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| Second stealth jet puts China on path to top regional power: expert Friday, Nov 02, 2012 12:23 AM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's second stealth fighter jet that was unveiled this week is part of a program to transform China into the top regional military power, an expert on Asian security said on Friday. The fighter, the J-31, made its maiden flight on Wednesday in the northeast province of Liaoning at a facility of the Shenyang Aircraft Corp which built it, according to Chinese media. ... Full Story | Top |
| Analysis: Jilted Africa cool to U.S. vote after Obama fever fades Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:04 PM PDT  KOGELO, Kenya/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - In the tiny Kenyan village of Kogelo, U.S. President Barack Obama's ancestral homeland, some people talk of hurt feelings of the kind experienced when a favorite relative has failed to get in touch. Four years ago, Kogelo, and Africa in general, celebrated with noisy gusto when Obama, whose father came from the scattered hamlet of tin-roofed homes, became the first African-American to be elected president of the United States. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Putin's Russia: more fragile than it looks Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:02 PM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - When Vladimir Putin celebrated his 60th birthday this month, a group of patriotic mountaineers unfurled a portrait of the Russian leader on a 4,150-metre mountain peak. Hailing him as a guarantor of happiness and stability, the climbers' leader explained: "We have stuck Putin's portrait on a rock wall we see as unbreakable and eternal as Putin". But as Putin nears the end of his 13th year ruling this vast country, Russians feel increasingly unhappy and worries over long-term political and economic stability are growing. ... Full Story | Top |
| Scope of Sandy's devastation widens, death toll spirals Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:04 PM PDT  NEW YORK (Reuters) - From New York City's Staten Island to the popular beach towns of the Jersey Shore, rescuers and officials on Friday faced growing evidence of widespread destruction wrought by superstorm Sandy, mounting anger over delayed relief and a rising death toll. The total killed in one of the biggest storms to hit the United States jumped by a third on Thursday alone, to 98. In New York City, 40 people have been found dead, half of them in Staten Island, which was overrun by a wall of water on Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
| Blind Chinese activist's brother says lawsuit rejected Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:45 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - The eldest brother of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng said on Friday a Chinese court had rejected his lawsuit filed against local police and officials for unlawfully barging into his house after his brother's escape. The rejection of Chen Guangfu's lawsuit on Thursday was an expected outcome, but it underscores the continued pressure on Chen Guangcheng's family in northeastern Shandong province, about five months after Chen Guangcheng left for the United States to study. ... Full Story | Top |
| Pigeons set China Congress security plans aflutter Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 08:26 PM PDT  BEIJING (Reuters) - Potentially sinister threats to China's ruling Communist Party sit unnoticed in cages perched on a rooftop above a small alleyway in southwestern Beijing. Not dissidents. Pigeons. A week before the party's all-important congress opens, China's stability-obsessed rulers are taking no chances and have combed through a list all possible threats, avian or otherwise. It isn't just the usual suspects like activists who have ruffled the party's feathers. ... Full Story | Top |
| Japan to import rare earths from Kazakhstan: media Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 07:50 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is likely to start importing rare earths from Kazakhstan as early as January as part of its efforts to lower its dependence on China, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Friday, citing unidentified government sources. The supply of rare earths has been a major concern for Japan after China at one point held back shipments of the vital industrial ingredients in 2010 in the wake of a bilateral dispute. China, the world's biggest producer of rare earth metals, is also likely to turn an importer of them by as early as 2014 as it boosts consumption in domestic high-tech ... Full Story | Top |
| CIA officials in Libya made key decisions during Benghazi attacks Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 06:19 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA officials on the ground in Libya dispatched security forces to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi within 25 minutes and made other key decisions about how to respond to the waves of attacks on U.S. installations on September 11, a senior American intelligence official said on Thursday. Officials in Washington monitored events through message traffic and a hovering U.S. military drone but did not interfere with or reject requests for help from officials in the line of fire, the official said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mauritanian opposition tells army to stay out of politics Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 04:56 PM PDT NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Opposition leaders in coup-prone Mauritania on Thursday called on the army to stay out of politics and demanded more information on the health of the country's absentee president. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a key ally of the West in the fight against al Qaeda in Africa, was flown to France on October 14, for treatment of a gunshot wound the government said he received when a military patrol accidentally fired on his convoy. ... Full Story | Top |
| Fuel scarce, East Coast struggles to recover from storm Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 04:37 PM PDT NEW YORK/SEASIDE HEIGHTS, New Jersey (Reuters) - Rescuers searched flooded homes for survivors, drivers lined up for hours to get scarce gasoline and millions remained without power on Thursday as New York City and nearby towns struggled to recover from one of the biggest storms to hit the United States. New York subway trains crawled back to limited service after being shut down since Sunday, but the lower half of Manhattan still lacked power and surrounding areas such as Staten Island, the New Jersey shore and the city of Hoboken remained crippled from a record storm surge and flooding. ... Full Story | Top |
| Guinea swears in new electoral commission Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 03:34 PM PDT CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea has sworn in a new electoral commission after an initial boycott by the opposition, which claimed the government had tampered with its list of nominees, state television announced on Thursday. A political stalemate in the world's top bauxite producer has since last year stalled legislative polls needed to complete a shift to civilian rule after a 2008 coup and unblock international aid. President Alpha Conde named a new 25-member electoral body on Monday as part of a compromise after the opposition complained the previous commission was favorable to the ruling party. ... Full Story | Top |
| Canada vehicle sales outlook bright after October surge Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:33 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Canadian vehicle sales surged 7.8 percent last month in the industry's strongest October ever as consumers sought smaller, fuel-efficient passenger cars while also buying more luxury brands. Ford Motor Co of Canada remained Canada's top-selling automaker in October with total sales increasing 7 percent. Barring an economic shock, an annual record for Canadian sales should come within reach in the next few years, with the market possibly approaching 1.8 million units sometime during the current decade, independent automotive expert Dennis DesRosiers said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Venice hit by worst flooding in two years Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:30 PM PDT  VENICE (Reuters) - Tourists in Venice put plastic bags over their legs and residents wore rubber boots as water rose to knee-high levels in many parts of the lagoon city on Thursday. The median level of the Adriatic Sea swelled to about 1.4 meters (1.5 yards) above normal - the highest in nearly two years - sending water from the lagoon into St. Mark's Square and many narrow alleyways. Wooden catwalks which are usually used to allow pedestrian passage over flooded areas were removed after the water rose above them, rendering them useless. ... Full Story | Top |
| China struggles for solution to growing NIMBY movement Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:23 PM PDT  SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - It looked like another victory for the people when the Chinese city of Ningbo announced the suspension on Sunday of a petrochemical project after days of street protests by citizens concerned it would pollute their community. It may turn out to be more complicated. ... Full Story | Top |
| British millionaire pleads guilty in Iran missile scheme Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 02:04 PM PDT  SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - British millionaire Christopher Tappin pleaded guilty in federal court in Texas on Thursday to charges of attempting to sell missile parts to Iran, prosecutors said. Tappin, 66, from Orpington, Kent, who had previously pleaded not guilty, reversed that stance in federal court in El Paso as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors that calls for a sentence of 33 months in prison and a fine of more than $11,000, according to U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman. ... Full Story | Top |
| Workers at Bombardier commuter rail plant go on strike Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 01:58 PM PDT (Reuters) - Some 330 workers at a Quebec-based rail-car factory belonging to Bombardier Inc, the world's biggest train-maker, went on strike on Thursday over outsourcing and pension fund issues, the company and union said. No further talks are scheduled, leaving all output halted at the plant, which makes parts for rail cars ordered by customers including New Jersey Transit and the Chicago Transit Authority. Bombardier spokesman Marc Laforge said the company was in contact with customers to reassure them about their orders, which are mostly for inventory. ... Full Story | Top |
| Greek journalist acquitted in Swiss accounts scandal Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 01:48 PM PDT  ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek journalist who published the names of more than 2,000 of his compatriots who held Swiss bank accounts was acquitted on Thursday in a case that touched a nerve over the role of tax evasion in the country's debt crisis. The trial of Costas Vaxevanis, editor of the weekly Hot Doc magazine, had aroused international concern and intense interest among Greeks hit by the impact of the country's economic collapse and angry at the privileges of the elite. ... Full Story | Top |
| Abbas hints has no "right of return" to home in Israel Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 01:26 PM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a rare if symbolic concession to Israel on Thursday, saying he had no permanent claim on the town from which he was driven as a child during the 1948 war of the Jewish state's founding. Among several disputes deadlocking Middle East peace talks has been the Palestinians' demand that as many as five million of their compatriots be granted the right to return to lands in Israel that they or their kin lost. ... Full Story | Top |
| Greek court challenges pension reform plan Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:57 PM PDT  ATHENS (Reuters) - Pension reform demanded by foreign lenders may be unconstitutional, a Greek court ruled on Thursday, in a setback to the government's efforts to push through an austerity package for the near-bankrupt country. The Court of Auditors, which vets Greek laws before they are submitted to parliament, said planned measures such as increasing the retirement age by two years to 67 and cutting pensions by 5 to 10 percent could be against the constitution. ... Full Story | Top |
| Peru cuts commercial fishing drastically on worries about stocks Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 12:42 PM PDT  LIMA (Reuters) - Peru has slashed its commercial fishing quota as warmer water temperatures and controversial practices deplete stocks of anchovy in one of the world's richest fisheries. The government cut its quota for this summer's anchovy season by 68 percent to 810,000 tonnes, the smallest allowance in 25 years. Anchovy is rarely eaten fresh, but is instead dried, ground up and exported as a protein-rich feed for livestock and farmed fish. ... Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Greek "tax cheat" lists yield one suicide, no convictions Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:47 AM PDT  VOLOS, Greece (Reuters) - Leonidas Tzanis, a Greek provincial lawyer and former government minister, went down to his basement garage in the city of Volos last month, tied a TV cable to a metal beam and hanged himself. Friends and family say Tzanis died because he was on a list, one of several hinting at financial crimes which are dominating Greek headlines and filling a vacuum created by the state's failure to act decisively on tax evasion and corruption. ... Full Story | Top |
| Harper to promote Canada business, but no investment rules yet Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 11:45 AM PDT  OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will promote Canada as open for business during a November 3-11 trip to Asia, although he is not likely to unveil long-awaited guidelines for foreign takeovers of Canadian firms, an aide said on Thursday. "I don't think it's a problem at all to go around the world and say we're open for business, because we are," Harper's chief spokesman, Andrew MacDougall, told reporters ahead of the trip, which will take Harper to India, the Philippines and Hong Kong. "Canada overwhelmingly supports foreign investment in Canada ... ... Full Story | Top |
| Sri Lanka pressed at U.N. to prosecute wartime crimes Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:56 AM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - Western countries kept up pressure on Sri Lanka on Thursday to prosecute killings of civilians and other crimes committed in its 30-year civil war and to investigate continuing grave violations. Britain and the United States said that accountability must be established for serious breaches in the conflict that ended in 2009 and they voiced concern at the latest attacks on journalists, activists and lawyers. Sri Lanka was in the dock at the United Nations Human Rights Council, a Geneva-based forum that regularly examines the records of all U.N. ... Full Story | Top |
| Netanyahu rival blasts his "obsession" with Iran Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:40 AM PDT  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Kicking off his election campaign, Israeli opposition leader Shaul Mofaz on Thursday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being driven by an obsession to bomb Iran. Mofaz, head of the centrist Kadima party that quit Netanyahu's coalition weeks ago citing differences over how to rein in Iran's nuclear program, unveiled a poster of a flaming mushroom cloud emblazoned with "Netanyahu will mire us in trouble". ... Full Story | Top |
| Pakistani couple kill daughter who talked to a boy Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:36 AM PDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani couple killed their teenage daughter by pouring acid on her face and body after they caught her talking to a boy, police and a doctor said on Thursday. The parents of the 16-year-old confessed to police in Kotli, a town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, that they attacked their daughter after she had spoke to the boy outside their house, said Mohammad Jahangir, a local doctor at the hospital where she was brought. "There were third-degree burns on her scalp, face, eyes, nostrils, both arms, chest foot and lower part of legs. ... Full Story | Top |
| At least 23 killed in Riyadh fuel truck blast Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:36 AM PDT  RIYADH (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed when a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday, triggering an explosion that brought down an industrial building and set fire to nearby vehicles. State-owned Ekhbariya television news channel reported on that the death toll had risen to 23 and emergency workers were still searching the collapsed building for more victims or survivors. Health ministry spokesman Saad al-Qahtani said 135 people were injured, mostly men and including some foreigners. ... Full Story | Top |
| Syrian rebels kill 28 soldiers, several executed Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:22 AM PDT  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Anti-government rebels killed 28 soldiers on Thursday in attacks on three army checkpoints around Saraqeb, a town on Syria's main north-south highway, a monitoring group said. Some of the dead were shot after they had surrendered, according to video footage. Rebels berated them, calling them "Assad's Dogs", before firing round after round into their bodies as they lay on the ground. The highway linking the capital Damascus to the contested city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial center, has been the scene of heavy fighting since rebels cut the road last month. ... Full Story | Top |
| South Africa mine unrest to lead to job losses: Amplats Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:18 AM PDT JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's platinum industry is in "severe financial distress" and high wage settlements to get wildcat strikers back to work will lead to job cuts, Anglo American Platinum said. The world's top platinum producer said it was losing production averaging 3,694 ounces of platinum per day due to a strike at its South African operations that is in its seventh week. To date 141,640 ounces of the precious metal have been lost. ... Full Story | Top |
| Car explodes outside barracks in Turkey's Iskenderun port Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:15 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A car exploded outside a military barracks in the Turkish port town of Iskenderun on Thursday, injuring four people, in what a local news agency said was a bomb attack. The Dogan news agency said the car, which was packed with explosives, blew up 150 meters from the entrance to the barracks shortly before a military vehicle had been due to pass and that the blast injured at least three passengers in a civilian car. "There was an explosion and we can confirm four people are slightly injured. ... Full Story | Top |
| One-in-four South Africans jobless, mine layoffs loom Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 10:01 AM PDT  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's unemployment rate rose in the third quarter, with more than one in four out of work and unrest in the mining sector expected to drive that number higher still. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has made job creation a priority, but the rate has been stuck above 20 percent for more than a decade despite periods of strong economic growth, fuelling social unrest. Joblessness increased to 25.5 percent of the labor force, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday, putting 197,000 more workers on the streets during the quarter. The agency said 4. ... Full Story | Top |
| Dissident says reforming Lukashenko's Belarus impossible Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:58 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Belarussian dissident Andrei Sannikov, granted political asylum in Britain, is worried about the safety of his family he left behind but believes the autocratic government of President Alexander Lukashenko could eventually fall, he said on Thursday. A former deputy foreign minister, Sannikov, 58, moved to Britain in August after being released from prison where he said officials tried to push him to kill himself. ... Full Story | Top |
| Kenya police make three more arrests in Venezuela diplomat murder Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:51 AM PDT  NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police have arrested three more suspects in connection with the murder of a Venezuelan diplomat in the capital Nairobi in July, a senior officer said on Thursday. Olga Fonseca, Venezuela's acting ambassador and charge d'affaires, was found strangled in her bedroom less than two weeks into her posting, which followed the abrupt departure of the previous ambassador after he was accused by his domestic staff of sexual harassment. ... Full Story | Top |
| Prison officer killed in Northern Ireland motorway shooting Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:44 AM PDT  BELFAST (Reuters) - A prison officer was killed in Northern Ireland on Thursday when he drove into a hail of bullets and crashed off a motorway at high speed, in an attack blamed by police and politicians on militant nationalists. It was the first murder of a prison officer since 1993 and the fifth fatal attack on a member of the security establishment since the 1998 Good Friday peace deal, which largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. ... Full Story | Top |
| New Dutch finance minister promise cuts, tough line on euro zone Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:29 AM PDT AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The incoming Dutch finance minister said on Thursday he would push ahead with budget cuts at home and take a tough line on the euro zone crisis, ensuring policy continuity. Labor MP Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned of tough times ahead given the new coalition government between his Labor party and Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberals has already agreed to nearly 16 billion euros ($21 billion) in budget cuts. "We have agreed to a tight budget and together we are going to implement it. It is a tough package that is going to require sacrifices from everyone in the Netherlands. ... Full Story | Top |
| Israel's Netanyahu, France's Hollande eulogize slain Jews Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:17 AM PDT  TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined with French President Francois Hollande on Thursday in remembering victims of an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, with both pledging to fight anti-Semitism in France and around the globe. The ceremony for the seven people shot dead in March in the south of France, including three Jewish children and a rabbi, came on the second and final day of Netanyahu's first official visit to France, home to Europe's largest Jewish population. "Every time a Jew is targeted for being Jewish, Israel is concerned. ... Full Story | Top |
| India Chennai port resumes cargo operations as cyclone eased Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:14 AM PDT  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Chennai port on the country's southeast coast has resumed cargo operations from Thursday after a cyclone in the area eased in severity, a port official said. "Normal activity has resumed since this morning," said the official, who requested anonymity. Cargo operations at Chennai port were halted on Tuesday after a cyclone warning. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Jo Winterbottom) Full Story | Top |
| Russia breaks baby trafficking ring in North Caucasus Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:09 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators have cracked a ring of human traffickers that specialized in selling babies in the country's volatile North Caucasus region, Moscow's Investigative Committee said on Thursday. Police detained a 62-year-old woman in the regional capital of Chechnya when she tried to sell a newborn baby boy for 550,000 roubles ($17,500) to an undercover policeman posing as a potential client. The pensioner had also sold an 18-month-old girl to another undercover policeman earlier this year, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on its website. ... Full Story | Top |
| Khodorkovsky's business partner wins three-year cut in jail term Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:08 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - The business partner of former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky won a three-year shortening of his prison sentence on Thursday, but a lawyer for the fallen oil boss said his bid for a similar cut was still lodged in a separate court. Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev were arrested in 2003 and are serving 13-year jail terms for fraud, tax evasion, theft and money laundering, in a case that has damaged Russia's image abroad. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigerian forces making Islamist insurgency worse: Amnesty Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:07 AM PDT  ABUJA (Reuters) - Human rights abuses committed by Nigeria's security forces in their fight against Islamist sect Boko Haram are fuelling the very insurgency they are meant to quell, Amnesty International said on Thursday. Boko Haram says it wants to create an Islamic state in Nigeria and its fighters have killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks targeting security forces, politicians and civilians since launching an uprising in 2009. The sect has become the top security threat to Africa's biggest energy producer. ... Full Story | Top |
| Risk of death close for Turkish hunger strike: doctors Thursday, Nov 01, 2012 09:02 AM PDT  ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Jailed Kurdish militants on hunger strike in Turkey may start to die within the next 10 days, Turkey's main medical association warned on Thursday, saying the prime minister's dismissal of the protest as a "show" risked hardening their resolve. The hunger strike entered its 51st day on Thursday, with some 700 prisoners refusing food in dozens of prisons across Turkey, demanding the government grant greater Kurdish minority rights and better conditions for their jailed leader. ... Full Story | Top |
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