| Obama offers military help to eastern Europe allies worried by Russia Posted: 03 Jun 2014 10:04 AM PDT  By Roberta Rampton and Marcin Goettig WARSAW (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama promised on Tuesday to beef up military support for eastern European members of the NATO alliance who fear they could be next in the firing line after the Kremlin's intervention in Ukraine. Under attack from critics at home who say his leadership on the world stage has not been muscular enough, Obama unveiled plans to spend up to $1 billion in supporting and training the armed forces of NATO states on Russia's borders. The White House also said it would review permanent troop deployments in Europe in the light of the Ukraine crisis -- though that fell short of a firm commitment to put troops on the ground that Poland and some of its neighbors had sought.
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| G7 powers meet without Russia in summit snub over Ukraine Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:14 PM PDT  By Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The world's leading industrialized nations meet without Russia for the first time in 17 years on Wednesday, leaving President Vladimir Putin out of the talks in retaliation for his seizure of Crimea and Russia's part in destabilizing eastern Ukraine. The latter is an issue of particularly high sensitivity to Europe after months of tension with Moscow, which supplies nearly a third of Europe's oil and gas. While it is the first time Russia will not be at the table since joining the club in 1997, Putin will still hold one-on-one talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Britain's David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande this week, on the sidelines of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The decision to drop Russia from the group was taken by its other members - the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, Japan and Italy - in March, after Moscow seized Crimea and annexed it, a move not recognized internationally.
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| North Korea says U.S., South Korea smear it to hide own rights abuses Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:07 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - South Korea and the United States are waging a smear campaign against North Korea to distract from their own records of human rights abuses, Pyongyang has complained to the United Nations, warning that "curses, like chickens, come home to roost." In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - dated May 7 and released on Tuesday - North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam included analyses by the reclusive Asian state of the human rights records of the United States and South Korea. "It is none other than the U.S. that should be brought to the dock for the human rights violations it committed," according to the North Korean 'Memorandum on United States crimes against human rights.' "It's time for the U.S. to behave rationally and realize why our nation condemns the U.S. as sworn enemy with great fury and why our army prepares for the final nuclear confrontation with the U.S., holding the slogan of 'Destroy the U.S. imperialist aggressors, sworn enemy of the Korean people!'" it said.
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| Exclusive: Iran's reactor fuel demand emerges as sticking point in nuclear talks Posted: 03 Jun 2014 11:04 AM PDT  By Justyna Pawlak and Fredrik Dahl BRUSSELS/VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has said it should be able to produce fuel for its Bushehr nuclear power plant, a demand that world powers are unlikely to agree to and which may put a July deadline for a deal to end its nuclear standoff with the West in jeopardy. Diplomats from the major powers negotiating with Tehran said Iranian negotiators expressed the demand at the latest talks in May – identifying one reason little progress was made towards a nuclear deal that could end Tehran's economic isolation. Iran's ability to produce enriched uranium goes to the heart of a decade-old dispute over its nuclear program as the fuel can be used both to power reactors and - if further processed – to make the core of a nuclear warhead. "They expect to get capacity to fuel Bushehr and that's unrealistic," one diplomat from the 'P5+1' countries in talks with Iran - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - told Reuters.
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| Wary China keeps close watch as Tiananmen anniversary arrives Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:31 PM PDT  By Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - Twenty-five years ago, Wang Nan took his camera and headed out to Beijing's Tiananmen Square, where tens of thousands of people had gathered calling for democratic reforms. As his 77-year-old mother, Zhang Xianling, prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of her son's death, she is under around-the-clock surveillance by eight police and security officers. As early as April, police officers barred foreign journalists, including Reuters reporters, from visiting her home. What is there to be afraid of?" The Chinese Communist Party's harshest crackdown on political dissent in recent years would suggest plenty.
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| Lockheed to deliver first of 36 F-16s to Iraq this week Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:54 PM PDT  By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp this week will deliver the first of 36 F-16 fighter jets to Iraq, marking what Baghdad's envoy to the United States called a "new chapter" in his country's ability to defend its vast borders with Iran and other neighbors. Iraqi Ambassador Lukman Faily will travel to Lockheed's Fort Worth, Texas, plant on Thursday for a ceremony at which Lockheed and the U.S. government will formally deliver the first F-16 to Iraq. A group of three or four new jets will be ferried to Iraq before the end of the year. "Iraq is a large country with over 3,600 km of borders, and we need to protect them," Faily told Reuters in a telephone interview.
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| Top military officer: Bergdahl case not closed Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:57 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's top military officer said Tuesday the Army could still throw the book at Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the young soldier who walked away from his unit in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan and into five years of captivity by the Taliban.
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| Alaska volcano erupts with new intensity, prompting 'red' alert Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:48 PM PDT  By Steve Quinn JUNEAU Alaska (Reuters) - An Alaska volcano that has been spewing ash and lava for years began erupting with new intensity this week, pushing a plume of smoke and ash as high as 24,000 feet (7,315 meters) and prompting scientists to issue their highest volcanic alert in five years, authorities said on Tuesday. But the intense action at the Pavlof Volcano, located in an uninhabited region nearly 600 miles (966 km) southwest of Anchorage, has so far not disrupted any regional air traffic, thanks to favorable weather that has made it easier for flights to navigate around the affected area. Still, the eruption was intense enough for Alaska Volcano Observatory scientists to issue their first red alert warning since 2009, when the state's Mount Redoubt had a series of eruptions that spewed ash 50,000 feet (15,240 meters). "This means it can erupt for weeks or even months," observatory research geologist Michelle Coombs said of the warning.
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| Australian PM says tour will boost security Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:43 PM PDT CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says his 12-day, four-nation tour will bolster the nation's economic and national security. |
| Man gets 3 months for smuggling dinosaur skeleton Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:26 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — A Virginia fossils dealer was sentenced Tuesday to three months in prison even after a prosecutor described his cooperation with law enforcement in heroic terms, saying he enabled more than 18 largely complete dinosaur fossils to be located, enough for Mongolia to open its first dinosaur museum.
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| Child migrants driven to US by violence, poverty Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:23 PM PDT  REYNOSA, Mexico (AP) — Before 14-year-old Brian Duran set out from central Honduras in mid-April, he heard that child migrants who turned themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol were being cared for and not deported.
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| AP Interview: Colombian challenger tough on rebels Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:21 PM PDT  BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The conservative challenger in Colombia's presidential runoff says he'll take a tougher line on Venezuela's socialist government, which he calls a "dictatorship," and he has no plans to extend an olive branch to rebels engaged in peace talks with the government.
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| Suicide bomber kills anti-ISIL leader in Iraq's Anbar province: source Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:19 PM PDT One of the leaders of Iraq's pro-government Sunni tribal fighters was killed late on Tuesday by a suicide bomber in western Anbar province's capital of Ramadi, one of his men said. Mohammed Khamis Abu Risha was touring a checkpoint manned by his fighters in Ramadi when a suicide bomber hugged him, said one of his men. Four of Abu Risha's bodyguards were killed in the blast, the source added. His body was mutilated beyond recognition." Abu Risha, who was in his 30s, was the commander of hundreds of men in the desert province's capital, where security forces and a smaller number of pro-government Sunni tribal fighters have for months been battling tribesmen furious at Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and militants hailing from the al Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). |
| Wayne Rooney to start WCup warm-up match Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:16 PM PDT  MIAMI GARDENS, Florida (AP) — Struggling up front for England, Wayne Rooney is set to be shunted to the left wing as coach Roy Hodgson experiments ahead of the World Cup in the team's penultimate warm-up game.
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| British ban on Cantona Kronenbourg ad reversed Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:15 PM PDT  An advert for Kronenbourg 1664 starring former footballer Eric Cantona can be shown in Britain after reviewers on Wednesday ruled it was not "misleading" consumers into believing the lager was brewed and sourced in France. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled in February that parent company Heineken UK's press campaign mistakenly implied that most hops used in the brewing process came from France. But an independent reviewer recommended the decision be reversed following an appeal by Heineken UK. That's why Kronenbourg 1664 is always brewed with the aromatic Strisselspalt hop for a taste supreme."
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| Rihanna's 'sexually suggestive' perfume ad restricted in Britain Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:08 PM PDT  A raunchy British poster promoting Barbadian pop superstar Rihanna's perfume can only be displayed in areas where children are unlikely to see it, the country's advertising regulator ruled Wednesday. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that the image of the "Umbrella" singer sitting on the floor with legs raised against a large bottle of "Rogue" perfume was "sexually suggestive". "While we did not consider the image to be overtly sexual, we considered that Rihanna's pose, with her legs raised in the air, was provocative.
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| 4 Hawaii farms settle Thai workers suit for $2.4M Posted: 03 Jun 2014 04:00 PM PDT  HONOLULU (AP) — Four Hawaii farms are settling a discrimination lawsuit for a total of $2.4 million over allegations that they exploited hundreds of Thai workers.
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| 3 Jamaicans imprisoned over seizure of pot load Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:58 PM PDT KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Three men have been convicted of violating Jamaica's dangerous drugs act nearly two years after authorities caught them with a haul of marijuana, police said Tuesday. |
| Brazil builds nuclear submarine to patrol offshore oil Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:52 PM PDT  Brazil is building five submarines to patrol its massive coast, including one powered by an atomic reactor that would put it in the small club of countries with a nuclear sub. The new submarines aim to protect that resource, said the navy official coordinating the $10-billion project, Gilberto Max Roffe Hirshfeld. "Brazil has riches in its waters. The new submarines, which will replace Brazil's aging fleet of five conventional subs, are being built at a sprawling 540,000-square-meter (135-acre) complex in Itaguai, just south of Rio de Janeiro.
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| Soldier quizzed over Alps murders dies in apparent suicide Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:51 PM PDT  Grenoble (France) (AFP) - A former French Legionnaire, questioned during the course of the investigation into the 2012 murder of four people in the French Alps, committed suicide on Tuesday, police said. Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud told AFP, confirming information reported in the French media, that the former soldier had "left a note of six or seven pages in which he said he was disturbed by the questioning. An investigation into his death has been launched. Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old Briton of Iraqi origin, was gunned down along with his 47-year-old wife Iqbal and her 74-year-old mother in a woodland car park in the hills above Lake Annecy in the French Alps on September 5, 2012.
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| Iveco launches light truck to rival Mercedes Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:44 PM PDT VENARIA REALE, Italy (AP) — Italian truckmaker Iveco has invested 500 million euros to redesign its flagship small truck for Europe, aiming to catch the upswing in the European truck market and seeking to rival market-leader Mercedes. |
| Neymar leads Brazil to 4-0 win over Panama Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:42 PM PDT  GOIANIA, Brazil (AP) — Neymar scored one goal and set up two others to help Brazil defeat Panama 4-0 in a World Cup warm-up match on Tuesday.
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| Big blaze at Shell chemical plant in Netherlands Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:40 PM PDT THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A major fire broke out late Tuesday at a chemical plant operated by oil giant Royal Dutch Shell near the port city of Rotterdam, Dutch emergency services said. |
| Putin -- not so easy to isolate Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:37 PM PDT  Vladimir Putin is proving a hard man to snub. US-orchestrated efforts to isolate Russia over the Ukraine crisis saw Moscow ejected from the G8 and the summit shaved to a G7 in Brussels starting Wednesday. But when world leaders gather in France Friday to honour soldiers who waded ashore under Nazi fire on D-Day, Putin will be conspicuous by his presence. And leaders of the key European triumvirate of France, Britain and Germany will not be fighting Putin on the beaches -– they will be meeting him one-on-one.
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| Eurozone inflation drop seals deal for ECB Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:30 PM PDT  FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Another unexpected drop in inflation in the 18-country eurozone has made it a near certainty that the European Central Bank will act this week to support the economy.
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| Sri Lanka beats England to win ODI series Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:28 PM PDT  BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Sri Lanka swept to a six-wicket victory over England at Edgbaston on Tuesday, sealing a 3-2 victory in their one-day international series.
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| No tsunamis expected after 5.4 quake shakes Peru's capital Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:28 PM PDT LIMA (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.4 earthquake that shook buildings in the Peruvian capital of Lima on Tuesday will not cause any tsunamis, Peruvian authorities said. The quake, which led people to file out of office buildings and homes, struck 72 kilometers southwest of the coast of Lima, Peru's geophysical and civil defense institutes said. The geophysical institute initially reported the quake as having magnitude of 5.0 and later upgraded it to 5.4. There were no immediate reports of damages. (Reporting by Lima Newsroom; Editing by Dan Grebler and Andre Grenon) |
| Arabs mostly give Obama negative 2014 report card Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:21 PM PDT  Arabs believe the Obama administration has little commitment to a Palestinian state, should not intervene militarily in Syria and mostly failed to support Egypt's interim leaders, a new poll released Tuesday showed. Five years after President Barack Obama's landmark speech in Cairo aimed at re-setting ties with the Arab world, the poll revealed that while support for Obama, which had fallen in recent years, is on the rise again among most Arabs it still remains below an average of 50 percent. Zogby Research Services polled about 7,000 people across six nations as well as the Palestinian territories in May for its annual survey, focusing on some of the most pressing issues facing the Arab world in 2014, including the negotiations to rein in Iran's nuclear program, which most broadly supported. Just weeks after the latest US effort to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed, the poll found most Arabs "believe that the United States is not even-handed in its approach to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making."
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| President-elect to Egyptians: 'Time to work' Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:20 PM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's president-elect, the former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, told Egyptians it is now "time to work" to rebuild the economy after he was officially declared the landslide winner of last week's election, restoring a career military man to the country's top office.
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| Exclusive: Guinea-Bissau's ex-navy chief pleads guilty in U.S. drug case Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:19 PM PDT  By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's former navy chief, captured in a high-profile drug sting on the West African coast, has secretly pleaded guilty ahead of a trial on charges he conspired to import narcotics into the United States, court sources said on Tuesday. The trial of Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, 64, had been scheduled to begin on Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. But Na Tchuto, who U.S. authorities say is a kingpin of West Africa's illicit drug trade, pleaded guilty at a May 13 proceeding, the transcript of which was immediately sealed, the court sources said. Nor could it be determined what charges Na Tchuto pleaded guilty to or the terms of any deal he received. Sabrina Shroff, Na Tchuto's attorney, and representatives for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan and the Drug Enforcement Administration declined to comment on Tuesday when contacted by phone and email.
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| Turkey's polarising Erdogan headed for presidency Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:15 PM PDT  Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to announce his candidature for presidential elections in August despite deepening concern over his polarising rule. Already in his third term as prime minister -- the maximum permitted under his Justice and Development Party (AKP)'s rules -- Erdogan has made no secret of his ambition to run for president. Don't make me say it," deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc told journalists on Sunday. But while a few other names have circulated for the presidency -- including deputy prime ministers Ali Babacan and Besir Atalay, and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan -- all are Erdogan loyalists.
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| Iran's president vows to defend nuclear rights Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:09 PM PDT  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — On the eve of talks, Iran's moderate president said Tuesday that his administration will defend the Islamic Republic's nuclear rights and work to end international sanctions that have devastated its economy.
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| As civil war rages, Syrians vote for president Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:08 PM PDT  DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Against a backdrop of civil war, tens of thousands of Syrians voted in government-controlled cities and towns Tuesday to give President Bashar Assad a new seven-year mandate, with some even marking the ballots with their own blood.
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| Weakened Hamas cedes power to save face Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:07 PM PDT  Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Isolated in the region and facing a major economic crisis in Gaza, Hamas ceded power to gain breathing space and recuperate, and will remain in the background politically, analysts said. Gaza's Hamas government stepped down on Monday after a new unity government took oath in Ramallah, the first fruits of a surprise April deal between the Islamist movement and the Western-backed PLO, which is dominated by the rival Fatah faction. The resignation ends Hamas' seven-year tenure of political authority in the besieged Strip, an experience that ultimately weakened the movement. "Hamas gave in, either from a genuine desire for reconciliation or from a lack of options, and it still needs time to repair the damage sustained from being in power," said Adnan Abu Amer, politics professor at Gaza's Ummah University.
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| Queen's new state coach encapsulates British history Posted: 03 Jun 2014 03:06 PM PDT  Queen Elizabeth II rides to parliament on Wednesday in a brand new state coach that incorporates more than 100 priceless fragments from British history. Crafted in Australia over the course of a decade, the glittering Diamond Jubilee State Coach is only the second new horse-drawn state carriage to be built in more than 100 years. Covered in around 400 books of gold leaf, it contains timbers from king Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, and Isaac Newton's apple tree, which inspired him to form his theory of gravity. It will be drawn by six horses and will be used by the queen for the first time as she travels from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster for the state opening of parliament.
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