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| South Korea says likely North drone flew over Seoul's presidential palace Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 09:12 PM PDT SEOUL (Reuters) - A drone found last week while probably returning to North Korea had flown over the presidential palace in the South before crashing near the border, but would not have been able to carry a bomb, an official said on Thursday. The drone was the first of two unmanned aircraft found in a span of a week, with the second found soon after a three-hour artillery barrage between the neighbors in waters near a disputed maritime border. ... Full Story | Top |
| Christie-led governor's group raises $23.5 million in Q1 2014 Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 09:02 PM PDT By Gabriel Debenedetti WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Governors Association, the group led by embattled New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, raised $23.5 million in the first quarter of 2014, it will announce Thursday morning. The haul is more than twice the group's previous first-quarter record of $9.1 million raised in 2010, when then-Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, also famous for being an effective fundraiser, was in charge. "RGA's strong financial position will give us the resources to push back against the public sector unions and the White House," Executive Director Phil Cox says in the press release. Full Story | Top |
| Haitian government announces major cabinet reshuffle Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:40 PM PDT  By Amelie Baron PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti's prime minister announced a new cabinet, drafting in 10 new ministers in a major reshuffle designed to build political support amid controversial negotiations over long overdue parliamentary and municipal polls. The reshuffle, announced via social media website Twitter, involved almost half the 22-member cabinet. For the third time since taking office two years ago Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe chose a new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Duly Brutus, who has been Haiti's ambassador to the Organization of Americas States in Washington for the last decade. The Secretary of State for Public Security, Reginald Delva, was also promoted to head the important Ministry of the Interior in charge of domestic security. Full Story | Top |
| Former China mining boss denies charge of leading gang Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:36 PM PDT  A former Chinese mining magnate with suspected links to the eldest son of retired security tsar Zhou Yongkang has denied leading a 36-member gang on a crime spree of murder and gun-running over the past two decades. Liu Han, the former chairman of unlisted Hanlong Group and once ranked the 230th richest person in China, went on trial on Monday in central Hubei province along with the other members of his "mafia-style" gang. The probe marks one of the highest-profile cases against a private businessman since President Xi Jinping took power last year, vowing to crack down on corruption. Liu, who was arrested last year, faces charges ranging from extortion and murder to gun-running, carried out in southwestern Sichuan province. Full Story | Top |
| Strong 7.8 magnitude quake hits off northern Chile: USGS Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:16 PM PDT (Reuters) - A strong 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off northern Chile late on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake, the largest of a series of aftershocks following a powerful and deadly 8.2 magnitude quake that hit a day earlier, was located 12 miles south of the port of Iquique at a relatively shallow depth of 12.4 miles, the USGS said. It was earlier reported as a 7.4 magnitude quake. Chile's emergency office said it ordered a preventative evacuation of the coastal area. Full Story | Top |
| Shooter kills three, wounds 16 at Fort Hood base in Texas: commander Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:11 PM PDT AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A soldier suffering from mental health issues killed three people and wounded 16 others at the Fort Hood U.S. Army base in central Texas on Wednesday before turning a gun on himself and committing suicide, the base's commander said. Lieutenant General Mark Milley declined to identify the shooter and said there were no indications that the incident was linked to terrorism. (Writing by Jon Herskovitz; editing by Paul Thomasch) Full Story | Top |
| Soldier kills three, wounds 16 before taking own life at Texas Army base Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:09 PM PDT  By Lisa Maria Garza FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier shot dead three people and injured at least 16 on Wednesday before taking his own life at an Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, the site of another deadly rampage in 2009, U.S. officials said. The soldier, who was being treated for mental health problems, drove to two buildings on the base and opened fire before he was stopped by military police, in an incident that lasted between 15 and 20 minutes, Fort Hood commanding officer Mark Milley said. Security officials said preliminary information identified the gunman as Ivan Lopez, and the shooting was not linked to terrorism. U.S. President Barack Obama said he was "heartbroken" that another shooting had occurred at the Fort Hood Army base and described the situation there as fluid. Full Story | Top |
| Armed men abduct Chinese, Philippine women from Malaysia resort: reports Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:52 PM PDT A Chinese tourist and a Philippine hotel worker were abducted by armed men at a diving resort in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah, Malaysian media reported on Thursday. The two abducted women were at the resort's jetty on Wednesday night when the men arrived by boat, Malaysia's New Straits Times newspaper cited Eastern Sabah Security Command Director Mohammad Mentek as saying. An employee at the Singamata Reef Resort, contacted by Reuters, confirmed an abduction had taken place, but declined to provide details. The report comes at a time when Malaysia's image has been tarnished in China by negative publicity over its handling of the March 8 disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people aboard, most of them Chinese nationals. Full Story | Top |
| Carney says interest rates may rise ahead of election - report Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:46 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Interest rates could increase ahead of the next general election, the Bank of England Governor told The Northern Echo, but he wants to see more jobs created in the North-East before he will intervene. Mark Carney warned bankers they need to be more professional to repair their shattered public image, according to the North East England-based regional daily. We also need to improve infrastructure, both in how markets are organised and the codes of conduct behind markets." The Governor told the Northern Echo that interest rates rises would be "gradual" even though Britain's economy is growing faster than any of the world's developed nations. It has to include the North-East," the Governor told Northern Echo in an interview. Full Story | Top |
| Chile assesses damage after massive quake, tsunami Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:44 PM PDT  By Anthony Esposito and Rosalba O'Brien SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean authorities on Wednesday were assessing the damage from a massive earthquake that struck off the northern coast, causing a small tsunami, but the impact appeared to be mostly limited. The 8.2 magnitude quake that shook northern Chile on Tuesday killed six people and triggered a tsunami with 2-meter (7-foot) waves. More than 2,600 homes were damaged and fishing boats along the northern coast were smashed up. The arid, mineral-rich north is sparsely populated, with most of the population concentrated in the port towns of Iquique and Arica, near the Peruvian border. Full Story | Top |
| No 'terror connection' seen so far in Fort Hood attack: U.S. official Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:32 PM PDT The U.S. military has not gotten any indication so far that a shooting at an American military base on Wednesday was linked to a "terror" plot, a U.S. defense official said. "So far we've seen no terror connection," the official said on condition of anonymity. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia PM visits search base for missing jet; sub joins hunt Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:31 PM PDT  By Swati Pandey and Niluksi Koswanage PERTH/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's prime minister visited the Australian search base for missing Flight MH370 on Thursday as a nuclear-powered submarine joined the near-four week hunt that has so far failed to find any sign of the missing airliner and the 239 people on board. Najib Razak joined his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott at RAAF Base Pearce, near Perth, where aircrews from seven countries have been flying dozens of missions deep into the southern Indian Ocean looking for debris from the Malaysia Airlines jet. It was briefly picked up on military radar on the other side of Malaysia and analysis of subsequent hourly electronic "pings" sent to a satellite led investigators to conclude the plane crashed far off the west Australian coast hours later. Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, said an international air crash investigation team with analysts from Malaysia, the United States, Britain, China and Australia was continuing to refine the search area. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Marines aim to move ahead with new combat vehicle Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:27 PM PDT The U.S. Marine Corps aims to kick off a competition for a new wheeled amphibious combat vehicle in coming months, with a formal request for proposals likely to follow in fiscal year 2015, a Marine Corps spokesman said Wednesday. Manny Pacheco, spokesman for the Marine Corps office in charge of land systems said the goal was to buy around 200 wheeled vehicles priced at $3 million to $6 million each under the first phase of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) program. The overall value of the program will depend on the number of vehicles, but the Marines' fiscal 2015 budget request included $977 million in funding for research and development through fiscal 2019. The program will be modest replacement for the tracked Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle that was being developed for the Marines by General Dynamics Corp before its cancellation in 2011 after big cost increases and technical issues. Full Story | Top |
| Reports of deaths at Chinese chemical protest false: state media Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:25 PM PDT  Reports that police killed 15 people and injured more than 300 during protests in southern China on Sunday are false, the website of the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper, reported on Thursday. Only two people were injured during the demonstration against a chemical plant in the southern city of Maoming, the newspaper's investigation found, and no one was killed. Full Story | Top |
| Kent State in Ohio placed on lockdown after shot fired on campus Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:23 PM PDT (Reuters) - Kent State University in northeastern Ohio was put on lockdown on Wednesday night after a man fired a single gun shot into the ground on campus and then fled, a school spokesman said. No one was injured in the incident that occurred shortly after 8 p.m. local time near Bowman Hall, an academic building, Kent State spokesman Eric Mansfield said. Full Story | Top |
| Lockdown ends at Fort Hood base in Texas after shooting Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:22 PM PDT FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - An "all clear" siren rang at Fort Hood in Texas, signaling an end to a lockdown that lasted about four hours at the massive U.S. Army base after a shooting there, a Reuters witness reported. (Reporting by Lisa Maria Garza; Writing Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Full Story | Top |
| Number of missing in Washington mudslide drops to 13, official says Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:22 PM PDT  DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - The number of people missing in the mudslide in Washington state has dropped to 13, down from 20 earlier on Wednesday, incident command spokeswoman Sheri Badger said. The reduction represents a sharp decrease from the days soon after the March 22 mudslide, when at one point authorities had received up to 176 missing person reports related to the disaster. The current death toll stands at 29. (Reporting by Jonathan Kaminsky in Darrington, Washington; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Eric Walsh) Full Story | Top |
| Hoboken, New Jersey, allows lawyer to testify in Christie probes Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 07:21 PM PDT  By Victoria Cavaliere NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Wednesday approved a measure that would allow a city attorney to cooperate with investigators probing claims of political intimidation by aides to Republican Governor Chris Christie, a likely White House contender. The Hoboken City Council voted 7-1 to allow City Attorney Joseph Maraziti to disclose private conversations he had with Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who accuses the Christie administration of withholding federal storm recovery money to pressure her. "This council has been left in the dark, and that is a major concern that I have," said Councilman Michael Russo. "On the other hand, I think it is imperative that the city of Hoboken participate in not only the state investigation but the federal investigation." Zimmer, a Democrat, alleges she was threatened by three top Christie aides who told her Hoboken would not get promised money to clean up from 2012's Superstorm Sandy unless she backed a development project favored by the governor. Full Story | Top |
| Worried about Senate, Obama calls 2014 his last campaign Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:59 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason CHICAGO (Reuters) - On a politically focused trip aimed at revving up his base and raising cash, President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged supporters to help Democrats keep control of the U.S. Senate and declared this year to be his last campaign. Buoyed by good news over his signature healthcare program, Obama touted proposals to raise the minimum wage and spur job creation that have little chance of passage in Congress during a rally with students in Michigan. Later at a fundraiser in Chicago he underscored Democratic worries about their political vulnerabilities in the Senate and House of Representatives in November congressional elections. "Even though I promised Michelle that 2012 was going to be my last campaign, actually this one's my last campaign," Obama, referring to his wife, told a fundraiser at the private home of longtime donors in his hometown of Chicago. Full Story | Top |
| China services activity ticks up in March: HSBC PMI Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:47 PM PDT  Activity in China's services industry rose to a four-month high in March, a private survey showed on Thursday, even as persistent weakness in manufacturing has reinforced fears of a sharper-than-expected economic slowdown. The Markit/HSBC Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) increased to 51.9 in March from February's 51.0, buoyed by strong employment, a second successive rise taking it further above the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction. Earlier, the official services PMI showed a slight dip in the sector's growth in March, to 54.5 from February's 55.0, but activity remained well in expansion territor. "The HSBC China Services PMI suggests a modest improvement of business activities in March, with employment expanding at a faster pace," HSBC chief China economist Hongbin Qu said in a statement accompanying the release. Full Story | Top |
| Seattle man goes to police after getting surprise pot shipments Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:29 PM PDT A Seattle man who became concerned after receiving two surprise packages of marijuana in the mail within a month took the shipment of about half an ounce of plastic-wrapped pot to police, authorities said on Wednesday. When the first package arrived last month, the man threw it in the garbage, Seattle police spokeswoman Detective Renee Witt said. Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to legalize recreational pot in voter initiatives in 2012, and Washington law allows people to possess up to an ounce (28 grams) of marijuana. "Federally it (pot possession) is still considered a crime, so you absolutely cannot under any circumstance send marijuana through the mail," Witt said. Full Story | Top |
| After K-Pop and shopping, drivers' licenses lure Chinese to Korea Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:29 PM PDT  Chinese shoppers already have a seemingly insatiable appetite for South Korean pop music, TV dramas, cosmetics and fashion. Now they're after another must-have item: a driver's license. In China, would-be drivers can wait up to a year for a license and pay double the $420 that one costs in South Korea. At a driving school in the suburbs of Seoul, a buzzing operation which sees some 200 Chinese applicants a month, half of the class listens to a Korean-speaking teacher while the Chinese visitors fix their eyes on a TV screen showing sample questions for written tests in Mandarin. Full Story | Top |
| Guatemalan president eyes drug legalization proposal in late 2014 Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:24 PM PDT  Guatemala could present a plan to legalize production of marijuana and opium poppies towards the end of 2014 as it seeks ways to curb the power of organized crime, President Otto Perez said on Wednesday. Perez, a conservative retired general who broke ranks with the United States by proposing drug legalization shortly after he took office at the start of 2012, has yet to put forward a concrete plan on how it could be done. "The other thing we're exploring ... is the legalization of the poppy plantations on the border with Mexico, so they're controlled and sold for medicinal ends," Perez said. "These two things could be steps taken on a legal basis." Opium poppies are used to make opium, heroin and pharmaceutical drugs such as morphine and codeine. Full Story | Top |
| Russia could achieve Ukraine incursion in 3-5 days Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:19 PM PDT  By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia has massed all the forces it needs on Ukraine's border if it were to decide to carry out an "incursion" into the country, and it could achieve its objective in three to five days, NATO's top military commander said on Wednesday. Calling the situation "incredibly concerning", NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, said NATO had spotted signs of movement by a very small part of the Russian force overnight but had no indication that this was part of a withdrawal to barracks. Russia's seizure and annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region has caused the deepest crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War, leading the United States and Europe to impose sanctions on Moscow. They have said they will strengthen these if Russia moves beyond Crimea into eastern Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. sending 175 Marines to Romania as part of Africa crisis team Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:18 PM PDT By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday it was bolstering the size of its Europe-based African crisis response force to 675 Marines, sending 175 new troops to a Romanian base near the Black Sea at a time of tensions over Russia's annexation of part of Ukraine. The Marines will be part of a team headquartered in Moron, Spain, and primarily meant for operations in Africa, although they can be sent anywhere, a Pentagon spokesman said. The decision to base the additional Marines in Romania was made last year before the current crisis, he said. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed the department was looking at sending a ship to the Black Sea. Full Story | Top |
| New Zealand tops social progress index, world's biggest economies trail Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:15 PM PDT By Astrid Zweynert LONDON, April 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - New Zealand came first in a global index published on Thursday that ranks countries by social and environmental performance rather than economic output in a drive to make social progress a priority for politicians and businesses. The Social Progress Index (SPI) rates 132 countries on more than 50 indicators, including health, sanitation, shelter, personal safety, access to information, sustainability, tolerance and inclusion and access to education. The SPI asks questions such as whether a country can satisfy its people's basic needs and whether it has the infrastructure and capacity to allow its citizens to improve the quality of their lives and reach their full potential. "The index shows that economic growth does not automatically lead to social progress," Michael Green, executive director of the Social Progress Imperative, a non-profit organization that publishes the index, told Thomson Reuters Foundation. Full Story | Top |
| Texas hospital receives four patients from Fort Hood, two more expected Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:09 PM PDT (Reuters) - Four patients ranging from stable to critical condition were transported to a Texas hospital following a shooting at the U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, the hospital said on Wednesday. Two more patients were expected to arrive shortly, Glen Couchman, chief medical officer at Scott & White hospital in Temple, Texas, told reporters. He said that victims suffered single and multiple gunshot wounds, including injuries to the abdomen, chest and neck. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz, editing by Paul Thomasch) Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to let public see how Medicare pays doctors Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:09 PM PDT  The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it will for the first time reveal how much Medicare pays individual doctors for medical services and procedures, including MRIs and CT scans. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will release on April 9 massive amounts of data on more than 880,000 individual doctors and other health professionals in all 50 states who participate in Medicare's Part B fee-for-service program, which covers physician fees and out-patient services. The information, which includes doctors' names and addresses and summaries of their services, had been barred from public release by court injunction for more than 30 years until last May when a federal judge in Miami lifted the ban in response to a motion by Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. The American Medical Association, the flagship lobby group for doctors, had fought against lifting the injunction. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. calls for end to humanitarian curbs in Myanmar's Rakhine Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:05 PM PDT The United States called on Myanmar on Wednesday to lift travel restrictions on U.N. and other humanitarian staff to allow them to resume work in the country's Rakhine State, which has been hit by ethnic and religious violence. The State Department expressed deep concern about what it termed "a humanitarian crisis" in the state and said violent mob attacks on U.N. and non-governmental organization offices had worsened an already troubling situation. "We call on the ... government to rescind travel restrictions and to facilitate the appropriate travel authorizations to the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations so they may resume services to all vulnerable people in Rakhine State," it said. Full Story | Top |
| Flooding may slow search at Washington mudslide site; 29 dead Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:03 PM PDT  By Jonathan Kaminsky DARRINGTON, Washington (Reuters) - Recovery teams raced on Wednesday against a forecast of returning showers in their search for victims of a Washington state mudslide that obliterated a community last month and left dozens dead or missing. The official death toll rose to 29, based on victims' remains received by coroners, from 28 on Tuesday, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's office said. On March 22, a rain-soaked hillside collapsed without warning above the north fork of Stillaguamish River, unleashing a torrent of mud that roared over the river and across state Highway 530, engulfing some three dozen homes on the outskirts of the town of Oso. Search teams were hurrying to make more progress ahead of several days of rain forecast to begin on Thursday, said fire Lieutenant Richard Burke, an on-site spokesman for the recovery operation. Full Story | Top |
| Suicide bomber kills six police at Afghan ministry ahead of vote Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:58 PM PDT  A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside Afghanistan's interior ministry in central Kabul on Wednesday, killing himself and at least six policemen, the latest in a string of attacks ahead of Afghanistan's April 5 presidential election. Taliban insurgents also killed nine civilians including a provincial council candidate in northern Afghanistan, local officials said. Full Story | Top |
| Inspectors re-enter New Mexico nuclear waste site after leak Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:53 PM PDT By Joseph L. Kolb ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - An inspection team ventured into an underground nuclear waste disposal vault in New Mexico on Wednesday to begin an on-site investigation of a radiation leak nearly seven weeks ago that exposed 21 workers and forced a shutdown of the facility. The mission by experts from the company that manages the site marked the first time since the mishap that workers have been sent deep into the salt caverns of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where drums of plutonium-tainted refuse from nuclear weapons factories and laboratories are buried. Located about 25 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the Chihuahuan Desert, the facility is the nation's only permanent repository for the U.S. government's stockpile of nuclear waste, much of it left over from the Cold War era. Although an alarm automatically switched the ventilation system to filtration to keep radiation from spreading, trace amounts of manmade isotopes such as americium-241, a byproduct of nuclear weapons manufacturing, were measured at the surface. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. official says several killed in Fort Hood shooting Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:43 PM PDT HONOLULU (Reuters) - A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that several people appeared to have been killed in the shooting incident at Fort Hood military base in Texas, but he declined to offer specific numbers. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney) Full Story | Top |
| Soccer-Sweden must end hooligan threat: former police chief Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:42 PM PDT By Philip O'Connor STOCKHOLM, April 3 (Reuters) - Football violence in Sweden could drive sponsors away from the game and threatens the sport's long-term future, the country's former national anti-hooliganism coordinator has told Reuters following the death of a fan at the weekend. The death of father of four Stefan Isaksson has thrust the hooligan problem back into the spotlight in Sweden. Bjorn Eriksson, who published the findings of a two-year investigation into sports-related violence, making dozens of recommendations, said it had only been a matter of time before someone died. Soccer violence has hit the headlines several times in recent years, with a slew of matches disrupted and abandoned by fans throwing fireworks and other objects at players and officials, and organised fights between hooligan "firms" taking place away from grounds. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. lawmaker wants Russia World Cup red card despite FIFA snub Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:41 PM PDT A U.S. senator said on Wednesday that world soccer's governing body FIFA was wrong when it refused to kick Russia out of this year's World Cup and bar it from hosting the tournament in 2018 over its occupation of Crimea. "FIFA suggests that outrageous misbehavior by member states does not matter because such decisions are irrelevant to soccer," U.S. Senator Dan Coats said. In a letter to Coats and another Republican senator, Mark Kirk, FIFA said World Cup participation is based on sporting merit, and that only a violation of FIFA statutes and regulations could lead to suspension or expulsion from a competition. Coats noted that Yugoslavia was banned from international competition in 1992 and 1994 because of its behavior during the Balkan wars, a matter unconnected to the playing field. Full Story | Top |
| Appeals court allows Texas executions to proceed Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:33 PM PDT  By Jon Herskovitz and Heide Brandes AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court overturned a temporary stay of execution on Wednesday for two Texas inmates challenging the state's lack of disclosure about the supplier of the drugs to be used in their lethal injections this month. The decision puts back on track an execution scheduled for Thursday evening that had been suspended temporarily earlier on Wednesday by a federal judge in Houston, who found that Texas has hidden information about the supplier of the drugs. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered the state to disclose, under seal, information regarding its execution drug, finding that Texas had provided information about the process by which the inmates would be executed and "masked information about the product that will kill them." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said the case might be different if the state were using a drug never before used or unheard of, whose efficiency was completely unknown, which was not the case. Full Story | Top |
| Hagel says people killed, wounded in 'terrible tragedy' at Fort Hood Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:30 PM PDT Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday that people had been killed and wounded in a "terrible tragedy" at Fort Hood in Texas, which was the scene of a mass shooting in 2009. "It's a terrible tragedy. We know there are casualties, both people killed and injured," Hagel told a news conference in Honolulu, where he was meeting with Asian defense ministers. Full Story | Top |
| Obama says 'heartbroken' over Fort Hood shooting Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:25 PM PDT  U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was "heartbroken" that another shooting had occurred at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas and described the situation there as fluid. "We are going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened," Obama told reporters in Chicago, where he is traveling for Democratic fundraisers. "We're heartbroken that something like this might have happened again." Obama said his national security team was in close contact with the Defense Department and the FBI to determine what occurred and ensure that everyone was secure. In 2009 a former Army psychiatrist shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 others in a shooting spree at Fort Hood. Full Story | Top |
| Brazil may end tightening after raising rates to two-year high Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:20 PM PDT  By Alonso Soto BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil raised interest rates to a two-year high on Wednesday, but signaled that it is ready to halt its aggressive monetary tightening if a surge in inflation subsides in coming weeks. The central bank's monetary policy committee unanimously raised its benchmark Selic rate by 25 basis points to 11 percent, its ninth straight rate increase in a year. "The committee will monitor the evolution of the macroeconomic outlook until its next meeting, to then define the next steps in its monetary policy strategy," the bank said. "The central bank has gone into data-watching mode, which signals that the tightening cycle has either ended or is nearing its end," said Robert Wood, Brazil analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit. Full Story | Top |
| New York doormen take off gloves, rally for raises Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:18 PM PDT  By Curtis Skinner NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sea of New York City doormen marched along one of Manhattan's wealthiest strips of luxury buildings on the Upper East Side in a rally for higher wages on Wednesday, and authorized their union to strike if their demands are not met. "With record high rents across the city, it's time for our raise," Hector Figueroa, president of 32BJ SEIU, the New York arm for property service workers affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, said in a speech to workers on Wednesday at a rally that took up two blocks of New York's storied Park Avenue. Full Story | Top |
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