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| BOJ raises GDP forecast, holds line on inflation Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 12:26 AM PDT  The central bank did revise up its economic growth forecast for the 2014 fiscal year beginning next April to 1.5 percent, judging the world's third-largest economy could keep growing above its potential despite a sales tax increase next year. As widely expected, the BOJ had earlier kept intact its intense monetary stimulus launched in April, under which it aims to double base money via asset purchases to meet its target of lifting inflation to 2 percent in roughly two years. In its semi-annual outlook report, the BOJ kept its forecasts for core consumer inflation in fiscal 2014 and 2015 at 1.3 percent and 1.9 percent respectively, excluding the increase in the sales tax, a sign it is on track to meet its goal. Even though it did not formally forecast inflation reaching 2 percent, economists worry the BOJ is expecting too much from government stimulus designed to offset the impact of the rise in the 5 percent sales tax rate to 8 percent next April. Full Story | Top |
| Israeli troops kill Palestinian during West Bank raid: medics Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 12:30 AM PDT Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during a clash in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian witnesses and medical officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the soldiers had been on an overnight raid in a village near the city of Jenin, when about 50 Palestinians started hurling hurled rocks at them. Ahmed Imad Yusef, 21, was shot in the chest during the confrontation, medical workers said. The military spokeswoman said reports of a Palestinian casualty were being investigated. Full Story | Top |
| China state media calls for strong action after Tiananmen attack Thursday, Oct 31, 2013 12:31 AM PDT  By Michael Martina TURPAN, China (Reuters) - Chinese state media demanded severe punishment on Thursday for those behind what China has said is a holy war aimed at Beijing, which it has blamed on Islamist militants from the restive Xinjiang region. The exiled leader of Xinjiang's Muslim Uighur minority called for an independent probe into a crash on Monday when an SUV burst into flames after being driven into a crowd in Tiananmen Square, one of China's most closely guarded areas. U.S.-based Rebiya Kadeer said she did not believe any kind of organized extremist Islamic movement was operating in Xinjiang, a view shared by rights groups and some experts. Full Story | Top |
| Facebook smashes analyst targets but executive comments spook Street Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 06:23 PM PDT  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc posted strong growth in its mobile advertising business on Wednesday but rattled investors after saying that it did not plan to boost the frequency of ads shown to users. In July, Facebook said it was showing one ad per 20 stories in the newsfeed, but Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman told analysts Wednesday that the current ratio, although slightly higher than 5 percent, would not increase much more going forward. Ebersman's comments, combined with remarks suggesting that young teenage users in the U.S. were beginning to use Facebook less frequently, soured the mood abruptly on an afternoon when the company topped Wall Street's targets with a whopping 60 percent increase in revenue, driven by its accelerating mobile business. But Greenfield said he believed investors were over-reacting, noting that increasing advertising prices, rather than the volume of ads, is more important for growth in Facebook's topline. Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Putin targets Dagestan insurgents as Olympics loom Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 11:22 PM PDT  By Alissa de Carbonnel MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ahead of the Sochi Olympics in February, Russia is taking saliva samples from religiously conservative Muslim women, according to locals in the North Caucasus, gathering DNA so authorities can identify the body parts if any become suicide bombers. The move coincides with a drive by President Vladimir Putin to crack down on an Islamist insurgency in Dagestan, a province in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains east of the Winter Games sites in Sochi. Under Putin, authorities seem to have given up trying to deal with the conflict through dialogue with adherents of the strict Salafist strand of Islam that is the militants' religion. On October 21, a suicide bombing that killed six people in Volgograd, a major city north of Sochi, was blamed on a woman from Dagestan. Full Story | Top |
| Fed maintains strong stimulus as U.S. growth stumbles Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:37 PM PDT  By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve extended its support for a soft U.S. economy on Wednesday, sounding a bit less optimistic about growth as it announced plans to keep buying $85 billion in bonds per month. In announcing the decision, the Fed nodded to weaker economic signals that have been due in part to a fiscal fight in Washington that shuttered much of the government for 16 days earlier this month. The central bank noted that the recovery in the housing market had lost some steam and suggested some frustration at how slowly the labor market was healing. However, it also dropped a phrase expressing concern about a run-up in borrowing costs, suggesting greater comfort with the current level of interest rates. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. F-35 fighter drops first guided bomb against ground target Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:16 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet dropped a 500-pound bomb this week, hitting a tank at Edwards Air Force Base in California and marking the first time the new warplane has fired a laser-guided weapon, the Pentagon said Wednesday. An F-35 B-model jet released the Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II bomb from its internal weapons bay while flying at around 25,000 feet, successfully smashing into a tank parked on the ground, the Pentagon's F-35 program office said in a statement. It took 35 seconds to hit the target. "This guided weapons delivery test of a GBU-12 marks the first time the F-35 truly became a weapon system," said Marine Corps Major Richard Rusnok, the pilot who flew the plane during the weapons test Tuesday. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. spy agency's defense: Europeans did it too Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:53 PM PDT  By Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The political uproar over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on close European allies has produced an unusual defense from the National Security Agency: NSA says it was the Europeans themselves who did the spying, and then handed data to the Americans. It is rare for intelligence officials to speak in any public detail about liaison arrangements with foreign spy agencies because such relationships are so sensitive. But that is what NSA Director General Keith Alexander did at a public congressional hearing on Tuesday when, attempting to counter international complaints about the agency's alleged excesses, he said its sources for foreign telecommunications information included "data provided to NSA by foreign partners." Alexander's disclosure marked yet another milestone in NSA's emergence from the shadows to defend its electronic surveillance mission in the wake of damaging revelations by former agency contractor Edward Snowden. "It is true that in general we stay close-mouthed about intelligence liaison relationships and we only speak in the most general terms about sharing things with our friends and allies," said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA analyst. Full Story | Top |
| White House faces tough sell in Congress on delay of Iran sanctions Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:10 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Obama administration officials have been pushing U.S. lawmakers hard to hold off on new sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, but some key lawmakers said on Wednesday they had not yet been convinced to support a delay. Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which is considering the sanctions package, said lawmakers were skeptical because they felt they had to push the White House to back strict sanctions on Tehran. "I think ... because Congress had to push the administration into the sanctions regime in the first place, there is a degree of skepticism. Corker had a breakfast meeting on Wednesday with Secretary of State John Kerry. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. spy agency denies that it eavesdropped on Vatican Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 03:34 PM PDT  WASHINGTON/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The National Security Agency, responsible for U.S. electronic eavesdropping, said on Wednesday that it does not target the Vatican and called an Italian media report that it had done so "not true." Panorama magazine said on Wednesday that the NSA had eavesdropped on Vatican phone calls, possibly including when former Pope Benedict's successor was under discussion. "The National Security Agency does not target the Vatican. Assertions that NSA has targeted the Vatican, published in Italy's Panorama magazine, are not true," NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. joins lawsuit against firm that vetted Snowden Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 01:01 PM PDT  By Aruna Viswanatha and David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it had joined a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower against United States Investigations Services, the private firm that vetted Edward Snowden before he leaked documents about U.S. spying efforts. While the lawsuit is not about the firm's review of Snowden, it alleges that USIS failed to perform quality control reviews in connection with its background investigations. The firm also vetted Aaron Alexis, the technology contractor who killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard last month. Such background checks include investigative fieldwork on each application. Full Story | Top |
| Israel pushes plans for 3,500 settler homes after prisoners freed Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:05 PM PDT  By Mohammed Abu Ganeyeh BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered officials on Wednesday to press ahead with plans to build 3,500 more homes for Jewish settlers, hours after Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of U.S.-brokered peace efforts. Netanyahu's step was seen as a way to placate hardliners who criticized him as the inmates, convicted of killing Israelis, basked in a heroes' welcome from hundreds of relatives and well-wishers in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel's Interior Ministry announced earlier in the day that the 1,500 units would be built in Ramat Shlomo, a settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank that Israel considers part of Jerusalem. Those plans were first announced in 2010, clouding a visit to Israel at the time by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who condemned the project, which was subsequently shelved. Full Story | Top |
| Uighur leader questions China's account of Tiananmen attack Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:12 PM PDT  By Paul Eckert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The exiled leader of China's Uighur ethnic minority community called on Wednesday for an international investigation into an incident in which a car ploughed into pedestrians in Beijing, after Chinese authorities arrested five suspected Uighurs over the attack. The SUV vehicle burst into flames after being driven into a crowd on Tiananmen Square on Monday. Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress, called the attack tragic but was equivocal on whether Uighurs - a Muslim people from China's far western region of Xinjiang - had carried it out. Kadeer, who lives in the Washington area, warned against accepting at face value China's account of the incident. Full Story | Top |
| JP Morgan puts London FX chief on leave, Citi reported to do same Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:05 PM PDT  JP Morgan has put its chief currency dealer in London, Richard Usher, on leave, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, and Bloomberg reported Citigroup Inc had done the same with its chief dealer. This mirrors developments at Standard Chartered, which has also put one of its senior forex traders on leave, according to a source familiar with the matter. Matt Gardiner joined StanChart from Swiss bank UBS only last month. JP Morgan is one of several banks cooperating with the Financial Conduct Authority in Britain and other regulators around the world looking into allegations of currency manipulation in the $5.3 trillion-a-day global market. Full Story | Top |
| Facebook smashes analyst targets but executive comments spook Street Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:53 PM PDT  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc posted strong growth in its mobile advertising business on Wednesday but rattled investors after saying that it did not plan to boost the frequency of ads shown to users. In July, Facebook said it was showing one ad per 20 stories in the newsfeed, but Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman told analysts Wednesday that the current ratio, although slightly higher than 5 percent, would not increase much more going forward. Ebersman's comments, combined with remarks suggesting that young teenage users in the U.S. were beginning to use Facebook less frequently, soured the mood abruptly on an afternoon when the company topped Wall Street's targets with a whopping 60 percent increase in revenue, driven by its accelerating mobile business. But Greenfield said he believed investors were over-reacting, noting that increasing advertising prices, rather than the volume of ads, is more important for growth in Facebook's topline. Full Story | Top |
| Fed maintains strong stimulus as U.S. growth stumbles Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 02:16 PM PDT  By Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve extended its support for a soft U.S. economy on Wednesday, sounding a bit less optimistic about growth as it announced plans to keep buying $85 billion in bonds per month. In announcing the decision, the Fed nodded to weaker economic signals that have been due in part to a fiscal fight in Washington that shuttered much of the government for 16 days earlier this month. The central bank noted that the recovery in the housing market had lost some steam and suggested some frustration at how slowly the labor market was healing. However, it also dropped a phrase expressing concern about a run-up in borrowing costs, suggesting greater comfort with the current level of interest rates. Full Story | Top |
| Iraqi PM Maliki struggles to convince U.S. lawmakers to back more aid Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 02:38 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers had tough criticism for Iraq's government after meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday, saying they were open to meeting his request for military assistance only if Baghdad made significant changes. Maliki is on his first visit to Washington in two years, urgently seeking U.S. Apache attack helicopters and other military supplies to fight militant groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq as sectarian violence spills over the border from Syria. But U.S. officials, particularly members of Congress who take a harder line on many foreign policy issues than the Obama administration, have watched in dismay as Maliki has ignored Washington's calls to give Iraq's Sunni and Kurdish minorities a greater role in his Shi'ite-led government, and moved closer to Iran since U.S. troops left Iraq two years ago. Full Story | Top |
| Israel pushes plans for 3,500 settler homes after prisoners freed Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 03:36 PM PDT By Mohammed Abu Ganeyeh BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered officials on Wednesday to press ahead with plans to build 3,500 more homes for Jewish settlers, hours after Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of U.S.-brokered peace efforts. Netanyahu's step was seen as a way to placate hardliners who criticized him as the inmates, convicted of killing Israelis, basked in a heroes' welcome from hundreds of relatives and well-wishers in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel's Interior Ministry announced earlier in the day that the 1,500 units would be built in Ramat Shlomo, a settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank that Israel considers part of Jerusalem. Those plans were first announced in 2010, clouding a visit to Israel at the time by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who condemned the project, which was subsequently shelved. Full Story | Top |
| Obama blames 'bad apple' insurers for canceled coverage Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:43 PM PDT  By Roberta Rampton and David Morgan BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that "bad apple" insurance companies, not his signature healthcare law, are to blame for hundreds of thousands of people losing their coverage in the past few weeks. As administration officials scrambled to fix technical problems on an online insurance marketplace that is central to the success of the Affordable Care Act, Obama blamed private insurers for a separate problem that has critics questioning his honesty. But the termination of individual policies has given his Republican opponents additional ammunition to criticize the program they have tried to stop since its inception in Obama's first term. Republicans' assertion that Obama had broken a major promise to the electorate is potentially more damaging than the glitch-ridden website rollout on October 1. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Syria peace talks face delay as big powers split Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 10:27 AM PDT  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - International powers are unlikely to meet their goal of convening peace talks on Syria in Geneva next month as differences emerge between Washington and Moscow over opposition representation, Arab and Western officials said. Failure of the main Syrian National Coalition to take a clear stance over the talks, which aim to find a political solution to Syria's 2-1/2 year civil war, are also expected to contribute to a delay of up to one month, the officials told Reuters. "A clearer picture will emerge when the United States and Russia meet next week, but all indications show that the November 23 goal will be difficult to meet," said one of the officials involved in preparing for the talks. U.S., Russian and U.N envoys are due to meet in Geneva next Tuesday as part of the preparation for the long-delayed peace conference, which was first proposed back in May. A main point of contention, the official said, is the role of the Western-backed opposition coalition - an issue which has flared up since a meeting in London last week of Western and Gulf Arab countries opposed to Assad. Full Story | Top |
| Trial of Kenyan president likely to be delayed until next year Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 11:39 AM PDT  The trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on charges of crimes against humanity is unlikely to start next month as planned, after prosecutors said on Tuesday they did not object to a delay. Fellow African leaders have urged Kenyatta not to attend the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which they accuse of unfairly targeting Africans and of violating Kenyan sovereignty. His deputy William Ruto, a former political rival, faces similar charges. Full Story | Top |
| China says five detained in connection with Tiananmen attack Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 09:37 AM PDT By Megha Rajagopalan and Michael Martina BEIJING/TURPAN, China (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday it had caught five suspected Islamist militants after a vehicle burst into flames on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in what police called a terrorist attack. Authorities also moved to tighten security in the restive far western, energy-rich region of Xinjiang, where the suspects are from. The Xinjiang-registered SUV involved in Monday's incident in which five people were killed was driven by Usmen Hasan, police said, a man whose name suggested he is an ethnic Uighur, a Muslim people from Xinjiang. "Police have identified Monday's incident at Tiananmen Square as a violent terrorist attack which was carefully planned, organized and premeditated," police said, adding the three people in the vehicle died after they set the gasoline on fire. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. private hiring slows, inflation stays muted Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 12:13 PM PDT  The slowdown in private job growth was the latest signal that the labor market has taken a step back in recent months and the clearest indication yet that a 16-day federal government shutdown weighed on economic activity. FED TO STAY THE COURSE FOR A WHILE The weak labor market picture and benign inflation environment should allow the Fed to stay the course on its monthly bond purchases for a while as it tries to stimulate the economy through low interest rates. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. security agency denies reports it targeted Vatican Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 01:47 PM PDT  The National Security Agency, responsible for U.S. electronic eavesdropping, said on Wednesday that it does not target the Vatican, and called an Italian media report that it had done so "not true." "The National Security Agency does not target the Vatican. Assertions that NSA has targeted the Vatican, published in Italy's Panorama magazine, are not true," agency spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in a statement. Panorama magazine said on Wednesday that the NSA had eavesdropped on Vatican phone calls, possibly including when former Pope Benedict's successor was under discussion. Full Story | Top |
| Suicide bomber attacks Tunisian resort town Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 09:57 AM PDT  By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Tunisian tourist resort of Sousse on Wednesday, the first such assault in more than a decade in a country now battling Islamist militants boosted by chaos in neighboring Libya. Police foiled another attack when they arrested a would-be suicide bomber at former President Habib Bourguiba's tomb in the seaside town of Monastir, and detained five other people in Sousse thought to be plotting assaults, security sources said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Islamist-led government said all the arrested men had admitted to being members of the militant Ansar al-Sharia movement, which it says is linked to al Qaeda's North Africa affiliate. "The two suicide bombers are radical Islamist jihadists. Full Story | Top |
| Murdoch editors must have known of phone hacking, court hears Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:38 PM PDT By Michael Holden and Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, a former top editor, and Andy Coulson, Prime Minister David Cameron's ex-media chief, oversaw a system of phone-hacking and illegal payments when they ran Rupert Murdoch's British tabloids, a London court heard at the start of their trial on Wednesday. Setting out the prosecution case, Andrew Edis said Brooks was linked to both phone-hacking that ruined the tabloid News of the World and the practice of paying public officials for stories at its sister newspaper, the Sun. Brooks, 45, later ran Murdoch's British newspaper division from 2009 to 2011. Full Story | Top |
| Egyptian students protest after Brotherhood leader arrested Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 02:14 PM PDT By Hadeel Al Shalchi CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police fired teargas at protesting students at Cairo's al-Azhar university on Wednesday hours after authorities announced the detention of Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam El-Erian, part of a crackdown against the Islamist movement. Erian, deputy leader of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, was taken into custody from a residence in New Cairo, a suburb on the outskirts of the capital, where he had been in hiding, an interior ministry source told Reuters. Down, down with the lord of the army," one protester scribbled, referring to army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July. If you see anyone just arrest them right away." Over 20 students were arrested, according to two security sources. Full Story | Top |
| France denies paying ransom as Sahel hostages return Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 06:39 AM PDT By Abdoulaye Massalatchi and Nicholas Vinocur NIAMEY/PARIS (Reuters) - Four Frenchmen held hostage in the Sahara desert by al Qaeda-linked gunmen for three years flew home and were reunited with their families on Wednesday, with Paris dismissing media reports it had paid a ransom for their release. The men, kidnapped in 2010 while working for French nuclear group Areva and a subsidiary of construction group Vinci in northern Niger, were freed on Tuesday after secret negotiations conducted by the government of Niger. It was difficult, the ordeal of a lifetime," said Thierry Dol, one of the freed men before leaving. Gaunt and bearded, but said to be in good health, the men embraced their families on the runway of a military airport near Paris where President Francois Hollande was waiting. Full Story | Top |
| Assad tells U.N. envoy peace talks can succeed only if aid to rebels stops Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:47 AM PDT  President Bashar al-Assad told U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on Wednesday that talks to end Syria's civil war would only succeed if foreign powers ended support for rebels fighting to overthrow him. Brahimi is in Damascus to met Syrian officials in an effort to shore up support for the faltering peace talks. State television quoted Assad as telling Brahimi, "the success of any political solution is tied to stopping support for terrorist groups and pressuring their patron states". Assad's government calls the armed opposition terrorists. Full Story | Top |
| Israel frees Palestinian prisoners, pushes settlement plan Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:55 AM PDT By Mohammed Abu Ganeyeh BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday as part of U.S.-brokered peace efforts, but said it was pressing on with plans to build more homes for Jewish settlers, in an apparent move to appease hardliners. The inmates, who were convicted of killing Israelis, basked in a heroes' welcome from hundreds of relatives and well-wishers in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "Our heroes are coming home, long live the prisoners," crowds chanted outside the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Issa Abed Rabbo, convicted of murdering two Israeli hikers in 1984, was carried through the alleys of the Biblical town of Bethlehem on the shoulders of cheering Palestinians as fireworks went off and patriotic songs blared. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. consumer prices rise, but underlying inflation benign Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:32 AM PDT  U.S. consumer prices rose modestly in September but there was little sign of underlying inflation in the economy, which should give the Federal Reserve scope to maintain its monthly bond purchases. The Labor Department said on Wednesday its Consumer Price Index increased 0.2 percent last month as energy prices rebounded, after edging up 0.1 percent in August. In the 12 months through September, the CPI increased 1.2 percent, the smallest gain since April. Economists polled by Reuters had expected consumer prices to rise 0.2 percent last month and increase 1.2 percent from a year ago. Full Story | Top |
| China to step up own security after new NSA allegations Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 01:47 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China will step up its security following allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) collected data on millions of phone calls in Europe and snooped on leaders of major U.S. allies, the government said on Wednesday. "Like many other countries, we have been paying close attention to these reports," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing. "China is concerned about the continued revelations of eavesdropping and surveillance and is paying attention to how the situation develops," she added. ... Full Story | Top |
| Germany's Merkel sends top foreign adviser to press U.S. over spying Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 04:03 AM PDT  Angela Merkel's top foreign affairs and intelligence advisers will quiz officials in Washington on Wednesday over the activities of U.S. spies in Germany, including allegations they tapped the German chancellor's phone. The visit is one of a series of trips by high-ranking German and European Union officials to the United States this week after revelations of the scale of the surveillance triggered outrage and shattered European trust in Washington. Merkel wants the United States to agree a "no spying" deal with Berlin and Paris by the end of the year and to stop alleged espionage against two of Washington's closest EU allies. "I can confirm that the two top aides from the chancellery are in Washington for talks today," said her spokesman Steffen Seibert. Full Story | Top |
| Syria's Assad says peace talks tied to ending aid to 'terrorists' Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 05:13 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who met with United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on Wednesday, said the success of peace talks was tied to "stopping support for terrorist groups." He was quoted on state television as saying "the success of any political solution is tied to stopping support for terrorist groups and pressuring their patron states". It was not clear if he was speaking to Brahimi. (Reporting by Oliver Holmes and Stephen Kalin; editing by Mike Collett-White) Full Story | Top |
| Tepco shouldn't be in charge of Fukushima shutdown: Japan panel Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 01:30 AM PDT  By Takaya Yamaguchi and Kentaro Hamada TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co should be stripped of the responsibility for shutting down its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, according to a draft proposal by a panel of Japan's ruling party. Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, has been widely criticized for repeated missteps, poor planning and a lack of disclosure in its efforts to clear up the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Starvation in Syria: a war tactic Wednesday, Oct 30, 2013 01:27 AM PDT  (This story was reported by a visiting journalist whose name has been withheld for security reasons) DAMASCUS (Reuters) - One Syrian security official called it the "Starvation Until Submission Campaign", blocking food and medicine from entering and people from leaving besieged areas of Syria. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have used partial sieges to root out rebel forces from residential areas during the civil war. But a recent tightening of blockades around areas near the capital is causing starvation and death, residents and medical staff say. ... Full Story | Top |
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