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| Japan's Abe seeks trilateral summit with Korea, U.S Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 09:12 PM PDT  By Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is trying to arrange a trilateral summit with South Korea and the United States for this month, a government official said Wednesday, in a bid to thaw Tokyo's frozen relations with Seoul. But Korea appears cool to the idea of a meeting of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Korean President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a global nuclear-security summit in the Hague, Netherlands, on March 24-25. Japan hopes that with mutual ally Obama in the room, Park would be willing to sit down face-to-face with Abe, something the Japanese leader has sought unsuccessfully since he took office 15 months ago. Abe has visited the leaders of all 10 Southeast Asian nations and met five times with Russia's president since taking office 15 months ago but has yet to meet one-on-one with the leaders of Korea or China. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine appeals to the West as Crimea turns to Russia Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 08:42 PM PDT  By Andrew Osborn and Alastair Macdonald SEVASTOPOL/KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's government appealed for Western help on Tuesday to stop Moscow annexing Crimea but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalize rule from Moscow within days. With their own troops in Crimea effectively prisoners in their bases, the new authorities in Kiev painted a sorry picture of the military bequeathed them by the pro-Moscow president overthrown two weeks ago. The prime minister, heading for talks at the White House and United Nations, told parliament in Kiev he wanted the United States and Britain, as guarantors of a 1994 treaty that saw Ukraine give up its Soviet nuclear weapons, to intervene both diplomatically and militarily to fend off Russian "aggression". Full Story | Top |
| Republican Party wins Florida congressional seat in special election Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 08:01 PM PDT  By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Republican David Jolly won an expensive battle to fill a vacant U.S. Congressional seat in a special election watched by both major parties for what it portends for November when all 435 congressional seats will be up for grabs. Jolly, 41, defeated Democrat challenger Alex Sink, 65, a former state chief financial officer, by 3,500 votes or a 1.87 percent margin - 48.43 percent to 46.56 percent, according to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections website. Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby took 4.83 percent of the votes. Republicans were quick to declare the result a repudiation of President Obama's Affordable Healthcare Act, known as Obamacare. Full Story | Top |
| SoftBank CEO says Sprint could shake up U.S. 'oligopoly' Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 07:38 PM PDT  By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chief executive officer of Japan's SoftBank Corp on Tuesday called the U.S. wireless market an oligopoly plagued by slow speeds and high prices and said his company's Sprint Corp could shake up the competition, but it would require a scale that Sprint cannot reach alone. Masayoshi Son, the billionaire CEO of SoftBank, in his first public speech to a U.S. audience since his company gained control of Sprint last year, lambasted the U.S. wireless market as offering "pseudo-competition." Son did not directly speak about his efforts to engineer a merger of Sprint and T-Mobile US Inc, the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. wireless carriers, but told reporters he hoped to meet again sometime with U.S. regulators, who so far have given a cold shoulder to such a deal. Full Story | Top |
| China steps up hunt for corrupt officials overseas: state media Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 07:32 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China will step up its hunt for corrupt officials who have fled abroad, confiscate illegal assets of overseas fugitives and stop suspect offenders leaving the country, as it intensifies the fight against graft, state media said on Wednesday, citing the country's top prosecutor. Cao Jianming, the head of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said China will "work more closely with judicial organs abroad to expand channels and measures to hunt those who have fled and to recover ill-gotten gains", the China Daily newspaper said. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Korea trade deal draws fire from Canadian auto sector Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 07:31 PM PDT  By Susan Taylor TORONTO (Reuters) - A new free trade agreement with South Korea will throw a wrench into Canada's auto sector recovery, union leaders and an automaker warned on Tuesday, highlighting the pressure on an industry already struggling with competition from Mexico. The pact, which immediately drew fire from Ford Motor Co of Canada Ltd and Canada's largest private-sector union, underscores problems with the size and cost of cars being produced in the country's industrial heartland, experts said. ... Full Story | Top |
| IMF funding issue delays U.S. Congress Ukraine bill Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 07:18 PM PDT By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Tuesday he would introduce a bill to address the crisis in Ukraine including $150 million in aid, sanctions against Ukrainians and Russians responsible for violence and human rights violations in Ukraine, and backing for a shift in funding for the International Monetary Fund. ... Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia air force chief denies saying lost plane tracked to west Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 07:17 PM PDT  By Stuart Grudgings KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's air force chief has denied saying military radar tracked a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner over the Strait of Malacca, adding to the mystery surrounding the fate of flight MH370, which vanished on Saturday with 239 people aboard. A massive air and sea search now in its fifth day has failed to find any trace of the Boeing 777, and the last 24 hours have seen conflicting statements and reports over what may have happened after it lost contact with air traffic controllers. Malaysia's Berita Harian newspaper on Tuesday quoted Air Force chief Rodzali Daud as saying the plane was last detected by military radar at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca at 2.40 a.m. on Saturday, hundreds of kilometers off course. Full Story | Top |
| British EU vote unlikely before 2020 if Labour wins power, Miliband says Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:58 PM PDT  By Ana Nicolaci da Costa LONDON (Reuters) - A future Labour government would only hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union before 2020 if more powers were transferred to Brussels, party leader Ed Miliband will say Wednesday. Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to try to reach a new settlement with the EU before holding an in/out referendum by the end of 2017, provided he wins the May 2015 election. ... Full Story | Top |
| Front companies, embassies mask North Korean weapons trade: U.N. Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:55 PM PDT  By James Pearson SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has developed sophisticated ways to circumvent United Nations sanctions, including the suspected use of its embassies to facilitate an illegal trade in weapons, a United Nations report issued on Tuesday said. It said North Korea was also making use of more complicated financial countermeasures and techniques "pioneered by drug-trafficking organizations" that made tracking the isolated state's purchase of prohibited goods more difficult. The report, compiled by a panel of eight U.N. experts, is part of an annual accounting of North Korea's compliance with layers of U.N. sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang's banned nuclear weapons and missile programs. "From the incidents analyzed in the period under review, the panel has found that (North Korea) makes increasing use of multiple and tiered circumvention techniques," a summary of the 127-page report said. Full Story | Top |
| Runner-up in El Salvador presidential election wants vote to be annulled Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:54 PM PDT  SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - The runner-up in El Salvador's presidential election said on Tuesday he was asking the country's electoral tribunal to annul the tight contest after refusing to accept the outcome. "We're going ahead and presenting a motion to have the elections on March 9 annulled," Norman Quijano, candidate of the right wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena), told reporters in San Salvador as squabbling over the vote continued. On Sunday Quijano finished 0. ... Full Story | Top |
| Florida mayor seeking 20th term at age 93 faces run-off election Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:25 PM PDT By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A 93-year-old Florida man believed to be the country's oldest mayor remains in the running after Tuesday's election for a record 20th term in office in a central Florida city where he faced opposition for the first time in over a decade. Since no one in the four-way race won more than 50 percent of the vote, John Land, the mayor of Apopka, will face Joe Kilsheimer, a city commissioner and former newspaper reporter, in an April 8 runoff election. Kilsheimer led in Tuesday's election with 2,354 votes, or 48 percent of total votes cast to Land's 1,905 votes, of 38 percent of the total, according to unofficial election results. Research by the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, which covers Apopka, indicated that Land is both the oldest U.S. mayor and Florida's longest-serving mayor. Full Story | Top |
| Tax fight looms large in Energy Future restructuring Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:21 PM PDT  By Nick Brown and Billy Cheung NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Energy Future Holdings prepares for what could be one of the largest-ever U.S. bankruptcies, some of its private-equity lenders are pushing a breakup of the company that could reap them more than $1 billion in tax savings, two people close to the matter said this week. But such an arrangement could provoke a challenge from the U.S. government, since it would result in a multi-billion-dollar capital gains tax bill that the bankrupt entity is unlikely to be able to afford. ... Full Story | Top |
| No charges for Minnesota archbishop accused of inappropriate touching Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:07 PM PDT No charges will be brought against Archbishop John Nienstedt, leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who was accused by a boy of inappropriately touching his buttocks during a group photo session, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Prosecutors found "insufficient evidence" to charge the archbishop after an extensive St. Paul police investigation into the allegation, the Ramsey County Attorney's Office said in a statement. Nienstedt, who had denied any inappropriate contact, stepped aside in December while authorities investigated the accusation. "While I look forward to my return to public ministry, I remain committed to the ongoing work needed to provide safe environments for all children and youth," Nienstedt said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Louisiana man fined $600 after drunken fight with wife aboard flight Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 06:06 PM PDT A judge in the Cayman Islands fined a Louisiana man $600 on Tuesday for forcing a Delta Air Lines flight to make an emergency landing after he got into a drunken argument with his wife aboard the plane on their anniversary. Michael Foret, 33, was escorted from a Delta Air Lines plane by police when it landed in the Cayman Islands on Sunday night. On Tuesday, Foret, who had been held in police custody, appeared before a Cayman Islands judge, his lawyer, Ben Tonner, said. Foret was fined for disruptive behavior aboard a commercial flight, he said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. military braces for budget battles with Congress Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 05:45 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. defense officials are bracing for a brutal season of budget negotiations, warning U.S. lawmakers that the U.S. military will gradually become unable to respond to emerging crises if Congress blocks the Pentagon's plans to cut military compensation, close bases and retire entire fleets of aircraft. Senior officials have also begun mapping out in stark terms what additional weapons and capabilities will be sacrificed if Congress does not reverse mandatory budget cuts that are due to resume in fiscal 2016 under a process known as sequestration. ... Full Story | Top |
| Special Report: How China's official bank card is used to smuggle money Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 05:29 PM PDT  By James Pomfret MACAU (Reuters) - Growing numbers of Chinese are using the country's state-backed bankcards to illegally spirit billions of dollars abroad, a Reuters examination has found. This underground money is flowing across the border into the gambling hub of Macau, a former Portuguese colony that like Hong Kong is an autonomous region of China. And the conduit for the cash is the Chinese government-supported payment card network, China UnionPay. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. president sweats over sweaters during NY shopping stop Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 05:22 PM PDT  By Steve Holland NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took on a daunting task on Tuesday: shopping for clothes for his wife and daughters during a brief stop at a Gap store while raising money for Democrats in New York. Obama was in New York to attend fundraisers aimed at building up campaign war chests for this year's midterm congressional elections, which he said are key to how much of his agenda he can get done in the rest of his time in office. Full Story | Top |
| White supremacist woman pleads guilty in Pacific Northwest killing spree Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 05:21 PM PDT A white supremacist woman accused of killing four people during a violent road trip across the Pacific Northwest with her boyfriend pleaded guilty on Tuesday to racketeering in a deal that could send her to prison for life, federal prosecutors said. The racketeering charge to which Holly Ann Grigsby pleaded guilty encapsulates all the crimes alleged in the case, said Gerri Badden, spokeswoman for the Portland-based U.S. Attorney's Office. Grigsby, in her late 20s, is due to be sentenced in June. The couple were arrested in 2011 in northern California after what authorities described as a bloody, two-week crime spree that began in the Puget Sound city of Everett, Washington, with the slayings of boyfriend David Joseph Pedersen's father and step-mother. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. lawmakers wheel into action, take on EU cheese name plan Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 05:18 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Would a Stilton cheese by any other name smell as sweet? In a rare act of bipartisan unity, dozens of U.S. senators have wheeled into action against what they call an "absurd" European initiative that would force name changes to common cheese varieties produced in the United States. The European Union says that names such as asiago, feta, parmesan and muenster are "geographical indicators" that should only be displayed on products made in specific areas of Europe, and not by their U.S.-made counterparts. The request grated on the U.S. lawmakers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Louisiana man set to walk free after nearly three decades on death row Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:51 PM PDT By Kathy Finn NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A Louisiana man who has spent nearly three decades on death row was slated to walk free on Tuesday, after prosecutors asked a judge to set aside his first-degree murder conviction and death sentence, citing new evidence in the case that exonerated him. Glenn Ford, a black man, was convicted by an all-white jury in the 1983 robbery and murder of Isadore Rozeman, a 56-year-old Shreveport watchmaker, who was found shot to death behind the counter of his jewelry shop. Acting on new information that exonerated Ford, a judge in Shreveport ordered him released from Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, where he has been held on death row since March 1985. "We are very pleased to see Glenn Ford finally exonerated, and we are particularly grateful that the prosecution and the court moved ahead so decisively to set Mr. Ford free," said Gary Clements and Aaron Novod, attorneys for Ford from the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Air Force looking to revamp, cut costs of space programs Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:37 PM PDT By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 11 - To tackle a rising demand for space-based surveillance in an era of flat budgets, the U.S. military is looking at smaller satellites, cheaper rockets and partnerships, the head of Air Force Space Command said on Tuesday. "Status quo is just not going to work for us," General William Shelton said in a speech to the National Space Club Florida Committee in Cape Canaveral. The Pentagon is requesting $496 billion for the 2015 fiscal year that begins October 1. The spending plan, which is essentially flat for the third consecutive year, cancels two Lockheed Martin Corp Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellites, saving $2.1 billion, and defers two Lockheed next-generation Global Positioning System satellites, among other cuts. Full Story | Top |
| Utah lawmakers seek earliest presidential primary, with online voting Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:35 PM PDT By Jennifer Dobner SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Utah could jump to the front of the U.S. presidential primary lineup in 2016 and hold its own online election a week before any other state, under a proposal advanced by state lawmakers this week to win more sway for the conservative state. For decades, the Iowa caucus has been the first event in which presidential hopefuls can secure convention delegates, followed closely by a vote in New Hampshire, which has held the nation's first full primary election since 1920. "Utah is roughly the same size as Iowa and roughly twice the size of New Hampshire, and yet our influence in the presidential primaries process is minimal if it all," bill sponsor Representative Jon Cox, a Republican, said during a House debate of the bill on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| California drought means 30 million salmon may be trucked to sea Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:21 PM PDT By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's record drought has left the Sacramento River so low that wildlife officials say they may have to carry all 30 million young salmon from the state's largest man-made hatcheries to the Pacific Ocean in trucks to avoid depleting the stock. That is roughly three times the amount of salmon that are trucked out of the biggest hatcheries in a typical year, reflecting the severity of a drought that has prompted the governor to declare an emergency and warn of possible water shortages. ... Full Story | Top |
| Labour says to hold British EU vote only if more powers move to Brussels Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:19 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - A future Labour government would only hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union if more powers were transferred to Brussels, party leader Ed Miliband will say Wednesday. Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to try to reach a new settlement with the EU before holding an in/out referendum by the end of 2017, provided he wins the 2015 election. Miliband's pledge means that if Labour wins power in 2015 there is little prospect of a referendum on Britain's EU membership at least until 2020. ... Full Story | Top |
| CIA accused of spying on U.S. Senate intelligence committee Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:16 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle, Doina Chiacu and Mark Hosenball (Reuters) - A bitter dispute between the CIA and the U.S. Senate committee that oversees it burst into the open on Tuesday when the committee chairwoman accused the agency of spying on Congress and possibly breaking the law. Veteran Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said the CIA had searched computers used by committee staffers examining CIA documents when researching the agency's counter-terrorism operations and its use of harsh interrogation methods such as simulated drowning or "waterboarding. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chicago's Emanuel says White House years made him better mayor Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:12 PM PDT  AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on Tuesday his time in the White House made him a better city leader and he could have been a better presidential aide if he had run a big city first. Emanuel, who served in the White House under Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, appeared at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, where he delivered remarks intended to promote Chicago. "I can't imagine being mayor today without having had the experience of working in the White House for both President Clinton and President Obama," he said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bachelet takes power in Chile, vows to fight inequality Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 04:00 PM PDT  By Alexandra Ulmer and Anthony Esposito VALPARAISO/SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Michelle Bachelet took over the presidency of Chile in a ceremony loaded with symbolism on Tuesday, promising to stick to her tax-and-spend campaign pledges to fight social inequality despite a sharp economic slowdown. Bachelet accepted the presidential sash from Senate head Isabel Allende, the daughter of late socialist President Salvador Allende, whose overthrow in 1973 ushered in the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. ... Full Story | Top |
| Defense lawyer tries to discredit US witness against bin Laden relative Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:54 PM PDT  By Bernard Vaughan NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawyer for Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden on trial for conspiring to kill Americans, tried to discredit a U.S. government witness on Tuesday, portraying the former jihadi as more interested in saving himself than in preventing horrific attacks. The witness, Saajid Badat, admittedly plotted with shoe bomber Richard Reid, who attempted to detonate explosives on a flight to Miami in December 2001. ... Full Story | Top |
| 93-year-old Florida mayor seeks re-election for 20th term in office Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:48 PM PDT By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A 93-year-old Florida man believed to be the country's oldest mayor was up for re-election on Tuesday, seeking a record 20th term in office in a central Florida city, where he faces opposition for the first time in more than a decade. John Land, the mayor of Apopka, has only lost one election in the last 64 years. Research by the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, which covers Apopka, indicated that Land is both the oldest U.S. mayor and Florida's longest-serving mayor. Full Story | Top |
| Obamacare enrollment in private coverage rises to 4.2 million people Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:39 PM PDT  By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Tuesday that 4.2 million people have signed up for private health insurance under Obamacare, and indicated that total enrollment could surpass a 6 million-enrollee forecast by the end of March. New enrollment data for a five-month period from October 1 through March 1 came out as the administration threw its public relations campaign into overdrive, with President Barack Obama appearing for an interview on the comedy website, "Funny or Die," in a direct appeal to the site's audience of young adults. ... Full Story | Top |
| Anti-union workers win voice in UAW fight at Tennessee VW plant Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:35 PM PDT  By Amanda Becker and Kevin Drawbaugh (Reuters) - Anti-union Volkswagen workers will get a chance to defend the results of a mid-February union election that the United Auto Workers lost at a Chattanooga, Tennessee VW plant, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board has decided. The unusual NLRB ruling on Monday gave anti-UAW groups, including the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and Southern Momentum, which back workers defending the election, more leverage in the fight over unionizing the plant. ... Full Story | Top |
| Caribbean nations agree to seek slavery reparations from Europe Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:34 PM PDT By Aileen Torres-Bennett KINGSTON (Reuters) - Caribbean leaders are moving forward with a plan to seek reparations from the former slave-owning states of Europe, according to a lawyer for the island nations. The Caribbean Community (Caricom) approved a 10-point plan for reparations at a two-day meeting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines that was due to wrap up on Tuesday, said Martyn Day, a U.K.-based lawyer at Leigh Day, who is working on the case. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. swaps watchdog says considering bitcoin regulation Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:26 PM PDT  Boca Raton, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. derivatives regulator is studying whether it should regulate electronic currencies such as bitcoin, its chief said on Tuesday, as regulators across the globe start taking the emerging technology more seriously. "We are looking into that," Mark Wetjen, acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told journalists after giving a speech at an industry conference. "It's been initiated, there's been an internal discussion at the staff level." Bitcoin, the best-known virtual currency, has been promoted by many enthusiasts because of the way it operates outside government control. Full Story | Top |
| Ackman accuses Herbalife of breaking laws in China Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:26 PM PDT  By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - Billionaire investor William Ackman renewed his attack on Herbalife on Tuesday, saying he has evidence showing the nutrition and weight loss company is breaking direct-selling laws in China, its fastest growing market. The company said it follows local laws, and Chinese regulators have yet to comment on the matter. Ackman, who has placed a $1 billion short bet against Herbalife, said the company is breaking the law in China by making recruits pay an entry fee and by letting distributors recruit new members. ... Full Story | Top |
| Federal prosecutors open criminal probe of GM recall: source Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 03:09 PM PDT  By Emily Flitter and Aruna Viswanatha and Ben Klayman NEW YORK/WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors are examining whether General Motors is criminally liable for failing to properly disclose problems with some of its vehicles that were linked to 13 deaths and led to a recall last month, according to a source familiar with the investigation. The New York-based probe is in its early stages, and the source did not elaborate on the legal theory behind the potential criminal liability. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hersman, public face of U.S. transportation safety, steps down Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:59 PM PDT  By Eric Beech WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deborah Hersman, who headed the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board during high-profile investigations into plane crashes and other transit mishaps, said on Tuesday she would leave the agency in April after almost 10 years. Hersman's surprise departure comes as the NTSB is gearing up to help with the investigation into the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared on Saturday about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur with 239 passengers and crew. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| NY brothers admit guilt in violent Jewish divorce scheme Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:57 PM PDT (Reuters) - Two Brooklyn brothers have admitted participating in a violent ring with rabbis that threatened Jewish husbands to agree to grant their wives a religious divorce, and they face possible lengthy prison terms, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Avrohom Goldstein, 34, and Moshe Goldstein, 31, were among 10 men, including their father and two Orthodox Jewish rabbis, arrested last fall in the alleged scheme in which they hired themselves out to unhappy wives who wanted their husbands kidnapped and beaten until they agreed to divorce, according to New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. Orthodox Jewish women cannot get a divorce unless their husbands consent through a document known as a "get," and wives paid tens of thousands of dollars to the ring that would abduct and beat their husbands, prosecutors said at the time of the arrests in October. Full Story | Top |
| Biden's role on Ukraine underscores risks for his political future Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:56 PM PDT  By Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the bloodiest day of anti-government protests in Ukraine was drawing to a close last month, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called President Viktor Yanukovich for the second time in three days and delivered a blunt message. Pull back your security forces now and accept a European-brokered settlement or you will be held accountable, Biden warned the pro-Russian leader. "It WILL catch up with you." Initially defiant, Yanukovich sounded subdued by the end of the hour-long call, according to a senior U.S. official knowledgeable of the conversation. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Air Force sticks to $550 million target for new bomber Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014 02:53 PM PDT  The U.S. Air Force is "holding tight" to a target of $550 million for each new long-range bomber in a fleet of up to 100 aircraft, excluding research and development costs, an Air Force official said on Tuesday. "We're still using that as a pretty firm chalk line for those companies that are bidding on it and in determining which requirements make it, and which ones don't," Air Force Undersecretary Eric Fanning told reporters. He said the cost per aircraft would be higher if research and development costs and inflation were added. He acknowledged that "a number of people" thought the $550 million target was too low to develop the requirements needed for a next-generation bomber. Full Story | Top |
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