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Aging veterans build online honor roll of fallen comrades

Air Force veteran Don Skinner, 83, wakes at dawn's early light, downs a cholesterol pill, blood thinner and some instant coffee then boots up his computer to spend eight hours each day telling war stories of the fallen who can't speak for themselves. The reverential routine is a calling for Skinner, the oldest of 200 volunteers who create online profiles of men and women who died in the line of duty. These accounts can be viewed in a Roll of Honor on the website Togetherweserved.com, an online meeting place for veterans and their loved ones. "These people's stories have got to be told," said Skinner, who was awarded a Purple Heart Medal and a Bronze Star Medal as a commanding sergeant who tended to his wounded comrades during an assault in Vietnam in 1968 despite being critically wounded himself. His service from 1949 to 1974 included the Korean War. Between treatments for bladder and colon cancer, Skinner, a widower living in Aiken, South Carolina, has resea

World Cup a minefield for Brazil's Rousseff in election year

The script was simple enough: host the soccer World Cup, win it for a record sixth time and ride a wave of national euphoria to another four years in power. Yet Brazil's ruling Workers' Party may find it's not that easy. Recent history shows little correlation between being crowned world soccer champions and winning elections, despite endless speculation to the contrary among Brazilians of all political stripes. At best, President Dilma Rousseff could get a temporary bump from a victory for the heavily-fancied home team in July but it would likely wear off in a few weeks, leaving more than two months for reality to set back in before election day on October 5. At worst, a disastrous early exit from the tournament could add to frustrations with the way class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Brazil is run and fuel a growing desire for change. With no home team to root for, more Brazilians might feel tempted to join anti-World Cup street protests, creating a potentia

Egyptian crackdown risks spreading instability abroad, Islamist says

A former Muslim Brotherhood leader has warned that government oppression in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Egypt is fanning militancy that will pose a threat abroad unless the army-backed authorities start respecting freedom and human rights. Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, who left the Brotherhood in 2011, said that once former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wins a presidential election this week - as is widely expected - he had two choices: restore Egypt's path to democracy, or risk more instability that will dash hopes for economic development. In an interview with Reuters, Abol Fotouh predicted wider consequences flowing from the crackdown launched last year after the military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's first democratically-elected president. He noted, for example, how past oppression in the Middle East had bred radicalism of the type that led to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. "The world around us m

Exclusive: Fugitive Thai minister says army led government into trap

Thailand's top generals lured the former government and its supporters into a trap by arranging peace talks between political heavyweights then seizing power in a coup moments later, a deposed minister said on Sunday. Speaking to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, ousted Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang said he was suspicious of army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha's motives for declaring martial law on Tuesday, then calling all key players in the crisis to the negotiating table two days later. "I felt something wasn't right. I tried to warn cabinet members, but I couldn't get the message across in time," Chaturon said. "It was a trap. They'd planned it earlier, then they staged the coup and ordered the other Puea Thai Party members to report to them. I knew something was wrong," he said, referring to the ruling party of ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Chaturon was describing Thursday's meeting at the Army

Thai protesters test military's resolve

Thailand's military tightened its grip on power on Sunday as it moved to quell growing protests, saying anyone violating its orders would be tried in military court. It also took its first steps to revitalize a battered class="mandelbrot_refrag"> economy , saying nearly a million farmers owned money under the previous government's failed rice-subsidy scheme would be paid within a month. The military overthrew the government on Thursday after months of debilitating and at times violent confrontation between the populist government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and the royalist establishment. Critics say the coup will not end the conflict between the rival power networks: the Bangkok-based elite dominated by the military and the bureaucracy, and an upstart clique led by Yingluck's brother and former telecommunication mogul Thaksin Shinawatra. The Shinawatras draw much of their influence from the provinces. The military detained numerous people incl

Even before he is crowned, India's Modi struts the global stage

Narendra Modi will be sworn in on Monday as India's prime minister at a glittering ceremony that will be as much a show of his determination to be a key player on the global stage as a celebration of his stunning election victory. For the first time in India's history, a clutch of South Asian leaders will be among the guests watching Modi's inauguration at the presidential palace in New Delhi - including the prime minister of arch-rival class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Pakistan , Nawaz Sharif. Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies swept India's elections this month, ousting the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in a seismic political shift that has given his party a mandate for sweeping economic reform. Even before his inauguration, Modi made waves on the global stage, where once he was treated by many with suspicion - and by some as a pariah - for a rash of Hindu-Muslim violence that erupted 12 years ago in Gujarat, the western state

In pointed moves, Pope prays at Bethlehem wall, invites leaders to Vatican

Pope Francis completes a tour of the Holy Land on Monday, paying homage to Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust and looking to affirm Christian rights at a disputed place of worship in Jerusalem. After visits to Jordan and the Palestinian Territories - including praying at the wall dividing Bethlehem from Jerusalem, Francis spends the third and final day of his trip in the latter with a slate of political and religious encounters and visits to some of the most sensitive holy sites in the world. Francis has used his trip so far to plea for an end to the generations-old Middle East conflict, inviting the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to join him in the Vatican early next month and pray for peace. Both Shimon Peres, who plays no decision-making role in Israeli diplomacy, and Mahmoud Abbas accepted the offer. It follows the collapse of U.S.-backed peace talks last month, and there was little hope that the highly unusual encounter could break decades of mutual mistrust and deadlock.

China's state-owned sector told to cut ties with U.S. consulting firms

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China has told its state-owned enterprises to sever links with American consulting firms just days after the United States charged five Chinese military officers with hacking U.S. companies, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. _0"> China's action, which targets companies like McKinsey & Company and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), stems from fears the firms are providing trade secrets to the U.S. government, the FT reported, citing unnamed sources close to senior Chinese leaders. "We haven't received any notification of this kind," said Margaret Kashmir, a spokeswoman for Strategy& - formerly Booz & Company - in an email, adding that serving clients in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China and globally continues to be the company's main priority. "We are unaware of any government mandates," added Bain & Company spokeswoman Cheryl Krauss. A McKinsey spokeswoman did not

California gunman, in manifesto, said police nearly thwarted plot

A 22-year-old man who killed six people before taking his own life in a rampage through a California college town said in a chilling manifesto that police who knocked on his door last month to check on his welfare nearly foiled his plot. Elliot Rodger, the son of a Hollywood director, stabbed three people to death in his apartment before gunning down three more victims on Friday night in the town of Isla Vista near the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). Rodger, who posted a threatening video railing against women online shortly before his rampage, stalked Isla Vista in his car and on foot, firing on bystanders in a killing spree that ended when he killed himself after a shootout with sheriff's deputies, police said. But less than a month before his attacks, after he had planned the killings and obtained the guns he would use, the community college student opened his door to a knock to find about seven officers looking for him. "I had the stri

'Chocolate King' Poroshenko claims victory in Ukraine presidential poll

Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire chocolate manufacturer, claimed the Ukrainian presidency with an emphatic election victory on Sunday, taking on a fraught mission to quell pro-Russian rebels and steer his fragile nation closer to the West. A veteran survivor of Ukraine's feuding political class who threw his weight and money behind the revolt that brought down his Moscow-backed predecessor three months ago, the burly 48-year-old won 55 percent in exit polls on a first-round ballot marred by the reality that millions were unable to vote in the troubled eastern regions. Results will not be announced until Monday but runner-up Yulia Tymoshenko, on 13 percent, made clear she would concede, sparing the country a tense three weeks until a runoff round. Poroshenko, known as the "Chocolate King", has no time to lose to make good on pledges to end "war" with separatists in the Russian-speaking east, negotiate a stable new relationship with Moscow and rescue an class

Obama, in Afghanistan, says he will make troop announcement soon

President class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Barack Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan on Sunday to visit U.S. forces who are wrapping up a 13-year mission and signaled that he intends to keep a small number of troops in the country for training and counter-terrorism operations. Cheers erupted among the hundreds of U.S. troops gathered in a Bagram hangar when Obama said that at the end of this year, "America's war in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Afghanistan will come to a responsible end." With Afghanistan immersed in a runoff election to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, Obama did not meet Afghan government officials nor travel to the capital Kabul. Karzai has long been out of favor with Washington over his refusal to sign a bilateral security agreement to allow U.S. troops to stay beyond 2014. Obama's fourth visit to Afghanistan came as he faces criticism at home over a foreign policy often derided as too passive in dealin

French far right poised for win as Europe votes on 'Super Sunday'

Marine Le Pen's far right National Front scored a stunning first victory in European Parliament elections in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> France on Sunday as critics of the European Union registered a continent-wide protest vote against austerity and mass unemployment. Without waiting for the final result, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls went on television to call the breakthrough by the anti-immigration, anti-euro party in one of the EU's founding nations "an earthquake" for class="mandelbrot_refrag"> France and Europe. Anti-establishment far right and hard left parties, their scores magnified by another low turnout, gained ground in many countries although in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Germany , the EU's biggest member state with the largest number of seats, the pro-European center ground held firm, according to exit polls. A jubilant Le Pen, whose party beat President Francois Hollande's ruling Socialists in

Libyan premier wins congress backing after ex-general's threats

Libya's new Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq won a vote of confidence from parliament on Sunday in defiance of a renegade former army general who has challenged the assembly's legitimacy. Maiteeq, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, was initially elected two weeks ago after a chaotic parliamentary session that some lawmakers had rejected as illegal. Libya's legislature is at the center of a growing standoff between rogue former general, Khalifa Haftar, with a loose alliance of anti-Islamist militias, and pro-Islamist factions positioning for influence in the North African country. The Europe Union's special envoy on Sunday called the crisis Libya's worst since the 2011 war ousted Muammar Gaddafi, with the fragile government struggling to control brigades of former rebels and militias who are now key powerbrokers. Lawmakers met on Sunday under heavy security to vote to approve Maiteeq's government, a week after militia forces claiming loyalty to Haftar attacked t

Colombians vote for president with peace talks in the balance

Opposition candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga won most votes in Colombia's presidential election on Sunday but fell short of a first-round victory and will face President Juan Manuel Santos in a runoff that casts doubts over peace talks with Marxist rebels. Zuluaga had 29.3 percent support and Santos trailed on 25.6 percent with returns in from almost 99 percent of voting tables. They had needed more then 50 percent for victory so will now go to a runoff on June 15. The election was largely seen as a plebiscite on Santos' strategy of negotiating a peace deal with Marxist guerrillas to end a 50-year-old war that has killed some 200,000 people. Zuluaga, a right-wing former class="mandelbrot_refrag"> finance minister, accuses Santos of pandering to terrorists and has suggested he would scrap the peace talks in favor of U.S.-backed military campaigns similar to those led by his mentor, former President Alvaro Uribe. "Security is important to us; we are 100 perce

Russian minister hopeful of solution for Visa, Mastercard

Russian class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Thursday he was confident a "reasonable solution" would be found for Visa and Mastercard after the credit and debit card companies complained about tightened regulations in Russia. _0"> Visa and Mastercard have stopped serving several Russian class="mandelbrot_refrag"> banks because of U.S. sanctions and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Russia has obliged them to pay a security deposit of 25 percent of their average daily turnover in Russia to the central bank once a quarter from July 1 - a move that the U.S. firms said would create significant complications for their class="mandelbrot_refrag"> business in Russia. "We want to meet with Visa and Mastercard, we will talk about how to work. I have no doubts that we will find a reasonable solution," Siluanov told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.   true       (Report

Israel welcomes tech-hungry Chinese investors

China's purchase of a controlling stake in Israel's largest food maker reflects a broader surge in Chinese investment in an economy largely tethered to Western markets. The deal, announced on Thursday, gives China access to Israel's high tech expertise, cachet among consumers made wary by domestic food production scandals and an alternative place to put their money amid trade obstacles from a wary United States. In return, China offers a large market and source of funding at a time of growing calls, especially in Europe, for a boycott of Israel over its failure to make peace with the Palestinians. Overshadowed by its high profile move into Africa, China's role in Israel as been growing fast, despite concern among Israelis that strategic assets may slip from their grasp. Economy Ministry chief scientist Avi Hasson said the country was second last year after the United States in terms of joint projects between Israel and foreign firms backed by his office, which fu

PSA to build next Citroen C3 compact in Slovakia: sources

PSA Peugeot Citroen plans to build its next C3 compact model in Slovakia instead of class="mandelbrot_refrag"> France , sources close to the French carmaker told Reuters on Thursday. The move is part of a strategy to switch production of mass-market small cars away from Western Europe where costs are considered too high and instead build higher-end models in the region. "They're starting technical operations on the new Citroen model in the coming weeks... it's going to be in eastern Europe, in Trnava," one source close to the matter told Reuters. Two other sources close to the car group confirmed that a decision had been made to produce the future C3 in Slovakia, where the company already builds the C3 Picasso multi-purpose vehicle and the Peugeot 208. A PSA spokesman declined to confirm the production move and said the carmaker did not unveil such plans in advance. He said PSA had pledged to preserve its French factories as part of a labour deal s

U.S. companies see smaller lift from stock buybacks

IBM, one of the most reliable companies when it comes to buying back shares, is scaling back its repurchases just as the market seems to have grown weary of this strategy. Buybacks have been fruitful for companies and shareholders in recent years. Firms with larger buybacks outperformed the market for several quarters, but that streak is in jeopardy, as the class="mandelbrot_refrag"> S&P 500 Buyback Index is down 0.2 percent for the quarter. The index, made up of 100 companies with the largest buyback ratio, is facing its first quarterly decline since the second quarter of 2012, when it was down 3.7 percent. It has outperformed the class="mandelbrot_refrag"> S&P 500 in the last six quarters but trails the broader benchmark so far in the second quarter. Corporate buybacks have been strong in recent years, but higher stock valuations reduce the lift companies get from their repurchases. As economic growth improves, companies are more likely to i

Illinois, Florida join Connecticut in eBay probe

Illinois and Florida are joining Connecticut to lead a probe of the massive data breach at class="mandelbrot_refrag"> eBay Inc, according to a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is asking for free credit monitoring for everyone affected, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said earlier the inquiry would focus on measures for securing personal data that the company had in place prior to the incident as well as circumstances that led to the breach. It will also look into how many users were affected and eBay's response to the breach. class="mandelbrot_refrag"> EBay spokeswoman Amanda Miller declined comment on Connecticut's probe earlier. A spokeswoman for the Florida Attorney General did not immediately return a call for comment. (Reporting By Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chris Reese )