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Winning ticket for $590.5 million Powerball jackpot sold in Florida

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:26:06 +0530

REUTERS - One winning ticket for a record U.S. Powerball lottery jackpot worth $590.5 million was sold in Florida, organizers said late on Saturday. No other information on the winning ticket was immediately available, but the grand prize accumulated after two months of drawings surpassed the previous record Powerball payoff of $587.5 million, set in November 2012. The winning numbers picked on Saturday night were: 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball number of 11, and the odds of winning were put at one in 175 million. The largest jackpot in U.S. ...

Danger and separation from families changing job of U.S. diplomats

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:03:17 +0530

By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda placed a bounty on her husband's head, Mary Feierstein learned of it from a friend who called and said, "You must be a mess!" U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein was thousands of miles (km) away at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, without his wife and family on what is called an "unaccompanied" posting. He is one of more than a thousand U.S. diplomats on such tours of duty in danger spots around the world, part of a trend that is changing the definition of being a diplomat. ...

Greying China taps rural elderly to care for those even older

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:12:13 +0530

By Li Hui and Maxim Duncan QIANTUN, China (Reuters) - Two years short of 70, Zhang Guosheng spends his days caring for an 81-year-old fellow villager - washing his clothes, bringing meals to his bed, and keeping him company - a routine he'll keep up until he himself needs the type of care he is now giving. "Living here is better than staying at home alone. We help each other and have a common language," said the spritely Zhang, an enthusiastic dancer. "We are very happy here. ...

Israel warns against Russian arms supply to Syria

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:35:47 +0530

By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Saturday that advanced weapons supplied by Russia to war-torn Syria could end up in the wrong hands and be used against the Jewish state. A Russian shipment of Yakhont anti-ship missiles to Syria was condemned by the United States on Friday and Israel is also alarmed by the prospect of Russia supplying S-300 advanced air defence missile systems to Damascus. ...

France detains suspect in Toulouse killings investigation

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:34:58 +0530

PARIS (Reuters) - French anti-terror judges ordered the detention on Saturday of a man on suspicions he aided an al Qaeda-inspired gunman prepare for a shooting spree last year, a judicial source said. Mohamed Merah killed four Jews and three soldiers in and around the southern city of Toulouse in March 2012 before he was shot dead by police. Anti-terror judges have put the unnamed 25-year-old detained man under formal investigation to determine whether he helped Merah steal a scooter that was used in the shootings. ...

At least four suspected militants killed in Yemen drone strike

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:32:40 +0530

ADEN (Reuters) - At least four people were killed and a number of others wounded in a drone strike on a vehicle carrying suspected al Qaeda members in southern Yemen, a local official said on Saturday. The official said the strike took place at dawn on Saturday on a road to the north of Jaar in Abyan Governorate, near Aden. He did not say who was behind the strike, but previous drone strikes have been carried out by the United States. Washington does not usually comment on drone strikes. ...

Church must help the poorest, not dissect theology, pope says

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:29:53 +0530

By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis shared personal moments with 200,000 people on Saturday, telling them he sometimes nods off while praying at the end of a long day and that it "breaks my heart" that the death of a homeless person is not news. Francis, who has made straight talk and simplicity a hallmark of his papacy, made his unscripted comments in answers to questions by four people at a huge international gathering of Catholic associations in St. Peter's Square. ...

Saudi Arabia has another case of new coronavirus - WHO

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:27:32 +0530

LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has reported another case of infection in a concentrated outbreak of a new strain of a virus that emerged in the Middle East last year and spread into Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday. In a disease outbreak update issued from its Geneva headquarters, the WHO said the latest patient is an 81-year-old woman with multiple medical conditions. She became ill on April 28 and is in a critical but stable condition. ...

Regional force boosts troop numbers in Central African Republic

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:24:44 +0530

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - African military chiefs agreed on Saturday to more than double the size of a regional peacekeeping force deployed in Central African Republic, where authorities have struggled to contain violence after a rebel takeover. Thousands of fighters from the Seleka rebel coalition led by Michel Djotodia marched into the capital Bangui on March 24, forcing President Francois Bozize to flee to neighbouring Cameroon. Djotodia, a former civil servant, was later named interim president by parliament and asked to lead the country to elections within 18 months. ...

Investigators examine fractured rail in Connecticut train crash

Sun, 19 May 2013 08:51:33 +0530

By Richard Weizel BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut (Reuters) - A fractured segment of track has been found on the rail line of a Metro-North passenger train from New York that derailed in Connecticut and struck another commuter train, injuring more than 70 people, investigators said on Saturday. Authorities have ruled out foul play in Friday's collision, which occurred during the evening rush hour between the towns of Bridgeport and Fairfield, about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of New York City. ...

Two men charged with killing Malcolm X grandson

Sun, 19 May 2013 08:48:13 +0530

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Two men arrested in the fatal beating of the grandson of U.S. civil rights activist Malcolm X were sent to prison on Saturday to await trial, a Mexico City court spokesman said. David Hernandez and Manuel Perez, waiters at the Palace nightclub near Mexico City's popular Garibaldi Square, face charges of murder and robbery, the official said. Malcolm Shabazz, who police have said was 29, died May 9 at the Palace after a dispute over a $1,200 bill. Hernandez and Perez were arrested on Monday. ...

Pakistan: senior PTI leader Zara Shahid Hussain killed

Sun, 19 May 2013 08:15:15 +0530

By Katharine Houreld ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen killed a senior female politician from a reformist party in Pakistan on Saturday night, the latest violent incident in a bloody election campaign and one that set off a war of words between two major opposition parties. Around 150 people were killed in the run-up to national elections held last week, which handed a landslide victory to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N party. It marked the first time an elected government replaced another one in a nation that has been run by military leaders for more than half its history. ...

Syria's Assad: Little chance peace talks would succeed - newspaper

Sun, 19 May 2013 07:53:22 +0530

LIMA (Reuters) - Proposed peace talks for Syria would not curb "terrorism" in the country and it is unrealistic to think they would succeed, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published in an Argentine newspaper on Saturday. Speaking in Syria with the newspaper Clarin, Assad said he was doubtful that mediation the United States and Russia have proposed could settle a deadly conflict that has convulsed the country for two years. "There is confusion in the world between a political solution and terrorism. They think a political conference will halt terrorists in the country. ...

U.S. Powerball jackpot could go higher than $600 million

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:01:15 +0530

By Karen Brooks AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Powerball jackpot Saturday night could be even higher than the record $600 million being advertised, possibly rivaling the largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, a Texas Lottery official said on Saturday. "Oftentimes, the advertised amount is lower than what the actual jackpot ends up being," said Kelly Cripe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Lottery. "It's entirely possible this $600 million jackpot will end up being a bigger jackpot." The Powerball record in November was advertised at $550 million, but ended up being $587. ...

Thirteen killed, 10 police kidnapped in Iraq violence

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:58:20 +0530

RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Suspected Sunni Muslim militants killed four state-backed Sunni fighters in Iraq on Saturday, security sources said, apparently viewing them as collaborators with the Shi'ite-led government of a nation plagued by sectarian hatred. Sunni-Shi'ite tensions in Iraq have been amplified by the conflict between mostly Sunni rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite-dominated forces in neighbouring Syria. ...

U.S. Airways plane makes unusual belly landing at Newark airport

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:48:21 +0530

By David Jones NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - A U.S. Airways flight made an emergency landing on its belly at Newark Liberty International Airport early on Saturday after the plane's landing gear failed to deploy, but no one was injured, airline and government officials said. Piedmont Airlines flight 4560, operating for US Airways from Philadelphia with 34 passengers and three crew members, landed safely at 1 a.m., and passengers were evacuated on the tarmac and transported to the terminal, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said in an email. ...

Rome protest turns up heat on new PM Letta

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:14:19 +0530

ROME (Reuters) - Thousands of people protested in Rome on Saturday against austerity policies and high unemployment, urging new Prime Minister Enrico Letta to focus on creating jobs to help pull the country out of recession. "We hope that this government will finally start listening to us because we are losing our patience," said Enzo Bernardis, who joined the sea of protesters waving red flags and calling for more workers' rights and better contracts. ...

EU finds time to tell restaurants how to serve olive oil

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:11:53 +0530

By Charlie Dunmore BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Critics ridiculed European Union bureaucrats on Saturday for taking time off fighting the euro zone's debt crisis to impose strict new rules on how restaurants serve olive oil. From January 1, 2014, eateries will be banned from serving oil to diners in small glass jugs or dipping bowls, and forced instead to use pre-sealed, non-refillable bottles that must be disposed of when empty. The European Commission said the move is designed to improve hygiene and reassure consumers the olive oil in restaurants has not been diluted with an inferior product. ...

North Korea fires three short-range missiles

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:06:13 +0530

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's Defence Ministry said, prompting Western powers to urge Pyongyang to exercise restraint. Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions raise concerns about the region's security. "North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off its east coast," an official at the South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman's office said by telephone. ...

Nigeria says 10 rebels killed in northeast, 65 arrested

Sat, 18 May 2013 22:39:11 +0530

By Tim Cocks LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's military said on Saturday it had killed 10 insurgents and arrested 65 more as part of an offensive meant to wrest back control of parts of its remote northeast from an Islamist group seen as the main security threat to Africa's top oil producer. President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, had been accused of not taking seriously enough the violence in the largely Muslim north where some fear Islamist insurgents allied to al Qaeda could take over large swathes of territory as they did in Mali before French-led troops ejected them this year. ...

France gets Pentagon backing to buy U.S.-made drones - paper

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:47:09 +0530

PARIS (Reuters) - France has received approval from the U.S. Pentagon to buy two Reaper drones for intelligence gathering, and now only needs backing from Congress, Le Monde newspaper said on Saturday. With its current hardware increasingly outdated, France is urgently trying to build up a modern fleet of drones for surveillance operations in countries such as Mali. Le Monde said France intended to eventually buy a total of five or seven Reapers, built by privately held General Atomics, for 300 million euros. ...

France's Hollande signs gay marriage law

Sat, 18 May 2013 19:30:31 +0530

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande has signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, making France the 14th country to legalise gay weddings. France's official journal announced on Saturday the bill had become law after the Constitutional Council gave it the go-ahead on Friday. The bill, a campaign pledge by the Socialist president, has been for months hotly contested by many conservatives in France, where allowing gay marriage is one of the biggest social reforms since abolition of the death penalty in 1981. ...

Enraged by kidnapping, Egyptian police block Gaza border

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:47:31 +0530

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police angered by the kidnapping of seven colleagues by Islamist gunmen kept a crossing into the Gaza Strip closed again on Saturday, stranding hundreds of Palestinian travellers, witnesses said. The protest began on Friday when police strung barbed wire across the Rafah border post and chained up the gates, local residents said, a day after the abductions. Gunmen demanding the release of jailed Islamist militants had seized seven policemen and soldiers on a road between the Sinai towns of el-Arish and Rafah. ...

Afghan parliament fails to pass divisive women's law

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:21:10 +0530

By Miriam Arghandiwal and Ibrahimi Aziz KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's parliament failed to pass a law on Saturday banning violence against women, a severe blow to progress made in women's rights in the conservative Muslim country since the Islamist Taliban was toppled over a decade ago. President Hamid Karzai approved the law by decree in 2009 and parliament's endorsement was required. But a rift between conservative and more secular members of the assembly resulted in debate being deferred to a later date. ...

France's Hollande's signs gay marriage bill into law

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:42:40 +0530

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande has signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, making France the 14th country to legalise gay weddings. France's official journal announced on Saturday that the bill had become law after the Constitutional Council gave the go-ahead on Friday. The bill, a campaign pledge by the Socialist president, has been hotly contested in France where allowing gay marriage is one of the biggest social reforms since abolition of the death penalty in 1981. ...

Hopes fade for those still trapped in Freeport Indonesia mine

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:05:10 +0530

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc said on Saturday that rockfalls were hampering rescue efforts after a tunnel collapse four days ago at its giant Indonesian copper mine, with hopes fading of finding alive any of the 23 still missing. Freeport closed the world's second largest copper mine on Wednesday, a day after a tunnel fell in on 38 workers undergoing training. Five are known to have died. Several of the 10 rescued are still in hospital. The Grasberg mine in West Papua is in one of the most remote regions of the Indonesian archipelago. ...

Northeast Japan jolted by M5.9 quake, no tsunami warning

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:13:01 +0530

TOKYO (Reuters) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 jolted northeastern Japan on Saturday, but no tsunami warning was issued, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Tokyo Electric Power Co's two nuclear plants in Fukushima reported no new irregularities after the quake, Kyodo news agency said. Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi prefecture further north also detected no irregularities, operator Tohoku Electric Power Co said. In Miyagi prefecture, where the shaking was the strongest, there were no information on injuries, Kyodo added. ...

Commuter trains collide in Connecticut, injuring up to 60 people

Sat, 18 May 2013 08:59:06 +0530

By Michelle McLoughlin FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (Reuters) - A commuter train traveling eastbound from New York City derailed near the Connecticut suburb of Fairfield during the evening rush hour on Friday and collided with a westbound commuter train, injuring up to 60 people, three critically, officials said. The collision of the two Metro North trains forced Amtrak to shut down service indefinitely between New York and Boston, the national railroad said. Three people were critically injured and 60 people were transported to area hospitals, police said. ...

Obama seeks to cut Afghan war spending by 10 percent

Sat, 18 May 2013 07:36:36 +0530

By Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday trimmed his funding request for the war in Afghanistan and other overseas operations by 10 percent, reflecting his plans to wind down the U.S. presence in that country. The president asked for $79.4 billion to fund so-called overseas contingency operations in fiscal 2014, which begins October 1, down from his original $88.5 billion request, a White House aide said. Obama made the request in a letter to Congress. The U.S. ...

Venezuela frees opposition activist jailed over post-vote violence

Sat, 18 May 2013 07:23:07 +0530

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Friday released an opposition activist who had been jailed on accusations of inciting violence in the wake of President Nicolas Maduro's narrow election victory in April. Retired General Antonio Rivero, who government critics described as the first political prisoner of Maduro's government, told a local television station he had been released after nearly three weeks in jail. "Right now I'm just going to focus on my health," Rivero, who had been on hunger strike during part of his detention, told the Globovision station. ...

Former Argentine dictator Videla dies in prison at age 87

Sat, 18 May 2013 05:09:20 +0530

By Hugh Bronstein BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Jorge Rafael Videla, an austere former army commander who led Argentina during the bloodiest period of a "dirty war" dictatorship and was unrepentant about kidnappings and murders ordered by the state, died on Friday at age 87. Videla was the first president to head the military junta that "disappeared" thousands of suspected leftists from 1976 to 1983, and he spent his final years behind bars for human rights crimes including the systematic theft of babies born to political prisoners in secret torture centers. ...

White House fights and loses battle to withhold Benghazi records

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:51:44 +0530

By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's White House fought and lost a battle to avoid making public what it claimed were confidential records of internal deliberations over the attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya last September. Obama administration officials portray their unsuccessful effort to avoid disclosing the records as the end result of a process of "accommodation" which the government's executive branch routinely uses to respond to frequent requests and subpoenas by Congress for sensitive materials. ...

U.N. Security Council mulls Syria cross-border aid push

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:50:44 +0530

By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council is considering a plea from senior U.N. aid officials to demand aid access in war-torn Syria, a move that could lead to a showdown between Russia and Western states over humanitarian cross-border deliveries, U.N. diplomats say. As neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq struggle to cope with the influx of Syrian refugees that the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday has surpassed 1.5 million, U.N. officials have told the Security Council there are millions more people in need of aid inside Syria. ...

IRS chief declines to identify employees involved in scandal

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:47:51 +0530

By Andy Sullivan and Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The outgoing head of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service angered Republican lawmakers on Friday by resisting their demands that he identify who at the tax-collection agency had inappropriately targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny. But during the first hearing into a growing IRS scandal that could preoccupy Washington for months, Republicans did learn that a top official in President Barack Obama's administration knew that the IRS was looking into targeting by the tax agency nearly a year ago. ...

Police clash with youth in Cairo after anti-Mursi protest

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:47:05 +0530

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces clashed with young men in central Cairo after a protest by several thousand opponents of President Mohamed Mursi, state news agency MENA reported. The forces fired tear gas at the youths throwing firebombs and stones at them. Police arrested a number of men, MENA reported. The Friday protest billed as a major demonstration against Mursi drew only a few thousand people, signalling how momentum for protests that erupted around the second anniversary of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak has steadily evaporated. ...

Pentagon chief vows to 'fix' military's sexual assault problem

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:31:07 +0530

By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered top military chiefs on Friday to redouble their effort to address the problem of sexual assault, saying the frequency and perceived tolerance of the crime was eroding the military's ability conduct its mission. "We're going to fix this problem," Hagel told a news conference a day after he and top military leaders met with President Barack Obama to discuss a series of incidents that have reduced confidence in the services' handling of the crime. "The president was very constructive. He was very clear. ...

U.S. chides Russia over Syria missiles as peace plans suffer

Sat, 18 May 2013 03:47:35 +0530

By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States chided Russia for sending missiles to the Syrian government as plans for a peace conference promoted by Washington and Moscow were hit by diplomatic rifts over its scope and purpose. Sectarian bloodshed in neighbouring Iraq during Friday prayers, a hacking attack on a Western newspaper by sympathisers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and defiant comments by a rebel commander filmed eating a slain soldier's flesh were all reminders of how the two-year-old civil war is metastising. ...

Toronto mayor denies smoking crack cocaine

Sat, 18 May 2013 02:45:54 +0530

By Julie Gordon and Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, a target of criticism for his often unconventional conduct, on Friday denied media allegations that he had been caught on video smoking crack cocaine. "Absolutely not true," Ford told reporters gathered outside his west Toronto house, before driving off in his SUV. ...

Kerry to attend Syria talks on May 22, visit Mideast, Africa

Sat, 18 May 2013 02:45:10 +0530

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will attend talks on Syria in Amman on Wednesday, the State Department said, as major powers try to bring the Syrian government and opposition to peace talks in June. Kerry's visit is part of a one-week trip that begins in Oman on Tuesday and includes talks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem and Ramallah on Thursday and Friday as well as an African Union summit in Addis Ababa over the weekend. He then is scheduled to return to Jordan on Sunday to attend the World Economic Forum. ...

Syria government supporters hack Financial Times

Sat, 18 May 2013 02:34:01 +0530

By Jim Finkle and Jennifer Saba REUTERS - The Financial Times' website and Twitter feeds were hacked on Friday, renewing questions about whether the popular social media service has done enough to tighten security as cyber-attacks on the news media intensify. The Syrian Electronic Army, an online group that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was behind the incident which followed a phishing attack on the company's email accounts, FT reported on its website. The attack is the latest in which hackers commandeered the Twitter account of a prominent news organization to push their agenda. ...