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| Man critical after setting himself on fire at National Mall Friday, Oct 04, 2013 08:22 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man who set himself on fire on the National Mall on Friday was hospitalized in critical condition after bystanders used the shirts off their backs to tamp down the flames, police and witnesses said. Police responded to an emergency call about a fire shortly before 4:30 p.m. EDT on the Mall lined by Washington's famed Smithsonian museums, said police spokesman Hugh Carew. "The evidence appears that he set himself on fire," Carew said. "But the investigation is ongoing." The man, who has not been identified, was conscious when he was taken to Washington Hospital Center. ... Full Story | Top |
| Detroit union wins victory worth 'refund on deck of Titanic' Friday, Oct 04, 2013 08:09 PM PDT  By Joseph Lichterman (Reuters) - Detroit's largest public sector union scored a symbolic victory Friday when a Michigan administrative law judge reinstated an extra annual pension check for city workers and retirees, although the judge in the city's bankruptcy case has prohibited enforcement of the ruling. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes earlier this week allowed Administrative Law Judge Doyle O'Connor to rule on the so-called 13th check before O'Connor's retirement on Friday. But Rhodes forbade the parties from pursuing the matter further. ... Full Story | Top |
| Washington heads into fifth day of shutdown, no end in sight Friday, Oct 04, 2013 07:14 PM PDT  By Thomas Ferraro and Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington headed into the fifth day of a partial government shutdown with no end in sight even as another, more serious conflict over raising the nation's borrowing authority started heating up. The U.S. House of Representatives prepared for a Saturday session but with no expectations of progress on either the shutdown or a measure to raise the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Congress must act by October 17 in order to avoid a government debt default. ... Full Story | Top |
| Heavy snow hits west-central U.S., forces road closures Friday, Oct 04, 2013 06:52 PM PDT  By Kevin Murphy (Reuters) - A rare and fierce October snowstorm rolled out over the central Rocky Mountains on Friday, downing trees and forcing closures of state offices and 380 miles of Interstate 90 across parts of Wyoming and South Dakota, state highway officials said. The storm dropped up to 37 inches of snow in parts of the Black Hills region of western South Dakota, according to a Rapid City National Weather Service report. "It's not normal this time of year, but it is not unheard of," said Cory Martin, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in North Platte, Nebraska. ... Full Story | Top |
| BlackBerry hit with securities shareholder class action Friday, Oct 04, 2013 06:35 PM PDT By Nick Brown NEW YORK (Reuters) - A shareholder of BlackBerry Ltd sued the company and its executives on Friday, accusing them of inflating the stock price by painting a misleadingly rosy picture of the business prospects of its BlackBerry 10 smartphone line. ... Full Story | Top |
| Woman killed in Washington car chase had post-partum depression, family says Friday, Oct 04, 2013 06:35 PM PDT  By Richard Weizel and Mark Hosenball STAMFORD, Conn./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The woman who engaged police in a dramatic car chase through the streets of Washington, prompting a lockdown of the U.S. Capitol before officers shot her dead, suffered from post-partum depression, her sisters told CNN on Friday, while questioning why she had to die. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. judge orders release of mentally ill Guantanamo prisoner Friday, Oct 04, 2013 05:27 PM PDT MIAMI (Reuters) - A federal judge has ordered the release of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner suffering from severe mental illness who has been spent much of his time at a psychiatric ward on the U.S. naval base since he arrived more than 11 years ago. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a release order on Friday for Ibrahim Idris, a native of Sudan who has been held as an enemy combatant but not formally charged. The decision came after the lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice filed court papers on Wednesday indicating the government would no longer oppose his release. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cristiano Ronaldo appeals for Miami soccer fan arrested for hug Friday, Oct 04, 2013 05:01 PM PDT  By David Adams MIAMI (Reuters) - Real Madrid soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is appealing to Florida officials to drop charges against an over-enthusiastic fan who was arrested during a match after rushing the field to embrace him. Ronaldo, one of the world's highest-paid athletes handled the incident calmly during a match in Miami in August, even chatting with the 19-year-old fan, and telling security officials to take it easy on him before he was carted away. ... Full Story | Top |
| Man in critical condition after being engulfed in flames Friday, Oct 04, 2013 04:36 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man went up in flames in the middle of the National Mall on Friday before bystanders extinguished the fire and he was rushed to a hospital, police and witnesses said. Initial reports indicated the man set himself on fire, though it could not yet be confirmed, police spokesman Hugh Carew said. The man was hospitalized in critical condition, Mitch Smith of the National Park Police told Reuters. Police responded to an emergency call about a fire shortly before 4:30 p.m. on the Mall lined by Washington's famed Smithsonian museums, authorities said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Alex Rodriguez sues Major League Baseball, Selig Friday, Oct 04, 2013 04:27 PM PDT  By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has sued Major League Baseball and Commissioner Bud Selig and accused them of trying to destroy his reputation and his career. The embattled third baseman also filed an additional malpractice lawsuit against the Yankees team doctor Chris Ahmad and a New York hospital for misdiagnosing a hip injury, according to MLB.com. ... Full Story | Top |
| Washington still deadlocked on shutdown and debt ceiling Friday, Oct 04, 2013 04:07 PM PDT  By Thomas Ferraro and Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington headed into the fifth day of a partial government shutdown with no end in sight even as another, more serious conflict over raising the nation's borrowing authority started heating up. The U.S. House of Representatives prepared for a Saturday session but with no expectations of progress on either the shutdown or a measure to raise the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Congress must act by October 17 in order to avoid a government debt default. ... Full Story | Top |
| Montana bride accused of shoving husband off cliff pleads not guilty Friday, Oct 04, 2013 03:44 PM PDT By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) - A Montana woman accused of killing her husband of eight days by pushing him off a cliff in a national park pleaded not guilty on Friday to first-degree murder and other charges in a federal grand jury indictment handed down one day earlier. Jordan Graham, 22, was charged in September with second-degree murder in the July 7 death of her husband, 25-year-old Cody Johnson of Kalispell, Montana. ... Full Story | Top |
| Good news for tax delinquents: shutdown halts new asset seizures: IRS Friday, Oct 04, 2013 03:23 PM PDT By Patrick Temple-West WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service said on Friday that it has stopped initiating new asset seizures from tax delinquents during the government shutdown and is enforcing seizures only in "extremely limited" instances. During the shutdown, the "IRS is not sending out levies or liens," an agency spokeswoman said in a statement to Reuters. Under tax law, the IRS can seize property from U.S. citizens who have not paid their taxes. Known as levies, such seizures can target bank account balances, real estate or other assets. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hundreds of Sudanese protest, but numbers down after crackdown Friday, Oct 04, 2013 03:22 PM PDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Several hundred Sudanese protested in Khartoum on Friday to demand the resignation of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, but crowds were much smaller than last week, when protests provoked a bloody security crackdown. Amnesty International said on Wednesday that 210 protesters were killed in clashes with security forces last week, quoting figures from a Sudanese doctors' union. This was well above the 34 reported dead by the government, which has denied shooting any protesters it calls "vandals". ... Full Story | Top |
| Fed official: New chair to face key test on keeping policy easy Friday, Oct 04, 2013 03:11 PM PDT  By Alister Bull (Reuters) - The key challenge for the next chair of the Federal Reserve will be resisting pressure for a premature tightening in monetary policy, a senior U.S. central banker said on Friday. Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve and one of several policy doves arguing the case for more action to spur U.S. hiring, said most observers think the main problem for the Fed will be ending ultra-easy money. He said it is not. "The real test for us ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: IT experts question architecture of Obamacare website Friday, Oct 04, 2013 03:04 PM PDT  By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Days after the launch of the federal government's Obamacare website, millions of Americans looking for information on new health insurance plans were still locked out of the system even though its designers scrambled to add capacity. Government officials blame the persistent glitches on an overwhelming crush of users - 8.6 million unique visitors by Friday - trying to visit the HealthCare.gov website this week. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Irish bookmaker cuts odds on U.S. debt default Friday, Oct 04, 2013 02:58 PM PDT By Julia Edwards NEW YORK (Reuters) - Irish online gambling site Paddy Power has cut the odds on a U.S. debt default as gridlock in Washington this week has raised the possibility of the country failing to raise its debt ceiling. "We shortened the odds on there being a default, which means that we felt there was a greater likelihood of it occurring," Féilim Mac An Iomaire, public relations manager for Paddy Power, said on Friday. A budget stalemate led to a partial shutdown of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street gets ready to trade defaulted U.S. debt Friday, Oct 04, 2013 02:39 PM PDT  By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While most on Wall Street continue to believe it very unlikely the United States will default on its debt later this month, banks and securities firms are already gearing up for how to handle any U.S. Treasuries tainted by missed payments. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group that represents hundreds of securities firms, banks and asset managers, has drawn up plans so that trading platforms can still process deals involving defaulted U.S. Treasuries, SIFMA Managing Director Rob Toomey said on Friday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Stocks to see more volatility from shutdown Friday, Oct 04, 2013 02:23 PM PDT  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks are likely to face another week of rising turbulence as efforts to settle the budget dispute in Washington drag on, leaving investors worried about the more critical issue of raising the U.S. debt ceiling. The budget impasse has led to a partial U.S. government shutdown for the past four days, already longer than many investors had expected. While stocks ended higher on Friday, the S&P 500 posted a loss for the week and the CBOE Volatility index - the market's fear index - rose to 16.89, up from 13.12 on September 20. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ohio says may seek execution drugs from compounding pharmacies Friday, Oct 04, 2013 02:18 PM PDT  By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND, OHIO (Reuters) - Ohio prison officials said Friday they are changing current policies on executions that could include using drugs from compounding pharmacies, an industry that has come under increased scrutiny from regulators. The shift in the state's policy, which takes effect on October 10, comes just three weeks after the state used its last dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital to execute condemned murderer Harry Mitts. Mitts was convicted of killing a Cleveland-area police officer and the boyfriend of a neighbor in 1994. Ohio, along with Texas and other U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| San Jose, Calif. and MLB square off in court over moving A's Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:59 PM PDT SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - While the Oakland Athletics prepared for their first game post-season on Friday, a federal judge said he would rule shortly on whether to dismiss a lawsuit charging Major League Baseball with illegally blocking the team from moving south to San Jose, California. In a nearly two-hour hearing before U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte, San Jose's lawyers challenged MLB's unique antitrust exemption while baseball's legal team countered that the city had no standing to sue. The hearing took place in San Jose, the 10th-largest U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Louisiana man, held 41 years in solitary, dies 3 days after prison release Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:48 PM PDT  By Chris Francescani (Reuters) - A Louisiana man who was held in solitary confinement for 41 years for a killing he said he did not commit died on Friday, three days after a judge overturned his conviction and freed him. The man, Herman Wallace, 71, who was known as a member of the "Angola Three" at Louisiana's Angola prison farm, had been suffering from advanced liver cancer when he was wheeled out of a prison medical clinic in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, on Tuesday and returned to his native New Orleans. He died on Friday at about 7 a.m. ET (1100 GMT). ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria submits further details of its chemical arms program Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:42 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has given international experts additional details about its chemical weapons program that go beyond a September 21 declaration of its poison gas arsenal, the United Nations said on Friday. The team consists of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, Netherlands, with help from U.N. personnel. Last week, the U.N. Security Council demanded the elimination of Syria's chemical arsenal. U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Man who claims he was shot by ex-NFL star Hernandez arrested Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:42 PM PDT  By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) - A man who says he was shot in the face by Aaron Hernandez, an ex-NFL star jailed on separate murder charges, was arrested on Friday for skipping a court appearance last month, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Alexander Bradley was captured in Hartford, Connecticut, after more than three weeks on the run and was scheduled to appear in Hartford Superior Court Friday afternoon, U.S. Marshals Service Supervisor Andrew Tingley said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Detroit bankruptcy could change municipal market, Chicago Fed says Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:27 PM PDT  CHICAGO (Reuters) - Detroit's historic bankruptcy filing could upend long-established market views on the high standing of general obligation bonds, the form of debt sold most frequently in the U.S. municipal bond market, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank researchers said Friday. The city's move in July to seek protection from creditors so far has had only a modest effect on the overall muni market, apart from driving up borrowing costs for issuers in Michigan. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico captures man wanted in killing of Guatemalan police Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:21 PM PDT By Mike McDonald GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Mexican police arrested on Friday a suspected Guatemalan drug trafficker accused of leading the June slaughter of eight police officers in Guatemala's western highlands, authorities said. Eduardo Villatoro, alias "Guayo Cano," was arrested in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in Chiapas, Mexico on Friday morning at 5 a.m. local time, some 230 km (143 miles) from Guatemala's border, the Guatemalan government said. "Villatoro is the mastermind (of the attack)," Guatemalan security minister Mauricio Lopez told reporters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Family identifies woman who died after Washington car chase Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:15 PM PDT By Richard Weizel and Mark Hosenball STAMFORD, Conn./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Family members have identified the body of a woman who died after a tense car chase through the streets of Washington that prompted a lockdown of the U.S. Capitol, their lawyer said Friday. Miriam Carey's family members plan to discuss the incident later on Friday, when they return to their New York home, attorney Eric Sanders said in a posting on his law firm's Facebook page. They identified her body at the office of the medical examiner in Washington, Sanders said. ... Full Story | Top |
| In U.S. shutdown drama, dismay and anxiety for one 'nonessential' Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:12 PM PDT  By Patrick Rucker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Statistician Steve Hanway had expected to spend Tuesday reviewing a tally of far-flung childhood injuries in his job at the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, a federal agency that identifies household perils. Instead, Hanway spent the day sidelined in his home in Gaithersburg, Maryland, one of about 800,000 federal workers furloughed in the first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mississippi blues: The cost of rejecting Medicaid expansion Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:08 PM PDT  By Julie Steenhuysen PASCAGOULA, Mississippi (Reuters) - As Americans across the nation begin to find out what Obamacare has in store for them, many of Mississippi's most needy will find out the answer is nothing. That is likely the case for William and Leslie Johnson of Jackson County, since the state decided not to expand the Medicaid program for the poor under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. As a result, nearly 300,000 adults there will fall through the cracks of healthcare reform. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. hearing postponed for accused operator of Silk Road online drug bazaar Friday, Oct 04, 2013 01:00 PM PDT By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal magistrate judge postponed a bail hearing on Friday for the alleged mastermind of the Silk Road online drug bazaar in order to give the 29-year-old's lawyer more time to prepare. Wearing leg shackles and a red jail uniform, Ross William Ulbricht was led into the San Francisco court room, where he was represented by a public defender during the 10-minute proceeding. U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero rescheduled the bail hearing until next Wednesday after public defender Brandon LeBlanc asked for more time. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Washington gridlock may disrupt vital money markets Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:57 PM PDT  By Richard Leong NEW YORK (Reuters) - The fight over raising the U.S. debt ceiling is starting to rattle the money markets and could eventually disrupt the flow of cash needed for banks to lend and companies to invest. As an impasse over the federal budget lengthens the first partial government shutdown in 17 years, there are increasing fears among investors that the White House and Congress won't reach an agreement to raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit by an October 17 deadline. That raises the risk of a first outright default in U.S. history. ... Full Story | Top |
| Assad says Turkey will pay for backing Syrian rebels Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:56 PM PDT  By Ece Toksabay ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told Turkey it will pay a heavy price for backing rebels fighting to oust him, accusing it of harboring "terrorists" along its border who, he said, would soon turn on their hosts. In an interview with Turkey's Halk TV due to be broadcast later on Friday, Assad called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan "bigoted" and said Ankara was allowing terrorists to cross into Syria to attack the army and Syrian civilians. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. House Democrats probe move to reopen government Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:43 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday announced that they are working on a maneuver that, if successful, would force a vote on legislation to fully reopen the federal government. The ploy involves a rarely used "discharge petition" that would dislodge an existing bill from a committee and send it to the House floor if a simple majority of lawmakers in the chamber sign the petition. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Shutdown strategy has wide U.S. Republican support Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:41 PM PDT  By Caren Bohan and Fred Barbash WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eager to exploit divisions among Republicans, Democrats have hammered the message that the U.S. government shutdown is the work of a small segment of House of Representatives Republicans on the far right. In fact, support for the tactic that led to the shutdown - now in its fourth day - has proven to be far more solid and widespread among House Republicans than the Democratic portrayal. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least 4 killed in Egypt as Islamists mount bold protests Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:41 PM PDT  By Maggie Fick and Hadeel Al Shalchi CAIRO (Reuters) - At least four people died in clashes on Friday as supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi mounted their boldest marches since troops crushed their protest camps demanding his reinstatement on August 14. An Egyptian army vehicle fired live rounds in the direction of Brotherhood supporters who had been pushed back by security forces when they tried to enter Cairo's Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of Egypt's 2011 uprising. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least four killed in Egypt as Islamists mount bold protests Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:36 PM PDT By Maggie Fick and Hadeel Al Shalchi CAIRO (Reuters) - At least four people died in clashes on Friday as supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi mounted their boldest marches since troops crushed their protest camps demanding his reinstatement on August 14. An Egyptian army vehicle fired live rounds in the direction of Brotherhood supporters who had been pushed back by security forces when they tried to enter Cairo's Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of Egypt's 2011 uprising. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. shutdown hurts enforcement of Iran, Syria sanctions: White House Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:24 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government shutdown is hindering enforcement of sanctions against Iran and Syria because of worker furloughs at the Treasury Department office responsible for handling the punitive measures, the White House said on Friday. Highlighting one of the damaging effects of the fiscal standoff to try to pressure Republicans to give ground, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the shutdown had reduced staffing at Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to 11 employees from a normal contingent of 175. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama walks to sandwich shop to try to win points on budget Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:22 PM PDT  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden took an unusual stroll to a sandwich shop down the street from the White House on Friday, a photo opportunity designed to show their solidarity for workers laid off due to a government shutdown. Obama also seized the opportunity to respond to an embarrassing quote from an unnamed White House official that Republicans have used to their advantage in the battle over who is to blame for hundreds of thousands of people going without pay checks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Search for victims of Sicily migrant wreck postponed Friday, Oct 04, 2013 11:53 AM PDT By Steve Scherer and Wladimir Pantaleone LAMPEDUSA, Italy (Reuters) - Choppy seas prevented divers on Friday from recovering more bodies of migrants who died in a shipwreck off Sicily that has killed an estimated 300, in one of the worst disasters of Europe's immigration crisis. Rescue teams have so far recovered 111 bodies and expect to find more than 100 others in and around the wreck, submerged in 47 metres of water less than a kilometre (0.6 miles) from the shore of the southern island of Lampedusa. ... Full Story | Top |
| Democrat has lead in tight Virginia governor's race -poll Friday, Oct 04, 2013 11:40 AM PDT  By Gary Robertson RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has a narrow lead over Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli a month away from Virginia's election for governor, according to a poll released on Friday. McAuliffe, a former head of the Democratic National Committee, leads Cuccinelli, a Tea Party favorite, by 42 percent to 35 percent, the poll from the University of Mary Washington's Center for Leadership and Media Studies showed. Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis got 10 percent backing among likely voters in the November 5 election. ... Full Story | Top |
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