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| Obama pledges to help Africa, pays tribute to Mandela Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:06 PM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal and Jeff Mason ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama paid tribute to anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela as he flew to South Africa on Friday but played down expectations of a meeting with the ailing black leader during an Africa tour promoting democracy and food security. White House officials hope Obama's three-nation tour of Africa - his first substantial visit to the continent since taking office in 2009 - will compensate for what some view as years of neglect by America's first black president. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry steps up shuttle talks with Abbas and Netanyahu Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:05 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accelerated his Middle East shuttle diplomacy on Friday in the hope of persuading Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace negotiations. After seeing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan, Kerry flew by helicopter to Jerusalem for evening talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ... Full Story | Top |
| China media warns Philippines of 'counterstrike' in South China Sea Friday, Jun 28, 2013 08:29 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's state media warned on Saturday that a "counterstrike" against the Philippines was inevitable if it continues to provoke Beijing in the South China Sea, potentially Asia's biggest military troublespot. The warning comes as ministers from both countries attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Brunei, starting Saturday, which hopes to reach a legally binding code of conduct to manage maritime conduct in disputed areas. At stake are potentially massive offshore oil reserves. The seas also lie on shipping lanes and fishing grounds. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Snowden's options appear to narrow in bid to evade U.S. arrest Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:20 PM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick and Lidia Kelly WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Nearly a month after Edward Snowden exposed top secret U.S. surveillance programs, the former spy agency contractor looks no closer to winning asylum to evade prosecution at home - and his options appear to be narrowing. Stuck in legal limbo in a Moscow airport transit area and facing uncertainty over whether any of the destinations he is said to be contemplating - Ecuador, Venezuela and Cuba - will let him in, Snowden seems to be at the mercy of geopolitical forces beyond his control. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt violence builds, American among dead Friday, Jun 28, 2013 04:17 PM PDT  By Abdelrahman Youssef and Tom Perry ALEXANDRIA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Two people, one an American, were killed when protesters stormed an office of Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria, adding to growing tension ahead of mass rallies aimed at unseating the Islamist president. A third man was killed and 10 injured in an explosion during a protest in Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez Canal. Police on Saturday said the cause was unclear but protesters, believing it was a bomb, attacked an Islamist party office in the city. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexican ex-governor gets 11 years in U.S. for money laundering Friday, Jun 28, 2013 02:47 PM PDT  By Bernard Vaughan NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Mexican state governor was sentenced to 11 years in prison in the United States on Friday after pleading guilty to conspiring to launder millions of dollars in bribes from a notorious drug cartel. With credit for time served and good behavior, Mario Villanueva, 64, could be released from U.S. custody in two to three years, his lawyer, Richard Lind, said after the hearing. He faces another 23 years in prison in Mexico stemming from similar charges, Lind said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bombs hit Iraq funeral and football stadium, killing 22 Friday, Jun 28, 2013 02:26 PM PDT  RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - A series of bombs near a bakery, at a funeral, inside a senior police officer's car and at a football stadium killed at least 22 people across Iraq on Friday, police and medics said. The violence is part of a trend of increasing militant attacks since the start of the year, which claimed more than 1,000 lives in May alone, making it the deadliest month since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006-07. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazilian president's plan to import doctors faces resistance Friday, Jun 28, 2013 02:13 PM PDT  By Esteban Israel SAO PAULO (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff's plan to import foreign doctors to work in rural and poor parts of Brazil, part of a move to quell massive street protests over poor public services, has run into stiff opposition from the powerful medical lobby. Public dissatisfaction over the quality of healthcare has helped fuel nationwide protests over the past month and spurred Rousseff, a pragmatic leftist, to announce earlier this week the "emergency action" plan to bring in foreign doctors. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Fearing death, Congo's 'Terminator' fled with help of family Friday, Jun 28, 2013 01:29 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Facing defeat by a rival rebel and fearing death at the hands of Rwandan troops, Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda quietly slipped into Rwanda on a small path with a single escort to turn himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, according to a U.N. report. Details of the March 18 surrender of Ntaganda, who evaded arrest on international war crimes charges for seven years, were contained in the confidential interim report by the U.N. Group of Experts to the Security Council's Congo sanctions committee. ... Full Story | Top |
| In key Mexican state, opposition leads in poll for July vote Friday, Jun 28, 2013 01:26 PM PDT By Miguel Gutierrez MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's main opposition conservatives are on track to retain the key electoral bastion of Baja California next month, according to a poll released on Friday, in a vote that could strengthen a fragile cross-party alliance built by President Enrique Pena Nieto to re-energize the economy. Falling short of a majority in Congress when he won office last year, Pena Nieto forged a loose pact with the two major opposition parties to work together on economic reforms. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish security forces fire on protest in southeast, one dead Friday, Jun 28, 2013 01:20 PM PDT  By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish security forces killed one person and wounded ten on Friday when they fired on a group protesting against the construction of a new gendarmerie outpost in Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey, a Kurdish party lawmaker said. The incident, in Kayacik village in Diyarbakir province, appeared to be the most violent in the region since a ceasefire declaration by Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan in March in the conflict between his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Rwanda army officers aiding M23 rebels in Congo - U.N. experts Friday, Jun 28, 2013 01:17 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Military officers from Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo are fueling violence in eastern Congo despite pledges by the countries to foster peace, according to a confidential U.N. experts' report seen by Reuters on Friday. A rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo continues to recruit fighters in neighboring Rwanda with the aid of sympathetic Rwandan military officers, the U.N. Group of Experts said in its interim report to the Security Council's Congo sanctions committee. The U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. citizen killed in Egyptian violence: officials Friday, Jun 28, 2013 01:07 PM PDT ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - A U.S. citizen was stabbed to death in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Friday during clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Mursi, a doctor and three security officials said. A U.S. embassy official said: "The U.S. embassy has heard of the reports of the death of an American citizen and is seeking to confirm them." The young American man died from a wound to the chest, said General Amin Ezzeddin, a senior Alexandria security official. Another man, an Egyptian, was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's Mandela 'improving' as Obama flies in Friday, Jun 28, 2013 12:13 PM PDT  By Peroshni Govender and Jeff Mason PRETORIA/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ailing anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela is doing much better in hospital, his ex-wife Winnie said on Friday, as U.S. President Barack Obama arrived for a visit that will pay homage to a man he calls his "personal hero". The faltering health of the first black president of South Africa, a revered symbol of racial reconciliation, has drawn world attention since the 94-year-old was rushed to hospital with a recurring lung infection nearly three weeks ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| Peru peasant squads rally against U.S. firm's $5 billion gold mine Friday, Jun 28, 2013 12:12 PM PDT  By Mitra Taj CAJAMARCA, Peru (Reuters) - Forty years ago, peasants in rural Peru banded together as "ronderos" - Spanish for "people who make the rounds" - to curb cattle rustling. Today, squads of these ronderos are working toward a different aim - thwarting an American mining company's planned $5 billion gold mining project that they contend would spoil lakes vital to the local population high in the Andes. Operating according to Andean customs, the squads act as a de facto judicial system in places where public institutions are weak and policing is scant. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil truckers call for 72-hour strike starting Monday Friday, Jun 28, 2013 11:27 AM PDT SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's trucking union is calling for a 72-hour strike starting on Monday, potentially slowing the movement of record soy, corn and sugar crops to ports, although unlikely to stop exports. MUBC, as the most influential truckers union in Brazil is known, encouraged all sectors involved in transporting cargoes in the country to participate in a "passive protest" starting 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) on Monday, in a written statement posted online. ... Full Story | Top |
| Small plane crashes in Guatemala, killing all six on board Friday, Jun 28, 2013 11:20 AM PDT  GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A small airplane crashed in a wooded area in western Guatemala near the border with Mexico on Friday morning, killing all six men on board, rescue workers at the scene said. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred around 6:30 a.m., but said they do not know where the Cessna twin-engine plane departed from or where it was headed. Rescuers found the identifications of two Mexican men in debris near the crash site, and said that the remaining victims were also likely from Mexico. (Reporting by Mike McDonald; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Brazil's mass protests peak, ball in politicians' court Friday, Jun 28, 2013 11:15 AM PDT  By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - The massive protests that paralyzed Brazil last week appear to have peaked after sending the country's shaken political establishment a loud message that it needs to change its ways. It's now up to the politicians to deliver improvements to the country's deficient public services and more transparent and accountable government demanded by frustrated Brazilians, or the crescendo of angry protests could suddenly return. ... Full Story | Top |
| Clash in Egypt's Alexandria kills one: official Friday, Jun 28, 2013 11:01 AM PDT ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - A man was killed by gunfire on Friday in the Egyptian city of Alexandria during clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Mursi, a health ministry official said. It was not clear whether the victim was a Mursi supporter or opponent, added Amal Sharawi, the health ministry official. He was killed in clashes near the Muslim Brotherhood's local offices in the city's Sidi Gaber neighborhood. State news agency MENA said 70 people had been injured. (Reporting by Abdelrahman Youssef; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alastair Macdonald) Full Story | Top |
| France places four suspected Islamists under investigation Friday, Jun 28, 2013 10:57 AM PDT PARIS (Reuters) - Four suspected radical Islamists arrested in the Paris region this week on suspicion of plotting attacks in France were placed under formal investigation on Friday, legal and police sources said. Three of the suspects are French and one is from Benin. Their ages range from 22 to 34, the sources said. Two other suspects arrested in the same raid on a suspected Islamist cell on Monday were released. Being placed under formal investigation in France means there is "serious or consistent evidence" pointing to likely implication of a suspect in a crime. ... Full Story | Top |
| Grave dispute divides family as Mandela lies in hospital Friday, Jun 28, 2013 10:12 AM PDT By Yvonne Bell MTHATHA, South Africa (Reuters) - A dispute between factions of Nelson Mandela's family over where the family grave should be went to court on Friday when his eldest daughter and more than a dozen other relatives sought an injunction against Mandela's grandson, Mandla. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guinea Bissau interim leader sets November 24 election date Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:54 AM PDT  BISSAU (Reuters) - Guinea Bissau's interim leader called elections on Friday that African and Western leaders hope will end decades of instability in a former Portuguese colony that has been become a narcotics trafficking hub to Europe. President Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo said in a decree read over state radio that the country was now ready for delayed legislative and presidential elections after he had consulted with political parties. "Conditions are ripe for holding safe and secure legislative and presidential elections on November 24," Nhamadjo said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenya deputy president loses case linked to poll violence Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:49 AM PDT  By Humprey Malalo NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's High Court ordered Deputy President William Ruto on Friday to surrender a 100-acre farm in the lush Rift Valley and pay compensation to a farmer who had accused the politician of grabbing the land during election violence five years ago. The ruling, seen as a key test of the Kenyan judiciary's newly won independence, came as Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta prepare to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity in connection with the post-2007 election mayhem, in which more than 1,200 people died. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran detains Slovak hang-glider group: Slovak media Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:48 AM PDT PRAGUE (Reuters) - A group of five or six Slovak hang-glider enthusiasts has been detained in Iran on suspicion of espionage, the Slovak news website www.sme.sk said on Friday. The Slovak foreign ministry said it knew of the case but refused to confirm any details or the number of detainees. There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities. "We are aware of this case and I assure you that we are taking all necessary steps," Slovak foreign ministry spokesman Boris Gandel said. "There has been no decision on this so far." Sme. ... Full Story | Top |
| France challenges arbitration award, Tapie investigated Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:19 AM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - A tycoon with ties to ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy was put under formal investigation on suspicion of fraud on Friday in connection with a 403 million-euro ($524 million) arbitration award he received in 2008 to settle a legal dispute. The case against Bernard Tapie could damage Sarkozy's ability to mount a comeback for the 2017 election. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rights group accuses Central African Republic rebels of abuses Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:09 AM PDT BANGUI (Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic have razed villages, torched homes and murdered civilians in violence across neglected rural areas that began before they seized power in March and continues today, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday. Thousands of fighters from the Seleka rebel coalition led by Michel Djotodia, who is now the country's interim leader, marched into the riverside capital Bangui on March 24, forcing President Francois Bozize to flee. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU gives Serbia green light to start membership talks Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:07 AM PDT  By Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Serbia won the green light on Friday to start negotiations by January on joining the European Union, capping a remarkable transformation in the prospects of the biggest former Yugoslav republic since the 1990s wars. The decision, taken at an EU summit, rewards Belgrade for an April deal to improve relations with its former province of Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in a 1998-99 guerrilla war. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somalia may accept former Islamist warlord in port city Friday, Jun 28, 2013 09:07 AM PDT By Drazen Jorgic MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's government may recognize a former Islamist warlord it had opposed as interim leader of a strategic port city in a bid to defuse tensions, diplomats said, although a new clash between rival militias erupted there on Friday. The threat of the kind of clan fighting that tore Somalia apart over two decades has hung over Kismayu since Ahmed Madobe, leader of the Ras Kamboni militia, was chosen by a regional assembly to lead Jubaland and its port in May. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guinea charges minister over 2009 massacre of demonstrators Friday, Jun 28, 2013 08:19 AM PDT CONAKRY (Reuters) - A court in Guinea has charged a government minister over his alleged role in a stadium massacre in which some 150 people were killed in 2009, a human rights group and a justice ministry official said on Friday. Pro-democracy demonstrators were shot, stabbed, bludgeoned or trampled to death after gathered at a stadium in the mineral-rich West African nation's capital Conakry on September 28, 2009 for a rally against the military junta then in power. About 100 women were also raped, gang-raped and tortured in public during the attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iranian official signals no early scaling back in nuclear work Friday, Jun 28, 2013 08:01 AM PDT  By Alissa de Carbonnel ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Iran will press ahead with its uranium enrichment program, its nuclear energy chief said on Friday, signaling no immediate change of course despite the victory of a relative moderate in the June 14 presidential election. But once Hassan Rouhani takes office in early August, Tehran's current hardline team in nuclear talks with six world powers, led by Saeed Jalili who was a rival election candidate, is likely to be overhauled. Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani's tenure as head of Iran's atomic energy agency may be in jeopardy as well. ... Full Story | Top |
| French prosecutor recommends dropping Sarkozy funding probe Friday, Jun 28, 2013 08:00 AM PDT  BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - A French public prosecutor recommended on Friday dropping an investigation into ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy and seven other people over allegations of duping L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt into handing over cash for election funds. The prosecutor handling the case advised that the investigation against the eight, who also include Sarkozy's former budget minister Eric Woerth, be dropped for lack of evidence. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mandela showing 'great improvement', ex-wife Winnie says Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:39 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela is showing a "great improvement" in his health compared to a few days ago, his ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, said on Friday. "I'm not a doctor but I can say that from what he was a few days ago there is great improvement," she told reporters outside Mandela's former home in the Johannesburg township of Soweto. (Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Pascal Fletcher) Full Story | Top |
| Senior Vatican cleric arrested in money smuggling case Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:36 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - A senior Catholic cleric with connections to the Vatican bank was arrested on Friday for plotting to help rich friends smuggle tens of millions of euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland, in the latest blow to the Vatican's image. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, who worked as a senior accountant in the Vatican's financial administration, was arrested along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial intermediary in a tale that reads like a spy novel. ... Full Story | Top |
| Renamo says it laments Mozambique economic disruption, seeks talks Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:24 AM PDT By Marina Lopes MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique opposition party Renamo, suspected of killing two civilians last week in a nascent guerrilla campaign, said on Friday it regretted disruption of the economy and called for more dialogue with the government. Two decades after the end of a long civil war, Renamo is stepping up pressure on the Frelimo ruling party, sparking concern a return to violence could derail Mozambique's commodity-fuelled economic boom. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Murdoch editors lose bid to have UK hacking charges dropped Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:16 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Two former editors of a British tabloid newspaper shut down by owner Rupert Murdoch over a phone-hacking scandal lost a legal battle on Friday to have criminal charges against them dropped. Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, both former News of the World editors and close associates of Prime Minister David Cameron, have pleaded not guilty to charges that they conspired to intercept people's voicemail messages in pursuit of stories. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi associate admits 'excess' at 'bunga bunga' parties Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:13 AM PDT  MILAN (Reuters) - A close associate of Silvio Berlusconi said on Friday he agreed with descriptions of "bunga bunga" parties at the former prime minister's palatial residence as "excess, abuse of power and degradation." Show-business agent Lele Mora, one of three people charged with aiding and abetting under-aged prostitution, told a court in Milan that he had taken young women to the parties and had received a loan from Berlusconi. ... Full Story | Top |
| Warsaw mayor's woes signal trouble ahead for Polish PM Tusk Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:07 AM PDT  By Chris Borowski and Pawel Sobczak WARSAW (Reuters) - Residents of the Polish capital fed-up with rising bus fares and snarled-up traffic are campaigning to oust the once-popular mayor, in a foretaste of the electoral price the national government may have to pay for a slowing economy. Opponents of Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz say they have gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on ending her term early and opinion polls indicate that she will lose if the vote goes ahead. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia criticizes groups setting conditions for Syria talks Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:01 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is committed to arranging a peace conference on the Syria conflict but other countries and groups are complicating matters by trying to set preconditions, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. Lavrov, who will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry next week to discuss the planned conference, also said shipments of weapons to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "contradict the concept of the conference". Russia, which has backed Assad by sending Damascus arms and protecting him from U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somalia may accept former islamist warlord in portcity: diplomats Friday, Jun 28, 2013 07:00 AM PDT By Drazen Jorgic MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's government is expected to recognize a former Islamist warlord it had opposed as interim leader of a strategic port city, diplomats said, defusing a crisis over rival claims to the post that had raised fears of a return to clan warfare. The threat of the kind of clan fighting that over two decades tore Somalia apart has hung over Kismayu since Ahmed Madobe, leader of the Ras Kamboni militia, was chosen by a regional assembly to lead Jubaland and its port in May. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: From remote Mauritania, hacker fights for Islam worldwide Friday, Jun 28, 2013 06:46 AM PDT  By Elise Knutsen DAKAR (Reuters) - In Nouakchott, a dusty city wedged between the Atlantic ocean and western dunes of the Sahara, a young hip-hop fan coordinates a diverse group of hackers targeting websites worldwide in the name of Islam. Logging on to his computer, he greets his Facebook followers with a "good morning all" in English before posting links to 746 websites they have hacked in the last 48 hours along with his digital calling card: a half-skull, half-cyborg Guy Fawkes mask. ... Full Story | Top |
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