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| San Diego mayor accused of sexual harassment leaves office quietly Friday, Aug 30, 2013 08:47 PM PDT  By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Bob Filner's term as San Diego mayor came to a quiet end on Friday as the veteran politician who resigned in the face of a sexual harassment lawsuit stayed out of the public eye on his last day in office. Filner, a former Democratic congressman elected to lead California's second-largest city last year, announced his resignation last week as part of a settlement with the city over how to handle a lawsuit filed by his former press secretary. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says world cannot let Assad get away with chemical attack Friday, Aug 30, 2013 08:39 PM PDT  By Steve Holland and Catherine Bremer WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - The United States made clear on Friday that it would punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the "brutal and flagrant" chemical weapons attack that it says killed more than 1,400 people in Damascus last week. "We cannot accept a world where women and children and innocent civilians are gassed on a terrible scale," President Barack Obama told reporters at the White House. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chemical weapons inspectors leaving Damascus - witness Friday, Aug 30, 2013 08:17 PM PDT DAMASCUS (Reuters) - The team of U.N. chemical weapons inspectors left their Damascus hotel early on Saturday, a Reuters witness said, and appeared to be leaving the country. The witness saw the team's convoy of vehicles head onto a highway that leads to neighboring Lebanon. (Reporting by Marwan Makdesi; Editing by Peter Cooney) Full Story | Top |
| UK says Snowden leaks hurt its national security, could expose spies Friday, Aug 30, 2013 08:05 PM PDT  By Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Leaks by a fugitive U.S. intelligence contractor have damaged Britain's national security, and the data he gave journalists includes information that might expose the identities of British spies, a government official told the High Court in London. The official said Brazilian David Miranda, the partner of a Guardian newspaper journalist, was carrying a computer hard-drive containing 58,000 highly classified intelligence documents when he was detained at Heathrow airport earlier this month. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sixth U.S. ship now in eastern Mediterranean 'as precaution' Friday, Aug 30, 2013 07:57 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A sixth U.S. warship is now operating in the eastern Mediterranean, near five U.S. destroyers armed with cruise missiles that could soon be directed against Syria as part of a "limited, precise" strike, defense officials said late on Friday. They stressed that the USS San Antonio, an amphibious ship with several hundred U.S. Marines on board, was in the region for a different reason and there were no plans to put Marines on the ground as part of any military action against Syria. ... Full Story | Top |
| Yosemite wildfire still raging, keeps tourists away Friday, Aug 30, 2013 07:12 PM PDT  By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Fire crews battling to outflank a monster wildfire inside Yosemite National Park made headway on Friday in confining flames to wilderness areas but were powerless to salvage the region's sputtering tourist economy at the end of its peak summer tourist season. By morning, the tally of charred landscape from the so-called Rim Fire surpassed 200,000 acres, or nearly 315 square miles, three-quarters of that in the Stanislaus National Forest west of the park, fire officials said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sports drink helps California inmates on hunger strike stave off starvation Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:59 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Inmates on a hunger strike to protest California's solitary confinement policies are staving off starvation by drinking Gatorade, but medical troubles are setting in nonetheless, a spokeswoman for the office in charge of prisoner healthcare said on Friday. Of 123 inmates who are refusing food, 15 have lost potentially dangerous amounts of weight, and most report feeling weak and cold, said Liz Gransee, a spokeswoman for the official who oversees healthcare in the 34-prison system. "Some of them aren't handling this as well as others," Gransee said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain seeking lift with Madrid's 2020 'austerity bid' Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:29 PM PDT By Iain Rogers MADRID (Reuters) - For a sports-obsessed country in the grip of a debilitating recession and stained by allegations of political corruption, winning the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games in Madrid is exactly the tonic Spain needs. At least that is what government and bid officials are arguing as they attempt to convince International Olympic Committee (IOC) members the capital deserves to stage the world's biggest and most expensive sporting event instead of Istanbul or Tokyo. ... Full Story | Top |
| Detroit pension trustee loses seat, city job: report Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:21 PM PDT DETROIT (Reuters) - A trustee for one of Detroit's two pension funds lost his city job and position on the retirement board months after he was criticized for attending a conference in Hawaii, the Detroit News reported on Friday. The trustee, Cedric Cook, was a senior data processing program analyst for the city and chairman of Detroit's General Retirement System. The newspaper said Cook "has been off work for more than a month on an unpaid suspension," but it did not specify when he lost his job. Cook went to the conference in May with three other pension trustees. ... Full Story | Top |
| Judge plans to appoint monitor for controversial Arizona sheriff Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:20 PM PDT  By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - A federal judge plans to appoint a monitor to watch over the operations of hardline Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose office had been found by the judge to have racially profiled Latino drivers during the lawman's crackdown on illegal immigration. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow said in a court hearing on Friday that the Maricopa County lawman, who styles himself as "America's toughest sheriff," needed an independent check on his actions to prevent such profiling from continuing in the future. ... Full Story | Top |
| Istanbul clings to bid hopes as blows rain down Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:10 PM PDT By Daren Butler ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Along the picturesque Bosphorus Straits dividing Europe and Asia, Istanbul is undergoing a transformation which should fill Turkey with confidence in its bid to become the first Muslim country to stage the Olympics in 2020. Overlooking the waterway, mechanical diggers are tearing down Besiktas' Inonu Stadium to make way for a state-of-the-art facility earmarked to stage rugby in 2020, and to the north construction of the city's third suspension bridge is underway. ... Full Story | Top |
| 2020 Games bidders locked in tight race ahead of vote Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:05 PM PDT By Karolos Grohmann (Reuters) - The race for three cities hoping to land the 2020 summer Olympics will go down to the wire after two years of campaigning as Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo grapple with their own problems ahead of the September 7 vote. The International Olympic Committee will elect the winning bid at their session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, next month with no clear front runner in the campaign to host the world's biggest and most expensive multi-sport event. ... Full Story | Top |
| Olympics-Istanbul clings to bid hopes as blows rain down Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:00 PM PDT * Massive infrastructure investment underpins Istanbul's bid * Anti-government protests, doping shake confidence * Middle East turmoil overshadows mood By Daren Butler ISTANBUL, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Along the picturesque Bosphorus Straits dividing Europe and Asia, Istanbul is undergoing a transformation which should fill Turkey with confidence in its bid to become the first Muslim country to stage the Olympics in 2020. ... Full Story | Top |
| Olympics-Spain seeking lift with Madrid's 2020 'austerity bid' Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:00 PM PDT By Iain Rogers MADRID, Aug 31 (Reuters) - For a sports-obsessed country in the grip of a debilitating recession and stained by allegations of political corruption, winning the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games in Madrid is exactly the tonic Spain needs. At least that is what government and bid officials are arguing as they attempt to convince International Olympic Committee (IOC) members the capital deserves to stage the world's biggest and most expensive sporting event instead of Istanbul or Tokyo. ... Full Story | Top |
| Olympics-2020 Games bidders locked in tight race ahead of vote Friday, Aug 30, 2013 06:00 PM PDT By Karolos Grohmann Aug 31 (Reuters) - The race for three cities hoping to land the 2020 summer Olympics will go down to the wire after two years of campaigning as Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo grapple with their own problems ahead of the Sept. 7 vote. The International Olympic Committee will elect the winning bid at their session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, next month with no clear front runner in the campaign to host the world's biggest and most expensive multi-sport event. ... Full Story | Top |
| Endurance swimmer Nyad to attempt Cuba-Florida crossing again Friday, Aug 30, 2013 04:49 PM PDT  By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad will attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida this weekend, better prepared for the sharks, venomous jellyfish and powerful Gulf Stream currents that foiled her four previous attempts at the 103-mile (166-km) crossing. If she succeeds, Nyad, 64, would become the world record holder for the longest unassisted open ocean swim, meaning no shark cage protected her during the swim, which is expected to take more than 60 hours. Equipment emitting a mild electric current in the water should keep sharks at bay. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iowa board votes to end 'tele-med' abortions used by rural women Friday, Aug 30, 2013 04:45 PM PDT By Kay Henderson DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - The Iowa Board of Medicine took a final step on Friday to stop Planned Parenthood of the Heartland from providing abortion-inducing drugs to women via a video-conferencing system, a practice used to serve women in rural areas without doctors. The board voted 8-2 to ban the practice, with most members arguing the best standard of care for a woman seeking an abortion is to have a doctor perform a physical exam and talk face-to-face with the patient. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg to preside over gay wedding Friday, Aug 30, 2013 04:20 PM PDT By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to officiate at a wedding ceremony between two men this weekend, just two months after the court issued high-profile rulings on the highly divisive issue. A court spokesman said on Friday that Ginsburg would be officiating at the ceremony on Saturday at the Kennedy Center. Ginsburg is the first justice to preside over a wedding ceremony involving a same-sex couple. As reported by the Washington Post, Ginsburg will preside over the wedding of Michael Kaiser, the president of the John F. ... Full Story | Top |
| Montana prosecutor to appeal ex-teacher's month-long sentence for rape Friday, Aug 30, 2013 04:19 PM PDT By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - A Montana prosecutor said on Friday he intended to appeal as too lenient a 31-day sentence for a former teacher who raped a teenage student who later committed suicide. District Judge G. Todd Baugh has come under harsh criticism since sentencing former Billings high school teacher Stacey Rambold on Monday to 15 years in prison, then suspending all but 31 days of that term, for the 2007 rape of 14-year-old Cherice Moralez. ... Full Story | Top |
| Michigan governor seeks to dodge deposition in Detroit bankruptcy case Friday, Aug 30, 2013 04:15 PM PDT  By Joseph Lichterman and Bernie Woodall DETROIT (Reuters) - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and other state officials are seeking to avoid being questioned by Detroit worker and retiree unions in the city's bankruptcy case, according to a motion filed on Friday. Attorneys for the state, in a motion to quash depositions of Snyder, Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon and others, said they would not be able to offer testimony relevant to the issue of whether Detroit is eligible to enter Chapter 9 protection. ... Full Story | Top |
| In shadow of Iraq, U.S. has 'high confidence' Syria carried out chemical attack Friday, Aug 30, 2013 04:08 PM PDT  By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies publicly disclosed on Friday some of the information that led to a "high-confidence" assessment that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a chemical weapons attack on neighborhoods outside Damascus. But the declassified intelligence report also showed what the U.S. government does not have: clear evidence that Assad personally ordered the attack, and physiological evidence confirming what caused the deaths of an estimated 1,429 Syrians on August 21. U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fired Paraguayan bus drivers have themselves nailed to crosses Friday, Aug 30, 2013 04:02 PM PDT  ASUNCION (Reuters) - Eight Paraguayan bus drivers have had themselves nailed to crosses to protest being fired by a transportation company after it rejected their plea for higher pay, a lawmaker said on Friday. The drivers, from the northern town of Luque, are on their backs, nailed to wooden crosses laid out on the ground. Large nails pierce their hands at the base of the fingers. They said they took the action in a desperate bid to be heard. They have been nailed down for 15 days, according to Olga Ferreira de Lopez, a member of Paraguay's House of Congress who is monitoring the situation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Michigan court clears way to certify Detroit mayoral primary Friday, Aug 30, 2013 03:59 PM PDT DETROIT (Reuters) - The Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday cleared the way for the state's election board to declare a winner of Detroit's disputed August mayoral primary next week, in a ruling that would pave the way to a victory for a former hospital executive who waged a write-in campaign. Results of the August 6 mayoral primary have been held up for weeks over the counting of thousands of write-in votes for Mike Duggan, the former hospital executive. A city tally of the results of the primary gave the victory to Duggan by a wide margin over Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. nuclear agency seeks input to resume Yucca Mountain review Friday, Aug 30, 2013 03:35 PM PDT HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Friday said it will seek comments on how to restart the licensing process for the long-stalled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. The request is the agency's first response to a federal appeals court order issued August 13 that said the NRC can no longer delay a decision on whether to issue a permit for the project that would bury nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A three-judge panel of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. investigators to exit Syria, chemical probe may take weeks Friday, Aug 30, 2013 03:31 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A team of U.N. experts finished gathering evidence of a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people in suburbs near Damascus last week, the United Nations announced on Friday, though envoys said analyzing the samples may take weeks. The announcement the U.N. inspectors will not be releasing their findings immediately came as Washington suggested the U.N. investigation would have no bearing on its decision about whether to attack Syria in retaliation for the alleged poison gas attack on civilians. ... Full Story | Top |
| Justice Department talks with Microsoft and Google stall Friday, Aug 30, 2013 03:29 PM PDT  By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice's talks with Microsoft Corp and Google Inc have hit a wall as the government pushes back at the tech companies' demand for the ability to disclose the now-secret data requests they receive. Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, on Friday described as a failure the outcome of the companies' recent negotiations with the government over the disclosure of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court orders the companies receive. ... Full Story | Top |
| White House budget talks with Senate Republicans break off Friday, Aug 30, 2013 03:26 PM PDT By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Budget talks between the White House and a small group of U.S. Republican senators have reached an impasse, eliminating Washington's only active channel for resolving deep fiscal differences as key deadlines loom, senators and aides said on Friday. A meeting on Thursday between the eight senators and White House chief of staff Denis McDonough failed to produce any movement toward a deal to reduce "unsustainable debt and deficits," said Senator Dan Coats, a Republican from Indiana. ... Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street Week Ahead: Jobs data could spur Fed action on stimulus Friday, Aug 30, 2013 03:24 PM PDT  By Richard Leong NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street is bracing for a wave of economic reports next week, including the August jobs report, which might prove decisive in determining whether the economy is strong enough for the Federal Reserve to dial back its bond purchases in mid-September. Anxiety about the Fed possibly reducing its $85 billion monthly stimulus, also known as QE3, has hurt the stock market, which recorded its steepest monthly fall since May 2012. ... Full Story | Top |
| Countdown begins to U.S. airline merger trial in November Friday, Aug 30, 2013 03:03 PM PDT  By David Ingram and Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American Airlines and US Airways voiced a fresh sense of optimism on Friday after a U.S. judge granted their request for a speedy trial to determine whether the two carriers are allowed to form the world's largest airline. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said a trial pitting the airlines against the U.S. Justice Department and several states would begin on Monday, November 25. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: U.S. pension funds press Caesars' private equity owners Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:58 PM PDT  By Greg Roumeliotis NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some U.S. public pension funds are pressuring TPG Capital LP and Apollo Global Management LLC to share more of the fees they withdraw from loss-making casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp, in a rare display of activism against private equity firms. The two buyout firms charged Caesars a $200 million "transaction fee" when they took it private in a $30.7 billion deal in 2008, and have since been taking around $30 million a year as "monitoring fees" for their services to the casino company. ... Full Story | Top |
| Suriname president's son arrested on U.S. drug smuggling charges Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:57 PM PDT By Lomi Kriel PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - A son of Suriname's president has been arrested in Panama and sent to New York to face charges of smuggling cocaine into the United States, U.S. authorities said on Friday. An indictment against Dino Bouterse filed in a federal court in the Southern District of New York, alleges the 40-year-old imported more than five kilograms of cocaine into the United States between December 2011 and August 2013. Bouterse was arrested at Panama's Tocumen International Airport on Thursday, authorities said. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. analysis of Syria samples could take up to two weeks: envoy Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:54 PM PDT  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the five permanent Security Council members that it may be two weeks before for final results are ready of an analysis of samples experts collected at the site of a chemical weapons attack last week in Syria are ready, diplomats said on Friday. Ban said this to delegates from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States during a meeting in New York, the diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Christopher Wilson) Full Story | Top |
| Credit union regulator sues Morgan Stanley over mortgage losses Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:48 PM PDT  By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley is being sued by a U.S. credit union regulator to recover losses on more than $566 million of residential mortgage-backed securities sold to two corporate credit unions that later failed. The National Credit Union Administration said on Friday that Morgan Stanley made misrepresentations in offering documents for securities sold between 2004 and 2007 to the U.S. Central Federal Credit Union, once the largest federally chartered corporate credit union, and the Western Corporate Federal Credit Union. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico leftist vows to block reforms, warns oil firms Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:44 PM PDT  By Simon Gardner CATEMACO, Mexico (Reuters) - Fiery Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to stop the government's energy and tax reforms and hopes to lead even bigger protests than when he brought central Mexico City to a standstill after narrowly losing the 2006 presidential election. A colorful renegade and a former Mexico City mayor, Lopez Obrador accuses President Enrique Pena Nieto of trying to sell off Mexico's assets by seeking to lure foreign capital into the state-controlled energy sector. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela sentences man who shot U.S. attaches at strip club Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:26 PM PDT By Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan man has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for shooting and wounding two U.S. military attaches at a strip club in the capital, the attorney general's office said on Friday. Carlos Mejias, 32, admitted he shot the U.S. Embassy employees in the early hours of May 28, the office said. It said Mejias got into an argument with them at the Antonella 2012 club, better known as "Angelus," in the city's upscale Chacao district. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lawyers for ex-NFL star say murder investigators misled witness Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:14 PM PDT  By Daniel Lovering ATTLEBORO, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A judge on Friday declined to rule on a motion filed by Aaron Hernandez's lawyers that accused investigators of misleading at least one witness while building their murder case against the former NFL star. Attleboro District Court Judge Robert Harbour said the motion, along with two others filed by defense attorneys last week, should be handled by Fall River Superior Court where Hernandez's arraignment will take place on September 6. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria says U.S. accusations were 'lies and baseless' Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:14 PM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria said on Friday that accusations by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that it has used chemical weapons were "lies and baseless." The Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that Kerry's charges were a "desperate attempt" to justify a military strike against Syria. (Reporting by Mariam Karouny; editing by Christopher Wilson) Full Story | Top |
| U.S. casts action in Syria as moral imperative but sets no timetable Friday, Aug 30, 2013 02:10 PM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed and Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration made a forceful case on Friday for limited U.S. military action against Syria, releasing evidence the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against civilians several times during the past year and saying the "indiscriminate, inconceivable horror" of a deadly attack last week could not go unpunished. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi militia vowes to attack U.S. interests if Syria hit Friday, Aug 30, 2013 01:53 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi Shi'ite militia group said on Friday it would attack U.S. interests in Iraq and the region if Washington carries out a military strike on Syria. President Barack Obama said on Friday the United States was still in the planning process for a response to the chemical weapons use in Syria. "All their interests and facilities in Iraq and the region will be targeted by our militants if the United States insists on attacking Syria," a spokesman for the Iraqi militia group al-Nujaba'a told Reuters by telephone, without giving details. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hundreds of Fosamax lawsuits versus Merck ordered readied for trial Friday, Aug 30, 2013 01:51 PM PDT By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge overseeing consolidated litigation against Merck & Co over jaw injuries allegedly caused by the osteoporosis drug Fosamax has ordered hundreds of cases be dispersed to courts across the country for trial. The decision by U.S. District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan marks an unusual and potentially costly development for Merck. Companies often find it easier to reach settlements in mass tort cases that are consolidated before one judge. ... Full Story | Top |
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