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| Mexico arrests head of teacher's union on fraud charges Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 08:08 PM PST  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico arrested the head of the main teachers' union on fraud and embezzlement charges on Tuesday, striking out at a high-profile opponent of the new government's reform efforts and seeking to assert President Enrique Pena Nieto's authority. Attorney General Jesus Murillo said Elba Esther Gordillo was arrested on suspicion of embezzling millions of dollars of union funds for private use, just a day after Pena Nieto signed a major overhaul of Mexican education into law. ... Full Story | Top |
| Shooting at South Carolina university wounds one: school Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 08:00 PM PST Charleston, South Carolina (Reuters) - At least one person was wounded in a shooting Tuesday at a residence hall of a South Carolina university near the resort area of Myrtle Beach, the university said. Students were urged to remain in their dorm rooms at Coastal Carolina University in Conway but the gunman was believed to have fled, school officials said. The shooting occurred just before 7:30 p.m. at University Place, a residence hall. "The suspect fled in a vehicle. The campus is still on lockdown, although people in classrooms were allowed to go home. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. considers sending aid to Syrian rebels: report Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 07:51 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is considering a shift in policy toward the nearly two-year-long conflict in Syria, and may send the rebels body armor and armed vehicles, and possibly provide military training, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing U.S. and European officials. Secretary of State John Kerry was expected to discuss the proposed policy change with officials during his nine-nation tour of European and Arab capitals, the newspaper said. U.S. officials remain opposed to sending weapons to the rebels, it said. ... Full Story | Top |
| California couple feared missing in Peru turn up on safe on river boat Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 07:22 PM PST  LIMA (Reuters) - A young California couple feared by family to have been abducted while on a cycling trip through Peru have safely surfaced on a river boat headed for Ecuador, surprised to learn they were subjects of an international search, the Peruvian government said on Tuesday. "The American tourists are continuing to enjoy their trip in the Peruvian Amazon," the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism said in a statement, adding that a national police official had spoken with the couple and found them to be "in good health. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy debt auction to show cost of political crisis Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 06:00 PM PST MILAN (Reuters) - Italy will pay the price for its latest political crisis with higher borrowing costs on Wednesday when it sells longer-dated bonds to investors worried about an inconclusive election. The vote cast over the weekend gave none of the political parties a parliamentary majority, raising the risk of prolonged instability and a rekindling the euro zone crisis. The results, notably the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower house but without the numbers to control the upper chamber. ... Full Story | Top |
| Grillo supporters unfazed by Italian political gridlock Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 06:00 PM PST ROME (Reuters) - The only Italians celebrating the deadlocked outcome of Monday's election were supporters of comic Beppe Grillo, whose 5-Star Movement steamrolled into parliament and sparked fears that Italy could reject austerity and even the euro. No group secured a majority in the upper house, making the formation of a government dependent on post-election alliances, but Grillo's movement caused a shock by winning 8.7 million votes in the lower house, making it the country's largest single party and shocking world investors. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cyclone intensifies, Australia's iron ore mines brace Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 05:27 PM PST  PERTH (Reuters) - A powerful cyclone headed for Australia's Port Hedland, that has brought half the world's seaborne-traded iron ore to a halt, has intensified and is set to make landfall late on Wednesday, threatening to flood inland mine operations and rail links. Weather warnings extend as far as 500 kms (310 miles) inland to the massive mining camps and towns of Tom Price, Mt Newman and Nullagine, operated by Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group. Hardest-hit areas could receive up to 600 millimeters, or 2 feet, of rain in 24 hours, said the Bureau of Meteorology. ... Full Story | Top |
| Struggling Slovenia set to get new PM to rescue economy Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 05:07 PM PST  ZAGREB (Reuters) - Financial expert Alenka Bratusek is expected to get a one-year mandate to pull Slovenia back from the brink of a financial bailout as parliament votes on Wednesday to oust conservative Prime Minister Janez Jansa. Parliament's scheduled "constructive no-confidence vote" takes place at the height of a financial crisis in the tiny Alpine euro zone member, which is struggling with a recession and a huge amount of bad loans strangling its banks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Seven killed by Islamist car bomb in north Mali: MNLA Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 04:02 PM PST BAMAKO (Reuters) - Seven people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack by suspected Islamist militants in the remote northern Malian town of Kidal on Tuesday, the MNLA Tuareg rebel group said, in the second such attack there in less than a week. A spokesman for the Malian army, Modibo Nama Traore, confirmed that a car bomb had exploded in the town but was unable to provide further details. ... Full Story | Top |
| Powers wait to hear Iran response to nuclear offer Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 03:12 PM PST  ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers hope Iran will respond positively on Wednesday to their new offer to lift some sanctions if Tehran scales back nuclear activity the West fears could be used to build bombs. The United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia presented the offer when their first meeting with Iran in eight months began in Almaty on Tuesday and the Islamic state was considering it, the powers' spokesman said. Western officials described the first day of talks as "useful". ... Full Story | Top |
| Afghan insurgent attacks misreported, did not fall in 2012: NATO Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 02:22 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said on Tuesday it had incorrectly reported a 7 percent drop in the number of attacks by Taliban insurgents last year, acknowledging that in fact there had been no decline in the closely watched statistic. The disclosure raises questions about recent U.S. claims of progress in the costly, unpopular war. It also serves as a reminder of Taliban resiliency as withdrawing U.S. and NATO forces prepare to declare the combat mission over at the end of next year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Afghans hold anti-U.S. rally following abuse claims Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 02:22 PM PST  Maiden Shar, AFGHANISTAN (Reuters) - More than five hundred men marched through the capital of Afghanistan's restive Wardak province on Tuesday in an outburst of anger against U.S. special forces accused of overseeing torture and killings in the area. Shouting "Death to America", "Death to Obama" and "Death to special forces", the protesters called for the immediate withdrawal of the American soldiers and threatened to join the Taliban if their demand was not met. A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced on Sunday that all U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hundreds of quakes shake villages around smoking Peruvian volcano Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 02:20 PM PST LIMA (Reuters) - Hundreds of small earthquakes have shaken the earth around the Sabancaya volcano in southern Peru over just a few days and the rumbling, along with plumes of smoke spewing up to 320 feet high, have put officials on alert to evacuate the area. Peru's geological agency Ingemmet recorded some 536 quakes, about 20 an hour, on February 22 and 23 and periodic movement is ongoing. Thousands of people live in the valleys surrounding the volcano. Some have already started to leave the region because the unusual seismic activity has damaged their homes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Car bomb hits northern Mali town of Kidal: army Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 01:48 PM PST BAMAKO (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in the remote northern Malian town of Kidal on Tuesday, Mali's army said, the second attack there in less than a week as Islamist rebels step up a guerrilla campaign. French forces have been stationed in Kidal since driving out al Qaeda-linked fighters late last month as part of an intervention against the Islamist militants who had seized the northern two-thirds of the West African country. ... Full Story | Top |
| Traumatized Malians desperately in need of aid, says U.N. Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 01:46 PM PST  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Malians in the country's vast desert north are scared and in desperate need of aid, traumatized at the hands of Islamist extremists and fearful of ethnic reprisals by government troops, a senior U.N. humanitarian official said on Tuesday. John Ging, director of operations for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said a U.N. appeal for $373 million to fund aid operations in the West African state had so far only received $17 million. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ivory Coast soldiers killing rivals, attacked camp: Amnesty Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 01:40 PM PST  ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivorian soldiers and allied militias are killing and torturing supporters of ousted president Laurent Gbagbo and took part in a deadly attack on a camp housing displaced civilians, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. The violence and the government's failure to prosecute those responsible were wrecking efforts to heal wounds in the world's biggest cocoa producer nearly two years after the end of a civil war, said the campaign group. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sri Lanka security rape, torture Tamil detainees: HRW Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 01:31 PM PST  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's security forces have used rape to torture and extract confessions from suspected Tamil separatists almost four years after the country's civil war ended, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Tuesday. The rights group documented 75 cases of predominately Tamil men and women who said they were held in Sri Lankan detention centers and repeatedly raped and sexually abused by the military, police and intelligence officials. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sex, power scandals to loom over Vatican pre-vote talks Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 01:15 PM PST  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The sex and power scandals haunting the Catholic Church look set to play a big role in meetings before next month's papal election after two senior cardinals called on Tuesday for more internal debate about them. A leading support group for victims of clerical sexual abuse also made what it called a "last-ditch plea" to Pope Benedict to use his authority before resigning on Thursday to discipline bishops who have protected predatory priests in their dioceses. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy parties seek way out of election stalemate Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 01:05 PM PST  ROME (Reuters) - Italy's stunned political parties searched for a way forward on Tuesday after an inconclusive election gave none of them a parliamentary majority and threatened prolonged instability and a renewal of the European financial crisis. The results, notably the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower house but without the numbers to control the upper chamber, the Senate. ... Full Story | Top |
| Powers hope for Iranian "feedback" on nuclear offer Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:55 PM PST ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers presented Iran with an updated offer during negotiations on its nuclear program in Almaty on Tuesday, and hope for "more detailed feedback" from the Iranian side when talks resume as scheduled on Wednesday, an EU spokesman said. "We had a useful meeting today," Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters after the first day of the talks. "Hopefully the Iranians will be able to reflect overnight and will come back and view our proposal positively," he said, declining to give details of the powers' proposal. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nuclear talks "useful", Western official says Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:55 PM PST ALMATY (Reuters) - World powers held a "useful" meeting with Iran over its nuclear program in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Tuesday and will continue negotiations on Wednesday, a Western official said. "We had a useful meeting today, discussions took place this evening, we are meeting again tomorrow," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The six countries - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - are hoping to use a combination of diplomacy and sanctions to persuade Iran to scale back nuclear work that they suspect has a military dimension. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mursi's opponents say will boycott Egypt elections Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:43 PM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - An alliance of Egyptian opposition parties decided on Tuesday to boycott parliamentary elections in protest at an election law they say favors the Muslim Brotherhood, increasing the chance that Islamists will sweep the vote. The boycott by liberal and leftist parties opposed to President Mohamed Mursi aims to undermine the legitimacy of the vote and shows the polarization that has defined Egyptian politics since Hosni Mubarak was toppled two years ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama urges Egyptian leader to protect democratic principles Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:43 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi to protect democratic principles in Egypt and work to build political consensus as he prepares for parliamentary elections. Obama and Mursi spoke by telephone on Tuesday, a White House statement said. Liberal and leftist parties in Egypt have vowed to boycott the parliamentary elections to protest against a law they say favors Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood. This has raised the prospect of an election fought mostly between the Muslim Brotherhood and more hardline Islamist groups. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-basketball player Rodman arrives in North Korea Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:42 PM PST  SEOUL (Reuters) - Retired U.S. basketball player Dennis Rodman arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to film a television documentary with representatives of the Harlem Globetrotters celebrity team, North Korean state television reported. Rodman, now 51 years old, won five NBA championships in his prime, achieving a mix of fame and notoriety for his on- and off-court antics. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi ally set for north Italy win Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:27 PM PST ROME (Reuters) - The head of Italy's Northern League, an ally of Silvio Berlusconi, is on course to win the Lombardy regional presidency vote, giving the center-right control of the richest and most productive area of the country. Roberto Maroni was forecast to take 42.4 percent of the vote with the center left's Umberto Ambrosoli on 37.2 percent, projections from RAI state television showed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Syria rebels bolstered by new arms but divisions remain Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:22 PM PST  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels have received advanced weapons aimed at narrowing the arms gap with President Bashar al-Assad's forces and reinforcing a new rebel military command which Western countries hope can dilute the strength of Islamist fighters. Several rebel commanders and fighters told Reuters that a shipment which reached Syria via Turkey last month comprised shoulder-held and other mobile equipment including anti-aircraft and armor-piercing weapons, mortars and rocket launchers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt balloon crash kills 19, mostly foreign tourists Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:17 PM PST  LUXOR, Egypt (Reuters) - At least 19 people, most of them Asian and European tourists, died on Tuesday when a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed near the ancient Egyptian town of Luxor after a mid-air gas explosion, officials said. The balloon came down in farmland a few kilometers (miles) from the Valley of the Kings and pharaonic temples popular with tourists. Rescue workers gathered the dead from the field where the charred remains of the balloon, gas canisters and other pieces of wreckage landed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia wants U.S. to urge Syria rebels into peace talks Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:16 PM PST  MOSCOW/ BERLIN (Reuters) - Russia called on the United States on Tuesday to press the Syrian opposition to hold direct talks with Damascus, saying President Bashar al-Assad's opponents must appoint negotiators. The crisis in Syria made up "the bulk of the conversation" between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at talks in Berlin on Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tibet exile leader blames self-immolations on China policy Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:13 PM PST  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Beijing's attempts to stop Tibetans setting themselves on fire to protest against Chinese rule are counter-productive and are only provoking more self-immolations, the Tibetan prime minister in exile told Reuters on Tuesday. Lobsang Sangay, who replaced the Dalai Lama as the political leader of exiled Tibetans in 2011, said Beijing first branded self-immolators as thieves and then as homeless. Later they blamed his government in exile. ... Full Story | Top |
| Most Venezuelans think Chavez will recover: poll Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:12 PM PST  CARACAS (Reuters) - Most Venezuelans expect President Hugo Chavez to recover from cancer and return to active rule even though he has been in hospital and virtually unseen for two-and-a-half months, a poll showed on Tuesday. Local pollster Hinterlaces said 60 percent of interviewees believe Chavez will be cured and back to governing, while 14 percent think he will recover but be unable to rule again, and 12 percent view his state as incurable. Chavez, 58, underwent a fourth operation for cancer in Cuba on December 11. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: It's about to get serious for Italy's triumphant comic Grillo Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 12:01 PM PST  ROME (Reuters) - Beppe Grillo can allow himself a few days to bask in the afterglow of his triumph in Italy's election, but soon the comedian who now leads the country's largest party will face some tough political choices. After a spectacular rise since its formation in 2009, Grillo's anti-establishment 5-Star movement won a stunning 26 percent of lower house votes at the election, fractionally more than the center-left Democratic Party (PD). His 108 seats in the 630 seat Chamber of Deputies and 54 in the 315 seat Senate leave him holding the key to Italy's political future. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Mexico's much-needed education reform faces hurdles Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 11:55 AM PST  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The biggest shake-up in decades of Mexico's failing school system aims to tame a powerful teachers' union, lift woefully poor standards and help boost economic growth. The overhaul, if successful, will wrest oversight of teacher hiring and competency exams away from a powerful union, and make all promotions based on merit. It would also help address some of the scams that are rife in Mexico's public education system. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt-Gaza tunnels must be destroyed: Cairo court Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 11:07 AM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - A Cairo court ruled on Tuesday the government must destroy all tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, removing a route for smuggled weapons but also a lifeline for Palestinians. Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood has close ties with the Hamas Islamists that run Gaza, but many Egyptians fear the enclave is a security risk for Egypt. Leftist lawyers said they brought the case with activists to force the government's hand. ... Full Story | Top |
| Red faces among Italian pollsters who got election wrong Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 11:00 AM PST ROME (Reuters) - Italy's election not only shocked the political establishment to the core, it left polling companies with egg on their face after they completely failed to predict the messy outcome and the spectacular resurgence of Silvio Berlusconi. Opinion polls are banned in the last two weeks before Italian elections and the last public ones on February 8 almost all predicted a clear center-left victory, mostly by around five percentage points. ... Full Story | Top |
| One dead, hundreds of homes flooded in Macedonia Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 10:57 AM PST  SKOPJE (Reuters) - One man was drowned and several hundred homes in Macedonia were flooded on Tuesday as two days of heavy rain drenched farmland and caused power outages in the Balkan country, authorities said. Macedonia's Crisis Management Centre said more than 10 rivers had burst their banks, destroying at least two bridges and flooding homes and thousands of hectares (acres) of farmland in the northeast. A 51-year-old man from the northeastern village of Cvetisnica drowned after he tried to cross a rising river. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria civil war threatens to pull Lebanon into conflict, U.N. says Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 10:52 AM PST UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations expressed renewed concern on Tuesday that Lebanon could be drawn into Syria's worsening two-year-old civil war, which the world body said had developed sectarian overtones and been aggravated by foreign fighters and extremist groups. U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman painted what he called an "appalling picture" of the conflict that began as peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad and turned violent when government forces tried to crush the demonstrations. The United Nations says almost 70,000 have been killed in the war. ... Full Story | Top |
| First conflict-free tin metal from Congo due in March Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 10:40 AM PST  LONDON (Reuters) - An industry program to revive legal mining in eastern Congo after a crackdown on conflict minerals will produce its first refined tin by the end of March, its organizers said on Tuesday. So far over 200 tonnes of tin ore have been sold to a Malaysian smelter from the Kalimbi mine in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) under the Conflict Free Tin Initiative (CFTI), the organizers said in a statement. CFTI was designed to allow mineral exports from Congo's violent east to flow again after the U.S. Dodd Frank law largely brought the trade to a standstill. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria needs grow, rebel-held north out of reach: U.N. Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 10:38 AM PST  GENEVA (Reuters) - The rebel-held north of Syria remains largely out of reach to aid operations, even though they have been stepped up elsewhere in the country torn by civil war, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Tuesday. "We are watching a humanitarian tragedy unfold before our eyes," Amos told a news briefing. "We must do all we can to reassure the people that we care and that we will not let them down. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian opposition alliance to boycott election Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 10:17 AM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - An alliance of Egyptian opposition parties said on Tuesday it would boycott the parliamentary election, saying there must first be a law guaranteeing a free and fair vote. The National Salvation Front, an umbrella alliance of liberal and leftist groups, made the decision at a meeting in Cairo, spokesman Sameh Ashour said. President Mohamed Mursi has called the four-stage parliamentary election beginning in late April. (Reporting by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Full Story | Top |
| Pope praying, packing ahead of move out of Vatican Tuesday, Feb 26, 2013 09:49 AM PST  ROME (Reuters) - Pope Benedict was praying and packing on Tuesday two days before his move out of the Vatican and into retirement where he will assume the title of "pope emeritus" and still be referred to as "your holiness". The Vatican said Benedict was spending a quiet Tuesday in the apostolic palace with no audiences. "Today is a day dedicated to prayer and preparation for the events of the next two days," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said at a daily news briefing. ... Full Story | Top |
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