WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - In the latest blow to Toyota Motor Corp, U.S. safety regulators opened a formal probe on Thursday into problems with the brakes of the Prius, the world's top-selling hybrid and a vehicle that has powered the automaker's reputation for fuel-efficiency. The Nikkei newspaper reported that Toyota would recall an estimated 270,000 units of its new Prius in the United States and Japan to fix the brake problem.
WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - In the latest blow to Toyota Motor Corp, U.S. safety regulators opened a formal probe on Thursday into problems with the brakes of the Prius, the world's top-selling hybrid and a vehicle that has powered the automaker's reputation for fuel-efficiency.
The Nikkei newspaper reported that Toyota would recall an estimated 270,000 units of its new Prius in the United States and Japan to fix the brake problem.
LONDON (Reuters) - Rocketing prices in South Africa are causing major concern among World Cup organisers, who fear profiteering could deter more soccer fans than alarmist reporting about violent crime. South African and FIFA officials have angrily condemned what they see as emotional and inaccurate reporting, especially in England and Germany, about the dangers to soccer supporters from some of the world's most violent criminals.
LONDON (Reuters) - Rocketing prices in South Africa are causing major concern among World Cup organisers, who fear profiteering could deter more soccer fans than alarmist reporting about violent crime.
South African and FIFA officials have angrily condemned what they see as emotional and inaccurate reporting, especially in England and Germany, about the dangers to soccer supporters from some of the world's most violent criminals.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday the security situation remained serious but was no longer deteriorating, offering a more upbeat assessment than other U.S. military and intelligence officials. Dire warnings from General Stanley McChrystal and other commanders last summer about the worsening outlook prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to order the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to battle a resurgent Taliban.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday the security situation remained serious but was no longer deteriorating, offering a more upbeat assessment than other U.S. military and intelligence officials.
Dire warnings from General Stanley McChrystal and other commanders last summer about the worsening outlook prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to order the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to battle a resurgent Taliban.
http://www.economist.com/daily/kallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15393952 In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has offered to hold official-level talks with Pakistan, a top Indian government official said on Thursday, signalling a return to bilateral dialogue suspended after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. New Delhi blames the attacks, which killed 166 people, on Pakistan-based militants and wants Islamabad to act against them.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has offered to hold official-level talks with Pakistan, a top Indian government official said on Thursday, signalling a return to bilateral dialogue suspended after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
New Delhi blames the attacks, which killed 166 people, on Pakistan-based militants and wants Islamabad to act against them.
REUTERS - India has offered to hold official-level talks with Pakistan, two Indian television stations said on Thursday, resuming a bilateral dialogue suspended after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. New Delhi blames the attacks, which killed 166 people, on Pakistan-based militants and wants Islamabad to act against them. The TV stations, quoting unnamed official sources, said the talks would be held at foreign-secretary level. They did not say when the meetings might to be held. Pakistan welcomed the offer.
The TV stations, quoting unnamed official sources, said the talks would be held at foreign-secretary level. They did not say when the meetings might to be held.
Pakistan welcomed the offer.
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Blocks from where U.S. and U.N. soldiers distribute sacks of rice to Haitian women in earthquake-shattered Port-au-Prince, street vendors are openly selling rice by the cup from bags stamped with U.S. flags. In the early days after the January 12 earthquake that killed up to 200,000 people and left more than a million homeless, food handouts were often chaotic in the capital. On a couple of occasions, U.N. soldiers fired tear gas into hungry crowds jostling for a limited amount of goods.
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Blocks from where U.S. and U.N. soldiers distribute sacks of rice to Haitian women in earthquake-shattered Port-au-Prince, street vendors are openly selling rice by the cup from bags stamped with U.S. flags.
In the early days after the January 12 earthquake that killed up to 200,000 people and left more than a million homeless, food handouts were often chaotic in the capital. On a couple of occasions, U.N. soldiers fired tear gas into hungry crowds jostling for a limited amount of goods.
PARIS (Reuters) - China told other world powers on Thursday that discussing broader sanctions against Iran was counter-productive, striking a blow to a Western push to rein in Tehran's nuclear programme. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told a conference during a visit to France that Tehran's negotiating position was evolving and he wanted to see more direct talks with Iran. "To talk about sanctions at the moment will complicate the situation and might stand in the way of finding a diplomatic solution," Yang said.
PARIS (Reuters) - China told other world powers on Thursday that discussing broader sanctions against Iran was counter-productive, striking a blow to a Western push to rein in Tehran's nuclear programme.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told a conference during a visit to France that Tehran's negotiating position was evolving and he wanted to see more direct talks with Iran.
"To talk about sanctions at the moment will complicate the situation and might stand in the way of finding a diplomatic solution," Yang said.
AFP- French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Wednesday he would ask the United Nations to adopt a new resolution against Iran over its nuclear programme, which would include "strong sanctions". "The Iranian regime has not taken our offers of dialogue ... the time has therefore come to react," he said. "We will seek in the United Nations the adoption of a new resolution comprising strong sanctions and the European Union will also equally assume its responsibilites," he added. Iran is already under three sets of sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council for its refusal to stop enriching uranium, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors but also fissile material for an atomic bomb.
Iran needs electrical power to industrialize and they are, willy-nilly, going to develop sources of power generation. What the West should be doing is encouraging them to develop sustainable wind and solar power generating infrastructures rather than pouring money down the rat-hole of nuclear power.
The question of Iranian nuclear weapons is beside the point. IF they want 'em and are willing to direct the resources to getting 'em ... they'll get 'em - nuclear power stations or not.
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has eased some curbs it placed on black market trading, the South's spy agency said on Thursday, rolling back part of what was widely seen as a policy blunder that caused unrest in the authoritarian state. The North's impoverished citizens have increasingly turned to the black market for essentials not provided by the broken state distribution system after a famine in the late 1990s killed about five percent of the population.
The North's impoverished citizens have increasingly turned to the black market for essentials not provided by the broken state distribution system after a famine in the late 1990s killed about five percent of the population.
BOGOTA (Reuters) - A top Colombian judge has recommended that the country's highest court reject a proposal to allow President Alvaro Uribe to seek re-election in May, local media reported on Thursday. The judge's report cast new doubt on the political future of Uribe, a key Washington ally popular at home for his U.S.-backed security drive against leftist rebels and with Wall Street for his pro-investment policies. Citing court sources, local newspapers and radio reported Constitutional Court Judge Humberto Sierra had recommended in a confidential paper that his fellow magistrates rule against the re-election proposal due to legal irregularities.
BOGOTA (Reuters) - A top Colombian judge has recommended that the country's highest court reject a proposal to allow President Alvaro Uribe to seek re-election in May, local media reported on Thursday.
The judge's report cast new doubt on the political future of Uribe, a key Washington ally popular at home for his U.S.-backed security drive against leftist rebels and with Wall Street for his pro-investment policies.
Citing court sources, local newspapers and radio reported Constitutional Court Judge Humberto Sierra had recommended in a confidential paper that his fellow magistrates rule against the re-election proposal due to legal irregularities.
I am also wishing to be proven wrong. "Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government called on Thursday for a special session of parliament and branded as illegal an appeals panel decision to suspend a ban on candidates suspected of ties to an outlawed party until after an election. Political wrangling is heating up ahead of the March 7 vote, seen as a crucial test for Iraq as it emerges from years of conflict unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion and tries to make peace between once dominant Sunnis and the Shi'ite majority. The appeals panel said candidates barred by the Justice and Accountability Commission -- set up to ensure Saddam Hussein's Baath party did not return to public life -- could stand in the poll, but would still have a case to answer.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government called on Thursday for a special session of parliament and branded as illegal an appeals panel decision to suspend a ban on candidates suspected of ties to an outlawed party until after an election.
Political wrangling is heating up ahead of the March 7 vote, seen as a crucial test for Iraq as it emerges from years of conflict unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion and tries to make peace between once dominant Sunnis and the Shi'ite majority.
The appeals panel said candidates barred by the Justice and Accountability Commission -- set up to ensure Saddam Hussein's Baath party did not return to public life -- could stand in the poll, but would still have a case to answer.
Haiti has charged 10 US missionaries with child abduction and criminal conspiracy for allegedly trying to smuggle children out of the country.If convicted they face lengthy jail terms, says the BBC's Paul Adams at the court hearing in Haiti's quake-hit capital, Port-au-Prince. When stopped on the border last Friday, they said they were taking the children to a Dominican Republic orphanage. But it has emerged some of the 33 youngsters had parents who were alive.
Haiti has charged 10 US missionaries with child abduction and criminal conspiracy for allegedly trying to smuggle children out of the country.
If convicted they face lengthy jail terms, says the BBC's Paul Adams at the court hearing in Haiti's quake-hit capital, Port-au-Prince.
When stopped on the border last Friday, they said they were taking the children to a Dominican Republic orphanage.
But it has emerged some of the 33 youngsters had parents who were alive.
they will be hung out to dry as a warning to others. Not that it would matter, those with bad intent would never do something so stupid. keep to the Fen Causeway
Baptists from the USA. They were probably wacko proselytizing fundies, and thought Gawd approves. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Which God, of course, needed the agency of these fundies to be able to lavish. Having just slipped up in the expression of His love by putting the kids through a 200K-death earthquake.
God is such a wanker.
"The critical question is: At what level will the American public be comfortable with Google sharing information with NSA?" said Ellen McCarthy, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an organization of current and former intelligence and national security officials that seeks ways to foster greater sharing of information between government and industry. Read more...
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GOOG still in China. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
