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| German paper says Obama aware of spying on Merkel since 2010 Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 08:41 PM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - A German newspaper said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama knew his intelligence service was eavesdropping on Angela Merkel as long ago as 2010, contradicting reports that he had told the German leader he did not know. Germany received information this week that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged Merkel's mobile phone, prompting Berlin to summon the U.S. ambassador, a move unprecedented in post-war relations between the close allies. Reuters was unable to confirm Sunday's news report. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fernandez's allies thumped in Argentina mid-term vote Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:34 PM PDT  By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's allies took a beating in mid-term elections on Sunday, shrinking her majority in Congress, ending chances of a constitutional change to allow her a third term and kicking off the contest to succeed her in 2015. Voters chose half of the lower house of Congress and a third of the Senate. With 62 percent of ballot boxes counted, the government said the opposition was ahead throughout the country. Re-elected in 2011 on promises of increasing state control in Latin America's No. ... Full Story | Top |
| Argentine opposition leads in midterm vote: partial count Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 05:16 PM PDT BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's opposition won the Buenos Aires province and other key districts in Sunday's midterm congressional election, according to partial results, Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said on Sunday. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| Congo army says it captured rebel stronghold; peacekeeper killed Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 04:53 PM PDT  By Kenny Katombe and Chrispin Mvano KINSHASA (Reuters) - Government forces said they captured the rebel stronghold of Rutshuru on Sunday in a third day of fierce fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in which one U.N. peacekeeper was killed and another injured. Following two months of relative calm in the region, fighting flared on Friday after peace talks in neighboring Uganda broke down when M23 rebels demanded a full amnesty for their leaders. President Joseph Kabila last week ruled out a blanket pardon. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fernandez coalition loses clout but keeps majority in midterm Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 04:26 PM PDT  By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine leader Cristina Fernandez's allies took a beating in Sunday's midterm election, shrinking her congressional majority, snuffing out chances of a constitutional change to allow her a third term and kicking off the contest to succeed her in 2015. Voters chose half of the lower house of Congress and a third of the Senate in Sunday's midterm. Re-elected in 2011 on promises of increasing state control in Latin America's No. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb kills 18 people on way to wedding in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 02:58 PM PDT GHAZNI (Reuters) - A roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed 18 people, including at least five women, who were travelling to a wedding party by minibus, a local government official said on Sunday. Violence has risen in Afghanistan this year as most foreign combat troops prepare to leave by the end of 2014. "They were going to attend a wedding party when their minibus was hit by a roadside bomb... which killed 18 mostly females, including children," said the governor's spokesman, Shafiq Nang Safai. ... Full Story | Top |
| Incoming Georgian president is no 'superman' Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 02:31 PM PDT  By Margarita Antidze and Timothy Heritage TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's next president, Georgy Margvelashvili, fits in perfectly with Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's vision of a nation free of politicians who want to be "superman". Margvelashvili, a little-known confidant of the billionaire premier, won a landslide victory in the former Soviet republic's presidential election on Sunday after only a year in politics. The mild-mannered 44-year-old philosopher will bring to the presidency a different style to his predecessor, the confident, outspoken and exuberant Mikheil Saakashvili. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chile's Bachelet pitches $15 billion plan, vows to back labor unions Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 02:21 PM PDT  SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's presidential frontrunner Michelle Bachelet said on Sunday that if elected she will fortify labor unions and roll out an ambitious $15 billion spending program - more than half of which would fund education. The center-left candidate, poised to sail to victory in either November's general election or a runoff in December, said she wants to stop companies from "slyly" limiting union power. ... Full Story | Top |
| Argentine opposition leader Massa wins Buenos Aires mid-term Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 02:18 PM PDT  BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Candidates sponsored by Argentine opposition leader Sergio Massa won the House of Deputies' midterm election by a 10-percentage-point margin on Sunday in the key province of Buenos Aires, according to an exit poll announced on television channel TN. Opposition parties ran against President Cristina Fernandez's FPV coalition in the mid-term. About the size of Italy, Buenos Aires province is home to 40 percent of Argentina's population and most of the country's agricultural output. ... Full Story | Top |
| China to hold first trial of anti-graft activists Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 02:15 PM PDT  By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - Three Chinese anti-graft activists who agitated for officials to disclose their assets go on trial on Monday, in the first case of its kind that underscores the limits of the government's tolerance of challenges to its authority. Despite an official drive against corruption, China has detained at least 15 activists in recent months who were involved in a campaign pushing for officials to publicly disclose their wealth. Rights groups describe the detentions as the first major crackdown by the new government on activists. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain braced for hurricane-force 'St. Jude' storm Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 01:33 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Hurricane-force winds are forecast to disrupt road, rail and airport networks on Monday when one of the strongest storms in decades is expected to hit the southern half of Britain during rush-hour, forecasters warned on Sunday. Local media dubbed the storm "St. Jude", after the patron saint of lost causes who is traditionally celebrated on October 28, and made comparisons to 1987 when a storm killed 18 people in Britain and felled some 15 million trees. The storm is expected to bring 80 mph winds and heavy rain to Britain early on Monday morning. ... Full Story | Top |
| Power struggle in Czech election winner hits coalition talks Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 01:06 PM PDT  By Robert Muller PRAGUE (Reuters) - Attempts to form a new Czech government after this weekend's election suffered a setback on Sunday when the winning center-left party tried to oust its leader due to an unexpectedly weak showing at the ballot box. The Social Democrats' leadership body voted by 20 to 13 to call on chairman and candidate for prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka to quit after the party won only 20.5 percent of the vote. ... Full Story | Top |
| Colombia's FARC frees ex-U.S. marine after four months in jungle Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:53 PM PDT BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC guerrillas have freed a former U.S. marine who was kidnapped in June while he trekked through the jungle in a known guerrilla area, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the U.S. government said on Sunday. Kevin Scott Sutay, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, had been backpacking through several Central and South American countries before he was captured by the FARC. He had ignored police warnings against hiking through a "red zone" for rebel activity in the southeastern province of Guaviare. "We are pleased about the liberation today of ... Full Story | Top |
| Billionaire PM cements grip in Georgia, ally elected president Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:50 PM PDT  By Margarita Antidze and Timothy Heritage TBILISI (Reuters) - A little-known ally of billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili won a landslide victory in Georgia's presidential election on Sunday, cementing the ruling coalition's grip on power after Mikheil Saakashvili's 10-year rule. Georgy Margvelashvili's triumph concentrates power and will make policy-making easier in the former Soviet republic because Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition now controls both the presidency and the government for the first time. ... Full Story | Top |
| Former South African politician Sexwale arrested in New York: SABC Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:46 PM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Prominent South African businessman and anti-apartheid stalwart Tokyo Sexwale was arrested in New York after his name was on a list of people banned from entering the United States, national broadcaster SABC said on Sunday, citing his lawyer. Sexwale, a rival of President Jacob Zuma who was ousted as housing minister in a cabinet reshuffle in July, was arrested at John F Kennedy International Airport while on a business trip, SABC said, citing Lesley Mkhabela Some anti-apartheid activists were banned from visiting the United States during apartheid, which ended in ... Full Story | Top |
| Kurdish militants tighten grip on Syria's northeast Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:43 PM PDT  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Kurdish militants sought to consolidate their control of an oil-producing region in northeastern Syria on Sunday after seizing a border crossing with Iraq from Islamist rebels, activists said. Fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought in neighboring Turkey for decades, were clearing pockets of resistance of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, al-Nusra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham in the border town of Yarubiya, Syrian opposition sources said. "The Kurds are now in control of the Yarubiya border post. ... Full Story | Top |
| Main Syrian rebel groups declare opposition to Geneva peace talks Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:43 PM PDT AMMAN (Reuters) - Main Syrian rebel brigades have announced their opposition to an international peace conference on Syria if it does not result in President Bashar al-Assad's removal, piling pressure on the political opposition not to attend. "Any solution will be totally rejected if it does not end Assad's rule with all of its military and security pillars and if it does not hold accountable all those who took part in the state terrorism," said the statement, dated Saturday and signed by some of the most formidable Islamist units fighting Assad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran sends out feelers for any return to oil markets Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:29 PM PDT By Dmitry Zhdannikov, Peg Mackey and Alex Lawler LONDON (Reuters) - Iran is reaching out to its old oil buyers and is ready to cut prices if Western sanctions against it are eased, promising a battle for market share in a world less hungry for oil than when sanctions were imposed. New Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's "charm offensive" at the United Nations last month, coupled with a historic phone call with U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel to free more Palestinian prisoners for peace talks Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:16 PM PDT  By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is to release 26 Palestinian prisoners in a second stage of a deal brokered by the United States in July that brought a resumption of peace talks. Israel said in August it would free 104 inmates in four stages as negotiations resumed after a near three-year hiatus following a dispute over Jewish settlement construction in land Palestinians seek for a state. ... Full Story | Top |
| As Iraq seeks U.S. arms, bombs kill another 55 Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:02 PM PDT  By Kareem Raheem and Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A dozen bombings in Iraq killed 55 people on Sunday as the prime minister prepares to travel to Washington to seek President Barack Obama's help in confronting a wave of sectarian violence fuelled by Syria's civil war. Killings, mostly blamed by the Shi'ite-led government on Sunni Islamists from al Qaeda, are running at daily rates not seen in five years and Nuri al-Maliki will ask Obama on Friday to speed up promised deliveries of drones and F-16 jets that he believes can help staunch the long desert border with Syria. ... Full Story | Top |
| Two decades on, Suu Kyi finally collects Rome citizenship Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:59 AM PDT  ROME (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally collected her honorary citizenship of Rome on Sunday, 19 years after being offered the honor. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 68, spent most of two decades under house arrest after a military government ignored the results of a 1990 election won by her party. "Nineteen years have passed since the giving of Roman citizenship to Aung San Suu Kyi. Today, finally we award it to a free woman," Mayor Ignazio Marino wrote on Twitter. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt seeks to lure Gulf investors amid turmoil Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:47 AM PDT  By Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt is planning a charm offensive to persuade Gulf Arab entrepreneurs to invest in its economy, battered by political upheaval, protests and violence. Investment Minister Osama Saleh told Reuters Cairo would host a conference in early December, and had already contacted thousands of businessmen, to try to sell the region's most populous nation to wealthy Arabs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somalia radio stations shut down, ordered out of government building Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:37 AM PDT  By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali security agents shut down two radio stations and ordered its reporters to leave a building they were occupying for non-payment of rent, a government official said on Sunday. The official said the Shabelle Media Network's stations had been given a deadline to leave the government-owned building, which they had initially refused. "The issue is nothing to do with media freedom. But they were asked to leave government property that they had been in," the Somali government official told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Czech Social Democrat chief defies party call to resign Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:30 AM PDT  PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka refused to resign as party chairman on Sunday, defying calls from the rest of the party leadership to step down after a winning only a narrow election victory over the weekend. Sobotka told reporters he would continue working for the party but the split complicates the Social Democrats' aim to build a ruling coalition and form a government. (Reporting by Robert Muller; Writing by Jason Hovet; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Chile's Bachelet set to return to power, but obstacles await Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:19 AM PDT  By Rosalba O'Brien and Antonio De la Jara RANCAGUA, Chile (Reuters) - Michelle Bachelet is a safe bet to return to power in Chile's presidential election, but she is now promoting a more ambitious program of leftist reforms and will need every ounce of her political skill to push them through. A physician by training and a moderate socialist by conviction, Bachelet has unfinished business from her first term in 2006-2010. She wants to raise corporate taxes to pay for an education overhaul and rip up Chile's dictatorship-era constitution as well as the electoral system. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blasts kill five at rally for Indian opposition candidate Modi Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 10:55 AM PDT  By Rajesh Kumar Singh NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Explosions at an Indian election rally killed five people and wounded 83 in the eastern city of Patna on Sunday, the chief minister of Bihar state said. At least six crude bombs exploded in quick succession near a crowd of tens of thousands of people waiting to hear a speech by opposition candidate Narendra Modi for the election due by May. Earlier, a small device detonated at Patna's train station. "There was a blast right behind me. I heard people saying that one of the tires of a vehicle has burst," one witness told a TV network. ... Full Story | Top |
| In Libya's east, a former rebel commander tests Tripoli Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 10:13 AM PDT By Ulf Laessing and Ghaith Shennib BREGA, Libya (Reuters) - For Libyan militia leader Ibrahim al-Jathran, shutting down half the country's oil production with an armed militia is not a crime, it is the start of a just battle for a fair share of country's petroleum wealth. From his base near the Mediterranean oil terminal of Brega, the 33-year-old war hero from the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi has taken control of the main oil ports to demand more autonomy and oil for his eastern region from faraway Tripoli. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ally of Georgia's billionaire PM to be president: exit polls Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 10:04 AM PDT  By Margarita Antidze and Timothy Heritage TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgy Margvelashvili, an ally of billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, won a landslide victory in a presidential election in Georgia on Sunday, exit polls showed. The little-known former deputy premier's triumph cements the Georgian Dream coalition's grip on power following Mikheil Saakashvili's 10-year rule, although it is unlikely to end political uncertainty in the former Soviet republic. ... Full Story | Top |
| Poland's ruling party regains ground over main opposition Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 09:34 AM PDT  WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's ruling Civic Platform (PO) has overtaken its main opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) for the first time since April, an opinion poll by TNS Polska for public television showed on Sunday. The survey, conducted on October 22-24, showed that support for PO rose 11 percentage points to 41 percent while the backing for the rightist Law and Justice fell by 7 to 32 percent. The opposition had led opinion polls in recent months as Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government struggled to cope with Poland's biggest slowdown in decades. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. peacekeeper killed as Congo's army gains ground against rebels Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 09:31 AM PDT By Kenny Katombe and Chrispin Mvano KINSHASA (Reuters) - A U.N. peacekeeper was killed and another injured during a third day of fighting between government forces and rebels in eastern Congo on Sunday, as the army pressed toward the rebel stronghold of Rutshuru. The U.N. mission in Congo (MONUSCO) said the Tanzanian peacekeeper was killed during fighting with M23 rebels in the town of Kiwanja, north of the regional capital Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo. "The soldier died while protecting the people of Kiwanja," Martin Kobler, the head of MONUSCO, said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spaniards rally against European court's freeing of ETA member Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 08:41 AM PDT  By Sarah White MADRID (Reuters) - Thousands of people rallied in Madrid on Sunday to protest against a European court ruling which released an ETA member from jail and opened the way for dozens of other convicted Basque separatists to walk free. Ines del Rio, who was jailed in 1989 for her role in 23 assassinations and car bombings, was freed on Tuesday, a day after the European Court of Human Rights said her continued detention was illegal because of changes to sentencing rules that happened after her conviction. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria submits plan to destroy its chemical weapons: OPCW Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 08:28 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria has submitted a declaration of its chemical weapons program and a plan to eliminate them to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the organization said on Sunday, meeting the first major deadline of the destruction plan. Under a deal struck by the United States and Russia, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) sent experts to Syria after a sarin gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus in August. ... Full Story | Top |
| Afghan watchdog blames government for election shortcomings Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 08:07 AM PDT By Jessica Donati KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's independent election watchdog blamed the government on Sunday for failing to prepare the ground for next year's presidential election, and an opposition leader accused President Hamid Karzai of trying to influence the vote. Next year, millions of Afghans will vote in what is seen as the most important election in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led war against Taliban insurgents began 12 years ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| Argentina's ailing president faces tough midterm congressional election Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 07:57 AM PDT  By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is expected to lose some of her congressional clout in Sunday's midterm election as the ailing leader faces complaints over galloping consumer prices and a weakening currency. Re-elected in 2011 on promises of increasing state control of Latin America's No. 3 economy, Fernandez's political coattails have been trimmed by inflation, clocked by private economists at 25 percent, while heavy-handed currency controls and falling central bank reserves dent confidence. ... Full Story | Top |
| Congo's army says it is heading for rebel stronghold Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 07:23 AM PDT By Kenny Katombe and Chrispin Mvano KINSHASA (Reuters) - The Congolese army said it had recaptured two more towns and was heading for the rebel stronghold of Rutshuru in a third day of fighting on Sunday, raising the prospect of a military victory by government forces. A Congolese army officer on the front line said it had taken the towns of Kiwanja and Kalingera from the M23 rebels on Sunday, a day after wresting the strategic town of Kibumba near the Rwandan border from the insurgents. ... Full Story | Top |
| Czech Social Democrats look to protest party to form government Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:51 AM PDT  By Jason Hovet PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Social Democrats will look to new centrist party ANO to help form a government after narrowly winning a Czech election that punished the establishment for sleaze and budget cuts, their party leader said on Sunday. Bohuslav Sobotka faces the difficult task of cobbling together a majority after seven parties won seats in a national election on Saturday, while taming voices in his party that blame his leadership for a surprisingly weak election showing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Palestinian downturn bites, aid falters, tunnels collapse Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:31 AM PDT  By Ali Sawafta and Noah Browning RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The arteries of Gaza's economy have collapsed as Egypt demolishes the smuggling tunnels along its sandy border. Ancient stone villages in the occupied West Bank have become trapped in rural poverty, while investors and donors shy away from a zone of seemingly endless conflict. The crackdown on the Gaza Strip and stagnation in the West Bank mean the Palestinian economy might shrink this year after average annual growth of about nine percent in 2008-2011. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iranian capital takes down some anti-American posters Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:14 AM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - Tehran authorities have taken down some anti-American posters, amid signs Iran is seeking better relations with the United States as the two sides prepare to hold talks over its nuclear program. A Tehran municipal official said some anti-American billboards had been put up illegally and had been taken down, state news agency IRNA said on Saturday. "In an arbitrary move, without the knowledge or confirmation of the municipality, one of the cultural institutes installed advertising billboards," said spokesman Hadi Ayyazi. Ayyazi did not say which posters had been taken down. ... Full Story | Top |
| Key U.S. official faces grilling over Obamacare website Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:08 AM PDT  By David Morgan and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two months before the troubled October 1 launch of Obamacare exchanges, a key administration official overseeing the program assured a congressional oversight panel that work was on track to roll out a tested website that would make it easy for Americans to enroll in affordable health insurance coverage. ... Full Story | Top |
| European, African observers say Madagascar election credible Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 05:30 AM PDT  By Richard Lough and Alain Iloniaina ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's first presidential election since a military-backed coup was free and fair, European Union (EU) and Southern African observers said on Sunday, as early results trickled out two days after the poll. The announcements were a boost for the Indian Ocean island which needs a credible vote to rebuild investors' confidence and win back aid suspended after dissident troops propelled Andry Rajoelina into power in 2009. But foreign envoys warned there was still time for an upset. ... Full Story | Top |
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