| Insight: Pakistan cleric tries hand at politics, striking fear in Shi'ites Posted: 20 Apr 2013 02:13 PM PDT  By Michael Georgy JHANG, Pakistan (Reuters) - When Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi greets supporters on the Pakistan election trail, he opens his pitch with the kind of promises to the poor that any other politician might make. But behind the reassuring rhetoric lies what his opponents believe is a dangerous agenda - to gain a foothold in parliament and further his designs to oppress Pakistan's Shi'ite minority. ...
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| Egypt's Mursi plans cabinet reshuffle Posted: 20 Apr 2013 02:35 PM PDT  By Omar Fahmy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said on Saturday he planned to reshuffle his cabinet in a move that could help build political consensus around a $4.8 billion loan Cairo is seeking from the International Monetary Fund. Mursi's opponents have been demanding the formation of a new government to oversee parliamentary elections expected to begin later this year. The United States, a major donor to Cairo, has grown more critical of Mursi of late, listing a lack of political inclusivity as one of its concerns. ...
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| Merkel party loses support after female hiring quota dispute: poll Posted: 20 Apr 2013 04:39 PM PDT  BERLIN (Reuters) - Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives has fallen by 2 percentage points to 39 percent after a dispute over quotas requiring companies to hire more women executives, an opinion poll published on Sunday showed. Rebel members of Merkel's centre-right coalition, including Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen, threatened to break ranks and vote with opposition parties that wanted to introduce a female quota from 2018, convinced that voluntary pledges to appoint more women have proven inadequate. ...
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| Syria opposition voices frustration with international backers Posted: 20 Apr 2013 10:51 AM PDT  By Mariam Karouny and Nick Tattersall ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syrian opposition figures voiced frustration with their international backers on Saturday in the face of reluctance from some to supply the rebels with weapons and a call for them to distance themselves from extremist forces. Speaking at a meeting of the Friends of Syria in Istanbul, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Germany was skeptical about supplying weapons to the rebels but said the subject should be discussed by the European Union. ...
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| Bahrain F1 race to go ahead amid tensions, protests Posted: 20 Apr 2013 02:50 PM PDT  By Alexander Dziadosz MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahrain's controversial Formula One race will go ahead on Sunday despite opposition protests and street violence plaguing the island kingdom more than two years after pro-democracy protests began. Young men have battled police officers in near-nightly clashes in the Gulf Arab country - a key Western ally that hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet - since protests broke out in February 2011. ...
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| Napolitano elected for second term as Italy president Posted: 20 Apr 2013 01:27 PM PDT  By Gavin Jones and Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - The Italian parliament on Saturday re-elected 87-year-old President Giorgio Napolitano to serve a second term in an attempt to resolve the political stalemate left by February's inconclusive election. As most of parliament cheered his re-election, demonstrators protested outside. By evening the crowd had swelled as thousands of people vented anger at an outcome that was widely seen as perpetuating the grip on the country of a discredited political class and favoring centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi. ...
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| Greece's ruling conservatives regain narrow lead: poll Posted: 20 Apr 2013 01:48 PM PDT  ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's ruling conservatives have regained a narrow lead over anti-bailout leftists, an opinion poll published on Saturday showed. A survey by Metron Analysis for Sunday's Eleftherotypia newspaper put support for New Democracy at 18.7 percent, giving it a 0.6 percentage-point lead over the Syriza party. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's New Democracy party, which won elections in June with 29.6 percent of the vote, has been neck-and-neck with the anti-bailout Syriza in recent polls. In a previous Metron Analysis poll in March, New Democracy trailed Syriza by 0. ...
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| Bombs, mortars fail to stop first Iraq vote since U.S. exit Posted: 20 Apr 2013 11:51 AM PDT  By Patrick Markey BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb attacks and mortar fire failed to prevent Iraqis voting on Saturday in the first nationwide elections since the last U.S. troops left more than a year ago. The provincial elections will measure political parties' strength before a parliamentary election in 2014 to chose a new government in a country deeply divided along sectarian lines. A dozen small bombs exploded and mortar rounds landed near polling centers in cities north and south of the capital. Three voters and a policeman were injured by mortars in Latifiya, south of Baghdad, police said. ...
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| Egypt's Mubarak stays in detention despite second release order Posted: 20 Apr 2013 10:25 AM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - A Cairo court on Saturday ordered Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak released pending a verdict on illicit gains charges, the second release order in a week, but he will remain in detention because he still faces other charges, court sources said. The appeal hearing on Saturday was held in Torah prison, to where 84-year-old Mubarak was transferred from an army hospital on Wednesday after an apparent improvement in his fragile health. ...
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| Earthquake kills 157, injures 5,700 in China's Sichuan Posted: 20 Apr 2013 09:48 AM PDT By Michael Martina YA'AN, China (Reuters) - China's worst earthquake in three years on Saturday killed at least 157 people and injured more than 5,700, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. The magnitude 6.6 quake hit a remote mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province at 8:02 a.m. (0002 GMT), close to where an earthquake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008. The quake struck in Lushan county, near the city of Ya'an, at a depth of 12 km (7.5 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. ... |
| Boston bomb suspect hospitalized under heavy guard Posted: 20 Apr 2013 03:41 PM PDT  BOSTON (AP) — Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lay hospitalized in serious condition under heavy guard Saturday — apparently in no shape to be interrogated — as investigators tried to establish the motive for the deadly attack and the scope of the plot.
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| Strong quake jolts China's Sichuan, killing 160 Posted: 20 Apr 2013 01:57 PM PDT  YA'AN, China (AP) — Residents huddled outdoors Saturday night in a town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured.
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| US providing Syrian rebels $123M more in aid Posted: 20 Apr 2013 04:05 PM PDT  ISTANBUL (AP) — The United States is providing Syrian rebels with $123 million in new nonlethal aid that may include body armor and other types of supplies that haven't been part of the assistance package in the past.
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| Hagel on first trip to Mideast as Pentagon chief Posted: 20 Apr 2013 03:12 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Saturday began a weeklong trip to the Middle East to consult with Israeli leaders on Syria's civil war and Iran's nuclear program and to discuss a set of U.S. arms deals with Israel and two Arab countries.
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| Boston suspects' Chechen family traveled long road Posted: 20 Apr 2013 09:12 AM PDT  TOKMOK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The two brothers accused of blowing up homemade bombs at the Boston Marathon came from a Chechen family that for decades had been tossed from one country to another by war and persecution.
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| Indian girl, 5, in serious condition after rape Posted: 20 Apr 2013 08:56 AM PDT  NEW DELHI (AP) — A 5-year-old girl was in serious condition Saturday after being raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India's capital for two days, officials said.
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| World finance leaders issue sober assessment Posted: 20 Apr 2013 03:26 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — World finance leaders issued a somber assessment on Saturday of the global economy, saying the recovery remains uneven with growth and jobs in short supply.
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| Pakistani judge orders Musharraf held for 2 weeks Posted: 20 Apr 2013 07:45 AM PDT  ISLAMABAD (AP) — Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Saturday was ordered held for two weeks until the next hearing in a case related to his 2007 decision to sack and detain several judges.
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| Rio delivers bikinis in mesh and rigid metal Posted: 20 Apr 2013 02:06 PM PDT  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Just how complicated can the Brazilian bikini, among the skimpiest iterations of the simple spandex triangle and string design, possibly get?
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| Egypt's Morsi to reshuffle Cabinet amid turmoil Posted: 20 Apr 2013 03:28 PM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi defended his handling of some of the nation's most pressing problems in a nearly two-hour television interview on Saturday, and pledged to appoint new Cabinet ministers in a move that could ease the country's deep political polarization.
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