Today's Reuters News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Boeing wins $3.48 billion U.S. missile contract
Fri,30 Dec 2011 09:32 PM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Boeing Co beat out Lockheed Martin to retain its position as the prime contractor for the U.S. long-range missile shield, the Pentagon said on Friday. The U.S. Defense Department said it was awarding Boeing a $3.48 billion, seven-year contract to develop, test, engineer and manufacture missile defense systems. A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co had vied with Boeing to expand and maintain the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, hub of layered antimissile protection. Boeing partnered with Northrop Grumman Corp to retain the work. ...
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Verizon ditches $2 fee after customer uproar
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:41 PM PST
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless has reversed its decision to charge a $2 fee for telephone and online bill payments, bowing to a storm of criticism from consumers and the U.S. communications regulator. The biggest U.S. wireless operator retracted its decision on Friday, just a day after it announced the fee for one-time payments, which was to have begun January 15. The consumer victory comes after Bank of America recently decided against a new $5 monthly fee for debit card users after consumers and lawmakers protested the charge. ...
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Kodak loses third director in a week
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:58 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - The third director in a week has resigned from Eastman Kodak Co as the former film giant struggles to survive the dominance of digital photography. Laura Tyson, a professor and White House advisor, told Kodak on Thursday she was resigning from its board, the company said on Friday in a Securities and Exchange filing. Kodak, which was once synonymous with photography, is looking to sell patents to shore up its shrinking cash position and stay in business after failing to turn an annual profit since 1997. ... Full Story | Top |
White House delaying debt ceiling request
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:11 PM PST
Reuters -  HONOLULU (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has agreed to delay submitting a debt ceiling increase request until next month to allow lawmakers time to consider it while they are in session, the White House said on Friday. Under an August deal between Obama's Democrats and the Republicans, Congress is unlikely to block the expected $1.2 trillion increase request, ensuring that the debt limit will not be reached again until after November's presidential election. ...
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Iowa's quirky caucuses open 2012 White House race
Fri,30 Dec 2011 11:53 AM PST
Reuters -  DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - The long and sometimes quirky drama of electing a U.S. president, marked by obscure rules and long-held traditions, begins on Tuesday in more than 800 schools, libraries, churches and homes across Iowa. Iowa's caucuses, which bring voters together for hours to cast ballots in a public place on a winter night, are the first step in a state-by-state nominating race that ultimately will decide the Republican challenger to President Barack Obama in the election on November 6, 2012. ...
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North Korea says names Kim Jong-un top military commander
Fri,30 Dec 2011 07:49 PM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea announced on Saturday it has appointed Kim Jong-un, the anointed successor and youngest son of Kim Jong-il, as supreme commander of its 1.2 million-strong military, two days after official mourning for the late leader ended. The North's state news agency KCNA said the appointment was made at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party on Friday. ...
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Seventeen dead as Syrians stage mass protests
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:55 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian security forces, undaunted by the presence of Arab League observers, have killed at least 12 protesters as hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, opposition activists said. Five members of the security forces were also killed in a shooting in the city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday. ...
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Spain says deficit bigger than expected, hikes taxes
Fri,30 Dec 2011 12:01 PM PST
Reuters -  MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's new government said on Friday that this year's budget deficit would be much larger than expected and announced a slew of surprise tax hikes and wage freezes that could drag the country back to the centre of the euro zone debt crisis. In its first decrees since sweeping to victory in November, the centre-right government said the public deficit for 2011 would come in at 8 percent of gross domestic product, well above an official target of 6 percent. It announced initial public spending cuts of 8.9 billion euros ($11. ...
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New details rekindle HP-Hurd flap
Fri,30 Dec 2011 08:32 AM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Former Hewlett Packard CEO Mark Hurd made increasingly aggressive romantic advances over several years toward an independent contractor who later accused him of sexual harassment, according to claims in a letter from her lawyer obtained by Reuters. The letter, ordered unsealed and allowed to be made public for the first time since the scandal emerged last year, outlined in intricate detail accusations by TV starlet and HP contractor Jodie Fisher that Hurd had wined and dined her, then allegedly sought sexual favors in return for employment. ...
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North Korea's new leaders lash out at South Korea and allies
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:42 PM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea sounded a bellicose note in its first communication with the outside world since the death of leader Kim Jong-il, saying its confrontational stance against South Korea would not change and labeling its opponents "foolish." Since Kim Jong-il died on December 17, the outside world has been watching to see whether his son Kim Jong-un, aged in his 20s, would stick to its hardline "military first" policies that have seen the isolated nation move closer to nuclear weapons capacity. ...
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Boeing wins $3.48 billion U.S. missile defense contract
Fri,30 Dec 2011 02:54 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Boeing Co beat out Lockheed Martin to retain its position as the prime contractor for the U.S. long-range missile shield, the Pentagon said on Friday. The U.S. Defense Department said it was awarding Boeing a $3.48 billion, seven-year contract to develop, test, engineer and manufacture missile defense systems. A team led by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co had vied with Boeing to expand and maintain the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, hub of layered antimissile protection. Boeing partnered with Northrop Grumman Corp to retain the work. ...
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North Korea names Kim Jong-un top military commander
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:02 PM PST
Reuters - SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said Saturday it has officially appointed Kim Jong-un, anointed successor and the youngest son of the late leader Kim Jong-il, the supreme commander of North Korea's 1.2 million-strong military. The North's state news agency KCNA said the appointment was made at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party Friday. ...
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Israel kills al Qaeda-linked chief in Gaza strike
Fri,30 Dec 2011 03:27 PM PST
Reuters -  GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters)- Israel killed the leader of an al Qaeda-inspired faction in the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing him of involvement in firing rockets and a planned attack on the Jewish state from the neighboring Egyptian Sinai. The deadly air strike was Israel's second against a Salafi Islamist militant this week. Militants identified him as Momen Abu Daf, chief of the Army of Islam, among a loose network of Palestinian groups which profess allegiance to al Qaeda and have been reinforced by volunteers who slip in from the Sinai. ...
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WHO "deeply concerned" by mutated birdflu research
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:43 PM PST
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled. The United Nations health body said it was "deeply concerned about the potential negative consequences" of work by two leading flu research teams who this month said they had found ways to make H5N1 into a easily transmissable form capable of causing lethal human pandemics. ...
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Exclusive: U.S. mulls transfer of senior Taliban prisoner
Fri,30 Dec 2011 06:44 AM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is considering transferring to Afghan custody a senior Taliban official suspected of major human rights abuses as part of a long-shot bid to improve the prospects of a peace deal in Afghanistan, Reuters has learned. The potential hand-over of Mohammed Fazl, a 'high-risk detainee' held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison since early 2002, has set off alarms on Capitol Hill and among some U.S. intelligence officials. ...
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Insight: Dark holiday in Detroit as Church downsizes
Fri,30 Dec 2011 06:32 AM PST
Reuters -  DETROIT (Reuters) - Emmanuel Miller comes to Saint Leo Catholic Church at least twice a month. The 52-year-old doesn't often visit the ornate cathedral upstairs. His emphysema, which gives him violent bouts of coughing, could make it difficult to sit through a Mass. It is the soup kitchen in the basement, which has blossomed into a clinic with a dentist office, that sustains him. There he gets a hot meal and free treatment. "My son helps me pay my rent, (but) I've been denied social security so I need a little more help than that," Miller said. ...
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Analysis: N.Korea's missile-maker seen in key role in new regime
Fri,30 Dec 2011 05:32 AM PST
Reuters -  SINGAPORE (Reuters) - During the funeral ceremonies for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this week, the man in charge of the isolated state's missile program and possibly its nuclear plans, paid a quiet visit to the mausoleum where the body lay in state. Little is known about elderly and silver-haired Ju Kyu-chang, but he appears to be a key member of the North Korean team developing nuclear weapons. ...
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China's factories falter, pro-growth policies eyed
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:08 AM PST
Reuters -  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's factory activity shrank again December as demand at home and abroad slackened, a purchasing managers' survey showed on Friday, reinforcing the case for pro-growth policies to underpin the world's second-largest economy. The People's Bank of China is widely expected to lower its requirement for the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves to let lenders inject more credit into the economy to fight headwinds from Europe's debt crisis and sluggish U.S. demand. ...
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Russia submarine fire "totally extinguished"
Fri,30 Dec 2011 06:33 AM PST
Reuters -  MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday it had doused a raging blaze aboard a nuclear submarine after nearly a full day and night, by partially submerging the vessel after battling the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats. There was no radiation leak and crew inside the submarine were monitoring the stricken vessel's nuclear reactors which had been shut down, Russian officials said. ...
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African rhino poaching hits record on Asian demand
Fri,30 Dec 2011 01:41 AM PST
Reuters -  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A record number of rhinos were poached this year in South Africa, home to the greatest number of the animals, as rising demand in Asia for their horns led to increased killings of the threatened species. At least 443 rhinos have been killed in South Africa in 2011, up from 333 last year, the national park service and conservationists said. ...
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Economy gaining momentum, housing shows a pulse
Thu,29 Dec 2011 12:14 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. claims for jobless benefits rose last week but the underlying trend pointed to an improving labor market, while regional factory data showed the economy gaining momentum as the year ended. The growth picture was brightened by other data on Thursday showing pending sales of previously owned homes jumped to a 1-1/2 year high in November, adding to signs of a tentative recovery in the housing market. ...
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U.S. mulls transfer of Taliban prisoner in perilous peace bid
Thu,29 Dec 2011 03:42 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is considering transferring to Afghan custody a senior Taliban official suspected of major human rights abuses as part of a long-shot bid to improve the prospects of a peace deal in Afghanistan, Reuters has learned. The potential hand-over of Mohammed Fazl, a 'high-risk detainee' held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison since early 2002, has set off alarms on Capitol Hill and among some U.S. intelligence officials. ... Full Story | Top |
Syrians plan Friday protests as monitors visit
Thu,29 Dec 2011 03:40 PM PST
Reuters -  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Opposition activists urged people to take to the streets on Friday, the main day of protest in the revolts that have swept the Arab world, to convince Arab League peace monitors to pay attention to their plight. The Arab League mission to verify whether President Bashar al-Assad is keeping to a pledge to end the crackdown on a nine-month pro-democracy uprising has so far failed to bring a reduction in violence. Government security forces shot dead 25 people on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. ...
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Appeals court revives Countrywide homeowner case
Thu,29 Dec 2011 02:25 PM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - A week after settling a landmark federal discrimination case, Bank of America Corp's Countrywide unit was ordered to face a lawsuit by a Hispanic couple who said it applied excessive pressure to refinance their home on terms they did not accept and could not afford. In an opinion by a prominent Republican-appointed judge, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California said a lower court was wrong to dismiss the complaint by Victor and Belen Balderas, who claimed they could not read the English language loan documents they signed. ...
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Insight: Breast implant scandal shows regulators in dark on risk
Thu,29 Dec 2011 02:26 PM PST
Reuters -  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Long before the latest global breast implant scare, American health officials were toying with the idea of building a registry that would track patients with implants. The registry would give a better idea of the number of complications over time, such as rupture or infection. But to this day, none exists for the world's largest healthcare market, which often serves as a global model for regulatory practice. Some individual countries in Europe have made their own attempts but with only limited success, and there is no continent-wide registry. ...
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Italy seeks bigger euro fund after tough debt sale
Thu,29 Dec 2011 02:26 PM PST
Reuters -  MILAN/ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti sought reinforcement for the euro zone's bailout fund and pledged new efforts to boost the economy after a disappointing bond auction on Thursday underlined the threat to the country's shaky public finances. Investors demanded a yield of nearly 7 percent on 10-year paper at the auction of medium- and long-term bonds, down from the record highs seen last month but still unsustainable given the 450 billion euros ($580 billion) that Italy needs to raise through debt issuance in 2012. ...
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Could Romney score an early knockout?
Thu,29 Dec 2011 02:27 PM PST
Reuters -  NORTH LIBERTY/MASON CITY, Iowa (Reuters) - Mitt Romney's campaign did its best on Wednesday to lower expectations, but no one was really buying it. As six of the contenders for the Republican nomination for president barnstormed across Iowa, there was a clear sense that Romney could be in position to lock down the nomination far sooner than could have been expected just a few days ago. Urging Iowans to vote in the caucuses that kick off the nominating process next Tuesday, Romney and his aides were surprised at the size and enthusiasm of overflow crowds at diners and coffee shops. ...
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Russia submerges nuclear submarine to douse blaze
Thu,29 Dec 2011 03:27 PM PST
Reuters -  MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Russia said it had won the battle with a raging blaze aboard a nuclear submarine on Friday by submerging the stricken vessel at a navy shipyard after hours of dousing the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats. There was no radiation leak, authorities said. Television pictures showed a giant plume of smoke above the yard in the Murmansk region of northern Russia as over 100 firemen struggled to douse flames which witnesses said rose 10 metres (30 feet) above the Yekaterinburg submarine. ...
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Deutsche Telekom in $95 million bribery settlement
Thu,29 Dec 2011 02:33 PM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - German phone company Deutsche Telekom AG and a Hungarian unit will pay more than $95 million to settle U.S. criminal and civil probes into the bribery of government officials in Macedonia and Montenegro. The settlements resolve Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that Deutsche Telekom and its 60 percent-owned Magyar Telekom unit violated the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. U.S. investigators said former Magyar executives arranged in 2005 and 2006 for the payment of 12.2 million euros ($15. ...
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Unseal letter in HP Hurd case: court
Thu,29 Dec 2011 03:02 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - An appeals court ruled that a letter linked to Mark Hurd's abrupt departure from his post as chief of Hewlett-Packard Co should be unsealed, potentially revealing new details about his dramatic exit from the technology giant. Delaware Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Berger said in an opinion dated Wednesday that while the letter contained "embarrassing detail about Hurd's behavior," it did not describe any "intimate conversations or conduct." Legal experts said the ruling means that the public will almost certainly get to read the disputed document. ...
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Turkey acknowledges killing civilians in Iraq strike
Thu,29 Dec 2011 02:28 PM PST
Reuters -  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes killed 35 civilian smugglers in northern Iraq after mistaking them for Kurdish militants, Ankara's ruling party said on Thursday, promising not to allow a cover-up of an incident that threatens to wreck relations with minority Kurds. The attack, which Turkey's largest pro-Kurdish party called a "crime against humanity," sparked clashes between hundreds of stone-throwing protesters and police in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's restive, mainly-Kurdish southeast. ...
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Iran warns U.S. over Strait of Hormuz
Thu,29 Dec 2011 03:15 PM PST
Reuters -  TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Thursday the United States was not in a position to tell Tehran "what to do in the Strait of Hormuz," state television reported, after the U.S. said it would preserve oil shipments in the Gulf. Tehran's threat to block traffic through the crucial passage for Middle Eastern crude suppliers followed the European Union's decision to tighten sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, as well as accompanying moves by the United States to tighten unilateral sanctions. ...
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North Korea hails nuclear, military feats of Kim Jong-il
Thu,29 Dec 2011 07:19 AM PST
Reuters -  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea lauded the military might built up by deceased leader Kim Jong-il on Thursday, likely tying his young successor to the same policies that have set Northeast Asia on edge as the impoverished state inches closer to nuclear weapons capability. A gathering of 100,000, soldiers in uniform and bare-headed civilians, gathered in silence in wintry sunlight in the capital Pyongyang to mourn the passing of the man who had led the country for 17 years until his death on December 17. ...
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Verizon says fixed third December service outage
Thu,29 Dec 2011 07:48 AM PST
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless said on Thursday that it had resolved an "issue" with its high-speed wireless network overnight, after its third widely reported problem in a month. The country's biggest wireless service did not give any details about the problem but said phone call and text message services were not disrupted for high-speed fourth generation (4G) customers and that its older third generation (3G) service was operating normally. ...
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Alibaba hires U.S. lobbying firm as it eyes Yahoo
Wed,28 Dec 2011 07:14 PM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Alibaba Group has hired a Washington lobbying firm in a sign that the Chinese e-commerce company would be willing to make a bid for all of Yahoo Inc in the event that talks to unwind their Asian partnership fail. Japan's Softbank Corp, which owns a 30 percent stake in Alibaba and is a partner in Yahoo Japan, is also listed as an Alibaba affiliate in the disclosure by the lobbying firm, Duberstein Group Inc. Alibaba Group's founder, Jack Ma, said in September he was keen to buy all of Yahoo if the opportunity presented itself. ...
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Stratfor delays website launch after hack attack
Wed,28 Dec 2011 10:37 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Private intelligence analysis firm Strategic Forecasting Inc., which was attacked by online hackers at the weekend, said in a letter to free subscribers that it has decided to delay the launching of its website by about a week. The website of Strategic Forecasting, also known as Stratfor, has been offline for several days following the hacking attack. "As part of our ongoing investigation, we have also decided to delay the launching of our website until a thorough review and adjustment by outside experts can be completed," Stratfor said in an email. ... Full Story | Top |
Retail sales resilient in final holiday stretch
Wed,28 Dec 2011 02:30 PM PST
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Retail sales look poised for a solid finish to the holiday season as warm weather and deep discounts encouraged shoppers to hit stores or go online to snap up last-minute gifts, according to data released on Wednesday. Sales in the week ending December 24 soared 14.8 percent from a year ago to about $44 billion, helped by Christmas Eve falling on a Saturday, according to ShopperTrak, which monitors traffic at shopping malls. Good weather also helped as snowstorms had blanketed some areas at the same time last year. Sales on December 26, a public holiday this year, soared 25. ...
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Iowa's moderate Republicans: an edge for Romney?
Wed,28 Dec 2011 03:45 PM PST
Reuters -  DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Iowa's moderate Republicans are a small and dispirited bunch, but they could provide a vital boost for Mitt Romney in the state's tight kickoff presidential contest. While the Republican White House contenders battle for the state's big but badly split bloc of religious conservatives, Iowa's moderates are a forgotten minority who have coalesced around the candidate they consider their only choice: Romney. But it is uncertain whether they will turn out for him at the caucus votes on January 3, when the state kicks off the Republican nominating fight. ...
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Analysis: Manning's legal strategy could lead to plea deal
Wed,28 Dec 2011 04:23 PM PST
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - While it may appear that the government's document-leaking case against U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning is strong, the defense could have some surprising leverage with prosecutors and force plea negotiations. Prosecutors may in particular find it difficult to prove the 24-year-old Manning intended to provide the information to enemies of the United States such as al Qaeda, and that the information was helpful to them, legal experts said. ...
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U.S. Fifth Fleet says won't allow Hormuz disruption
Thu,29 Dec 2011 12:07 AM PST
Reuters -  TEHRAN/DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.S. Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday it would not allow any disruption of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran threatened to stop ships moving through the world's most important oil route. "Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated," the Bahrain-based fleet said in an e-mail. ...
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