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| U.S. shutdown seen dragging on as debt ceiling fight nears Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 07:46 PM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal and Richard Cowan (Reuters) - The shutdown of the U.S. government appeared likely to drag on for another week and possibly longer as lawmakers consumed day three of the shutdown with a stalling game and there was no end in sight until the next crisis hits Washington around October 17. Bowing to the reality that the impasse requires him to remain in Washington, President Barack Obama canceled plans to attend summits in Indonesia and Brunei next week. Earlier this week, he canceled visits to Malaysia and the Philippines because of the shutdown. ... Full Story | Top |
| BOJ maintains stimulus, more upbeat on capex Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:29 AM PDT  By Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan maintained its massive monetary stimulus on Friday and upgraded its view on capital expenditure, encouraged by growing signs that the benefits of its aggressive policy action to escape deflation are broadening. After a two-day review, the central bank reiterated its view the world's third-largest economy is recovering moderately, suggesting that no additional monetary policy measures are needed to counter the pain from next year's sales tax hike. "Capital expenditure is picking up as corporate profits improve," the BOJ said in a statement. ... Full Story | Top |
| Driver shot dead in car chase near Capitol Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 09:04 PM PDT  By Richard Cowan and Margaret Chadbourn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A dramatic car chase through the streets of Washington from near the White House to the U.S. Capitol ended in gunfire on Thursday when law enforcement officers shot and killed the driver as lawmakers and aides huddled in a lockdown. The incident rattled Washington less than three weeks after a government contractor opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard, about 1.5 miles from the Capitol, killing 12 people and wounding three others before he was shot to death by police. ... Full Story | Top |
| Germany's Merkel to start tricky coalition talks with Social Democrats Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 10:54 PM PDT  By Sarah Marsh BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel holds preliminary talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) on Friday to sound out the scope for compromises to form a "grand coalition", marking the start of complicated horse-trading that could drag on into next year. Germany's European partners are watching the coalition manoeuvring in Berlin closely, concerned that delays could push back EU-wide decisions on important financial crisis-fighting measures like the ambitious banking union project. ... Full Story | Top |
| Latest Myanmar violence blamed on religious and ethnic extremists Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:32 AM PDT  By Jared Ferrie THANDWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - The Buddhist mob mutilated and burned Khin Naing so severely his son couldn't recognise the body, one of series of attacks that suggest a resurgence of a monk-led movement in Myanmar accused of stoking violence against Muslims. Flies were buzzing around the bloodied patch of earth outside a ransacked mosque in Tha Phyu Chai village where police removed Khin Naing's body after he was hacked to death by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela's Maduro stuck in shadow of 'El Comandante' Chavez Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 10:10 PM PDT  By Andrew Cawthorne CIUDAD CARIBIA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Hovering over a sun-baked mountain one day in his presidential helicopter, Hugo Chavez had a dream: to build a utopian city that would showcase socialism in Venezuela. Slowly and chaotically over the years that followed, the late president's pet project - conceived a decade into his rule and named "Ciudad Caribia" for the country's indigenous Carib people - began to take shape on the mountain 10 km (6 miles) northwest of the capital, Caracas. "This was his dream. ... Full Story | Top |
| Workers and employers face off at Supreme Court Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 10:19 PM PDT  By Lawrence Hurley and Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Workplace disputes pepper the docket of cases the U.S. Supreme Court will take up during a nine-month term starting on Monday, with the justices having delivered a string of victories to businesses and employers in their last term. Organized labor will feature in two of the cases. In one, an employee seeks to limit the power of public-sector unions to collect dues. In the other, an employee aims to limit the ability of private-sector unions to sign up members. ... Full Story | Top |
| China elevates Malaysia ties, aims to triple trade by 2017 Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 11:23 PM PDT  By Yantoultra Ngui KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - China and Malaysia agreed on Friday to elevate bilateral ties to a "comprehensive strategic partnership", aiming to boost military cooperation and nearly triple two-way trade to $160 billion by 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak spoke soon after U.S. President Barack Obama canceled a week-long tour of four Asian nations, including Malaysia, due to the U.S. government shutdown. ... Full Story | Top |
| Brazil electoral court rejects new opposition party Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 08:12 PM PDT  By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - In a decision that could boost President Dilma Rousseff's chances of re-election next year, Brazil's electoral court ruled on Thursday that her main potential rival failed to gather enough signatures to register her new party in time. Environmentalist Marina Silva has until Saturday to decide whether to run on the ticket of an existing party to make her second bid for president next October. The court ruled 6-1 against the creation of her party, called the Sustainability Network, because it fell short of the required 492,000 signatures. ... Full Story | Top |
| California governor signs law expanding protections for journalists Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 08:43 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law on Thursday to give journalists in the state five days' notice before government agencies serve subpoenas on their records held by third parties, such as phone companies and internet service providers. The law, which was approved by unanimous votes in the California Assembly and Senate, expands on the state's existing shield law for journalists and will apply to subpoenas sought in state courts. The California law comes after two cases earlier this year that sparked debate about whether the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn held in custody before trial Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 12:57 PM PDT  By Angeliki Koutantou and Karolina Tagaris ATHENS (Reuters) - The leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party was remanded in custody on Thursday pending trial on criminal charges, the first time an elected party chief has been put behind bars since a military coup nearly five decades ago. The detention of Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, who has watched support for his party wane after a supporter was accused of murdering a popular rapper, is a reprieve for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government that has vowed to wipe out the party, calling it a "gang of neo-Nazis". ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama cancels Asia tour over shutdown; raises questions on U.S. pivot Friday, Oct 04, 2013 12:36 AM PDT  By Steve Holland and James Pomfret WASHINGTON/NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called off plans to visit Asia and attend two summits because of the U.S. government shutdown, raising questions about the strategic "pivot" to the region that he announced just two years ago. Obama had planned to depart on Saturday for a four-nation, week-long trip. He cancelled visits to Malaysia and the Philippines earlier this week because of his budget struggle in the U.S. Congress and said late on Thursday he would not attend the regional summits in Indonesia and Brunei. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel to run for U.N. Security Council seat for 2019-20 Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 02:59 PM PDT  By Dan Williams NEW YORK (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it plans to run for a rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council for the time ever for 2019-2020, although U.N. diplomats said it will not be easy for the Jewish state to win. "We're going all out to win," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor told Reuters. "It's about time." Winning a Security Council seat requires a two-thirds majority in the 193-nation General Assembly. Candidates are proposed by the five regional groups but election to the council is done by the full assembly. ... Full Story | Top |
| Michael Jackson verdict hinged on wording of key question to jury Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 04:55 PM PDT  By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After testimony from nearly five dozen witnesses during a five-month trial, the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of the late pop star Michael Jackson hinged on the jury's interpretation of one question on the verdict form. Was the physician convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter in the singer's death, Conrad Murray, "unfit or incompetent to perform the work for which he was hired?" That question was the second in a series of 16 posed to the jury as the case was turned over to the 12-member panel for deliberations last week. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tropical Storm Karen heads toward U.S. Gulf Coast Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 09:17 PM PDT  By Jane Sutton MIAMI (Reuters) - The first cyclone to threaten the U.S. coast this year moved across the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and was forecast to sweep through offshore oil installations before hitting the mainland between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Some energy companies in the Gulf started shutting down production and evacuating workers from offshore platforms as Tropical Storm Karen approached a region that produces nearly a fifth of daily U.S. oil output. Three days after much of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Thousands who protested peacefully languish in Syrian jails: HRW Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 02:13 PM PDT  AMMAN (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people who peacefully demonstrated against President Bashar al-Assad are languishing in Syrian jails and are subjected to an apparent policy of torture, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. Citing testimony from former prisoners, HRW said in a report that detainees have been raped and abused, including with electric shocks to the genitals, and beaten with batons, cables, metal rods, and wires. ... Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu says Iranian missiles could eventually reach U.S. Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 09:07 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In his latest warning about Iran's nuclear ambitions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Iran was working on intercontinental ballistic missiles that could one day hit the United States. "They're not developing those ICBMs for us. They can reach us with what they have. It's for you," he told CBS News. "The American intelligence knows as well as we do that Iran is developing ICBMs not to reach Israel. They want to reach well beyond," he said on the network's "This Morning" program. ... Full Story | Top |
| Citigroup fined $30 million after analyst sent report to SAC, others Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 10:14 AM PDT  By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc will pay a $30 million fine after one of its analysts improperly sent confidential research on an Apple supplier to big clients including Steven A. Cohen's hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, a securities regulator said on Thursday. Citigroup analyst Kevin Chang emailed unpublished research about Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, a major supplier of Apple Inc iPhones, to SAC, T. Rowe Price, Citadel and GLG Partners, according to William Galvin, Massachusetts' Secretary of the Commonwealth. ... Full Story | Top |
| Plane crash near Nigeria's Lagos airport kills 16 Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 09:23 AM PDT By Chijioke Ohuocha and Tim Cocks LAGOS (Reuters) - Sixteen people were killed when a small passenger plane crashed shortly after takeoff outside Lagos airport's domestic terminal on Thursday, Nigerian authorities said. The aircraft, operated by Nigeria's Associated Airlines, came down in open ground, close to an aviation fuel depot in the commercial capital. Local media reported it was carrying the body of a former regional governor, and members of his family, to his funeral. A Reuters reporter saw emergency workers take a coffin out of the wreckage. ... Full Story | Top |
| Driver shot dead in dramatic car chase at U.S. Capitol Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 04:32 PM PDT By Richard Cowan and Margaret Chadbourn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A dramatic car chase through the streets of Washington from near the White House to the U.S. Capitol ended in gunfire on Thursday when law enforcement officers shot and killed the driver as lawmakers and aides huddled in a lockdown. The identity of the driver - a woman - was not released. "The suspect in the vehicle was struck by gunfire and at this point has been pronounced (dead)," Washington's police chief, Cathy Lanier, told reporters. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. shutdown seen dragging on as debt ceiling fight nears Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 04:29 PM PDT  By Mark Felsenthal and Richard Cowan (Reuters) - The shutdown of the U.S. government appeared likely to drag on for another week and possibly longer as lawmakers consumed day three of the shutdown with a stalling game and there was no end in sight until the next crisis hits Washington around October 17. That is the date Congress must raise the nation's borrowing authority or risk default, and members of Congress now expect it to be the flashpoint for a larger clash over the U.S. budget as well as President Barack Obama's healthcare law. ... Full Story | Top |
| Tropical Storm Karen takes aim at U.S. Gulf Coast Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 03:45 PM PDT By Jane Sutton MIAMI (Reuters) - The first cyclone to threaten the U.S. coast this year formed over the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and was forecast to sweep through offshore oil installations before hitting the mainland between Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Some oil industry workers in the Gulf were evacuated from offshore platforms as Tropical Storm Karen approached a region that produces nearly a fifth of daily U.S. oil output. Three days after much of the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. jobless claims show job market healing but service sector slows Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 08:08 AM PDT  By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits remained at pre-recession levels last week but growth in the massive U.S. service sector cooled in September as firms took on fewer new workers. The data could provide some of the strongest guidance this week on the health of the U.S. economy as a partial government shutdown delays the release of other data, including the monthly employment report that was scheduled to be released on Friday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Obama blames Republican 'obsession' for government shutdown Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 09:18 AM PDT  By Roberta Rampton ROCKVILLE, Md (Reuters) - President Barack Obama ridiculed House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Thursday for refusing to allow a vote on a funding bill that would end a three-day government shutdown, saying the top Republican in Washington is in the grip of conservative "extremists." Obama's speech at a construction company in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Maryland, showed there was no sign of movement toward a deal that would reopen the government's doors and allow hundreds of thousands of idled government workers to go back to their jobs. ... Full Story | Top |
| Hundreds dead, missing as migrant boat sinks off Italy Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 12:34 PM PDT  By Wladimir Pantaleone PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) - More than 300 people drowned or were feared dead after a boat packed with African migrants caught fire and sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, one of the worst disasters of Europe's chronic immigration crisis. The 20-metre (66-foot) boat, believed to be carrying around 500 people, mostly Eritreans and Somalis, sank no more than 1 km (half a mile) from shore after a fire broke out, triggering a general panic that capsized the vessel. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria rebels try to end infighting near Turkish border Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 09:02 AM PDT  By Alexander Dziadosz BEIRUT (Reuters) - Six powerful Syrian rebel groups on Thursday demanded al Qaeda-linked militants and rival insurgents end clashes that have escalated infighting in a strategic northern border area. The al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized Azaz, about 5 km (3 miles) from the frontier with Turkey, last month and has repeatedly clashed with the local Northern Storm brigade since then. A previous attempt by rebel groups to broker a truce between the two sides failed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Turkey 'highly likely' to sign Chinese missile deal Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 09:48 AM PDT  By Tulay Karadeniz and Jonathon Burch ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is likely to sign a $3.4 billion missile defense deal with a Chinese firm under U.S. sanctions, a senior official said on Thursday, a proposal that is already straining relations with Washington. Turkey sees a growing threat of spillover from the war in neighboring Syria, as well as wider turbulence in the Middle East, and has been scrambling to bolster its air defenses. ... Full Story | Top |
| Europe's tentative recovery spreads south in September Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 05:11 AM PDT By Andy Bruce LONDON (Reuters) - A return to growth last month for French and Italian companies buttressed a tentative economic recovery in Europe, where Britain and Germany continued to lead the way, surveys showed on Thursday. Order books in euro zone businesses filled at a faster rate and job cuts slowed to a trickle in September, according to purchasing managers indexes (PMIs) that survey thousands of companies worldwide. ... Full Story | Top |
| EU preparing to charge Gazprom in antitrust case Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 04:06 AM PDT  By Foo Yun Chee and Andrius Sytas VILNIUS (Reuters) - EU regulators are preparing to charge Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom with abusing its dominant position in central and eastern Europe, the EU's antitrust chief said on Thursday, in a move that could lead to a fine of up to $15 billion. The European Commission's action against Gazprom is likely to ratchet up the tension between Europe and Russia, which has criticized EU attempts to boost energy market competition and end its over-reliance on Russian supplies. ... Full Story | Top |
| Leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn jailed before trial Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 04:36 AM PDT  By Lefteris Papadimas and Karolina Tagaris ATHENS (Reuters) - The leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party was sent to jail on Thursday pending trial on criminal charges, the first time an elected party chief has been put behind bars since a military coup nearly five decades ago. The imprisonment of Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, who has watched support for his party wane after a supporter fatally stabbed a popular rapper, is a reprieve for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government that has vowed to wipe out the party, calling it a "gang of neo-Nazis". ... Full Story | Top |
| China's Xi sidesteps SE Asia pressure over South China Sea disputes Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 03:28 AM PDT  By Kanupriya Kapoor JAKARTA (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping showed no sign of bending to Southeast Asian pressure to resolve increasingly irascible territorial disputes over the South China Sea on Thursday, simply repeating calls for dialogue. Xi, in the first address by a foreign leader to Indonesian MPs, made no reference to regional demands, echoed in Washington, that Beijing deal with the rival claims through multilateral talks rather than with individual negotiations. The issue is certain to overshadow two regional summits next week that Xi will attend. ... Full Story | Top |
| Putin, Obama may discuss Syria next week in Bali: Kremlin Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 03:27 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama may discuss the Syria crisis on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit next week in Bali, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday. "It would be rather logical to meet (Obama) in Bali, taking into account the work on the Syrian issue," Putin's top foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters. He said U.S. and Russian officials were discussing arrangements for a possible meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. ... Full Story | Top |
| Oceans face 'deadly trio' of threats, study says Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 01:55 AM PDT  By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - The world's oceans are under greater threat than previously believed from a "deadly trio" of global warming, declining oxygen levels and acidification, an international study said on Thursday. The oceans have continued to warm, pushing many commercial fish stocks towards the poles and raising the risk of extinction for some marine species, despite a slower pace of temperature rises in the atmosphere this century, it said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Recovery in euro zone services sector picks up in September: PMI Thursday, Oct 03, 2013 03:29 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - The nascent recovery in euro zone businesses strengthened in September as order books filled at a faster rate and layoffs slowed to a trickle, surveys showed on Thursday, pointing to very mild growth in the third quarter. Markit's Euro zone Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), a monthly survey of businesses, rose to 52.2 in September from August's 50.7, little changed from a preliminary reading of 52.1. Readings above 50 signify growth. ... Full Story | Top |
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