| | |
| Poll shows Australia's Labor government on course for heavy defeat Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 08:33 PM PDT  CANBERRA (Reuters) - A bold gamble by Kevin Rudd to reclaim the leadership of Australia and launch national elections appears to be failing, with a poll on Monday showing his center-left Labor government is headed for a heavy defeat in a September ballot. A Newspoll in the Australian newspaper showed opposition leader Tony Abbott's conservative coalition was ahead of Rudd's Labor Party by 54 percent to 46 at the midpoint of the five-week campaign, a two-point increase in a fortnight. ... Full Story | Top |
| New ban on New Zealand dairy products bound for China Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 07:45 PM PDT  By Naomi Tajitsu WELLINGTON (Reuters) - More New Zealand milk products bound for China have been halted after elevated levels of nitrates were found, raising further concerns over quality and testing in the world's largest dairy exporter in the wake of a contamination scare earlier this month. New Zealand's agricultural regulator said on Monday it has revoked export certificates for four China-bound consignments of lactoferrin manufactured by Westland Milk Products after higher- than-acceptable nitrate levels were found by tests in China. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain detains partner of journalist linked to Snowden Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 06:04 PM PDT By William James LONDON (Reuters) - British authorities used anti-terrorism powers on Sunday to detain the partner of a journalist with close links to Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor who has been granted asylum by Russia, as he passed through London's Heathrow airport. The 28-year-old David Miranda, a Brazilian citizen and partner of U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald who writes for Britain's Guardian newspaper, was questioned for nine hours before being released without charge, a report on the Guardian website said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico boosts security on northeast border after cartel boss arrest Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:41 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities have increased security along the country's northeastern border with the United States after arresting the suspected leader of the Gulf Cartel, one of the oldest drug trafficking groups in Mexico, a spokesman said on Sunday. The Mexican army on Saturday captured Mario Ramirez Trevino in Reynosa in Tamaulipas state, across the border from McAllen, Texas, Interior Ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said at a press conference without providing further details. ... Full Story | Top |
| In turnaround, ruling Tunisia Islamists will meet rivals Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:27 PM PDT By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's governing Islamist party Ennahda switched course on Sunday and agreed to meet with opposition parties to seek a consensus on resolving the country's worst political crisis since its 2011 Arab Spring revolution. Fethi Ayadi, chairman of the party's supreme council, told journalists the talks could start by the end of the week and could consider opposition demands for a caretaker technocrat government to find a way out of the current standoff. ... Full Story | Top |
| UK detains partner of journalist linked to Snowden Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:26 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - British authorities used anti-terrorism powers to detain the partner of a journalist with close links to Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor, as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on Sunday. The 28-year-old David Miranda, a Brazilian citizen and partner of U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald who writes for Britain's Guardian newspaper, was questioned for nine hours, before being released without charge, a report on the Guardian website said. Rio de Janeiro-based Greenwald has interviewed Snowden, wanted by U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: North Korea's Kim tries new tack with defectors - being nice Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:52 PM PDT  (Contains profanity in third paragraph) By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is taking a new approach to defectors who have fled his impoverished and repressive state, promising they will not be harmed if they come home, and even offering cash rewards, according to some in the exile community. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chemical weapons inspectors to start work in Syria on Monday Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:50 PM PDT  DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A team of U.N. chemical weapons experts have arrived in Damascus and will start work on Monday to investigate the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war. President Bashar al-Assad's government and the rebels fighting him have accused each other of using chemical weapons, a step which the United States had said would cross a "red line" in a conflict which has killed 100,000 people. Like the broader Syrian conflict, the issue of chemical weapons has divided world powers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's Brotherhood cries foul over prison deaths Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:44 PM PDT  By Crispian Balmer and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, fighting for its political survival, has accused security forces of killing dozens of detained Islamists, upping the pressure in a crisis that has rocked the Arab world's most populous state. At least 850 people have died since last Wednesday in clashes pitting followers of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi against the army-backed government in the worst bloodletting in Egypt's modern history. ... Full Story | Top |
| Okinawa shows vulnerability of Japan PM's popular appeal Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:08 PM PDT  By Nathan Layne NAHA, Japan (Reuters) - Masatoshi Onaga says Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is out of touch with Okinawa, one of Japan's poorest prefectures and the reluctant host to half the U.S. forces in the country. To understand the island's pain, Onaga would like to see Tokyo-based leaders try living in the shadows of the Futenma air base, a facility targeted for closure since 1996 because of its location in a densely populated area, with warplanes taking off and landing over surrounding houses, hospitals and schools. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU weighs aid, commercial links with Egypt Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 01:58 PM PDT  By Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments will this week question how to best use their economic ties with Egypt to pressure Cairo's army-backed rulers into finding a peaceful compromise with supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. At stake could be a 5 billion euro ($6.7 billion) package of grants and loans promised by the EU, its member governments and international financial institutions last year, as well as various trade incentives, EU officials and experts say. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ex-rebel sworn in as Central African Republic president Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 01:38 PM PDT BANGUI (Reuters) - Former rebel leader Michel Djotodia was formally sworn in as the Central African Republic's president on Sunday, starting the clock on his interim administration's 18-month deadline to restore order and organize elections. Djotodia has been in charge of the country during the chaos that followed the rebels' seizure of control in March, when they swept into power from their northern bases, overpowering South African forces protecting former leader Francois Bozize. ... Full Story | Top |
| Saudi Arabia warns against pressing Egypt on crackdown Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 01:19 PM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Sunday warned the West against putting pressure on Egypt's military-backed government to halt a crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. "We will not achieve anything through threats," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, told reporters through an interpreter during a visit to Paris. The prince spoke after meeting French President Francois Hollande, who on Thursday called for a swift end to a state of emergency imposed by Egypt's military authorities. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fate of Polish finance minister not known until November: deputy PM Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 12:03 PM PDT  WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will not decide whether to replace his finance minister until November, at the earliest, Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechocinski said on Sunday. Sources told Reuters on Friday Tusk was planning to dismiss Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski as part of a major cabinet reshuffle planned in a few months' time to help rebuild the flagging support for the ruling Civic Platform party. "In my opinion, whether Minister Rostowski will remain in the government will be decided in November at the earliest," Piechocinski told public radio. ... Full Story | Top |
| Some 38 Brotherhood supporters die in Egypt prison: security sources Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 11:40 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Some 38 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood died on Sunday in an incident at an Egyptian prison, security and legal sources said, giving conflicting versions of the deaths. The Interior Ministry did not immediately confirm the death toll, but said in a statement that a number of detainees had tried to escape from a prison on the outskirts of Cairo and had taken a police officer hostage. In subsequent clashes, the ministry said an undisclosed number of people had died from inhaling tear gas rounds. It added that the officer was freed but badly wounded. ... Full Story | Top |
| Southern African leaders back re-election of Zimbabwe's Mugabe Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:48 AM PDT  By Mabvuto Banda LILONGWE (Reuters) - Southern African leaders on Sunday endorsed the re-election of veteran President Robert Mugabe, brushing aside a campaign from Zimbabwe's opposition MDC who said the vote July was rigged and its results should be overturned. The decision by the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), which helped broker a power-sharing deal after disputed elections in 2008, clears the way for Mugabe, 89, to be sworn as early as this week for a fresh five-year term. ... Full Story | Top |
| Singapore unveils master plan for port, airport, waterfront Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:26 AM PDT  By Kevin Lim and Rachel Armstrong SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Singapore government unveiled a master plan on Sunday to double capacity at Southeast Asia's busiest airport, build a new waterfront city, move its massive port and relocate a military airbase to free up land for development. The plan announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong follows mounting discontent in one of the world's wealthiest nations over an influx of foreign workers and expatriates blamed for a range of problems - from strained infrastructure to among the highest living costs in Asia. ... Full Story | Top |
| Merkel says SPD rivals can not be trusted before vote Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:23 AM PDT  By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel told voters they could not trust the opposition Social Democrats as they had a track record of breaking promises to grab power with the help of the ostracized far left, in an escalation of rhetoric before elections. Merkel's conservatives hold a 16-point lead over the Social Democrats (SPD) in polls, but she fears the opposition might still be able to win if it forms a coalition with the Left Party - a movement with its roots in former East Germany's Communists. ... Full Story | Top |
| Showdown looms in Venezuela over decree powers plan Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:21 AM PDT  By Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan politicians traded insults at the weekend with a showdown looming in the National Assembly over President Nicolas Maduro's plans to ask for fast-track decree powers he says he needs to combat corruption. Maduro, who narrowly won an April election to replace his late mentor Hugo Chavez, says he is ready to change "all the laws" if necessary to stamp out widespread graft that is denting his popularity with some core supporters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Liberia booming but still needs peacekeepers: president Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:08 AM PDT  By Alphonso Toweh MONROVIA (Reuters) - Investments in mining, agriculture and oil will push Liberia's economic growth into double-digits within five years, but it will still need U.N. peacekeepers to help keep order until 2017, the president said. Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the end of 14 years of on-off civil war, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told Reuters peace, investment and an eightfold-fold increase in government revenues were concrete signs of recovery. ... Full Story | Top |
| Growing number of U.S. lawmakers urge suspension of Egyptian aid Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:04 AM PDT  By Doug Palmer and Lisa Lambert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing bipartisan chorus of U.S. lawmakers said on Sunday that the United States should suspend its $1.5 billion in military and economic aid to Egypt following a violent crackdown on protesters that has left nearly 800 dead. Senator John McCain, a top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he now supported suspending the aid, even though he initially believed it should be continued after the Egyptian military removed democratically elected President Mohamed Mursi from office last month. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italy PM says government survival crucial to economic recovery Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 10:04 AM PDT  By Paolo Biondi RIMINI, Italy (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Sunday warned that the collapse of his government would undermine economic recovery and anger voters after local media reported center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi was poised to pull the plug on the executive. Italian newspapers said Berlusconi, who was convicted of tax fraud earlier this month, would bring down the government in October if he is expelled from the Senate - a measure the court ruling foresees but which requires a parliamentary vote to enact. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Egypt seen as graveyard of Islamist ambitions for power Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 09:32 AM PDT  By Samia Nakhoul BEIRUT (Reuters) - As the army ruthlessly crushes the Muslim Brotherhood on the streets of Cairo, having swept away its elected president, Egypt is being painted as the graveyard of the Arab Spring and of Islamist hopes of shaping the region's future. This week's bloody drama has sent shockwaves out of Egypt, the political weathervane and cultural heart of the Arab world. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt government says 79 people died in violence Saturday: report Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 09:19 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Seventy-nine people died across Egypt on Saturday during political violence and 549 were wounded, the state news agency MENA said on Sunday, quoting government figures. The latest tally means at least 830 people have died in Egypt since Wednesday in clashes pitting supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi against the security forces. (Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Crispian Balmer) Full Story | Top |
| Fracking protesters march in British rural idyll Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 08:22 AM PDT By Sarah Young BALCOMBE (Reuters) - British opposition to shale gas extraction flared up in the tiny village of Balcombe on Sunday as hundreds marched on an oil exploration site in protest at the drilling process known as 'fracking'. Banner-waving men, women and children traveled in by buses and bikes to join locals in a mile-long trek, surrounded by police, towards a drilling operation run by Cuadrilla Resources in the picturesque English county of West Sussex. Britain's government needs to win over a skeptical public if it is to stimulate a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Army chief to Mursi supporters: Egypt has room for everyone Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 07:05 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said in a speech to military and police officers on Sunday that his message to the supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi is that "there is room for everyone in Egypt". But in his first public comments since last week's security crackdown on Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, Sisi also warned that anyone who resorts to violence would not be tolerated. (Reporting by Yasmine Saleh) Full Story | Top |
| Libyan interior minister resigns over 'interference' Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 06:50 AM PDT TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's Interior Minister Mohammed Khalifa al-Sheikh stepped down on Sunday in protest against what he saw as interference in his work by the prime minister and parliament, a lawmaker said. The ministry has come under increasing pressure to deal with violence that has persisted since the 2011 war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. The oil-producing state is still awash with weapons and militias who have clashed with security forces. Al-Sharif al-Wafi, a member of the Libyan General National Congress, told Reuters Sheikh had submitted his resignation to the cabinet. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russia readies tighter customs if Ukraine signs EU deal: report Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 06:50 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is preparing tighter customs controls with Ukraine in case Kiev makes the "suicidal" move of signing an association agreement with the European Union, an aide to President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on Sunday. Russian border guards imposed new time-consuming checks on all Ukrainian cargo last week as Putin piles pressure on Kiev to join a Moscow-led regional trade bloc. Ukraine has refused to join because it hopes to sign a free trade and political association agreement with the EU in November and the two deals are mutually exclusive. ... Full Story | Top |
| Booming Gibraltar fears new era of sour relations with Spain Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 05:52 AM PDT  By Fiona Ortiz GIBRALTAR (Reuters) - The people of tiny Gibraltar - a wealthy British enclave perched on a rocky outcrop near Spain's southern tip - have a tradition of griping about their big neighbor, which claims the territory as its own. But the tetchy relationship has taken a sharp nosedive as an escalating spat over fishing has interrupted a decade of relative calm, igniting concerns that Gibraltar's tourism and port industries could be hurt. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea accepts South's proposal to resume war-torn family reunions Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 04:17 AM PDT SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Sunday it had accepted a South Korean offer to hold working-level talks on resuming reunions of families separated by the Korean War, three days after an overture by South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Reclusive North Korea's decision comes amid easing tensions between North and South, technically still at war after their 1950-53 civil conflict ended in a mere truce, not a treaty. ... Full Story | Top |
| Saudi prince fires celebrity TV preacher for Brotherhood links Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 04:05 AM PDT  RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has fired a renowned Kuwaiti preacher and motivational speaker from the top job at the religious television channel he owns for what he described as "extremist inclinations" and links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia has come out strongly in support of an army crackdown on the Brotherhood in Egypt following the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last month. The Brotherhood's rise had unsettled Gulf Arab states which feared it would embolden Islamists at home. ... Full Story | Top |
| Lebanon seizes bomb-laden car, arrests four Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:41 AM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese security forces seized a car loaded with explosives and arrested four men suspected of preparing bombs, days after a deadly bombing in southern Beirut, security sources said on Sunday. The car was discovered on Saturday about 15 km (10 miles) south of the capital in Naameh, laden with five containers of TNT as well as nitroglycerin, they said. The four men were being held on suspicion of preparing explosives for possible use in car bombings, but were not believed to be connected to Saturday's discovery or to the car bomb which killed 27 people three days ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| China's fallen former high-flyer Bo to stand trial Thursday Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:41 AM PDT  By Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - The trial of disgraced senior Chinese politician Bo Xilai will start on Thursday, when he will face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power in China's most divisive and dramatic case in decades. The long-awaited trial of Bo, 64, a "princeling" son of a late vice premier who is still popular with conservatives and the disaffected, will be the country's highest-profile hearing since the 1976 downfall of Mao Zedong's widow, Jiang Qing, and her Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Flamboyant Chinese princeling faces final indignity Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:39 AM PDT  By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - The writing was perhaps already on the wall for Bo Xilai, the controversial former top official of China's southwestern city of Chongqing, when he appeared at last year's parliamentary meeting, alternately chastened and combative. In earlier annual sessions of parliament, Bo had swept in, all smiles and lanky grace, preceded by a wave of TV cameras and popping flashbulbs. This time he was uncharacteristically restrained. ... Full Story | Top |
| American al Qaeda militant urges attacks on U.S. diplomats Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 03:00 AM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - An American al Qaeda militant has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the U.S. ambassador to Libya on September 11 last year, a U.S.-based monitoring group said on Sunday. Western nations shut embassies across the Middle East and North Africa early this month, after a warning of a possible militant attack. Many have reopened, and Britain said its Yemen embassy would open on Sunday after being closed for 12 days. Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Four Thai nationals released in Nigeria a week after kidnapping Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:54 AM PDT PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Four Thai nationals have been released unhurt a week after they were abducted while travelling to a farm in southern Nigeria, police said on Sunday. Gunmen kidnapped the four in the Buguma area of Rivers state last weekend. Police spokeswoman Angela Agabe said they were released on Saturday. "Investigation is still going on with a view to apprehending the kidnappers," she said, adding no ransom had been paid. ... Full Story | Top |
| Crackdown on Brotherhood makes Cairo a ghost town after dark Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 02:50 AM PDT  By Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - When night falls in Cairo, a security crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood quickly turns the Arab world's most vibrant city into a ghost town run mostly by vigilantes eager to hunt down members of the Islamist group. The sound of boats blaring music on the Nile and hawkers selling fruit juice and nuts fades as a dusk-to-dawn curfew takes hold after the bloodiest week in Cairo's modern history. ... Full Story | Top |
| Madagascar court bars Rajoelina and Lalao from election Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 01:48 AM PDT  ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's electoral court has barred the incumbent president, Andry Rajoelina, and the wife of a long-standing rival from standing in the next presidential election, the court said. The decision by Rajoelina and Lalao Ravalomanana, wife of the Indian Ocean island's previous leader, unseated by Rajoelina in a 2009 coup, to stand in the election led to donors suspending financing for the poll. As a result, the vote has been delayed by a month to August 23, and analysts say there are now doubts whether it will happen at all. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU to review relationship with Egypt in coming days Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 01:20 AM PDT  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will review its relationship with Egypt in the coming days, the 28-member bloc said on Sunday. In a statement, the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso called on all sides in Egypt to show restraint and prevent further escalation of the violence. "To this effect, together with its member states, the EU will urgently review in the coming days its relations with Egypt and adopt measures aimed at pursuing these goals," the statement said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Five Bahraini security officers injured by homemade bomb in village Sunday, Aug 18, 2013 12:36 AM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - Five Bahraini security officers were injured, two seriously, when a bomb exploded in a village in the north of the Gulf island kingdom that is grappling with renewed pro-democracy protests and attacks on police and the military. Security officers had confronted a "terrorist group" in the village of Dair, north of the capital Manama, when the homemade device exploded, state news agency BNA quoted an Interior Ministry statement as saying. All the officers were in a stable condition, BNA said. ... Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment