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| Rioters renew violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:20 PM PDT YANGON (Reuters) - Rioters torched two houses in a coastal town in Myanmar's Rakhine State in the latest violence between Buddhists and minority Muslims, a government spokesman said, but a resident said security forces had restored order on Monday. At least 237 people have been killed in Myanmar in religious violence over the past year and about 150,000 people have been displaced. Most of the victims were Muslim and the most deadly incidents happened in Rakhine State, where about 800,000 Rohingya Muslims live, according to the United Nations. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chile's Bachelet easily beats rivals for new presidential bid Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:01 PM PDT  By Anthony Esposito and Antonio De la Jara SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Former Chilean leader Michelle Bachelet steamed toward another presidential bid on Sunday with a lopsided primary win that prompted her center-left rivals to concede early in the evening and vow to support her in the November election. On the right, former Economy Minister Pablo Longueira will face an uphill battle against Bachelet, after he beat out rival Andres Allamand. Bachelet, 61, who led Chile as its first female president from 2006 to 2010, received 73.07 percent of the vote, with 99.7 percent of the vote counted. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Chile presidential favorite Bachelet's policy proposals Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:13 PM PDT SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Michelle Bachelet handily won her leftist bloc's primary election on Sunday, reaffirming the popular politician is likely to stage a presidential comeback against a struggling right-wing rival in the November 17 vote. Bachelet, Chile's first female president who governed the world's top copper-exporting nation from 2006 to 2010, has a clear at defeating conservative Pablo Longueira and winning a second term. A pediatrician turned politician, Bachelet's first term was marked by market-friendly economic policies, welfare programs and her affable personal style. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Chile presidential underdog Longueira's policy proposals Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:03 PM PDT SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Veteran politician Pablo Longueira won his weakened right-wing bloc's primary election on Sunday, but the former economy minister faces an uphill battle to defeat presidential favorite Michelle Bachelet in November. Longueira, an industrial civil engineer by training, has said he wants to continue the policies of conservative President Sebastian Pinera, who is barred from seeking a second consecutive term in office. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU confronts U.S. over surveillance reports Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:02 PM PDT  By Ben Deighton and Annika Breidthardt BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union has demanded that the United States explain a report in a German magazine that Washington is spying on the group, using strong language to confront its closest trading partner over its alleged surveillance activities. EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said on Sunday that U.S. authorities were immediately contacted about a report in Der Spiegel magazine that the U.S. spy agency had tapped EU offices in Washington, Brussels and at the United Nations. ... Full Story | Top |
| Poll shows strong shift to Australian PM Rudd, new ministry named Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 06:26 PM PDT  CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rewarded backers who helped him reclaim power from Julia Gillard with places in the new ministry he announced on Monday, while a new poll showed a strong bounce for his Labor Party before national elections. Rudd included 11 women in his ministry, potentially helping him counter a backlash from female voters after he defeated Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister, in a party leadership vote on Wednesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Party outweighs protest after Brazil Confederations Cup victory Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 06:13 PM PDT  By Pedro Fonseca RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Small skirmishes between police and protesters did little to disrupt the festive atmosphere around the close of a major international soccer tournament that has been the backdrop for the biggest mass demonstrations to sweep Brazil in 20 years. Police clashed with a few belligerent protesters during a small demonstration outside Rio de Janeiro's Maracanã stadium late Sunday. Inside, Brazil's national team, cheered on by a thunderous hometown crowd, shut out world champions Spain 3-0. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt locked in standoff after millions rally against Mursi Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 06:03 PM PDT  By Paul Taylor and Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt was locked in a tense standoff on Monday after millions of protesters swarmed into the streets to demand the resignation of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and militants set the ruling Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters on fire. Young revolutionaries united with liberal and leftist opposition parties in a massive show of defiance on the first anniversary of Mursi's inauguration on Sunday, chanting "the people demand the fall of the regime". ... Full Story | Top |
| Seven dead in Egypt clashes, scores wounded Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 05:37 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - At least seven people were killed in Egypt and more than 600 wounded on Sunday in clashes between supporters and opponents of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, security and medical sources said. Five of the dead were shot in towns south of Cairo, one each in Beni Suef and Fayoum and three in Assiut. Two more were killed by gunfire during an attack on the national headquarters of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood in a suburb of the capital, medical sources said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Forged in war, ex-Yugoslav Croatia joins EU Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 04:52 PM PDT  By Zoran Radosavljevic and Igor Ilic ZAGREB (Reuters) - To fireworks, cannon-fire and Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Croatia joined the European Union at midnight on Sunday, two decades since fighting itself free of Yugoslavia. Thousands packed Zagreb's Ban Jelacic square to celebrate the accession of the bloc's 28th member, setting aside for a moment the troubles of a country in its fifth year of recession. "This will change the life of this nation for good. I welcome you wholeheartedly," Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, told the crowd. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistan utility company fights to power chaotic port megacity Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 04:39 PM PDT  By Katharine Houreld KARACHI (Reuters) - Since Pakistan's biggest electricity company was privatized, its headquarters have been looted, its employees kidnapped and the government tried to arrest its boss. It's been a roaring success. Power cuts lasting 12 hours a day or more have devastated Pakistan's economy. The loss of millions of jobs has fuelled unrest in a nuclear-armed nation already beset by a Taliban insurgency. ... Full Story | Top |
| Millions flood Egypt's streets to demand Mursi quit Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 04:37 PM PDT  By Shaimaa Fayed and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - Millions of Egyptians flooded into the streets on the first anniversary of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's inauguration on Sunday to demand that he resign in the biggest challenge so far to rule by his Muslim Brotherhood. Waving national flags and chanting "Get out!", a crowd of nearly 500,000 massed in and around Cairo's central Tahrir Square in by far the largest demonstration since the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mursi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. ... Full Story | Top |
| Assad's forces battle to tighten control of central Syria Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 04:19 PM PDT  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad's forces pounded Sunni Muslim rebels in the city of Homs with artillery and from the air on Sunday, the second day of their offensive in central Syria, activists said. They said rebels defending the old center of Homs and five adjacent Sunni districts had largely repelled a ground attack on Saturday by Assad's forces, backed by guerrillas from the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, but reported clashes and deaths within the city on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cairo's Tahrir bursts into life after months of quiet Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 03:29 PM PDT By Alexander Dziadosz CAIRO (Reuters) - A few blocks from Tahrir Square, the eery silence of a shuttered downtown Cairo suddenly erupts into a roar of horns, drums, whistles and chants. The smell of popcorn, cigarette smoke, grilled meat and freshly-squeezed oranges fills the air, as hundreds of thousands of protesters clap, cheer and wave the red-white-and-black Egyptian flag. After months of calm, Tahrir, the festive heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, has burst back into life. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's Mursi working to fix errors: spokesman Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 02:49 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi knows he has made mistakes and is working to fix them, a spokesman for the Egyptian leader said on Sunday after a day of mass protests demanding that the head of state quit. Presidential spokesman Omar Amer said Mursi was serious in his repeated calls for national dialogue. "(Mursi) announced to all of Egypt's people he made mistakes and that he is in the process of fixing these mistakes," Amer told a late-night news conference after millions took to the streets to demand Mursi leave power. ... Full Story | Top |
| Partiers outnumber protesters in Rio at Confederations Cup final Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 02:36 PM PDT By Pedro Fonseca RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The climax of a major international soccer tournament that provided the backdrop for the biggest mass protests to sweep Brazil in 20 years was set to kick off late Sunday as scattered demonstrations proceeded amid an otherwise festive feel. A deployment of about 10,000 police and other security forces was largely idle before game time as Brazil, playing in Rio's Maracanã stadium, geared up to play Spain, the reigning world champions, in the final of the Confederations Cup. ... Full Story | Top |
| Four dead in Egypt clashes, scores wounded Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 02:25 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - At least four people were killed in Egypt and nearly 200 wounded on Sunday in clashes between supporters and opponents of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, security and medical sources said. All four dead were shot in Nile Valley towns south of Cairo, one in Beni Suef and three in Assiut. Across the country, the Health Ministry said, 174 people were given medical treatment as a result of factional fighting in the streets. In Cairo and Alexandria, more than one million demonstrated. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt Islamist party says Mursi must give ground Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 02:24 PM PDT By Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - The leader of Egypt's Islamist Nour party urged his sometime ally President Mohamed Mursi to make concessions to avert bloodshed and presented himself on Sunday as a mediator with protesters on the streets. Mursi's opponents staged the biggest rallies since the downfall of dictator Hosni Mubarak on Sunday to demand the resignation of Mursi a year after he took office. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kazakhstan trade trip poses human rights test for UK's Cameron Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 01:11 PM PDT  By Andrew Osborn ATYRAU, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron helped inaugurate the world's costliest oil project in Kazakhstan on Sunday on a trip aimed at sealing business deals but quickly beset by questions over the Central Asian nation's poor human rights record. Kazakhstan hopes Cameron's visit, the first by a serving British prime minister, will cement its status as a rising economic power and confer a degree of the legitimacy from the West it has long sought. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU confronts U.S. over reports it spies on European allies Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 01:07 PM PDT By Ben Deighton and Annika Breidthardt BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union has demanded that the United States explain a report in a German magazine that Washington is spying on the group, using strong language to confront its closest trading partner over its alleged surveillance activities. EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said on Sunday the U.S. authorities was immediately contacted about a report in Der Spiegel magazine that the U.S. spy agency had tapped EU offices in Washington, Brussels and at the United Nations. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama urges Africa to follow spirit of Nelson Mandela Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:44 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Sunday the United States would help propel Africa along a path of prosperity and peace, and urged the continent to follow the example of Nelson Mandela. In South Africa on the second leg of a three-nation Africa trip, the U.S. leader and his family visited the bleak former prison of Robben Island to pay tribute to ex-inmate and former president Mandela, now critically ill in hospital. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb kills 12 soccer players, fans in Iraq Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:24 PM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb planted near a yard where people were playing soccer in Iraq killed 12 people on Sunday, police and medics said. A further 24 people were wounded in the blast in the town of Nahrawan, south of the capital Baghdad. 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 2006-7. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blast in Pakistani city of Quetta kills at least 28 Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 12:00 PM PDT  By Gul Yousufzai QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 28 people were killed and dozens wounded in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked a largely Shi'ite Muslim neighborhood, police said. The blast appeared to be the latest in an escalating campaign of gun and bomb attacks by militants on ethnic Hazaras in Quetta because they belong to Pakistan's Shi'ite minority. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kurdish protesters clash with Turkish security forces Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:24 AM PDT  By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Police fired teargas and water cannon on Sunday to disperse thousands of protesters in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, during demonstrations across the country to pressure the government to carry out reforms. Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, the BDP, had called for marches in at least three major cities, to launch a summer of protests against what it sees as a lack of commitment by Ankara to a peace process with Kurdish militants. ... Full Story | Top |
| Gunmen free 175 prisoners in Nigeria jailbreak Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:23 AM PDT ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead two civilians and then used explosives to free 175 inmates from a prison in Nigeria's southern town of Akure overnight, a prison official said on Sunday. Islamist sect Boko Haram and al Qaeda-linked group Ansaru have been behind several prison raids in recent years. It was not clear whether they were behind this jail break at Olokuta prison in Ondo state or whether they had members held there. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama says Zimbabwe has opportunity, needs free and fair poll Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:07 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday Zimbabwe's economic recovery gave the southern African country an opportunity to advance but only if upcoming elections were "free and fair." Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, at 89 Africa's oldest leader, is seeking to extend his three-decade rule in elections scheduled for July 31. The opposition wants to delay the poll to allow reforms designed to prevent a repeat of the bloodshed that marred the 2008 election. "Zimbabweans have a new constitution. The economy is beginning to recover. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ecuador's Correa says Snowden's fate in hands of Russia Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 11:03 AM PDT  By Alexandra Valencia PORTOVIEJO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Sunday the fate of former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden is in the hands of the authorities in Russia, where he is holed up in hope of obtaining asylum in the South American nation. Correa said his government cannot begin considering asylum for Snowden, wanted by Washington for leaking confidential information about a surveillance program, until he reaches Ecuador or an Ecuadorean embassy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fifteen people injured at motor rally in Poland Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:49 AM PDT WARSAW (Reuters) - At least 15 people, including two children, were injured at a motor rally in the Polish city of Poznan on Sunday after a luxury car skidded into a group of spectators, a local police spokesman said. The accident occurred at the start of the three-day Gran Turismo Polonia event which draws amateur motor enthusiasts from all over Europe. At least 150 luxury cars are taking part in the event. Police spokesman Andrzej Borowiak said police were questioning the Norwegian motorist involved in the accident. (Reporting by Dagmara Leszkowicz, editing by Gareth Jones) Full Story | Top |
| In Egypt, many complain - but don't protest Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:41 AM PDT  By Asma Alsharif CAIRO (Reuters) - Politics is all very well, reckons Zeeka, but it doesn't sell tomatoes and it doesn't pay the rent. "It's nothing to do with me," said the 23-year-old vegetable seller, in an eerily quiet downtown Cairo. "I'm the tomato guy." He was one of millions of Egyptians on Sunday who were not joining in mass protests against President Mohamed Mursi and who cursed factional rivalry for making it harder to make a living. "I won't go out on any protest," he said as demonstrations got under way in central Cairo. "If we vote for one guy he won't feed us. ... Full Story | Top |
| France's Hollande said to back away from reshuffle Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 10:09 AM PDT  By Elizabeth Pineau PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande is unlikely to reshuffle his government before the summer break and will instead urge ministers to sharpen their focus on unemployment and other issues sapping their popularity, sources told Reuters. Hollande, who had hinted in May that changes to his top team were in the works, has since backed away from the idea of a ministerial shake-up, an Elysee source said. A reshuffle "is not currently envisaged and we don't think it's what voters expect", said the source, who asked not to be identified. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi Kurdish President set to rule for two more years Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 09:45 AM PDT  ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The president of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani is set to stay in office for another two years, after lawmakers voted on Sunday to extend his tenure amid scuffles in parliament and an outcry from opposition parties. Barzani's presidency had been due to end this summer, when his second term of four years ends, but in recent months members of his party said legal ambiguities might allow him to remain longer or run again. The region's presidential law places a limit of two four-year terms on the position. "We are against the extension. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hungary to raise teachers' wages in September: minister Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 09:36 AM PDT  BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will raise teachers' wages from September, a government minister said on Sunday, in a move that could help the ruling Fidesz party cement its robust opinion poll lead ahead of a national election expected next April or May. The announcement comes just nine days after the European Union took Hungary off the list of member states which must take measures to cut their budget deficits, removing the threat of cuts in development funds from Brussels. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry plans return to Middle East after visit yields no deal Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:37 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton TEL AVIV (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ended a shuttle diplomacy mission on Sunday without an agreement on resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but said gaps had been narrowed and he would return to the region soon. "I'm pleased to tell you that we have made real progress on this trip. And I believe that with a little more work, the start of final status negotiations could be within reach," he told a news conference before his departure from Tel Aviv's airport. ... Full Story | Top |
| German Social Democrats mull ruling out coalition with Merkel: media Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:16 AM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's opposition Social Democrats are considering formally ruling out a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats after September's election, according to media reports on Sunday. Welt am Sonntag newspaper said party leaders hoped this could give supporters and election campaigners a motivational boost, much needed at a time when the Social Democrats trail Merkel by more than 15 percentage points. Der Spiegel reported that party leader Sigmar Gabriel hinted at this in a parliamentary group meeting last week. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Chad leader Habre arrested ahead of trial in Senegal Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 08:09 AM PDT  DAKAR (Reuters) - Hissene Habre, Chad's former leader, was arrested on Sunday in Senegal, where he has been living in freely in exile for 22 years despite accusations of political killing and torture during his time in power, a court spokesman said. Habre, who led Chad between 1982 and 1990, will be tried in a special court set up this year by Senegalese authorities in agreement with the African Union. The case against Habre follows years of procrastinating by Senegal under former president Abdoulaye Wade. It will be first time the former leader of an African state has been tried by another. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obamas tour Mandela's island jail before Africa speech Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:47 AM PDT  By Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and his family visited South Africa's bleak former prison of Robben Island on Sunday to pay tribute to ex-inmate Nelson Mandela, now critically ill in hospital. Obama was expected to later cite the legacy of Mandela, who was imprisoned on the windswept island for most of the 27 years he spent in jail before becoming the country's first black president, in a speech at the University of Cape Town. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least 30 killed by fuel truck explosion in Uganda Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 07:33 AM PDT  KAMPALA (Reuters) - At least 30 people were killed and scores more injured when a fuel tanker exploded on a highway in Uganda, a major transit route for fuel heading from Kenya to land-locked east African states, a police spokesman said on Sunday. The truck exploded late on Saturday a few miles north of the capital Kampala after it had stopped when it was involved in an accident with another vehicle and people nearby crowded round trying take fuel from the tanker, the spokesman said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Arrested Vatican monsignor felt he could act with impunity: judge Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 06:21 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A senior Catholic cleric arrested in a plot to smuggle tens of millions of dollars into Italy controlled vast amounts of money and felt he could act with impunity because of his connections to the Vatican bank, according to a judge's investigative document. In the latest blow to the Vatican's image, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, was arrested on Friday along with an Italian secret service agent and a financial broker. ... Full Story | Top |
| Thai PM sacks commerce minister after rice fiasco Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 05:44 AM PDT  BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's commerce minister was sacked on Sunday after coming under fire over a rice intervention scheme that resulted in huge losses to the budget and saw the country lose its place as the world's top rice exporter. In another move, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra added the post of defense minister to her duties, giving her more say in the affairs of the country's powerful military, with which she has enjoyed an uneasy relationship since coming to power in 2011. Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted by the military in 2006 when he was prime minister. ... Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia urges Myanmar to stem anti-Muslim violence Sunday, Jun 30, 2013 05:36 AM PDT  By Manuel Mogato (Reuters) - Malaysia urged Myanmar on Sunday to take stronger action to prevent persecution of Muslims and bring the perpetrators to justice, the latest sign that the inter communal violence is straining ties in Southeast Asia. Thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to escape the violence and worsening living conditions, many of them making their way by boat or overland to Muslim-majority Malaysia. ... Full Story | Top |
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