Today's Reuters World News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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China hails space mission's success as crew returns to Earth
Thu,28 Jun 2012 09:31 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Shenzhou 9 spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday, ending a mission that put the country's first woman in space and completed a manned docking test critical to its goal of building a space station by 2020. The spacecraft's gumdrop-shaped return capsule descended to Earth by parachute and touched down shortly after 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) in China's northwestern Inner Mongolia region with its three-member crew, including female astronaut Liu Yang. Beijing has hailed the nearly two-week mission as a technical breakthrough for the country's growing space program. ...
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Oman plans Islamic finance rules before year-end
Thu,28 Jun 2012 08:58 PM PDT
Reuters - SYDNEY (Reuters) - A regulatory framework for Islamic finance is taking shape in Oman as government bodies move towards meeting the country's stated aim of making sharia-compliant products available to the public this year. But logistical challenges and the limited size of the market may prevent entrants to the business from making quick profits. Legislation covering takaful (Islamic insurance) and sukuk (Islamic fixed income securities) is expected to be finalized by the end of the third quarter of the year, Capital Market Authority officials told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
France's Strauss-Kahn and wife have separated: source
Thu,28 Jun 2012 07:10 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is facing a probe into his alleged involvement with a prostitution ring in France, and his wife have separated, a source said. Anne Sinclair, a wealthy heiress who recently relaunched her media career as a news editor at the Huffington Post's French edition, and Strauss-Kahn separated about a month ago and they are living in separate residences in Paris, said the source, who is close to Strauss-Kahn. ...
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Mercosur won't slap sanctions on Paraguay, eyes China
Thu,28 Jun 2012 05:41 PM PDT
Reuters - MENDOZA, Argentina (Reuters) - The Mercosur trade bloc, which includes regional heavyweights Brazil and Argentina, will not impose economic sanctions on Paraguay despite concerns over the ousting of the country's president, officials said on Thursday. Paraguay's Senate removed Fernando Lugo from office last Friday in an impeachment trial that lasted a matter of hours, prompting criticism in the region and beyond. Mercosur responded by banning Paraguay from attending a summit in Argentina this week. ... Full Story | Top |
Mexico offers reward for airport killer police
Thu,28 Jun 2012 05:07 PM PDT
Reuters -  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican federal police on Thursday offered a reward of 5 million pesos ($370,000) to help capture two officers accused of drug trafficking and shooting dead three other policemen inside the capital's international airport. The wanted officers had gone into the airport bathroom to receive cocaine from a Colombian traveler before the three policemen tried to arrest them on Monday, said Luis Cardenas, division head of the federal police. The officers opened fire and fled the airport along with another policeman who is also on the run, Cardenas said, calling them "traitors. ...
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Blast hits Damascus, Turkey sends troops to border
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:14 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT/ISKENDERUN, Turkey (Reuters) - Rebel forces attacked Syria's main court in central Damascus on Thursday, state television said, while Turkey deployed troops and anti-aircraft rocket launchers to the Syrian border, building pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. A loud explosion echoed through the streets and a column of black smoke rose over Damascus, an Assad stronghold that until the last few days had seemed largely beyond the reach of rebels. State television described it as a "terrorist" blast. Dozens of wrecked and burning cars were strewn over a car park used by lawyers and ...
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Egypt's new president to take oath before court
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:09 PM PDT
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist President-elect Mohamed Mursi will give a speech to crowds in Tahrir Square on Friday but his party appears to have lost in a power struggle with the ruling military council over where he will take his oath of office. Details about the historic swearing-in ceremony were announced in a late statement from the presidency on Thursday which stated that Mursi will take the oath of office in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court on Saturday at 11 a.m. Cairo time (0900 GMT). ...
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France's Strauss-Kahn, wife have separated: media
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:08 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife have separated, as his legal battles run on over a New York sex assault case and his alleged involvement with a prostitution ring, weekly magazine Closer reported on Thursday. Anne Sinclair, a wealthy heiress who recently relaunched her media career as a news editor at the Huffington Post's French edition, threw Strauss-Kahn out of their home in central Paris a month ago and the two are living separately, the magazine said. The magazine did not cite any sources for the story that appeared in its online edition. ...
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Syrian tanks amass near Turkish border: FSA general
Thu,28 Jun 2012 04:07 PM PDT
Reuters - ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) - A general in the rebel Free Syria Army said on Friday that Syrian government forces had amassed around 170 tanks north of the city Aleppo, near the Turkish border, but there was no independent confirmation of the report. General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council, an association of senior officers who defected from President Bashar al-Assads forces, said the tanks had assembled at the Infantry School near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, 30 kms (19 miles) from the Turkish border. "The tanks are now at the Infantry School. ... Full Story | Top |
United Technologies sent military copter tech to China
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:39 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - United Technologies Corp on Thursday admitted selling China software that helped Beijing develop its first modern military attack helicopter, one of hundreds of export control violations over nearly two decades. At a federal court hearing in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United Technologies and its two subsidiaries, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Hamilton Sundstrand Corp, agreed to pay more than $75 million to the U.S. government to settle criminal and administrative charges related to the violations. ... Full Story | Top |
Ex-Marxist guerrilla to run for El Salvador presidency
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:37 PM PDT
Reuters - SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador's ruling leftist party on Thursday tapped Vice President Salvador Sanchez, a former Marxist guerrilla commander, as its candidate for the 2014 presidential race. Sanchez, 68, a teacher by profession, was one of the leaders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrillas during 12 years of civil war that ended in 1992. El Salvador's ruling political party of the same name formally nominated him as its candidate on Thursday. ... Full Story | Top |
WikiLeaks' Assange defiant over UK police request
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:37 PM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said it was almost certain he would not leave his embassy refuge on Friday to enter a British police station as part of his extradition process to be questioned in Sweden about sex-crime allegations. Assange has been holed-up in Ecuador's embassy in London since he made a surprise application for political asylum last week. On Thursday, British police summoned Assange to a London police station, demanding he leave the embassy. ...
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Analysis: Sudan rulers dig in as foes look for Arab Spring
Thu,28 Jun 2012 03:06 PM PDT
Reuters - KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Outside the University of Khartoum, riot police in blue fatigues perch on pickup trucks, keeping watch as young women in bright headscarves and men in button-down shirts walk by carrying textbooks to class in Sudan's intense summer heat. Less than a week earlier, the campus - just a few hundred meters (yards) from the national security headquarters - was a battleground. Police fired teargas and used batons to break up hundreds of protesters, who threw rocks back at them. No one expects the shaky truce to last. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. grants Iran sanctions exceptions to China
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:47 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States gave China a six-month reprieve from Iran financial sanctions on Thursday, avoiding a diplomatic spat with a country whose support it needs to try to quell violence in Syria and rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions. With Thursday's decision to grant exceptions to China, which buys up to a fifth of Iran's oil exports, and Singapore, which buys Iranian fuel oil, the Obama administration has now spared all 20 of Iran's major oil buyers from its unilateral sanctions. ... Full Story | Top |
Canada urges Europe to move toward banking union
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:47 PM PDT
Reuters -  GALWAY, Ireland (Reuters) - Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty urged European leaders on Thursday to move swiftly toward greater banking integration and to use public funds if necessary to recapitalize their banks, saying their "incremental" actions so far had failed. "The risk of a disorderly crisis continues to mount. This is an escalating situation ... we're very concerned," Flaherty told Canada's CTV network, saying there was "a lot of money on the sidelines now" because of market uncertainty. "We've seen this movie before. ...
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Syria's Assad says duty to "annihilate terrorists"
Thu,28 Jun 2012 02:35 PM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al Assad said in a rare interview broadcast on Thursday that his government had a duty to "annihilate terrorists" to protect its people and ruled out any solution to the crisis imposed from outside the country. His one-hour interview coincided with a sharp escalation of violence inside Syria and a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of a planned meeting in Geneva that will try to end the bloodshed. Diplomats said the talks - involving U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
Clinton in Russia to face off on Annan Syria plan
Thu,28 Jun 2012 01:10 PM PDT
Reuters - SAINT PETERSBURG (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to raise pressure on Russia on Thursday ahead of a crucial meeting on the Syria crisis, saying all countries involved must back international mediator Kofi Annan's detailed plan for a political transition. Clinton arrived in St Petersburg for a meeting on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, with their countries deeply divided over Syria and increasingly at odds over everything from anti-missile defense to human rights. Clinton and Lavrov are due to attend a meeting of the five permanent members of the ... Full Story | Top |
Jordan king pushes parliament to widen election law
Thu,28 Jun 2012 01:05 PM PDT
Reuters - AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan's King Abdullah instructed parliament on Thursday to reconvene next month to amend a controversial election law that has provoked Islamist disaffection and a potential boycott of polls that could deal a blow to democratic reforms. A palace statement said the monarch's message was conveyed in a meeting with heads of the lower and upper houses of parliament, composed mainly of pro-government deputies with strong tribal backing. ... Full Story | Top |
French minimum wage rise turns sour for Hollande
Thu,28 Jun 2012 12:40 PM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande's decision to raise the minimum wage in the midst of a European austerity drive is backfiring against him as trade unions, workers and left-wing allies criticize the increase as too miserly. Hollande, in office for six weeks, went through with a campaign promise to help low-earning workers on Tuesday when he announced the 2 percent rise, bringing the monthly wage after tax to 1,118 euros - or an increase of 21.50 euros. ... Full Story | Top |
Exclusive: Saudi readies oil line to counter Iran Hormuz threat
Thu,28 Jun 2012 12:37 PM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has reopened an old oil pipeline built by Iraq to bypass Gulf shipping lanes, giving Riyadh scope to export more of its crude from Red Sea terminals should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz, industry sources told Reuters. Riyadh took the step as international pressure grows on Iran to curb a nuclear program that Western powers say has a covert military purpose. A European Union embargo on buying Iranian oil takes full effect on Sunday, cutting Tehran's income. ... Full Story | Top |
Syria takes swipe at U.S. support for "terrorists"
Thu,28 Jun 2012 12:36 PM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria's U.N. envoy said on Thursday that "terrorists" in his country were using foreign communications technology, a clear swipe at U.S. support for opposition groups fighting for the past 16-months to oust President Bashar al-Assad. "Terrorists have been using information and communication technologies provided openly by some of those countries that suffered from the scourge," Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told a U.N. General Assembly debate on counter-terrorism. "Unfortunately these countries call this technology a non-lethal weapon," he said. ... Full Story | Top |
Turkey says to act with determination in jet attack
Thu,28 Jun 2012 12:36 PM PDT
Reuters - ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's National Security Council said on Thursday it would respond to Syria's "hostile" downing of one of its reconnaissance jets last week with determination but within international law. "Turkey will act with determination to use all its rights within the international law against this hostile act," the council, made up of the president, senior ministers and military chiefs, said in a statement after a five-hour meeting. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay, writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Michael Roddy) Full Story | Top |
Iran to review Seoul ties if oil imports suspended
Thu,28 Jun 2012 12:35 PM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi warned South Korea on Thursday that Tehran would reconsider ties with Seoul if the country stopped importing oil from Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported. South Korea said on Monday it would halt imports of Iranian crude from July 1 due to a European Union ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian oil, becoming the first major Asian consumer of Iranian crude to announce suspension of imports. ... Full Story | Top |
Islamists declare full control of Mali's north
Thu,28 Jun 2012 12:29 PM PDT
Reuters - BAMAKO (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked Islamists declared on Thursday they had secured full control of Mali's desert north, a day after pushing their former Tuareg separatist allies out of the town of Gao in a gun battle that killed at least 20 people. The appropriation by Islamists of a separatist uprising by Tuareg MNLA rebels regarded in the West as having some legitimate political grievances will heighten fears Mali will become a haven for jihadists. ... Full Story | Top |
Iraq bomb attacks kill 21, wound scores
Thu,28 Jun 2012 12:21 PM PDT
Reuters -  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombings in and around Baghdad killed at least 21 people and wounded over 100 on Thursday, health and security sources said, the latest attacks in a bloody month that have stoked fears Iraq could return to broad sectarian fighting. Tensions have been high in the country since the last U.S. troops left in December, with ongoing political crises between Iraq's main Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions further aggravating concerns. ...
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China, Singapore get exceptions to Iran sanctions
Thu,28 Jun 2012 11:44 AM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China and Singapore have been given exceptions to Washington's Iran financial sanctions because they have significantly cut their purchases of crude oil from Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement. (Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
French government to cut staff, operating costs: PM
Thu,28 Jun 2012 11:28 AM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - France's new Socialist government will cut staff at most ministries by 2.5 percent annually for the next three years as it seeks to reduce its budget deficit to meet European Union targets, the prime minister's office said on Thursday. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault also wrote in a letter to the ministries that government operating costs - which exclude staffing but cover things like car fleets and office supplies - would drop by 7 percent on average in 2013 versus 2012. Ayrault, however, did not provide a target figure for overall central government spending. ... Full Story | Top |
At least 10 killed in Pakistan attack: police
Thu,28 Jun 2012 11:12 AM PDT
Reuters -  QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb exploded beside a bus on the outskirts of Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Thursday, killing at least 10 people in a suspected sectarian attack, police officials said. At least 30 people were wounded in the bombing. Police and hospital officials in Quetta, capital of the Baluchistan province, said the death toll could rise. "The bus was bringing Shi'ite pilgrims back from Iran when a bomb exploded next to it," police official Hamid Shakeel said. Several militant groups are active in Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest but poorest province. ...
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Milosevic protege to be new Serbia prime minister
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:50 AM PDT
Reuters -  BELGRADE (Reuters) - The wartime spokesman of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was asked on Thursday to form a coalition government with a nationalist party, raising concerns among diplomats and investors about Belgrade's bid for European Union membership. Ivica Dacic, head of the Socialist party once led by Milosevic, said after being given the mandate to govern: "There will be no return to the 1990s," the decade when the former Yugoslavia was ripped apart by war. ...
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U.S. urged to reach out to "pro-business" Egypt
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:50 AM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should reach out to Egypt's Islamist president-elect Mohamed Mursi with an offer to negotiate a free trade agreement, an Egyptian business leader said on Thursday. Hisham Fahmy, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, told the Washington International Trade Association that an announcement saying the two sides wanted to start free trade talks would help the United States' image in Egypt. It would also enable the United States to compete in the Egyptian market with the European Union. ... Full Story | Top |
Algerian Qaeda commander believed killed in Mali
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:43 AM PDT
Reuters - ALGIERS (Reuters) - Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian founding member of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), is believed to have been killed in clashes between Islamist militants and Tuareg-led separatist rebels in north Mali, Algeria's Ennahar TV reported on Thursday. One Algerian security source told Reuters he was trying to confirm the death of Belmokhtar, who headed one of AQIM's two battalions in Algeria's southern desert bordering Mali. ... Full Story | Top |
Rooted in the land, Egypt's president has huge task
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:34 AM PDT
Reuters - AL-ADWA, Egypt (Reuters) - Water buffalo wander through the dirt roads of Mohamed Mursi's village, less than two hours' drive from the Cairo palace where Egypt's Islamist president-elect has begun work. Yet Mursi, unlike Hosni Mubarak, remains close to his humble Nile Delta roots and can perhaps bridge the gap between ruler and ruled that yawned so wide under his ousted predecessor. At least his younger brother thinks so. ... Full Story | Top |
Dozens wounded as Serbs, Kosovo police clash
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:33 AM PDT
Reuters -  PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) - More than 50 people were injured in clashes on Thursday when the authorities in Kosovo deported a group of visiting Serbs who accused the police of shooting at them, leaving one with life-threatening gunshot wounds. The group of about 70 mostly young Serbs was travelling in two buses to Gazimestan, a religious and historic site close to the capital Pristina, when police turned them back, arguing they had become "very aggressive, drunk and were provoking both police and citizens". ...
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Factbox: How will Libya's national assembly elections work?
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:32 AM PDT
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyans head to the polls on July 7 to elect a national assembly in the nation's first election in a generation almost a year after ousting Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed rebellion. The vote is being held 18 days later than planned due to logistical challenges in a country still recovering from the uprising and struggling to restore security. During his 42-year rule, Gaddafi banned political parties and direct elections, saying they were bourgeois and anti-democratic. ... Full Story | Top |
Democracy a learning process as Libya set to vote
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:31 AM PDT
Reuters - TRIPOLI (Reuters) - In the small courtyard of a kindergarten in Tripoli, about 20 women gather to hear why they should vote for Majdah al-Fallah in Libya's first elections in almost half a century. Dressed in a long robe and Islamic headscarf, the 46-year-old doctor introduces herself and her party. But when she opens the floor to discussion, Fallah is bombarded by the most basic questions, not about her policies, but about how elections work. "What is actually going to happen when we go to the polling station. How many people do we vote for?" one woman asks. ... Full Story | Top |
Dutch monk may have killed psychiatric patients in 1950s
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:29 AM PDT
Reuters - AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Thirty-seven boys who died in the early 1950s in a Dutch psychiatric hospital run by the Catholic Church were probably killed by a monk in charge of their care, prosecutors said on Thursday. It was the latest in a string of scandals to hit the church in the Netherlands, where an independent commission found last year up to 20,000 minors were sexually abused in Catholic orphanages, boarding schools and seminaries between 1945 and 1981. ... Full Story | Top |
Factbox: Islam in West Africa
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:12 AM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked Islamists declared on Thursday they had secured full control of Mali's desert north from separatist rebels with whom they had temporarily joined forces to seize territory earlier this year [ID:nL6E8HSFJ7]. Separatist Tuareg-led MNLA rebels and armed Islamist groups, swept through northern Mali in March and April and declared an independent state of "Azawad" in the north after routing the regular troops, in disarray after a March 22 coup in the West African country. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran warn powers not to take "unconstructive measures"
Thu,28 Jun 2012 10:07 AM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili warned world major powers on Thursday against adopting "unconstructive measures" that harm negotiations over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, state television reported. In a letter to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Jalili said "continuing successful talks is only possible when it is in the framework of cooperation", according to state television. Iran has been in a decade-long dispute with western countries over its nuclear program which they fear is aimed at making nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. ... Full Story | Top |
Party of "perfect dictatorship" set for comeback in Mexico
Thu,28 Jun 2012 09:59 AM PDT
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Accused of every dirty trick in the book during its 71-year grip on power in the 20th century, Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party has bounced back and is on the verge of a dramatic victory in Sunday's presidential election. The PRI has seized on the anemic economic growth and rampant drug violence plaguing Mexico under the ruling conservatives and is promising to restore order and make voters better off if it returns to office after a 12-year hiatus. ... Full Story | Top |
A heart-throb, a leftist and a lady: Mexico's election
Thu,28 Jun 2012 09:59 AM PDT
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto holds a wide lead heading into Sunday's election, putting the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) on track to regain power. Following are profiles of the main candidates: THE FRONT-RUNNER Backed by his good looks, powerful connections and the strongest political machinery in the country, Enrique Pena Nieto has led polls in the race to win the Mexican presidency for more than 2 1/2 years even though he only formally became a candidate a few months ago. ... Full Story | Top |
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