| | |
| Syrian prime minister survives Damascus bombing, six die Monday, Apr 29, 2013 05:51 PM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's prime minister survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on Monday, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's capital. Six people were killed in the blast, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Previous rebel attacks on government targets included a December bombing which wounded Assad's interior minister. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing, which he described as a "terrorist attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| Retailers to compensate victims of Bangladesh disaster Monday, Apr 29, 2013 08:45 PM PDT  By Ruma Paul and Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - Two Western retailers have promised to compensate families of garment workers killed while making their clothes in a Bangladesh factory building that collapsed last week in the country's worst industrial accident. The pledge from Britain's Primark and Canada's Loblaw came after the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza was brought before a court in Dhaka on Monday, where lawyers and protesters chanted "hang him, hang him". ... Full Story | Top |
| Breaking a sports barrier, NBA's Jason Collins comes out as gay Monday, Apr 29, 2013 05:29 PM PDT  By Julian Linden NEW YORK (Reuters) - Veteran basketball player Jason Collins announced on Monday that he was gay, smashing through one of the final frontiers in U.S. sports with a frank personal statement and winning warm praise as a groundbreaker. Collins, a 12-year player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), became the first active athlete from any of the four major U.S. men's professional sports leagues to come out publicly as gay. He was quickly enveloped in a wave of support from the White House to tennis player Martina Navratilova, a pioneer for gay athletes in sport. ... Full Story | Top |
| Intel CEO backs SoftBank's bid for Sprint over Dish's offer Monday, Apr 29, 2013 07:43 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Intel Corp Chief Executive Paul Otellini said in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission that he supports SoftBank's bid for Sprint Nextel Corp, rather than Dish Network's counter offer. Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. wireless service provider, is considering a $25.5 billion bid from Dish but has also said it is on track to close its $20.1 billion pact with SoftBank by July 1. ... Full Story | Top |
| Visitors help Boston shops bounce back after Marathon attacks Monday, Apr 29, 2013 02:20 PM PDT  By Ross Kerber BOSTON (Reuters) - One tourist wanted to eat at a restaurant as close to the Boston Marathon finish line as possible. Other well-wishers made a point of buying shoes at the running store just a few steps away from a bomb blast site. With their dining and shopping dollars, throngs of visitors to Boston's Boylston Street are helping small businesses recover quickly from millions of dollars in losses after the Boston Marathon bombing attacks on April 15. ... Full Story | Top |
| Arab League seems to soften Israeli-Palestinian peace plan Monday, Apr 29, 2013 09:12 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan on Monday when a top Qatari official said Israel and the Palestinians could trade land rather than conform exactly to their 1967 borders. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, made the comment after he and a group of Arab officials met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss how to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan household spending at nine-year high as "Abenomics" gains momentum Monday, Apr 29, 2013 09:05 PM PDT  By Stanley White and Kaori Kaneko TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's household spending surged in March at the fastest pace in nine years in a sign that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's bold efforts to end two decades of stagnation are lifting consumer confidence and setting the stage for an economic revival. A recent run of data has provided encouraging early hope that Abe's push for aggressive fiscal and monetary policies to get the world's third-largest economy motoring is having the desired effect. ... Full Story | Top |
| Wreckage found in Manhattan was from 9/11 plane: Boeing Monday, Apr 29, 2013 11:47 AM PDT  By Chris Francescani NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co. said it was confident that a piece of aircraft, found wedged between two buildings in lower Manhattan recently, came from one of two airplanes that struck the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Authorities are still trying to determine which of the two planes the piece of wreckage came from. A Boeing Co. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy's Letta wins confidence vote after pledging growth drive Monday, Apr 29, 2013 02:12 PM PDT  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new Prime Minister Enrico Letta won his first vote of confidence in parliament on Monday after promising to press for a change to the European Union's focus on austerity and pursue economic growth and jobs. Letta said Italy could not afford to focus simply on trying to cut its huge public debt and needed a new emphasis on lifting the economy out of recession. The confidence motion in his right-left coalition government easily passed as expected, by 453 votes to 153 in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house. ... Full Story | Top |
| Muslim victims of Myanmar unrest face uncertain future Monday, Apr 29, 2013 02:04 PM PDT  By Jared Ferrie MEIKHTILA, Myanmar, April 30 - In Myanmar's central heartlands, justice and security is elusive for thousands of Muslims who lost their homes in a deadly rampage by Buddhist mobs in March. Many are detained in prison-like camps, unable to return to neighborhoods and businesses razed in four days of violence in Meikhtila that killed at least 43 people, most of them Muslims, displaced nearly 13,000, and touched off a wave of anti-Muslim unrest fuelled by radical Buddhist monks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Florida legislators approve measure to speed up executions Monday, Apr 29, 2013 12:46 PM PDT  By Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - The Florida Senate sent Governor Rick Scott a package of capital-punishment reforms on Monday designed to prevent condemned killers from spending decades on Death Row, despite warnings that speeding up the legal appeals process could lead to innocent prisoners being executed. The "Timely Justice Act" sets deadlines for condemned killers to file appeals, and for the state to proceed with issuing warrants after the Florida Supreme Court upholds death sentences. It also sets competency standards for lawyers handling cases. ... Full Story | Top |
| Car bombs, shootings kill 23 across Iraq Monday, Apr 29, 2013 10:35 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed in Iraq on Monday in a series of car bombs in Shi'ite Muslim areas and militant attacks, medics and police sources said, taking the week's death toll to nearly 200 as sectarian violence intensifies. Clashes have increased as the civil war in Syria puts strain on fragile relations between Sunnis and Shi'ites. The tensions are at their highest in Iraq since U.S. troops pulled out more than a year ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lawyers, public chant "hang him" as Bangladesh building owner led to court Monday, Apr 29, 2013 12:27 PM PDT  By Ruma Paul and Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladeshi lawyers and protesters chanted "hang him, hang him" on Monday as the owner of a factory building that collapsed last week killing nearly 400 people was led into court dressed in a helmet and bullet-proof jacket, witnesses said. The drama came as rescue officials said they were unlikely to find more survivors in the rubble of the building that collapsed on Wednesday, burying hundreds of garment workers in the country's worst industrial accident. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guatemala judge looks set to restart Rios Montt trial: lawyers Monday, Apr 29, 2013 04:11 PM PDT By Mike McDonald GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A Guatemalan judge is likely to order the resumption of the genocide trial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, sources at the attorney general's office and a human rights lawyer said on Monday. The trial has been up in the air after judges squabbled over who should hear the case following an order to annul nearly 18 months of proceedings. Hector Reyes, a lawyer who represents a human rights advocacy group pressing the case against Rios Montt, said Judge Yasmin Barrios had convened attorneys for a meeting on Tuesday morning. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian prime minister survives Damascus bombing, six die Monday, Apr 29, 2013 03:04 PM PDT  By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's prime minister survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on Monday, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's capital. Six people were killed in the blast, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Previous rebel attacks on government targets included a December bombing which wounded Assad's interior minister. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing, which he described as a "terrorist attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| Breaking a sports barrier, NBA's Jason Collins comes out as gay Monday, Apr 29, 2013 04:54 PM PDT  By Julian Linden NEW YORK (Reuters) - Veteran basketball player Jason Collins announced on Monday that he was gay, smashing through one of the final frontiers in U.S. sports with a frank personal statement and winning warm praise as a groundbreaker. Collins, a 12-year player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), became the first active athlete from any of the four major U.S. men's professional sports leagues to come out publicly as gay. He was quickly enveloped in a wave of support from the White House to tennis player Martina Navratilova, a pioneer for gay athletes in sport. ... Full Story | Top |
| Apple lays groundwork for first debt sale ever Monday, Apr 29, 2013 09:42 AM PDT  By Josie Cox LONDON, April 29 - Apple took initial steps Monday for what would be its first debt sale ever, as the U.S. computer giant lays the groundwork for what would be one of the most anticipated bond sales of the year. The company was to begin investor calls today led by Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, a source familiar with the situation told IFR, and filed SEC paperwork for a debt offering. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan, Russia agree to revive talks on island dispute Monday, Apr 29, 2013 10:37 AM PDT  By Alexei Anishchuk MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Japan said on Monday they would revive talks on resolving a territorial dispute that has prevented them signing a treaty formally ending their World War Two hostilities, and, wary of China's rising influence, agreed to bolster trade ties. At the two G8 powers' first Moscow summit for 10 years, President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had China's economic and political might in mind as they launched a new effort to warm up their relationship. ... Full Story | Top |
| Explosion shakes central Prague, as many as 40 injured Monday, Apr 29, 2013 05:39 AM PDT PRAGUE (Reuters) - An explosion in central Prague on Monday, probably caused by gas, injured as many as 40 people, officials said, and neighboring buildings - including the National Theatre - had to be evacuated. The explosion, in a building facing the Vltava river just a few dozen meters (yards) from the 19th-century theatre, was heard as far away as Prague Castle about a mile away. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Italy's politics turned upside down by election aftermath Monday, Apr 29, 2013 08:48 AM PDT  By Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Five months ago, Silvio Berlusconi was in steep decline and his party was in shambles. His center-left enemies looked triumphant and sat on a 15-point opinion poll lead. Today that situation has turned 180 degrees. The center-left is devastated by divisions and the 76-year-old media tycoon has an opinion poll lead ranging from five to eight points. ... Full Story | Top |
| One hurt in self-inflicted shooting at Ohio high school Monday, Apr 29, 2013 07:50 AM PDT (Reuters) - One boy was injured in a self-inflicted shooting on Monday in a classroom at a high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has been taken to a local hospital, police said. Green Township Police Chief Bart West said the school was briefly put on lockdown after the student pulled out a gun and shot himself in a classroom early Monday. The lockdown has since been lifted. "All the other students in the building are OK," West said during a televised news conference. He said the student who shot himself was being taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center. ... Full Story | Top |
| Consumer spending rises, driven by utility costs Monday, Apr 29, 2013 10:40 AM PDT  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer spending unexpectedly rose in March, temporarily boosted by demand for utilities due to colder weather, according to data on Monday that did little to alter a picture of a cooling in the economy. The Commerce Department said consumer spending advanced 0.2 percent last month after a 0.7 percent rise in February. The increase, which beat economists expectations for a flat reading, was driven by higher spending on services as outlays on utilities posted a second straight month of hefty gains. ... Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu says Iran hasn't crossed nuclear "red line" Monday, Apr 29, 2013 07:29 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Iran had not crossed the "red line" he set for its nuclear program, despite an assessment to the contrary by a former Israeli intelligence chief. At the United Nations in September, Netanyahu drew a red line across a cartoon bomb to illustrate the point at which he said Iran will have amassed enough uranium at 20 percent fissile purity to fuel one nuclear bomb if enriched further. He said then that Iran could reach that threshold by mid-2013. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea holds back seven South Koreans at industrial zone Monday, Apr 29, 2013 06:22 AM PDT  By Kim Do-gyun and Lim Sang-gyu PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korea held back seven of 50 remaining South Koreans at the suspended jointly run factory zone north of the heavily armed border on Monday, citing last-minute checks on taxes and wages. The North withdrew its 53,000 workers from the complex this month amid spiraling tension between the two Koreas. The North had prevented South Korean workers and supplies from getting in to the zone since April 3. ... Full Story | Top |
| Justices refuse Alabama's immigration law appeal Monday, Apr 29, 2013 11:57 AM PDT By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court rebuffed the state of Alabama on Monday by deciding not to intervene in a case where federal judges blocked a state law that criminalizes the harboring of illegal immigrants. By refusing to hear Alabama's appeal of the Obama administration's lower court victories, the justices steered clear of a hot-button debate at a time when Congress is engaged in writing legislation to overhaul immigration laws. ... Full Story | Top |
| Royal hoax caller to testify at inquest into UK nurse's death Monday, Apr 29, 2013 04:25 AM PDT By Shadia Nasralla LONDON (Reuters) - An Australian radio presenter will give evidence at an inquest into the death of a nurse who hanged herself after putting through a hoax call seeking information on Prince William's pregnant wife Kate, the presenter's lawyers said on Monday. Mel Greig asked to appear as an individual at the inquest into Jacintha Saldanha's death, which provoked worldwide anger at the radio DJ's actions. "(Greig) is determined to address any questions surrounding her role in these tragic events as part of the inquest," her lawyers Slater & Gordon said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Yemenis languish in Guantanamo prison with scant hope of release Monday, Apr 29, 2013 04:17 AM PDT  By Mohammed Ghobari SANAA (Reuters) - Awdah al-Shabati has never seen her father Abdulrahman except via video link with a U.S. military prison thousands of miles away from her native Yemen. He is incarcerated at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His daughter was born after he was picked up in Pakistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Now Abdulrahman is one of more than 90 inmates on hunger strike at the prison. "The last time we spoke to him was eight days ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| Florida teenager's shooter faces deadline in court Monday, Apr 29, 2013 04:05 AM PDT  By Barbara Liston ORLANDO (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Florida want George Zimmerman to state publicly at a court hearing on Tuesday whether he will pursue his immunity defense in the 2012 shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin on the basis of the state's "Stand Your Ground" law, or waive his right to use it. Prosecutors asked Judge Debra Nelson in a motion to remind Zimmerman "that should defendant in fact wish to waive any pre-trial immunity challenge under this statute, he may not attempt to do so later, particularly once trial has commenced. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: The maze behind EU "treaty change" Sunday, Apr 28, 2013 10:54 PM PDT  By Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) - If there are two words that tense the jaws of European policymakers and prompt a concerned sucking of teeth, they are treaty change. Like a nervous driver being told mid-route that he needs a different map if he's going to get where he's going, no one is sure whether the outcome will be road rage, a car crash or a smoother, if longer, journey. ... Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment