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| German paper says Obama aware of spying on Merkel since 2010 Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 08:41 PM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - A German newspaper said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama knew his intelligence service was eavesdropping on Angela Merkel as long ago as 2010, contradicting reports that he had told the German leader he did not know. Germany received information this week that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged Merkel's mobile phone, prompting Berlin to summon the U.S. ambassador, a move unprecedented in post-war relations between the close allies. Reuters was unable to confirm Sunday's news report. ... Full Story | Top |
| Data center glitch is latest problem in 'Obamacare' rollout Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 07:36 PM PDT  By David Morgan and Sharon Begley WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A data center critical for allowing uninsured Americans to buy health coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law went down on Sunday, halting online enrollment for all 50 states in the latest problem to hit the program's troubled rollout. The data center operated by Verizon's Terremark experienced a connectivity issue that caused it to shut down, affecting the federal government's already problem-plagued online marketplace Healthcare. ... Full Story | Top |
| Three killed as car ploughs into Beijing's Tiananmen Square Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:33 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - Three people were killed and many injured on Monday, police said, when a car ploughed into pedestrians and caught fire in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the site of 1989 pro-democracy protests bloodily suppressed by the government. Police said on their official microblog that the car veered off the road at the north of the square, crossed the barriers and caught fire, injuring "many" tourists and police. Three people in the car died, they said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Colombia's FARC frees ex-U.S. marine after four months in jungle Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:53 PM PDT BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC guerrillas have freed a former U.S. marine who was kidnapped in June while he trekked through the jungle in a known guerrilla area, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the U.S. government said on Sunday. Kevin Scott Sutay, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, had been backpacking through several Central and South American countries before he was captured by the FARC. He had ignored police warnings against hiking through a "red zone" for rebel activity in the southeastern province of Guaviare. "We are pleased about the liberation today of ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel shoots down rocket fired at southern port from Gaza Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:06 PM PDT JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at a southern Israeli port city on Monday and Israel's Iron Dome interceptor shot down one while the other fell into the sea, a military spokeswoman said. The pre-dawn salvo on Ashkelon, about 12 km (7 miles) north of Gaza, was unusual given the relative restraint of Palestinian militants since last November's war between the coastal enclave's Islamist Hamas rulers and the Jewish state. ... Full Story | Top |
| Stray shell from Syria kills man in Turkey: sources Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:50 PM PDT DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A 35-year-old man was killed in the southeastern Turkish town of Ceylanpinar early on Monday when a stray mortar shell fired across the border from Syria struck a house near the frontier, security sources said. The shell was fired during clashes between Kurdish and Islamist fighters in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain, the sources said. Five people have now been killed in Turkey in similar incidents since clashes began in the area in July. Authorities closed schools in the town and warned locals not to leave their houses after the shell landed. ... Full Story | Top |
| Rocker Lou Reed of Velvet Underground dies at 71 Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:07 PM PDT  By Jonathan Allen and Daniel Trotta NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lou Reed, the pioneering songwriter and musician behind the influential rock band Velvet Underground, which fused art and music in collaboration with artist Andy Warhol, died on Sunday at the age of 71, his literary agent said. Reed, best recognized by mainstream audiences for his 1972 solo hit "Walk on the Wild Side," died at the Long Island home he shared with his wife, Laurie Anderson, following complications from a liver transplant he underwent earlier this year, his agent, Andrew Wylie, said. ... Full Story | Top |
| 'Bad Grandpa' tops 'Gravity' at North American box office Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:17 PM PDT  By Lisa Richwine and Chris Michaud LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prankster comedy "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" kicked Sandra Bullock's 3D space thriller "Gravity" from the top of weekend box office charts in the United States and Canada, starting off with $32 million in ticket sales over its first three days. After three weeks in first place, "Gravity" slipped to the No. 2 slot with $20.3 million in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates on Sunday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Saudi women say they will keep pushing for right to drive Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:11 PM PDT  RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi women demanding the right to drive said on Sunday they would keep up their campaign a day after government warnings and a heavy police presence thwarted their call for many women to get behind the wheel. Activists are asking Saudi women to go on driving in public and posting online photographs or films of themselves doing so, after putting dozens of such videos on YouTube in recent weeks. ... Full Story | Top |
| Local tastes tempt China diners away from Golden Arches Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:15 PM PDT  By Adam Jourdan SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Bearing rice burgers and lotus roots, an army of Chinese fast food firms is cooking up a challenge to McDonald's Corp and Yum Brands Inc, tempting cost-conscious diners with healthy, homegrown fare and causing a drag on growth for the U.S. chains in the country's $174 billion fast food market. McDonald's said last week it was thinking of slowing expansion in China as diners are tempted by local rivals. KFC-parent Yum warned this month economic weakness in China would drag on a recovery in sales dented by a food safety scare at the end of last year. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kurdish militants tighten grip on Syria's northeast Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:43 PM PDT  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Kurdish militants sought to consolidate their control of an oil-producing region in northeastern Syria on Sunday after seizing a border crossing with Iraq from Islamist rebels, activists said. Fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought in neighboring Turkey for decades, were clearing pockets of resistance of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, al-Nusra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham in the border town of Yarubiya, Syrian opposition sources said. "The Kurds are now in control of the Yarubiya border post. ... Full Story | Top |
| GM says China partnership with SAIC strong, eyes Indonesia tie-up Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 02:34 PM PDT  By Norihiko Shirouzu and Samuel Shen SHANGHAI (Reuters) - General Motors Co has dismissed speculation its ties with China's SAIC Motor Corp are fraying, saying the partnership is thriving and the two car makers are discussing further collaboration in Indonesia. Recent independent moves by SAIC outside China had been seen by some industry insiders and experts as signaling the two companies might be drifting apart, but GM's top China executive said it was merely a consequence of its state-owned partner's growing maturity as an automaker. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fernandez's allies thumped in Argentina mid-term vote Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:34 PM PDT  By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's allies took a beating in mid-term elections on Sunday, shrinking her majority in Congress, ending chances of a constitutional change to allow her a third term and kicking off the contest to succeed her in 2015. Voters chose half of the lower house of Congress and a third of the Senate. With 62 percent of ballot boxes counted, the government said the opposition was ahead throughout the country. Re-elected in 2011 on promises of increasing state control in Latin America's No. ... Full Story | Top |
| China begins first trial of anti-graft activists Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 09:43 PM PDT  By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - Three Chinese anti-graft activists who agitated for officials to disclose their assets went on trial on Monday in the first case of its kind, underscoring the limits of government tolerance of challenges to its authority. Despite an official drive against corruption, China has detained at least 15 activists in recent months who were involved in a campaign pushing for officials to disclose their wealth. Rights groups describe the detentions as the first major crackdown against activists by the new government. ... Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street's love affair with Facebook hinges on mobile Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:28 AM PDT  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc finally earned Wall Street's love in the second quarter. Now it needs to make the relationship last. Its shares have doubled in just the last three months, buoyed by an increasing belief among investors that Facebook has finally struck a winning formula in mobile advertising. But expectations will be high when the world's No. 1 online social network reports third-quarter results on Wednesday, meaning the world's largest social network will have to handily beat Wall Street targets to maintain its lofty trajectory. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Bank of America verdict spotlights U.S. focus on civil cases Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 10:01 PM PDT  By Nate Raymond and Aruna Viswanatha NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice appeared to have struck gold last week with the law it wielded against one of the nation's largest banks over conduct that fueled the financial crisis. To convince a jury that Bank of America engaged in fraud, lawyers in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office turned to FIRREA, a once-dormant civil fraud statute that essentially allows the government to build a criminal case against financial institutions, but without having to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Delays, clashes hinder attempts to salvage Batista's OGX Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 09:21 PM PDT  By Guillermo Parra-Bernal, Jeb Blount and Nick Brown SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Attempts to save Eike Batista's flagship oil company, the business most responsible for the meltdown of his once high-flying industrial empire, have been hampered by internal conflict and unpredictable decisions by the Brazilian tycoon, sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel to free more Palestinian prisoners for peace talks Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:16 PM PDT  By Allyn Fisher-Ilan JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is to release 26 Palestinian prisoners in a second stage of a deal brokered by the United States in July that brought a resumption of peace talks. Israel said in August it would free 104 inmates in four stages as negotiations resumed after a near three-year hiatus following a dispute over Jewish settlement construction in land Palestinians seek for a state. ... Full Story | Top |
| China to hold first trial of anti-graft activists Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 02:15 PM PDT By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - Three Chinese anti-graft activists who agitated for officials to disclose their assets go on trial on Monday, in the first case of its kind that underscores the limits of the government's tolerance of challenges to its authority. Despite an official drive against corruption, China has detained at least 15 activists in recent months who were involved in a campaign pushing for officials to publicly disclose their wealth. Rights groups describe the detentions as the first major crackdown by the new government on activists. ... Full Story | Top |
| As Iraq seeks U.S. arms, bombs kill another 55 Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:02 PM PDT  By Kareem Raheem and Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A dozen bombings in Iraq killed 55 people on Sunday as the prime minister prepares to travel to Washington to seek President Barack Obama's help in confronting a wave of sectarian violence fuelled by Syria's civil war. Killings, mostly blamed by the Shi'ite-led government on Sunni Islamists from al Qaeda, are running at daily rates not seen in five years and Nuri al-Maliki will ask Obama on Friday to speed up promised deliveries of drones and F-16 jets that he believes can help staunch the long desert border with Syria. ... Full Story | Top |
| German paper says Obama aware of spying on Merkel since 2010 Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:00 PM PDT BERLIN (Reuters) - A German newspaper said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama knew his intelligence service was eavesdropping on Angela Merkel as long ago as 2010, contradicting reports that he had told the German leader he did not know. Germany received information this week that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged Merkel's mobile phone, prompting Berlin to summon the U.S. ambassador, a move unprecedented in post-war relations between the close allies. Reuters was unable to confirm Sunday's news report. ... Full Story | Top |
| Data center glitch is latest problem in 'Obamacare' rollout Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 03:24 PM PDT  By Sharon Begley and David Morgan NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A data center critical for allowing uninsured Americans to buy health coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law went down on Sunday, the U.S. government said, in the latest problem for the "Obamacare" rollout. Verizon's Terremark operates the data center behind a federal system for determining eligibility for government subsidies to buy insurance nationwide and hosts HealthCare.gov, the website that makes insurance available in 36 of the 50 states. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fernandez coalition loses clout but keeps majority in midterm Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 04:26 PM PDT  By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine leader Cristina Fernandez's allies took a beating in Sunday's midterm election, shrinking her congressional majority, snuffing out chances of a constitutional change to allow her a third term and kicking off the contest to succeed her in 2015. Voters chose half of the lower house of Congress and a third of the Senate in Sunday's midterm. Re-elected in 2011 on promises of increasing state control in Latin America's No. ... Full Story | Top |
| Two Republican congressmen defend U.S. spying abroad Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 09:49 AM PDT  By Aruna Viswanatha and Anna Yukhananov WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Republican congressmen on Sunday defended Washington's surveillance programs abroad in reaction to protests from allies, after the wide scope of the eavesdropping was revealed this year by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, said much of the public information on those efforts, including allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency had spied on millions of French citizens, was misguided. ... Full Story | Top |
| Global Economy: No Halloween horrors in store from the Fed Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 11:06 AM PDT  By Alan Wheatley LONDON (Reuters) - Back in May and June, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke played a trick on markets by sketching out a timetable for reducing the central bank's $85 billion-a-month bond buying. Investors recoiled in horror and bond yields surged. This week, though, they are in for a treat. The Fed's policy-making committee ends a two-day meeting on Wednesday and the chances are vanishingly small that it will start to dial down the monetary stimulus right away. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pastor who banned fried chicken leads Mississippi Obamacare push Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 08:34 AM PDT  By Julie Steenhuysen HERNANDO, Mississippi (Reuters) - When Dr Michael Minor first became pastor at Oak Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Hernando, Mississippi, in 1996, he discovered a population overcome by an epidemic of obesity. "It was so bad, I was having a funeral every weekend," he said. Minor took dramatic action for a Southern preacher, banning fried chicken at church potlucks and setting up a walking track around the church perimeter. He has had marked success. "You can see the difference. People are much better sized, way better. ... Full Story | Top |
| Bomb kills 18 people on way to wedding in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 02:58 PM PDT GHAZNI (Reuters) - A roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan killed 18 people, including at least five women, who were travelling to a wedding party by minibus, a local government official said on Sunday. Violence has risen in Afghanistan this year as most foreign combat troops prepare to leave by the end of 2014. "They were going to attend a wedding party when their minibus was hit by a roadside bomb... which killed 18 mostly females, including children," said the governor's spokesman, Shafiq Nang Safai. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blasts kill five at rally for Indian opposition candidate Modi Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 10:55 AM PDT  By Rajesh Kumar Singh NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Explosions at an Indian election rally killed five people and wounded 83 in the eastern city of Patna on Sunday, the chief minister of Bihar state said. At least six crude bombs exploded in quick succession near a crowd of tens of thousands of people waiting to hear a speech by opposition candidate Narendra Modi for the election due by May. Earlier, a small device detonated at Patna's train station. "There was a blast right behind me. I heard people saying that one of the tires of a vehicle has burst," one witness told a TV network. ... Full Story | Top |
| Iranian capital takes down some anti-American posters Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:14 AM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - Tehran authorities have taken down some anti-American posters, amid signs Iran is seeking better relations with the United States as the two sides prepare to hold talks over its nuclear program. A Tehran municipal official said some anti-American billboards had been put up illegally and had been taken down, state news agency IRNA said on Saturday. "In an arbitrary move, without the knowledge or confirmation of the municipality, one of the cultural institutes installed advertising billboards," said spokesman Hadi Ayyazi. Ayyazi did not say which posters had been taken down. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syria submits plan to destroy its chemical weapons: OPCW Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 08:28 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria has submitted a declaration of its chemical weapons program and a plan to eliminate them to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the organization said on Sunday, meeting the first major deadline of the destruction plan. Under a deal struck by the United States and Russia, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) sent experts to Syria after a sarin gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus in August. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mother and four children killed with meat cleaver in New York Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 12:14 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York woman and her four young children were hacked to death with a meat cleaver in their Brooklyn home over the weekend and the father's cousin will be charged with their murders on Sunday, the New York Police Department said. Responding to an emergency call on Saturday night, police found the two boys, two girls and their mother with multiple wounds at their home in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. The 25-year-old cousin of the children's father was at the home and was taken into custody. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senior Iran lawmaker says 20 percent uranium enrichment continuing Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 05:00 AM PDT  DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has not halted its most sensitive uranium enrichment work, a senior Iranian parliamentarian said, contradicting a statement by another lawmaker last week. Diplomats accredited to the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday they had no information to substantiate the report that Tehran had halted enrichment of uranium to 20 percent. Israel also dismissed the original report as "irrelevant". Any halt of enrichment would be a big surprise, as Western experts believe Iran would want to use such activity as a bargaining chip to win relief from international sanctions. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fed to hold its fire this week, wants clearer economic view Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 04:25 AM PDT  By Alister Bull WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve officials are unlikely to make any shift to monetary policy this week as they wait for more evidence of how badly Washington's budget battle has hurt the U.S. economy. Indeed, they could stand pat for the rest of the year. "I would say January or March at this point," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida, on when the Fed would begin to scale back its bond-buying stimulus. "Odds for December are less than 50/50. ... Full Story | Top |
| Somalia journalists beaten, radio stations taken off air: union Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 08:22 AM PDT By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali security agents stormed and shut down two radio stations, beat and detained reporters, and impounded their equipment, their union said. The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) said the raid in Mogadishu on Saturday was connected to stories Radio Shabelle and SkyFM, both part of the Shabelle Media Network, had aired touching on accusations of corruption within government. Police said they were carrying out an eviction order after the network failed to vacate the government-owned building. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Palestinian downturn bites, aid falters, tunnels collapse Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:31 AM PDT  By Ali Sawafta and Noah Browning RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The arteries of Gaza's economy have collapsed as Egypt demolishes the smuggling tunnels along its sandy border. Ancient stone villages in the occupied West Bank have become trapped in rural poverty, while investors and donors shy away from a zone of seemingly endless conflict. The crackdown on the Gaza Strip and stagnation in the West Bank mean the Palestinian economy might shrink this year after average annual growth of about nine percent in 2008-2011. ... Full Story | Top |
| Abe says Japan won't tolerate use of force to change regional status quo Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 05:18 AM PDT  By Kiyoshi Takenaka ASAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Japanese troops on Sunday that Japan would not tolerate the use of force to change the region's status quo, comments likely to rile Beijing which is locked in a long and bitter territorial dispute with Tokyo. "Use of force for changing the status quo" is an expression often used by Japanese politicians and security experts to indirectly refer to what they see as China's aggressive maritime expansion in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. ... Full Story | Top |
| Key U.S. official faces grilling over Obamacare website Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 06:08 AM PDT  By David Morgan and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two months before the troubled October 1 launch of Obamacare exchanges, a key administration official overseeing the program assured a congressional oversight panel that work was on track to roll out a tested website that would make it easy for Americans to enroll in affordable health insurance coverage. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Strained finances trip up French firms' recovery role Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 01:26 AM PDT  By Leigh Thomas PARIS (Reuters) - Squeezed by thin margins and high debt, French companies will struggle to ramp up the investment spending on which President Francois Hollande's government is banking to underpin a fragile recovery. Hollande's government has hung its 2014 recovery hopes on business investment taking over consumer spending's traditional role as the motor of growth in the euro zone's second largest economy. It expects growth to reach at least 0.9 percent in 2014, counting on a corporate tax credit scheme to boost overall business investment by 1. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ally of Georgia's billionaire PM to be president: exit polls Sunday, Oct 27, 2013 10:04 AM PDT  By Margarita Antidze and Timothy Heritage TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgy Margvelashvili, an ally of billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, won a landslide victory in a presidential election in Georgia on Sunday, exit polls showed. The little-known former deputy premier's triumph cements the Georgian Dream coalition's grip on power following Mikheil Saakashvili's 10-year rule, although it is unlikely to end political uncertainty in the former Soviet republic. ... Full Story | Top |
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