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| Gunman opens fire at Los Angeles airport, killing security agent Friday, Nov 01, 2013 09:04 PM PDT  By Dan Whitcomb and Dana Feldman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A lone gunman stormed into a packed terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire with an assault weapon on Friday, killing an unarmed federal security agent before he was shot and captured, authorities said. The gunfire in Terminal 3 touched off panic and chaos at one of the world's busiest airports as hundreds of travelers ran frantically for safety or dove for cover behind racks of luggage and loud alarms blared. In addition to the Transportation Security Administration agent who was slain, at least one other was shot and wounded and a number of other people were hurt in the pandemonium. Streets around the airport were blocked off for hours, snarling traffic for miles. Full Story | Top |
| Pakistani Taliban chief killed in drone strike Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:55 PM PDT  By Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Jibran Ahmed ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The head of the Pakistani Taliban was killed by a U.S. drone strike on Friday, security and Taliban sources said, in a blow to the fragmented movement fighting against the nuclear-armed South Asian nation. Hakimullah Mehsud was one of the most wanted and feared men in Pakistan with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, leading an insurgency from a mountain hideout in North Waziristan, the Taliban's stronghold on the Afghan frontier. "We confirm with great sorrow that our esteemed leader was martyred in a drone attack," a senior Taliban commander said. In Washington, two U.S. officials confirmed Mehsud's death in a CIA drone strike. Full Story | Top |
| Some Wall Street brokerages push up Twitter IPO targets Friday, Nov 01, 2013 01:37 PM PDT  By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Morningstar on Friday joined three other brokerages in setting price targets for Twitter Inc well above its IPO price range, suggesting the stock has room to rise at least 30 percent. The Wall Street brokerage on Friday set a price target of $26 a share, compared to the initial public offering's $17 to $20 indicative range. Last month, Pivotal Research had set its price target for the social media micro-messaging company at $29 a share, SunTrust at $50 and Topeka Capital at $54. Twitter, which is wrapping up its first week of meetings with prospective investors across the United States, will arrive on the New York Stock Exchange with a fraction of the users and revenue - and hype - that accompanied Facebook Inc's much-heralded debut last year. Full Story | Top |
| Israel vows to deny Hezbollah weapons as details of Syria raid emerge Friday, Nov 01, 2013 11:30 AM PDT  By Crispian Balmer JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said it would not allow advanced weapons to fall into the hands of Hezbollah, after a raid on Syria that opposition sources said had hit an air force garrison believed to be holding Russian-made missiles destined for the militant group. Israel has a clear policy on Syria and will continue to enforce it, officials said on Friday, after U.S. and European sources said Israel had launched a new attack on its warring neighbor. Israel declined to comment on leaks to U.S. media that its planes had hit a Syrian base near the port of Latakia, targeting missiles that it thought were destined for its Lebanese enemy, Hezbollah. "We have said many times that we will not allow the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah," said Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan, a member of the inner security cabinet which met hours before the alleged Israeli attack. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. envoy says no preconditions for Syria peace talks Friday, Nov 01, 2013 07:47 AM PDT  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United Nations envoy to Syria said on Friday there would be no preconditions for long-delayed peace talks, an assertion likely to anger an opposition movement that says it will only attend if the goal is to remove President Bashar al-Assad. Lakhdar Brahimi said he hoped the conference - known as Geneva 2 - could still be held in the next few weeks despite obstacles that have held it up for months. The talks are meant to bring Syria's warring sides to the negotiating table, but have been repeatedly delayed because of disputes between world powers, divisions among the opposition and the irreconcilable positions of Assad and the rebels. Brahimi has previously said he thought Assad would not be part of the transitional government that Geneva 2 would attempt to install. Full Story | Top |
| Adoption group calls for U.S. laws to stop online child trading Friday, Nov 01, 2013 11:05 AM PDT  A study by a major U.S. adoption research group calls for "targeted laws, policies and practices" to stop adoptive parents from giving their unwanted children to strangers through the Internet. The report, released by the Donaldson Adoption Institute this week, also says problems exposed by a Reuters investigation in September "should be seen as the tip of an iceberg of unmonitored, unregulated adoption-related activities taking place on the Internet." Reuters found that desperate parents turn to online groups to offer unwanted adopted children to others. The U.S. government is typically unaware of the arrangements or what becomes of those children. Through a survey of 1,500 adoptive parents and adoption professionals in the United States and abroad, researchers from the institute and Tufts University found that international adoption has shifted from mostly infants to a growing number of older children who have disabilities or other kinds of emotional, physical or behavioral problems. Full Story | Top |
| German, Brazilian U.N. draft urges halt to excessive spying Friday, Nov 01, 2013 03:55 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Germany and Brazil circulated a draft resolution to a U.N. General Assembly committee on Friday that calls for an end to excessive electronic surveillance, data collection and other gross invasions of privacy. The draft resolution, which both Germany and Brazil made public, does not name any specific countries, although U.N. diplomats said it was clearly aimed at the United States, which has been embarrassed by revelations of a massive international surveillance program from a former U.S. contractor. The German-Brazilian draft would have the 193-nation assembly declare that it is "deeply concerned at human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications." It would also call on U.N. member states "to take measures to put an end to violations of these rights and to create the conditions to prevent such violations, including by ensuring that relevant national legislation complies with their obligations under international human rights law." The resolution will likely undergo changes as it is debated in the General Assembly's Third Committee, which focuses on human rights. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. wants 'inclusive' Iraq: Obama Friday, Nov 01, 2013 05:12 PM PDT  By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday to build a more inclusive democracy in his country and said the United States would cooperate with Iraq as it tries to push back a resurgent al Qaeda. As Iraq experiences a rising spiral of sectarian violence two years after U.S. troops departed following eight years of war, Maliki came to Washington seeking U.S. help to counter a Sunni insurgency revived in part by Syria's civil war next door. Obama, in White House Oval Office remarks with Maliki at his side, made no mention of supplying the U.S.-made Apache helicopters the Iraqis are seeking from the United States. Full Story | Top |
| Fed officials eye inflation, jobs in dueling QE arguments Friday, Nov 01, 2013 12:44 PM PDT  By Alister Bull and Jonathan Spicer ST. LOUIS/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top Federal Reserve officials on Friday gave only modest hints as to when a massive bond-buying program would be drawn down, with one saying they needed to wait for signs of rising inflation and two others reinforcing an argument the Fed has waited too long. Investors are trying to predict when the Fed will decide the U.S. economy and labor market are strong enough to withstand a reduction in the pace of quantitative easing (QE), in which $85 billion in assets are snapped up by the central bank each month to spur growth. The Fed, which has held interest rates near zero since late 2008 and quadrupled the size of its balance sheet to $3.8 trillion, opted this week to extend its policy support after a series of soft readings on the economy. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who backed the decision, said the huge balance sheet has created risks of financial instability and said officials would like to "get out of the uncharted territory if we can." But annual inflation, which was 1.2 percent in August according to the Fed's preferred measure of price pressures, remained too far beneath the central bank's self-imposed 2 percent medium-term goal, he said. Full Story | Top |
| Syrian army captures strategic town at approaches to Aleppo Friday, Nov 01, 2013 10:32 AM PDT  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's armed forces said on Friday they had captured a strategic northern town at the eastern gates of Aleppo, the former commercial hub long the scene of fierce fighting between government and rebel fighters. The town of Safira lies on a road the army said would be used to send in medicine and supplies to government-controlled areas of Aleppo, mired in a bloody stalemate for over a year. It is also the site of a chemical weapons installation under government control and cleared of equipment. The capture of Safira is significant in that it marks a rare victory for Assad's forces near the mostly rebel-held north. Full Story | Top |
| TSA agent killed, six wounded in Los Angeles airport shooting Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:07 PM PDT By Dan Whitcomb and Dana Feldman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A lone gunman stormed into a crowded terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire with an assault weapon on Friday, killing a security agent and wounding six other people before he was shot and captured, authorities said. The gunfire in Terminal 3 touched off panic and chaos at one of the world's busiest airports as passengers fled or dove for cover behind racks of luggage as police shouted warnings to travelers and quickly evacuated the terminal. Departing flights were halted and arriving planes were diverted to other airports, as streets surrounding the airport were shut down, snarling traffic for miles around. "An individual came into Terminal 3 of this airport, pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire in the terminal," Patrick Gannon, chief of the Los Angeles Airport Police, told a news conference. Full Story | Top |
| Obama tells Iraqi leader that U.S. wants 'inclusive' Iraq Friday, Nov 01, 2013 03:40 PM PDT By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday to build a more inclusive democracy in his country and said the United States would cooperate with Iraq as it tries to push back a resurgent al Qaeda. As Iraq experiences a rising spiral of sectarian violence two years after U.S. troops departed following eight years of war, Maliki came to Washington seeking U.S. help to counter a Sunni insurgency revived in part by Syria's civil war next door. Obama, in White House Oval Office remarks with Maliki at his side, made no mention of supplying the U.S.-made Apache helicopters the Iraqis are seeking from the United States. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry to visit Egypt, tensions high before Mursi trial Friday, Nov 01, 2013 08:35 AM PDT  By Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Egypt a day before deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi goes on trial, the next likely flashpoint in the struggle between his Muslim Brotherhood and the army-backed interim government. In Alexandria, seven people were wounded after residents clashed with Mursi supporters before security forces intervened, a security official said. Forty-five Mursi supporters were arrested. Ties between Washington and strategic ally Cairo have deteriorated since the overthrow of Mursi, Egypt's first democratically elected president. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. officials see risk of genocide in Central African Republic Friday, Nov 01, 2013 12:13 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Central African Republic is at risk of spiraling into genocide as armed groups incite Christians and Muslims against each other in the virtually lawless country, senior U.N. officials told the Security Council on Friday. The landlocked, mineral-rich nation of 4.6 million people has slipped into chaos since northern Seleka rebels seized the capital, Bangui, and ousted President Francois Bozize in March. "More and more you have inter-sectarian violence because the Seleka targeted the churches and the Christians, so now the Christians have created self-defense militias and they are retaliating against the Muslims," said French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud after a briefing by U.N. rights and aid officials. Adama Dieng, U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide, John Ging, director of operations for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and Ivan Simonovic, U.N. assistant secretary general for human rights, informally briefed the 15-member Security Council. Full Story | Top |
| Stock funds worldwide attract $12.4 billion, extending record inflows: BofA Friday, Nov 01, 2013 07:42 AM PDT  By Sam Forgione NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors worldwide poured $12.4 billion into stock funds in the latest week, extending record inflows into the funds this year to $231 billion, data from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research report showed Friday. The inflows into stock funds in the week ended October 30 marked the third straight week of investors seeking more risk in stocks, data from the report showed. The $231 billion inflows into stock funds this year, which are the most since records began in 2002, have dwarfed the previous record inflow of $69 billion in 2010, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The latest demand for stock funds came on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would stick to its current bond-buying program at its October meeting. Full Story | Top |
| Four Palestinian militants killed in Gaza clashes with Israel Friday, Nov 01, 2013 08:40 AM PDT By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike killed three militants in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the Islamist group Hamas said, hours after an overnight clash killed a fourth Palestinian gunman and wounded five Israeli soldiers. It was the worst violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the coastal enclave since a ceasefire ended an eight-day conflagration in November. There has also been a rise in shootings and clashes in the occupied West Bank in recent months, even as mediators push on with the latest round of U.S.-brokered peace talks - negotiations that observers say have shown little sign of progress. The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted a tunnel inside the southern Gaza Strip used by militants bent on attacking Israelis, and accused Hamas, Gaza's ruler, of breaching the terms of the ceasefire. Full Story | Top |
| "Do his phone," Murdoch editor told journalist hunting celebrity scoop Friday, Nov 01, 2013 11:16 AM PDT By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Andy Coulson, an editor of Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World newspaper, instructed a journalist working on a story about a celebrity to "do his phone", a jury trying Coulson and three others for conspiring to hack phones was told on Friday. The trial was also told how a phone call from Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry was hacked, and fellow ex-editor Rebekah Brooks authorized payments at Murdoch's Sun tabloid to military figures for a picture of Prince William in a bikini and details of soldiers killed on active duty. Coulson and Brooks are the two most high-profile figures among eight defendants on trial on various charges related to phone-hacking, illegal payments to officials for stories, and hindering police investigations. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. factory growth hits fastest pace in 2-1/2 years Friday, Nov 01, 2013 01:03 PM PDT  By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in more than two years in October, according to an industry report, signaling a strong start to fourth-quarter factory activity despite a government shutdown during the first half of the month. The Institute for Supply Management said on Friday its index of national factory activity rose to 56.4 in October, its best showing since April 2011, handily beating expectations of a slight slowdown in the growth rate. Last month was the fifth in a row of quicker growth in the goods-producing sector, according to ISM's data. We don't get that many of those on the data stream of late," said Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets in New York. Full Story | Top |
| Snowden writes to Germans to seek support in spy row Friday, Nov 01, 2013 07:06 AM PDT  By Stephen Brown and Alexandra Hudson BERLIN (Reuters) - Fugitive U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has told Germany he is counting on international support to stop Washington's 'persecution' of him for revealing the scale of its worldwide phone and Internet surveillance. In an open letter to a country at the center of the row over U.S. spying on allies, Snowden said his revelations had helped to "address formerly concealed abuses of the public trust". Complaining that Washington continued to "treat dissent as defection" and speaking of a "sustained campaign of persecution" that he said had forced him into exile in Russia, Snowden wrote that "speaking the truth is not a crime." "I am confident that with the support of the international community, the government of the United States will abandon this harmful behavior," read his letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel, the German parliament and German federal prosecutors. Snowden gave the letter to German lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele, who presented it to the media in Berlin on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| JPMorgan discloses wider probes of hiring, currency trading Friday, Nov 01, 2013 05:52 AM PDT  (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, disclosed on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice and agencies from other jurisdictions are investigating hiring practices in Hong Kong that were already being probed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. JPMorgan also gave more details about U.S. government investigations into the bank's relationship with convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. Two government offices, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, are currently looking into the ties between Madoff and the bank. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is also investigating the bank's activities in the California and Midwest power markets that were the subject of a $410 million settlement between JPMorgan and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Full Story | Top |
| NATO stages exercise as rearming Russia worries some allies Friday, Nov 01, 2013 12:15 AM PDT By Peter Apps LONDON (Reuters) - When NATO forces start a major exercise in Latvia and Poland this weekend, they will be rehearsing how to oust an anonymous invading enemy from a fictional region. For some, however, exercise "Steadfast Jazz" will test how the Western alliance could deploy rapid reaction forces to its eastern flank - which borders Russia. A militarily resurgent and swiftly rearming Russia is alarming NATO states that lie close to its territory, chiefly the Baltic States. Other alliance members are simply baffled, wondering why Moscow feels the need to spend vast sums on meeting a threat from the West they say will never materialize. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey, Iran signal thaw in ties amid mutual concern on Syria Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:26 AM PDT  By Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey and Iran said on Friday they had common concerns about the increasingly sectarian nature of Syria's civil war, signaling a thaw in a key Middle Eastern relationship strained by stark differences over the conflict. Iran has been a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the start of the 32-month-old uprising against him, while Turkey has been one of his fiercest critics, supporting the opposition and giving refuge to rebel fighters. But the election in June of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who says he wants to thaw Iran's icy relations with the West, and shared concern over the rise of al Qaeda in Syria, have spurred hopes of a rapprochement. "Sitting here together with the Iranian foreign minister you can be sure we will be working together to fight these types of scenarios which aim to see a sectarian conflict," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a conference in Istanbul. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Militant financing case puts Israel and China in spotlight Friday, Nov 01, 2013 02:52 AM PDT  By Crispian Balmer JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Long determined to deprive Islamist groups of funding, Israel has unexpectedly hit the brakes in a U.S. court case centered on allegations that the Bank of China knowingly let cash flow to Palestinian militants. Apparently reluctant to send a former Israeli intelligence official who is a potentially crucial witness to testify in New York, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces accusations from his critics that he might let the case unravel rather than put bilateral trade ties with Beijing at risk. The law suit against the Bank of China was brought by the American family of Daniel Wultz, a 16-year-old killed while on holiday in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv in a 2006 suicide attack claimed by the Islamic Jihad faction during a Palestinian uprising. From the horror of the attack grew a complex investigation that has already seen the governments of Iran and Syria convicted in a U.S. court for sponsoring Islamic Jihad. Full Story | Top |
| China's Xinhua says 'Peeping Tom' U.S. risks own security by spying on allies Friday, Nov 01, 2013 04:00 AM PDT The United States country risks its own security by refusing to trust even its own friends and spying on its allies, China's official Xinhua news agency said on Friday, labeling the latest revelations heart-stoppingly fascinating. It is particularly hurtful to those supposed to trust America the most - its allies," Xinhua said in an English-language commentary, peppered with colorful language. "What is counter-intuitive in the NSA forage is its nonsensical approach: relentless and indiscriminate like a vacuum cleaner. It just bugs everybody, even its closest allies in Europe," it added. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry to make first trip to Egypt since Mursi's ouster Friday, Nov 01, 2013 03:38 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Egypt on Sunday for the first time since the army toppled the country's first freely elected president on July 3, state news agency MENA said. It said the visit to Egypt, whose alliance with the United States has come under strain, would only last several hours. Ties between Washington and Cairo have deteriorated since the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist who was elected last year. A popular uprising toppled authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak, a longtime U.S. ally, in February 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Federal appeals court reinstates abortion restrictions in Texas Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 10:33 PM PDT  By Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Thursday reinstated a Texas abortion restriction that was blocked by a lower court this week, allowing nearly all of the state's sweeping anti-abortion law to go into effect. The decision by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals means doctors who perform abortions in Texas must have admitting privileges with local hospitals within 30 miles of their clinic, according to court documents. The Texas law passed in July was the most fiercely debated proposal to restrict abortions in the United States this year. The Appeals Court overturned U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel's ruling on Monday, a day before the law was due to go into effect, that a section of the measure pertaining to admitting privileges was unconstitutional after supporters said it would force clinics to close. Full Story | Top |
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