| U.S. resolution on Syria strike passes first hurdle in Senate Posted: 04 Sep 2013 03:20 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle and Khaled Yacoub Oweis WASHINGTON/AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's effort to win legislative backing for military strikes against Syria passed its first hurdle on Wednesday when a Senate committee voted in favor, but the narrow margin of victory showed the depth of U.S. caution. In a possible sign of internal unrest in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ruling Alawite sect in the shadow of a likely U.S. intervention, Syrian opposition figures said General Ali Habib, a former defense minister, had defected. Syria denied the report. ...
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| U.S. faces substantial losses if Egypt aid halted: official Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:28 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government faces billions of dollars in potential costs if it decides to cancel foreign military aid to Egypt, a senior Pentagon official told Reuters on Wednesday. Richard Genaille, deputy director of the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, said he hoped the Obama administration reached a decision soon on whether to continue $1.23 billion in U.S. military assistance to Egypt, given the large number of weapons shipments in the pipeline. "We're kind of antsy about that," Genaille said after a speech at the ComDef industry conference in Washington. ...
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| Strike against Syria unlikely to provoke clash with Russia: top U.S. diplomat Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:19 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday a U.S. military strike on Syria over its chemical weapons use was unlikely to provoke a clash with Russia, a key Syrian ally that has blocked efforts to sanction Damascus at the U.N. Security Council. "Foreign Minister (Sergey) Lavrov has made it clear ... Russia does not intend to fight a war over Syria," Kerry told a hearing in the House of Representatives. ...
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| Exclusive: Brazil's Rousseff wants U.S. apology for NSA spying Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:15 PM PDT  By Brian Winter SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Furious about a report that the U.S. government spied on her private communications, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff may cancel a planned White House visit and downgrade commercial ties unless she receives a public apology, a senior Brazilian official told Reuters on Wednesday. A Brazilian news program reported on Sunday that the U.S. National Security Agency spied on emails, phone calls and text messages of Rousseff and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. ...
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| Sri Lanka hits back at U.N. rights chief after visit Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:53 PM PDT  By Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government criticized the U.N.'s top human rights official on Wednesday for calling attention to accusations that police and soldiers had harassed people who met her during a visit to the country's former war zones. Navi Pillay, ending a mission to assess Sri Lanka's progress after a 26-year war between the government and separatist Tamils, said on Saturday she had received reports that people she had met in the north and east during her seven-day trip were questioned and intimidated. She said the U.N. ...
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| Australia's Abbott set to inherit economy others would envy Posted: 04 Sep 2013 03:53 PM PDT  By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's presumptive prime minister, Tony Abbott, is set to inherit a slowing economy, rising unemployment and a budget in the red. Yet look out to a three-year election horizon, and the view is a lot better. Abbott's conservative Liberal-National coalition appears to be a shoe-in at elections this weekend, ending six years of Labor rule, and all the talk has been of the challenges he faces. ...
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| Colombian president's popularity hits low after unrest Posted: 04 Sep 2013 04:16 PM PDT  By Helen Murphy BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos' public approval rating has plunged to its lowest level since he took office in 2010, a poll released on Wednesday showed, due to a farmers' strike marred by violence and scant progress in peace talks with Marxist rebels. Just 21 percent of Colombians polled in late August and early September said they had a positive opinion of Santos, down from 48 percent in a similar survey conducted at the end of June, according to the Gallup poll. ...
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| Codelco workers to strike at small Chilean copper mine: union Posted: 04 Sep 2013 04:02 PM PDT SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Workers at the Salvador copper mine, owned by Chile's state-run Codelco, are due to begin a strike on Thursday after contract negotiations broke down, a union leader said. Some 1,129 workers will put down their tools from 00:00 local time (04:00 GMT) Thursday, union leader Waldo Gomez told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that the workers were seeking better terms to bring them in line with the rest of the mining industry. Salvador is a small mine, producing 62,700 tonnes of copper in 2012, less than 4 percent of Codelco's total production. ... |
| Obama grapples for majority on Syria action Posted: 04 Sep 2013 03:33 PM PDT  President Barack Obama has signed up power brokers in Congress for strikes on Syria but, in an era of insurgent politics haunted by Iraq, there is no guarantee the rank and file will follow.
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| Flashpoint city still on edge after Congo rebel retreat Posted: 04 Sep 2013 03:30 PM PDT  The M23 rebels have pulled back from Goma, the flashpoint at the heart of the conflict ravaging eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, but the city still faces bombed-out schools, a stalled economy and a climate of fear.
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| Cleveland kidnapper Castro commits suicide in prison cell Posted: 04 Sep 2013 03:21 PM PDT  By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ariel Castro committed suicide by hanging himself with a bed sheet in his prison cell, an Ohio coroner said on Wednesday, just one month into a life sentence for the kidnapping, rape and beatings of three women he kept imprisoned for a decade. The former school bus driver, who pleaded guilty to 937 counts in July, was found hanged in his cell at an Ohio prison late Tuesday. An autopsy on Wednesday confirmed the cause of death was suicide by hanging, said Dr. Jan Gorniak, the Franklin County coroner. ...
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| Cleveland kidnapper found hanged in US prison cell Posted: 04 Sep 2013 03:02 PM PDT  Ariel Castro, the American who held three young women captive for a decade, was found hanged in the Ohio prison where he was serving a life sentence, officials said Wednesday.
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| Mali's new leader vows to unite divided nation Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:54 PM PDT  President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita pledged on Wednesday to unite Mali and end endemic corruption as he was sworn in to lead the deeply-divided west African nation's emergence from months of political crisis and conflict.
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| US building coalition for Syria strikes, Kerry says Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:54 PM PDT  An international coalition for action against Syria is growing, Secretary of State John Kerry told US lawmakers Wednesday, adding Arab nations had even offered to help pay for any strikes.
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| Gabon investigation unmasks 3,000 fake government employees Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:52 PM PDT LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - A corruption investigation in Gabon has revealed the existence of about 3,000 fake civil servants who receive monthly government salaries despite holding no official positions, officials said. The tiny, oil-rich Central African nation's bloated civil service employs about 70,000 workers and serves a population of 1.5 million. "The beneficiaries regularly received monthly salaries despite not belonging to any ministry," State Prosecutor Sidonie Flore Ouwe said on Wednesday. ... |
| Tunisia's opposition threatens protests after talks fail Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:45 PM PDT By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's secular opposition threatened on Wednesday to launch more mass protests to force the Islamist-led government to step down, saying negotiations to end a political stand-off had failed. Hamma Hammami, a senior leader in a coalition of over a dozen secular opposition parties agitating for new elections, blamed the Islamist Ennahda party heading the government coalition for the collapse of two weeks of mediated talks. ... |
| Putin Sets Uncompromising Tone Ahead of G-20 Summit Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:35 PM PDT It was not the most diplomatic way to start a summit of world leaders. On Sept. 4, the day before Russian President Vladimir Putin begins hosting the G20 summit in his hometown of St. Petersburg, he accused the Obama Administration of lying to Congress, and said U.S. lawmakers were being suckered into approving a military strike against Syria. "We talk with these people. We assume that they are decent. But he lies," Putin said of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. "And he knows that he lies. That's pathetic." |
| Senate panel approves resolution on Syria military strikes Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:35 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution on Wednesday authorizing limited U.S. military intervention in Syria, setting the stage for a debate in the full Senate next week on the use of force. The committee voted 10-7 in favor of a compromise resolution that sets a 60-day limit on any engagement in Syria, with a possible 30-day extension, and bars the use of U.S. troops on the ground for combat operations. ...
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| Pentagon may take charge of arming Syrian rebels: US officials Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:33 PM PDT  Washington is weighing expanding support for Syrian rebels by having the Pentagon take charge of arming the opposition instead of a clandestine effort by the CIA, officials said Wednesday.
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| Obama to meet Russian gay activists on G20 visit Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:32 PM PDT  US President Barack Obama will meet with Russian gay rights activists in the course of his visit to Russia, two groups invited to the meeting told AFP Wednesday.
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| Al-Qaida-linked Syria rebels hit Christian village Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:19 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Al-Qaida-linked rebels launched an assault Wednesday on a regime-held Christian village in the densely populated west of Syria and new clashes erupted near the capital, Damascus — part of a brutal battle of attrition each side believes it can win despite more than two years of deadlock.
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| APNewsBreak: Obama weighs Egypt aid suspension Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:15 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's top national security aides have recommended that the U.S. suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Egypt in response to the Egyptian military's ouster of the country's first democratically elected leader, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
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| AP Interview: Putin warns West on Syria action Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:13 PM PDT  NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin warned the West against taking one-sided action in Syria but also said Russia "doesn't exclude" supporting a U.N. resolution on punitive military strikes if it is proved that Damascus used poison gas on its own people.
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| Mexican Senate passes major education reform Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:11 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Senate overwhelmingly passed a sweeping reform of the notoriously dysfunctional public school system early Wednesday, handing President Enrique Pena Nieto an important victory in his push to remake some of his country's worst-run institutions.
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| Africa's richest man plans refinery, plants worth $9 bn Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:09 PM PDT  Africa's richest man announced plans Wednesday to build a refinery as well as petrochemical and fertiliser plants worth some $9 billion, promising to reduce Nigeria's dependency on imported fuel.
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| Russia's Putin calls John Kerry a liar on Syria Posted: 04 Sep 2013 02:03 PM PDT  MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a liar, claiming he had denied that al-Qaida was fighting with the Syrian opposition in that country's civil war.
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| DR Congo rebels impose 'unacceptable' curfew: UN Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:37 PM PDT  M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo are enforcing a curfew in areas under their control, the UN peacekeeping mission said Wednesday, calling the move "completely unacceptable."
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| Damascus hotel hosts fleeing families, not tourists Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:35 PM PDT  These are the new "tourists" in Damascus: families fleeing the violence in their hometowns who now live in decrepit hotels, packed into tiny spaces where they even cook in bathrooms.
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| Joined hands heal scars of France and Germany's past Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:34 PM PDT  The presidents of Germany and France on Wednesday joined hands with a survivor of the Nazis' worst atrocity on French soil in a historic moment of reconciliation.
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| Rumsfeld docu director puzzled by ex-defense chief Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:19 PM PDT  VENICE, Italy (AP) — Director Errol Morris spent 33 hours interviewing Donald Rumsfeld for his new documentary "The Unknown Known." But Morris says the former U.S. defense secretary proved hard to fathom.
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| Syria says will never give in 'even if there is WWIII' Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:13 PM PDT  Syria said Wednesday it was mobilising its allies against a possible US-led military strike over a suspected gas attack and would never give in, even if a third world war erupts.
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| Russia warns of catastrophe if Syria reactor hit by U.S. strike Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:13 PM PDT  ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday that a military strike on Syria could have catastrophic effects if a missile hit a small reactor near Damascus that contains radioactive uranium. The Foreign Ministry called on the U.N. nuclear agency to urgently assess the risk as the United States considers military action to punish Syria's government for an alleged gas attack. "If a warhead, by design or by chance, were to hit the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) near Damascus, the consequences could be catastrophic," a ministry statement said. ...
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| Senate panel passes authorization for use of U.S. military force in Syria Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:12 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday approved a resolution authorizing the use of military force in Syria by a vote of 10-7, with one senator merely voting "present." The panel's action clears the way for a vote on the resolution in the full Democratic-controlled Senate, likely next week. The Republican-led House of Representatives must also pass a version of the measure before it can be sent to President Barack Obama for his signature. Obama is asking Congress to back his call for limited U.S. ...
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| Weapon of choice against al Qaeda, drones marginal in Syria Posted: 04 Sep 2013 01:05 PM PDT  By Tabassum Zakaria and David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prowling the skies of Pakistan and Yemen, armed drones are America's weapon of choice in its war against al Qaeda, but they are unlikely to play a major role in any U.S. strike against Syria, underscoring the limitations of unmanned aircraft. Drones do not have the capability for air-to-air combat and would be vulnerable to Syria's defense system of surface-to-air missiles and radar which can track and shoot down warplanes, never mind slower-moving drones. ...
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