Political News from Yahoo
Serbia, Kosovo presidents to hold first talks since secession
BELGRADE/PRISTINA (Reuters) - The presidents of Serbia and Kosovo will hold talks next week in Brussels for the first time since Serbia's former province seceded in 2008, officials said, in the latest sign of progress in EU-mediated talks to reconcile the neighbors. The February 6 meeting will be the first between Serbia's Tomislav Nikolic, once a firebrand advocate of the Greater Serbia policy that fomented the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, and Atifete Jahjaga of majority-Albanian Kosovo. ...
Jordan staggers under fallout of Syria conflict
AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan has every reason to worry about the conflict in Syria, its bigger neighbor to the north. A flood of Syrian refugees and disrupted trade due to the 22-month-old revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burden a frail economy that has already had to turn to the IMF. Any emergence of Islamist rule in a post-Assad Syria could embolden Islamists who are the main opposition group in Jordan. And rising Islamist militancy among Syrian insurgents threatens the security of the Western-backed kingdom next door. ...
U.S. proposes contraceptives rules for religious nonprofits
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration laid out its blueprint for providing contraceptive coverage for employees at nonprofit religious organizations on Friday, proposing rules that would contain benefits within separate individual insurance plans without cost to the employer. The new rules, which would be used to implement one of the most controversial provisions of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, follow months of protest and legal action by the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant evangelicals and others groups who oppose the measure as a violation of religious liberty. ...
Brazil nightclub owners, band detained 30 more days after fire
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A judge in southern Brazil ordered 30 more days of detention on Friday for the owners of a nightclub and band members involved in a fire that killed 236 in the college town of Santa Maria last weekend. The order came after a 20-year-old woman succumbed to her injuries late Thursday, pushing up the death toll from the country's second most deadly fire ever. Civil defense authorities in Rio Grande do Sul, the state where Santa Maria is located, said the victim suffered a heart attack while struggling with injuries that included burns on more than half her body. ...
RBS to get Libor punishment next week: sources
LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland will next week agree a settlement with U.S. and British authorities for its part in a global rate rigging scandal, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. The bank is expected to be fined between 400 and 500 million pounds ($793 million) for the attempted rigging of the London interbank offered rate (Libor) and other benchmark interest rates. Details of the punishments will be revealed on Tuesday or Wednesday, the sources said. RBS and the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) declined to comment. ...
Mysterious YouTube video accuses Russia's Medvedev of treason
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev is glimpsed exchanging confidential smiles with Barack Obama as sinister music plays. The dead body of Russian ally Muammar Gaddafi, driven from power by the West, is dragged through the dirt. A camera homes in on the prime minister sweating and shifting uneasily in his chair. The word 'treason' is uttered by a narrator. A more than hour-long Internet video employs methods reminiscent of the Soviet past in excoriating a prime minister already laboring in President Vladimir Putin's shadow. ...
Carney says US embassy attack 'an act of terror'
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Jay Carney is calling the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey "an act of terror."
White House says expects Hagel to be confirmed by Senate despite rocky hearing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday he believes former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who had a rocky confirmation hearing on Thursday, will be confirmed by the Senate as U.S. defense secretary. Carney told reporters he believed the number of votes in favor of Hagel's confirmation had increased a day after Hagel came under withering fire from Republican senators for his prior comments on Iraq and Iran. "We expect the Senate to confirm Senator Hagel to the position of secretary of defense," said Carney. ...
Energy Secretary Chu says will stay at post past end: February
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a resignation letter on Friday that he intends to remain in his post past the end of February to help the department find a successor. "In the short term, I plan to stay on as Secretary past the ARPA-E Summit at the end of February," he said in the letter referring to an annual the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy conference that ends on February 27. "I may stay beyond that time so that I can leave the department in the hands of the new Secretary," he added in the letter sent to colleagues. ...
White House says motivation not clear for U.S. embassy bombing in Turkey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said it is not yet clear who is responsible for a suicide bombing on Friday at the U.S. embassy in Turkey, the second attack on a U.S. mission in four months "The attack itself was clearly an act of terror," said Jay Carney, White House spokesman, in a briefing with reporters. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Obama offers faith groups new birth control rule
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Friday announced a new accommodation for religious nonprofits that object to providing health insurance that covers birth control.
Nigeria says helicopter strike kills 17 Islamist fighters
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian authorities said on Friday security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 17 militants and destroyed two training camps belonging to Islamist sect Boko Haram, one in a forest and one in a game reserve. Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for joint military and police forces in Borno state, said one soldier had also been killed in the firefights, which cast fresh doubt on a ceasefire declared by one purported Boko Haram commander this week. "The camp was properly ... ...
Colombian forces kill FARC commander close to chief negotiator
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian government forces have killed a FARC brigade commander close to the Marxist group's chief peace negotiator, the defense minister said on Friday, as combat heats up after the expiration of a unilateral guerrilla ceasefire. Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said that Jacobo Arango, a FARC commander in a northwestern area straddling Cordoba and Antioquia provinces, a known drug route, was among six rebels killed in an assault on Thursday. "It's a strike of great importance," he told reporters. ...
U.S. holds key to improving Russia ties: Putin aide
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Strained Russian-U.S. ties will not improve unless Washington stops openly criticizing Moscow's human rights record and supporting President Vladimir Putin's foes, the top foreign policy official in the Russian parliament said. Relations between the Cold War-era rivals took a dive after Putin's return to the Kremlin in May, undermining a 2009 initiative by President Barack Obama and Russia's then-president Dmitry Medvedev, a more liberal Putin protégé, to "reset" ties. ...
Germany says unfreezing Rwandan aid but to watch progress on Congo
KIGALI (Reuters) - Germany said on Friday it will unblock 7 million euros in frozen aid to Rwanda, which the U.N. accuses of helping arm rebels in neighboring Congo, but warned the African state will be under continued international pressure over its links with M23 rebels. Germany joined the United States and several other European states in partially suspending aid to Rwanda after U.N. experts said senior Rwandan military officials have equipped, trained and directly commanded M23 rebels who in November briefly seized the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. ...
Energy Secretary Chu to step down
WASHINGTON (AP) — Energy Secretary Steven Chu is stepping down.
Hong Kong aims at smugglers in bid to stop run on baby formula milk
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong introduced measures on Friday to tackle a shortage of baby milk formula as food-safety-conscious mainland Chinese people flock to the city to stock up on supplies ahead of a Lunar New Year holiday. The Hong Kong government cut the luggage allowance on trains that connect the city to the mainland to 23 kg (50 lb) from 32 kg (70 lb) and limited the number of cans of milk powder a person can take back into the mainland to two per visit. ...
Court denies reporter's bid for AIG reports
WASHINGTON (AP) — An appeals court has turned down a reporter's effort to see an independent consultant's reports for American International Group, Inc.
