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APNewsBreak: 22 states join campaign finance fight
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.
Is GOP trying to sabotage economy to hurt Obama?
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.
Political vulnerabilities in Sen. Rubio's past?
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.
Mali coup leader backs transition president
BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's caretaker president Dioncounda Traore will have his mandate extended beyond a 40-day period expiring Monday after the soldier who led Mali's March 22 coup agreed to drop his objections to the move. The accord between Captain Amadou Sanogo and mediators from the ECOWAS bloc of West African states keeps Mali's fragile transition to civilian rule on track and could open the way for the arrival of peacekeeping troops from neighboring countries. "I can tell you that a deal has been reached in principle," Sanogo told state television late on Saturday. ...
General Allen plays down urgency of Pakistan deal
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. commander in Afghanistan told Reuters he would not be disappointed if a long-sought agreement with Pakistan on supply routes failed to materialize by the end of the NATO summit in Chicago on Monday. General John Allen, who is also the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in an interview he was confident a deal would eventually be struck but "whether it's in days or weeks, I don't know. ...
Iraqi Kurdistan to push ahead with oil export plan
ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region said on Sunday it expects to start exporting its crude oil production along a new pipeline to the Turkish border by August 2013, defying Baghad in a long-running dispute over who should control the country's oil exports. The Kurdistan region, which has its own government and armed forces, has already clashed with Iraq's central government and halted its oil exports in April after accusing Baghdad of not remitting payments due. ...
General strike freezes Nepal as constitution deadline looms
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Thousands of schools closed, roads were empty and businesses shuttered across Nepal on Sunday at the start of a three-day general strike over a state boundary dispute that could push lawmakers past a May 27 deadline to write a new constitution. At least two dozen vehicles were damaged by stone-throwing activists, police said, and 46 people were detained in the capital Kathmandu, where children played football on normally traffic-choked streets. Instability has plagued Nepal since the end of a Maoist-led civil war in 2006, and the subsequent overthrow of the monarchy. ...
Serbians vote for president under threat of protest
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Pro-Western incumbent Boris Tadic and rightist Tomislav Nikolic went head to head on Sunday in a tense run-off election for Serbian president and the right to lead the struggling nation into talks on joining the European Union. In a vote marred by opposition accusations of fraud, Tadic is tipped to defeat Nikolic for the third time since 2004 as Serbia slowly sheds the legacy of a decade of war and isolation under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. ...
Germany's Schaeuble says Greek euro zone exit preventable
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Greece's exit from the euro zone could definitely be prevented but that it was up to Greece to abide by its agreements. "European solidarity isn't a one-way street," Schaeuble told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "You can't have one without the other. If anyone in Greece thinks that's the case, then they're massively fooling themselves and the voters. ...
Italy bomb attack was probably isolated act: investigator
BRINDISI, Italy (Reuters) - The bomb attack which killed a teenage girl and injured 10 others in the southern Italian town of Brindisi was probably the work of an individual with no links to the mafia, a senior official said on Sunday. "It seems to be the work of a single person," Marco Dinapoli, the Brindisi chief prosecutor, who is leading the investigation, told reporters on Sunday, saying that a suspect had already been identified. "The most probable hypothesis is that it was an isolated act," he said but gave no details about the suspect. ...
Russia forces kill two suspected militants in Dagestan raid
MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) - Russian security forces killed two suspected militants in a gunfight at a private house in its restive North Caucasus province of Dagestan, Interfax reported on Sunday, quoting local authorities. Police stormed the house in a village near Khasavyurt, a town about 80 km (50 miles) west of the provincial capital of Makhachkala. Two unidentified gunmen were killed in a shootout with security forces, a local law enforcement official said. "They opened fire in response to calls for surrender," the official was quoted as saying. ...
China keeps up pressure on Chen's family, supporters
BEIJING (Reuters) - While the blind Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng on Sunday enjoyed his first hours in New York after years of jail and detention, relatives and supporters back home remained locked down by security authorities. Chen's escape last month from 19 months of detention in his home village in eastern China and his six-day stay in the U.S. embassy in Beijing exposed embarrassing gaps in the web of security that the ruling Communist Party uses to stifle dissent. ...
Analysis: Post-war Ivory Coast nurtures second "miracle"
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - From his lagoon-side allotment in Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan, Moussa Yanda has a ringside seat to watch the foundations of a $290-million toll bridge slowly rise up from the shore. "I love watching it," enthused the softly-spoken 45-year-old as he packed up his garden tools for the day. "When things are developing, we realize we're going to make it through this." Little over a year ago such optimism was scarce. ...
China state-run businesses to invest 350 billion yuan in Chongqing
BEIJING (Reuters) - Thirty of China's biggest state-owned businesses have signed contracts worth about 350 billion yuan ($55.3 billion) with the southwestern municipality Chongqing, Chinese media reported on Sunday, in a sign of Beijing's determination to bolster confidence in the city formerly run by ousted leader Bo Xilai. Since the fall of the once high-flying Chinese official, media reports and some investors have questioned whether Chongqing's debt-laden economy is also headed for trouble. ...
Factbox: Sri Lanka's jailed ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the early release from jail of his wartime ally turned political rival Sarath Fonseka, a former general who led the army to victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels in a bloody 25 year civil conflict. Fonseka was arrested by soldiers two weeks after a failed presidential bid against Rajapaksa in 2010 and sentenced to up to 5-1/2 years of jail time on two separate charges. The United States says Fonseka is a political prisoner and has repeatedly demanded he be freed. ...
Sri Lanka president orders release of jailed rival
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the early release from jail of his highest-profile political rival Sarath Fonseka, the president's spokesman said on Sunday, in an apparent bid to quell international criticism of the government's human rights record. The authorisation for Fonseka's release will be sent to the justice ministry on Monday, spokesman Bandula Jayasekara said. The former general is expected to be free soon afterwards, but will not be able to leave the country. ...
APNewsBreak: 22 states join campaign finance fight
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.
Serbians vote for president under threat of protest
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Pro-Western incumbent Boris Tadic and rightist Tomislav Nikolic went head to head on Sunday in a tense run-off election for Serbian president and the right to lead the struggling nation into talks on joining the European Union. Despite economic stagnation and rising unemployment, Tadic is tipped to defeat Nikolic for the third time since 2004 as Serbia slowly sheds the legacy of a decade of war and isolation under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. A Tadic victory would keep power firmly in the hands of his Democratic Party. ...
Ruling party in Dominican election seeks four more years
Santo Domingo (Reuters) - Ruling party candidate Danilo Medina is looking for revenge in Sunday's presidential election in the Dominican Republic 12 years after he lost in a landslide to opposition candidate Hipolito Mejia. Most opinion polls appear give him the edge, showing Medina of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) leading by a margin of 5 percentage points over Mejia for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). ...
Chicago braces for largest anti-NATO protest
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago police trying to keep the peace during the NATO summit may face their biggest test on Sunday when thousands of demonstrators were expected to march near the site where leaders of the military alliance begin a two-day meeting. Previous protests in the runup to the summit Sunday and Monday have been lively but peaceful, resulting in fewer than two dozen arrests over the past six days, according to the Chicago Police Department. ...
Chicago braces for largest anti-NATO protest
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago police trying to keep the peace during the NATO summit may face their biggest test on Sunday when thousands of demonstrators were expected to march near the site where leaders of the military alliance begin a two-day meeting. Previous protests in the runup to the summit Sunday and Monday have been lively but peaceful, resulting in fewer than two dozen arrests over the past six days, according to the Chicago Police Department. ...
NATO leaders seek common path out of Afghanistan
CHICAGO (Reuters) - NATO leaders gather in Chicago on Sunday for a summit that will chart a path out of Afghanistan, as Western nations seek to fend off fissures in their alliance and ensure Afghanistan can hold a still-potent Taliban at bay when foreign troops withdraw. President Barack Obama hosts the summit in his home town, Chicago, a day after leaders of major industrialized nations tackled Europe's debt crisis, backing keeping Greece in the euro zone and vowing to take steps necessary to revitalize the world economy. ...
Impatient Thai red shirts want justice from PM Yingluck
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's "red shirts" took to the street this weekend to mark the anniversary of the army's bloody repression of their mass rally in Bangkok in 2010 amid growing signs of a rift with the government they helped elect last July. Many red shirts are angry at the failure of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to bring to account those responsible for the 91 deaths during the 2010 events. Some are threatening action that could destabilise her government and start another period of political upheaval, after months of relative calm. ...
Two smaller unions agree deals with Lockheed
(Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp said on Saturday it had negotiated new contracts with two smaller unions at its Fort Worth, Texas plant, even as a strike by the larger machinists union stretched into a fifth week. Lockheed said about 70 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) on Friday ratified a new contract that would extend for four years. On Saturday, a new five-year contract was approved by 430 members of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). Both agreements take effect on Monday. ...
Rubio Comes Out Swinging at Obama at S.C. GOP Dinner
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., doled out attacks on President Obama tonight in a high-profile speech before South Carolina Republicans, laying out aggressive criticisms of the president as he called him the most “divisive figure” in American politics. “The president and his party’s...
Air Canada dispute with pilots goes to arbitrator
TORONTO (Reuters) - The union representing 3,000 Air Canada pilots said on Saturday that it had failed to reach a contract agreement with the country's largest airline after 10 days of mediated talks, leaving the dispute in the hands of a government arbitrator. A federal arbitrator will now have less than 90 days to choose between proposals submitted by the pilots and airlines, imposing an agreement on both sides. "To say we are disappointed would be a vast understatement," said Captain Jean-Marc Belanger, chair of the Master Executive Council of the Air Canada Pilots Association. ...
Blind Chinese activist Chen arrives in New York
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States on Saturday and declared "equality and justice have no boundaries" after China let him leave a Beijing hospital to quell a sensitive diplomatic rift between the two countries. Chen escaped from house arrest in northeastern China last month and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, embarrassing China and creating an uncomfortable backdrop for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to improve ties between the world's two biggest economies. ...
Obama Sees 'Emerging Consensus' on Eurozone Rescue, Promotes Growth
WASHINGTON — There were a couple new faces in town at the annual Group of Eight summit, and a couple new allies for President Obama, who has been urging Europeans to follow America’s lead. And with 4 million jobs created in the United States in...
Google says it has China's approval for Motorola deal
(Reuters) - Google said on Saturday that Chinese authorities have approved its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, the last regulatory hurdle to a deal that would allow the world's No. 1 Internet search engine to develop its own line of smart phones. Google, which will be the newest entrant to the handset market, announced plans for the acquisition last year in a bid to secure Motorola's valuable patents and pave the way for a pairing of Google's Android mobile software and Motorola's handset business. U.S. ...
Civil rights group NAACP endorses gay marriage
(Reuters) - The nation's largest civil rights group, the NAACP, endorsed gay marriage on Saturday, giving a boost to the movement to legalize same-sex nuptials despite reservations expressed by some black ministers. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People passed the resolution at its board meeting in Miami "as a continuation of its historic commitment to equal protection under the law," the organization said. "Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law. ...
Pakistani leader may face friction over supply routes at NATO summit
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in Chicago on Saturday for a NATO summit to what could be a chilly reception if a hoped-for deal allowing trucks to again supply alliance troops in Afghanistan fails to materialize. While Western officials sought to portray Zardari's presence as a sign of improving NATO-Pakistan ties, possible friction at the meeting underscores the challenges NATO countries face as they struggle to ensure a stable future for Afghanistan after Western troops withdraw. ...
Blind justice the inspiration for Chinese dissident Chen
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chen Guangcheng, a blind activist whose campaign for justice in China threatened to upend relations between the world's two superpowers, does not believe in waiting for miracles. For Chen, his extraordinary achievements over the past month - from his escape from house arrest in April to his dramatic arrival in the United States at the weekend - came from a lifetime of learning to defy the odds. ...
UK may keep troops in Afghanistan post-2014 to fight terrorism
CAMP ROUND MEADOW, Maryland (Reuters) - Britain may keep a small number of soldiers in Afghanistan to fight terrorism after 2014, when NATO forces are due to end combat operations, a senior British government official said on Saturday. It is the first time Britain has given any indication it may keep forces in Afghanistan after 2014 apart from a small training contingent. Britain plans to withdraw 500 soldiers from its 9,500-strong force in Afghanistan this year before ending combat operations in 2014 when Afghan security forces are due to have taken over responsibility for security. ...