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| Japan PM Abe wants to confirm further cooperation with Australia Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 08:57 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he wants to confirm further cooperation on defense and the economy with Australian premier Tony Abbott, who is visiting Tokyo. Japanese media reported that Abe and Abbott will announce the basic bilateral agreement later in the day, featuring cuts to Tokyo's tariffs on Australian beef and Canberra ending its duty on cars. Abe also said during a meeting with fellow ruling party members that he will exchange views on issues over the economy, North Korea, and defense with U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| India kicks off world's biggest election in remote northeast Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 08:49 PM PDT  By Shyamantha Asokan DIBRUGARGH, India (Reuters) - The first Indians cast their votes in the world's biggest election on Monday with Hindu nationalist opposition candidate Narendra Modi seen holding a strong lead on promises of economic revival and jobs but likely to fall short of a majority. The CSDS poll found that almost half of voters in Assam, who have one of the country's lowest per capita incomes and often still rely on the center-left Congress' welfare schemes, are set to support the party. Full Story | Top |
| Costa Rica leftist easily wins presidential run-off Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 08:29 PM PDT  By Alexandra Alper SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - A center-left academic who has never held elected office easily won Costa Rica's presidential election on Sunday, ousting the graft-stained ruling party from power after its candidate quit campaigning a month ago. Former diplomat Luis Guillermo Solis, of the Citizen Action Party (PAC), won more than three-quarters of votes by tapping in to public anger at rising inequality and government corruption scandals. In a bizarre twist, his rival Johnny Araya of the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) announced last month he was halting his campaign as polls showed him with little or no chance of catching Solis. Solis had 77.88 percent of the vote with returns in from 94 percent of polling booths, Costa Rica's election tribunal said. Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: India's mammoth general election Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 08:12 PM PDT (Reuters) - The biggest election the world has ever seen begins in India on Monday in two remote backwater states, with the country looking increasingly likely to embrace a coalition led by a Hindu nationalist to jumpstart a flagging economy. Here key highlights: - Roughly 814.5 million people are registered to vote, an increase of more than 100 million since the last parliamentary election in 2009. In other words, India has added a population greater than that of the Philipines to its voter rolls in five years. - Election dates in parliamentary constituencies were set taking into consideration extreme summer heat, monsoon rains, harvest seasons, religious festivals and most importantly, school exams. Full Story | Top |
| Man and myth collide as India's Modi eyes final ascent to power Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 08:09 PM PDT  By Sanjeev Miglani VADNAGAR, India (Reuters) - Narendra Modi spent his childhood in a modest three-room dwelling made of mud and brick nestled in a narrow, crowded lane in the western Indian town of Vadnagar. Fast forward nearly 60 years and Modi stands on the cusp of leading the world's biggest democracy, after an election beginning on Monday that looks set to make his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the country's biggest. One of the defining moments of Modi's career was in 2002, shortly after he became Gujarat's chief minister, when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were slaughtered in mob violence. But suspicion lingers, particularly within India's sizeable Muslim minority, many of whom fear a rise in communal tensions. Full Story | Top |
| World Bank trims China, East Asia 2014 growth forecasts Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 08:04 PM PDT  By Masayuki Kitano SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The World Bank trimmed its 2014 growth forecast for developing East Asia but said the region's economies were likely to see steady growth in the next couple of years, helped by a pick-up in global growth and trade. The Washington-based development bank expects the developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region to grow 7.1 percent in 2014 and 2015, down from the 7.2 percent rate it had previously forecast for both years. Growth in 2016 is also seen at 7.1 percent, staying slightly below the 2013 growth rate of 7.2 percent. "Stronger global growth will help most developing East Asia Pacific (EAP) countries grow at a steady pace while they adjust to tighter global financial conditions," the World Bank said in its latest East Asia Pacific Economic Update report. Full Story | Top |
| Japan tech shares slip; others relieved at U.S. jobs Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 07:58 PM PDT  The Nikkei retreated 1.3 percent, led by weakness in technology stocks following a similar fall on Wall Street. Index heavyweight Softbank led the way with a fall of 4 percent in sizable turnover. SoftBank shares have become very sensitive to moves in U.S. tech stocks ahead of Alibaba's IPO, which is expected to become one of the largest offerings in history. SoftBank holds around a 37 percent stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant. Full Story | Top |
| Costa Rica leftist takes huge lead in presidential run-off Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 07:31 PM PDT  SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Center-left academic Luis Guillermo Solis took an overwhelming lead in Costa Rica's presidential election run-off on Sunday, official results showed, storming ahead as widely expected after his opponent slid in polls and stopped campaigning. Solis, a former diplomat who ran on a popular anti-corruption message but who has never been elected to office, had 77.69 percent of the vote with 77.61 percent of polling booths counted, Costa Rica's election tribunal said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Quebec separatist party under threat in Monday election Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 07:12 PM PDT  By Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) - A month ago, Monday's election in Quebec seemed like such a good idea to the ruling Parti Quebecois, the largest separatist party in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province. Premier Pauline Marois and her minority government hoped to take advantage of a comfortable lead in the polls to capture a majority of seats in the provincial legislature. That would enable them to push through a provincial charter on secularism and possibly set the stage for a new referendum on whether the province should leave Canada. But the strategy has backfired and, after a surge in support for the opposition Liberals, the PQ government now risks being kicked out altogether in the provincial election. Full Story | Top |
| Defense chief Hagel, in first, to visit China's aircraft carrier Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 06:01 PM PDT  By Phil Stewart TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expects to visit China's sole aircraft carrier when he arrives in the country on Monday, a U.S. official said, in an unprecedented opening by Beijing to a potent symbol of its military buildup. The official believed Hagel would be the first official visitor from outside China to be allowed on board the Liaoning, although that could not be immediately confirmed. The planned carrier visit, which will come at the start of Hagel's three-day trip to China, was quietly approved by Beijing at Washington's request and had not been previously announced, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Full Story | Top |
| Cuba says U.S. created other 'Cuban Twitter' projects Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 05:43 PM PDT  By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba said on Sunday the United States continues to use social media to "subvert" the island's government and that the revelation this week of a U.S.-created, Twitter-like service for Cuba was just one of several examples. The U.S. government has admitted it created a social media network called ZunZuneo, which takes its name from Cuban slang for the tweet of a hummingbird. The program, built by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) using shell companies to hide U.S. government involvement, went dark in 2012 due to a lack of funds. U.S. officials confirmed it on Thursday, calling ZunZuneo a "democracy promotion" program that was neither "secret" nor "covert" under the U.S. government's definitions of those terms. Full Story | Top |
| Search planes, ships divert to Indian Ocean area where 'pings' detected Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:58 PM PDT  By Jane Wardell and Swati Pandey SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - Some planes and ships searching for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner in the Indian Ocean moved on Monday toward waters where a Chinese vessel had picked up "ping" signals at the weekend, raising hopes of finding the airliner's black-box recorders. "We are running out of time in terms of terms of the battery life," Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, told a news conference in Perth on Sunday. Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 reported receiving a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5 kHz, consistent with the signal emitted by flight recorders, on Friday and again on Saturday. The pulses were detected within two km (1.2 miles) of each other but were hundreds of nautical miles outside the main search zone in the southern Indian Ocean which has been scoured by planes and aircraft for more than a week. Full Story | Top |
| Smooth Afghan poll raises questions about Taliban strength Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:39 PM PDT  By John Chalmers and Maria Golovnina KABUL (Reuters) - A bigger-than-expected turnout in Afghanistan's presidential election and the Taliban's failure to derail the vote have raised questions about the capacity of the insurgents to tip the country back into chaos as foreign troops head home. The Taliban claimed that they staged more than 1,000 attacks and killed dozens during Saturday's election, which they have branded a U.S.-backed deception of the Afghan people, though security officials said it was a gross exaggeration. There were dozens of minor roadside bombs, and attacks on polling stations, police and voters during the day. But the overall level of violence was much lower than the Taliban had threatened to unleash on the country. Full Story | Top |
| Hungary re-elects maverick PM, far-right opposition gains Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:37 PM PDT  By Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarians handed their maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban another four years in power, election results showed on Monday, while one in every five voters backed a far-right opposition party accused of anti-Semitism. Orban has clashed repeatedly with the European Union and foreign investors over his unorthodox policies, and after Sunday's win, big businesses were bracing for another term of unpredictable and, for some of them, hostile measures. After 96 percent of the ballots were counted from Sunday's parliamentary vote, an official projection gave Orban's Fidesz party 133 of the 199 seats, guaranteeing that it will form the next government. The same projection gave the Socialist-led leftist alliance 38 seats, while Jobbik was on 23 seats. Full Story | Top |
| Libyan rebels, government agree to gradually reopen occupied oil ports Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:25 PM PDT By Ulf Laessing and Ayman al-Warfalli TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan rebels occupying four eastern oil ports agreed with the government on Sunday to gradually end their eight-month petroleum blockade, which has cost the North African state billions in lost revenues. Zueitina and Hariga ports, held by federalist rebels demanding more autonomy from Tripoli, will open immediately while the larger ports, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, will be freed in two to four weeks after more talks, the government said. Ending the oil port standoff will be a major advance for Libya's fragile government, which has struggled to impose its authority over an unruly nation still in flux nearly three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Top rebel leader Ibrahim Jathran confirmed the blockage of Zueitina and Hariga ports had ended. Full Story | Top |
| Drugmaker GSK investigates alleged bribery in Iraq Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:24 PM PDT  By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, already facing corruption accusations in China, is now investigating allegations of bribery in Iraq, the British company said on Sunday. The latest controversy centers on claims that the company hired government-employed physicians and pharmacists in Iraq as paid sales representatives to improperly boost use of its products. "We are investigating allegations of improper conduct in our Iraq business. We have zero tolerance for unethical or illegal behavior," a company spokesman said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. lawmaker urges easing gun rules on bases after Fort Hood shooting Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:22 PM PDT By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers should look at arming commanders and easing restrictions for carrying weapons on military posts in the United States in the wake of a deadly shooting at the Fort Hood base in Texas, a prominent congressman said on Sunday. The remarks came as the Fort Hood Army base set up a mental health hotline over the weekend for those who carry emotional scars or feel traumatized after suspected gunman Ivan Lopez, 34 and under psychiatric evaluation, shot dead three people, wounded 16 and then turned the gun on himself in the second deadly rampage at the post in five years. They defend us overseas and abroad and defend our freedom abroad," U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas and chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told Fox News Sunday. The shooting at Fort Hood was the third such incident at a military base in the United States in about six months. Full Story | Top |
| Pro-Russia protesters seize Ukraine buildings, Kiev blames Putin Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:18 PM PDT  By Lina Kushch and Thomas Grove DONETSK/KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian protesters seized state buildings in three east Ukrainian cities on Sunday, triggering accusations from the pro-European government in Kiev that President Vladimir Putin was orchestrating "separatist disorder". The protesters stormed regional government buildings in the industrial hub of Donetsk and security service offices in nearby Luhansk, waving Russian flags and demanding a Crimea-style referendum on joining Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Czech leader says NATO could offer troops to Ukraine if Russia goes beyond Crimea Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:18 PM PDT The West should take strong action, possibly including sending NATO forces to Ukraine, if Russia tries to annex the eastern part of the country, Czech President Milos Zeman said on Sunday. "The moment Russia decides to widen its territorial expansion to the eastern part of Ukraine, that is where the fun ends," Zeman said in a broadcast on Czech public radio. "There I would plead not only for the strictest EU sanctions, but even for military readiness of the North Atlantic Alliance, like for example NATO forces entering Ukrainian territory," Zeman said. Pro-Russian protesters seized state buildings in three east Ukrainian cities on Sunday, triggering accusations from the pro-European government in Kiev that President Vladimir Putin was orchestrating "separatist disorder". Full Story | Top |
| Risk appetite among UK-based companies hits record high, survey shows Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:05 PM PDT  Risk appetite among chief financial officers has risen in the first quarter of 2014 to its highest level since 2007, when the survey by Deloitte was launched, hitting 71 percent - double its level of a year ago. The survey of 126 CFOs, many of them from large companies, showed there has been a big drop in uncertainty about the economy along with an improvement in financial conditions. Full Story | Top |
| Global ad spend to pass pre-financial crisis peak: Zenith Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 04:02 PM PDT Global advertising spending will grow over the next three years at levels not seen since the start of the financial crisis, leading media buyer ZenithOptimedia said on Monday. For this year, spending will be boosted by key events such as the soccer World Cup, the Winter Olympics and the U.S. mid-term elections, the three major events seen raising revenues at the world's largest advertising groups such as Martin Sorrell's WPP, Omnicom and Publicis. According to Zenith, ad rates in 2006 grew 6.4 percent, 6.5 percent in 2007 and by 0.3 percent in 2008. Zenith said the total amount of media spend will reach up to $537 billion at the end of 2014, driven by an improved global economic outlook and the rapid rise of mobile advertising. Full Story | Top |
| Ghana testing blood samples of suspected Ebola case: official Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 03:49 PM PDT By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA (Reuters) - Health authorities in Ghana are testing blood samples from a 12-year-old girl who died of a viral fever with bleeding in the country's first suspected case of Ebola, officials said on Sunday. More than 90 people have died of Ebola in Guinea and Liberia and there is a reported case in Mali. Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres has warned of an unprecedented epidemic in an impoverished region with weak health services. Samples from the girl were taken from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana's second-largest city, to a medical research center in the capital Accra, Dennis Laryea, head of public health at the teaching hospital, told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Jeb Bush says illegal immigration often 'an act of love' Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 03:46 PM PDT  By Peter Cooney WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jeb Bush, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, said on Sunday that illegal immigrants who come to the United States to provide for their families are not committing a felony but an "act of love." In comments at odds with the views of many in his party, Bush, the son of the 41st president and brother of the 43rd, said of the divisive immigration issue: "I think we need to kind of get beyond the harsh political rhetoric to a better place. "I'm going to say this and it will be on tape and so be it," Bush said in an interview with Fox News host Shannon Bream in an event at the Texas presidential library of his father, George H.W. Bush. Full Story | Top |
| El Salvador president-elect plans 'routine' health check-up abroad Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 03:23 PM PDT  El Salvador's president-elect, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, said on Sunday he will travel abroad for a "routine" medical check-up ahead of assuming the presidency in June, and said he did not have any serious illness. The 69-year-old Sanchez Ceren, a former Marxist rebel commander from the ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, became the next president of the small coffee-exporting Central American nation last month. "These are routine check-ups and it's not that I have any serious illness." Sanchez Ceren is set to take office on June 1. Full Story | Top |
| Group of Libyan lawmakers plan to sack parliamentary president Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 03:02 PM PDT By Ahmed Elumami and Feras Bosalum TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Some 30 Libyan lawmakers plan to remove parliamentary president Nouri Abu Sahmain, the country's top official, over a leaked video in which he was grilled by an unknown questioner over a visit by two women to his house, one of them said on Sunday. A week ago, Libya's Attorney General said it had launched an investigation into the video, which has been widely circulated on the country's news websites. The lawmakers' action has the potential to damage Abu Sahmain, who is the top army commander and has quasi-presidential powers, or force him even to resign at a time of growing turmoil in the oil-producing North African country. Lawmaker Abu Bakr Madur told a televised news conference while surrounded by colleagues that Abu Sahmain had lost the trust of the Libyan people and lied about the visit. Full Story | Top |
| Hungary's Jobbik is EU's strongest national radical party: leader Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 02:57 PM PDT Hungary's far-right Jobbik party is now the strongest national radical party in the European Union, Jobbik leader Gabor Vona said on Sunday after his party got close to 21 percent of party list votes in an election, according to preliminary results. "Jobbik continuously ... increases its popularity...And ahead of the European Parliament elections it is important to make clear that today in the EU Jobbik is the strongest national radical party," he added. Full Story | Top |
| Victims of U.S. mudslide are remembered in first funeral services Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 02:56 PM PDT  By Jonathan Kaminsky ARLINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - A school custodian killed in Washington state's mudslide was described as a tough-minded animal lover on Saturday and a popular librarian was memorialized, as mourners gathered in the first of a series of services for the over two dozen dead. About 250 people crammed into a golf course clubhouse in Arlington, Washington, for the funeral of Summer Raffo, 36, a school custodian and specialist in hoof care for horses, just a few miles from the site where a torrent of mud swept her car off Highway 530 on March 22. She was dependable." Another service was held in nearby Darrington for Linda McPherson, 69, who was found dead in the debris of her home. Full Story | Top |
| Car bomb explodes in Bahrain capital, F1 race unaffected Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 02:36 PM PDT By Farishta Saeed MANAMA (Reuters) - A home-made bomb exploded in a car in the center of the Bahraini capital Manama on Sunday, the interior ministry said, as the kingdom hosted a Formula One motor racing Grand Prix. Police blocked off the road where the incident took place near a government security building. Small bomb blasts occur sporadically in the U.S.-allied kingdom, which has witnessed low-level political unrest since 2011, when protests mainly by the Shi'ite Muslim community erupted to demand democratic reforms in the Sunni-led government. The government sees the Bahrain Grand Prix as a way to raise Bahrain's international profile and attract tourists and foreign investment. Full Story | Top |
| UPDATE 2-Car bomb explodes in Bahrain capital, F1 race unaffected Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 02:35 PM PDT (Adds Ministry of Interior comment) By Farishta Saeed MANAMA, April 6 (Reuters) - A home-made bomb exploded in a car in the centre of the Bahraini capital Manama on Sunday, the interior ministry said, as the kingdom hosted a Formula One motor racing Grand Prix. Police blocked off the road where the incident took place near a government security building. Small bomb blasts occur sporadically in the U.S.-allied kingdom, which has witnessed low-level political unrest since 2011, when protests mainly by the Shi'ite Muslim community erupted to demand democratic reforms in the Sunni-led government. But unrest in the run-up to the race, staged about 30 km (20 miles) south of Manama at the Sakhir desert circuit, was markedly lower than in the past two years, apparently due to a more effective security clampdown on Shi'ite villages. Full Story | Top |
| Hungarian PM Orban declares victory in election Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 02:33 PM PDT BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared victory in elections on Sunday, saying the vote showed that Hungary was the most united nation in Europe. Orban said the result was confirmation of his government's policies to create jobs, support families and fight for national sovereignty. "This was not just any odd victory. We have scored such a comprehensive victory, the significance of which we cannot yet fully grasp tonight," Orban told a jubilant crowd at his Fidesz party's election headquarters. He said voters said no to hatred and no to leaving the European ... Full Story | Top |
| India's drug inspectors hard-pressed to scrutinize factories Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 02:11 PM PDT By Zeba Siddiqui and Sumeet Chatterjee MUMBAI (Reuters) - An Indian drugs regulator is among the first to admit that oversight of the nation's huge pharmaceutical industry can be patchy. G.L. Singhal, chief regulator of northern Haryana state, a drugs manufacturing hub, says he needs double the number of inspectors if he is to properly scrutinize factories there. Inspectors are so overburdened, and their nature of duty is very serious," Singhal told Reuters. There are just 1,500 drug inspectors responsible for more than 10,000 factories in India, where one in every 22 locally made samples was of sub-standard quality according to a study carried out two years ago. Full Story | Top |
| Navy picks up U.S. family with sick baby from sailboat in Pacific Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 01:21 PM PDT Rescuers plucked a seriously ill American baby girl and her family from a sailboat in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday and transferred them to a U.S. Navy frigate that will take them back to California, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The family was put into an inflatable raft then helped aboard the USS Vandegrift, which arrived early on Sunday to rescue them from their crippled sailboat about 1,000 miles off Mexico's Pacific coast, the Coast Guard said. The San Diego family had been two weeks into a cruise around the world on a 36-foot (11-meter) vessel called the Rebel Heart when the youngest child developed a fever and rash, prompting her parents to send a satellite distress call to the Coast Guard on Thursday. Eric and Charlotte Kaufman and their daughters, Cora, 3, and Lyra, 1, were in stable condition and would undergo further medical evaluations, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Hungary's ruling party declares victory based on early results Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 01:03 PM PDT  Hungary's ruling Fidesz party will have a majority in the next parliament based on the early results of Sunday's election, Fidesz lawmaker Gergely Gulyas told public television. "We do not see the precise scale of our election victory just yet, however, it is certain that the Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance will have more than 100 seats in the next, smaller 199 member parliament." (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Full Story | Top |
| Costa Rica leftist seen winning one-horse presidential run-off Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 12:50 PM PDT  By Alexandra Alper SAN JOSE (Reuters) - A center-left academic with a popular anti-corruption message but who has never been elected to office is expected to win Costa Rica's presidential election run-off on Sunday after his opponent slid in polls and stopped campaigning. Luis Guillermo Solis, a former diplomat, rode a wave of anti-government sentiment over rising inequality and graft scandals to finish ahead in February's first-round vote, surprising pollsters who had placed him fourth. Facing a depleted war chest, rival Johnny Araya of the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) quit campaigning after an opinion poll showed him trailing badly. Solis has promised to fight Costa Rica's stubborn poverty while stamping out corruption, an issue that has dogged incumbent President Laura Chinchilla's administration. Full Story | Top |
| Libyan rebels to reopen two eastern oil ports on Sunday Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 12:37 PM PDT BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan rebels will reopen the seized eastern oil ports of Zueitina and Hariga on Sunday after reaching an agreement with the government, according to a copy of the deal. The government will pay financial compensation to the rebel fighters, drop charges against them and remove its threat of a military offensive, the agreement, signed by the country's justice minister and rebel leader Ibrahim Jathran, said. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Full Story | Top |
| More than 100 arrested as California street party turns violent Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 12:36 PM PDT (Reuters) - More than 100 people were arrested when an annual spring break party in California turned violent, with police using chemical spray and foam bullets to disperse crowds, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office said on Sunday. More than 40 people, including several law enforcement officers, were taken to hospitals for treatment after clashes broke out between partygoers and police during the annual "Deltopia" street party in Isla Vista, about 11 miles south of Santa Barbara. The party draws up to 15,000 people every year, mainly college students from the nearby University of California at Santa Barbara, officials said. The melee erupted Saturday evening after a university police officer was hit in the head with a backpack filled with large bottles of liquor, the sheriff's office said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| India to kick off world's biggest election in remote northeast Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 12:35 PM PDT  By Shyamantha Asokan LAHOAL, India (Reuters) - Indians start voting in the world's biggest ever election on Monday, with a Hindu nationalist opposition party that has promised economic rejuvenation and jobs tipped to emerge as the clear leader but likely to fall short of an absolute majority. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, and its allies are forecast to win the biggest chunk of seats but fall shy of a majority, according to a poll released this week by respected Indian pollsters CSDS. In such a situation, a coalition government led by the BJP is seen as the most likely outcome. India's 815 million voters are set to inflict a resounding defeat on the ruling Congress party, led by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, surveys show, after the longest economic slowdown since the 1980s put the brakes on development and job creation in a country where half of the population is under 25 years old. Full Story | Top |
| Pro-Russia protesters seize third state building in eastern Ukraine: Ifax Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 12:03 PM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Protesters waving Russian flags seized the regional administrative building in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the third state premises in eastern Ukraine to be occupied by pro-Russian demonstrators on Sunday, Interfax reported. Earlier in the day, similar groups had seized the regional administrative building in Donetsk and the offices of the state security services in Luhansk, demanding that regional lawmakers carry out a referendum on joining Russia. Ukraine accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating the seizures. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blast kills at least 29 Syrian rebels in Homs: monitoring group Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 12:02 PM PDT At least 29 Syrian rebels including two field commanders were killed when a vehicle exploded in the central city of Homs on Sunday, a monitoring group said. To the south, the capital Damascus saw heavy fighting as warplanes pounded an eastern suburb and a mortar strike hit the city's heavily defended center, killing two people at the Damascus Opera House. President Bashar al-Assad's forces are in firm control of the capital's center, but rebels have been able to launch mortar and rocket attacks into downtown districts, sometimes hitting heavily secured upmarket areas and embassy grounds. The explosion in Homs was at the al-Jaj market near a police base, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the death toll was expected to rise. Full Story | Top |
| Libya's government, rebels agree to reopen two occupied oil ports: minister Sunday, Apr 06, 2014 11:56 AM PDT Libya's government has reached a deal with federalist rebels to reopen the occupied Zueitina and Hariga oil ports, which account for around 200,000 barrels per day of crude exports, the justice minister said on Sunday. The reopening of two terminals will be a major breakthrough in the eight-month blockade of key ports by rebels that has cost the OPEC country billions of dollars in lost oil revenues. But a spokesman for rebels holding the two remaining larger ports -- Ras Lanuf and Es Sider -- said more talks are needed to reach a deal on reopening those terminals. The rebels want more regional autonomy and a greater share of Libya's oil wealth. Full Story | Top |
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