Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Daily News: Reuters World News Headlines - CP Rail subcontracted to MMA in Quebec train crash

Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 05:06 PM PDT
Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:

CP Rail subcontracted to MMA in Quebec train crash 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 05:06 PM PDT
A Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive sits at the Obico Intermodal Terminal in TorontoBy Louise Egan OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Railway, hired to transport oil from North Dakota to New Brunswick, subcontracted part of the job to the small railroad involved in the deadly crash in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, the company that chose the Canadian railroad said. CP Rail, which had not until now been named in connection with the accident, subcontracted a section of the route to Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA), World Fuel Services said on Wednesday. ...
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Egypt's rulers want to break up Brotherhood vigils 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:12 PM PDT
By Asma Alsharif and Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt faced the prospect of fresh bloodshed on Thursday after the country's army-backed rulers signaled they would move soon to disperse thousands of supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. With no sign of a negotiated end to weeks of violent confrontation, Egypt's interim government said two Cairo vigils by Mursi supporters posed a threat to national security, citing "terrorism" and traffic disruption. It ordered the Interior Ministry to take steps to "address these dangers and put an end to them," but gave no time frame. ...
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As Zimbabwe counts ballots, police warn against leaked election results 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:09 PM PDT
Zimbabwe's President Mugabe looks on before casting his vote in HighfieldsBy Stella Mapenzauswa HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police vowed to crack down on any attempts to leak early results from Tuesday's vote, complicating plans by some civic groups to pre-empt official announcements by the country's election commission. The move means it could be hours before the first officially collated results trickle in from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, although political parties will have immediate access to individual results posted at polling stations. ...
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Yemen's president meets senators as U.S. grapples with Guantanamo detainee issue 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:55 PM PDT
Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi takes his seat to meet with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez at the U.S. Capitol in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi talked to U.S. senators on Wednesday as he to tries to persuade Washington to repatriate dozens of Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison. Expectations that the Obama administration is moving closer to its long-held goal of closing the facility were raised last week when the White House announced it was sending two detainees back to Algeria in the first repatriations for nearly a year. ...
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Cuba reports highest outflow of citizens since 1994 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:20 PM PDT
People wait for their name to be called by a worker of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Cuba as they wait for U.S. visas in HavanaBy Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - The number of Cubans leaving their country has increased steadily in recent years, the government reported on Wednesday, reaching levels not seen since 1994 when tens of thousands took to the sea in makeshift rafts and rickety boats. Separately, the U.S. State Department on Wednesday announced it is lengthening most visitor visas for Cubans from six months to five years, allowing them to make multiple U.S. visits over the five-year period instead of repeatedly applying and paying the $160 fee for the privilege. ...
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Dissident Kazakh oligarch Ablyazov held in France: sources 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:13 PM PDT
By Kirstin Ridley and Matthias Galante LONDON/CANNES, France (Reuters) - Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh businessman accused of embezzling $6 billion from his former bank, BTA, has been arrested on the French Riviera, two sources said on Wednesday. Ablyazov was arrested in the village of Mouans-Sartoux about 8 km (5 miles) north of Cannes in southern France, a police source said. A court hearing has been scheduled for 10:30 a.m. (0430 EDT) Thursday, added a second source, who could not confirm the hearing's location. ...
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U.S. to go ahead with joint military exercise in Egypt 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:07 PM PDT
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel attends the opening ceremony of the Pentagon's permanent Korean War exhibition near WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States still plans to hold a major military exercise called Bright Star in Egypt in mid-September, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday, even after the Egyptian military's toppling of the president and the violence that has ensued. "We're planning on going ahead with it," Hagel told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. Hagel has been in regular contact with Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi since the military ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on July 3. ...
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U.N. says chemical weapons inspectors to visit three Syrian sites 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:05 PM PDT
A general view shows Khan al-Assal area near the northern city of Aleppo, near the site where forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad say was Tuesday's chemical weapon attackBy Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors will travel to Syria "as soon as possible" to investigate claims of chemical weapons use during the country's civil war after President Bashar al-Assad's government granted access to three sites, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The head of a U.N. chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, and the head of the U.N. Office of Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, visited Damascus last week at the invitation of the Syrian government to discuss access and obtained an understanding that it would be granted. ...
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Iraq war logs in Manning case 'hit us in the face': U.S. officer 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 02:45 PM PDT
Bradley Manning is escorted into court for the first day of the sentencing phase in his military trial at Fort Meade, MarylandBy Tom Ramstack FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The U.S. Army was overwhelmed when WikiLeaks published more than 700,000 secret diplomatic and war documents handed over by soldier Bradley Manning, a retired officer testified in the sentencing phase of the convicted private's court-martial. "The ones that hit us in the face were the Iraq logs," retired Brigadier General Robert Carr said in a Fort Meade, Maryland court on Wednesday, a day after a military judge found Manning guilty of 19 charges over the leaks in 2010, the biggest breach of classified data in U.S. history. ...
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Rwanda says U.N. ultimatum threatened Congo peace talks 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 01:52 PM PDT
Congolese Revolution Army rebels walk past a U.N. patrol truck parked along a street in Goma, soon after capturing the city from the government armyBy Richard Lough NAIROBI (Reuters) - Rwanda said on Wednesday the decision by a U.N. intervention brigade to forcibly disarm people in a strategic zone of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo had surprised African leaders and risked jeopardizing peace talks. The U.N. peacekeeping mission said on Tuesday it was setting up a security zone around Goma, which briefly fell into M23 hands last year, and would disarm, by force if needed, anyone carrying weapons after a 48-hour grace period. ...
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Mexico's opposition party proposes sweeping energy reform 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 01:40 PM PDT
By David Alire Garcia and Adriana Barrera MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's opposition conservative party proposed sweeping energy reform on Wednesday to change the constitution to allow more private investment and promote competition, while the ruling party is expected to present its own plans for an overhaul next week. Both parties favor market-friendly policies in Latin America's No. 2 economy and are expected to join forces to push through energy reform. ...
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Phony rum kills seven in Cuba, dozens hospitalized 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:28 PM PDT
HAVANA (Reuters) - Seven Cubans have died and more than 40 have been hospitalized, eight in critical condition, after drinking wood alcohol, or industrial methanol, they thought was rum, the public health ministry said on Wednesday. The poisoning happened in the La Lisa municipality of Havana, beginning on Monday, and all those killed were in their 40s and 50s, according to a list provided by the ministry. Such incidents are rare, though not unheard of in Cuba. "Those affected consumed wood alcohol sold illegally ... ...
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Uruguay Congress debates bill to regulate legal marijuana use 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:23 PM PDT
Uruguayan President Mujica speaks to the media after a joint news conference with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva at the seventh regiment of mechanized cavalry barracks in Santana Do LivramentoBy Felipe Llambias and Malena Castaldi MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Legislators in Uruguay hotly debated on Wednesday a measure backed by leftist President Jose Mujica that would create a government body to control the cultivation and sale of marijuana and allow people to grow it at home or as part of smoking clubs. The use of marijuana is already legal in the South American nation, but sale and cultivation of it is not. A vote on the bill - expected to be very close - was due later on Wednesday in the lower chamber of Congress. ...
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Serbia woos ex-IMF head Strauss-Kahn for advisory role 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:16 PM PDT
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn departs the New York State Supreme Courthouse in New YorkBy Valerie Hopkins BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia has approached former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn about the possibility of him joining the government in an advisory role, deputy PM Aleksandar Vucic has told Reuters. Serbia is set to begin long-awaited talks in January on joining the European Union. However, investors have been spooked by the state's growing public debt and squabbles over who will be finance minister that have all but buried hopes of a new precautionary loan deal with the International Monetary Fund. ...
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U.N. says chemical weapons inspectors to visit three Syria sites 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:12 PM PDT
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has agreed to allow U.N. investigators to visit three sites to investigate accusations of chemical weapons use during the country's two year civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday. "The Mission will travel to Syria as soon as possible to contemporaneously investigate three of the reported incidents, including Khan al-Asal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's press office said in a statement. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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South Sudan's Kiir to keep oil minister, change finance portfolio 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:10 PM PDT
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir delivers a speech in the capital JubaBy Andrew Green JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau will keep his post in the new government, while new appointments will be made to the key finance and defense portfolios, officials said on Wednesday. Last week, President Salva Kiir sacked the cabinet, Vice President Riek Machar and put his top Sudan negotiator, Pagan Amum, under investigation amid a power struggle. Dau told Reuters he had been appointed again. "We will try to continue with the same programs that we laid in the last two years," he said, without elaborating. ...
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In raging Middle East, Israel wins time with Palestinian peace talks 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:03 PM PDT
Israel's PM Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in JerusalemBy Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Pressured by Washington, worried about its international standing and perturbed by Middle East turmoil, Israel had many reasons to return to peace talks with the Palestinians this week after a three year hiatus. On the surface, Israelis saw little reason to jump back into negotiations. The status quo in the occupied Palestinian territories was holding and the question of the so-called peace process had largely fallen off the domestic political agenda. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have realized he could not take the rap for cold shouldering U. ...
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Suspected Islamists steal 125 kg of dynamite in north Nigeria 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:58 AM PDT
(Updates death toll in Kano bomb) DAMATURU, Nigeria, July 31 - Gunmen suspected to be allied to Islamist sect Boko Haram have stormed a construction site in northeast Nigeria, carting off 125 kg (275 pounds) of dynamite and hundreds of detonators, two security sources said on Wednesday. The militants struck the Bara area of Yobe state at around 2 a.m. on Monday morning, the two security sources in Yobe told Reuters, but no shots were heard. One of the sources said the men arrived on four motorcycles, beating and overpowering the site's private security guards. ...
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Mexican governmet likely to present energy reform bill next week: lawmaker 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:58 AM PDT
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government is likely to present a far-reaching energy reform bill to Congress next week, a senior ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday, a key plank of President Enrique Pena Nieto's bid to boost economic growth. "Everything indicates that the (energy reform) initiative of President Pena Nieto will arrive next week," Senator Emilio Gamboa, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) bloc in the upper body of Congress. ...
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Berlusconi lawyers ask supreme court to acquit him of tax fraud 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:53 AM PDT
Reporters' tripods are left in position in front of Italy's supreme court building in RomeBy Roberto Landucci and Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi asked the supreme court on Wednesday to throw out a tax fraud conviction against the former prime minister in a case that could decide not only his future but that of Italy's fragile coalition government. The Court of Cassation heard more than three hours of arguments from Berlusconi's two lawyers challenging the verdict of a lower appeals court which sentenced him to jail and a ban from public office for the fraudulent purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset television empire. ...
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Britain says open to talks with Iran on a 'step-by-step' basis 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:52 AM PDT
Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague arrives at 10 Downing Street, in central LondonLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday he was willing to meet his Iranian counterpart to discuss the two countries' frosty relationship, following the election of a new president in Iran. Britain, at odds with Iran over its nuclear program and other issues, shut its embassy in Tehran after what it called "an attack by government-sponsored militias" on the mission in November 2011. Iran's embassy in London was also closed. ...
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Al Qaeda militants killed in drone strike in Pakistan 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:42 AM PDT
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A drone strike in Pakistan this week killed three al Qaeda operatives who ran a training camp in neighboring Afghanistan to prepare militants for attacks including this week's jail break in Pakistan, a Taliban commander said on Wednesday. About 30 militants and more than 200 other inmates escaped from the Dera Ismail Khan jail after a squad of highly trained Taliban fighters armed with grenade launchers and dressed as police overran the facility in the early hours of Tuesday. A day earlier, a U.S. ...
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U.S. State Department urges Egypt to respect right peaceful assembly 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:33 AM PDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department urged Egypt's interim government on Wednesday to respect the right of peaceful assembly, after Cairo's new leaders said vigils by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi threatened national security and were no longer acceptable. "We have continued to urge the interim government, officials and security forces, to respect the right of peaceful assembly," deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told a news briefing. "That obviously includes sit-ins. ...
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Secretary of State Kerry in Pakistan on unannounced visit 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:31 AM PDT
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (C) walks with U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson (L) and unidentified Pakistani officials upon his arrival in IslamabadBy Lesley Wroughton ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Pakistan late on Wednesday for a day of talks aimed at easing tensions over U.S. drone strikes while putting pressure on the nuclear armed nation to do more to eliminate militant havens on its territory. In Pakistan on an unannounced visit, Kerry is also likely to discuss ways to revive deadlocked talks with the Taliban and broader efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan as U.S.-led forces prepare to pull out most combat troops by late 2014. ...
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Kazakh oligarch Ablyazov arrested in France: sources 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:30 AM PDT
By Kirstin Ridley and Matthias Galante LONDON/CANNES, France (Reuters) - Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh businessman accused of embezzling $6 billion from his former bank BTA, has been arrested near Cannes in southern France and is being held by police, sources familiar with the situation said. A police source said Ablyazov was arrested in the village of Mouans-Sartoux, located about 8 km (5 miles) north of Cannes. A court hearing has been scheduled for 10.30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. ET) on Thursday, the source added. No further details were immediately available. ...
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Brazil invests in Sao Paulo bus services that set off protests 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:28 AM PDT
People attempt to board a crowded bus in Sao PauloBy Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff moved quickly on Wednesday to improve bus services in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, where protests over a fare increase in June triggered an outburst of national discontent that battered her popularity. Rousseff announced that 3 billion reais ($1.31 billion) in federal money will be invested in creating 99 km (61 miles) of new express lanes to speed up bus services in Sao Paulo, the country's financial capital. ...
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In Tunisian protest square, barriers reflect deeper divide 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:16 AM PDT
The capital's central Bardo square, where Tunisia's Constituent Assembly is located, is seen sealed off, in TunisBy Erika Solomon and Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - The red Tunisian flags they wave are the same, but the divide between opposition and pro-government protesters in the capital's main square is much wider than the 150-metre gap between barriers put there to separate them. Nearly two years after Tunisians came together to remove the long-standing autocratic president, the country is facing its worst political crisis since that uprising set off a wave of protests across the region. ...
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Mexican President Pena Nieto has successful thyroid surgery 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:57 AM PDT
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto speaks at the annual Allen and Co. conference at the Sun Valley, Idaho ResortMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto successfully underwent surgery on Wednesday to remove a benign nodule on his thyroid gland, his chief of staff said. "It was a success. The president is already awake," Aurelio Nuno, head of the office of the presidency, told a news conference. The surgery lasted nearly two hours and Pena Nieto will remain in hospital for two days. He will then take another couple of days rest at his home. The thyroid nodule was detected about seven years ago, but Pena Nieto had postponed treatment. ...
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Turkish police fire teargas to disperse hundreds in Istanbul 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:52 AM PDT
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police fired teargas in Istanbul on Wednesday to disperse several hundred people protesting against the police crackdown on last month's anti-government demonstrations, local media reported. Police blocked several hundred protesters in a busy street near Istanbul's Taksim Square from marching in support of a teenage boy who is said to be in a coma after being hit in the head by a teargas canister during the unrest. TV footage showed police vehicles firing water cannons and protesters running into side streets. ...
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Israel, Palestinians deeply divided despite renewed peace talks 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:42 AM PDT
Israeli member of parliament Bar sits next to Abdullah, head of Palestinian Legislative Council, and Madani, member of Central Committee of Fatah, during their meeting at Israeli parliament in JerusalemBy Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Ali Sawafta JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians remain far apart over terms of any peace deal, officials from both sides made clear on Wednesday, a day after talks resumed in Washington for the first time in nearly three years. Israel's lead negotiator, Tzipi Livni, said the parties "need to build confidence" after what she called an encouraging start in Washington, and disputed a Palestinian demand to focus first on agreeing the frontiers of an independent state. "The goal is to end the conflict," Livni said on Israel Radio. ...
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State Department urges Egypt to respect rights of peaceful assembly 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:36 AM PDT
Supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi shout slogans during a march from Al-Fath Mosque to the defence ministry, in CairoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department urged Egypt's interim government on Wednesday to respect the right of peaceful assembly, after Cairo's new leaders said vigils by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi threatened national security and were no longer acceptable. "We have continued to urge the interim government to respect the right of peaceful assembly," deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told a regular daily briefing. "That obviously includes sit-ins." (Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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African Union gives Zimbabwe election early thumbs up 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:33 AM PDT
Zimbabweans wait to cast their vote in Mbare townshipHARARE (Reuters) - Initial reports from Zimbabwe's elections showed a peaceful, orderly and free and fair vote, Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the African Union monitoring team, told reporters on Wednesday. (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Writing by Ed Cropley)
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Iran grants Syria $3.6 billion credit to buy oil products 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 09:47 AM PDT
A man selling petrol and gas waits for clients in Ain Tarma neighbourhood, DamascusBy Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria and Iran signed a deal this week to activate a $3.6 billion credit facility to buy oil products to shore up President Bashar al-Assad's war battered economy, officials and bankers said on Wednesday. The deal, which was agreed in May and will allow Iran to acquire equity stakes in investments in Syria, is part of Shi'ite Iran's broader support for Assad in his battle against a two-year insurgency by mainly Sunni rebels. Tehran has already provided military assistance to Assad, training his forces and advising on military strategy. ...
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Brazilian airport workers strike for higher wages; flights unaffected 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 09:41 AM PDT
Workers of Infraero, a national airport public company, take part in a strike at Congonhas airport in Sao PauloSAO PAULO (Reuters) - Thousands of Brazilian airport workers went on strike on Wednesday to demand higher wages, although contingency plans kept flights running on time, according to state airport agency Infraero. The workers' union is pressing for a roughly 16 percent salary bump along with improved benefits such as childcare. The demands highlight the gap between the steep wage hikes that organized labor has negotiated in recent years and the meager performance of the Brazilian economy, which grew less than 1 percent last year with inflation near 6 percent. ...
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Syrian opposition plans new government in August 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 09:17 AM PDT
A Free Syrian Army fighter positions a cannon inside a house in Jobar, DamascusDOHA (Reuters) - Syria's opposition plans to set up an interim government in August to run areas under rebel control, an opposition official said on Wednesday. "There is a plan to form a government in exile 10 days after Eid," said Omar Kouch, a senior leader of the Syrian National Coalition, referring to the Muslim holiday that follows the fasting month of Ramadan, which is expected to end either on August 8 or 9, depending on the sighting of the new moon. ...
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Nigeria opposition coalition cleared to run in poll 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:50 AM PDT
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan attends the 43rd Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting in AbujaABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's electoral commission has approved the merger of three main opposition parties into a bloc that could pose the most credible threat yet to the long-ruling party of President Goodluck Jonathan. Since nearly three decades of military dictatorship ended in 1999, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) has ruled more or less unchallenged, winning every presidential poll. ...
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Turkish militants held in Greece for weapons: minister 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:46 AM PDT
ANKARA/ATHENS (Reuters) - Two members of a Turkish militant group have been arrested in Greek waters with a boatload of weapons heading for Turkey, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said in Ankara on Wednesday. One of them, Hasan Biber, is a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) suspected of carrying out an attack on the headquarters of the ruling AK Party earlier this year, Guler told reporters. The United States and Turkey list the DHKP-C as a terrorist organization. It has carried out a series of deadly attacks on police stations since late last year. ...
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With banter and blankets, Zimbabweans make their choice 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:41 AM PDT
People wait to cast their votes in Mbare township outside HarareBy Nelson Banya MUTARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Even before the polls opened in Manicaland, a key swing province in eastern Zimbabwe, political banter and blankets were slowly warming hundreds of voters queuing patiently outside a polling station in the bitter pre-dawn cold. An old man mumbled a joke about whether the cock will still crow after the election, a reference to 89-year-old President Robert Mugabe who is facing what he has called the "fight of our lives" with long-time political nemesis Morgan Tsvangirai. ...
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Exclusive: Russian billionaire seeks U.S. government financing for luxury jets 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:15 AM PDT
Businessman Gennady Timchenko looks on during his visit to the Russian Geographical Society in St. PetersburgBy Joshua Schneyer and Brian Grow NEW YORK/ATLANTA (Reuters) - Billionaire Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko, a long-time associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, plans to seek U.S. government-backed funding to buy luxury aircraft, Reuters has learned. To smooth the path for financial backing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and allay possible U.S. government concerns about him, Timchenko hired lobbyists from powerhouse Washington law firm Patton Boggs, according to emails and documents viewed by Reuters. ...
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China's Xi says seeks peace in sea disputes but must be alert 
Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 08:14 AM PDT
China's Communist Party Chief Xi reads at the Great Hall of the People during the National People's Congress in BeijingBEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Politburo on Wednesday the country wanted to resolve its maritime territorial disputes peacefully and through talks, but would not compromise on sovereignty and had to step up its defensive capabilities. Territorial claims by Japan and China over the uninhabited islets and resource-rich waters in the East China Sea, as well as China's claims over the South China Sea, rank as some of Asia's biggest security risks. ...
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