ABIDJAN (Reuters) – An al Qaeda-linked group that carried out the raid on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria in January has claimed to have participated in Thursday’s attacks in Niger. A statement posted on the internet on Friday was signed by Khalid Abu al-Abbas, better known as Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a leading figure in [...]
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria’s divided opposition leaders have failed to back a plan by their outgoing leader for President Bashar al-Assad to cede power gradually to end the country’s civil war, highlighting the obstacles to international peace talks expected next month. The 16-point plan proposed by Moaz Alkhatib, who resigned as [...]
By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) – A colliding truck may have triggered the collapse on Thursday of part of a four-lane freeway bridge that sent vehicles and drivers tumbling into a frigid river in Washington state, officials said. A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into what led part of the Interstate 5 [...]
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office said on Thursday it would open an investigation into in a recording the opposition says features a top government ally accusing the deputy head of the ruling Socialist Party of corruption and conspiring against the new president. Opposition deputies on Monday broadcast the recording of a conversation they said [...]
By Marice Richter GRAPEVINE, Texas (Reuters) – The Boy Scouts of America voted on Thursday to lift a century-old ban on openly gay scouts in a major victory for gay rights activists, but the decision means a sea of change for an organization that depends heavily on faith-based groups. More than 60 percent of the [...]
By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) – For the past few months, the Federal Reserve has been squarely in the financial markets’ corner, thanks to its massive dollops of monetary stimulus. But signs that the central bank is discussing reducing that support by purchasing fewer bonds mean that trading is likely to get bumpier in [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators are in the early stages of an antitrust probe into whether Google Inc, the top player in Web display advertising, breaks antitrust law in how it handles some advertising sales, a source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said that it was unlikely that the Federal Trade Commission had sent [...]
By Lisa Lambert and Jonathan Stempel WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker has agreed to a five-year securities industry ban and a record fine to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he broke rules against influence peddling to win bond underwriting business in Massachusetts. Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, [...]
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Institutional Shareholder Services has settled civil charges by U.S. regulators that an employee of the prominent proxy advisory firm shared nonpublic voting data in exchange for meals and concert tickets. The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday that ISS, a unit of MSCI Inc, will pay a [...]
MILAN (Reuters) – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was involved in a tax fraud scheme while he was head of government, a Milan court said in a document released on Thursday explaining its earlier decision to uphold his four-year conviction. Berlusconi’s mounting legal difficulties have created tension in Italy’s fragile coalition government, over which [...]
