuesday. It was the second setback for voter ID laws in a single day, coming on the heels of a judge in Pennsylvania ordering officials there to delay implementing a photo ID requirement until after the November 6 election. Voters in Mississippi approved a voter ID ballot initiative by a wide margin last November. ... Full Story | Top | U.S. to buy prison once viewed as a Guantanamo successor Tue,2 Oct 2012 03:23 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government will buy an Illinois prison that the Obama administration once considered as a successor to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday. Holder said the Thomson Correctional Center will house U.S. inmates and that there are no plans to revive a 2009 effort to move some Guantanamo detainees to the United States. Congress blocked funding for President Barack Obama's idea and tightly restricted all transfers from the camp at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba. ... Full Story | Top | Colombia unveils tax reform to create jobs, close loopholes Tue,2 Oct 2012 03:14 PM PDT Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia unveiled a tax reform bill on Tuesday aimed at creating jobs, closing loopholes and simplifying the tax system, but not increasing the tax take as the Andean country was on track for record collections this year. Colombia's battle against corruption and evasion helped boost tax revenue 25 percent last year, to about 86.3 trillion pesos ($48 billion), and Colombia's tax office will likely collect a record 103 trillion pesos this year. ... Full Story | Top | Lawsuit challenges California ban on gay conversion therapy for youth Tue,2 Oct 2012 03:13 PM PDT Reuters - SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Christian legal group has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a landmark California law that bars a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality from being used on children and teens, calling it a violation of privacy and free speech rights. California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the ban into law over the weekend, making the nation's most populous state the first to ban so-called conversion therapy among youth. Gay rights advocates say the therapy can psychologically harm gay and lesbian youth. ... Full Story | Top | U.S. market players urge caution on designing "kill switches" Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:54 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brokerage and exchange technology gurus generally endorsed the concept of deploying "kill switches" to stop computer errors before they can unleash havoc on the market, but they warned regulators on Tuesday to ensure they are not set off too easily. Speaking at a roundtable hosted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, experts said they recognized the need for more safeguards after a series of scary software glitches. ... Full Story | Top | Medvedev points Facebook's Zuckerberg towards Russian IT sector Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:44 PM PDT Reuters - GORKI, Russia (Reuters) - Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev told Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Monday that Russia's IT industry was as promising an area for investment as its natural resources sectors. "You probably know that here in Russia we have not only oil, gas, gold and diamonds - there is also an IT industry," a smiling Medvedev told Zuckerberg. Communication Minister Nikolai Nikoforov, who also attended the meeting, said a plan for a Facebook research centre in Russia was discussed. ...
Full Story | Top | Tycoon's alliance wins election in Georgia Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:43 PM PDT Reuters - TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili on Tuesday conceded defeat in parliamentary elections to a coalition led by a tycoon promising to ease tensions with Moscow, four years after the staunch U.S. ally lost a war with Russia. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who has long been openly hostile to Saakashvili, welcomed the opposition victory as opening the way for "more constructive and responsible forces" to enter the Georgian parliament. ...
Full Story | Top | Assad rejected leaders' bid for peace in Syria: former PM Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:37 PM PDT Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad vetoed demands by senior leaders to pursue a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria after some of his top security aides were killed in an attack in July, his former prime minister said in remarks broadcast on Tuesday. Riyad Hijab, who defected in early August, told Al Arabiya television that the death of Defence Minister Daoud Rajha and his deputy, Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, in a bomb attack on a security meeting in Damascus had persuaded him that there was no military solution to the crisis. ...
Full Story | Top | Iraq tells Turkey to stop pursuing Kurdish rebels over border Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:25 PM PDT Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq asked Turkey on Tuesday to stop attacking Kurdish rebel forces sheltering across the border in northern Iraq, as Turkey prepares to extend its internal mandate for the raids. The Baghdad government's power over Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region is limited, but the comments are an indication of tensions with Turkey, which has given refuge to Iraq's fugitive vice president. ... Full Story | Top | Unrest tarnishes drive to tap Indonesia's gold riches Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:22 PM PDT Reuters - JAKARTA/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - When Hong Kong-listed G-Resources Ltd opened its $1 billion Indonesian gold mine in July, six months behind schedule, it had high hopes it would be hitting its annual output target of 250,000 ounces by next year. Less than three months later the company halted operations after hundreds of protesters blocked the entrances to the Martabe mine, in the north of Sumatra island, in a dispute over the installation of a water discharge pipe. It began laying off the 2,000-strong workforce at the mine, the company's sole asset, this week. ...
Full Story | Top | Mali Islamists execute accused murderer in Timbuktu Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:20 PM PDT Reuters - BAMAKO (Reuters) - Islamist fighters in the northern Malian city of Timbuktu executed a man on Tuesday for murdering his neighbor in an application of sharia, Islamic law, the Islamist group and witnesses said. Armed Islamist groups, some with links to al Qaeda, have controlled the northern two-thirds of Mali since April, when they hijacked a rebellion launched by ethnic Tuareg separatists. They have since imposed sharia in many of the areas under their control. A spokesman for Ansar Dine, which controls Timbuktu, said the executed man was a member of the group. "He turned himself in... ... Full Story | Top | Factbox: Colombia's Santos latest leader treated for cancer Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:13 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will undergo surgery for a non-aggressive prostate cancer on Wednesday. Here is a look at some world leaders who have had cancer while in office: * COLOMBIA'S JUAN MANUEL SANTOS: - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he would undergo surgery for a non-aggressive prostate cancer in a health scare that seemed unlikely to derail his government's imminent talks with Marxist rebels to end decades of war. ... Full Story | Top | Colombia's Santos to spend two-three days in hospital after cancer surgery Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:10 PM PDT Reuters - BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will spend two or three days in the hospital after surgery for non-aggressive prostate cancer, his doctor said on Tuesday, a day before the 61-year-old was scheduled for the operation. Midway through his four-year term, Santos surprised the Andean nation on Monday night when he announced doctors had discovered a cancerous growth, but the disease had been caught in time and there was minimal risk. ...
Full Story | Top | Republicans seize on Biden middle class comment ahead of debate Tue,2 Oct 2012 02:08 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden told a campaign rally on Tuesday that the middle class has been buried for the past four years, just longer than President Barack Obama's time in the White House. Republicans immediately seized on what they termed a "stunning admission" by Biden as evidence that Obama's policies have been bad for the economy, the day before Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney meet in their first presidential debate. ...
Full Story | Top | Italy minister denies ex-wife's Finmeccanica consultancy deal Tue,2 Oct 2012 01:56 PM PDT Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - Italian Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli on Tuesday dismissed media speculation that defense group Finmeccanica had ordered false consultancy services from his ex wife, after one newspaper said he should dispel doubts over the reported deal. "There were never any consultancy services contracted on the part of Finmeccanica," Grilli said in a letter to Il Sole 24 Ore after the financial daily called for a clarification in an editorial published on Tuesday. Finmeccanica's chief executive Giuseppe Orsi had denied similar reports last month. ...
Full Story | Top | NY's Bloomberg aims to save mothers, children in Tanzania Tue,2 Oct 2012 01:53 PM PDT Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Tuesday he is funding the expansion of a pilot maternal health program in Tanzania that is predicted to help 50,000 mothers and their children during the next three years. A woman dies every two minutes of pregnancy-related problems with 99 percent of such deaths in poor countries, according to the U.N. Population Fund. Common causes are bleeding after childbirth, high blood pressure, infections and unsafe abortions. ...
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