CA-NEWS Summary

Cyprus reworks divisive bank tax, delays vote

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriot ministers were trying to revise a plan to seize money from bank deposits before a parliamentary vote on Tuesday that will secure the island's financial rescue or could lead to its default, with reverberations across the euro zone. The weekend announcement that Cyprus would impose a tax on bank accounts as part of a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout by the European Union broke with previous practice that depositors' savings were sacrosanct. The euro and stock markets fell on concern the euro zone crisis was returning.

Many questions, few answers await Obama on Mideast visit

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is due to make his first official visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories this week, looking to improve ties after sometimes rocky relations with both sides during his first term in office. Obama is not expected to come with any new Palestinian peace initiative and will spend most of his time in Israel, the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East, where he will make a keynote speech to hundreds of students.

Jailed Kurdish rebel to make "historic call" in Turkey peace process

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said he will make a "historic call" on March 21 as part of a process to end a 28-year-old insurgency, according to a statement read by the head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish parliamentary party on Monday. Ocalan is expected to issue a ceasefire call to his fighters and possibly call on them to withdraw from Turkey. Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas conveyed Ocalan's statement on his return to Istanbul from a visit to him in his prison on the island of Imrali.

Suicide bombers attack court compound in Pakistan's Peshawar

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers attacked a judicial compound in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday, killing four people and taking hostages, officials said. Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar said one bomber blew himself up outside the complex, causing the deaths, while the other entered the complex in an apparent bid to storm into a jail and release militants held there.

Monti says Italy has scope to cut government debt owed to companies

ROME (Reuters) - Italy is close to finding a way to pay off huge public sector debts owed to private companies without pushing up the public debt, outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Monday. Italy's public administration, struggling to curb costs to try to balance the budget, is notoriously slow in settling its bills to private companies that provide it with goods and services and has accumulated a debt of more than 80 billion euros.

Car bomb kills at least 10 in Somali capital

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed at least 10 people on Monday in the worst attack in the Somali capital this year when he tried to kill Mogadishu's security chief near the presidential palace, police and rebels said. Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group al Shabaab said it carried out the attack along Maka al Mukarram road that runs between the palace and the national theatre, a route lined by tearooms that were engulfed in fire from the blast.

Turkish Ergenekon conspiracy trial approaches verdict

SILIVRI, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish prosecutors summed up their case on Monday against those accused of plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government, seeking life terms for an ex-military chief and other retired generals. Retired armed forces commander Ilker Basbug was among 275 defendants whom prosecutors accused of attempting to stage a coup as part of the "Ergenekon terrorist group", an alleged underground network of secular arch-nationalists.

Syrian jets strike Lebanon border

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian air force jets fired four rockets at a remote section of the border with Lebanon on Monday, security sources said, four days after Damascus warned it may strike at Syrian rebels taking refuge across the frontier. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the air strike near the Bekaa Valley town of Arsal, whose Sunni Muslim residents mainly support Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

Venezuela election rivals clash over crime

CARACAS (Reuters) - Moments after he registered to run in Venezuela's April 14 election, acting President Nicolas Maduro vowed to go on foot, unarmed, into the toughest slums of Caracas and ask the gangs there to lay down their guns. Maduro and his opponent, Henrique Capriles, have clashed over a top campaign issue: the daily murders, armed robberies and kidnappings that make the South American country one of the most dangerous in the world.

Nigeria president says foreign hostages might be alive

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan said on Monday that some of the seven hostages believed to have been killed by Islamist group Ansaru this month might actually still be alive and the government has been working to rescue them. Ansaru said earlier this month it had killed the seven foreign construction workers it had been holding since February, posting a video of what it said was their bodies on the Internet, in what would be the deadliest single attack on foreigners in Nigeria since the 1960s Biafra war.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-002901942.html

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