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At least 20 hurt as two trains collide in Connecticut
REUTERS - Some 20 to 25 people were injured on Friday when two trains collided on a commuter line near Fairfield, Connecticut, but there were no reports of fatalities, police and transit authorities said on Friday. The accident occurred when an eastbound train on the Metro North Railroad derailed and collided
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Myanmar frees political prisoners before president goes to U.S.
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's government has freed 23 political prisoners, a senior interior ministry official said on Friday, the day President Thein Sein was due to leave for a landmark visit to the United States. The official declined to be identified and would not provide the names of those released or
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Factbox: Rising Syrian death toll, refugee wave
REUTERS - Here is a look at the rising human cost of Syria's civil war: DEATH TOLL IN SYRIA- The United Nations said on May 15 the death toll in Syria from the two-year-old civil war is at least 80,000, an increase of about 10,000 from February 2013.- The Syrian Observatory
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Organ donor cards hard to implement in China, official says
BEIJING (Reuters) - A system of donor cards indicating consent for organ transplants will not work in China as families will insist on having the final say, and many people see nothing wrong in using organs from executed prisoners, an official said on Friday. Nearly 1.5 million people in China need
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Hedge funds back to selling gold after propping market a month ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hedge funds and other big speculators in commodities have started selling gold in a big way, trade data showed on Friday, just a month after they had supported the precious metal amid a record tumble in its price. Money managers, including hedge funds, pulled $1.4 billion from
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Former Argentine dictator Videla dies in prison at age 87
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Jorge Rafael Videla, an austere former army commander who led Argentina during the bloodiest period of a "dirty war" dictatorship and was unrepentant about kidnappings and murders ordered by the state, died on Friday at age 87. Videla was the first president to head the military junta
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Dollar near 10-month peak on Fed remarks; Asian shares mixed
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The dollar held firm near a 10-month high versus a basket of currencies on Friday after a regional Federal Reserve chief said the U.S. central bank may begin to taper its asset buying this summer, while Asian shares were mixed. European stock index futures pointed to a lower
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IRS chief declines to identify employees involved in scandal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The outgoing head of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service angered Republican lawmakers on Friday by resisting their demands that he identify who at the tax-collection agency had inappropriately targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny. But during the first hearing into a growing IRS scandal that could preoccupy Washington
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ABN AMRO cuts 400 jobs as prepares for eventual sale
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - State-owned Dutch bank ABN AMRO is to cut 400 jobs, about 2 percent of its workforce, as it prepares for an eventual sale. The bank, which on Friday posted first-quarter results hit by bad loans in its home market, said the cuts are part of a reorganisation of
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Pentagon chief vows to ‘fix’ military’s sexual assault problem
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered top military chiefs on Friday to redouble their effort to address the problem of sexual assault, saying the frequency and perceived tolerance of the crime was eroding the military's ability conduct its mission. "We're going to fix this problem," Hagel told a news