| Kenyatta won Kenya's presidency fairly: Supreme Court Posted: 30 Mar 2013 12:43 PM PDT  By James Macharia and Edmund Blair NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Supreme Court upheld Uhuru Kenyatta's presidential election victory on Saturday and his defeated rival accepted the ruling, helping douse tensions after tribal violence blighted the election five years ago. The decision cleared the way for Kenya's richest man to take the top job in east Africa's biggest economy, but left Western powers with the headache of dealing with a leader charged with crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. ...
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| Cyprus details heavy losses for major bank customers Posted: 30 Mar 2013 08:45 AM PDT  By Karolina Tagaris NICOSIA (Reuters) - Major depositors in Cyprus's biggest bank will lose around 60 percent of savings over 100,000 euros, its central bank confirmed on Saturday, sharpening the terms of a bailout that has shaken European banks but saved the island from bankruptcy. Initial signs that big depositors in Bank of Cyprus would take a hit of 30 to 40 percent - the first time the euro zone has made bank customers contribute to a bailout - had already unnerved investors in European lenders this week. ...
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| Italy president pledges to stay to deal with crisis Posted: 30 Mar 2013 11:36 AM PDT  By Giselda Vagnoni ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday ruled out standing down early to make way for new parliamentary elections, after the failure of attempts to form a government this week, saying he would keep trying to find a way out of the deadlock. Napolitano, whose term ends on May 15, spoke after news reports suggested he might resign to get around constitutional provisions which prevent a president dissolving parliament and calling elections during his final months in office. ...
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| Pope leads Catholics into Easter at vigil service in St. Peter's Posted: 30 Mar 2013 02:43 PM PDT  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, leading the world's 1.2 billion Catholics into Easter for the first time, on Saturday urged those who have strayed from the faith to allow God back into their lives. Francis, who was elected on March 13, presided at a solemn Easter vigil Mass in St. Peter' Basilica to usher the Catholic Church into the most important day of its liturgical calendar. ...
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| Maduro calls Venezuela opposition "heirs of Hitler" Posted: 30 Mar 2013 11:50 AM PDT  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's acting President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday called the country's opposition "heirs of Hitler," accusing them of persecuting Cuban doctors working in the South American country the way Jews were persecuted in Nazi Germany. His barbs added to weeks of insults in the run-up to the April 14 presidential elections triggered by the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez this month. Polls show Maduro with a double-digit lead over opposition rival Henrique Capriles. ...
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| North Korea says enters "state of war" against South Posted: 30 Mar 2013 09:07 AM PDT  By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea, but Seoul and its ally the United States played down the statement as tough talk. Pyongyang also threatened to close a border industrial zone, the last remaining example of inter-Korean cooperation which gives the impoverished North access to $2 billion in trade a year. The United States said it took Pyongyang's threats seriously but cautioned that the North had a history of bellicose rhetoric. Russia, another a permanent U.N. Security Council member, urged all sides to show restraint. ...
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| Central African Republic leader, facing isolation, says no reprisals Posted: 30 Mar 2013 11:43 AM PDT  By Ange Aboa BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic's new leader Michel Djotodia, facing international isolation after seizing power, said on Saturday he would not take reprisals against rivals and called on those who fled abroad to return. The United States said on Saturday it did not recognize Djotodia, who toppled President Francois Bozize on March 24 after leading thousands of his Seleka rebels into the mineral-rich nation's capital Bangui, triggering days of looting. ...
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| NATO strike kills at least one child in Afghanistan Posted: 30 Mar 2013 09:07 AM PDT  By Mustafa Andalib GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A NATO helicopter killed at least one child and nine suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's east on Saturday, officials and local residents said. Last month Afghan President Hamid Karzai forbade Afghan forces from calling for NATO air support and forbade international forces from using air strikes "in Afghan homes or villages" after Afghan forces called in a strike that killed 10 civilians. ...
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| French PM says pension reform to keep retirement age of 62: paper Posted: 30 Mar 2013 03:06 PM PDT  PARIS (Reuters) - A plan to reform France's state pension system will leave in place the official retirement age of 62, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told a French newspaper. "We won't touch the official retirement age," Ayrault said in an interview with Journal de Dimanche. "The main theme of our decisions is fairness." France is under pressure to fix a short-term pension deficit which Ayrault said would swell to 20 billion euros ($25.68 billion) by 2020 if unaddressed. ...
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| Sudanese rebel group releases 31 kidnapped Darfuris Posted: 30 Mar 2013 02:34 PM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Sudanese rebels have released 31 Darfuris who they had kidnapped a week ago on their way to a conference for people displaced by the region's decade-long war, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Saturday. Conflict has raged in Darfur since 2003 when mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Arab-led government, accusing it of politically and economically marginalizing the region. ... |
| NKorea says it is in a 'state of war' with SKorea Posted: 30 Mar 2013 01:23 PM PDT  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea warned Seoul on Saturday that the Korean Peninsula had entered "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
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| Pope presides over trimmed Easter Vigil service Posted: 30 Mar 2013 03:11 PM PDT  VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis celebrated a trimmed back Easter Vigil service Saturday after having reached out to Muslims and women during a Holy Week in which he began to put his mark on the Catholic Church.
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| Shroud of Turin goes on display amid new research Posted: 30 Mar 2013 02:18 PM PDT  VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Shroud of Turin went on display for a special TV appearance Saturday amid new research disputing claims it's a medieval fake and purporting to date the linen some say was Jesus' burial cloth to around the time of his death.
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| Eiffel Tower evacuated after bomb threat Posted: 30 Mar 2013 03:20 PM PDT PARIS (AP) — The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Saturday night after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, police said. |
| Kenyan Supreme Court upholds election result Posted: 30 Mar 2013 12:37 PM PDT  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's Supreme Court on Saturday upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country's next president and the loser accepted that verdict, ending an election season that riveted the nation with fears of a repeat of the 2007-08 postelection violence.
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| Bank of Cyprus big savers to lose up to 60 percent Posted: 30 Mar 2013 12:02 PM PDT  NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Big depositors at Cyprus' largest bank may be forced to accept losses of up to 60 percent, far more than initially estimated under the European rescue package to save the country from bankruptcy, officials said Saturday.
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| Chavez's legacy gains religious glow in Venezuela Posted: 30 Mar 2013 01:59 PM PDT  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Holding a Bible in her arms at the start of Holy Week, seamstress Maria Munoz waited patiently to visit the tomb of the man she considers another savior of humanity.
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| Egypt issues arrest warrant for TV satirist Posted: 30 Mar 2013 02:02 PM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's state prosecutors ordered the arrest Saturday of a popular television satirist for allegedly insulting Islam and the country's leader, in a move that government opponents say is aimed at silencing critics of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
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| Syrian rebels enter strategic Aleppo neighborhood Posted: 30 Mar 2013 01:54 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels pushed into a strategic neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy clashes, seizing control of at least part of the hilltop district and killing a pro-government cleric captured in the fighting, activists and state media said Saturday.
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| Venezuela's Maduro says opposition seeks violence Posted: 30 Mar 2013 01:11 PM PDT  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela' acting president, Nicolas Maduro, on Saturday accused his opponent of seeking to provoke violence by scheduling a dueling campaign rally in the same western state next week.
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| Knowing neighbors through art: Rio houses new Latin American art museum Posted: 30 Mar 2013 07:00 AM PDT Despite making up nearly half of the South American land mass and bordering every country on the continent but two, Brazil has paradoxically long looked further afield to Europe and the United States for its cultural references. While French cinema and all-inclusive trips to New York are commonplace, a carioca, or resident of Rio de Janeiro, is hard-pressed to view the same element of chic attached to other Latin American countries. |
| In Israel's columns, frescoes, and desert palaces, Herod the Great lives on Posted: 30 Mar 2013 06:00 AM PDT Herod the Great may be best known among Christians as the cruel ruler who sought to kill Jesus as an infant, and whose son book-ended Jesus' earthly travails, mocking him en route to his crucifixion. |
