What's in the News

Putin: will help find ‘positive results’ in Syria

World News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:16:32 +0000

Russia wants to help U.N. envoy Kofi Annan achieve "positive results" and prevent an all-out civil war in Syria, President Vladimir Putin said in Germany on Friday.

Annan ‘impatient and frustrated’ over Syria

World News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:15:36 +0000

Saying he is "impatient and frustrated," special envoy Kofi Annan called on the Syrian president Friday to implement a U.N.-brokered peace plan following a horrific weekend massacre that killed more than 100 people.

Suu Kyi gets ovation at first international speech

World News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:15:34 +0000

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi basked in a long-overdue standing ovation at her first speech before an international audience Friday, but quickly shifted the focus from herself to Myanmar's many needs — and how the world can help.

Verdict due Monday in Denmark cartoons plot trial

Politics News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:14:54 +0000

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A Danish court has said it will deliver a verdict on Monday on four men accused of planning a "Mumbai-style" attack on a Danish newspaper whose publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in 2005 prompted a Muslim outcry. The men, three Swedes and a Tunisian, have pleaded not guilty, denying allegations they had planned to kill many people at the Copenhagen offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. One of the accused has pleaded guilty to illegally possessing weapons, a charge the others have denied. ...

Russia security chief says foreign sites foment protests

World News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:12:55 +0000

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's top security adviser said on Friday that foreign-based websites were being used to foment anti-Kremlin protests, a sign authorities are seeking means to hamper access to social media sites used by activists. Opposition leaders and ordinary Russians used Facebook to organize a wave of winter rallies which attracted tens of thousands of people onto Moscow's streets to protest alleged fraud by Putin's ruling party in a December 4 parliamentary election. ...

Romney says May jobs report is ‘devastating news’

Politics News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:07:46 +0000

Mitt Romney says the monthly jobs report released Friday is "devastating news" for workers and their families.

Economy, jobs market faces "serious headwinds": White House

Politics News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:05:56 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top White House economist said on Friday the May jobless figures show the economy is growing but not fast enough and that it still faces "serious headwinds" from the euro-zone crisis and gas price spikes. "Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight," Alan Krueger said in a statement after the Labor Department reported that employers added only 69,000 jobs last month and the unemployment ticked up to 8.2 percent. ...

Obama administration says jobless rate rise unacceptable

Politics News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:58:43 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration called on Congress to do more to help the economy create jobs, with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis saying May's rise in the unemployment rate was unacceptable. "Congress has to take some action because while we see the unemployment rate where it is, it's not acceptable," Solis told the CNBC network on Friday. Earlier, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point in May to 8.2 percent. The department also said employers added just 69,000 people to payrolls during the month, the weakest increase in a year. ...

Jobless rate now a leading political indicator

Politics News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:54:55 +0000

The weak May unemployment report presents President Barack Obama with a sobering reminder that his stewardship of a gradual recovery from the deepest recession since the Great Depression presents a tenuous argument for his re-election.

Turkey tells U.N., aid donors to move to Somalia

World News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:53:35 +0000

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The United Nations should beef up its operation in Somalia, and other countries who want to help the war-torn state should actually move in and set up bases there, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Erdogan's direct remarks at a international conference on Somalia in Istanbul, the second hosted in Turkey in two years, were a sign of his administration's growing clout and ambitions in Africa. "Without living there you cannot devise the correct policies and you cannot help. ...

Erratic Greek polls fail to unlock vote riddle

World News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:49:28 +0000

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's June 17 national election is being cast as make-or-break for its future in the euro and the currency bloc itself, but if you're looking to opinion polls for guidance, think again. With a little over two weeks to go and despite the vote's apparently historic importance, polls have thrown up wildly different scenarios of what the outcome might be. ...

Yemeni militants say they release 27 soldiers

World News Headlines - Yahoo! News — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:41:02 +0000

SANAA (Reuters) - A Yemeni Islamist group linked to al Qaeda said on Friday it had released 27 soldiers taken prisoner, after they vowed to quit the U.S.-backed government army. Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic law) said in a statement it had seized the soldiers last month in Abyan province in the south of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state. Yemeni troops continued bombing targets in the Shaqra and Arqoub regions of Abyan for a fifth day on Thursday, part of an army offensive against the militants. There was no news of casualties. ...