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| Peter Matthiessen, author-adventurer, co-creator of Paris Review, dies at 86 Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 09:06 PM PDT Naturalist Peter Matthiessen, an award-winning American author who helped create the Paris Review and brought to life tales from the wilderness centered on his excursions to faraway lands, died on Saturday at age 86, his publishing company said. "We are honored to have known him and his beautiful and wild mind." Matthiessen died of leukemia, his son told the New York Times, which said his death occurred at his home in Sagaponack, New York. The environmentalist and chronicler of indigenous peoples was the only author to win the National Book Award in both nonfiction and fiction, taking the prize in the first category with his 1978 "The Snow Leopard," about his travels in Nepal, and in the second with a 2008 collection of stories "Shadow Country." He also won acclaim for a 1965 novel "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" and a 1983 book "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" which delved into a 1975 gun battle between FBI agents and American Indian Movement activists. Full Story | Top |
| Searchers seek confirmation of 'pings' heard in Malaysia plane hunt Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 09:05 PM PDT  PERTH (Reuters) - International search planes and ships are heading to an area where a Chinese ship twice heard what could be signals from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370's black box locators, Australian search authorities said on Sunday. Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, told a media conference in Perth that two reported acoustic detections from the Haixun 01 were a good lead but there remained no certainty that they had come from the missing plane. ... Full Story | Top |
| Advisers to India's Modi dream of a Thatcherite revolution Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 07:22 PM PDT  By Frank Jack Daniel and Rajesh Kumar Singh NEW DELHI (Reuters) - When Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi gave a speech on the virtues of smaller government and privatization on April 8 last year, supporters called him an ideological heir to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died that day. Modi, favorite to form India's next government after elections starting on Monday, has yet to unveil any detailed economic plans but it is clear that some of his closest advisers and campaign managers have a Thatcherite ambition for him. "If you define Thatcherism as less government, free enterprise, then there is no difference between Modi-nomics and Thatcherism," said Deepak Kanth, a London-based banker now collecting funds as a volunteer for Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "What Thatcher did with financial market reforms, you can expect a similar thing with infrastructure in India under Modi," he said, referring to Thatcher's trademark "Big Bang" of sudden financial deregulation in 1986. Full Story | Top |
| France's far-right to ban faith-based school lunch options Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 04:31 PM PDT Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said on Friday it would prevent schools from offering special lunches to Muslim pupils in the 11 towns it won in local elections, saying such arrangements were contrary to France's secular values. France's republic has a strict secular tradition enforceable by law, but faith-related demands have risen in recent years, especially from the country's five-million-strong Muslim minority, the largest in Europe. "We will not accept any religious demands in school menus," Le Pen told RTL radio. "There is no reason for religion to enter the public sphere, that's the law." The anti-immigrant National Front has consistently bemoaned the rising influence of Islam in French public life. Full Story | Top |
| Horse racing-Pineau De Re wins National on doctor's orders Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 02:46 PM PDT * Newland lands Aintree showpiece at first attempt * Jockey Aspell pilots Pineau De Re to victory * Balthazar King second, Double Seven third (Updates with jockeys refusing to attend stewards' inquiry in para 4) By Justin Palmer LIVERPOOL, England, April 5 (Reuters) - Doctor Richard Newland, who trains a small string of horses as a "hobby" while keeping an eye on his healthcare businesses, won the Grand National at the first attempt with 25-1 outsider Pineau De Re on Saturday. Leighton Aspell, a 37-year-old journeyman jockey who quit the saddle for almost two years before returning with "unfinished business" steered Pineau De Re to a five-length victory in the Aintree showpiece. Balthazar King (14-1) was second under Richard Johnson with Double Seven, the 10-1 joint favourite ridden by champion jockey Tony McCoy, in third. Pineau De Re was the 50-year-old's first National runner, although he has been coming to Aintree "long before I trained or even owned horses". Full Story | Top |
| U.S. military rescuing sick baby on family's boat in Pacific Ocean Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 01:08 PM PDT An American family that had been sailing across the Pacific Ocean for several weeks was the focus of a U.S. military rescue mission on Saturday after their 1-year-old daughter became severely ill, officials said. Eric and Charlotte Kaufman, along with their daughters Cora, 3, and 1-year-old Lyra sailed from Mexico on March 19 toward islands in the South Pacific and eventually New Zealand, according to therebelheart.com, where they have been writing about their sometimes stormy voyage. The family sent out a distress call by satellite from their boat, named Rebel Heart, on Thursday about 1,000 miles off Mexico's Pacific coast. That prompted a team from the California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing to fly out to sea in a military transport plane from their base at Moffett Federal Airfield near San Francisco, said spokesman Second Lieutenant Roderick Bersamina. Full Story | Top |
| Former top Dutch banker found dead at home with wife and child Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 12:51 PM PDT A Dutch former top banker who came under fire for taking a large pay-off after the nationalization of his troubled bank was found dead along with his wife and daughter on Saturday in what police called a family tragedy. Jan Peter Schmittmann, 57, ran the domestic operations of Dutch bank ABN Amro between 2003 and 2007 and was widely criticized for landing an 8 million euro ($10.95 million) pay-off after the bank's collapse and subsequent nationalization. A police spokeswoman said an investigation was underway but that all early clues pointed to a family drama having taken place. There was no indication that Schmittmann's business dealings had played any role in the tragedy. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. trade representative to visit Japan for talks on access Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 11:50 AM PDT  U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will travel to Japan on Monday for high-level talks in a bid to break a stalemate over market access for American farm groups and autos, his office said on Saturday. Talks about a 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact have been bogged down as the United States tried to persuade Japan to lower trade barriers. Froman said on Thursday it was time for Japan "to step up to the plate" and open its markets, which will then pave the way for an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler had already been scheduled to visit Tokyo next week as bilateral talks have accelerated ahead of a visit to Japan later this month by President Barack Obama. Full Story | Top |
| Raiffeisen Bank subsidiary to close Crimea branches Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 11:45 AM PDT By Alissa de Carbonnel and Lidia Kelly SIMFEROPOL, Crimea/MOSCOW (Reuters) - A subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank International will close all its branches in Crimea by mid-month, the bank said on Saturday, following Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula. Ukraine and the West do not recognize Russian of Crimea and companies that have been active in the region do not know how the change could affect their business. Raiffeisen Bank Aval, in which Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International holds 96.41 percent of shares, will close the last remaining six of 32 branches the bank had in Crimea by April 15, a spokeswoman told Reuters. The impact of Russia's annexation of Crimea on companies with assets in the peninsula is yet to be fully estimated, but many banks have closed and many worried businesses have switched to cash-only operations. Full Story | Top |
| Chinese ship hunting for missing Malaysia jet detects 'ping' Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 10:59 AM PDT By Siva Govindasamy and Swati Pandey KUALA LUMPUR/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - A Chinese patrol ship hunting for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner detected a pulse signal in the south Indian Ocean on Saturday, the state news agency Xinhua reported, in a possible indicator of the underwater beacon from a plane's "black box". Australian search authorities said such a signal would be "consistent" with a black box, but both they and Xinhua stressed there was no conclusive evidence linking the "ping" to Flight MH370, which went missing on March 8 with 239 people aboard shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. A black box detector deployed by the vessel Haixun 01 picked up the "ping" signal with a frequency of 37.5kHz per second - the same as emitted by flight recorders - at about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, Xinhua said. Dozens of ships and planes from 26 countries are racing to find the black box recorders before their batteries run out. Full Story | Top |
| Four dead after car rolls into New York City waterway Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 08:14 AM PDT Four passengers were killed after a car plunged into a waterway that flows into New York City's East River late on Friday night, police and fire officials said. Rescue divers responding to a 911 call pulled four occupants - two men and two women - from the vehicle submerged in Steinway Creek. The four were declared dead on arrival at area hospitals, New York Police Department spokesman Adam Navarro said. The fifth occupant, a 20-year-old man who was the driver, escaped the car on his own with minor injuries. Full Story | Top |
| Weighty issues remain for Japan, Australia in trade pact talks Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 07:25 AM PDT  Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said substantive issues remained in trade negotiations with Japan as the two nations rushed to conclude a free trade agreement before their prime ministers meet on Monday. There are still a couple of substantial issues we are negotiating and we will meet again tomorrow," Robb said after a five-hour session with Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshimasu Hayashi in Tokyo on Saturday. Hayashi said afterwards that there had been a "frank exchange of opinion." He said he would report on the progress to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will meet Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot in Tokyo on Monday. Abbott has set the Japan free trade deal as his top priority, promising to drop tariffs on manufactured imports, including Japanese cars, while pushing Tokyo to cut tariffs on agricultural goods, particularly beef. Full Story | Top |
| Pressure increases for plane tracking after MH370 Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 07:17 AM PDT Four weeks into the hunt for MH370, pressure is building for better ways of tracking aircraft as regulators wrestle with the Malaysian jet's disappearance armed with only minimal information on the fate of its 239 passengers. As search efforts intensified on Saturday, four weeks after the Boeing 777 went missing, a U.S. pilots association called for existing satellite technology to be made mandatory so controllers can track jets. Until recently, aircraft flying over oceans well outside the reach of air traffic control routinely gave their position through high-frequency radio links that are vulnerable to interference from the atmosphere. Some airlines now use satellite-based voice and text communications, but these are not mandatory and may require a subscription that Malaysia Airlines had not signed up for, according to officials investigating the loss of Flight MH370. Full Story | Top |
| Japan to intercept any North Korea missile deemed a threat Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 06:56 AM PDT  By Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will strike any North Korean ballistic missile that threatens to hit Japan in the coming weeks after Pyongyang recently fired medium-range missiles, a government source said on Saturday. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera issued the order, which took effect on Thursday and runs through April 25, the day that marks the founding of North Korea's army, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Following the order, meant "to prepare for any additional missile launches," a destroyer was dispatched to the Sea of Japan and will fire if North Korea launches a missile that Tokyo deems in danger of striking or falling on Japanese territory, the source said. Tensions have been building between North Korea and its neighbors since Pyongyang - in an apparent show of defiance - fired two Rodong missiles on March 26, just as the leaders of Japan, South Korea and the United States were sitting down to discuss containing the North Korean nuclear threat. Full Story | Top |
| Poland's PM says NATO to boost military presence within weeks Saturday, Apr 05, 2014 06:17 AM PDT  NATO will strengthen its presence in Poland within weeks, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday, a move that could help allay fears in eastern European states for their security after Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region. Tusk spoke three days after foreign ministers from the U.S.-led alliance ordered military commanders to devise plans for reinforcing NATO defenses among its eastern European members, including Poland, a neighbor of Ukraine. Russia's annexation of Crimea after the fall of Ukraine's pro-Russian president to mass protests has caused the deepest crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War, when most east European countries were under Soviet domination from Moscow. Full Story | Top |
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