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| 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 |
| 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 |
| Bus plunges down hillside outside Mexico City, killing 14 Friday, Oct 04, 2013 02:09 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - At least 14 people died on Friday when a bus hurtled down a hillside on the outskirts of Mexico City, ejecting six victims through the windows and leaving 25 injured, police said. Before it careened off the highway, the bus was en route to the city of Toluca in the hills of the State of Mexico, which surrounds much of the capital. "There wasn't a collision with another vehicle, but instead the bus veered off the asphalt and plunged down the mountainside about 100 or 120 meters," Miguel Angel Contreras, the attorney general of the State of Mexico, told reporters. ... 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Party allies press Polish PM to soften pension reform: sources Friday, Oct 04, 2013 11:35 AM PDT  By Karolina Slowikowska WARSAW (Reuters) - Party allies of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk are trying to water down a hotly-contested plan to transfer a chunk of assets from private pension funds to the state, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters. The planned reform would allow the government to offset public debt and give it more scope to borrow and spend, helping to pull the economy out of a downturn in time for a series of elections starting next year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Vietnam's 'Red Napoleon' Vo Nguyen Giap dies, aged 102 Friday, Oct 04, 2013 11:13 AM PDT  HANOI (Reuters) - Vo Nguyen Giap, the self-taught Vietnamese general who masterminded the defeats of France and the United States to become one of the 20th century's most notable military commanders, died on Friday. He was 102. The victories of the "Red Napoleon" over vastly better equipped Western armies helped to usher the end of European colonialism worldwide and to entrench communist rule in Vietnam. Short and slightly built, Giap was a legend in Vietnam, with a standing second only to that of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. ... Full Story | Top |
| Envoys ask Ukraine leader to pardon jailed rival to save EU deal Friday, Oct 04, 2013 09:47 AM PDT  By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - EU envoys formally asked Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Friday to pardon his jailed opponent Yulia Tymoshenko, her lawyer said, to end an impasse that threatens landmark agreements between Ukraine and the European Union. The 28-member bloc wants Yanukovich to free Tymoshenko, his fiercest critic, from a seven-year jail sentence which followed a trial for abuse of office it says was politically motivated. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: German coalition watch: Merkel talks with SPD and Greens Friday, Oct 04, 2013 09:43 AM PDT Chancellor Angela Merkel led her conservatives to their best result in over two decades in a German election on September 22 but needs to find a coalition partner to secure a third term. She held first preliminary talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) on Friday and the two sides agreed to a second round of talks on October 14. First she and conservative leaders will meet the Greens on Thursday to assess whether there is enough common ground to enter formal coalition negotiations with either party. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iran, U.S. must work hand in hand to end sanctions: cleric Friday, Oct 04, 2013 09:40 AM PDT DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Iranian cleric urged Washington and Tehran on Friday to "join hands" to end sanctions, local media reported, underlining the support of Iran's influential religious establishment for President Hassan Rouhani's diplomatic offensive. Rouhani made overtures to the West last week during a visit to the U.N. headquarters in New York and then spoke by telephone with U.S. President Barack Obama in the highest-level contact between the two countries since 1979. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Youths burn church, riot in Kenya's Mombasa after imam killed Friday, Oct 04, 2013 09:34 AM PDT  By Joseph Akwiri MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Young Muslims set fire to a church, burned tires and clashed with police in Kenya's main port city of Mombasa on Friday, leaving at least four people dead after the killing of an Islamic cleric which his followers blamed on security forces. The shooting of Sheikh Ibrahim Omar ignited religious tensions in the commercial and tourism hub, two weeks after Islamist militants killed at least 67 people in a raid on a Nairobi shopping mall. The imam and three other men were found dead in a car on Mombasa's outskirts on Thursday night, police said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Four killed in riots in Kenya's Mombasa after cleric shot dead Friday, Oct 04, 2013 09:20 AM PDT MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Four people were killed on Friday when supporters of a slain radical Muslim cleric clashed with riot police in Kenya's main port city of Mombasa, the Kenya Red Cross said. The four bodies all had gunshot wounds, said Mwanaisha Hamisi, the Kenya Red Cross coordinator for Coast region. (Reporting by Joseph Akwiri; Editing by Richard Lough and Andrew Roche) Full Story | Top |
| Italian Senate panel recommends Berlusconi's expulsion Friday, Oct 04, 2013 09:10 AM PDT  By Roberto Landucci ROME (Reuters) - An Italian Senate committee on Friday recommended that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi be expelled from parliament after his conviction for tax fraud, paving the way for a final decision this month that could seal his political fate. The recommendation to kick out the man who has dominated Italian politics for the past two decades was taken by a cross-party committee of 23 Senators dominated by the center-right leader's political opponents. ... Full Story | Top |
| Icahn caves on Dell again, will not seek share rights Friday, Oct 04, 2013 09:05 AM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn, who ended his months-long campaign against Michael Dell's planned buyout of Dell Inc last month, on Friday signaled his final retreat from the struggling personal computer maker. The billionaire, who opposed Michael Dell's $25 billion offer to take Dell private, tweeted he will no longer seek "appraisal rights" for his shares, a legal process under which investors can try to get a Delaware court to determine the fair value of the stock. "I withdrew my demand for appraisal of my Dell shares. ... Full Story | Top |
| Merkel, SPD welcome further talks on German government Friday, Oct 04, 2013 08:57 AM PDT  By Erik Kirschbaum and Sarah Marsh BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel's conservatives and the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) agreed to meet again in 10 days to explore forming a "grand coalition" government after an initial three-hour meeting on Friday was called constructive by both sides. The German chancellor's Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) emerged as the dominant party from the September 22 election but need a coalition partner and Friday's meeting marked the start of complex horse-trading that could last two months or more. ... Full Story | Top |
| Azerbaijan's leader set to keep power but problems loom Friday, Oct 04, 2013 08:08 AM PDT  By Margarita Antidze BAKU (Reuters) - Luxury cars cruise down "Oilman Avenue" past five-star hotels and exclusive boutiques in the capital of Azerbaijan, where President Ilham Aliyev looks sure to be re-elected on Wednesday. While residents of cramped apartments in drab Soviet-era blocks on the outskirts of Baku, may feel excluded from the oil boom that has transformed smarter parts of town, opponents of Aliyev, 51, say controls on dissent mean they have little chance of stopping him winning a third five-year term. ... Full Story | Top |
| Swiss to vote on 2,500 franc basic income for every adult Friday, Oct 04, 2013 07:55 AM PDT  BERNE (Reuters) - Switzerland will hold a vote on whether to introduce a basic income for all adults, in a further sign of growing public activism over pay inequality since the financial crisis. A grassroots committee is calling for all adults in Switzerland to receive an unconditional income of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,800) per month from the state, with the aim of providing a financial safety net for the population. ... Full Story | Top |
| Right-wing coalition prospects fade in Austria Friday, Oct 04, 2013 07:44 AM PDT By Georgina Prodhan VIENNA (Reuters) - Prospects of a center-right government in Austria faded on Friday as both the conservative People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) moved away from a possible alliance with the new Euroskeptic party of industrialist Frank Stronach. The 81-year-old billionaire Austro-Canadian car parts magnate tried to break the stranglehold of the Alpine EU nation's two mainstream parties by creating a pro-business force advocating deregulation and a possible withdrawal from the euro. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian army vehicle fires live rounds at pro-Mursi protesters in central Cairo Friday, Oct 04, 2013 07:15 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian army vehicle fired live rounds in the direction of Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had been pushed away from Cairo's Tahrir Square by security forces on Friday, a Reuters witness said. Onlookers threw rocks at the protesters, backers of the Brotherhood's deposed president Mohamed Mursi, and protesters threw them back. Riot police had earlier fired tear gas to push back the pro-Mursi march. (Reporting By Hadeel Al Shalchi; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) Full Story | Top |
| Serbian PM threatens to pull out of EU-led Kosovo talks Friday, Oct 04, 2013 07:12 AM PDT  By Matt Robinson BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's prime minister threatened on Friday to pull out of EU-mediated talks with Kosovo after the former Serbian province denied him permission to visit, underscoring the fragility of a landmark accord between the two. Ivica Dacic lashed out at the European Union, which is expected to open accession talks with his country in January in part as a reward for the April accord with Kosovo, which seceded in 2008 in the last act in the break-up of former Yugoslavia. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev Friday, Oct 04, 2013 07:11 AM PDT (Reuters) - Azerbaijan holds a presidential election on Wednesday that looks certain to give Ilham Aliyev another five years in power, extending his family's rule in the oil-producing state. * Ilham Aliyev, 51, was first elected president in October 2003 as the handpicked successor to his predecessor, his ailing father Heydar, who died two months later. He won 76 percent of the vote in 2003 and was re-elected in 2008 with 89 percent. Both elections were criticized by Western monitors. A referendum in 2009 abolished presidential term limits, enabling Aliyev to run again. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Azerbaijan, oil-rich ex-Soviet republic Friday, Oct 04, 2013 07:11 AM PDT BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan holds a presidential election on Wednesday which is expected to keep Ilham Aliyev in office for a third term. Here are some key facts about the country: GEOGRAPHY: Azerbaijan is an ex-Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea, sandwiched between Iran and Russia. It also borders Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. POPULATION: 9.4 million. There are 5.2 million eligible voters. RELIGION: Most of the population is Muslim, the majority Shi'ites. LANGUAGE: Azeri, which is closely related to Turkish. Russian is widely spoken, especially in the capital Baku. ... Full Story | Top |
| Clashes break out in Egyptian cities during pro-Mursi marches Friday, Oct 04, 2013 06:59 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Clashes broke out in Cairo and several other Egyptian cities on Friday during protest marches staged by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, security sources and state media said. In the capital, backers of Mursi, who was ousted by the military in July, clashed with police on the road that leads to the pyramids in the suburb of Giza. Fighting also took place between supporters and opponents of Mursi in Alexandria and two cities in the Nile Delta. (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian security forces boost presence at site of past Brotherhood sit-in: MENA Friday, Oct 04, 2013 06:59 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Troops and police in Cairo boosted their presence at the site of a former Muslim Brotherhood protest camp on Friday as supporters of Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's deposed Islamist president, approached the area in defiance of a security crackdown, the state news agency reported. Egyptian authorities had warned the Brotherhood that any new sit-in protest camps would not be tolerated. (Reporting By Maggie Fick; Editing by Michael Georgy and Jon Boyle) Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu struggles to set the terms in Iranian dispute Friday, Oct 04, 2013 06:56 AM PDT  By Dan Williams NEW YORK (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that Iran's new president was a "wolf in sheep's clothing", but he himself looked increasingly like a lone wolf as his allies seek to bring Tehran into the fold. After years of worrying about Iran's disputed nuclear ambitions, Netanyahu took to the stage at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday and made his most explicit threat yet to attack the Islamic republic unless it ends its atomic program. ... Full Story | Top |
| Norway cuts Afghan aid over violence against women, corruption Friday, Oct 04, 2013 06:52 AM PDT  OSLO (Reuters) - Norway will slightly reduce its aid to Afghanistan from next year, signaling to Kabul that it has not done enough to combat corruption and violence against women, the foreign ministry said on Friday. "We are deeply concerned about the widespread violence against women in Afghanistan," Foreign Ministry State Secretary Torgeir Larsen said in a statement. He said the Afghan authorities had failed to submit a report on the problem that they had promised by July. "Corruption is a vast problem, with the Kabulbank scandal as one example," Larsen said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Muslim Brotherhood supporters clash with opponents at Cairo's Tahrir Square Friday, Oct 04, 2013 06:50 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of supporters of Egypt's deposed President Mohamed Mursi clashed with their opponents on Friday as they tried to enter Tahrir Square in central Cairo, and police fired tear gas to disperse them, a Reuters witness said. The police and army blocked off a separate entrance to the square to prevent a separate pro-Mursi march from approaching, security sources said. (Reporting By Hadeel Al Shalchi; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) Full Story | Top |
| Guinea's opposition demands annulment of legislative vote Friday, Oct 04, 2013 05:53 AM PDT CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's opposition coalition demanded the annulment of a September 28 legislation election on Friday, citing what it said were widespread irregularities in the voting process and threatening to call for protests. "The opposition demands the annulment of this election because of the scale of fraud witnessed," said a statement read by opposition spokesman Aboubacar Sylla during a news conference. Sylla said the opposition reserved the right to use all legal means of protest, including public demonstrations across the mineral-rich West African country. ... Full Story | Top |
| Litvinenko lawyers to decide on final bid for public inquiry Friday, Oct 04, 2013 05:47 AM PDT  By Christine Murray LONDON (Reuters) - The widow of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy murdered in London in 2006, made a tearful appeal on Friday for financial help to establish whether the Moscow government was behind the killing. The British government in July rejected a request by coroner Robert Owen for an inquiry, which he said could have revealed whether Russia held any responsibility for the killing. Litvinenko, 43, died after drinking tea poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope, polonium-210, in a London hotel. ... Full Story | Top |
| India announces warm-up for world's biggest election Friday, Oct 04, 2013 05:30 AM PDT  By Sruthi Gottipati NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will hold five state elections in November and December, authorities said on Friday, kicking off a contest that is expected to boost the profile of Hindu nationalist opposition leader Narendra Modi ahead of a general election next year. The polls, set to begin on November 11, are seen as a warm-up for the national elections, which will be the world's biggest democratic exercise. Both polls will test the popularity of Modi's promise of economic growth and clean governance at a time India is suffering its worst slowdown in a decade. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tourists dismayed at shutdown of U.S. D-Day site in Normandy Friday, Oct 04, 2013 05:28 AM PDT SAINT-LAURENT-SUR-MER, France (Reuters) - American tourists visiting a D-Day cemetery in Normandy, northern France, expressed anger upon discovering that the white-cross memorial they had travelled thousands of miles to see was closed due to a U.S. government shutdown. Thousands of Americans flock to Normandy each year to see the beaches and sharp cliff-faces where Allied soldiers made their first entry into Nazi-occupied France during a massive invasion on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pope, in Assisi, calls on Church to shun vanity Friday, Oct 04, 2013 05:09 AM PDT  By Philip Pullella ASSISI, Italy (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church, from the lowliest priest to the pontiff himself, must strip itself of all "vanity, arrogance and pride" and humbly serve the poorest members of society, Pope Francis said on Friday. The pope's appeal, made in the central Italian hill town of Assisi where his namesake Saint Francis lived in the 12th century, comes amid a drive by Francis to turn around a Church plagued by financial and sexual abuse scandals. Saint Francis is revered by Catholics and many other Christians for his simplicity, poverty and love of nature. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Kenya's intelligence work hurt by corruption, rivalries Friday, Oct 04, 2013 05:06 AM PDT  By Edmund Blair NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's intelligence and security forces will struggle to avert bloody attacks like the one on a shopping mall last month as long as rank-and-file police officers can be easily bribed and rivalry among agencies hinders information sharing. The assault by a dozen or so Islamist militants on Nairobi's Westgate mall on September 21 that killed at least 67 people and lasted four days stunned a nation that boasts the most experienced counter-terrorist forces in east Africa. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Berlusconi's legal headaches Friday, Oct 04, 2013 04:55 AM PDT ROME (Reuters) - An Italian Senate Committee is expected to start a process on Friday to expel Silvio Berlusconi from parliament following his conviction for tax fraud. Berlusconi, a 77-year-old billionaire media magnate and four-times prime minister, says he has been relentlessly pursued by leftist judges trying to subvert democracy since he stormed into politics in 1994. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: After chemical horror, besieged Syrian suburb defiant Friday, Oct 04, 2013 04:49 AM PDT  (The identity of the reporter has been withheld for security reasons) ZAMALKA, Syria (Reuters) - Sixteen-year-old Mohammad al Zeibaa lost his entire family in the sarin gas attack east of Damascus six weeks ago, surviving the world's deadliest chemical weapons strike in a quarter century only because he was out working a hospital night shift. Mohammad's father, who rushed to the scene to help survivors, died from the effects of the sarin, as did his mother and five brothers and sisters who stayed at home. ... Full Story | Top |
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