| | |
| Car bombs in busy areas in Baghdad's Shi'ite districts kill at least 24 people Monday, Sep 30, 2013 12:36 AM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Five car bombs exploded in busy areas in predominantly Shi'ite neighborhoods of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 24 people, police and medical sources said. The deadliest attack took place in Sadr City, where a car bomb blew up near a place were workers had gathered. It killed at least seven people, including two soliders (Reporting by Kareem Raheem, Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Angus MacSwan) Full Story | Top |
| Pesticide ban cuts South Korea's high suicide rate - a bit Monday, Sep 30, 2013 12:13 AM PDT  By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) - Jang Chang-yoon was drunk and weepy one rainy night, troubled by debts from his divorce. On a dark impulse, the South Korean waiter bought a bottle of pesticide to end it all with a few toxic swigs. At the last minute, he changed his mind when his young daughter grabbed his arm and begged him: "Daddy, don't die." Unlike Jang, many people do not pull back from the brink in South Korea, which has had the highest suicide rate in the developed world for nine straight years, often drinking pesticide as their way out. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's credit growth quickens to 8.16 pct in August Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:55 PM PDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Growth in credit demand from South Africa's private sector accelerated to 8.16 percent year-on-year in August from 7.41 percent in July, central bank data showed on Monday. Expansion in the broadly defined M3 measure of money supply slowed to 6.9 percent from 7.36 percent. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected credit growth to slow to 7.3 percent while money supply growth was seen at 7.35 percent. Full Story | Top |
| South African police to investigate Gold Fields South Deep deal Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:55 PM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's elite anti-corruption police unit said on Monday it was investigating possible graft in a $210 million black empowerment transaction at Gold Fields involving a senior member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The investigation comes on the heels of a similar probe by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission into the dual-listed, Johannesburg-based bullion producer. The 2. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pentagon chief, at Korean DMZ, says U.S. will not cut force in Korea Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:51 PM PDT  By David Alexander PANMUNJOM, Korean Demilitarized Zone (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel toured the Korean DMZ on Monday, at times under the watchful eye of North Korean soldiers, and said the Pentagon had no plan to reduce its 28,500-member force in the South despite budget constraints. "This is probably the only place in the world where we have always a risk of confrontation," Hagel said after touring a single-story building with a corrugated metal roof where talks are held with North Koreans on Conference Row in the truce village of Panmunjom. ... Full Story | Top |
| Shanghai trade zone publishes restrictions for foreign investment Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:46 PM PDT  SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The Shanghai government published a list of sectors on Monday where foreign investment will be banned or restricted within its new free trade zone (FTZ), but in a departure from usual practise, no permission will be required to invest in other sectors. The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade zone officially opened for business on Sunday, and officials have outlined ambitious plans for bold reforms in the country's currency, interest rates, trade and industry policies in the zone, but without giving details on implementation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Osborne to court voters with tough welfare rules Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:38 PM PDT  By Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn MANCHESTER (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne will propose tougher new welfare rules and a reduction in taxes on Monday in a bid to win over voters grappling with declining spending power ahead of the 2015 election, while promising to sustain an economic recovery. Speaking to Conservative Party activists at the penultimate conference before the election, Osborne will argue that though Britain's $2.5 trillion (1.54 trillion pounds) economy is recovering and he is optimistic about the global economy there can be no complacency. ... Full Story | Top |
| Typhoon leaves 74 missing in China as Thailand, Vietnam brace for floods Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:36 PM PDT  BEIJING/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Seventy-four Chinese fishermen were missing on Monday after a typhoon sunk three fishing boats in the South China Sea as Thailand and Vietnam braced for torrential rain and flooding. The ships were hit by Typhoon Wutip on Sunday as they navigated gales near the Paracel Islands, about 330 km from China's island province of Hainan, state news agency Xinhua said, citing sources with the Hainan maritime search and rescue center. Rescuers had rescued 14 survivors, the sources said. The boats were sailing from the southern province of Guangdong. ... Full Story | Top |
| Oman looks beyond Iran sanctions for gas lifeline Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:27 PM PDT By Daniel Fineren DUBAI (Reuters) - If Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's dream of reaching a deal with world powers on Tehran's nuclear program in six months comes true, Oman, an important intermediary in the dispute, could be a big winner. There have been too many false dawns in Iran's decade-old standoff with the West over Tehran's nuclear program to bank on Rouhani's call in New York last week for a deal within 3-6 months. ... Full Story | Top |
| Decommissioning Tepco's other Fukushima nuclear plant needs special treatment: minister Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:16 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) - The decommissioning of Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, which is near the wrecked Daiichi plant, cannot be dealt with in the same manner as the decommissioning of other nuclear plants, Japanese trade and industry minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Monday. "The decommissioning of nuclear plants is something the utilities should decide, but we cannot treat the Daini plant in the same manner as other plants when considering the sentiment of Fukushima residents," Motegi said at a parliamentary hearing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Muslims in hiding in Myanmar after sectarian strife flares Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 11:02 PM PDT YANGON (Reuters) - Terrified Muslims hid in their homes in northwest Myanmar on Monday after armed police dispersed a Buddhist mob that torched houses and surrounded a mosque in the latest outbreak of sectarian tension. Clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslims have killed at least 237 people and left more than 150,000 homeless since June 2012. The violence threatens to undermine political and economic reforms launched in the two years since a quasi-civilian government replaced a military junta. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Success, compromise, ageing erode Europe's Greens Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 10:55 PM PDT By Paul Taylor PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's Greens have got the blues. The anti-nuclear environmentalist movement that burst into politics in the 1980s as a youthful third force has suffered a string of setbacks in Germany and France, raising questions over its future. Germany's Greens, trailblazers of political ecology, lost ground in a September 22 general election, finishing fourth on 8.4 percent behind the radical Left party, and failing to secure the coalition they wanted with the center-left Social Democrats. The party's senior leaders resigned. ... Full Story | Top |
| IBM settles with U.S. Justice Department over job listings Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 10:38 PM PDT  (Reuters) - IBM has agreed to pay $44,400 in civil penalties to settle allegations that certain of its online job postings preferred foreign workers with temporary work visas over U.S. citizens, the U.S. Department of Justice said. IBM had placed certain online job postings for application and software developers that contained citizenship status preferences for F-1 and H-1B temporary visa holders, the Justice Department said in a notification posted on its website late on Friday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel's Netanyahu to press Obama for no let-up on Iran pressure Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 10:14 PM PDT  By Dan Williams and Matt Spetalnick NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will warn President Barack Obama at a meeting on Monday that Iran's diplomatic "sweet talk" cannot be trusted and will urge him to pressure Tehran to prevent it being able to make a nuclear bomb. While Obama will attempt to reassure Netanyahu that he will not act prematurely to ease sanctions on Iran, growing signs of a U.S.-Iranian thaw have rattled Israel and could make for a tense encounter between the two leaders, who have not always seen eye-to-eye on the Iranian nuclear dispute. ... Full Story | Top |
| Shanghai free trade zone no game-changer for Hong Kong, for now Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 10:00 PM PDT  By Saikat Chatterjee and James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) - The launch of a Shanghai free trade zone heralds a new chapter in China's drive to promote the yuan currency but it is unlikely to pose a competitive threat to Hong Kong any time soon and could instead provide more opportunities in the former British colony. Underpinned by its strong rule of law and freedoms under the "one country, two systems" formula since it was handed over to China 16 years ago, Hong Kong is a long-time beneficiary of preferential economic policies. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kerry sees potential for quick Iran nuclear deal Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 09:22 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry said a deal on Iran's nuclear program could be reached relatively quickly, and it would have the potential to dramatically improve the relationship between the two countries. Kerry said intensifying diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program could produce an agreement within the three- to six-month time frame that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for. ... Full Story | Top |
| After years of crop crises, U.S. harvest beckons new era of plenty...almost Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 09:15 PM PDT  By Karl Plume (Reuters) - For much of the past six years, the global grain markets have lurched from one crop crisis to the next, keeping inventories low and food prices high. Now, as harvest machines across the U.S. Midwest prepare to reap the nation's biggest corn crop in history, a sea change seems imminent, one that could transform the market. No longer will a constant a fear of scarcity drive prices. Instead, traders be battling for market share instead of scrambling for supplies. But, warn experts, we are not there yet. ... Full Story | Top |
| Death toll from Pakistan market attack rises to 42 Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 09:09 PM PDT  PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The death toll from a car bomb explosion in an ancient market in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar rose to at least 42 on Monday, after the third attack in the area in a week. The blast ripped through the busy centuries-old market known as Quiswakhani, or the storytellers' bazaar, in Peshawar's old city on Sunday, exactly a week after more than 80 Christians were killed in a twin suicide bomb attack on a nearby church. A spokesman for the main city hospital said at least 107 people were wounded. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama administration to sue U.S. state on voting rules: source Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 09:03 PM PDT  By David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration plans to sue North Carolina on Monday to block newly enacted voting rules that it believes violates federal civil rights law, a person briefed on the Justice Department's plan said on Sunday. The challenge would be the second of its kind in three months aimed at voting changes in a Republican-led state. In July, the Justice Department said it would sue Texas. The department's civil rights enforcers are acting after the U.S. Supreme Court in June invalidated part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act they previously relied on. ... Full Story | Top |
| Capitol quiet as federal government shutdown nears Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 08:44 PM PDT  By David Lawder and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With a deadline to avert a federal government shutdown fast approaching, the U.S. Capitol was eerily quiet on Sunday as Republicans and Democrats waited for the other side to blink first and break the impasse over funding. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives early on Sunday passed a measure that ties government funding to a one-year delay of President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare restructuring law. Senate Democrats have vowed to quash it. ... Full Story | Top |
| After Airbus A400M, Europe faces dearth of big defense projects Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 07:18 PM PDT  By Tim Hepher and Brenda Goh PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - European politicians will toast the long-awaited Airbus A400M military transport plane at a ceremony in Spain on Monday, but face warnings that Europe's largest-ever collaborative defense project may be its last for years to come. After a tortuous 30 years in development, the first of 170 troop and cargo planes ordered by seven nations grants Europe a step towards independence in military transport, a key plank of foreign intervention capability. ... Full Story | Top |
| India, Pakistan leaders say they want better ties but reach no concrete agreements Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 06:05 PM PDT  By Paul Eckert NEW YORK (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, agreed on Sunday to work to restore a cross-border ceasefire after a spate of shootings in order to improve strained ties, officials said. Singh and Sharif met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, amid heightened tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the Kashmir region, sparked by series of fatal clashes on their de facto Himalayan border. ... Full Story | Top |
| China to crack down on false terrorist threats to airlines Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 06:05 PM PDT  SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China will impose tough penalties on people making false terrorist threats against airlines and airports, after a stream of bogus calls grounded flights and piled pressure on an already strained air traffic control system, state media reported. Flights and domestic airports have been disrupted by 80 fake threats this year, the official Xinhua news service said. Between May 15 and 18 alone, six bomb threats were reported, forcing 22 flights to turn back, land elsewhere or be delayed, a separate China Daily report noted. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan August output slips but seen rising on exports, domestic demand Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 05:29 PM PDT  By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Stanley White TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's industrial output slid 0.7 percent in August after a hefty gain in the previous month, but analysts see factory activity and the broader economy on track for a steady recovery backed by exports and firm domestic demand. A separate survey showed manufacturing activity expanded in September at the fastest pace since the March 2011 earthquake, underscoring the strength of the world's third-largest economy. Retail sales also rose 1. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italian political crisis threatens to split Berlusconi camp Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 05:24 PM PDT  By James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi's bid to push Italy into new elections faces a test on Monday when he meets lawmakers from his center-right party who have shown growing unease over his shock decision to pull support from Prime Minister Enrico Letta's coalition. Berlusconi's decision to order the five ministers from his People of Freedom (PDL) party to resign from Letta's cabinet has plunged Italy into political chaos and left the euro zone's third-largest economy without a functioning government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Portuguese punish ruling party for bailout pain in local polls Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 05:18 PM PDT  By Andrei Khalip and Axel Bugge LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese voters punished the ruling Social Democrats for painful austerity under an EU/IMF bailout, boosting opposition and independent candidates in municipal elections on Sunday. Preliminary results and exit poll projections showed Antonio Costa from the main opposition Socialists was reelected mayor of Lisbon by a landslide, winning more than half the votes cast - an improvement of up to 10 percentage points on his 2009 result. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan dies at 89 Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 05:05 PM PDT (Reuters) - Marcella Hazan, whose cookbooks brought the rich taste of authentic Italian food into kitchens across the United States, has died at the age of 89, her family said. Hazan lived in Longboat Key, Florida, with her husband and lifelong collaborator and writing partner Victor. Her death was announced by her daughter-in-law Lael Sara Caplan Hazan on her Facebook page. "The world of authentic home cooking has lost a giant today. My mother-in-law Marcella Hazan, melted away peacefully, my father-in-law Victor, was at her side," Caplan Hazan wrote. ... Full Story | Top |
| UK finance minister to court voters with tough welfare rules Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 05:04 PM PDT  By Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British finance minister George Osborne will propose tougher new welfare rules and a reduction in taxes on Monday in a bid to win over voters grappling with declining spending power ahead of the 2015 election, while promising to sustain an economic recovery. Speaking to Conservative Party activists at the penultimate conference before the election, Osborne will argue that though Britain's $2.5 trillion economy is recovering and he is optimistic about the global economy there can be no complacency. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan August retail sales rise 1.1 percent Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:56 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese retail sales rose 1.1 percent in August from a year earlier, government data showed on Monday, in a sign that consumer spending is gaining some momentum. That compares with the median estimate for a 0.1 percent annual increase and followed a 0.3 percent decline in the year to July, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed. To view full tables, go to the website of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry at: http://www.meti.go.jp/english/statistics/tyo/syoudou/index.html (Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Edmund Klamann) Full Story | Top |
| Amid rare unity, U.N. Security Council mulls action on Syria aid Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:49 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After adopting a hard-fought, Russian-backed resolution to rid Syria of chemical weapons, the U.N. Security Council is now turning its attention to the country's dire humanitarian crisis, putting to the test its fragile consensus on the conflict. The Security Council is considering a statement to try to boost aid access in Syria by urging Syrian authorities to allow cross-border deliveries from neighboring countries and asking parties to the conflict to hold humanitarian pauses in the fighting. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: What would happen if the U.S. government shuts down? Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:43 PM PDT (Reuters) - A partial shutdown of the U.S. government will begin at midnight on Monday if Republicans and Democrats fail to agree on a funding bill. In a government shutdown, spending for essential functions related to national security or public safety would continue along with benefit programs such as Medicare health insurance and Social Security retirement benefits for seniors. But civilian federal employees - from people who process forms and handle regulatory matters to workers at national parks and museums - would be furloughed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Closed museums to be least of the problems in a shutdown Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:40 PM PDT  By Patrick Temple-West and Gabriel Debenedetti WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most iconic image from the last big shutdown of the federal government in 1995 was also its most misleading. It was a sign on the door of the Air and Space Museum in Washington saying "Due to the Federal Government shutdown, the Smithsonian Institution must be closed. We regret the inconvenience." But that shutdown, which lasted from December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996 as Democratic President Bill Clinton battled a Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, was a lot more than an inconvenience. ... Full Story | Top |
| Father of Dodgers fan killed in stabbing pleads for witnesses Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:30 PM PDT (Reuters) - The father of a man stabbed to death in a fight after a baseball game made an emotional plea on Sunday for witnesses to come forward after prosecutors declined to charge a suspect for lack of evidence. Addressing reporters in front of AT&T Park before the San Francisco Giants' final game of the season, Robert Preece said he believed that someone may have videotaped the altercation that left his 24-year-old son, Jonathan Denver, dead. Such evidence could help authorities get to the truth of what had happened, said Preece. "I don't know how this will end," Preece told reporters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Italian president hopes to solve political crisis without new vote Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:28 PM PDT By Alessandra Galloni and James Mackenzie ROME (Reuters) - Italy's president began talks on Sunday to pull the country out of a new political crisis, attempting to undercut a move by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to bring down the government and force new elections seven months after the last vote. For the third time since 2011, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano is trying to steer the country out of political chaos that has proven a major threat, not only to the euro zone's third-largest economy, but to the region's efforts to halt its four-year debt crisis. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan September PMI shows manufacturing expanding at fastest since 2011 quake Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:16 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese manufacturing activity expanded in September at the fastest pace since a record earthquake and nuclear disaster in early 2011, a survey showed on Monday, suggesting the economy has been able to stage a full recovery due to strong domestic demand and recovering exports. The Markit/JMMA Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to a seasonally adjusted 52.5 in September from 52.2 in the previous month. ... Full Story | Top |
| TNT Post expands rival UK delivery service to Royal Mail Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:16 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's No. 2 postal firm TNT Post is to begin deliveries in Greater Manchester in November as it steps up its challenge to dominant player Royal Mail, expected to be valued at as much as 3.3 billion pounds in a flotation next month. TNT Post, owned by Dutch mail group PostNL, wants to establish a nationwide delivery network by 2015, providing Royal Mail with competition on the last leg of deliveries for the first time in its centuries of service. ... Full Story | Top |
| Market bombing kill 33 in Pakistan's Peshawar: police Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:08 PM PDT By Hamid Ullah Khan PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Twin blasts in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar killed 33 people and wounded 70 on Sunday, a week after bombings at a church there killed scores, police and hospital authorities said. Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent months, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by launching peace talks with the Taliban. The blasts outside a police station hit an area known as Quiswakhani, or the storytellers' bazaar, crowded with shoppers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Growth top goal for big UK firms for 1st time since 2011 - poll Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 04:07 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Big companies in Britain say expansion is their top priority for the first time in 18 months, a survey showed on Monday, in another sign the country's economic recovery is on a solid footing. Forty percent of chief financial officers polled by professional services firm Deloitte aim to venture into new markets or introduce new products or services in the next 12 months. Thirty-five percent of respondents said increasing cash flow was a strong priority, making it the second most popular goal. Cost reduction came third, with 29 percent mentioning it. ... Full Story | Top |
| Schaeuble and taxes at stake in German coalition talks Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 03:44 PM PDT  By Alexandra Hudson BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel will be asked to break an election pledge not to raise taxes in talks this week on a 'grand coalition' with the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) which could also threaten her influential finance minister. The chancellor's conservatives notched up their best result in more than two decades in last Sunday's election but fell just short of a parliamentary majority, leaving Merkel in need of a partner. Her former allies, the Free Democrats (FDP), lacked enough support to return to parliament. ... Full Story | Top |
| Sudanese protest again against Bashir in Khartoum Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 03:33 PM PDT KHARTOUM (Reuters) - About 1,000 Sudanese staged another protest in Khartoum on Sunday to demand President Omar Hassan al-Bashir resign, a witness said, as the government moved to raise salaries to soften the impact of unpopular austerity measures. Last week, the government cut back fuel subsidies, which touched off the worst unrest in central Sudan in years. The official death toll stands at 33, but Sudanese rights activists and some diplomats said more than 100 people were killed during clashes with security forces. ... Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment