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| Thai vote starts peacefully, but political paralysis looms Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 07:57 PM PST  By Martin Petty BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand went to the polls under heavy security on Sunday in an election that could push the divided country deeper into political turmoil and leave the winner paralyzed for months by street protests, legal challenges and legislative limbo. Voting started peacefully a day after seven people were wounded by gunshots and explosions during a clash between supporters and opponents of embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a north Bangkok stronghold of her Puea Thai Party. Voting was called off in the district and some other polling stations were unable to open because of pressure by anti-government protesters. "The protesters are rallying peacefully to show their opposition to this election." The usual campaign billboards, glossy posters and pre-election buzz have been notably absent, as will be millions of voters fearful of violence or bent on rejecting a ballot bound to re-elect the political juggernaut controlled by Yingluck's billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra. Full Story | Top |
| Suicide bomber kills three in Lebanese Hezbollah stronghold Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 02:03 PM PST  By Stephen Kalin BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed three people at a petrol station in a stronghold of the Shi'ite militant Hezbollah movement on Lebanon's northern border on Saturday, the latest sign that Syria's civil war is spilling over into its small neighbor. The blast occurred in the town of Hermel at the northern end of the Bekaa Valley, an area populated mainly by Shi'ite Muslims among whom Hezbollah draws its support. Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) cited witnesses who said the perpetrator entered the petrol station and asked to buy fuel before detonating the bomb, leaving a meter-deep hole in the ground and setting the station and nearby cars on fire. Images broadcast on Hezbollah's Al Manar television showed fire raging beside a severely damaged petrol station as well as emergency vehicles and security forces at the scene. Full Story | Top |
| Afghan election campaign stirs both violence and hope Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 07:59 PM PST  By Jessica Donati and Hamid Shalizi KABUL (Reuters) - Presidential candidates in Afghanistan begin two months of campaigning on Sunday for an election that Western allies hope will consolidate fragile stability as their forces prepare to leave after nearly 13 years of inconclusive war. The Taliban have rejected the April 5 election and have already stepped up attacks to sabotage it. The militants will also be looking to capitalize if the vote is marred by rigging and feuding between rivals seeking to replace President Hamid Karzai, who can not run for a third term under Afghan law. Whoever replaces him will inherit a country beset by deepening anxiety about security as most foreign troops prepare to pull out by the end of the year, leaving Afghan forces largely on their own to battle the insurgency. Full Story | Top |
| China says Japan's 'hype' on air defence zone spreads tension Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 06:23 PM PST China does not feel threatened by countries in Southeast Asia and is optimistic about the situation in the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said, warning Japan not to "spread rumors" it plans a new air defense identification zone. China alarmed Japan, South Korea and the United States last year when it announced an air defense identification zone for the East China Sea, covering a group of uninhabited islands at the center of a bitter ownership spat between China and Japan. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry downplays key U.S. senator's opposition on trade talks Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 03:05 PM PST  By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's opposition to President Barack Obama's push for authority to fast-track trade deals should not stand in the way of U.S. congressional passage of the measure. Reid, a Democrat, is the senior member of Obama's party in Congress. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama asked for fast-track trade negotiation authority. Legislation before the House of Representatives and Senate would grant the White House power to submit free trade deals to Congress for an up-or-down vote, without amendments. Full Story | Top |
| NATO chief doesn't see Karzai signing security pact Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 11:07 AM PST  By Adrian Croft MUNICH (Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai is unlikely to sign a pact for U.S. and NATO forces to stay in Afghanistan after 2014 and will probably leave the choice for his successor, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Saturday. But Karzai has said he will not sign the agreement unless certain conditions are met. The delay has frustrated the United States and its allies, who want to plan the post-2014 training and advisory mission. Both the United States and NATO have said they may be forced to pull their forces out of Afghanistan entirely at the end of this year unless the agreement is signed soon. Full Story | Top |
| West presses Ukraine, offers treatment to injured activist Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 01:06 PM PST  By Alastair Macdonald KIEV (Reuters) - Western governments pressed Ukraine's president to compromise with protesters camped on the streets, prompting a war of words with Russia on Saturday and offering treatment to an opposition activist who says he was tortured. At an annual security conference in Munich, founded at the height of the Cold War, Ukrainian opposition leaders met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and European officials and the Russian foreign minister accused Western powers of fomenting protests against President Viktor Yanukovich. Sergei Lavrov said the West had "imposed" on Ukraine to cooperate with its NATO defense alliance, while Kerry said the Ukrainian protesters believed "their futures do not have to lie with one country alone - and certainly not coerced". Opposition leaders said they felt "huge support" after European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said closer ties to the EU were still on offer to Kiev and Kerry assured them that Washington and the EU "stand with the people of Ukraine" in "the fight for a democratic, European future". Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi army prepares to storm militant-held Falluja Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 12:24 PM PST  By Suadad al-Salhy BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces are preparing to storm Falluja and break a month-long standoff with militants who are in control of the city, senior security officials and troops told Reuters on Saturday. Anti-government fighters, among them insurgents linked with al Qaeda, overran two cities in the Sunni-dominated western province of Anbar on January 1. At least 12 people were killed in bombings across Iraq on Saturday, mostly in the capital Baghdad, just 70 km (40 miles) away from Falluja, a city currently surrounded by the army. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had held off an all out assault on the city to give local tribesmen a chance to expel the militants themselves, but security officials told Reuters a decision had been made to enter Falluja by 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Sunday. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt court adjourns Mursi trial over protester deaths Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 09:15 AM PST  A Cairo court on Saturday adjourned the trial which sees Egypt's ousted President Mohamed Mursi accused of inciting the killing of protesters, while dozens of supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood were jailed for other crimes. Mursi, who was deposed by the army in July following mass protests against him, remained largely silent in the hearing, which has been adjourned until Tuesday. Four separate sets of charges have been brought against Mursi since he was ousted, at least one of which can carry the death penalty. Several of the 14 other defendants in Saturday's session, sitting in glass cages like Mursi, turned their back on the judge, a Reuters witness said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. denies it sought direct negotiations with Syria in Geneva Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 12:43 PM PST  WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Washington denied claims by Syria's foreign minister on Saturday that American diplomats had sought to negotiate directly with their Syrian counterparts at last week's 'Geneva 2' peace conference in Switzerland. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States had offered to connect with Syrian officials "on a staff level" through the United Nations and Joint Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi. Full Story | Top |
| Iran's top clergy back Rouhani's nuclear approach Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 08:52 AM PST  President Hassan Rouhani has secured the backing of senior conservative clerics against hardliners opposed to a nuclear deal reached with major powers, Iran's official news agency IRNA said on Saturday. His first vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, visited clerics in the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom to explain the deal and seek their blessing over "complex foreign policy issues" ahead of talks next month on a long-term accord, IRNA said. An interim deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany was reached in November in Geneva, aimed at persuading Iran to curb parts of its nuclear work, in return for a limited easing of sanctions. Full Story | Top |
| Political paralysis looms as Thais go to polls Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 01:48 PM PST  By Martin Petty BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai voters go to the polls under heavy security on Sunday in an election that could push the divided country deeper into political turmoil and leave the winner paralyzed for months by street protests, legal challenges and legislative limbo. The risk of bloodshed at the ballot remains high, a day after seven people were wounded by gunshots and explosions during a standoff between supporters and opponents of embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a north Bangkok stronghold of her Puea Thai Party. The usual campaign billboards, glossy posters and pre-election buzz have been notably absent this time, as will be millions of voters fearful of poll violence or bent on rejecting a ballot bound to re-elect the political juggernaut controlled by Yingluck's billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin, 64, is loved and loathed in Thailand, but his parties have won every poll since 2001. Full Story | Top |
| Thousands march in Madrid against planned abortion limits Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 07:57 AM PST  By Inmaculada Sanz MADRID (Reuters) - Thousands of people marched in Spain's capital on Saturday to protest against a government plan to limit abortions that has caused unusually open divisions in the ruling conservative People's Party. Protesters from around the country joined the biggest demonstration so far against a draft bill to restrict abortion to cases of rape or severe danger to the mother's health. Four years ago, Spain came in line with most of the rest of Europe when the then Socialist government legalised abortion on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's cabinet approved the draft bill on abortion in December - in a move widely seen as an attempt to appease his party's disgruntled right wing - but it has not been submitted yet to parliament for debate. Full Story | Top |
| Indonesia volcano kills at least 11, fears over more eruptions Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 06:07 AM PST  Indonesia's Mount Sinabung volcano erupted and killed at least 11 people on the western island of Sumatra on Saturday, the first time it is known to have claimed any lives, a senior government official said. No evacuations could be made at this stage because of the potential for more eruptions," Andi Arief, a presidential staff member, told Reuters. Sinabung is one of nearly 130 active volcanoes in the world's most populous country, which stands along the "Ring of Fire" volcanic belt around the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Indonesia's most deadly volcanic eruption in recent years was of Mount Merapi, near the densely populated city of Yogyakarta in central Java. Full Story | Top |
| Obama's executive actions: the power of taking small steps Friday, Jan 31, 2014 11:38 PM PST  By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's sixth year in office is starting out as a testament to the power of taking small steps. Frustrated by congressional gridlock, he has turned to the "pen and the phone" to provoke a "year of action" with a flurry of executive orders, directives, meetings and reviews to get his presidency back on track after the difficulties he encountered last year. None of the steps he is taking are going to change the world and indeed, they may be best-remembered collectively as a declaration of Obama's own relevance, an attempt to go over the heads of his Republican opponents in Congress and grab the attention of the people. It is a strategy that Democratic President Bill Clinton used in his 1996 re-election campaign. Full Story | Top |
| Republicans, eyeing elections, paper over divisions Friday, Jan 31, 2014 10:03 PM PST  By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan CAMBRIDGE, Maryland (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers, hoping to ride the disastrous rollout of President Barack Obama's healthcare law to victory in the November congressional elections, are trying to put internal fights behind them and unify around a proposed Obamacare replacement. During a two-day retreat on Maryland's frozen eastern shore, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives also sought to shed the image they acquired during last October's government shutdown as a cantankerous opposition party. The smaller-government Tea Party faction and more moderate "establishment" House Republicans are linking arms around a strategy for the first time since they took control of the chamber in early 2011 - if all goes according to plans hatched during the closed-door retreat 85 miles east of Washington. Republicans have seized on "Obamacare" as a way of turning around their image. Full Story | Top |
| Christie issues denial as 'Bridgegate' scandal flares up anew Saturday, Feb 01, 2014 03:53 PM PST By Edith Honan and Chris Francescani NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former New Jersey official on Friday claimed Governor Chris Christie knew about politically motivated traffic jams as they happened, re-igniting a political scandal that has taken a toll on the prominent Republican. The letter from a former official at the agency that oversees the busiest U.S. bridge sparked a quick response from Christie, who again denied wrongdoing, and prompted a top New Jersey newspaper to suggest the governor could face impeachment. David Wildstein, who resigned his Port Authority post late last year, said in a letter that he had proof of the "inaccuracy" of some of Christie's statements about the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal, which polls show has already started to weigh on Christie's potential 2016 White House bid. Since the scandal first came to light, Christie has denied knowing the cause of the George Washington Bridge lane closings, which occurred after the mayor of Fort Lee declined to endorse the governor in a re-election bid and caused four days of massive traffic jams in that city. Full Story | Top |
| Obama to visit Saudi Arabia amid tensions over Iran, Syria: report Friday, Jan 31, 2014 09:53 PM PST  (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to travel to Saudi Arabia in March on a mission to smooth tensions with Washington's main Arab ally over U.S. policy on Iran's nuclear program and the civil war in Syria, a newspaper reported. Obama is preparing to meet with King Abdullah for a summit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unnamed Arab officials briefed on the meetings. The United States and Saudi Arabia have been allies since the kingdom was formed in 1932, giving Riyadh a powerful military protector and Washington secure oil supplies. Full Story | Top |
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