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Gbagbo's ICC court appearance set for Monday
Wed,30 Nov 2011 11:24 PM PST
Reuters - AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo will appear before the International Criminal Court next Monday, the first former head of state to be tried by the ICC since its inception in 2002, officials said. Gbagbo, 66, was flown from Ivory Coast to the Netherlands on Wednesday and transferred to a detention centre in The Hague. The ICC has charged Gbagbo with crimes against humanity, including murder and rape. ... Full Story | Top |
Gbagbo's ICC court appearance set for Monday
Wed,30 Nov 2011 11:23 PM PST
Reuters - AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo will appear before the International Criminal Court next Monday, the first former head of state to be tried by the ICC since its inception in 2002, officials said. Gbagbo, 66, was flown from Ivory Coast to the Netherlands on Wednesday and transferred to a detention centre in The Hague. The ICC has charged Gbagbo with crimes against humanity, including murder and rape. ... Full Story | Top |
Bomb blast kills 10, wounds 25 in Iraqi town
Wed,30 Nov 2011 10:14 PM PST
Reuters - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in a street market in the Iraqi town of Khalis on Thursday, killing 10 people and wounding 25, police and hospital officials said. Authorities immediately imposed a curfew in Khalis, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. "According to the witnesses, there was a parked civilian car bomb in the street market and it blew up and led to the deaths of 10 people," said Major Ali al-Temimi of the Khalis police. The blast underscored Iraq's fragile security as the remaining 13,000 U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Zambia police arrest ex-minister over buried cash
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:40 PM PST
Reuters -  LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambian police charged a former labour minister with receiving stolen property after 2.1 billion kwacha was found buried at his farm, in the first high-profile case in a graft crackdown under new President Michael Sata. A police spokeswoman said Austin Liato was charged after the discovery last week of two buried trunks filled with money under a thick layer of concrete on his farm. "We have formally charged him with receiving stolen property. He is in our custody and will appear in court tomorrow," police spokeswoman Elizabeth Kanjela said. ...
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Sudan gives top jobs to opposition sons: state media
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:37 PM PST
Reuters -  KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan appointed the sons of two prominent opposition figures as presidential assistants, state media reported on Wednesday, in a possible move to form a more inclusive government as the country faces rebellions and an economic crisis. Inflation in Sudan hit 19.8 percent in October, about double the level a year ago, an economic hardship exacerbated by the secession of oil-producing South Sudan in July. The country is also fighting armed insurgencies in its South Kordofan and Blue Nile border states and western Darfur region. ...
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Five Somali pirates sentenced to jail in France
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:36 PM PST
Reuters - PARIS (Reuters) - Five Somali pirates captured by French commandos in 2008 were sentenced to between four to eight years in jail by a Paris court on Wednesday for their role in hijacking a yacht in the Gulf of Aden that year and kidnapping two French citizens. The trial was the first of four to be held in France in a bid to increase the number of Somali pirates brought to justice and tackle a problem that has turned the waters off the Horn of Africa into some of the most perilous in the world. Piracy is rife in the waters off Somalia, with the international community powerless to act. ... Full Story | Top |
Congo's Kamerhe withdraws call to annul elections
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:35 PM PST
Reuters -  KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese opposition candidate Vital Kamerhe on Wednesday withdrew his call for the November 28 presidential and parliamentary elections to be annulled on the grounds of widespread irregularities. The move means that both Kamerhe and veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, the other serious rival standing against President Joseph Kabila, appear happy to allow the ballot count to go ahead. Kabila's camp meanwhile accused its rivals of pre-empting official results and said security measures were being taken to contain trouble. ...
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Egyptians await poll results, Islamists see gains
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:34 PM PST
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians will hear results of their first free election in six decades on Thursday, with the Muslim Brotherhood expecting to pick up two-fifths of the vote for an assembly that might limit the power of the generals. The Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest and best-organised Islamist group, hopes its new Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) will secure a solid platform in parliament, saying it hopes to form a coalition government once polls are over in January. ...
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Gambia's Bensouda slated to be ICC prosecutor: envoy
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:33 PM PST
Reuters -  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Fatou Bensouda of Gambia has emerged as the consensus candidate for the high-profile job of chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, a diplomat at the center of the selection process said on Wednesday. Bensouda, 50, is deputy to the current chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, whose term ends next year. An informal meeting of ICC members will be held in New York on Thursday to discuss the appointment, said Liechtenstein's U.N. ...
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U.S. wants Myanmar to deepen changes
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:27 PM PST
Reuters -  NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her first substantive talks with Myanmar's new leaders on Thursday in a meeting Washington hopes will embolden reformers in the reclusive country where entrenched military interests still loom large. Clinton, whose landmark visit to the country also known as Burma marks a tentative rapprochement after more than 50 years of estrangement with the West, began a series of meetings with President Thein Sein, Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and top officials from parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's new capital. ...
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EU faces deadline Thursday in Airbus spat with U.S.
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:21 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A dispute over government aid for aircraft rivals Airbus and Boeing enters a delicate stage on Thursday as Europe faces a deadline to tell the United States how it is eliminating billions of dollars in subsidies struck down by the World Trade Organization. "It is by a huge margin the most commercially significant case the United States has ever prosecuted at the WTO," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a speech on Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. ... Full Story | Top |
Senators to probe regulators' role in MF Global
Wed,30 Nov 2011 09:13 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senators plan to press regulators on Thursday on whether they were asleep at the switch as now-bankrupt MF Global took on massive risky bets, and why hundreds millions of dollars in customer funds are still missing. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler is one of the regulators called to testify before the Senate Agriculture Committee, in the first major congressional hearing about MF Global since it filed for bankruptcy on October 31. ...
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Clinton seeks to embolden reformers in Myanmar talks
Wed,30 Nov 2011 08:24 PM PST
Reuters -  NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her first substantive talks with Myanmar's new leaders on Thursday in a meeting Washington hopes will embolden reformers in the reclusive country where entrenched military interests still loom large. Clinton, whose landmark visit to the country also known as Burma marks a tentative rapprochement after more than 50 years of estrangement with the West, began a series of meetings with President Thein Sein, Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and top officials from parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's new capital. ...
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Embattled Cain says campaign plans rest with wife
Wed,30 Nov 2011 07:54 PM PST
Reuters -  MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, battling allegations of infidelity, said on Wednesday he would decide whether to continue his campaign after a face-to-face talk with his wife. While vowing not to end his candidacy over accusations he had a long-term affair, the former pizza company executive said a frank talk on Friday with Gloria, his wife of 43 years, would be a big part of a "reassessment" of his White House bid. "I have talked to my wife many times since Monday about this situation. ...
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Obama pleads with voters for patience on "change"
Wed,30 Nov 2011 07:49 PM PST
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama asked U.S. voters on Wednesday to keep believing in the "hope and change" he promised in 2008, saying he needed more time to turn America around. At a series of fundraisers in New York, where he raised more than $2 million for his campaign and those of other Democrats, Obama acknowledged frustration over the stalemate in Washington that has soured views of his leadership. "After all that is happening in Washington, it may be tempting to believe that change may not be as possible as we thought," he told supporters. ...
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Tibetan Buddhist leader shies from mantle of power
Wed,30 Nov 2011 07:43 PM PST
Reuters -  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Tibet's Karmapa Lama is revered by followers as a 900-year-old soul in the body of a youth, and tipped to assume the mantle of Tibetan spiritual leadership when the present Dalai Lama dies. But the 26-year-old who is the current embodiment of the Karmapa Lama, a sacred role in Tibetan Buddhism, shies from the expectations that surround him. ...
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China, southeast Asian neighbors to patrol Golden Triangle
Wed,30 Nov 2011 07:23 PM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China and southeast Asian neighbors will start coordinated patrols of the violence-troubled Mekong River by mid-December, China's Ministry of Public Security said, after a meeting that also agreed to let Beijing send advisors to Myanmar and Laos. The announcement followed an uproar after 13 Chinese sailors were killed on the river in October, when their two boats were attacked in the "Golden Triangle," where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet in a region notorious for drug smuggling. Nine Thai soldiers later turned themselves in over the killings. ... Full Story | Top |
Two governors petition for medical marijuana
Wed,30 Nov 2011 07:12 PM PST
Reuters - SEATTLE (Reuters) - The governors of Washington state and Rhode Island filed a petition with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday that would allow doctors to legally prescribe marijuana as a medical treatment. Democrat Christine Gregoire of Washington and independent Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island are asking the DEA to reclassify marijuana as a schedule 2 drug from schedule 1 - where it is listed alongside heroin and ecstasy - which would make it legal for doctors to recommend its use and pharmacists to supply it. ... Full Story | Top |
Bomb targets official in Pakistan's Peshawar: police
Wed,30 Nov 2011 06:57 PM PST
Reuters -  PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb exploded near the office of a regional government official in the often restive northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar early on Thursday, police officials said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. A wall of the district coordination officer's building collapsed after the blast, which was heard throughout Peshawar, the last major city on the route to Afghanistan. ...
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Obama cites progress towards payroll tax cut
Wed,30 Nov 2011 06:41 PM PST
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama struck an optimistic note on Wednesday night that lawmakers in Congress could reach agreement to extend payroll tax cuts he said earlier were needed to avoid a "massive blow" to the economy. At a fundraiser at a New York restaurant, the Democrat said Republican congressional leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell had indicated in the past few days they were open to the one-year extension that Obama wants to bolster the economy. ...
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In world's biggest democracy, parliament doesn't work
Wed,30 Nov 2011 06:38 PM PST
Reuters -  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's parliament has always been a boisterous and chaotic place that, like the country itself, still somehow worked: these days, it's not even muddling through. Proceedings have been abruptly called off every day so far since the 21-day winter session of the bicameral parliament opened last week because of the din raised by legislators bawling at each other across the floor of the house. Open debate is treasured in the world's largest democracy. However, patience with members of parliament who head off for the day after a few minutes of bellowing is wearing thin. ...
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U.S. denies NATO attack on Pakistani troops deliberate
Wed,30 Nov 2011 06:34 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer on Wednesday denied allegations by a senior army official in Islamabad that a NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers was a deliberate act of aggression. Islamabad has reacted angrily to the attack last weekend, which threatens to set back peace efforts in Afghanistan, by pulling out of an international conference in Germany next week on Afghanistan's future. It stood by its decision on Wednesday despite German hopes to the contrary. ...
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Senate pushes to hurry up Afghanistan pullout
Wed,30 Nov 2011 06:15 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate voted on Wednesday to require President Barack Obama to devise a plan for expediting the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, signaling growing impatience in Congress. Obama in June called for about a third of U.S. forces, or 33,000 troops, to leave Afghanistan by the end of next summer. The remaining 66,000 U.S. troops are to be slowly withdrawn until a final transition to Afghan security control in 2014. ...
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Obama administration appeals cigarette warning ruling
Wed,30 Nov 2011 06:14 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Tuesday appealed a U.S. judge's ruling and injunction that blocked tobacco companies from having to display graphic images on cigarette packs and advertising, such as a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his throat. The appeal had been widely expected after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon earlier this month sided with tobacco companies and granted a temporary injunction blocking the requirement. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: As Indonesia strikes it rich, workers start to strike
Wed,30 Nov 2011 06:11 PM PST
Reuters -  JAKARTA (Reuters) - When the Jakarta governor offered a hefty pay rise last week to workers, he successfully headed off a major strike. But almost immediately, workers went on the rampage in another part of the country demanding a wage hike too. It is another illustration of the most recent and, for investors, troubling risk they face in what has become one of the darlings of the emerging economies. ...
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Police take down Occupy L.A. camp, arrest nearly 300
Wed,30 Nov 2011 06:08 PM PST
Reuters -  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police in riot gear and biohazard suits removed anti-Wall Street activists from their camp at Los Angeles City Hall Wednesday, arresting nearly 300 people and fencing off the area. On the East Coast, about 100 Occupy protesters in Philadelphia swiftly and peacefully vacated their encampment overnight, but police later arrested 52 around the city on charges ranging from obstructing a highway to assaulting a police officer, officials said. ...
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U.S. church leader meets jailed American, Castro
Wed,30 Nov 2011 05:44 PM PST
Reuters - HAVANA (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Council of Churches met on Wednesday with jailed contractor Alan Gross and Cuban President Raul Castro, in the latest push by a prominent American to obtain Gross's release and improve relations with the communist-run country. Gross received a 15-year prison sentence in March for crimes against Cuban state security for smuggling illegal satellite communications equipment into Cuba. He was under contract with a U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Senate Republicans offer tax-cut renewal plan
Wed,30 Nov 2011 05:01 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A pay freeze for federal workers would be extended for another three years as part of a Senate Republican plan offered on Wednesday to cover the cost of President Barack Obama's call to extend a popular payroll tax cut. The Republican proposal, deemed unacceptable by Democrats who control the Senate, would also achieve savings by reducing the size of the federal workforce. Smaller savings would be gained by tightening eligibility requirements for jobless benefits, food stamps and the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly. ... Full Story | Top |
Americans mixed on adequacy of cancer screenings
Wed,30 Nov 2011 04:36 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Many Americans are satisfied with how often they are screened for cancer but some say they are not screened often enough, while a growing body of evidence suggests too much screening for certain types of cancer may do more harm than good, a Gallup poll showed. According to the poll released on Wednesday, 58 percent of 1,012 adults surveyed thought standard cancer screenings, such as Pap smears, mammograms or blood tests to detect prostate cancer, were performed often enough. ... Full Story | Top |
Gingrich's work shows limits of lobbying law
Wed,30 Nov 2011 04:35 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newt Gingrich's life since he left public office in 1999 reveals something Washington insiders have known for years: It is not always clear who is lobbying the U.S. government. Lawmakers have attempted to draw clearer lines since 1995, but the rules they devised still allow some of the biggest names in Washington's influence industry to escape disclosure, experts on the law said. ...
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Fed's Fisher: swaps not aimed at bailing out Europe
Wed,30 Nov 2011 04:35 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Federal Reserve official said on Wednesday that a decision to alter the terms of dollar swap lines with foreign central banks was meant to help economic growth, not bail out Europe. "We are not bailing out ... Europe," Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said in an interview with Fox Business Network. "We are trying to meet a shortage of dollars." He said the action was aimed at making sure there were ample dollars for those who wanted to buy U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
Analysis: Deal building to pump up IMF to handle Europe fallout
Wed,30 Nov 2011 04:17 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A deal is building to boost the International Monetary Fund's resources even as the world presses euro-zone leaders to put more of their own firepower on the line to defeat a debt crisis that threatens global growth. Mexico, which assumes on Thursday the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 nations, said on Wednesday it would make increasing IMF resources a priority. IMF members agree the global lender needs more money to handle the fallout from the euro zone's fiscal mess. ...
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U.S. church leader visits American jailed in Cuba
Wed,30 Nov 2011 04:16 PM PST
Reuters - HAVANA (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Council of Churches visited jailed contractor Alan Gross on Wednesday as part of the latest push by prominent Americans to obtain his release and improve relations with the communist-run country. Gross received a 15-year prison sentence in March for crimes against Cuban state security for smuggling illegal satellite communications equipment into Cuba. He was under contract with a U.S. company involved in a semi-covert democracy-building program, but says the equipment was only destined to connect local Jewish groups to Internet. "Two of us visited Alan. ... Full Story | Top |
Lawmakers want spy agencies to share cyber data
Wed,30 Nov 2011 04:14 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers on Wednesday proposed fighting the cyber threat that is taking a toll on American companies by allowing spy agencies to share threat intelligence with private firms. Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, and the panel's senior Democrat, Representative C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, announced legislation to protect U.S. firms from cyber attacks by foreign countries and individual hackers by allowing information-sharing with agencies like the National Security Agency. ... Full Story | Top |
Global corruption index reflects Arab Spring unrest
Wed,30 Nov 2011 04:02 PM PST
Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - Awareness of corruption has risen in some Arab countries in the wake of their uprisings earlier this year, a global league table released by Transparency International showed on Thursday. North Korea was included in the Berlin-based watchdog TI's annual corruption perceptions index (CPI) for the first time and was judged the most corrupt country, along with Somalia, putting them at the bottom of the table. Tunisia fell to 73rd place from 59th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 3.8 from 4.3 in the 183-nation index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption. ... Full Story | Top |
Marines bullish on Lockheed F-35 variant
Wed,30 Nov 2011 03:54 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet could soon be taken off a "probation" imposed by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a U.S. Marine Corps official said on Wednesday. General Joseph Dunford, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, told an investment conference that he was "pretty bullish" on the F-35B, the short takeoff, vertical landing variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. He cited progress in fixing technical problems and said the fighter jet met 98 percent of its test points this year. ...
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Analysis: Deal building to pump up IMF to handle Europe fallout
Wed,30 Nov 2011 03:38 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A deal is building to boost the International Monetary Fund's resources even as the world presses euro-zone leaders to put more of their own firepower on the line to defeat a debt crisis that threatens global growth. Mexico, which assumes on Thursday the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 nations, said on Wednesday it would make increasing IMF resources a priority. IMF members agree the global lender needs more money to handle the fallout from the euro zone's fiscal mess. ...
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Egyptians await poll results, Islamists see gains
Wed,30 Nov 2011 03:22 PM PST
Reuters -  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians will hear results of their first free election in six decades on Thursday, with the Muslim Brotherhood expecting to pick up two-fifths of the vote for an assembly that might limit the power of the generals. The Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest and best-organized Islamist group, hopes its new Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) will secure a solid platform in parliament, saying it hopes to form a coalition government once polls are over in January. ...
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Republicans make pipeline jobs issue for Obama
Wed,30 Nov 2011 03:22 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in Congress signaled on Wednesday that they plan to keep the Keystone XL pipeline alive as a tool for skewering President Barack Obama on jobs, the top political issue ahead of the 2012 elections. The Canada-to-Texas pipeline has been vociferously opposed by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, who had threatened to make it an election issue. ...
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Senate Republicans offer tax-cut renewal plan
Wed,30 Nov 2011 03:16 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A pay freeze for federal workers would be extended for another three years as part of a Senate Republican plan offered on Wednesday to cover the cost of President Barack Obama's call to extend a popular payroll tax cut. The Republican proposal, deemed unacceptable by Democrats who control the Senate, would also achieve savings by reducing the size of the federal workforce and tightening eligibility requirements for jobless benefits, food stamps and the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly. ... Full Story | Top |
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