| Bomb, gun attacks across Iraq kill at least 44 Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:40 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombers and gunmen attacked policemen and a wake in Iraq among other targets, killing at least 44 people across the country on Thursday, in the latest burst of violence that has raised concerns about a return to civil strife. Gunmen opened fire on two checkpoints guarding oil installations on the road between Haditha and Baiji, 180 km (111 miles) north of the capital, killing 11 people, police said. In the town of Muqdadiya, 80 km northeast of Baghdad, a further 11 people were killed when a car bomb exploded at a wake. ...
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| Venezuela says Snowden has still not formally responded to asylum offer Posted: 11 Jul 2013 11:00 AM PDT  MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Venezuela has still not received a formal response to its offer of asylum to former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua told Reuters on Thursday. "We communicated last week, we made an offer and so far we haven't received a reply," Jaua said on the sidelines of a regional foreign ministers' meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay. Venezuela along with leftist allies Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered asylum to Snowden, who is wanted by Washington on espionage charges for divulging details of extensive, secret U.S. surveillance programs. ...
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| Anti-Assad rebels say U.S. arms needed, vow to control distribution Posted: 11 Jul 2013 05:12 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Syria's opposition said on Thursday that it was concerned U.S. lawmakers had succeeded in holding up U.S. weapons deliveries to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and repeated assurances the arms will not go to Islamist militants. Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees have expressed reservations over the Obama administration's intentions to support the insurgents by sending them military hardware, fearing the weapons would fall into the wrong hands. ...
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| UK parliament wins veto over any decision to arm Syrian rebels Posted: 11 Jul 2013 11:54 AM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's parliament backed a motion on Thursday requiring Prime Minister David Cameron to give it a veto over any future move to arm Syrian rebels, in a symbolic vote the government said it would heed. Britain says it has not yet taken any decision to arm rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad, but its role in helping to lift a European Union arms embargo on Syria in May fuelled speculation it was planning to do just that. ...
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| U.S., China disagree sharply over handling of Snowden case Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:13 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. and Chinese officials sharply disagreed on Thursday over China's handling of fugitive Edward Snowden, the former spy agency contractor accused of divulging U.S. surveillance program secrets who was allowed to leave Hong Kong last month. In remarks after high-level political and economic talks, the United States said it was disappointed that Chinese authorities did not send Snowden, on the run in Hong Kong, back to face U.S. justice. ...
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| US, China trade barbs about Snowden case Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:52 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and China have wrapped up two days of high-level talks in an upbeat fashion, but not before trading barbs about National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and human rights.
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| Irish lawmakers back 'life saving' abortion bill Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:35 PM PDT  DUBLIN (AP) — Lawmakers have overwhelmingly voted to back Ireland's first bill on abortion, legalizing the practice in exceptional cases where doctors deem the woman's life at risk from her pregnancy.
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| Ireland parliament votes to allow limited abortion Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:30 PM PDT  DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's parliament voted on Friday to allow abortion under certain conditions for the first time, after months of polarizing debate in the staunchly Catholic country including letters to the premier written in blood. Premier Enda Kenny has provoked a strong backlash by pushing for access to abortion when a woman's life is in danger, both sides of the debate have protested and his government has faced down more rebels than it did over austerity. The lower house passed the bill after hours of debate including an all-night sitting. ...
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| Brazil unions try to seize protest momentum with strikes Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:20 PM PDT  By Lucas Iberico-Lozada and Brad Haynes SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of union demonstrators blocked roads and snarled traffic in dozens of Brazilian cities on Thursday in a one-day strike aimed at seizing the momentum of huge protests that swept the country last month. The disruptions, mostly peaceful aside from scattered clashes between police and protesters in a few cities, were limited compared to June protests that drew more than 1 million supporters in Brazil's largest demonstrations in two decades. ...
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| Portugal president throws politics into disarray Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:16 PM PDT  By Axel Bugge LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's president threw the bailed-out euro zone country into disarray on Thursday after rejecting a plan to heal a government rift, igniting what critics called a "time bomb" by calling for early elections next year. President Anibal Cavaco Silva proposed a cross-party agreement between the ruling coalition and opposition Socialists to guarantee wide support for austerity measures needed for Portugal to exit its bailout next year, followed by elections. ...
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| Police: 24 bodies now found in Quebec train crash Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:05 PM PDT  LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — The first victim of a runaway oil train's explosive derailment in a Quebec town was identified Thursday, more than five days since the disaster, which left behind a scorched scene so dangerous that it slowed the search for 50 people presumed dead.
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| Syria war imperils education of 2.5 million children: aid agency Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:03 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - More than a fifth of Syria's schools have been destroyed or made unusable in more than two years of conflict, jeopardizing the education of 2.5 million young people, Save The Children aid agency reported on Friday, The civil war in Syria has contributed to a sharp increase over the past year in the number of violent incidents affecting children's education reported worldwide, the agency said. More than 70 percent of 3,600 such incidents in 2012 occurred in Syria, where school buildings were shelled, teachers attacked and children recruited into armed groups, it added. ...
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| Egypt's liberals pressing for democracy after coup Posted: 11 Jul 2013 03:45 PM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — The liberal and youth movements that backed the military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi are now pushing to ensure their calls for change are heard in the face of the generals' strong grip on the new leadership. At stake is the hope that the Arab world's most populous nation will emerge from more than two years of turmoil as a democracy.
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| Egypt to investigate Morsi for 2011 jailbreak Posted: 11 Jul 2013 03:36 PM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — Prosecutors will investigate allegations that Egypt's ousted president escaped from prison during the 2011 revolution with help from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, officials said Thursday.
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| Obama nominee questioned on Clinton, Benghazi Posted: 11 Jul 2013 03:21 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's choice as chief U.S. envoy for Europe defended her role in the talking points created after last year's deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, at a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday that seemed focused as much on the tragedy as the future presidential prospects of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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| Syrian bid for U.N. rights body criticized, Iran withdrew Posted: 11 Jul 2013 03:11 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syrian plans to run for a spot on the U.N. Human Rights Council met with sharp criticism from the United States and Israel on Thursday, while Tehran announced it had withdrawn its candidacy for the world body's rights watchdog. The General Assembly's annual elections for the United Nations' 47-nation, Geneva-based human rights body will be held in November in New York. There will be 14 seats available for the five U.N. regional groups for three-year terms beginning in January 2014. ...
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| Russia slams West's 'propaganda storm' on Syria chemical arms Posted: 11 Jul 2013 02:43 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia's U.N. envoy on Thursday sharply criticized what he described as Western nations' "small propaganda storm in a glass of water" regarding allegations that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own people. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin on Tuesday presented U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a Russian analysis that Churkin said showed how a projectile containing sarin that hit Khan al-Assal in the northern Aleppo province on March 19, killing 26 civilians and military personnel, was fired by rebels. ...
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| Microsoft helped NSA, FBI access user info: Guardian Posted: 11 Jul 2013 02:37 PM PDT  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp worked closely with U.S. intelligence services to help them intercept users' communications, including letting the National Security Agency circumvent email encryption, the Guardian reported on Thursday. Citing top-secret documents provided by former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden, the UK newspaper said Microsoft worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the NSA to ease access via Prism - an intelligence-gathering program uncovered by the Guardian last month - to cloud storage service SkyDrive. ...
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| U.S. lawmakers may ease 'coup' ban on aid to Egypt Posted: 11 Jul 2013 02:18 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers will begin to vote as soon as next week on legislation that could continue aid to Egypt even if the Obama administration determines that the ouster of elected President Mohamed Mursi was a military coup, lawmakers and aides said on Thursday. The United States currently sends $1.3 billion in military aid and $250 million in economic aid to Egypt each year, but the military coup label would cut off the flow under a U.S. law dating to the 1980s. ...
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| Raped 11-year-old Chilean should be allowed to abort: Amnesty Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:56 PM PDT SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A pregnant 11-year-old Chilean girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather should be granted all medical options, including the right to abort, rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday. The pregnancy of 'Belen,' as she is known, has sparked an outcry in the Andean country, where abortion is banned under all circumstances. ... |
| Al Qaeda kills Free Syrian Army commander: FSA spokesman Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:51 PM PDT BEIRUT (Reuters) - Militants linked to al Qaeda in Syria killed a senior figure in the Western- and Arab-backed Free Syrian army on Thursday, an FSA source said, signaling a widening rift between Islamists and more moderate elements in the armed Syrian opposition. Kamal Hamami, a member of the Free Syrian Army's Supreme Military Council, known by his nom de guerre Abu Bassel al-Ladkani, was meeting with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the port city of Latakia when they killed him, Qassem Saadeddine, a Free Syrian Army spokesman, told Reuters. ... |
| Obama nominee talks Europe amid Benghazi questions Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:38 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's choice as chief American envoy for Europe told a Senate panel Thursday that she would make the expansion of trade and democracy top priorities if confirmed. But some Republicans wanted to know more about her former State Department boss, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the deadly attacks against Americans last year in Benghazi, Libya.
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| Gitmo genital searches halted Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:36 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge Thursday ordered the government to stop genital searches of Guantanamo Bay detainees who want to meet with their lawyers, concluding that the motivation for the searches is not to enhance security, but to deter the detainees' access to attorneys. |
| Exclusive: Egypt has less than two months imported wheat left: ex-minister Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:20 PM PDT  By Sarah McFarlane CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has less than two months' supply of imported wheat left in its stocks, ousted President Mohamed Mursi's minister of supplies said, revealing a shortage more acute than previously disclosed. Speaking to Reuters near midnight in a tent at a vigil where thousands of Mursi supporters are protesting against the Islamist president's removal, former Minister of Supplies Bassem Ouda said the state had just 500,000 tonnes of imported wheat left. Egypt usually imports about 10 million tonnes a year. ...
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| Pope lets Catholics join Anglican converts Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:18 PM PDT VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is letting baptized Catholics join the new church structure created to receive Anglican converts. |
| Opposition condemns Syrian rebel blockade Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:55 PM PDT  DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's main opposition coalition Thursday condemned a rebel blockade of government-held districts in the contested northern city of Aleppo, issuing a rare statement of criticism against fighters who reportedly caused severe food shortages at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
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| Lebanon Shiites ousted from Gulf as Hezbollah fans Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:52 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — When Ali Farhat was summoned to the immigration department in the United Arab Emirates, the 33-year-old Lebanese restaurant worker knew he would have to pack up his family and leave fast.
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| Norway mulls broadband coverage in Arctic Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:50 PM PDT  STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Norway may provide high-speed Internet in one of the few places on Earth where it's not available: the Arctic.
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| Environmental activists scale London's Shard tower Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:41 PM PDT  LONDON (AP) — Six environmental activists scaled Western Europe's tallest building on Thursday to protest drilling in the Arctic by oil companies — and were arrested after reaching the top.
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| Russia convicts lawyer Magnitsky in posthumous trial Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:37 PM PDT  By Maria Tsvetkova and Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison in suspicious circumstances, was found guilty of tax evasion on Thursday in a posthumous trial that has further damaged President Vladimir Putin's reputation in the West. The Moscow court also convicted Magnitsky's former client William Browder, a British investment fund boss who has led an international campaign to expose corruption and punish Russian officials he blames for Magnitsky's death in 2009. ...
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| Somalia's media revival braves old dangers Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:26 PM PDT  By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Experience has taught Somali journalist Mohamed Hassan how to spot a suicide bomber, which neighborhoods to avoid and how to cope with the loss of colleagues - his own brother was killed. Although Islamist militias were driven from Mogadishu some two years ago and media are flourishing as never before, those lessons are just as relevant in what is one of the world's most dangerous cities for journalists or anyone else. "Reporters can freely cover the daily mood," radio journalist Hassan told Reuters. "Still, for journalists, there are no go areas. ...
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| Egypt's anti-Islamists eye fellow Arabs with suspicion Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:00 PM PDT  By Tom Finn CAIRO (Reuters) - "Beware the outsider," reads a poster stuck to a wall near Tahrir Square in Cairo. "Don't open your heart to him, you don't know who he is," another warns. A week after Egypt's elected president was ousted by the military, excitement among those calling for his downfall is turning to distrust. Some are now blaming fellow Arabs from other countries for the violence that has followed. ...
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| Quebec premier takes rail chief to task Posted: 11 Jul 2013 11:59 AM PDT  LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — Crews worked Thursday to find the burned remains of the 50 people presumed dead in Saturday's catastrophic oil train derailment, as Quebec Premier Pauline Marois toured the traumatized town and took the American railway's chief to task for not visiting sooner.
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| Dead Russian lawyer Magnitsky found guilty Posted: 11 Jul 2013 11:38 AM PDT  MOSCOW (AP) — More than three years after he died in prison, whistle-blowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was found guilty of tax evasion by a Moscow court Wednesday.
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