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| China says will keep supporting Hong Kong as world financial hub Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 08:50 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China will continue to support Hong Kong's position as a global financial hub, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday, reassuring the investment community in the former British colony as it adjusts to the rise of Shanghai. Li made the remarks to reporters at the closing of the country's annual parliamentary session on Thursday. Known for its free-wheeling capitalist economy, Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. (Reporting By Michael Martina, Ben Blanchard and Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) Full Story | Top |
| Chinese premier says there is 'friction' with the United States Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 08:49 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said there is "friction" with the United States and the world's two biggest economies must respect each other's core interests. Li was speaking at a media conference at the close of China's annual parliamentary session on Thursday. (Reporting By Sui-Lee Wee, Ben Blanchard and Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Paul Tait) Full Story | Top |
| Timeline - The search for missing Malaysian jet Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 08:38 PM PDT Here is a timeline of events in the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner which vanished from radar screens on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early on Saturday: SATURDAY, MARCH 8 - Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Flight departs at 12:41 a.m. (1641 GMT Friday), and is due to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. (2230 GMT) the same day. - Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam says plane failed to check in as scheduled at 1721 GMT while flying over sea between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh City. - Flight tracking website flightaware.com shows plane flew northeast over Malaysia after takeoff and climbed to altitude of 35,000 feet. - Malaysia search ships see no sign of wreckage in area where flights last made contact. Full Story | Top |
| China Premier Li says will target corruption, no matter how high Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 08:30 PM PDT  China will "seriously deal with" corrupt officials no matter how senior they are, Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday. "We will show zero tolerance for corrupt behavior and corrupt officials. No matter who it is, or how senior their position, everyone is equal before the law," Li said in remarks to reporters at the closing of the country's annual parliamentary session. "If they violate party discipline or national law they will be seriously dealt with and punished according to the law." Chinese President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a central pillar of his administration and has said it threatens the ruling Communist Party's very survival. Full Story | Top |
| China Premier Li calls for relevant party to step up plane search Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 08:29 PM PDT  Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said as long as there remains a "glimmer of hope" China will not stop the search for a missing Malaysian airliner flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and called for the "relevant party" to step up coordination. "This is an international and large-scale search operation involving many countries. The Chinese government has asked the relevant party to enhance coordination, investigate the cause, locate the missing plane as quickly as possible and properly handle all related matters," Li said in remarks to reporters. The so-far fruitless search for the plane entered its sixth day on Thursday and China has dispatched multiple aircraft, ships and satellite in the multinational search mission. Full Story | Top |
| Search planes checking China satellite report on missing airliner Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 08:17 PM PDT  By Eveline Danubrata and Nguyen Phuong Linh KUALA LUMPUR/PHU QUOC, Vietnam (Reuters) - Search planes were flying on Thursday to an area where a Chinese satellite has seen objects that could be debris from the Malaysian airliner missing for almost six days, but those waters had been checked before and nothing found, officials said. At the same time, China heaped pressure on Malaysia to improve its coordination over the search for the Malaysia Airlines plane, which disappeared early on Saturday on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Premier Li Keqiang, speaking at a news conference in Beijing, demanded that the "relevant party" step up coordination while China's civil aviation chief said he wanted a "smoother" flow of information from Malaysia, which has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the disaster. Full Story | Top |
| Front companies, embassies mask North Korean weapons trade: U.N. Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 08:08 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 |
| 777 mystery sharpens hunt for black-box alternatives Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 07:23 PM PDT By Tim Hepher PARIS (Reuters) - The search for Malaysia's missing jet could speed development of new ways of locating wreckage, but such technology is unlikely to replace the traditional "black box" any time soon, France's top crash investigator said on Wednesday. Mystery over the Boeing 777's whereabouts deepened on Wednesday when Malaysia said it was searching an area hundreds of miles from its last known position. As well as scouring the area with ships, planes and satellites, investigators are trying to pick up signals from beacons on the jet's data and cockpit voice recorders. A French probe into the crash of an Air France jet in the Atlantic in 2009, which triggered a two-year $50 million search to find its crucial black boxes, led to a series of recommendations from France's BEA crash investigation agency. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Release of Afghan prisoners exposes root of rift with U.S Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 07:10 PM PDT  By Sayed Anwar Amani and Mirwais Harooni KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. military commanders believe Sardar Mohammad is a dangerous Taliban bomb-maker who has attacked foreign and Afghan soldiers. In April last year, U.S. and Afghan forces captured Sardar and placed him in a military prison. The Afghan government ordered Sardar and 64 other men to be released last month. A quiet man who says he is in his late teens, Sardar headed back to his village in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. Full Story | Top |
| Vietnam to recheck area for missing airliner after China satellite spots objects Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 06:57 PM PDT Vietnam has already searched the area where Chinese satellites showed objects that could be debris from a missing Malaysia Airlines jet but a plane has been sent to check the area again, Vietnamese military officials said. "We are aware and we sent planes to cover that area over the past three days," Deputy Transport Minister Pham Quy Tieu told Reuters. Another military official said Vietnam was waiting to see photographs taken by a Chinese satellite on Sunday in waters northeast of Kuala Lumpur and south of Vietnam in order to identify the exact location for further inspection. Full Story | Top |
| EU moves toward sanctions on Russians; Obama meets Ukraine PM Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 06:43 PM PDT  By Martin Santa and Aleksandar Vasovic BRUSSELS/SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on a framework on Wednesday for its first sanctions on Russia since the Cold War, a stronger response to the Ukraine crisis than many expected and a mark of solidarity with Washington in the drive to make Moscow pay for seizing Crimea. U.S. President Barack Obama warned Russia it faced costs from the West unless it changed course in Ukraine, and pledged to "stand with Ukraine" as he met with the country's new prime minister in Washington. Full Story | Top |
| China says can't confirm satellite images connected to missing plane Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 06:24 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - China's civil aviation chief said on Thursday that there was no proof that floating objects in the South China Sea seen by satellite images were connected to a missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft. "Chinese satellites have found smoke and floating objects ... At present we cannot confirm this is related to the missing aircraft," Li Jiaxiang told reporters on the sidelines of China's annual meeting of parliament. He added that there was also no evidence the Malaysian military was concealing information about the missing flight. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil's president faces revolt by coalition allies Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 06:02 PM PDT  By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - The rift between President Dilma Rousseff and her main political allies widened on Wednesday one day after they voted in Congress to look into bribery allegations leveled at Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras. They also invited Maria das Graças Foster, the chief executive officer of state-controlled oil producer Petróleo Brasileiro SA, to answer questions about the allegations that a Dutch company paid bribes to company officials to win contracts for floating oil platforms. The revolt in the ranks of the ruling coalition is led by Brazil's largest party, the center-right PMDB, which is jockeying for a bigger role in Rousseff's government and more funds for its members' districts in an election year. "The government has neglected the allied parties and their leaders," said PMDB lawmaker Danilo Forte, who proposed calling a party convention to decide whether to end the alliance with Rousseff's leftist Workers' Party (PT). Full Story | Top |
| El Salvador army rules out coup in election result dispute Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:43 PM PDT  By Nelson Renteria and Michael O'Boyle SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador's top military commander said on Wednesday the armed forces would not intervene in the disputed presidential election between a former leftist guerrilla leader and his right-wing rival, who has asked for the result to be annulled. Norman Quijano of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) came second in Sunday's vote, narrowly trailing the ruling leftist party candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren, who was known as Commander Leonel Gonzalez during the country's 12-year civil war. Quijano has asked the country's election tribunal, which has called the outcome "irreversible," to annul the result, claiming widespread fraud and threatening to take his complaint to the Supreme Court if necessary. Full Story | Top |
| Three more killed in Venezuela unrest, students battle troops Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:42 PM PDT  By Andrew Cawthorne and Diego Ore CARACAS (Reuters) - Protesters battled soldiers in the streets of Caracas again on Wednesday as three more fatal shootings raised to 25 the death toll from a month of demonstrations against Venezuela's socialist government. Thousands of supporters and foes of President Nicolas Maduro took to the capital's streets for rival rallies marking a month since the first bloodshed in the recent unrest around the South American OPEC nation. Violence began when National Guard troops blocked opposition marchers from leaving Plaza Venezuela to head to the state ombudsman's office. Students threw stones and petrol bombs while security forces fired teargas and turned water cannon on them. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chief condemns rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:35 PM PDT U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned a series of rocket attacks against Israel that originated in the Gaza Strip and provoked swift Israeli retaliation. Israel bombed 29 targets in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said, after Palestinian militants in the coastal territory fired 60 rockets into Israel in the heaviest such barrage since 2012. "The Secretary-General strongly condemns the multiple rocket attacks today on Israel from Gaza, for which Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility," Ban's press office said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Preservationists fight to save rare albino redwood tree in California Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 05:35 PM PDT By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Northern California preservationists are fighting to keep a rare albino redwood, one of just 10 trees of its kind known to exist, from being chopped down to make way for a new commuter rail system, arborists and city officials said on Wednesday. The albino chimera coast redwood, standing 52 feet high in a commercial district of Cotati, a town in California's wine country, also is the tallest and widest specimen of its type, said Tom Stapleton, a certified arborist who is leading a group of researchers and community members pushing to save the tree. The tree is a form of albino redwood with a genetic mutation that causes its branches to be striped, in a candy cane-like pattern, with a mix of green and white needles. Albino redwoods are a mutant variety of the evergreen species known as the California redwood, giant redwood or coast redwood, which is named for the reddish color of its bark and includes the tallest living trees on Earth. Full Story | Top |
| Turkish protester, police officer die in day of clashes: media Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 04:35 PM PDT  A protester in Istanbul died from a head injury and a police officer suffered a fatal heart attack during Turkey's worst day of civil unrest since anti-government protests swept the nation last summer, local media said late on Wednesday. A defiant Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, already battling a damaging corruption scandal weeks ahead of elections, cast the latest unrest as part of a plot against the state. Police fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber pellets on a major Istanbul avenue to stop tens of thousands of protesters from reaching the central Taksim square. Officers in riot gear chased pockets of protesters into side streets late into the night. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. rebukes Sudan over Darfur violence, wants more from peacekeepers Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 04:32 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday condemned the recent upsurge in violence in Sudan's western Darfur region, and said civilians are being "terrorized, displaced, and killed" despite the presence of one of the world's biggest peacekeeping missions. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power criticized the Sudanese government and the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, known as UNAMID. Dozens have been killed in Darfur in recent weeks in fighting between rebels and security forces. "The Government of Sudan's proxies and other armed groups continue to attack civilians in Darfur," Power said in a statement issued during a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Darfur. Full Story | Top |
| Missing jet may have strayed to west, Malaysia military says Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 04:18 PM PDT By Eveline Danubrata and Nguyen Phuong Linh KUALA LUMPUR/PHU QUOC, Vietnam (Reuters) - Malaysia's military has traced what could have been the jetliner missing for almost five days to an area south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket, hundreds of miles to the west of its last known position, the country's air force chief said on Wednesday. His statement followed a series of conflicting accounts of the flight path of the Boeing 777-200ER with 239 people on board, which left authorities uncertain even which ocean to search in for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The last definitive sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing. In the latest potential lead, a Chinese government agency website on Wednesday said a Chinese satellite had photographed three "suspicious floating objects" on Sunday in waters northeast of Kuala Lumpur and south of Vietnam. Full Story | Top |
| Kerry says to meet Russia's Lavrov in London on Ukraine Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:53 PM PDT By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to London to meet with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Friday to discuss proposals for resolving the Ukrainian crisis days before a referendum in Ukraine's Crimea region on joining Russia. Kerry told lawmakers that he was traveling at the request of President Barack Obama, who met with Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk at the White House on Wednesday. Russia's bloodless seizure of the Crimea has brought U.S.-Russian relations to one of their lowest points since the Cold War, with no sign that tensions are easing. Full Story | Top |
| Indian diplomat in U.S.-India row wins indictment's dismissal Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:51 PM PDT  By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Indian diplomat charged in New York with visa fraud and making false statements about a domestic worker she employed has won dismissal of a federal indictment, ending a chapter in an dispute that frayed U.S.-Indian diplomatic relations. Devyani Khobragade, who was India's deputy consul-general in New York, had diplomatic immunity when she sought on January 9 to dismiss the indictment, and thus could not be prosecuted, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday. Prosecutors accused Khobragade of making Sangeeta Richard, her housekeeper and nanny, work 100-hour weeks at a salary of just over $1 an hour, far below the legal minimum U.S. wage of $7.25 an hour. Full Story | Top |
| Israel bombs Gaza militants after intensive rocket fire Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:48 PM PDT  Israel bombed 29 targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Israeli military said, after Palestinian militants in the coastal territory fired 60 rockets into Israel in the heaviest such barrage since 2012. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military "to take any action necessary to restore calm" to Israel's south, and that "if there is no quiet in the south then it will be noisy in Gaza, and that's an understatement." The rocket fire, which police said resulted in no casualties, was claimed by the Islamic Jihad group and came a day after Israel killed three of its members in a Gaza air strike. Full Story | Top |
| Turkish protester dies from injury in Istanbul clashes: official Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:48 PM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish protester died on Wednesday from a head injury sustained during a clash between rival groups of demonstrators in Istanbul, a local official from the ruling AK Party told CNN Turk television. "There were two groups attacking the police and one youth suffered a head injury ... and lost his life," Aziz Babuscu, the AK Party's Istanbul provincial head, told the broadcaster. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Leslie Adler) Full Story | Top |
| Libyan PM flees country after tanker escapes rebel-held port Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:47 PM PDT  By Ulf Laessing TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Former Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan sought refuge in Europe on Wednesday after parliament voted him out for failing to stop rebels independently exporting oil in a challenge to Libya's fragile unity. According to varying accounts by government officials, the navy or air force then fired on the vessel, although it was not clear if this happened in Libyan or international waters. He said Libya had asked Egypt and other countries to help stop the ship. The debacle underlines the impotence of the authorities in Tripoli, whose fledgling army and police force are no match for the militias and other armed groups who remain a law unto themselves three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Full Story | Top |
| Three more die in Venezuela unrest, students battle troops Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:44 PM PDT By Andrew Cawthorne and Diego Ore CARACAS (Reuters) - Protesters battled soldiers in the streets of Caracas again on Wednesday as three more fatal shootings raised to 25 the death toll from a month of demonstrations against Venezuela's socialist government. Thousands of supporters and foes of President Nicolas Maduro took to the capital's streets for rival rallies marking a month since the first bloodshed in the recent unrest around the South American OPEC nation. Trouble began when National Guard troops blocked opposition marchers from leaving Plaza Venezuela to head to the state ombudsman's office. Students threw stones and petrol bombs while security forces fired tear gas and turned water cannons on them. Full Story | Top |
| Russian lawmaker suggests Moscow has sent troops to Crimea Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:24 PM PDT A senior Russian lawmaker strongly suggested on Wednesday that Moscow has sent troops to Ukraine's Crimea region to protect against any "armed aggression" during a referendum on whether Crimea should secede and join Russia. The statement appeared to contradict assertions from President Vladimir Putin and Russian officials that the armed men who have taken control of facilities in Crimea were local "self-defense" forces. "There are some military units there that are occupying positions in case of armed aggression, armed expansion from Kiev ... This is not a large-scale military operation," pro-Kremlin lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told Ekho Moskvy radio. But he raised what he said was the possibility that "bandit units" could attack eastern Ukraine and Crimea. Full Story | Top |
| Iran says seals gas export deal with Oman Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 03:15 PM PDT  Iran has sealed an agreement to export 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Oman, Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Wednesday, in a deal that also involves building a pipeline across the Gulf at a cost of about $1 billion. The accord, signed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's first visit to Muscat since his election last year, came out of a memorandum of understanding between the countries in August for the sale of Iranian gas to Oman from 2015, in a 25-year deal valued at around $60 billion. Energy-hungry Oman agreed to buy gas from Iran as far back as 2005 and a later draft deal in 2007 included plans for Oman to process Iranian gas for export as liquefied natural gas (LNG). Full Story | Top |
| Egypt says two Brotherhood members arrested in the Gulf Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 02:59 PM PDT Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have arrested two members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood at Cairo's request for committing violence in Port Said before fleeing abroad, Egypt's prosecutor's office said on Wednesday. The arrests are the first reported cases of Egypt's Gulf allies detaining members of the Islamist group on its behalf. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are among the Gulf nations that have pumped billions of dollars into Egypt since the army ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last July following mass protests against him. Egypt designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organization in December, escalating a state crackdown on the group. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. House panel investigates EPA's power plant rule setting Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 02:02 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee said on Wednesday it is launching an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's decision-making process involving emissions standards for new power plants. Republican leaders of the House Energy and Committee have written to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy requesting documents to determine whether the agency complied with the law when it developed its proposals for new power plant standards, which were announced in late 2013. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Susan Heavey) Full Story | Top |
| Italy presents sweeping tax cuts, plans to raise deficit goal Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 02:01 PM PDT  By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday presented a sweeping package of tax cuts, saying they could help economic recovery in the euro zone's third largest economy without breaking EU budget deficit limits. Renzi, in his first full news conference since taking office last month, said income tax would be reduced by a total of 10 billion euros ($14 billion) annually for 10 million low and middle income workers from May 1. The cuts will be financed by reductions in central government spending, extra borrowing and by resources freed up thanks to the recent fall in Italy's borrowing costs, he said. "This is not what Italy needs," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Algerian premier to quit to run Bouteflika election campaign: source Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:41 PM PDT  By Lamine Chikhi ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal will resign on Thursday to run the reelection campaign of the country's ageing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a source close to the presidency said on Wednesday. Bouteflika, 77, registered his candidacy for the April 17 vote last week and spoke in public for one of the few time he has since suffering a stroke last year that raised opposition questions about his ability to govern. Sellal will be replaced as premier by Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi, the source told Reuters. Backed by the National Liberation Front (FLN) party and the army, Bouteflika is almost assured five more years in power. Full Story | Top |
| Boeing says Malaysia jet not subject to FAA inspection order Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:39 PM PDT By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co on Wednesday said the missing 777 Malaysia Airlines jetliner was not subject to a new U.S. safety directive that ordered additional inspections for cracking and corrosion on certain 777 planes. The Federal Aviation Administration last week ordered additional, repeated inspections of certain Boeing 777 aircraft, warning that corrosion and cracking could lead to rapid decompression and damage to the structure of the aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to inspect U.S. registered aircraft for cracking, corrosion and potential repairs after receiving a report about a 16-inch crack in the fuselage skin underneath an adapter for the airplane's satellite communications antenna. But it said the 777-200ER Malaysia Airlines aircraft did not have that antenna installed and was not subject to the FAA order. Full Story | Top |
| Estonia's ruling party tries new PM candidate as Kallas drops bid Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:36 PM PDT  Estonia's ruling party was forced to pick a new candidate for the job of prime minister on Wednesday after its first choice, EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas, pulled out complaining of a smear campaign. The Reform Party instead opted to name social affairs minister Taavi Roivas, 34, as its candidate to be nominated by Estonia's president to form a government. The post fell vacant after Andrus Ansip resigned on March 4 after almost nine years in the post in a planned move to pave the way for a successor to lead a new government into next year's parliamentary election. Ansip's center-right coalition has been struggling in polls amid signs of voter fatigue at years of a government focused on fiscal austerity as well as several high-profile party funding scandals. Full Story | Top |
| French government on defensive over Sarkozy phone-taps Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:30 PM PDT  By Mark John PARIS (Reuters) - France's justice minister on Wednesday defied calls for her to quit after it emerged that she knew former President Nicolas Sarkozy's phone was being tapped, apparently contradicting an earlier statement from her. Sarkozy's opposition conservatives accuse the government of using the surveillance, ordered as part of a party funding inquiry, to discredit them before this month's local elections in which President Francois Hollande's Socialists risk losing ground. Justice Minister Christiane Taubira dismissed that accusation on Monday, saying she had not been informed about the phone-tapping before Le Monde newspaper revealed it last week. Barely 24 hours later, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault acknowledged on television late on Tuesday that he and Taubira did know of the surveillance. Full Story | Top |
| Italy pledges to pay overdue debts to private firms Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:09 PM PDT By Giselda Vagnoni and Giuseppe Fonte ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi promised on Wednesday to pay down some 68 billion euros ($95 billion) in overdue debts the state owes to private companies by July, pumping liquidity into the ailing economy. During his first news conference after a cabinet meeting, Renzi said a draft law outlining the repayment of the debts - along with a sweeping package of tax cuts - was a key part of his government's plans to pull Italy's economy out of its longest recession since World War Two. However, it was evident that the government is not sure how much it owes businesses - or what effect the arrears payments will have on efforts to keep public finances in check. Renzi said his calculations of how much suppliers of goods and services are owed by public sector bodies were based on a Bank of Italy estimate which put arrears at 91 billion euros as of 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Israel's parliament toughens referendum-on-peace law Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:08 PM PDT  Israel's parliament on Wednesday toughened a law requiring a public referendum on potential land-for-peace deals involving withdrawals from land annexed by Israel. The law turns legislation already passed in 2010 into a constitutional amendment that would require an absolute majority of 61 of the Israeli Knesset's 120 lawmakers to rescind. "When it comes to making any such fateful decision, were such a moment to arrive, we must ask the people," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, moments before the amendment passed by a vote of 68 to 0. Opposition lawmakers from left-wing, Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties boycotted the vote, accusing Netanyahu's government of rushing through a decision they see as controversial. Full Story | Top |
| A whale of a find: Fossil sheds light on cetacean sonar's origin Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 01:06 PM PDT These marine mammals have been using echolocation - bouncing high-frequency sounds off underwater objects - to find prey for tens of millions of years. U.S. scientists on Wednesday announced the discovery of the most ancient whale known to have used echolocation - a creature called Cotylocara macei, a bit larger than a bottlenose dolphin, that lived about 28 million years ago. The discovery suggests that echolocation evolved in toothed whales - the group that includes modern day varieties like sperm whales, killer whales, dolphins and porpoises - perhaps 32 million to 34 million years ago, the scientists said. That was relatively soon after whales, around 35 million years ago, split into two major cetacean groups - toothed whales that were active hunters and toothless baleen whales that were filter feeders, straining food like krill from the ocean. Full Story | Top |
| Assad visits displaced Syrians outside Damascus: TV Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 12:53 PM PDT  President Bashar al-Assad visited displaced Syrians in the town of Adra on Wednesday, state media said, in a rare public appearance outside the heart of Damascus. State television said Assad inspected a shelter for people displaced by fighting in Adra, which lies about 12 miles northeast of central Damascus and was partly captured by rebels three months ago. Footage showed Assad in a dark jacket and white shirt touring shelters for displaced people, shaking hands, kissing cheeks and talking with groups of men, women and children. We are concerned for every one of you, and for every displaced person everywhere in Syria," he said. Full Story | Top |
| EU's domestic-only climate proposal reflects global stalemate Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014 12:46 PM PDT By Ben Garside BONN (Reuters) - The European Union had little choice in proposing not to outsource more of its emission cuts abroad to meet a 2030 target because the slow pace of global talks to develop new carbon markets gave it nothing to buy, a senior EU official said. The European Commission in January proposed cutting the bloc's greenhouse gas output by 40 percent under 1990 levels entirely from reductions made within the 28-nation EU unless a global climate change agreement requires it to deepen the goal. Juergen Lefevere, a senior official at the Commission - the EU's executive arm - insisted the bloc was willing to open up its carbon market but was restricted by a lack of reform at international level. How can we expect to buy international credits from something we haven't seen defined?" International talks on how to set up new markets and links via common accounting standards have been shelved until June after breaking down last year. Full Story | Top |
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