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Analysis: South Korea's Twitter generation may give liberals upset win
Sun,8 Apr 2012 10:46 PM PDT
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's liberal opposition, bolstered by the under-40s and power of social media, could spring a surprise win in this week's parliamentary elections despite opinion polls that show it tied with the ruling conservatives. Experts say traditional pollsters base their projections on owners of fixed telephone lines, whereas people in their 20s and 30s, who form 37 percent of the voting population in the world's most wired country, rarely use them. ...
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North Korea readies longer range rocket; Japan, S.Korea wary
Sun,8 Apr 2012 08:59 PM PDT
Reuters -  CHOLSAN, North Korea/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has readied a rocket for a launch from a forested valley in its remote northwest this week that will showcase the reclusive state's ability to fire a missile with the capacity to hit the continental United States. Pyongyang says the rocket, to be launched this week, will only carry a weather satellite, but South Korea and the United States say it is a test of a ballistic missile. And although the risk of it veering off course is low, guidance remains its weakest point. ...
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Egypt's former spy chief says not backed by army
Sun,8 Apr 2012 08:06 PM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Hosni Mubarak's former intelligence chief said his bid for the presidency does not have the support of Egypt's military rulers and accused Islamists of sending him death threats, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Monday. Omar Suleiman, 74, announced his candidacy on Friday and showed he still wields political clout by collecting around 72,000 signatures of eligible voters in one day, more than twice the 30,000 required. The deadline for submitting signatures was Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Enbridge's Gateway pipeline still in legal swamp
Sun,8 Apr 2012 07:11 PM PDT
Reuters -  CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A Canadian government attempt to speed up construction of Enbridge Inc's Northern Gateway oil pipeline to the West Coast is unlikely to prevent a flood of court challenges that could still delay the multibillion-dollar project. In its budget last month the Conservative government said it will force time limits on regulators reviewing the pipeline plan. But aboriginal law experts say that won't stop legal actions against the C$5.5 billion ($5. ...
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New blast hits Egypt gas pipeline serving Jordan, Israel
Sun,8 Apr 2012 06:41 PM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - An explosion hit the Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan on Monday for 14th time since the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak began last year, security sources said. The blast took place in the northern Sinai at the entrance of the Mediterranean coastal town of Al-Arish. Residents in the city told Reuters they had heard the sound of the explosion. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the installation that crosses the increasingly volatile Sinai Peninsula. ... Full Story | Top |
Syria demands guarantees, rebels say peace plan doomed
Sun,8 Apr 2012 05:22 PM PDT
Reuters -  Syria on Sunday demanded written guarantees insurgents will stop fighting before it pulls back troops under the terms of a U.N. peace plan, and a rebel leader said the initiative was doomed. "The regime will not implement this plan. This plan will fail," Free Syrian Army (FSA) chief Riad al-Asaad told Reuters. Escalating violence has already raised questions over the ceasefire. Opposition activists said dozens of people were killed and wounded on Sunday when President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists shelled a rebellious area near the border with Turkey. U.N. ...
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Peace Corps leaves Mali, new U.S. travel warning issued
Sun,8 Apr 2012 04:47 PM PDT
Reuters -  Peace Corps volunteers have been evacuated from Mali and non-essential U.S. diplomatic personnel have been offered flights out due to ongoing political instability following a military coup in March, the State Department said on Sunday. The agency again warned Americans against travel to the West African nation due to a rebellion in the north and continuing threats of attacks and kidnappings of Westerners. It strongly urged U.S. citizens there to consider leaving temporarily. ...
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Libya probing local, foreign oil companies: WSJ
Sun,8 Apr 2012 04:44 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Libyan general prosecutor's office is investigating foreign and domestic oil companies over their past operations in the country, which is recovering from a civil war that ended with the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, the Wall Street Journal reported. The office is probing Libyan and foreign operators in the country for possible financial irregularities, the body's deputy head, Abdelmajeed Saad, told the newspaper. ... Full Story | Top |
Two arrested in Oklahoma shootings that killed 3, wounded 2
Sun,8 Apr 2012 04:41 PM PDT
Reuters -  OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Authorities were investigating racially charged comments on the Facebook page of a suspect in the shootings of five black people in Tulsa but said Sunday it was too early to call the killing spree a hate crime. Police arrested two white men on Sunday morning, two days after the shootings killed three people in a mostly black Tulsa neighborhood. There was no connection between the victims and the suspects and without a motive, talk of hate crime charges was premature, authorities said. ...
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Mali's president resigns, neighbors discuss north
Sun,8 Apr 2012 04:20 PM PDT
Reuters - BAMAKO/NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mali's President Amadou Toumani Toure resigned on Sunday, paving the way for the soldiers who ousted him in a coup to stick by a deal to restore civilian rule and hand power to the president of the National Assembly. Neighboring states meeting to discuss turmoil in Mali's north, a major reason for the military's ousting of Toure, said they would seek dialogue with the northern rebels, a mix of Tuareg separatists and Islamists with links to al Qaeda, but warned they would consider military intervention if it failed. ... Full Story | Top |
Anonymous says hacks Tunisia prime minister's emails
Sun,8 Apr 2012 03:39 PM PDT
Reuters - TUNIS (Reuters) - A group claiming affiliation with activist hacker collective Anonymous says it has hacked 2,725 emails belonging to Tunisia's ruling Ennahda party, including those of the prime minister, in the latest challenge to the Islamist-led government. In a video posted on a Facebook page belonging to Anonymous TN, a hacker wearing the trademark activist "Guy Fawkes" mask, said the emails were released in protest against Ennahda's alleged failure to protect the unemployed and artists who were attacked by Salafi Islamists during a recent protest. ... Full Story | Top |
Bomb kills at least 16 in Nigeria's Kaduna
Sun,8 Apr 2012 03:35 PM PDT
Reuters - KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens more in the northern Nigerian town of Kaduna on Easter Sunday, after security officers stopped the vehicle carrying it from approaching a church, witnesses and police said. There was also an explosion around 200 km (125 miles) southeast in the central town of Jos on Sunday evening, the national emergency management agency said. A military spokesman said it was a "minor explosion" and nobody was killed. ... Full Story | Top |
Explosion hits central Nigeria's Jos: emergency agency
Sun,8 Apr 2012 02:53 PM PDT
Reuters - JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - An explosion hit Nigeria's central town of Jos on Sunday, an emergency agency said, hours after a car bomb 200 kilometres northwest in Kaduna killed at least 16 people. "NEMA confirms that an hour ago an explosion occurred in Tudun Wada area of Jos. Security personnel moved to the scene as injured are being evacuated," a spokesman for the national emergency management agency (NEMA) said. Jos sits on the dividing line between Nigeria's mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south and religious and ethnic clashes regularly flare up. ... Full Story | Top |
Congress' spring break a time for voters to vent
Sun,8 Apr 2012 01:56 PM PDT
Reuters -  CLAREMONT, New Hampshire (Reuters) - At home in New Hampshire, the land of Yankee skepticism, congressman Charlie Bass was being asked to explain his support for the new Republican budget. "What I have heard is that it would end Medicare as we know it," a nurse from Charlestown, New Hampshire, told Bass during a town hall meeting last week, holding a printout of an e-mail in her hand. "Who is the author of that thing you're reading?" Bass asked. It came from two Washington, D.C., think tanks, she said. "It's a complete fabrication," Bass replied, as the two began to speak over one another. ...
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Ex-KGB man wins presidency in South Ossetia
Sun,8 Apr 2012 01:00 PM PDT
Reuters -  TSKHINVALI, Georgia (Reuters) - A pro-Russian former KGB officer appeared set on Sunday to win a presidential election run-off in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, where Moscow is seeking to re-assert control. Preliminary results announced by the election commission showed Leonid Tibilov, 60, leading human rights ombudsman David Sanakoyev with about 55.8 percent of votes against his rival's 41.3 after 67 percent of the ballots had been counted. ...
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Pakistan army hopes miracle will save avalanche victims
Sun,8 Apr 2012 12:40 PM PDT
Reuters -  ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's military hoped for a miracle on Sunday as rescue teams searched for 124 soldiers and 11 civilians buried by a Himalayan avalanche near the Indian border, with no sign of survivors more 24 hours later. The avalanche engulfed a Pakistani army battalion headquarters near a glacier early on Saturday, leaving snow up to 80 feet deep over an area a kilometre wide. The victims are trapped in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth, at an altitude of 15,000 feet near the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram mountain range. ...
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Exclusive: Mubarak aide presidency bid an "insult": Islamist rival
Sun,8 Apr 2012 12:35 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - A bid for power by Hosni Mubarak's former intelligence chief is an insult to Egypt's revolution that, if successful, would trigger a second nationwide revolt, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for Egypt's presidency said. In his first public comments since being nominated by the Brotherhood on March 31, Khairat al-Shater played down fears of a clash between the powerful Islamist movement and the army generals who have ruled Egypt since Mubarak was ousted last year. But he warned the Brotherhood would not back a $3. ...
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Gingrich wants to help create conservative platform
Sun,8 Apr 2012 12:21 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican candidate Newt Gingrich conceded on Sunday that front-runner Mitt Romney is most likely to win their party's presidential nomination, but said he will remain in the race, partly to help the party build a solidly conservative platform ahead of the November 6 election. "I think you have to be realistic," Gingrich told the "Fox News Sunday," television program. "He (Romney) is far and away the most likely nominee. ...
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West to target Iran's nuclear fuel work
Sun,8 Apr 2012 12:18 PM PDT
Reuters -  JERUSALEM/DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States and its allies are pressing for an end to Iran's high-level uranium enrichment and the closure of a facility built deep under a mountain as talks on Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West resume this week. Iranian media and Western officials said the talks, which collapsed more than a year ago, would begin on Saturday in Istanbul. ...
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U.S., allies set demands as Iran nuclear talks loom
Sun,8 Apr 2012 10:57 AM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies will demand that Iran halt higher-grade uranium enrichment and immediately close an underground nuclear facility at a new round of talks this week over Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West, a senior U.S. official said. The negotiations between Iran and world powers - a resumption of talks that collapsed more than a year ago - will be held on April 14 in Istanbul, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said. ... Full Story | Top |
Russian opposition holds first Red Square protest
Sun,8 Apr 2012 10:53 AM PDT
Reuters -  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police let hundreds of activists roam Moscow's Red Square freely on Sunday in the first anti-government protest held next to the Kremlin, though it detained three activists for an attempt to set up a tent. Russian authorities had so far made the Red Square off-limits for political demonstrations. Last week they sealed it off and detained dozens of activists who had sought to hold a silent protest against Vladimir Putin's rule. ...
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Senator vows probe of lavish federal gathering
Sun,8 Apr 2012 10:42 AM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal congressional panel will investigate a lavish federal conference that featured a spoof video joking about wasteful spending and predicting it would never face an internal probe, a Senate leader said on Sunday. "We are going to have a hearing as to what actually happened here," Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Dick Durbin said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program. He called the five-day General Services Administration conference in Las Vegas, which rang up a tab of $823,000, "an absolutely outrageous expenditure of taxpayers' money. ... Full Story | Top |
Monti wants Italy-Israel jet deal done soon
Sun,8 Apr 2012 10:41 AM PDT
Reuters -  ROME (Reuters) - Italy wants to finalize a $1 billion deal for Israel to buy 30 M-346 Master training jets from aerospace and defense group Finmeccanica's Alenia Aermacchi unit as soon as possible, Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Sunday. Monti, who is on a visit to Israel, made the comment to Italian reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Italian news agencies reported. "I confirm the government's intention to put the finishing touches on this important contract as soon as possible," he was quoted as saying by the Ansa news agency. ...
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Sahara states at odds over Mali rebels
Sun,8 Apr 2012 10:33 AM PDT
Reuters - NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Sahara Desert states differed on Sunday over whether to crush or talk to the rebels who have seized northern Mali - a mix of Tuareg separatists and Islamists with links to al Qaeda. At a meeting of regional countries in Mauritania, Niger said the rebels' gains should be reversed before any talks, but Algeria warned that military intervention risked further complicating the situation. ... Full Story | Top |
Mali junta sees civilian government "in days"
Sun,8 Apr 2012 10:33 AM PDT
Reuters -  BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's coup leader said on Saturday the junta would hand power to civilians within days in a deal under which neighboring nations agreed to lift sanctions and help tackle Tuareg rebels who have seized much of the north. The March 22 coup by soldiers angry at ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure's handling of a two-month-old rebellion backfired, emboldening the Tuareg nomads to seize the northern half of Mali and declare an independent state there. ...
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Algerian hostages in northern Mali released: report
Sun,8 Apr 2012 10:33 AM PDT
Reuters - ALGIERS (Reuters) - Seven Algerian diplomats taken hostage in rebel-held northern Mali have been released, Algeria's El Watan newspaper reported on it website on Sunday, citing its correspondent in Mali. There was no immediate comment on the report from the Algerian authorities. The diplomats were abducted late last week from the town of Gao, part of a swathe of territory in northern Mali now under the control of Tuareg-led separatists. A spokesman for the separatists said an Islamist group with ties to the separatists was behind the abduction. ... Full Story | Top |
Car bomb kills 16 in Nigeria's Kaduna
Sun,8 Apr 2012 09:47 AM PDT
Reuters - KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A car bomb killed 16 people and wounded dozens more in the northern Nigerian town of Kaduna on Easter Sunday, after security officers stopped the vehicle carrying it from approaching a church, witnesses and police said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the apparent targeting of a Christian place of worship will stir memories of a string of deadly assaults by Islamist militants Boko Haram on Christmas Day last year. ... Full Story | Top |
Main Yemen airport reopens after officers lift siege
Sun,8 Apr 2012 09:39 AM PDT
Reuters - SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's main airport reopened on Sunday, a day after officers and tribesmen loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh forced it to close in protest at the sacking of the air force commander, a half-brother of Saleh. The one-day showdown highlighted the continuing turmoil in the country despite a peace deal under which Saleh stood down after months of protests against his 33-year rule and was replaced in February by his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Local officials and tribal sources said rockets were fired, probably by a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Libya will not hand Saif al-Islam to ICC: justice minister
Sun,8 Apr 2012 09:31 AM PDT
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya will not send Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the country's former leader, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, but will put him on trial in his own country, Justice Minister Ali Ashour said on Sunday. Saif al-Islam remains in a secret prison in the custody of the Zintan rebels who caught him last year and will be tried in Libya by Libyan judges on charges of financial corruption, murder and rape, Ashour told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
Syria demands guarantees; rebels say peace plan doomed
Sun,8 Apr 2012 09:30 AM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria on Sunday demanded written guarantees insurgents will stop fighting before it pulls back troops under the terms of a U.N. peace plan, and a rebel leader said the initiative was doomed. "The regime will not implement this plan. This plan will fail," Free Syrian Army (FSA) chief Riad al-Asaad told Reuters. Escalating violence has already raised questions over the ceasefire. Opposition activists said dozens of people were killed and wounded on Sunday when President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists shelled a rebellious area near the border with Turkey. U.N. ...
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Syrian rebels will honor April 10 truce: spokesman
Sun,8 Apr 2012 09:11 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels will respect a deadline to cease fire on April 10 in line with a U.N.-backed peace plan to end a year of bloodshed, even if the government does not pull back its forces from cities, a spokesman said on Sunday. "We will commit to the deadline even if they do not pull back (the forces), we will cease fire as we have pledged to the U.N.," said Colonel Qassem Saad al-Deen, spokesman of the joint command of the Free Syrian Army inside Syria. "But if they (Syrian forces) fire we will pick up arms again and fight them," he told Reuters from inside Syria. ... Full Story | Top |
Death toll rises to 16 in Nigeria Kaduna bomb
Sun,8 Apr 2012 09:06 AM PDT
Reuters -  KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in the north Nigerian town of Kaduna on Easter Sunday, killing 16 people and wounding 35, the police and emergency services said. The car was being pursued by police as it headed towards a church when it crashed and exploded, the police and witnesses said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the apparent targeting of a Christian place of worship will stir memories of a string of deadly assaults carried out by Islamist militants Boko Haram on Christmas Day last year.
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Sahara states at odds over Mali rebels
Sun,8 Apr 2012 09:06 AM PDT
Reuters - NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Sahara Desert states differed on Sunday over whether to crush or talk to the rebels who have seized northern Mali - a mix of Tuareg separatists and Islamists with links to al Qaeda. At a meeting of regional countries in Mauritania, Niger said the rebels' gains should be reversed before any talks, but Algeria warned that military intervention risked further complicating the situation. ... Full Story | Top |
Saudi Arabia puts 50 al Qaeda suspects on trial
Sun,8 Apr 2012 08:22 AM PDT
Reuters - JEDDAH (Reuters) - Fifty men suspected of links to al Qaeda have gone on trial in Saudi Arabia on charges of killing an American and attacking foreign housing compounds in the capital and in the Eastern Province, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said. The report said five of the suspects had appeared at a special court in the capital Riyadh on Saturday, facing charges including the 2003 bombing of the al-Muhaya compound, where expatriates lived, and planning attacks on the U.S. and British embassies in Saudi Arabia. ... Full Story | Top |
UK government website disrupted by hacker attack
Sun,8 Apr 2012 08:02 AM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - A British government website was disrupted on Sunday by an attack thought to be by activist hacker group Anonymous, whose previous high-profile targets have included the Vatican. The website of Britain's Home Office, or interior ministry, (homeoffice.gov.uk) was out of action for several hours overnight and problems continued on Sunday, when visitors found the message "page not found". "The Home Office website was the subject of an online protest last night," a spokeswoman for the ministry said. ... Full Story | Top |
Algerian hostages in northern Mali released: report
Sun,8 Apr 2012 07:37 AM PDT
Reuters - ALGIERS (Reuters) - Seven Algerian diplomats taken hostage in rebel-held northern Mali have been released, Algeria's El Watan newspaper reported on it website on Sunday, citing its correspondent in Mali. There was no immediate comment on the report from the Algerian authorities. The diplomats were abducted late last week from the town of Gao, part of a swathe of territory in northern Mali now under the control of Tuareg-led separatists. A spokesman for the separatists said an Islamist group with ties to the separatists was behind the abduction. ... Full Story | Top |
Nuclear-armed foes Pakistan, India talk peace over lunch
Sun,8 Apr 2012 07:31 AM PDT
Reuters -  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stood together in New Delhi on Sunday, adding weight to peace efforts by the nuclear-armed foes with the first visit by a Pakistani head of state to India in seven years. Relations have warmed since Pakistan promised its neighbor most favored nation trade status last year, although a $10 million bounty offered by Washington for a Pakistani Islamist blamed for the 2008 attacks on Mumbai has stirred old grievances. ...
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North Korea planning third nuclear test: Yonhap
Sun,8 Apr 2012 07:23 AM PDT
Reuters - SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea, pressing ahead with a rocket launch in defiance of a U.N. resolution, is also preparing a third nuclear weapons test, South Korean news reports said on Sunday, a move bound to scare neighbors and infuriate the West. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying North Korea was "clandestinely preparing a nuclear test" at the same location as the first two. ... Full Story | Top |
Syria rebel chief says Annan peace plan will fail
Sun,8 Apr 2012 07:13 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - The leader of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Sunday a peace plan put forward by international mediator Kofi Annan was bound to fail because Syria's government would not implement it. Riad al-Asaad added his group had not been asked to deliver written guarantees to end the violence in Syria - apparently contradicting Damascus which on Sunday said it had demanded the written pledge as a condition for the withdrawal of its troops. "The regime will not implement this plan. This plan will fail," he told Reuters by phone from Turkey. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt's former spy chief joins presidential race
Sun,8 Apr 2012 07:08 AM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - The intelligence chief of Egypt's deposed leader Hosni Mubarak formally joined the race for the presidency on Sunday, a last-minute entrance that raises the heat in a contest pitting former regime figures against newly-assertive Islamists. Omar Suleiman announced he planned to run on Friday, saying overwhelming public pressure had stirred his sense of soldierly duty. He had needed to collect the signatures of 30,000 eligible voters by Sunday's deadline in order to take part. ...
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