| Egypt's interim government gets to work amid protests, deadlock Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:12 PM PDT By Ulf Laessing and Maggie Fick CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's interim government sets about the mammoth task of returning the country to civilian rule and rescuing the economy on Wednesday, a process complicated by deadly protests and a political stalemate with powerful Islamist groups. Interim head of state Adli Mansour, the burly judge leading the army-backed administration, swore in 33 mainly liberal and technocratic ministers at the presidential palace on Tuesday. ... |
| World powers hope to resume Iran talks quickly Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:25 PM PDT  By Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - World powers expressed hope on Tuesday of resuming negotiations with Iran over its disputed nuclear program "as soon as possible" but gave no indication of a possible date for any new talks. Senior diplomats from the six countries negotiating with Tehran - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - met in Brussels to map out plans for diplomacy following the June 14 presidential election in Iran. ...
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| Panama says finds weapons on North Korean ship coming from Cuba Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:25 PM PDT  By Lomi Kriel PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama seized a North Korean cargo ship it suspects was hiding missile equipment in a shipment of brown sugar from Cuba, after a standoff in which the ship's captain tried to slit his own throat. The ship was stopped last week as it headed into the Panama Canal and authorities arrested the crew on Monday after finding undeclared missile-shaped objects - a potential violation of U.N. sanctions linked to North Korea's nuclear program. "We found containers which presumably contain sophisticated missile equipment. That is not allowed. ...
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| Stranded fugitive Snowden seeks temporary asylum in Russia Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:00 PM PDT  By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden applied for temporary asylum in Russia on Tuesday after three weeks holed up at a Moscow airport trying to avoid prosecution in the United States on espionage charges. The White House said Snowden is "not a dissident" and should be expelled and returned to the United States to face trial. Snowden is seeking refuge in Latin America after leaking details of U.S. government surveillance programs, but has not risked taking any flight that might be intercepted by the United States. ...
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| Kerry to meet Arab League officials on Israeli-Palestinian peace Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:50 PM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is due to meet on Wednesday with officials from Arab nations that he regards as essential to his push to get Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks. On his sixth visit to the region since taking office, Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke for five hours in Amman on Tuesday night over an Iftar dinner, the evening meal with which Muslims break their daily fast during Ramadan. ...
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| Egypt prosecutor investigates Mursi for prison escape Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:51 PM PDT  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the start of investigations on whether deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and other senior leaders from his Muslim Brotherhood escaped from a prison during the 2011 uprising, state media said on Tuesday. The prosecutor referred the jail break case against Mursi and 18 other Islamist leaders to a judge to start investigations, state news agency MENA said. Most senior Brotherhood figures had been frequently harassed and imprisoned under President Hosni Mubarak who was ousted in a public uprising joined by the Brotherhood in 2011. ...
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| Guinea's Conde appeals for calm after 11 killed in ethnic clashes Posted: 16 Jul 2013 05:07 PM PDT CONAKRY (Reuters) - President Alpha Conde appealed for calm on Tuesday after at least 11 people were killed in two days of ethnic violence in the southeastern Guinea, underscoring tensions ahead of parliamentary elections. In Guinea's second largest city of Nzerekore, which lies some 980 km (612 miles) from the coastal capital Conakry, ethnic gangs prowled the streets for a second day on Tuesday and witnesses reported shooting. A local police source, who asked not to be identified, said at least 11 people were killed in the violence. ... |
| Zetas leader captured in precision operation Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:57 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's most brutal drug cartel leader built a business empire stretching from the Southwest United States to Central America, but Miguel Angel Trevino Morales' final days of freedom were spent lying low in the hinterlands of Tamaulipas state, traveling only at night over back roads as Mexican marines closed in on his trail.
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| Panama finds suspected weapons on N. Korean ship Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:52 PM PDT  PANAMA CITY (AP) — A North Korean ship carrying weapons system parts buried under sacks of sugar was seized as it tried to cross the Panama Canal on its way from Cuba to its home country, which is barred by United Nations sanctions from importing sophisticated weapons or missiles, Panamanian officials said Tuesday.
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| UK lawmakers urge caution in arms exports Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:26 PM PDT LONDON (AP) — Britain has issued more than 3,000 licenses allowing the export of arms and military equipment to countries where the U.K. has concerns about human rights, according to a report from lawmakers published Wednesday. |
| Obama: 'Suspicious' GOP opposes immigration overhaul for political reasons Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:16 PM PDT  President Barack Obama predicted Tuesday that comprehensive legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration policies would not happen before the August congressional recess and said he hoped the measure would reach his desk in the fall.
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| Chevron and YPF sign $1.5 billion shale oil deal Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:12 PM PDT  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's state-controlled YPF oil company has persuaded Chevron Corp. to sign a long-sought deal to invest $1.24 billion in developing the South American country's shale oil deposits.
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| U.N. envoy accuses Iran group's leaders in Iraq of rights abuses Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:49 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The outgoing U.N. special envoy to Iraq on Tuesday accused the leaders of an Iranian dissident group at a camp in Iraq of human rights abuses, an allegation the movement dismissed as baseless. Members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahadin-e-Khalq living in Camp Hurriya near Baghdad have been transferred there from Camp Ashraf north of the Iraqi capital, where they had lived for nearly a decade until last year. ...
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| Armed protesters storm Libya's Zueitina oil port: witness Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:27 PM PDT  TRIPOLI (Reuters) - An armed group of protesters stormed the eastern Libyan oil port of Zueitina on Tuesday, demanding workers halt operations, an engineer at the terminal said. The protesters' objectives were not immediately known. "The group arrived and asked that operations be shut down. A ship bound for Italy was being loaded with crude and I had to negotiate with them to allow the loading to continue," the engineer told Reuters by phone. "It was difficult to convince them but the ship is being loaded. Everything else is shut down. ...
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| U.S. worried ahead of Zimbabwe poll, warns on credibility Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:23 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" by lack of transparency in preparations for Zimbabwe's July 31 general election and called on the government to ensure the vote was peaceful, fair and credible. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said elections that were not seen as credible would have implications for U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe, suggesting Washington could maintain or increase sanctions depending on the election outcome. ...
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| Capture of Zetas leader unlikely to quell violence Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:14 PM PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's most brutal drug cartel leader built a business empire stretching from the Southwest United States to Central America, but Miguel Angel Trevino Morales' final days of freedom were spent lying low in the hinterlands of Tamaulipas state, traveling only at night over back roads as Mexican marines closed in on his trail. |
| Egyptian army camp attacked with rockets in Sinai Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:01 PM PDT  ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Assailants using mobile anti-aircraft rockets and machineguns attacked an Egyptian army camp in the restive Sinai peninsula near the border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, wounding two officers, witnesses and security sources said. Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard at the camp near Rafah, the Egyptian town on the Gaza border, the sources said. Two officers were wounded, the sources said. There was no immediate word on the identity of the gunmen. ...
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| Top cop to crack down on Egyptian supply system Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:00 PM PDT By Ulf Laessing CAIRO (Reuters) - The man who will run Egypt's Supply Ministry, managing subsidized fuel and bread that eat up a quarter of the state budget, is a policeman who has spent a career fighting rampant theft and corruption in that system. Mohamed Abu Shadi, a 62-year-old police general, was for several years the senior Interior Ministry official responsible for investigating crime in the supply network. He was sworn in on Tuesday in the interim government that is to run Egypt following the army's overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi. ... |
| Czech prosecutors drop demand to charge ex-PM as their case falters Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:55 PM PDT  By Jan Lopatka PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech prosecutors dropped on Tuesday their demand that parliament allows prosecution of former Prime Minister Petr Necas after a court struck down main parts of their bribery case that helped topple the country's government last month. The decision is a big blow to prosecutors in the case in which eight people, including a close aide to Necas, have been charged, some with bribery and others with illegal surveillance of people including the prime minister's wife. ...
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| Egypt Cabinet has women, Christians; no Islamists Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:48 PM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's interim leader swore in a Cabinet on Tuesday that included women and Christians but no Islamists as the military-backed administration moved swiftly to formalize the new political order and present a more liberal face that is markedly at odds with the deposed president and his supporters.
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| State TV won't show Miss Italia; pageant unhappy Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:45 PM PDT ROME (AP) — The organizer of Italy's Miss Italia beauty pageant is criticizing the state-run television network's decision not to broadcast this year's contest, a step that comes as audiences for the show have dwindled and amid pressure to improve how women are portrayed in the Italian media. |
| Congo army helicopters pound M23 rebels near Goma Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:41 PM PDT  By Chrispin Mvano MUTAHO, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Congolese government forces supported by helicopters attacked M23 rebel positions near the eastern city of Goma on Tuesday in a third day of heavy fighting that has forced hundreds of villagers to flee their homes and raised tensions with Rwanda. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, Congo accused Rwandan specialist units of aiding M23 in the fighting. In a statement, U.N. peacekeepers in Congo denied claims by Kigali that they shelled Rwandan territory on Monday. The U.N. ...
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| China struggles to secure uranium supplies after plant halted Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:06 PM PDT  By David Stanway BEIJING (Reuters) - The abrupt cancellation of a $6.5 billion uranium processing project in southern China has left Beijing with a headache as it tries to secure the fuel required to sustain an ambitious nuclear reactor building program. China has been buying stakes in uranium mines in Asia and Africa, but without the capacity to enrich and process the ore it will still be dependent on foreign firms to turn it into useable fuel. ...
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| Mexico’s Feared Narcos: A Brief History of the Zetas Drug Cartel Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:46 PM PDT Mexican marines arrested the boss of the country's cruelest drug cartel early Monday, a triumph for the Mexican government even as the bloody drug war shows few signs of slowing. Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, the notorious leader of the Zetas cartel, was apprehended, without firing a shot, in a pickup truck along with two companions near the Mexican-U.S. border. Marines found in his possession 8 assault weapons and 500 rounds of ammunition, in addition to $2 million in cash. |
| California officials brace for more unrest after Trayvon Martin verdict Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:44 PM PDT  By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police and civic leaders braced for unrest while appealing for calm on Tuesday after nearly two dozen protesters in Los Angeles and Oakland were arrested during a second night of civil disturbances sparked by the Trayvon Martin trial in Florida. Police in Los Angeles said the lawlessness was committed by about 150 people who broke off from an otherwise peaceful prayer vigil held in memory of Martin, the unarmed black teenager who was shot to death last year by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida. ...
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| Romania: Museum checks if paintings burned Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:42 PM PDT  BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A Romanian museum is analyzing ashes found in a stove to see if they are the remains of seven paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and others that were stolen last year from the Netherlands, an official said Tuesday.
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| Engineer at center of train derailment speaks out Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:41 PM PDT  LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) — The engineer who parked the oil train that rolled away, derailed and exploded in the center of a Quebec town was heard from Tuesday for the first time since the July 6 disaster that killed 50 people, with his lawyer saying he is "devastated."
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| Key figures in Egypt's new government Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:37 PM PDT CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's new interim Cabinet brings in a number of prominent figures from the country's liberal and secular factions into top positions, particularly from the National Salvation Front, the main coalition of opponents to ousted President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. It has three women, one of them a Christian, and two other Christians, more than any previous government. |
| One dead as bomb hits Hezbollah convoy in Lebanon Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:29 PM PDT  By Erika Solomon and Oliver Holmes BEIRUT (Reuters) - A convoy carrying members of the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah was hit by a roadside bomb near the Syrian border on Tuesday that killed one official and wounded two, security sources said. The victims were Hezbollah security officials travelling in a convoy of two vehicles heading towards Syria. A barrage of gunfire hit the convoy after the blast, security sources said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, the third on the group since May. ...
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| Iraq attacks make for deadly start to holy month Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:17 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Ramadan this year is shaping up to be the deadliest in Iraq since a bloody insurgency and rampant sectarian killings pushed the country to the edge of civil war in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
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| Israeli leaders condemn EU move on settlements Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:01 PM PDT  JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli leaders on Tuesday condemned a European Union ban on funding to Israeli institutions that operate in occupied territories, but also acknowledged the country's growing isolation over its construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
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| Iraq: Bomb explodes near Sunni mosque, killing 6 Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:58 PM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities say a bomb has exploded near a Sunni mosque as worshippers were leaving evening Ramadan prayers, killing at least six and wounding 17. |
| Colombian, Venezuelan leaders say will meet to mend ties Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:56 PM PDT  BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, plan to meet next week in a bid to improve relations after a diplomatic spat in May triggered by Santos' meeting with Venezuela's main opposition leader. Maduro was infuriated by what he called Santos' "betrayal" for meeting Henrique Capriles, who narrowly lost Venezuela's presidential election in April, and accused Santos of being part of a plot to overthrow him. ...
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| Italian minister denies role in deportation flap Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:55 PM PDT  ROME (AP) — Silvio Berlusconi's top political aide resisted growing calls Tuesday to step down as interior minister over the botched deportation of the wife and 6-year-old daughter of a Kazakh dissident, a flap which has ratcheted up tensions in Italy's fragile coalition government.
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| U.S. worried by lack of transparency in lead-up to Zimbabwe poll Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:24 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" by lack of transparency in preparations for Zimbabwe's July 31 general election and called on the government to ensure the vote was peaceful, fair and credible. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said elections that were not seen as credible would have implications for U.S. sanctions against Zimbabwe, suggesting Washington could maintain or increase its sanctions. ...
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| Italian PM warns of 'huge risk' that Britain leaves EU Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:20 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - Italy's prime minister said on Tuesday that there was a "huge risk" that Britain would leave the European Union in the next few years and he urged other countries to work to reduce the prospect of an exit. "We are convinced that in the European Union countries, we are (underestimating) the risk of having the UK out of Europe. In my view, it's a huge risk," Enrico Letta told an audience in London after making a speech. "We have to be very cautious ... and we have to prepare a discussion on trying to prevent this risk," he said in response to a question. ...
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