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| Zimbabwe poll "seriously compromised": ZESN monitors Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 12:57 AM PDT HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's leading domestic election monitoring agency cried foul on Thursday over this week's poll, saying the credibility of the vote was "seriously compromised" by irregularities on polling day. Officials from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said urban voters, who mainly favor Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, had been turned away from polling stations in their thousands. Conversely, only a small number had been prevented from voting in the countryside, where President Robert Mugabe has most support, ZESN officials told a news conference. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mugabe party claims Zimbabwe election win, MDC cries fraud Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 12:38 AM PDT  HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party on Thursday claimed a landslide victory in Zimbabwe's elections, but its rival, Prime Minster Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said there had been "monumental fraud". Wednesday's voting had been peaceful across the southern African nation, but the early claims from the competing parties heralded an acrimonious dispute over the outcome and raised fears of a repeat of violence that marred a 2008 election. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dissident Kazakh oligarch Ablyazov held in France -sources Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 12:20 AM PDT By Kirstin Ridley and Matthias Galante LONDON/CANNES, France (Reuters) - Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh businessman accused of embezzling $6 billion from his former bank, BTA, has been arrested on the French Riviera, two sources said on Wednesday. Ablyazov was arrested in the village of Mouans-Sartoux about 8 km (5 miles) north of Cannes in southern France, a police source said. A court hearing has been scheduled for 10:30 a.m. (0430 ET) Thursday, added a second source, who could not confirm the hearing's location. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. House passes Iran sanctions bill to slash oil exports Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 12:17 AM PDT  By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives easily passed a bill on Wednesday to tighten sanctions on Iran, showing a strong message to Tehran over its disputed nuclear program days before President-elect Hassan Rouhani is sworn in. The vote also highlighted a growing divide between Congress and the Obama administration on Iran policy ahead of international talks on the nuclear program in coming months. Iran insists the nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes. ... Full Story | Top |
| Spain's Rajoy faces lawmakers over corruption scandal Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 12:12 AM PDT  By Andrés González MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appeared in parliament early on Thursday to testify about his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal that is undermining the authority of his ruling People's Party (PP). Luis Barcenas, a former treasurer of the party jailed on bribery and tax evasion charges, told a judge he collected millions of euros in cash donations from construction magnates and distributed them to senior PP figures including Rajoy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tsvangirai's MDC says 'monumental fraud' in Zimbabwe vote Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 12:08 AM PDT  HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party on Thursday said Zimbabwe's elections had been a "monumental fraud" after a source in President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF earlier claimed a resounding victory. "It's a monumental fraud. Zimbabweans have been taken for a ride by ZANU-PF and Mugabe, we do not accept it," a senior source in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told Reuters. The MDC will hold an emergency meeting later on Thursday. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Pascal Fletcher) Full Story | Top |
| Japanese minister Aso retracts Nazi comment amid criticism Thursday, Aug 01, 2013 12:00 AM PDT  By Antoni Slodkowski TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso retracted on Thursday a comment he had made that referred to Adolf Hitler's rise to power and which was interpreted as praising the Nazi regime. The outspoken Aso, who is also finance minister and a former prime minister, said he had caused misunderstanding with the comment, which has drawn criticism from a U.S.-based Jewish-rights group and media in South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan's World War Two militarism run deep. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mugabe beats Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe election: ZANU-PF source Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:45 PM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A senior source in Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's party claimed a resounding victory in Wednesday's parliamentary and presidential election against Prime Minster Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "We've taken this election. We've buried the MDC. We never had any doubt that we were going to win," the source, who could not be named, told Reuters by phone on Thursday. Releasing results early in Zimbabwe is illegal, and police have said they will arrest anybody who makes premature claims about the result. ... Full Story | Top |
| As Egypt turns up heat, Brothers struggle for strategy Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:11 PM PDT  By Michael Georgy and Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - Behind sandbags at the Muslim Brotherhood's protest camp in Cairo, an activist urges supporters to embrace martyrdom. It is not a call to arms, but a message that they shouldn't fear death as they demonstrate against the military's overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. "Martyrs don't die. Martyrs go to paradise," he said through a megaphone as people held aloft symbolic coffins to commemorate more than 100 Mursi supporters already shot dead in the street. ... Full Story | Top |
| CP Rail subcontracted to MMA in Quebec train crash Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 05:06 PM PDT  By Louise Egan OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Railway, hired to transport oil from North Dakota to New Brunswick, subcontracted part of the job to the small railroad involved in the deadly crash in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, the company that chose the Canadian railroad said. CP Rail, which had not until now been named in connection with the accident, subcontracted a section of the route to Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA), World Fuel Services said on Wednesday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Egypt's rulers want to break up Brotherhood vigils Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:12 PM PDT By Asma Alsharif and Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt faced the prospect of fresh bloodshed on Thursday after the country's army-backed rulers signaled they would move soon to disperse thousands of supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. With no sign of a negotiated end to weeks of violent confrontation, Egypt's interim government said two Cairo vigils by Mursi supporters posed a threat to national security, citing "terrorism" and traffic disruption. It ordered the Interior Ministry to take steps to "address these dangers and put an end to them," but gave no time frame. ... Full Story | Top |
| As Zimbabwe counts ballots, police warn against leaked election results Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 04:09 PM PDT  By Stella Mapenzauswa HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police vowed to crack down on any attempts to leak early results from Tuesday's vote, complicating plans by some civic groups to pre-empt official announcements by the country's election commission. The move means it could be hours before the first officially collated results trickle in from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, although political parties will have immediate access to individual results posted at polling stations. ... Full Story | Top |
| Yemen's president meets senators as U.S. grapples with Guantanamo detainee issue Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:55 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi talked to U.S. senators on Wednesday as he to tries to persuade Washington to repatriate dozens of Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison. Expectations that the Obama administration is moving closer to its long-held goal of closing the facility were raised last week when the White House announced it was sending two detainees back to Algeria in the first repatriations for nearly a year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cuba reports highest outflow of citizens since 1994 Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:20 PM PDT  By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - The number of Cubans leaving their country has increased steadily in recent years, the government reported on Wednesday, reaching levels not seen since 1994 when tens of thousands took to the sea in makeshift rafts and rickety boats. Separately, the U.S. State Department on Wednesday announced it is lengthening most visitor visas for Cubans from six months to five years, allowing them to make multiple U.S. visits over the five-year period instead of repeatedly applying and paying the $160 fee for the privilege. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to go ahead with joint military exercise in Egypt Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:07 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States still plans to hold a major military exercise called Bright Star in Egypt in mid-September, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday, even after the Egyptian military's toppling of the president and the violence that has ensued. "We're planning on going ahead with it," Hagel told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. Hagel has been in regular contact with Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi since the military ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on July 3. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. says chemical weapons inspectors to visit three Syrian sites Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 03:05 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors will travel to Syria "as soon as possible" to investigate claims of chemical weapons use during the country's civil war after President Bashar al-Assad's government granted access to three sites, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The head of a U.N. chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, and the head of the U.N. Office of Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, visited Damascus last week at the invitation of the Syrian government to discuss access and obtained an understanding that it would be granted. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iraq war logs in Manning case 'hit us in the face': U.S. officer Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 02:45 PM PDT  By Tom Ramstack FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The U.S. Army was overwhelmed when WikiLeaks published more than 700,000 secret diplomatic and war documents handed over by soldier Bradley Manning, a retired officer testified in the sentencing phase of the convicted private's court-martial. "The ones that hit us in the face were the Iraq logs," retired Brigadier General Robert Carr said in a Fort Meade, Maryland court on Wednesday, a day after a military judge found Manning guilty of 19 charges over the leaks in 2010, the biggest breach of classified data in U.S. history. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rwanda says U.N. ultimatum threatened Congo peace talks Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 01:52 PM PDT  By Richard Lough NAIROBI (Reuters) - Rwanda said on Wednesday the decision by a U.N. intervention brigade to forcibly disarm people in a strategic zone of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo had surprised African leaders and risked jeopardizing peace talks. The U.N. peacekeeping mission said on Tuesday it was setting up a security zone around Goma, which briefly fell into M23 hands last year, and would disarm, by force if needed, anyone carrying weapons after a 48-hour grace period. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexico's opposition party proposes sweeping energy reform Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 01:40 PM PDT By David Alire Garcia and Adriana Barrera MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's opposition conservative party proposed sweeping energy reform on Wednesday to change the constitution to allow more private investment and promote competition, while the ruling party is expected to present its own plans for an overhaul next week. Both parties favor market-friendly policies in Latin America's No. 2 economy and are expected to join forces to push through energy reform. ... Full Story | Top |
| Phony rum kills seven in Cuba, dozens hospitalized Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:28 PM PDT HAVANA (Reuters) - Seven Cubans have died and more than 40 have been hospitalized, eight in critical condition, after drinking wood alcohol, or industrial methanol, they thought was rum, the public health ministry said on Wednesday. The poisoning happened in the La Lisa municipality of Havana, beginning on Monday, and all those killed were in their 40s and 50s, according to a list provided by the ministry. Such incidents are rare, though not unheard of in Cuba. "Those affected consumed wood alcohol sold illegally ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Uruguay Congress debates bill to regulate legal marijuana use Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:23 PM PDT  By Felipe Llambias and Malena Castaldi MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Legislators in Uruguay hotly debated on Wednesday a measure backed by leftist President Jose Mujica that would create a government body to control the cultivation and sale of marijuana and allow people to grow it at home or as part of smoking clubs. The use of marijuana is already legal in the South American nation, but sale and cultivation of it is not. A vote on the bill - expected to be very close - was due later on Wednesday in the lower chamber of Congress. ... Full Story | Top |
| Serbia woos ex-IMF head Strauss-Kahn for advisory role Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:16 PM PDT  By Valerie Hopkins BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia has approached former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn about the possibility of him joining the government in an advisory role, deputy PM Aleksandar Vucic has told Reuters. Serbia is set to begin long-awaited talks in January on joining the European Union. However, investors have been spooked by the state's growing public debt and squabbles over who will be finance minister that have all but buried hopes of a new precautionary loan deal with the International Monetary Fund. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.N. says chemical weapons inspectors to visit three Syria sites Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:12 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has agreed to allow U.N. investigators to visit three sites to investigate accusations of chemical weapons use during the country's two year civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday. "The Mission will travel to Syria as soon as possible to contemporaneously investigate three of the reported incidents, including Khan al-Asal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's press office said in a statement. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Vicki Allen) Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan's Kiir to keep oil minister, change finance portfolio Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:10 PM PDT  By Andrew Green JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau will keep his post in the new government, while new appointments will be made to the key finance and defense portfolios, officials said on Wednesday. Last week, President Salva Kiir sacked the cabinet, Vice President Riek Machar and put his top Sudan negotiator, Pagan Amum, under investigation amid a power struggle. Dau told Reuters he had been appointed again. "We will try to continue with the same programs that we laid in the last two years," he said, without elaborating. ... Full Story | Top |
| In raging Middle East, Israel wins time with Palestinian peace talks Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 12:03 PM PDT  By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Pressured by Washington, worried about its international standing and perturbed by Middle East turmoil, Israel had many reasons to return to peace talks with the Palestinians this week after a three year hiatus. On the surface, Israelis saw little reason to jump back into negotiations. The status quo in the occupied Palestinian territories was holding and the question of the so-called peace process had largely fallen off the domestic political agenda. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have realized he could not take the rap for cold shouldering U. ... Full Story | Top |
| Suspected Islamists steal 125 kg of dynamite in north Nigeria Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:58 AM PDT (Updates death toll in Kano bomb) DAMATURU, Nigeria, July 31 - Gunmen suspected to be allied to Islamist sect Boko Haram have stormed a construction site in northeast Nigeria, carting off 125 kg (275 pounds) of dynamite and hundreds of detonators, two security sources said on Wednesday. The militants struck the Bara area of Yobe state at around 2 a.m. on Monday morning, the two security sources in Yobe told Reuters, but no shots were heard. One of the sources said the men arrived on four motorcycles, beating and overpowering the site's private security guards. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexican governmet likely to present energy reform bill next week: lawmaker Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:58 AM PDT MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government is likely to present a far-reaching energy reform bill to Congress next week, a senior ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday, a key plank of President Enrique Pena Nieto's bid to boost economic growth. "Everything indicates that the (energy reform) initiative of President Pena Nieto will arrive next week," Senator Emilio Gamboa, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) bloc in the upper body of Congress. ... Full Story | Top |
| Berlusconi lawyers ask supreme court to acquit him of tax fraud Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:53 AM PDT  By Roberto Landucci and Barry Moody ROME (Reuters) - Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi asked the supreme court on Wednesday to throw out a tax fraud conviction against the former prime minister in a case that could decide not only his future but that of Italy's fragile coalition government. The Court of Cassation heard more than three hours of arguments from Berlusconi's two lawyers challenging the verdict of a lower appeals court which sentenced him to jail and a ban from public office for the fraudulent purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset television empire. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain says open to talks with Iran on a 'step-by-step' basis Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:52 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday he was willing to meet his Iranian counterpart to discuss the two countries' frosty relationship, following the election of a new president in Iran. Britain, at odds with Iran over its nuclear program and other issues, shut its embassy in Tehran after what it called "an attack by government-sponsored militias" on the mission in November 2011. Iran's embassy in London was also closed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Al Qaeda militants killed in drone strike in Pakistan Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:42 AM PDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A drone strike in Pakistan this week killed three al Qaeda operatives who ran a training camp in neighboring Afghanistan to prepare militants for attacks including this week's jail break in Pakistan, a Taliban commander said on Wednesday. About 30 militants and more than 200 other inmates escaped from the Dera Ismail Khan jail after a squad of highly trained Taliban fighters armed with grenade launchers and dressed as police overran the facility in the early hours of Tuesday. A day earlier, a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. State Department urges Egypt to respect right peaceful assembly Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:33 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department urged Egypt's interim government on Wednesday to respect the right of peaceful assembly, after Cairo's new leaders said vigils by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi threatened national security and were no longer acceptable. "We have continued to urge the interim government, officials and security forces, to respect the right of peaceful assembly," deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told a news briefing. "That obviously includes sit-ins. ... Full Story | Top |
| Secretary of State Kerry in Pakistan on unannounced visit Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:31 AM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Pakistan late on Wednesday for a day of talks aimed at easing tensions over U.S. drone strikes while putting pressure on the nuclear armed nation to do more to eliminate militant havens on its territory. In Pakistan on an unannounced visit, Kerry is also likely to discuss ways to revive deadlocked talks with the Taliban and broader efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan as U.S.-led forces prepare to pull out most combat troops by late 2014. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kazakh oligarch Ablyazov arrested in France: sources Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:30 AM PDT By Kirstin Ridley and Matthias Galante LONDON/CANNES, France (Reuters) - Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh businessman accused of embezzling $6 billion from his former bank BTA, has been arrested near Cannes in southern France and is being held by police, sources familiar with the situation said. A police source said Ablyazov was arrested in the village of Mouans-Sartoux, located about 8 km (5 miles) north of Cannes. A court hearing has been scheduled for 10.30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. ET) on Thursday, the source added. No further details were immediately available. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil invests in Sao Paulo bus services that set off protests Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff moved quickly on Wednesday to improve bus services in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, where protests over a fare increase in June triggered an outburst of national discontent that battered her popularity. Rousseff announced that 3 billion reais ($1.31 billion) in federal money will be invested in creating 99 km (61 miles) of new express lanes to speed up bus services in Sao Paulo, the country's financial capital. ... Full Story | Top |
| In Tunisian protest square, barriers reflect deeper divide Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 11:16 AM PDT  By Erika Solomon and Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - The red Tunisian flags they wave are the same, but the divide between opposition and pro-government protesters in the capital's main square is much wider than the 150-metre gap between barriers put there to separate them. Nearly two years after Tunisians came together to remove the long-standing autocratic president, the country is facing its worst political crisis since that uprising set off a wave of protests across the region. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mexican President Pena Nieto has successful thyroid surgery Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:57 AM PDT  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto successfully underwent surgery on Wednesday to remove a benign nodule on his thyroid gland, his chief of staff said. "It was a success. The president is already awake," Aurelio Nuno, head of the office of the presidency, told a news conference. The surgery lasted nearly two hours and Pena Nieto will remain in hospital for two days. He will then take another couple of days rest at his home. The thyroid nodule was detected about seven years ago, but Pena Nieto had postponed treatment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkish police fire teargas to disperse hundreds in Istanbul Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:52 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police fired teargas in Istanbul on Wednesday to disperse several hundred people protesting against the police crackdown on last month's anti-government demonstrations, local media reported. Police blocked several hundred protesters in a busy street near Istanbul's Taksim Square from marching in support of a teenage boy who is said to be in a coma after being hit in the head by a teargas canister during the unrest. TV footage showed police vehicles firing water cannons and protesters running into side streets. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel, Palestinians deeply divided despite renewed peace talks Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:42 AM PDT  By Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Ali Sawafta JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians remain far apart over terms of any peace deal, officials from both sides made clear on Wednesday, a day after talks resumed in Washington for the first time in nearly three years. Israel's lead negotiator, Tzipi Livni, said the parties "need to build confidence" after what she called an encouraging start in Washington, and disputed a Palestinian demand to focus first on agreeing the frontiers of an independent state. "The goal is to end the conflict," Livni said on Israel Radio. ... Full Story | Top |
| State Department urges Egypt to respect rights of peaceful assembly Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:36 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department urged Egypt's interim government on Wednesday to respect the right of peaceful assembly, after Cairo's new leaders said vigils by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Mursi threatened national security and were no longer acceptable. "We have continued to urge the interim government to respect the right of peaceful assembly," deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told a regular daily briefing. "That obviously includes sit-ins." (Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Vicki Allen) Full Story | Top |
| African Union gives Zimbabwe election early thumbs up Wednesday, Jul 31, 2013 10:33 AM PDT  HARARE (Reuters) - Initial reports from Zimbabwe's elections showed a peaceful, orderly and free and fair vote, Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the African Union monitoring team, told reporters on Wednesday. (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Writing by Ed Cropley) Full Story | Top |
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