Thursday, January 10, 2013

Analysis: Modi's Gujarat growth model might not work across India

Analysis: Modi's Gujarat growth model might not work across India

Analysis: Modi's Gujarat growth model might not work across India

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 10:44 PM PST

Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, attends meeting of 57th National Development Council in New DelhiSURAT, India (Reuters) - Turning a single Indian state with a long tradition of entrepreneurship and a solid political majority into an investor-friendly economic powerhouse is one thing. Replicating that experience across a diverse country of 1.2 billion would be a tougher prospect for Narendra Modi, whose leadership of booming Gujarat state has led to his being touted as a potential candidate to become India's next prime minister. ...

Censors kept busy as strike-hit Chinese paper hits newsstands

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:24 AM PST

Demonstrators hold banners, portraits of China's late Chairman Mao Zedong, and Chinese national flags next to policemen outside the headquarters of Southern Weekly newspaper in GuangzhouGUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - A weekly Chinese newspaper at the centre of anti-censorship protests appeared on newsstands on Thursday as a newsroom strike ended amid fresh calls for the Communist Party leadership to loosen its grip on the media. The strike at the Southern Weekly in affluent Guangdong province came after censors watered down a page-two editorial in the New Year edition. Calls for China to enshrine constitutional rights were replaced with comments praising one-party rule. ...

Japan's Abe to visit Southeast Asia to boost economic ties

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:11 PM PST

Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends a news conference at his official residence in TokyoTOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's first overseas trip will see him visit Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand in January, aiming to bolster ties with the growing Asian economies as relations with Beijing stay tense. Abe had hoped to first visit Washington in order to strengthen Japan's alliance with the United States, but the visit was postponed due to President Barack Obama's tight schedule, Japan's top government spokesman said on Thursday. ...

Venezuela's sick Chavez misses own inauguration bash

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 10:13 PM PST

A woman walks past a mural depicting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in CaracasCARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez remained on his sickbed in Cuba on Thursday while supporters planned to rally in his honor on the day he should have been sworn in for a new six-year term in the South American OPEC nation. The postponement of the inauguration, a first in Venezuelan history, has laid bare the gravity of Chavez's condition after complications from a fourth cancer operation in his pelvic area. ...

Three Kurdish women found shot dead in Paris: police

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:27 AM PST

PARIS (Reuters) - Three Kurdish women said to include a founding member of the PKK militant group were shot dead overnight in Paris in killings that appeared politically motivated, police and other sources said on Thursday. The bodies of the women were found early on Thursday at the Information Centre of Kurdistan in the city centre, a police source said. An employee of the centre, which has close links to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), told French broadcaster i

KFC's parent apologizes to China customers over handling of food scare

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 11:45 PM PST

A woman walks past a KFC restaurant as a logo of McDonald is reflected on a door window, in WuhanSHANGHAI (Reuters) - Fast-food chain KFC's parent Yum Brands Inc apologized to customers in China over its handling of a recent food scare that has hit the company's sales in its biggest market. "We regret shortcomings in our self-checking process, a lack of internal communication," Su Jingshi, chairman and chief executive of Yum China, wrote on the company's Weibo microblog. ...

Cyprus seeks solidarity, not special treatment on bailout

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:39 AM PST

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus branded itself on Thursday a victim of Greek debt restructuring and said it anticipated solidarity from its EU partners as it struggles to clinch an international bailout. Last June, the island became the fourth euro zone state to apply for a financial rescue from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund after its banks suffered huge losses on the EU-approved writedown on Greece's debt. Aid talks for Cyprus have been complicated by concerns over debt sustainability because of the size of the potential bailout bill. ...

Bill Richardson says didn't meet detained American on North Korea trip

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:03 AM PST

Former New Mexico Governor Richardson and Google Executive Chairman Schmidt visit the Korean Computer Center in PyongyangBEIJING (Reuters) - Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt failed to secure the release of a Korean-American held in North Korea during a controversial trip to the secretive state that ended on Thursday. Richardson told a media briefing at Beijing's airport he was unable to meet Korean-American Kenneth Bae, a 44-year-old tourist who was detained late last year and has been charged with unspecified crimes against the state. Richardson said he was told that judicial proceedings against Bae would start soon, although he gave no details. ...

African Anglicans denounce Church of England gay bishop rule

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 01:15 AM PST

A cross is seen during a Catholic mass in favour of the traditional family unit in central MadridPARIS (Reuters) - Senior African Anglican leaders have lined up to denounce the Church of England's decision to allow celibate gay bishops, warning it would only widen the divisions within the worldwide Anglican Communion. Archbishop Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria, effectively the largest province in the Communion, said such reforms "could very well shatter whatever hopes we had for healing and reconciliation within our beloved Communion. ...

Freed Iranians arrive in Damascus after prisoner swap

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 07:15 AM PST

DAMASCUS/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Forty-eight Iranians freed by Syrian rebels in exchange for more than 2,000 civilian prisoners held by the Syrian government arrived in central Damascus on Wednesday, a Reuters witness reported. The Syrian government has not referred to the prisoner swap and the whereabouts of the civilian prisoners was not immediately known. Opposition groups accuse it of detaining tens of thousands of political prisoners during his 12 years in office and say those numbers have spiked sharply during the 21-month-old civil war. ...

Lawyer: 3 Delhi rape suspects to plead not guilty

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 10:54 PM PST

NEW DELHI (AP) — Three of the suspects in the brutal rape and killing of a young woman on a New Delhi bus will plead not guilty, their lawyer said Thursday, hinting that police had tampered with evidence in the attack that has transfixed India.

Google's Schmidt urges Internet openness in NKorea

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:29 AM PST

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, center, and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richards, right, brief journalists after they arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport from Pyongyang, in Beijing Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. Schmidt is urging North Korea to shed its self-imposed isolation and allow its citizens to use the Internet or risk being left behind economically. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)BEIJING (AP) — Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Thursday it's up to North Korea to shed its self-imposed isolation and allow its citizens to use the Internet and connect with the outside world, or risk remaining way behind other countries.

Offshore account dispute snarls top French taxman

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:07 AM PST

France's Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac, reacts to journalists questions, as he leaves the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. The Paris prosecutors office says it is opening a preliminary investigation into allegations that France's budget minister hid money from French tax authorities in offshore accounts. A statement Tuesday from the prosecutors office said it also intends to open a probe for defamation based on a complaint over the allegations filed by Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)PARIS (AP) — The man at the forefront of France's fight against fiscal fraud is now one of those being investigated.

Lowered UK flag sparks Protestant fury in Belfast

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:09 AM PST

ADDS DATE - Loyalists set up burning barricades on the Newtownards Road in Belfast, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013, a month after the City Council decided to fly the union flag on designated days only. Protesters have been out in force — with sometimes violent results — since a Dec. 3 decision by Belfast City Council to stop flying the British flag year-round. Such issues of symbolism frequently inflame sectarian passions in Northern Ireland, where Protestants mainly want to stay in the United Kingdom and Catholics want to unite with the Republic of Ireland. (AP Photo/PA, Paul Faith) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday January 7, 2013. See PA story ULSTER Protests. Photo credit should read: Paul Faith/PA WireBELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — At Belfast City Hall, the flagpole is bare — and the streets are filled with nighttime fear and fury.

Officials: Possible 5th killing by Mexico dog pack

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 03:03 PM PST

One of the dogs that was caught near the site of four fatal maulings sits inside a cage at a city dog pound in Mexico City, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. Authorities have captured dozens of dogs near the scene of the attacks in the capital's poor Iztapalapa district, but rather than calm residents, photos of the forlorn dogs brought a wave of sympathy for the animals, doubts about their involvement in the killings and debate about government handling of the stray dog problem. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)MEXICO CITY (AP) — A 15-year-old girl found fatally bitten by dogs outside a Mexico City park in mid-December may have been the first victim of a feral pack suspected of killing at least four other people over the last month, prosecutors said Wednesday.

China newspaper publishes after deal ends standoff

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:46 PM PST

A supporter of Southern Weekly newspaper in a wheelchair stages a protest outside the headquarters of the newspaper in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. Communist Party-backed management and rebellious editors at the influential weekly newspaper have defused a high-profile standoff over censorship that turned into a test of the new Chinese leadership's tolerance for political reform. The banners read "Support Southern Weekly, Protest against intervention on media, Defend press freedom." (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — An influential weekly newspaper whose staff rebelled to protest heavy-handed censorship by China's government officials published as normal Thursday after a compromise that called for relaxing some intrusive controls but left lingering ill-will among some reporters and editors.

Indonesia to add photo warnings to cigarette packs

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:14 AM PST

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia has issued regulations that will require cigarette packets to bear graphic photographic warnings, a long-delayed measure in a country with one of the highest rates of smoking in the world.

Iraqi officials say car bomb near bus stop kills 5

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 11:14 PM PST

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi police say a car bomb explosion near a bus stop has killed five people and wounded 15 others in the capital, Baghdad.

US missiles kill 5 suspected militants in Pakistan

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 01:14 AM PST

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — U.S. drone-fired missiles hit a house in Pakistan's northwest tribal region Thursday, killing five suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. It was the seventh such attack in less than two weeks.

Storm leaves Gaza man dead, Jerusalem snowed in

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 11:03 PM PST

A Palestinian rescue worker helps a boy cross a flooded street in Rafah southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. In Gaza, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said storms have cut electricity powering thousands of homes and rescuers were sent to evacuate dozens of people. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)JERUSALEM (AP) — A Gaza health official says a Palestinian man was electrocuted after being struck by a power cable snapped loose by ferocious winter winds, while a rare snowstorm paralyzed traffic in Jerusalem, its suburbs and the nearby West Bank.

Europe's recession puts Italian women's workplace gains on ice

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 01:50 PM PST

When Greta Lauri was in college, she thought that by playing by the rules she could achieve what she considered a normal life: a family and a fulfilling job using her degree in foreign languages.

Interest in Jordan's parliamentary elections goes up in smoke

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 01:30 PM PST

Jordan is less than two weeks away from a parliamentary election, but the vote has been overshadowed by the government's recent fuel price hikes and decision to lower cigarette prices.

China says it will end prison labor camps. Will there be real reform?

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:06 AM PST

China appears poised to end an inglorious history of labor camps, and the practice of "re-education through labor."

Is the postponement of Chávez's inauguration in Venezuela legal?

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 08:41 AM PST

Hugo Chávez won a fourth term as president of Venezuela in October, and tomorrow, Jan. 10, was his scheduled inauguration. But the leader, who has been in office since 1999, is unable to appear before the nation to assume office. He has been in Cuba since his December cancer surgery there, and is facing a recovery deemed "complicated" by his government. Venezuela has been thrown into uncertainty as government allies and opposition figures face off over who should become president on Thursday, what the Constitution dictates, and what is against the law.

Japan to boost military budget amid regional tensions

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 06:14 AM PST

Japan's Defense Ministry will request a second boost to its military budget, according to reports, just a day after the government announced the first Defense budget increase in 10 years. The boosts, although relatively modest compared with Japan's overall defense spending, coincide with increasing tensions in the Asia Pacific region.

The 'Brotherhoodization' of Egypt and its unions

Posted: 09 Jan 2013 06:03 AM PST

Issandr El Amrani, the main writer behind The Arabist, has been posting occasional links and thoughts on the Brotherhoodization of Egyptian institutions, real and imagined, since the election of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi as president.
Posted by Harshad at 1:36 AM

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