Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Syrian forces shell Hama city on deadline day: activist
Mon,9 Apr 2012 11:12 PM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian tanks shelled the central city of Hama in the early hours of Tuesday morning, an activist said, and tanks continued to patrol the streets on the day President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to start withdrawing government forces from urban areas. "At 2 a.m. we heard two shells fall and the sound of tanks moving around the streets," said Manhal Abu Bakr, an activist and citizen journalist. "There is no gunfire now. They shell us at night so that it is hard to film," he said over Skype. ... Full Story | Top |
At least 6 suspected militants said killed in Russia
Mon,9 Apr 2012 11:08 PM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Security forces killed at least six suspected militants in a province bordering Russia's volatile North Caucasus on Tuesday, Russian news agencies reported. The government is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency in the mostly Muslim region in southern Russia, and violence sometimes spills over into neighboring provinces. In one incident, law enforcement officers in a Stavropol province town killed four men who opened fire in response to demands they stop their car and produce identification documents, Interfax reported. ... Full Story | Top |
Japan says contingency plans for atomic accidents due soon
Mon,9 Apr 2012 10:58 PM PDT
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government will soon announce contingency plans for dealing with atomic accidents to ease public concerns about restarting reactors closed since the Fukushima crisis last year, Trade Minister Yukio Edano told reporters on Tuesday. (This story corrects day of the week to Tuesday) (Reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) Full Story | Top |
Magnitude 5.8 quake hits off west coast of Africa: USGS
Mon,9 Apr 2012 10:52 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck off the western coast of Africa on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The quake's epicenter was 471 miles north of Ascension Island and it occurred at a depth of 6.2 miles, the USGS said. (Reporting by Paul Simao; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) Full Story | Top |
Suicide bomber strikes Afghanistan's Herat region, 9 dead
Mon,9 Apr 2012 10:44 PM PDT
Reuters - HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least nine people on Tuesday in Afghanistan's relatively peaceful western Herat province near the border with Iran, officials said. The bomber blew up a car laden with explosives just outside the capital city of Heart, killing six civilians and three policemen, provincial governor spokesman Mohiddin Noori said. "The number of casualties may rise," Noori said about the attack, which came ahead of the traditional summer fighting months. ... Full Story | Top |
China, between a rocket and a hard place on North Korea
Mon,9 Apr 2012 09:06 PM PDT
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - A joke circulating among officials in Beijing pretty much underlines the bind China is in over North Korea's plans to send a satellite into space. North Korea's young ruler Kim Jong-un phones a Chinese leader to tell him about timing of the planned rocket launch. "When will it be?" asks the Chinese leader. Kim replies: "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four... ... Full Story | Top |
Anti-poverty group ONE pushes for G8 food deal
Mon,9 Apr 2012 09:03 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of the world's industrial powers should commit to boost agriculture investments in poor countries and end hunger and malnutrition among the poor when they meet outside Washington in May, a group co-founded by anti-poverty campaigners and rock stars Bono and Bob Geldof said on Tuesday. A new report by ONE Campaign said increased donor support for agricultural investment plans in 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Central America could lift about 50 million people out of extreme poverty. ... Full Story | Top |
China rights lawyer jailed for 2 years, 8 months
Mon,9 Apr 2012 08:45 PM PDT
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court sentenced a disabled lawyer renowned for defending people evicted from their homes to two years and eight months in prison on Tuesday for causing a disturbance and fraud, Beijing's latest use of a controversial law to stifle dissent. The lawyer, Ni Yulan, and her husband, Dong Jiqin, were detained in April 2011 and later convicted of the charges. Rights activists contend the charges were trumped up in an effort to silence the couple. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S., S.Korea would regard N.Korea launch as provocative: Pentagon
Mon,9 Apr 2012 08:39 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke with South Korea's Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin by telephone on Monday evening to discuss North Korea's planned missile launch, a Pentagon spokesman said. "Both leaders would regard a missile launch by North Korea as a serious provocation and a violation of North Korea's international obligations and standing U.N. Security Council resolutions," Pentagon spokesman George Little said. ... Full Story | Top |
Costa Rican diplomat is latest Venezuela kidnap victim
Mon,9 Apr 2012 08:31 PM PDT
Reuters - CARACAS (Reuters) - Gunmen have kidnapped a Costa Rican diplomat and are holding him for ransom in the latest high-profile abduction to rock crime-plagued Venezuela during an election year, officials said on Monday. The diplomatic community in the South American nation has been targeted in several attacks in recent months, underlining rampant insecurity that mostly affects Venezuelans and which voters say is their biggest concern as President Hugo Chavez campaigns for a new six-year term. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. should lead to end World Bank tradition: Nigerian finance minister
Mon,9 Apr 2012 07:10 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should take the lead and break the long tradition of an American always heading the World Bank, Nigerian finance minister and a nominee for the top post Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Monday. Speaking after a "marathon" three-and-a-half-hour interview by the World Bank board, Okonjo-Iweala said the decision on who leads the global development institution should go to the candidate with the best skills for the job. ... Full Story | Top |
Mexico's ruling party closes ranks around candidate
Mon,9 Apr 2012 05:39 PM PDT
Reuters -  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's ruling party overhauled its candidate's struggling presidential campaign on Monday, unveiling a new team and promising a more aggressive strategy to woo undecided voters after a string of public missteps. Josefina Vazquez Mota, aspiring to become Mexico's first woman president in the July 1 election, said her conservative National Action Party, or PAN, had been bogged down by infighting following a drawn-out primary. ...
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Brazil complains to Obama about monetary policy
Mon,9 Apr 2012 05:37 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff complained about U.S. monetary policy and expressed concern that sanctions against Iran could backfire in a meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday, highlighting strains between the Western Hemisphere's two biggest democracies. Rousseff said low interest rates and other expansionist policies in wealthy nations have created a glut of global liquidity, which in turn has the unintended effect of damaging growth in poorer countries such as Brazil. ...
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U.S. tells North Korea not to carry out nuclear test
Mon,9 Apr 2012 05:30 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States urged North Korea on Monday not conduct a nuclear test or launch a satellite and called on China to exert its influence over its neighbor to try to ward off such "provocative actions." North Korea, which is pressing ahead with plans for a satellite launch despite U.S. and regional appeals that it desist, is also preparing a third nuclear test, South Korean news reports said on Sunday. Another nuclear test is bound to scare neighbors and infuriate the West, which has long sought to curb the North's nuclear ambitions. ...
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Syrian troops on offensive on deadline day
Mon,9 Apr 2012 05:08 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops shelled villages, fired across frontiers and were accused of massacres in the hours before a deadline on Tuesday that many doubt can usher in a U.N.-brokered ceasefire and halt a 13-month slide into all-out civil war. Diplomats trying to contain a crisis that has inflamed the Middle East and pitched old Cold War rivals into opposing camps will not wish to abandon their most comprehensive peace plan yet. The plan's author, international envoy Kofi Annan, visits Turkey and Iran on Tuesday, while Russia hosts the Syrian foreign minister. ...
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Prosecutor rules out grand jury in Trayvon Martin case
Mon,9 Apr 2012 04:56 PM PDT
Reuters -  ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - The special prosecutor investigating the shooting death of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin on Monday ruled out using a grand jury in the case, meaning her office alone will decide whether to charge shooter George Zimmerman with a crime. The case has captured national attention because of race and Florida's controversial self-defense laws, prompting demonstrations across the country including one on Monday that temporarily shut down the Sanford Police Department in the town where the shooting took place. ...
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Mexico's ruling party closes ranks around candidate
Mon,9 Apr 2012 04:51 PM PDT
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's ruling party overhauled its candidate's struggling presidential campaign on Monday, unveiling a new team and promising a more aggressive strategy to woo undecided voters after a string of public missteps in the first official week of the race. Josefina Vazquez Mota, aspiring to become Mexico's first woman president in the July 1 election, said her conservative National Action Party, or PAN, had been bogged down by infighting following a drawn-out primary. ...
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Egypt presidential rivals share secretive past
Mon,9 Apr 2012 04:39 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - They sit at opposite ends of Egypt's political spectrum and one of them was jailed by a government in which the other was chief of intelligence. Now they both want to be president. The Muslim Brotherhood's Khairat al-Shater and Hosni Mubarak's head spy Omar Suleiman have moved firmly into the public eye as last-minute contenders in the presidential election, redrawing the electoral map just weeks before voting. ...
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Mexico's Pena Nieto plans new police to fight drug gangs
Mon,9 Apr 2012 04:12 PM PDT
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto pledged on Monday to create a new police force made up of former soldiers to fight drug gangs and said ending violence would take priority over battling the traffickers if he wins the election. Pena Nieto, of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is the hot favorite to win the presidency on July 1, a contest that has been dominated by concerns about rampant drug violence and the need to create more jobs in Mexico. ... Full Story | Top |
Brazil concerned over Iran, oil prices: sources
Mon,9 Apr 2012 04:07 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff expressed concerns to U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday that sanctions against Iran could increase tensions in the Middle East and cause a sharp rise in oil prices, sources told Reuters. Rousseff's government has generally opposed sanctions against Syria and Iran, arguing they do more harm than good. Also, the two leaders did not explicitly discuss Boeing's proposal to sell F-18 jets to Brazil during their bilateral meeting at the White House, the sources said on condition of anonymity. ... Full Story | Top |
Home-made bomb injures seven Bahrain policemen
Mon,9 Apr 2012 03:34 PM PDT
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Seven Bahraini policemen were wounded, three of them seriously, when a home-made bomb exploded on Monday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said, during a protest near the capital calling for the release of an activist on a two-month hunger strike. Protesters threw petrol bombs at riot police to lure officers into Eker, a Shi'ite village outside the capital Manama, before the rare explosion was set off, the spokesman said. ...
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Police clash with anti-government protesters in central Tunis
Mon,9 Apr 2012 03:33 PM PDT
Reuters -  TUNIS (Reuters) - Police clashed with anti-government protesters who tried to storm Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis on Monday in defiance of a ban on demonstrations in the area - a focal point of the revolt that ousted Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali more than a year ago. At least 2,000 protesters came out to mark the Martyrs' Day holiday, which commemorates the 1938 suppression of pro-independence demonstrators by French colonial troops. As they reached the interior ministry on Habib Bourguiba, they were met by police who fired tear gas to clear the crowd. ...
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Brazil complains to Obama about monetary policy
Mon,9 Apr 2012 03:30 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff complained about U.S. monetary policy and failed to make major progress on trade in a White House meeting with President Barack Obama on Monday, highlighting strains between the Western Hemisphere's two biggest economies. Rousseff said that while expansionary monetary policies in wealthy nations were needed to keep global economic problems from becoming worse, she worried about the unintended consequences for developing countries such as Brazil. ...
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Mexico's front-runner sees possible Pemex listing
Mon,9 Apr 2012 03:02 PM PDT
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential front-runner wants state oil monopoly Pemex to emulate the success of Brazil's Petrobras and ramp up private-sector involvement that could possibly pave the way for a stock listing in the future. Enrique Pena Nieto of the centrist opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who has a big lead in opinion polls heading into the July 1 election, said on Monday he wants to grow Pemex and make it more efficient. ... Full Story | Top |
Mexico's Pena Nieto plans new police to fight drug gangs
Mon,9 Apr 2012 02:56 PM PDT
Reuters -  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto pledged on Monday to create a new police force made up of former soldiers to fight drug gangs and said ending violence would take priority over battling narcotics trafficking if he wins the election. Pena Nieto, of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is the hot favorite to win the presidency on July 1, a contest that has been dominated by concerns about drug violence and the need to create more jobs in Mexico. ...
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Ex-Syrian army commander calls for air strikes on Assad troops
Mon,9 Apr 2012 02:17 PM PDT
Reuters - APAYDEN, Turkey (Reuters) - A former army commander who now leads a military council trying to organize armed resistance to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said air strikes on forces spearheading his military crackdown would be the only way to avoid a protracted civil war. Western and regional powers grappling with how to support the year-long uprising against Assad should shed a reluctance for military action and consider air strikes to force out the Alawite ruling elite, General Mustafa al-Sheikh told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
Helicopter crash kills 6 foreigners in Niger desert
Mon,9 Apr 2012 01:58 PM PDT
Reuters - NIAMEY (Reuters) - Four Chinese employees from state oil firm CNPC and two French crew members were killed in a helicopter crash in Niger's Tenere desert, two Nigerien security sources said on Monday. Cash-strapped Niger began producing oil last year from its remote Agadem oil block, some 1,500 km (930 miles) east of the capital, in a $5 billion deal with China's CNPC. "We found the remains of the private helicopter that went missing when it flew over the desert, and all the occupants - the four Chinese and the two French crew members - were killed," a military officer said. ... Full Story | Top |
Microsoft trumps Amazon, others for AOL patents
Mon,9 Apr 2012 01:43 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Microsoft trumped Amazon, eBay and other tech giants with its more than $1 billion purchase of the majority of AOL Inc's patent trove. AOL said it was selling more than 800 patents related to advertising, search, e-commerce and mobile to Redmond, Wash-based company, surprising investors with the size of the deal and sending AOL shares up more than 40 percent. The sale includes technology rights from AOL's current and former businesses, ranging from Netscape, ICQ and MapQuest to CompuServe, Advertising.com and others, according to a source close to the matter. ...
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Peru's Shining Path rebels take hostages, free most
Mon,9 Apr 2012 01:33 PM PDT
Reuters - LIMA (Reuters) - Shining Path rebels brazenly kidnapped dozens of workers in Peru's natural gas industry on Monday before letting most of them go hours later in a remote jungle, officials and local radio said. At least 23 of 30 hostages have been freed, RPP radio said. Most kidnap victims were employees of the Swedish firm Skanska, which services a natural gas pipeline in southeastern Peru, officials said. ... Full Story | Top |
Libya halts cash for ex-fighters over corruption
Mon,9 Apr 2012 01:12 PM PDT
Reuters -  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya has halted a scheme to pay compensation to people who fought in last year's revolt against Muammar Gaddafi because it was riddled with corruption and paying out cash to people who do not qualify. A spokesman for the National Transitional Council (NTC) said a list of those eligible under the scheme - which paid out 1.8 billion Libyan dinars ($1.4 billion) in less than three months - included people who were dead or who had never fought. "The corruption is too much," NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy told Reuters on Monday. ...
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Helicopter crash kills 6 foreigners in Niger desert
Mon,9 Apr 2012 12:53 PM PDT
Reuters - NIAMEY (Reuters) - Four Chinese employees from state oil firm CNPC and two French crew members were killed in a helicopter crash in Niger's Tenere desert, two Nigerien security sources said on Monday. "We found the remains of the private helicopter that went missing when it flew over the desert and all the occupants - the four Chinese and the two French crew members - were killed," a military officer said. A second officer said the helicopter had taken off from CNPC's Agadem oil block in eastern Niger, heading towards the town of Fachi on Friday but never reached its destination. ... Full Story | Top |
Facebook to buy Instagram for $1 billion
Mon,9 Apr 2012 12:48 PM PDT
Reuters -  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook will pay $1 billion in cash and stock for Instagram, a 2-year-old photo-sharing application developer, in its largest-ever acquisition just months before the No. 1 social media website is expected to go public. The price was stunning for an apps-maker without any significant revenue, even with soaring startup valuations in Silicon Valley, as Facebook sought to absorb a potential rival or at least prevent it from falling into the hands of a major competitor like Twitter or Google. ...
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U.N. chief "deplores" Syria border clashes
Mon,9 Apr 2012 12:28 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he deplores the cross-border shootings from Syria into Turkey and Lebanon ahead of a ceasefire deadline in the yearlong conflict that has pushed Syria to the brink of civil war. Turkey said two officials working in a refugee camp near the country's border with Syria were among five people wounded on Monday by gunfire coming from Syria as troops clashed with rebels nearby. Lebanon's Al-Jadeed television channel said Syrian soldiers fatally shot a cameraman as he stood on the Lebanese side of the border. ... Full Story | Top |
Syria demands guarantees, rebels say peace plan doomed
Mon,9 Apr 2012 12:13 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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U.S. dismisses Syrian demand for written guarantees
Mon,9 Apr 2012 12:05 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday dismissed Syrian demands for written guarantees that rebels would lay down arms as a stalling tactic and voiced outrage at reports Syria attacked refugees inside Turkey. Syria was to have started pulling troops out of towns and cities by Tuesday, paving the way for a ceasefire under a peace plan designed to end Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's efforts to crush more than a year of anti-government protests. ... Full Story | Top |
Factbox: Journalists killed in Syrian unrest
Mon,9 Apr 2012 12:03 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Syria has banned almost all foreign journalists from the start of the uprising, but authorities have started issuing short-term visas for a limited number of journalists, who are allowed to move around accompanied by government minders. Syrian security forces have killed more than 9,000 people, according to the United Nations, while the government of President Bashar al-Assad says more than 2,500 soldiers and security agents have been killed. ... Full Story | Top |
U.N. chief "deplores" Syria border clashes
Mon,9 Apr 2012 11:52 AM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he "deplores" the cross-border shootings from Syria into Turkey and Lebanon ahead of a deadline for a ceasefire in the year-long conflict. Turkey said two Turkish officials working in a refugee camp near the country's border with Syria were among five people wounded by gunfire coming from Syria on Monday, while Lebanon's Al-Jadeed television channel said Syrian soldiers shot dead a cameraman as he stood on the Lebanese side of the border. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
TV cameraman shot dead on Lebanon-Syria border
Mon,9 Apr 2012 11:44 AM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian soldiers shot dead a cameraman working for Lebanon's Al-Jadeed television channel on Monday near the border between the two countries, the television channel said. It said cameraman Ali Shaaban was on the Lebanese side of the frontier, in the northern Lebanese region of Wadi Khaled, when soldiers opened fire on a car carrying the Al-Jadeed crew. Shaaban's colleague Hussein Khreiss said the shooting occurred even though the crew had explained to the soldiers what they were doing. "We told our Syrian brothers ... that we are not military ... ...
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Yemeni army clashes with Islamists in south, 57 killed
Mon,9 Apr 2012 11:36 AM PDT
Reuters -  ADEN (Reuters) - At least 57 people were killed on Monday in Yemen when fighters from an al Qaeda-linked group attacked a military camp near the southern city of Lawdar, residents and local officials said. The fighting started at dawn when militants from Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) attacked the camp in Abyan province, about 120 km (75 miles) from southern port city Aden. ...
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Syrian forces kill 150 people in Idlib: activists
Mon,9 Apr 2012 11:34 AM PDT
Reuters - ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) - Syrian army bombardment has killed at least 115 people in the northern province of Idlib in the last two days, and troops also rounded up and shot 35 men during military operations in the region, two opposition activists said on Monday. They said the killings occurred in al-Rouge, villages and farmland southwest of the provincial capital Idlib where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been trying to retake swaths of land that fell to rebels from the Free Syrian Army. ... Full Story | Top |
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