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| Insight: Japan may only be able to restart one-third of its nuclear reactors Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:44 PM PDT  By Mari Saito, Aaron Sheldrick and Kentaro Hamada TOKYO (Reuters) - Three years after the Fukushima disaster prompted the closure of all Japan's nuclear reactors, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is moving to revive nuclear power as a core part of the energy mix, but many of those idled reactors will never come back online. This means Japan is likely to remain heavily reliant on imported fuel to power the world's third-largest economy, straining a trade balance that has been in the red for nearly two years. Hokkaido Electric Power Co and Kyushu Electric Power Co, both facing a third year of financial losses, are seeking capital infusions totaling nearly $1.5 billion from a state-owned lender. Kyushu Electric shares dropped as much as 7 percent on Wednesday to an 8-week low. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia releases transcript of last words from missing plane Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:22 PM PDT  Malaysia on Tuesday released the full transcript of communications between the Boeing 777 and local air traffic control before it dropped from civilian radar in the early hours of March 8 as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. "There is no indication of anything abnormal in the transcript," Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in the statement, without giving explanation for the changes in the reported last communication. "The transcript was initially held as part of the police investigation," he added. Minutes after the final radio transmission was received the plane's communications were cut off and it turned back across Peninsular Malaysia and headed towards the Indian Ocean, according to military radar and limited satellite data. Full Story | Top |
| Xi says multi-party system didn't work for China Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:02 PM PDT  China experimented in the past with various political systems, including multi-party democracy, but it did not work, President Xi Jinping said during a visit to Europe, warning that copying foreign political or development models could be catastrophic. China's constitution enshrines the Communist Party's long-term "leading" role in government, though it allows the existence of various other political parties under what is calls a "multi-party cooperation system". But all are subservient to the Communist Party. Activists who call for pluralism are regularly jailed and criticism of China's one-party, authoritarian system silenced. Full Story | Top |
| Massive 8.2 earthquake off Chile coast sparks tsunami Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 08:01 PM PDT  By Anthony Esposito and Rosalba O'Brien SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A major earthquake of magnitude 8.2 struck off the coast of Chile on Tuesday, triggering a tsunami that hit the northern part of the country, but the government reported no deaths or serious damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was shallow at 12.5 miles below the seabed and struck about 100 km northwest of the mining port of Iquique near the Peruvian border. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake generated a large tsunami with the biggest wave reported at 2.3 meters. The government said it had no reports of significant damage to coastal areas, but around 300 prisoners took advantage of the confusion and escaped from a jail in Iquique, Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said. Full Story | Top |
| Palestinians sign int'l conventions to press Israel; U.S. hopes to keep talks going Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 09:02 PM PDT  A surprise decision by the Palestinian leadership to sign more than a dozen international conventions giving it greater leverage against Israel left the United States struggling to put peace talks back on track. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry canceled a visit to the de facto Palestinian capital, Ramallah, planned for Wednesday after President Mahmoud Abbas made the announcement on Tuesday in a meeting of senior officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The U.S.-backed talks, which are nearing their scheduled end after starting in July, veered toward crisis on Saturday when Israel did not follow through on the promised release of a group of over two dozen long-serving Palestinian prisoners. Israel said it wanted a pledge from the Palestinian leadership that the talks, which have not made any obvious progress, would be extended before the detainees were freed. Full Story | Top |
| Challenger leads embattled mayor in Washington primary Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 09:07 PM PDT  By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The main challenger to the District of Columbia's scandal-tainted mayor led by a wide margin in the U.S. capital's crowded Democratic Party primary late on Tuesday. City council member Muriel Bowser was ahead of Mayor Vincent Gray 44 percent to 33 percent with 127 of 143 precincts reporting, according to election board results. Polls have shown Bowser, who helped manage Adrian Fenty's successful 2006 mayoral campaign and later was elected to the city council, in a tight race with Gray, who has presided over an economic boom in the U.S. capital. Winning the eight-candidate Democratic primary is seen as tantamount to taking the general election in a city that is heavily Democratic. Full Story | Top |
| Australia's Abbott faces tough mission on 'trifecta of trade' in Asia Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:46 PM PDT  By Maggie Lu Yueyang SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott wants to finalize a free trade agreement with Japan on his forthcoming North Asia trip, but will have to walk a fine line between Tokyo and Beijing over geopolitical tensions in the region. Abbott leaves for Japan on Saturday, kicking off a tour that also includes South Korea and China. China is Australia's top export market, followed by Japan and South Korea. Full Story | Top |
| 'Toy-like' drone that crashed in South Korea came from North: media Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:39 PM PDT A South Korean military inquiry into a drone found on a border island has concluded that North Korea flew the unmanned aircraft to conduct reconnaissance missions, a South Korean media report said on Wednesday. The discovery of the surveillance aircraft came less than an hour after a three-hour artillery barrage between South and North Korea in each side's territorial waters near a disputed maritime border on Monday. North Korea fired more than 100 artillery rounds into South Korean waters as part of a drill on Monday, prompting the South to fire back. Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday that the drone's flight route appeared to be from the North, citing unidentified South Korean government officials. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. eyes lessons learned from Malaysia jet at Asia defense talks Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:26 PM PDT  By Phil Stewart HONOLULU (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Tuesday he expected to discuss lessons learned from the search for a missing Malaysian jetliner at talks with southeast Asian defense chiefs, but stopped short of criticizing Malaysia's coordination effort. The so-far fruitless search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370 has been a massive international military undertaking that has included patrol flights by state-of-the-art U.S. spy planes. Hagel did not direct blame at Malaysia, which has sent its defense chief to Hagel's three-day gathering of ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A senior U.S. defense official, briefing reporters ahead of Hagel's trip, which will continue to Japan, China and Mongolia, said the Malaysia jet search effort highlighted "the importance of working together and cooperating." "On the one hand it has shown that we have a number of countries that can come together and put aside rivalries and differences to work together," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Full Story | Top |
| Biggest backer of Labour Party warns it could cut funding Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:08 PM PDT  By William James LONDON (Reuters) - The biggest financial backer of Labour Party said on Tuesday it could withdraw its support and funding unless the left-leaning party came up with a credible alternative to austerity that wins next year's election. Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the Unite trade union, said Labour would lose the next election if it continued to only offer voters "a pale shade of austerity", and that a loss would force the union to discuss breaking its links with the party. "I believe the Labour Party is at a crossroads," McCluskey told reporters, saying Ed Miliband, Labour's leader, had to come up with a new message for voters. Labour, a party born out of the trade union movement, has a 3 percentage-point lead in opinion polls over Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives ahead of a May 2015 election. Full Story | Top |
| Another Japan nuclear operator turns to government for aid Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:00 PM PDT By Taiga Uranaka and James Topham TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Kyushu Electric Power Co has become the second nuclear generator to seek state support this week as reactors across the country remain idled and industry losses mount three years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Kyushu Electric, a regional monopoly that supplies power in southern Japan, said on Wednesday it was in talks with state-owned Development Bank of Japan for financial backing. On Tuesday, a source said Hokkaido Electric Power Co, which supplies Japan's northernmost island, had asked the same bank for financial assistance. All of Japan's 48 nuclear reactors have been shut down, pending stringent safety checks, since a massive earthquake and 13-metre-high (43-feet-high) tsunami smashed into the Fukushima nuclear complex in March 2011, triggering a meltdown in the world's worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Full Story | Top |
| Soccer-Hooliganism still haunts European game Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 07:00 PM PDT However, as the appalling events in Sweden, when a Djurgarden fan in his 40s died after being assaulted on his way to a game in Helsingborg show, associated violence is still rife in many places. Ministers from a government led by Djurgarden fan Fredrik Reinfeldt were quick to respond. Justice minister Beatrice Ask suggested supporter culture was to blame for the violence. But in some cases trouble still takes place at football grounds in the region. Full Story | Top |
| GM avoided defective switch redesign in 2005 to save a dollar each Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 06:50 PM PDT  By Paul Lienert and Marilyn Thompson DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Co in 2005 decided not to change an ignition switch eventually linked to the deaths of at least 13 people because it would have added about a dollar to the cost of each car, according to an internal GM document provided to U.S. congressional investigators. The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce released the documents on Tuesday as lawmakers asked CEO Mary Barra why GM failed to recall 2.6 million cars until more than a decade after it first noticed a switch problem that could cut off engines and disable airbags, power steering and power brakes. Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette cited a 2005 GM document that she said showed a cost of 57 cents per fix. However, Reuters obtained what appeared to be a separate document, a series of 2005 emails between GM engineers debating whether to make a change to the ignition switch. Full Story | Top |
| UAW asks to delay Volkswagen hearing, cites anti-union collusion Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 06:25 PM PDT  The United Auto Workers (UAW) on Tuesday asked a U.S. agency to stay an April 21 hearing related to a mid-February union vote it lost at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant, citing what it called new evidence of collusion between Republican lawmakers and anti-union groups. The union was referring to a report aired on Nashville's NewsChannel5 late on Monday that cited email exchanges between anti-union groups, members of the staffs of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Senator Bob Corker and other public officials. According to the broadcast, the correspondence showed that Haslam's administration offered $300 million in economic incentives to help VW expand its operations in Chattanooga so long as the plant did not unionize. Full Story | Top |
| California snow levels remain low, signaling less water for summer Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 06:13 PM PDT Snow levels atop California's Sierra Nevada mountains, key indicators of how much water will be available for drought-stricken farms, residents and wildlife this summer, remained precariously low despite recent storms, officials said Tuesday. The snowpack, which melts in the spring and feeds streams and reservoirs throughout the state, has just a third of the amount of water it normally contains this time of year, said Mark Cowin, director of the state Department of Water Resources. "We're already seeing farmland fallowed and cities scrambling for water supplies," Corwin said in a statement Tuesday after snow surveyors turned in the results of their monthly examination of snow levels. "We can hope that conditions improve, but time is running out." Storms pummeled parts of California on throughout the weekend, lasting through the day on Tuesday, allowing the state to release more water than had been anticipated from the fragile San Joaquin-Sacramento River delta to fill reservoirs and provide waters to farms and cities. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. senator urges budget neutrality on Obamacare risk provisions Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 06:03 PM PDT  By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a prominent Republican critic of President Barack Obama's healthcare law, unveiled legislation on Tuesday to make sure Obamacare would not add to the deficit by compensating insurance companies for possible losses. The 2010 healthcare law includes provisions to safeguard insurers against losses if they saw unexpectedly high enrollments of sick or older people, who are costlier to insure than young, healthy consumers. The Florida senator has labeled the provisions a "bailout" for insurance companies. Rubio's two-page bill, dubbed "the ObamaCare Taxpayer Bailout Protection Act," requires the administration to ensure that the law's risk provisions "reduce to zero the cost ... to the federal government." "The White House has said ... it will have to be budget neutral, that no money from taxpayers or general revenue will be spent in bailing out the exchanges. Full Story | Top |
| CEO Barra calls GM's actions on deadly defect 'unacceptable' Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 06:02 PM PDT  After taking an oath at a House of Representatives panel, Barra kicked off the contentious hearing by declaring, "I am deeply sorry" for the company's failure to respond quickly to the safety problem and subsequent deaths. The questioning became contentious at times but it did not appear to rattle the GM chief executive, who rose to her current job in January. Still, during a nearly three-hour appearance on Capitol Hill, Barra testified again and again that GM had taken steps to prevent future safety problems from occurring. She labored to remind lawmakers that the so-called "new GM" she heads was nothing like the "old GM" that failed to deal with faulty ignition switches for more than a decade. Full Story | Top |
| Stung by scandals, California Democrats cancel signature fundraiser Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:58 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Stung by a string of corruption charges against state lawmakers, California Democrats on Tuesday canceled a golf fundraiser that costs as much as $65,000 per foursome, saying it was time to re-evaluate the relationship between governing and raising money. Three members of the state senate, all Democrats, have faced criminal charges since January in separate cases involving bribery, voter fraud and weapons trafficking in a series of scandals with immediate political implications in an election year. "These are unprecedented times and they demand that we take a step back and take stock of how we all do the people's business and balance it against the demands of running for office," the legislature's top Democratic senators, Darrell Steinberg and Kevin de Leon, said in a joint statement. The party, which dominates both houses of the legislature and holds all statewide offices, effectively lost its precious two-thirds majority in the senate last month, when Ron Calderon, indicted on corruption charges, and Roderick Wright, convicted of lying about living in the district he sought to represent, were placed on paid leaves of absence. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. missile defense system could see added costs, delays: report Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:44 PM PDT By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. missile defense system could see additional costs and delays after several test failures and technical challenges in 2013, a congressional watchdog agency warned in a new report released Tuesday. The U.S. government has already spent $98 billion since 2002 to develop a complex, layered system to defend against enemy ballistic missile attacks, with an additional $38 billion to be spent through fiscal 2018, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office. But continued problems with key aspects of the program, including the ground-based midcourse defense managed by Boeing Co, could drive the costs of U.S. missile defense system even higher in coming years, the GAO said. The report also faulted the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for what it called "unreliable" and incomplete cost estimates, and recommended steps to improve the agency's schedule baselines. Full Story | Top |
| S.C. college students decry next president's Confederate ties Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:43 PM PDT By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Students and faculty at a liberal arts college in South Carolina are protesting the selection of the state's lieutenant governor as their next president, citing his record as a defender of Confederate history. Students at the College of Charleston have held up signs reading "This is 2014, not 1814" during protests against their new president, known as a Civil War re-enactor and for his fight to keep the Confederate flag flying at the State House. On Tuesday night, the College of Charleston's faculty Senate issued a unanimous vote of no confidence in the school's board of trustees for choosing Lieutenant Governor Glenn McConnell to lead the small, public college that was founded in 1770. Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi man goes on trial in California for wife's murder Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:27 PM PDT Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mother of five, was bludgeoned at her home in suburban El Cajon on March 21, 2012, and died of her injuries several days later. But six months later, police arrested Alawadi's husband, 49-year-old Kassim Alhimidi and court papers show a family in turmoil. Taking the stand as the first witness in the closely watched trial, El Cajon paramedic Kyle Kleinschmidt said he was sent to the family's home after Alawadi's then-17-year-old daughter Fatima called 911 to say she had discovered her mother unconscious on the kitchen floor. He testified that the scene was not consistent in his mind with Fatima Alhimidi's belief that her mother had fallen. Full Story | Top |
| Families of GM crash victims bring their anguish to Washington Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:25 PM PDT By Julia Edwards WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Standing on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning in the path of an early spring breeze, Renee Trautwein tearfully braced herself to relive the worst morning of her life. In a few hours, Mary Barra, the chief executive officer of General Motors, would be pressed to answer why the largest U.S. automaker did not act sooner to fix an ignition switch defect that can suddenly leave certain models of its cars without power. Trautwein's daughter died in one of those cars, a 2005 Chevy Cobalt, in South Carolina on the morning of June 12, 2009 - an accident Trautwein had previously thought was caused by her daughter falling asleep at the wheel. Since the recall of the vehicle earlier this year, Trautwein now believes the car lost power and was unable to be steered. Full Story | Top |
| Apple seeks decisive U.S. court ruling against Samsung Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:24 PM PDT  By Dan Levine SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Apple Inc and Samsung faced off once again in their long-running courtroom battle, with the iPhone maker asking jurors to award more than $2 billion for patent violations and Samsung trying to cast its rival as a sore loser in the smartphone market. Apple marketing chief Philip Schiller also testified about his shock at how similar Samsung's smartphones were to the iPhone. Jurors awarded the iPhone maker about $930 million after a 2012 trial in San Jose, California, but Apple failed to persuade U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to issue a permanent injunction against the sale of Samsung phones. A sales ban would be a far more serious threat to Samsung, which earned $7.7 billion in the quarter that ended in December. Full Story | Top |
| Canadian auto sales nudge higher in March Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:16 PM PDT  By Susan Taylor TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian auto sales inched just 0.2 percent higher in March from a year earlier, figures on Tuesday showed, but an independent auto industry analyst said the modest increase masked a solid performance during severe winter weather, especially in comparison with the record sales of March 2013. Canadian sales rose to 157,060 vehicles in March from 156,680 the year before, marking the second-best March on record, said Dennis DesRosiers of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. Truck sales climbed 5.1 percent to 90,851 vehicles from 86,475 last year, while car sales went in the opposite direction, falling 5.7 percent to 66,209 vehicles, the DesRosiers report said. That trend is also evident in year-to-date figures, with truck sales up 6.3 percent and auto sales down 6.2 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Obamacare has thousands of 'Cinderella' would-be enrollees Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:12 PM PDT  By Sharon Begley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Call them the "Cinderella customers" - those who tried to enroll in coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law but were unable to do so when midnight tolled on April 1. Tens of thousands of Americans are in that position after 2014 Obamacare enrollment officially closed, the heads of two of the most successful state-based insurance exchanges, California and Connecticut, told the Reuters Health Summit on Tuesday. The Obama administration has offered a grace period for people who tried to sign up in time for Monday's deadline but could not complete the process. Covered California, the Obamacare exchange in America's most populous state, had "more than 30,000 people" who began an application for health coverage and were told to "come back later," Executive Director Peter Lee told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Congress passes Ukraine aid, sanctions Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:06 PM PDT By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for a package of aid and sanctions in response to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, and sent the measure to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign into law. The 378-34 vote backed a package that was overwhelmingly approved last week by the U.S. Senate, a rare show of bipartisanship after weeks of haggling between Democrats and Republicans over how best to respond to the crisis. The legislation backs a $1 billion loan guarantee for the Kiev government, provides $150 million in aid to Ukraine and surrounding countries and requires the U.S. State and Justice Departments to help the Kiev government recover assets amassed by corrupt Ukrainian officials. It also imposes mandatory sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes, against Russians and Ukrainians determined to have engaged in violence or human rights abuses in Ukraine, who undermined Ukraine's sovereignty or participated in "significant" corruption in Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Wells Fargo extends credit card push in deal with Dillard's Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 05:00 PM PDT  Wells Fargo & Co said on Tuesday that it agreed to issue and service credit cards for retailer Dillard's Inc , the latest move by the fourth-largest U.S. bank to boost its card business. Under a 10-year agreement likely to begin in the fourth quarter of 2014, Wells Fargo will offer private label and co-branded credit cards on behalf of Dillard's, taking over from General Electric Co's consumer finance unit. Expanding the size of Wells Fargo's credit card business has been a priority for top executives, who have focused on getting more of their existing retail customers to open accounts and use their cards more frequently. Full Story | Top |
| Pressure rises on Gross as investors pull $3.1 billion from Pimco's flagship fund Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:52 PM PDT  By Jennifer Ablan and Sam Forgione NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors pulled another $3.1 billion from Pimco's flagship fund in March, the 11th straight month of outflows from the world's largest bond fund, and its performance on the month lagged 95 percent of its peers due to a spate of wrong calls by long-time manager Bill Gross. The latest statistics for the Pimco Total Return Fund, released Tuesday by Morningstar, increase the risk that more money could flee the fund managed by Gross, whose shop has been rattled by a management shakeup and disappointing performance. In all, investors have pulled $52.1 billion out of the fund since last May, according to Morningstar data. Several U.S. institutional investors, including retirement systems, said they are closely monitoring the developments at Pimco and have formally put Pimco on "watch lists," a signal that they will keep a much closer eye on its performance than usual. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. FDA advisers back MannKind's inhaled diabetes drug Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:49 PM PDT By Susan Heavey HYATTSVILLE, Maryland (Reuters) - U.S. health advisers on Tuesday recommended approval of MannKind Corp's inhaled diabetes drug, and said the experimental treatment could help some patients, especially those wary of needles typically used with traditional insulin therapy. The Food and Drug Administration's panel of outside advisers said that while the therapy, called Afrezza, did not appear as beneficial for adults with type 1 diabetes, it was clearly safe and effective for those with the more common type 2 form of the chronic disease. Overall, it voted 13-1 to recommend approval for patients with type 1 diabetes and unanimously backed it for those with type 2, adding that longer-term studies would still be needed to monitor possible side effects such as lung cancer. According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 25 million U.S. children and adults have diabetes, a chronic condition that affects insulin needed for digestion and impacts blood sugar levels. Full Story | Top |
| Breast cancer screening a complex mix of benefits, risk -report Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:47 PM PDT By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A review of 50 years of studies on the risks and benefits of yearly mammograms has tied them to a 19 percent drop overall in breast cancer deaths, but whether a woman benefits depends on factors such as age and family history, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association is the latest attempt to sort out mixed messages about mammogram screening, once an annual chore whose merits have been questioned by some studies suggesting that mammograms save far fewer women than previously thought. "It would be easier for everyone if there was a clear, pre-specified pathway with a given risk profile, but we don't have that because our data is not perfect and everyone is different," Dr. Lydia Pace of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study, told Reuters Health. "I wish that we had more certainty." Five years ago, U.S. women routinely started getting annual mammograms at age 40. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. House backs Ukraine aid, sanctions Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:37 PM PDT By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to provide aid to Ukraine, back a $1 billion loan guarantee for the Kiev government and impose sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea. The 378-34 vote was in support of a package approved by the U.S. Senate, meaning it will be sent to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign into law, ending weeks of haggling in Congress over how best to support Ukraine. Besides the loan guarantee, the legislation provides $150 million in aid to Ukraine and surrounding countries and requires the State and Justice Departments to help the Kiev government recover assets amassed by corrupt Ukraine officials. Full Story | Top |
| NATO suspends cooperation with Russia over Ukraine crisis Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:32 PM PDT  By Adrian Croft and Sabine Siebold BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO suspended all practical cooperation with Russia on Tuesday in protest at its annexation of Crimea, and ordered military planners to draft measures to strengthen its defenses and reassure nervous Eastern European countries. Foreign ministers from the 28-nation, U.S.-led alliance were meeting for the first time since the Russian occupation of Ukraine's Crimea region touched off the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia's actions meant there could be no "business as usual". "So today, we are suspending all practical cooperation with Russia, military and civilian," he told a news conference. Full Story | Top |
| Proposed release of Israeli spy raises U.S. spies' ire Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:29 PM PDT  By Mark Hosenball, Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. proposal to consider freeing a jailed Israeli spy caught many American intelligence officials off-guard and will face stiff opposition if the Obama administration decides to go ahead with it in a bid to salvage Middle East peace talks, officials said. Negotiations over the fate of Jonathan Pollard, a former naval intelligence analyst serving a life sentence for espionage, have stoked deep concern in the ranks of U.S. spy services already reeling from leaks orchestrated by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Senior lawmakers, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, staked out positions on Tuesday equally hostile to the idea, which started taking shape this week in talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Full Story | Top |
| SEC chair discusses probes into high-speed trading Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:13 PM PDT  By Sarah N. Lynch and Karen Freifeld WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has several active investigations into possible wrongdoing by high-frequency stock traders and other equity market structure issues, SEC Chair Mary Jo White said Tuesday. "We currently have... a number of ongoing investigations regarding various market integrity and structure issues, including high-frequency traders and automated trading," White told a U.S. House of Representatives appropriations panel. "We are very much focused on any abuses in that space." On Monday, the FBI confirmed it has been conducting a wide-ranging probe into high-speed trading for months, an outgrowth from the years-long crackdown on insider-trading. An FBI spokesman who did not wish to be named said Monday night that the bureau was investigating whether high-frequency traders are front-running others' trades by getting to exchanges first. Full Story | Top |
| GSK's ViiV unit adds new HIV drug to AIDS patent pool Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:10 PM PDT GlaxoSmithKline's AIDS drugs business is to add one of its latest HIV medicines to a patent pool - cutting its future price for developing countries and pooling intellectual property rights. ViiV Healthcare, which is majority owned by the British drugmaker, said the agreement covered dolutegravir, a new antiretroviral medicine, for use in both adults and children with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. The move is a further victory for the new Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), which is trying to convince major drugmakers around the world to share rights to important medicines for developing countries with makers of cheap generic drugs. Full Story | Top |
| Washington mudslide survivors envision shrine at disaster site Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:07 PM PDT By Jonathan Kaminsky and Eric M. Johnson DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - Survivors of a mudslide that virtually erased a community in Washington state and left dozens dead or missing have begun to contemplate the future of the disaster site, with many saying it should be left as a shrine once the bulldozers and excavators leave. As stagnant pools of muddy water receded further during a second straight sunny day on Tuesday, recovery teams pressed on with their search for victims of the March 22 slide, triggered when a rain-soaked hillside caved in above the north fork of the Stillaguamish River. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office said 19 of the confirmed fatalities have now been identified, including a 4-month-old girl and two other children aged 5 and 6. Ruth Hargrave, 67, whose neighbors are among the dead and missing, said she could not imagine rebuilding the beloved riverside vacation house that was in the path of the slide. Full Story | Top |
| East Libyan rebels to end oil port blockage within days: senior leader Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:03 PM PDT  By Feras Bosalum and Ulf Laessing TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A rebel group in eastern Libya has agreed with the government to end its seizure of vital oil ports within days, a senior leader told Reuters on Tuesday, raising hopes for an end to an eight-month stalemate that has dried up state income and fuelled chaos. The oil conflict is just one aspect of the turmoil in the OPEC producer where the weak central government is unable to control militias that helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but refuse to disarm and are trying to grab a share of power or oil wealth. The government had earlier met a rebel demand by releasing three of its fighters who had boarded the tanker at Es Sider, one of three ports seized by the group in August to press for autonomy and a greater share of oil wealth. "We agreed on all issues with the government in Tripoli." A government delegation would visit the group's home base Ajdabiya in eastern Libya within two days to hammer out the details, he told Reuters by phone. Full Story | Top |
| Two U.S. hackers admit to international cyber crime in New Jersey court Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:02 PM PDT  By David Jones NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Two American men said to belong to an international cyber crime ring admitted hacking into accounts at banks, brokerage firms and government agencies in an attempt to steal some $15 million, New Jersey authorities said on Tuesday. The two were part of a scheme to "cash out" bank accounts and pre-paid debit cards opened in the names of others, said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in a statement. Robert Dubuc, 40, of Malden, Massachusetts, and Oleg Pidtergerya, 49, of Brooklyn, New York, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to commit access device fraud and identity theft before U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan in Trenton federal court, Fishman said. The cyber crime organization was allegedly led by Oleksiy Sharapka and Leonid Yanovitsky of Kiev, Ukraine, he said. Full Story | Top |
| FDA defends generic drug label proposal at U.S. House hearing Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 04:00 PM PDT (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday defended its proposal to require generic drugmakers to update the prescribing information on their products if they become aware of new safety information, a move the industry says will open them to product liability lawsuits and raise drug costs. Speaking at a hearing before a U.S. House of Representatives health subcommittee, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA's top pharmaceuticals official, said the move is needed to "create parity" between branded and generic drug makers regarding labeling changes. Generic drugmakers are not currently allowed to alter the labels on their products without prior agency approval since generic drugs are supposed to be the same as their brand name counterparts, from the active ingredient to dose strength to the information on the label. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela troops block opposition leader from parliament Tuesday, Apr 01, 2014 03:49 PM PDT  By Deisy Buitrago CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan troops dispersed opposition demonstrators with tear gas on Tuesday and blocked anti-government activist Maria Corina Machado, recently stripped of her seat in the National Assembly, from reaching the legislature. National Guard soldiers surrounded a rally of opposition sympathizers who had planned to march into downtown Caracas to protest at Machado's expulsion from Congress, preventing them from leaving and clearing the square with tear gas. Parliament stripped Machado of her post last week on charges she violated the constitution by accepting an invitation from Panama to speak against the government of President Nicolas Maduro at a meeting of the Organization of American States. The opposition leader dismissed that process as an illegal maneuver by a dictatorial government and vowed to attend a session of the legislature on Tuesday. Full Story | Top |
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