Today's Politics - Bloomberg News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
|
|
Asian giants seek better ties; China's defense minister in India
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:27 PM PDT
Reuters -  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A rare visit to India by China's defense minister should help avoid flare-ups along the border between the nuclear-armed Asian giants at a time when Beijing is grappling with a change of leadership and friction in the South China Sea. But General Liang Guanglie's trip -- the first by a Chinese defense minister in eight years -- also highlights growing competition between the two emerging powers as they jostle for influence and resources across Asia. ...
Full Story | Top |
Migron settlers begin leaving homes: Israeli army
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:24 PM PDT
Reuters -  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Jewish settlers began leaving the unauthorized outpost of Migron in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the military said, obeying an Israeli supreme court order to vacate their homes by Tuesday. A number of families began moving out of their homes in the hilltop settlement of about 50 families in an orderly fashion, a spokeswoman said, although a few said they would remain and would not go voluntarily, an Israel Radio report added. A police spokesman said officers had started handing eviction orders to the families before dawn. ...
Full Story | Top |
Activists, police plan for big protests at Democratic convention
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:07 PM PDT
Reuters - CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - The big protests that were planned outside the Republican National Convention last week in Tampa, Florida, never really materialized, doused in part by a tropical storm. But activists say they expect a stronger showing this week, when Democrats gather for their nominating convention in Charlotte. Law enforcement and officials in North Carolina say they are prepared if several thousands protesters show up as activists hope, starting with the first major demonstrations of the week on Sunday. "We'll be ready," Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
New York probes private equity tax strategy: source
Sat,1 Sep 2012 07:31 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - At least a dozen U.S. private equity firms have been subpoenaed by the New York state attorney general as part of a probe into whether a widely used tax strategy that saved these firms hundreds of millions of dollars is proper, a source familiar with the situation said on Saturday. Among the firms that were subpoenaed are Bain Capital LLC, KKR & Co LP, TPG Capital LP, Apollo Global Management LLC and Silver Lake Partners LP, the source said. Bain was once headed by Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate who hopes to unseat President Barack Obama in the November 6 election. ... Full Story | Top |
Mexico's Calderon makes new push for reform of labor laws
Sat,1 Sep 2012 07:24 PM PDT
Reuters - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent a new proposal to liberalize the country's antiquated labor laws to lawmakers on Saturday as he seeks to fast-track the legislation before leaving office at the end of November. Calderon's draft bill, submitted at the start of the new Congress by Interior Minister Alejandro Poire, is aimed at helping spur stronger growth in Latin America's second biggest economy. ... Full Story | Top |
Senior immigration official resigns amid misconduct allegations
Sat,1 Sep 2012 06:02 PM PDT
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior appointee at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, stepped down on Saturday amid allegations of discrimination and sexual misconduct lodged by an employee. Suzanne Barr, chief of staff to ICE Director John Morton, resigned, the agency said. She was cited in a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by a senior ICE official in May. In the lawsuit, James T. Hayes Jr. ... Full Story | Top |
White House releases Obama beer recipes after calls from public
Sat,1 Sep 2012 05:26 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Bowing to growing pressure from thirsty and curious Americans in both parties, the White House on Saturday released the recipes for President Barack Obama's homemade beers, revealing the executive branch's penchant for honey-flavored brews. In a blog post entitled "Ale to the Chief," White House Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass said that "with public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it. ... Full Story | Top |
Obama says Republican ideas from "last century'
Sat,1 Sep 2012 04:04 PM PDT
Reuters -  URBANDALE, Iowa (Reuters) - President Barack Obama tried to bolster his re-election campaign on Saturday with a fierce critique of the Republicans' convention and a plea to supporters to cast their ballots as early as possible. Speaking to a crowd of 10,000 in the battleground state of Iowa, Obama said rival Mitt Romney and his fellow Republicans had offered no new ideas when they held the national spotlight for three days during their convention in Tampa. "What they offered over those three days was more often than not an agenda that was better-suited for the last century," Obama said. ...
Full Story | Top |
Central banks debate limits of power at Jackson Hole
Sat,1 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT
Reuters - JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (Reuters) - Central bankers who traveled to the wilds of Wyoming to figure out if more policy action was needed to curb stubbornly high unemployment heard powerful arguments on both sides of the debate, and leave with many questions unanswered. Policymakers in Europe and the United States facing weak growth and painfully high unemployment are struggling with the issue of whether additional monetary stimulus could do more harm than good. ... Full Story | Top |
New York probes private equity tax strategy: NY Times
Sat,1 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has subpoenaed more than a dozen U.S. private equity firms as part of an investigation into a widely used tax strategy in the industry, The New York Times reported on its website on Saturday, citing unnamed executives. At issue is the conversion of fees that firms typically charge clients for managing assets into investments in the private equity funds, according to the Times. The management fees would be taxed as ordinary income, which attracts a higher tax rate than capital gains from investments. ... Full Story | Top |
Angola's Dos Santos secures big election win
Sat,1 Sep 2012 02:31 PM PDT
Reuters - LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola's long-serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and his MPLA party scored a landslide win on Saturday in an election criticized as one-sided and not credible by opponents and civil society activists, according to provisional results. The results from Friday's voting announced by the National Elections Commission showed the governing party with 74 percent of the vote - far ahead of its nearest rivals with votes counted from over 70 percent of polling stations. ... Full Story | Top |
Spain's Rajoy says euro zone yields not sustainable: papers
Sat,1 Sep 2012 02:05 PM PDT
Reuters - PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called for decisive action to resolve the financial crisis in the euro zone and dispel any doubts over the future of the euro. Rajoy said in an interview with European newspapers published on Saturday night that the current situation in which some European countries financed themselves at negative rates and others paid "unsustainably high rates" had to end. "The current situation cannot be sustained over a longer period of time," he was quoted as saying in German daily Bild. ... Full Story | Top |
Romney to focus on debates while Democrats gather in Charlotte
Sat,1 Sep 2012 02:01 PM PDT
Reuters -  ABOARD MITT ROMNEY'S CAMPAIGN PLANE (Reuters) - While President Barack Obama and his supporters rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, next week, Republican rival Mitt Romney will be off the campaign trail to prepare for the televised debates this autumn against the Democratic incumbent. Senior Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden said Romney planned to spend Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on debate preparation at the home of Kerry Healey in Reading, Vermont. Healey was the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts while Romney was governor of the state. ...
Full Story | Top |
Romney's bounce from convention looks short-lived: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Sat,1 Sep 2012 01:48 PM PDT
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A modest bump in popularity for U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney from this week's Republican Party convention looks to be short-lived, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Democratic President Barack Obama regained a narrow lead on Saturday by 44 percent to 43 percent over his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Romney, in the latest daily installment of the four-day rolling poll. ...
Full Story | Top |
Syrian rebels hit back at Assad's air power
Sat,1 Sep 2012 01:03 PM PDT
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels seized an air defense facility and attacked a military airport in eastern Syria on Saturday, a monitoring group said, hitting back at an air force which President Bashar al-Assad is increasingly relying on to crush his opponents. The attacks in eastern oil-producing Deir al-Zor province follow rebel strikes against military airports in the Aleppo and Idlib areas, close to the border with Turkey. ...
Full Story | Top |
U.S. must show tougher stance against Iran: Netanyahu confidant
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:56 AM PDT
Reuters - JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that U.S. President Barack Obama had yet to present a credible military threat that could deter Iran from seeking nuclear weapons. The latest criticism was voiced by Tzachi Hanegbi, an influential former legislator who quit the opposition Kadima party in July to join up with Likud and Netanyahu, with whom he has always maintained a close relationship. "I don't see that there is a credible threat for American action, the rhetoric of the U.S. president is too vague, very amorphous ... ... Full Story | Top |
New York City health commissioner: scold or lifesaver?
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:48 AM PDT
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Critics call him a puritanical scold, Gotham's Dr. No and a nursemaid to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's nanny state. Meet Thomas Farley, New York City's health commissioner. Farley, a pediatrician and endurance athlete, says they are wrong about his efforts to help New Yorkers eat better, smoke less and exercise more -- moves that have been linked to New York's recent gains in average life expectancy, the biggest gains of any metro area in the country. "Anybody who is first at doing something is going to get a lot of criticism. ...
Full Story | Top |
Fed's Williams backs open-ended QE3, eyes $600 billion
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:46 AM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - More easing from the Federal Reserve would help boost the U.S. economic recovery and keep the labor market from stalling out, a top central bank policymaker said as he called for a round of bond purchases that could eventually top $600 billion. San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said on CNBC television the Fed's two quantitative easing programs have had benefits and argued the central bank should be moving toward an "open-ended" QE3 that would not be limited by a dollar value. ... Full Story | Top |
Bernanke says Fed ready to act but short on specifics
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:44 AM PDT
Reuters -  JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday left the door wide open to a further easing of monetary policy, saying the stagnation in the U.S. labor market was a "grave concern," but he stopped short of providing a clear signal of imminent action. His stark language gave a temporary lift to U.S. stocks, but economists walked away from the Fed chairman's remarks still divided over whether the central bank would launch a fresh round of bond purchases at its upcoming meeting in September. ...
Full Story | Top |
EU worried over Hungary, Romania institutions: paper
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:07 AM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - A top European Union official praised court rulings in Hungary and Romania which rejected widely criticized attempts to entrench their ruling parties in power, but said she remained worried about both countries' institutions. Viviane Reding, the European Commission's vice president in charge of justice, told Le Monde newspaper that Hungary was one of the most worrying cases and cited the government's bid to lower the retirement age for judges - thrown out in July as unconstitutional. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran would take action if U.S. attacked Syria: official
Sat,1 Sep 2012 10:01 AM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran would take action if the United States were to carry out an act of "stupidity" and attack Syria, an Iranian military official was quoted as saying on Saturday, but the comments later disappeared from the state-linked agency website. Iran has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his bid to suppress an uprising which both Tehran and Damascus see as a proxy war by Israel and Western states to extend their influence in the Middle East. ... Full Story | Top |
Tax hike piles misery on Spain's shoppers and small firms
Sat,1 Sep 2012 09:18 AM PDT
Reuters - MADRID (Reuters) - Cash-strapped Spanish shoppers and small businesses were resigned to more pain on Saturday, as everyday living costs like heating, phone bills, clothes and haircuts all become more expensive following a hike in value-added tax (VAT). Spain's center-right government has raised its main VAT rate by three percentage points to 21 percent as part of a drive to slash 65 billion euros ($82 billion) from the public deficit by 2014 and save the country from a full international bailout. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran, North Korea agree to cooperate in science, technology
Sat,1 Sep 2012 08:31 AM PDT
Reuters - DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran and North Korea have signed an agreement to cooperate in science and technology, Iranian media reported on Saturday, and Iran's supreme leader declared that the two countries had "common enemies." The two countries will cooperate in research, student exchanges and joint laboratories, and in the fields of information technology, engineering, biotechnology, renewable energy, the environment, sustainable development of agriculture and food technology, the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) reported. ... Full Story | Top |
Bayer CEO says Greek euro exit may help: report
Sat,1 Sep 2012 08:10 AM PDT
Reuters - FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Leaving the euro zone could help Greece to recover economically and prevent the region's debt crisis from spreading, the head of German drugmaker Bayer was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview on Saturday. The comments from Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers add to a growing chorus of influential Germans speculating about the possible exit of Greece from the euro zone, despite Chancellor Angela Merkel's request for compatriots to tone down their rhetoric. "Greece's exit from the euro may be better for all parties involved," Dekkers said, according to the Rheinische Post. ... Full Story | Top |
Iran to hold major air defense drill: commander
Sat,1 Sep 2012 08:05 AM PDT
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will hold a large-scale military drill involving all its air defense systems next month, an Iranian commander was quoted as saying on Saturday, one of a number of military simulations it has carried out this year. The air defense drill will include fighter jets and simulate emergency situations, said Farzad Esmaili, commander of the Iranian army's air defense force, according to Iran's English-language Press TV. ...
Full Story | Top |
Rebels say hold half of Aleppo despite air strikes
Sat,1 Sep 2012 07:40 AM PDT
Reuters - BEIRUT (Reuters) - A local rebel commander in Aleppo said rebels still control more than half of Syria's biggest city after a month of fighting and aerial bombardment, and that the military stalemate was playing into the hands of President Bashar al-Assad's opponents. Assad sent reinforcements to the northern commercial hub in July to seize control back from rebel fighters who had swept into Aleppo from their rural strongholds, and authorities said the army's mission could be accomplished within days. ... Full Story | Top |
Austrian foreign minister takes hard line on Greek aid: paper
Sat,1 Sep 2012 07:23 AM PDT
Reuters - VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger opposes giving hard-pressed Greece more leeway to meet terms of an international bailout, he told a newspaper. "I favour (the stance) that the Greeks now have to respect adamantly the conditions negotiated with the EU, that the Troika reviews this, and that Greece gets more money only if it really sticks to the agreed path of reform, without extensions," he told the Oesterreich daily. ... Full Story | Top |
Romania to hold parliamentary election on December 9
Sat,1 Sep 2012 07:23 AM PDT
Reuters - BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania will hold a regular parliamentary election on December 9, the government said on Saturday, an event that should draw a line under months of political conflict and a failed attempt by the government to remove the president. The push by Prime Minister Victor Ponta's leftist alliance to dismiss his rival, right-wing President Traian Basescu, slowed policy-making, battered the leu currency and raised questions about the fate of an IMF-led 5 billion euro aid deal. ... Full Story | Top |
Iraqi Kurdistan to keep pumping oil to September 15: sources
Sat,1 Sep 2012 06:59 AM PDT
Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Kurdistan will keep pumping its share of national oil exports until September 15, extending a deadline for the central government to make disputed payments to companies working in the autonomous region, Kurdish sources said on Saturday. Kurdistan had warned it would stop oil shipments again at the start of September over the payments, but two Kurdish sources said the region had decided to give Baghdad more time for payment paperwork to be sorted out. ... Full Story | Top |
Iraq's monthly death toll halves in August
Sat,1 Sep 2012 06:18 AM PDT
Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Militants killed 164 Iraqis in August, half the number killed in July, as security forces wrestled with a stubborn insurgency, figures from government ministries showed. According to the data, 90 civilians, 39 soldiers and 35 policemen were killed last month and 260 Iraqis were injured. In July, 325 Iraqis were killed in waves of attacks across the country, making it the bloodiest month in two years. The deadliest day last month was August 16 when a series of bombs, blasts and shootings aimed at security forces and civilians killed more than 70 people. ... Full Story | Top |
Kyrgyz acting PM resigns as new coalition takes shape
Sat,1 Sep 2012 05:45 AM PDT
Reuters - BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's acting prime minister resigned on Saturday after his party appeared to be frozen out of a new coalition to run the volatile former Soviet republic. Omurbek Babanov, a prominent businessman who had served as prime minister since December, will move into opposition ahead of the formation a new coalition government that is likely to comprise three of the five parties in parliament. "He asked to resign because the formation of a new coalition has practically been decided," said Babanov's spokesman, Sultan Kanazarov. ... Full Story | Top |
French pessimism nears all-time high: poll
Sat,1 Sep 2012 05:06 AM PDT
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - The French are bleaker about their country's future than at any time since 2005, a new poll showed on Saturday, with 68 percent saying they are "rather" or "very" pessimistic, the highest level ever in the initial months of a new presidency. The poll's findings jibed with a survey released last weekend which found that Socialist President Francois Hollande's approval rating had slipped to 54 percent, continuing a steady decline since he took office in May. ... Full Story | Top |
Expert panel wants India tax avoidance rules deferred by 3 years
Sat,1 Sep 2012 04:47 AM PDT
Reuters - NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A controversial set of laws to stop tax avoidance in India should be deferred until 2016, an advisory panel set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to examine the rules said on Saturday, a move likely to cheer investors. The general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR), first proposed in the federal budget in March, target firms and investors routing money through tax havens. Foreign investors, already wary about investing in India where economic growth has slowed to its slowest in almost a decade, have said they are worried the laws might be misused. ... Full Story | Top |
Indonesia anti-terror squad kills two suspected militants
Sat,1 Sep 2012 02:51 AM PDT
Reuters - JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's anti-terrorist squad killed two suspected militants in an overnight raid in the city of Solo on Java island, part of an ongoing campaign against militants prompted by the Bali bombings, whose ten-year anniversary falls next month. A member of the elite Detachment 88 police squad died in the shootout and another suspected militant was arrested in a separate location east of Solo, national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said on Saturday. ... Full Story | Top |
Congo asks UN to sanction Rwanda officials for rebel support
Sat,1 Sep 2012 01:16 AM PDT
Reuters - UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Democratic Republic of Congo said on Friday it has asked the U.N. Security Council to place sanctions on Rwanda's defense minister and two top military officials for backing an army mutiny in the country's east. M23 rebels, who have links to Bosco Ntaganda, a warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, have been fighting government soldiers in North Kivu province since April, displacing some 470,000 civilians. ... Full Story | Top |
Twin suicide bomb attack kills 12 in east Afghanistan
Sat,1 Sep 2012 12:43 AM PDT
Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - A twin suicide bomb attack targeted a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing eight civilians and four Afghan policemen, local officials said. A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said no one from the alliance was killed in the attack, which happened in Wardak province's Sayed Abad district. "The truck bomb was huge, killing 12 and wounding 50 more," said provincial governor spokesman Sahidullah Shahid. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. ends criminal probe of controversial Arizona sheriff
Fri,31 Aug 2012 10:59 PM PDT
Reuters -  PHOENIX (Reuters) - Two tough-on-immigration Arizona sheriffs with national profiles in the Republican Party were cleared of criminal wrongdoing on Friday in unrelated probes, though one remains accused of racial profiling and other abuses in a pair of federal lawsuits. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona said it had closed its criminal investigation of alleged financial misconduct by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, self-described as "America's toughest sheriff", and was declining to bring charges. But a separate U.S. ...
Full Story | Top |
Ban Ki-moon defends Iran visit, says pushed for change
Fri,31 Aug 2012 08:54 PM PDT
Reuters -  DUBAI (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has defended his controversial visit to Iran, saying on Friday that he had used this week's trip to push hard for human rights and transparency from Tehran over its nuclear programme. "I believe in the power of diplomacy and I believe in dialogues and I believe in engagement. This is exactly what I did during my visit to Tehran," Ban told Reuters on a stopover in Dubai before flying back to U.N. headquarters in New York. ...
Full Story | Top |
Chinese activist Chen to visit China's rival Taiwan
Fri,31 Aug 2012 08:43 PM PDT
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose escape from house arrest sparked a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington, accepted an invitation on Friday to visit Taiwan, underscoring his drive to ensure his influence as a human rights campaigner will continue abroad. Taiwan legislator Lin Chia-lung from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) visited Chen at New York University, where he is studying law, to invite him to visit Taiwan and to address the island's parliament. ...
Full Story | Top |
Clinton says U.S. can work with China in Pacific
Fri,31 Aug 2012 08:40 PM PDT
Reuters -  RAROTONGA (Reuters) - The United States will buttress security partnerships across the Pacific as it strengthens ties with island nations, but also hopes to work more closely with China as Beijing expands its own influence in the region, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. Clinton arrived in the tiny Pacific outpost of the Cook Islands for this year's Pacific Islands Forum, part of Washington's effort to woo nations across the Asia-Pacific which are increasingly coming under China's shadow. ...
Full Story | Top |
| |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment