CA-NEWS Summary

Euro zone urges Cyprus to spare smaller savers from bank levy

NICOSIA/ATHENS (Reuters) - Euro zone ministers urged Cyprus to let smaller savers escape a levy on bank deposits, before a parliamentary vote on Tuesday that will either secure the island's financial rescue or threaten default. A weekend announcement that Cyprus would impose a levy 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.

Papal inaugural Mass will straddle religion and politics

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican was preparing for a huge crowd for Pope Francis's inaugural Mass on Tuesday, an event straddling religion and politics that will bring together European royalty, heads of state and world spiritual leaders. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to cram St. Peter's Square and surrounding streets for the Mass to formally install Francis as the new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Top general urges caution on Syria options, rebels

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has a less clear understanding of Syria's opposition than it did last year, the top U.S. military officer said on Monday, in comments likely to disappoint rebels hoping that America might be inching toward a decision to arm them. "About six months ago, we had a very opaque understanding of the opposition and now I would say it's even more opaque," said General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Venezuelan leader Maduro has big poll lead over Capriles

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's acting president, Nicolas Maduro, has a commanding 14-percentage point lead over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles ahead of next month's election, according to the first major poll published since the death of Hugo Chavez. Maduro would win 49.2 percent of the April 14 vote compared with 34.8 percent for Capriles, according to the survey by pollster Datanalisis that was cited on Monday in a research note by Barclays Bank.

U.S. confirms Syrian aircraft fired rockets into Lebanon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department confirmed on Monday that Syrian government aircraft fired rockets into northern Lebanon and it described the incident as "a significant escalation." "We can confirm what you are seeing in the press, that regime jets and helicopters did fire rockets into northern Lebanon," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily briefing. "This constitutes a significant escalation in the violations of Lebanese sovereignty that the Syrian regime has been guilty of. These kinds of violations of sovereignty are absolutely unacceptable."

Nations gather for final U.N. arms trade treaty negotiations

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Negotiators from around 150 countries gathered in New York on Monday for a final push to hammer out a binding international treaty to end unregulated conventional arms sales, a pact that a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobby is urging Washington to reject. Arms control campaigners and human rights advocates say one person every minute dies worldwide as a result of armed violence, and that a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of weapons and ammunition that they argue helps fuel wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

Obama tells Iranians now is the time to settle nuclear dispute

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama insisted on Monday that "now is the time" for Iran to take meaningful steps to resolve its nuclear standoff with the West as he issued a direct appeal to the Iranian people on the eve of his first official trip to Israel. Obama used the occasion of Iran's new year celebration, as he has in the past, to try to ratchet up pressure on Tehran. But this time he focused squarely on its disputed nuclear program, which is expected to be high on the agenda when he visits Israel, Iran's arch-foe.

Nigerian blasts kill at least 25, Islamists suspected

KANO, Nigeria/PARIS (Reuters) - Five explosions at a bus park in northern Nigeria's main city of Kano killed at least 25 people on Monday, a Reuters witness said, in an area where Islamist sect Boko Haram is waging an insurgency against the government. The coordinated bombing came as an audio tape emerged of a man saying he was the father of a family of seven French tourists kidnapped by Boko Haram militants.

Congo ICC war suspect surrenders at U.S. Embassy in Rwanda

KIGALI (Reuters) - Fugitive Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda walked into the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda on Monday and asked to be transferred to the International Criminal Court, where he faces war crimes charges racked up during years of rebellion. By surrendering in Kigali, where an embassy official said staff were "shocked" by his sudden arrival, Ntaganda ended a career that saw him fight as a rebel and government soldier on both sides of the Rwanda-Congo border during nearly 20 years of conflict in Africa's Great Lakes region.

Argentina's Fernandez asks Pope to intervene over Falklands

ROME (Reuters) - Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez has asked Pope Francis to intervene in support of Buenos Aires in a dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. Fernandez had lunch with the former Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio in the Vatican shortly after arriving in Rome to attend his inaugural papal mass on Tuesday.

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

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