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| Israel has conducted airstrike in Syria: U.S. official Saturday, May 04, 2013 12:02 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel has conducted an airstrike in Syria, apparently targeting a building, a U.S. official said on Friday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to elaborate. CNN quoted two unnamed U.S. officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike "in the Thursday-Friday time frame" and that Israel's warplanes did not enter Syrian airspace. CNN said the officials did not believe Israel had targeted a chemical weapons facility. CBS News cited U.S. sources as saying Israel targeted a warehouse. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama says does not foresee sending U.S. troops to Syria Friday, May 03, 2013 05:28 PM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal and Steve Holland SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he does not foresee a scenario in which he would send U.S. ground troops to Syria and outlined a deliberate approach to determining whether the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in a 2-year civil war. Obama insisted that the United States has not ruled out any options in dealing with Syria as the United States investigates whether the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons. ... Full Story | Top |
| Wildfire on Southern California coast threatens 4,000 homes Friday, May 03, 2013 08:26 PM PDT  By Alex Dobuzinskis CAMARILLO, California (Reuters) - A fierce, wind-driven wildfire spread on Friday along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles, threatening 4,000 homes and a military base as residents were evacuated ahead of the flames and a university campus was closed. By nightfall more than 950 firefighters had built containment around about 20 percent of the inferno, which has blackened more than 43 square miles (111 square kilometers) of dry brush and chaparral since erupting on Thursday morning. ... Full Story | Top |
| Support for Najib falls ahead of election: poll Saturday, May 04, 2013 12:42 AM PDT  KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Support for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak fell among all the country's main racial groups in an opinion poll, signaling the tough fight he faces in an election in the Southeast Asian country on Sunday. The survey, conducted between April 28 and May 2 among 1,600 voters, showed 42 percent of respondents believed the opposition Peoples' Pact of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim should be given a chance to govern. ... Full Story | Top |
| Same-sex provision should not derail U.S. immigration move: Obama Friday, May 03, 2013 07:57 PM PDT  By Steve Holland and Mark Felsenthal SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signaled on Friday that a proposal to add a same-sex partnership measure to an immigration overhaul should not be allowed to derail the entire legislative effort. Obama has used the prospect of new immigration laws as a major selling point for stronger U.S. relations with Latin America on a three-day tour of Mexico and Costa Rica that ends on Saturday. But a proposal by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has cast uncertainty into the delicate process of reaching a compromise on immigration. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate Friday, May 03, 2013 04:45 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It's been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth and President Barack Obama cited the cost this week as one of many reasons to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which burns through some $900,000 per prisoner annually. The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, which was set up 11 years ago to house foreign terrorism suspects. With 166 inmates currently in custody, that amounts to an annual cost of $903,614 per prisoner. ... Full Story | Top |
| Job market resilience eases growth concerns Saturday, May 04, 2013 12:39 AM PDT  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment rose at a faster pace than expected in April and hiring was much stronger than previously thought in the prior two months, a sign of resilience that should help the economy absorb the blow from belt-tightening in Washington. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 165,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, the lowest level since December 2008, the Labor Department said on Friday. The job counts for February and March were revised up by a net 114,000. "This bolsters the case that the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berkshire profit rises 51 percent, shares at record high Saturday, May 04, 2013 12:39 AM PDT  By Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Ablan OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said quarterly profit rose nearly 51 percent on a solid performance in insurance and by many of its other businesses, as well as gains from investments and derivatives. The results topped expectations and were released after Berkshire shares closed at a record high. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to tighten border checks on foreign students Friday, May 03, 2013 02:33 PM PDT  By Deborah Charles WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Department of Homeland Security, criticized for failing to check the student status of a Kazakh man charged in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, has tightened procedures for admitting foreigners with student visas, a U.S. official said on Friday. The Department's Customs and Border Protection issued a memo ordering agents "effective immediately" to check all students against the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System database of international students and schools, according to an official who had seen the memo. ... Full Story | Top |
| American journalist held in Syria believed to be in detention center Friday, May 03, 2013 04:49 PM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The family and employer of James Foley, a U.S. journalist missing in Syria since November, say they now believe he is being held by the Syrian government in a detention center near the capital, Damascus. That conclusion follows a five-month investigation by Foley's family and his employer, GlobalPost, and was announced on Friday in an article posted on the news organization's website. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hamas rebuffs Arabs for softening Israeli-Palestinian peace plan Friday, May 03, 2013 10:21 AM PDT  By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Islamist Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip on Friday rejected a revised Middle East peace initiative put forward by the Arab League, saying outsiders could not decide the fate of the Palestinians. In meetings this week in Washington, Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan, acknowledging that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any eventual peace deal. The United States and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank praised the move. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berkshire profit rises 51 percent, shares at record high Friday, May 03, 2013 04:17 PM PDT  By Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Ablan OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said quarterly profit rose nearly 51 percent on a solid performance in insurance and by many of its other businesses, as well as gains from investments and derivatives. The results topped expectations and were released after Berkshire shares closed at a record high. ... Full Story | Top |
| Job market resilience eases growth concerns Friday, May 03, 2013 02:02 PM PDT  By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment rose at a faster pace than expected in April and hiring was much stronger than previously thought in the prior two months, a sign of resilience that should help the economy absorb the blow from belt-tightening in Washington. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 165,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, the lowest level since December 2008, the Labor Department said on Friday. The job counts for February and March were revised up by a net 114,000. "This bolsters the case that the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Munger: hard to find Berkshire deals, 'raving mad' not to try Friday, May 03, 2013 04:03 PM PDT  By Jennifer Ablan and Jonathan Stempel OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc would be "stark raving mad" to rule out another giant acquisition like its 2009 Burlington Northern takeover, but high prices have now made attractive targets scarce, its vice chairman said on Friday. In an interview with Reuters on the eve of Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting, Charlie Munger said the company has over the years made many of its most desirable purchases in periods of "great catastrophes," but little appears on the horizon at present. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb outside Sunni mosque kills six in Iraqi capital Friday, May 03, 2013 08:02 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed a Sunni cleric and five worshippers when they left a mosque in Bagdhad after Friday prayers, police and medics said, as regional sectarian violence threatens to return Iraq to all-out conflict. Iraq has become increasingly volatile as the civil war in neighboring Syria strains volatile relations between Sunnis and Shi'ites. April saw the most killings since 2008, but was below the height of sectarian bloodletting in 2006-07. A further 31 people were wounded in the blast outside the mosque in al-Rashidiya district of Baghdad, medics said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Southern California coast wildfire threatens 4,000 homes Friday, May 03, 2013 04:04 PM PDT By Alex Dobuzinskis CAMARILLO, California (Reuters) - A fierce, wind-whipped brush fire spread on Friday along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles, threatening several thousand homes and a military base as more than 1,100 dwellings were ordered evacuated and a university campus was closed. A force of more than 900 firefighters had managed by daybreak to carve containment lines around about 10 percent of the perimeter of the inferno, which has scorched some 10,000 acres of dry, dense brush and chaparral since erupting on Thursday morning. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama says does not foresee sending U.S. troops to Syria Friday, May 03, 2013 04:55 PM PDT  SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he does not foresee a scenario in which he would send U.S. ground troops to Syria. At a news conference in the Costa Rican capital, Obama also vowed the United States would take a cautious approach to responding to Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons, saying he will not "leap before we look." (Reporting By Steve Holland and Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| Obama tells Mexicans a 'new Mexico' is emerging Friday, May 03, 2013 08:31 AM PDT  By Steve Holland and Mark Felsenthal MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama told the Mexican people on Friday that he sees a "new Mexico" emerging, with a deepening democracy and growing economy, and that Mexico and the United States should be viewed as equal partners. "I have come to Mexico because it is time to put old mindsets aside," Obama said in a speech to university students. "It's time to recognize new realities, including the impressive progress in today's Mexico. ... Full Story | Top |
| Government support dips as Spaniards tire of crisis, corruption Friday, May 03, 2013 10:54 AM PDT  MADRID (Reuters) - Public support for Spain's ruling center-right party has slipped following a high-level corruption scandal and ongoing recession, and Spaniards remain pessimistic about the political and economic outlook, a poll showed on Friday. Half of Spaniards consider the political situation to be "very bad" and ranked corruption as Spain's number two problem behind unemployment, according to a survey by the state-owned Sociological Investigations Centre (CIS), carried out in April. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela's Maduro says Colombia's Uribe plotting to kill him Friday, May 03, 2013 02:30 PM PDT  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday said Colombian ex-president Alvaro Uribe was plotting to kill him, adding to a deluge of accusations by the former bus driver in recent months. "Uribe is behind a plot to kill me," Maduro said in a televised speech. "Uribe is a killer. I have enough evidence of who is conspiring, and there are sectors of the Venezuelan right that are involved." He did not provide details. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. military plane crashes in southern Kyrgyzstan Friday, May 03, 2013 08:22 AM PDT By Olga Dzyubenko BISHKEK (Reuters) - A U.S. military refueling plane on its way to Afghanistan exploded in mid air and crashed in Kyrgyzstan on Friday when its cargo of fuel ignited, the Central Asian country's Emergencies Ministry said. The aircraft took off from the U.S. military transit center at Kyrgyzstan's international Manas airport, which U.S. forces maintain for operations in Afghanistan, with around 70 metric tons of fuel on board, a local ministry official said. The plane, used for inflight refueling, disappeared from radar screens at 3:10 p.m. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hungary court allows far-right rally before Jewish congress Friday, May 03, 2013 07:12 AM PDT  By Gergely Szakacs BUDAPEST (Reuters) - A Hungarian court has given the go ahead for a far-right protest on Saturday before an international conference of Jewish leaders in Budapest, saying a police ruling that banned it was belated and unlawful. But Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had ordered the police ban, said the court ruling was "unacceptable" and has asked the president of the Supreme Court to intervene and the interior minister to stop the rally. ... Full Story | Top |
| Four officials suspended in South Africa's widening Gupta scandal Friday, May 03, 2013 06:43 AM PDT By Jon Herskovitz PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa suspended four top security officials on Friday, including two brigadier-generals, in a widening scandal over a plane chartered by a family with close ties to President Jacob Zuma using an air force base without proper permission. The affair - dubbed "Guptagate" after the influential Indian-born Gupta family - has transfixed South Africa since the private flight landed at Pretoria's Waterkloof Air Force base on Tuesday with nearly 200 guests for a lavish family wedding. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. calls for shutting down Iran, North Korea arms networks Friday, May 03, 2013 05:15 AM PDT  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday that Iran and North Korea were trying to obtain high-tech materials linked to their nuclear programs in violation of U.N. sanctions. Iran was also sending weapons and ammunition to Syrian government forces despite a ban, said Thomas Countryman, Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation. "Both Iran and North Korea have developed channels that enable them to continue to export and continue to procure the items they need for their weapons industry," he told a news briefing in Geneva. ... Full Story | Top |
| Taking sides in Syria is hard choice for Israel Friday, May 03, 2013 04:28 AM PDT  By Dan Williams LOD, Israel (Reuters) - The dilemma Israel faces in trying to formulate a strategy on Syria two years into its civil war is symbolized by a case being heard in a small courtroom near Tel Aviv. The state is prosecuting an Arab Israeli who briefly joined the rebel forces fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad. Arrested after his return to Israel, Hikmat Massarwa, a 29-year-old baker, is accused of unlawful military training, having contacts with foreign agents and traveling to a hostile state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia opposition has narrow lead ahead of election Friday, May 03, 2013 04:34 AM PDT  KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's opposition enjoys a very narrow lead over the long ruling National Front for the first time in a key poll issued on Friday, two days before an election in the Southeast Asian country. The survey carried out by the Merdeka Center also revealed a broad decline in support for Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose National Front has held power since independence from Britain in 1957. ... Full Story | Top |
| Muslims in Myanmar barricade village as attacks spread Friday, May 03, 2013 05:49 AM PDT  By Jared Ferrie WIN KITE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Three Muslim men peered over a bamboo fence built recently to fortify their village in central Myanmar. They gazed across dry rice paddies towards a nearby Buddhist community, looking for rising dust, a sign of an approaching mob. It was a false alarm. But a day earlier, on Wednesday, about 100 Buddhists armed with sticks had gathered outside the fence, threatening to burn the village and kill them, said the villagers of Win Kite, about a two-hour drive from Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. Police foiled that attack. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU sees deeper euro zone recession in 2013, slower deficit cuts Friday, May 03, 2013 02:04 AM PDT  By Jan Strupczewski BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone economy will contract by more than expected this year and budget deficits will decline more slowly, the European Commission said on Friday as it set out forecasts for the next two years. France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands - four of the five largest euro zone economies - will be in recession through 2013, the Commission's forecasts showed, with only Germany, the largest euro zone economy, managing to eke out growth. "In view of the protracted recession, we must do whatever it takes to overcome the unemployment crisis in Europe. ... Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: At Texas fertilizer plant, a history of theft, tampering Friday, May 03, 2013 08:23 AM PDT By Selam Gebrekidan and Joshua Schneyer NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded two weeks ago, killing 14 people and injuring about 200, was a repeat target of theft by intruders who tampered with tanks and caused the release of toxic chemicals, police records reviewed by Reuters show. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dozens dead as Assad's forces storm coastal village Friday, May 03, 2013 03:21 AM PDT  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - State forces and militias loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stormed the coastal village of Baida on Thursday, killing at least 50 people including women and children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The pro-opposition monitoring group said the final death toll was likely to exceed 100. Many of those killed appeared to have been executed by shooting or stabbing, it said, and other bodies were found burned. Activist reports on the killings could not be independently verified as the Syrian government restricts access for independent media. ... Full Story | Top |
| North Korea could reach U.S. with nuclear arms: Pentagon Friday, May 03, 2013 05:31 AM PDT  By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea's continuing development of nuclear technology and long-range ballistic missiles will move it closer to its stated goal of being able to hit the United States with an atomic weapon, a new Pentagon report to Congress said on Thursday. The report, the first version of an annual Pentagon assessment required by law, said Pyongyang's Taepodong-2 missile, with continued development, might ultimately be able to reach parts of the United States carrying a nuclear payload if configured as an intercontinental ballistic missile. ... Full Story | Top |
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