Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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India PM seeks to heal bad blood on Myanmar visit
Sat,26 May 2012 10:30 PM PDT
Reuters -  SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - In northwest Myanmar, where the Kaladan River flows out into the Bay of Bengal, the two giant arms of a half-built wharf enfold the estuarine mud with steel and concrete. Their embrace is fraternal - Myanmar's giant neighbor India is funding the new port in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State - but also strategic. The port is part of a $214-million river and road network that will carve a trade route into India's landlocked northeast and underscore New Delhi's determination to capitalize on Myanmar's growing importance at Asia's crossroads. ...
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Nepal on alert as clock ticks towards constitution deadline
Sat,26 May 2012 10:20 PM PDT
Reuters -  KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal stood on the brink of fresh political turmoil on Sunday as wrangling over the young Himalayan republic's first federal constitution ground towards a midnight deadline. A new constitution is widely seen as crucial to helping end the instability that has plagued Nepal since the end of a Maoist-led civil war in 2006 and subsequent overthrow of the monarchy, but it has been thwarted by demands for the country to be divided into states along ethnic lines. ...
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China detains official for rapes after online uproar
Sat,26 May 2012 09:24 PM PDT
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in central China detained a former Communist Party official on suspicion of raping underage girls, state media said on Sunday, following an online uproar about the latest case of abuse of power. Li Xingong, who was the party's deputy head in Yongcheng city in Henan province, is accused of assaulting more than ten girls during police interrogations, the official Xinhua news agency reported. City authorities have "ordered swift and severe punishment on the suspect in accordance with relevant laws", it added. ... Full Story | Top |
Jordan hikes gasoline, power prices to ease budget deficit
Sat,26 May 2012 04:09 PM PDT
Reuters - AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan has raised the price of gasoline and electricity for major mining firms, hotels and banks, to ease its worsening budget deficit that could reach $4 billion this year, officials said on Saturday. The move, announced by the cabinet, which takes effect after midnight is the first major rise in retail gasoline prices since street protests early last year inspired by the wave of Arab unrest pushed the authorities to expand social spending and freeze fuel price hikes, including gasoline. The prices of premium petrol would increase to 1 dinar ($1.4) from 0. ... Full Story | Top |
U.N. says over 92 killed in Syria, 32 of them children
Sat,26 May 2012 03:52 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists described as an artillery barrage by government forces in the worst violence since the start of a U.N. peace plan to slow the flow of blood in Syria's uprising. The bloodied bodies of children, some with their skulls split open, were shown in footage posted to YouTube purporting to show the victims of the shelling in the central town of Houla on Friday. The sound of wailing filled the room. ...
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Mali Tuaregs, Islamist rebels agree to merge, create new state
Sat,26 May 2012 03:51 PM PDT
Reuters - BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's Tuareg rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar Dine Islamist militants have agreed to merge and create an independent Islamic state in the north of the country, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday. The deal between MNLA, which has said it wants an independent secular state in the north, and the al Qaeda-linked Salafist Ansar Dine, which had wanted to impose Sharia across Mali, may complicate international efforts to stabilize Mali after a March coup that plunged the country into chaos. ... Full Story | Top |
French back Hollande's first days in power: poll
Sat,26 May 2012 01:29 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - Close to two thirds of French people approve of President Francois Hollande's actions in his first days in power, a poll showed on Saturday, giving him a strong foundation to face a parliamentary election and the challenges of the euro crisis. Hollande took on the top job on May 15 at a time of stagnating economic growth and high unemployment in France and heightened anxiety over Greece's ability to remain in the euro zone. ...
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Two separate attacks wound five in north east Kenya
Sat,26 May 2012 01:06 PM PDT
Reuters - ISIOLO, Kenya (Reuters) - Suspected grenade attacks at a hotel and a refugee camp in northeastern Kenya wounded at least five people on Saturday, police said, days after a similar strike in the same region. Grenade and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in Kenya have become more frequent since it sent troops to Somalia to pursue al Shabaab insurgents it blames for a wave of kidnappings last year. Police said four builders at a primary school in the Ifo refugee camp in Garissa, and one person at a hotel in Wajir were wounded in the attacks. ... Full Story | Top |
Greek pro-bailout conservatives regain lead: polls
Sat,26 May 2012 12:27 PM PDT
Reuters -  ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's conservatives have regained an opinion poll lead that would allow the formation of a pro-bailout government committed to keeping the country in the euro zone, a batch of new surveys showed on Saturday. Greece was forced to call repeat elections for June 17 after a May 6 vote left parliament divided evenly between groups of parties that support and oppose the austerity conditions attached to a 130 billion euro bailout agreed with the European Union and International Monetary Fund in March. ...
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Islamist and ex-PM vie for mantle of Egypt's revolt
Sat,26 May 2012 12:26 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood and a military man close to ousted leader Hosni Mubarak courted defeated first-round candidates in Egypt's presidential election on Saturday, each trying to claim the mantle of the uprising before a run-off next month. State television said the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi led this week's vote with 26.4 percent, against 23 percent for ex-air force chief Ahmed Shafiq, according to preliminary results. Hamdeen Sabahy, a secular leftist came a close third with 21.5 percent, followed by independent Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh. ...
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Finnish rooftop gunman seems not to be extremist
Sat,26 May 2012 12:24 PM PDT
Reuters - HELSINKI (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire from a rooftop in a Finnish town centre in the early hours of Saturday, killing two people and wounding several others, police said. An 18-year-old man wearing camouflage clothing was arrested after the shooting in Hyvinkaa, a small town 56 km (34 miles) north of the capital Helsinki. The motive for the shooting was unclear, but police said it seemed the suspect is not extremist and does not support a specific ideology. ... Full Story | Top |
Islamists walk out of Algeria parliament in protest
Sat,26 May 2012 11:36 AM PDT
Reuters -  ALGIERS (Reuters) - Islamist lawmakers walked out of the inaugural session of Algeria's parliament on Saturday to protest against an election they say was rigged to hand a majority to the ruling elite's party. Algeria, supplier of about a fifth of Europe's imported gas, is the only country in north Africa left largely untouched by last year's "Arab Spring" revolts, but some analysts predict unrest if the establishment does not loosen its grip on power. ...
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Serbian tells Putin he will not trade Kosovo for EU
Sat,26 May 2012 11:27 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Serbia is on a "long and uncertain" road to joining the European Union but will not give up its claim to Kosovo for the sake of membership, President-elect Tomislav Nikolic told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday. It was Nikolic's first foreign trip since he was elected president on May 20. The election of the former leader of the ultranationalist Radical Party triggered speculation the country might abandon its pro-Western path steered since the overthrow of late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. ... Full Story | Top |
Putin puts Medvedev in charge of Russia's ruling party
Sat,26 May 2012 11:27 AM PDT
Reuters -  MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin steered Dmitry Medvedev into the chairmanship of Russia's ruling party on Saturday and demanded reforms to the flagging organization he will rely on to keep his grip on the country's far-flung regions. At Putin's behest, delegates at a United Russia congress elected Medvedev chairman with a unanimous show of hands, the final step in a choreographed role reversal the longtime leader hopes will preserve his rule against growing opposition. After four years of playing No. ...
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PKK says it carried out Turkey suicide car bomb
Sat,26 May 2012 11:17 AM PDT
Reuters - ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide car bomb attack in central Turkey that killed one policeman, and media reports said the bombers had entered Turkey from Syria. Four suspects have been detained in connection with the attack, Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin told reporters. Two militants set off a bomb inside their car near a police station at Pinarbasi in Turkey's central Kayseri province on Friday, killing themselves and one policeman and wounding 18 others. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt's Brotherhood would keep Israel treaty: Carter
Sat,26 May 2012 10:44 AM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood may seek to modify, but will not destroy, Egypt's 33-year-old peace treaty with Israel, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Saturday. Carter, 87, was speaking after initial vote tallies put the Brotherhood's candidate ahead in the first round of Egypt's presidential election, which his Carter Center helped monitor. The U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Ethiopia detains, quizzes U.S. journalist: VOA
Sat,26 May 2012 10:37 AM PDT
Reuters - ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian authorities briefly detained a journalist for Voice of America (VOA) and his translator as he covered a dispute between Muslims and the government in the capital Addis Ababa, the U.S. broadcaster said on Saturday. Peter Heinlein and translator Simegineh Yekoye were arrested after leaving a meeting about the dispute at a mosque on Friday afternoon and released without charge the following morning, VOA said. "We were interrogated by a police officer who told us that we had engaged in illegal reporting. ... Full Story | Top |
Japan says Fukushima spent-fuel risk contained
Sat,26 May 2012 09:58 AM PDT
Reuters -  FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese officials said on Saturday the unprecedented effort to remove spent fuel rods from one of the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors was on track despite lingering concerns about the structure's vulnerability to another earthquake. "I don't think the situation is unstable," said Goshi Hosono, Japan's minister in charge of the response to the nuclear crisis. He was speaking to reporters after his first tour of the twisted and partly destroyed building that houses Fukushima's No. 4 reactor. ...
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Bud dumps heavy rain on Mexico's Pacific coast
Sat,26 May 2012 09:28 AM PDT
Reuters -  MANZANILLO, Mexico (Reuters) - The remnants of the first hurricane of the 2012 season, Bud, dumped heavy rain along Mexico's coast early on Saturday but caused little damage before it turned back into the Pacific. The storm, which on Friday had threatened to hit land with hurricane-force winds, lost strength as it neared the coast and it was downgraded to a tropical depression early on Saturday. Strong winds whipped the area's beaches and rain drenched coastal roads but there were no reports of injuries. ...
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Brother of blind Chinese activist returns home: lawyer
Sat,26 May 2012 09:27 AM PDT
Reuters -  The brother of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng who was reported to have gone missing has returned to his village in northeastern China, a lawyer said on Saturday. The short disappearance of Chen Guangfu had sparked concerns he was the latest target of government reprisals against the family of the activist, who escaped from his village in late April after 19 months of detention at home. Shandong-based lawyer Liu Weiguo told Reuters Chen Guangfu had returned to Dongshigu village. ...
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Muslims buried in Bosnia town, Serb veterans march
Sat,26 May 2012 09:26 AM PDT
Reuters - VISEGRAD, Bosnia (Reuters) - The bodies of 66 Bosnian Muslims, murdered and dumped in the Drina river 20 years ago, were buried in Visegrad in eastern Bosnia on Saturday, hours after a march through the town by Serb veterans of the 1992-95 war. Nestled in the river valley, Visegrad is indicative of Bosnia's unhealed wounds. Muslims made up two-thirds of the town's 21,000 population before the war, but were driven out by Bosnian Serb forces. Just a few hundred have returned to live. ... Full Story | Top |
Paolo Gabriele: from papal butler to accused traitor
Sat,26 May 2012 09:04 AM PDT
Reuters - VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Paolo Gabriele was always a reserved, almost shy man, as his position required. He had access to the most private rooms in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace - Pope Benedict's apartment. But what could have prompted the pope's butler, who was formally charged by Vatican magistrates on Saturday with illegal possession of secret documents, to betray the man who trusted him? Was it money? Probably not. ... Full Story | Top |
Israeli settler shoots Palestinian in West Bank
Sat,26 May 2012 08:27 AM PDT
Reuters - NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - An Israeli settler shot and wounded a Palestinian man on Saturday in a clash that began when a group of settlers set fire to fields belonging to a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, officials said. Residents said about 25 settlers, some of them carrying guns, set fire to wheat fields in the village of Orif, which is near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Some villagers came out to extinguish the fire and clashed with the settlers, said Nablus official Kassan Daglas. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt candidate to seek election suspension-lawyer
Sat,26 May 2012 08:11 AM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahy will file an appeal for Egypt's presidential election to be suspended because of alleged voting irregularities and a pending case over former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq's right to stand, Sabahy's lawyer said on Saturday. "We will present an appeal on behalf of candidate Hamdeen Sabahy ... to the presidential electoral committee, citing a series of irregularities ... that have affected the outcome of the first round," lawyer Essam El-Islamboly told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
Spain's Bankia eyes stake sales after record bailout
Sat,26 May 2012 08:02 AM PDT
Reuters -  MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's fourth biggest lender, Bankia, on Saturday prepared to sell stakes it holds in companies to meet European competition rules after a state rescue that has so far cost 23.5 billion euros ($29.40 billion). Bankia's parent company BFA asked for a higher-than-expected 19 billion euros in government help on Friday, in addition to 4.5 billion the state has already pumped in, to cover possible losses on repossessed property, loans and investments. ...
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No German money for Greek ''bottomless pit'': minister
Sat,26 May 2012 06:48 AM PDT
Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will not "pour money into a bottomless pit" and patience with Greece is growing thin ahead of a new election in the Mediterranean country, a conservative member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet was quoted on Saturday as saying. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper that Germany, Europe's largest economy and the biggest contributor to rescue efforts, is glad to help Greece help itself but expects it to honor its agreements. "We're not willing to pour money into a bottomless pit," he told the newspaper. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Revolutionaries see reversal in Egypt vote
Sat,26 May 2012 06:42 AM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's revolutionaries did not take to the streets to replace Hosni Mubarak with another military strongman or to put an Islamist ideologue in charge, but that is the choice they woke up to after a first-round vote for the presidency. The youths who put national pride before religion when they protested against Mubarak's autocratic rule last year have increasingly despaired, saying the revolution they initiated has been hijacked by generals and the Muslim Brotherhood. ... Full Story | Top |
Egypt's Shafiq vows to guard revolution's gains
Sat,26 May 2012 06:42 AM PDT
Reuters - CAIRO (Reuters) - Ahmed Shafiq, who will fight an Islamist candidate in a runoff for Egypt's presidency next month, vowed on Saturday to restore security after the revolution that unseated Hosni Mubarak. Shafiq, 70, an ex-air force commander like Mubarak, is widely viewed as a symbol of the old order, but sought to combat that image after coming second to the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi in this week's first round. "Your revolution was stolen," he told a news conference, addressing youth groups that spearheaded last year's popular uprising. "I pledge to return its fruits to your hands. ... Full Story | Top |
Pope's butler charged over leaks scandal
Sat,26 May 2012 06:15 AM PDT
Reuters -  VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Vatican magistrates formally charged Pope Benedict's butler with illegal possession of secret documents on Saturday and said a wider investigation would take place to see if he had any accomplices who helped him leak them. Paolo Gabriele is suspected of leaking highly sensitive documents, some alleging cronyism and corruption in Vatican contracts, in a scandal which has come to be known as "Vatileaks". A statement referred to Gabriele, 46, who was until his arrest on Wednesday night serving the pope meals and helping him dress, as "the defendant". ...
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Iran has enough uranium for 5 bombs: expert
Sat,26 May 2012 05:48 AM PDT
Reuters -  Iran has significantly stepped up its output of low-enriched uranium and total production in the last five years would be enough for at least five nuclear weapons if refined much further, a U.S. security institute said. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a think-tank which tracks Iran's nuclear program closely, based the analysis on data in the latest report by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which was issued on Friday. ...
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Yemen's army says recaptured rebel positions
Sat,26 May 2012 05:26 AM PDT
Reuters - ADEN (Reuters) - The Yemeni army battled al Qaeda-linked militants deep inside Zinjibar on Saturday, recapturing key positions in the rebel-held southern city and killing at least 62 Islamist fighters, a military official said. The official said four government soldiers died and four were wounded in the fighting, part of an offensive that began earlier this month to uproot Islamist militants from southern Yemen. He said many of the dead militants were Somalis. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran plays down U.N. nuclear report
Sat,26 May 2012 04:57 AM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has played down a United Nations report that said Iranian nuclear scientists had enriched uranium to a higher-than-expected level, state media reported on Saturday. On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that samples taken in February showed particles with enrichment levels of up to 27 percent - putting Iran further down the road to making potentially weapons-grade uranium. ... Full Story | Top |
France demands action on Syria peace plan
Sat,26 May 2012 04:39 AM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - France called for immediate implementation of Kofi Annan's peace plan for Syria on Saturday and said it would summon a meeting of the Friends of Syria group after activists said 90 people were killed in Syrian shelling. Condemning the violence on Friday as a "massacre", French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he would talk to U.N. peace mediator Annan on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
Tunisian Salafi Islamists riot, clash with police
Sat,26 May 2012 04:38 AM PDT
Reuters - TUNIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Salafi Islamists attacked bars and shops and clashed with security forces in a Tunisian town on Saturday in the latest incident to raise religious tensions in the home of the Arab Spring uprisings. Police and witnesses in the northwestern town of Jendouba said hundreds of Salafis - followers of a puritanical interpretation of Islam - began rioting to protest the arrest of four men in connection with previous attacks on alcohol vendors. Police responded with tear gas, breaking up the crowd, but clashes had yet to die down, witnesses and police said. ... Full Story | Top |
Italy PM Monti defends tax authorities as protests mount
Sat,26 May 2012 04:27 AM PDT
Reuters - ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti faced protests and catcalls on Saturday as he defended tax authorities against attacks fuelled by his government's unpopular austerity measures. Monti's speech to a passing-out parade of new officers of the Guardia di Finanza tax police in the northern city of Bergamo was met by a small plane trailing a banner reading "Enough with Monti, enough with taxes". ... Full Story | Top |
Rooftop gunman kills two in Finland
Sat,26 May 2012 04:17 AM PDT
Reuters - HELSINKI (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire from a rooftop in a Finnish town centre in the early hours of Saturday, killing two people and wounding several others, police said. An 18-year-old man wearing camouflage clothing was arrested after the shooting in Hyvinkaa, a small town 56 km (34 miles) north of the capital Helsinki. The motive for the shooting was unclear. It followed a series of shooting sprees in Finland in recent years and came less than a year after anti-immigrant gunman Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in a rampage in neighboring Norway. ... Full Story | Top |
Yemen's army says recaptured rebel positions
Sat,26 May 2012 03:18 AM PDT
Reuters - ADEN (Reuters) - Yemen's army has recaptured rebel positions inside the southern city of Zinjibar, killing at least 62 Islamist fighters linked to al Qaeda, including Somalis, a military official said. The official said two government soldiers were killed and four were wounded in the fighting. He said many of the dead Islamist fighters were Somalis, but gave no precise figure. (Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Full Story | Top |
Afghan road lifelines blocked by graft, kickbacks
Sat,26 May 2012 02:56 AM PDT
Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - When the Afghan government unveiled plans for a road linking his small village to larger centers elsewhere, Rahmanullah was so enthusiastic he offered a section of his farm for the route, thinking it would help move his produce to larger markets. He even signed up for the construction gang, earning $6 a day to help build the 28 kilometer-long route from Gardez, the capital of east Paktia province, and Rahmanullah's home in the mountainous Mirzaki district. ... Full Story | Top |
Saudi envoy kidnapped in Yemen begs king for help
Sat,26 May 2012 02:22 AM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian diplomat kidnapped by al Qaeda militants in Yemen urged the Saudi king to meet his captors' demand for the release of women prisoners, in a video message posted on the Internet on Saturday. "I plead the custodian of the two mosques (Saudi King Abdullah) to bring me back to my family, to my children and wife," said Abdallah al-Khalidi, the Saudi deputy consul in the Yemeni port city of Aden, who was abducted in March. "I plead King Abdullah ... ... Full Story | Top |
Syria shelling killed over 90 - opposition
Sat,26 May 2012 12:31 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - The death toll has risen to at least 90 from Syrian shelling on the town of Houla on Friday, an opposition group said on Saturday. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said residents continued to flee the town, in central Homs province, in fear that artillery fire would resume. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the accounts from Syria, which has restricted access for journalists during a 14-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. ... Full Story | Top |
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