Year: 2014

By James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) – A Beijing court will sentence prominent Chinese rights activist Xu Zhiyong on Sunday in the highest-profile dissident trial since 2009, as authorities target rights defenders nationwide with another activist standing trial in Guangzhou. Xu's lawyer, Zhang Qingfang, said he'd been notified in writing by authorities as early as Wednesday when Xu's trial kicked off, that he would be sentenced on Sunday in one of the most closely-watched dissident cases in years. Zhang said he believed the swift sentencing suggested authorities wanted politically sensitive cases like Xu's to be closed ahead of the March meeting of China's rubber stamp parliament, the National People's Congress.

ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis said it would ask the European health regulator to look at its heart failure drug serelaxin again after the body took an unfavorable position on it Friday. "Novartis announced today it will shortly submit a revised filing package, including new data analyses, for re-examination for conditional approval of RLX030, or serelaxin," the Basel-based drugmaker said in a statement. Novartis, which had originally hoped to win approval for serelaxin this year, said a revised opinion could be granted in the second quarter. (Reporting By Katharina Bart)

By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congressional Republicans are showing little stomach for another bruising fight over the U.S. debt limit next month, but they do want to extract some concessions in exchange for expanding the Treasury's borrowing authority. A senior Republican aide said House of Representatives leaders are in "listening mode" and seeking ideas from rank-and-file lawmakers. The options range from demands for expanded offshore energy production to small tweaks in President Barack Obama's healthcare law to approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Another idea put forth would involve overhauling federal job-training programs, an element in a House Republican jobs bill that has gotten no traction in the Senate.

By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top Republicans are saying they can no longer just be the party of "No" on Obamacare: They need to come up with an alternative healthcare policy. While many Americans are skeptical of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, they also tell lawmakers they worry about keeping their costs from getting out of control. As a result, lawmakers from both the establishment wing of the Republican Party and the more fiscally conservative small-government proponents in the Tea Party movement are exploring healthcare policies. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said it would be a major topic at a Republican retreat next week.

At least three people were killed and more than 20 injured in multiple crashes involving nearly four dozen vehicles Thursday afternoon along an ice-slicked interstate highway in northwest Indiana, officials said. Forty-six vehicles, including 17 tractor-trailers and two other trucks, crashed in icy conditions, shutting down eastbound Interstate 94 near Michigan City, Indiana, likely until early on Friday morning, Indiana State Police spokeswoman Ann Wojas said. LaPorte County Coroner John Sullivan described the scene as “grim” during an interview on the Chicago-area ABC TV station. One critically injured patient among 13 transported to Franciscan St. Anthony Health facility in Michigan City had died and the other 12 suffered moderate and minor injuries, ABC reported.

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A year after Republican leaders vowed to "rebrand" their party to broaden its appeal in light of a dispiriting election loss to Democratic President Barack Obama, the Republican strategy for 2014 is looking a lot like the one from 2012. At the Republican National Committee's winter meeting this week in Washington, it was clear the panic that hit the party after the 2012 elections has subsided, although polls indicate that efforts to make the party more attractive to single women, minorities and gays, groups that favor Democrats by big numbers, have not made any headway. Many Republicans remain concerned about the party's long-term prospects in the face of such problems, but they have been heartened by the troubled launch of Obama's healthcare overhaul and by polls that suggest Obama's Democrats are not much more popular than Republicans. So in many ways, this week's meeting of Republican officials has been an affirmation of the party's reluctance to change its core strategies for the 2014 midterm elections: Opposition to abortion and an assault on Obamacare, as the president's healthcare overhaul is known.