| Iceland's leader resigns, first casualty of Panama Papers Posted: 05 Apr 2016 02:03 PM PDT  By Kylie MacLellan and Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir LONDON/REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned on Tuesday, becoming the first casualty of leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm which have shone a spotlight on the offshore wealth of politicians and public figures worldwide. The Panama Papers showed the premier's wife owned an offshore company with big claims on Iceland's banks, a undeclared conflict of interest for Gunnlaugsson, infuriating many who hurled eggs and bananas in street protests calling for him to step down. The more than 11.5 million documents, leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, have caused public outrage over how the world's rich and powerful are able to stash their wealth and avoid taxes while many people suffer austerity and hardship.
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| North Korea can put nuclear warhead on mid-range missile: South Posted: 05 Apr 2016 10:54 AM PDT  By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea can mount a nuclear warhead on a medium-range missile, a South Korean official said on Tuesday in a new assessment of the capability of a country that conducted its fourth nuclear test this year. "We believe they have accomplished miniaturization of a nuclear warhead to mount it on a Rodong missile," said the South Korean official, who has knowledge of South Korea's assessment of the North's nuclear program.
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| Brazil justice orders impeachment process for VP Temer, heightens crisis Posted: 05 Apr 2016 02:56 PM PDT  By Alonso Soto and Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian Federal Supreme Court justice on Tuesday ordered Congress to start impeachment proceedings against Vice President Michel Temer, deepening a political crisis and uncertainty over leadership of Latin America's largest country. Justice Marco Aurelio Mello told the lower house to convene a special committee to consider the ouster of Temer over charges he helped doctor budget accounting as part of President Dilma Rousseff's administration. Another committee is already analyzing similar charges against Rousseff, a leftist who is scrambling for support to defeat an impeachment vote in the lower house as early as mid-April.
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| Rebels shoot down second Syrian jet in a month Posted: 05 Apr 2016 01:44 PM PDT  AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels shot down a second Syrian warplane in less than a month on Tuesday and a monitoring group said they captured its pilot in an area near Aleppo where heavy fighting has erupted in recent days despite a cessation of hostilities agreement. The Syrian army said the jet was shot down with an anti-aircraft missile, which have been long demanded by foreign-backed rebels against devastating aerial raids by Syrian and, since September, Russian forces. Rebels said the plane was downed with anti-aircraft guns.
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| Top U.S. official: Iran not gaining access to U.S. financial system Posted: 05 Apr 2016 01:32 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior State Department official reassured concerned lawmakers on Tuesday that the Obama administration is not planning to allow Iran access to the U.S. financial system or use of the U.S. dollar for transactions. "The rumors and news that have appeared in the press ... are not true," Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. U.S. lawmakers, mostly Republicans who opposed last year's Iran nuclear deal, have expressed deep concern about recent reports that the administration might let Iran use the dollar in some business transactions.
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| Al Qaeda branch confirms death of senior Syrian figure in U.S. strike Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:30 PM PDT Al Qaeda's North African branch has confirmed the death of a prominent leader of the network's Syrian affiliate, Abu Firas al-Suri, in a U.S. air strike in Syria on Sunday. A statement by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's (AQIM) media wing posted online late on Tuesday paid tribute to Abu Firas and said a U.S. air raid killed him. The statement, dated April 4, appeared to be the first public confirmation by al Qaeda. |
| Infantino 'dismayed' after name found in Panama Papers Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:35 PM PDT  Recently-elected FIFA president Gianni Infantino was "dismayed that his integrity was being doubted" in media reports about a contract he signed several years ago, the global soccer body said in a statement on Tuesday. The reports from multiple news organizations, citing leaked documents, said Infantino had signed off on a contract with two Argentine businessman, Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, who were later indicted in the United States. Reuters could not determine if the contract Infantino signed was related to the conduct underlying the indictments.
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| Stone Age humans brought deer to Scotland by sea: study Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:32 PM PDT  Stone Age humans populated the Scottish islands with red deer transported "considerable distances" by boat, said researchers Wednesday who admitted surprise at our prehistoric ancestors' seafaring prowess. DNA analysis revealed that deer on Scotland's northermost islands were unlikely to have come from the closest and seemingly most obvious places -- mainland Scotland, Ireland or Norway, said a study in the Royal Society journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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| Russia, China are greatest cyberthreats, but Iran is growing Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:50 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia and China present the greatest cyber security threat to the U.S., but Iran is trying to increase and spend more on its capabilities, the Navy admiral in charge of the military's Cyber Command told Congress Tuesday. |
| In refugee crisis, European cities seek clout, money, research shows Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:26 PM PDT  By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - With throngs of migrants journeying to Europe, the continent's city governments are defying tradition and seeking major roles in shaping national policy to reap more resources, a new survey has found. The shift comes as municipal governments and local authorities find themselves frustrated without legal mandates and enough funds to cope with the influx, according to the study conducted by EuroCities, a network of major European cities. In Austria, for instance, the Vienna Social Fund funded by the capital city set up a registration and identification card system to provide health services to migrants, the report said.
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| How a spy probe wound up as a child pornography prosecution Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:25 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — A Boeing company manager convicted of child pornography charges in December says he has a right to know what arguments the government used to obtain the warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
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| Pacquiao, Roach fondly recall 15 years at the Wild Card Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:16 PM PDT  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Manny Pacquiao was all kinds of hungry when he first walked into the Wild Card Boxing Club 15 years ago. An undernourished and largely unknown 118-pound champion wanted to learn, to grow — to take on the world.
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| Argentina: Businessman linked to ex-presidents arrested Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:16 PM PDT BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine businessman with close links to former Presidents Nestor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernandez has been arrested as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering. |
| Peruvians protest Fujimori's rule as daughter leads in polls Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:13 PM PDT LIMA, Peru (AP) — As they do every April 5, Peruvians joined in marches to recall the human rights abuses and corruption committed during the rule of now-imprisoned President Alberto Fujimori. |
| White House to transfer Ebola funds to combat Zika virus Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:13 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional officials say the Obama administration has decided to transfer leftover money from the largely successful fight against Ebola to combat the growing threat of the Zika virus.
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| Honduras suspends police brass linked to prosecutors' deaths Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:07 PM PDT TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras' president said Tuesday that the government would suspend several top police officials amid mounting evidence they conspired to kill the country's top anti-drug prosecutor and two other prosecution employees several years ago. |
| Panama Papers heap pressure on Nigeria Senate chief facing trial Posted: 05 Apr 2016 04:02 PM PDT  Embattled Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki on Tuesday brushed off allegations of wrongdoing concerning his wife's offshore assets revealed in the Panama Papers, as he went on trial in Abuja on fraud charges. The latest graft claim to hit the senate president emerged from the "Panama Papers" investigation into a trove of 11.5 million tax documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which specialises in creating offshore shell companies. Saraki is alleged to have failed to declare at least four offshore assets listed under his wife Toyin's name that appear in the leaked documents, according to the investigation's media partner Nigerian newspaper Premium Times.
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| Marler gets two-game ban for 'gypsy boy' remark Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:59 PM PDT  England's Joe Marler was given a two-game ban and fined £20,000 by a World Rugby misconduct hearing on Tuesday for calling Wales prop Samson Lee a "gypsy boy", the global governing body said. Harlequins front-row forward Marler was reprimanded by England coach Eddie Jones for his comment to Lee, who is from a traveller community background, during a 25-21 Six Nations win over Wales at Twickenham last month.
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| U.N. experts report cluster bombs, gold smuggling in Darfur Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:58 PM PDT By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations sanctions monitors confirmed in their latest report the recent presence of cluster munitions in Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region in violation of a U.N. arms embargo while rebel groups earned cash from illicit gold mining. The U.N. Security Council's Panel of Experts on Darfur said it had evidence Sudan's air force recently had RBK-500 cluster bombs at the weapon loading area at the Nyala Forward Operation Base. "Although Sudan is not a signatory to the Cluster Munition Convention, it has previously denied either possessing or using cluster munitions," the panel said in its report, seen by Reuters on Tuesday. |
| Masters mad scientist: Amateur's unusual clubs and swing Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:55 PM PDT  AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Bryson DeChambeau is the only golfer at the Masters with a set of irons that are all the same length. The last guy to try that was none other than Bobby Jones, the club's co-founder.
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| Less UN food aid reaching Syria's besieged towns Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:43 PM PDT  Fewer UN relief convoys are reaching starving civilians in Syria's besieged areas, prompting the United States on Tuesday to call for renewed pressure on the Damascus regime to allow access for aid deliveries. The UN Security Council heard during a closed-door meeting that food aid in March reached 21 percent of Syria's 500,000 people trapped in besieged areas, down from 25 percent in February. "We need the trend lines going in a much different direction," US Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters after the briefing.
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| Official: Numerous hurdles to concluding Haiti elections Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:28 PM PDT  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The head of Haiti's revamped electoral council said Tuesday that the nine-member body is facing numerous hurdles in concluding a troubled election cycle that began last year.
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| At least 17 killed in Monday's clashes in Congo capital: govt Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:27 PM PDT  At least seventeen people died Monday in fighting in Congo's capital Brazzaville, the government said, adding they had been killed in a "terror attack" and the subsequent "rapid intervention" by security forces. "Three members of the security forces, two civilians and 12 attackers" were killed in the unrest in the city's south, according to a "provisional toll" posted by government spokesman Thierry Moungalla on Twitter Tuesday. "Six members of the security forces were injured, as well as some civilians.
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| Parents of missing Nigeria schoolgirls hope 2 year event reminds world of their fate Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:27 PM PDT By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani ABUJA, Nigeria (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Nigerian officials gave permission on Tuesday for a memorial event at a school in northeast Nigeria from where Islamist rebels abducted 276 girls two years ago with parents hoping this would remind the world their daughters are still missing. The event, a prayer session integrating both Muslim and Christian faiths, will mark the second anniversary of the girls' abduction by Boko Haram militants from Chibok that provoked an international outcry and a viral campaign #bringbackourgirls. It will be held on April 14 - exactly two years since Boko Haram fighters stormed the Government Secondary School in Chibok in the middle of the night and kidnapped 276 girls. |
| England's rugby star Kruis cleared of biting charge Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:26 PM PDT  London (AFP) - England Grand Slam-winner George Kruis was cleared of a charge of biting an opponent by a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel on Tuesday.
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| Libya's self-declared National Salvation government stepping down Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:26 PM PDT  By Ahmed Elumami TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Tripoli's self-declared government said on Tuesday it was stepping down, just less than a week after the arrival in the Libyan capital of a U.N.-backed national unity government tasked with rebuilding the chaotic country. It was not clear if the written statement had the full support of all ministers in the self-declared National Salvation government. Western powers are counting on U.N.-backed leaders to tackle the threat from Islamic State militants exploiting Libya's anarchy, stem migration across the Mediterranean, and rescue the country's finances by restoring oil production.
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| Same again would suit low-key golfer Rose Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:24 PM PDT  Augusta (United States) (AFP) - Same again would do just fine for Justin Rose at this week's Masters tournament.
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| Mexico replaces top U.S. diplomats, citing hostile climate Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:19 PM PDT  Mexico's government on Tuesday unexpectedly changed two of its top officials responsible for U.S. relations, citing concerns about an increasingly anti-Mexican climate across the border. Carlos Sada, previously the consul in Los Angeles, was named ambassador to the United States while Paulo Carreno, one of President Enrique Pena Nieto's communications chiefs, was appointed the deputy foreign minister for North America. "We have been warning that our citizens have begun to feel a more hostile climate," Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu told local radio after the announcement.
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| Azerbaijan and Armenian forces agree truce in Nagorny Karabakh clashes Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:17 PM PDT  Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists in Nagorny Karabakh on Tuesday announced a ceasefire after four days of bloodshed, as international powers scrambled to end the worst violence in decades over the disputed region. The two sides said they had agreed to halt fighting from 0800 GMT after clashes since Friday left at least 73 people dead, but Armenia's defence ministry claimed there was still "sporadic shooting" going on. Key regional powerbroker Russian President Vladimir Putin called the leaders of ex-Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan after the ceasefire agreement and told them to "ensure" an end to the violence.
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| Ancient church unearthed on Gaza building site Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:14 PM PDT  Archaeologists have called for the preservation of an ancient church unearthed on a Gaza construction site, with different ministries in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave seemingly at loggerheads over its fate. The Gaza ministry of antiquities and a number of prominent archaeologists called for all building to be suspended until the relics can be protected and preserved. Hyam al-Betar, an archaeologist who works with the antiquities ministry, screamed at bulldozers to stop on Tuesday as they roughly moved marble columns from under the sand, breaking one.
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| Senator: Islamic State fight could become 'grinding failure' Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:10 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration's fight against the Islamic State is at risk of becoming a "grinding failure for our nation," an influential Republican senator said Tuesday, illustrating the mounting frustrations in Congress with the U.S. strategy to defeat the extremist group. |
| S.Africa's Zuma survives impeachment vote Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:09 PM PDT  South African President Jacob Zuma easily survived an impeachment vote Tuesday after a stormy session of parliament over a court ruling that he had violated the country's post-apartheid constitution. Lawmakers from Zuma's African National Congress (ANC) rallied to his defence, defeating the motion by 233 votes to 143 despite growing pressure for him to resign over the scandal. During the debate, Zuma was likened by the leader of the main opposition party to a "large and malignant tumour" on the ANC, which came to power in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela and the end of white-minority rule.
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| Fed set up fake university, arrest 21 in bogus visa case Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:09 PM PDT NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) — The University of Northern New Jersey fielded no sports teams, held no graduation ceremonies and had no instructors, classes or degree programs. It did have a very attractive website that promised an "exceptional" education for foreign students wishing to study in the U.S. |
| Syria rebel group downs warplane, captures pilot Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:08 PM PDT  A Syrian rebel group allied with Al-Qaeda said it had downed a warplane over northern Syria on Tuesday, with the pilot reportedly captured. In a statement on Twitter, Ahrar al-Sham, a hardline Islamist group that fights alongside Al-Qaeda's local affiliate, said it "shot down a warplane (over the town of Al-Eis) that was conducting airstrikes". Earlier, a rebel source had confirmed that a regime warplane had been shot down, but said it was likely by fighters from Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, Al-Nusra Front.
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| Rousseff seeks allies as Brazil impeachment vote looms Posted: 05 Apr 2016 03:06 PM PDT  Brasília (AFP) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday she would not reshuffle her cabinet until after a congressional impeachment vote as she fights for her political survival.
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| Erdogan proposes stripping Kurdish rebel backers of Turkish citizenship Posted: 05 Apr 2016 02:54 PM PDT  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday proposed stripping Turkish citizenship from supporters of Kurdish rebels waging a deadly insurgency against the security forces. The comments by Erdogan marked the latest escalation in his drive to crack down on dissent against the government's relentless operation to wipe out the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). "To prevent them from doing harm we must take all measures, including stripping supporters of the terrorist organisation of their citizenship," Erdogan said in a speech to lawyers in Ankara.
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| Yucatan archaeology races to keep up with development Posted: 05 Apr 2016 02:52 PM PDT  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican archaeologists said Tuesday they are racing to keep up with development on the Yucatan peninsula as suburbs of the colonial city of Merida swallow Maya settlements.
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| Exiled Napoleon's island home recreated in Paris exhibition Posted: 05 Apr 2016 02:52 PM PDT  PARIS (AP) — France's national army museum has recreated the home where Napoleon lived his final years, bringing furniture and belongings from the remote Atlantic Island of St. Helena to Paris for the first time since he was exiled there 200 years ago.
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