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Kabul fighting ends with explosions, heavy gunfire
Sun,15 Apr 2012 11:26 PM PDT
Reuters -  KABUL (Reuters) - Heavy street fighting between militants and security forces in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, ended on Monday after 18 hours of gunfire, rocket attacks and explosions, police and government officials said. Battles which broke out at mid-day on Sunday gripped the city's central districts through the night, with explosions and gunfire lighting up alleys and streets. ...
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Bissau military creates transition council after coup
Sun,15 Apr 2012 11:09 PM PDT
Reuters -  BISSAU (Reuters) - Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau dispersed anti-military demonstrators and closed down private radio stations on Sunday as their commanders put in place a transitional council that effectively consummated their coup. Politicians in the poor West African state were summoned by armed forces chiefs at the weekend to discuss the formation of a temporary administration to organise elections after the army toppled the country's leaders and government on Thursday. The coup cut short a presidential election process already underway. ...
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Swiss woman taken by gunmen in Mali's Timbuktu
Sun,15 Apr 2012 11:08 PM PDT
Reuters - BAMAKO (Reuters) - A Swiss woman who had stayed in the northern Malian town of Timbuktu after it was captured by Tuareg and Islamist rebels was taken from her house by unidentified gunmen on Sunday, a witness and several sources in the town said. Yehia Tandina, one of the town's residents, said the woman, whom she identified only as Beatrice, was seized by armed men in turbans on Sunday afternoon. A neighbour of the Swiss woman who asked not to be named confirmed the incident. A spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry in the Swiss capital Berne said the ministry was looking into the report. ... Full Story | Top |
Swiss woman taken by gunmen in Mali's Timbuktu
Sun,15 Apr 2012 11:07 PM PDT
Reuters - BAMAKO (Reuters) - A Swiss woman who had stayed in the northern Malian town of Timbuktu after it was captured by Tuareg and Islamist rebels was taken from her house by unidentified gunmen on Sunday, a witness and several sources in the town said. Yehia Tandina, one of the town's residents, said the woman, whom she identified only as Beatrice, was seized by armed men in turbans on Sunday afternoon. A neighbour of the Swiss woman who asked not to be named confirmed the incident. A spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry in the Swiss capital Berne said the ministry was looking into the report. ... Full Story | Top |
Coached and confident, North Korea's Kim echoes grandfather
Sun,15 Apr 2012 10:20 PM PDT
Reuters - SEOUL (Reuters) - Most North Koreans never heard their late leader, Kim Jong-il, speak. His son, smiling and joking with generals on a podium as he watched a big military parade on Sunday, shattered that mold. In a surprise 20-minute speech, Kim Jong-un, the 20-something leader of one of the world's most isolated countries, displayed few nerves as he praised his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, on the centenary of his birth. Not only has the young Kim inherited his still-revered grandfather's throne in the world's only hereditary Stalinist dictatorship, he has his looks and, it seems, his voice. ... Full Story | Top |
Afghan defense ministry says 32 insurgents killed in attacks
Sun,15 Apr 2012 10:17 PM PDT
Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan security forces killed 32 insurgents and arrested one more in operations to stop coordinated attacks by Taliban insurgents that hit the capital of Kabul and three other provinces, the defense ministry said on Monday. Three Afghan soldiers were killed and ten others wounded in fighting in Kabul that began around midday on Sunday and ended on Monday morning, defense ministry officials said. (Reporting by Mirwais Harooni) Full Story | Top |
Q+A: The 'Buffett Rule,' a minimum tax on the rich
Sun,15 Apr 2012 10:05 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are laying a political trap for Republicans to be sprung on Monday when the U.S. Senate is slated to vote on the proposed "Buffett Rule," which would slap a minimum tax on the highest-income Americans. With polls showing strong public support for the rule, Democrats plan to bring it up for a procedural vote in the Senate. Republicans are solidly against it and the proposal is not expected to garner enough votes to move forward. ...
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U.N. council set to condemn North Korean rocket launch
Sun,15 Apr 2012 09:01 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After days of closed-door haggling, the U.N. Security Council is hoping to adopt a statement on Monday condemning North Korea's botched rocket launch and suggesting an expansion of a U.N. blacklist of North Korean firms and individuals, envoys said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on Friday the members of the 15-nation Security Council "deplored" North Korea's failed bid to launch a long-range rocket, but that the council would continue talks on a formal condemnation of the actions of the hermit state. ... Full Story | Top |
Haqqani insurgents detained over Afghan VP assassination attempt
Sun,15 Apr 2012 08:53 PM PDT
Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - Four Haqqani network insurgents were arrested on Sunday over an assassination attempt on Afghan Vice President Karim Khalili, an Afghan intelligence agency spokesman said. The Haqqani members were detained before Taliban militants staged coordinated, high-profile attacks on government and diplomatic buildings in the capital of Kabul and three other provinces across the country, said Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the National Directorate of Security. (Reporting by Hamid Shalizi) Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Bold Taliban attacks unlikely to alter U.S. Afghan plans
Sun,15 Apr 2012 08:53 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Almost as soon as Afghan insurgents began their assault on Western targets in Kabul on Sunday, U.S. officials went to great lengths to stress that the bold offensive would do nothing to shake U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Yet alongside the reasons they stressed - the attacks' limited casualties, and the improving ability of Afghan forces to confront insurgents on their own - stands a fundamental reality: the Obama administration sees no palatable alternative to its current gradual course out of a war that has dragged on at great human and financial cost for over a ... Full Story | Top |
Afghan Taliban say more similar attacks to come
Sun,15 Apr 2012 08:53 PM PDT
Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban vowed to launch similar attacks to those that engulfed the Afghan capital of Kabul and several provinces on Sunday. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters that the assaults were in retaliation for the burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO base, the killing of 17 Afghan civilians for which a U.S. soldier has been charged as well as for videos apparently showing U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban. (Reporting by Hamid Shalizi) Full Story | Top |
Australia further eases Myanmar sanctions, seeks trade
Sun,15 Apr 2012 08:51 PM PDT
Reuters -  CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will further ease sanctions and move to normalize trade ties with Myanmar following its democratic by-elections, but sanctions will remain on military officials to pressure for further reforms, the government said on Monday. Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Australia would lift financial restrictions and travel bans against 260 people in Myanmar, including President Thein Sein and civilian reformists within the government. ...
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U.N. council set to condemn North Korean rocket launch
Sun,15 Apr 2012 08:33 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After several days of closed-door haggling, the U.N. Security Council is hoping to adopt a statement on Monday condemning North Korea's botched rocket launch, council diplomats said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on Friday that the members of the 15-nation Security Council "deplored" North Korea's failed bid to launch a long-range rocket but that the council would continue talks on a formal condemnation of the actions of the hermit state. ... Full Story | Top |
Mexico's Pena Nieto extends lead over main rival
Sun,15 Apr 2012 08:32 PM PDT
Reuters -  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto has widened his big lead over struggling ruling party candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota, with just 2 1/2 months to go until the July 1 election, an opinion poll showed on Sunday. The latest voter survey by polling firm BGC for Mexican newspaper Excelsior showed support for Pena Nieto, a member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), running at 50 percent, according to BGC's Website. That score was 3 percentage points higher than a previous BGC/Excelsior poll published on March 26. ...
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Fighting goes on at Afghan parliament, police say
Sun,15 Apr 2012 07:47 PM PDT
Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - Fighting continued at Afghanistan's parliament on Monday, with one insurgent left inside shooting at security forces, the spokesman for the Kabul police chief said. "One insurgent is left and he is firing toward the security forces sporadically. He has chosen a safe corner for himself which is away from police view," said spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai. (Reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Rob Taylor and Ron Popeski) Full Story | Top |
Obama says will be "angry" if agents scandal proved
Sun,15 Apr 2012 07:35 PM PDT
Reuters - CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said he would be "angry" if allegations of improper conduct against Secret Service personnel in Colombia around the Summit of the Americas are confirmed. "We represent the people of the United States, and when we travel to another country I expect them to observe the highest standards," Obama said of reports that Secret Service agents and military personnel were caught with prostitutes. ... Full Story | Top |
Obama wants rigorous inquiry in prostitution scandal
Sun,15 Apr 2012 07:33 PM PDT
Reuters - CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday the Secret Service would fully investigate reports that agents assigned to protect him in Colombia were caught with prostitutes, saying he would be angry if the allegations proved true. Obama, who spent three days in the South American country attending the Summit of the Americas, said he expected the agents and military personnel in his entourage to behave with "the utmost dignity and probity" while overseas. ... Full Story | Top |
Japan welcomes Chinese move on yuan
Sun,15 Apr 2012 07:29 PM PDT
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - China's move to make trading of its currency more flexible was a positive step that would help buoy the country's domestic demand, a senior Japanese government official said on Monday. Japanese officials also said Japan has yet to pledge its contribution to the International Monetary Fund, but was still considering an increase in funding to help it deal with Europe's debt crisis while watching the stance of other countries. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. Secret Service under spotlight after prostitution flap
Sun,15 Apr 2012 07:14 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They are known for their shiny sunglasses, dark suits, and stern gazes. Secret Service agents, the men and women who protect U.S. leaders, are as much a part of the American political tableau as the presidents, cabinet officials, and candidates they shadow and protect. But, unlike their high-profile charges, they are not supposed to make news. The suspension of 11 agents this weekend after alleged misconduct involving prostitutes in Colombia brought unwelcome headlines and attention to the agency's culture. ...
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Obama wants rigorous inquiry in prostitution scandal
Sun,15 Apr 2012 06:23 PM PDT
Reuters - CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Sunday the Secret Service would fully investigate reports that agents assigned to protect him in Colombia were caught with prostitutes, saying he would be angry if the allegations proved true. Obama, who spent three days in the South American country attending the Summit of the Americas, said he expected the agents and military personnel in his entourage to behave with "the utmost dignity and probity" while overseas. ... Full Story | Top |
Six percent of UK's wealthiest pay less than 10 pct tax: data
Sun,15 Apr 2012 06:04 PM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Some six percent of Britain's wealthiest people used tax reliefs to reduce their tax bills to less than 10 percent, according to data published by Britain's finance ministry on Monday, which it said highlighted the need to make the tax system fairer. Last month's decision by finance minister George Osborne to cap the level of tax relief on charitable donations to 25 percent of income has drawn howls of protest from within his own Conservative party as well as from charities, who argue that the move will significantly hit donations. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. Secret Service under spotlight after prostitution flap
Sun,15 Apr 2012 05:53 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They are known for their shiny sunglasses, dark suits, and stern gazes. Secret Service agents, the men and women who protect U.S. leaders, are as much a part of the American political tableau as the presidents, cabinet officials, and candidates they shadow and protect. But, unlike their high-profile charges, they are not supposed to make news. The suspension of 11 agents this weekend after alleged misconduct involving prostitutes in Colombia brought unwelcome headlines and attention to the agency's culture. ... Full Story | Top |
Google fined $25,000 for street data collection
Sun,15 Apr 2012 04:41 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google Inc faces a $25,000 fine for impeding a U.S. investigation into the Web search leader's data collection for its Street View project, which allows users to see street level images when they map a location. The Federal Communications Commission said the company had collected personal information without permission, and cited evidence that Google had "deliberately" refused to cooperate with the agency. "Google refused to identify any employees or produce any e-mails. ...
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Latin America rebels against Obama over Cuba
Sun,15 Apr 2012 04:34 PM PDT
Reuters -  CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - Unprecedented Latin American opposition to U.S. sanctions on Cuba left President Barack Obama isolated at a summit on Sunday and illustrated Washington's declining influence in a region being aggressively courted by China. Unlike the rock-star status he enjoyed at the 2009 Summit of the Americas after taking office, Obama has had a bruising time at the two-day meeting in Colombia of some 30 heads of state. Sixteen U.S. security personnel were caught in an embarrassing prostitution scandal before Obama arrived, Brazil and others have bashed Obama over U.S. ...
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Analysis: Bold Taliban attacks unlikely to alter U.S. Afghan plans
Sun,15 Apr 2012 04:16 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Almost as soon as Afghan insurgents began their assault on Western targets in Kabul on Sunday, U.S. officials went to great lengths to stress that the bold offensive would do nothing to shake U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. Yet alongside the reasons they stressed - the attacks' limited casualties, and the improving ability of Afghan forces to confront insurgents on their own - stands a fundamental reality: the Obama administration sees no palatable alternative to its current gradual course out of a war that has dragged on at great human and financial cost for over a ... Full Story | Top |
Obama says more Iran sanctions coming if talks drag
Sun,15 Apr 2012 04:08 PM PDT
Reuters - CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said there would be more sanctions imposed on Iran if there is no breakthrough in nuclear talks with global powers in the coming months, responding to Israeli accusations that Tehran has been given a "freebie." At a news conference in Cartagena, Colombia, where he was attending the Summit of the Americas, Obama said negotiations between Iran and six world powers that resumed on Saturday would not stretch on indefinitely and would require Iran to act. "We're going to keep on seeing if we make progress. ... Full Story | Top |
Mali ready to talk to rebels, not "foreigners"
Sun,15 Apr 2012 03:59 PM PDT
Reuters - NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mali's interim president is willing to open dialogue with Tuareg-led rebels and Islamists occupying the north of the West African country, but "armed foreign jihadist groups" among them should leave, a Malian envoy and mediator said on Sunday. "We want to resolve the difficulties in the north of our country through dialogue and negotiation," Tiebile Drame, a prominent Malian politician and mediator for interim Malian President Dioncounda Traore, told Reuters in Nouakchott. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran, big powers agree - to keep talking
Sun,15 Apr 2012 03:29 PM PDT
Reuters -  ISTANBUL (Reuters) - After a year of sanctions and sabre-rattling over Iran's nuclear programme, negotiators from Tehran and six world powers finally resumed talks and found at least enough common ground to agree to meet again next month. With threats of war hanging over an already unsettled Middle East, U.S. and other Western diplomats welcomed an Iranian willingness in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss their nuclear activities - something they had refused since early last year. But though they will meet again, in Baghdad on May 23, they remained poles apart. ...
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U.S. says Colombia trade deal kicks off in May
Sun,15 Apr 2012 03:15 PM PDT
Reuters -  CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - The U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement will enter into force next month, far earlier than expected, as a result of what the Obama administration called "historic" progress for Colombian worker protections and human rights. The announcement came during the Summit of the Americas in Colombia, where President Barack Obama has been meeting regional political and business leaders including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to push for greater access for U.S. exports. U.S. ...
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Obama says will be "angry" if agents scandal proved
Sun,15 Apr 2012 03:10 PM PDT
Reuters - CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said he would be "angry" if allegations of improper conduct against Secret Service personnel in Colombia around the Summit of the Americas are confirmed. "We represent the people of the United States, and when we travel to another country I expect them to observe the highest standards," Obama said of reports that Secret Service agents and military personnel were caught with prostitutes. ... Full Story | Top |
Codelco purchases copper to meet contracts: FT
Sun,15 Apr 2012 02:57 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - The world's top copper producer, Chile's Codelco bought copper from outside sources earlier this year to meet its deliveries to customers, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The newspaper cited traders with direct knowledge of the transactions as saying Codelco bought the metal on the spot market from unnamed miners and traders. Chile's state-owned mining company was forced into buying copper as it was struggling to meet its annual contracts, due to unspecified problems at one of its smelters, according to the article published on the FT's website. ...
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Gulf states to meet Tuesday on UAE-Iran island row
Sun,15 Apr 2012 02:55 PM PDT
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf Arab states will meet in Qatar on Tuesday to discuss a territorial dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Iran over a small island in the Strait of Hormuz that both claim, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said on Sunday. The UAE recalled its ambassador from Tehran on Wednesday after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Abu Musa island, 60 km (40 miles) off the UAE, as part of a tour of Iran's Gulf coast, a visit described by the UAE foreign minister as "a flagrant violation of the UAE's sovereignty. ...
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Swiss woman taken by gunmen in Mali's Timbuktu
Sun,15 Apr 2012 02:39 PM PDT
Reuters - BAMAKO (Reuters) - A Swiss woman who had stayed in the northern Malian town of Timbuktu after it was captured by Tuareg and Islamist rebels was taken from her house by unidentified gunmen on Sunday, a witness and several sources in the town said. Yehia Tandina, one of the town's residents, said the woman, whom she identified only as Beatrice, was seized by armed men in turbans on Sunday afternoon. A neighbor of the Swiss woman who asked not to be named confirmed the incident. A spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry in the Swiss capital Berne said the ministry was looking into the report. ... Full Story | Top |
Algeria offers own brand of "Arab Spring" for vote
Sun,15 Apr 2012 02:32 PM PDT
Reuters -  ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria on Sunday launched the campaign for a parliamentary election that the ruling elite, in power for 50 years, hopes will soak up the pressure for change that has been building since the "Arab Spring" revolts in neighboring countries. Oil and gas exporter Algeria is the only country in north Africa whose political system has remained essentially unchanged after the turmoil of last year when long-standing rulers were unseated in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. ...
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Israel moves to thwart pro-Palestinian "fly-in"
Sun,15 Apr 2012 02:04 PM PDT
Reuters -  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - More than 40 pro-Palestinian activists reached Tel Aviv's international airport on Sunday as part of an attempted "fly-in", only to be detained as Israel denied them entry and scrambled to stop other campaigners boarding flights in Europe. Israel's decision to distribute "no-fly" lists to European carriers and deploy hundreds of police at Ben Gurion airport underlined its deep concern over international campaigns against its treatment of the Palestinians. ...
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Worst of crisis over, governments must act: ECB's Asmussen
Sun,15 Apr 2012 01:57 PM PDT
Reuters -  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The worst of the euro zone crisis appears to be over and it is now up to governments to tackle debt problems remaining in their countries, European Central Bank policymaker Joerg Asmussen said on Sunday. "The ball is with governments, they have to act," Asmussen told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on its website late on Sunday. ...
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Analysis: Arab revolts fail to stir divided Palestinians
Sun,15 Apr 2012 01:46 PM PDT
Reuters - RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Popular uprisings have transformed the Middle East and North Africa in the past year, unseating four veteran autocrats and capturing the imagination of a generation of youths. But the protests have left Palestinians - long at the centre of the Arab world's main political conflict - unmoved. Dejected by lingering political divisions and exhausted by decades of mostly fruitless rebellion against Israel, they appear to have lost their appetite to take their fight for change up another level. ... Full Story | Top |
Taliban attack Afghanistan in "spring offensive"
Sun,15 Apr 2012 01:27 PM PDT
Reuters -  KABUL (Reuters) - Heavy explosions, rockets and gunfire rattled Kabul on Sunday as Afghanistan's Taliban launched a "spring offensive" with multiple attacks targeting Western embassies, the NATO force's headquarters and the parliament building. The assault, one of the most serious on the capital since U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001, highlighted the ability of militants to strike the heavily guarded diplomatic zone even after more than 10 years of war. It was also another election-year setback in Afghanistan for U.S. ...
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Insight: Myanmar's power struggle endangers economic boom
Sun,15 Apr 2012 01:05 PM PDT
Reuters -  KYA-OH, Myanmar (Reuters) - The banging of Win Maung's hammer echoes across the farming village of Kya-oh in parched central Myanmar, as twilight descends upon its thatched-roof homes. His arms and legs streaked in oil, the 48-year-old is struggling to repair a 22-horsepower diesel engine in a wheezing generator, the only power source for about 200 villagers whose homes will soon be enveloped by darkness. It is a familiar scene in rural Myanmar. "I'm not sure it can be fixed quickly. I'm not sure what the problem is," he says. ...
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Secret Service incident may not have been first: U.S. lawmaker
Sun,15 Apr 2012 12:32 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators looking into alleged U.S. Secret Service misconduct in Colombia before President Barack Obama's trip there must probe how often this has happened before, the Republican chairman of a House government oversight panel said on Sunday. Representative Darrell Issa also told CBS' "Face the Nation" program that there may have been more agents involved than the 11 who were sent back to Washington after allegations surfaced that they had brought prostitutes to their hotel in Colombia. ... Full Story | Top |
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