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| North Korea says U.S. citizen Merrill E. Newman is a criminal, arrested for hostile acts Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:10 PM PST  North Korea said on Saturday it had arrested U.S. citizen Merrill E. Newman for "hostile acts" against the state and accused him of being "a criminal" who was involved in the killing of civilians during the 1950-53 Korean War. Newman "masterminded espionage and subversive activities against the DPRK and in this course he was involved in killings of service personnel of the Korean People's Army and innocent civilians," the North's official KCNA news agency said. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Full Story | Top |
| Police helicopter crashes into busy Scottish pub, trapping revelers Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:47 PM PST  By Russell Cheyne GLASGOW (Reuters) - A police helicopter crashed into the roof of a packed pub in Glasgow on Friday night, trapping revelers in choking dust and debris as they scrambled to flee a concert at the busy drinking hole. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said people should prepare for the likelihood of fatalities while emergency workers labored to free people trapped under rubble in the shadow of the mangled helicopter, which was embedded in the pub's roof. Visibly shaken eye witnesses described scenes of horror as the 12-metre (40 ft) helicopter with two police officers and a civilian pilot on board spiraled into the Clutha pub in a busy area of Scotland's biggest city, collapsing part of the roof. "It was fairly busy, we were all having a nice time and then there was like a whoosh noise," Grace MacLean, who was in the pub at the time of impact, told the BBC. Full Story | Top |
| Scottish police say a number of casualties in helicopter crash, some trapped Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:18 PM PST A number of people were injured when a police helicopter crashed into a busy Glasgow pub and some people were still trapped in the building, Scottish police said on Saturday. "I can confirm there are a number of casualties but it is too early at this stage to provide further details," said Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick. Full Story | Top |
| China scrambles jets to new defense zone, eyes U.S., Japan flights Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:50 PM PST  By Ben Blanchard and Roberta Rampton BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China scrambled jets on Friday in response to two U.S. spy planes and 10 Japanese aircraft, including F-15 fighters, entering its new air defense zone over the East China Sea, state news agency Xinhua said, raising the stakes in a standoff with the United States, Japan and South Korea. The jets were scrambled for effective monitoring, Xinhua cited air force spokesman Shen Jinke as saying. Japan and South Korea flew military aircraft through the zone, which includes the skies over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute between Japan and China, the two countries said on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Scotland says could be fatalities in helicopter pub crash Friday, Nov 29, 2013 04:37 PM PST LONDON (Reuters) - Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said on Friday that people should prepare for the likelihood of fatalities after a police helicopter crashed into a busy pub in Glasgow. "Given an incident of this scale we must all prepare ourselves for the likelihood of fatalities," Salmond said, adding that a full rescue operation was under way. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Bill Trott) Full Story | Top |
| Ukrainian opposition accuses Yanukovich of stealing EU dream Friday, Nov 29, 2013 03:44 PM PST  By Thomas Grove and Pavel Polityuk KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's political opposition said on Friday that President Viktor Yanukovich had 'stolen the dream' of closer integration with Europe as his supporters hailed his decision to spurn a European Union free trade deal. In a sea of blue and gold, the colors of both the EU and Ukrainian flags, some 10,000 protesters chanted "Ukraine is Europe" in Independence Square, the theatre of the Orange Revolution of 2004-5 that thwarted Yanukovich's first presidential bid. The scuffle occurred as police tried to remove passersby near Independence Square to try to clear a pro-EU demonstrator's vehicle from the road. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela's Maduro vows stricter business inspections Friday, Nov 29, 2013 03:43 PM PST  By Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said a stricter wave of inspections for suspected price-gouging would begin on Saturday in an aggressive pre-election "economic offensive" aimed at taming the highest inflation in the Americas. "We're not joking, we're defending the rights of the majority, their economic freedom," Maduro said on Friday, alleging price irregularities were found in nearly 99 percent of 1,705 businesses inspected so far this month. Maduro, who has staked his presidency on preserving the legacy of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, launched a theatrical - and often televised - wave of inspections this month to force companies to reduce prices. He says "capitalist parasites" are trying to wreck Venezuela's economy and force him from office. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine's Yanukovich vetoes EU push to save trade deal Friday, Nov 29, 2013 03:43 PM PST  By Justyna Pawlak and Adrian Croft VILNIUS (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich vetoed last-minute attempts by the European Union to rescue a trade deal that could have been signed at a summit on Friday and would have signaled a historic shift away from Russia, EU diplomats said. Under pressure from Moscow, Yanukovich abandoned plans last week to sign the agreement, preferring closer ties with Ukraine's former Soviet master and dealing a blow to EU efforts to build closer relations with its eastern neighbors. As EU leaders gathered in Vilnius on Thursday for a summit with six countries in eastern Europe and the southern Caucasus, officials from the EU and Ukraine tried to work out a last-minute compromise that could have allowed Yanukovich to sign the trade deal in the near future. EU diplomats told Reuters a preliminary understanding had been reached, but Yanukovich had refused to sign off on it. Full Story | Top |
| Helicopter crashes into Glasgow pub, multiple casualties: BBC Friday, Nov 29, 2013 03:35 PM PST  (Reuters) - A helicopter crashed into a pub in Glasgow on Friday, causing multiple injuries, the BBC reported on its website. BBC News quoted Member of Parliament Jim Murphy as saying: "It's a well established Glasgow pub. It's a horrible, horrible scene, but well done to the folk who were here. Everyone formed a chain of people from inside the pub to outside, and the fire brigade and everyone were here very quickly." The BBC named the pub as the Clutha Vaults in Stockwell Street. Full Story | Top |
| With new air zone, China tests U.S. dominance in East Asia Friday, Nov 29, 2013 03:30 PM PST By Greg Torode and Linda Sieg HONG KONG/TOKYO (Reuters) - China's new air defense zone, stretching far into East Asia's international skies, is an historic challenge to the United States, which has dominated the region for decades. For years, Chinese naval officers have told their U.S. counterparts they are uncomfortable with America's presence in the western Pacific - and Beijing is now confronting strategic assumptions that have governed the region since World War Two. China's recent maritime muscle-flexing in disputes over the Paracel islands and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and over Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea has stirred concern and extensive backroom diplomacy in Washington. But it took the events of the last week to spark an immediate and symbolic response from the United States - the unannounced appearance in the zone of two unarmed B-52 bombers from the fortified island of Guam, the closest U.S. territory to the Chinese coast. Full Story | Top |
| Malian separatist rebels end ceasefire after clashes Friday, Nov 29, 2013 02:19 PM PST By Adama Diarra BAMAKO (Reuters) - Separatist Tuareg rebels said on Friday they were ending a five-month-old ceasefire with Mali's government and taking up arms following violence in the northern city of Kidal. "The political and military wings of the Azawad (MNLA, MAA and HCUA) declare the lifting of the ceasefire with the central government in Bamako," said a statement by Attaye Ag Mohamed, one of the founders of the MNLA groups. A French-led military offensive routed the Islamists but tension remains between the central government and Tuareg separatists demanding an independent homeland they call Azawad. Full Story | Top |
| Yemen president rules out southern split, separatists call rallies Friday, Nov 29, 2013 02:00 PM PST  Yemen's president ruled out ever allowing the partition of the country, challenging southern separatists who called for demonstrations across their territory to press for independence. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi spoke on the eve of southern celebrations marking the anniversary of the end of British rule, underlined a hardening standoff between his government and the separatists. "Those seeking division ... are seeking only an illusive mirage and self interest and not public or national interests," Hadi said on Friday in a speech carried by state news agency Saba. He spoke two days after a south Yemeni separatist leader and supporters walked out of national reconciliation talks meant to chart a new constitution for the U.S.-allied country, that is also facing a northern rebellion and attacks by one of the deadliest branches of al Qaeda. Full Story | Top |
| Tents, refugees crowd Lebanese valley - just don't call it a camp Friday, Nov 29, 2013 01:13 PM PST  By Oliver Holmes ARSAL, Lebanon (Reuters) - White tents with "The U.N. Refugee Agency" written on them flap in the wind outside the Lebanese mountain town of Arsal. In all respects, it is a refugee camp, but you must not call it that, say officials. The site is home to about 350 people who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria - the first officially U.N.-run plot set up for displaced Syrians in Lebanon, complete with running water, toilets and other services. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine wants financial, economic aid package from EU: Yanukovich Friday, Nov 29, 2013 11:49 AM PST KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said on Friday that Kiev still intended to sign an association and trade agreement with the EU in the future, but he wanted the bloc to take 'decisive steps' to draw up an economic aid package for Ukraine. Justifying his decision not to sign the agreement on Friday at an EU summit in Lithuania's capital, he told EU leaders in a closed summit session: "Unfortunately, Ukraine in the last while has turned out to be alone in dealing with serious financial and economic problems. ... Full Story | Top |
| Benin says frees Nigerian ex-militant after Jonathan intervenes Friday, Nov 29, 2013 11:12 AM PST Benin freed a former militant leader from Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region on Friday after a personal intervention by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, a government spokesman said. Mujahid Dobubo-Asari had been arrested in the West African nation's capital Cotonou on Tuesday. Like Jonathan, Asari is from the Ijaw ethnic group. He is best known for staging attacks on oil infrastructure in the swampy creeks of OPEC member Nigeria that drove up oil prices to record highs in 2004. Full Story | Top |
| Libya's coastguard picks up almost 300 African migrants Friday, Nov 29, 2013 10:28 AM PST Libya stopped three boats off its coast packed with almost 300 African migrants apparently trying to reach Europe, the state news agency Lana said on Friday. The migrants were taken to detention centers for processing by Libya's department for illegal migrants. Hundreds of people have died in the past two months in the stream of refugees trying to enter the European Union by boat from North Africa through Lampedusa, an Italian island south of Sicily. Many come via Libya, which is struggling with growing anarchy two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Full Story | Top |
| EU carbon down 9.4 percent in November as supply curbs seen distant Friday, Nov 29, 2013 09:35 AM PST EU carbon fell 9.4 percent in November as lawmakers advanced a plan to cut supply but were unable to move fast enough to block an influx of government permits depressing the market. The December 2013 EU Allowance ended on Friday at 4.36 euros on ICE, down 7 cents on Thursday's settlement and 51 cents down month-on-month. "It's a case of the auctions and EIB (European Investment Bank) sales coming and coming. Germany's sale of 4 million spot permits on Friday morning was almost three times subscribed, a sale typical of the near-daily government auctions that feed permits into the market at a rate of around 80 million a month. Full Story | Top |
| Men tried to behead soldier on London street, court hears Friday, Nov 29, 2013 09:25 AM PST  By Michael Holden and Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Two men tried to behead a British soldier in broad daylight on a London street, hacking at his body "like a butcher attacking a joint of meat" in what one said was "eye for an eye" revenge for Britain's wars against Muslims, a court was told on Friday. Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, dragged the lifeless body of Fusilier Lee Rigby, a veteran of the Afghan War, into the middle of the street so that horrified members of the public could see what they had done, prosecutor Richard Whittam said at the start of the men's trial. They deny committing what Whittam called a "cowardly and callous murder" by knocking Rigby down with a car as he crossed a street in Woolwich, southeast London, on the afternoon of May 22 before setting upon his unconscious body with a meat cleaver and knives. Full Story | Top |
| Spain's anti-protest bill criticized as anti-democratic Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:56 AM PST  By Elisabeth O'Leary and Andrés González MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's conservative government agreed on Friday to toughen penalties for unauthorized street protests up to a possible 600,000 euro ($816,000) fine, a crackdown that belies the peaceful record of the anti-austerity protests of recent years. But Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose People's Party (PP)has an absolute majority in parliament, has said the Citizens' Security Law guarantees freedom and will have the support of a majority of Spaniards. Street protests and strikes have became increasingly frequent in recent years following huge cuts to education and health spending aimed at shrinking Spain's public deficit to adhere to European Union demands. But in contrast to Greece and elsewhere, where many similar protests have turned violent, Spain's have remained largely peaceful, despite unemployment of 26 percent, rising poverty, and changes in labor laws that make firing easier. Full Story | Top |
| Quake did not damage nuclear plant, Iran tells IAEA Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:26 AM PST Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency an earthquake near the city of Bushehr did not damage the country's sole nuclear power plant and it continues to operate normally, the IAEA said on Friday. At least seven people were killed in Thursday's earthquake that hit a region near the Bushehr nuclear power plant, state news agency IRNA reported. The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 5.6, struck about 40 miles northeast of Bushehr on the Gulf coast, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. "Iran informed the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) yesterday that no damage had been found at Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant," the U.N. agency said. Full Story | Top |
| Governments seek to raise the EU cap on food-based biofuels Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:25 AM PST By Charlie Dunmore BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments are trying to raise a planned limit on the use of transport fuels made from food crops, despite warnings that the fuels can harm the environment and push up food prices. Last year in response to such warnings, the European Commission, the EU executive, proposed capping the bloc's use of crop-based biofuels at 5 percent of total transport fuel demand. That was a U-turn from three years before, when the European Union had set a legally binding target to source 10 percent of its transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020, mostly crop-based biofuels. On Friday, EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels drew up a draft compromise that would raise the proposed cap to 7 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Earthquake shakes San Salvador, no major damage reported Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:17 AM PST SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - An earthquake rattled buildings in San Salvador on Friday morning, although there were no immediate reports of damage. Mexico's national seismological agency reported that a quake of 5.2 magnitude had been registered in El Salvador. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria) Full Story | Top |
| Dozens of firms interested in destroying Syrian chemicals: OPCW sources Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:17 AM PST By Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - More than two dozen companies have expressed interest in destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, sources at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), told Reuters on Friday. The global chemical weapons watchdog is seeking commercial firms to destroy toxins from Syria's poison gas arsenal, and is trying to find a Mediterranean port where the deadliest can be processed offshore after Albania abruptly backed out of its offer to have it done on its territory. Last week the OPCW asked companies to indicate whether they could destroy nearly 800 metric tons (about 882 tons) of chemicals and 7.7 million liters of effluent, or liquid waste, and set a deadline of November 29 for expressions of interest. The sources did not reveal which companies had expressed an interest, but Timo Piekkari, chief executive at Finland's state-owned Ekokem, said his firm had done so. Full Story | Top |
| German policeman held for death of man he met on cannibal website Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:12 AM PST  A German policeman has been arrested after the chopped-up body of a man he met on a fetishist website for cannibalism was found buried in his garden, police in the eastern city of Dresden said on Friday. "The victim had been fantasizing about being killed and eaten by someone else since his youth," Dresden police chief Dieter Kroll told a news conference. The investigation recalled the case of Armin Meiwes, dubbed the "Cannibal of Rothenburg", who killed and ate a man who had advertised on the Internet for someone to kill him "and leave no trace". Full Story | Top |
| Iran sees nuclear deal implementation starting by early January Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:07 AM PST  By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - The implementation of a landmark deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program in return for some sanctions relief is expected to start by early January, its envoy to the U.N. atomic agency said on Friday. Israel, believed to be the region's only nuclear-armed state, has denounced the deal as an "historic mistake" since it does not dismantle its arch foe's uranium enrichment program. The Jewish state sees Iran as a threat to its existence. Israel's ambassador to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency told an IAEA board meeting that "the increasing concerns regarding Iran's activities related to nuclear weapons should be thoroughly investigated and clarified". Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Plains young wheat crop at risk from arctic blast Friday, Nov 29, 2013 08:01 AM PST Bitter cold conditions expected to move through the U.S. Plains wheat belt next week will put the young crop at risk of winterkill if the region does not see snow before then, an agricultural meteorologist said on Friday. But the chances of the region getting snow before then are good, Lerner said. Full Story | Top |
| Journal withdraws controversial French Monsanto GM study Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:59 AM PST  Reed Elsevier's Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT)journal, which published the study by the French researcher Gilles-Eric Seralini in September 2012, said the retraction was because the study's small sample size meant no definitive conclusions could be reached. "Ultimately, the results presented - while not incorrect - are inconclusive, and therefore do not reach the threshold of publication for Food and Chemical Toxicology." At the time of its original publication, hundreds of scientists across the world questioned Seralini's research, which said rats fed Monsanto's GM corn had suffered tumors and multiple organ failure. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a statement in November 2012 saying the study by Seralini, who was based at France's University of Caen, had serious defects in design and methodology and did not meet acceptable scientific standards. In its retraction statement, the FCT said that, in light of these concerns, it too had asked to view the raw data. Full Story | Top |
| UK takes aim at green levies, denies seeking energy price freeze Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:42 AM PST By William James and Sarah Young LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Friday to cut energy bills by reducing green levies but denied a BBC report that he had asked the country's biggest gas and energy companies to hold prices steady until the 2015 election. In an unusually sharp reprimand for the publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation, a spokesman for Cameron's office said the report which cited unidentified industry sources was utterly misleading. Details of a review of green levies, which include obligatory insulation for poor families and help with their bills, will be unveiled by finance minister George Osborne in his December 5 Autumn Statement, a government spokesman said. "I want to help households and families by getting sustainably low energy prices," Cameron told reporters on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Lithuania on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi accused of bribing witnesses in prostitution trial Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:41 AM PST  By Emilio Parodi MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian court accused former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday of bribing witnesses to give false testimony in a trial linked to the case in which he has been convicted for paying for sex with a minor. The accusation, two days after Berlusconi was stripped of his seat in parliament for tax fraud, came in a written judgment in the trial of three associates of the billionaire media tycoon who are charged with procuring prostitutes for parties at his home near Milan. The court said the evidence against Berlusconi and the others implicated had been sent to prosecutors who are expected to open a new investigation into the case, the court documents showed. His lawyers, Niccolo Ghedini and Piero Longo, who were also accused of inducing false testimony in the case, issued a statement saying the accusations were "totally disconnected from reality and from the facts". Full Story | Top |
| Russian prosecutors seek nine years for acid attack dancer Friday, Nov 29, 2013 07:01 AM PST  By Maria Tsvetkova MOSCOW (Reuters) - State prosecutors demanded a nine-year jail sentence on Friday for a dancer accused of ordering an acid attack that nearly blinded the Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director and exposed bitter rivalries at one of Russia's great cultural institutions. Pavel Dmitrichenko, a former soloist at the Bolshoi, showed no emotion as he sat still in a courtroom cage listening to the prosecution summary in a trial that lasted one month. The prosecution also asked for 10 years in prison for Yuri Zarutsky, who is accused of throwing the acid in artistic director Sergei Filin's face last January, and six years for Andrei Lipatov, accused of driving him to and from the scene. "Dmitrichenko's motive was a conflict between Filin and Dmitrichenko," prosecutor Yulia Shumovskaya told the Moscow court, saying the dispute was caused by the dancer's disappointment at not being given good roles by Filin. Full Story | Top |
| Anti-government protesters break into Thai army compound Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:55 AM PST  By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Pracha Hariraksapitak BANGKOK (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters briefly forced their way into the compound of Thailand's army headquarters on Friday in a dramatic escalation of city-wide demonstrations seeking to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Protesters burst into the army base Bangkok's historic quarter, waving flags and blowing whistles. In another district, about 1,000 people massed outside Yingluck's ruling party headquarters, shouting "get out". The invasion of army headquarters deepened a conflict broadly pitting the urban middle class against the mostly rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 coup and who remains central to Thailand's eight years of on-off turmoil. Full Story | Top |
| In 'Teflon Thailand,' protests test a weak economy Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:47 AM PST By Martin Petty BANGKOK (Reuters) - As anti-government protests roil Bangkok, the president of Thailand's largest petrochemical company is already seeing scattered disruptions to business. "We have taken into account the possibility of prolonged political problems and we think it could hurt our businesses next year," said Bowon Vongsinudom, president of PTT Global Chemical Pcl after days of protests including the occupation of the Finance Ministry since Monday. While Thailand's economy, Southeast Asia's second largest, typically shows remarkable resilience to political turbulence, there are factors this time around that suggest the unrest could exacerbate already softening business conditions. Consumer spending has slumped this year and exports, worth 60 percent of Thailand's $366 billion economy, are flagging amid weak global demand. Full Story | Top |
| Suicide bomber wounds MP and bodyguards in Afghan capital Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:45 AM PST By Mirwais Harooni KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber wounded a prominent anti-Taliban Afghan legislator and his bodyguards in an attack in Kabul on Friday, intelligence officials said. The bomber detonated his device inside the house of Hameedullah Tokhi, a member of parliament for Zabul province, and wounded Tokhi and four of his bodyguards, the officials said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, which came as President Hamid Karzai deliberates over an agreement allowing NATO forces to stay in the country beyond 2014. Full Story | Top |
| Liberals to lead Luxembourg as coalition talks succeed Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:39 AM PST Luxembourg City's mayor Xavier Bettel will become the country's next prime minister, following the end of coalition talks on Friday that usher in a Liberal government for the first time in decades. The agreement between Bettel's Democratic Party, the Socialists and the Greens brings an end to the 19 years in office of Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Union's longest-serving head of government. "After 175 hours, we're done with the coalition talks," Bettel said on his Twitter account. The coalition agreement will be presented to the respective party congresses next week, after which the ministers will be announced and the new government can be sworn in. Full Story | Top |
| 'Security' swimming pool lands South Africa's Zuma in hot water Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:37 AM PST  By Ed Cropley JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's top anti-corruption watchdog says President Jacob Zuma should repay some of a $21 million publicly funded "security upgrade" to his private home that included a swimming pool and cattle enclosure, a newspaper said on Friday. The Mail and Guardian weekly said a provisional report by the Public Protector entitled 'Opulence on a Grand Scale' found Zuma had derived "substantial" personal gain from the improvements to his private compound at Nkandla in the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal province. The leaked findings of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's investigation will reinforce a perception of runaway corruption under Zuma and could hurt him and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in an election due in six months. Zuma's spokesman declined to comment, while Madonsela's office said the leak was "unethical and unlawful". Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi police find 18 men shot in head and seven decapitated Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:29 AM PST By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Police discovered the bodies of 18 men who had been abducted and shot in the head near Baghdad on Friday, and the decapitated corpses of seven men killed in a separate attack in northern Iraq. The 18 bodies were found together in an orchard in Meshahda, a predominantly Sunni Muslim area around 30 km (20 miles) north of Baghdad. A senior police source blamed al Qaeda. Such killings are on the rise in Iraq, alongside a growing insurgent campaign of bomb and gun attacks on security forces and civilians. Full Story | Top |
| Angola says Dos Santos is fine, denies cancer treatment report Friday, Nov 29, 2013 06:03 AM PST  Angola on Friday denied a report by Portuguese state TV that President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was undergoing cancer treatment, saying the long-serving 71-year-old was in good health. The RTP report on Thursday said Dos Santos had checked in to the oncology unit of a clinic in Barcelona. "He is in good health and will return within days." In power since 1979, Dos Santos is Africa's second longest-serving leader. He flew to Barcelona from Luanda on November 9 on a private visit. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. carbon offset market seen 'in a coma' for years after Warsaw Friday, Nov 29, 2013 05:55 AM PST  By Susanna Twidale LONDON (Reuters) - The U.N.'s carbon offset market is likely to remain "in a coma" for years, project developers said, after countries failed to agree on measures to encourage demand at last week's climate talks in Warsaw. Investment under the U.N.'s $315 billion Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has ground to a halt as the value of the credits they generate has plunged 95 percent in five years to around 0.30 euros, crushing profits that investors count on to set up carbon-cutting schemes in the developing world. CDM credits can be used by companies and governments to help meet emission targets, but prices have crashed as industrialized nations delay setting new emission reduction pledges, while registered projects pump out more offsets at minimal additional cost. The Warsaw talks were meant to advance a global climate accord to be agreed in 2015 and come into force after 2020, but no major nation offered to set or deepen emission targets, while Japan scaled down its 2020 goal. Full Story | Top |
| Key Bangladesh garments factory destroyed in blaze Friday, Nov 29, 2013 05:55 AM PST By Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - A devastating fire ripped through a Bangladesh garment factory supplying major Western retailers in a blaze set by workers angered over rumors of a colleague's death due to police gunfire. But fire fighters were still battling to douse the fire in four nearby buildings, more than 15 hours after it had begun around midnight on Thursday, after workers finished for the day. "We are still struggling to control the flames," said fire official Mahbubur Rahman, adding that 22 fire service and civil defense units been thrown into the fire-fighting operation. At the scene, a Reuters photographer said burnt garments strewn on the floors bore brand names from U.S. retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters Inc, Gap Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Other brands on the clothes included Li and Fung Ltd, Marks and Spencer Group PLC, Sears Canada Inc, Fast Retailing Co Ltd's Uniqlo and Inditex S.A. brand Zara. Full Story | Top |
| Thailand's red-shirt heartland hides its strength Friday, Nov 29, 2013 05:34 AM PST  By Aubrey Belford HUA KHUA, Thailand (Reuters) - Squatting on flat feet, their faces drawn with exhaustion from harvesting rice, Chantee Sanwang and Nang Laor still had the energy to tussle over who loathes Thailand's anti-government protesters more. As thousands of largely middle-class Thais flood Bangkok streets in protests aimed at overthrowing the government of the populist Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, one volatile factor has been largely absent from the streets: the red-shirted protesters who helped bring her to power. Like the province it sits in, Udon Thani, the village of Hua Khua is part of the rural north and northeastern heartland that is the support base of Yingluck's Puea Thai Party and her self-exiled brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as prime minister in a 2006 military coup. Hua Khua is one thousands of communities that movement leaders call "Red Shirt Villages". Full Story | Top |
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