The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- South Korea to investigate all reactors for problem parts
- Networks project Obama re-elected as U.S. president
- U.S. soldier's testimony on Afghan rampage at odds with prosecution
| South Korea to investigate all reactors for problem parts Posted: 06 Nov 2012 08:53 PM PST SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said on Wednesday a private and public investigation team will inspect all 23 of the country's nuclear reactors to see if they were supplied with parts with forged certificates. "The team will inspect all 23 reactors, which will take some times as you can imagine," a spokeswoman of the commission supervising nuclear safety under the presidential office told Reuters by telephone. The investigation team will be set up on Wednesday. South Korea closed two nuclear reactors on Monday to replace parts which were supplied with forged quality certificates, and the commission has been inspecting a total of five reactors including the two closed ones. Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Networks project Obama re-elected as U.S. president Posted: 06 Nov 2012 08:40 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama won re-election to a second term in the White House on Tuesday, television networks projected, beating Republican challenger Mitt Romney after a long and bitter campaign.
Obama defeated Romney in a series of key swing states despite a weak economic recovery and persistent high unemployment as U.S. voters decided between two starkly different visions for the country. Obama's victory in the hotly contested swing state of Ohio - as projected by TV networks - put him over the top in the fight for the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the White House and ended Romney's hopes of pulling off a string of swing-state upsets. Obama scored narrow wins in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire - all states that Romney had contested - while the only swing state captured by Romney was North Carolina, according to network projections. There was no immediate word from the Romney camp on the reported results. At least 120 million American voters had been expected to cast votes in the race between the Democratic incumbent and Romney after a campaign focused on how to repair the ailing U.S. economy. Obama enters his second four-year term faced with a difficult task of tackling $1 trillion annual deficits, reducing a $16 trillion national debt, overhauling expensive social programs and dealing with a gridlocked U.S. Congress that looked likely to maintain the same partisan makeup. Obama's projected victory would set the country's course for the next four years on spending, taxes, healthcare, the role of government and foreign policy challenges such as the rise of China and Iran's nuclear ambitions. Each man offered different policies to cure what ails America's weak economy, with Obama pledging to raise taxes on the wealthy and Romney offering across-the-board tax cuts as a way to ignite strong economic growth. Inside Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters, staffers erupted into cheers and high fives as state after state was called for the president. Obama watched the returns on television at his Chicago home. Senior campaign strategist David Axelrod said via email that he was feeling "great." Romney made last-minute visits to Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday to try to drive up turnout in those states, while Vice President Joe Biden was dispatched to Ohio. Obama remained in his hometown of Chicago.
MSNBC projects Obama wins Pennsylvania in presidential race Fox News projects Obama wins Wisconsin in presidential race Fox News projects Romney wins North Carolina in presidential race CBS projects Obama wins New Hampshire in presidential race U.S. House seen staying in Republican control Democrats defend majority in U.S. Senate, congressional gridlock looms ABC projects Obama wins Minnesota Complaints about voter IDs, ballots, long lines in U.S. election Scorecard - Projected results in the U.S. Electoral College Wall Street sees challenges as it sees Obama likely to win again Analysts View 6 - Markets react to the U.S. election Romney's Mexican cousins rooting for him in U.S. election Final election results in Florida county delayed until Wednesday Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| U.S. soldier's testimony on Afghan rampage at odds with prosecution Posted: 06 Nov 2012 07:50 PM PST TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier's testimony appeared to cast doubt on Tuesday upon the U.S. government's case that a decorated colleague acted entirely alone during a killing spree that left 16 villagers dead near a remote Army base in Afghanistan earlier this year. Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accusing him of killing the villagers - mostly women and children - when he ventured out of his camp on two revenge-fuelled forays over a five-hour period in March. Testifying at a pre-trial hearing to determine whether Bales can be sent to a court martial, Private First Class Derek Guinn said he was told by Afghan guards that two U.S. soldiers were seen entering the compound in the early hours of March 11, and one was seen leaving again. But Guinn, who spoke to the guards through an interpreter, said he personally did not see anyone leaving or entering Camp Belambay. His testimony was at odds with the U.S. Army prosecutors' case - supported by several witnesses on Monday - that Bales, 39, left and entered twice on his own, and was solely responsible for the Afghans' deaths. Bales, a veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed. The shootings in Afghanistan's Kandahar province marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and eroded already strained U.S.-Afghan ties after more than a decade of conflict in the country. POSSIBLY SUFFERING PTSD The apparently contradictory testimony may give Bales' defence team, which declined to make an opening statement at the start of proceedings Monday, a chance to fault the prosecution's case and advance a theory that Bales did not act alone. Lawyers representing Bales have not said what their defence will be. But lead civilian defence attorney John Henry Browne has suggested over the past few months that Bales may not have acted alone and may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Witnesses from the Afghan villages where the alleged killing spree took place are set to testify on Friday via video link to the hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, which was expected to last two weeks. Some villagers have said that more than one U.S. soldier was present during the attacks. Private Guinn told the hearing he heard shots coming from the direction of the village where Bales is accused of committing his first shootings, somewhere between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. local time. He said sporadic gunfire, which sounded like single shots in clusters rather than machine gun fire, lasted about 35 minutes. In answering questions from prosecution and defence lawyers, Guinn said it was the first time he had heard shots while on guard, but was not panicked as they did not appear to be aimed at the base. He said he and a fellow soldier shot a flare to illuminate the area where the shots were heard, but he could not see anything unusual. Guinn's testimony was the first notable discrepancy from the version of events laid out by military prosecutors on Monday. In the first session of the hearing, lead prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Jay Morse said Bales alone was responsible for the deaths, in two premeditated attacks. He showed the court a video taken from a surveillance balloon apparently of Bales returning to the base for a second time, just before 5 a.m. Further U.S. servicemen will testify at the hearing over the next two days, with Afghan witnesses scheduled to be heard from Friday and the following week. Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
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