| | |
| Putin ready to invade Ukraine; Kiev warns of war Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 05:18 PM PST  By Lidia Kelly and Pavel Polityuk MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded and won his parliament's approval on Saturday to invade Ukraine, where the new government warned of war, put its troops on high alert and appealed to NATO for help. Putin's open assertion of the right to send troops to a country of 46 million people on the ramparts of central Europe creates the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Troops with no insignia on their uniforms but clearly Russian - some in vehicles with Russian number plates - have already seized Crimea, an isolated peninsula in the Black Sea where Moscow has a large military presence in the headquarters of its Black Sea Fleet. Kiev's new authorities have been powerless to stop them. Full Story | Top |
| Thailand re-runs disputed elections in five provinces Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 06:25 PM PST  Thailand is holding elections on Sunday in five provinces where voting was disrupted in last month's poll by anti-government protesters trying to unseat Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Election re-runs planned for April in other provinces have been suspended pending a court decision on procedures. Voting was disrupted in 18 percent of constituencies, 69 out of 375, nationwide, the Election Commission said, affecting 18 of 77 provinces. The demonstrators, who have blocked intersections in the capital for weeks, say Yingluck must resign and make way for an appointed "people's council" to overhaul a political system they say has been taken hostage by her billionaire brother and former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra. Full Story | Top |
| China blames Xinjiang militants for deadly attack at station Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 04:45 PM PST  By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - China blamed militants from the restive far western region of Xinjiang on Sunday for an attack at a train station on the other side of the country by knife-wielding "terrorists" in which at least 33 died, including four of the assailants, who were shot dead. The attack, in the balmy southwestern city of Kunming late on Saturday evening, marks a major escalation in the simmering unrest which had centered on Xinjiang, a heavily Muslim region strategically located on the borders of Central Asia. It is the first time people from Xinjiang have been blamed for carrying out such a large-scale attack so far from their homeland, and follows an incident in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October which shook the country's Communist leadership. China has stepped up security in Xinjiang after a vehicle ploughed into tourists on the edge of Tiananmen Square, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders. Full Story | Top |
| Upbeat Buffett eyes big acquisitions after record Berkshire profit Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 09:13 AM PST  By Luciana Lopez and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett on Saturday signaled he plans to make more large acquisitions for Berkshire Hathaway Inc to expand his conglomerate, which posted a record profit in 2013 with the help of a recovering U.S. economy. "America's best days lie ahead," Buffett, 83, said in his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders. "Charlie and I have always considered a 'bet' on ever-rising U.S. prosperity to be very close to a sure thing," he added, referring to his 90-year-old vice chairman Charlie Munger. "Though we invest abroad as well, the mother lode of opportunity resides in America." The annual letter is widely read not just by Berkshire shareholders, but by investors and others looking for wisdom and guidance from the so-called Oracle of Omaha, the world's fourth-richest person. Full Story | Top |
| Bomb kills at least 10 in northeast Nigerian city: witnesses Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 02:24 PM PST By Lanre Ola MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - At least 10 people were killed on Saturday when a bomb exploded in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, witnesses said, in a region where the Islamist sect Boko Haram is pursuing a bloody insurgency. Boko Haram, whose fight for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed thousands and made the group the biggest threat to security in Africa's top oil producer, is increasingly targeting the civilian population. "I am at the scene now, it is very bad," local resident Ismaila Abdulraman told Reuters by telephone. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but Boko Haram only communicates occasionally through Internet videos, days or weeks after attacks. Full Story | Top |
| Abenomics struggles to deliver Japan public works boom Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 05:04 PM PST  By Antoni Slodkowski and Junko Fujita TOKYO (Reuters) - When Tokyo asked for bidders to build what is expected to be the world's largest fish market on the city's vacant eastern edge there were no takers. In a graphic illustration of how the hopes for "Abenomics" are falling short, the city was forced to raise by two-thirds its budget for the project to more than $1 billion before some of Japan's top construction companies stepped forward. "Wages and material costs are rising, and that's why we failed to attract bidders the first time we tried," said Koji Ishii, a city official overseeing the project, on a sprawl of landfill at Toyosu, next to Tokyo Bay. Tokyo's predicament highlights a deeper problem for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic revival plan for Japan, comprising his "three arrows" of hyper-easy monetary policy, fiscal spending and growth-generating structural reform. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela foreign minister to meet Ban Ki-moon in Geneva Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 05:21 PM PST  By Daniel Wallis and Girish Gupta CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela said on Saturday its foreign minister will meet United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Geneva on Tuesday amid growing international calls for dialogue between political players to ease the OPEC nation's worst unrest in a decade. President Nicolas Maduro says his foes are trying to trigger a coup, while his opponents accuse troops and pro-government militants of attacking demonstrators. Venezuela's permanent representative to the United Nations, Jorge Valero, said on Saturday that the secretary general asked for a meeting with Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on Tuesday at the sidelines of a gathering of the U.N. Human Rights Council. "He will have the opportunity to explain the policies for peace and promotion of dialogue that the government is pushing, and to denounce the terrorist plans that have been developing in Venezuela," Valero told Noticias24 Radio in Caracas. Full Story | Top |
| Iraq death toll exceeds 700 in February: U.N. Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 09:23 AM PST  By Ned Parker BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 700 people died in violence in Iraq in February, not including nearly 300 reported deaths in western Anbar province, where security forces have been battling Sunni Muslim rebels since January, the United Nations said on Saturday. The world body said local authorities had recorded 298 civilian deaths in Anbar, but that it could not confirm the figures independently due to the chaos in the desert region. Outside Anbar, the bloodshed was worst in Baghdad, where 239 civilians were killed, followed by Salahuddin province to the north with 121 dead. The United Nations said it had confirmed 703 deaths in Iraq in February, compared to 733 in January, excluding Anbar. Full Story | Top |
| Pakistani Taliban announces ceasefire to revive peace talks Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 07:37 AM PST  By Katharine Houreld and Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday announced a one-month ceasefire aimed at reviving peace talks after receiving what it said were government assurances it would not be attacked. A government negotiator could not confirm that there were such guarantees, but said talks could be restarted if the ceasefire was honored. Speculation has mounted in recent weeks that the Pakistani military is planning an offensive against the insurgents after talks between the militants and government broke down. "The senior leadership of the Taliban advises all subgroups to respect the Taliban's call for a ceasefire and abide by it and completely refrain from all jihadi activities in this time period," spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Turkish parliament votes to shut schools run by Erdogan rival Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 10:53 AM PST  By Ayla Jean Yackley ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament has voted to close private preparatory schools, many of which are a source of income and influence for an Islamic cleric accused by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of covertly seeking to topple him. Erdogan has accused cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers wield influence in the police and judiciary, of concocting a graft scandal to compromise his government. Full Story | Top |
| Militant ambush kills 12 of polio workers escort in Pakistan Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 03:49 AM PST  By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militants killed 12 members of the security escort for a polio vaccination team in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, detonating a roadside bomb before opening fire on their convoy, according to officials. The attack lasted an hour and when rescuers approached the scene the gunmen also attacked them, according to Khan Faraz, an official in the Jamrud area of Khyber, a rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Polio vaccination teams are frequently attacked, as are government security forces. Pakistan is one of the last three countries in the world where polio remains endemic and the only one of those three where reported cases are increasing. Full Story | Top |
| Putin ready to invade Ukraine; Kiev warns of war Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 01:23 PM PST By Lidia Kelly and Pavel Polityuk MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded and won his parliament's approval on Saturday to invade Ukraine, where the new government warned of war, put its troops on high alert and appealed to NATO for help. Putin's open assertion of the right to send troops to a country of 46 million people on the ramparts of central Europe creates the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, leading a government that took power after Moscow's ally Viktor Yanukovich fled a week ago, said Russian military action "would be the beginning of war and the end of any relations between Ukraine and Russia". Full Story | Top |
| European center-left launches election drive, attacks austerity Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 08:14 AM PST  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - European center-left parties called on Saturday for a change to austerity policies enacted to counter the euro zone crisis as they named Martin Schulz to be their candidate for next head of the European Commission. The Party of European Socialists (PES), which groups Europe's main center-left parties, said the focus on tight budgetary policy during the crisis had resulted in mass unemployment, hardship and the rise of populist movements. The euro zone is gradually recovering from its worst economic crisis since the launch of the single currency but its southern members continue to struggle and youth unemployment remains above 40 percent in Greece, Spain and Italy. "Europe can't continue like this," French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters at a special PES congress in Rome held to launch the joint platform for the European parliamentary elections on May 22-25. Full Story | Top |
| At least 28 die in 'terrorist' attack at Chinese train station: reports Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 02:33 PM PST By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - At least 28 people were killed by knife-wielding attackers in a "violent terrorist attack" at a train station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, and police shot dead five of the assailants, state media said on Sunday. Another 113 people were wounded, the official Xinhua news agency said, revising down a previous higher figure. "It was an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack," Xinhua said. "They just fell on the ground." Graphic pictures on the Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo showed bodies covered in blood lying on the ground at the station. Full Story | Top |
| British ex-Guantanamo inmate denies Syria-related terror charges Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 05:08 AM PST  By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - A British man once held at Guantanamo Bay turned human rights campaigner told a court in London on Saturday he would plead not guilty to providing training and funding terrorism in Syria, police said. Moazzam Begg, 45, who was released without charge from the U.S. military prison in Cuba in 2005, was detained at his home in Birmingham in central England last week and charged with terrorism offences dated between October 2012 and April 2013. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on Saturday and was remanded in custody to appear at London's Old Bailey criminal court on March 14. Begg was held by the U.S. government at Bagram detention center in Afghanistan, then Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, for nearly three years after being arrested in Pakistan in February 2002 suspected of being a member of al-Qaeda. Full Story | Top |
| Bangkok boating park becomes focus of Thai protests Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 03:29 AM PST  By Nick Macfie and Khettiya Jittapong BANGKOK (Reuters) - A green oasis in downtown Bangkok was slowly beginning to resemble a tent city on Saturday, a day after anti-government protesters said they would clear camps blocking key intersections and congregate in the park instead. The protesters have blocked some streets since mid-January in their bid to push out Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and eradicate the influence of her brother, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, seen as the real power in Thailand. Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban's supporters are to move to Lumpini Park, where many protesters already sleep in tents near an established protest stage on the edge of the Silom financial district. "We will stop closing Bangkok and give every intersection back to Bangkokians. Full Story | Top |
| Jailed Venezuela protest leader mocks Maduro's talks Saturday, Mar 01, 2014 04:08 AM PST  By Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - Jailed Venezuelan protest leader Leopoldo Lopez scoffed on Friday at President Nicolas Maduro's efforts to open talks with opponents and businessman after a month of demonstrations and violence that have killed at least 17 people. Maduro, 51, seems to have weathered the worst of an explosion of protests against his socialist government that exposed deep discontent with economic problems and brought the nation's worst unrest in a decade. Some students are still setting up roadblocks and clashing with police in Caracas and the western state of Tachira. But the number of protesters has dropped, and many Venezuelans have begun heading for the beach to enjoy a long weekend for Carnival celebrations. Full Story | Top |
| Obama warns Putin against military intervention in Ukraine Friday, Feb 28, 2014 10:15 PM PST  By Steve Holland and Alessandra Prentice WASHINGTON/SIMFEROOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Russia against any military intervention in Ukraine after the country's new leaders accused Moscow of deploying forces in the Crimea region. A week after Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in Kiev, armed men took control of two airports in Crimea on Friday in what Kiev described as an invasion and occupation by Moscow's forces in a region with an ethnic Russian majority. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment