Saturday, January 12, 2013

Yahoo! News: Politics News

Yahoo! News: Politics News

Sandy relief package swells aid for past disasters

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 08:11 AM PST

FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2013, file photo, an unsafe for human occupancy sticker is attached to a home that was severely damaged by Superstorm Sandy in Bay Head, N.J. Conservatives and watchdog groups are mounting a "not-so-fast" campaign against a $50.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package that Northeastern governors and lawmakers hope to push through the House the week of Jan. 14, 2013. Their complaint is that lots of that money actually will go toward recovery efforts for past disasters and other projects unrelated to the late-October storm. The measure bill includes $150 million for what the Commerce Department described as fisheries disasters in Alaska, Mississippi and the Northeast, and $50 million in subsidies for replanting trees on private land damaged by wildfires. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservatives and watchdog groups are mounting a "not-so-fast" campaign against a $50.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package that Northeastern governors and lawmakers hope to push through the House this coming week.

Obama: US war in Afghanistan winding down

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 04:41 AM PST

President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrive for their joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)WASHINGTON (AP) — With the war in Afghanistan winding down after 11 years, President Barack Obama says the time is right for U.S. forces to let Afghans do their own fighting.

AP Interview: George P. Bush weighing run in Texas

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 12:24 AM PST

FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, file photo George P. Bush, right, stands with his uncle former President George W. Bush, left, during the Bush Center Warrior Open in Irving, Texas. George P. Bush, the 36-year-old attorney from Fort Worth and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has taken steps toward seeking elected office in Texas, and his father has said his son is considering a run for the state's land commissioner. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — George Prescott Bush is gearing up to run for a little-known but powerful office in a state where his family already is a political dynasty and where his Hispanic roots could help extend a stranglehold on power Republicans have enjoyed for two decades.

White House Denies Call for Trillion-Dollar Coin to Avoid Debt Ceiling

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 03:27 PM PST

The Obama administration has killed any notion of minting trillion-dollar platinum coins to solve the nation's debt ceiling woes. In a written statement released today, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says there are only "two options" to deal with the looming need for the...

Treasury, Fed kill idea of $1 trillion platinum coins to avert debt crisis

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 03:09 PM PST

The U.S. Treasury building is seen in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - So much for the $1 trillion platinum coin idea. The U.S. Treasury Department said on Saturday it will not produce platinum coins as a way of generating $1 trillion in revenue and avoiding a battle in Congress over raising the U.S. debt ceiling. The idea of creating $1 trillion by minting platinum coins has gained some currency among Democrats in recent days as a way of sidestepping congressional Republicans who are threatening to reject a necessary increase in the debt ceiling unless deep spending cuts are made. ...

Several hundred thousand due in Paris to protest gay marriage

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 03:08 PM PST

French humorist and TV host Frigide Barjot attends a news conference in ParisPARIS (Reuters) - Several hundred thousand people are expected to march through Paris on Sunday against the planned legalization of same-sex marriage in the first mass protest against the unpopular President Francois Hollande. Strongly backed by the Catholic hierarchy, lay activists have mobilized a hybrid coalition of church-going families, political conservatives, Muslims, evangelicals and even homosexuals opposed to gay marriage for the show of force. ...

Northern Ireland police injured in sectarian clashes

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 03:06 PM PST

Police officers in riot gear look on as a hijacked car burns during rioting in East BelfastBELFAST (Reuters) - At least 29 police officers were injured when pro-British and Irish nationalist youths clashed in the Northern Irish capital on Saturday following another protest against the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall. Rioting started as the mainly Protestant protesters passed a Catholic area on their way home from a rally in central Belfast against the flag's removal. Police scrambled to separate crowds of youths who pelted each other with bricks and bottles. ...

Treasury: Trillion-dollar coin would not be legal

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 03:05 PM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Forget about the government minting a $1 trillion coin to solve its debt-limit crisis.

France bombs Mali rebels, African states ready troops

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 03:01 PM PST

A still image from video released by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) shows French Mirage 3000 aircrafts in flightBAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - French aircraft pounded Islamist rebels in Mali for a second day on Saturday and neighboring West African states sped up their plans to deploy troops in an international campaign to prevent groups linked to al Qaeda expanding their power base. France, warning that the control of northern Mali by the militants posed a security threat to Europe, intervened dramatically on Friday as heavily armed Islamist fighters swept southwards towards Mali's capital Bamako. ...

White House nixes idea for trillion-dollar coin

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 02:40 PM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has ruled out minting a coin worth $1 trillion to pay the government's bills and avoid a nasty battle with Congress over the debt ceiling.

Italian consul in Benghazi shot at in car but unhurt

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 02:35 PM PST

Gun shots are seen on the windows of the Italian consul's car after it was shot by unknown assailants in BenghaziBENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - An Italian consul came under fire in his car in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Saturday but was unhurt, Italy said, four months after the U.S. ambassador was killed in an attack on the U.S. mission in the city. A spokesman for the Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack on Guido De Sanctis, Italy's Benghazi consul since 2011, and said he was unhurt. A security source in Libya who declined to be named told Reuters: "They shot at his car, but the car was armored. He is fine, there are no injuries. ...

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez not in coma, brother says

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 02:30 PM PST

A supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez holds up a picture of him during the inauguration of the National Assembly in CaracasCARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's cancer-stricken president, Hugo Chavez, is recovering in Cuba and is not in a coma as some have rumored a month after surgery, his brother, Adan Chavez, said after a visit to Havana. The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen or heard from since his December 11 cancer surgery - his fourth such operation after the disease was detected in his pelvic area in mid-2011 - leaving Venezuela in a state of suspense. ...

Petrol bombs thrown at protesters outside Egypt president's palace

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 02:21 PM PST

CAIRO (Reuters) - Unknown attackers threw petrol bombs at tents housing protesters outside the Egyptian presidential palace in Cairo on Saturday and fired rubber bullets at security forces, injuring at least 15 people, officials and witnesses said. Four tents were burnt in the attacks, injuring several protesters. One police officer and six soldiers, deployed to the scene to arrest the attackers, were wounded by rubber bullets, according to the interior ministry. The health ministry said a total of 15 people were injured. ...

Haiti remembers 2010 earthquake in subdued ceremony

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 02:19 PM PST

Haiti's President Martelly, former U.S. president Clinton and Haiti's First Lady Martelly visit a memorial service remembering lives lost in the January 2010 earthquake at the mass burial site at Morne St. ChristophePORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton flew to Haiti on Saturday to join the country's president, Michel Martelly, at an official commemoration of the third anniversary of the earthquake that destroyed much of the capital, killing more than 250,000 people. The simple, wreath-laying memorial was held at a mass burial site on a barren hillside at the outskirts of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, where neither Clinton, the U.N.'s Special Envoy for Haiti, nor Martelly made a speech. ...

Obama's 2nd inauguration smaller, yet still grand

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 02:14 PM PST

FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2009, file photo, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dance at the Commander in Chief Inaugural Ball at the National Building Museum in Washington. Obama's second inauguration is shaping up as a high-energy celebration smaller than his first milestone swearing-in, yet still designed to mark his unprecedented role in American history with plenty of eye-catching glamour. A long list of celebrity performers will give the once-every-four years right of democratic passage the air of a star-studded concert, from the bunting-draped Capitol's west front of the Capitol, where Obama takes the oath Jan. 21, to the Washington Convention Center, which is expected to be packed with 40,000 ball-goers that evening. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's second inauguration is shaping up as a high-energy celebration smaller than his first milestone swearing-in, yet still designed to mark his unprecedented role in American history with plenty of eye-catching glamour.

Key witness in Berlusconi sex trial to testify on Monday

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 01:40 PM PST

A combo shows file photos of Karima El Mahroug of Morocco posing in Milan, and Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi waving in BrusselsMILAN (Reuters) - The nightclub dancer who is the main witness in the sex trial of Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is to testify on Monday, her lawyer said on Saturday. Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name "Ruby the Heartstealer", was due to testify in the Milan court in December but failed to show up, telling her lawyer she was on holiday in Mexico. "Karima will be present in the courtroom on Monday," her lawyer Paola Boccardi told Reuters, adding that Mahroug had returned to Italy on Friday. ...

Businessman in fraud case ties Utah AG to scheme

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 01:29 PM PST

FILE -This undated file photo provided by the Davis County Jail, shows Jeremy Johnson, a Utah businessman accused of running a $350 million fraud scheme through his company is planning changing his plea Friday Jan. 11, 2013. Federal prosecutors have charged Johnson with one count of mail fraud in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, and if convicted he faces up to 20 years in prison. (AP Photo/ Davis County Jail, File)SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah businessman accused of running a fraudulent $350 million software scheme says the state attorney general arranged a deal to pay Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to make a federal investigation into the software business disappear.

Internet activist, programmer Aaron Swartz dead at 26

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 01:19 PM PST

(Reuters) - Internet activist and computer prodigy Aaron Swartz, who helped create an early version of the Web feed system RSS and later played a key role in stopping an online piracy bill in Congress, has committed suicide at age 26, authorities said on Saturday. Police found Swartz's body hanging in his Brooklyn apartment on Friday, according to the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, which ruled the death a suicide. Swartz is widely credited with being a co-author of the specifications for the Web feed format RSS 1. ...

Azerbaijan police break up protest against violence in army

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 01:04 PM PST

BAKU (Reuters) - Police in Azerbaijan detained several young opposition activists on Saturday who protested in Baku against violence in the military, the first such demonstration in the oil-rich country. Western governments and human rights groups accuse President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father in 2003, of rigging elections and of clamping down on dissent. Protests are often swiftly broken up by security forces. Saturday's protest was triggered by the sudden death of a soldier, Jeyhun Gubadov, on January 7 at a military barracks. ...

Shifting landscape as Brown mulls Mass. Senate run

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 01:04 PM PST

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2012, file photo, then-Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., pumps his fist during his re-election campaign kick-off in Worcester, Mass., in this Jan. 19, 2012 file photo. Three years ago, Brown was a little-known Republican state senator from Massachusetts who shocked Democrats by winning a U.S. Senate seat. Now, having compiled a voting record more moderate than his tea party allies would have liked and losing his bid for a full term, Brown is considering whether to seize a second chance to return to the Senate in another special election. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)BOSTON (AP) — Scott Brown was a little-known Republican state senator who shocked Massachusetts Democrats three years ago by winning a U.S. Senate seat in a special election that became a national rallying cry for the nascent tea party movement.

Israeli troops kill Palestinian trying to cross barrier

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 12:44 PM PST

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian who was trying to cross a security barrier to enter Israel from the occupied West Bank on Saturday. Odai al Darawish, 21, was trying to cross into Israel to find work, his family said. He was taken to a hospital in Israel where he was pronounced dead, they said. An Israeli military spokesman said soldiers had opened fire when they saw a man trying to cross the barrier in an area south of the West Bank city of Hebron. "The soldiers followed the rules of engagement and fired towards his legs," the spokesman said. ...

Pakistan Taliban say they won't attack army in key area

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 11:48 AM PST

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban said on Saturday they would cease their occasional attacks on the Pakistani army in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan and concentrate attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan instead - an announcement possibly designed to head off divisions in the insurgency. The ceasefire does not apply to the rest of the country, where there are often fierce clashes between the Taliban and security services. Thousands of Pakistani soldiers are stationed in North Waziristan, a tribal region along the Afghan border. ...

Russia rejects Assad exit as precondition for Syria deal

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 11:41 AM PST

Smoke rises after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad at Deir Al-ZorMOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia voiced support on Saturday for international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi but insisted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the country's conflict. Some 60,000 Syrians have been killed during the 21-month-old revolt and world powers are divided over how to stop the escalating bloodshed. Government aircraft bombed outer districts of Damascus on Saturday after being grounded for a week by stormy weather, opposition activists in the capital said. ...

Former PM to square off with prince for Czech presidency

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 11:38 AM PST

Front runner presidential candidate Milos Zeman speaks to the media in his team's headquarters in PraguePRAGUE (Reuters) - Former leftist Prime Minister Milos Zeman narrowly won the first round of the Czech Republic's presidential election on Saturday but will face a strong challenge from the country's aristocratic foreign minister in a run-off round. Whoever wins is likely to take the country of 10.5 million people closer to the European mainstream after a decade in which the outgoing Euro-skeptic President Vaclav Klaus sniped at Brussels, making the Czechs an outlier in the European Union. ...

Libya, Algeria and Tunisia to step up border security

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 11:21 AM PST

GHADAMES, Libya (Reuters) - The prime ministers of Libya, Algeria and Tunisia agreed on Saturday to enhance security along their common borders in an attempt to fight the flow of arms and drugs and organized crime in the politically turbulent region. Meeting in the western Libyan border town of Ghadames, Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and his Algerian and Tunisian counterparts said measures would include setting up joint checkpoints and patrols along the frontiers, which stretch for thousands of kilometers (miles) through mostly sparsely-populated desert. ...

Slovenian coalition party asks premier to resign

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 11:02 AM PST

Protesters hold candles during anti-austerity and anti-graft protests in LjubljanaLJUBLJANA (Reuters) - A junior coalition party threatened on Saturday to quit the conservative government of financially troubled Slovenia unless Prime Minister Janez Jansa resigned over corruption allegations. The small European Union member has been in political crisis since Tuesday when an anti-corruption commission said Jansa was unable to explain the origin of some of his income. Jansa denied the income was of suspicious origin and retains strong support within his center-right Slovenian Democratic Party. But smaller coalition partners said they were considering quitting the government. ...

Israel seeks to remove Palestinian tent outpost in West Bank

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:56 AM PST

Palestinians, together with Israeli and foreign activists, stand near newly-erected tents in an area known as E1, near JerusalemE1, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday he was seeking court approval to remove an outpost of Palestinian tents pitched in an area of the occupied West Bank that Israel has earmarked for a new settlement. Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Palestinian outpost, built in the geographically sensitive area known as E1, could remain for six days while the issue of its removal was being discussed. ...

Turkey wants France to explain contacts with Kurd leader

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:53 AM PST

ISTANBUL/PARIS (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan demanded on Saturday that French President Francois Hollande explain why he had met one of three Kurdish militants shot dead in Paris this week. Kurdish activists blamed the execution-style killings at an institute in central Paris on Thursday on shadowy elements from the Turkish state or foreign powers. Turkey pointed to possible infighting in the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). ...

Israeli Shas party rabbi taken ill days before election

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:43 AM PST

Passengers ride a bus with campaign advertisement and reflection of Netanyahu poster near Tel AvivJERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli rabbi who is the spiritual head of a powerful ultra-Orthodox political party was taken to hospital with a suspected minor stroke on Saturday, 10 days before a general election. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who has largely set the terms under which his Shas party has agreed to join a succession of governments, was taken to Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital by ambulance after feeling weak during sabbath prayers. A hospital spokesman said Yosef, 92, was in stable condition, but would be kept in for a few days since he might have suffered a minor stroke. ...

France to pursue Mali mission, raise domestic security

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:20 AM PST

PARIS (Reuters) - France will pursue operations in Mali to prepare a subsequent African-led intervention to oust Islamist rebels and will step up anti-terrorist security measures on its own territory, President Francois Hollande said on Saturday. As French aircraft pounded rebel fighters for a second day, Hollande said he had given instructions that the several hundred French troops sent to Mali must keep their actions strictly limited to supporting a West African ECOWAS operation. "We have already held back the progress of our adversaries and inflicted heavy losses on them. ...

BofA director settlement over Merrill triples to $62.5 million: source

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:08 AM PST

The logo of the Bank of America is pictured atop the Bank of America building in downtown Los Angeles(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp directors have reached a $62.5 million settlement to resolve investor claims over the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co, a person familiar with the matter said, after a federal judge expressed reservations about an earlier version of the accord. U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan on Friday agreed to increase the size of the settlement from $20 million, the person said. This came after Castel had indicated in a January 4 order that he had yet to be persuaded of the fairness of the settlement, which also includes governance reforms. ...

Central African Republic dissolves government after peace deal

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:08 AM PST

BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic President Francois Bozize dismissed his prime minister and dissolved the cabinet on Saturday, clearing the way for the nomination of a national unity government in line with a peace accord signed with rebels. The government and the Seleka rebels, who swept to within striking distance of the capital Bangui last month, agreed to the creation of the transitional government at the end of talks in Gabon's capital Libreville on Friday. "The head of state ... ...

Pakistan Shi'ites watch over 96 bomb dead for second night

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:07 AM PST

Members of the Hazara community and various NGOs sit-in during a protest against last Thursday's twin bomb attack in Quetta, in LahoreQUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Talks between Pakistani officials and Shi'ite leaders on Saturday failed to quell a protest that brought thousands onto cold, wet streets for a second night to watch over the bodies of 96 people killed in one of Pakistan's worst sectarian attacks. Leaders of the Shi'ite Hazaras, the ethnic group that was the target of Friday's twin bombings in the provincial capital Quetta, were vowing not to bury their dead until authorities promised to protect them from a wave of sectarian attacks. ...

Qatar revives proposal to send an Arab force to Syria

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:04 AM PST

CAIRO (Reuters) - Qatar has made a fresh call for an Arab force to end bloodshed in Syria if current diplomatic efforts by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi fail, according to the Doha-based al Jazeera television. Brahimi is trying to build on an agreement reached in Geneva on June 30 calling for a transitional period in Syria. But differences between Russia and the United States over the future of President Bashar al-Assad continue to block a deal to end 21 months of violence that has killed more than 60,000 Syrians. ...

Serbian PM says time to face facts over Kosovo sovereignty

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 10:03 AM PST

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ivica Dacic told Serbia on Saturday it had "practically" lost sovereignty over Kosovo, and said autonomy for ethnic Serbs living there was the most it could hope to salvage. In some of the boldest remarks by a Serbian leader on Kosovo since NATO bombs wrested the former province from Belgrade's control in 1999, Dacic said Serbia could not afford to "keep its head in the sand". ...

Obama undergoes fitness exam at Pentagon

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 09:47 AM PST

U.S.President Obama addresses joint news conference at the White House in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama had a little personal fitness boot camp at the Pentagon on Saturday. Obama, 51, participated in what the White House described as a fitness evaluation at a Pentagon clinic, part of the periodic medical examination of him that is coordinated by the president's doctor. He was at the Fit to Win Clinic inside the Pentagon. The clinic's website says its objective is to enhance "military readiness and civilian wellness through fitness, nutrition, health education and positive lifestyle behavior changes. ...

White House Declines Death Star Undertaking, Cites Budget Constraints

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 09:42 AM PST

White House Declines Death Star Undertaking, Cites Budget Constraints  Enemies of the Pentagon will not witness the power of a fully operational battle station anytime soon. Last month an online petition to the White House site We the People that called for the construction of the Death Star from the "Star Wars" movies surpassed...

Canadian native chief will continue hunger strike

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 09:35 AM PST

Attawapiskat Chief Spence pauses after making statement on Victoria Island before start of meeting between chiefs and Canada's PM Harper in OttawaTORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian aboriginal chief will continue her hunger strike despite meetings on Friday between native leaders and government officials, as a Canada-wide protest movement gets ready for more demonstrations and a day of action later this month. A spokesman said chief Theresa Spence would continue her strike in an effort to force new meetings to discuss Indian rights. ...

Judge okays group prayers for Muslim inmates in Indiana

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 09:15 AM PST

FILE PHOTO OF JOHN WALKER LINDH BEING LED AWAY AFTER BEING CAPTURED NEAR MAZAR I SHARIF.INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - John Walker Lindh, known as the "American Taliban," and other Muslims housed in an Indiana prison have the right to congregate for daily group prayer sessions, a federal judge ruled on Friday. The decision by officials at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, to ban daily group prayers for Muslim inmates violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson said. ...

France believes hostage killed in Somalia rescue bid

Posted: 12 Jan 2013 08:52 AM PST

PARIS/MOGADISHU (Reuters) - France sent special forces into Somalia to rescue a secret agent but insurgents apparently killed their hostage during the raid along with a commando, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday. The intelligence agency team flew into southern Somalia by helicopter under cover of darkness to try to free Denis Allex, held since 2009, by al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, on the same day France launched air strikes against Islamist militants in Mali. ...
Posted by Harshad at 3:47 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)