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| Outlook for immigration deal brightens Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 07:02 PM PDT  By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prospects for a law to create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants brightened on Saturday after major business and labor groups reached an agreement on a guest-worker program, a source familiar with the deal said. The agreement was reached on Friday night in a conference call between the head of the Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, and the president of the AFL-CIO labor organization, Richard Trumka, with New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer acting as the mediator, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenyatta won Kenya's presidency fairly: Supreme Court Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 12:43 PM PDT  By James Macharia and Edmund Blair NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Supreme Court upheld Uhuru Kenyatta's presidential election victory on Saturday and his defeated rival accepted the ruling, helping douse tensions after tribal violence blighted the election five years ago. The decision cleared the way for Kenya's richest man to take the top job in east Africa's biggest economy, but left Western powers with the headache of dealing with a leader charged with crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exxon pipeline leaks thousands of barrels of oil in Arkansas Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 07:03 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Exxon Mobil crude oil pipeline ruptured near Mayflower, Arkansas, spilling thousands of barrels of oil, the company said. Exxon shut the 20-inch Pegasus pipeline, which carries crude oil from Pakota, Illinois, to the Gulf Coast, after the leak was discovered on Friday afternoon. Exxon said a few thousand barrels of oil had been observed. Local media reported the spill occurred in a subdivision, and city of Mayflower police said the oil had not reached the nearby Lake Conway. ... Full Story | Top |
| Argentina challenges U.S. court with bond plan Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 06:19 PM PDT  By Nate Raymond and Hugh Bronstein NEW YORK/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina challenged a U.S. court over the weekend by proposing that "holdout" bond investors be repaid only about one sixth the money federal judges hearing the case say they are owed, setting the stage for a legal showdown in New York. The terms offered by Argentina are the same as those accepted by bondholders who chose to participate in the country's 2010 sovereign bond restructuring. The holdouts rejected that restructuring and are holding out for full repayment. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's urbanization drive leaves migrant workers out in the cold Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 06:26 PM PDT  By Lucy Hornby and Jane Lee BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Twenty minutes' drive from Shanghai's glitzy financial district, dozens of migrant workers are preparing to abandon homes in old shipping containers, as one of the more unusual solutions to China's housing shortage faces the wrecking ball. Cheap but crowded neighborhoods are being cleared across China as part of a stepped-up "urbanization" campaign by China's new leaders. The country aims to spend an estimated $6 trillion on infrastructure, including housing, as a projected 400 million people become urban residents over the next decade. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pope leads Catholics into Easter at vigil service in St. Peter's Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 02:43 PM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, leading the world's 1.2 billion Catholics into Easter for the first time, on Saturday urged those who have strayed from the faith to allow God back into their lives. Francis, who was elected on March 13, presided at a solemn Easter vigil Mass in St. Peter' Basilica to usher the Catholic Church into the most important day of its liturgical calendar. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy president pledges to stay to deal with crisis Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 11:36 AM PDT  By Giselda Vagnoni ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday ruled out standing down early to make way for new parliamentary elections, after the failure of attempts to form a government this week, saying he would keep trying to find a way out of the deadlock. Napolitano, whose term ends on May 15, spoke after news reports suggested he might resign to get around constitutional provisions which prevent a president dissolving parliament and calling elections during his final months in office. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cyprus details heavy losses for major bank customers Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 08:45 AM PDT  By Karolina Tagaris NICOSIA (Reuters) - Major depositors in Cyprus's biggest bank will lose around 60 percent of savings over 100,000 euros, its central bank confirmed on Saturday, sharpening the terms of a bailout that has shaken European banks but saved the island from bankruptcy. Initial signs that big depositors in Bank of Cyprus would take a hit of 30 to 40 percent - the first time the euro zone has made bank customers contribute to a bailout - had already unnerved investors in European lenders this week. ... Full Story | Top |
| NATO strike kills at least one child in Afghanistan Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 09:07 AM PDT  By Mustafa Andalib GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A NATO helicopter killed at least one child and nine suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's east on Saturday, officials and local residents said. Last month Afghan President Hamid Karzai forbade Afghan forces from calling for NATO air support and forbade international forces from using air strikes "in Afghan homes or villages" after Afghan forces called in a strike that killed 10 civilians. ... Full Story | Top |
| Central African Republic leader, facing isolation, says no reprisals Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 11:43 AM PDT  By Ange Aboa BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic's new leader Michel Djotodia, facing international isolation after seizing power, said on Saturday he would not take reprisals against rivals and called on those who fled abroad to return. The United States said on Saturday it did not recognize Djotodia, who toppled President Francois Bozize on March 24 after leading thousands of his Seleka rebels into the mineral-rich nation's capital Bangui, triggering days of looting. ... Full Story | Top |
| Business, labor groups reach immigration deal Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 02:29 PM PDT By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prospects for a broad U.S. immigration overhaul brightened on Saturday after major U.S. business and labor groups reached an agreement on a guest-worker program, a source familiar with the deal said. The agreement was reached on Friday night in a conference call between the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, and the president of the AFL-CIO labor organization, Richard Trumka, with New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer acting as the mediator, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea says enters "state of war" against South Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 09:07 AM PDT  By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea, but Seoul and its ally the United States played down the statement as tough talk. Pyongyang also threatened to close a border industrial zone, the last remaining example of inter-Korean cooperation which gives the impoverished North access to $2 billion in trade a year. The United States said it took Pyongyang's threats seriously but cautioned that the North had a history of bellicose rhetoric. Russia, another a permanent U.N. Security Council member, urged all sides to show restraint. ... Full Story | Top |
| Palestinians, Israeli Arabs mark "Land Day" with muted protests Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 10:19 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians protested in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Saturday and a few were lightly hurt in clashes with Israeli soldiers on the 37th anniversary of a landmark event for Israel's Arab minority. The Palestinians and Israeli Arabs each commemorated the killing of six Arab citizens of the Jewish state by Israeli security forces during protests in 1976 over government land confiscations in northern Israel, an event known as "Land Day". ... Full Story | Top |
| Nelson Mandela "comfortable", treated for pneumonia Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 07:12 AM PDT  By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is comfortable and able to breathe without problems as he continues to respond to treatment in hospital for a recurrence of pneumonia, President Jacob Zuma's office said on Saturday. After the revered 94-year-old statesman and former South African president spent a third night in hospital, the presidency said doctors had drained excess fluid from his lungs to tackle the infection. "This has resulted in him now being able to breathe without difficulty. ... Full Story | Top |
| Monte Paschi says lost billions in deposits after Feb scandal Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 09:47 AM PDT  MILAN (Reuters) - Customers' deposits at Italian bank Monte dei Paschi fell by "a few billion euros" after a scandal erupted in February over loss-making derivatives trades at the lender, the bank said in a document posted on its web site on Saturday. Monte dei Paschi last week reported a higher-than-expected net loss for the whole of 2012 on the back of a rise in provisions for bad loans and 730 million euros in losses on the derivatives trades, which are at the center of a fraud. But it has yet to make clear what impact the scandal itself had on its first quarter results. ... Full Story | Top |
| HIV, hepatitis tests urged for 7,000 Oklahoma dental patients Saturday, Mar 30, 2013 08:24 AM PDT By Steve Olafson OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A Tulsa, Oklahoma, health center on Saturday began drawing blood samples from patients who may have been exposed to viruses at an oral surgery dental clinic that is under investigation. As many as 7,000 of Dr. W. Scott Harrington's patients are being notified by letter that health officials recommend they be tested for hepatitis and HIV. The investigation began when one of Harrington's patients tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis C. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. B-2 bombers sent to Korea on rare mission: diplomacy not destruction Friday, Mar 29, 2013 09:40 PM PDT  By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The stealthy, nuclear-capable U.S. B-2 bomber is a veteran of wars in Iraq and Libya, but it isn't usually a tool of Washington's statecraft. Yet on Thursday, the United States sent a pair of the bat-winged planes on a first-of-its-kind practice run over the skies of South Korea, conducting what U.S. officials say was a diplomatic sortie. The aim, the officials said, was two-fold: to reassure U.S. allies South Korea and Japan in the face of a string of threats from North Korea, and to nudge Pyongyang back to nuclear talks. ... Full Story | Top |
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