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| Illinois Senate defeats sweeping pension reform bill Thursday, May 30, 2013 09:08 PM PDT SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - The Illinois Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly defeated a sweeping reform of the state's sinking public pension system, leaving scant time for maneuvering with the Democrat-controlled legislature set to adjourn late on Friday. Senators voted 16-42 against the measure, which was approved by the House of Representatives this month. The bill was championed by House Speaker Michael Madigan as the best way to curb Illinois' nearly $100 billion unfunded pension liability. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lebanese man sentenced for planting fake bomb near Chicago's Wrigley Field Thursday, May 30, 2013 09:08 PM PDT  By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A Lebanese immigrant in Chicago on Thursday was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for plotting an attack and planting what he thought was a bomb near the city's Wrigley Field baseball park. Sami Samir Hassoun, 25, pleaded guilty last year to charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and an explosive device after he placed what he thought was a homemade bomb in a garbage can in the north-side neighborhood during a busy Saturday night, according to court records. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tornadoes in Oklahoma, Arkansas injure at least five Thursday, May 30, 2013 08:33 PM PDT  By Suzi Parker LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - Severe storms spawned a dozen reported tornadoes in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday, injuring at least five people and sending residents scrambling for cover 10 days after a powerful twister killed 24 people in Oklahoma. In western Arkansas, two people were injured in a tornado near Oden that destroyed a house and downed power lines. Three others were injured in a storm north of Amity, Arkansas, the state emergency management department said. One tornado warning included Cushing, Oklahoma, a critical hub for the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Michigan woman dies in Syria fighting for opposition -family Thursday, May 30, 2013 08:31 PM PDT (Reuters) - A 33-year-old Michigan woman and convert to Islam has been killed in Syria while fighting with opposition forces against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the country's civil war, her family said on Thursday. The woman's aunt told Reuters that the FBI had informed her on Thursday afternoon of the death of her niece, Nicole Mansfield of Flint, but said she did not have the details of how she died. "I'm just devastated," said the aunt, Monica Mansfield Speelman. "Evidently, she was fighting with opposition forces. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela's Maduro slams Colombia's Santos for 'betrayal' Thursday, May 30, 2013 08:26 PM PDT  By Eyanir Chinea and Enrique Andres Pretel CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, of "betrayal" on Thursday, saying he had lost faith in him for meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Maduro said he was putting bilateral relations, which were frequently hostile during his predecessor Hugo Chavez's 14-year socialist rule, under review following Santos' meeting on Wednesday with Capriles. ... Full Story | Top |
| Soccer-Brazil v England stadium suspension ended Thursday, May 30, 2013 08:20 PM PDT * Brazil v England game will go ahead * Bureaucratic error caused confusion (Updates with judge lifting injunction) RIO DE JANEIRO, May 30 (Reuters) - A Brazilian judged has lifted an injunction that threatened to block Sunday's Brazil v England soccer friendly in the newly-revamped Maracana stadium over public safety concerns. The Rio de Janeiro state government said on Thursday night that the judge lifted the suspension order she had signed earlier in the day after missing paperwork was provided and the game will go ahead as planned. ... Full Story | Top |
| Indian shot dead in growing land dispute in Brazil Thursday, May 30, 2013 07:51 PM PDT BRASILIA (Reuters) - A growing conflict over land ownership in Brazil's farm belt turned bloody on Thursday when an Indian was shot dead during the violent eviction of some 200 natives from a disputed property owned by a former congressman. The Terena Indians refused a court order to leave the cattle ranch which they invaded two weeks ago. A federal agency designated the ranch as ancestral native land in 2010, but a local court ruled last year that it belonged to the farmer. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's Tiananmen Mothers criticize Xi for lack of reforms Thursday, May 30, 2013 07:50 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of families demanding justice for the victims of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have denounced new Chinese President Xi Jinping for failing to launch political reforms, saying he was taking China "backwards towards Maoist orthodoxy". The Tiananmen Mothers activist group has long urged the Chinese leadership to open a dialogue and provide a reassessment of the June 4, 1989 pro-democracy movement, bloodily suppressed by the government which labeled it a "counter-revolutionary" event. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rockers perform at fundraiser for Boston bomb victims Thursday, May 30, 2013 07:42 PM PDT  BOSTON (Reuters) - A succession of all-star bands from Aerosmith to Jimmy Buffett rocked a packed house at Boston's TD Garden on Thursday night in a mostly raucous fundraiser for the victims of last month's marathon bombing. Tickets priced between $35 and $285 sold out fast at the 17,500-seat venue, with net proceeds to be donated to The One Fund, a reserve established by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick that has received more than $31 million in donations to compensate victims of the April 15 bombing. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Secret Service says threatening letter sent to Obama Thursday, May 30, 2013 07:15 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Authorities intercepted a threatening letter addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama that was similar to ones sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Secret Service said on Thursday. Letters sent to Bloomberg and his gun control group contained material believed to be the deadly poison ricin and contained a reference to gun control, New York police said on Wednesday. A Secret Service official said the letter sent to the White House was similar but did not elaborate. ... Full Story | Top |
| After tour abroad, dissident blogger Sanchez returns to Cuba Thursday, May 30, 2013 06:58 PM PDT  By Jeff Franks HAVANA (Reuters) - Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, wearing a brightly colored dress and a big smile, returned on Thursday to the homeland she both loves and lambastes, after more than three months on a tour through the Americas and Europe. Her family and about a dozen supporters applauded loudly and shouted "welcome home" as she emerged from the customs area at the Havana airport With tears in her eyes, she hugged them all as curious Cubans awaiting other passengers looked on and asked reporters who she was. ... Full Story | Top |
| Media editors say U.S. attorney general to change investigations Thursday, May 30, 2013 06:44 PM PDT  By Susan Heavey and David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told media editors on Thursday that he would change the way the Justice Department handles investigations that involve reporters and not repeat searches that have raised concerns about freedom of the press, the editors said. After a meeting that other media outlets boycotted because of its secrecy, the editors who did attend said they were encouraged by officials' expressions of regret, though one said the Justice Department still has a long way to go to understand how journalists work. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ricin attack puts spotlight on Bloomberg's gun control push Thursday, May 30, 2013 06:20 PM PDT  By Edith Honan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Letters laced with the deadly poison ricin sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the lobbying organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns illustrate how the group has emerged as a focal point of anger for opponents of gun control. Three letters containing an "oily substance" that turned out to be ricin were intercepted on their way to Bloomberg's office and the mayors group. A similar envelope was sent to President Barack Obama, the Secret Service confirmed on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
| First quarter GDP revised slightly lower; austerity bites Thursday, May 30, 2013 06:14 PM PDT  By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A drop in government spending dragged more on the U.S. economy than initially thought in the first three months of the year, although consumer spending looked relatively resilient to Washington's austerity drive. Other reports on Thursday showed the number of new jobless claims rose modestly last week while contracts on previously owned homes climbed to a three-year high in April. Together, the reports pointed to an economy that has held up reasonably well despite government constraints, but nevertheless faced headwinds severe enough to dissuade the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| California man charged with murder in fatal pit bull mauling Thursday, May 30, 2013 06:09 PM PDT By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The owner of four pit bulls that ferociously attacked and killed a woman as she walked or jogged near her Southern California home has been charged with murder, Los Angeles prosecutors said on Thursday. Legal experts said the case represented an unusual instance of prosecutors charging a dog owner with murder in a fatal mauling, especially when the owner may not have been present for the attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sharks worth more for tourism than in soup: study Thursday, May 30, 2013 05:49 PM PDT  By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Sharks swimming free in the oceans may soon become more valuable as tourist attractions than when caught, sliced up and served in soup, a global study showed on Friday. It urged better protection for the fish, from Australia to the Caribbean, to reduce catches of an estimated 38 million a year to meet demand for shark fin soup, mainly in China. "We are hoping that people will recognize that sharks are not only valuable on the plate," lead author Andres Cisneros-Montemayor of the University of British Columbia in Canada said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan deflation ebbs, output up; Bank of Japan target still elusive Thursday, May 30, 2013 05:49 PM PDT  By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kaori Kaneko TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's factory output picked up in April and deflation abated slightly as a weaker yen and firmer overseas demand boosted growth, boding well for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to shake the world's third-largest economy out of nearly two decades of stagnation. But core consumer prices continued to fall and manufacturers forecast further weakness ahead, government data showed on Friday, underscoring the challenges the Bank of Japan, under new Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, faces in meeting its 2-percent inflation target. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rhode Island officials blast town seeking to avoid pension dues Thursday, May 30, 2013 05:45 PM PDT  By Aaron Pressman PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (Reuters) - Top Rhode Island finance officials on Thursday blasted representatives of the town of Coventry who have sought to avoid making up a $24 million shortfall in one of their pension plans. The town's position not to offer a way to make up the almost 70 percent shortfall in a plan for non-teacher school employees is "unconscionable," said Richard Licht, director of the Rhode Island Department of Administration, at a meeting of the state's Pension Plans Study Commission. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian draft law said to dash hopes of free civil society Thursday, May 30, 2013 05:37 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - A law drafted by the Egyptian presidency for regulating non-governmental organizations dashes hopes for a free civil society after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. President Mohamed Mursi has said the bill submitted to the Muslim Brotherhood-led parliament on Wednesday would liberate a civil society that was stifled by Mubarak, who was toppled by an uprising ignited by democracy activists. Human Rights Watch said the new draft was "hostile to the very notion of independent civil society. ... Full Story | Top |
| Judge approves $19.5 million Dewey mismanagement settlement Thursday, May 30, 2013 05:36 PM PDT  By Casey Sullivan (Reuters) - A New York federal judge on Thursday approved a settlement that requires the insurer and former chairman of defunct law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf to pay $19.5 million to resolve claims with a trustee that leaders mismanaged the firm. Dewey once employed more than 1,200 lawyers in 26 offices worldwide, but last May it became the largest U.S. law firm to file for bankruptcy. Its demise has been largely attributed to compensation guarantees the firm made to a significant portion of its partners. The $19. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian opposition admits liberals after inconclusive talks Thursday, May 30, 2013 05:27 PM PDT By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's opposition, under pressure to broaden its Islamist-dominated leadership, struggled to overcome deep rifts on Thursday and form a united front for a proposed international conference to try to end the Syrian civil war. Delegates at inconclusive talks in Istanbul agreed to add 14 named members of a liberal bloc led by veteran figure Michel Kilo to the 60-member assembly of the Syrian National Coalition, the closest body that President Bashar al-Assad's foes have to an overall civilian leadership in the two-year-old uprising. ... Full Story | Top |
| Barrick's Pascua-Lama gold project frozen for at least 1-2 years : Chile regulator Thursday, May 30, 2013 05:17 PM PDT  By Alexandra Ulmer and Fabian Cambero SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Barrick's suspended Pascua-Lama gold project will likely be reactivated in one to two years at the earliest, given the infrastructure that needs to be built to avoid water pollution, Chile's environmental regulator told Reuters on Thursday. Barrick's shares initially pared back their 6.14 percent rally after the news to trade 4.77 percent stronger. They then recovered to gain 6.28 percent. On Friday, the new regulator ordered the $8.5 billion project be halted and fined the company $16 million, citing serious environmental violations. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: How Treasury's tax loophole mistake saves companies billions each year Thursday, May 30, 2013 05:05 PM PDT  By Kevin Drawbaugh and Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. economy crumbled in early 2009, President Barack Obama offered a plan that he said would save American jobs: a crackdown on corporate tax loopholes that encourage companies to send profits abroad to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes each year. Tax lobbyist Ken Kies was not worried. A decade earlier, he had led a fight to preserve a key loophole - known in Treasury Department shorthand as the "check the box" rule - when another Democratic president, Bill Clinton, had tried to kill it. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says Russia has vital role in ending Syria conflict Thursday, May 30, 2013 04:41 PM PDT By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it was important to partner with Russia to help bring Syria's warring sides together for a proposed peace conference despite Moscow's financial and military backing for President Bashar al-Assad. Assad told Lebanon's Al-Manar television that Russia is committed to implementing a 2010 contract for S-300 air defense missiles. A Russian defense ministry source said the missiles had not been sent yet. "This is something that is concerning ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Lawsuit alleges "barbaric" conditions at Mississippi prison Thursday, May 30, 2013 04:38 PM PDT By Emily Le Coz JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) - A Mississippi prison for severely mentally ill inmates is infested with rats that prisoners sell to one another as pets, two civil liberties groups claimed in a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday. Inmates at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility near Meridian live under "barbaric" conditions, in filthy quarters without working lights or toilets, forcing them to defecate on Styrofoam trays or into trash bags, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center claimed in the lawsuit. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran's sponsorship of terrorism sees "marked resurgence" : U.S. Thursday, May 30, 2013 04:32 PM PDT  By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran's sponsorship of terrorism overseas underwent "a marked resurgence" in 2012, reaching levels not seen in 20 years, the U.S. State Department charged on Thursday in its annual report on trends in political violence. The report cited a series of actual and planned attacks in Europe and Asia linked to Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanon-based ally, including a July 2012 bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israeli citizens and a Bulgarian, and wounded 32 others. "The year 2012 was ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Disneyland worker faces bomb charge over theme park dry ice blasts Thursday, May 30, 2013 04:28 PM PDT  By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Disneyland employee was charged on Thursday with possessing a destructive device by prosecutors who said he was behind two small, dry-ice explosions at the California theme park earlier this week that prompted an evacuation of Mickey's Toontown. Christian Barnes, 22, was arrested at the park on Tuesday evening after police responded to the second blast near a Toontown trash can and found remnants of a water bottle that had detonated there. ... Full Story | Top |
| UK consumer morale hits six-month high in May Thursday, May 30, 2013 04:18 PM PDT  By David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) - British consumer sentiment hit a six-month high in May, and a leading business association revised up its growth forecasts for the first time since the financial crisis, adding to hopes that a tentative recovery is underway. Soft data from retailers and manufacturers in the past two weeks had suggested that growth in the second quarter of 2013 might be weaker than initially thought. But Friday's survey from polling company GfK offered cautious grounds for optimism, with consumer sentiment at its strongest since November, when it spiked to an 18-month high. ... Full Story | Top |
| Regulators told to crack down on predatory payday lenders Thursday, May 30, 2013 04:13 PM PDT  By Matt Scuffham LONDON (Reuters) - The consumer watchdog must get tough on unscrupulous short-term lenders that target the financially vulnerable and lend them money they can't afford to repay, a parliamentary committee said on Friday. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said bad practices by some of these firms were costing already hard-pressed borrowers at least 450 million pounds a year. So-called payday lenders, which offer loans that are repaid when borrowers get their wages, have grown rapidly in Britain as banks cut back on short-term credit after the 2008 financial crisis. ... Full Story | Top |
| "Weak mayor" system keeps Toronto ticking through crack controversy Thursday, May 30, 2013 04:09 PM PDT  By Julie Gordon TORONTO (Reuters) - Between the army of reporters camped at his door and an exodus of top aides, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has endured a tough two weeks since allegations surfaced that he was caught smoking crack cocaine on video, something he staunchly denies. For North America's fourth-largest city, however, it's been mostly business as usual thanks to a "weak mayor" political system that limits the executive's influence and puts more power in the hands of the city council. ... Full Story | Top |
| Threatening letters sent to New York candidate, police say Thursday, May 30, 2013 03:58 PM PDT By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two threatening letters, one apparently smeared with blood, were mailed during the last week to the New York City office of Bill de Blasio, the city's public advocate and a Democratic candidate for mayor, New York police said on Thursday. The letters were written in Spanish, said police, who would not disclose the contents other than to call them "rambling" and to say that the writer claimed they were stained with blood. ... Full Story | Top |
| Embattled IRS staff remain in jobs despite U.S. tax review scandal Thursday, May 30, 2013 03:57 PM PDT  By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They've been scorned in televised congressional hearings for unfairly abusing tax laws, threatened with questioning in a criminal investigation and accused of using federal jobs to push a political agenda. At this point in the saga surrounding the Internal Revenue Service and its use of "Tea Party" and other search terms to flag conservative groups while reviewing their applications for tax-exempt status, all of the employees caught up in the scandal are still drawing federal paychecks. ... Full Story | Top |
| International court tells El Salvador to allow abortion of deformed fetus Thursday, May 30, 2013 03:56 PM PDT  By Isabella Cota SAN JOSE (Reuters) - The regional human rights court for the Americas on Thursday told El Salvador it must let doctors perform an abortion on a woman carrying a seriously deformed fetus that has put her life at risk, but the Central American nation was not bound by the move. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights took the action after El Salvador's Supreme Court issued a ruling on Wednesday rejecting an appeal brought by the 22-year-old woman at the center of the case. She had sought an abortion even though El Salvador banned all types of abortion in 1999. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Europe plans major scaling back of financial trading tax Thursday, May 30, 2013 03:55 PM PDT  By John O'Donnell and Ilona Wissenbach BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European countries planning a tax on financial transactions are set to drastically scale back the levy, cutting the charge by as much as 90 percent and delaying its full roll-out for years, in what would be a major victory for banks. Such sweeping changes would blunt the impact of the tax, pushed for by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and popular with voters who blame bankers for the financial crisis. The revisions have yet to be formally proposed but were revealed to Reuters by officials working on the project. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Microsoft manager plans to create first U.S. marijuana brand Thursday, May 30, 2013 03:44 PM PDT  By Jonathan Kaminsky SEATTLE (Reuters) - A former Microsoft executive plans to create the first U.S. national marijuana brand, with cannabis he hopes to eventually import legally from Mexico, and said he was kicking off his business by acquiring medical pot dispensaries in three U.S. states. Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, said he envisions his Seattle-based enterprise becoming the leader in both recreational and medical cannabis - much like Starbucks is the dominant name in coffee, he said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Family of Penn State's Paterno sues over abuse penalties Thursday, May 30, 2013 03:43 PM PDT By Michael Sadowski HARRISBURG, Penn. (Reuters) - The family of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, along with a group of faculty and former college athletes, sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association on Thursday over its response to the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. The lawsuit claims the NCAA, which oversees U.S. college sports, was wrong to base sanctions against Pennsylvania State University and its football program on what it called "flawed findings" in an independent investigation by former FBI Director Louis Freeh into how Penn State handled the Sandusky case. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pascua-Lama reactivation to take 1-2 years or more : Chile regulator Thursday, May 30, 2013 03:27 PM PDT By Alexandra Ulmer and Fabian Cambero SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Barrick's suspended Pascua-Lama gold project will likely be reactivated in 1 to 2 years at the earliest, given the infrastructure that needs to be built to avoid water pollution, Chile's environmental regulator told Reuters on Thursday. Barrick's shares pared back their 6.14 percent rally after the news to trade 5.5 percent stronger. On Friday, the new regulator ordered the $8.5 billion project be halted and fined the company $16 million, citing serious environmental violations. ... Full Story | Top |
| Moscow suggests missiles have yet to reach Assad Thursday, May 30, 2013 02:59 PM PDT  By Mariam Karouny and Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday Moscow was still committed to sending him advanced anti-aircraft weapons, although a source close to the Russian defense ministry said the missiles had yet to arrive. The prospect of the missiles arriving is a serious worry for Western and regional countries opposing Assad which have called on Moscow not to send them. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama seeks to limit top pay for federal contractors Thursday, May 30, 2013 02:58 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House proposed legislation on Thursday to cap the pay of federal government contractors at no more than the U.S. president's annual salary, saying it wanted to stop "wasteful expenditure." The president makes $400,000 a year and the current cap on pay for executives at federal contractors is due to be raised in the coming weeks to about $950,000 from $763,000, the White House Office of Management and Budget said. "This wasteful expenditure of taxpayer resources must stop," OMB official Joe Jordan said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Toronto mayor vows to run again despite crack scandal, staff exodus Thursday, May 30, 2013 02:54 PM PDT  By Julie Gordon and Allison Martell TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford lost two more staff members on Thursday, two weeks after allegations first surfaced that the leader of Canada's largest city was caught smoking crack cocaine on camera, something he has strongly denied. Security ushered policy advisor Brian Johnston out of city hall around midday on Thursday, and he told reporters he had resigned. Kia Nejatian, the mayor's executive assistant, also left his job, the city confirmed in a statement sent to local media. ... Full Story | Top |
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