Other News

Officials consider underwater robot launch for Malaysia jet

(Reuters) – Australian officials leading the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the southern Indian Ocean are weighing when to deploy an underwater robot to aid in the hunt, now in its sixth fruitless week. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared soon after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, triggering a multinational search that is now focused on the Indian Ocean. […]

Reforms to IMF hit serious deadlock: G20 official

By Lidia Kelly WASHINGTON Sun Apr 13, 2014 2:16am EDT (Reuters) – Reforms to the International Monetary Fund have hit a deadlock despite a declaration from global financial chiefs that they would move forward without the United States if it fails to ratify the changes by year-end, a G20 official said on Sunday. The inability to proceed with giving emerging markets a more powerful voice at the IMF and shoring up the lender’s resources appeared […]

Yen gains, stocks brace for losses on Wall St. gloom

By Lisa Twaronite   TOKYO Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:00pm EDT (Reuters) – The safe-haven yen started the week on a firm footing and Asian shares braced for more losses on Monday after a dismal week on Wall Street. Ongoing tensions in Ukraine also sapped investors’ appetite for risk. Ukraine gave pro-Russian separatists a Monday morning deadline to disarm or face a “full-scale anti-terrorist operation” by its armed forces, raising the risk of a military […]

IPCC climate report from Berlin finds UN emissions target not out of reach

A UN panel believes the world could meet a maximum target for global warming if it significantly cuts annual emissions by 2050. According to a report, however, few nations are doing enough to meet the stated goal. Annual emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases must drop 40-70 percent by 2050 to keep the global temperature rise below the 2-degree Celsius (3.6-degree F), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced in a report released […]

Ukraine tries to clear pro-Russian rebels, reports dead on both sides

(Reuters) – Ukrainian security forces launched an operation on Sunday to clear pro-Russian separatists from a police headquarters in the eastern city of Slaviansk, with Kiev reporting dead on both sides as it combats what it calls an act of aggression by Moscow. Ukraine faces a rash of rebellions in the east which it says are inspired and directed by the Kremlin. But action to dislodge the armed militants risks tipping the stand-off into a […]

Bird flu outbreak reported in Japan

Japan has ordered the killing of more than 100,000 chickens after officials confirmed bird flu infections at a poultry farm in the south. It is the first confirmed outbreak in the country since 2011. DNA tests confirmed the H5 strain of the bird flu virus at a farm in Japan’s southern prefecture of Kumamoto after its owner reported on Saturday more than 1,000 sudden deaths among his poultry, the Agriculture Ministry announced in a statement […]

Tsunami warning for Solomon Islands lifted

A tsunami warning has cancelled the region surrounding the Solomon Islands. The alert followed a 7.6-magnitude earthquake. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center dropped its alert for the Solomon Islands on Sunday, roughly two hours after it had originally issued a tsunami warning for the region, including Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. In a bulletin posted on its website, the center warned of dangerous sailing conditions even though the threat of a tsunami had […]

Act fast to curb global warming, or extract CO2 from air: U.N.

The study, drawing on the work of more than 1,000 experts, said a shift from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy such as wind, solar or nuclear power was affordable and would shave only about 0.06 percentage point a year off world economic growth. “We have a window of opportunity for the next decade, and maximum the next two decades” to act at moderate costs, said Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of a Berlin meeting of the Intergovernmental […]

Ukraine moves to retake Slovyansk buildings from Russia sympathizers

Ukraine’s government has launched an assault on separatists in an eastern town of Slovyansk. The move comes one day after pro-Russia activists seized government buildings in the city amid warnings of a crackdown by Kyiv. On Sunday, Ukraine’s government launched an “anti-terrorist operation” in Slovyansk, a town about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the Russian border, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said. “Units from all of the country’s force structures are participating,” Avakov wrote on his […]

No new clues reported as Chinese plane returns from search for missing Malaysian airliner

(Reuters) — A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft returned to Perth International airport on Sunday (April 13) to resume the search for debris from the missing Malaysian airliner as efforts continue to home in on the aircraft’s black box flight recorders. Sunday’s search consisted of the P8 Poseidon and 10 other aircraft along with 14 ships, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said. The air and sea search continues trying to narrow the underwater search area for the deployment of the Autonomous […]

Filipino boxing fans cheer Pacquiao’s victory against Bradley

(Reuters) —  Boxing fans in Manila cheered Manny Pacquiao’s victory against American boxer Timothy Bradley for the World Boxing Organization Welterweight title on Sunday (April 13). Around 3,000 people packed a public park in the eastern Manila suburb of Marikina, braving sweltering heat, to watch the live telecast of the Las Vegas bout. Fans cheered each time Pacquiao landed a jab, and shouted words of support whenever Bradley counter-punched. By the end of round 12, the crowd kept cheering for their boxing hero, […]

Pacquiao defeats Bradley to regain title

(Reuters) – Manny Pacquiao scored a unanimous decision win over Timothy Bradley to regain the WBO welterweight title on Saturday and avenge a highly controversial loss to the American in June 2012. Two judges scored the fight 116-112 for Pacquiao, while a third saw it as a 118-110 win for the Filipino. In their previous fight, Bradley was awarded a split decision victory that many observers felt Pacquiao had won clearly. “He threw a lot […]