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| South Korea says likely North drone flew over Seoul's presidential palace Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 09:12 PM PDT 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. South Korea's military has been criticized for apparently failing to spot or stop the unidentified aircraft that entered its airspace and flew over its capital amid a tense standoff with the North, as both countries remain technically at war. Nearly 200 aerial photographs were recovered from a camera carried by the drone, including some taken directly above the presidential Blue House, but the aircraft had no equipment to transmit the images, defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. 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 |
| Chile orders preventive evacuation of northern coastline Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:34 PM PDT SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's emergency office ordered a preventive evacuation of the coastline in the country's north following an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 late on Wednesday. The Andean nation's navy declared a tsunami alert after the quake, which was initially reported as being of magnitude 7.4. The latest earthquake follows a massive 8.2 magnitude quake shook northern Chile on Tuesday, killing six people and triggering a tsunami with 2-meter (7-foot) waves. (Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Full Story | Top |
| Peru issues tsunami alert along southern coast after 7.8 quake strikes Chile Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:34 PM PDT LIMA (Reuters) - Peru issued a tsunami alert along its southern coast after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck northern Chile, the Peruvian Navy said via Twitter on Wednesday. The U.S. Geological Survey upgraded the earthquake - the strongest of several aftershocks since a massive quake rocked the region on Tuesday - to 7.8 after initially reporting it had a magnitude of 7.4. There were no initial reports of damages in Peru. (Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| One killed, 14 wounded in Fort Hood shooting incident: official Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:56 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One person was killed and 14 were wounded on Wednesday in a shooting incident at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official, who noted the information was preliminary, said he could not confirm the status of the shooter. (Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Peter Cooney) Full Story | Top |
| Catholic Church blasts Venezuela for 'brutal repression' of protesters Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:46 PM PDT  Venezuela's Roman Catholic Church accused President Nicolas Maduro's government on Wednesday of "totalitarian" tendencies and "brutal repression" of demonstrators during two months of political unrest that has killed several dozen people. The surprisingly strong attack is likely to revive church-state tensions that were constant during the 14-year socialist rule of Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez. Monsignor Diego Padron, who heads Venezuela's conference of bishops, said the "principal cause" of the crisis was the government's attempt to implant a blueprint for government that Chavez left behind called "the fatherland plan." "Within it they are hiding the promotion of a totalitarian-style system of government, putting in doubt its democratic credentials," he said, reading a church communiqué. Full Story | Top |
| SeaWorld lobbies against California bill to ban 'Shamu' shows Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:45 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - SeaWorld executives urged California lawmakers on Wednesday not to pass a bill banning live performances and captive breeding of killer whales, a move that would force the company's San Diego marine theme park to end its popular "Shamu" shows. Executives met with lawmakers and aides in private meetings over two days, and it was the first time in years that SeaWorld hired an outside lobbyist to advance its interests. Many consumers are re-thinking the company's use of marine mammal parks in the wake of last year's film "Blackfish," which dealt with the treatment of killer whales at SeaWorld parks and the death of a trainer in 2010. "This film was a piece of propaganda and an attempt to exploit a tragic incident," John Reilly, president of SeaWorld's flagship San Diego park, told lawmakers and legislative aides attending a briefing in the state capital on Wednesday. Full Story | Top |
| Almost 2 tons of cocaine seized off Puerto Rico coast Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:21 PM PDT A 1.8 ton cocaine shipment worth an estimated $50 million that was thought to be destined for the U.S. market was seized off the coast of Puerto Rico, federal authorities said on Wednesday, in one of the largest drug busts there in recent years. The shipment was intercepted on Monday evening on a 30-foot boat that was 12.5 miles off the resort town of Dorado on Puerto Rico's north coast. "We have seized more than three tons of cocaine over the last month," Angel Melendez, head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations office in San Juan, said on Wednesday. The great majority of cocaine destined for the U.S. market is smuggled via Mexico, but U.S. officials have said that joint U.S.-Mexican counter-drug efforts have begun to push some of the traffic back into the Caribbean, an historically popular corridor during the heyday of Colombia's Medellin cartel in the 1980s and 1990s. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. looking for way forward in faltering Mideast peace talks Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 03:50 PM PDT  By Noah Browning RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The Obama administration scrambled on Wednesday to rescue faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations after what it called "unhelpful, unilateral actions" by both sides. A surprise decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday to sign more than a dozen international conventions that could give Palestinians greater leverage against Israel left the United States searching for a way to keep the talks going past an April 29 deadline. "We are disappointed by the unhelpful, unilateral actions that both parties have taken in recent days," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One, as President Barack Obama headed to Michigan. He said Secretary of State John Kerry was "in close touch with our negotiating team, which remains on the ground in the region to continue discussions with the parties". Full Story | Top |
| U.S., eyeing exit and mindful of past, keeps distance from Afghan election Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 03:11 PM PDT  By Missy Ryan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ahead of Afghanistan's last presidential election in 2009, the United States used its diplomatic and military muscle to try to pull off a successful vote in a nation expected to define the foreign policy of President Barack Obama. Fast-forward to today: the Obama administration is taking an arms-length approach to Afghanistan's April 5th elections. U.S. soldiers are no longer taking the lead in safeguarding voters across the central Asian country. U.S. officials have steered clear of appearing to pick sides among rival candidates. Full Story | Top |
| Greek PM's aide quits over purported Golden Dawn video Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 02:33 PM PDT A senior aide to Greece's prime minister resigned on Wednesday after the far-right Golden Dawn party said a video showed him suggesting the government had tried to press judges to jail its members. Government Secretary General Takis Baltakos did not refer directly to the comments he was reported to have made in the video, but said he was stepping down because of the furor caused by the video released online and shown on television. Police and magistrates have been investigating charges that Golden Dawn, its members and supporters were involved in a series of violent attacks, including the killing of a left-wing rapper in September. Golden Dawn's leader and other senior members have been detained pending trial on charges of belonging to a criminal organization. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. Arms Trade Treaty takes leap toward entry into force Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 02:29 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty took a major step forward on its eventual entry into force on Wednesday as 18 countries, including five of the world's top 10 arms exporters, delivered proof of its ratification to the United Nations. The Arms Trade Treaty aims to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons ranging from small firearms to tanks and attack helicopters. It would create binding requirements for states to review cross-border contracts to ensure that weapons will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism, violations of humanitarian law or organized crime. Anna Macdonald of the Control Arms Coalition, an international advocacy group that has long lobbied for the Arms Trade Treaty, painted a bleak picture of what she said was "an arms trade that is out of control." "More than 520,000 people are killed every year by armed violence and millions more live in fear of rape, assault and displacement caused by weapons getting into the wrong hands," she said. Full Story | Top |
| As court cases mount, survival hopes wane for troubled Thai PM Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 02:15 PM PDT  By Martin Petty BANGKOK (Reuters) - The legal cases are piling up fast against Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her party loyalists. During eight years of intermittent power struggles, Thailand's courts have become deeply politicized and their rulings haven't been kind to the Shinawatra family, whose parties and allies have been the country's undisputed electoral champions for more than a decade. Since 2006, judges have ruled that two governing parties controlled by Yingluck's brother and former premier Thaksin Shinawatra be dissolved, $1.4 billion of the family's assets confiscated, two election wins annulled and nearly 150 politicians banned for five years, including a prime minister whose appearances in a TV cooking show cost him his job. If five months of crippling street protests haven't been enough to contend with, her fate is now in the hands of Thailand's topsy-turvy, at times bewildering, checks and balances system. Full Story | Top |
| Teams set to inspect New Mexico nuclear waste site after leak Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 02:07 PM PDT By Joseph L. Kolb ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Inspection teams were set to venture into an underground nuclear waste disposal vault in New Mexico on Wednesday to look for the source of a radiation leak nearly seven weeks ago that exposed 21 workers and forced a shutdown of the facility. The planned inspection would mark 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 |
| Suharto family tests Indonesia political comeback on strongman's legacy Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 01:57 PM PDT  By Jonathan Thatcher YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - It was Indonesia's most ubiquitous smile. Once dubbed the smiling general despite his iron rule of more than three decades, the image of former President Suharto now waves genially from the election campaign poster of one of his daughters. It marks a tentative return to national politics of the family of the autocratic leader who was forced from office in 1998 as the world's fourth most populous nation descended into economic and social chaos. Much of the blame for that crisis focused on the nepotism and corruption that became the hallmark of Suharto's later years in power and which saw family members and close associates amass fortunes and come to dominate the country's economy. Full Story | Top |
| Bombs kill two, including police officer, at Cairo University Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 01:25 PM PDT  By Stephen Kalin CAIRO (Reuters) - Explosions outside Cairo University killed two people including a police brigadier-general on Wednesday in what appeared to be a militant attack targeting security forces. A group calling itself Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, claimed responsibility for the blasts, which follow a string of operations launched against police and soldiers since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July. The fast-growing insurgency threatens the security of the most populous Arab nation ahead of a presidential election in May - as well as the vital tourist industry. Hours after the explosions in an upmarket area near the zoo in Giza, a high-level government security committee said it would present legislation "connected to combating terrorism" for the cabinet's approval on Thursday, without going into further details. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. chief tells Egypt he is concerned by mass death penalties Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 01:25 PM PDT U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his strong concerns to Egypt on Wednesday over a court's sentencing of more than 500 people and the detention of journalists. Ban met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy in Brussels on the sidelines of a European Union-African summit. "The Secretary-General conveyed to the Minister his strong concerns regarding the mass death penalty sentences announced recently, as well as the detention of journalists," Ban's press office said in a statement. Last month an Egyptian court in the southern province of Minya sentenced 529 supporters of former President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood to death, drawing strong criticism from Western governments and human rights groups. Full Story | Top |
| Egypt to pass new 'anti-terrorism' law: ministers Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 01:25 PM PDT Senior Egyptian ministers said they would pass legislation on Thursday "connected to confronting terrorism", in a statement released hours after three explosions killed two people in Cairo. Egypt's government already has wide-ranging security powers and has detained thousands of supporters of former President Mohamed Mursi, ousted by the army in July. Full Story | Top |
| Iran, Russia working to seal $20 billion oil-for-goods deal: sources Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 01:04 PM PDT By Jonathan Saul and Parisa Hafezi LONDON/ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran and Russia have made progress toward an oil-for-goods deal that sources said could be worth up to $20 billion and enable Tehran to boost vital energy exports in defiance of Western sanctions, people familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. In January, Reuters reported that Moscow and Tehran were discussing a barter deal that would see Moscow buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods. The United States has said such a deal would raise "serious concerns" and be inconsistent with the nuclear talks between world powers and Iran. A Russian source said Moscow had "prepared all documents from its side", adding that completion of a deal was awaiting agreement on what oil price to lock in. Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Earthquake shuts some Chilean ports Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 12:54 PM PDT (Reuters) - Four major ports in Chile used for exporting copper and other natural resources were closed on Wednesday after a major earthquake struck in the north of the mineral-rich country, suggesting trade flows might be temporarily interrupted. Here is the latest update on the ports' status from the Chilean army: *Arica, the country's most northern port city on the border with Peru and Bolivia, was closed as of 7:08 a.m. on Wednesday due to seismic shocks and abnormal sea swells. Most Chilean metal exports go through the larger Antofagasta port, which is about 400 miles south of Arica, traders said. Full Story | Top |
| Possible tornadoes in the forecast for Midwest Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 12:49 PM PDT By Brendan O'Brien MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - A large swath of the U.S. Midwest is bracing for potentially dangerous weather including possible tornadoes as an intense storm system moves through the region on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. The area of greatest risk includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, southern Missouri and Illinois and western Kentucky and Tennessee, where significant tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds could strike Thursday afternoon and evening, said John Hart, a meteorologist in the service's storm prediction center. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says NATO reverts to Cold War-era mindset Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 12:38 PM PDT By Timothy Heritage MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia accused NATO on Wednesday of reverting to the "verbal jousting" of the Cold War by suspending cooperation with Moscow over its annexation of Crimea. NATO foreign ministers agreed on Tuesday to suspend all practical cooperation with Russia, draft measures to strengthen defenses and reassure nervous Eastern European countries in the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War ended in 1991. Moscow did not announce any measures to retaliate, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed concern over the moves in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia's Foreign Ministry said. Full Story | Top |
| Hawaii tsunami advisory canceled with little change in surf Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 12:32 PM PDT By Kari Stanton KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (Reuters) - Hawaii residents were urged to stay clear of beaches and avoid swimming in the ocean as a precaution on Wednesday, as a tsunami alert from an 8.2 magnitude earthquake in Chile passed with little change in sea levels around the island chain. A tsunami advisory issued for the state by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was canceled at 7:45 a.m. local time (1:45 p.m. ET), though most beaches around the islands were closed until noon because of potentially dangerous currents. Shelly Kunishige a spokeswoman with Hawaii State Civil Defense said no inland flooding was expected, no evacuations were ordered, and officials had received no reports of tidal damage. A small-craft advisory unrelated to the tsunami alert was also in effect after the recent passage of some stormy weather in the islands, she said. Full Story | Top |
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