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| U.S. House moves federal government closer to shutdown Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 05:26 PM PDT  By Thomas Ferraro and Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a decision that could make a U.S. government shutdown hard to avoid on Tuesday, the House of Representatives on Saturday prepared to reject an emergency spending bill approved by the Senate and push instead to delay President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law. The vote by the Republican-controlled House was set to begin Saturday night. But there was little doubt about the outcome among Republicans, who cheered and chanted jubilantly in a meeting earlier Saturday after choosing their course of action. Democrats were grim. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon chief urges lawmakers to avert government shutdown Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 07:26 PM PDT  By David Alexander ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel appealed on Saturday for lawmakers to take action to avert a government shutdown next week, saying it was "astoundingly irresponsible" to try to influence policymaking by triggering a funding crisis. Hagel, speaking to reporters en route to Seoul to mark the 60th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korea defense alliance, said he had spent much of the week working on future spending cuts while planning for a shutdown next week that could force 400,000 civilian defense workers to take unpaid leave. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italian government breaks up after Berlusconi pulls out ministers Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 01:22 PM PDT  By Catherine Hornby and Antonella Cinelli ROME (Reuters) - Italian center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi pulled his ministers out of the cabinet on Saturday, effectively bringing down the government of Prime Minister Enrico Letta and leaving the euro-zone's third-largest economy in chaos. Talks will now start to find a parliamentary majority to back a new cabinet and avoid going back to an election just seven months after the last one. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iranians cheer, protest over Rouhani's historic phone call with Obama Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 07:15 AM PDT  By Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iranians cheered President Hassan Rouhani on his return from New York on Saturday after his historic phone call with U.S. President Barack Obama but a smaller number of hardliners shouted "Death to America" and threw eggs and shoes at his official car leaving the airport, Iranian media reported. While an anticipated handshake between Rouhani and Obama at United Nations headquarters failed to materialize, they held a 15-minute call on Friday at the end of the moderate new Iranian president's trip for the U.N. General Assembly. ... Full Story | Top |
| More than 30 still missing after Australia-bound refugee boat sank: police Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 07:48 PM PDT  JAKARTA (Reuters) - More than 30 people were still missing two days after a boat carrying asylum seekers to Australia sank off the Indonesian coast, killing 22 people including seven children, Indonesian security officials said on Sunday. The latest disaster to strike refugees using Indonesia's southern coast to try to make the perilous crossing suggests Australia's tough new immigration rules may not be enough to deter asylum seekers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Aftershock kills 15 in quake-hit Pakistan province Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 09:40 AM PDT  By Gul Yousufzai QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 15 people were killed on Saturday when an aftershock hit a Pakistani province where hundreds were killed in an major earthquake earlier this week. Saturday's 6.8 magnitude aftershock destroyed most of the town of Nokjo in the western province of Baluchistan, police said. The town is home to at least 15,000 people. At least 515 people were killed in Tuesday's earthquake in the same province, officials said on Friday. The death toll from Saturday's aftershock may rise, said Khan Wasey, the spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. Security Council demands elimination of Syria chemical arms Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 03:34 PM PDT  By John Irish and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday that demands the eradication of Syria's chemical weapons but does not threaten automatic punitive action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government if it does not comply. The unanimous vote by the 15-member Security Council capped weeks of intense diplomacy between Russia and the United States. It was based on a deal between the two countries reached in Geneva earlier this month following an August 21 sarin nerve gas attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds. ... Full Story | Top |
| Greek police arrest leader, lawmakers of far-right Golden Dawn Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 04:54 PM PDT  By Renee Maltezou and George Georgiopoulos ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek police arrested the leader and more than a dozen senior members of the far-right Golden Dawn party early on Saturday after the killing of an anti-fascist rapper by a party supporter triggered outrage and protests across the country. The arrests, which are the most significant crackdown on a political party in Greece since the fall of a military dictatorship in 1974, are the biggest setback to Golden Dawn since it entered parliament on an anti-immigrant agenda last year. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. concerned about Turkey's choice of Chinese missile system Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 06:51 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Saturday it had expressed serious concerns to Turkey over its decision to co-produce a long-range air and missile defense system with a Chinese firm under U.S. sanctions. Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance, announced this week that it had chosen the FD-2000 missile defense system from China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp, or CPMIEC, over rival systems from Russian, U.S. and European firms. CPMIEC is under U.S. sanctions for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. ... Full Story | Top |
| Islamists, ruling party members chide Sudan's Bashir amid protests Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 02:49 PM PDT  By Khalid Abdelaziz and Ulf Laessing KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Islamists and members of Sudan's ruling party called on President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday to cancel deeply unpopular austerity measures, the first sign of dissent inside ruling circles after a week of unrest that has killed dozens. Police fired teargas to break up thousands of people in the capital during a sixth day of protests against cuts to subsidies on cooking oil and fuel that doubled pump prices overnight. Some in the crowd chanted "Freedom, Freedom" and "Bashir, you are a killer", said witnesses. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenya says 'at war' with al Shabaab, faces security questions Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 10:15 AM PDT  By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and James Macharia NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya is "at war" with Islamist militants who attacked a Nairobi shopping mall, the government said on Saturday as it faced questions about whether it had received advance intelligence warnings of the deadly strike. A week after the raid on the Westgate shopping centre that killed 67 civilians and police and was claimed by the Somali militant group al Shabaab, the government has been trying to reassure Kenyans that it can protect them from further attacks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tunisia's ruling Islamists to step down, pave way for vote Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 08:00 AM PDT  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's Islamist-led government agreed on Saturday to resign after talks with secular foes to form a caretaker administration and prepare for elections to safeguard the democratic transition in the country where the Arab Spring uprisings began. The talks, which could begin next week, aim to end weeks of deadlock between the governing coalition and secular opposition that has endangered prospects for stable democracy almost three years after Tunisians toppled autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. ... Full Story | Top |
| Death toll rises to 29 in India's Mumbai building collapse Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 07:31 AM PDT  MUMBAI (Reuters) - Rescuers have recovered 29 bodies from a collapsed five-storey apartment block in India's financial capital of Mumbai, a city official said, and the death toll is expected to rise as more are still feared trapped under the rubble. Police said they had arrested a decorator after a complaint from the city municipal corporation that the decorator had allegedly made changes in the basement of the collapsed building. The cause of the collapse of the building, said to be built 35 years ago, is not known. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Republicans reject Senate bid to avoid government shutdown Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 01:33 PM PDT By Thomas Ferraro and Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government edged closer on Saturday to a shutdown as Republicans in the House of Representatives rejected an emergency spending bill approved by the Senate and pushed instead for a one-year delay of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law. In the latest round of high-stakes brinkmanship between Democrats and Republicans, Republican leaders said after a closed-door meeting, punctuated by loud cheering, that the House would vote later on Saturday on their latest plan to scuttle the healthcare law, known as "Obamacare. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Largely out of sight, U.S. budget sequester still cuts deep Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 04:13 AM PDT  By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Airports have not ground to a halt. Fresh meat has not disappeared from supermarkets and the economy has not slipped back into recession. The U.S. government may have headed off some of the most dire predictions about the "sequester," but over seven months, the across-the-board spending cut has thrown sand into the gears of the economic recovery. The sequester has pulled some teachers from classrooms and police from the streets. It has grounded Air Force planes and docked Navy ships. The Forest Service had 500 fewer "hot shots" to battle summer ... Full Story | Top |
| Chemical weapons watchdog to begin Syria inspections next week Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 03:11 AM PDT  By Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Experts from the world's chemical weapons watchdog will begin inspecting Syria's stockpile of toxic munitions by Tuesday, according to an agreement passed in The Hague on Friday. The agreement enables the U.N. Security Council to vote later on Friday on a draft resolution on eradicating Syria's chemical arsenal. The decision adopted by the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW, called on members to make cash donations to fund Syria's fast-tracked destruction operation. ... Full Story | Top |
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