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| Stung by U.N. defeat, Israel pushes settlement plans Friday, Nov 30, 2012 07:19 PM PST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Hours after the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to grant de-facto statehood to Palestine, Israel responded on Friday by announcing it was authorizing 3,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. An official, who declined to be named, said the government had also decided to expedite planning work for thousands more homes in a geographically sensitive area close to Jerusalem that critics say would kill off Palestinian hopes of a viable state. The decision was made on Thursday when it became clear that the U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Little apparent progress in U.S. "fiscal cliff" talks Friday, Nov 30, 2012 07:08 PM PST  HATFIELD, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - With barely a month left before the "fiscal cliff," Republicans and Democrats remained far apart on Friday in talks to avoid the across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts that threaten to throw the country back into recession. While President Barack Obama visited a Pennsylvania toy factory to muster public support for tax hikes on the rich, portraying Republicans as scrooges at Christmas time, his primary adversary in negotiations, Republican House Speaker John Boehner, continued to describe the situation as a stalemate. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian opposition edges toward appointing transition PM Friday, Nov 30, 2012 06:44 PM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - Syria's new opposition coalition edged closer on Friday toward choosing a prime minister to lead a transitional government after three days of talks in Cairo that furthered the dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood. Former Prime Minister Riad Hijab, a longtime apparatchik in President Bashar al-Assad's Baath Party before he defected in August, is the strongest candidate for the job, delegates said. Hijab, who is backed by Jordan and Gulf states, is likely to be chosen before or during a gathering in mid-December of the Friends of Syria, according to coalition insiders. ... Full Story | Top |
| Panama's police kill FARC guerrilla, capture 7 on Colombia border Friday, Nov 30, 2012 06:27 PM PST PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's national border police on Friday killed one FARC guerrilla and captured seven others while patrolling the remote jungle border province of Darien, a police spokeswoman said. Authorities said they seized weapons and about 20 bags of cocaine along with the guerrillas, members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Police encountered the guerrillas in the district of Chepigana, near the Central American country's border with Colombia, after receiving complaints over the past few days of armed men in the area, which prompted increased patrols. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico's Pena Nieto picks close aides for top Cabinet jobs Friday, Nov 30, 2012 05:57 PM PST  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's incoming president, Enrique Pena Nieto, picked close allies on Friday to head the finance and interior ministries as he seeks to craft economic reforms and reduce drug violence in Latin America's second-biggest economy. Right-hand man Luis Videgaray will take on the Finance Ministry, while Pena Nieto's close political ally Miguel Angel Osorio Chong will oversee a more powerful Interior Ministry that will be responsible for security in the new government. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. demands Iran release hunger-striking human rights lawyer Friday, Nov 30, 2012 05:34 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday demanded that Iran free jailed human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, who it said has been on hunger strike for more than six weeks, and sharply criticized Iranian authorities for their treatment of the 49-year-old prize-winning lawyer. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said reports of Sotoudeh's rapidly declining health were deeply troubling, and that she had been denied medical care and kept in solitary confinement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Democrats attempt longshot to force "fiscal cliff" vote Friday, Nov 30, 2012 05:18 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday announced a longshot bid to force an early vote on tax hikes to break the stalemate in negotiations over the year-end "fiscal cliff." The Democratic plan, which Senate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said could begin on Tuesday, involves getting a majority of the Republican-controlled House to sign a petition scheduling a vote over the objection of the Republican leadership. Such a procedure, called a "discharge petition," might generate considerable publicity, fire up Democrats and anger Republicans. ... Full Story | Top |
| Stevie Wonder cancels show at Israel Defense Forces fundraiser Friday, Nov 30, 2012 05:17 PM PST  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran singer and United Nations Messenger of Peace Stevie Wonder has canceled a planned performance for the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces after several organizations asked him not to perform. The soul singer, 62, was scheduled to sing at a December 6 fundraising gala in Los Angeles hosted by the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), an organization set up to help those serving in the Israel Defense Forces and families of fallen soldiers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama aides seek to counter Republican charges on 'fiscal cliff' Friday, Nov 30, 2012 05:01 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration sought to counter Republican charges on Friday that President Barack Obama's plan to avoid a year-end "fiscal cliff" is light on spending cuts and too reliant on tax increases. Administration officials said the overall plan, offered to Republicans on Thursday and quickly rejected by them, would achieve $4.5 trillion in savings to the government. This includes around $1 trillion in cuts already enacted into law and would set up an "expedited process" to spirit through Congress some of the most comprehensive legislation in decades. ... Full Story | Top |
| France announces ArcelorMittal steelworks deal Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:58 PM PST  PARIS (Reuters) - The French government backed away on Friday from a threat to nationalize a steelworks, saying it secured promises from the owner, ArcelorMittal , to invest and avoid any forced layoffs at the site where the company has idled two blast furnaces. Workers at the plant said the announcement fell well short of what they had hoped from a government that won power in May on promises to combat industrial decline and mass job losses in Europe's second-largest economy. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. rights chief says Mursi decree breaks human rights law Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:55 PM PST GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief has warned Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi that his decree expanding his powers would put him beyond the law and open the door to human rights violations, her spokesman said on Friday. Navi Pillay sent a letter to Mursi on Tuesday, urging him to reconsider last week's decree and warning that "approving a constitution in these circumstances could be deeply divisive," spokesman Rupert Colville told a U.N. briefing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Former aide to Egypt leader joins opposition front Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:55 PM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - A top aide to Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi, who quit when the leader issued a decree expanding his powers, has joined the country's biggest opposition movement, a senior opposition figure said on Friday. Samir Morkos was Mursi's adviser on the transition to democracy and the only Christian in the Islamist leader's team. He is one of at least two presidential advisers to have stepped down since Mursi issued the decree on November 22 that made his decisions immune to legal challenge. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptians protest after draft constitution raced through Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:55 PM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Egyptians protested against President Mohamed Mursi on Friday after an Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of a new constitution in a bid to end a crisis over the Islamist leader's newly expanded powers. "The people want to bring down the regime," they chanted in Tahrir Square, echoing the chants that rang out in the same place less than two years ago and brought down Hosni Mubarak. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Egypt's draft constitution Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:55 PM PST (Reuters) - Here is a look at Egypt's proposed new constitution, drafted by an assembly that raced to pass it, voting on each of 234 articles in a marathon session that ended early on Friday. * BACKGROUND - The text was rushed through during a struggle between President Mohamed Mursi and the judiciary that sharpened on November 22 when the Islamist leader assigned himself sweeping new powers and halted court challenges to his decisions, provoking nationwide protests. Mursi has said his extra powers will lapse once the constitution is adopted in a referendum. ... Full Story | Top |
| High court leaves open if it will take up gay marriage case Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:52 PM PST  (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court's nine justices met in private on Friday to consider whether to enter the legal fray over same-sex marriage but made no announcement about any decision they may have reached. The high court is considering whether to review five separate challenges to a federal law that prevents married same-sex couples from receiving federal marriage benefits such as Social Security survivor payments and tax exemptions. It is also considering whether to review California's ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8, which voters narrowly approved in 2008. ... Full Story | Top |
| Honduras makes record haul of meth precursor chemicals Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:25 PM PST TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran anti-drug agents on Friday seized a record 14 tonnes of precursor chemicals for the production of methamphetamine, part of an ongoing operation that has netted $100 million in assets, federal prosecutors said. The chemicals were discovered Thursday underneath a house in the town of Patagallina in the northern department of Yoro, located along a major drug-smuggling route used by Mexican and Colombian cartels to bring drugs to the United States, said Carlos Vallecillo, spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lawmakers cry "fowl" over move to help lesser prairie chicken Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:23 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A move by U.S. authorities to consider placing a small grassland bird native to parts of the oil and gas belt on the Endangered Species List has drawn the ire of some Western lawmakers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday announced a plan to consider having the lesser prairie chicken listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. The lesser prairie chicken is a medium-sized, gray-brown grouse, smaller and paler than the greater prairie chicken, its close relative. ... Full Story | Top |
| After long jail term, gaming gangster faces less violent but still murky Macau Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:12 PM PST  MACAU (Reuters) - Notorious Macau gangster Wan "Broken Tooth" Kuok-koi emerged from jail on Saturday morning into a very different gambling haven than the one he bullied in the late-1990s. Imprisoned for close to 15 years inside the enclave's high security prison, the former triad leader was escorted out by two police officers before being whisked into a white Lexus driven by two men dressed in black. Wearing trousers and a long-sleeved white shirt, Wan ignored requests for comment from a crowd of more than 50 journalists who had gathered outside. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chinese bid for A123 may raise security risks: Senators Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:06 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese company's attempt to take over government-backed battery maker A123 raises serious national security concerns, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said this week, adding to growing congressional opposition to the deal. China's Wanxiang Group Corp is currently competing with U.S.-based Johnson Controls Inc to buy bankrupt A123, which makes lithium ion batteries for electric cars. The government must ensure that any sale of A123's technology, which has also been used by the military and to support the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Trade body urges Britain to leave pension tax alone Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:05 PM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's government should not reduce the amount workers can pay tax-free into their pension because it would deter future generations from saving for their retirement, a UK pension trade body said on Saturday. The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has warned British finance minister George Osborne to leave pension tax alone ahead of his Autumn Statement next week, which outlines the government's plans for the economy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gay "conversion therapy" proponents seek to halt California ban Friday, Nov 30, 2012 04:01 PM PST SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A Christian legal group urged a federal judge on Friday to halt a landmark California law that bars a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality from being used on children and teenagers, calling the law a violation of privacy and free speech. California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the ban into law in September, making the nation's most populous state the first to ban so-called conversion therapy among youths. Gay rights advocates say the therapy can psychologically harm gay and lesbian youths. ... Full Story | Top |
| Moody's downgrades euro zone rescue funds, keeps negative outlook Friday, Nov 30, 2012 03:51 PM PST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Credit ratings agency Moody's cut its rating for the euro zone rescue funds ESM and EFSF to Aa1 from Aaa following its downgrade of France earlier in November, the agency said on Friday. It said the downgrade of the ESM and the EFSF, which were created to stabilize the euro zone by providing financial assistance to euro area member states in difficulty, was prompted by the high correlation in credit risk among the rescue funds and their largest financial supporters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Slovenia police clash with protesters ahead of vote Friday, Nov 30, 2012 03:38 PM PST LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Police used water canon to break up rock-throwing protesters in Slovenia's capital on Friday after a rally against budget cuts and alleged corruption turned violent two days ahead of a presidential election. Officers said it was the first time they had used that level of crowd control since the country's independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and 15 people, mostly policemen, were injured. Thousands of Slovenians took to the streets in Ljubljana and six other cities in the financially troubled euro zone country, the latest in a series of protests. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senators urge Obama to release more water into Mississippi River Friday, Nov 30, 2012 03:27 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sixteen U.S. senators have appealed to President Barack Obama to divert more water to the Mississippi River to prevent barge traffic from shutting down due to low water on the country's inland waterway, a crucial route for goods bound for export. Low water is a looming disaster, said the senators in a letter to Obama that was released on Friday. The senators, from states along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, asked for emergency action to release more water from Missouri River reservoirs to feed the drought-sapped Mississippi River. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kuwaitis vote in poll hit by opposition boycott, protests Friday, Nov 30, 2012 03:14 PM PST KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait holds a parliamentary election on Saturday overshadowed by an opposition boycott, protests over a change to the voting rules and a festering political crisis in the U.S.-allied oil producer. The election will be the second this year in the Gulf Arab state, where a series of assemblies have collapsed under the weight of a power struggle between elected MPs and the cabinet, appointed by the prime minister who is chosen by the emir. ... Full Story | Top |
| War on al Qaeda is not indefinite: Pentagon lawyer Friday, Nov 30, 2012 03:13 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military campaign against al Qaeda should not be seen as a conflict without end, the Pentagon's chief lawyer said on Friday in a speech that broached a rarely discussed subject among U.S. officials. The Defense Department's highest-ranking lawyer, Jeh Johnson, predicted al Qaeda would some day be so "effectively destroyed" that the United States would no longer say it is in an armed conflict. A text of his remarks to be given at Oxford University in England was made available to Reuters in advance in Washington. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Two Pakistan-born brothers arrested in Florida on terrorism charges Friday, Nov 30, 2012 03:10 PM PST MIAMI (Reuters) - Two Pakistan-born brothers living in Florida have been arrested on charges of providing support to terrorists and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction within the United States, authorities said on Friday. The men were charged in a grand jury indictment announced by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Federal prosecutors allege the men, both U.S. citizens, provided money, housing, communications equipment and transportation as part of a conspiracy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Congo rebel pullout from Goma runs into hitches Friday, Nov 30, 2012 03:09 PM PST  GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - A planned battlefield withdrawal by rebels in eastern Congo under a deal brokered by regional governments ran into hitches on Friday, including a dispute over abandoned army supplies the insurgents want to take with them. Leaders of the Tutsi-led M23 rebel movement had agreed to pull out by Saturday from Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern border city of Goma, which they seized on November 20 when they routed government troops backed by United Nations peacekeepers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Merkel says understands Germans' frustration over Greece: paper Friday, Nov 30, 2012 03:01 PM PST BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she understood her compatriots' doubts about a bailout deal for Greece, but insisted in an interview that aid for Athens was in the interests of Berlin and all euro zone members. Her words were published on Saturday a day after German lawmakers approved the latest rescue package for Greece by a large majority despite growing unease about the cost to taxpayers. "Of course I feel many citizens' skepticism, and understand it as well partly, as Greece has often disappointed its partners in the past," she told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama cranks up "fiscal cliff" pressure, Boehner says talks stalemated Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:52 PM PST HATFIELD, Penn. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama turned up the pressure in "fiscal cliff" talks on Friday, hitting the road to drum up support for his drive to raise taxes on the wealthy and warning Americans that Republicans were offering them "a lump of coal" for Christmas. In a visit to a Pennsylvania toy factory, Obama portrayed congressional Republicans as Scrooges who risked sending the country over the fiscal cliff rather than strike a deal to avert the tax increases and spending cuts that begin in January unless Congress intervenes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Judge rules Louisiana school voucher program unconstitutional Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:50 PM PST (Reuters) - A state judge on Friday shot down Louisiana's sweeping school voucher program, ruling that the state could not use funds set aside for public education to pay private-school tuition for thousands of low- and middle-income children. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who had championed the program, called the ruling "wrong-headed" and "a travesty for parents across Louisiana who want nothing more than for their children to have an equal opportunity at receiving a great education." Jindal, a Republican, vowed to appeal. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Key figures in Mexico's new government Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:45 PM PST MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's incoming president, Enrique Pena Nieto, who takes office on Saturday, appointed a mix of technocrats and career politicians to his Cabinet on Friday. Here are some of his key government appointments: FINANCE MINISTER - LUIS VIDEGARAY Videgaray is Pena Nieto's right-hand man and combines blue-chip academic qualifications with experience in the private sector, local government and Congress. He studied law and economics in Mexico alongside current Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade. ... Full Story | Top |
| Supreme Court to decide if human genes patentable Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:42 PM PST (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether human genes can be patented, a hotly contested issue with broad practical and ethical consequences for the future of gene-based medicine for millions of people worldwide. The nation's highest court in a brief order agreed to review a case over whether Myriad Genetics Inc may patent two genes linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. In a 2-1 ruling on August 16, a panel of the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil's Rousseff vetoes parts of oil royalties bill Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:37 PM PST  BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff on Friday vetoed parts of a controversial royalties bill that pit Brazil's oil-producing states against the rest of the country in a battle over future oil wealth. Seeking a compromise on perhaps the most divisive issues to arise during her nearly two-year-old presidency, Rousseff vetoed clauses that would slash income for Brazil's main oil states, including Rio de Janeiro. Her veto changes the bill so that producer states continue to receive royalties on output from existing oil concessions. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. soldier in WikiLeaks case plays down suicide comment Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:34 PM PST  FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The U.S. Army private accused of orchestrating a massive leak of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website said on Friday he may have been sarcastic in indicating he had suicidal thoughts when he first arrived at a U.S. detention center. Bradley Manning wrapped up his second day of testimony in a pretrial hearing to determine whether he should face a court-martial on suspicion of leaking thousands of classified military reports, diplomatic cables and other documents. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico's Pena Nieto appoints top aides to major Cabinet posts Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:09 PM PST  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's incoming president, Enrique Pena Nieto, on Friday named close allies to head the important finance and interior ministries as he seeks to spur growth and reduce drug-related violence in Latin America's second-biggest economy. Right-hand man Luis Videgaray will take on the Finance Ministry, while Pena Nieto's close political ally Miguel Angel Osorio Chong will oversee a strengthened Interior Ministry that will be responsible for security in the new government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gushing UK papers laud Cameron's stance on press law Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:06 PM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron woke on Friday to find usually hostile newspapers gushing about his statesman-like qualities after he signalled his opposition to a new law governing the press. After his party suffered a night of humiliation in three parliamentary by-elections, instead of facing questions over his leadership, he was cheered for rejecting the main plank of proposals from a public inquiry he set up in the wake of outrage at the excesses of tabloid newspapers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Supreme Court to review lawsuits over flaws in generic drugs Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:04 PM PST (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether generic drug manufacturers can be subjected to personal injury lawsuits that allege flaws in the design of drugs, even if federal law would not allow such cases to go forward. The court agreed to review a bid by Mutual Pharmaceutical Co to overturn a $21 million jury award to Karen Bartlett, a New Hampshire woman who had taken its generic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug sulindac for shoulder pain. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU's Rehn says strong commitment to keep euro area together Friday, Nov 30, 2012 02:03 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - There is a very strong commitment to ensure the euro area will not break up, the EU's top economics official said on Friday, calling those speculating on an exit of Greece "behind the curve". EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn called the deal reached earlier this week to reduce Greece's debt burden a major milestone. He also highlighted that euro zone finance ministers are committed to further reducing Athens' debt if necessary once it has achieved a primary budget surplus, which is forecast for 2016. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon, Lockheed agree deal for 32 more F-35 fighters Friday, Nov 30, 2012 01:59 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp and the U.S. Defense Department have reached an agreement in principle on a fifth batch of 32 additional F-35 fighter planes, the Pentagon said on Friday, bringing nearly a year of negotiations to a close. The deal is valued at around $3.8 billion, although the two sides are still finalizing details, according to a source familiar with the agreement. The agreement will also pave the way for talks about preliminary funding for a sixth batch of aircraft that Lockheed, the Pentagon's largest supplier, has been building at its own cost for some time. ... Full Story | Top |
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