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| Iran says to continue building at Arak nuclear site despite deal Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 12:20 PM PST Iran will pursue construction at the Arak heavy-water reactor, Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was quoted as saying on Wednesday, despite a deal with world powers to shelve a project they fear could yield plutonium for atomic bombs. France, one of the six powers that negotiated Sunday's landmark initial accord with Iran to curb its disputed nuclear program, said in response to Zarif's statement that Tehran had to stick to what was agreed in the Geneva talks. The uncompleted research reactor emerged as one of several big stumbling blocks in the marathon negotiations, in which Iran agreed to restrain its atomic activities for six months in return for limited sanctions relief. Iran says it would produce medical isotopes only. Full Story | Top |
| Syrian opposition to attend Geneva peace conference Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 02:52 PM PST  By Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - The Syrian National Coalition opposition group will attend the long-delayed "Geneva 2" talks in January aimed at ending the country's civil war, the group's president, Ahmad Jarba, said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters and the Associated Press, he also said regional power Iran should only be allowed to attend if it stopped taking part in the bloodshed in Syria and withdrew its forces and proxies. It insists that President Bashar al-Assad can play no future role in Syria. "We are now ready to go to Geneva," Jarba said on a visit to Cairo, adding that the opposition viewed the Geneva talks as a step to a leadership transition and a "genuine democratic transformation in Syria". Full Story | Top |
| Troubled HealthCare.gov to switch website hosting to HP Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 07:24 PM PST  By Margaret Chadbourn and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The agency in charge of the troubled HealthCare.gov website said on Wednesday is it switching providers of Web hosting services, the latest change for the website at the heart of President Barack Obama's health care reforms. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it is replacing data center services from Verizon Communications Inc's Terremark subsidiary, with services from Hewlett-Packard Co. Terremark's data center experienced issues in late October that caused outages across the system, prompting embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to phone Verizon's chief executive to discuss the problems. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. jobs picture improving, manufacturing may be slowing Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 09:46 AM PST  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid unexpectedly fell last week, but continued weakness in business spending on capital goods suggested slower economic growth in the fourth quarter. There is also a good chance that the October payroll gain may not have been an aberration," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment increased to 75.1 for November, up from a final reading of 73.2 in October. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, dropped 1.2 percent last month. Full Story | Top |
| Embattled Thai PM easily survives no-confidence vote Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 07:44 PM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday breezed through a no-confidence vote in parliament where her party holds a commanding majority, but faced mounting pressure from widening anti-government protests. AMNESTY BILL SPARKED PROTESTS The protests are all-too familiar in Thailand, which has seen eight years of on-off turmoil, from crippling street rallies to controversial judicial rulings and army intervention, each time with Thaksin at the centre of the tumult. Full Story | Top |
| EU leaders set for frosty dinner with Ukraine's Yanukovich Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 04:09 PM PST  By Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European leaders will come face-to-face with Viktor Yanukovich on Thursday for the first time since the Ukrainian president spurned their offer of a free-trade deal and decided to seek closer ties with Russia instead. In a meeting that promises to be one of the frostier moments of political theatre this year, Yanukovich plans to attend a dinner in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius to honor the Eastern Partnership, the EU's four-year-old program of outreach to former Soviet states. Ukraine had been expected to sign a far-reaching free-trade and political association deal with the EU at the Vilnius summit, the result of years of negotiation. But last week, following intense pressure from Moscow and growing concerns about Ukraine's dire economic situation, Yanukovich announced he wasn't ready to sign the EU deal yet and would bolster links with Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Mali's ex-junta chief Sanogo in custody over kidnapping Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 04:17 PM PST  By Adama Diarra and Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's former junta chief, General Amadou Sanogo, has been detained and charged with complicity in kidnapping after being questioned by a judge on Wednesday, the government said on state television. Sanogo was taken into custody by soldiers earlier on Wednesday, the defense ministry said. "(A Bamako court) laid charges against Amadou Haya Sanogo who has been placed in custody," Mahamane Baby, spokesman for the government on state television said late on Wednesday. Mali's newly elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is under pressure to restore the state's authority over the army, which overthrew President Amadou Toumani Toure last year, plunging the country into chaos. Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi expelled from Italian parliament over tax fraud Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 11:49 AM PST By Roberto Landucci and Catherine Hornby ROME (Reuters) - The Italian Senate expelled former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi over his tax fraud conviction on Wednesday, humiliating the veteran center-right leader who vowed to continue leading his party from outside parliament. The Senate vote, after months of wrangling and delay, opens an uncertain phase for Italy, with the 77-year-old media billionaire now apparently in the twilight of his political career but prepared to use all his resources to disrupt Prime Minister Enrico Letta's coalition government. "We are here on a bitter day, a day of mourning for democracy," Berlusconi told supporters from his Forza Italia party in front of his central Rome residence as the Senate voted a short distance away. Berlusconi, who has dominated Italian politics for two decades, had already pulled his party out of Letta's coalition after seven months in government, accusing left wing opponents of staging a "coup d'etat" to eliminate him. Full Story | Top |
| Libya struggles to pay salaries, more clashes erupt Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 11:23 AM PST  By Ulf Laessing and Ayman al-Warfalli TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said on Wednesday his government will be unable to pay public salaries and may have to seek loans if armed militias blockading oilfields and ports continue to choke off crude shipments. Zeidan's warning and renewed armed clashes, including an attack on a centuries-old shrine near Tripoli, have added to a growing sense of chaos in the OPEC producer two years after the NATO-backed ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. affirms support for Japan in islands dispute with China Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 02:21 PM PST By Mark Felsenthal and David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pledged support for ally Japan on Wednesday in a growing dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea and senior U.S. administration officials accused Beijing of behavior that had unsettled its neighbors. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured his Japanese counterpart in a phone call that the two nations' defense pact covered the small islands where China established a new airspace defense zone last week and commended Tokyo "for exercising appropriate restraint," a Pentagon spokesman said. China's declaration raised the stakes in a territorial standoff between Beijing and Tokyo over the area, which includes the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Reversible Iran deal puts more pressure on final talks Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 09:36 AM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - By dropping earlier demands that Iran shut down an underground uranium enrichment plant and ship material out of the country as part of a preliminary deal, nuclear negotiators have kicked some of the toughest questions forward to talks for the next year. The curbs to its nuclear program that Iran agreed to on Sunday are easier to reverse than measures that were previously called for by the six global powers seeking to prevent Tehran from developing an atomic bomb, experts say. But supporters say the compromise was necessary to halt Iran's nuclear advances so that the real bargaining could begin, and should help keep both sides focused on the final negotiations which lie ahead. A senior Western diplomat acknowledged that Iran could resume its most controversial activity - production of 20 percent enriched uranium - if it should decide to abandon the deal or if final talks fail. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine president tells EU to keep off Tymoshenko case Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 01:39 PM PST  By Thomas Grove and Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said the European Union should stop meddling in the fate of his rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and that her imprisonment should not hinder Kiev's integration with Europe. Pouring scorn on the woman who helped engineer the 2004-5 Orange Revolution that thwarted his first bid at the presidency, Yanukovich said she was part of a ring of criminals and that her fate should lie in the hands of Ukrainian judges. Tymoshenko's jailing symbolised what Brussels has called Kiev's use of selective justice. Yanukovich's comments effectively dismissed the EU's intense diplomatic efforts, in which he has participated, to secure her release. Full Story | Top |
| Mali's ex-junta chief Sanogo held in custody Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 03:56 PM PST  By Adama Diarra and Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's former junta chief, General Amadou Sanogo, has been detained after being questioned by a judge on Wednesday over what a senior judicial source said were accusations of post-coup violence by the army and financial crimes. The source said Sanogo had been charged with murder although this could not immediately be confirmed by Defence Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, who told Reuters he had been remanded in custody. Mali's newly elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is under pressure to restore the state's authority over the army, which overthrew President Amadou Toumani Toure last year, plunging the West African country into chaos. A spokesman for the group of soldiers involved in last year's coup declined to comment on Sanogo's detention. Full Story | Top |
| Merkel clinches "grand coalition" deal with SPD Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 06:32 AM PST  By Andreas Rinke and Noah Barkin BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel clinched a coalition deal with the Social Democrats (SPD) on Wednesday that rolls back decade-old reforms of the German welfare state but preserves Berlin's strict approach towards struggling European partners. The result forced the popular 59-year-old Protestant pastor's daughter from East Germany into negotiations with the arch-rival SPD, with whom she ruled in an awkward "grand coalition" during her first term from 2005-2009. The SPD is still smarting from that experience, and its leadership has agreed to put the new deal to a vote of the party's 474,000 card-carrying members, adding an element of uncertainty to Merkel's goal of having a new government in place by Christmas. "We entered negotiations with very different ideas, and that is why things took a little time," Merkel told a news conference, sitting between SPD Chairman Sigmar Gabriel and Horst Seehofer, leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union. Full Story | Top |
| France reaffirms limits on Muslim headscarves, veils Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 07:21 AM PST  By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor PARIS (Reuters) - A French appeals court, ruling in a hotly debated religious rights case, on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of a Muslim daycare worker for wearing a headscarf at a crèche that demanded strict neutrality from its employees. The Paris court's decision was announced at the same time as French lawyers defended the country's ban on full-face veils in public before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The two cases have divided French public opinion for years, with the bans enjoying wide support in public opinion but being denounced by many Muslims as discriminatory. France has both the largest Muslim minority in Europe, estimated at 5 million, and some of the continent's most restrictive laws about expressions of faith in public. Full Story | Top |
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