| Obama wants action on government's borrowing limit Posted: 05 Jan 2013 09:23 AM PST  HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama is hailing a last-minute deal that pulled the country back from the "fiscal cliff," but says it's just one step in a broader effort to boost the economy and shrink federal deficits.
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| Obama may round out natl. security team next week Posted: 04 Jan 2013 09:08 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama may round out his new national security leadership team next week, with a nomination for defense secretary expected and a pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency possible.
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| A platinum solution to fiscal woes: $1 trillion coin Posted: 05 Jan 2013 02:59 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If you had to flip a coin over whether Congress will raise the debt ceiling, here's the ultimate one - a freshly minted trillion-dollar platinum coin. A formal petition has been started asking the White House to create such a coin in order to avoid another high-stakes fiscal battle to raise the debt ceiling. The Treasury secretary has the authority to mint platinum coins in the denomination of his choosing, but likely would run into stiff opposition from lawmakers who have been trying to reduce the budget deficits. ... |
| No deal on Illinois pension fix, talks to continue Posted: 05 Jan 2013 02:55 PM PST  CHICAGO (Reuters) - A fix for Illinois' public pension crisis remained elusive on Saturday after a meeting between Democratic Governor Pat Quinn and legislative leaders failed to produce a deal. State House of Representatives Speaker Michael Madigan, a Democrat, said that it was still possible to reach a deal in time to be voted on early next week by the Legislature. "There's no resolution today. ...
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| Venezuela lawmakers elect Chavez ally as Assembly chief Posted: 05 Jan 2013 02:50 PM PST  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan lawmakers re-elected a staunch ally of Hugo Chavez to head the National Assembly on Saturday, putting him in line to be caretaker president if the socialist leader does not recover from cancer surgery. By choosing the incumbent, Diosdado Cabello, the "Chavista"-dominated legislature cemented the combative ex-soldier's position as the third most powerful figure in the government, after Chavez and Vice President Nicolas Maduro. "As a patriot ... ...
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| Man arrested after shots fired at Northern Irish police in flag riots Posted: 05 Jan 2013 02:26 PM PST  BELFAST (Reuters) - Northern Irish police arrested a 38-year-old man on Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder after shots were fired at police officers during protests over the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall. Police used water cannon against more than 100 protesters hurling fireworks, smoke bombs and bricks in the eastern part of the city shortly after a demonstration outside City Hall calling for the flag to be reinstated on a permanent basis. ...
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| Fugitive Saddam deputy lends support to Iraq Sunni protests Posted: 05 Jan 2013 02:14 PM PST  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The most senior member of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's entourage still at large has urged Sunni Muslim anti-government protesters to stand their ground until the Shi'ite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, is toppled. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri heads Saddam's now-banned Baath party, whose leaders fled or went underground after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that overthrew the Sunni strongman and empowered the Shi'ite majority. ...
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| Egypt fires finance, interior ministers before IMF visit Posted: 05 Jan 2013 02:04 PM PST  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi fired his finance and interior ministers, cabinet sources said on Saturday, in a government reshuffle he had promised to assuage public anger at an economic crisis. General Mohamed Ibrahim will replace Ahmed Gamal El-Din as interior minister and Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegazy takes the finance ministry job from Mumtaz al-Saaed. ...
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| Four dead in townhouse shooting in Aurora, Colorado Posted: 05 Jan 2013 02:01 PM PST  AURORA, Colo. (Reuters) - A gunman who barricaded himself inside a townhouse after killing three people in the home was shot to death by police on Saturday in Aurora, Colorado, the same Denver suburb where 12 people were slain in a movie house massacre last July, police said. The gunman and his three victims, as well as a woman who fled safely from the home at the outset of the violence and alerted authorities, were all believed to be related to one another, police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson said. But the motive for the killings was not immediately understood. ...
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| Ohio sheriff confronts protesters in football rape case Posted: 05 Jan 2013 01:59 PM PST  STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - A county sheriff under fire for how he has handled a high school rape investigation faced down a raucous crowd of protesters on Saturday and said no further suspects would be charged in a case that has rattled Ohio football country. Ma'lik Richmond and Trenton Mays, both 16 and members of the Steubenville High School football team, are charged with raping a 16-year-old fellow student at a party last August, according to statements from their attorneys. ...
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| Sudan, South Sudan agree once again to set up buffer zone Posted: 05 Jan 2013 01:09 PM PST  ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan agreed on Saturday to set up a demilitarized zone along their disputed border, a condition for restarting oil exports, an African Union mediator said on Saturday, without giving a time frame. Sudan's Omar Hassan al-Bashir and South Sudan's Salva Kiir had agreed in September to withdraw their armies from the border area, a move both say is necessary to allow oil to flow again from landlocked South Sudan through Sudan. After weeks of deadly clashes early last year the two came close to all-out war but agreed a ceasefire in April. ...
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| Fed officials suggest possible end to asset purchases in 2013 Posted: 05 Jan 2013 12:39 PM PST  SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve could halt its asset purchases this year, two top Fed officials suggested on Friday, a view also gaining traction among economists at Wall Street's top financial institutions. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, a voting member of the Fed's monetary policy panel in 2013, said a drop in the unemployment rate to 7.1 percent would probably constitute the "substantial improvement" in the labor market that the central bank seeks. That's the bar for the Fed's policy-setting committee to halt the current round of asset purchases that it began in September. ...
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| McChrystal takes blame for Rolling Stone article Posted: 05 Jan 2013 12:09 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaking out for the first time since he resigned, retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal takes the blame for a Rolling Stone article and the unflattering comments attributed to his staff about the Obama administration that ended his Afghanistan command and army career.
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| Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy leads campaign against legal pot Posted: 05 Jan 2013 12:08 PM PST  (Reuters) - Retired Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy is taking aim at what he sees as knee-jerk support for marijuana legalization among his fellow liberals, in a project that carries special meaning for the self-confessed former Oxycontin addict. Kennedy, 45, a Democrat and younger son of the late "Lion of the Senate" Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, is leading a group called Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) that opposes legalization and seeks to rise above America's culture war over pot with its images of long-haired hippies battling law-and-order conservatives. ...
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| Leaders of two Sudans agree on border buffer zone: mediator Posted: 05 Jan 2013 12:00 PM PST  ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan have agreed to set up a long-delayed demilitarized zone along their disputed border as soon as possible, a condition for the resumption of oil exports, an African Union mediator said on Saturday. Sudan's Omar Hassan al-Bashir and South Sudan's Salva Kiir held two days of talks in Ethiopia to try to defuse tensions that brought them close to war in April. The leaders agreed in September to end hostilities and withdraw their armies from their disputed border, but the two sides have failed to implement the agreement. "They've ... ...
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| Honduras removes its ambassador to Colombia amid party scandal Posted: 05 Jan 2013 11:57 AM PST TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras has removed its ambassador to Colombia amid reports his personal aide was involved in a wild party held at the embassy of Honduras in Bogota which, according to media, was attended by prostitutes and where cell phones and computers were stolen. Ambassador Carlos Rodriguez quit his post on Saturday, Honduras' foreign ministry said in a release, after the government requested his withdrawal. ... |
| Financial stability should not be monetary policy goal: Plosser Posted: 05 Jan 2013 11:42 AM PST SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve should use monetary policy mainly to fight inflation, and "resist the temptation" to use it to achieve financial stability, a top Fed official said on Saturday. "Financial stability should not be an explicit objective of monetary policy per se," Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser said at the American Economic Association's annual meeting. "Price stability I believe should be the No. 1 priority of a central bank," he said, adding that the Fed's record over its first 100 years on price stability has been less than stellar. ... |
| Syrian army rockets Damascus rebel district Posted: 05 Jan 2013 11:28 AM PST  BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army fired rockets at a district of Damascus on Saturday to try to drive out insurgents fighting their way closer to the seat of President Bashar al-Assad's power. As a conflict that has killed 60,000 people in 21 months shows no sign of abating, Syria's deputy foreign minister visited Iran, seeking to maintain the support of Assad's main ally in the region. Iran's Fars news agency said Faisal al-Makdad would meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials. ...
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| Netanyahu's rivals eye centre-left pact for Israel vote Posted: 05 Jan 2013 11:26 AM PST  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Three Israeli parties on Saturday proposed forming a center-left opposition bloc to try to topple conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the January 22 election, but disagreements over the terms suggested any pact could be elusive. Former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Hatenuah party, said on Twitter that she and leaders of the centrist Yesh Atid and left-leaning Labour parties would "discuss the creation of a 'united front' to work together to replace Netanyahu". ...
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| Syria's Assad to give speech on Sunday: state television Posted: 05 Jan 2013 10:53 AM PST BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will deliver a speech on Sunday, state media said, in what will be his first major public statement for weeks on the uprising against his rule. Syrian television said Assad, who has vowed to crush armed rebels fighting to topple him, would speak about "developments in Syria and the region". (Editing by Kevin Liffey) |
| French actor Depardieu in Russia to meet Putin Posted: 05 Jan 2013 10:48 AM PST  MOSCOW (Reuters) - French film star Gerard Depardieu arrived in Russia on Saturday to meet President Vladimir Putin, who granted him citizenship after a public spat in France over his efforts to avoid a potential 75 percent income tax. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two would meet in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where Putin was spending part of the 10-day New Year and Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday. He said it was possible Putin would hand Depardieu his Russian passport during the meeting. ...
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| Fed will vary interest on reserves when tightening policy: Yellen Posted: 05 Jan 2013 10:44 AM PST  SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen reiterated on Saturday that the U.S. central bank will use its ability to pay interest on excess bank reserves to tighten monetary policy at some stage in the future. "We are quite likely and have decided we will almost surely rely on varying that - the level of interest on reserves - when the day comes when we will be ready to exit a period of accommodative monetary policy," she told a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. (Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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| Gay marriage remains a tough sell in Illinois Posted: 05 Jan 2013 10:37 AM PST  SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The stalling of Illinois' gay-marriage push — at least for now — shows the difficulty of approving legislation to legalize it, even with a nudge from the home-state president, steadily rising support in the polls and national momentum from the November elections.
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| Libyan policeman shot dead in latest Benghazi attack Posted: 05 Jan 2013 09:33 AM PST BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A police officer was found shot dead on his Benghazi farm on Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks targeting police in the eastern Libyan city, a security official said. The official said that Lt. Col. Nasser al-Maghrabi's body showed evidence of having been beaten before he was shot. "Maghrabi's family found his body lying among the olive trees on his farm. He had two shots in his legs and one in his chest," said the official, who declined to be named. ... |
| Talk of GOP primaries follows 'fiscal cliff' vote Posted: 05 Jan 2013 09:30 AM PST  Republicans in Congress who took the politically risky step of voting to raise taxes now find themselves trying to fend off potential primary challenges next year from angry conservatives.
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| Lawmakers asks Fed to delay foreclosure deal for review Posted: 05 Jan 2013 09:19 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional oversight panel asked regulators to delay a multibillion dollar mortgage settlement with 14 large banks so that the lawmakers could review the deal, according to a letter made available on Saturday. "We would like more information about how the potential settlement amount is to be determined in light of the potential wrongdoing identified to date," said the January 4 letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry. ...
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| Infantry now shut to women; do they want it open? Posted: 05 Jan 2013 08:24 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — If or when the Pentagon lets women become infantry troops — the country's front-line warfighters — how many women will want to?
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| Vienna Jewish museum may hold art stolen by Nazis: paper Posted: 05 Jan 2013 08:23 AM PST VIENNA (Reuters) - Vienna's Jewish Museum holds hundreds of books and works of art that may have been stolen by Nazis, a newspaper reported on Saturday. A screening program that started in 2007, years after other Austrian museums began combing their collections for works taken from their rightful owners, has determined that about 500 works of art and 900 books are of dubious origin, Der Standard said. It cited in particular paintings by Jehudo Epstein, who while abroad in 1936 entrusted 172 works to industrialist Bernhard Altmann for safekeeping. ... |
| France won't buy troubled Petroplus refinery: Hollande Posted: 05 Jan 2013 08:15 AM PST  VAL-DE-REUIL, France (Reuters) - France will not take over insolvent Swiss refiner Petroplus' oil refinery in Normandy, but could help the plant financially once a suitable buyer is found, President Francois Hollande said on Saturday. About 500 jobs at the 161,000 barrels-a-day Petit-Couronne refinery are at risk, the latest industrial headache for the Socialist leader who has vowed to stem rising unemployment by the end of the year. "It's difficult to find a serious buyer. ...
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| Republican Party seems as divided, angry as ever Posted: 05 Jan 2013 08:02 AM PST  BOSTON (AP) — The Republican Party seems as divided and angry as ever.
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| Obama says U.S. can't afford more showdowns over debt, deficits Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:54 AM PST  HONOLULU (Reuters) - Fresh from the long legislative fight to prevent a "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, President Barack Obama warned on Saturday that the United States could not afford further budget showdowns this year or in the future. Obama, who returned to Hawaii for a family vacation shortly after the House of Representatives passed a compromise bill on Tuesday, said in his weekly radio and Internet address that the new law was just one step toward fixing the country's fiscal and economic problems. ...
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| British court detains Nepali colonel accused of torture Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:51 AM PST LONDON (Reuters) - A Nepali army colonel was remanded in custody by a British court on Saturday after being charged with torturing two individuals at a military barracks during the Himalayan nation's decade-long civil war. British police arrested Kumar Lama in southern England on Thursday, provoking a diplomatic row with Nepal which demanded his immediate release and summoned the British ambassador in Kathmandu to express its "strong objection" to the detention. ... |
| Monti, in Twitter Q&A, says new voting law priority for Italy Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:37 AM PST  ROME (Reuters) - Outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Saturday if he wins February's parliamentary election one of his first acts would be to overhaul the voting law to improve democracy and government stability. Monti, 69, who last week confirmed he would lead a centrist coalition in the February 24-25 vote, called himself a "bit of a pioneer" in politics during nearly 2 hours of #MontiLive tweets. The electoral law is unpopular because party leaders select candidates and voters cannot choose their representatives. ...
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| A Visual Look at Today's Congress Compared to 50 Years Ago Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:32 AM PST The 113th Congress, sworn in Thursday, is hailed as perhaps the most diverse in all aspects, from race and ethnicity to gender to sexual orientation. |
| Analysis: US irked by Google chief's NKorea plans Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:31 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Google chief Eric Schmidt's plan to visit North Korea has put the Obama administration in the awkward position of opposing a champion of Internet freedom who's decided to engage with one of the most intensely censored countries.
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| Sectarianism will prolong instability in Iraq: Saudi Arabia Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:30 AM PST  RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Saturday warned Iraq against sectarian extremism after two weeks of protests by Sunni Muslims against Baghdad's Shi'ite-led government. The street protests across Iraq's Sunni heartland have strained the Arab state's fragile political balance and renewed fears of intensified sectarian strife. "We are convinced that Iraq will not stabilize until it starts handling issues without sectarian extremism... ...
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| Kosovo denies Serb president Orthodox Christmas visit Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:03 AM PST  PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo said on Saturday it had rejected a request from Serbia's president to visit his ethnic kin to mark Orthodox Christmas, saying the ban was in response to Belgrade's refusal to let Kosovo officials visit Serbia. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic had asked to attend an Orthodox Christmas mass on Monday at Gracanica monastery in a Serb enclave just a few kilometers from the capital Pristina. ...
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| Austria plugs regional finance loopholes after scandal Posted: 05 Jan 2013 05:57 AM PST  VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's finance minister played down the risks to regional finances on Saturday after a Salzburg civil servant gambled hundreds of millions of euros of taxpayers' money on high-risk derivatives. Speaking a day after federal and provincial officials agreed on steps to curb speculative use of public funds, Maria Fekter said in a radio interview that local authorities had already acted to reduce deals that had potential to blow up. ...
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