US Defence Secretary Robert Gates (left) meets with Saudi King Abdullah bin... US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday as Washington sought support from oil-rich Gulf allies to build pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme. The visit came a day after Gates appealed to Saudi leaders to back a US-led drive for crippling sanctions against Iran in a visit to Riyadh. In his talks in Abu...
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* EU Commission says planned regulations not protectionist * Washington worried rules could penalise U.S. fund managers * Spat comes as EU countries prepare deal on new law (Adds spokesman for EU's Barnier) By John O'Donnell BRUSSELS, March 11 (Reuters) - The European Union has defended planned rules for hedge funds against criticism from Washington, saying on Thursday its proposed regime was in line with an international accord to increase transparency. U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has complained to EU financial markets chief Michel Barnier about moves to clamp down on hedge funds that would curb their borrowing and pay, the European Commission said. Barnier's spokesman hit back...
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis were still awaiting preliminary results on Thursday four days after a national election they hoped would bring stable government and help end years of sectarian conflict as U.S. troops ready to leave. Officials count parliamentary election ballots at the tally centre in Baghdad March 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani) Elections officials had expected to release the first results on Wednesday, but by early afternoon on...
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China has reacted angrily to a speech by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in which he accused authorities of trying to "annihilate Buddhism" and expressed sympathy for Uighur protesters in China's western region of Xinjiang. In an address marking the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule he also said Buddhists monks in Tibet were living in prison-like conditions and said talks with China on limited autonomy for his homeland had gone nowhere. The speech was quickly condemned by Chinese state media with a commentary by the state-run Xinhua news agency describing the Dalai Lama's remarks as "resentful" and full of "angry rhetoric". "Regardless of his...
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BRUSSELS, March 11 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Thursday it had paid Latvia a further, 0.5 billion euro ($678.5 million) tranche of the Baltic country's 7.5-billion-euro international bailout package. "I am glad that Latvia has complied with the policy conditions for the third EU disbursement," European Union Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement. (Reporting by Marcin Grajewski, editing by Dale Hudson)...
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Drug abuse is rife in the Afghan police force with up to four out of 10 recruits testing positive for illegal drugs in some areas, a US report says. The report for the US Congress said the illegal drugs trade "undermines virtually every aspect" of efforts to secure Afghanistan. Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium and the drugs trade is a key source of funding for the insurgency. Coalition forces are battling militants in opium-producing areas of...
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Heavy fighting between Somali government forces backed by African Union troops on one side and rebel fighters from Al-Shabaab on the other hand have killed at least 27 people and injured more than 70 others in the capital Mogadishu, medics and witnesses said.   The clashes erupted in  the rebel-held northern districts of Karan, Yaqshid,...
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MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN Associated Press Writer= MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamist insurgents and government forces battled for a second day in the Somali capital after medical officials Thursday said 23 people had already been killed. Insurgents attacking from the north on Wednesday reached within a mile (2 kilometers) of the presidential place in the heart of the city before being beaten back with the help of African Union peacekeepers in tanks, residents said. The exchange of gunfire and mortars made it impossible to get an accurate death toll for Thursday's fighting because ambulances could not get to the wounded and dying. Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, said he saw 20...
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By Takaloo, Sittwe: The Burmese military junta has ordered riot police to take necessary security measures in western Burma's Arakan State at the same time it has publicized laws for the upcoming election, said a police officer on Thursday. The officers said that 300 riot police were pulled back on Wednesday from border fence construction sites on the western Burmese border on orders from the junta in order to strengthen deployments...
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WASHINGTON - There are legislative miles to go before the government will be emancipated from its health care myopia, but it is not too soon for a summing up. Whether all or nothing of the legislation becomes law, Barack Obama has refuted critics who call him a radical. He has shown himself to be a timid progressive. His timidity was displayed when he flinched from fighting for the boldness the nation needs - a transition from the irrationality of employer-provided health insurance. His progressivism is an attitude of genteel regret about the persistence of politics. Employer-paid insurance is central to what David Gratzer of the Manhattan Institute calls "the 12 cent problem." That is how...
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Special Correspondent - PHOTO: PTI/ Nand Kumar Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati addresses a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday....
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The parties in Angela Merkel's increasingly embattled government were struggling to digest their worst popularity rating in nearly a decade yesterday, less than six months after the German Chancellor had described her ruling alliance of conservatives and liberals as the country's "dream" coalition. The damning appraisal came from the Forsa poll group, which found that a massive 84 per cent of Germans thought that Ms Merkel's coalition partners were locked in perpetual dispute. Only 8 per cent believed that the government showed unity of purpose. The popularity of Ms Merkel's conservatives has sunk two...
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DAVID ESPO and PHILIP ELLIOTT The Associated Press ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Democrats claimed momentum Wednesday in their drive to enact the sweeping health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama, citing near agreement on crucial issues despite persistent Republican efforts to knock them offstride. Obama himself, rallying support outside Washington for the second time this week, shouted to a crowd in Missouri, "The time for talk is over. It's time to vote." At the Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that after days of secretive talks, key Democrats were "pretty close" to accord on additional subsidies to help lower-income families purchase insurance, more aid for states under the...
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New laws enacted by Myanmar's military government make a mockery of democracy and ensure that elections due later this year will be a farce, the United States said on Wednesday. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the election measures, which set strict limits on political participation, undercut U.S. efforts to...
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WASHINGTON: The "war on terrorism" just got a little more complicated with the indictment of an average white American female dubbed "Jihad Jane" on charges of plotting with Islamic radicals, bringing even the so-called soccer moms under the radar. Colleen LaRose, 46, a Pennsylvania native, has been charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and plotting to assassinate a Swedish...
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Hong Kong: Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong's biggest carrier, posted a second-half profit after paring capacity and selling a stake in a maintenance venture. The HK$3.9 billion (Dh1.84 billion) profit compared with a loss of HK$7.9 billion a year earlier, based on annual results announced yesterday. Sales fell 18 per cent to HK$36 billion. Cathay made a HK$1.25 billion gain last year from the sale of shares in Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co as it boosted cash holdings and trimmed services to withstand a slowdown in global air travel. Demand is now picking up because of an economic rebound and first-quarter forward bookings are "very solid", Chief Executive Tony Tyler said last...
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As Japan prepares to assume the president of the U.N. Security Council in April, debate is already under way in various arenas regarding sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Against this background, Japan's management and coordination capabilities are set to be severely tested. Beefing up sanctions against Iran is an inevitable step if that country fails to halt its nuclear development. The Japanese government must fulfill its responsibility as UNSC president to ensure effective sanctions are levied on Tehran....
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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Conservatives, favourites to win an election due in weeks, said on Wednesday they would back a U.N. arms embargo on Iran and a ban on oil and gas investment if Tehran remains defiant over its nuclear plans. Iran's lack of cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog "warrants a firm and strongly reinforced response from the rest of the world," William Hague, the opposition party's foreign...
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PARIS (Reuters) - In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that if anyone leads innocent children to sin, "it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Pope Benedict XVI strolls in a garden with his brother Bishop Georg Ratzinger during his annual holiday in Bressanone, northern Italy July 31, 2008. (REUTERS/Osservatore Romano) That passage must now be ringing in the ears of the Roman Catholic clergy in Germany and the Netherlands, where the Church's latest scandals of priests sexually abusing boys have broken out, and echoing down the marbled halls of the Vatican. The alarm bells are tolling all the more urgently in Rome,...
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Sir, The article by Ruth Gledhill and Jonathan Clayton ("500 butchered in Nigeria killing fields", Mar 9) portrays vividly the horror suffered by innocent civilians in the most recent outbreak of violence in what is becoming a deeply disturbing sequence of massacres. Your leading article also highlights the urgent need for the Nigerian Government to stabilise the country and to soothe "ethnic" tensions....
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