Political News
CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Saturday that Group of Eight leaders had "more work to do" when asked whether they had come to any decisions about how to approach the euro zone crisis. "So far so good. We've got more work to do," Obama said in response to a journalist's question while the G8 leaders posed for a picture at Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat in the Maryland countryside. (Reporting By Jeff Mason; Editing by Vicki Allen)
ATHENS/LONDON (Reuters) - In Athens, the homeless are on the streets in growing numbers, soup kitchens feed twice as many people as a year ago, and the poor are diving into garbage bins in search of scrap they can sell. Greece is close to breaking point as it struggles with austerity targets set by creditors, but this is just a foretaste of the nightmare of unrest, hunger and even anarchy that could engulf the debt-crippled nation if it is forced out of the euro. ...
LISBURN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - Seven Irish nationalists were remanded in custody in Northern Ireland on Saturday on terrorism charges, in one of the highest profile security roundups in the province in recent years. Four of the suspects, including a 37-year-old woman, were charged with attending a militant training camp and firing range near the town of Omagh. The other three were relatives of prominent Lurgan nationalist Colin Duffy, who was acquitted this year of charges related to an attack by militant group the Real IRA on the army's Massereene Barracks in Antrim three years ago. ...
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb blew up at a Syrian military post in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, killing nine people, an attack that Syria said was the latest proof that an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad is a foreign plot. The official SANA news agency said the blast had been the work of a suicide bomber, and had killed nine and wounded about 100, including guards, at what it called military installations. It said residences had been damaged. ...
President Barack Obama says the big trading loss at JPMorgan Chase shows the need to finally put in place banking rules he signed into law two years ago. He also is calling on Congress to stop trying to weaken the regulations.
ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - At least 22 al Qaeda-linked militants and 12 Yemeni soldiers were killed in clashes and air strikes overnight during a new U.S.-backed offensive against insurgents in the south of the country, officials said on Saturday. Fighting erupted late on Friday and carried on into Saturday on the outskirts of the southern city of Jaar, held by Islamist militants, who have stepped up their campaign during months of political turmoil. Government troops, backed by U.S. ...
For freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising GOP figure seen as a possible Mitt Romney running mate, there are questions about whether potential vulnerabilities in his personal and political background might hold him back.
For freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising GOP figure seen as a possible Mitt Romney running mate, there are questions about whether potential vulnerabilities in his personal and political background might hold him back.
KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated explosives in an Afghan district close to the border with Pakistan, killing at least 10 people including children, officials said on Saturday. The attack comes one day ahead of a NATO summit in Chicago, where the coalition intends to spell out its role in Afghanistan after foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014. "The bomber blew himself up in a crowded market and it was powerful," said Sardar Mohammad Zazai, police chief of eastern Khost province. ...
Minutes after President Barack Obama endorsed gay marriage on May 9, Colorado's Democratic governor choked back tears as he ordered state lawmakers to reconsider a civil-unions measure defeated the day before by Republicans.
Minutes after President Barack Obama endorsed gay marriage on May 9, Colorado's Democratic governor choked back tears as he ordered state lawmakers to reconsider a civil-unions measure defeated the day before by Republicans.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's central bank has received "a large amount" of hard currency from abroad and plans to use it to stabilize the pound following the local currency's effective devaluation, the deputy central bank governor said in remarks published on Saturday. Deputy governor Badr el-Din Mahmoud told al-Sudani newspaper the central bank had received the foreign currency from "friendly" countries. "It arrived in the treasury of the central bank in the past few days," he said, without elaborating. ...
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Greek President Karolos Papoulias what he thought of the idea of holding a referendum on Greek membership in the euro but did not push it, a journalist who said he overheard their conversation wrote on Saturday. A Greek government spokesman said Merkel raised the idea in a telephone call on Friday but Berlin swiftly denied that. The incident reignited anti-Merkel sentiment in debt-laden Greece where many accuse the German leader of exacerbating the crisis by being slow to act and then demanding austerity measures that are too tough. ...
Conservative Christian groups in the Philippines on Saturday marched near a shopping mall to demand the cancellation of Lady Gaga's two concerts next week, saying her songs carried "demonic" undertones. The protests in the heavily Catholic Philippines followed a decision this week by authorities in Indonesia, a secular state but with the world's largest Muslim population, to refuse her a permit to perform in Jakarta next month. ...
President Barack Obama says the big trading loss at JPMorgan Chase shows the need to finally put in place banking rules he signed into law two years ago. He also is calling on Congress to stop trying to weaken the regulations.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates urged their citizens to stay away from Lebanon, citing security concerns in a country where fighting prompted by sectarian tensions in neighboring Syria has unsettled areas near a northern port. The three Gulf states' Foreign Ministries urged all those already in Lebanon - a favorite destination for wealthy Gulf tourists - to leave because of the "security situation" in the country, the official news agencies BNA, QNA and WAM reported. Heavy fighting has rocked Lebanon's northern port of Tripoli in the past week. ...
CAMP DAVID, Maryland (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday leaders of the Group of Eight major economies are committed to continuing the current approach of sanctions, pressure and diplomatic discussions with Iran over its nuclear program. "All of us are firmly committed to continuing with the approach of sanctions and pressure in combination with diplomatic discussions," he told reporters at the G8 meeting at the presidential retreat in Camp David. ...
BEIJING (Reuters) - China allowed a blind legal activist, Chen Guangcheng, to leave a hospital in Beijing on Saturday and board a plane bound for the United States, a move that could signal the end of a diplomatic standoff between the two countries. Chen's escape from house arrest in northeastern China last month and subsequent stay in the U.S. embassy caused huge embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic rift while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Beijing for talks to improve ties between the world's two biggest economies. The U.S. ...
LONDON (Reuters) - The message the euro zone is sending Greece ahead of its June election is there is a chance it could be forced out of the single currency union and that it could happen quickly if necessary, the finance minister of euro member Slovenia said on Saturday. This month's inconclusive election in the debt-stricken Mediterranean state has forced a second vote to be scheduled for June 17 and many feel the outcome could dictate the future shape of the bloc. Janez Sustersic told Reuters the final decision would be up to Greek voters but a euro exit was a real option. ...
CAMP ROUND MEADOW, Maryland (Reuters) - Leaders of the Group of Eight major economies are making progress on addressing the two biggest threats to their economies - the euro zone crisis and very high oil prices, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Saturday. After an early morning bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Cameron said he detected a "growing sense of urgency that action needs to be taken" on the euro zone crisis. ...
Are Republican lawmakers deliberately stalling the economic recovery to hurt President Barack Obama's re-election chances? Some top Democrats say yes, pointing to GOP stances on the debt limit and other issues that they claim are causing unnecessary economic anxiety and retarding growth.
Are Republican lawmakers deliberately stalling the economic recovery to hurt President Barack Obama's re-election chances? Some top Democrats say yes, pointing to GOP stances on the debt limit and other issues that they claim are causing unnecessary economic anxiety and retarding growth.
For freshman Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising GOP figure seen as a possible Mitt Romney running mate, there are questions about whether potential vulnerabilities in his personal and political background might hold him back.
BRINDISI, Italy (Reuters) - A bomb exploded in front of a girls' school in southern Italy on Saturday, killing a 16-year-old girl and wounding seven others, suspicion quickly falling on the local Mafia. The explosion, near the entrance of a school named after the wife of murdered anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, occurred as girls were arriving for the start of the school day, which in Italy includes Saturdays. ...
CANNES (Reuters) - The Cannes film festival took time out from the movies to raise money for Haiti on Friday night, with Sean Penn at the helm pleading the humanitarian cause at a celebrity gala. "Okay, room. Haiti is watching us tonight like you cannot believe," Penn told the black-tie crowd who had paid up to $100,000 for a table at the "Carnival in Cannes", just steps from the famous red carpet. ...
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, in the United States for a Group of Eight summit, said the government was determined to fight crime and prevent a return to the country's "subversive tendencies" after a school bombing killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded at least seven others. Monti, in a written statement, said the government would fight "all types of crime" and that it would seek to prevent a return to Italy's violent and "subversive" past, marked by Mafia car bombings and politically motivated murders. ...
LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch has denied reports that News Corp is considering spinning off its British newspapers to protect the rest of his media empire from a phone hacking scandal. The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times newspapers said executives at the company were looking into ways to split off the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, published by its News International unit. ...
President Barack Obama says the big trading loss at JPMorgan Chase shows the need for Congress to put more teeth into Wall Street reforms intended to prevent the practices that led to the 2008 financial meltdown.
ORLANDO, Fla. — With the two major-party presidential nominees this year all but certain, pollsters gathered in a hotel conference room here on the third day of the American Association for Public Opinion Research's annual symposium with a colorful yet pointed message for their peers, the news media, and consumers of political news: Don't pay so much attention to the horse-race polls that dominate coverage of the campaign.
ORLANDO, Fla. — With the two major-party presidential nominees this year all but certain, pollsters gathered in a hotel conference room here on the third day of the American Association for Public Opinion Research's annual symposium with a colorful yet pointed message for their peers, the news media, and consumers of political news: Don't pay so much attention to the horse-race polls that dominate coverage of the campaign.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian soldiers beat and tortured protesters they had arrested at a demonstration near the Defence Ministry this month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Saturday, citing victims and lawyers. The New York-based group said soldiers arrested at least 350 protesters, including 10 children and 16 women, on May 4 amid violence over a sit-in begun a week earlier in protest at the exclusion from Egypt's presidential race of Hazem Abu Ismail. ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Friday it believes China spent up to $180 billion on its military buildup last year, a far higher figure than acknowledged by Beijing, and it accused "Chinese actors" of being the world's biggest perpetrators of economic espionage. China rejected the report as irresponsible, saying the United States was spreading a "China military threat" theory. ...
LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch has denied reports that News Corp is considering spinning off its British newspapers to protect the rest of his media empire from a phone hacking scandal. The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times newspapers said executives at the company were looking into ways to split off the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, published by its News International unit. ...
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