Political News from Yahoo

ADB, World Bank to step up work in Myanmar after arrears paid

(Reuters) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Monday it was resuming operations in Myanmar with a $512 million loan for social and economic projects that would help the country build on reforms since a military government stepped down in 2011. In a separate statement, the World Bank said its board had approved a $440 million credit for Myanmar and that, as with the ADB, it was now fully able to support the country's development because debt arrears had been cleared with the help of Japan. ...


Twitter launches advertising services in Middle East

DUBAI (Reuters) - Twitter Inc launched advertising services in the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday as the social media firm seeks to exploit a tripling of its regional subscriber base following its widespread use during the Arab Spring protests. Digital advertising is relatively undeveloped in the region, accounting for an estimated 4 percent of its total advertising spending, but a young, tech-savvy population and rising Internet penetration points to significant potential for growth. ...

Insight: Lawyers in U.S. gay marriage cases aim pitches at Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On separate occasions in recent days, lawyers on opposite sides of a U.S. Supreme Court fight over same-sex marriage took an elevator to the fifth floor of the Department of Justice, entered a large conference room and made a pitch to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and other top Obama administration lawyers. Each side wants the administration's support in a late-March showdown on the fundamental rights of gay men and lesbians. ...

UAE to try 94 over plot to seize power: agency

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has ordered 94 citizens to be tried on charges of seeking to seize power in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab country, the attorney general said in a statement on Sunday. State news agency WAM quoted the attorney general, Salem Saeed Kubaish, as saying the suspects had publicly called for adherence to the Islamic religion when in fact they were secretly plotting to take over the oil-producing country. "Their unannounced aims were to seize power and confronting the main principles which the rule is based on," the statement said. ...

Three people shot dead in Egyptian port city funerals

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Three people were killed in the Egyptian city of Port Said on Sunday when thousands of people held funerals for 33 who died in protests at the weekend, a hospital official in the Mediterranean port said. The head of Port Said hospitals, Abdel Rahman Farag, told Reuters three people were killed by gunshot wounds. One was an 18-year-old man but he did not immediately have further details about the other two victims. Farag also said more than 416 people were injured as a result of teargas inhalation, while 17 suffered gunshot wounds. ...

Leading Democrat: Gun control faces uphill climb

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democrat who's introduced an assault weapon ban acknowledges the measure faces an "uphill climb" to pass Congress but says public support is on her side.


UK: Specific threat to Westerners in Somaliland

LONDON (AP) — British citizens should immediately leave the breakaway Somaliland region of Somalia because of a specific threat to Westerners, British diplomats said Sunday. It was the second such warning issued for an African region in just days and comes amid growing turbulence across the continent's north.

Fraud concerns linger over new Ill. license law

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — As Illinois becomes the fourth and most populous state to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, there are still nagging concerns that the measure doesn't have enough safeguards to avoid the identity fraud and other pitfalls faced by the three other states with similar laws.

Fragile economy, other global woes dominated Davos

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The fragile state of the global economy and a host of other woes — from Syria's escalating war to the rocky fallout from the Arab Spring — dominated the annual meeting of the global elite at Davos, casting a sense of uncertainty and foreboding over what lies ahead.

Obama says rural voices need to be heard in gun debate: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged gun control advocates to listen to views of rural Americans who use guns for hunting and said bridging a cultural divide in attitudes to gun ownership will be critical to his administration's push to curb gun violence. "If you grew up and your dad gave you a hunting rifle when you were 10, and you went out and spent the day with him and your uncles, and that became part of your family's traditions, you can see why you'd be pretty protective of that," Obama said in an interview with The New Republic magazine published on Sunday on its website. ...


Senate Immigration Proposal to Include Pathway to Citizenship

Two senators at the center of negotiations over comprehensive immigration reform, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said on Sunday that a pathway to citizenship is an essential component of a comprehensive reform bill. “That has to be also part of it,”...


Berlusconi defends Mussolini, draws outrage from political left

ROME (Reuters) - Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi triggered outrage from Italy's political left on Sunday with comments defending fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at a ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Speaking at the margins of the event in Milan, Berlusconi said Mussolini had been wrong to follow Nazi Germany's lead in passing anti-Jewish laws but that he had in other respects been a good leader. ...


One man shot dead during Egypt port city funerals

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - An Egyptian man was killed in Port Said on Sunday when thousands of people held funerals for 33 who died in protests at the weekend, a hospital official in the Mediterranean port said. The head of Port Said hospitals, Abdel Rahman Farag, told Reuters the 18-year-old died from a gunshot wound in the chest. He said more than 416 people were injured as a result of teargas inhalation, while 17 suffered gunshot wounds. Many of the 33 people who died in the city on Saturday were killed by gunshots. ...

Kuwait MPs target financial help for citizens

KUWAIT (Reuters) - A parliamentary committee in Kuwait proposed on Sunday that the government pay a portion of the interest on citizens' personal loans and give a 1,000 Kuwaiti dinar ($3,500) gift to each Kuwaiti without such debts, state news agency KUNA reported. The proposal from the financial and economic affairs committee, which is made up of members of parliament, would need approval of the wider assembly and the country's ruler if it is to be passed into law. ...


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