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| Netflix hikes CEO salary by 50 percent for 2014 Monday, Dec 30, 2013 08:12 PM PST  (Reuters) - Netflix Inc raised the salary of its Chief Executive Reed Hastings by 50 percent to $6 million for 2014, a regulatory filing showed, as its stock quadrupled in value this year amidst new programming and a growth in subscriber base. Hastings will receive $3 million each in cash and stock options for the year, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made late on Monday. Other top executives including Chief Financial Officer David Wells and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos will also get a pay hike in 2014, it said. In November, Netflix added four new television series and one miniseries from Disney's Marvel unit, and in December it secured the rights to make new episodes of a spinoff of the "Breaking Bad" television series, available within days to customers in Latin America and Europe, starting in 2014. Full Story | Top |
| China blames religious extremism for attack in Xinjiang Monday, Dec 30, 2013 07:56 PM PST Chinese police said the nine people responsible for a deadly "terrorist attack" in the western region of Xinjiang were promoting religious extremism, state media reported on Tuesday. Xinjiang is home to a Turkic-speaking, Muslim people known as Uighurs, some of whom resent what they see as oppressive treatment by the government. The Xinjiang government said police shot dead eight people on Monday during the attack in Yarkand county close to the old Silk Road city of Kashgar in Xinjiang's south. State news agency Xinhua said late on Monday an initial probe showed the gang, led by Usman Barat and Abdugheni Abdukhadir, had gathered to watch terrorist videos and promote religious extremist ideas since August. Full Story | Top |
| ACLU sues for details of U.S. surveillance under executive order Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:46 PM PST  By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Monday, seeking to force the U.S. government to disclose details of its foreign electronic surveillance program and what protections it provides to Americans whose communications are swept up. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, came three days after the ACLU lost a bid to block a separate program that collects the phone calls of millions of Americans. The latest lawsuit seeks information related to the use of Executive Order 12333, which was signed in 1981 and governs surveillance of foreign targets. Under the order, the National Security Administration is collecting "vast quantities" of data globally under the order's authority, "inevitably" including communications of U.S. citizens, the lawsuit said. Full Story | Top |
| Brain-dead California girl ordered kept on ventilator for week longer Monday, Dec 30, 2013 06:05 PM PST  By Laila Kearney OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) - The family of a California girl who was declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy won an 11th-hour court order on Monday, requiring doctors to keep her connected to a breathing machine for at least another week. Under the latest court order in the case, doctors at Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland are barred from taking 13-year-old Jahi McMath off a ventilator without her family's consent before 5 p.m. local time on January 7, relatives and hospital officials said. "This is a tragedy that has been postponed for another week," hospital spokesman Singer told reporters outside the hospital after family members announced the ruling, though it was not immediately clear which court issued the ruling. Court documents posted electronically show the family filed suit in U.S. District Court in northern California on Monday seeking a temporary restraining order to keep Jahi connected to the machine that has kept her heart and lungs going for more than two weeks. Full Story | Top |
| Oklahoma doctor held for nine deaths linked to prescription drugs Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:43 PM PST (Reuters) - Texas police have arrested a former Oklahoma doctor on nine counts of homicide and 43 counts of illegal drug distribution for prescribing large doses of addictive medicines to patients he hardly knew in return for bribes, officials said on Monday. William Valuck, 71, was arrested on Friday in Kilgore, Texas and authorities in neighboring states were exchanging information about the case. "At least nine of his patients died from overdoses of the very same drugs he was prescribing in massive doses," the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics said in the affidavit filed in Oklahoma County. The doctor had been working out of an office in Oklahoma City and surrendered his license to practise medicine this month as authorities were closing in on him after a year-long investigation, Oklahoma authorities said. Full Story | Top |
| Walgreen offers month of prescriptions to backlogged Obamacare enrollees Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:35 PM PST  (Reuters) - Walgreen Co said on Monday it will provide a month's supply of certain prescriptions at no upfront cost to U.S. participants who have not yet received a plan identification number under President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law. The offering comes as U.S. government officials struggle to roll out the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Walgreen, the largest drug store chain in the United States, said customers who have enrolled in Obamacare, but don't have an ID yet from an insurer, can bring proof of their enrollment from now through the end of January to a Walgreen's pharmacy. As soon as the customer receives the ID number, Walgreen will process the insurance claim and the customer at that time may be responsible for any co-pay, Walgreen spokeswoman Markeisha Marshall said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. cracks open skies to testing, use of aerial drones Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:33 PM PST  By Alwyn Scott NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government took a step on Monday toward opening the skies to aerial drones, authorizing six sites where unmanned aircraft can be tested for a variety of uses. The Federal Aviation Administration already had approved limited use of drones in the United States for law enforcement, surveillance, atmospheric research and other applications. Monday's decision will give companies, universities and others place to test much broader uses, such as crop spraying, catching exotic-animal poachers or delivering packages, as Amazon.com Inc recently suggested. "It provides the platform for this research to be carried out on a very large scale across the country," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told reporters. Full Story | Top |
| Boeing tells state leaders 777X wing plant is at risk Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:33 PM PST  By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - Boeing Co will not build the wing for its new 777X jetliner in Washington state if members of its largest union reject its latest contract offer in a Friday vote, company executives told Seattle-area elected officials on Monday. "They made it very clear that if there is a 'no' vote on the contract, they will not build the composite wing here," said Suzette Cooke, mayor of Kent, Washington. "It left the other parts of the plane in question." The location of the final assembly and wing fabrication is in question because union members rejected Boeing's contract offer, prompting Boeing to look for other locations around the country, and prompting 22 bids from rival states. The new 777X jet program, an updated version of Boeing's best-selling wide-body plane, represents a good slice of Washington state's aerospace future. Full Story | Top |
| Israel frees Palestinian prisoners, pushes settlement plan Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:30 PM PST  Israel set free 26 Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday as part of U.S.-brokered peace efforts, after pledging to press ahead with plans to build more homes in Jewish settlements. Israel agreed to release 104 long-serving Palestinian prisoners - the latest group is the third of four to go free - as part of the U.S.-led efforts that coaxed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas back to the negotiations after a three-year break. In tandem with the prisoner releases in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel has announced new construction in settlements in occupied territory Palestinians seek for a state. Last week, an Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government - which includes pro-settlement parties - would announce plans after the latest release to build 1,400 more homes for settlers in the West Bank. Full Story | Top |
| Three dead in south Yemen blasts Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:28 PM PST Three people including a suicide bomber were killed in three explosions targeting security offices in Aden, the main city in southern Yemen, al-Arabiya news reported early on Tuesday. Hundreds of security officials have been killed in explosions and shootings over the past two years in southern Yemen, where the government and allied tribal militias are fighting against Islamist militants allied to al Qaeda. Security in Yemen is a priority for the United States and Gulf Arab countries because of its location next to the biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia and big crude shipping routes through the Red Sea. This month al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen's branch of the movement, said it was behind an assault on a Defence Ministry complex in the capital Sanaa in which more than 50 people were killed. Full Story | Top |
| Fed's Fisher says his FOMC vote will reflect concerns on bond buying Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:25 PM PST  Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said his votes on the central bank's policy panel in 2014 will reflect his concern that the Fed's bond-buying risks stoking inflation and exposing the institution politically. In an interview conducted on December 2 but posted to the Internet as a podcast on Monday, Fisher called the excess reserves piling up in the U.S. banking system potential "tinder" for inflation, and he said the central bank's plans to eventually unwind its extraordinary policies relied on an untested "theoretical exit strategy." "I expect that my own voting behavior will reflect this concern I've just stated," Fisher said in the interview hosted by the private educational foundation Liberty Fund. "I worry about the fact that we've already painted ourselves into a corner that's going to be very hard to get out of." Fisher, who rotates into a voting spot on the Fed's policymaking Federal Open Market Committee next month, expressed concern that as interest rates rise the Fed could begin to face paper losses on its massive portfolio. Full Story | Top |
| British MPs to quiz power company chiefs on Christmas power outages -Telegraph Monday, Dec 30, 2013 04:08 PM PST  (Reuters) - Members of Britain's parliament are set to summon the chiefs of energy network companies over the slow pace of restoring power services after a Christmas storm, The Daily Telegraph reported, quoting the chairman of the parliamentary energy committee. Floods caused by strong storm winds on Christmas eve had knocked out power services in many parts of Britain, with many customers remaining without electricity for almost five days. The Committee will call them in when the House gets back," chairman of the parliamentary energy committee, Tim Yeoh was quoted by the newspaper as saying. The Chief executive of UK Power Networks, one of Britain's biggest electricity distributors said that its response had been too slow and said it would pay almost triple compensation to households left without power over Christmas. Full Story | Top |
| Congo's army repels attacks in Kinshasa, dozens killed Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:18 PM PST  By Bienvenu Bakumanya KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese troops killed dozens of armed youths who attacked the airport, a military barracks and state television headquarters in the capital Kinshasa on Monday in incidents claimed by a disgruntled religious leader. Before transmission was shut down at state television, the attackers shouted slogans in favor of pastor Paul Joseph Mukungubila and against President Joseph Kabila. Several corpses lay on the rain-soaked ground outside the brightly painted gates of the state television center after the attack, a Reuters witness said. The broadcaster reported that security forces had killed 46 of the attackers, while government officials said about 20 more had been arrested. Full Story | Top |
| California brain-dead girl nears deadline for ventilator Monday, Dec 30, 2013 03:15 PM PST Relatives of a 13-year-old California girl declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy pressed an 11th-hour effort on Monday to get her moved to an extended-care facility as a deadline neared for taking her off a breathing machine. Doctors at Children's Hospital in Oakland have said they intend to disconnect Jahi McMath on Monday evening from a ventilator that has been keeping her heart and lungs going since she lost all brain function more than two weeks ago. An Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a restraining order last week barring the hospital from removing Jahi - without the consent of her family - from the ventilator before 5 p.m. local time on Monday, December 30. The judge then denied a petition from relatives to extend that deadline, after two pediatric neurologists who had examined Jahi affirmed the hospital's medical opinion that the girl was brain dead and beyond recovery. Full Story | Top |
| Fisker founders, managers sued for misleading investor Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:56 PM PST  The founders and top managers of now-bankrupt Fisker Automotive never told potential investors that the green car startup lost access to federal funds that were crucial to the company's financial strength, according to an investor lawsuit. Co-founder Henrik Fisker, board members and executives kept quiet that the U.S. Department of Energy cut access to a $529 million green-technology loan in June 2011, according to the lawsuit, filed on Friday by Atlas Capital Management LP. Full Story | Top |
| NY City mayor-elect names former teacher to lead schools Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:45 PM PST  By Edith Honan NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio on Monday named Carmen Farina, a longtime teacher and administrator, as the next chancellor of the nation's largest public school system. Farina, 70, takes charge of a system with 1.2 million students at a time when long-simmering debates over teacher compensation and discipline and the place of charter schools in urban education are coming to a head. Whereas outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg was often at odds with the United Federation of Teachers, whose members have been working without a contract since 2009, de Blasio has indicated he will take a more collaborative approach and backs offering retroactive pay increases in a new contract. Bloomberg had chosen three chancellors outside the profession. Full Story | Top |
| One-third of Americans reject evolution, poll shows Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:37 PM PST  By Chris Francescani NEW YORK (Reuters) - One-third of Americans reject the idea of evolution and Republicans have grown more skeptical about it, according to a poll released on Monday. Sixty percent of Americans say that "humans and other living things have evolved over time," the telephone survey by the Pew Research Center's Religion and Public Life Project showed (Click http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/ for the full survey). But 33 percent reject the idea of evolution, saying that "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time," Pew said in a statement. "The gap is coming from the Republicans, where fewer are now saying that humans have evolved over time," said Cary Funk, a Pew senior researcher who conducted the analysis. Full Story | Top |
| NYC sues FedEx for illegally shipping cigarettes to homes Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:31 PM PST  By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City has sued FedEx Corp, accusing it of illegally delivering millions of contraband cigarettes to people's homes and seeking $52 million in fines and unpaid taxes. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, marks one of the last acts by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose more than decade-old campaign to ban smoking in various public and private places has been credited with saving thousands of lives and become a blueprint for other cities. According to the city, package delivery company FedEx created a "public nuisance" through its partnership with Shinnecock Smoke Shop, located on the Shinnecock Indian Nation reservation in Southampton, New York, to ship untaxed cigarettes to residential homes. Full Story | Top |
| Cleveland man confesses to murders, rapes, sentenced to 445 years Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:25 PM PST  By Kim Palmer CHICAGO (Reuters) - A former neighbor of Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro pleaded guilty on Monday to murders and rapes committed nearly two decades ago and was sentenced to more than 400 years in prison with no chance of parole, prosecutors said. Elias Acevedo, Sr., 49, became a suspect in two murders committed in the 1990s after the FBI re-examined the disappearance of other missing women from the Seymour Avenue neighborhood in the aftermath of Castro's arrest in May. Castro was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, raping and torturing three women for about a decade, after they and the child he fathered with one of them were rescued from his home nearby. Acevedo pleaded guilty on Monday to all 297 counts against him, including the murder, kidnapping and rape of Pamela Pemberton, his 30-year-old neighbor, found strangled in 1994 and to the murder of Christina Adkins, a pregnant 18-year-old who disappeared in 1995. Full Story | Top |
| Uganda says region ready to take on, defeat South Sudan rebel leader Monday, Dec 30, 2013 02:01 PM PST  By Aaron Maasho and Carl Odera JUBA (Reuters) - Uganda's president said on Monday the nations of East Africa had agreed to move in to defeat South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar if he rejected a ceasefire offer, threatening to turn an outburst of ethnic fighting into a regional conflict. Hours after President Yoweri Museveni's ultimatum, rebels and the feared "White Army" militia clashed against government troops just outside Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, officials said. "We gave Riek Machar four days to respond (to the ceasefire offer) and if he doesn't we shall have to go for him, all of us," Museveni told reporters in South Sudan's capital, Juba, referring to a December 31 deadline. He did not spell out whether South Sudan's neighbors had actually agreed to send troops to join the conflict that erupted in Juba on December 15. Full Story | Top |
| Colorado shooter went bowling, entered school by unlocked door Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:36 PM PST  Armed with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a machete and three Molotov cocktails, 18-year-old Karl Pierson stormed Arapahoe High School in the Denver suburb of Centennial on December 13 in a rampage evoking comparisons to the far bloodier Columbine High School massacre that unfolded nearby in 1999. The violence at Arapahoe High came on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting frenzy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed by a gunman who then committed suicide. Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told reporters on Monday that Pierson "made no attempt to conceal the fact that he was armed" and entered the school through a door that was supposed to be locked on the north side of the building. "The door that he entered was not secured on December 13." Asked if Pierson would have been thwarted in his attack had he found the door bolted shut, Robinson said it was unclear. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. concerned about threats to Sochi Olympics, offers help Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:32 PM PST By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is concerned Islamist militants may be preparing attacks aimed at disrupting the Winter Olympic games in Sochi in February and is offering closer cooperation on security with Russia despite strains earlier this year. Two bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd in the past two days - one at the city's central railway station and another on a bus - killed dozens of people and raised anxieties about the safety of the Olympics. One militant group issued explicit direct threats to disrupt the Olympics, a State Department official said. Other officials said that regions near Sochi were among the areas of Russia currently most prone to Islamic militancy and other unrest. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt likely to change roadmap, hold presidential vote first: sources Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:20 PM PST  By Asma Alsharif and Yasmine Saleh CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's government is likely to call a presidential election before parliamentary polls, officials said on Monday, rearranging the political timetable in a way that could see army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi elected head of state by April. Parliamentary elections were supposed to happen first under the roadmap unveiled after the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July after mass protests against his rule. But critics have campaigned for a change, saying the country needs an elected leader to direct government at a time of economic and political crisis and to forge a political alliance before a potentially divisive parliamentary election. Were that Sisi, who is widely tipped to win the vote, it would restore the army's sway over a post controlled by military men until Mursi was propelled to office last year by the Muslim Brotherhood. Full Story | Top |
| Special Report: Lost hooves, dead cattle before Merck halted Zilmax sales Monday, Dec 30, 2013 01:01 PM PST  By P.J. Huffstutter and Tom Polansek WALLA WALLA COUNTY, WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. beef industry's dependence on the muscle-building drug Zilmax began unraveling here, on a sweltering summer day, in the dusty cattle pens outside a Tyson Foods Inc slaughterhouse in southeastern Washington state. Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson said his company doesn't know exactly what happened to the small group of cattle that were destroyed at the plant near Pasco. Full Story | Top |
| Reduced Fed support reflected in January bond-buying plan Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:38 PM PST  The Federal Reserve plans to purchase about $40 billion in longer-dated federal government debt in 18 operations next month, the New York Fed said on Monday, reflecting the U.S. central bank's decision to trim its support for the economy. In what came as a surprise to some investors, earlier this month the Fed decided to cut its bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing, by $10 billion to $75 billion per month. The Fed cited a stronger job market and economic growth in its landmark decision, which amounts to the beginning of the end of the largest monetary policy experiment ever. The New York Fed, which carries out monetary policy in financial markets, will pare purchases broadly across a spectrum of securities maturing between 2018 and 2043, according to the plan. Full Story | Top |
| El Salvador volcano spews more ash, gases Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:22 PM PST  By Hugo Sanchez SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - A volcano in eastern El Salvador belched more ash and gases on Monday after a big eruption on Sunday that drove more than 1,600 people into emergency shelters. The Chaparrastique volcano, which is about 140 km (87 miles) east of San Salvador, the capital, spewed ash over a wide area known for its coffee plantations on Sunday. "The Chaparrastique volcano is still producing gases combined with small emissions of ash, which is normal after an eruption," El Salvador's environment ministry said on its Twitter page. In all, 1,635 people are in seven temporary shelters, emergency services said. Full Story | Top |
| Cooper Tire terminates $2.5 billion sale to India's Apollo Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:12 PM PST  By Aradhana Aravindan and Rafael Nam MUMBAI (Reuters) - U.S.-based Cooper Tire & Rubber Co said it was terminating a proposed $2.5 billion sale to Apollo Tyres Ltd , with both sides threatening legal action over a deal plagued by obstacles from the start. Cooper Tire said on Monday it was walking away after being informed by the Indian tire maker that financing was no longer available for a takeover that would have been India's second biggest in the United States. Cooper added it would pursue legal steps to protect the company. Apollo responded by saying it was "disappointed" that Cooper had prematurely ended the agreement, and that it would pursue legal remedies of its own. Full Story | Top |
| Second suicide bomber in Russia's Volgograd kills 14 on bus Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:06 PM PST By Maria Tsvetkova VOLGOGRAD, Russia (Reuters) - A bomb ripped a bus apart in Volgograd on Monday, killing 14 people in the second deadly attack blamed on suicide bombers in the southern Russian city in 24 hours and raising fears of Islamist attacks on the Winter Olympics. President Vladimir Putin, who has staked his prestige on February's Sochi Games and dismissed threats from Chechen and other Islamist militants in the nearby North Caucasus, ordered tighter security nationwide after the morning rush-hour blast. The previous day's similar attack killed at least 17 in the main rail station of a city that serves as a gateway to the southern wedge of Russian territory bounded by the Black and Caspian Seas and the Caucasus mountains. Windows in nearby apartments were blown out by the blast, which Russia's foreign ministry condemned as part of a global terrorist campaign. Full Story | Top |
| Orange to take legal action after report of spying via its cable Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:02 PM PST  Orange is preparing its legal response to a report alleging the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) accessed customers' data transmitted by a submarine cable partly used by the French telecoms operator. German website Spiegel Online said it had seen documents showing the NSA had tapped telecoms data from the cable running from Marseille to North Africa and Asia. Orange uses the submarine cable along with 13 other telecoms companies, which collectively operate the cable. A steady drip of allegations from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about NSA snooping over the past months has raised widespread concern about the reach of the agency's operations and its ability to pry into the affairs of private individuals in the United States and abroad as well as the communications of foreign leaders. Full Story | Top |
| Florida may soon overtake New York as third most-populous state Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:01 PM PST By By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Florida is less than 100,000 newcomers away from surpassing New York as the third most populous state in the nation, a milestone demographers say could be reached as early as 2014, according to newly released data. The U.S. Census bureau on Monday released its state-by-state population estimates for 2013 as of July 1. The population of New York - 19,651,127 - exceeded Florida's 19,552,860 total residents by only 98,267, according to the data. What's more important are the underlying trends, namely that Florida has been growing substantially faster than New York for many decades," said Stanley Smith, program director for the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan says battling 'White Army' near flashpoint town Monday, Dec 30, 2013 12:00 PM PST South Sudanese troops clashed with ethnic Nuer "White Army" militia and other rebel factions loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar late on Monday near the flashpoint town of Bor, government officials said. "Shootings have taken place just outside, to the north of Bor," Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Philip Aguer said by phone from Juba, 190 km (120 miles) south of Bor. Earlier Aguer told Reuters there was fighting in the town. Information Minister Michael Makuei also said SPLA troops clashed with rebels on the edge of the Jonglei state capital. Full Story | Top |
| Detroit mediators ask judge to approve swaps deal Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:58 AM PST  By Joseph Lichterman DETROIT (Reuters) - The mediators who oversaw negotiations between Detroit and two banks to strike a deal to end a costly interest-rate swap agreement recommended on Monday that the judge in charge of Detroit's bankruptcy approve the agreement, arguing the deal is a critical first step toward resolving the historic case. The city struck a deal with UBS AG and Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch Capital Services on December 24 to end the interest-rate swap agreements at a 43 percent discount. The negotiations happened after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, who is overseeing the case, encouraged Detroit to negotiate better terms for the deal. In a document filed with the bankruptcy court on Monday, U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris, two of the mediators in the case, recommended that Rhodes sign off on the deal because it is in the interest of both the banks and the city. Full Story | Top |
| Al Jazeera says four journalists held in Egypt after hotel broadcast Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:49 AM PST  Four Al Jazeera journalists have been arrested in Egypt, the station said on Monday, after the Interior Ministry accused the Qatar-based channel of broadcasting illegally from a hotel suite with a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera's offices in Cairo have been closed since July 3 when they were raided by security forces hours after the army ousted the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi from the presidency. Qatar was a strong financial backer of the Brotherhood's rule and its relationship with Cairo has deteriorated in recent months as it vehemently opposes the army's overthrow of Mursi and the crackdown on his movement that has followed. "State security received information that a member of the (Brotherhood) used two suites in a Cairo hotel to hold meetings with other members of the organization and turned the suites into a press center," the ministry said. Full Story | Top |
| Fighting erupts as Iraq police break up Sunni protest camp Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:26 AM PST  By Kamal Namaa RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Fighting erupted when Iraqi police broke up a Sunni Muslim protest camp in the western Anbar province on Monday, leaving at least 13 people dead, police and medical sources said. The camp has been an irritant to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite Muslim-led government since Sunni protesters set it up a year ago to demonstrate against what they see as marginalization of their sect. The operation triggered an immediate political backlash as dozens of Sunni lawmakers offered their resignations. Maliki, who is seeking a third term in April's elections, has repeatedly vowed to remove the camp and accused protesters of stirring strife and sheltering al Qaeda-linked militants. Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria says forces kill 56 Islamists in ground and air assault Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:21 AM PST Nigerian government forces killed at least 56 Islamist Boko Haram fighters in a combined air and ground offensive in the northeast, the military said on Monday. Two government soldiers were been wounded during the battle in Alafa forest on Saturday, an army spokesman in the region, Captain Aliyu Danja, said in a statement. The military often reports significant casualties among Boko Haram, an insurgent group fighting for the past four and a half years to impose Sharia law on Nigeria, while rarely admitting large losses among its own troops or civilians. Nigerian forces have stepped up an offensive against the Islamists in the past two weeks after some setbacks, including a December 2 coordinated strike by the Islamists on the air force base and military barracks in the main northeastern city of Maiduguri. Full Story | Top |
| Wells Fargo agrees to $541 million loan settlement Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:19 AM PST  Wells Fargo & Co will pay a net $541 million to Fannie Mae to settle claims over defective home loans, completing the government-controlled mortgage company's efforts to have banks buy back troubled loans made before the financial crisis. Fannie Mae said on Monday it has reached settlements worth roughly $6.5 billion over loan buybacks with eight banks, including Wells Fargo, the nation's largest mortgage lender and fourth-largest bank by assets. The settlements include a $3.6 billion accord in January with Bank of America Corp over loans from that bank and the former Countrywide Financial Corp. Fannie Mae Chief Executive Timothy Mayopoulos was once general counsel at Bank of America. It also includes a $968 million accord in July with Citigroup Inc. In the Wells Fargo settlement, the San Francisco-based bank will pay Fannie Mae $541 million in cash after adjusting for credits from prior repurchases. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. pending home sales end slide, hint at stabilization Monday, Dec 30, 2013 11:06 AM PST  By Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes edged up in November, marking the first increase in six months and providing a hopeful sign the sector has begun to stabilize after its momentum was sapped by rising mortgage rates. The National Association of Realtors said on Monday its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed last month, rose 0.2 percent from October, to 101.7. "Several housing indicators have improved recently and the very modest increase in pending home sales in November is a tentative sign that activity is stabilizing, or perhaps even picking up," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. Housing sales had been dampened by a rise in mortgage rates, which began to climb earlier this year as investors bet the Federal Reserve would start to reduce the stimulus it provides the U.S. economy. Full Story | Top |
| Congo army clashes with Mukungubila's followers in Lubumbashi Monday, Dec 30, 2013 10:59 AM PST Congo's army clashed on Monday with followers of religious leader Paul Joseph Mukungubila in the eastern mining city of Lubumbashi, an official in the governor's office said, hours after his supporters attacked targets in the capital. Witnesses said the clashes erupted after government troops attacked Mukungubila's church in the center of Lubumbashi, in Congo's copper-rich Katanga province. Gunmen saying they were supporters of Mukungubila had briefly seized control of state television headquarters in Kinshasa earlier on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| Congolese army regains control of state TV, airport: government spokesman Monday, Dec 30, 2013 10:59 AM PST KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese government troops have regained control of the state television headquarters, army headquarters and the international airport in the capital Kinshasa after an attack by some 70 gunmen, government spokesman Lambert Mende said. "We have total control of the situation," he told Reuters, adding that 40 of the attackers had been killed by the security forces. (Reporting by Bienvenu Bukumanya; Writing by Daniel Flynn; editing by Patrick Graham) Full Story | Top |
| Philadelphia priest gets bail after abuse cover-up conviction reversed Monday, Dec 30, 2013 10:59 AM PST  By Dave Warner PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Philadelphia judge on Monday set bail at $250,000 for a senior U.S. Roman Catholic Church official whose conviction in a high-profile child sex abuse case was overturned last week. Monsignor William Lynn, 62, was convicted in June 2012 of endangering the welfare of a child for reassigning a priest with a history of sex abuse to a Philadelphia parish that was unaware of his past. That priest, Edward Avery, later pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy in the Philadelphia parish. Lynn was secretary of clergy for the Philadelphia Archdiocese from 1994 to 2004, Common Pleas Court Judge Teresa Sarmina ordered Lynn to surrender his passport, wear an ankle-monitoring bracelet and check in weekly with authorities as part of the conditions of his release from state prison. Full Story | Top |
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