Politics News Headlines

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - - U.S. retail sales rose less than expected in January as consumers cut back on car purchases and did less online shopping. Total retail sales increased 0.4 percent after being flat in December, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales climbing …

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has launched a wave of state-backed social programs in the run-up to an October presidential election. The leftist leader insists they are simply another step in his efforts to eradicate poverty in the OPEC member nation, but opposition critics say he is using state coffers …

(Reuters) - For years, Craig McCann played a prominent role as a top expert witness, his testimony helping to win millions of dollars for investors who sued financial companies. As those victories piled up, brokerages went to war on his credentials, and more recently, his credibility. The effort provides a window into how …

MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahraini protesters dissatisfied with the government's reform moves prepared for a fresh attempt to retake a landmark roundabout on Tuesday, the first anniversary of a pro-democracy uprising crushed by the Gulf Arab kingdom. Unrest among majority Shi'ite Muslims has revived, posing a sensitive new challenge …

(Reuters) - Here is a look back at Bahrain on the first anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising in the Gulf Arab kingdom. February 14, 2011 - Anti-government "Day of Rage" inspired by popular upheavals in Egypt and Tunisia. One protester is killed. The next day another person dies when police clash with mourners at the …

Whitney Houston's death has created heartrending echoes of tragedies past: The painstaking investigation that follows the shocking loss. Why was Houston found underwater in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub, beyond resuscitation?

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - On a recent Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, water flowed from the toilets through the aisles during the entire journey from London to Islamabad. "What if it reaches some electrical wires and puts us in danger?" said one concerned passenger to another after flight attendants brushed off …

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is ready to help resolve Europe's debt crisis, its premier said on Tuesday, but he gave no details a day after the nation's sovereign wealth fund ducked calls by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for it to buy euro government bonds. At a Beijing summit delayed since late last year while European …

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese tech firm that says it owns the iPad trademark, plans to seek a ban on exports of Apple Inc's computer tablets from China, a lawyer for the company said. If successful, the move could deal a blow to the U.S. technology giant's iPad sales worldwide. Not only is China a huge consumer …

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Weapons and Sunni Muslim insurgents are seeping from Iraq into Syria, Iraqi officials and arms dealers say, fuelling violence in a country that once sent guns and militants the other way. The revolt against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has struck a chord with Sunni tribes in Iraq's border provinces …

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces attacked opponents of President Bashar al-Assad on several fronts on Tuesday, sending residents fleeing from one town near the capital and bombarding the city of Homs for an 11th day running, activists said. Citizens of Homs - Syria's third largest city with one million …

DUBAI (Reuters) - Millions of Iranians have suffered serious disruption recently in accessing email and Internet social networking sites, raising concerns authorities are stepping up censorship of opposition supporters ahead of parliamentary elections next month. Iranians have grappled with increased obstacles to using …

BANGKOK (Reuters) - An Iranian man was seriously wounded in Bangkok Tuesday when a bomb he was carrying exploded and blew one of his legs off, police and government officials said, but they declined to speculate on whether he was involved with any militant group. Shortly before, there had been an explosion in a house the …

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union officials are expected to vote on February 23 on a draft law that would label fuel produced from tar sands as more polluting than that from other forms of oil, according to a draft agenda seen by Reuters. The proposal from the EU's executive to include tar sands in a ranking designed …

BRUSSELS/MADRID (Reuters) - The European Union is likely to take action against Spain's newly installed government by May for delaying austerity measures ahead of a regional election next month, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. A final decision still has to be made, but the European Commission believes …

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel accused arch-enemies Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of being behind twin bomb attacks that targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia on Monday, wounding four people. Tehran denied involvement in the attacks, which amplified tensions between two countries already at loggerheads …

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Output at factories in the euro zone tumbled in December, reflecting a sick European economy that probably shrank at the end of 2011 but it is hoped will recover this year. Industrial production in the 17 countries sharing the euro fell 1.1 percent in December from November, marginally less than the …

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - In a tiny office on Zeestraat 100, Alice Helbing puts the final touches to a script for an imaginary counter-terrorism exercise in the Netherlands. A few doors down the corridor, staff from a legal aid group are digging into real war crimes in Ivory Coast. Nearby at Humanity House, a small museum devoted …